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Your Ideal Relaunch of RO2

But, but, Motorhead didn't exist in '40-'45 :p. It's a good song though and I'm sure there is some fast paced classical music. Modern music will just be a bit inappropiate I think for a WWII shooter.

On a more serious note, I'm not so sure if a rerelease will be a good idea. It might confuse people a lot and that's not exactly what we want. I consider the new content patch with Classic Mode, Action mode and the Mamayev Kurgan map and the free weekend as some kind of relaunch. With some new trailers and advertisements on Steam and lots of bugs fixed you can almost call it a whole new game.

If, however, the game will be relaunched, a name change wouldn't hurt. As some people here already said, a wider focus wouldn't hurt. Stalingrad is a cool setting and I love it, but it's a relatively small part of the whole Eastern Front. Red Orchestra: Scorched Steppes or whatever sounds cool would do.

Some new trailers showcasing the new gamemodes and the new map would also be cool. Maybe if the custom map problem is fixed TWI could include some footage of custom maps to showcase that. I think that would attract some more people to RO2.

As a cherry on top of the cake, the RS team could also release a new trailer :rolleyes:. Then the relaunch will be perfect.

We agree. A totally new rebranding of HOS is in order: new name, cover picture-- all the rest.

The aspect I need to disagree is music. As somebody near 40-- hey, I love Wagner and Mozart, amongst others.. However, a younger crowd will always be looking for a fast sound.

In marketing, music and sound is very important.

Action mode should have a different affect, then classic or realism. It should be of a faster pace.

Punk rock?
 
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I don't post a lot, but after trying to play the game today and failing to experience what I wanted (not for the first time) and shutting it off, I have to say something.

I don't have as much of an opinion as some of you but all I know is that to do nothing [major] would be a mistake. 500 players online and 2 servers that are proper populated (40+ real people) just makes my heart ache. I love this game but my new computer and myself deserve a game that can provide an experience consistently and RO2 could be the game if it just fixed these issues or changed.

Re-launch, don't re-launch, I don't care, just fix something in a time frame or else you can kiss even the regulars goodbye and the thought of attracting new gamers, well, that'll be a dream. RO was a great game that had longevity, right now RO2 isn't even a year old and it looks bleak. Very sad for me indeed considering I paid good money to get a computer able to play it.

Side note: I would love to see Iron Europe released, WWI is the greatest but none of these would ever succeed if the core game fails. Those guys also deserve more so let's get it done.

Thanks for your time.
 
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I don't post a lot, but after trying to play the game today and failing to experience what I wanted (not for the first time) and shutting it off, I have to say something.

I don't have as much of an opinion as some of you but all I know is that to do nothing [major] would be a mistake. 500 players online and 2 servers that are proper populated (40+ real people) just makes my heart ache. I love this game but my new computer and myself deserve a game that can provide an experience consistently and RO2 could be the game if it just fixed these issues or changed.

Re-launch, don't re-launch, I don't care, just fix something in a time frame or else you can kiss even the regulars goodbye and the thought of attracting new gamers, well, that'll be a dream. RO was a great game that had longevity, right now RO2 isn't even a year old and it looks bleak. Very sad for me indeed considering I paid good money to get a computer able to play it.

Side note: I would love to see Iron Europe released, WWI is the greatest but none of these would ever succeed if the core game fails. Those guys also deserve more so let's get it done.

Thanks for your time.

As an outsider you have the best opinion about it.

Mr. Wilson, Mr. Gibson, TWI-- time to roll it out :cool:
 
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I have to agree with the author of the topic, the biggest mistake was limiting the game to just the Battle of Stalingrad. It has simply put too many historical limitations in the way, resulting in few weapons and less diverse maps.

That coupled with a lot of gameplay changes, such as a very arcade tank control system, and a lot needs to be done to bring RO2 back to RO:Ost standards I'm afraid. I am also sad that Tripwire didn't notice the many improvements added in the Darkest Hour game. I mean that game still has atleast as many players as RO2 has, despite DH being based on RO:Ost.
 
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We agree. A totally new rebranding of HOS is in order: new name, cover picture-- all the rest.

The aspect I need to disagree is music. As somebody near 40-- hey, I love Wagner and Mozart, amongst others.. However, a younger crowd will always be looking for a fast sound.

In marketing, music and sound is very important.

Action mode should have a different affect, then classic or realism. It should be of a faster pace.

Punk rock?

What, the younger crowd would always prefer fast sound? I guess I didn't listen to classical since I was kid. Well whatever I'm not the norm I guess..

Btw Mozart is known for his fast and sporadic compositions, not slow.
I like J.S Bach and Beethoven.
 
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too many historical limitations in the way, resulting in few weapons

I wouldn't say that. Lots of MkBs with bayonets, sniper rifles with bayonets, PPsh with box magazines it that time,... that doesn't sound like "historical limitations" to me. lol.

