New COH preview from Gamespot

[General Blaze]

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/companyofheroes/news.html?sid=6141069

The title says it all. Even a new movie is up. It's a Q&A type of preview coverage at the moment but any coverage so far is good. :)

[Llyranor]

Hmm, very cool. Too bad there isn't much new, though.

[Aces_High]

Well, for one we have confirmation that you can play as the Axis. While, yes, this was a fair assumption, there was no actually proof up until now that you could play Germany (given the setting I'm not seeing the Japanese in this :/). However Johnston only said you could play the Allies and Axis and didn't really directly answer the question about other countries.

Of great note is that you can't whittle a unit's health down. So no matter how long that MG42 bangs away at your Sherman it won't so much as dent its health. I think this is great. :)

[threatcon_1]

Yup, sure adds something relatively new to RTS. I'm liking what I see.

[The Preacher]

Cheers for the more realistic damage modeling! :beer:

[EarthBorn]

:) That was most...realistic

[Stealthlazer]

Thank god for more realism. Slightly annoyed about the emphasis on the battlefield. I've never seen one game which really made the battlefield important except in the most vague way and I'm not sure even Relic will be able to make that happen.

If they can pull it off though I wil be amazed.

[Mirage Knight]

I really like the idea of squad MG's not being able to do squat against a tank - and seeing satchel charges in use against dug in troops was fantastic. I hope Relic gives us the option to get squads to lob grenades as well :)

The longer movie was a real treat! However, some multiplayer footage would really be tops as we'd get a glimpse of the UI :D

A shame there's no info on what other vehicles and weapons will be in. Being a fan of German WW2 tanks I think it's great that the Tiger 1 and the StuG IV are in and looking sharp, but I'd love to know if the old Panzer IV and the Panther will make the cut. Deployable AT guns would really rock as well :)

[Moe]

I just managed to download and watch the video, and I am beyond impressed. The graphics and physics look excellent.
I love how the soldiers pause to slap a fresh magazine in their guns, this is a refreshing change.

[Elixir]

That was awe inspiring.

[Elif Tymes]

Yay! Though a note on damage modeling:

Anyone remember the CLose Combat series? They did something similiar. If you used small arms fire, or even MG, you had little to no chance of destroying a tank. Ever.

However, if you had missiles you could waste tanks with ease.


Admittedly, the concept isn't new for realistic damaging modeling, but it's the first time in AGES(since around 1999) that it's been done.

Good job Relic! Relic Studios For T3h Win!

[Denwad]

At under 100m the regular 75mm L/32 Sherman gun can penetrate the Tiger's front glacis ( the plate with the bow-MG and the driver's vision block )

at least it can in Combat Mission, very realistic penetration system in that game

{EDIT} I notice you say that realistic damage models haven't really been touched for a while, that is true for Real Time Strategy games, not true for other genres

[Ecthelion]

I noticed quite a few issues actually.

For one thing the "finding cover smartly" thing was far from perfect. If you watch closely a lot of soldiers just stay out in the open.

The weapons modelling is not realistic either. In the scene where you see the American MG gunner shooting at the Germans below, you'll notice like 7 rockets being fired in the space of a few seconds. No infantry weapon has that sort of capability.

Having machine guns not do damage to tanks is hardly a new concept. It might be new to the mindless mainstream RTS, but not things like Close Combat that have been around forever. Even so, the actual penetration values and rates of fire for the tanks are pretty messed up.

Some animations are also poorly done. Notice that the German self propelled guns (the tanks without turrets) seem to rotate effortlessly on a dime. Their main gun moves up and down like it's made out of plastic. When it fires, the rest of the tank stays still, not shaking a single bit. These things can be noted about all the armored vehicles in the demo.

The infantry squads only contain one type of unit. There appears the regular rifle squad where EVERYONE has the same weapon. Then there's the SMG squads with jacked up guys who look like they're straight out a Vietnam movie who carry SMGs and Bazookas(?) This all seems very unoriginal RTS mainstream garbage.

To make the best WWII RTS: Close Combat + 3D and physics

[DatonKallandor]

You know that CoH isnt finished yet, do you?


Daton

[scmarine]

This video footage is from E3 if im not mistaken, so its a good bet that more has been done since then.

Also on weapon varience in squads you do see primarily M1's but also, thompson smg's and BAR's, in some screen shots i have seen M1 carbine's as well as machinguns.

[Maximus Decimus]

Also note that the footage is pre-ALPHA, not even alpha state of the game. Next, those rockets were from two different soldiers I believe and they were far less than that.

[the_living_god]

This is fantastic for pre-alpha, The only complaint I have is that they haven't shown us anything more recent. I guess they're too busy developing this awsome game, I just hope they have people who will have heard about it when it comes out.

But thats beside the point, thanks for the info.

[Slow_Runner]

What I personally like most it this part: "It will ship when we feel it's reached that goal and not a day sooner." :)

And that video sure is impressive. The only thing that caught my eye was the barrel gliding under the tank's tracks (yes, I have a tendency to be a bit of an nitpick :D).

[The Collector]

It's going to be imbal when they put in those fireteam level MG42's.

