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The Development Process and You!

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a month ago
Aug 14, 2024, 4:52:32 PM

As a supplement to our Fall & Winter Roadmap for Company of Heroes 3, we want to take the time to answer a few big questions about our development process. 


Since CoH3’s original release in February of 2023, our goal of improving the overall game experience has been bolstered by your continued support. Your feedback, survey responses, and engagement with the team has helped guide our ongoing development – work that will continue in the months ahead. 


Our focus is to bring new people into the Company of Heroes 3 community while keeping our active players as engaged as possible with new updates. We hope that many of our initiatives up to this point and moving forward can do just that! 


As a smaller team, we need to be strategic with our time and resources. This is even more true now as an independent studio. We often weigh the time, effort and cost that a certain feature or piece of content will have versus the impact it will have on the game. As an example, we knew it was critical to improve the singleplayer campaign and the onboarding tutorials (work we did in both Steel Shepherd & Onyx Shark) if we wanted to expand our multiplayer audience. Sounds counterintuitive, right? Most players that purchase and start CoH3 – upwards of 75% or more – start in singleplayer and either stick with it or take a break to play other games. If they don’t fall off too early and enjoy the singleplayer experience, a small percentage of players will try out the other CoH3 game modes such as multiplayer or co-op. That means we need to make sure players have a smooth and fun experience in those opening hours in hopes that they decide to stick with the game and eventually explore other modes. By improving the first-time player experience, we hopefully convert new players into longtime fans. 


Another point of discussion we see frequently is speculation on the cadence of updates, or the perceived time it takes to build certain types of content. The answer is a bit complicated. We can mostly summarize that process with these points: 

  • Available resources 
  • The complexity of the work 
  • The time it takes to get reliable data and feedback 
  • Any competing priorities for developer time


As an example, multiplayer maps in Company of Heroes 3 are a labor of love. We strive to create authentic and memorable multiplayer maps, all while keeping them balanced and fair – enabling our players to feel like they are contributing to some of the greatest battles in human history. This is a core pillar of the Company of Heroes franchise. While procedural generation or perfectly mirrored maps would save us time, we aim to immerse players in beautiful, gritty and realistic locales, and that is no mean feat. Creating a balanced but realistic location takes time, iteration and care. 


We also place considerable importance on the role our maps play in diversifying gameplay. If each map had identical distances between players, a perfectly manicured cover layout and a rigid resource layout, gameplay would quickly devolve into a stale meta and battles would be decided by player mistakes, not by skill or tenacity. By creating unique and varied maps for each size category, we are essentially creating a catalogue of new ways to play the game. Some of these may not be to everyone’s liking, but learning the quirks, pitfalls and strengths of each map adds a layer of mastery we take great pride in. 


When asked what their favorite moment across the Company of Heroes franchise might be, most people recite the name of the map rather than the gameplay itself; though both are extremely important, the backdrop is often more memorable than the story being told. It is important to us that we take the time to have a map meet our high standards versus getting one out quickly.  


Additionally, let’s look at the Battlegroup system. Battlegroups are the next evolution of the Doctrine system from the original Company of Heroes and the Commander system from Company of Heroes 2 - it utilizes some of the best parts of both, while being a more unique and engaging system for a player’s tactical decision making in battle. Unlike the Commander system, which often had redundancies or shared abilities and units between them, Battlegroups are larger with branching layouts that require meticulous design, balance, and testing. That means they are extremely time-intensive from a development standpoint and require the support of several specialists, or disciplines. 


This is perhaps best explained with an example. Within each of our Battlegroups is a hallmark unit (or two), such as the SSF Commando squad or Sherman Whizbang. Each unit requires artists to create the model, the skin, the portrait, their icons (and those of their abilities), their decorators, their weapons, damage and destruction states, weathering and their FX; designers and tech artists are required to hook up each of these to the unit itself, as well as more complex systems, such as physics, rigging and animations before we even consider their role in the game itself, their balance as part of the faction, or the 400+ lines of dialogue each unit has. Before we even get to playtesting and hunting for bugs, these new units have been touched by almost every discipline on the team for months at a time. 


