[pkaler]

This is a blast from a previous lifetime! I worked at Relic Entertainment during that time. Both Relic and Radical's offices were in Yaletown in Vancouver at that time, IIRC. Radical ended up moving to Main & Terminal.

I worked on Company of Heroes and Dawn of War during this era. The code looks very familiar. It's the same style of C++. The code looks very similar to Homeworld. https://github.com/HomeworldSDL/HomeworldSDL

I went to SFU, where Neall Verheyde one of the programmers from Radical lectured one semester. Sadly, it looks like he passed away a few years ago. https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/west-vancouver-bc...

[benoliver999]

Company of Heroes was a favourite among my university friends. We spent hundreds and hundreds of hours on it when we should have been working :)

"Ready ze panzerfaust"

[cjrp]

CoH is the game that taught me about nebelwerfers. Fun _and_ educational!

[PNewling]

It werfers the nebels. Not sure why the German language' put-together-able-ness always tickles me. I've always loved when language works like that:

Spanish: paraguas - which is umbrella in english looks like it comes from 'para aguas' or 'for waters' English: billfold - a wallet where dollar bills are folded

[gregschlom]

Small nitpick: the "para" prefix comes from Latin and means to defend, to protect against. Thus "Paraguas" is to protect against water. In French, you similarly have parapluie (to protect against rain), paratonnerre (lighting rod), etc..

[PNewling]

Neat, I was not aware of that. Thanks!

[rasz]

Wasnt 'Company of Heroes' a 'Men of War' ripoff?

[Pannoniae]

Yeah, I truly lament the ruination of the Company of Heroes series. The newest installment, CoH3, is so atrociously soulless, greedy and straight-up broken that it's basically almost mocking the playerbase.

Similar things are happening with the Men of War franchise (a similar but more realistic game).... enshittification is happening everywhere, and nothing is becoming better.

[ethbr0]

The problem with making a great game is that people will play it forever.

CoH was amazing. CoH2 was eh. And CoH3 is atrocious.

I hate SaaS with a passion, but it provides a financial incentive to continue improving an already great product.

[whywhywhywhy]

>I hate SaaS with a passion, but it provides a financial incentive to continue improving an already great product

In theory but every game I liked initially that went down that route turned to garbage. Destiny and Overwatch come to mind. The game aesthetics and world deteriorate as stupider and stupider cosmetics flood the game. Less and less time is spent in great content and more on increasingly IAP abusing events that qualify less and less as games.

Would be interested to hear a counter example but I think there is good reason no gamer gets excited hearing a game is gonna be SAAS/“live service”

[ethbr0]

Imho, the problem is vertically integrated publishing behemoths.

For them, SaaS is much more about "Maximizing profit from this game, to fund other games (or generate shareholder returns)" than "Providing a sustainable business model to continue developing this game".

Consequently, you get maintenance teams whose primary KPI is maximizing revenue, versus improving a game.

[Angostura]

> I hate SaaS with a passion, but it provides a financial incentive to continue improving an already great product.

Or not improve it all - but charge you for continued access.

[okennedy]

Or to keep adding "features" in an attempt to continue the growth curve and/or stay hip, and worsen it instead.

[deaddodo]

I don't know if that's true. Sins of a Solar Empire just got better with all of it's expansions. Same goes with most paradox games (although, they'll nickel and dime you for it).

It's the blockbuster games that seem to have this problem as they always seem to dilute the game mechanics down for more cinematic experiences as time goes on. It's what happened to CoH, it's what happened with Dawn of War, it's what happened with Civilization (people will variously say 3, 4 or 5 was the peak; few list 6 as it) and it might happen with the Sins sequel.

[ethbr0]

I tossed a comment above, but I think it has to do more with large publisher perspectives than the model itself. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36707943

Afaik, Paradox is still small enough / left alone enough by its parent to have avoided the shenanigans. We'll see what happens if they keep growing.

I also think by virtue of being niche and specific, Paradox incentivizes dev teams to stay true to the spirit of their game. I.e. no one is making a detailed 4X game because they want to sell CoD numbers. They do it because they honestly love 4X games.

[Robelius]

For Stellaris, one of Paradox’s space 4x games, they have a team dedicated to maintenance and a separate team for DLCs. The result are large free updates that improve/rework on the mechanics which compliment the DLCs keeping the games fresh for years.

Usually the base paradox games feel like they’re “missing” major features which makes some DLCs necessary for a more full experience, but by the time that happens the base game is heavily discounted so base+dlc=full price of a new game.

Just felt like I have to add onto the paradox comment since I enjoy their major updates + dlc approach. Whenever I buy one of their games, I know I’ll probably come back to the game for at least 5 years.

[deaddodo]

> but by the time that happens the base game is heavily discounted so base+dlc=full price of a new game.

That is in no way true. Even now, there isn't any way for you to get EU4 (a much older game than Stellaris) and all of it's DLC for less than 60usd. Even in some super sale. At least, I've never seen it.

