not released commanders

You may be remember this picture?



And most of stuff in the game. So .... where the Soviet commander?

Shouldn't there be a commander with the face of the winner of a recent tournament?

The bottom left commander is also missing, I'm guessing it was the American defensive one with the 105mm howitzers from the first game, while the Soviet one was the tank desant or whatever you wanna call it, both have probably been scraped or are waiting in a final batch of commanders Relic will add to the game.

There is still soviet not 1 step back and german wunderaffe commader awaiting.

There is still soviet not 1 step back and german wunderaffe commader awaiting.

I'm afraid we don't wait for them

I wanted a comissar squad so bad ;_;

Im still crossing my fingers that they will release some new commanders.

Im still crossing my fingers that they will release some new commanders.

They have only one guy working on the game if I remember correctly. Guess all we can do is cross our fingers.

They have only one guy working on the game if I remember correctly. Guess all we can do is cross our fingers.

I think the Soviet tank commander is ready, but Relic has not released it and I don't understand the reasons.

I think the Soviet tank commander is ready, but Relic has not released it and I don't understand the reasons.

You want Tiger Ace 2.0 and Windustry in the game again? This is how you'll get it.

No retreat commisar commander: it's not gonna be released cause systematically we have removed abilities which manipulate resources drastically. Commisar, as unit is there, but don't expect the original concept to be implemented (you can't retreat, insta production of infantry units, more mp gain, mp blitz)

Soviet Ace T85s: yeah... That went really well in the past. Same as having "light" cheap t76s as callins.

Defensive commander 2.0: i can't remember well but it was quite boring. Some abilities were useful (mg bunker) but not just to dedicate a commander for it.

Penal OH commander: Original UK Air superiority, flame barrage on mortar and 5 PG with shocktroops armor and double flamethrower. What can go wrong.

OKW tools for OH commander: repair pios, AP shell (?) and command tiger/PV. I'm pretty sure i'm combining 2 commander concepts (dude with stuff) but can't remember really well what they looked like.

Resource manipulation abominaton (OH commander): i think this didn't left the concept board so let's leave it at that.


The best thing they can do is: get all those interesting ideas/units/abilities and start swapping them with the gross amount of repeating skills we have in the EFA roster. Example:

SU:
NKVD: receives the commisar
Armored assault/Advance warfare (this 2 would make "some sense") or better yet any non-never-meta commander: Green T76s, Elite T85s (it should cost fuel), global blitz
Defensive commander/Urban defense: mg bunker, defensive ability

OH:
Kinda harder to select a commander but it should be prioritise to not select any meta or almost meta commander.
Air supremacy 2.0, BALANCED Assault PG, command PV/Tiger, mortar flame barrage, repair pios
Show Spoiler

Relic plz just do a renforcement pack bundle priced at 9,99$ ca and i will buy it!!!!!

It will help you finance !!!!

You want Tiger Ace 2.0 and Windustry in the game again? This is how you'll get it.

I want:
- shock troops
- Guards T-34-85 - with a mesh screen (higher HP), piercing projectiles, smoke bombs (works like Churchill, but without speed reducing)
or SU-100, a mix of Su-85 and the Elephant. SU-85 with a higher armor and HP,gun range and damage - as the Elephant
- Repair station

Normally, Relic released commanders by two. So, if you want Red Army commander, you need also to release Ostheer commander.
And if you want USF commander, you need also to release OKW commander, and optionaly UKF commander.
What does it mean? It means, that Relic should first to make new commanders for Ostheer, OKW, and optionally for UKF, and then releasing Red Army commander with Ostheer commander, or releasing USF commander with OKW and UKF commanders

Normally, Relic released commanders by two. So, if you want Red Army commander, you need also to release Ostheer commander.
And if you want USF commander, you need also to release OKW commander, and optionaly UKF commander.
What does it mean? It means, that Relic should first to make new commanders for Ostheer, OKW, and optionally for UKF, and then releasing Red Army commander with Ostheer commander, or releasing USF commander with OKW and UKF commanders

Didnt they release a bunch of USF and Brit commanders without axis counterparts?