The remainder of each Battlegroup is not simple work either – creating new abilities, whether passive or global, or reinventing systems or creating brand-new ones is equally challenging. Each Battlegroup consists of at least ten abilities, upgrades and unique units, and we have four factions to build them for! This amount of work can easily grow out of control if we are not careful and resourceful in our designs. 


We hope this brief post helps demystify what happens behind the scenes during the development process. We look forward to sharing more details about our next updates soon, but for now, you can check out our latest roadmap. If you have more questions, be sure to leave them in this thread and we will answer what we can! 


-- The Company of Heroes 3 Team

Updated a month ago.
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a month ago
Aug 16, 2024, 3:01:16 AM
John_RE wrote: retro bowl 

As a supplement to our Fall & Winter Roadmap for Company of Heroes 3, we want to take the time to answer a few big questions about our development process. 


Since CoH3’s original release in February of 2023, our goal of improving the overall game experience has been bolstered by your continued support. Your feedback, survey responses, and engagement with the team has helped guide our ongoing development – work that will continue in the months ahead. 


Our focus is to bring new people into the Company of Heroes 3 community while keeping our active players as engaged as possible with new updates. We hope that many of our initiatives up to this point and moving forward can do just that! 


As a smaller team, we need to be strategic with our time and resources. This is even more true now as an independent studio. We often weigh the time, effort and cost that a certain feature or piece of content will have versus the impact it will have on the game. As an example, we knew it was critical to improve the singleplayer campaign and the onboarding tutorials (work we did in both Steel Shepherd & Onyx Shark) if we wanted to expand our multiplayer audience. Sounds counterintuitive, right? Most players that purchase and start CoH3 – upwards of 75% or more – start in singleplayer and either stick with it or take a break to play other games. If they don’t fall off too early and enjoy the singleplayer experience, a small percentage of players will try out the other CoH3 game modes such as multiplayer or co-op. That means we need to make sure players have a smooth and fun experience in those opening hours in hopes that they decide to stick with the game and eventually explore other modes. By improving the first-time player experience, we hopefully convert new players into longtime fans. 


Another point of discussion we see frequently is speculation on the cadence of updates, or the perceived time it takes to build certain types of content. The answer is a bit complicated. We can mostly summarize that process with these points: 

  • Available resources 
  • The complexity of the work 
  • The time it takes to get reliable data and feedback 
  • Any competing priorities for developer time


As an example, multiplayer maps in Company of Heroes 3 are a labor of love. We strive to create authentic and memorable multiplayer maps, all while keeping them balanced and fair – enabling our players to feel like they are contributing to some of the greatest battles in human history. This is a core pillar of the Company of Heroes franchise. While procedural generation or perfectly mirrored maps would save us time, we aim to immerse players in beautiful, gritty and realistic locales, and that is no mean feat. Creating a balanced but realistic location takes time, iteration and care. 


We also place considerable importance on the role our maps play in diversifying gameplay. If each map had identical distances between players, a perfectly manicured cover layout and a rigid resource layout, gameplay would quickly devolve into a stale meta and battles would be decided by player mistakes, not by skill or tenacity. By creating unique and varied maps for each size category, we are essentially creating a catalogue of new ways to play the game. Some of these may not be to everyone’s liking, but learning the quirks, pitfalls and strengths of each map adds a layer of mastery we take great pride in. 


When asked what their favorite moment across the Company of Heroes franchise might be, most people recite the name of the map rather than the gameplay itself; though both are extremely important, the backdrop is often more memorable than the story being told. It is important to us that we take the time to have a map meet our high standards versus getting one out quickly.  


Additionally, let’s look at the Battlegroup system. Battlegroups are the next evolution of the Doctrine system from the original Company of Heroes and the Commander system from Company of Heroes 2 - it utilizes some of the best parts of both, while being a more unique and engaging system for a player’s tactical decision making in battle. Unlike the Commander system, which often had redundancies or shared abilities and units between them, Battlegroups are larger with branching layouts that require meticulous design, balance, and testing. That means they are extremely time-intensive from a development standpoint and require the support of several specialists, or disciplines. 


