Opposing Fronts beta

BlitzKrieg

So anyone get on it?


Just took a shot at fileplanet and i got it


Gotta download it now...which will be a pain with fileplanet.

But otherwise CANT WAIT TIL AFTER WORK TOMARROW!

GLEE!


EDIT
nm on the fileplanet end, found a torrent!

Sephiroth_dude

Are you a subscriber with fileplantet?because when i went on the site and tryed to get it,they kept wanting me to pay for a subscripition .Any idea when its gonna get a full release in europe?I checked gamefaqs.com but it only has a usa release date

Sephiroth_dude

according to the bai's on the overclockers forum,the beta is online multiplayer only?no singleplayer skirmish mode ?

BlitzKrieg

dont know yet...still downloading.


and no I am not a subscriber...but I have an old free account on fileplanet from way back when gamespy use to actually be useful for something. and sometimes that gets me into betas etc, sometimes it doesnt.

IgsTer

getting it meself now..im also only free account but just poped onto the site there for the first time in a while and seen the notice so took a go and got one..dont think there limited..so i think theres plenty to go round..is the beta only multiplayer then?

Sephiroth_dude

ya it theres no single player mode or skirmish mode ah well guess i'll have to wait till it comes out.thats if it ever comes out :eek:

BlitzKrieg

There's co-op mode against the AI though.

Sadly though you cant have 1v1 against AI...which is annoying cause for trying out the new sides you really need time to experiment...and I dont know anyone else on the beta I think so cant practice with them.


Gave it one quick go last night:

Overall I am excited, The one side I tried (British) is very different to the other sides, completely different build system and unit style...Players who like their infantry and Artillary will enjoy playing as them.

The online support is pretty much the same as COH, they've added more info on the select screen, but it still has that horrible hit or miss support (and really long wait time for automatching.

The game is going on sale through both steam and retail...I really wish they would take advantage of the steam online support as it would make the game much easier to play online.

As it is Relic Online puts me off playing it online alot, much like it did the original Company of Heroes.

My only other quibble is my brief view of the new Panzer elite was disapointing..dont know what it is, but they dont seem to have the same spit and polish as the British or original sides...hopefully though that is just first impressions.

Sephiroth_dude

any european release date yet?

BlitzKrieg

november I assume, relic normally dont screw europeans over with release dates (besides Europe is a huge market for RTS).

Got to try the panzer elite today.

I take back my earlier comment.

Panzer elite = the rock!

Complete opposite to the British and very different to the other two. Panzer Elite focus mostly on Vehicles as their form of warfare. This allows them to capture quicker and move around the battlefield at insane speeds. They lack the infantry of the other sides though...but the infantry they do have make up for this with a wider arrey of abilities (like everyone of them can repair) strangely enough despite focusing on vehicles they lack tanks, unless you go into the tank doctrine...where you can get the king tiger

Me likes.


Also the British airborne division can have gliders act as bases...An opponent of mine held on by landing a glider in a infantry only part of the map and built his infantry forces there...and because I had weak infantry it took me a while to scrape him out.


I also like the Panzer elite vet system. Everytime a unit vets up, you can choose to improve his attack ability or his defence ability, this applies to stationary guns too.

Overall very impressed.

Sadly Reli online still pissess me off, I seem only able to play games via automatch.

Sephiroth_dude

BlitzKrieg wrote:

There's co-op mode against the AI though.

Sorry if this is a stupid question,but what does the co-op mode entail?is like a skirmish or what?I Hope your right about the november release date I would if i had this for xmas

BlitzKrieg

co-op is like skirmish pretty much...except there is 2 or more human players.

BlitzKrieg

*latest patch news*

Gives the option of playing skirmish via setting every opponent and ally to AI control.

so host game in multiplayer and then just set the ai level you want to each slot...best to lock the game to stop people jumping in while your setting it up and filling a spot.


So my long term opinion:

-First and foremost RELIC have been very helpful in fixing connection issues...it seems my port forwarding had to be done a certain way due to my router...since its been fixed I get alot less connection issues.

But Opposing Forces still has a few lobby bugs (old games never disapearing) this forces me to stick to automatch which isnt so bad.

The new sides are very interesting:

The better of the two...and the one with the most complaints is defitnaly the PANZER ELITE.

