Free "Company of Heroes Online": Sheer Rumours or Real?

[diasam]

I went on Kotaku this morning (like I usually do) and the first article that attracted my attention was about Company of Heroes Online.

It would be interesting to see it actually released... but this brings me to ask a few questions.

1. Will the people who have payed for the game (like myself) be able to play with those who haven't (who are playing "CoH Online"?)

2. Will "CoH Online" feature all 4 factions, or just the vanilla factions?

3. If the people who bought the game now could play with those who play "CoH Online", will these "hero units" and "revamped commander tree" be available to the users who bought the original game and expansion?

I hope to see some answers from Relic (even if they may be or may not be affiliated with any of this) and I would like to see what you expert CoH players think about this.

Thanks!

EDIT: I think it may have something to do with the new content that's being delivered... the hero units sound a lot like "reward units".
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=198832

[JohnJigsaw]

Free CoH:Online?

Anyway, it's real. CoH:O is an MMO game separate from the CoH we are playing right now. And they have a whole website for it:

http://coho.sdo.com/web1/home/index.asp

why is everything in chinese you asked? that's because it will only be released there. There is yet any mention of it being released to non Asian market.

edit : oh didn't read that article earlier. So there are plans of it to be released to the western market, nice. I didn't know that until today.

[diasam]

They said that the Western version is coming in Kotaku... it seems that they have an English version all ready to go too. It's in the article, and it's not long so you should really read it since there's lots of details of it there.

[Tempe]

Actually. That website leads me to believe there'll be some sort of new content. If you click on the unit icons then you'll see a page with the icons for all the infantry we know about. Then there's a square with a question mark and I can't read Chinese but the description ends with two exclamation marks so I'm guessing it's important...

(edit)

seems that the page is something to do with the Hero you can have. Think it's just the different choices but still.. They're keeping something secret..

[PeterPeterson1]

Funny! Relic mirrored the maps? or did i miss something?

[mikami170]

"newly revamped commander tree that has 48 separate abilities/powers." wow

[Bael]

I'm assuming the '48 abilities' is actually 24 per army (8 per doctrine), which is pretty similar to vanilla CoH.

[yetanotherplayer]

To answer the OP's second question, here's an excerpt from an article linked to at the end of the Kotaku article:

To start, the core of the game is the same Company of Heroes experience that most (if not all) of us know and love, sans the Opposing Fronts expansion content. (Editor’s Note: But, when asked about OF expansion content, Williams noted that all good online games have a roadmap for future development.)

[PeterPeterson1]

sans = without

[kommodore]

"newly revamped commander tree that has 48 separate abilities/powers." wow

Heres a screenshot ( http://coho.sdo.com/web1/guide/images/image014.jpg ) of what looks like the commander tree customization screen, I think the new abilities/powers are just the old ones with options, like off-map combat group there you have to unlock it to give more powerful units.

[Bael]

I'm curious how they're going to release this version in the States without splintering the community - unless they actually plan to patch our version to work alongside it (which seems kind of hard, since that version doesn't have OF expansion stuff). Maybe our RelicOnline accounts just automatically work in it, and they'll stop doing expansions for the regular version and focus on the 'online' title?

They really should release more info on this.

[OiScout]

What's with the dude in his underwear.

[ContractHitman]

i do hope that people who have bought COH or OF will get this, and hopefuly following wont happen.[U]

1 : People will get to play COH for free, then those who pay get the special commanders along with online game.

2:Those who have all ready got COH+OF will get nothin out of this, and thus feel hard -dun -by sinse people playing online for free, while those who got COH when it relesed in shops only get campign to call truely theirs only.

[W0w00t]

i do hope that people who have bought COH or OF will get this, and hopefuly following wont happen.[U]

1eople will get to play COH for free, then those who pay get the special commanders along with online game.

2:Those who have allready got COH+OF will get nothin out of this, and thus feel hard -dun -by sinse people playing online for free, while those who got COH when it relesed in shops only get campign to call truely theirs only.

English please D:<

[ContractHitman]

it is....

[Ap0k]

You guys do know that it's a completely different game...

Whether you have OF or vCoH isn't going to make any difference at all. It's not an expansion or an add-on. It's an entirely new game.

[Mordakii]

As if I am not addicted enough to CoH, they go and do something like this. I think I need some counselling.

[Pyros]

I went through all the known data about the game a few weeks back. If you have any questions of how it works, you should check out what I've found:

http://planetcoh.gamespy.com/fullstory.php?id=152553

[someboy]

i have seen that in china and despite the chinese it does say Company of Heroes Opposing front on the game box though? i was gonna buy it if i didnt have a copy of OF but i got it already so i didn't buy it.

[Pyros]

No. It isn't available yet, beta testing will occur later this year. It is called Company of Heroes Online, and it probably won't even have a box, as it is a free-to-play game.

[Cobra5]

I was cruising around their chinese forum, and it seems that many people were complaining that the micro transactions are no longer just cosmetic. It seems to give your hero unit new/better abilities.

I thought (and really really hoped) that was just stupid translation, but there were a couple thread on the topic and then I read this interview (emphasis added):

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/38377

While new multiplayer maps and a few other ground-breaking surprises will be added to the game, players will also get persistent online game characteristics such as a selectable avatars with 50 levels of development and hero characters that gain experience from battle to battle and have consumable “charges” for their abilities, and a newly revamped Commander Tree with 48 different abilities. [I]On top of that, microtransaction purchases will go beyond simple cosmetic options[/O].

So... hmmm. I won't make any real judgments until (if) the game comes out here, or at least with english news. Some more food for thought is that over here, Guild Wars is free to play, but in many asian markets, it has a subscription.

If a game is totally free, is it wrong to make your character stronger with real money?

[Mickey C]

Should be interesting to see how this works. I'm not really liking this idea of hero units but if it just means having vet units that can be called back into later battles that's going to be really sweet as long as it's balanced and believable.

Also hope that if it's free +pay for extra stuff, players that play for free (I probably would as I'm not real keen to purchase things online) won't be disadvantaged against a player who pays for extra stuff. I'm not saying that payed for units have to just be asthetic changes just that a balance should be maintained so it it's always a fair match from the start when facing an equally skilled opponent.

Sounds like it could end up similar to what Europe in Ruins is doing, sort of. Cool.

[Lawagetas]

If a game is totally free, is it wrong to make your character stronger with real money?

No, players that pay WILL become stronger. This is the case with nearly all of the MMO's in the Asian market.

[Hatge]

I wait and will see what happens :-)


So long I think COHO is a good idea!