Why are there so few good players in the CoH2 playerbase.

I love CoH2 and I've been playing it a lot since release and even more frequently after the spring patches that fundamentally changed Infantry/Tank combat were released but the game has one flaw that overshadows all the balance/gameplay/bug issues the game has. The lack of good players. I was never really able to give a shit about getting better at the game or playing for a good ranking because it never felt like there are enough players to compete with. Half of my automatch games are against people who don't know basic
CoH gameplay. I am Rank 4 in the USF 1v1 ladder right now and I got there without making any efforts. And that's not because of my great RTS experience (The only RTS I played before CoH was Wargame) or my incredible strategical thinking. When I fuck up early on I just leave. Sometimes I'm playing while being tired and lose 5 consecutive games against noobs. I think if CoH2 had the solid lvl 16 playerbase from CoH1 I would have a lot more motivation to actually improve in the game and to change my general mentality towards the CoH2 multiplayer (leaving early etc).

Do you feel the same way ?
If yes what do you think Relic could do in order to make the game more attractive to ambitious and competitive players ?

People may think it trivial but adding in game leagues/rank insignia to distinguish yourself from others is one of the biggest motivators for people to keep on playing. CoH1 had the 1-20 rank system, SC2/LoL/CSGO also have their own leagues/ranks that are a huge factor in driving people to play more and more.

All CoH2 has is an out of game leader board with a number that signifies how supposedly good you are, which frankly isn't a fun feature to show how much you have improved or how good you are. Relic need to give players a reason to keep on playing and to keep on improving (which will in turn bring in more "good" players), I think a proper rank system is a major factor.

It goes without saying the general balance of the game, bugs, optimisation will drive off good players as well who decide their time is better focused elsewhere.

I agree 100%. It may be mental, but seeing my rank go from the thousands to hundreds to top 100 was a huge motivating factor in my playing. I could tell I was facing better players, but I didn't realize how much I was actually improving until I could see my rank against other players. I think it would encourage a lot of people to play and learn more.

Maybe you should try doing something about it yourself. Write a guide on how to play so noobs like me can give you a good fight.

Failing that, just go play some other game like SC2. You won't find yourself without a challenge there.

I'm trying here...

Try harder, you noobcake!

I think there are a lot of good players but maybe your timezone does not put you against them very much. I play in US East timezone and I think there are not very many good players playing with me. Only on weekends do I have to face any pros. Still I struggle very hard to win as USF so I think there is plenty of challenge for me. I still have never made it to top 10 1v1.

Aerohank I was not trying to say how good I am at CoH2. It's the opposite actually.

Because a plane landed on their squads at base

They got truck crushed and never came back

They got truck pushed and never came back

They saw Breaking Brad stream

Their MGs faced the wrong way, constantly

Their tanks were given orders the disagreed with, and disobeyed.

They enjoy winning as both factions

and.... for my final reasoning: CHEESE.

Because a plane landed on their squads at base

They got truck crushed and never came back

They got truck pushed and never came back

They saw Breaking Brad stream

Their MGs faced the wrong way, constantly

Their tanks were given orders the disagreed with, and disobeyed.

They enjoy winning as both factions

and.... for my final reasoning: CHEESE.

We should make a thread where we can list reasons why people leave That could be fun...

Because a plane landed on their squads at base

They got truck crushed and never came back

They got truck pushed and never came back

They saw Breaking Brad stream

Their MGs faced the wrong way, constantly

Their tanks were given orders the disagreed with, and disobeyed.

They enjoy winning as both factions

and.... for my final reasoning: CHEESE.

Personally the reason I'm most hesitant to play right now is if my opponent gets a KT or JT, there's no simple counter, and depending on Soviet doctrine choice, no counter at all. Any tanks I have are worthless, any infantry I have are worthless (obersoldaten), any Vet 3 infantry I have are barely clinging on (obers again). OKW just blobs Panzerschrecks and Obers and stalls to KT, and it isn't fun to fight against.

Personally the reason I'm most hesitant to play right now is if my opponent gets a KT or JT, there's no simple counter, and depending on Soviet doctrine choice, no counter at all. Any tanks I have are worthless, any infantry I have are worthless (obersoldaten), any Vet 3 infantry I have are barely clinging on (obers again). OKW just blobs Panzerschrecks and Obers and stalls to KT, and it isn't fun to fight against.

