"Chain of Command represents a new concept in computer games. It does not really fit into any of the currently accepted genres or categories of games, and yet it has many of the elements of several of those genres. Chain of Command is a real-time combat game, so action is a central part of the attraction. But it is not an action game like Crusader or the Doom genre of games, because the player plays with other players as part of a team. Chain of Command has many role-playing elements as players attempt to increase their Efficiency score and be ranked the best, or as they try to improve their military rank. But it is not a classic role-playing game, as progress is not guaranteed, and players may find that a well-aimed grenade severely curtails their progress. It is very obviously a wargame, but as a multiplayer team game, it is unique in that category too. The leadership elements in Chain of Command concern not merely where to put a leader ‘piece’ or ‘character’ to get better performance from units, but how to persuade other players (who may be reluctant to be heroes) to get up and continue contributing to the success of the team. That is a totally different challenge. Chain of Command looks to many like a real-time strategy game, as the player moves soldier-like pieces across realistic terrain in real time, and these pieces fight those of the enemy. But if you throw away your ‘pieces’ in Chain of Command as you might do in, say, Total Annihilation or Command & Conquer, you will not get very far. Chain of Command requires a completely different mind set to any of these games."
Chain of Command is a real-time, multiplayer tactical wargame set in Normandy in World War 2, pitting American troops against German troops. The player commands four soldiers in various short actions, and will most likely find himself part of a larger group or team of other players, some of whom may be his commander, and some of whom may be (eventually) his subordinates. The player commands his own four men directly, responding to orders given to him by his commanders, and passing on orders to his subordinates. Players are themselves responsible for how they carry out other players’ orders (if they choose to carry them out at all), as they fight missions against enemy teams. Players are encouraged to preserve all their men and so may, when the risk is great, withdraw their men from the field, even against their commanders’ wishes. At the end of each battle players receive points from their commanders, and these points go toward their next promotion.
Players are also encouraged to join Regiments and play with other members of their Regiments. Missions played for the Regiment go toward the Regiment’s relative standing. The Regiments provide focus for good team play over a long period.
Chain of Command is designed to be a realistic portrayal of small-unit infantry actions, and many of its systems are designed to take advantage of the multiplayer environment to simulate realistic flows in this type of action.
You and many other people from all over the world will fight together in real-time via the Internet. Your abilities to both lead and follow (via the in-game chat room) your team mates in out-maneuvering and engaging the opposing side will decide the outcome of the game.
[To view the Official CoC Manual, click here. For the Officer's Manual, click here.]
2am’s goal was to "bring together as many people as possible in the world’s greatest gaming rooms." Using the game development platform CREATION, they were able to do just that.
In 1994, the president of 2am, Eli Ehrman, started development on CREATION. CREATION was a tool used to create 2am’s online games, which could be played across the world. It had a fast animation engine, a communication layer for bringing people together, and an advanced scripting language that enabled designers to quickly create games. CREATION allowed ideas to turn into realities.
On November 1st 1996, 2am released its first online game for testing. The game? Alliance and Defiance. During November of 1996, three games were currently available, and three more were planned to be released that month. And by the end of 1997, four to six additional games were scheduled to be released. 2am’s games were, in no particular order: Animated Chess, Poker, Entrepreneur, Alliance & Defiance, Chain of Command, Backgammon, Total War, Checkers, and The Invisible Hand.
One person aspiring to make an online game was Mark Granat (also known as “mgg”). After his military experience, he was determined to bring his war game ideas to life. He soon joined 2am as Director of Game Design, and began building his game: Chain of Command.
By June 1st 1997, Chain of Command was ready to be tested by 2am’s "Founding Members." In March of 1999, Chain of Command was released into beta.
There were many planned additions to the game that were never implemented. Some of these were:
· Expanding of the terrain varieties
· Available weapon types
· Armored (and unarmored) fighting vehicles
· Artillery and air support
· New theaters of operations
· Different military forces
Since the 2am Game Club was freeware, it soon began to fall into a financial hole. 2am used banners to provide them with the money they needed to keep the club alive. However, the money they were receiving from the banners was not meeting the requirements to pay the bills. 2am was soon forced to fire all of their employees, since they were not able to pay them. Chain of Command was soon shut down, never to be seen again (April 2001).
[For more information on the causes of 2am’s bankruptcy and its last days, click here.]
The spirit of 2am’s games lived on. The hundreds of disgruntled players that used to play 2am’s various games stayed in contact with each other, specifically the Chain of Command players. In the old forums (click here to go to them) they cried out for the game they all loved to return. Some of the wealthier players that worked in business in real life even tried buying the game and code, but that plan soon faltered as the investment price was too high and the technology was fading.