They are brilliant purely for their mobility, allowing players the ability to move into crucial areas quickly and with a strong firepower back up, and then when locked down...move all this on to the next bit.

The only serious complaint I have seen is that because they only have one type of infantry it feels like its being spammed because 2/3rds of their army will be made up of that infantry (which has to be specialized into longe range, short range, anti tank etc via upgrades and weapons) but once you get use to the fact that it requires more then pure spamming there is little to complain about.

The British on the other hand encourage more permamnent digging in which is pretty damn difficult to remove...But pretty much every player expects this from british players and focuses their weapons on flame units/long range artillary to push them out.

The problem with the Brits is if you get pushed out, it is very easy to have your trenches turned against you which usually results in that territory being lost for most of the game.


The big issue I am worried about with the brits/panzer elite is that they each strongly suited to a specific gametype.

-The panzer elite are finely tuned for victory point game mode, being able to move to each location quickly and secure it, meaning they will usually be the first to each point and they can quickly bring up support when the point comes under attack.

-The British on the other hand can easily create a stalemate in Annihilation mode by their ability to dig in, thus it will take alot of work via a whermacht or panzer elite player to actually defeat a British player...who will creep slowly up reinforcing his defence until he is within artillary range of your base and whipe it from the game.



Overall though, I am sold on the add on pack and fully intend to pick it up.

Sephiroth_dude

sounds cool!cant wait for this to come out,I love the first game very much so im guessing im gonna love this one even if its as good as you say it is

jonski

A good few of our lads have downloaded this is we had a lot of trouble all getting connected to a game last night , "cannot connect to all players" , "crash to desktop " , and that kinda stuff . Some needed help with port forwarding as one or two had it done and still couldn't connect ....and then could , so there is still a bit of work to do on the connecting front . On the gaming front , does it possibly look slightly better than the original ? I does seem that way to me although I have changed my gfx card ...plays great just need to find the right rock/paper/scissors to beat his........rock/paper/scissors . Played last night as brit engineers and found it really hard to combat his infantry rush . I think the brit airborne are probably the strongest infantry on that side , gonna try them tonight .

feckin 4 this morning when I went to bed .

Sephiroth_dude

tis a very addictive game,hell the orginal is addictive,I can play it for hrs on end and never get tired of it :cool:

BlitzKrieg

COH has always been less about rock/paper/scissors then other games.

Hence there have been complaints about the Panzer Elite infantry.

The infantry of the panzer elite start of relatively weak...only 3 men to a squad armed with rifles.

but they are wonderfully diverse, they can build structures, repair vehicles and fight on the front lines. And for a small price you can upgrade their rifles for better long range fighting.

Now as you build each structure for the panzer elite, new features for the infantry are added.

So the first building gives you the ability to expand your unit size to four, the second gives you anti tank weapons, the third gives you assault rifles and so on.


This all costs ammunition for the Panzer elite player or they can buy upgraded varients for more manpower in later buildings.

But it is all the same unit.

So the problem with the beta at the moment is that this unit is far too cost effective for its diversity. They need to up the ammo requirements for these upgrades (especially key ones for countering infantry such as incendiry grenades and what not)

But once you understand how his infantry works...its a bit easier to counter them, though expect the next patch to either buff their costs or nerf their attack abilities.



On the connection side of things, yeah I get alot of problems too. Automatch for the most part works fine, but like I said earlier you get alot of ghost games in the lobby due to some bug, so games that are long gone are still there, or in some cases two of the same game exist and one of them is bugged.

Hopefully it will be sorted out soon.

Really wish they'd take advantage of working with Steam and use its service as the multiplayer host.

jonski

BlitzKrieg wrote:

COH has always been less about rock/paper/scissors then other games.

Yes actually , that was a bad analogy and referenced more at rts games in general , one of the things that I like most about this game is that you can actually have all 3 , rock , paper and scissors in your army so to speak .

And yes the panzer elite are a bit on the strong side , after pinning these guys in for most of the game last night they finally waltzed out with their infantry and across the map and nothing could stop them . I couldn't really complain though as I had done the same thing the night before .

BlitzKrieg

*grumble* just came from a 3v3 game.


3 panzer elite vs myself US infantry command and 2 british players.


Oh gods! Did they murder us a bit.

