Will there be other storylines for other factions? for example for the Germanic faction? Or, let's say, for new factions like Japan or the USSR

Will there be an option for players who want to go for a full historical campaign? I'm not against having the campaign like Ardennes assault, but will there be an option for players who want to play the campaign, but full linear historical just like in CoH1 and CoH2? 

Philip_RE wrote:

We recognize our responsibility as storytellers, so we have been working with WW2 scholars and cultural sensitivity experts throughout development.

Yeah, Ill believe it when I see it.

CoH2's campaign was 100% "myths made real" with barely a scrap of authenticity.

Philip_RE wrote:
breathing life and story into ... Multiplayer.

How do you intend to achieve that, given how multiplayer had traditionally little to do with any kind of narrative. Through the unit voiceovers? Soldiers sharing war stories in case a unit was left to its own devices for a while?

Hi Philip, Thank you for sharing the direction you're headed with the narrative. I'm intrigued and actually always enjoyed history lessons so you've sparked my curiosity.  You had me at "So now the German forces are busy causing havoc in southern Italy like gremlins fed after midnight." I hope the premise for the story arc is not rooted on the rivalry between British and us forces. Although it may be historically accurate and should be reflected in the narrative, if that is the constant "challenge" throughout the invasion I feel like it could potentially dull the real magnitude of the real conflict between the Allies and Axis. 

Harris - I think they can do it through multi-player by making the maps you play, the art style and decor of the troops and weapons appear authentic to the time and locale, not a direct story per se but it does breath life as you play and create your own MP stories/memories.

I am looking forward to hearing more, there is obviously more to come because the trailer included Tobruk which was long before the Italian campaign. I like that things are starting off with the invasion of sicily, a great place to get the campaign map and skirmish battles going. There is a ton of potential in this new campaign map and the replayability that it can bring to game is great.

I think I will wait a bit longer to get more information before i really lean into making suggestions and giving feedback. There is so far are too many questions bouncing around in my head.

Since balancing the US and UK forces seems to be a primary focus, will there be dilemmas in the campaign, where you increase reputation with the UKF for example, but decrease reputation with the USF? Currently the campaign map in the pre-alpha doesn't seem to have much of a rivalry between the factions, outside of excerpts from the officers, and it'd be nice to have options to make the campaign more replayable. 

I am very excited to see how this campaign map pans out, as it's always been a dream of mine to see a Total-war-like game for WW2. That said, I did enjoy the campaigns of COH1 as well, and it seems that the fanbase feels similarly, so maybe having more traditional campaign offerings at some point may be a good idea to not split the fanbase. It's kinda like how Zelda Breath of the Wild was universally loved, but a sizeable chunk of the fanbase felt like it drifted too much from the established formula for their liking.

@Philip_RE Thanks for the Narrative Overview! I really enjoy the latest dev posts! Please keep them coming :)

Sounds promising!

AstonMonty wrote:

Since balancing the US and UK forces seems to be a primary focus, will there be dilemmas in the campaign, where you increase reputation with the UKF for example, but decrease reputation with the USF? Currently the campaign map in the pre-alpha doesn't seem to have much of a rivalry between the factions, outside of excerpts from the officers, and it'd be nice to have options to make the campaign more replayable. 

Yes, dilemmas are definitely something we're aiming to include. We want player decisions to have meaning and consequences from a narrative perspective as well as gameplay. As you said, it's a good way to add replayability and it's one of the key ways we're looking to do make multiple play-throughs varied and interesting.

Hello Everyone, I have some ideas but not sure if this is in Philp RE wheel house for narrative design. I think this question is more for art dept is that Leanne? I know Sacha is Maps/Philip is Narrative, John is the heavy hitter enforcer but this question I have impacts narrative so I'm going to ask. I read somewhere already a constructive feedback comment that the 3D character generals in the map that represent US/British/Partisan leaders in the campaign were not the way to go. The post was actually a bit more harsh if i recall but it was negative feedback on the caricature design. I must concur that after playing it again today after that person mentioned it in the thread I couldn't help but notice it was a bit "dated"? It really didn't bother me my first playthrough but now I'm critiquing the interface a bit more even if I up'd my graphics I don't know if it's the direction they should stick with for the art design in campaign mode. Just to be clear, I'm also not a fan of the C&C real life actors cutscenes either, it always gave a soft core b rated indie movie vibe that bald guy for Nod cut scenes with the poor acting always cheapened my experience but the gameplay was great so I could stomach the awful real video acting aspect. So don't worry Relic I'm not asking for you to go get the Rock to play General Taube. I remember on Turbo Graphics 16 the Sherlock Holmes game had like real video in the game, that was the first time I saw video footage implemented in a game and it like floored me when i saw acting in a video game, this was in the 80's so i'm sure now it looks awful. I think in COH2 they just did voiceovers there was no animation character and that actually may be better for pre RTS map breakdowns. Now if you actually create the Leaders as real characters in the RTS portion of the games that you control them as a unit, and they talked during the story line, then maybe that would be an option. I don't really have a solution or alternate idea that would work, I'd have to go play Coh and coh 2 again to see how they implemented characters. From Felipe's post for russian campaign in coh 2 I think it was more videos of clips of video game characters playing out the scenes which allowed them to build the environment like a movie and we were a viewer. The way they have it now is like they are talking to us (the gamer) directly as the new general but instead of a mini-window maybe have them behind a map table that we can zoom out of and see the map room in a bunker or ship or something? I'm think aloud now but maybe improving that art design could really improve the narrative at the same time. In a previous post I spoke of this.........

"Cwar49ers wrote:

So for starters I personally don't like the still shot written paragraph with drawing circled photos for the pre-RTS match bio. I really appreciated the 3D art design table of coh 1 and coh 2, especially coh 2 it was like 3D zooming in with a ww2 guys voice over. "Listen up gents Gerry's been pounding our boys....." you get my point. The still screen shot is a hopefully just pre alpha to avoid giving storyline away. I hope. Gone are the days of worrying about fitting everything onto cd roms right, let's not get lazy on the map breakdowns. There is always something about Rainbox Six (the original) that i loved about preplanning my entry/attack into the hostage room. I like that table top general with icons to move around. The intro to the game showed a series of moves the player did before we got to the pre alpha in naples. I'd be interested in seeing what that layout and UI looked like, what options were available and it mentions paradrop behind enemy lines which to me seems like it's an open sandbox to an extent and not just choose route a, b, or c. I really like that idea of creating our own attack plan on italy. Ambitious and probably tough to pull off but i like the concept as probably would others"

If the company is step-by-step, I will not even buy it, because this is no longer a strategy, but complete garbage.

Me esta gustando mucho la linea narrativa, con solo pensar en que puedan a llegar a haber diferentes campañas cada una con su historia me parece increíble, algo que estaría bueno seria el hecho de que trabajaran mas la narrativa de los enemigos, es decir por ejemplo un general enemigo o de los mismos partisanos.

I'm really liking the narrative line, just thinking that there could be different campaigns, each one with its own story seems incredible, something that would be good would be the fact that they would work more on the narrative of the enemies, for example an enemy general or the partisans themselves.

In the first aspect I am liking too much the innovative work that they put to the saga, from CoH to CoH2 the difference is very noticeable, if they continue working like this CoH3 is going to be spectacular, I believe that a game with good narrative can be even addictive to play.

Thanks for the feedback on the presentation and design of the generals, @Cwar49ers. There will be a lot more story in the full game and how we present that is a hot topic at the moment so your comments are very useful. I can confirm, though, that The Rock will not be appearing in the game :)