What would you prefer?

[Sn1tch]

As patches...

Big ones with lots of changes that take a month or two to release or small ones that can take a week or two?

[Quercus]

Hot fixes or bug fixes (that have been resolved) should be available as soon as possible as small, more frequent patches.
Game balance changes can take a little longer to iron out the balance issues and thoroughly test them.
New maps should be more frequent (somewhere between the two).

So I guess a combination of the two options.

[PanzerLehr]

an add-on with patches & new maps

[GeneralGonzo]

Frequent patches with bug fixes !

Less frequent with balance changes (waiting for Patch 1.5 seems to be forever ;-))

New maps in between.

Addon as soon as possible ;-)

[armen]

i would prefer hotfix patches that would resolve small annoyances (IE PANZERSHREKS!!!) weekly or biweekly, while at the same time maybe have another team working on balance issues for the release of big patches..

[Devil2575]

I would prefer for them to leave it as it is and put all their efforts into new titles. After all in a few months/year I will be playing another game.

The game is good as it is IMO.

[Volt]

1 Big patch once in a while. Creating a patch is not so simple as just changing a line or two of code and that's it. It'll be a nightmare to have too many patches. The complexity of many patches will increase the chances of introducing new bugs.

[Devil2575]

Not to mention having to wait to download when you log on. It's takes quite a while as it is.

IMO there really isn't any need for loads of patches.

[theBlind]

Large patches once every two or three months.

There's two main arguments in favor - balance and money.

Balance: It simply takes time for the player base to experiment with different units and combinations - take the airborne tree for example, once written off as underpowered, but now considered the best allied command tree.
Also, balancing by every whim of the community (in extension of the above) will lead to a gameplay that is not dictated by design but by randomised input. And each and every good game ever done was done as such by design, not by trying to please everyone and creating an unispired morass. In fact, many a good game was murdered by creators that tried to please every whim of the community.

Money: Making a small patch costs about as much money as making a large patch (Source: Tranj). As such, it's simply a question of either getting several large or several small patches, because there's simply a limit to how much money can be invested into a sold game before the company in question can't make more games because the money to make them was taken up by perpetual patch support. Sure, if you're Blizzard you can create patches en masse, especially if that means your pay-to-play population spends more money on WoW, but frankly, relic, by the time DoW was released, had a net-worth similar the amount of money it took to set up battle.net in the first place.

[Devil2575]

Also, balancing by every whim of the community (in extension of the above) will lead to a gameplay ut. And each and every good game ever done was done as such by design, not by trying to please everyone and creating an unispired morass. In fact, many a good game was murdered by creators that tried to please every whim of the community.

This is my concern.

Your point about money is one aspect I never considered but it makes sense. In the long run if people want Relic to keep making patches etc then they are going to have start paying for them, as otherwise the game will end up not being economically viable.

[cty85]

guys u all dont want our dear coh to become a steam like software where u have to download and download tiny patches to fix ur game, which may cause ur stuff to fail all of a sudden
imo id rather they do a good one everyonce in a while rather than a few, which may cause bugs, waste money and waste time

[Laspluviosillas]

As long as Relic does not start f**king up with the core gameplay, I prefer big patches with lots of changes.

But I dont want any type of patch like the one BFME2 got.

[Falaris]

Huh, me I want big,good patches with lots of added content frequently.