An idea to improve further DLC

Disclaimer: This should not be a rant or a bashing of any sort.

First off I'm somewhat disappointed that the new Commanders aren't included in the Case Blue DLC (Boohoo, poor me). Next I was looking at the price of them and was thinking that they are actually really expensive. 3€ each with a 25% discount, otherwise it would be 4€. Three of them and I could buy Hammerwatch which is on my wish-list. And I thought while watching HelpingHans streamed his Twitch that the Assault Grenadiers are actually quite powerful, not overpowerd, maybe not tested long enough. But regardless, a player in automatch facing these new commanders and getting beaten by them can not adapt easily to these new concepts such as 0 CP call ins. A mediocre player like myself might try conscripts and fail in the first 4 minutes (as seen on Twitch) and then play against opponents without the new commanders for the next eight games and suddenly Assault Grenadiers again, quick! What to do? No clue, beaten again. And so on. It surely might lead to frustration and calling them overpowered because they can not train against these new commanders, so the inevitably have to buy them to play them or against them.

But here is the idea: Please enable Commander selection of the Skirmish CPU, which can have all Commanders regardless if you bought them or not. You could select all three, two or only one if you want to fight a specific commander. And also add a random slot! That way people can play against the new commanders and even see all the abilities they can use. Put one of them on their team! This might be a positive incentive to buy a new commander.

And furthermore I noticed while browsing the shop that you are pricing the faceplates at 2€! That's half a Commander. 2€ for an insignia that I see 20% of my game time, while I'm waiting for a game, browsing the menu. You know what the faceplates remind me off? Hats! And here is where the thought train got me going. Why not make the faceplates drops like TF2 hats. Make them trade-able. Not enough games use the Steam-integrated marketplace! (I'm looking at you PayDay 2!) And why stop there.

Next idea: Make the CoH2 MP F2P with no vehicle skins and no faceplates and only three or four commanders. But you can buy them all regularly like now in the steam store. Benefit of the bought version will be that you have the SP campaign and that faceplates and vehicle skins will drop! And maybe even the commanders. That would be a hoot. And then you could trade them (but not to F2P players). On the market place. Make the bulletins also trade-able and more farm-able, say if you completed a task, it resets itself so you can „craft“ a new bulletin which you can trade again (remember that bulletins can be farmed with save games so the should never be traded for real money).

how about this idea:

Make all the DLC that you want for skins, faceplates, ToW missions and you know what ? even offline commanders for ToW.

but make all current multilayer and future commanders available for 10-15$ pack.

Or make them free.

Or don't even make them at all in the first place! That would be like in the old days. You know...when you bought a game and you had it...when it was all about skill, not money. Do you remember these times?

Or don't even make them at all in the first place! That would be like in the old days. You know...when you bought a game and you had it...when it was all about skill, not money. Do you remember these times?

Yes I remember those days. I really miss them. Every time I look at the Appstore and see the bull-load of micro-transactions and in-game purchases that distract and dilute the original gameplay. I would gladly pay 5 bucks to have a complete and well rounded, balanced, thought-through experience. But now is the the days of free to play. Gain a large player community and sell the things that don't cost much which add up to a significant amount in the end.

Indie games and boardgames are the way to go if you want those experiences. Where on the other hand boardgames have also started to go overboard with DLC (Dominion, Carcassonne, every CCG and LCG…).

But here we are. I love CoH 1 and 2. And I see a grim future if they keep adding new untested commanders for high prices. Yes 4€ is much for video game content as small as a 5 commander abilities in an RTS game. You can buy entire Indie-games for 4€. I also wonder who buys the faceplates and camos at these prices? This content is so negligible that it would fit perfectly in a TF2 drop and buy-if-you-want-it environment. And with an ingame store for free-to-play-players and trading for box-owners the community would surely grow multiple times.

Or make them free.

DLC is an awful model for the consumer. We already bought the game for 60-100$, what did we buy exsactly.

however, DLC was THE BEST IDEA THE GAMING MARKET COULD HAVE DONE, as a business looking for profit.
Put your self in [insert game company here] shoes. If you charge FULL price for a game then, have small micro transactions that cost the amount of candy bars or a cup of coffee, justifiy that reasoning to your consumer; Now 1 game can earn you a steady flow of money.
Subscribtions or a "season pass" idea works on big games like borderlands 2 or WoW because there is almost an infinate amount of content (or can be). When a game like COH2 (or an RTS) tries to, it is limited by "balance" and "Fairness".

DLC is not going anywhere if people (and they will in the age of spoiled children buying ANGRY BIRD, CANDY CRUSH, and FARMVILLE [i still dunno how people spend money on farmville]) continue to purchase micro transactions.

IMO/TL;DR: all these DLC should be free, as a consumer, we bought the game already, give me my money's worth. As a business, DLC is amazingly good profit.

I also don't know who buys faceplates or skins, but I don't have any problems with it. It is totally fine for me to offer something like that. But this is only because there is no negative effect on anyone involved. The developers earn a little bit more money, the people who are spending money on it obviosly think it is a good investment for their game experience and other players still are able to recognize the kind of tank the opponent has (atleast in the current stage of dlc skins -----> pls don't sell invisible camouflage or distracting skins in the future!!!).

Selling DLC commanders on the other hand is a totally other thing. These actively change the balance, favoring the players with more abilities on their hand. This is the DEFINITION of PAY TO WIN!!!

And i remember that there was a promise by the developers that there wouldn't be anything like this in COH2!!! So I guess this shows another time how corrupting money can be, even if it is just a couple of bucks from some nerds who couldn't win otherwise.

Until now this was just a minor issue due to the fact that the available dlc commanders just were a mix of different standart commanders, but now this isnt the case anymore.

Yeah what i wanted to say is...I'am dissapointed but not surprised.

IMO/TL;DR: all these DLC should be free, as a consumer, we bought the game already, give me my money's worth. As a business, DLC is amazingly good profit.

DLC on the other hand has also its merits as it creates revenue which fuels the games longevity with content other than the DLC itself such as patches, community support, tournaments etc. Though here comes the difference with board games and video games. Board games (should) work if you pay for them once and so should video games work (if all goes well) but since the days of broadband internet speeds and the ability to deliver patches to video games after the release video games seem to be never finished once you buy them. On the other hand you expect some kind of support (technical/ingame/...) from a video game or "basics" such as community support and "hot stuff" on their web sites, maybe even for free. So video games became more of a Service than a Product.

@Generian: The Commanders as I believed in at the start of the alpha of CoH2 were all kind of bland and similar and you didn't actually had to choose one right off the bat. I thought that this was good, that the Commanders didn't alter the game as much as they did in CoH1. That now it will be easier to implement new ones, that doesn't break the balance. Because they won't completely change the meta-game. And whoosh, in comes the 0CP cavalry.

Thank goodness they reacted quickly on this one as people effectively were buying a game changing imbalance that worked in their favor.

> With a broader player base (free to play) and no-brainer-prices (1€/1,40$ per Commander) people would come and pay in droves. And add Steam-Workshop integration! Custom skins (Hello Kitty StuGs), custom Commnders! OMG let them create their own Commanders with a create-a-commander tool to have fun in custom match (only, and the option to choose whether to allow or disallow Workshop content such as skins and Commanders)!