Another lategame commander for US would make the faction popular again outside of 1vs1

Didnt they release a bunch of USF and Brit commanders without axis counterparts?

First 6 DLC commanders for WFA (3 for USF and 3 for OKW) were released with release of WFA. Then, with release of UKF were released 3 DLC commanders for UKF. Then, were released two packs (each include 1 commander for USF and another 1 for OKW).
And in the end were released two UKF commanders, but you need to remember, that UKF didn't get commanders, when each of USF and OKW get two commanders.
If you don't understand, what i said (because my English not good enough):

2014:
USF - 3 DLC commanders (6 total)
OKW - 3 DLC commanders (6 total)
UKF - --------------------------

Released UKF:
USF - 3 DLC commanders (6 total)
OKW - 3 DLC commanders (6 total)
UKF - 3 DLC commanders (6 total)

Released first Pack of commanders:
USF - 4 DLC commanders (7 total)
OKW - 4 DLC commanders (7 total)
UKF - 3 DLC commanders (6 total)

Released second Pack of commanders:
USF - 5 DLC commanders (8 total)
OKW - 5 DLC commanders (8 total)
UKF - 3 DLC commanders (6 total)

Released british pack of commanders:
USF - 5 DLC commanders (8 total)
OKW - 5 DLC commanders (8 total)
UKF - 5 DLC commanders (8 total)

2017 COH Buisness Plan and Roadmap? More secrets from Relic?
DLC failing Commander Lifecycle:


COH Buisness Plan? MIA!

It’s not enough to make a good multiplayer/spectator game.
COH2 (or free-to-play COH Online 2) also has to succeed financially post-launch with DLC/microtransactions. But without sacrificing gaming quality and balance too much.
Valve games such as CS GO/DOTA is a good example how to do this. A lot can also be learned from Blizzard Hearthstone microtransactions (which many Relic devs have played).
Creative Assembly with Halo Wars2 blitz mode is experimenting with microtransactions and Total War Arena (using the Wargaming business model from WoT). More experimenting like this is also coming for COH2 or future COH games. 100% guarantee.


But western players hate microtransactions & free-to-play!?

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive now has decorative gloves
http://www.pcgamer.com/counter-strike-global-offensive-now-has-decorative-glove-microtransactions/
This article below (the owner of http://steamspy.com) explain why many Western publishers failed to make money from microtransactions and destroyed some of the market for free-to-play (which has a better reputation in Asia).
https://galyonk.in/why-paid-games-are-adding-micro-payments-526f358426c6#.g4jp5uaoc

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.
BTW, in Russia free-to-play games are not usually called “free”, they’re called “contingently free”/”free with a catch” (“условно бесплатные”).
It’s even worse with “pay-to-pay” conversions, though. Unless it is clearly communicated to the user before he paid for a game, switching the business model on the fly might be viewed as bait and switch tactics.
And just because Valve managed to get away with adding microtransactions to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive after the release, doesn’t mean you will be able too.
What’s next?
I think we’re going to see “pay-to-pay” more, especially in multiplayer games for the Western audiences. It makes the game sustainable, it makes it easy to adapt for the East, it provides the developer with consistent revenue stream.
I also hope that we’ll see less examples of companies switching to a different business model midway.

Relic needs to become more proactive and transparent about this. Misleading and/or and failing to communicate with the COH community serve no one. In a creative business if you're a cynic you get burned. Don't blame community managers, they are just following the chain of command and probably ain't paid much.

Relic Old DLC "masterplan"?

https://www.coh2.org/news/4977/quinn-duffy-post-launch-interview
COH2.ORG: How do you feel about the (largely negative) way players have reacted to the day 1 DLC?
Quinn Duffy: At first I was a little bummed out, but then I realize in this internet day and age that what people say (‘I hate DLC and I hate Relic’) and what they do (buy DLC) is really at odds.

