General user poll: How much do you enjoy playing CoH2?

8/10 ftw bitches Kappa

6/10. Enjoy CoH2 because of actual strategy elements (flanking, use of cover, etc).

Tired of Shrek-blob, SturmPios and Falls that come with free "rape me" guns and attack-move non-mirco, and OP Axis tanks that all get smoke compared to glass-cannon USF tanks that should have smoke.

I'd rather play CoH1 if the talent pool was there and AT was viable.

6/10. Enjoy CoH2 because of actual strategy elements (flanking, use of cover, etc).

Tired of Shrek-blob, SturmPios and Falls that come with free "rape me" guns and attack-move non-mirco, and OP Axis tanks that all get smoke compared to glass-cannon USF tanks that should have smoke.

I'd rather play CoH1 if the talent pool was there and AT was viable.

Me and VonIvan enjoyed trolling you in 2v2 last night.

Me and VonIvan enjoyed trolling you in 2v2 last night.

Glad I made someone's night enjoyable.

I voted 2 because about 20% of the games I play are enjoyable and unaffected by the enormous amount of Bulls*** that plagues this game.

Lag ( especially fucking asia and russia ) and optimization are the biggest issues for me. So many games gone to shit and units lost because of performance.

Pathing is also high on the shitlist. Far too often I find myself enraged because a f*****g vehicle can't navigate around something.

Aec OP, maxim spam just bs, unkillable ost sniper, ostruppen spam sigh, no stock mines or flamers for usf just to name a few.

The game is still good in many respects but constantly ignoring the problems and BS is becoming harder and tiresome.

6/10. Enjoy CoH2 because of actual strategy elements (flanking, use of cover, etc).

Tired of Shrek-blob, SturmPios and Falls that come with free "rape me" guns and attack-move non-mirco, and OP Axis tanks that all get smoke compared to glass-cannon USF tanks that should have smoke.

I'd rather play CoH1 if the talent pool was there and AT was viable.

http://coh2chart.com/

The design of the WFA factions is really detrimental to fun gameplay, more so the okw. Note that im not saying balance, but just the way the game flows when one of those factions is involved.

7/10.

The gameplay mechanics are overall very good, so are the general faction designs. With good teammates games can be very challenging, but also exceedingly fun. The problem is there are issues with easy fixes, that for some reason, are never done. Also, there seems to be a trend of never taking anything learned from CoH1 when working on CoH2.

Here are my main problems with the game right now.


1. Brit emplacements. No one liked these in CoH1; the game is about movement, action and reaction - unit dynamics. Then the brits were added which focused on camping. The forums (at the time) were basically just filled with people complaining about this; and if you ever played 'The Scheldt' in CoH1, you know first hand how bad it was in the worst-case scenario.

So then CoH2 brits were added.... with emplacements. Why? Not only does it go against the core game design (which seems to be confirmed by the massively less-tanking Ost/Wehr bunkers), but the vast majority of players (especially at higher levels) really didn't like the system. So why were emplacements brought back? They should have been given a mobile mortar like everyone else, a bofors with a setup/tear down time, and a mobile 17lb at gun. Best case for tanking is that "anvil" just gives these units (mortar/bofors/17lb) free omnidirectional green cover when setup in friendly territory. Suddenly the brit faction becomes a dynamic team like the others, that is more fun to play for both sides. Brit players will enjoy not losing 400-something MP when losing a mortar pit to a LieG/MHT and Ost/OKW players don't have to face impossible to destroy Royal Engie emplacements (especially on some maps, with buildings/rivers), forcing them to go into the incredibly under-performing festung support doc if they don't happen have spearhead. Everyone wins.


2. X-unit blobs. Remember pio spam? Remember the (i think) the 4-bike start? Remember zombie-grens? Remember ranger blobs? Remember brit blobs? Rememeber how they were so bad and systems were made specifically to fix them (negative zeal, bike nerf, ranger 'exhaust' on fire-up, etc.)?

This exact thing is still basically in CoH2 with both OKW volks blobs AND USF rifle blobs. Seriously; you can't have a unit that works vs. everything; it just isn't good game design. Currently, the only mainline infantry that are, imo, well designed, are grens and cons.

Grens are smaller squads with higher DPS that can be upgraded to focus on long-range AI-DPS; but sacrifice close DPS as well as mobility (setup/aim time) for that upgrade.

Cons are larger squads with moderate DPS (but make up for it with size) that can be upgraded to focus on close-range AI-DPS; but sacrifice long DPS as well as survivability (need to close the gap) for that upgrade.

Both have similar abilities; light-vehicle snare, anti-inf nade. Cons are cheaper to support, but don't scale as well.

This is a GOOD unit dynamic.

Then we have the blob-able.... well, everything else. Rifles are insane at medium/close with no upgrades - but the M1919 makes them amazing at range (while still keeping a lot of close-DPS). They're bad against tanks unless you just give them zooks. There's nothing this unit can't handle. Volks are exactly the same way. Brit inf is a bit better, but gain incredible bonuses when defending (see #1) that severely reduces the need for upgrades. But then they also get upgrades (that LMG) which only further boosts their long-range AI power, or piats (not that great, though).


