Steam Release and Rework news - Company of Heroes: Modern Combat for Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts

Hi again everyone!

Just to avoid any confusion from the get-go: yes, it's been over five (!) months since version 1.019 went live... and no, this isn't in regards to a new patch.

There are two reasons for this announcement:

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Firstly:

As some of you might already be aware, Modern Combat has now been Greenlit on Steam via the Company of Heroes Mod Initiative, and will soon be downloadable just like any other Steam game (a huge thankyou to SgtConti for setting everything up!).

This will hopefully sort out ~90% of all issues that people report regarding installation, particularly BAT file issues, directory misunderstandings and download interruptions. It will also make Modern Combat accessible to the entire Steam community (and hopefully give the mod's dwindling playerbase a shot in the arm).

There are several major obstacles that need to be addressed before the release can go ahead, but if all goes to plan (which it almost never does) then expect our Steam debut in approximately two weeks!

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Secondly:

Several times over the past few months I've mentioned a proposed rework of Modern Combat. After many months of personal experimentation behind the scenes, I think it's time to elaborate.

The plan is to create - for all intents and purposes - a Modern Combat v2.0 for CoH1. This rework would involve a complete overhaul of factions, units and doctrines, all with the intent of:

• Making Modern Combat truly stand out, and less of a stylistic imitation of the original CoH (with the implementation of unique game mechanics entirely new to CoH modding).
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• Breathing new life into the mod (taking the familiar and making it fresh again), as well as making a few select additions to the rosters of both factions. This would be an extremely efficient way to make full use of our existing assets whilst also giving the playerbase something novel to re-explore.
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• Merging the US Army and Marine Corps into a single US faction (no more half-arsed standalone USMC faction), and then offering players the use of both factions (US and China) regardless of the DLC they own (or don't own).
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• Taking the opportunity to incorporate long-requested additions and weed out the most unpopular elements of the mod.

I've already created a private demo build of the rework, and following small-scale internal testing have received some encouraging feedback, particularly concerning the unit overhauls and new game mechanics.

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However It's currently a solo project, with vital team-members like Darkbladecr inundated at university and DMz and Beefy working tirelessly (not punny?) over at Eastern Front for the past few months. Very little can be done in the realm of 3D modelling and animating until/unless these team-members are able to return.

Nevertheless, should this rework end up going ahead as planned, I'm eager to involve the fans moreso than we did during the initial release of Modern Combat in March 2012. If the community seems interested enough in such a project then I'll upload the current faction design documents for everyone to scrutinise and discuss.

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All the best!

~ Spoon, on behalf of the Modern Combat team.