Company of Heroes 3 - Battlegroups

Overview

In Company of Heroes 3, Battlegroups represent the next installment of the Command Doctrines from Company of Heroes 1 or the Commanders from Company of Heroes 2. In Multiplayer, Battlegroups will augment and supplement core armies with unique tools, units, upgrades and abilities. Before a match starts, players will be able to select up to three Battlegroups that they may want to use at some point during a match. Once the match begins, players can lock in the Battlegroup they would like to use for the remainder of the game. Once a Battlegroup has been locked, the player will not be able to switch to either of the other two Battlegroups they originally brought into the match.  

Each Battlegroup is comprised of 10 Battlegroup Abilities and is split into two main branches. Like Company of Heroes 1, players will earn Command Points that they can spend to unlock abilities throughout the Battlegroup as they go down each branch of the Battlegroup tree.  

Rationale

Since Company of Heroes 1, we’ve always wanted the Commander system to add variety and “flavor” to core armies, allowing players to quickly adapt their tactics, define their strategies and fulfill an immersive playstyle centered around a Commander’s theme. The Battlegroup system is an evolution of the Commander system intended to continue this legacy while expanding upon it by increasing the diversity of strategies available to the player. This is intended to promote the replayability of each Battlegroup, allowing players to use the same Battlegroup a variety of different ways across many matches. This is achieved by providing multiple branches a player can go down within a Battlegroup tree and offering meaningful choices at each point of a branch.

Key Points

• Each Battlegroup consists of ten abilities / units / upgrades split into two main branches 
• Before a match, the player chooses three Battlegroups to bring into a match 
• During a match, the player locks in one of the three Battlegroups to augment their army and support their strategy 
• During a match, the player earns and spends Command Points (CP) to unlock Battlegroup abilities along either branch of the Battlegroup tree  
• Once a Battlegroup ability is unlocked, the ability may be used at any point during a match (resources permitted) 

Battlegroup Selection

The Battlegroup selection process works similarly to the Commander selection process of CoH2. As mentioned above, before a match begins players will be able to select up to three Battlegroups that they would potentially like to use during the match. This decision is made in the pre-game lobby and each Battlegroup is added to the player’s “loadout.” At any point during a match, the player can “lock in” any of the three Battlegroups they’ve brought in with them. Once a Battlegroup has been locked in however, the other two Battlegroups become unavailable, and the player now only has access to the chosen Battlegroup’s abilities for the remainder of the match.

Command Points

Like the previous two Company of Heroes installments, Command Points are a resource earned by the player throughout a match. For Company of Heroes 3, we’ve opted to return to the Command Point system of Company of Heroes 1 where Command Points are a spendable resource. 

Command Points (CP) are earned throughout a match as the player’s squads earn experience. Depending on the type of squad, experience can be earned in a variety of different ways but the primary method of earning experience is through combat. The experience earned by all squads on the battlefield accumulates and increases the player’s Command Point meter. Once the CP meter is full, a Command Point is earned and can be spent to unlock a Battlegroup ability. Once a CP is earned, the CP meter resets and the process starts over. The process of earning CP begins the moment a match starts, regardless if the player has locked in a Battlegroup or not. 

Battlegroup Abilities

A Battlegroup ability can represent an active or passive player ability, an active or passive upgrade/unlock for a unit or group of units, or even a new unit that can be called to the battlefield. For example, in the American Airborne Battlegroup below, the Battlegroup ability “Medical Supply Drop” represents an active player ability, “Paratroopers” represents a new unit call-in, and “LMG/Bazooka Equipment Package” represents a passive upgrade unlock for Paratrooper squads.

Current Battlegroup System

Within each Battlegroup there are two main branches the player can go down, each with different strengths and trade-offs. On each branch there will be exclusive choices that the player will have to make to advance further into the Battlegroup – by choosing one ability or unlock, you are denied the other. Below is an example of the American Airborne Battlegroup using the current system.

In the example above, the player can choose to go down the left branch or the right branch of the Battlegroup tree. If they choose to go down the left branch first, they can either unlock the “Medical Supply Drop” ability immediately, consequently locking out the “Paradrop .50cal HMG” OR wait to earn 1 Command Point and unlock the “Paradrop .50cal,” locking out “Medical Supply Drop.” Once they’ve unlocked either one of those active abilities and earned some additional CPs, they may now either advance further down the left branch to unlock the “Paradrop Anti-Tank Gun” OR “Munitions Supply Drop” call-in ability or choose to start going down the right branch. 

