[War] Warhammer 40k MMORPG

[Swarm]

Okay i suppose its time to start up a thread about this.

Having been operating undercover for years now, it appears that THQ’s massively multiplayer game based on the Warhammer 40K universe will make its public debut at next month’s Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.

It’s about time.

THQ boss Brian Farrell said earlier today that the game, which was last seen when we showed you some concept art in 2009, will be on show at E3 in all its glory, promising to “fully unveil” the highly-anticipated project.

The Warhammer 40K MMO is in development at THQ’s Austin studio, Vigil, and is seen by the company as its biggest potential bread-winner in the years ahead. As it should: do a 40K MMO right and you’ve got yourself a licence to print money.

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/05/war...d-debut-at-e3/

Vigil Games:

For decades gamers have faced off in epic Warhammer 40,000 battles on table tops around the globe. Vigil Games is honored to be the first team to bring the incredibly rich Warhammer 40,000 universe to the MMO genre. We’ll be announcing more about the game in the months to come.

E3 this year is June 15-17

All i can say is BRING IT ON!

[Teggeh]

Warhammer online ended up in fail.

Hopefully this isn't another MMO that fails. So far only WOW seems to be making money, everything else costs a shitload of money to make, gets a few people at the beginning then disappears after a few months.

[FerrisXB9R]

Which sucks, because I actually really really enjoyed WH online.

WoW is definitely more addictive though. I think a lot more of these MMOs that come out would be infinitely more popular if WoW wasn't around, but that's not the world we live in. For me at least, even though I piss and moan about it from time to time, WoW is the only subscription based game I keep coming back to.

I jump on the hype train of every new MMO, it's fun, and also a lesson in what people are trying to do to compete with the WoW juggernaut. Generally though, the products tend to not live much past their initial hype.

I'm deeply saddened this happened with Warhammer, as I thoroughly love the mythos. I hope that WH40KMMO doesn't end up going down the same path.

[DivHunter]

Originally Posted by FerrisXB9R

WoW is definitely more addictive though.

Never made sense to me, it's a terrible game.

40K should bring in more people than Warhammer did.

[FerrisXB9R]

Ultimately I don't need to defend WoW as it has the subscription numbers to back itself up. Lucky for you that you didn't find world of crackcraft addictive. You may not like it personally, but you cannot argue that it's not a supremely effective product.

I'm not going to hazard a guess the numbers or popularity of w40k until I see it.

[Swarm]

Everytime i fired up WAR i though...damn how good would this be in the 40k universe. It has so much potential! Imagine running into tyranids firing the plasma pistol, then getting into melee chainsaw combat..mmmmm

Fingers crossed they will learn from the mistake of others and follow the sucessful steps that WoW has shown.

[japes]

They need to take it in a different direction to Warhammer Online, the whole principal of the game failed, especially combined with the horridly outdated and downtrodden DaoC engine. Even those of us with bomb PC's when it was released could not handle Fortress runs.

Blizzard realised this years ago after the Tarren Mill vs Southshore zerg battles. I'll admit these were awesome fun, but only because there was no other organised PVP events for those of us that loved killing one another. After the release of battlegrounds and the booming popularity of AB/WSG/AV (to an extent), Wintergrasp has been the only large scale PVP orientated event since, not including world bosses. A quick look at the popularity of Arena in WoW and how many dedicated players this caters to, a solid percentage of the player base only arena, and it's not surprise that WAR was a let down.

I levelled 3 40's in WAR, between both factions. The game was fantastic, other than having a dated engine and "holier than thou because I didn't play wow" community, I thought it brought a lot of awesome features to the table, many of which have made their way into WoW, however endgame was just horrible. The PVE boss fights were fantastic considering they were based around party gameplay (6 people), but the PVP was just straight up cumbersome. Trash talk was rife, yet didn't mean shit because it was whoever managed 20 more players in the field.

Thankfully, THQ might know what they're doing. Can't say I'm interested in another Mythic MMO for a while. Would absolutely fucking love to see squad based fighting with 3/4 squads in enclosed fields (battlegrounds).

[FerrisXB9R]

Originally Posted by japes

I thought it brought a lot of awesome features to the table, many of which have made their way into WoW,

Agreed. They had the Tome of Knowledge achievements system and Blizzard stood up and took notice amongst other things. Levelling up via PVP was another.

One thing I truly enjoyed about WAR (and tbh, if the friends I started playing WAR with on launch day didn't go back to WoW, I'd still be playing WAR) was the fact that both factions had mirror classes, but not IDENTICAL classes. Sorceress vs Bright Wizard, Magus vs. Engineer etc etc.

I understand it's been a huge juggling act for the dev teams in the name of balance, but I really wish every other mmo developer out there would do the same.

As you say, the engine wasn't great, but I was definitely prepared to look beyond that. I love the WH mythos and art style employed in WAR. I think the animation stumbles in the likes of the Inevitable City npcs were annoying, but not deal breakers.

The thing that killed WAR vs WoW was definitely the inevitable direct comparisons between the 2 fantasy mmos. A plus for WH40K will be the futuristic/space age mythos going for it. Some people love their swords and shields, others like their bolters and flamers. I think WH40K will definitely surf a huge initial influx of the 40k die hard fan, the try-every-new-mmoer and the others who just don't like fantasy mmo games, and prefer spaceships to sailing ships. It'll be interesting. I'm not going to hold my breath, but hopefully it'll be a fun month, minimum. I never regret the time I spend with new MMOs at launch, I just sometimes regret not going back to them at later dates. WAR is definitely one of those.

