Multiplayer
For multiplayer, there are 3 new modes being added. Now, in addition to playing normal skirmishes (Annihilate or Victory Points), ToV introduces these completely new multiplayer modes that are similar to "custom maps" or mods in other RTS games.
Operation Stonewall
Official details can be found here: http://community.companyofheroes ... operation-stonewall
Operation Stonewall is a defence game. 1-4 players co-operatively defend a town by surviving through 16 waves of increasingly difficult enemies. There are capturable buildings that grant bonuses, and you gain resources by destroying enemy units. Each player has an HQ located in the center of the map that must survive - units and technology are produced/researched here. If you've ever played a Tower Defence kind of game (Of course, this is with units, not towers only), this will be familiar territory. The first waves are easy, but later on things get tougher as units come in larger numbers and with stronger units, in addition to coming from multiple directions all around the map.
There are 4 capturable buildings in the game that are farther from the center, and are located in the North/East/South/West sectors of the map. Although they pose a challenge to defend, (as enemies will attempt to destroy it in their path), each building provides unique bonuses, in addition to being an additional outpost that can reinforce and build units. The buildings are: The Church, which heals friendly infantry units, the Garage, which provides a repair bonus to engineer units, the Manor, which provides an increase in population cap, and the Bank, which provides bonus manpower income.
In addition, commander abilities, like air strikes, can be gained after defeating certain waves. Unfortunately there is no difficulty adjustments, but the difficulty does change depending on the amount of players playing Stonewall. Like all the new MP modes, there is only one map for this mode as of 2.501.
Operation Assault
Assault is something similar to AoS-style games, or if you prefer more popular terms, "DotA", a popular custom map from Warcraft 3. AoS (Aeon of Strife I believe) was a custom map concept made way back in Starcraft that launched into complete stardom, with many other custom maps of Blizzard's games using the same concept/template as it once did. Refer to the above FAQ section if you do not know what an AoS type of game is.
Assault has not yet been officially documented about by Relic. In Assault there are 7 different classes to choose from: Commando, Heavy-Weapons Specialist, Medic, Recon Scout, Engineer (Pioneer on Axis side), Sniper, and Officer.
Like most class/hero based games, each class has distinct abilities and attributes. Some will be better than others in certain situations, but more importantly, teamwork is the key to bringing out the full potential of each "hero", and ultimately, victory of your team.
As players fight it out, their "hero" gains experience which leads to gaining skill points, which can be spent on 3 attributes: Weapon damage, armour, and grenade power. When you die, you have the choice of choosing a different class - however, you keep your attributes and thus your progress.
There is no command tree to level through in Assault. In a podcast interview, ToV developers stated that if such a thing were implemented in Assault, it would make things too complicated.
Like all the new MP modes, there is only one map for this mode as of 2.501
Refer to the above FAQ section if you do not know what an AoS game is.
Operation Panzerkrieg
Official details can be found here:
http://community.companyofheroes ... eration-panzerkrieg
Panzerkrieg (meaning "Tank War" in German) is the only MP mode that uses Direct Fire. This is a tank-only mode. It pits the Allies vs the Axis. Up to 6 players can play this mode. Players must choose one of 3 possible tank choices, then proceed to capture victory points on the map and hunt down enemy players. For Allied players, they can choose either the M18 Hellcat, M4 Sherman, or Mk IV Churchill tanks. The Axis can choose between the Hotchkiss H39, Panzer IV, and Panther.
Like the Assault multiplayer mode, or the ToV campaigns, each tank has unique abilities that can be unlocked through the Command Tree as you gain experience from killing enemies or capturing points. For example, the Hellcat and Hotchkiss are speedy, lighter tanks that can become ambushers and can gain the ability to lay mines.
Details about each tank's abilities:
Note: Please note that the abilites are listed in random order and do not represent the command trees. As usual, more info to fill in missing things will be updated as they come out.
Allied Tanks
-M18 Hellcat: A speedy but less armoured tank made for offensive fights. Can gain the ability to lay mines, switch between two types of armour-piercing rounds, camouflage for a first-strike bonus, gain increased visibility that also allows it to detect stealthed units more easily, and can "mark" an enemy target temporarily that makes them more vulnerable to attacks and reveals the target even through fog of war.
-M4 Sherman: A medium tank with jack-of-the-trades upgrades. Can gain the ability to clear mines with a Crab Mine Flail, gain a .50 cal MG gunner, deploy smoke, and can gain the 76mm gun upgrade that "...offers a long range, high explosive, armor piercing, area attack."
-Mk IV Churchill:A heavily armoured tank that is more support and defense oriented. Can gain a speed upgrade, hull down ability ('dig in' to trade mobility for increased defence), a flamethrower weapon, a Tread Breaker ability that temporarily immobilizes a hit vehicle, a field repair ability the heals friendly vehicles in an area, and Heroic Assault, which temporarily improves visibility and attack speed for friendlies.