I've lately returned to RO2. Now it's finaly playable and quite well optimised. But still there are stupid unlocks like non-in game-detachable bayonet, boring maps, only symbolic motorized warfare and annoying non-native chatter. As i remeber devs said that's because of amount of important information that you have to understand in your language, which was of course a total bull****, cause there's realy nothing more than "For Germany!" or "Let'em feel the cold steel!" in that "Battle Chatter".
 
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I've said this before but there is a precedent for successful re-launch: Unreal Tournament 2004. UT2K3 was such a flop that a year later UT2K4 came out, which was essentially UT2K3 but with all of the features added back in that made it an Unreal Tournament game, and was marketed to erase everything that UT2K3 did wrong from the collective consciousness; it even included a money back voucher if you'd bought UT2K3. UT2K4 went on to become arguably the most successful UT game of the franchise.

RO2 doesn't need to be repackaged and resold, it just needs to be fixed and re-focussed then pushed hard (marketing) with new content along with a major patch - which is by and large what seems to be happening.
 
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A relaunch in general as it says is a relaunch of a game, rather than a completely different new game. The path in my opinion to take would not be that different from say the Withcher enhanced edition.

The key of a relaunch would purely be to make enhanced changes be seen as a big enough change to be worthy of review or rereview by the press and communities. And through for instance a slight name change start from a clean sheet in terms of reviews when looking up on the game on metacritic or google.

The main things to get that a succesful relaunch to happen will mean a few things imo:

- There must be enough additional new content and fix ups to be worthwhile for a major newspost or rereview on gaming/gamer websites. Just bunching a lot of small previously released patches together does not give the news worthyness boost for websites to post up on it. So whatever happens you must have a big addition of stuff at one point of time, to give a big bang that makes people notice it.

- Like with the releases of regular game, there should be marketing to try and get communities involved and somewhat hyped up again. Before the big thing happens the entire world should know of it, while perhaps allowing reviewers early access to the changes. Websites want to tell new and special info that cannot be found elsewhere exclusive access is important for that. (like announce a huge fix list, loads of new content, prices for a competitive tournament, announcement of a map creation contenst, and a price reduction).

- All faux as possible should be made to make it appear as if it's truly something new, including in terms of name when people google the game. Which is why you often see stupid things added to a games name (Game of the Year edition, Gold edition, Enhanced Edition) to show a game went from version 2 to 2.5 and made a major jump. As well as to simply obtain different reviews when people search for the game. While cheesy some name like Red Orchestra 2.5 - The new Heroes of Stalingrad, will make people consider it as a different game from Red Orchestra 2 - Heroes of Stalingrad, while when searching for the old name you can probably quickly find links to the new one. Of course in case of a big revision change in the name it must be able to live up to it.

Tripwire keeps the metacritic scores on their game steam store page, the one for HOS is not that good though (especially the user score which is the thing i personally always look at), obtaining a new metacritic score would likely bring some new buyers.

Like the witcher: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-witcher
and the witcher enhanced edition: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-witcher-enhanced-edition

- If the game is a fixed up better game then let people try it out and see for themselves. Together with combined marketing. If the game is truly good and works well without too many issues, then people will tell. Logically if the game is not what it should be people will tell as well.

- Usually price reductions can go nicely together with a relaunch If HOS goes from its current near full retail price of 45 euro (digital deluxe price), and take of a nice permanent cut (+ temporarily special action). Then that often will help bringing up interest as well. If anything the game needs to change from an overall negative opinion on other websites to an overall positive opinion, combined with loads more people actually playing on servers.

At least this is how I personally view those things. In the end I guess it would be look at what worked well and what didn't work well. I at least know that the relaunch with UT2003 and The Witcher were a good success.

Both showcased a major addition of cleaning up the existing things, and adding a lot of new content. In the end a successful relaunch depends on how the press and communities will respond if at all to the news.
 
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I agree with zet's

If you go for a re-launch then it's it needs some bang in there, because normally re-launches are games that weren't successfull first time so will be veiwed with scepticism and if there's not something extra for them to rave about - your likey to get if not bad review a nothings changed save your money type of re-view

I would suggest you wait till the campain mode is finnished and extra content like the tanks and some maps are ready beore attempting a re-launch

My 2p's worth
 
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But, but, Motorhead didn't exist in '40-'45 :p. It's a good song though and I'm sure there is some fast paced classical music. Modern music will just be a bit inappropiate I think for a WWII shooter.

Well, Glamour Shot Lemmy DID have bullets.... :p

lemmy_0.jpg
 
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Well, Glamour Shot Lemmy DID have bullets.... :p

lemmy_0.jpg

ha ha ha

I don't want to get banned from forums for saying what that pic looks like, lol

More seriously, the average PC gamer is a 37 year old man. My argument is to know your target audience.

From a business/marketing standpoint-- using one of the good trailers on the net along with a faster soundtrack isn't a bad idea. If I were TWI and I able to do what I wanted to do-- I would put any type of relaunch video on a short major TV advertisement with a rock theme, not classical.
 
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