Company of Heroes Online?
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So I have the original CoH and the two expansions, but just happened to stumble across this free to play downloadable CoH Online? Wondering if anyone has given it a shot and what the verdict is, as I am a big fan of the Original. By the looks of it CoH Online is in Beta stage?
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I played it extensively, and will give you a summary of what's changed, when compared to the original.
Firstly Levels and Abilities:As before, you chose whether you want to be Axis and Allies (No Brits or PE present yet) and you pick one of the three doctrines on each side (same ones as in the original). However, instead of the old system, where during a battle you would get command points and slowly upgrade you skills in a "linear" fashion, this time you have "Abilities" which you choose as you advance through the levels.
To put it shortly, you start at level 1, with a single ability, which will be unupgraded. So, when you pick the Blitzkrieg doctrine you could have the Storm Trooper call-in, however since it would be completely unupgraded they would not be able to cloak, they would have no grenades, and their upgrade costs as well as cooldown would be much higher/longer. With each level you recieve an ability upgrade point, these will be used to improve your abilities. Once in a while, when you reach a certain level you will be able to choose more abilities (I believe you unlock a 2nd ability at level 10 which you have to upgrade from "Level 0").
The Abilities range from Call-Ins (special units), to "Buffs", to off-map artillery.
However, in battle, in order to use an ability you need a certain number of command points, those are gained through kills and construction. All Abilities need a certain number of Command Points, and remember, the Command Points are not drained when using Abilities, you simply unlock their use, however they might still cost resources.
Hero Units:
Another change to the system, are hero units. Hero Units have levels, and each level of a Hero Unit unlocks bonuses, equipment or skills that the unit may lose. For example, there are "Field Pioneers". On level one they have a 10% Capture bonus, on level 2 on top of that, they also obtain a 20% higher construction rate. All units level up through kills. Construction or capturing does not give them xp.
Heroes also have "Usage". When you use a Hero unit during a battle it uses up 10 Supply. However, once you call-in a hero unit once during a battle, it does not cost you more to call it in again, if it dies. Remember that deploying the unit still costs resources. You can "Resupply" your Hero Units by using Supply Points which you gain after every battle (even battles against the AI).
In order to deploy certain heroes your personal level needs to be higher. This is not changed when the Hero Unit advances in levels.
Also, there is a limit on the number of units you can deploy. With each level your specific buildings will unlock Hero slots thus allowing you to deploy more heroes. Specific heroes can only be deployed from specific structures.
Heroes are obtained from games (As random loot, it's not important if you win or lose), or from the store. However, you can obtain the best "Special Units" only through games.
"Buffs":
Aside from hero Units, you can also obtain "Special Upgrades" or "Buffs". For example, an increase in the range of specific weapons/units, a decrease in reinforcement of specific units, higher rate of fire, higher speed, etc. etc. These are put on a seperate tab and you have always a fixed ammount of them. They lose "Supplies" when you deploy the first unit associated with the Buff. Building more units using the buff will not drain it further. Hero units do not benefit from these buffs, only standard "Recruited" units/tanks.
These also need your level to be high enough in order to be used.
When you do not need a Hero or "Buff" you can also sell it to get back some Supply Points.
Other than these three points, it's all very much the same. They added a system that theoreticaly looks for an "Equal skill" game for you, based on your level and wins/losses, though it does not always work perfectly. You can still make Custom Games, or play the campaign which gives you some xp and supplies. There is also a tutorial that teaches you on all these basics and gives you your basic starting units/buffs.
So… any questions?
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Ahh excellent, I couldn't decide whether or not to download it as my net's been slowed down so it will likely take 2 days to download :? Though looking through that it does sounds like its worth getting, pretty much adds a more persistant ranking up type deal to CoH.
One question only really, I have CoH and OP installed and Tales of Valor is on the way courtesy of ebay. Does Tales of Valor or Opposing fronts for that matter, actually add anything to CoH online? Or would have I have to go into ToV multiplayer in order to use all the new stuff it has. I am interested to see this "direct control" thing that they say ToV has.
Cheers for the info!
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Company of Heroes Online is an entirely different project to CoH and it's expansions. So ToV will not add anything to CoH:O.
Oh, and to my knowledge, ToV has only two modes when you can use direct control. One of the single player "Mini Campaigns" and a "Panzer" multiplayer game mode, which appears to be not at all popular, just like the "Assault" mode and "Base Defense". I tried all three and they are interesting, but a lot of people do not play them. In the ordrinary games I did not notice the option of Direct Controlling anything.
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Ahh ok, well I tried CoH Online today and had quite a good time, one thing that has been happening however is everytime I play a game larger then 1vs1, it crashes. I am thinking I may just revert to ToV online when it arrives and wait for CoHO to hopefully fix some of its connection problems and get out of Beta. But yeah, I thought the direct control would end up being more of a gimmick then anything.