IGN "Single Player" Preview

[Pike]

RN Coverage (http://www.relicnews.com/index.php?f_area=story&f_id=2438)

IGN has slapped up an article that goes into some of the single player aspects of DoW. But the most interesting bit is this:


Taking that and the fact that Relic plans to devote some people to creating new content such as units after the game is released, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is looking to help make this year even better than it already was for RTS fans. Keep your eyes peeled for more updates as Dawn of War closes in on its release date.

Go wild and speculate! :D

[TS_ahriman]

That just made my day.

[OrionAssante]

LOL, you posted the article and that specific quote only seconds before I was about to.

[Davor]

Sounds frickin' Awesome.

[Sirus]

Sounds to good to be true.

[Koroshiya Eins]

Can't wait for the game to come out :)

[Noir]

Taking that and the fact that Relic plans to devote some people to creating new content such as units after the game is released, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is looking to help make this year even better than it already was for RTS fans. Keep your eyes peeled for more updates as Dawn of War closes in on its release date.

That's VERY interesting,I guess Relic took more from Total Annihilation than Jeremy Soule ;) .It does sound a bit too good to be true frankly since units are far harder to make in DoW than in most other RTSes,but I hope that it actually happens :)

[Triceron]

They did make a free expansion addon for Impossible Creatures after its release.

[Noir]

I think it's going to more of a "New weekly unit!!!!111oneone" thing than an expansion pack,but you're right :) .

[Gastrian]

THQ made a point of bringing the game on a medium powered laptop to show how good the game looked on an average machine. While the real-time shadowing wasn't enabled, everything was still very detailed and did look pretty impressive.

I also found tht to be a good sign, not a case of going showing how the game SHOULD be run but how it WILL be run.

[GTez]

I know the beta runs lickedy smooth on my 'medium powered laptop' :D

[NovaBurn]

Yay Expansions!!

[Asklepios]

I thought units were supposed to be very hard to be added to DoW and that there were no plans for expanding the game yet...
Now all of a sudden this does not apply, eh ? :|

[Noir]

They didn't say anything about expansions.It could be expansions,or it could be a "New weekly unit!!!!111oneoneone" thing I mentioned above.

[Asklepios]

That is why I used the word "expanding", as in generally adding content :D

I will be overjoyed at this of course, but it seemed so final in previous announcements... Oh, well...

[ThirdDanScoota]

I think most of us are just waiting for the friggin game to be released, especially me! Considering we've tried to download the beta like 3 times and it stuffs up RIGHT at the end. Good one Fileplanet.

[FluxX]

Na, thats your ISP, not FP.

Go Relic!

Why is it "difficult" to add new units?
It is "time consuming" as there is so much to add just for one new unit.
The only difficult thing would be the balancing.

[Koroshiya Eins]

Na, thats your ISP, not FP.

Go Relic!

Why is it "difficult" to add new units?
It is "time consuming" as there is so much to add just for one new unit.
The only difficult thing would be the balancing.

So you've created content for the game and know how much time and effort goes into creating it?
Interesting.

[BrianGeneral]

I think it's going to more of a "New weekly unit!!!!111oneone" thing than an expansion pack,but you're right :) .

Erm,patches anyones?:p

My thought is that they're about FW units.

[EsineM]

Make This Sticky Pike!!!

[TinBane]

This does bear a strange and welcome similarity to another great RTS, total anihilation. After its release the developers made additional units for download, and they were actually useful and expanded gameplay... Ahhh the sweet addition of mobile anit nuke missile robots. I'm interested as to whether this will be additional units to the races there are already. Additional subfactions of races (chapters and ork clans etc) or additional races in general. My instinct is a full expansion would be required for the last option ( or a sizable mod) and the first two are far more likely.

Pure Speculation though

[LynX]

I thought units were supposed to be very hard to be added to DoW and that there were no plans for expanding the game yet...
Now all of a sudden this does not apply, eh ? :|

Here's why adding a unit, any unit is "hard".

1) Preplanning & Modelling. Making the model takes a few hours of planning (not including making concept/reference pics), and a few more doing the actual modelling, as well as thinking of why that unit should be added, adn how it affects the game.

2) Skinning. Making the skins for the model. this can take anywhere from 2 days to a week, depending on the size of the model and detail required.

3) Rigging. Putting the strings on the unit. Setting up the bones for the unit so it can do those fancy anims. 3-10 hours, again depending on the complexity of the unit.

4) Animating. 10 hours at least is my estimate, for the amount of anims i've seen on each individual unit.

5) Sounds. To give the unit individuality and "life", the whole range of sounds and responses need to be recorded.

6) Coding. The model, skin and animations need to be linked to the game in code so it works ingame. 5 hours estimate, depending on the amount of anims/conditionstates/sounds/whatever else for that unit.

7) Playtesting. Not all fun and games, contrary to what non-devs believe. This is essential to root out bugs and test the effect of the unit to the whole game. Variable time, give 10 hours for a moderately buggy/unbalanced unit.



This shows just how dedicated Relic is to the fans, no? :)

[chocolate]

I shudder to think of the balance of games with more then four sides... *cough* Warlords Battlecry *cough*

[Black Hawke]

I'm wondering what where the specs of the medium powered laptop which was used to show IGN more of Dawn of War. I'm unable to see if Dawn of War will run fairly smooth, since the beta is too large for me to download. I basically have a minium spec computer and I will have to buy the game... I hope it wont be a waste of money to know it can't run 'nicely'. I hope Relic makes a small demo of the tutorial or something, so I can see how it will run. Even a in-game video with a FPS counter to give an example of the how smooth the game will run.

