The upcoming strategy game Company of Heroes 3 will be released in November, so this is of course the perfect time to talk about the Company of Heroes 3 expansion and post-launch content. As part of the latest announcement, Relic revealed that anyone who pre-orders the WWII game can receive the Devil’s Brigade Pack, which will include new cosmetic skins based on the “first elite commando squads” of the conflict.
The premium editions, both digital and physical, also grant access to the game’s first expansion, due out in 2023. But while lead campaign designer Sasha Narrine had plenty to say on the subject of downloadable content, I wasn’t going to go into details. the details of the DLC. what to expect
“Everything changed,” says Narrin. “We can still do extensions like [Tales of Valor and Opposing Fronts], but the expectations of the players are different. They don’t want to wait nine months or a year for a big expansion. They want to see more, they want to see things more often.”
“Now we have different audiences to serve,” says Narrin. “Are we trying to offer something for hardcore PvP? [players]or players focused on the campaign? I see the extension model as something that has not disappeared, but has changed. We have to be very aware of what we are building. And that we build the right things, because we no longer build in isolation. This is very important for extension development because they are large and expensive.
Narrin mentions Tales of Valor as something Relic sees as a key lesson for post-launch support. “Really cool design lessons came out of this project, it had three small campaigns, complete with modes,” she explains.
One mode is called Assault, which Narrine says is partially inspired by Dota, and there’s also Panzer Creek, where players take control of individual tanks. Finally, there’s Stonewall, which is a cooperative themed survival mode. “These experiments were really cool,” says Narrin, “and we got a lot of great feedback on them. But we discovered that they did not have a wide reach, they did not have the audience that we wanted.
For Relic, this is a simple anecdote that reinforces the studio’s desire to be more connected to its community regarding the development of Company of Heroes 3 through its CoH development program. “Good intentions and good quality don’t always lead to big wins,” Narrin reflects. “We had some good ideas and people were happy with the outcome, but they didn’t keep people in the game and they weren’t as excited as we hoped.”
What about the next expansion for Company of Heroes 3? Narrin did not comment on the details. “There will be successive little updates to balance, customization, maps, and so on,” he confirms. “There will be free content, there will be paid content, there will be everything you can imagine in terms of support once this game is released.”
All we know for sure at this point is that there’s a cosmetic DLC pack and some sort of expansion coming next year; the rest is a mystery for now. Narrin also suggests that there is an internal desire to look for smaller, more unique modes that suit all types of players, not just PvP fans. “Everyone in the studio is looking at the cooperative modes that we’ve done in the past… I’m still a fan of The Last Frontier. [mode] from Dawn of War 2,” he explains.
Personally, I hope that we will see more dynamic campaigns. At launch, Company of Heroes 3 will only feature two campaigns: the aforementioned 1943 Italian campaign and the recently announced North African campaign, which does not feature a campaign map. While it probably won’t be as easy to do (and future ones will likely be a lot smaller), it would be a shame if Relic didn’t explore this new area more.
Company of Heroes 3 release date is November 17 and pre-orders are now available.
Source : PC Gamesn