This is perhaps best explained with an example. Within each of our Battlegroups is a hallmark unit (or two), such as the SSF Commando squad or Sherman Whizbang. Each unit requires artists to create the model, the skin, the portrait, their icons (and those of their abilities), their decorators, their weapons, damage and destruction states, weathering and their FX; designers and tech artists are required to hook up each of these to the unit itself, as well as more complex systems, such as physics, rigging and animations before we even consider their role in the game itself, their balance as part of the faction, or the 400+ lines of dialogue each unit has. Before we even get to playtesting and hunting for bugs, these new units have been touched by almost every discipline on the team for months at a time. 


The remainder of each Battlegroup is not simple work either – creating new abilities, whether passive or global, or reinventing systems or creating brand-new ones is equally challenging. Each Battlegroup consists of at least ten abilities, upgrades and unique units, and we have four factions to build them for! This amount of work can easily grow out of control if we are not careful and resourceful in our designs. 


We hope this brief post helps demystify what happens behind the scenes during the development process. We look forward to sharing more details about our next updates soon, but for now, you can check out our latest roadmap. If you have more questions, be sure to leave them in this thread and we will answer what we can! 


-- The Company of Heroes 3 Team

The article provides an in-depth look at the development process of Company of Heroes 3, highlighting the importance of community feedback and a focus on quality over quantity. The development team has been transparent in sharing the challenges of improving the single-player experience and map design, showing that they are not simply releasing new content but are also concerned with the overall player experience. This not only builds trust but also encourages players to participate in the development process, creating a close-knit and active community.

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25 days ago
Aug 16, 2024, 10:27:50 PM

Thanks for the point, I appreciate it, it's realy cool. Keep it up, Relic, We believe in you :)

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23 days ago
Aug 19, 2024, 9:29:33 AM
John_RE wrote:

As a supplement to our Fall & Winter Roadmap for Company of Heroes 3, we want to take the time to answer a few big questions about our development process. 


Since CoH3’s original release in February of 2023, our goal of improving the overall game experience has been bolstered by your continued support. Your feedback, survey responses, and engagement with the team has helped guide our ongoing development – work that will continue in the months ahead. 


Our focus is to bring new people into the Company of Heroes 3 community while keeping our active players as engaged as possible with new updates. We hope that many of our initiatives up to this point and moving forward can do just that! 


As a smaller team, we need to be strategic with our time and resources. This is even more true now as an independent studio. We often weigh the time, effort and cost that a certain feature or piece of content will have versus the impact it will have on the game. As an example, we knew it was critical to improve the singleplayer campaign and the onboarding tutorials (work we did in both Steel Shepherd & Onyx Shark) if we wanted to expand our multiplayer audience. Sounds counterintuitive, right? Most players that purchase and start CoH3 – upwards of 75% or more – start in singleplayer and either stick with it or take a break to play other games. If they don’t fall off too early and enjoy the singleplayer experience, a small percentage of players will try out the other CoH3 game modes such as multiplayer or co-op. That means we need to make sure players have a smooth and fun experience in those opening hours in hopes that they decide to stick with the game and eventually explore other modes. By improving the first-time player experience, we hopefully convert new players into longtime fans. 


Another point of discussion we see frequently is speculation on the cadence of updates, or the perceived time it takes to build certain types of content. The answer is a bit complicated. We can mostly summarize that process with these points: 

  • Available resources 
  • The complexity of the work 
  • The time it takes to get reliable data and feedback 
  • Any competing priorities for developer time


As an example, multiplayer maps in Company of Heroes 3 are a labor of love. We strive to create authentic and memorable multiplayer maps, all while keeping them balanced and fair – enabling our players to feel like they are contributing to some of the greatest battles in human history. This is a core pillar of the Company of Heroes franchise. While procedural generation or perfectly mirrored maps would save us time, we aim to immerse players in beautiful, gritty and realistic locales, and that is no mean feat. Creating a balanced but realistic location takes time, iteration and care. 


We also place considerable importance on the role our maps play in diversifying gameplay. If each map had identical distances between players, a perfectly manicured cover layout and a rigid resource layout, gameplay would quickly devolve into a stale meta and battles would be decided by player mistakes, not by skill or tenacity. By creating unique and varied maps for each size category, we are essentially creating a catalogue of new ways to play the game. Some of these may not be to everyone’s liking, but learning the quirks, pitfalls and strengths of each map adds a layer of mastery we take great pride in. 