Now take a quick look into the business dictionary and look up "branding"
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/branding.html

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

Fact; Consumer perceptions is everything in marketing
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/
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

Advice to Relic;
There's an old saying: "Make no promises, tell no lies"
If you don't want to have a toxic environment of players complaining then don't promise things that you can't deliver and then pretend that you have. No consumer trust, failing business plan. Lacking consistency in words and action = no trust. To many in Relic have lived in the dark ages of community interactions, just like Minas Tirith (Relic Echo chamber).

Broken promises, constant marketing failures, ignoring good community feedback (including other gamers on steam), lacking transparency, P2W sentiments and unbalanced content played a huge role in giving COH2 (and Relic) a bad reputation. Not surprisingly, only the most loyal COH fans are left because COH2 has no real competition (unique game). COH is a great franchise and the potential for a much greater gaming community is still there.

Fortunately, there is some light at the end of the tunnel, thx to SEGA Europe and Atlus (same owner as SEGA). Don't underestimate how difficult it has been for SEGA Europe along with Atlus to convince top SEGA leadership to invest more into "Quality gaming/branding".

We Betrayed Fans And Want to Be a Brand Again, Says Sega CEO
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/we-betrayed-fans-and-want-to-be-a-brand-again-says/1100-6428680/

Former EA top executives (Owen Mahoney) speak out against EAs old business plan
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-10-06-nexon-we-need-to-focus-on-heart-first-and-money-second

"And so what they had was these rocketing up user numbers and then these user numbers crashed to the ground, in individual games and then of course overall in the company. The reason why they crashed to the ground is because the customers aren't stupid after all. You can trick them once but you can't trick them a second time. And fundamentally in a creative business if you're a cynic you get burned."

How Electronic Arts stopped being the worst company in America
https://www.cnet.com/news/how-electronic-arts-stopped-being-the-worst-company-in-america/

In fact, more than 250,000 people cast their votes on the advocacy website Consumerist and crowned EA the worst company in America the year before, beating out Bank of America.

Just wow.
I want to emphasize this from Nexon CEO (FYI; Alex Garden founder of Relic is also co-founder of Nexon NA);
"fundamentally in a creative business if you're a cynic you get burned"

On the positive side, this marketing guy from SEGA Europe "get it"
SEGA Europe moving forward with community content/mods etc.

Company of Heroes 2 to give 50% of Proceeds from Polycount ‘War Paint’ Skin Competition back to the Community
http://www.mcvuk.com/press-releases/read/company-of-heroes-2-to-give-50-of-proceeds-from-polycount-lsquo-war-paint-rsquo-skin-competition-back-to-the-community/0165923

“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.”

New Commanders - Not profitable?
FYI; The average total playtime for COH2 players;
71 hours
http://steamspy.com/app/231430
CS GO Playtime total: 286 hours
http://steamspy.com/app/730
In comparison, CS GO has a much more active player base than COH2 and CS GO players are also far more profitable than DOTA players (free-to-play). CS GO is now making Valve just as much money as DOTA with a much smaller player base. CS GO trading/gambling has a lot to do with this "financial success".

COH Brand Manager, Alex Delamaire talking about CS GO
https://twitter.com/alexdlmr/status/724443047421845507
http://alex.delamaire.net/

The less visible - but very profitable - part of Valve's revenue: betting & gambling through virtual items in CS: ;:GO

https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-virtual-guns-counterstrike-gambling/

It's not because Relic doesn't want to make new commanders, it's just that the ROI (return on investments) is going down + P2W sentiments are still going strong. Also with the new war spoils/supply system in place they need to make more money from new players because veteran players will just buy with supply.
For new commanders to become profitable without sacrificing gaming quality and balance. A lot has to change.