The first half of the game they walloped us with infantry consently. Though in my defence once I got my rangers into the game I was able to push em back a bit...but just before I brought out my crocidile to ensure battlefield dominance, they switched gamestyle and sent an army of panzers and anti tank guns, have to admit despite loosing, I gave them a good pounding with my rangers (who have just found new love for) and a single howitzer volly caught their tanks unprepared and wiped out half their attack force.

But yeah, if only my british allies would use the british defences to some actual use we might have won...everytime i took a point they pushed me off with an infantry/tank swarm, if the british players would only dig trenches (rangers + trenches = WIN!) but no they had churchills running everywhere...CHURCHILLS SUCK! at least bring out a firefly.

jonski

BlitzKrieg wrote:

*latest patch news*

Gives the option of playing skirmish via setting every opponent and ally to AI control.

so host game in multiplayer and then just set the ai level you want to each slot...best to lock the game to stop people jumping in while your setting it up and filling a spot.

Haven't managed to get this to work , can play 2 or 3 or even 4 vrs CPU but not 1 or 1 plus cpu's vers cpu's

Also , god damn it , why isn't there an Irish channel in the chat rooms !

jonski

2.7 on the way ( which is odd really as they come down as 1.68 , 1.69 , and this one probably 1.70 )

<quote by="liquidsparks">
v2.70 09/07/2007

Online
- Added more logging.
- Fixed broadcasting.
- Fixed several crashes.
- Users should rejoin the last channel they successfully joined.

Gameplay
- Panzer Grenadier AT grenades set to do the same damage vs British Infantry as regular infantry.
- Wehrmacht forces receive a new medkit.
- The basic medkit is available at tier 2 (after researching Escalate to Skirmish) but only functions in friendly territory.
- At tier 4 (Escalate to Battle Phase) they receive a new medkit that can be used anywhere.
- Stukas, V1s, and Nebelwerfers all have improved damage vs British emplacements.
- Nebelwerfers and Stukas set to 1.0 damage vs tp_infantry_soldier.
- Pak 38s and Flak 88s have been moved into the Vehicle Veterancy research at the KampfKraft Center.
- Mortars set to do 1.0 damage vs tp_infantry_soldier target types (Panzer Grenadiers and British Infantry).
- Building critical tuning.
- V1 FOW scatter modifiers reduced. </quote>

BlitzKrieg

jonski wrote:

Haven't managed to get this to work , can play 2 or 3 or even 4 vrs CPU but not 1 or 1 plus cpu's vers cpu's

Also , god damn it , why isn't there an Irish channel in the chat rooms !

strange

when i first tried it I couldnt play 1v1 against the AI, but when I was on last night after the patch, I saw others doing it and tried it myself and behold it worked...maybe its some sort of bug or something.

Hmm surprised there is nothing in those patch notes to deal with the Panzer elite infantry.

Sephiroth_dude

Holy mother of god,this is out 28th of september IN Europe :O I was'nt expecting it to be out for ages more

delly

Talk of the community sites is that OF is being rushed and is in no way ready for release. I'm pretty pissed of as well that arranged team automatch will not be a feature of the game despite previous promises.

I'll buy it on release day, but I always have vanilla COH to revert back too if it doesn't make the grade.

Sephiroth_dude

delly wrote:

Talk of the community sites is that OF is being rushed and is in no way ready for release. I'm pretty pissed of as well that arranged team automatch will not be a feature of the game despite previous promises.

I'll buy it on release day, but I always have vanilla COH to revert back too if it doesn't make the grade.

oh man that dont sound too good:(,what are there sources for this do you know?I'll be very disapointed if this isn't any good absoulutely love the first game

jonski

Well I am playing the beta for the last few weeks and I think it plays very well , so I don't know where you are hearing that it is not ready for release . Obviously we have no idea how the campaign is playing , but then neither does anyone outside of Relic .

And whats with the arranged team automatch ? , do you mean you and some mates organise a ranked game against each other ? If you do then how could it be considered Ranked ? Imagine the fixing that would go on there .

delly

Well check this link for starters. I dunno about you guys but I have been a COH addict for about a year now with over 500 matches racked up. I have seen how the game has evolved with the various patches and think its a great game.

Another big issue growing with OF is how your squads take even damage, meaning you could have the full complement of men in your squad with 5% health, as opposed to losing men as the overall health is reduced.

