Lethal Dosage’s Guide to

Company Of Heroes
for Dummies

Version 2.6 for

Company Of Heroes,
Company Of Heroes: Opposing Fronts,
Company Of Heroes: Tales of Valor

Contents
Introduction Page 2
Special Note on Tales of Valor Page 2
In Brief Page 3
Installing –dev (.sgb) type maps Page 3
Installing Scenario (.sga) type maps Page 4
Installing Mods Page 4
Installing Skins
Online compatible method - Non-OF/ToV compatible Page 5
OF/Online compatible method Page 5
Installing and Running CoH Launcher Page 6
Modifying your Company Of Heroes shortcut
For custom maps Page 7
For custom mods Page 8
Modifying a Mod’s .module file for scenario (.sga) type maps. Page 9
Target line commands Page 9
Ingame Console commands Page 11
Editing your Windows Registry Page 11
Creating a new folder in Windows Explorer Page 12
Contact details and Legal Information Page 13
Introduction

This is a step by step guide to doing basic things to your Company Of Heroes game
like installing maps and mods, as well as some nifty little tricks which might come in
handy. Now I wrote this based on my experiences and fiddling around in the CoH
drives, as well as from readme’s and instructions from members of the RelicNews
Forums community. I use Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2, and as such there might
be differences in how other versions of Windows work from mine. If you’re a Vista
user, suck shit for buying a piece of buggy Microsoft crap (but we all have to at some
stage), or if you use Windows 2000 or some such, I can’t really help you in areas that
differ from XP.

Words or text that appear in Bold are names of folders, file paths or buttons, and
should be typed (where applicable) exactly as they appear here, eg. mp which is the
name of a folder, and should be typed mp when naming that folder. When entering
these in, type them exactly as they appear (except for the bold print naturally). Words
or text that appear in Italics are the names of keys or key combinations that you need
to press on your keyboard and/or mouse. Words or text in Italics that are separated a
+ symbol are key combinations where you need to hold down the first mentioned
key/s while pressing the other, eg. for Ctrl+X you need to press and hold the Ctrl key
while pressing X, then releasing them both at the same time.

*** Note: If your computer uses multiple profiles, you may need to be logged in as
the Administer to install mods, maps, and/or modify files. ***

Of course neither Relic nor THQ directly supports user created maps or mods, and
cannot offer support with the installation or use of such content. If you need help or
support with user created content like maps, mods, skin packs, etc. that this guide
doesn’t help with, try contacting the creator or try posting on forums such as the
FileFront CoH Gaming Forums http://forums.filefront.com/company-heroes-1370/ or
the RelicNews Company Of Heroes Forums
http://forums.relicnews.com/forumdisplay.php?f=146.

Special Note on Tales of Valor

With the release of Tales of Valor, mods have once again been broken, and at time of
writing it is unknown if there is a way to convert mods made for previous versions.
Most maps still work however, maps will need to be installed per the instructions
elsewhere in this document, and .sgb type maps will need –dev enabled.

If you use the CoH Launcher, you may be out of luck. you’ll have to download the
latest version, (v2.4 is the latest at time of writing, but has no mod support, and may
still not work with ToV and v2.5).
In Brief

This section just lists the file paths for where you should install the various
community things, just in case its readme doesn’t explain fully and you don’t want to
go through this manual in length.

-dev (.sgb) type maps –

C:\Program Files\THQ\Company of Heroes\WW2\Data\Scenarios\mp

Scenario (.sga) type maps –

C:\Documents and Settings\(user)\My Documents\My Games\Company of
Heroes\WW2\Scenarios

Mods –
C:\Program Files\THQ\Company of Heroes

Skins – (non OF compatible method)

C:\Program Files\THQ\Company of Heroes\WW2\Data

Installing “–dev” (.sgb) type maps

First go into your Company of Heroes directory (usually located at C:\Program

Files\THQ\Company Of Heroes), go into the folder called WW2, then into data. If
there is no folder there called Scenarios, create one (see Creating a new folder for
Windows Explorer for instructions). Once you’ve created it, go into it and create one
called mp. The mp folder is where you will place all your maps in.