[PsychoSmiley]

The way this needs to be conducted is on a level greater than a singular unit or character. A lone Space Marine, Imperial Guardsmen, Eldar etc. running around being a hero just doesn't work. The characters themselves would be better represented as a unit of troops. As you level up you get further units added to your squad, you add wargear to your squad to customise it as well as the unit learning unique skills. A unit of 20+ Guardsmen then could have closer matched firepower to a unit of 5-10 Space Marines. I've waffled this idea many times before dating back to '07.

Originally Posted by PsychoSmiley

Well unsurprsingly the tabletop 40k also has those classes. The key to pulling it off as I mentioned above would not be having a focus on building a single character rather a squad that you expand and customise and upgrade to suit the approach you wish to take. It makes things a bit different. Different races would have classes more suited to them. Each race would have a starting planet, and there would be various planets throughout you could visit and undertake missions on.
If you really wanted to up things you could take aspects from other games to make a bit more tactical and indepth. Like in CoH, DoW, you can place your squad in cover and such and use walls and other objects. Moral would have to be included as it's an intergral part of the game system.
Late game PvP would consist of what would look like a large scale battle as you would have large numbers of squads (each controlled by their own player), moving together, covering, and attempting to take objectives. Instead of guilds you can have legions which people create, and the leaders can create different companies and battalions. This leads to the possibility of in game skirmishes with other legions.

The game certainly does have potential but it needs to done in a manner that is appropriate to the game and genre. It's not simply a matter of having "WoW in the future with guns".

I could speel out a good overview on my take on the game now if I wanted to, but its pretty stupid in the end as it's not upto me how the game is made. I'm merely presenting my angle on things.

[FerrisXB9R]

I like that idea psychosmiley. There is one thing to consider when it comes to managing a squad over a singular unit though, and that is how to traverse the environment. You can have the BEST combat/gear/graphics system in the world, but if it's a pig of a thing to move your character (or representation of yourself, whatever it may be) around the landscape, then it will be a shit game. People LIKE environments that are fun to travel with their characters. I can't imagine WASD + SPACEBAR being a good way to control a squad of marines, and a MMORTS won't do so well I think. If you ever played Guild Wars, I can imagine a system like that would work. You control 1 character, but are always with AI controlled henchmen/heros, who you can kit out, set up etc.. It's a rare thing to be a solo character in battle.

[BuZeR]

Originally Posted by Swarm

...and follow the sucessful steps that WoW has shown.

WoW? Did anyone here play WoW on release? So quickly everyone forgets how crap WoW was, 1 hour server queues to enter servers 6 months after release, no honor or pvp system, daily downtimes and no content.

The only thing that WoW has done right is steal everything out of any game thats worth talking about.

[Sub_Atomic]

Originally Posted by BuZeR

WoW? Did anyone here play WoW on release? So quickly everyone forgets how crap WoW was, 1 hour server queues to enter servers 6 months after release, no honor or pvp system, daily downtimes and no content.

The only thing that WoW has done right is steal everything out of any game thats worth talking about.

Except player housing and a guild house.

I liked WAR a fair bit, but numbers dwindled and I left as well. I liked the PvP concept the best. I doubt I'll try 40k, but you never know, it might turn out to be the best thing since sliced MMO's.

[undef]

I'll give it a crack.

I been hoping someone would bring a good sci-fi mmo to the table.

My first MMO was Neocron and even though it was buggy as hell it still is my favorite. The concept was brilliant, the execution much less so.

Although what will happen with me is the same as both my attempts at WoW and WAR.

I'll start with everyone else, but work doesn't keep normal or regular hours so I'll fall behind, won't be able integrate into a guild/clan because I can't ever guarantee that I'll be able to attend raid/instance runs, won't get geared up, get wtfbbqcritoneshotted by guys who do have the time and close the account after I payed for it for another 3-6 months after I stopped playing.

Also I would say no to BGs, I want world pvp. Capture the Flag in WoW, really? *facepalm*

I never played arena, it came in when I took a break and when I picked up again I just didn't really have the gear or skills to compete. So it might be awesome. Just the rest is not really in the spirit of things.

World PVP is a technical issue. Everyone says "i loved those epic battles, just the server couldn't handle it". Someone fixes this they might be onto a winner.

I got other thoughts on MMOs, like why super rare items are a bad idea and other care bear behaviour, but this is not the thread for it nor would it make a financially successful venture.

I'll keep an eye on this MMO though maybe we get lucky...

[DJester]

Originally Posted by undef

World PVP is a technical issue. Everyone says "i loved those epic battles, just the server couldn't handle it". Someone fixes this they might be onto a winner.

After WAR and Wintergrasp in WoW I've pretty much given up on the concept of encouraged/designed world pvp. Its epic at first but seems to naturally gravitate into a boring zerg.

The only world pvp I really enjoyed were the occasional 1 on 1's/small (but fairly even) encounters while levelling; the rest tends to just be griefing or zerging.

As for 40k: bring it on! Wtb E3 already

[BuZeR]

Originally Posted by DJester

After WAR and Wintergrasp in WoW I've pretty much given up on the concept of encouraged/designed world pvp. Its epic at first but seems to naturally gravitate into a boring zerg.

The only world pvp I really enjoyed were the occasional 1 on 1's/small (but fairly even) encounters while levelling; the rest tends to just be griefing or zerging.

As for 40k: bring it on! Wtb E3 already

Yeah i agree, encounter Pvp is now just a zerg run, never played a game since Ultima Online days where it was a lot of 1v1 PvP... UO rocked my world!

But i think Dark Age of Camelot had a decent raid/Encounter Pvp system... Or maybe it just seemed that way because it was still a new and shiny concept...

Guess games just have too many players in them now, so there are always the group of high level people with all the time in the world.