Relic 4/2/2015 Twitch Stream - Actual News ?

what NEW info was given in the stream ?

a new FACTION (which we knew from the game files). so that was nothing new.


did they say anything about:
war spoils
custom commanders
timelines or eta's for the roadmap


i don't think i will EVER watch a relic stream again. they all seem to be full of fluff and non-answers. i watch like 5 minutes before i was soooo bored that i stopped watching.

Well you were there watching it live iirc.

They showed us their roadmap and confirmed that theyre working on a new faction, ESL, mod-related content, some sort of ingame shop for DLC and User generated content and optimization and further balance support.

Plenty of things basically

New faction and official leaderboards was pretty much the announcement.

Its obvious OP expected some big announcement like " look, we are working on the British and they will have awesome guns and this and that and something more. Look at how awesome it allready is".

Welcome to the Company of Heroes community Troyquigley. Here, what you saw yesterday, is the best you´ll ever get, and a blessing from god!

Well you were there watching it live iirc.

They showed us their roadmap and confirmed that theyre working on a new faction, ESL, mod-related content, some sort of ingame shop for DLC and User generated content and optimization and further balance support.

Plenty of things basically

EDIT: nm, acronym confusion.

pretty sure they're working with UGC, not ESL, as UGC is listed on the road map and ESL is not. huge difference between the two.

pretty sure they're working with UGC, not ESL, as UGC is listed on the road map and ESL is not. huge difference between the two.

Both user generated content and ESL are on the roadmap...

Both user generated content and ESL are on the roadmap...

This.

But yeah kind of the standard Relic letdown stream. They're working on exciting stuff and we should be excited but they can't tell us what because NDA.

Oh and Quinn likes plane crashes destroying entire armies. Hopefully balance team can eventually sway his opinion though.

There is one thing which keeps reoccurring to me in all this discussion, here and on other threads.... this patch is not just the responsibility of Relic... it is the responsibility also (or should be) of the community members, who apparently tested the stuff to perdition, if I understand matters correctly.

So, maybe we might concentrate some more on this aspect, rather than just blame Relic? Is it prudent to reduce the test group to such a small segment? How often did they play the test game? What was their average skill set? Did they regularly test the new maps? Or were they content to pick up the badge and do little in return?

They did remark I believe that they are bringing some more people into alpha.


I'm not entirely sure if who is in alpha or not is public knowledge or covered under NDA.

So, maybe we might concentrate some more on this aspect, rather than just blame Relic? Is it prudent to reduce the test group to such a small segment? How often did they play the test game? What was their average skill set? Did they regularly test the new maps? Or were they content to pick up the badge and do little in return?

The one consistent behaviour we have got from ex-Alpha group members is that they weren't listened to - so everything remains Relic's fault.


Of course we don't have Relic's side of that story...

Its obvious OP expected some big announcement like " look, we are working on the British and they will have awesome guns and this and that and something more. Look at how awesome it allready is".

Welcome to the Company of Heroes community Troyquigley. Here, what you saw yesterday, is the best you´ll ever get, and a blessing from god!

you are correct sir. :-)

i will admit that info they did give is alot more than usual. i guess i was expecting more openness and time tables.

i will also admit that i want more than i really should. i want it all and i want it now. i guess it is not relic who needs to change, it is me and my pathetic need for info.

i am gonna try to change my attitude from this point forward. i will play the game and just enjoy the state it is in, and stop expecting a perfect game.

i send my apologies to relic and all the staff for my unpleasant demands as of late.

They did remark I believe that they are bringing some more people into alpha.


I'm not entirely sure if who is in alpha or not is public knowledge or covered under NDA.

it's public knowledge http://steamcommunity.com/groups/relicbalancebeta and yes members have been abused via PM on this forum or via other mediums and there's nothing they can do about it. Relic themselves won't defend them either.

it's public knowledge http://steamcommunity.com/groups/relicbalancebeta and yes members have been abused via PM on this forum or via other mediums and there's nothing they can do about it. Relic themselves won't defend them either.

Thnx

Everything they "announced" was already at least suspected thanks to what they put in strings in the last patch, but it's nice to hear that they're at least aware of some of the major issues like optimization. From the roadmap image...

New faction: Brit strings in patch
Optimization: Everyone knows performance is shit, but it's nice to know Relic agrees
Balance-focused support: Not really an announcement of anything
In-game store: Kind of an announcement, but still there's been talk of this since release and many of the strings in the last patch strongly suggested it
Better mod tools: Relic's been talking about this since mod tools were released, though user-created skins and "asset packs" are kind of announcements since the strings only hinted at user-created decals
User content and modding competitions: Something new that they never talked about, though you could've guessed based on their shift to user-generated content with all the strings about curation
Improved docs/resources: Again been talked about since mod tools were released
Leaderboards: Been talked about since the leaderboards here were created
ESL: Not exactly news since they didn't provide any specifics

In the end, talk is cheap, and this whole thing could very easily backfire if they take ages to deliver on some of these items. But the community seems more concerned with communication than actual content, so they're giving people communication. It's a little worrisome that the recent patch didn't provide anything to make the non-CoH2 player excited about picking up the game again, but maybe that'll change in the future. Or maybe Relic's happy with their player numbers right now and is more interested in maintaining rather than taking risks in the hopes of gaining more players. It's really impossible to know.

pretty sure they're working with UGC, not ESL, as UGC is listed on the road map and ESL is not. huge difference between the two.