Now you can either extract all the map files directly into the mp folder, or
alternatively extract them to your C:\ drive and move them to the folder manually.
Three ways you could do this are outlined below.

1. Select all the desired files by highlighting, right clicking, and then selecting
Cut. Then go into the mp folder, right clicking on a blank area, and selecting
Paste.

2. Select all the desired files by highlighting, pressing Ctrl+X (Cut function),
then go into the mp folder and press Ctrl+V (Paste function).

3. Select all the desired files by highlighting, then hold down the Left Mouse
Button over the highlighted items, then drag it into the mp folder. To open
folders while holding down the Left Mouse Button and dragging, pause the
mouse over the desired folder and after a second it will open.
Installing “Scenario” (.sga) type maps

This type of map is the exception to the rule, these don’t go into your regular
Company of Heroes directory (usually located at C:\Program Files\THQ\Company
Of Heroes), these are placed deep into you’re CoH profile folder located at My
Documents\My Games\Company Of Heroes. An alternative way to get there is to
go through C:\Documents and Settings\(user)\My Documents\My
Games\Company of Heroes.

*** Note: Administrator is the default profile name for the main profile with all the
privileges, if yours is different or you use multiple profiles, be sure to substitute
“user” in these instructions for the name of your profile. ***

Once in your CoH profile, you’ll need to create a folder called WW2 in the Company
Of Heroes folder (see Creating a new folder for Windows Explorer for instructions).
Go into the newly created folder and create a new one called Scenarios. This is the
folder that you place all the .sga type maps into.

*** Note: These .sga type maps DO NOT show up in map lists for mods without
modifying the .module file for that mod (instructions can be found further down),
however will show up for your original Company Of Heroes game, even if you’ve
modified the Target line in the Shortcut Properties. ***

Installing Mods

*** Note: Installing mods largely won’t alter or harm the original game, theoretically
you can install as many as you like, and manually deleting (or using a uninstaller
program if provided) will not harm your game. It is wise however to keep an up-to-
date copy of your RelicCoH.English.ucs file (found in Company of
Heroes\Engine\Locale\(your language)\), this is the only file a mod may alter, and
you’ll need to replace the file if modified with a copy of the original when it comes
time to patch your game. ***

Installing mods can be a bit harder than installing a map. All you need to do is either
extract the mod folder and .module file directly into your “base” Company of Heroes
directory (usually located at C:\Program Files\THQ\Company Of Heroes), or
alternatively extract them to your C:\ drive and move them to the folder manually.
The three ways you could do this are outlined above in the Installing Maps section.

Important Note

Mods made for Company of Heroes between version 1.00 and 1.71 will not work on
later versions, like-wise mods made for versions between 2.00 to 2.301 and/or the
Opposing Fronts expansion will not work on earlier versions or latter versions. Mods
made or converted for v2.400 will not work on earlier versions, and it’s doubtful
they’ll work on future versions. Finally, mods made for v2.500 will not work on
previous versions, and it’s unknown how many future versions they’ll work for.
If your unsure what version of the game a particular mod was made for, read the
documentation distributed with the mod, or try contacting the author. If all else fails,
download the mod and try, even if it fails, it can’t harm your game!

Installing Skins

Online compatible method - Non-OF/ToV compatible

Installing skins can be pretty easy if you’re an offline player using CoH v1.71 or less
(but how many of you fit that description, right?). Basically copy the art folder that
the skins are in into C:\Program Files\THQ\Company of Heroes\WW2\Data , or
wherever you have your CoH installed to. If you want the skins in a mod, but without
having them in your original CoH game, just place the art folding inside the Data
folder which is found inside the Mod’s folder. Naturally if there isn’t a Data folder in
the mod folder, create it. This way you can play the game online with any problems.
Sadly this method doesn’t work with OF, however strangely it WILL work in any
mods for CoH or OF.