When asked what their favorite moment across the Company of Heroes franchise might be, most people recite the name of the map rather than the gameplay itself; though both are extremely important, the backdrop is often more memorable than the story being told. It is important to us that we take the time to have a map meet our high standards versus getting one out quickly.  


Additionally, let’s look at the Battlegroup system. Battlegroups are the next evolution of the Doctrine system from the original Company of Heroes and the Commander system from Company of Heroes 2 - it utilizes some of the best parts of both, while being a more unique and engaging system for a player’s tactical decision making in battle. Unlike the Commander system, which often had redundancies or shared abilities and units between them, Battlegroups are larger with branching layouts that require meticulous design, balance, and testing. That means they are extremely time-intensive from a development standpoint and require the support of several specialists, or disciplines. 


This is perhaps best explained with an example. Within each of our Battlegroups is a hallmark unit (or two), such as the SSF Commando squad or Sherman Whizbang. Each unit requires artists to create the model, the skin, the portrait, their icons (and those of their abilities), their decorators, their weapons, damage and destruction states, weathering and their FX; designers and tech artists are required to hook up each of these to the unit itself, as well as more complex systems, such as physics, rigging and animations before we even consider their role in the game itself, their balance as part of the faction, or the 400+ lines of dialogue each unit has. Before we even get to playtesting and hunting for bugs, these new units have been touched by almost every discipline on the team for months at a time. 


The remainder of each Battlegroup is not simple work either – creating new abilities, whether passive or global, or reinventing systems or creating brand-new ones is equally challenging. Each Battlegroup consists of at least ten abilities, upgrades and unique units, and we have four factions to build them for! This amount of work can easily grow out of control if we are not careful and resourceful in our designs. 


We hope this brief post helps demystify what happens behind the scenes during the development process. We look forward to sharing more details about our next updates soon, but for now, you can check out our latest roadmap  . If you have more questions, be sure to leave them in this thread and we will answer what we can eggy car


-- The Company of Heroes 3 Team

Thanks John. And that's what I want to see in this community. Keep it up!

Updated 23 days ago.
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23 days ago
Aug 19, 2024, 8:50:32 PM

Mostly general stuff which can be said about every game, but thanks for saying it.... Maybe finally unreasonable people stop spamming about new factions. I am going to keep most unreasonable negative stuff out, so at least some people can see it

Good choice to focus on improving of a SP experience, but it is still far from attractive for a lot of people, so you are not going to maintain whole company on it.
Try to make of it a intresting scenarios for fights... Script enemy decision more, so it is not mindless chorde, which atack first unit they see, without priorities. If you still can not fix SP stuff, then at least focus on missions and skirmishes.
Watch replays and communicate with players to get better feel of how it plays out. Try to choose some good replays and cast them as guides for new players.... I gave some basic advice to cluess ~1000 elo players and they improved immensely. Make it easier to acquire need knowledge to use units as they should be used..... DO NOT DUMB DOWN BALANCE FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN NOT USE TOOLS IN THEIR HANDS. Teachs them how to use them and focus on teaching how to avoid big mistakes, which cost them games. Nothing in a single player stuff teaches them it.

Back to online stuff... Focus on limiting frustration, to improve mechanics and controls this way, so missclicks are not possible, unless by a wrong keyboard input. Avoid possibilities of mouse missclicks... For balance.... To keep it short, just focus on thinking how factions can overcome all kind of situations and what can stop them. From watching replays you are going to feel it way better, than what pushed you to make jeeps 200mp.

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23 days ago
Aug 19, 2024, 8:59:23 PM

And some questions....

Can we know how many people work on COH3, outside paper work and communication? Maybe you know what needs to be done, but just it is not possible to jump over lack of people... It is going to scale expectations to what is possible, which allows to avoid let downs. How many people are engaged in playtesting? Why it is not possible to expand to open or close tests, at least for streamers?
Do you calculate how much customers you need to keep your company on the surface?
Does your engine limits you? Coz it seems to be hard or it takes long time, to add simple things. Idk if such a small team can maintain it...
Do you plan to clean up your code and this is a cause of slow progress of QoL improvements? Why double click retreat as an option in menu and a slider for a range of reverse click are not possible for 1.5 year? Not to mention putting units or abilities on more "stances" than "follow". Team weapons when set up, should not follow target when it got out of range. Why we can not get a target picking without stopping moving, maybe as a stance in a command card? And why leavers penalty works in 1v1? Are you really so short on resources to not being able to add variables?
I hope glassdoor reviews are not true, not all of them, but idk why someone would waste time to write such a long and detailed ones... And old ones seems to be prophetic to the day1 state of coh3.