UGC is user-generated content. It's not a league or a tournament. UGC curation literally means taking user-generated content on the workshop and incorporating it into the actual game. User-generated content has nothing to do with ESL, which was also shown on the timeline image.

There is one thing which keeps reoccurring to me in all this discussion, here and on other threads.... this patch is not just the responsibility of Relic... it is the responsibility also (or should be) of the community members, who apparently tested the stuff to perdition, if I understand matters correctly.

So, maybe we might concentrate some more on this aspect, rather than just blame Relic? Is it prudent to reduce the test group to such a small segment? How often did they play the test game? What was their average skill set? Did they regularly test the new maps? Or were they content to pick up the badge and do little in return?

It is a very likely probability that Relic did QA the maps that they created, but assumed that the popular community maps they added would be fine without such QA.

However considering Relics reputation for leaving insanely abusive things in maps before, I wouldn't put it past them to just not actually listen to what any of the beta testers say regarding bugs or balance.

I still don't understand what the hang up is in regards to just being honest about development, the closed studio shit they keep pulling means that people just sit in ignorance and hype themselves into thinking the next patch will fix everything or w/e, and then when the patch does basically nothing but break more stuff people get super pissed.

If Relic informed people about what was coming down the line we might see less rage simply due to the fact people would know what they are getting, and if Relic is worried about not being able to deliver what they promise then they are already screwing them selves by releasing pretty flow charts with no context.

UGC is user-generated content. It's not a league or a tournament. UGC curation literally means taking user-generated content on the workshop and incorporating it into the actual game. User-generated content has nothing to do with ESL, which was also shown on the timeline image.

oh. i thought they meant the UGC league. nm

There is one thing which keeps reoccurring to me in all this discussion, here and on other threads.... this patch is not just the responsibility of Relic... it is the responsibility also (or should be) of the community members, who apparently tested the stuff to perdition, if I understand matters correctly.

So, maybe we might concentrate some more on this aspect, rather than just blame Relic? Is it prudent to reduce the test group to such a small segment? How often did they play the test game? What was their average skill set? Did they regularly test the new maps? Or were they content to pick up the badge and do little in return?

Blaming your customers, even in part, for your buggy or unfunctional code strikes me as pretty dubious logic. If I wrote code with bugs that my clients didn't detect until after release and then blamed those clients for not testing more thoroughly before release, I'd probably get fired on the spot. Even if they enlist the community's assistance, testing and debugging is ultimately the responsibility of the developer.

Blaming your customers, even in part, for your buggy or unfunctional code strikes me as pretty dubious logic. If I wrote code with bugs that my clients didn't detect until after release and then blamed those clients for not testing more thoroughly before release, I'd probably get fired on the spot. Even if they enlist the community's assistance, testing and debugging is ultimately the responsibility of the developer.

That is the theory, I agree.

I am querying how far (if at all) does the community (as represented by the Testers) take responsibility? If none, it is almost pointless in running such a consumer group. If some, then maybe they should have picked up on the effects of the PTRS buff? And if they did, were they ignored, or did they think it was acceptable?

Further, is it helpful to run an NDA on patches, (as opposed to new development)? I mean, does the NDA primarily exist as some corporate cover-up, which protects all participators concerned, or is there merit in making the Beta open to all, and thereby dispensing with the NDA for patches?

That is the theory, I agree.

I am querying how far (if at all) does the community (as represented by the Testers) take responsibility? If none, it is almost pointless in running such a consumer group. If some, then maybe they should have picked up on the effects of the PTRS buff? And if they did, were they ignored, or did they think it was acceptable?

Further, is it helpful to run an NDA on patches, (as opposed to new development)? I mean, does the NDA primarily exist as some corporate cover-up, which protects all participators concerned, or is there merit in making the Beta open to all, and thereby dispensing with the NDA for patches?

NDA's are basically there to allow developers to work with out public scrutiny on various things and to avoid letting the competition know what their next big move is. The issue with Relic's NDA shenanigans is that they don't ever communicate what they are working on in any specific manner so everyone is left in the dark and has to use less legitimate means such as game file digging to figure out whats up.

For example; this recent road map tells us nothing because of how non-specific it is. Why not just tell us what faction is being developed? How about a conformation on when more modding tools are coming? What exactly will the new in game store be like?

With Blizzard we knew from the first release of SC2 what the road map was, a campaign for each faction with new units being added in with each release. We didn't know the exact details but there was a picture, with Relic they released COH2 and then ???. We just got told that there is a "5 year plan", but what said plan may entail, is a mystery.