Hello as most of us are fans of Company of Heroes franchise and played Coh 1 and 2.

I would like to ask especially veterans what do they think about commander system. In Company of Heroes 3 so far they have somewhat customizable commander system so far from what i understand. You pick certain abilities and then you can use them in the battle.

It would be interesting to have something like this in Multiplayer as well, if they want to try something different which they should do , but i still know that this is Singeplayer we're talking about and not MP. But even in CoH 2 community requested customizable commanders and even added few commanders from community requests.

What do you think ? Should they stick to CoH 1 style where they had less commanders but it was more focused and detailed with directions to pick first to choose strategy. OR CoH 2 where they had a lot of them (which everyone could pick of and choose strategy)  but there was always balance issue i feel like. But even with a lot of them there we're meta commanders which people used so most of them saw lights only for a little while. 

What do you think ? 

Thanks ! I will take a look, i never got my hands on CoH online so let's see

@ShadowViper is that the answer what type of Commander Style will be implemented or is it another suggestion?

There are a few videos out there on it, I believe it was being developed before 2 so some aspects carried over (not enough), as for the way the trees worked if i remember correctly every commander had different specialties (no shock there) but then each commander had various sections, infantry, base, and vehicles, so then each section had its own tree and really you could move through the tree shown in the video or you could focus on say one perk of that tree.  So for example (not exact from game), you could have in the infantry section a tree that had engineers, the first perk may be combat engineers, and it could take like 5 points each point would make them more efficient at combat, but you could instead of putting 5 points into it put 1 and then move to the next perk in the tree which may be mines, and same thing can make bigger badder mines or open up the next ability/perk.  It really gave a lot of options to the player and made it so no two similar commanders (say two airborne) were alike, one may specialize in the paratroopers another may specialize in airstrikes.

COH2, not only the commanders but almost everything, the game pace, the UI the level of zoom out etc. 

coh 2 commanders are the worst aspect of Coh 2.   They add very little to the play style.  whereas in coh 1 the commanders were brilliant and locked you into that playstyle.  in coh 2 the units in the commander tree just dont really add anything to the battle and most of the time you dont even need to use them.  airborne abilities and things as well dont really allow you to ambush your opponents in attacks from the rear lines which loses some flavour.  

artillery commanders in coh 1 were brilliant and gave you great artillery with range but then you were not able to pull out super tanks.

i guess what i am saying is in coh 2, the commanders don't add much you can pretty much win without selecting a commander, it adds very little to your tactics.   in coh 1 the commander was life! it determined who you were and what you were going to do.  it also gave amazing units that really made an impact on the battle.

I'm going with Knightsubzero here. CoH 2 commanders are not that of a game changer as in CoH 1. Now don't get me wrong, some commanders from CoH 2 does actually change the game, like when you spawn Sturmtiger or Jagtiger. But those are rarely used. In CoH 1 every commander had his passive abilites and then callins. Whenever it was artillery or tanks/infantry and so on. In CoH 2 it's mixed everywhere and some commanders have 3/4 passive abilities and some got only callins.

As it is now, I say commanders are included within the tech system of the current factions. US has the clasics air, mech and combined arms (i think brits have the same), while the germans have spec ops, defensive and I think panzer.

I think this time we are not seeing doctrines like before, with the game focusing on subfactions (battlegroups) and reworking the bulletin system as detachments to work as call ins.

Either way, I just hope we don't fall into the same issues of old doctrines: to lock basic tools behind a doctrine and to make incomplete factions that require doctrines to be functional. All factions should be complete and doctrines should give extra tools to optimize toward certain strategy or playstyle

That said, CoH1 branch system was the best iteration of the mechanic we got so far.

I want a tree of abilities too. This is much better than discussing which commander is imba.

Hey all,

in my opinion the CoH1 doctrine system was the best and I hope they will use something similar for CoH3. In CoH2 the commanders were a mess. Further more I hope the reconnaissance reports don't make it into CoH3. To me it feels like they messed up the balancing for CoH2.

CoH 1 doctrine trees are superior in every way to CoH 2 commanders, except for variety. Most of what's been said previously I agree with:

- The doctrines need to be adding something to a faction, not patching up a hole in design. Basic tank traps, mines, and the like should not be the territory of the "defensive" commander; integrate these into the basic gameplay loop

-At least two branches should be placed in the tree. Ideally, these will offer interesting trade-offs making it a strategic choice of which powers you pick up and in what order. The end of at least one branch should be a super nuke, ability, or unit. Something that is designed to put an end to the match, preferably in a high risk/investment, high reward format. CoH comeback mechanics are great and all, but we should be finishing games inside of 1hr by design.

- It is the 3rd game in the series, so I would desire some innovative ideas/twists in there. By definition, these aren't things I can anticipate but maybe something beyond "resource trade/munitions strike/elite inf/elite vehicle."

At any rate I'm interested to see what they can come up with!

Bulletins can stay in CoH2; multiplayer progression rewards ought not to affect game balance. Bulletins are by their nature either too impactful, or too miniscule to really matter. This isn't CoD, I don't want to grind to unlock a bulletin that makes my favorite unit viable; shuffle this feature towards campaign or scrap it.

I think I am the minority here but i like COH 2 commanders style. I feel the commanders are just right to change the gameplay. not as drastic as the doctrines in COH 1. but I feel its just right. I can pick 3 commanders that would compliment my play. if 1 day I want to go defensive I choose a loadout 3 commanders with defensive focus. then a loadout of 3 commanders for tank. and another loadout of 3 commanders for artillery. or I can go balance loadout. if I want a really drastic change in game play I switch factions.

CoH 2 commanders lack identity. If I want to specialize on tanks in CoH 1, I had a commander made for this job. In CoH 2, there are so many commanders that have some special units but always also have some skill that I don't want or need at all when going for tanks. It never felt like "Pick the fitting commander" but "Pick the commander that has the least useless skills". Also: "Hey player, do you want this cool new special unit and this cool new ability (and four other abilities that this commanders shares with five others)? Well, for only 4$, you can use those two new (and four old) abilities!"

Something that might work would a Build-your-commander system. Players have 10 Points and use them to freely build a set before the match starts. So you can either get a bunch of cheap abilities (like faster production, etc.) or a few expensive ones (Kingtiger and V1 rocket). Or you just mix them as you like.

Please keep it SIMPLE... CoH1 for sure

Less is more!!!  Simplify, Clarify!!!

I like the coh2 commanders aswell, they gave more varierty and customization instead of just 3 fixed doctrines. But the tech tree with point's was cool.

So i would enjoy a combination of both systems.

Let me choose 3 commanders before the match and in the commanders integrate and tech tree where i can spend points. That would be the best combination imo.