Buggo
08-29-2006, 06:18 PM
Company of Heroes FAQ
Q. What is Company of Heroes?
A. Company of Heroes is a real-time strategy game set in World War II, with a campaign that follows the exploits of Able Company as they work their way through post-invasion Normandy. The game is powered by Relic’s proprietary Essence engine, along with Havok 3.1 physics. Together these technologies deliver the most viscerally stunning WW2 battlefield ever seen in the genre, as well as the most fluidly dynamic world ever experienced by RTS gamers. With fully destructible environments, no two battles ever play out exactly the same way. In addition to all this, advanced squad-level artificial intelligence allows us to deliver believable soldiers who fight with a striking degree of realism. Overall, Company of Heroes is taking the RTS genre by storm.
Q. When is the release date for Company of Heroes?
A. Company of Heroes will be hitting store shelves towards the middle of September.
Q. Where can I purchase Company of Heroes?
A. You should be able to purchase Company of Heroes at any major computer games retailer (ex. Electronics Boutique), including large department stores such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc.
Q. What will the gameplay of the Allies be like?
A. The cornerstone of the Allies is their flexibility and mobility. While they lack the punch of the Axis forces, the Allies more than make up for this by having versatile squads and vehicles. This makes the Allies great on the offensive. Riflemen squads are well-rounded troops that when supported by a combined force of armor and artillery they are deadly in the assault.
Allied armor is all about speed and numbers. The Sherman cannot go head-to-head against a Tiger or Panther, but its speed means you can use the environment to your advantage and flank Axis positions.
This means that Allied players need to focus on gaining momentum early in the battle and holding it. If the Allies sit on their heels and allow the Axis to build up their forces all the speed and mobility won’t help against the dreaded Axis heavy tanks and elite units.
Q. What will the gameplay of the Axis be like?
A. With an arsenal that includes Panther and Tiger tanks, Neblewerfers and V1 rocket strikes the Axis are all about power and quality over quantity. This means that Axis players need to think how best to bring their limited forces into combat.
The Axis favor a defensive style early on. With Bunkers and the deadly MG42, Axis players are wise to hold a few key points and secure supply lines before calling in the heavy guns.
In the mid-to-late game the Axis step into their own and can start to flex their muscle. Panzer IVs, Stugs and Panzergrenadiers can push the Allies back long enough to call in the tide-turning Tiger and Panther tanks.
Q. How many missions does the campaign consist of?
A. The single-player game starts on the beaches of Normandy and follows Able company until the closing of the Falaise pocket over 15 different missions. Each mission focuses on a key battle and includes many of the famous battles in Normandy.
Q. How will the campaign missions vary?
A. The goal for the single-player game was to create an experience that presented a cinematic experience and more importantly avoided many of the pit falls that plague many RTS campaigns.
Primarily, the campaign is not an extended tutorial. One of the goals of CoH was to craft Real Battlefields and for single-player this meant creating real battlefield objectives. Gone are the boring slog fests to destroy the enemy’s base, instead all the objectives in CoH revolve around actual military objectives. These include capturing and securing key locations, fighting off counter-attacks etc.
We also aimed to avoid the typical flow of RTS missions where the player does nothing except harvest resources for the first 20 minutes of a mission. In CoH the player always starts in the middle of the action, whether this is storming Omaha Beach or advancing into Carentan.
Finally, what makes the single-player stand out is the replay value of our missions. Given the level of Environmental Strategy in CoH, it is possible to player all our missions many different ways.
Q. What multiplayer modes are there? How many multiplayer maps are there?
A. We focused the multiplayer experience around two main game types – Annihilation, and Victory Point Win. Annihilation is the typical, all-out destruction where you need to bring your enemy down to their knees militarily – destroy their HQ and all base buildings, and they lose the game.
Victory Point Win is something a little different, and pretty new to RTS games. In this mode, the game host sets a number of Victory Ticker points they want the match to have – 250, 500, or 1000. Each Multiplayer map has Victory Points in the world, which are locations of major strategic importance. By owning the majority of these Victory Point locations, you force your enemy’s Ticker Points down. The first team (Allies or Axis) driven down to zero points, loses the game.
Victory Point Win is a really interesting game type for RTS, because it emphasizes strategy and smart play vs. brute force. It’s entirely possible to win the game against an opponent who has a superior army, if you fight intelligently and use the environment to your advantage.
Both modes are a ton of fun and cater to different styles of play, and both modes are available in Multiplayer and Skirmish.