Axis Tanks
-Hotchkiss H39: Small, speedy light tank that excels in offensive fights. Can gain the ability to camouflage for a first strike bonus, lay mines, immobilize targets like Tread-Breaker, and can gain the Wurfrahmen 40 rocket upgrade, which has been described as slow to take off but quite powerful against stationary enemies.
-Panzer IV: A medium tank with jack-of-the-trade abilities. Can gain upgrades to speed and damage of main gun, Armoured Skirts, a speed overdrive ability (temporarily increases movement speed), and can gain the ability to field repair itself.
-Panther: A heavier tank that lends itself more to support and defensive abilities. Can gain Armoured Skirts, a Blitzkrieg ability that temporarily increases speed and firepower, deploy smoke, call in artillery strikes, an ability that immobilizes the Panther but grants camouflage and increased range/damage (like a sniping mode) and can gain a never-before-seen ability, White Phosphorus rounds that are effective against clustered infantry.
The objective is to take down the enemy's victory tickets to 0. This is done by holding more Victory Points on the map than the opposing team, which causes their tickets to slowly decrease. In addtion, the team loses Victory tickets whenever one of their player's tank is killed, so careless deaths are a "no-no" in this mode.
However, unlike normal skirmishes, each Victory Point also grants bonuses to the team controlling them. Each Victory Point represents a different bonus, and the longer one is held, the more abilities that become available. 3 types of points have been confirmed: A Radio tower that grants air support commander abilities, a Mortar tower that grants random mortar strikes from an indestructible building in the middle, and an Infantry tower, that grants additional types of computer-controlled deployable infantry.
The Radio Tower grants (Allied first / Axis after) Recon Runs/Flares initially, with Strafing Run / Firestorm and Bombing Run / Henschel Run coming afterwards as the point is held for longer periods of time.
The Mortar tower does not grant any commander abilities - rather, controlling the point means a building in the middle of the map will launch random mortars at enemy tanks when line of sight is provided. These mortars are incredibly strong and can immobilize tanks.
The Infantry point allows you to deploy anti-infantry squads initially, with more expensive stealth squads (camouflaged squad armed with sniper rifles and sticky bombs) becoming available after the point is held for a while.
The amount of victory tickets can be adjusted before game starts, with a choice between 250, 500, or 1000. Like all the new MP modes, there is only one map for this mode as of 2.501
New Multiplayer Abilities
Mark Target: This is an ability that the PE Schwimmwagen Type 128 may have in multiplayer if the PE player's doctrine is Luftwaffe. It is also a confirmed ability for the M18 Hellcat and Hotchkiss in Panzerkrieg.
What this ability does is "mark" a target. The target is now more vulnerable to attacks (increased received accuracy), and vision of the target is granted. In addition, the "marked" target is revealed even through the fog of war.
White Phophorus rounds: Confirmed for the T17 Armored Car (U.S) in normal skirmishes, and the Panther in Panzerkrieg mode. For the T17 Armored Car in normal skirmishes, WP rounds is used to stun targeted vehicles. When hit, the vehicle is surrounded by a white smoke effect, and cannot move or fire temporarily.
In Panzerkrieg, the Panther can use this to blind an enemy tank, disabling their weapons and slowing movement speed.
Trivial fact: There is actually a lot of unused German dialogue about white phosphorus in CoH (OF speech files, specifically). This leads me to believe that WP was a cancelled concept and has been revived with Tales of Valor.
New Multiplayer Units
Tiger Ace as a Reward Unit
The Tiger 205 is a confirmed reward unit and is an alternative to the Wehrmacht Tiger. Note that there is no real difference between the two in multiplayer, besides the skin and voices. In other words, it's just a reward skin for beating the Tiger Ace campaign.
New Multiplayer Units for normal skirmishes
Relic announced that there are 8 new vehicle units being introduced with ToV, with 2 per faction. However, they work differently. Instead of being completely new units added to each faction's tech tree, these units serve as alternative options that can be "swapped" with a "classic" unit that fills the same role.
Your unit choice can be decided in the lobby, through the "Rewards" tab which contains a new sub-tab called "Vehicles".
For example, you can decide between using the new Kangaroo Carrier or the classic Cromwell Tank in the lobby, by ticking or unticking the Kangaroo listed on the page.
These new units will have differences, but overall, they will still fill the same role as the unit it is replacing. This supposedly will allow better flexibility and pre-game strategy planning, while keeping balance woes to a minimum.
However, most of the new units do have different resource costs than their classic counterparts.
The units listed here are using the official in-game names.
Confirmed officially:
* M18 Hellcat (U.S Tank Destroyer): Confirmed as alternative to M10 Wolverine. The Hellcat looks and behaves similarly to the M10 Wolverine at first sight. However, the M18 Hellcat can be upgraded with an MG, and it has an ability to lock-down camouflaged for a first-strike bonus. Downsides include less frontal armour penetration and slightly less speed than the M10, despite the tooltip stating it is faster.
