Profile of The Dave

Probably the same people who enjoy paying for commanders

Load up the COH Steam Version (if you're so lucky to get it working) and see the depth of a match of Wehr vs American. I think that is what most people long for. After like 8 years, it's still exhilarating to a point unmatched in COH2. It's night and day. It's also, imo, night and day compared to a match between VCoH factions and the awful TOV factions.

It's NOT a coincidence that the team that designed the Brits, PE, and this game created 4 factions that are all, for lack of a better word, bland. I think I've stated this a long time ago around when game came out and many people were about to get a big let down, but it's very difficult to pinpoint the source of the problem because at the very core, the game has an extremely weak foundation. And the people who built the foundation or have access to fix it don't have the capability to fix it. Is it playable or serviceable product? Sure. Is it anything more? Doubtful. Is it going to be anything more? Doubtful. The problem is that this product has a "premium" label with Relic/COH (although that is now in speculation after the THQ/Sega pass-around and staff reshuffle). Many of us were completely suckered in to this vortex.

I went to the store and saw some knives on sale for $1.00 (a 4 pack) so I bought them. "Hey 4 knives for a dollar!" I opened the pack and one was already bent, the handle of the knives were cheap plastic, and the blades themselves were wafer-thin. Now, I didn't expect much because they were a dollar, didn't ask for more money in order to function, and weren't slapped with a Ginsu label. Still with me? That is the problem with COH2.

Genius business idea. Sell a "cheat" for a game that doesn't work.

WHO IS TROLLED NOW?

I don't understand why this topic was even made. It's not even a debatable fact. In this current form of the game, buying the DLC will increase your winning % REGARDLESS of skill. Therefore, the game is imbalanced. IT has 0 to do with the community other than the fact that Relic feels like it has to converse with it in order to sell more broken crap.

When Lynx used to answer questions about when things where going to happen with "Soon" it became a joke and eventually something you guys didn't like. The reality is on timing issues sometimes we can't share times because things in software development have a habit of taking longer than you think, and if we gave dates and then missed them people would be more upset than us being vague.

So do we keep saying things like "Soon" which eventually just start annoying people and sounding repetitive or do we just let people speculate a bit more?

It's the same thing with feedback. There has been a ton of great stuff posted on these forums, the Steam forums and our own. A lot of it's the same thing again and again, which is fine it shows which ideas have caught on with the fans, but I don't have the time to respond to every thread and even if I did we can't take everyone's advice.

If all I wanted to do all day was post "That's a great idea" in reply to every post, I probably could. But how long would it be before that seemed annoying, or like a joke? How long would it be before people started to draw conclusions from when I didn't post?

"Noun didn't say that's a great idea to my post? Maybe he hates my idea. Maybe Relic are going to do that and it's a sign!"

And a lot of the time we can't use the great ideas, because we have other stuff planned or it's in a different direction than we want to take the game.

We're running two betas right now for CoH 2, one for DLC and one for balance. The people in that get a chance to give feedback direct to the balance team, or the designers creating the DLC. I think BC is looking for more beta testers for the balance beta, and that thread is on our official forums.

That's a great way to get specific balance ideas right in front of the people who make the changes, exactly when they're making changes.

Ultimately we're listening to you, even if we're not pipping into each thread to say so. And we consider all your feedback, even if we don't end up taking it because we have to balance that with the feedback of other people and our own ideas of designing the game.

The other thing to consider is the speed of changes. The idea that it's been 12 or 15 days since a change was proposed and it should be live now, is based on a very aggressive update schedule. Even the most basic balance changes need to be tested, sent to Q/A to test and then made live. That's costly. And that's when everyone agrees exactly what needs to change.

We feel the cost is worth it, but pushing that faster raises that cost. Sometimes we've done that, made changes quicker because we felt it was necessary, but it's not something we can do all the time every time.

Lastly we can value your feedback without agreeing with it, or following it. My wife tells me that my hat looks stupid and I should wear different pants and yet I still dress like a hipster idiot. It doesn't mean I don't love my wife, or value what she says. It just means that I might also like wearing these pants or this hat.

We value frank and constructive feedback. It's best when it can come from a place where everyone assumes that the other side is intelligent and only wants the best for the game. If not, well we filter out the passion and pass on the meat of the message.

And it's all good. Passion is a good thing. If you didn't care about the game you wouldn't be here complaining. We like that you care, that's what we want.

That's fine, and I'm sorry about your pants and hat...or whatever that was.

You've still failed to give any explanation about the business model or the missing/poor features that are still not being addressed. If you truly care about the game as much as we do, you'll want to explain why there is such a complete dearth of features that contribute to game longevity. You still continue to speak in rhetoric that wishes to appease the community while dancing around issues that are bigger than balance or betas. Can I get into a beta where you're testing public lobbies, leaderboards and a chat system similar to the first game and not an mIRC box? Can I sign up for a beta that is trying to increase FPS, SLI support, and tame down the blizzard mechanic? Can I sign up for a beta where I test super commanders/new units that won't have to be paid for with the goal to have them balance the game? Where's that beta? I'll gladly play that one. Until then, I won't be a participant in this scam.