Company of Heroes 3 News

Our team at Relic is very excited to share the first major update for Company of Heroes 3, which we’ve codenamed Operation Sapphire Jackal. This update includes a significant number of bug fixes, quality of life improvements, gameplay balance adjustments, and all-new features and content. While part of our team was working on our post-launch hot fixes to address top issues, a lot of us were working in parallel on the content for Operation Sapphire Jackal. In addition to all our efforts on this update, you can also check out our recap of the game’s launch to see how we’re working through our players’ feedback and reports.

With so many changes going into this update, our team will be standing by to roll out hot fixes should any major issues come up. Be sure to review some of the exciting changes in Operation Sapphire Jackal below and leave us your feedback after you have a chance to see them in-game. We will be releasing the full patch notes along with the update on March 28th.

Check out this quick summary, then read below for more details.

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[h2]Challenges[/h2]

As part of this update, we're introducing Challenges. With Challenges, you will have the opportunity to complete daily and weekly in-game objectives in Multiplayer and Co-op vs A.I. automatch to earn Merit, which can be used to unlock cosmetics for your favorite units.

For Daily and Weekly Challenges, you can expect new, randomly selected Challenges ranging from 'Kill 50 vehicles with anti-tank guns' to 'Gain 50 veteran ranks with Wehrmacht infantry'.

Daily Challenges will appear at 5pm PT every day and three new Weekly Challenges will be available each Saturday at 5pm PT.

[h2]Cosmetics [/h2]

With this update, we are launching a range of cosmetic options in the store, allowing players to customize their armies in both multiplayer and singleplayer. Some content featured in the store can be purchased with either War Bonds or Merit (earnable with Challenges), or solely with War Bonds – more on these further below.

One of our goals with the In-Game Store is to ensure there is always a balanced mix of earnable and paid content available so that players can choose how they use the store, and that there is unlockable content available to everyone. This will apply to everything in the store when it launches, and as we move forward.

The cosmetics available in this update are historically inspired. Check out this sneak peek below for a taste of some of the cool stuff on offer.









War Bonds are a form of in-game currency that can only be earned by purchasing War Bond packs. War Bonds can be used to purchase any content in the in-game store.



This update for Company of Heroes 3 includes hundreds of bugfixes, changes and improvements. You will be able to review the full 1.1.0 patch notes when the update goes live tomorrow.

Some highlights include:

• A small update to the Unique Player Color option. Allies will now be cool colors and enemies will be warm colors
  
• Fixed several icons and portraits with the correct Company of Heroes 3 assets
  
• All new voiceover for Gurkha Infantry
  
• Audio adjustments for map pings
  
• Added an option to enable Exclusive Control Groups. With this option, squads only occupy one control group at a time, like in previous CoH games
  
• Fixed the Recently Played With list
  
• Adjusted territory layout on (8) Mignano Gap and made minor adjustments to Strategic and Victory Point locations on (6) Gazala Landing Ground
  
• Fixed several issues where bridges did not correctly have cover
  
• Bloom was removed and we fixed blur or “haze” on the maps
  
• And plenty of more additional changes and fixes for Audio, Art, Animation, UI/UX, and Maps
  

Though this update does not include what we consider a “full” balance pass, we have made several changes to help shake up multiplayer and co-op. We’ll be keeping an eye on your feedback and matches and will roll out further balance adjustments in a timely fashion.

Here is a quick summary of some of the changes, but for everything else, be sure to review the patch notes when this update rolls out.

We’ve implemented a small set of targeted changes to address US Forces Pathfinders, the Afrikakorps Carro Armato M13/40 tank and Airplane Loiters

• Pathfinders have had their utility and early power toned down
  
• The M13/40 has also seen some reductions in power
  
• Loiters have been toned down to be less oppressive
  
• Vehicles commanded to face in a different direction will turn properly instead of driving in circles
  
• Many tooltips and descriptions have been updated to better reflect the abilities, units, veterancy, and upgrades for greater clarity and information to the player.
  