OF/Online compatible method

Ok basically this is the hard way, kinda… you need to download and install
SkinInstaller (a link can be found at the bottom of this section), and follow the
directions included in the readme with it. I can’t stress enough that you definitely
should not differ from the instructions in the slightest detail, doing so will very likely
screw up your CoH (or OF) install. Before you do do it though, you need to make sure
you backup the WW2Art.sga file (found in C:\Program Files\THQ\Company of
Heroes\WW2\Data\Archives), as SkinInstaller overwrites this, and you need to be
able to restore it if you want to play without the skins or to patch the game. That’s the
advantage of the other method, you can patch it up fine. To install skins to an OF mod
is a little simpler, either copy the WW2Art.sga file that skin installer made over into
the Data\Archives folder inside the mod or simply copy the art folder the skins are in
(ie. not in .sga format) into the Mod’s Data folder.

*** Note: Skins installed into the default CoH (or OF) directory either into the
WW2\Data\Archives folder as an .sga file (via SkinInstaller) or into WW2\Data in
the unarchived format (with the art folder, etc…) will work not only in the stock
game but in any mods that don’t add skins of their own, in which case the skins which
aren’t mod specific will also be present, however skins introduced with the mod have
a higher priority when running the mod.

An example would be if you were using a complete skin pack with the stock game
and a mod you installed included an Officer skin dressed in a red Santa outfit, while
playing the mod the Santa skin would replace the other Officer skin, however since
the Santa skin is in the mod, playing the full game wouldn’t have him (Note, no such
Santa or Christmas themed skins exist for CoH or OF as of time of writing). ***
Installing and Running CoH Launcher

CoH Launcher is a wonderful little tool created by Mannerheim (and available for
download from the RelicNews Forums), which basically allows you to play mods
and .sga type maps without having to modify shortcuts or other game or mod files.
The biggest uses of this program is to allow you to play .sga type maps online and to
organise everything into one shortcut so you don’t need to have a shortcut on your
desktop for every mod you’ve got installed. This guide however does not cover all
features of CoH Launcher, nor subsequent versions. For full descriptions it’s best to
read any accompanying documentation, or instructions listed on the site you
downloaded it from.

Note: If you’re a Windows Vista user, you’ll need to be logged in as the

Administrator to install and run CoH Launcher.

Once you’ve downloaded the CoHLauncher.exe file, cut and paste it into your CoH
directory (usually located at C:\Program Files\THQ\Company Of Heroes), then
make a shortcut to this program by right clicking on it an and select Send To,
followed by Desktop (create shortcut), and this will create a shortcut to the program
on your desktop.

CoH Launcher v1.5

Now create a folder in your directory (where the RelicCOH.exe file is located and all
your game files are, by default it’s C:\Program Files\THQ\Company Of Heroes),
and call it Maps. This is where you copy your maps to, so when installing .sga type
maps, all you have to do is copy them to this folder.

CoH Launcher v2.0

The CoH launcher v2.0 is a little different installing it in that instead of it looking to a
Maps folder for the maps, it looks inside a folder called CoHLauncher, which you
can either create manually or it’ll automatically create the first time the program runs.
If you downloaded this version, you just have to copy the .sga maps to that folder
once it’s been created. Just the Launcher and the maps will automatically appear in
the list..

*** Note: You must make sure you don’t move any maps (and thus have no files at
all) installed to the default location (C:\Documents and Settings\(user)\My
Documents\My Games\Company of Heroes\WW2\Scenarios\), if there are any
there when you click the Start Game button, it will come up with an error. ***

When you run the program click Add Maps or Add a new map or addon
(depending of what version of CoHLauncher you have), find the Maps folder in your
CoH directory and in there select the maps you want to be loaded up with the game.
Each map needs to be manually selected and added in individually, but you can have
as many installed to load up as you want. When the program is first run it will
automatically detect what mods you have installed, and will have the original game
selected. By clicking on the down arrow to the right of it a drop down list will appear
which will list all the available mods, listed by alphabetical order. The Maps list
below will list all the maps that are installed and will be loaded up with the game, and
a window to the right will allow you to preview each map’s overhead tactical map
when the map is selected in the list.