* T17 Armored Car (U.S Armored Car): Confirmed as alternative to M8 Greyhound. The U.S version of the Staghound lacks the Mine Drop ability of the Greyhound, but has a new ability called White Phosphorus Round. It is used to shoot at a targeted enemy vehicle, which will stun the vehicle with a white smoke effect, rendering it immobile and unable to fire temporarily.
Aside from the ability, the American T17 is statistically similar to the Greyhound. Mobility is identical, but the T17 costs 10 more fuel and has +25 more health. The T17 shoots semi-fast: It shoots faster than an M8 Greyhound but slower than an Ostwind.
This means its main weapon is weaker, but faster, making the T17 more effective against infantry but less effective against vehicle counterparts, unlike the M8 Greyhound.
The T17 gains sandbags (skin add-on, doubles the T17's maximum health) at veterancy 1, unlike the M8, which must be upgraded with Armored Skirts to double its health.
* Kangaroo Carrier (British Armoured Personnel Carrier): Confirmed as alternative to Cromwell Tank. The Kangaroo Carrier has 4 unit slots and a 15 unit capacity garrison. When carrying troops, up to 6 units will appear at the open top, whom can attack. Like other open-top transports or buildings, the squads/units will change places to adapt to appropriate threads - for example PIAT Sappers will jump up when vehicles are nearby. Plus, infantry inside do not suffer from moving accuracy penalties. But, unlike other transports, these infantry cannot be harmed until the Kangaroo is destroyed.
The Kangaroo Carrier has tank-like armour and a weak frontal MG; despite the MG, it still relies very heavily on carrying infantry to make it useful.
In addition, Tommies carrying Bren Guns can use "Button Vehicle" while being transported - The Kangaroo can still move around while "Button Vehicle" is used. Lieutenants on board can also use their "Forward Observation Artillery". Lastly, the Kangaroo can use the "Hull Down" ability from the Royal Engineer Support doctrine.
*Staghound Armoured Car (British): Confirmed as alternative to Cromwell Command Tank. The Staghound still functions as a command vehicle that is required to be built at least once to tech up to Fireflies. It does not appear to have any new abilities, but it can be upgraded with an MG. The Staghound replacement is less armoured, but is a more mobile armed vehicle that is effective against light targets. Compared to the U.S version, this Staghound shoots at a slower rate, but each round is more powerful (similar to the M8 Greyhound's shots).
In addition it can use the "Hull Down" ability from the Royal Engineer Support doctrine.
As of 2.501, the Staghound Armoured Car is bugged. The vehicle aura does not show up or appear to work, despite the tooltip stating that it has a vehicle aura. Plus, you can build more than 1, meaning there is no hardcap. With these bugs, the Staghound is basically a more expensive Stuart that comes later, and it is not recommended to use this unit until the bugs are fixed.
* Schwimmwagen Type 166 (Wehrmacht Car): Confirmed as alternative to Wehrmacht Motorcycle. The Wehrmacht Schwimmwagen is an open-top car that can reverse, unlike the Motorcycle. This Schwimmwagen costs more than the Motorcycle and has a more powerful MG, but noticeable has less mobility. It also takes longer to build and has almost double the upkeep rate of the Motorcycle.
Schwimmwagens of both varieties do not suffer from movement penalties when moving through water. Note that it cannot actually swim through deep water (the engine does not support this) - swampy areas like those found in Beuax Lowlands is what it can go through at full speed.
* Geschutzwagen (Wehrmacht Tank Destroyer): Confirmed as alternative to StuG IV. This unit looks similar to a Marder III - an open top vehicle on treads. This unit not only has a main AT gun, but also a secondary MG. In addition, it has an ability that allows it to shoot almost twice as fast temporarily.
The Geschutzwagen is essentially a vehicle sniper - it has an extremely high damage shot and a long range, but also has a rather long reload time. Likewise, it's slow mobility and low armour makes it vulnerable when caught up close against AT of any kind, or penetrating small arms.
* Schwimmwagen Type 128 (Panzer Elite Car): Confirmed as alternative to the Kettenkrad. The Schwimmwagen for PE is an unarmed closed-top car, and may have one of three abilities, depending on the doctrine chosen:
Luftwaffe - Mark Target
Scorched Earth - Scorched Earth
Tank Destroyer - Mine Drop
Schwimmwagens of both varieties do not suffer from movement penalties when moving through water. Note that it cannot actually swim through deep water (the engine does not support this) - swampy areas like those found in Beuax Lowlands is what it can go through at full speed.
* Hotchkiss Light Tank: Confirmed as alternative to the Panzer IV Infantry Support Tank. The Hotchkiss is a light tank that is able to be upgraded with rockets called Wurfrahmen 40 (aka Walking Stukas) for 150 munitions. 4 missiles can be launched in a single barrage. In addition, it can upgrade its main gun to one with a longer barrel for 50 munitions, which increases penetration but makes it slightly less effective against infantry.
[ 本帖最後由 Deathnote 於 2009-4-16 17:25 編輯 ] |
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