With new gameplay challenges, unit customization and a host of fixes and changes, the team is looking forward to hearing more from all of you! Operation Sapphire Jackal is the first major update we have planned for CoH3, with many more to come in the months and years ahead.

[h2]Overview [/h2]
Company of Heroes 3 has been out for a little over three weeks, and for everyone at Relic, it is incredibly rewarding to see so many fans playing and discussing the game. Our team is now shifting gears to focus on long-term support for the game’s future. Our intent has always been to continue improving CoH3 in the coming years with new content, fixes and more, so we want to go over how we plan to do that. We also want to recap everything that’s happened in the launch window, what top feedback we’re seeing from players, and what comes next! The response so far has been terrific, with plenty of praise, criticism, requests, bug reports, and feedback – which is exactly what we need, so keep those reviews coming!

Read more below or check out our summary here!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]Hot Fixes [/h2]
Your feedback and reports allowed our team to fix some notable issues very quickly on launch day. This included several crashes and other issues that prevented people from playing and enjoying the game. We ensured our team was ready to provide fixes based on real player data and activity after release, and that is why we’ve been dropping hot fixes at a steady pace.

With these hot fixes, our goal was to focus on the top priority items that prevented or blocked players from accessing or making progress in the game. Our team has rolled out 6 hot fixes in two weeks (that’s one every two or three days!), meaning major issues leading to crashes and undesired performance have been reduced significantly. So, what have we changed or fixed? Here are a few examples!

• Fixed a ton of GPU related crashes
  
• Fixed crashes when ending a turn in the Italian Dynamic Campaign
  
• Fixed progression blockers in and around the Benevento, Salerno, Calabria, and Gaeta locations and missions
  
• Fixed settings not saving correctly between sessions
  
• Addressed power imbalance of the Afrikakorps
  
• Changed Emplacements so they are less exploitable
  
• Improved the High Dynamic Range mix for audio and stabilized audio playback
  
• Fixed cases of infinite loading and disconnecting in multiplayer
  
• Improved Tactical Map functionality
  
• Made AI on the Italian Campaign Map more aggressive
  
• Increased effectiveness of select Allied units
  
• Broke the British Boys Anti-Tank Rifles
  
• Fixed the British Boys Anti-Tank Rifles

Along with addressing crashes, progress blockers and pesky bugs impacting everyone’s experience, we were glad we could sneak in some long-planned balance changes and quality-of-life improvements. There have been 52 total improvements since launch (not including balance changes), with more to come. Our cadence of hot fixes will slow down for now, but we’ll continue addressing any major issues as they come up.

We are also happy to say that our first major 1.1.0 update is only a few weeks away, which will include a huge number of fixes and improvements for the game. We will have more news about that soon!

[h2]Player Feedback [/h2]
Our team has been very appreciative of all the feedback players have been providing so far. We are in the process of prioritizing and triaging all of it so we can address critical issues, quality of life concerns, balance and more in a timely fashion. It is important for our team to weigh the impact of fixes and changes for all players, so rest assured that even if we don’t call something out as a “top” point of feedback, that does not mean we haven’t heard it and are not already discussing or working on it. Another caveat is that though certain items are considered a priority, they may take longer to fix or address based on how complicated they are to solve, test, and implement. We also need to ensure we can allocate the resources and team members to cover all those priorities. So, what top concerns are we seeing from players and what are we discussing internally? In no particular order:

• Addressing remaining crashes or issues with the game failing to open or start
  
• Fixing campaign progression blockers or bugs
  
• Further polishing and fixing of gameplay bugs and visual bugs
  
• Tuning AI difficulty in skirmishes and co-op
  
• Investigating camera zoom level requests for the RTS layer – what is possible from a technical standpoint, what would its overall impact be on performance and gameplay, etc.
  
• Further faction balancing
  
• UI/UX improvements – social flow, save game flow, HUD, settings menu and options, in-game pings, icons, unit portraits, post-match stats, etc.
  
