As promised, here are the last three tracks from the first volume of our COH audio strategy series, Mind of a Master. This concludes our special D-Day celebration, but fear not sports fans: World War II goes on year-round at Rifles Ready!
That being said, I apologize for the slow updates of late. Suffice it to say June is a really, really tough month at work with a lot of things happening at the same time — all of which I’m personally responsible for.
I am also aware that many of the topics in this last batch of tracks were addressed in the recently released patch 2.600 — my reaction on that in a later post. But there’s also a lot of other insight from Surprise so I think you’ll still get plenty out of these.
Expect that post, plus an interesting balance article from Surprise, in the coming days. There’s also a new Battle Report in the works featuring a really good up-and-coming player whose replays have gotten a lot of attention on GR.org.
Track 8: Controversial balance issues – The Strafing Run
Track 9: Controversial balance issues – Supertanks and British armor
Track 10: Controversial balance issues – MGs firing at multiple targets, Panzer Elite and end credits
As promised, the rain of fantastical content continues with three more tracks from the first volume of our Mind of a Master audio strategy series. I’m also planning to release the long-awaited Battle Report sometime today or very early tomorrow.
Just as a reminder, tomorrow I’m flying out to magical Denver, Colorado — the Mile-High City — to run a conference for my company. I’ll be back late Wednesday night. So, here’s hoping Surprise or someone else gets in a post to keep things hopping while I’m gone (hoping — hopping, get it?).
Folks, it’s that time of year again. Today is June 5, 2009. Tomorrow will be June 6, the 65-year anniversary of D-Day. The day 150,000 Allied soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy to end tyranny, free a continent and spawn a thousand film and video game adaptions of a climactic battle. It’s a special day to anyone who loves Company of Heroes or World War II games in general.
You'll like this.
To commemorate this occasion, I have decided with Surprise’s support to make ALL 10 tracks of our COH audio strategy series, Mind of a Master:Volume I, available on Rifles Ready! — free of charge.
Starting today and ending Sunday (D-Day +1), I will be posting several tracks daily for you to listen to.
The tracks will be playable via the native WordPress streaming audio applet (see below). Amazon.com is taking FOREVER to approve this MP3 album for download, and it’s a special time of year, so the hell with it. Please enjoy!
Tracks 1 and 2: Introduction to Surprise and his biography/A high-level overview of the state of COH
First off, quick update on the next Battle Report: it’ll come tomorrow, I promise and pinky-swear on it. But first — the titular review!
If you’re ever stuck on a business trip somewhere with just a laptop and wi-fi (though these days you’ve got a slew of other options like smart phones and PSPs), whaddya do to pass the time?
You can’t play COH, or any other serious RTS. You’re left with a wide assortment of Flash, Shockwave or Java-powered games. Here’s my recommendation: get your blood pumping with some online Blackjack or roulette.
There’s an awful lot of free, applet-powered casino games, but 888 separates itself from the pack by pretty much the slickest, quickest and most ad-free. There’s an awful lot of smart phones, but none can match Apple’s iPhone in terms design elegance and pure slickness. There’s a whole lot of hack & slash RPGs and overhead RTS games, but Blizzard continues to stand out by having the best-of-class titles in both genres. And the same applies to 888.
And let’s underline the second-best thing. It’s all ad-free. That’s right, ADVERTISEMENT-FREE. No spam, pop-ups or adware or spyware. Just look at that little angelic stick figure!
I support this movement and so should you!
Having played through these games quite a few times, I can assure you it is indeed true. And this from a guy who has Windows Defender and AVG running 24/7 in the background.
Every game is easy to play and very straight-forward; the graphics are crisp and clean the sound effects are simple and remind you of the casino. All you need is a sexy blond in a slinky dress on your arm, and a martini in your hand, and you’re practically James Bond inCasino Royale.
That could be real money if you were a bettin' man.
Rest easy: If you don’t have Bond’s skills with the dice, or if you’re totally clueless, 888.com has an entire section dedicated to tutorials for each game. It’s a great way to learn them.
As promised, in light of Amazon.com’s very long approval process, I’m offering Volume I of our COH audio strategy series, Mind of a Master, NOW. I’m afraid the purchase process will be somewhat unwieldy, but there’s no way to avoid it outside of relying on a middleman like Amazon.
Doing it early means you’ll have to buy the entire album (10 separate MP3s) without the option of choosing tracks. You’ll have to pay using PayPal, so obviously you’ll need a PayPal account.
After your payment is received, I’ll manually fulfill your order by emailing you a download link. To download the ZIP file (about 69mb), you will need to enter a unique password that will also be provided by me via email. The download link and password will be in the same email. Depending on many orders I get, it may take a couple hours to send you the email.
If any of this sounds sketchy to you, feel free to wait a week or two for Amazon to get its act together.