/EDIT and arranged team automatch relates to 2v2 games, where you and a buddy will be teamed up against an equivalent team of 2v2 players.

jonski

Read that post and it makes interesting reading but tbf not everyone agrees with it .

The infantry damage system is a bit of a worry though . the whole campy british thing is a non event as far as I am concerned , thats the way the development team wanted them , at the end of the day they decide , the community only tries to advise .

As for the release date , well they are a business and I would imagine like all games developers have a release date , ship it out and patch it later , credit to this crowd for trying to patch it as much as possible before it hits the shelves .

thinking about the automatch thingy , well two mates want to play together , 1 is lvl 2 the other lvl 6 , to evenly match this you need a lvl 2 and lvl 6 looking for just such a game , I have no idea about coding but givent hat they don't seem to be able to put it in the patch I would imagine this is hard enough to do .

As for playing time/experience , I am playing it since about February with about 300 vCoH logged .

Azza

I'm another veteran of company of heroes playing it since release with about 1500+ games under my belt and I just quit the game a few weeks ago when the beta started. I was in with the very first wave of the beta players and found the beta totally unplayable due to being unable to connect to nearly every game.

I did not really play the beta in depth nor gained much insight but I have kept an eye on its progress on various forums and the comments of players I hold in high regard in the game and from what I have read its not looking good.

After the infantry damage system which is generating alot of complaints there is the major issue of the British play style. Playing a defensive game is fine and should be a viable option in all rts games but from what I have heard its simply way too easy to hold a point with your mobile hq and pump out reinforcements at a vital strategy point with hard to destroy trenches as the british and then just sit back and pummel the enemy to death with artillery.

Then if you play as wehrmacht versus the americans they break the game the other way by giving the terror doctrine a free king tiger. This allows the axis to pump out way more units than the americans as they don't have to worry about saving for the tiger.

Relic's history shows they are poor at balancing their rts games (as Dawn of War proves and the amount of unused units in COH like Axis tier 4 and most of tier 3 (in a competitive sense) and slow to implement balances changes and the majority of the time the patches break as many things as they fix. Known bugs that the community have proven to be fixable in minutes take months to fix.
Combined with only 2 good 1v1 maps that are played to death and the lack of arranged team games, I just lost interest in the game...which is a shame. The game has the best game play in an rts I have ever played plus great sound and graphics and if relic could only patch it and support it properly it could really be a top tier game instead of a flawed classic that it is.

I'm undecided yet if I will pick up Opposing Fronts...probably will all the same.

jonski

Doctors differ , patients die , no game is perfect and no developers can please everyone . We are still enjoying it but hinking more on it this morning maybe thats because we usually only play 4 v 4 's so the arty right into your base from a base that you feel you are almost on top of isn't that much of an issue . Most of our guys won't play Brithish as they feel they are no good going forward will probably suit me though as I am not much good at pushing and am usually left to be the defensive player . Spent the first few weeks playing PE but never really got to grips with them , then spent the last few weeks playing Allies ( tried rangers last night and found them very powerful ) , going to go back to the axis side now for a few games to try and get grips with them .

A for & against thread going on here

jonski

v2.77 09/20/2007

- Players now get distributed to teams evenly as they join.
- Improved stats collection.

Gameplay
- Fixed a bug where Panzer Grenadiers would detect mines while garrisoned in a halftrack.
- Combat system updates: System reverted to COH infantry combat. This is an experimental change and may affect game balance in the short term.
- More V1 Fixes - fixed a bug where the V1 would fail if it was targeted on a unit that died before the V1 arrived. V1s should only target position, not entity.

- Munition Halftrack cost reduced to 200mp/15fuel
- Panzer Elite Defensive Operations cost increased to 150mp/30fuel
- Panzer Elite Mortar Halftrack barrage tuned. 1 second added to each cooldown.
- M8 Greyhound 37mm gun cooldown lowered to 7s from 9s.
- American 76mm gun upgrade cost lowered by 15 fuel.
- Sherman .50cal turret mount lowered in cost by 25 munitions.
- Turret mounted machine gunners have their chance of death criticals reduced in most weapon categories.
- Goliath has reduced chance of taking an engine critical from small arms fire.
- Pak 38 vet 3 damage reduced from 1.25 to 1.15
- On map American 105mm howitzers and all Flak 88 variants have their build times reduced.
- British trucks have a small camo detection radius.
- British Armour Command Truck and Field Support Truck have their sight radii tuned.
- American Offmap artillery arrival delay reduced by 1s.
- Volksgrenadiers get a new K98 rifle tuned vs tp_infantry_soldier. Damage increased to .65.
- Fixed a bug that prevented scorched points from being repaired by troops other than Panzer Elite.