• Investigating Unique Player Color options
  
• Continuing improvements for audio and visuals
  

[h2]Modding Tools[/h2]
Another area of focus for the team is CoH3’s modding tools. We were happy to get mod tools released in tandem with CoH3’s launch so that players could start exploring the tools and playing with mods from the Steam workshop right away. Just like we plan to continue supporting CoH3, we also plan to dedicate more time to support and improve the mod tools over the long term. Though the current iteration of the mod tools and worldbuilder may not meet all player expectations, providing them at launch gives us a chance to get them up and running. We want players to continue testing the tools and providing feedback and feature requests so that we can prioritize those improvements for the future. What features or capabilities do you feel are missing or what do you want to see improved? Let us know by starting a thread or leaving a comment over on our forums. Please know that the tools likely won’t receive any major overhaul in the short term as we need to prioritize the core game first. We hope to sneak in a couple small fixes in patch 1.1.0. In the meantime, you can get familiar with our documentation on the Modding Knowledge Center. Let us know what other information we could add to the Knowledge Center to help you while creating your mods. You can also check out some of these example mods from the Relic team to help unblock you or to give you some inspiration!

[h2]Coming Next[/h2]
The team is very excited to share a look at our current Development Priorities. “Is this a roadmap?” we hear you asking, and the answer is “sort of!” Putting dates on features or content is often unfair to players and the development team, especially if those things need to move. Instead, we feel it is clearer to share our current focus, along with what’s coming next in development.



As you can see, we have a lot of work planned for the days and months ahead! Our team is looking forward to supporting Company of Heroes 3 for years to come with a ton of content, meta shakeups, new features, quality of life improvements and so much more. We can’t thank you enough for joining us at the start of this journey together. We have so many awesome things planned for CoH3, and this is just the start.

- The Relic Team

For this hot fix, our team wanted to focus on A.I. throughout Company of Heroes 3, with an extra focus specifically on Italian Dynamic Campaign changes and fixes. The A.I. should feel much more dynamic and less defensive. In addition to some early game population changes, we aim for this to be a better experience for our players when starting or continuing their campaign playthroughs.

We’ll soon have additional news on other top areas of player feedback, including when to expect future patches and content. Stay tuned!

• Fixed an additional 12 Crash and/or Stability issues.

[h2]Italian Dynamic Campaign[/h2]
The A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) will now be performing offensive behaviors more often on difficulties above standard and easy. Expect to see the AI sending companies into player territory, recapturing towns and attacking player companies.

• Fixed campaign saves having a long loading time the further you progress into the campaign. Any new campaign save made on 1.0.7 will have much lower load times. You do not need to start a new campaign, just ensure you create a new save.
  
• We expect a higher rate of defense missions triggered, which will occur when the A.I. attacks player towns where these missions exist. These differ from Skirmish modes, which we hope will add more variety and replayability to the Italian Dynamic Campaign. Expect more combat at towns/cities like Potenza, Foggia, Ortona, and Anzio.
  
• It is expected to see more aggressive behaviors from the A.I. while playing on greater difficulty levels.
  
• AI now uses Recon Runs less often, and on a wider variety of targets.
  
• Campaign Map Population Capacity adjusted so more supporting units can be built in the early campaign.
  
• P47 Population Capacity cost reduced from 3 to 2
  
• B25 Population Capacity cost reduced from 4 to 3
  
• Aircraft Carrier Population Capacity cost reduced from 6 to 4.
  

A.I. respond accordingly to different ping types

• Attack ping, question ping - may send units to appropriate location pinged
  
• Defend ping - may respond with defensive behaviors
  
• Capture behavior when pings issued on capture points
  

[h2]Multiplayer Changes[/h2]

• Disabled battlegroup selection during match start countdown. This change helps prevent players from having non-functioning battlegroups when loading into a match.
  
• Enemy A.I. in Skirmish mode is now less likely to try to capture the same point with several units and more likely to try to capture separate points with individual units.
  
• Rank Levels on the official Leaderboards have been updated to reflect the Design team’s intent for the top ranks:
  1 player holding level 20
  4 players holding level 19
  5 players holding level 18
  15 players holding level 17
  25 players holding level 16