Multplayer numbers and will they keep us alive?

Hi,

I play COH almost exclusively for multi-player. Is there a better time to try to get games, I play evening US EST and it seems like there are 8 people on. I have some questions.

1. What is a good time for maximum players online? (seems euro-centric)

2. Does the online number include comp stompers? and if possible could we see how many are online playing people (they had it in the beta then took it away- too embarrassing?)

3. Why comp stomp when playing people is 1000 times more fun, yes learning curve but a real game. (seasons would be great 5 weeks long)

Perhaps an expert who knows how this works could answer- plus it would be great if we could get some idea of how Western Armies is going to help the multiPLAYER aspect as that is the only thing that keeps this game alive (COHO for all its flaws got us COH2 and resurrected COH for die hards)

I fear 12-14 months from now without multiplayer growth it will be hard to keep the game going. (I mean they are already almost giving it away free)

1) Evenings.
2) Yes and no, that is Relic knowledge only.
3) Because most people are casuals and comp won't stomp you on easy.

Your fears will go away with western front, there is simply too much people jerking off over americans and german OKWs super heavies.

People comp stomp because they enjoy it. Not everybody is in it for the competitive gameplay. There are a number of people who exclusively play CoD every year for the campaigns. And let's not forget that some people do both.

It's just a different style of gameplay.

1) here is a site that gives you an impression about the number of players over the time of day.
i guess it is based on gm-time

http://steamcharts.com/app/231430#All

2) yes it includes everybody
the original coh gave you the number of people playing automatch i guess it was always around 25% of the players while 25% played campain, 50% played cutom matches either against other people or agains the cpu

3) competing with real people can be very frustrating.

from my own experience:

first time i tried online gaming was in 1998. i had finished the single player of the 3d shooter duke nukem on medium difficulty. i ve gotten really good (so i thought) and tried a multiplayer match. i got killed 10 times in a row without even seeing my enemy!

i did not try again for a long time

second time i tried playing vs humans online was 2004
the game was EA battle of middle earth.
i had finished the campain on medium difficulty and i thought i had godlike skills.
my first match online was agains a player called girly1988 beating me within 5 minutes using only peasants - the weakest unit in the game. on top of that i was called a noob for the first time.

well i cept on going since then but i totally get people who would not bother.

if you dont play multiplayer because you are afraid you get stomped for a first time, then i think you are a fking retard :/

I think that if you think that, then you are the retard. You cant judge people like that. We are all different.

Yeah not everyone enjoys competitive online play; especially strat games and this one is reasonably complicated.

I bet there is a whole host of things you don't do because you don't want to face the amount of effort in reaching it.

competetive? LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL, first time you should be matched against ppl like " what is the cover for?"

competetive? LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL, first time you should be matched against ppl like " what is the cover for?"

I've had another friend start playing coh2, he jumped right into multiplayer with zero knowledge of the game or experience with it, got matched up against potato and won his first 2 games.

So I'd say that part of the matchmaking works.

When I started playing CoH2, I played exclusively AI team games for like first 50 hours. I was completely new not only to CoH franchise but to any RTS in general. Never played before.
So I just really needed a little time to get familiar with gameplay and settings, and mechanics, and such.
I didn't feel strong enough for 1vs1, and I didn't want to play team games, I was afraid of screwing up the whole team because of my poor skills.
I don't really feel bad about myself for playing against AI for a bit to pick up some experience. I think every new player must do the same instead of going into multiplayer straight from the bat and embarrassing the whole team like a true moron.

we were talking about guys who still plays against AI after 500 hours ++, that is ok if you dont play multi after campaign, i will sure will play a few matches against Ai in new expansion for example.

There's nothing wrong with not wanting to play vs other people. Other people are rude and they play to win. The CPU plays like a CPU and you can relax while you're playing. For a long time I didn't play any multiplayer except custom Brood War maps and LAN against my friends.

The reason stomping is fun is because you can try stuff out you'd never do against a human - like "let's beat the AI only using Ostruppen" or "lets beat the AI without building tanks."

It's just casual, fun goofing around. something a trolling dick like Akosi presumably has yet to work out for himself.

the first thing i did when i bought this game is jump straight into automatch 1v1. I didint even know how to retreat my troops.

There's nothing wrong with not wanting to play vs other people. Other people are rude and they play to win. The CPU plays like a CPU and you can relax while you're playing. For a long time I didn't play any multiplayer except custom Brood War maps and LAN against my friends.

+1

if you dont play multiplayer because you are afraid you get stomped for a first time, then i think you are a fking retard :/

How about because you don't want abuse from people calling you a "retard"?

The reason stomping is fun is because you can try stuff out you'd never do against a human - like "let's beat the AI only using Ostruppen" or "lets beat the AI without building tanks."

It's just casual, fun goofing around. something a trolling dick like Akosi presumably has yet to work out for himself.

Sometimes it is serious to, like you are farming bulletins.

My play went:

Campaign / TOW

Multiplayer

Then mostly Multiplayer/TOW if I have connection issues

I play a mix of Multiplayer and Comp Stomp now:

If you are playing with others, especially your friends, you have an obligation to play to your best. That's not often compatible with trying a new strategy or going for bulletins or if you are simply not in the mood, or you are eating or have other obligations (you cannot pause multiplayer)

Been watching alot of streams and havent played 1vs1 in half an year, but ive been playing 2vs2 and above, about a month ago,

so i decided to see how the game performs in 1vs1 again, and i won my 2 games, the problem that i had was that my unit preservation needs some serious training, since i lost few squads just by forgetting that they are being attacked while they are capping,

or opponent using rifle grenade or something to wipe half the squad and then kill it before you get back to the fight after microing stuff somewhere else,

so play games and you discover your weaknesses, and how can you improve them and learn from replays of your games

By the way, good idea about farming bulletins while compstomping.
Can anyone tell me in what mission, or AI battle, or ToW I could farm bulletins for Heavies? Like ISU-152, Panther or Tiger? I think I got IS-2 already covered.

Been watching alot of streams and havent played 1vs1 in half an year, but ive been playing 2vs2 and above, about a month ago,

so i decided to see how the game performs in 1vs1 again, and i won my 2 games, the problem that i had was that my unit preservation needs some serious training, since i lost few squads just by forgetting that they are being attacked while they are capping,

or opponent using rifle grenade or something to wipe half the squad and then kill it before you get back to the fight after microing stuff somewhere else,

so play games and you discover your weaknesses, and how can you improve them and learn from replays of your games

I used to have same problem. Unit preservation was a nightmare for me.
Now I simply glance at the upper bar with unit icons. If I notice that one of them is in combat, I quickly switch camera view to them to determine how to react - either immideate retreat or fighting back. Also, listen to your troops voice, you are sometimes told that things go wrong.

Keeping your army together also helps to prevent spreading attention all over the map.