Company of Heroes 2 Voices

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Great job extracting the audio files. Another good reason to love Relic games; audio immersion.
Now to expand on this;
Sorry long post, but it's important to understanding there's a bigger picture.

GeneralsGentlemen RTS Podcast: Command and Conquer and Crappy RTS Games

At 1:50:20 GG talks about audio microtransactions/announcer packs. I am glad he brought up the subject.
I tried to wake up Relic in the War spoils closed beta to how important this could be to COH/DoW. Skins alone won't be enough, especially not without CSGO gambling/trading.

This SEGA Europe interview below is relevant to future COH community engagement;
Interview - John Clark - (SVP Commercial Publishing) SEGA
John explains how SEGA are putting the player at the heart of their commercial content strategy, measuring engagement and ultimately developing a shared revenue model with the player community

This idea of shared revenue model is supported by Relic brand director, Alex Price
https://www.pcgamesn.com/company-of-heroes-2/company-of-heroes-2-pumping-50-of-skin-competition-purchases-back-into-community

“This is a unique opportunity to test a self-sustaining model where players can access top quality content, reward the content creators, and fund community-led events,” said Alex Price, brand director at Relic. “We’re excited to see how this might pave the way for more collaboration with players and designers across our portfolio of games.”

So you want Relic to move forward with more community content and mod tools? Well "get noisy" and more importantly vote with your wallet to support popular community "content creators" (tournament casters, streamers, modders, artists, war paint skins etc.). Money does speak louder than words and without it, none of this "community content" would happen.

RTS Customization & Microtransactions
ideally microtransactions should only be cosmetics/user customization with no effect on competitive gameplay in 1vs1/2vs2. Casual game modes such as 4vs4, Theatre of War/co-ops/Comp Stomps are a bit more forgiving on premium commanders and/or new factions

Financially speaking (AAA RTS games), Relic games is on the Chopping board.
This is crucial to the financial success of COH2, DOW3 and/or COH3. Hopefully, Relic has secured new funding with SEGA for much-needed mod tools so COH2 can expand on this.

With all the customization available for skins and commanders, it's lacking when it comes to audio and animations. Not to mention bulletins and cosmetic ranks (prestige ranks) are currently useless as "collectible rewards". Relic devs confirmed in the War spoils beta that bulletins were original intended to be "collectible rewards/items".

Why Relic don't you want to make more money from customization?

The same attacks, abilities, and audio get old by having the same at all times. There are several good ways Relic could make money from COH customizations. But they have "tunnel vision" on skins and/or commanders (doubt new commanders will be profitable with the current system). Perhaps a new map objective game mode for 4vs4, could make loadout/out-of-match faction customization more fun to fans (specialized team roles similar to MOBA games).

1) Alternate animations - microtransactions
Alternate animations for commander abilities, faction victory, attacking/moving/idle infantry and patrolling AI planes etc.. This could be implemented with new spectator modes that focus more on planes and infantry. Especially at the start of the game, there is not much going on from a birds eye perspective. So would be pretty cool with alternate spectator mode that focuses on infantry animations and/or skins. In "Band of Brothers" art style, starting allied infantry could be dropped from an airplane as a "warm up period" before the game start.
Band of Brothers HD (All Parachute Scenes From The Series)

(ANIM) COH2: The British Forces - Officer Firing
https://sketchfab.com/models/dc3de4c2af3e4bf8840f8f964561cf96
(ANIM) COH2: The British Forces - AEC Patrolling
https://sketchfab.com/models/b55959298e314156a73b4da61c99352d
(ANIM) COH2: The British Forces - 'Tommy' Idle
https://sketchfab.com/models/7ce663136f96482983d16a08c9dd818a

2) Audio microtransactions (such as MOBA Announcer Packs)
Company of Heroes 2: British Forces Dev Diary: Audio and Voice Recording

Generals Gentlemen talk about COH microtransactions on recent "RTS Podcast". To further elaborate on GGs comments on MOBA audio microtransactions (smite, Starcraft HOTS, LoL, DOTA) being used in RTS games. I agree 100%.

For those interested in Announcer Packs (some are pretty funny too);
Heroes of the Storm Announcers

SMITE - Making of Announcer Packs

FYI; DOTA sells these "voice packs" for 2x the price of COH2 commanders
http://www.dota2.com/store/#cat=1073146881
League of Legends; Samuel L. Jackson Announcer Pack

DOTA 2 - Voice Actors, Events, and Announcers

Rick and Morty Dota 2 Announcer Trailer

First Blood Quotes - Dota 2

Now imagine if COH2 had a “HelpingHans or Stormless/AE/GG Announcer Pack”, would you buy that to support tournaments? I would for sure, even more so than Warpaint skins. I'm pretty sure popular twitch COH streamers/players would work for free as well. IIRC, the voice acting studio Relic used for UKF are located in the UK so travel is easy for COH fans like Hans and tournament casters. The alternative, maybe the modding community could help with the voice recording. This ofc requires some new mod tools.

Both Relic devs and Creative Assembly seems to read this RTS blog below. So I want to highlight this which are relevant to RTS customization;

LOOKING FORWARD TO THE FUTURE OF RTS GAMES
Skins, Customizations and Loadouts
https://waywardstrategist.com/2015/07/22/looking-forward-to-the-future-of-rts-games/

Company of Heroes 2, StarCraft 2, Grey Goo, and Planetary Annihilation all have various systems that, if they have indeed been present in RTS games before, are at least becoming more mature and starting to show clear signs of being worthwhile. While some players may balk at some these systems, I believe firmly that their adoption is part and parcel of the evolution of the real-time strategy genre, and are necessary for it to remain competitive with games of other genres.