Sephiroth_dude

ONE week dudes :cool:

jonski

Latest rumours are it is being put back till the end of November , haven't scanned the forums yet today but that was the speak going around yesterday ...think it was started by someone noticing that the release date was changed on one of the online ordering sites .

Sephiroth_dude

aw your ****ting me noooo ;'(



just checked gamefaqs.com and it still says 28th of september


its the same on the game site

jonski

He seems to have got his info from Play.com , and now that I have the time to check it he seems to have gotten it wrong .

It still has OF down for 28/9/07 , it is the GOTY that is down for 30/11/07

jonski

delly wrote:

Well check this link for starters.

I am like a mega bumper for this game , I promise I have no vested stake in it doing well

Anyway here is a response to that thread link you posted . Interested to hear what you think .

Sephiroth_dude

whats goty?i'll read that there in a sec

delly

jonski wrote:

I am like a mega bumper for this game , I promise I have no vested stake in it doing well

Anyway here is a response to that thread link you posted . Interested to hear what you think .

Yeah, i've checked that already and made a post. Its a very positive response tbh and proves that relic do listen to the community. What with the new patch reverting the combat system i'm a lot happier. As said, ether way i'll be buying based on the entertainment I got from COH, time will tell if it casts the same spell on me.

Azza

Its a well written reply by relic alright. On paper it addresses a lot of concerns it, but will they put those words into actions as they have failed to deliver previously when it comes to addressing issues like lack of new maps and balancing and bugs.

The game regardless will be well received I predict by most game reviews sites and magazines and by the public at large.

Its just when you play it anyway competitively online which requires a lot of time that game reviewers and casual players just don't have the time to invest you see flaws in the game. Most of which are fixable ......I just have little fate left in relic in their ability to deliver.

Sephiroth_dude

4 days dudes :cool: Id love it if there was a russion faction and you could play out the scencario of the battle of stalingard (excuse the spelling ) man that be cool

Sephiroth_dude

3 days dudes :cool:

BlitzKrieg

if this wasnt the internet i'd smack you.

Sephiroth_dude

BlitzKrieg wrote:

if this wasnt the internet i'd smack you.

alright sorry I can see im being annoying,i'll stop

jonski

Game have it here in Limerick but it doesn't go on the shelves until the morning , will drop in and pick it up then .

Sephiroth_dude

it got a score of 8 over opn ign.com

BlitzKrieg

*spending far too much money on games over the last two weeks...must stop buying quality games ARRGH*

delly

I'm the same, in the last few weeks i've got Medal of Honour Airborne, Flatout 2 and Bioshock. OF will be my last purchase for a while (except for The Orange Box and Crysis).

BlitzKrieg

please

Bioshock
World of Warcraft (bit late but meh)
Halo 3
Xbox 360 *elite*
Stranglehold (which I am regretting alot)
Sonic Rush Adventure

Then upcoming include

Opposing Front
World In Conflict (has to be special edition as I am nuts about the berlin wall)
Crysis
Phantom Hourglass
Half life orange box
Mass effect
Metroid Prime 3
Quake Wars


*cries* I want to play them all but I have neither the time or the money for them.

Sephiroth_dude

I too have brought way to many games this moh airbourne,wic and tomorrow coh opposing fronts and then I have nothing I want to buy till november,then I plan on buying crysis,timeshift,empire earth 3,the new expansion for age of empire 3,call of duty 4 :eek:

BlitzKrieg

thank god i thought all the call of duty after 1 were crap. i dont need to worry about 4.

And yes I am firmly in the Medal of Honour games are crap catagory (have thought so even with the *godly* allied assault)


I want WIC, but I also dont think I should get it unless I have time to commit to its online play. Which right now...i dont.

delly

Time is the major problem in my case what with a four month old baby in the house. I try to squeeze in gaming when I can, but tbh I keep going back to COH inbetween feeds.

BlitzKrieg

teach your kid to be a rts prodigy

"Ahh look his first base rape *sniff* they grow up so fast*