Utility Website

Hey everybody.

I'm a web developer/designer, and part of being in such a field is working on passion projects on the side to keep your skills sharp. I've been toying with the idea of doing this for my favorite Online Computer Video Game Simulation at the moment, Company of Heroes 2.

I'm making this thread because, though I have a vague idea of what I'd like to make, I'd also love to have the strongest parts of the community spitball some ideas with me. So, let me start by describing the idea so far:

The problem
It's incredibly tedious and difficult to get unit stats quickly on this game. There's a Google doc out there you can find via several degrees of Google separation, but that's a pretty crap user experience. Absolute HATS OFF to the people maintaining that, but it can only be so handy in that format. It needs to be much easier and casual to absorb this information, if this community is to grow.

Sure, you and I know that a sturmpioneer will absolutely demolish a US rifleman up-close, but that's only because we've been playing this game forever and know what to look for. How is someone just starting CoH even supposed to know that there is a per-unit range factor in addition to the cover system? It's really off-putting to have such crucial data be so hard to retrieve for new players, which I think contributes to a smaller player-base.


The solution
Have a fast, easy-to-use, responsive (easily accessible from your phone/tablet/whatever) database of unit information. Start typing in the unit you want to know about, and all the data you could ever want to know pops up in an easily legible format. What units from the opposing team could fuck your bulletproof strategy up? This site will tell you.


That's it so far. Getting it up at first will take a while, as unit stats will need to be manually entered. It will need to be maintained of course, but luckily patch notes will detail exactly what should be updated so it shouldn't be that bad.

Open questions
What would you like to see? Does this seem like a pointless idea to you, and if so why? Do you have a better one? Anything to add? This could be your chance to influence a new direction in the community. Please feel free to voice any opinions or ideas you think might be relevant to the community at large.

You are definitely doing some good if you help make a easier-to-read stats page. I'm not great with math and the old stats page actually provide little help to me because I can't really tell what the graphs and data are telling me. I'd like to see some sort of comparison of the "average" stats, so when I see data of another unit, I understand how it is different to other units. For example, Partisan used to be half the health of the common unit. I couldn't tell because the stats page just said "40" in the health section. I didn't know what 40 meant so it only occurred to me that they were weak when I got a squad wiped out.

Not to shoot you down or discourage you, but TensaiOni has something very similar to what you described.

http://www.coh2-stats.com/

What if it was integrated into coh2.org

That's it so far. Getting it up at first will take a while, as unit stats will need to be manually entered. It will need to be maintained of course, but luckily patch notes will detail exactly what should be updated so it shouldn't be that bad.

as the guy who maintains that spreadsheet, i can tell you its not as easy as reading patch notes. theres typically a lot of ninja changes that happen each patch unfortunately.

ive wanted to make my spreadsheet into something more user friendly, but i dont have the abilities to do so. if you need any help, let me know.

What if it was integrated into coh2.org

there were talks about integrating my spreadsheet at one point. i think something like this would be a really good idea, but lots of work.

could attract more people to this site ami

I like Tensais but its not easy to read because its named after game file artifacts Silly_tank_purple_in_color_mp and it lacks all the information. But his range/Pen table is fucking awesome.

Something like his range slider but a format to read that you know its a Jackson not an M36_Tank_Destroyer_1 for example. That also include all abililties and a Range Meter. Like this is Range 5 this is range 10 would be dreammmy.

Not to shoot you down or discourage you, but TensaiOni has something very similar to what you described.

http://www.coh2-stats.com/

Wow! Never knew that existed. However, there are definitely some ways I think it could be improved—knowing this makes me more open to other ideas though, if anybody has anything in mind.

You are definitely doing some good if you help make a easier-to-read stats page. I'm not great with math and the old stats page actually provide little help to me because I can't really tell what the graphs and data are telling me. I'd like to see some sort of comparison of the "average" stats, so when I see data of another unit, I understand how it is different to other units. For example, Partisan used to be half the health of the common unit. I couldn't tell because the stats page just said "40" in the health section. I didn't know what 40 meant so it only occurred to me that they were weak when I got a squad wiped out.

Good idea. I think useful visualization and analysis could help to make people better players.

ive wanted to make my spreadsheet into something more user friendly, but i dont have the abilities to do so. if you need any help, let me know.

That would be AMAZING. You have actual experience doing something like this, and you really hit it out of the park with what you have available! Would definitely love to hear anything you have to say, and perhaps we can talk about finer details when I start figuring out how I want to store any data.