*** Note: v2.0 of the CoH Launcher will not work with Company of Heroes v2.400
or higher, and you’ll have to download a newer version. Currently there is a
temporary version (v2.4) released for v2.400 (but prior to the Tales of Valor release)
which will allow you to play .sga maps, but it removes mod support. It is yet to be
seen when Mannerheim will release an updated version for Tales of Valor (CoH
v2.500) and fix the mod support. ***

Modifying your Company Of Heroes shortcut

For custom maps

Now this is important to do otherwise custom maps won’t show up in any of your
map lists.

Go to your desktop (“base” Windows screen with all the icons and the start menu),
and click your Right Mouse Button and select Properties in the menu that appears.

In the new window, you need to go to the line that is titled Target: and at the end of
the line press Space then type –dev . So that your target line looks like this;

"C:\Program Files\THQ\Company of Heroes\RelicCOH.exe" –dev

Naturally if you installed your copy of the game to a different directory, the
C:\Program Files\ section will be different on yours.

*** Note: Make sure you have a space between the ” and the –dev,
otherwise it won’t work. ***

Now click Apply, then OK.

After doing this, you can run the game and the new maps you’ve installed will appear
at the bottom of the map list in either Skirmish or Multiplayer game setup screens.

*** Note: Apparently when using a modified shortcut line you can’t play
multiplayer games online unless everyone else has done the same thing,
but since you are most likely to play with players who have also done
this, issues with this would be rare. If it does happen, just remove the
modified portion ( -dev), click Apply then OK, start Company Of Heroes
again and rejoin the server. ***
For custom mods

This is only a little different than modifying your CoH shortcut for maps.

Go to your desktop, copy your Company Of Heroes shortcut, then paste to your
desktop using one of these methods;

1. Select the icon by left clicking it once, right clicking, and then selecting
Copy. Then right clicking on a blank area, and selecting Paste.

2. Select the icon by left clicking it once, pressing Ctrl+C (Copy function),
then press Ctrl+V (Paste function).

A new icon will appear on your desktop using the same CoH image and name. It is
best to rename this new shortcut so that you don’t get confused between your original
Company Of Heroes shortcut and the new one for the mod. Use one of the two ways
outlined below;

1. Select the Company Of Heroes icon that you intend to use for the mod by
left clicking on it, wait a second, then left click on the text under the image
and enter your new text.

2. Right click on the icon that you intend to use for the mod, and select
Rename and enter your new text.

*** It is best to name it to the mod, eg. CoH NHC mod. ***

Once creating a copy of your shortcut click your Right Mouse Button and select
Properties in the menu that appears.

In the new window, you need to go to the line that is titled Target: and at the end of
the line press Space then type –modname then the name of the mod as it appears on
the mod folder that you installed into your CoH directory, then type Space and -dev
after that. So for example your target line for the NHCmod looks like this;

"C:\Program Files\THQ\Company of Heroes\RelicCOH.exe" -modname NHC –

dev

Or for the Experience Company Of Heroes mod;

"C:\Program Files\THQ\Company of Heroes\RelicCOH.exe" -modname ECOH

–dev

The important section that your modifying is;

…\RelicCOH.exe" -modname NHC –dev

Now click Apply, then OK.

After doing this, you can run the game with the mod you’ve installed and when
playing the mod will be in effect.

*** Note: Many mods that have been released with multiple versions as well as old
mod versions, which may not be entirely compatible with your version of Company
Of Heroes. If the mod crashes on startup, or if you notice that not all features of the
mod appear ingame, check the readme file that accompanied the mod for which
version it is compatible with. If the Readme doesn’t say, or if there is no readme,
update your game with the latest patch (v2.201), as well as check for the latest version
of the mod, there are many mods that are “dead” (ie. no longer updated), that don’t
work with the newer versions of the game. If this is the case, ask the creator to update
it to work with the latest version or look for another mod that has the same or similar
features that is compatible with your version of the game. ***

Modifying a Mod’s .module file for scenario (.sga) type maps.

Find the .module file (installed to C:\Program Files\THQ\Company Of Heroes) for

the mod you wish to edit, and open it by double clicking on it. For this example I’ll
use the NHCmod.