For your own example, the lowest the Stellaris ultimate bundle has ever been is ~117usd, which was when there was far fewer DLC in it:

https://gg.deals/pack/stellaris-ultimate-bundle-2023/

It's a common meme that a Paradox game will cost you 300-400usd, for a reason. I'm not knocking their economic model, people pay for it without much complaint. However, it is objectively more expensive for the consumer than a single full game.

[mrguyorama]

>Usually the base paradox games feel like they’re “missing” major features which makes some DLCs necessary for a more full experience, but by the time that happens the base game is heavily discounted so base+dlc=full price of a new game.

As someone who recently played a bunch of HOI4, this is not true. Even during a summer sale, game plus DLCs that fix the "new" ways they changed the game is often multiple hundred dollars.

They don't do this out of the goodness of their heart, they do this because it's insanely profitable to make a single game and then charge $12 for every adjustment and additional mechanic over the next ten years.

It's somewhat defensible for them, because I don't need the Japan DLC for HOI4 if I don't give a shit about playing as japan, but it's still the equivalent when Civ 5 charged ten dollars to add religion back to the game and fix the dumb health mechanic that allowed you to kill any unit with ten spearmen.

[pdntspa]

What makes you think that the changes that are made in SaaS are always an improvement?

Sometimes that models permanently destroys something without providing users a recourse for going back. See: Warcraft II, or World of Warcraft

[rawsta]

Rockstar removed around 180 cars from GTAonline recently... After literally years, just removed and partially put behind a paywall..

I think the SaaS model really depends on the Developer/Company. There are a lot of good and bed examples out there...

[rasz]

I still play first 4 Men of War games regularly every couple of years :)

[ekianjo]

You never heard of games like stardew valley? That model works well.

[KronisLV]

> Yeah, I truly lament the ruination of the Company of Heroes series.

The original CoH felt like such a well balanced and interesting game!

I have to say that oddly enough Iron Harvest has a similar feel to it, gameplay wise, even if the setting is different.

Then, you already mentioned Men of War, there's also Call to Arms, both of which still seem decent in my mind.

Where available, community made mods can be a nice touch! The community for those isn't too large, though, given the somewhat niche genre. There are also some free RTS games like Beyond All Reason (though it's more similar to Total Annihilation), or some others made in the Spring engine: https://springrts.com/wiki/Games

Very few WW2 themed ones, though. I'd also mention Steel Division, the first game of which had great balance, but the second game in the series feels almost too large scale for me (like Wargame, less about micro with individual units).

[MrBuddyCasino]

I will always remember Company of Heroes fondly, played it a lot with my friends. Such a well made game with much attention to detail and a great sense of humor. Sadly, the magic was lost in the newer versions.

[SgtBastard]

Hey - thank you for Dawn of War. My gateway drug into the long dark spiral of plastic and paint despair that is Warhammer 40k.

Amazing game.

[deaddodo]

DoW is probably one of the best modern "classic" RTSes. It distilled all of the classic mechanics (resource collection, army management, upgrading, etc) into just refined enough without dumbing things down. It's a shame it progressively got worse with each sequel (focusing more on RPG and MOBA elements).

[anthonypasq]

i mean it really doesnt have much competition does it? the only other notable rts games within the last 15 years were Starcraft 2 and Age of Empires 4

[deaddodo]

Dawn of War came out almost 20 years ago.

And there have been plenty of RTSes...the genre just lost it's mainstream appeal in general. In this very thread alone, four others have been mentioned.

[mrguyorama]

That you omit/do not know of Supreme Commander only makes it sadder.

[anthonypasq]

this may pain you to hear this, but that game came out 16 years ago

[nailer]

Apparently Boltgun (new FPS) is a 40K game and has been getting rave reviews from FPS youTubers

[omgmajk]

Boltgun is fantastic if you like Quake, it's pretty much what it is. A modern Quake in 2.5D/3D in the WH40K universe.

[izacus]

WH40K: Mechanicus is an excellent modern Warhammer 40k game for people that need a strategy/tactic fix more than FPS :)

[SgtBastard]

And the opening cinematic and soundtrack throughout the game absolutely slaps.

“… but I am already saved.” shivers

[ragestorm]

+1 for mechanicus. Sleeper game for me.

[JadoJodo]

Each of the games you’ve mentioned (including the article one) have been among my favorite games of all time. Thank you for your work.

[yawnxyz]

Thanks so much for making those games — those were some of my favorite games I've ever played!

[williamvds]

Oh hey, I also worked on Company of Heroes, but a good decade later while porting it to iOS. It was definitely among the nicer codebases I worked on at that job. But we did some unholy things to port it and get it working with touchscreens, I'm glad none of the original team have to see that. Decently chuffed with what we managed to bolt on to the existing UI system though.

[omgmajk]

DoW is an all time favorite, best RTS ever made.

[izacus]

Second best, with Homeworld being the best RTS ever made ;)

[omgmajk]

Homeworld is great though, no lie here.

[markdeloura]

Thanks for sharing that info on Neall... It had been a few years but he was great to work with on ps3 rollout and other tech fun back in the day. Sorry to hear it :(

[vanattab]

Oh CoH was amazing. TY.