Total Company of Heroes

Relic has announced that they are looking for a game balancer. If you're interested in getting paid for playing CoH then check out their announcement:

Relic Entertainment has one spot available for the position of Game Balancer.

What is a game balancer?

A Game Balancer is responsible for making sure that the game is fair. He does this by playing the game at the highest level and by working closely with the Multiplayer design team to single out and correct all design flaws.

What are the requisites to the position?

* Must be able to play RTS games at a high level, and must be able to demonstrate such understanding through a skill test.
* Must be able to work and excel in a team environment
* Strong communication skills. You'll have to explain your views to other balancers as well as peers who don't have the time to know the game as well as yourself.
* Canadian residents only

Location and Hours

* This position is a full-time position at Relic Entertainment in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
* The hours are a standard 40hours/week. Core work hours are 10am-5pm, Monday-Friday.
* You cannot work remotely

Is there lots of room for growth in this kind of position?

There is room for growth. It is essentially some of the best exposure to get into Multiplayer Design. You work very closely with Multiplayer designers, you get acquainted with all the same tools that a designer uses, you are introduced to responsibilities shared with game designers, and you're in an environment that Multiplayer Game Designers are exposed to your work on a day-to-day basis. This kind of opportunity is rarely realized by any student going into Design school.

How to Apply:

* Send your resume and cover letter to tjones@relic.com
* In the Subject line, please write "Game Balance application"
* In your cover letter, please include your gaming experience:
Achievements acquired .
The amount of games/hours put into said game
What games you are currently playing

Pluses

* Good at COH
* Previous balance/design experience
* Previous QA experience
* Game Design education
* Experience with standard office applications (Word, Excel, etc.)

If you have any questions regarding this position, feel free to send me a private message here on RN.com, or if they might be relevant to everyone else, ask away in this thread!

For clarification purposes this position is not a 'Tester' position. It is not your job to find bugs in the game, to play single player, or play a mission over and over again. Your job is to play and be good at multiplayer.

Be sure to let us know if any of you apply for the job!

As stated earlier, Relic has now released the v2.301 patch for Company of Heroes. Here are a few of the changes in this patch:

Online
- Removed game matching information in the console.
- Resolved a game arbitration issue when the game resulted in a sync error.

Fixes
- Fixed World Builder to export correctly. All custom maps should now save correctly. Be sure to re-save your custom maps to carry over these properties.
- Updated save game version. Save games previous to 2.300 will not be compatible with the current version of Company of Heroes.
- Fixed a bug that allowed the player to teleport garrisoned troops.
- -dev mode has been re-enabled.
- Modified FOW related commands in the console to be single player only.

There are also a number of gameplay and map changes in this new patch. To learn all about the new additions/changes, click here.

Relic has let us know that their community manager Buggo is leaving the company:

To the members of the Relic community, we have to tell you that Buggo is currently pursuing other opportunities. This has led to some speculation that Relic will no longer be supporting our loyal fans - nothing could be further from the truth. Soon we will be introducing you to new members of Relic who will carry forth the commitment we have to our fans. We are expanding our community support greatly over the coming months; better support for our modders, frequent updates about what's going on in the studio, expanding our numbers, contests, content, and more.

And for those wondering, we are still hosting our upcoming community open house - you don't want to miss it because you'll be treated to some sneak previews of our work.

Thank you for your continued support!

Relic Entertainment

Read the full announcement here

The 2.301 Patch is coming on the 29th of April. The folks at Relic also dropped a little message about the patch:

Hey guys,

The patch will be out Tuesday the 29th. We ran into a localization text issue with the patch mid last week so we had to push it back a week.

Cheers,

mukkel

You can see the patch changes here.

Are you still unsure what games to spend your hard earned cash on in 2008? Then check out our top 10 list of the biggest games to be released in 2008.

Total Gaming Network Big Releases of 08'

Don't agree with our top 10 list? Then post your thoughts and discuss the article here.

The 72nd episode of Tales of Heroes is out! This time its titled: CoH Mechanics *Fixed*.