A window will pop up saying that Windows cannot this file, and asking you what you
want to do, with the two options being;

• Use the web service to find the appropriate program

• Select the program from a list

Select “Select the program from a list” and click OK, then in the new window that
pops up scroll down the list and select Notepad, before clicking OK.

Notepad will open this file up, displaying a list with headings. Look under the first
heading titled [Global], and find the line that reads “ScenarioPackFolder =
NHC\Scenarios”, and delete the mod’s directory path (NHC\Scenarios), and
enter in WW2\Scenarios

Click File, and Save.

Close Notepad, and run the mod with the shortcut for the mod. Any scenario (.sga)
type maps installed in their location in My Documents\My Games\Company of
Heroes\WW2\Scenarios will now show up at the bottom of the Skirmish map list.

Target line commands

These little tricks can do some nifty things with you game, like stopping the intro
movies. Generally these will work with other ones at the same time, however I
haven’t tested them all so I can’t confirm this, and naturally Relic doesn’t support
these either. These can screw up your multiplayer, so it’s best to create a copy of the
games’ shortcut rather than edit your original one. A list of lines can be found on the
below.

-dev this enables developer options (also allows you to

play custom maps not formated as a ".sga")
-nomovies this skips opening intro movies.
-noclip no videos when starting the game, saves your "Esc"-key
-unlock_all_missions exactly what it says
-nosound disables the sound system.
-refresh xx (ie. -refresh 60) sets the game refresh rate.
-minvidmem 32 this works around the video-memory check
-novsync disables Vsync (for higher fps then 60).
-notriplebuffer disables triple buffering
-perftest use with -novsync to dump a log file of the performance
test to \my documents\my games\company of
heroes\logfiles
-nolitter used with DX10 and removes the "litter" objects that
busy up the world.

Go to your desktop, and click your CoH shortcut, click your Right Mouse Button and
select Properties in the menu that appears.

In the new window, you need to go to the line that is titled Target. Your unaltered
target line will look like;

"C:\Program Files\THQ\Company of Heroes\RelicCOH.exe"

It doesn’t matter whether you have edited you target line before or not, all you have to
do is at the very end of it press Space and enter the desired line onto the end. For this
we will use the -nomovies line, so that your target line now looks like one of these,
whichever is applicable.

"C:\Program Files\THQ\Company of Heroes\RelicCOH.exe" -nomovies

"C:\Program Files\THQ\Company of Heroes\RelicCOH.exe" –dev -nomovies

Or

"C:\Program Files\THQ\Company of Heroes\RelicCOH.exe" -modname ***

–dev -nomovies

Then of course click Apply, then OK.

If any of these screw with your game, changing the shortcut back to what it used to be
should fix it.
Ingame Console commands

These are console commands that you can enter ingame for information like your FPS
or things like making the taskbar disappear for screenshots, as well as the odd fun
thing.

To open your console press Ctrl+Shift+~ which will make a drop down menu appear.
Any keys you press will show at the bottom of the drop down menu and pressing
Enter will apply the command. Press Ctrl+Shift+~ to close the console once your
done. Below is a list of console commands that can be entered in and their effect.

ee_bigheadmode(1) Big Head Mode, 1 for on, 0 for off

FOW_Toggle Toggles Fog of War on/off (still requires LoS for units)
FOW_RevealAll Turns the Fog of War off properly
setsimrate<number> Sets game speed (default is 8)
taskbar_hide Hides the taskbar
taskbar_show Shows the taskbar
restart Restarts the game
abortgame Quits the game
statgraph() Enables "statgraph_channel" codes
statgraph_channel("fps") Displays the frames per second
Misc_SuperScreenshot() Takes a screenshot with the taskbar, team colours or
buttons visible, even without the taskbar_hide command
being used

*** Note: The game will NOT pause while the console is open, it will continue going
along unless you press Pause before opening the console. ***

Editing your Windows Registry

This is a handy trick if you need to change your CD key without having to uninstall
and re-install the game.

Open up Windows Explorer, and go into your default hard drive that has Windows
installed on it, the default is C: Drive.

