Profile of squippy

For vet 1 capping, you realize that USF have that passively in all tanks at vet0.

I know what you mean, but it's an exaggeration. Dismounting the crew to cap a point is vastly more risky than just having the weapons disabled; if you're not monitoring it, a canny opponent could even thieve your empty tank right from under your nose.

The First Emperor of China was basically a fantasy book villain. He even had black-clad special agents riding across the countryside rooting out dissent, and is ultimately believed to have died after drinking noxious chemicals which he had commissioned from alchemists as an elixir of life. It probably contained mercury.

At one point, when he was merely king of Qin, he was the target of a rather unedifying assassination attempt. A man named Jing Ke was sent to kill him, gained an audience with the king, later emperor, by virtue of bringing with him the severed head of a rebellious general, and a map. The map's case, though, concealed a poisoned dagger.

Jing Ke attacked the emperor, who was undefended as no armed guards were allowed in his presence. He had a sword, but it was a long ceremonial one and he struggled to draw it in the confined space. So he was reduced to running around and around a pillar, chased by his would-be-murderer, until his personal physician threw a case of medicine at Jing Ke, distracting him long enough for the emperor to get his sword out. The emperor managed to stab Jing Ke in the thigh, and by this time the commotion had attracted his guards, and so he lived.

But the image of the bona fide unifier of China being chased around a pillar like something out of the Keystone Kops is one I can't help but find hilarious.

I concur with most of the reasoning above. Korea just doesn't have the resonance to sell well; most of the others don't feature that are reasonably equal in the types of materiel they can field. There is certainly room for games that deal with those topics, but they probably won't be much like CoH.

I think the desert war is a bit of a mixed prospect. Sure it would be interesting, but I'm not really sure it is that tactical, given the lack of terrain features, and even if that could be solved, the units involved would be too early to reasonably be put up against the forces in 'main' CoH2. You'd either have to make these earlier units perform artificially well, or you'd have to split them into a separate scenario, which also splits the player base.

A while back I read that Relic had intended to produce a CoH expansion in Italy, before it was decided to go ahead with CoH2. I would like to see that, but to make a proper expansion would probably require at least one more Axis army, and I struggle to think how this could be done. If it doesn't have an army, then it would be a campaign, which is fine, and some maps, which is great, but it won't materially effect the existing multiplayer scene.

If Relic were to ask me, personally, what kind of game I would like them to make next, I'd suggest something akin to Armageddon Empires. This is a fairly obscure, indie post apocalyptic strategy game that is nevertheless very innovative and well designed. The great thing about the post-apoc genre is that you can plausibly justify just about any mix of politics, systems and technologies that takes your fancy, and yet still have it grounded in reality. However, no fictional setting will never be quite as grabby as real world event.

Seems it has no MG, so the grenades are the only way it has to protect itself from infantry. Seems reasonable enough.

There are two issues in this thread which I think need to be split out, because I agree with one, at least in part, and disagree with the other. I'm mainly saying this to vent, and this seems an appropriate place for it.

The issue I disagree on: All of you beating on Relic as being incompetent, or uninterested, or cynical: I think you're badly, badly wrong. IMO, while the state of the game may not be PERFECT, that's all that can be said. And perfect is pretty much an unattainable ideal. Programming is hard; 'balance' is hard. I think that having written and balanced a game as complex, as varied and as detailed as this one, Relic have every reason to be pleased with themselves, even proud.

I have a few nominal quibbles about the current state of things, but Relic have been very actively involved in the game and I have every confidence they will be addressed. Lets contrast that with some other games and studios.

Take, frex, Silent Hunter 4.This is a game in which a fundamental, basic part of play is judging the range of a target by measuring its mast height. But in the in-game data, the mast heights were just plain wrong, which meant the shot would miss. This was NEVER FIXED. You might be astonished that such a catastrophic error made it past QA; you might be aghast that it was never addressed. But this is the reality, because humans and firms are imperfect. By comparison, Relic has been a paragon of conscientious dedication.

Many of you also seize upon any tiny perfection and make sarastic comments about it being "e-sports ready". But let's look at what actually happens in esports: just a week or so ago, Riot was forced to disable 3 League of Legends heroes because of a bug, IN THE MIDST OF A TOURNAMENT. This doesn't have the same whiff of sheer cack-handed incompetence as the SH4 bug above, but it does demonstrate that nobody is immune, and that accidents of this nature are not indicative of a relentless contempt for their player base.

I could go on. So for those of you enjoying the warm glow of righteous indignation at every stick you find to beat Relic with, I say sit down, have a nice cup of tea, and worry about something more important.

--

Now the bit that I agree on is with DLC, but again, not because I believe Relic is some sort of ogre, but because the INDUSTRY as a whole is moving in this direction, and while it has some value to it, it can go OTT.

I don't really think that paid DLC is incompatible with professional sports; I've never seen anyone suggest that it is wholly wrong for players of pro sports to, say, buy their own tennis rackets or football boots or whatever it might be. Now fair enough, they make a living like this, and it can be thought of as a cost of doing business, but it's still an up-front cost that entrants to the sport have to negotiate somehow. And it can be significant; IIRC in a fairly recent Olympics there was some hoopla about a new low-friction costume for swimmers. This, IMO, is a non-issue.

The question then is whether its appropriate for a small-ish game that wants to grow its playerbase. I think in this regard moving to the Warspoils system was a perfectly good decision and one of which I generally approve. People complain about "grind" but the reality is that if you are going to play the game anyway, it doesn't hurt you to be occasionally rewarded. And you are going to play the game anyway, aren't you? If you weren't, you wouldn't even be on this forum.

Where I will agree with many here is that I think the rewards, especially when it comes to commanders, are too infrequent. But this has to be set against Relic's desire to ensure the commanders have some rarity, because that's the only real value they have. This is a question that can and should be addressed soberly and constructively, rather than infused with the hostile invective seen in many posts here. If you want the game to be better, spending all your time being aggressive and dismissive of Relic is certainly not helping, regardless of how satisfying and self-congratulatory you find it.

The main quibble I have with DLC is the day zero stuff; I'm not opposed to the principle, and frankly, would be quite happy to find a way that Relic can keep producing goodies that make the game better, and for which they can charge a fair price.

Lastly, in the midst of the general hostility to Relic, I see scant recognition for the many improvements to the game that receive little attention or fanfare. Improvements to smoke and particle effects that are quite pronounced; improvements to the way that models behave, reacting to fire and kneeling for shots, which they did not do on release day.

CoH2 is a good game, even great. Its fun to play, and fun to watch. Relic are not a branch of SPECTRE or HYDRA and should not be treated as if they were. Chill the hell out.