Will the game have squads from different years, like a pre-war squad with MG-34s, up to mid-war squads with two MG-42s, with the end-war squads with some Stg.44's? Or perhaps it'll be incremental upgrading like in DOW.

[Tranj]

I really like the idea of squad MG's not being able to do squat against a tank - and seeing satchel charges in use against dug in troops was fantastic. I hope Relic gives us the option to get squads to lob grenades as well :)

The longer movie was a real treat! However, some multiplayer footage would really be tops as we'd get a glimpse of the UI :D

A shame there's no info on what other vehicles and weapons will be in. Being a fan of German WW2 tanks I think it's great that the Tiger 1 and the StuG IV are in and looking sharp, but I'd love to know if the old Panzer IV and the Panther will make the cut. Deployable AT guns would really rock as well :)
You can lob grenades...unfortunately so can your enemy.

[FIG]

This looks great, I cant wait to see Dawn of War 2 take advantage of destructable environments and more realistic damage modeling. These elements really amplify good strategy.

[Dys]

It looks like CoH and a DoW2 would be super super hard to mod. I'm not really a modder (yet) but looking at the detail in the models and all the textures and stuff ... :Puppy: ... so hard....

[Bonnet]

I think it is safe to sasy gamespot was impressed with it. They had one pictured entitled "Yes that's what the gam really looks like."

[Tyconius]

Holy shit, I'm gonna have to upgrade my PC for this. Looks awesome!

[Obtuse]

I'm kinda worried about how much of this stuff can actually be done in-game, since when most of the dramatic stuff like a tank bursting through a wall happens it goes into letterboxed mode, suggesting it's just a scripted peice that players wouldn't be able to replicate. Tell me it's not so!

[Tyro]

I'm kinda worried about how much of this stuff can actually be done in-game, since when most of the dramatic stuff like a tank bursting through a wall happens it goes into letterboxed mode, suggesting it's just a scripted peice that players wouldn't be able to replicate. Tell me it's not so!
Aren't the environments destructible? Maybe you can blow a hole in the wall with a tank, then drive through.

[Obtuse]

Yeah, I guess that would make sense. If the videos are representative of what you can destroy and it isn't just scripted, then it'll be amazing. I only worry that some sort of cop-out will happen in the final game where you can only destroy certain things.

[DatonKallandor]

According to info the entire engine is dedicated to destroyable environment - do you really think they'd build it and not utilize it?


Daton

[Tacit]

I'm kinda worried about how much of this stuff can actually be done in-game, since when most of the dramatic stuff like a tank bursting through a wall happens it goes into letterboxed mode, suggesting it's just a scripted peice that players wouldn't be able to replicate. Tell me it's not so!

It's not so. ;)

[Twitch2396]

It's going to be imbal when they put in those fireteam level MG42's.

Will the game have squads from different years, like a pre-war squad with MG-34s, up to mid-war squads with two MG-42s, with the end-war squads with some Stg.44's? Or perhaps it'll be incremental upgrading like in DOW.
You do realize that an StG-44 was the first assault rifle, an MG-42 is a medium machine gun and is very different from the StG-44. By 1944 the germans had already implemented the Stg-44, though during the invasion there were very few.
Also since this game is set in Normandy why would they have pre/early war german squads.

Plus for whom ever was talking about the penetration ranges i am now going to list how penetration for the different ranges(these ARE accurate)
Front: Turret 0m
Mantle 0m
DFP(Drivers Front Plate) 0m
Nose 0m
Side: Turret 100m
Hull 900m
Rear: Turret 100m
Hull 0m
This is the sherman with the 75mm A3 gun. I could also give the penatration ranges of the Tiger I vs the Sherman, and the ranges for the Sherman with the 76mm M1A1 cannon vs. the tiger. but i wont. Though i will if u guys want.

[Starfisher]

Twitch: You may need some more time to really get a handle on what CoH is, but I'll save you the trouble:

It's an RTS. Not a WWII simulation exact to each detail.

The devs have stated that the game will be "authentic" rather than "realistic" which means that it will look and feel the way your average gamer would expect things to work - not the way they actually did. What weapons are used will be decided on a gameplay, not historical, basis.

All this boils down to a basic fact: all the statistics and World War II minutia in the world are irrelevant ;)

[Twitch2396]

i realize that i was just wondering if the sherman could be destroyed from basically any range but the sherman could'nt knock out a tiger(from the front) from anywhere but relatively
close.

Plus someone was talking about penatration ranges.

[matb2]

i realize that i was just wondering if the sherman could be destroyed from basically any range but the sherman could'nt knock out a tiger(from the front) from anywhere but relatively close.
That's true, I was watching a ww2 thing on the history channel and they were talking about the 2 tanks. If the tiger got an ambush on a bunch of sherman tanks it would kill close to 3 before the 4th had possision to take out the tiger. Kinda sucked for the sherman tank crews

[Killer Of Many]

Yeah that probaly did suck alot to be a sherman tank crew. " So Bob,Jim, you and my tanks are gonna ambush a tiger." "will it be dangerous?" "Well most likey 3-4 of us will be killed" "well we'll destroy it right????" "Theres a good chance." *cries*