Relic and the Long Distance Relationship

The game is constantly improving, that's pretty much an irrefutable fact. If you look at the great improvements this game made from release on (just to list a few: Battle servers, Obs mode, weapon model overhaul, veterancy overhaul, ...) the game now plays completely different than it did back then. It's just not improving as fast as I and a lot of other people would wish. Similarly the communication. I wouldn't say it's at it's 'peak' right now, but was a lot better in spring / summer, but it was certainly getting better for a long time.

This slow improvement is sometimes kind of infuriating. The game has a huge potential, but it does not use it. This disparity of what the game could be and how is it, it hurts. Normally I would therefor suggest people to just take a break - play something else for half a year or a year and then come back, if there was not one problem. It seems that every major patch decreases the performance further and further. If I compare how the game ran in the beta (4v4 on all high except AA worked for me) and how it is now (pretty much all on low and it's still lagging in 4v4 if there are lots of explosions) it seems that if you wait you should also improve your equipment in the mean time.

The biggest problem in my opinion is still the difference between what people want and what Relic thinks people want. The recent history stream about Ardennes Assault - I guess some people like that, but in general the major audience are gamers. I wonder why such a thing is getting advertised, but then something like the observer mode isn't. From release until the recent CoH2.org tournament there was nothing to promote it, but this tournament finally showed it's capabilities to the world. Now comparing the average viewers (History stream: 40, CoH.org tournament: 1300) I would say it should be pretty obvious that there is a higher demand for such well organized and broadcasted tournaments than history streams. It's a game - if people want to learn history I would advise them not to try to learn it from a game, especially considering the original SP campaign ;D

Whatever guys...

MERRY CHRISTMAS
\o/

Boy howdy, this is a doozy. <cracks knuckles> I guess I'd better dig in.

2. What's up with ESL? Is it still a thing?
A: Yes, it is still a thing. It's still in the contracts phase right now, though. Once the 'boring business stuff' is more finalized, I'll have more to share and we will be speaking with the community on this.


6. Marketing. Do more of it. Do less of it. Don't do it.

We are in the process of building our marketing and brand team, and in 2015 we will be able to DO MORE. Somewhere, someone is going to comment on how they’re sick of me saying this… but what else can I really say? Also, it’s the truth. We are building.

Thank you for the reply Cynthia, you are excellent at explaining Relics polices and why things might not be moving at the speed we wish. I can appreciate the fact that Relic is a small studio with limited resources. I'm willing to be patient, and explanations like the ones you just gave go a long way towards shedding a light behind the frustrations of many players, so thank you for that.

Also, the things I highlighted in bold are really exciting. The fact that Relic is growing is a very good sign.

Now, that being said, the NDA policy still drives me and many, many others, up a fucking wall. It's obviously not going to change, which is a shame because it really is hurting the game and its potential. In fact, loosening up the NDA policy would likely do as much for the marketing of the game than hiring more people to your marketing and brand team. There are passionate people that are excited to promote COH2 FOR FREE, but if you don't give them any information to promote, not only are you not utilizing all your resources, but you're pissing off your most passionate fans in the process.

You know, it's fantastic that we have somebody who cares communicate with us, it really is. I think most people appreciate your input. The issue is with general policy at Relic. Things have changed since Company of Heroes 1 came out. In most of my favourite gaming communities, I can expect developers to regularly address the customers' concerns, to engage with them on the forums, to publish roadmaps and have open betas. The Kicksters and Early Access titles especially have turned up the idea of communicating with the playerbase to 11. If 95% of what we see from Relic is "sorry guys, we can't talk about that yet" or something else along those lines, that does not feel like communication - it feels like token attempt at communication to get those pesky, whining gamers to shut up.

It's of course ridiculous to suggest the devs don't care, and there have been improvements (like your presence and improved patch notes), but there remains the fact that the community doesn't have a clue where the game is heading and many people, including myself, are finding it hard to understand why Relic isn't as open and communicative as many other devs. I understand there is probably very little you can do about this personally, but I hope that you see that as whiny as we can be, those complaints aren't without merit.

This also sums it up for me.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond Cynthia, looking forward to what is on the horizon

Can't wait to see what relic does with the game in 2015! Keep up the hard work

Game is pretty decent now, and Relic has changed its 'evil' ways (other than lack of info)

It will take time for community to stop being terrified and forget. There will always be nuts going off at nothing, but that's just how life is.

Yes, there are still improvements that can be made and I don't agree with all aspects of game design, but it's not terrible like 6 months ago.

P.S. If you making COH3 please don't call it COH3 and make some new game that has nothing to do with COH other then being RTS and WW2. People loved COH for its gameplay characteristics and expect different game with similar characteristics. If game was more like now there would have been so much less negativity.......

One of more vocal criticizers in the past......

I'm pretty mixed here. There is a lot of communication I think, or at regular communication. The problem is that there are so many limits placed on the communication that once it's over we barely know more than we did before the communication about the direction Relic will take the game.

I don' get care about jazz hands or silly patch notes, i want information.

This. And when they actually talk to the community, everything becomes more smooth, because we know what they are about to do and we do not expect too much when they give us information. There are a lot of people with bright ideas here and in official forums. Listen to what we have to say, and tell us what you are gonna do.

I have always thought that relics No.1 problem is bad Public Relations. They make fantastic games, but I think their policy regarding PR needs a change so people are more hyped.