One of the more contentious of my beliefs is that it is a good thing for real-time strategy games to include systems similar to what you see in Company of Heroes 2, in particular, including skins, or cosmetic customizations, and here’s the contentious bit: load outs, or out-of-match faction customization. Perhaps the way Company of Heroes 2 implements these particular things isn’t up to snuff yet, but I think that once games find more mature ways of implementing these features, it will be a good thing for the genre as a whole, for all that RTS old guard will continue to kvetch about them.

Face it, RTS gamers. People like to customize their belongings, to make choices about how their property looks and feels and behaves. You see it in their browsers, and more importantly, in their shooters, their MMOGs and their arena-based combat games. Like achievements, customizations (both cosmetic and otherwise) are coming. We’ve already seen StarCraft 2 implement a limited skins system, and Planetary Annihilation sell alternate commander models. We see Company of Heroes 2 sell skins, as well, and up the ante slightly with a Commander system that vaguely resembles hero purchase models from MOBA titles like League of Legends. People also like to earn things, too, as it turns out.

Cosmetic alterations like skins, badges, or Planetary Annihilation’s Commander models are an easy sell. There are, of course, challenges with customizations that can experientially alter a player’s multiplayer experience. Balancing factions against one another, factoring in whatever unique features the game chooses to introduce through a loadout system. In Company of Heroes 2, the game provides variations within its existing combat model – different infantry options, heavier or faster (seldom both) tanks, or heavier tank destroyers, unique upgrades to base units, access to heavy “off-map” strikes etc. These are built into predetermined groups of 5 each, called “commanders” – some are obviously better than others, and some were purchasable only until the Western Fronts expansion, with the implementation of a system that has a chance to randomly drop items from a predetermine selection, including commanders, skins and more. This is in some ways similar to how Dota 2 occasionally gifts players with Workshop items, though Company of Heroes 2’s model is still immature.
Randomly dropping, or giving players an option to earn custom content via a currency system, are 2 possible options for the loadout system. They’re not the only options – how you implement such a system is important, but secondary to the importance of giving players options, and being able to add to or grow a game over time. And that’s precisely what this class of options is about – growing a game over time. For so many, too many RTSes, players lose interest. Balance can kill a community, but so can stagnation, and the traditional expansion model is in my opinion insufficient to add enough content to keep players, well, playing. Player (or developer) driven cosmetic modifications and modding are 2 ways to achieve this influx of new… stuff to a game, but so, undisputedly, is a system which experientially expands the “core” multiplayer game. We’re still a ways off from finding the golden ratio of modification to systems balance, but Company of Heroes 2 and failed projects like the new Command and Conquer game and End of Nations are bringing us closer to figuring it out.

I encourage all COH fans to give fair and balanced feedback that Relic can consider in COH2/DoW3/COH3. With the decline in RTS popularity, there is little chance that big AAA RTS games can be supported for 5 years without microtransactions. My motto; there is no failures, only feedback. Learning from COH2 mistakes = key to DoW3/COH3 success. Another important factor to help preserve COHs longevity is the brand trust which equal brand value. Blizzard has some of the most loyal gamers because they are a trusted brand. With COH2/DoW3 microtransactions, the general gamer is essentially going in blind without knowing what to expect.

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/branding.html

Branding aims to establish a significant and differentiated presence in the market that attractsandretains loyal customers.

Brands can spin feedback – even negative – into positive results

http://www.marketingcharts.com/online/responding-to-online-reviews-can-have-significant-benefits-for-brands-37099/
But players hate microtransactions? (steamspy owner)

https://galyonk.in/why-paid-games-are-adding-micro-payments-526f358426c6

No, they don’t.
Players hate bait and switch. Players hate when they’re lied to, when they’re deceived, when the product they’ve paid for is gone and is replaced with something else.

That’s why free-to-play originally got a lot of hate — because the term itself is deceiving. Free-to-play games aren’t 100% free as in a beer, they’re only free to some extent. We just got used to it by now.

Biggest COH2 "bait and switch" tactic to date;

War Spoils should keep progression through Western Front Armies interesting, but in the long term Relic will use it to add new content to COH2, hopefully for years to come. This is all part of the five-year plan, director Quinn Duffy told Eurogamer.
*SNIP*
"We want to make sure we're communicating, that we're letting people know the game is there, that we're going to support it long term," he says. "We want them to know that if they want to be playing this game in years, we're going to be there."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-05-29-relics-five-year-plan-for-company-of-heroes-2

Fortunately for Relic, there is no real competition to COH2. That's why the game is still alive. Don't confuse Relic "haters" with frustrated fans that are looking for a lifeboat onboard Titanic.

What it’s like to manage a gaming community on fire

“What sounds like constant moaning is actually a hundred different complaints when you zoom in closer, and almost all of the issues can be handled by giving more information, by including people in the bigger picture. So I don't get numb to it, because I'm right there in the trees with my players. I can then take that feeling and use my privileged access to get the whole story and share it.”

http://www.pcgamer.com/what-its-like-to-manage-a-gaming-community-on-fire/
Sanya Weathers Community manager, Dark Age of Camelot[/