This is also a huge reason why I play less now. I MUCH prefer Axis because they're just more fun to play. Allies has its moments, but restrictive teching and boring units make dealing with late-game infantry and armor a real problem. (And not a fun "Hey I like solving problems" kind of problem, but a "My god why did they do this too me" kind of problem).

This is also a huge reason why I play less now. I MUCH prefer Axis because they're just more fun to play. Allies has its moments, but restrictive teching and boring units make dealing with late-game infantry and armor a real problem. (And not a fun "Hey I like solving problems" kind of problem, but a "My god why did they do this too me" kind of problem).

Very true, and imo the real reason Axis always has a line. The last time I played Axis I used Osttruppen against Americans and won, and it was a lot of fun. But I feel like when I play allies I have to be weary of everything or I'll get smacked up by Heavy Tanks and mobile Fortresses.

The KT left an especially bad impression on me because once I flanked it with 3 T-34's and lost!

I think there are a few reasons, but a major one IMO is that the game is hard to learn, which may discourage some marginal players from becoming better or frustrate or drive away even someone who has a natural talent for the game.

This is exacerbated by the fact that so much information such as weapon statistics, armor and penetration ect. cannot be found out in game. More popular games like Starcraft and DOTA are much more helpful in providing meaningful in game statistics to the casual player which makes it easier to see what units are good or bad at what, and how they can best use these units. What would people say in DOTA if you never knew how many hitpoints your hero has or how much damage he does? How can you make a big play when you can't tell if your tank will die in 1 or 2 AT gun shots b/c there are no numbers on the HP bar? Relying on trial and error to learn these things slows individual player growth.

I understand COH uses some complicated formulas compared to these other games, but giving players more information on the units they use in game would make the game easier to learn, creating a bigger player base and therefore more good players.

I think there are a lot of good players but maybe your timezone does not put you against them very much. I play in US East timezone and I think there are not very many good players playing with me. Only on weekends do I have to face any pros. Still I struggle very hard to win as USF so I think there is plenty of challenge for me. I still have never made it to top 10 1v1.

It is not about the timezone , he is a german so he is in the EU timezone.
And as of now most of the good players in Coh are and always have been European players.

The game is still quite new , and since most of the old CoH pros stoped playing and did not make the switch to coh there are not so many good players.

But some good players are already coming back to the game and i think with the upcoming ESL support more players will be and copetition will hopefully rise.

I have high hopes for the "E-Sports Partnership" which was announced at Gamescom. High hopes generally set me up for disappointment, and I find myself quite pessimistic about its potential.

There are too many bugs and too much fundamentally broken faction design. They keep spinning knobs, adjusting accuracy, scatter bonus, moving burst modifier, and on and on. It doesn't address underlying problems.

Keep spinning the knobs, and if it doesn't work, spin them again.

Not knowing if you're going to be playing against someone "good" or not before the match, is highly annoying

Personally the reason I'm most hesitant to play right now is if my opponent gets a KT or JT, there's no simple counter, and depending on Soviet doctrine choice, no counter at all. Any tanks I have are worthless, any infantry I have are worthless (obersoldaten), any Vet 3 infantry I have are barely clinging on (obers again). OKW just blobs Panzerschrecks and Obers and stalls to KT, and it isn't fun to fight against.

I agree with that (KT and JT against soviets) but i still play. I love the game to much (despite all its flaws).

Not knowing if you're going to be playing against someone "good" or not before the match, is highly annoying

Yea but in CoHo it was even more annoying having team mates drop instantly upon starting games because they got a look at the opponents ranks in the load screen and bottled it.

But I agree with the some of the improvement suggestions on this thread, especially having more competitive in-game leagues and ladders - not just for individuals but also for clans (why wasn't this included when it was part of CoHo?). It's a great way of adding incentive and monitoring progress.

Also a great idea having some kind of statistics available in-game somewhere to help provide a user friendly/casual indicator of what to expect from units. This may help the steep learning curve the game has.

IMO one of the main reasons is the fact that the WW2 subject in RTS games doesn't interest a lot of people. And on top of, that the current problems with the game draws people away from it.