As you may have noticed, not all choices in the Battlegroup Tree are exclusive. For example, in the image above the “P47 Rocket Strafe” in the left branch and the “Paratroopers” in the right branch do not offer a choice, meaning if you want the ability, you do not have to give something else up to get it. We feel that some abilities or units are simply too enticing and seldom lead the player to making a meaningful choice. 

You may have also noticed that Battlegroup abilities at an Exclusive Choice point do not always have the same Command Point Cost. In the example above, although the “Paradrop .50cal HMG” costs 1 Command Point more than the “Medical Supply Drop” (which costs 0 CP), if the player chooses to unlock the “Medical Supply Drop,” regardless if the player earns the required amount of CP, they cannot unlock the “Paradrop .50cal HMG” that match. This gives us more flexibility and allows us to create more meaningful choices and paths within Battlegroups.

Summary

The Battlegroup system builds upon the Doctrine and Commander systems of COH1 and COH2, respectively: 

• Take up to 3 Battlegroups into Multiplayer matches and choose which one you want to pursue when the need arises. Whichever one you choose will lock out the other two. 
• Each Battlegroup is split into 2 branches – you can progress along either side at any time, provided you have enough Command Points (CP) to unlock the next ability. 
• On both branches you will have to make exclusive choices – selecting one ability will lock out the other for the remainder of the game. 
• Not all abilities in Battlegroups cost the same amount of CP’s. Some routes are faster than others but might lack the punch of more expensive abilities. Some starting abilities are even unlockable from the start of the game (costing 0CP), enabling you to get the Battlegroup in action from minute one. 

Battlegroups in Company of Heroes 3 present an opportunity to explore various builds and rosters – we can’t wait to see what decisions you make to augment your army and your style of play!

A healthy rework of the doctrine mechanic.

From the base rosters for each faction the game seems to be leaving behind the idea of doctrines as a measn to complete incomplete faction rosters (ex, doctrinal generalist mines for usf or mobile mortars for the ukf in coh2) or to overcome subpar base units (basicaly, the entire soviet rooster) and instead going to add flavor to the factions in the form of extra tools to overcome different situations.

I like the idea of doctrines as another layer of desitions for the player instead of a list of units, offmaps and abilities that get unlocked as the game progreses.

Just thinking out loud without giving it much tought. You are playing with the idea of different units having different ways to generate doctrine points. What about certain units or map structures that could speed up the gain of doctrine points for slower doctrines?

EDIT: What do you mean as "Pre-game Lobby"? It would be cool if you used the DoW3 system were you got a timer to swap your bulletins after you got paired in automatch and the map was revealed to both players

I appreciate the callback to CoH1 with actually spending the points to get abilities. Mending the systems from the previous installments with new functions should help the problem of Doctrinal Similarity, in that the only difference between doctrines is the polish on the generic artillery or rifleman. It should also help ensure that you don't need certain doctrines in order to enjoy a faction. My only concern is whether or not later factions receive a dedicated faction or just a few "battlegroups" inside a pre-existing faction. Ex: Partisan Battlegroups in USF as opposed to the Partisans being stand-alone. Same with North African forces or whatever else may be added later. Aside from that, excited to see what the game becomes and how the new environments get fleshed out. Keep up the good work.

I'm personally a bit concered about 0CP abilities. Because it tecnically gives you a bit of an advantage over potentual battlegroups where either left\right side dont have 0CP ability in a first two rows.  

For instance, if we look at airborn, you tenicaly can play even without selecting any ability early on and then, depending on the situation just pick both 0 CP abilities and get access to the second row of the abilities instantly.

In CoH2 0CP system works, because of the liniar unlocks, while if you actually have to spend CP like in CoH1 it wont work I think.

I think starting abilities in a first row (at least in this example) should be have increased CP by 1 (so recon\50cal would be 2CP) and 0CP abilties should cost 1CP. Players could also start the game with 1CP, meaning that they would be able to get one ability strate of the bat, while it will prevent them from rushing abilities and having access to the more powerfull abilities early from both sides simply by picking 0CP abilities. 

Hey Everyone,

JohnT_RE..........Thanks for the heads up on no timeline estimation for the next hands-on preview, I had to try. =)

I want to make sure my buddy @Ledarsi gets his due in this thread. Everyone please read his thread, very relative to this topic and some aspects of his should be considered I think in relation to Battlegroups.  Proposed Amendments to Doctrine's. 