Now go down this file path C:\WINDOWS\system32 and scroll down and look for
a .exe file called regedt32.exe, and open it up.

A window will pop up looking similar to Windows Explorer now in the left pane
open up a folder called HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, then open up the folder called
SOFTWARE.

This is where all registry entries are stored to for any programs or games that you
install.

In here scroll down and find the folder called THQ, open it and then open the one
inside it called Company Of Heroes.
In the right hand pane will appear a list of files with a icon with a “ab” on it. These
are your registry strings that contain information like you CD Keys and the such.

Here’s a list of strings that may be contained in here and its purpose, but these aren’t
the only ones.

(Default) Unknown purpose, but under Data should say

(value not set)
CoHOFProductKey Contains the CD key to CoH: OF, only there if
you have or had CoH: OF installed
CoHProductKey Contains the CD key to CoH.

InstallState Unknown purpose, but under Data should say

Installed
CoHOFRetailerContentKey Only present if you entered the Retail
Code when installing CoH: OF, for the bonus
map “Bedum”. Only users who bought their copy
from Best Buy will have the Retail Code.

To edit any of these strings double Left click on it, or Right click and select Modify,
and change the entry under Value data: to whatever you like. However, make sure
you type the new value exactly, otherwise it won’t work.

To create a new string, click Edit, New, and click String value. A new string will
appear in the right hand pane, type the desired name in, then open it up and enter the
desired Data value.

The Retailer Content Key is up on the Best Buy website for all to see, and so isn’t
really considered exclusive, nor wrong, immoral or illegal if you use this code even if
you haven’t bought the game from Best Buy. I believe that it was merely an incentive
to get people to pre order or purchase the game from Best Buy over other retailers.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?
id=pcmcat132400050005&type=category&DCMP=rdr0001154

*** Note: The Bedum and Linden maps have been unlocked for all players to use and
run on servers as of patch v2.201, so editing your registry to try to unlock the Bedum
map is no longer necessary, however editing your registry is still very useful. ***

Creating a new folder in Windows Explorer

This works the same in My Computer.

To create a new folder in Windows Explorer, first de-select any items that you have
selected by left clicking in blank space, you’ll notice that all selected items will no
longer be highlighted.

Next go to the upper left hand corner of the window, and click File, followed by New.
In the menu that expands out, select Folder.
A new folder will appear at the bottom of the list of folders and files, in the main
section of the window titled New Folder, with the text highlighted ready for you to
type in the desired name of the folder. Once you’ve typed in the desired folder name,
hit Enter or click in another area of the window and the text will be applied to the
folder as the folder name, unless there is already a folder of the same name, in which
case it will come up with an error and revert to New Folder as the folder name.

Contact Details

Feel free to contact me if you wish to help make corrections, report errors, author
additional content, or have suggestions for additional content.

Hotmail/MSN: LethalDosage69@hotmail.com
RelicNews CoH Forums: Lethal Dosage
FileFront CoH Gaming Forums: Lethal Dosage

Legal Information

Alright, this is the important stuff pertaining to this document. This document is the
exclusive intellectual property of me (a.k.a. Lethal Dosage), and is thus protected by
International Copyright Law. This Guide was written as a simple free guide to help
beginners to Company Of Heroes install community and fan made add-ons, mods,
maps, and other content. It is provided for download as is, and free of charge, with no
guarantees that anything provided within will be of help, and some of the things
contained within may even severely mess up your computer.

It is distributed free of charge and may not be included in any Third Party works or
compilations that are sold for any sum of money, in any format or medium.
Furthermore, it cannot be distributed in any other Third Party work or compilation
which is provided completely free of charge without the author’s (mine, a.k.a. Lethal
Dosage), express written permission, this includes uploading it on websites on the
authors behalf, even if full credit is given.

The Guide is provided intact in its entirety, and it may not be reproduced in whole or
in part in any format or medium, even if used in a read-me or other troubleshooting
document.

This legal disclaimer/copyright notice is provided covering the whole document,

including all previous and future revisions, including all revisions where this legal
declaration is not printed.