Anyway, it is only a talk of frustrated addict, who decided to let off some steam on discord about stereotypes, when the true cause lays somewhere else.... Anyway, I feel that my feedback is pointless, when 1 value bug or a bug which work in the same way, as already fixed one are not attended...., coz it is gamepaly mechanics, so nobody cares, when most people do not use it. And another updates brings new functions, which should be there from start, but are designed in a way which brings even more frustration...
I guess it is time set myself free and get something to do worth attending.

Ah, btw A few time I had plans to write guides for people, and this is why I were trying to help out others on discord from time to time.... But the way things were handled pushed me back from wanting commit to it and some updates brought me back to thinking about it.... The lack of all sort of stuff, which were in need of adressing, just made me drop this idea. 1.70 brought mostly other things to address from gameplay / balance perspective without fixing at least easy stuff....

Updated 22 days ago.
0
23 days ago
Aug 19, 2024, 10:01:31 PM

Guys, fix the balance. Your M8 Scott broke the game. Goliath detonates from enemy aircraft flying over it, Jaegers with scoped Gewehr-43 are weaker than regular Jaegers. And many other things. Dedicate one day to fixing this. Why don't you fix obvious mistakes? HOTFIX IS NEEDED!

0
0
22 days ago
Aug 20, 2024, 9:32:15 AM
Sturmpanda wrote:

Guys, fix the balance. Your M8 Scott broke the game. Goliath detonates from enemy aircraft flying over it, Jaegers with scoped Gewehr-43 are weaker than regular Jaegers. And many other things. Dedicate one day to fixing this. Why don't you fix obvious mistakes? HOTFIX IS NEEDED!

Jaegers with scoped G43s are not weaker than regulars. Just did some testing in cheatcommands mod and they seem about equal. Besides, as the tooltip tells, the G43 provides vision, capture speed bonus and accuracy modifier against units in cover only. 

0
22 days ago
Aug 20, 2024, 10:08:59 AM
Threetoz wrote:
Sturmpanda wrote:

Guys, fix the balance. Your M8 Scott broke the game. Goliath detonates from enemy aircraft flying over it, Jaegers with scoped Gewehr-43 are weaker than regular Jaegers. And many other things. Dedicate one day to fixing this. Why don't you fix obvious mistakes? HOTFIX IS NEEDED!

Jaegers with scoped G43s are not weaker than regulars. Just did some testing in cheatcommands mod and they seem about equal. Besides, as the tooltip tells, the G43 provides vision, capture speed bonus and accuracy modifier against units in cover only. 

I created a separate thread about this which was completely ignored. https://community.companyofheroes.com/coh-franchise-home/company-of-heroes-3/forums/1-general-discussion/threads/12095-devs-you-forgot-to-buff-scoped-jaeger-g43-rifle-lol?page=1#post-40278 It started with the last patch. BTW they didn't forget to buff British scoped rifles but G43 did.

0
22 days ago
Aug 20, 2024, 1:41:47 PM
Sturmpanda wrote:

Guys, fix the balance. Your M8 Scott broke the game. Goliath detonates from enemy aircraft flying over it, Jaegers with scoped Gewehr-43 are weaker than regular Jaegers. And many other things. Dedicate one day to fixing this. Why don't you fix obvious mistakes? HOTFIX IS NEEDED!

I'd love a fix for planes firing outside their area. 

