Profile of Pounder

+1 to everything Pounders said except the part about players choosing the resources they get - I dunno if I like the idea that something other than map control should be the main deciding factor in what kind of resources a player gets. That's one of Relic's greatest RTS innovations and steps backwards from it strike me as ill-conceived.

Yeah, I tend to agree actually. That was one of the concerns I voiced when Rogers and I headed down to PAX to play the pre-alpha. I was trying to see the pros and cons of both and trying to be aware of my reactionary bias.

My point in my previous post is highlighting my hope on how the system will work. I'm hoping that the resource selection is a new strategic consideration. I'm also hoping that the arbitrarily assigned med/high-value points that focused battles around them in CoH changes in favor of all points being critical, strategic targets. In that way allowing the more dramatic battles of the original game to happen at any point on the map.

From a player's point-of-view, I'm hoping that it allows for a new strategic consideration and thought process when they capture territory. Thoughts like, "I've pushed up this far and need to defend it, what's the best way to do that before the (expected) counter-attack? Maybe I should invest in armor? I'll need to try and get a fuel surplus. Mines and AT units? Hm... probably munitions then. Shit, I hope I'm making the right call here..."

Again, this is my hope. We'll see what happens tomorrow and throughout beta.

Major snippage

You had to post this. A clear breakdown of the answer and its potential implications in the game. The kind of speculative, downward spiral I find myself traveling down on a cold, beta-less evening.

This news sounds... troubling. For one thing, I can't figure out why this made its way as a priority in the dev cycle when I've never heard a peep regarding CoH's resource system from the community. I always felt like the system was quite unique and well designed. A system that forced players to engage and not 'turtle' their way to victory.

Ironically, it's this idea of self-sustaining bases with minimal territory control that was one of the causes of the British faction "breaking" the game upon the release of OF - now it sounds like that broken system is going to be implemented into CoH2. Maybe not to the degree it was in OF (there might be some duct tape involved), but still an apparent facsimile of the broken British system.

I really like the idea of a flexible resource point that players choose which resource to invest in. I think it adds a degree of strategic decision making. However, the idea that there are fewer strategic points, and that the quantity a player controls is arbitrary, removes a large chunk of that strategic risk.

Another thing, why has this been given priority over issues or features that the player base, and even the casting community, have brought up? It seems bizarre, especially since the system wasn't broken in the first place. Like OnkelSam said - the resource cutoffs & harassment are a large part of the tactical AND strategic decisions, choices and elements of the game. This is another post that sounds abrasive and overly critical and, once again, that's not my intent. I'm honestly curious as to why this change has occurred. Maybe it will actually improve the game in a way, at least I, haven't considered.

And another sexual snip

I pretty much agree with all of this as well, from the observations to the suggestions. My fear is also campier gameplay. As a person who used very much 'turtle' to victory in other RTS's, CoH taught me to be aggressive. I remember the first few matches I played in mid 2007, over at Roger's house, just before the release of OF. I'm chillin' in mai 'mercan base, harassin' a bit but with no real strategy, tryin' to decide wut tree I wanna go down when BAM! - TIGER ACE IN THE BASE!!! Practically shit my fuckin' pants.

Needless to say I lost in a very humiliating way, but that completely changed the way I played RTS games from then onward.

Regardless of all of this, we'll see what's up on Tuesday and find out if our fears are justified or we're just over-thinking dipshits who need to L2P.

Would it be inappropriate to have sub-channels for featured channels? For example, most of RnP is both Rogers and I, but we release solo casts as well - Rogers on the RnP channel and me on a separate one. Could that latter channel have a little pop-out link when one hovers over the RnP featured link?

I'm not advocating for myself, simply used it as an example, cause until I get a new HDD, my solos are going to be infrequent. Just trying to get as many productive casters & casting teams all up in heeuh.

I'm really hoping the replay system is incredibly robust and has tons of features because I am envisioning some pretty insane replays in CoH2, team games especially.

I've been mulling over some ideas for maps once I discovered the Worldbuilder a couple of days ago, and a "Crossroads"-type map has consistently came up as a particularly desirable project. Although it's always a 2v2 in my head. Used to build maps/scenarios for WC2 and WC3 back in the day and have always wanted to give CoH a shot.

I'll see if I can find a game on this map. It'd be great to get a couple of replays for casting, too. Might be able to better dissect the map that way.

I'm really hoping with the delay due to Sega acquisition we can get these features, hell I don't mind if they delay the game even longer for this.

MOTHERFUCKIN' YES!!!1

I completely agree. There's a couple of features I'd also include that'd be a little more relevant to CoH2 gameplay, but if we got some of these types of things in the replay system... omg tits.

I especially like the "Watch With Others" feature as well as the match customization feature(s) for, essentially, casters.

One of the less apparent gems, that may already be in the SC2 replay system, is the ability to see everyone's resource level at the top-right corner of the screen. That would give both solo and multi-caster'd games more strategic discussion in the frequent lulls between battles.

Obviously the group watching feature would be great for us casters who shoutcast games together. It'd make everything so much easier it's ridiculous. But I also think it's great for competitive play. Say you're playing a 2v2 or 3v3 with friends and you're going up against a team that's posted some replays. You grab a file, launch the game and invite your team together to watch what your upcoming opponents did in their last match. You develop strategies together for the upcoming match and away you go. I think that'd really add to the competitive play, especially in a game like CoH where there's arguably more tactical considerations involved (especially with the environment) than in SC2.

Just to add more to the replay viewing features. Wouldn't it be cool if there was a tactical draw?

Also gotta agree here. I'd love it if you could pause, click a button or tap a hotkey and get a little digital toolbox where you can draw, erase, reset, change pen color, etc. Just for quick tactical discussion before or during a battle, or even afterwards in order to point out potential disasters & breakthrough points.

I also think this would help in map design too. Not going from creation->compile->play->shit, that's fucked->back to editor->attempt fix->compile->play->shit, didn't see that->back to editor...

If say a map author could get four people to watch a replay with him/her and they can either draw in real-time or even draw on their local screens and send screenshots or replays with the drawings of suggested changes to the author, I think that would kick some serious ass.

Also, if you could do this while playing in-game with yourself (if you want to remind yourself what the fuck you plan on doing for some reason) or, and especially, with a team (be it one other person or three), that would be great. With all of the available paths in the game and the various flanking possibilities, especially now with TrueSight, it'd be great to say something like, "aiight bro, Imma send these dudes right up here then do a U-ee to the right, and try to pull them into my AT gun, set your MG up here to protect it" and have corresponding drawings on the main screen and/or minimap.

Oh, this is just a huge fucking wall of text, full of sexual energy. I type too much.