Infantry needs to be specialized; either AI or AT ONLY. You can't spec into both and then also be amazing at both. IMO, the perfect unit design would be something like this:

Pgrens (9 pop, 300mp, same reinforce), but spawns with K98s.
25muni - normal nade (i.e. CoH1's gren nade).

Mutually exclusive upgrades:
60muni: 2 MP44s (can upgrade twice, to 4).
60muni: 1 Shrek (can upgrade twice, to 2).

The unit comes in at T2, is expensive, and fairly weak at first (k98's aren't great). They can upgrade to MP44s for great AI power, but then have zero AT power. They can also upgrade to shreks, but keep the weak AI power (now weaker, since they'd have only 2 rifles). Best of all, a giant blob won't be possible: An AI-only blob would get easily countered by tanks, an AT-only blob would easily get countered by anything with AI, a mixed blob wouldn't have enough power to beat a pure inf or tank force, and it would take up too much pop-room and/or muni/mp to become big enough to actually work.

(Obviously, that unit would only work provided all other teams were redesigned around this idea).


3. Consistency. CoH2 has an absolutely mind-bending amount of randomness; while it's not necessarily bad, it needs to become a little bit less 'random' - especially in terms of raw mechanics. The best example I can think of right now are nades. The Gren rifle nade is insanely inconsistent. Sometimes it lands perfectly and wipes a whole squad. Sometimes it lands perfectly and does only 50% damage and takes no models. Same goes for the USF nade, which seems (somehow) even more random. That's only RNG; then there's gameplay consistency:

AT guns are supposed to be great vs. tanks and buildings... but they miss at least 9/10 shots vs. brit trenches, which are buildings.

The UI should never lie to the player; except that MGs in buildings can fire FAR outside their cone.

Units should also go to where they are told to go: except weapon teams (such as MGs) often setup outside of cover when told to setup in yellow/green cover far away, requiring a long travel time (top right spawn on Ecliptic to that tractor near the fuel).

Tanks should move in the most logical way; back when an order is given just behind them, forward when in front of them... except when they randomly turn 180 when an order is given 5ft behind them.

Snipers are high risk/reward and can counter each-other with high-level micro. Except the Sov sniper, which can counter-snipe for itself even if it's hit first. (There should be a stun-time on firing after 1 model is lost).

Off-map cannot be called into enemy base sectors... except some of it can be (Sov flame barrage, Ost frag run, etc.).

You shouldn't be able to exceed pop-cap, except USF can (decrew/recrew with vehicle crews).

Off-map should have clear indications (AoE circle for lasting abilities, flares regardless); except Brit artillery cover only shows on the mini-map (and possible others).

Maps should be sorted by min players, then alphabetically. Currently the maps aren't sorted by anything. It's just annoying.



There's probably more, (and that last one is more of a complaint that an inconsistency), but it's all fixable. CoH2 has a GREAT base upon which to build, and it could easily be tweaked to perfection.

8/10

Game is really fun, other than a few overperforming units/abilities, poor optimization and a couple of poorly balanced maps (both ways). It's been way worse.

1. Brit emplacements. No one liked these in CoH1; the game is about movement, action and reaction - unit dynamics. Then the brits were added which focused on camping. The forums (at the time) were basically just filled with people complaining about this; and if you ever played 'The Scheldt' in CoH1, you know first hand how bad it was in the worst-case scenario.

So then CoH2 brits were added.... with emplacements. Why? Not only does it go against the core game design (which seems to be confirmed by the massively less-tanking Ost/Wehr bunkers), but the vast majority of players (especially at higher levels) really didn't like the system. So why were emplacements brought back? They should have been given a mobile mortar like everyone else, a bofors with a setup/tear down time, and a mobile 17lb at gun. Best case for tanking is that "anvil" just gives these units (mortar/bofors/17lb) free omnidirectional green cover when setup in friendly territory. Suddenly the brit faction becomes a dynamic team like the others, that is more fun to play for both sides. Brit players will enjoy not losing 400-something MP when losing a mortar pit to a LieG/MHT and Ost/OKW players don't have to face impossible to destroy Royal Engie emplacements (especially on some maps, with buildings/rivers), forcing them to go into the incredibly under-performing festung support doc if they don't happen have spearhead. Everyone wins.

So much THIS! Reintroducing emplacements was a mistake. Reintroducing emplacements and adding an invincible-button to them was downright destroying the game.

Also:
Germans are just no fun to play since Brits arrived (2v2+). They tried so much to give an Allied faction lategame power/ strong units that the German factions are lost in mediocrity. Getting a hard time versus US blobs early, only to face emplacements a bit later combined with superior Cromwells, Comets and still potent Churchills, leaves you under constant pressure with barely any options left when playing Ostheer. Even cheesing your way out as OKW can be troublesome. Germans used to be about quality in this game. That was utterly destroyed during the last patches. Now they lack an identity.

4/10

Game is in its best state ever. 8/10
6/10 if I would play the new factions.
Sov-ost 9/10.

I'm relatively new to the game (was playing COH and COH), but I'm really enjoying it. I can't give 10/10 because there are still things that could be better (MP with humans is really tough and unforgiving at start), but as I said - I currently enjoy playing the game.