Profile of Golradaer

Some of you brought up the impact of various designs decisions (like mirror matches) on the competitive community. One thing I can say with near certainty is top players care about mechanics FAR more than aesthetics. The strong interest in mechanics is what leads people to become top players in the first place. If you want a strong competitive community, you must prioritize strategic and tactical diversity above aesthetic concerns.

Do you love the WWII setting and sympathize with the anti-mirror remarks here? That's fine, but realize that a game can be played in multiple ways and the one best suited to you is not high-level competitive play.

I loved vCoH and participated heavily in the competitive community prior to the OF release. Apart from being imbalanced, OF destroyed several of the mechanical aspects that made CoH remarkable and I stopped playing the game entirely. I truly hope that CoH 2 doesn't follow a similar path of prioritizing aesthetics over solid gameplay, but if it does you can be sure that I won't be playing it.

Assuming that mirror matches are balanced as well as non-mirrors, and their inclusion increases both tactical and strategic diversity, CoH 2 should certainly have mirror matches in the ranked and tournament formats. By all means play "realistic" matches in non-ranked; mod the game to make it even more realistic if you like. But realize, only gameplay mechanics should drive decisions about competitive play. A final point: I suggest withholding judgment about how balance will work out in mirror matches until you play CoH 2.