Q. Will weather and time of day affect gameplay?
A. Time of day is non-deterministic – it doesn’t have any direct impact on gameplay. But, it does have a huge impact on the atmosphere of the maps and missions.
Q. How do officers work in the game?
A. Officers serve a command support role. Only the Axis have access to Officers and these can be used to call in artillery or inspire nearby troops.
Q. How do timers/cost resources work?
A. Resourcing in CoH revolves around capturing and holding key strategic points. The three resources are Manpower (used to deploy troops), Munitions (used to outfit troops with better weapons and upgrades, and to use abilities) and Fuel (used to deploy tanks and vehicles). By holding these points players extend their frontlines and establish their supply lines.
Q. How do air units work?
A. Aircraft serve a combat support role. Players can call in Strafing Runs and Bombing Runs by unlocking the ability from the Allied Airborne Commander Tree.
Q. Can AI opponents be included in multiplayer games to fill in the gaps?
A. Yes, it is possible to set up Multiplayer matches with both human and AI players. We also have multiple levels of AI difficulty, and players can set up games with any configuration of AI opponents. For example, you could set up an 8-player Multiplayer game with two other humans, three Easy AI players, and two Expert AI players.
Q. Will the game support grid/custom shortcut keys?
A. Yes. Players will be able to edit their config files to reconfigure their Hotkeys. We’ve also added a number of innovative UI helpers to help players manage their games. First, all the unit producing structures can be accessed through a hotbar-style interface. This means you can queue up units without having to pan the camera away from the battle.
We also incorporated a Squad Management system that allows players to “tab” through their selection without having to de-select and select units.
All this combines to give players a lot of power features without the need to rely solely on hotkeys.
Q. Can players play Axis vs. Axis/Allies vs. Allies or have Axis+Allies as a team?
A. The emphasis in Company of Heroes is on team play, and while we’ve never allowed historical accuracy to trump entertainment, we did decide early on that it just didn’t ‘feel’ right to allow Axis and Allies to play on the same team. So, all Multiplayer and Skirmish matches are set up between Axis and Allied players, and all the preliminary feedback we’ve received from press and gamers is that we made the right decision. They love it!
Q. Can vehicles be ordered to point a certain way? How will this affect damage?
A. All units in CoH can be given a Set Facing command. This is especially important for MG and Anti-Tank Gun teams, but also tanks and vehicles since they have weaker side and rear armor.
Q. Can units be customized?
A. To a degree, yes. Most units have different upgrades that are available to them. Sherman, for example, can be upgraded with a .50 cal MG gunner and a Crab Mine-Flail. Given the tactical and fluid nature of the battles in CoH, unit customization was important design consideration for us.
Q. Is there a population cap?
A. Yes, there is a Pop Cap in CoH and this is meant to escalate the battles from skirmish engagements to all-out battles.
Q. What will the AI be like for my troops and for enemy troops?
A. There are 2 types of AI in CoH. Squad AI that determines how units react to combat and environment and Strategic AI which governs computer-controlled opponents.
For Squad AI, every squad in CoH has an associated Attack Plan that governs how that attack and use cover. Each of these plans is tailored to the different characteristics, doctrines and roles of the different squads. This means that the player’s squads and the enemy squads will use their Attack Plans when engaging each other allowing the player to focus on making tactical decisions and not baby-sitting their troops.
Q. What will the bases be like?
A. For CoH we wanted bases to look and feel like they belong on the frontlines. For example, the HQs are actual local buildings that have been garrisoned and converted for military use. We also wanted a tech tree that allowed the player to focus on what matters the most — combat!
Aside from the typical buildings in CoH building defenses is an integral aspect of CoH and players will likely spend more time laying mines, barbed wire and sandbags than building base structures.
Q. What sort of maps can we expect? Will fans be able to make their own maps?
A. Company of Heroes delivers a 15-mission single-player campaign, and 15 multiplayer maps. The MP maps are designed specifically for the multiplayer game, and are not simple re-treads of campaign maps. Since the game takes place in the Normandy region of France, we’ve focused on three major terrain types – rural, industrial, and ‘urban’ (more small town than city). Each of these terrain types has unique core aesthetic ‘focal points’, so for example rural maps tend to feature small farmlands separated by hedgerows, which promotes a certain type of gameplay. Industrial maps have a lot of garrisonable structures and large buildings, like factories, warehouses, etc. Urban tends to feature a lot of built up areas with houses, bridges, etc.
