Relicnews: the definitive source for all things Relic

Gamereplays.com has let us know that they have two events with cash prizes.

One is a monthly Clanwars league. This requires a valid paypal account to join.

Second is a DoW2 tourney with a top prize of $100 and a signed DoW2 poster.

Relic has announced that they are offering the complete soundtrack of Dawn of War 2 for free from Steam.

We are really excited to bring to our fans the Dawn of War II Official Soundtrack. This is the product of a lot of work from some very talented people including our Composer, Doyle W. Donehoo and our Audio Lead, Jason Ross with contributions by Artist, Noah Stacey and Noobie Noobinson. We would really like to thank Games Workshop and THQ for giving us the go ahead to release this to the fans free of charge - most people make you pay extra for this kind of thing - and to Steam for hosting it.

Head on over to the Dawn of War 2 Community site for more information.

Relic posted that the 2.502 patch is going live tomorrow.

It’s more like a hotfix. Here’s the notes:

v2.502 04/21/2009

Fixes

- Fixed a crash that occurred while automatching in an operation automatch.

- Fixed a crash that occurred in the Worldbuilder when saving a valid map.

- Action markers work again in the Worldbuilder.

- The default map folder in the Worldbuilder works again.

Gameplay:

- There is now a delay that affects how quickly an MG will swap between windows. An MG will have to stay at a window for a short period of time ~ 2 seconds before it can move to another window

EDIT: Patch Mirror at worthplaying.com.

The Dawn of War Single Player Demo is available!

Worthplaying mirror.

Steam Link.

Only 340 MB!

Edit: I was informed shortly after I made the post that the 340MB download is only the GFWLive installer and a link to the steam download. In the words of one of the commenter’s, IT’S A TRAP. Full download is about 4GB of data from Steam.

The latest patch, 1.21, for Dawn of War 2 has been released. Your game will be automatically updated when you log onto steam.

The update addresses a few balance and bugs issues and adds a new 3v3 map.

Patch 1.21 Live

Patch Notes

I just got finished playing around with the 2.501 patch.

In addition to the UI tweaks for Tales of Valor, they’ve added some neat touches to help identify some new features. Maps are now indicated with Community or Relic icons to indicate their source, maps with a blank icon indicate ones that were loaded by the user.

What’s impressed me the most, aside from the 22 new maps is the Skirmish AI! Wow tough! I was checking out one of the new maps, Beach Assault, as a PE player versus an expert American computer opponent. The AI is very impressive, using sneaky tactics, retreating wisely, and teching up appropriately.

I can’t wait until I get my mits on Tales of Valor to see how the AI works in game. The entire CoH and OF campaigns might be worth a re-playthrough!

Worthplaying.com has some info about the upcoming 1.2.0 patch for DoW2.

Code changes to look forward to in the next patch include:

• A final code-based fix to the Population Cap issue. This will also resolve the problems with Space Marine upkeep costs.
• A change to retroactively grant achievements to those people who rightfully earned them in the Single Player Campaign, which also prevents this from occurring to new players.
• We’ve made some adjustments to the matchmaking system to provide better quality matches based on TrueSkill Rankings.
• Squashed a bug that was allowing players to instantly win in Ranked matches after modding local files.

In addition to the code changes, we’re hoping to include some balance changes at the same time. Issues addressed include:

• Several changes to how energy shields work, making them less overpowered.
• A melee damage debuff added to Tactical Marines when they use “And They Shall Know No Fear”.
• Tactical Sergeant’s melee attack is less potent.
• Reduction of Warrior Adrenal Gland vehicle damage.
• Spore mines won’t be able to enter Ravener tunnels or Webway gates.
• Warp Spiders will do more damage.
• The build cost for the Carnifex increased.

Last but not least, we’re releasing a new 3v3 map, (6p) Tiber Outpost, for both ranked and custom matches!

The above isn’t an all-inclusive list, it’s still subject to change, and it’s certainly not the last time we’ll be doing balance changes.

Wooo new map! Achievement fixes! Woo a news item to hold me over while I wait for THQ to sort out their Canadian ToV customers!

Players in Canada have reported that their copies of Tales of Valor came without a CD key packaged. THQ is aware of this and looking to correct that issue.

1) Visit the THQ support site here and submit a help request, this adds a ticket to their system: http://support.thq.com/thq/consumer/question.asp

2) They will want a JPG of your manual and sales receipt, a scanner or digital camera will do for this, so please have this prepared.

Canadian Tales of Valor - No CD Key - Company of Heroes Community Site

EDIT: I contacted my Local EB, and they are sending all their copies back (or waiting for keys or something). They have NO keys, so they cannot sell them. - ÜberJumper

EDIT: It was the fault of a third party DVD/Packaging company. Apparently ALL canadian copies got only the french manual, meanwhile, the Key was printed on the English manual.

There’s a preview of ToV up at Tom’s Hardware.

The second mode is called Panzerkrieg, and is really quite a treat when it comes to intense fast-paced competitive play. In Panzerkrieg, up to six players go head to head with beefed up tanks and abilities. All of the standard rules go out the window in Panzerkrieg, since each player only has to focus on their own individual tank. The hero-like tanks level up in an almost MMORPG fashion after gaining set amounts of experience, which can be earned from destroying enemy tanks or by capturing victory points.

Tons of screenshots.

Relic has posted that Tales of Valor is going live on the Relic Online servers at 9am Pacific today (16:00 GMT).