Too many players left...

http://steamcharts.com/app/231430#All



It's lower than vCoh in 2012...


I think, Non leaderboard is the most important problem.

its going up!

Maybe because it's the middle of the summer in the places where CoH is popular and people are out doing things in the meatspace.

Maybe because it's the middle of the summer in the places where CoH is popular and people are out doing things in the meatspace.

^This , even I who have about 300hrs didnt play at all last couple of weeks cuz was on hollyday and now im having guests from abroad and keep em company and often go with them on seaside, and at night friends wanna hang out in city its madness i cant catch up with CoH and keep hopping when i return in September it has rly cool features LD

I think balance is the greatest problem.

There is so much left untested and unbalanced at this early point in such a complex RTS.

It will take atleast a year for patches to start churning through these and establish a comprehensive duality like vCoH had.

I think balance is the greatest problem.

There is so much left untested and unbalanced at this early point in such a complex RTS.

It will take atleast a year for patches to start churning through these and establish a comprehensive duality like vCoH had.

No No... Everyone is out sunning themselves and going on holiday. Nothing at all to do with the game or balance. Probably lots of bird watching going on as well. This time of year it is also common to discover a really REALLY good book that just can't be put down.

Guess the coming weeks will tell.

Maybe because it's the middle of the summer in the places where CoH is popular and people are out doing things in the meatspace.

Summer is also when a tonne of people have more free time. June/July are also the best tourist months. I don't think this argument holds much water.

Honestly, the reason there's so few people on is optimization. That's always the main problem. People wont play a game if it runs like shit. You'd be surprised the amount of crap people will take if they're actually happy with the performance. And you'd be surprised how few people will play if your game is a masterpiece but runs like crap.

Also, not shitting on the Relic devs here, but CoH2 is a grade below CoH1. Optimization, bad map design, bad mechanics, no leaderboards, no chat lobbies, no public game lobbies, gameplay issues, bugs, etc.

Most players don't play 1v1, and I think the peer 2 peer system is a massive contributor to the numbers as well. P2P is the worst networking option out there for an RTS game, and I think most people expected something better from Relic, given almost every modern release out there does not use P2P.

The most important aspect of a game's success is release, and I don't think you can seriously deny that CoH2 had a poor release.

Most people are finishing the campaign by now, and with no casual gaming(chat lobbies/custom lobbies) there's no reason for them to boot up CoH2.

The game is awfully expensive imo for the features we have.

The game is awfully expensive imo for the features we have.

Why?

the game has still a beta status, dont wonder...

Most nights, my auto match queue seems to be populated by 20-40 people. It sure doesn't seem like a whole lot for me being in North America (Southern Ontario, Canada).

Also doesn't help due to the game design (i.e. no doctrines) that there's just a linear game play - Germans will do this - Russians will do that - and that's it - no variable - no variance, 9 out of 10 times you KNOW how the game is going to go because simply put - there's only that ONE way to play the game due to significantly watered down Commanders.

That variability is what gave COH its long lasting appeal and what continued to bring players back.

This is severely lacking in COH 2.

Though don't worry - the game will continue to hobble on for a while yet - Sega is giving it away with AMD's latest "Never Settle" Bundle - so there's going to be more gamers coming into COH 2 as time progresses.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20130807232531_AMD_Reveals_Official_Name_for_Next_Gen_Never_Settle_Bundle.html

Once you lose players, you generally don't get them back. We'd be lucky to see the populations grow from where they're at now. What it is right now, you can live with if it doesn't get smaller. If it doesn't get smaller and Relic pulls them finger out(Seriously, 2 months after release and we've not had a significant update yet - minus the map port + frame delay fix, which I consider borderline minor), they'll see some growth.

I've already given up on COH2 and moved on now - PayDay 2 is out and I've been having an incredible amount of fun with that and have gotten stuck into the large back log of games that COH 1 was preventing me from really getting in to - so now I've got an opportunity to enjoy other things.

So I guess - as reluctant as I am to have my COH days end - I am thankful now that I've been given a chance to enjoy other games that I otherwise probably would have never gotten around to.

Cyridius, CoH1's peak number of players online was years after release. One record was set right after the Eastern Front mod was released. The greatest record of all was set another couple years after that, after 2.601 was released, around the time of the humble bundle if I remember correctly, but it might have been before that bundle. In any event, the two highest points were years after release.

Cyridius, CoH1's peak number of players online was years after release. One record was set right after the Eastern Front mod was released. The greatest record of all was set another couple years after that, after 2.601 was released, around the time of the humble bundle if I remember correctly, but it might have been before that bundle. In any event, the two highest points were years after release.

I don't disagree that games can certainly grow. It's just highly unlikely. Again, I'm not shitting on the CoH2 dev team, they're doing what they can with what they have, but compare the quality of CoH1 on release to CoH2. I'm not saying CoH2 is bad, I'm saying CoH1 was great. It had bad balance problems and had bugs(To this day), but the concept, design, features, and formula were there to create a game with longevity. It had really nice graphics for the time, it had interesting mechanics and ideas that were unique, the game was released feature complete with things like custom lobbies, detailed and effective ranking systems, chat lobbies, and it also had 2 very well designed and asymmetric factions.