In all, we have over 200 unique buildings in the game and several hundred world objects, so the maps feel very rich and real.
Q. How will you balance historical accuracy against gameplay?
A. CoH’s goal is two-fold. As the definitive WW2 RTS we wanted CoH to be as authentic as possible and in this regard we invested a lot of time making sure all the details were just right. For example, most of the characteristic of our vehicles (armor, speed) were taken directly from real-life data. However, we didn’t want to drown the player in details or expect them to be armchair generals.
That said we also wanted CoH be an entertaining and fun WW2 RTS. If ever realism and fun game into conflict, fun always won in the end. The great thing is that given our Squad AI and innovative combat mechanics and environmental destruction, 90% of the time fun and historical authenticity matched up for us.
Q. What sort of support will Relic give in the future in terms of patches, more maps, etc?
A. As with all our games, we’re committed to providing ongoing support in the form of patches and balance fixes to keep Company of Heroes feeling fresh and interesting. We’d love to release new maps in the future.
Q. Will Relic be using Gamespy for this game? Will there be different gateways for players in different areas?
A. We’ve decided to focus on developing our own online infrastructure for all Relic titles, so we’ve moved away from using Gamespy. Company of Heroes will be utilizing Relic Online, which provides a full set of Online features, and is something we plan to continue building on in the future.
Q. Do you plan on releasing a fan/web kit?
A. Yes.
Q. What are the minimum system requirements for Company of Heroes? How much space is the game expected to take up?
A. Company of Heroes features the most advanced technology ever seen in the RTS genre, and therefore is pretty demanding. Still, we feel the game performs adequately on the following minimum spec: Pentium 4 @ 2.0 GHz (or equivalent AMD processor), 512MB of system RAM, and a 64MB DirectX 9.0 compatible video card that supports pixel shader 1.1. You’ll have to refer to the game’s Readme for a full list of supported graphics cards.
However, for the best experience of Company of Heroes, we recommend the following spec: 3.0 GHz CPU, 1GB of system RAM, and an nVidia GeForce 6800 with 256MB of RAM (or equivalent).
Q. What is the ESRB rating?
A. Company of Heroes is rated ‘M’ for Mature in North America. This means you need to be at least 17 to purchase it in stores.
Q. What is Company of Heroes?
A. Company of Heroes is a real-time strategy game set in World War II, with a campaign that follows the exploits of Able Company as they work their way through post-invasion Normandy. The game is powered by Relic’s proprietary Essence engine, along with Havok 3.1 physics. Together these technologies deliver the most viscerally stunning WW2 battlefield ever seen in the genre, as well as the most fluidly dynamic world ever experienced by RTS gamers. With fully destructible environments, no two battles ever play out exactly the same way. In addition to all this, advanced squad-level artificial intelligence allows us to deliver believable soldiers who fight with a striking degree of realism. Overall, Company of Heroes is taking the RTS genre by storm.
Q. When is the release date for Company of Heroes?
A. Company of Heroes will be hitting store shelves towards the middle of September.
Q. Where can I purchase Company of Heroes?
A. You should be able to purchase Company of Heroes at any major computer games retailer (ex. Electronics Boutique), including large department stores such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc.
Q. What will the gameplay of the Allies be like?
A. The cornerstone of the Allies is their flexibility and mobility. While they lack the punch of the Axis forces, the Allies more than make up for this by having versatile squads and vehicles. This makes the Allies great on the offensive. Riflemen squads are well-rounded troops that when supported by a combined force of armor and artillery they are deadly in the assault.
Allied armor is all about speed and numbers. The Sherman cannot go head-to-head against a Tiger or Panther, but its speed means you can use the environment to your advantage and flank Axis positions.
This means that Allied players need to focus on gaining momentum early in the battle and holding it. If the Allies sit on their heels and allow the Axis to build up their forces all the speed and mobility won’t help against the dreaded Axis heavy tanks and elite units.
Q. What will the gameplay of the Axis be like?
A. With an arsenal that includes Panther and Tiger tanks, Neblewerfers and V1 rocket strikes the Axis are all about power and quality over quantity. This means that Axis players need to think how best to bring their limited forces into combat.
The Axis favor a defensive style early on. With Bunkers and the deadly MG42, Axis players are wise to hold a few key points and secure supply lines before calling in the heavy guns.
