My thoughts about RNG and "cinematic gameplay" in COH2

So, I hate to shill for stuff I wrote, but I put a bit of time into both of these pieces and wanted to share them with the COH2.org community. In the interests of not being too obnoxious, I've decided to dump them into the Scrap Yard instead of COH 2 Central, to keep them out of the main discussions of COH2.

Anyways, I never really played the original vCOH or its expansions, though I did love Dawn of War and Dawn of War 2. I currently own all of the COH games and may take a pass through the original, though it's really multiplayer that interests me in the game. While I don't have a ton of time to play COH2 (not nearly as much as I want, at any rate) I find it fascinating to watch and wrap my head around.

To that end, I've written 2 articles about the controversial RNG topic, drawing both from my own observations and from my perusal of discussions both here and on the COH2 subreddit. The official Company of Heroes Facebook account was kind enough to post one of them to their feed, which was an honor to be sure.

If you're just going to read one of them, I think the second one is more comprehensive BTW.

The first article, hosted on RTSGuru.com: http://www.rtsguru.com/game/485/article/6595/Random-Numbers-The-Cinematic-Experience-and-COH2.html

The second article, hosted on my personal blog: http://bccasteel.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/more-on-random-numbers-in-company-of-heroes-2/

Thanks for taking the time to read them, anyone who did. I know I don't have a great grasp of the actual numbers involved in these processes and interactions, and I'm certainly no statistician, but I'm trying to contribute to the community and spread the word about the game, and I do hope that counts for something.

Thanks for your time,
wayward

Company of Heroes 2 is a game of managing risks.

Good read. The last paragraph of the first post pretty much sums up my feelings of both Coh1 and Coh2. There are so many situations where you can blame bad luck but could have avoided the whole event by just thinking ahead a bit.


The second post addresses these strokes of luck you call fringe scenarios. I don't know why and I can't back my opinion up with stats or anything, but I think Coh1 did a better job with these. I feel they weren't as frequent in Coh1, perhaps it is because AT guns were more reliable, retreating was more safe and grenades were easier to dodge. That's how I feel anyways.

Did you use to hang around the doW 2 section on GR? I recognise your name.

Good read! I don't know if you're aware that the "Random Numbers: The Cinematic Experience and COH2" article got plugged on CoH2s facebook page?

"RTS Guru - Random Numbers: The Cinematic Experience and COH2 http://www.rtsguru.com/game/485/article/6595/Random-Numbers-The-Cinematic-Experience-and-COH2.html

WHAT is your favourite war movie?"