Hey (And a few questions)

First off hey and very nice work on the mod guys, I signed up about a year ago and had a look around, subsequently moved onto other games but recently come back to CoH and remembered this site, and its looking really, really impressive so far  :)

I was just wondering about a few things...

What sort of style of play will the soviets be, will their tactics involve masses of cheap troops or a more armour orientated, mechanised style of play?

Are the BA-64 and the Maxim team going to be included, they arent in the unit list so the soviets would be lacking an MG and light vehicle?

What are the particular uses and abilities of partisans?

And finally how will the soviets gain veterancy. Will it be "bought" like the whermacht or "gained" like the panzer elite, or something different altogether?

I appreciate some of these things might not have been worked out yet.
Thanks for (hopefully) taking the time to read this and good luck finishing off the mod.
Cant wait to play it  :D
Cheers

Because of the way the Russian get the next level of units, combined arms is encouraged and pretty much essential. This allows and also forces balanced play. For example, say you wanted to spam Soviet Guards at the enemy. This wouldn't be a great idea, due to the fact that by the time you can get Guards, the enemy will most likely have tanks/stronger units, and you would have all the pre-requisitions and most likely the resources to get your own powerful tanks. Guards would still be very useful, but "spamming" them, would not be extremely effective, especially if you met too many enemy tanks, or MGs.

The Maxim will be included once animated.


Veterancy is yet to be fully decided on and many interest and good ideas have been created and/or brought to our attention.



Thanks for your interest, and welcome to the forums ;).

Ok thanks, that all seems to make sense and encourage a good style of play  :)
What about the BA-64?
And the purpose of partisans? Are they in an AT or elite infantry role?

For veterancy I think the "veterancy over time" idea someone else mentioned on here seemed a good fit for the soviets. Showing how the ones who werent instantly killed quickly learned how to survive and adapted to conditions on the front.

Cheers

hello i too am new and my questions are a follow;

is there a tech tree somewhere i can look at? i have looked but can'tfind...
how do soviets vet and how does their base structure work?
are you building entirely new models or basing them on old ones?
will ask more later as i have to go. thanks

Partisans are infiltration and sabotage units. They camouflage and can blow up bridges, among other abilities. However, they are not particuarly strong in direct combat.

BA-64 won't be included as of now. Again, primarily due to animation issues.

Check out these ModDB Pages for the tech trees.

We have no set veterancy system yet, but we are opting for Vet promotions caused by time in the battle.

Base buildings are currently reskinned buildings from Vanilla CoH. There are four: HQ, Barracks, Weapons Support and Armour. Each building has three 'unit tiers', and each additional building you construct unlocks one of these 'unit tiers', thus encouraging combined-arms.

awesome thanks for the speedy reply!  :D

No problems

sorry for double post, wont happen again...
-will god of war be able to destroy bases, because that will ruin the game if god of war could be called on a base and teching would have to restart...
-sniper ace? what are perks? is it a girl?
-how many men in an ingenery squad?
-will ml-20 be able to toggle between at fire and artillery fire?
-is sharpshooter team a group of sinpers?  :o
-how does heavy mortar team differ from mortar team?
-with su-76, heavy mortar, zis-2, ml-20, katusha and doctrine artillery units, russians will have most artillery in the game by far, what is the point in this many units that cover such a similar role? brits have 3, usa have 3, germans have 3 and panzer elite have 2-3 depending on weather or not the choose hotchkiss. and these all include doctrine specific units...  ???
-will soviets get swappable units like t-17, staghound, hotchkiss etc?
wow that was a lot of questions! thanks for ur time :D

1. Even 57mm AT guns can destroy bases in Vanilla CoH. There is no reason for God of War to lack the ability.

2. Sniper Ace is not a girl. It is similar to the American/Wehrmacht Sniper, but can run while cloaked. One-shot-kills all infantry, including Officers and Knights Cross Holders.

3. Four men in an Ingenery squad.

4. We decided to remove the specific name of the medium artillery for sake of argument. It can only fire salvos like other artillery in the game.

5. Sharpshooter team is two men; one sniper and one rifleman. They cannot move while cloaked (like Fallschirmjagers or Sapper PIAT Teams).

6. Heavy Mortars fire slower, are less accurate, but considerably more powerful. Four-men-squads.

7. SU-76 is a simple anti-tank gun, similar to the Marder III.
Heavy Mortar is just a strong mortar.
ZiS-2 is an AT Gun, like American 57mm.
ML-20 is like British Artillery, just a bit weaker.
Katyusha is a doctrine unit like a weak Sherman Calliope (or even like Halftrack Stuka).
I count three artillery units, each one is very different.

8. We have looked into swapping units. However, even if we can do that, they are extra units which the vast majority without ToV cannot use.

fair enough... thanks  ;D

Seems the questions are coming in and getting answered I figured I might put a couple more in if ya dont mind.

From looking at the unit list on ModDB, it looks like in the first release the Maxim Squad, T-90 and the BA-64 are going to turn up after the first release? Seems like just about everything is going to be in 1.0  :D

Also could soviet style buildings without animations be put in to the first release?
Maybe this isn't possible but the tyranid mod for DoW did this in the first few releases.
An original, albeit static model is preferable to a re-skin methinks  ;)

Although if none have been fully modeled etc then I guess its not worth the time right now :)

Cheers

Was also just wondering, how many maps will be coming with Eastern Front in the initial release?

