Yea...i cant read that and not adress it. Im not about to make myself look like a rockstar, im not my gf will tell you im a moron half the time hah. I just want to contrast what "being a designer" and designing a system is like and shed some light on the idea that its just SO DIFFICULT to get this game right.
So i work as an aerospace engineer putting stuff up to the space station in RL. Its very hard. The engineering is hard, the design is hard, the entire process is a bitch. But its very doable if you think through your designs from start to finish, have defined goals, use insightful engineering judgment and rely on empirical evidence and talk to experts in the field to come to conclusions, then move forward with choices that you make to complete the mission. This typically takes under a year to do for a given mission.
Now I come to Relic, a company that has been making seriously kickass RTS games since the 90's and has been working with COH games for a decade now. There is no excuse to have a game like company of heroes 2 with a map pool list that is jumbled (wait for a ladder match look at the map pool list on the right, jesus christ it looks like JUMBLED UNORGANIZED crap). There is no excuse to have the level of glitches in the game that we experienced recently when a patch comes out (quality control??). There is no excuse to have a map pool that STILL isnt up to par for an Esports level competition (1v1 2v2), and there is no excuse for some of the choices that have been made in the past with regards to system design. I will reference this for the 1000th time. https://www.coh2.org/topic/11064/commander-overlap-a-serious-problem
COH is an inherently complex game, which is one reason its great, and yes it is hard to get balance JUST right, that should be ongoing (it must be Esportsable)...but there are times when issues are so glaring and obviously hindering the experience of COH that i wonder where the quality control is, when a balance decision is made, and i wonder if they even have a dedicated mapper at Relic to get the maps where they should be (a critical component to multiplayer COH that always gets overlooked, imagine if all the maps sucked even if balance was perfect how awful would COH2 be). And i understand Relic is working on things, i have no doubt. But to suggest that its SO HARD that these things just cant be done in THREE YEARS, to me, is an absurd claim.
I wonder if serious effort is put in to polishing the menu interface, supporting Esports and taking EDUCATED feedback from groups of experts in different fields of COH (mapping modding balance) because taking feedback from random people is a waste of time money and effort on Relics part. If I, an aerospace engineer, took feedback on how to design something from some jackass on the street who doesnt know anything about engineering, WHY would Relic, a game design company, take advice from a non-expert on ANY aspect of coh when it comes to something like balance or mapping....THEY SHOULDENT. Taking public advice on features and things makes sense. In the cases im talking about, it makes no sense. And hurts the entire community.
In conclusion it is NOT this task that is so hard that its acceptable to see the game where it is.
Between HOMEWORLD and COH ive spent thousands of hours on them mapping and playing. But this is my PLEE to get yourself together. COH2 could beat the shit out of games like SC2 if the right direction was taken. DO IT!
-Love WhiteFlashReborn
I agree with you in a part about bugs and broken mechanics. 3-4 years is more than enough to optimize your code and game engine. I am still laughing, when GTA V or WarThunder on my computer working with stable 60 FPS, and CoH 2 give from 20 FPS to 60 FPS. It's insane!
I also can add, that old faction have a terrible vehicle models, icons, doctrines and many useless stuff, but this is offtopic
P.S. Daily patches is a real bad shit.
Relic Entertainment
