Profile of HS King

Before I get to that I have to give a bit of background. I love COH, to me it’s the best RTS ever made. One feature sets it above any other game I have ever played, its not its graphics, its not is balance, or (amazing) sound effects, it’s the incredible attention to visual detail.

I mean the specifity of the effects ( incredible artillery explosions, unique mortar strike marks on the ground, different weapons having different effects on terrain and infantry) and the physics of the world, were everything has a reaction.

Seeing a howitzer hit a fence would send pieces of it around the map, some bouncing of houses, it would annihilate infantry in a brutal and realistic fashion. Watching MGS light up streets with tracer, and strike marks on the road and buildings and infantry scramble for cover, or the pure devastation os the 200mm rocket strike as it absolutely decimates anything it its area of effect – nothing in any other game comes close.

High explosive was high explosive not some Hollywood fireball.

In an average game by the time the battle is over , places like semois looked nothing like the serene town that it was at the beginning, burning tank carcases litter the streets, houses are burning and have collapse, the earth is heavily cratered with various munitions types and scorch marks and human bodies and body parts litter the area.

Now this level of detail is not available in COH2 even though it’s the sequel and in theory has superior graphics… this is something that needs to make a huge comeback as the game looks and feels like a cartoon and not a top down view of real warfare.

So where does cold tech come in?

Ok so you bring back this level of detail – and in maps with rain / blizzards any craters above a certain size should turn into mud/ deep snow after blizzard/ rain this would completely change the maps after prolonged battle.

Can you image the centre Moscow outskirts after heavy arty barrages, it would be a surface like the moon and filled with deep snow after a blizzard would become a death trap for both armies. Finally the environment would actually have an effect on the battles fought just like it did in real life.

Or adding in rain to a map like langres(kaya) the middle of that map would look like the Somme after a rain storm with infantry and tanks bogging down in thick mud after a serious battle with arty airstrikes and rockets pounded the ground into submission.

Thoughts?

Fair enough I know there is a way under special ciscumstances but I thought this could be a good idea - and it was especially before the pios got a bit of a drastic change in the last patch

Now the issue is much smaller and I agree its not a super high priority just putting it out there

where did it say they got rid of squad base health?

I was under the impression that each model had 80 health each and they are treated as a individual entity? Hence the health bar and model cound having no co relation

EDIT: It certainly feels this way - combat is still too " unpredictable" but certainly has improved greatly in this patch

I personally dont mind if the 2 armies fight on west front but what I cant stand in coh2 is how catonnishly the war is represented.

In coh different munition types had different effects on infantry and terrain - look how the 105 pulverized squads of men, sent their bodies flying and pieces of the map such as fences, rubble, vehicle wreckaed flying around the map.

Mortars left a distinct crater in the ground and tank fire did the same, every little detail was included and even though the game it self may not have been so "realistic" the visuals were the most accurate of any rts I have ever seen.

Now in coh 2 instead or real high explosives satchels look like some Hollywood fire ball, there is no real terrain destruction all the weapons leave a black smudge. The railway arty doesn't even shift a guy they just fall down whre they got hit. The attention to detail and the physics are severly lacking and combined with the super colourful UI the game looks like a damn cartoon that I cant take seriously.

COH painted war in the brutality that it has, coh2 trivializes it, stuff like constant molotovs dont help.

If they fix these problems in the expansion I will personally be thrilled.

Good points in the last few posts - I feel that is true then they done a big disservice though. I watched a few hours of the old footage and we are really missing out on some great effecrs and terrain destruction. What pisses me off more is that I honestly think the game seems to play out better in a lot of regards in this footage when compared to a lot of the latest casts. I still dont know why they would optimize a game in that way if people still complain about bad performance as it obvioslt didnt work.. they could have just added in options in game to turn down a variety of graphical and physics options

But yes thread got derailed and lots of unproductive posts