Also, ever thought of doing an FAQ about the mod to put on the forums? I've got quite abit of spare time from about a week onwards so would be happy to write one up if you want  :)

Maxim, T-90 and BA-64 currently have no plans to be included. May change after first release.

Reskins of Relic's base buildings are fine for now. They don't feel too American, and people would rather see fancy tanks than fancy base buildings. There have been a few concepts flying around, so it is a 'maybe' for a future release.

Although there are currently around 10 Eastern Front maps in the beta, they are all of high quality and thoroughly tested. We will have more by the time of public release, and there are plenty of oppertunities for expanding the playlist in future updates.

We are writing a FAQ and a game guide. Both could be live before release.

We have to have ToV to play the game ? (sorry for my english :-\)

No worries, that English was perfect.

Eastern Front works with any combination of Company of Heroes and its expansions, providing you have the latest patch installed (currently v2.600).

thank you for that answer !

I haven't got ToV (too expansive for just 2-3 hours)

Will it be possible to play Russians on old maps or will it only work with maps created with the mod?

Eastern Front will work like an expansion, so we aren't going to limit players to do what we want them to do. With Eastern Front installed, players can use any of the 5 factions in any of the maps, whether they are Relic, Community or Eastern Front.

Several more questions (yes i spam them, but u guys are so helpful im almost running out!):

1. Zis 3 has thread breaker (disables vehicles i assume) and camo, making it far superior to any at gun thus far, i hope it costs around 350 mp...

2. just reading update #5 and it said is-2 will be able to tackle tigers, fortifications and panthers, obviously not all at the same time but i have read that it was intended to tackle the panthers and tigers but the high explosive ammunition ended up being more effective against defences and infantry, while the t 34 with an 85mm cannon was more effective against panthers and tigers.

3. katusha barrages fire from just above top of truck, i assume the launchers will adjust like with caliope?

4. with the reskins for germans, will that just be for the single player or could it be used like the reskinned tiger for ToV?

5. i hear there are going to be snow maps. will anyone be reskinned in snow gear?

Cheers  ;D

double flamers

Zis 2 is a 57mm, the 17 pdr is larger, though it can't move... Pak is a 75mm, while the 88 is waaaaaay bigger

1. Zis 3 has thread breaker (disables vehicles i assume) and camo, making it far superior to any at gun thus far, i hope it costs around 350 mp...
We dropped the Treadbreaker ability from the ZiS-2 for simplicity and balance reasons, and it doesn't have camo, therefore making it inferior to any AT gun so far.


2. just reading update #5 and it said is-2 will be able to tackle tigers, fortifications and panthers, obviously not all at the same time but i have read that it was intended to tackle the panthers and tigers but the high explosive ammunition ended up being more effective against defences and infantry, while the t 34 with an 85mm cannon was more effective against panthers and tigers.

The idea is to make the T-34 and the IS-2 'jacks of all trades'. However, being more expensive, the IS-2 will be better at certain jobs. Obviously, the T34/85 upgrade greatly increases the T34's firepower against heavy armour.


3. katusha barrages fire from just above top of truck, i assume the launchers will adjust like with caliope?

Animating that will be a bitch. We are leaving it how it is.


4. with the reskins for germans, will that just be for the single player or could it be used like the reskinned tiger for ToV?

Those reskins you see on ModDB are fairly old concepts. We aren't using them in the final build.


5. i hear there are going to be snow maps. will anyone be reskinned in snow gear?

No, that would be too complicated (perhaps impossible), although it would indeed be good.

WartyX wrote:
5. i hear there are going to be snow maps. will anyone be reskinned in snow gear?

No, that would be too complicated (perhaps impossible), although it would indeed be good.

I'd like to think there's a possibility of re-skinning but not 're-modeling'. Something I'll probably look into...

IS2 was the Russian equivalent of a Tiger/Panther tanks. In fact it was something in between these tanks and an equal match for both of them at any range. It's gun was equally effective vs tanks and infantry. It was a heavy breakthrough tank and we hope to reflect these qualities in game

Last edited July 2, 2009 at 10:02 AM by Zerstörer

Reskinning is no problem, but to get those skins to work excusively with certain maptype?

I thought about this: how about an ability for Russians: if u make slow maps automatically slow all infantry, then upgrading to snow suits would give soviets the standard movement again- apart from balance issues, it'd work well as the Russians would have an advantage in the snow, while the others would struggle

im pretty sure everyone had trouble in the snow, the russians were constantly dying as they didn't have enough clothes for all of the conscripts...

He guys,


That are original Relic Skins (not the Jagdtiger ;))
They look really nice with the right Atmosphere Propertie on the map, i don`t think that we gonna need any new skins with such skilled mappers ;)


Mystic

WartyX wrote:
No worries, that English was perfect.

Eastern Front works with any combination of Company of Heroes and its expansions, providing you have the latest patch installed (currently v2.600).

So to get the full experience i need to spend another 20 bucks on the most pointless expansion ever!!! :o This is insane every one that i talk to says it is over priced there are only 9 missions 3 for each new campaign and what like 10 new units????!??!?!?

PS like the spell check idea its great

Read it again, ford_prefect

QuoteEastern Front works with any combination of Company of Heroes and its expansions, providing you have the latest patch installed (currently v2.600).

how do you blow up a bridges if you dont have partisans :-\

ablecoh wrote:
how do you blow up a bridges if you dont have partisans :-\

The same way comandoes can?

If you don't have Partisans, you can destroy bridges with artillery or Heavy Mortars.