For you bold early adopters, you can order now by following these directions:
2. Please write “MOM Volume I order” in the subject line.
3. In the body of the email, write the email address I should send a PayPal invoice to.
4. Within a few hours, you should receive a PayPal invoice for $6.99 at the email address you specified. You can easily follow PayPal instructions from there to send the payment.
5. After I receive the payment, I will email you the download link and password.
I’ve just learned that Amazon.com will likely require another 10-12 business days to approve Volume I of our COH audio strategy series, Mind of a Master. Most disappointing. But rest assured, sports fans — I’ll continue to tease bits and pieces of this thrilling MP3 album in Battle Reports and other media on the blog. Just see the latest Battle Report for a taste.
In the meantime, you can expect additional Battle Reports and perhaps some tips and balance commentary. Specifically, I’m looking at doing our first report on one of the new Tales of Valor maps. Meanwhile, the jury is still out on patch 2.502 and it’s not clear exactly how seismic a change patch 2.503 will bring.
All the cool kids will buy it. Don't you wanna be a cool kid?
My humblest apologies, folks — it turns out the Amazon.com MP3 seller process is more complicated and time-consuming than I had assumed. First they have to review the tape, to make sure Surprise and I don’t swear like sailors throughout (hint: we don’t). Then they’ve got to approve our album art, resample and recompress our MP3s and onward, in this vein. But I’m confident all will be done by the end of next week, and in all likelihood, sooner than that. In the meantime I hope the cover art above (click to enlarge) will tide you over. There’s a black & white version available as well.
Stay tuned this weekend for our first 2.502 Battle Report! Really when I started writing them I had no idea they would become our bread & butter. But I’m glad they have… it’s just that they’re time-consuming. First I’ve gotta pick a great replay, then watch it and take notes, then watch it again and take screenshots, then watch it a third time to get video clips for YouTube. Then I’ve gotta manually edit and mark up each screenshot, resize them, and only then do I actually start writing the analysis and commentary online. Then I have to insert all the images, make sure they wrap properly around the text, write up captions for every one, and upload the replay on Mediafire and link to it.
You can see that takes awhile . But I’m grateful for your patience and trust me — the next Battle Report and Volume I of Mind of a Master will be worth every minute of waiting.
Does this look lighter, less-armored and faster than the M10?
My reporter sense started tingling when Relic let it be known that the M10 Wolverine would be replaced by the M18 Hellcat (optionally) in Tales of Valor. Relic has largely preserved the basic historical strength of the tanks and vehicles in COH; for example, the M4 Sherman is less powerful than the M26 Pershing in terms of armor, cannon damage and penetration.
This simple concept of translating real-life units into the game goes by the wayside with the M18. In the current game, the Hellcat has more armor, a better cannon and slower speed than the M10. It’s like an American version of the Hetzer, particularly since it can cloak and gains first-strike damage bonuses when firing out of cloak.
But historically, the M18 was much lighter and faster than the M10. To make this possible, it had far less armor. The only thing Relic got right was the M18’s superior cannon. Both the M10 and M18 packed .50 cal machine guns, though the M10 lacks this option in-game.
A much better choice would’ve been to ditch the M18 and instead add the M36 Jackson, yet another American tank destroyer similar to both the M10 and M18. The Jackson had an open top, an optional .50 cal MG, and the same 90mm gun used by the Pershing. It was roughly the same weight and size as the M10, but had much more armor — double the armor of the M10 in some places. Does this sound like the unit represented by the “M18″ in the game right now? Sure does. For balance reasons the 90mm gun on the M36 could be made less powerful than the Pershing, but this doesn’t change the fact that the M36 — not the M18 — should be in the game.
NOTE: All data below comes from Wikipedia. Who has no reason to lie about World War II armor specifications.
M-10 Wolverine tank destroyer.
M10 Wolverine Weight: 29.6 tonnes (65,000 lb) Crew: 5 Armor: 9mm to 57.2 mm (0.3″ to 2.3″) Primary armament: 76.2 mm M7 gun Secondary armament: .50 cal Browning M2HB machine gun Speed: 51 km/h (32 mph)
M18 Hellcat, post-war.
M18 Hellcat Weight: 17.7 tonnes (39,000 lb) Crew: 5 Armor: 5mm to 25 mm (0.2″ to 1.0″) Primary armament: 76 mm (76.2 mm) M1A1 gun Secondary armament: .50 cal M2HB machine gun Speed: 88 km/h (55 mph)
The M36 Jackson, the only tank destroyer able to kill Tigers at range.