Due to Relic's financial situation - or rather, THQ's - they were forced to rush an incomplete product, forced to outsource important parts of their development, and forced to release something that, frankly, is subpar. I don't blame them, circumstance is a bitch. But we're 2 months post release, we don't have a leaderboard(An external 3rd party leaderboard is said to be in its design stages), we don't have custom lobbies, we don't have observer mode, we don't have chat lobbies, and to fuck things up even more, it doesn't even have the balance straightened out.

What you have there is a whole mess of shit that pisses off players of all stripes. Casuals have no features for them. Competitive players get shit on by bugs and balance. And intermediary players(People who like to play casual-competitive or are looking to become better players) don't have any features that cater to them either.

The only people that got their bang for their buck were those buying only for single player, and it's common sense these are not long term players.

People can say I'm being dramatic here, but these are serious issues. I'm going to keep playing CoH2, but I've become quite disillusioned, so much so I'm drifting back to Dota 2(Which I don't exactly have a cordial relationship with). The game's fun, but it has nothing to keep anyone playing except for diehard fans who hope it'll improve.

The point that I'm making is that a good release is everything. The best marketing you can ask for is word of mouth. Word of mouth right now is that CoH2 is not worth the $$. I've convinced my fair share of people to buy it, none of which now play. If those people bought CoH1 well after release it was because the game had a monstrously good reputation(Not every game is the greatest RTS of all time). People will come back after every patch, but if there is not notable improvement with each one they will stop wasting their time. If you wanna take a look at this just look at PlanetSide 2(Totally different genre, but stuck in a similar situation). Take a look at the populations for that game, and you're looking at the trend for CoH2 over the next 7 or 8 months if it maintains its current pace of development.

tl'dr; You can't really compare CoH1 and CoH2 because the standard of development is dramatically different, the market is different, and the game itself is different. CoH2 is lacking essential features, catering to no group of any importance, which is why you've seen this decline and you'll see even further decline if there's not some rapid changes and implementation of important features to keep people playing. Promises of such will fool some people, most people wont waste their time.

ded game is ded!

Completely agree with Cyridius. That is the main reason why I'm getting turned off COH2 at the moment - too little to encourage me to play, too little variations in play.

And some of the actions taken by the CM has been heavy handed too, leaving the rest of the community being either long time players of COH or whiners.

I don't disagree that games can certainly grow. It's just highly unlikely. Again, I'm not shitting on the CoH2 dev team, they're doing what they can with what they have, but compare the quality of CoH1 on release to CoH2. I'm not saying CoH2 is bad, I'm saying CoH1 was great. It had bad balance problems and had bugs(To this day), but the concept, design, features, and formula were there to create a game with longevity. It had really nice graphics for the time, it had interesting mechanics and ideas that were unique, the game was released feature complete with things like custom lobbies, detailed and effective ranking systems, chat lobbies, and it also had 2 very well designed and asymmetric factions.

Due to Relic's financial situation - or rather, THQ's - they were forced to rush an incomplete product, forced to outsource important parts of their development, and forced to release something that, frankly, is subpar. I don't blame them, circumstance is a bitch. But we're 2 months post release, we don't have a leaderboard(An external 3rd party leaderboard is said to be in its design stages), we don't have custom lobbies, we don't have observer mode, we don't have chat lobbies, and to fuck things up even more, it doesn't even have the balance straightened out.

What you have there is a whole mess of shit that pisses off players of all stripes. Casuals have no features for them. Competitive players get shit on by bugs and balance. And intermediary players(People who like to play casual-competitive or are looking to become better players) don't have any features that cater to them either.

The only people that got their bang for their buck were those buying only for single player, and it's common sense these are not long term players.

People can say I'm being dramatic here, but these are serious issues. I'm going to keep playing CoH2, but I've become quite disillusioned, so much so I'm drifting back to Dota 2(Which I don't exactly have a cordial relationship with). The game's fun, but it has nothing to keep anyone playing except for diehard fans who hope it'll improve.

The point that I'm making is that a good release is everything. The best marketing you can ask for is word of mouth. Word of mouth right now is that CoH2 is not worth the $$. I've convinced my fair share of people to buy it, none of which now play. If those people bought CoH1 well after release it was because the game had a monstrously good reputation(Not every game is the greatest RTS of all time). People will come back after every patch, but if there is not notable improvement with each one they will stop wasting their time. If you wanna take a look at this just look at PlanetSide 2(Totally different genre, but stuck in a similar situation). Take a look at the populations for that game, and you're looking at the trend for CoH2 over the next 7 or 8 months if it maintains its current pace of development.

tl'dr; You can't really compare CoH1 and CoH2 because the standard of development is dramatically different, the market is different, and the game itself is different. CoH2 is lacking essential features, catering to no group of any importance, which is why you've seen this decline and you'll see even further decline if there's not some rapid changes and implementation of important features to keep people playing. Promises of such will fool some people, most people wont waste their time.

You and I were cut from the same bread my friend.