Get out your socket wrenches and blow torches, cause this week we're diving under the hood to find out what makes CoH tick. Also featured this week is the news (patch 2.301) and our Unit of the Week segment. This week we're going over the British veterancy units: The Lieutenant, Captain, and the Cromwell Command Tank.

Make sure to listen to the episode here or download it here.

The 2.301 patch is now in QA testing and most likely we wont have to wait for too long before its released. The release notes out so far are shown below,

Fixes

- Fixed World Builder to export correctly. All custom maps should now save correctly. Be sure to re-save your custom maps to carry over these properties.
- Updated save game version. Save games previous to 2.300 will not be compatible with the current version of Company of Heroes.
- Fixed a bug that allowed the player to teleport garrisoned troops.
- -dev mode has been re-enabled.


Gameplay

- British Bren carriers and Bren gunners will no longer be able to button Flakvierlings, 88s, AT guns, Howitzers.
- Strafing run has been tuned.
- US M8 Greyhound and Wehrmacht SdKfz 234 Armoured cars have had their target accuracy modifiers reduced from 0.73 and 0.82 respectively to .9.
- US M8 Greyhound and SdKfz 234 Armoured Cars moving accuracy modifiers changed from 0.6 to 0.8.
- Light vehicle received accuracy modifier on light engine damage critical changed from 1.25 to 1.35.
- Sniper detection radius reduced from 3m to 1m.
- Panzer Elite Defensive Veterancy Vehicle modifiers tuned at vet levels 2 and 3. Received accuracy and damage modifiers reduced, health maximum modifiers reduced.
- Panzer Elite 222 Armoured cars have their health bonus at Vet 1 reduced from 30 to 15.


Maps Changes

- Several map weather settings have been tuned.
- The Scheldt - Two bridges to centre island replaced with land bridges.
- Hochwald Gap - Tweaked territory near bridge crossings, widened bridge crossings from each base, removed a large number of fx markers.
- St. Mere Dumont - several buildings replaced so window facings are more equitable between north and south facing.
- St. Mere Dumont - moved some fuel points to prevent them from being captured on the wrong side of a wall.
- Wrecked Train - cleared some debris from the center of the map
- Wrecked Train - removed some tank traps blocking access to one of the fuel points
- Langres - Moved one of the strategic points slightly. Rebalanced VP locations slightly so that both have equal coverage from defensive buildings.
- Beaux Lowlands - Updated to 3 VPs
- Beaux Lowlands - replaced high munition point with strategic point.
- Sturzdorf - bottom player has one extra ramp up to the high fuel area.
- Minor pathing changes to Linden to enable Kettens to capture a point.
- Verriers Ridge - added version of map with no repairable bunkers (playable with Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts).

Online issues fixed

Resolved a game arbitration issue when the game resulted in a sync error.

Plus: Some console changes that we will provide more information about when the patch goes live.

Total CoH will let you know as soon as the 2.301 patch is out!

Recently some of the people over at 1UP and the Games for Windows Magazine clashed against Relic in two battles. So to watch some developer vs press action, make sure to download the replays from Total Gaming Files!

The replays can be found here and here.

The boys over at Tales of Heroes have released their latest episode Wehrmacht for Dummies:

Wow, this show really should be called "the big news show," but we already had one of those, so this will have to do. Sepharim joins us this week to discuss the News, Wehrmact opening strategies, and the Unit of the Week: Mortar Half Track! So sit back, relax, and grab some popcorn cause this week's show runs an epic two hours.

Show Notes:

* Fixed exe that works with -dev
* Evotech is leaving, say goodbye to him!
* The CoH-Stats.com Wiki is up, contribute your own tactics and history knowledge!
* CoH Object Editor Released...yay?
* Official Map Making Contest announced
* 2v2 Tournament at gamereplays.org
* Something is wrong with the flakverling!
* $100 Replay Competition - submit your 2v2 replays!
* Help fix the map balance in CoH
* Josh Mosquira (Relic) and Chris Taylor talk RTS on GFW Radio

Make sure to listen to the full episode here.

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