Its just so much meh.
Theres the competitive aspect that ppl talked about so much. I cant really contribute anything that hasnt already been said to this anymore. For further reference see inverse etc.
Theres the business model that has been mentioned here, in other threads, in other forums, on steam, that is being talked about and bashed on pretty much anywhere ppl discuss about coh2. Id like to say something good about it. Frankly, I cant. Its shit. Those skins are really nice. I even bought some. To be fair, I bought the DCE to support relic cause I felt that after vCoh they had earned my trust and they had earned the additional few bucks to keep up the great work. Boooooy was I wrong. Please relic, before you do anything else. Just get rid of the rediculous "pay for your strategical depth" system. Cause thats what it is. Most of the games depth boils down to commanders(again, see inverses thread about why coh2 doesnt cut it strategy wise). Making them a thing you sell, especially if they contain new units and not just reshuffled abilities is a big nono. Remember those little dev diaries you had shortly before thq suffocated in its debt? Your devs were mentioning that there were absolutely no in-game transactions. And while this is still true to a certain degree, it isnt. The game boils down to commanders. You get commanders by buying them. And while you dont buy them ingame, you still need to buy them, after purchasing the base game. Again, thats a nono. Tales of valor etc was fine. This, is not. It will not only keep ppl from buying the game, it will also cause players to leave because of stupid ideas like the tiger ace and soviet industry. Sure, you will fix them eventually but until then, 3 months of gameplay are basically ruined. And I cant blame anyone for just quitting because they cant take this shit anymore.
Then there are basic features. Sure, you had a hard time after thq went down the drain. I understand this. But basic features like lobbies are yet to be seen, half a year and 500 000 sales after the release. Why? Again, this is a nono. Why did you remove that in the first place? vCoh started off with most of those basic features like leaderboards, public lobbies, a decent chat, hell even an annihilation game mode. Where are they now? Down the drain? Why?
The current chat is worse than "unappealing" to alot of ppl I know, including myself. Nobody is using it, it is unpractical for the most of it and it is getting really fucking annoying to have to close that thing all the fucking time when starting a game. Jeez, was it so hard to just remake the old one that was running decently in the background? I get that often new things are great but if you have something that is running smooth and ppl who support it, why change it?
Annihilation had a huge fanbase and while those ppl were less into the whole competitive tourney thing and/or esports kind of play, they made up a huge chunk of the community. These ppl got practically no way of playing coh2 right now unless they switch over to VP or unless they got tons of steam friends who didnt abandon the game yet. Why did you remove it in the first place, yet again? The argument "It would split up the community" doesnt matter when in the first place youll just get all the annihilation players to quit the game without annihilation being in the game. Sure, some will stick with VP instead but I can imagine most of them being rather unhappy with it. I could much rather see alot of annihilation players getting their friends into the game and those guys could discover VP for themselves, adding up to the already existing VP community and making it larger. Instead you took away annihilation to temporarily boost VP and then have them leave the game when they get bored of it. Bod choice imo.
Public lobbies. Yes, they were problematic. Yes, smurfing etc was a thing. But you had 7 years to think of a goddamn solution. Instead you went easy mode and took them out completely. Jeez.
And when being asked about those very basic things now with alot of players who have abandoned the game but not just yet their hopes for the game listening to you, you keep giving us cryptic answers of how maybe in the distant future there might be a slight change, but maybe not and it all depending on certain star constellations and my milk being rotten...wtf?
Now what I see is that relic is listening. This is good. They are actually reading here and (surprisingly enough) on the official forums. This is a good thing, I cant stress this often enough. Game developers listening to their communities have become rare these days so its worth mentioning it I guess. And I see that you are actually making very very slight attempts at trying to satisfy the community. This is good too but its not enough.
Why does it need anarchy on the official forums and tons of casters screaming in their streams for you to realize that things like the tiger ace dont work? Have you been sleeping for the last 6 months when players all over the place told you they dont want pay to win?
Why do you need one of the most well-known faces of the community to have a public crackdown on this game and all its problems for you to actually realize that engaging in tournaments a bit more might be a good thing? Was there no other indicator?
Imo relic is too passive about most of this. You still think you can settle this somehow, you are on the right way and when theres very very VERY big resistance you slightly adjust the course of your progression but you keep the goal. In all of that you seem to forget one thing. While you are the devs, you made this game and its your work, creation and dream its us, the community, who are the life source of it.
This does NOT mean you need to listen to every clown who throws an idea at you. This also doesnt mean you need to listen to every guy who just screams loud enough that he wants something changed. But jesus, if your core game players of the first game abandon the second game and keep shitting advise, good critizism and other stuff your way, go grab it and read it, realize what it means and FUCKING DO SOMETHING WITH IT instead of just staring at it. Get out of your delirious state and start doing something productive, preferably in interaction with the community. Maybe then you dont need free weekends and discounts on the game to boost the number of players back to 5k.
Roadmaps on what to do and other basic communications(what are you currently working on etc) are just one thing. The dev streams were a good thing. Do more of that. If youd just divert half the manpower and money you use to advertise the fucking dlcs towards keeping the community well informed about everything you do then this would already go alot more into the right direction. If youd then actively engage in discussions instead of just going in there, ripping a quote out of context and answering it in a delirious way youre getting even closer. And if youd then even take the communities advise(preferably from players who know what they are talking about cause theyve been streaming tons of games, theyve had thousands of gameplay hours etc) we are on the final route to success. You dont do that, I dont see any change happening no matter how hard you try to convince us after amis public outburst. That thread on competitive events is nice and all, but its in wrong order. Fix the game first, THEN set up tourneys and THEN go and advertise the game again.
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