Some of the more serious players had enough. In October of 2001, a new project was announced that gave CoC players hope and would ease the pains and urges to play the great game. It was called “Sons of Glory,” and begun creation by CoC player “BishopCLS” (aka CSchetter). SoG was to include many of the features that the old 2am programmers had in store for CoC but never got around to… multi-floored structures, varied terrain, and different weapon types just to name a few.
But when June 2002 rolled around, little had been accomplished with SoG. At this time, CoC veteran “KAding” announced and began work on a game of his own. It was dubbed “Call of Combat,” and KAding’s original intentions were to create it as identical as possible to 2am’s game. Soon after, an announcement was made that the two projects, SoG and Call, were merging. The developers, programmers, and others associated with both the games joined forces to help KAding with Call of Combat. The SoG developers promised their game would be out soon after Call of Combat was released.
This happened shortly… in September 2002, Call of Combat was available to the public. Its Java platform though made Chain of Command difficult to replicate and thus it failed as a clone in many respects. Nevertheless, its announcement date months in advance, combined with the long wait on SoG, had many veterans eager to play anything similar to CoC… so the game was popular in the beginning.
Then things began to falter… the long wait time also had a negative impact, and many of the old 2am players lost interest entirely and never stuck around. KAding came online less and less, and the game’s updates came to a halt. Some new people showed up and took control of much of the game including administrative and moderating duties, without any consent whatsoever by the community and formerly respected veterans. The Sons of Glory project also fell apart, after CSchetter left the Call of Combat team prematurely and seemingly ended his programming days. Schetter’s departure worsened the SoG situation, as their developers’ numbers were already dwindling. They never moved on to their own game, and stuck with the Call of Combat team.
At this time Call of Combat’s bedrock philosophy of a Chain of Command clone also changed; its new “Staff” labeled Call of Combat as a game of its own, completely unrelated to the old Chain of Command or the community. They steered the game away… and the community split. Arguments broke out, threats were made, enemies formed. Many of 2am’s veterans stayed only to support the game because of close ties with KAding, while others moved on. Due to these reasons and others, much hatred and division arose between the two communities that can be seen even to this day.
April 1st, 2003. April Fool’s Day. Waves of excitement flooded through the Call of Combat lobby, their forums, and the forums at CoC Central. Rumors were going around that Chain of Command was back! But being April Fool’s Day, many took it as a joke and dismissed it. The convoluted instructions to install and enter the game added to the disbelief. Also, since the game wasn’t being officially run by 2am Games and its servers, a lot of the old CoC’s functioning features like the lobby, stats, and regimental system were not operating. Those were huge drawbacks.
But many people didn’t realize that the game was in fact up and running. A shady character that called himself only “HookedOnCoC” was the apparent provider, who set up a server and provided the game client files for download as well as instructions on http://www.computerpole.com
HookedOnCoC’s refusal to disclose his real identity, past connection to 2am and CoC, or how he obtained the lost server files from the defunct 2am Games company created much suspicion within the community. Sure enough, the game went offline in August 2003 as mysteriously as it came online, after four short months of play.
It has since come to light that HookedOnCoC was an ex-employee of 2am Games that obtained the CoC files after the bankruptcy courts declared the 2am files freeware. He salvaged many of these files before they were junked. My personal belief is that Hooked is none other than Mark Granat, the original creator of CoC who wanted to see his baby back in action.
Then in December of 2003 Chain of Command reemerged once again. CoC players “BSF2000” (owner of CoC Central), “fixxer” (ex-moderator from 2am), and “brightstar” (wife of fixxer), along with help from HookedOnCoC, managed to raise donations and put the game up on a server once again. The game has been up ever since.
In December and early 2004 the game was bugged badly. A game lobby was nonexistent, there was no username registration, the game had few maps, it lacked the stats that were so very important in old CoC (efficiency, kills, deaths, etc.), and there was no regimental system. All the ex-2am programmers that created the game had disappeared years earlier after 2am went under, and efforts to get into contact with them to help work on the game again failed. Thanks to a few players though, that all changed quickly. CoC players “Labatts3AD,” “DeathsHeadRegiment,” “dakum,” and “strat1” were the first to try and fix the many problems that plagued the newly-born CoC, but they didn’t get far. No one possessed the necessary skill and knowledge to manipulate the unique and aging CREATION code and technology.
At this time an old CoC player “danimal9” returned to play. He also helped to provide necessary coding knowledge. Together, him and Labatts3AD figured out various ways to edit the game. Labatts put the lobby back online (though it currently cannot connect you to the rooms like in the old days), HookedOnCoC connected the game to a database and kept track of statistics through a website, and danimal9 set up the regimental system. Username registration was also created, and Labatts began producing brand new maps made from scratch, as well as recovering old classics from the old days such as Farm Fight, Combat Patrol, Frontal Assault, and others. Without their dedicated work, the game would be nowhere near what it is today and surely would have died out once again. Chain of Command at the present moment is the closest it has ever been to the old 2am days, and this is where we are at today (July 2005).