0
22 days ago
Aug 20, 2024, 8:56:14 PM

Request!!! The DAK battle group is very weak in combat, add in the late stages the ability to call in heavy Italian P40 tanks!! Make bright yellow autumn maps, and add the ability to change the weather and various effects!! Thank you

0
21 days ago
Aug 21, 2024, 8:36:42 AM
jiro_ wrote:
Sturmpanda wrote:

Guys, fix the balance. Your M8 Scott broke the game. Goliath detonates from enemy aircraft flying over it, Jaegers with scoped Gewehr-43 are weaker than regular Jaegers. And many other things. Dedicate one day to fixing this. Why don't you fix obvious mistakes? HOTFIX IS NEEDED!

I'd love a fix for planes firing outside their area. 

But it was fixed? Anyway, an area of planes is for marking targets, not the zone where they can atack.

0
19 days ago
Aug 23, 2024, 10:20:06 AM
Zuntew wrote:
jiro_ wrote:
Sturmpanda wrote:

Guys, fix the balance. Your M8 Scott broke the game. Goliath detonates from enemy aircraft flying over it, Jaegers with scoped Gewehr-43 are weaker than regular Jaegers. And many other things. Dedicate one day to fixing this. Why don't you fix obvious mistakes? HOTFIX IS NEEDED!

I'd love a fix for planes firing outside their area. 

But it was fixed? Anyway, an area of planes is for marking targets, not the zone where they can atack.

From experience, it's not fixed. 

While it is debatable, still there should be some limits how far out they can attack. Also planes do atack units staying close to the edge of 'marking area'.

0
14 days ago
Aug 28, 2024, 1:53:26 AM
Zuntew wrote: slice master 

And some questions....

Can we know how many people work on COH3, outside paper work and communication? Maybe you know what needs to be done, but just it is not possible to jump over lack of people... It is going to scale expectations to what is possible, which allows to avoid let downs. How many people are engaged in playtesting? Why it is not possible to expand to open or close tests, at least for streamers?
Do you calculate how much customers you need to keep your company on the surface?
Does your engine limits you? Coz it seems to be hard or it takes long time, to add simple things. Idk if such a small team can maintain it...
Do you plan to clean up your code and this is a cause of slow progress of QoL improvements? Why double click retreat as an option in menu and a slider for a range of reverse click are not possible for 1.5 year? Not to mention putting units or abilities on more "stances" than "follow". Team weapons when set up, should not follow target when it got out of range. Why we can not get a target picking without stopping moving, maybe as a stance in a command card? And why leavers penalty works in 1v1? Are you really so short on resources to not being able to add variables?
I hope glassdoor reviews are not true, not all of them, but idk why someone would waste time to write such a long and detailed ones... And old ones seems to be prophetic to the day1 state of coh3.

Anyway, it is only a talk of frustrated addict, who decided to let off some steam on discord about stereotypes, when the true cause lays somewhere else.... Anyway, I feel that my feedback is pointless, when 1 value bug or a bug which work in the same way, as already fixed one are not attended...., coz it is gamepaly mechanics, so nobody cares, when most people do not use it. And another updates brings new functions, which should be there from start, but are designed in a way which brings even more frustration...
I guess it is time set myself free and get something to do worth attending.

Ah, btw A few time I had plans to write guides for people, and this is why I were trying to help out others on discord from time to time.... But the way things were handled pushed me back from wanting commit to it and some updates brought me back to thinking about it.... The lack of all sort of stuff, which were in need of adressing, just made me drop this idea. 1.70 brought mostly other things to address from gameplay / balance perspective without fixing at least easy stuff....

 It’s common for game development teams to be smaller than players expect, especially for ongoing support and updates. This can lead to limitations in how quickly features and fixes can be implemented.

0
9 days ago
Sep 2, 2024, 1:46:07 PM

We want to support the game, but there is like no other way to do it apart from buying skins or DLCs. Can we get a "cosmetics" roadmap and releases ? I spent  real money for buying half finished collectibles and now I am waiting for ages to have new things in the store... You need our support but give no finished releases, sounds counterintuitive right? 

0
8 days ago
Sep 3, 2024, 6:09:21 AM

the singleplayer campaign is long and empty, the story should serve the game and show unit and feature, but i feel more like you telling a long and empy story and have little to do with the game.


the campaign should have more unique gameplay like more enemy company harassment and counterattack, more limited resourse, not like a trip.


the visial and sound effect is still no better than coh2.


how about allow player to paint their unit and selling decorations.

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