My first question is simple, I wonder if there will be a shortcut to pick your route tree by hitting a button then just hitting the actual #1 or #2 etc, with the understanding you know each selection # actually is unlocking, like instead of the old method of opening the sub-window and actually selecting icon with the mouse? If that's the case then you can take my art visual design feedback below and toss it. 

Maybe a reader or pro like can answer this next question.........earning experience through combat what exactly does that entail? To me it's intentionally vague so players don't end up gaming the system to collect CP quicker than their opponents so in a way like McDonald's secret recipe sort of concept but he clearly states "depending on the type of squad" meaning they all earn differently, so for some is it duration in battle, kills in battle, damage given/taken in combat, all of the above, or does it not really matter other than the initiated or defended combat, that's a specific % to CP meter? I'm not asking for whatever the coding algorithm is, just does anyone have an idea how it breaks down in general? More specifically, does anyone know what constitutes CP specifically for ANY given unit? Example: If i send grenadiers to fight an MG and they get pinned for 30 seconds and lose one man before retreating is that more/less valuable than squad on squad battle where we each lose men and both retreat or are they equal in CP allocation?

Also the Combat skills that we selected during the Campaign pre-alpha, can we consider adding Battlegroups to single player as well? The reason I ask is I think there is a place for Battlegroups in the campaign mode for the companies. Influence rewards was a waste in my opinion, it was more of an annoyance to unlock a perk that I really didn't care about just to continue on with the game. More customizing of the companies is rewarding in the rpg element of an RTS game similar to how Ardennes Assault allowed for this tree branch feature. The takeaway there was either reinforce OR upgrade that was the deciding factor for AA. For what it's worth, the specific either/or credit selections in the Pre-Alpha didn't feel very impactful. I know it was pre-alpha but the animation and the interface was very bland and unremarkable. Remember it had your total CP points in top right corner and you had freedom to allocate as you saw fit. I know this feedback is more for the art department but it directly relates to Battlegroups too. Some may say who cares what the interface looks like if the actual game looks cool, that's true but I do think the little details do impact the experience. Meaning the UI layout of their design was sort of a let down. You could select tabs Active/Passive/Units and use those credits to unlock abilities or specific units, but how about in the actual final version of the game we get a 3D model that spins when you select it and/or shows a video clip of it in action or something to show the player wow you're unlocking this feature (i.e. - you want this, spend CP on it selling itself to noobs or even experienced players). As of pre-alpha they just had the image icon with 1 CP in yellow below it, very WW2 military-esque but I'd prefer it to be more dramatic and cool looking, keep the realism for the actual RTS, the theme and design too but it's a video game let's not settle for 2D basic generic decal designs. All of this to really just say, I like the concept, just the execution and excitement of the interface left a lot to be desired. (i know the above workflow is just to give us the idea and not the in game appearance of it, I actually liked those little boxes from COH 1 and the tree branch look but it can be taken to a new level I believe. Same goes with the affectors selections. Simple is good to an extent, but 15 years later I think the actual appearance can be made much more impressive with the delivery and visuals of our options and selections that really do impact the game a great deal.

I'm one of the few that enjoyed both doctrines AND commanders but probably would lean more towards doctrines again if I had to chose. 

- Art of War

The system looks very nice, but I hope that we won't have to unlock again all the "Battlegroups" #Commanders like in CoH2. Please, add as microtransactions just customizable things like skins, announcers, sprays, winning strikes, DLC missions and so on, not things that can affect the gameplay itself in multiplayer / skirmish.

Do you think it would be possible to have subtle changes to the standard infantry models of certain battlegroups (not all of them, just a few) to better show off what they're representing? To give an example, we know that the British artillery battlegroup follows the theme of an Indian Division, so it stands to reason that rather than British soldiers wearing the symbol of the Northumbrian Division, we should instead see ethnic Indian soldiers wearing the symbol of, let's say, the 4th Indian Division. The same idea could be applied to the Americans, for example, where a particular battlegroup could be represented by the US 92nd Division, so the standard infantry are African-American and have the 'Buffalo' badge on their helmets (but are otherwise identical to standard riflemen). The possibilities from here are endless (Polish Battlegroup, Australians, etc). 

  So long as such changes and representations are reasonably historically accurate, but also suitably subtle so as not to cause confusion, I think the community would respond really positively to something like this that gives that extra uniqueness for individual battlegroups and, in doing so, expand the representation of the wide array of origins for the soldiers of the Mediterranean Front (in an authentic way) without having to make more unique units or factions.

  I'm keen to hear what you Devs think of this concept.