Company of Heroes online play?

GoldenTiger

GoldenTiger

Fully [H]
Joined
Dec 2, 2004
Messages
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Is the original (not Opposing Fronts) played online a lot still, i.e. can find a match reliably? I'm thinking of picking it up finally, and while singleplayer is good and all, online play looks like it would make the game great. Also, is the skill delta too hard to get around since it's been out awhile, or could I "catch up" over time?
 
Yeah it is. They are continualy adding on to it as well. I know not more than 2-3 months ago they just added a match-making service so you dont have to use the server browser and it will match you up with a equally skilled oponent. Something like that at least. But to answer your question, yeah its still very active.
 
Company of Heroes is extremely enjoyable online. I don't own the expansion, but the original is still very active.
 
Great, thanks for the info, both of you :). (Goes off to Amazon to place order)
 
Yea, with a decent PC, multiplayer is absolutely a blast. I picked up CoH Gold Edition for $40. It includes the original game and opposing fronts. I HIGHLY reccomend getting opposing fronts. The new armies are a lot of fun.

You can catch up. You'll get your ass kicked a lot in the beggining but you'll get the hang of it.
 
For those that play online, isn't vanilla CoH the same as OpFro, just without access to Panzer Elite and the Brits? That was the point of that 2+ GB patch, yes? That would make it in line with Relic's online treatment of DoW. If so, it'd be worthwhile for the original poster to know he may be facing units he has no access to.
 
CoH has a very healthy and competitive online community. If you get into it, I recommend checking out the Tales of Heroes podcast as well. They have weekly video replays of games that are very helpful.

There's only one major problem with CoH online - everybody is good. I love CoH. It's my all time favorite RTS and I've played it a ton. That said, I've never been a hardcore RTS'er, so the instant I log online I get my ass handed to me. I wish you luck.
 
RelicOnline seems to hate me and my router. I even put myself in the DMZ and still no luck. If you get it working, then it's a great game.
 
If you only have the original, you will have to download a couple gigabytes of patches to add the two new factions to your game. You can't play as them, but you will be matched up against them. The gold edition is not much more expensive, the whole thing can probably be found for $30, maybe on sale.

Relic has a beta patch right now that supposedly resolves a lot of their connection issues. Give it another few weeks and try again.
 
Damn, I read someone posting that Opposing Fronts "ruined" the game, so I only ordered CoH without the expansion... might have to shell out a couple more bucks for it then :p . Would have just gotten the Gold edition for $8 more from gogamer vs. $20 for the normal one without the x-pack. Ah well.

EDIT: Wow, Amazon wants $28 for the x-pack alone... found one on eBay shipped Priority Mail for $15 though brand new supposedly never-used key (disc in sleeve OEM), so here's hoping :).
 
In light of that comment, then no, you won't find anyone playing the vanilla game (vCoH as they call it) other than a few holdouts trying to play on Hamachi or something. A lot of the old players consider the last patch of the original (1.71) to be the best due to its lack of elite infantry, viable armor game, etc.

Relic has really supported the game in the last few months though and it's getting better all the time. I wouldn't worry too much about the jaded cynics, you will still see a lot of soft counter play and have a ton of fun.

Skill delta is not an issue because the game has ranked automatch. Just play skirmish against the CPU until you can beat or hold your own against a Hard AI and you'll know all you need to start playing against other level 1-3 guys.

Certainly, go ahead and enjoy your original edition for now. Play through the campaign, hop online, and let your computer sit while it downloads the patch. When you buy OF it will basically uninstall and start over, but no huge patches to download. Just grab the pack when you feel like you want to play the new factions. The originals are better for fundamentals anyway. Oh, and if you only manually patch up to 1.71 and no further, there is no CD check. You will be forced to patch up when you go online though, so stick with 1.71 if you want to play the campaign and skirmish without the inconvenience of the disc in the drive. There are some balance changes with newer patches, but nothing to worry about at this point for you.

BTW, if you do get the expansion pack and haven't installed the original and don't plan to until the pack is delivered, install OF first. When you go online you can put the original game disc in to show that you own it and it will unlock the campaign and the US and Wehrmacht factions for online play. Might be some more installation involved, but I think that's the process. I think if you have the wrong voice tracks for some of the factions, you did something wrong.
 
Great game. Sometimes a pain to play online when you play random people. Pisses me off when there are people that will take 5+mins to load the game.
 
GT, you'll definitely be at a disadvantage without the expansion. I think it's ideal to have access to all of the armies, play with all of them, find their strengths, weaknesses, and play to those when matching up.

If you play online with vanilla CoH, you'll be forced to update to 2.301, which pits you against both CoH and Opposing Fronts players.

Opposing Fronts is frowned upon by many, mostly because such a drastic change of pace. My biggest gripe is British, I haven't quite figured out how to exploit their weaknesses early or effectively enough and their tendancy to "turtle up" often aggravates me.

I play primarly as Wehrmacht, which is the vanilla CoH Axis army. I've gotten to the point where whenever I play against brits, I'm using T2 blitz strategy: grens, stormtroopers, StuHs, stukas, and Tiger tank.
 
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