In the mid-to-late game the Axis step into their own and can start to flex their muscle. Panzer IVs, Stugs and Panzergrenadiers can push the Allies back long enough to call in the tide-turning Tiger and Panther tanks.
Q. How many missions does the campaign consist of?
A. The single-player game starts on the beaches of Normandy and follows Able company until the closing of the Falaise pocket over 15 different missions. Each mission focuses on a key battle and includes many of the famous battles in Normandy.
Q. How will the campaign missions vary?
A. The goal for the single-player game was to create an experience that presented a cinematic experience and more importantly avoided many of the pit falls that plague many RTS campaigns.
Primarily, the campaign is not an extended tutorial. One of the goals of CoH was to craft Real Battlefields and for single-player this meant creating real battlefield objectives. Gone are the boring slog fests to destroy the enemy’s base, instead all the objectives in CoH revolve around actual military objectives. These include capturing and securing key locations, fighting off counter-attacks etc.
We also aimed to avoid the typical flow of RTS missions where the player does nothing except harvest resources for the first 20 minutes of a mission. In CoH the player always starts in the middle of the action, whether this is storming Omaha Beach or advancing into Carentan.
Finally, what makes the single-player stand out is the replay value of our missions. Given the level of Environmental Strategy in CoH, it is possible to player all our missions many different ways.
Q. What multiplayer modes are there? How many multiplayer maps are there?
A. We focused the multiplayer experience around two main game types – Annihilation, and Victory Point Win. Annihilation is the typical, all-out destruction where you need to bring your enemy down to their knees militarily – destroy their HQ and all base buildings, and they lose the game.
Victory Point Win is something a little different, and pretty new to RTS games. In this mode, the game host sets a number of Victory Ticker points they want the match to have – 250, 500, or 1000. Each Multiplayer map has Victory Points in the world, which are locations of major strategic importance. By owning the majority of these Victory Point locations, you force your enemy’s Ticker Points down. The first team (Allies or Axis) driven down to zero points, loses the game.
Victory Point Win is a really interesting game type for RTS, because it emphasizes strategy and smart play vs. brute force. It’s entirely possible to win the game against an opponent who has a superior army, if you fight intelligently and use the environment to your advantage.
Both modes are a ton of fun and cater to different styles of play, and both modes are available in Multiplayer and Skirmish.
Q. Will weather and time of day affect gameplay?
A. Time of day is non-deterministic – it doesn’t have any direct impact on gameplay. But, it does have a huge impact on the atmosphere of the maps and missions.
Q. How do officers work in the game?
A. Officers serve a command support role. Only the Axis have access to Officers and these can be used to call in artillery or inspire nearby troops.
Q. How do timers/cost resources work?
A. Resourcing in CoH revolves around capturing and holding key strategic points. The three resources are Manpower (used to deploy troops), Munitions (used to outfit troops with better weapons and upgrades, and to use abilities) and Fuel (used to deploy tanks and vehicles). By holding these points players extend their frontlines and establish their supply lines.
Q. How do air units work?
A. Aircraft serve a combat support role. Players can call in Strafing Runs and Bombing Runs by unlocking the ability from the Allied Airborne Commander Tree.
Q. Can AI opponents be included in multiplayer games to fill in the gaps?
A. Yes, it is possible to set up Multiplayer matches with both human and AI players. We also have multiple levels of AI difficulty, and players can set up games with any configuration of AI opponents. For example, you could set up an 8-player Multiplayer game with two other humans, three Easy AI players, and two Expert AI players.
Q. Will the game support grid/custom shortcut keys?
A. Yes. Players will be able to edit their config files to reconfigure their Hotkeys. We’ve also added a number of innovative UI helpers to help players manage their games. First, all the unit producing structures can be accessed through a hotbar-style interface. This means you can queue up units without having to pan the camera away from the battle.
We also incorporated a Squad Management system that allows players to “tab” through their selection without having to de-select and select units.
All this combines to give players a lot of power features without the need to rely solely on hotkeys.
Q. Can players play Axis vs. Axis/Allies vs. Allies or have Axis+Allies as a team?
A. The emphasis in Company of Heroes is on team play, and while we’ve never allowed historical accuracy to trump entertainment, we did decide early on that it just didn’t ‘feel’ right to allow Axis and Allies to play on the same team. So, all Multiplayer and Skirmish matches are set up between Axis and Allied players, and all the preliminary feedback we’ve received from press and gamers is that we made the right decision. They love it!