A New DLC Plan? COH Commander Rotation vs Hearthstone two play modes
At current life cycle (decline or go freemium/CS GO), it would be more financially realistic to start talking about removing ALL the old premium commanders from the auto match while keeping them in custom mode (see below link as one idea to implement this). Keep basic commanders as free to play.
Start working on a new commander system that could potential be used in COH3.
Relic is not Santa Claus, to justify post-launch commander development cost they do need to make money from new premium commanders.
An open debate about this WITH Relic is far more "relevant" than posting some more irrelevant commander balance posts that Relic will never take seriously as they can't monetize it. Sometimes more is less. We need fewer competitive commanders, not more. Bulletins is another financial mess and deadweight that will never get fixed unless Relic with sufficient community interactions finds a way to monetize it.
Ideally, Relic could do something similar to Hearthstone two play modes, standard and wild mode.
A New Way to Play
http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/19995505/a-new-way-to-play-2-2-2016

The New Standard
Standard is a new format in Play mode that allows players to go head-to-head using only the most recently released Hearthstone cards. You’ll play Standard using a deck built solely from a pool of cards that were released in the current and previous calendar year, along with a core foundation of the Basic and Classic card sets (which will always be valid for Standard). You’ll be matched against other players who are also using Standard decks.
Standard will help make for a more dynamic and balanced metagame.
A select set of cards makes each new card have more impact!
The developers will have more freedom to design exciting new cards.
It lets newer players jump in faster without having to collect as many cards.

After 1-2 years in COH "standard mode" premium commanders rotate out into "wild mode" (all commanders). Just allow players to recycle old commanders for supply.

2016 Roadmap history - COH Community Waiting For Relic Community Interactions;

http://www.companyofheroes.com/blog/2016/12/09/coh2-the-road-ahead
1 year delayed 2016 roadmap;

Together, through transparent, coordinated, and collaborative efforts, we can continue to offer anyone who loves and plays COH2 fun and engaging experiences well into next year and beyond.

More transparency? I hope Relic stay true to that, we will see.

The bottom left commander is also missing, I'm guessing it was the American defensive one with the 105mm howitzers from the first game, while the Soviet one was the tank desant or whatever you wanna call it, both have probably been scraped or are waiting in a final batch of commanders Relic will add to the game.

and then we'll wait for another patch to adjust new commander or old one to be on par in live game

Kappa

srsly i would like to see more content

snip

There's a fundamentally difference: it's easier (not impossible) to sell non-gameplay affecting DLC on all those games, cause they belong to a different genre.

1-It's easier to see skins on a FPS or MOBA than on an RTS. Skins on MOBA also comes with new audio queues and FX. We can't make soldiers shoot flowers.

2-You can't freely willy add new gameplay elements. Hearthstone is an CTG, with one of their fundamentals been card collecting. MOBAs have a huge roster of heroes/champions and freedom of creativity on what to implement. An RTS (been more of a niche genre compared to the past) has way less space to expand. Even more, a game based on a certain time period which is not modern/science fiction.
To not further go deep in the subject, when one plays an RTS you don't expect to "win" a game by having a certain commander/bulletin on your loadout or not.
If that would be the case, then you shouldn't have to go blind into RANKED automatch. Map appears, each players selects it's loadout (commander + bulletins) and then the game starts to load up.

3-The whole P2W sentiment would had been different IF:
A) The game was not sold at a premium cost. There's a huge fundamental difference between a F2P and having to pay for the game, and expend on DLC just to remain COMPETITIVE.
B) Supply system from the getgo and not 2 years later.
C) Balance patches been more frequent. Ok, you release overpowered commander? If there is a completely broken function you SHOULD patch it as soon as possible (1 week). Balance adjustment can be done with some feedback info from +2 weeks. Small baby steps, not huge swings (no ninja changes as well plz)

4-Instead of messing around so much with the competitive mode, i'm not sure why they didn't expand on the compstomp community. They have the numbers so they probably know better, but i think there was space for the Theatre of War to shine.
Release solo/co-op missions and you can then sell completely overpowered commanders which can ONLY be used on custom/co-op mode.

and then we'll wait for another patch to adjust new commander or old one to be on par in live game

Kappa

srsly i would like to see more content

Agreed.

And yes, I'd say 2 more commanders for the Western Front Armies and 1 or 2 more for the Eastern Front ones would be a good end to their content additions.

Of course I'm still hopeful of a 3rd Axis Army to complete the set, however with the way things are going I'm doubtful at the same time about that, they either need to release the 3rd Axis Army with 10 commanders from the start or 6 at the start like the other Western Front Armies and then 4 at the same time or something like that.