M36 Jackson Weight: 29 tonnes (64,000 lb) Crew: 5 Armor: 9mm to 108 mm (0.35″ to 4.25″) Primary armament: 90 mm M3 gun Secondary armament: .50 cal Browning M2HB machine gun Speed: 50 km/h (30 mph)
With the release of COH: Tales of Valor and the latest 2.501/2.502 patches, we’re looking at the biggest changes to the game since more than a year ago. To help you step up your game, I’m pleased to announce a fantastic new concept, the COH audio strategy series, Mind of a Master. This will be a multi-volume series of podcast-style audios, primarily featuring Steven “Surprise” Uray. Calling on all of my professional skills as a reporter, I interview Surprise on tape, covering a huge amount of material, split into about a dozen or so tracks.
Volume I, which you can sample in streaming format below, covers the following:
A top-ranked player’s impressions of patch 2.501/2.502 and how it compares overall to 2.301, including faction-by-faction and army vs. army changes
A high-level take on the new ToV units, including detailed descriptions of each new unit and whether it’s underpowered, overpowered or just right
Deep discussion about COH psychology and how Surprise uses his opponents’ emotions against them, including a section on mind games and how they apply to RTS matches
Surprise’s American play style — which took him to #1 on the 1v1 ladder — carefully explained, featuring detailed, step-by-step explanations on his tech order and how he counters specific Axis strategies and units
Surprise’s opinion on controversial balance issues, such as whether the Blitzkrieg doctrine is underpowered and whether the perennial complaint about “free” super tanks is now dead
You will always get the first two tracks for free, to give you an idea of what’s in the entire volume. In Volume I, you’ll get the introduction to Mind of a Master and a bio on Surprise, plus his rundown on what ToV brings to the game and how army matchups have changed.
For everything else, it’s $0.99 for any single track downloadable in MP3 format from Amazon.com, or a more economical $6.99 for the entire volume, downloadable as one album. Look for Volume I to be available sometime next week on Amazon — there’ll be an announcement here.
Meanwhile — let me know what you think! I realize charging a fee may seem to go against the community-minded Rifles Ready! spirit, but let’s face it. At $0.99 a track or $7 for the whole volume, it’s not going to break anybody’s bank and it’s going to give us a great incentive to produce high quality stuff. If you can’t give up the money for a footlong Subway sub, then don’t — just listen to the preview tracks. Think of buying the whole volume as a way to give back to us and get a fantastic extra out of it: a chance to get inside the mind of current COH masters! Later volumes will feature other top players in addition to Surprise.
With the completion of my beast-tacular new gaming rig, I thought I’d flip COH over to DirectX 10 and try out some of these crazy new graphics enhancements. You’ll all remember of course, that COH was among the first games to have DX10 support, which was added via patch update in late May 2007. Now, while I certainly enjoy having the latest and greatest PC hardware just the same as the next tech-geek, I have to admit I barely noticed a difference in the actual game.
The first thing I did notice was the presence of little rocks and flowers — all over the place. I loaded up a replay on Angoville to find the American base looking like a rock garden had been emptied into it. You can see for yourself what I mean. Relic’s official patch changelog describes the addition of “thousands of additional litter objects.” When they said thousands, they weren’t kidding.
The first thing you notice with DirectX 10 activated.
Now, you guys may like all these Mars rocks scattered everywhere. I think it looks absolutely retarded. I can see a few rocks — maybe 10% or 20% of the rocks and flora that currently appear in DX 10. But it’s way too much, kinda like the two-year-old who discovers crayons for the first time. Next thing you know, crayon art is over every smooth-textured object you own. It’s just immature art direction on the part of Relic.
Here’s a comparison shot of the strategic point by the southern base, first in DirectX 9 and then in DirectX 10. Click the images to enlarge them.
DirectX 9, graphics settings at maximum.
Rockville McFlowerland, graphics settings at maximum
I looked carefully at other aspects of COH’s graphics with DX 10 on, but I really can’t make out much, if any, differences. Not even improvements — I mean I literally find it impossible to tell them apart if I ignore the rocks, pebbles and dandelions.
There are supposed to be numerous lighting and shadow improvements, but I can’t notice them. Here’s the full list of claims:
Edges of particles are softened where intersecting 3D objects
Thousands of additional ‘litter’ objects in the world
Improved user control over anti aliasing settings
Alpha to coverage anti aliasing to improve quality of alpha test objects such as shrubs
Lighting quality has improved by moving all calculations per pixel
More precise point light calculations
Point lights can now cast shadows
3D short grass on the terrain
Vertical refresh synchronization is enabled by default to improve visual quality
Hardware PCF for improved shadow quality
If someone can defend these based on my screenshots (or the ones in the Legit Reviews article), feel free to comment. Anybody else with a DX-10-capable graphics card care to weigh in?
Posted by CorkscrewBlow 
Posted by CorkscrewBlow 
Posted by CorkscrewBlow 
. But I’m grateful for your patience and trust me — the next Battle Report and Volume I of Mind of a Master will be worth every minute of waiting.