Q. Can vehicles be ordered to point a certain way? How will this affect damage?
A. All units in CoH can be given a Set Facing command. This is especially important for MG and Anti-Tank Gun teams, but also tanks and vehicles since they have weaker side and rear armor.
Q. Can units be customized?
A. To a degree, yes. Most units have different upgrades that are available to them. Sherman, for example, can be upgraded with a .50 cal MG gunner and a Crab Mine-Flail. Given the tactical and fluid nature of the battles in CoH, unit customization was important design consideration for us.
Q. Is there a population cap?
A. Yes, there is a Pop Cap in CoH and this is meant to escalate the battles from skirmish engagements to all-out battles.
Q. What will the AI be like for my troops and for enemy troops?
A. There are 2 types of AI in CoH. Squad AI that determines how units react to combat and environment and Strategic AI which governs computer-controlled opponents.
For Squad AI, every squad in CoH has an associated Attack Plan that governs how that attack and use cover. Each of these plans is tailored to the different characteristics, doctrines and roles of the different squads. This means that the player’s squads and the enemy squads will use their Attack Plans when engaging each other allowing the player to focus on making tactical decisions and not baby-sitting their troops.
Q. What will the bases be like?
A. For CoH we wanted bases to look and feel like they belong on the frontlines. For example, the HQs are actual local buildings that have been garrisoned and converted for military use. We also wanted a tech tree that allowed the player to focus on what matters the most — combat!
Aside from the typical buildings in CoH building defenses is an integral aspect of CoH and players will likely spend more time laying mines, barbed wire and sandbags than building base structures.
Q. What sort of maps can we expect? Will fans be able to make their own maps?
A. Company of Heroes delivers a 15-mission single-player campaign, and 15 multiplayer maps. The MP maps are designed specifically for the multiplayer game, and are not simple re-treads of campaign maps. Since the game takes place in the Normandy region of France, we’ve focused on three major terrain types – rural, industrial, and ‘urban’ (more small town than city). Each of these terrain types has unique core aesthetic ‘focal points’, so for example rural maps tend to feature small farmlands separated by hedgerows, which promotes a certain type of gameplay. Industrial maps have a lot of garrisonable structures and large buildings, like factories, warehouses, etc. Urban tends to feature a lot of built up areas with houses, bridges, etc.
In all, we have over 200 unique buildings in the game and several hundred world objects, so the maps feel very rich and real.
Q. How will you balance historical accuracy against gameplay?
A. CoH’s goal is two-fold. As the definitive WW2 RTS we wanted CoH to be as authentic as possible and in this regard we invested a lot of time making sure all the details were just right. For example, most of the characteristic of our vehicles (armor, speed) were taken directly from real-life data. However, we didn’t want to drown the player in details or expect them to be armchair generals.
That said we also wanted CoH be an entertaining and fun WW2 RTS. If ever realism and fun game into conflict, fun always won in the end. The great thing is that given our Squad AI and innovative combat mechanics and environmental destruction, 90% of the time fun and historical authenticity matched up for us.
Q. What sort of support will Relic give in the future in terms of patches, more maps, etc?
A. As with all our games, we’re committed to providing ongoing support in the form of patches and balance fixes to keep Company of Heroes feeling fresh and interesting. We’d love to release new maps in the future.
Q. Will Relic be using Gamespy for this game? Will there be different gateways for players in different areas?
A. We’ve decided to focus on developing our own online infrastructure for all Relic titles, so we’ve moved away from using Gamespy. Company of Heroes will be utilizing Relic Online, which provides a full set of Online features, and is something we plan to continue building on in the future.
Q. Do you plan on releasing a fan/web kit?
A. Yes.
Q. What are the minimum system requirements for Company of Heroes? How much space is the game expected to take up?
A. Company of Heroes features the most advanced technology ever seen in the RTS genre, and therefore is pretty demanding. Still, we feel the game performs adequately on the following minimum spec: Pentium 4 @ 2.0 GHz (or equivalent AMD processor), 512MB of system RAM, and a 64MB DirectX 9.0 compatible video card that supports pixel shader 1.1. You’ll have to refer to the game’s Readme for a full list of supported graphics cards.
However, for the best experience of Company of Heroes, we recommend the following spec: 3.0 GHz CPU, 1GB of system RAM, and an nVidia GeForce 6800 with 256MB of RAM (or equivalent).
Q. What is the ESRB rating?
A. Company of Heroes is rated ‘M’ for Mature in North America. This means you need to be at least 17 to purchase it in stores.