[Retroboy]

Feh, I say. Feh.

Eleven missions. One race to play. I'm guessing maybe 25 hours of campaign, tops. Getting pretty pathetic when an RTS is shorter than an FPS.

Feh.

(...and Lynx, you didn't add all the graphics and programming required to update the interface so the player can interact with the new unit as well. ;) )

-- Retro

[GTez]

I'm wondering what where the specs of the medium powered laptop which was used to show IGN more of Dawn of War.
Well, my laptop is a P4 2.0 GHz
512 Ram
GeForce 420 go 32 Megs of Ram
40 gig hd

and it runs like a hot damn...
BTW The go series of Geforces suck...
So I would say I have a medium powered laptop and I run everything at medium detail and have yet to see problems.

I also have a computer that is below spec, and it runs very well!

Dual P3 1.0 Ghz
1 Gig of ram
GeForce 4 4200 128 Megs of Ram
1x40 Gig ATA100 and 1x40 Gig Ata66

This computer I have set to a bit lower and still runs VERY well. Better then the laptop but I'm a sucker for pretty pictures and so I like seeing things nice and pretty on my laptop :D

[Horia]

800 DDRAM
2000+ AMD
ATI Radeon 9600 XT
200 gig hard drive @ 7200 rpm.

Works fine, though i need a new proccesor.

[WarpSpider]

I'm very impressed with how well DoW holds up on sucky computers. I knew mine would run it fine at max graphics, but I seriously doubted my dads, but alas, it's fine on full graphics.

My dads PC is 1.6ghz Athlon, 512mb DDR, Radeon 9200 SE.

I tried it on my bro's 1ghz Duron too, with 384mb SD RAM and a GF2 MX, but that was really asking too much even on minimum graphics :lol:

[ilia1986]

Thing I did NOT like:



For instance, another mission we were shown called for the Blood Ravens to make their way up a mountain against heavy Ork resistance. The thing is, once the marines make it to a certain point of the level, the Orks will suddenly become much more careful about their defense and begin sending scouts and artillery to kick some pain towards the player. This should make for some more interesting gameplay as players shouldn't be able to stick with one tactic as they go.

Ok. WHY do the marines are called to a mountain base to kill the orcs. The codex saying "kill the heretic" isnt enough. There must be a reason! Maybe, the orcs have captured some high ranking SM prisoners? Stuff like that. I HATE mssions where you are told "kill the enemy" without further breefing. The Change of tactics script also better be working properly.


Its good to know that there will be also non-in-game catscenes. I just hope that Relic wont make another HW2 stlye campaign with lots of objectives like "kill em all!".

[Koroshiya Eins]

Thing I did NOT like:




Ok. WHY do the marines are called to a mountain base to kill the orcs. The codex saying "kill the heretic" isnt enough. There must be a reason! Maybe, the orcs have captured some high ranking SM prisoners? Stuff like that. I HATE mssions where you are told "kill the enemy" without further breefing. The Change of tactics script also better be working properly.



How can you judge the mission without knowing the context and never been playing it?

[ImpactedWombat]

Yeah, the game seems like its going to be solid no matter if they add content or not. I'm not big on RTS, seeing as though I was piss poor at SC and WC3. The IGN review convinced me that I should anticipate this game like a madman and take it for what its worth.

I mean, lets be realistic, crappy gamers need love too. :)

[M37]

Cool but another way to add contenct would be stand alone ad on missions *Strike at Truanis *ect...

Expanded abilites, upgrades more turrets, bunkers ect....
Ester eggs - hummm this could be cool. - a crashed ship baring a startling resemblance to a crashed HC from HW?

[ilia1986]

How can you judge the mission without knowing the context and never been playing it?

Trust me: Ive played HW2 SP campaign. I know what bad can happen. :argh:

[Noir]

Feh, I say. Feh.

Eleven missions. One race to play. I'm guessing maybe 25 hours of campaign, tops. Getting pretty pathetic when an RTS is shorter than an FPS.

Feh.

(...and Lynx, you didn't add all the graphics and programming required to update the interface so the player can interact with the new unit as well. ;) )

-- Retro

But the thingy says that the campaign is split into several parts,so maybe each part can be as long as a mission?(Not likely,but hey,one can dream)

So it might actually be a long campaign,but it just sounds short :p

[Bloodsaint]

Bikes? Bikes please!

Oh...and Chaplains!

Chaplains ON bikes!

And um...Inquisitors. Yup. Hell...Witchunters would be incredible...we'll see.

[[IG8]Kasrkin Sturnn]

probably they will add new maps and units from patches or races even?

coz one of my games does that everytime theres a patch it usally adds new weapons and new maps and new army schemes but if they did DOW like that then it would probably be pretty good :D

[Horia]

Races ? Unlikely.

Maps and if your lucky units :)

[LynX]

Feh, I say. Feh.

Eleven missions. One race to play. I'm guessing maybe 25 hours of campaign, tops. Getting pretty pathetic when an RTS is shorter than an FPS.

Feh.

(...and Lynx, you didn't add all the graphics and programming required to update the interface so the player can interact with the new unit as well. ;) )

-- Retro

Ssssh! Don't scare off the Fresh Meat potential modders! :D

[Ziggy]

you can only have so many units

[JumpPackBoy!]

You LIE YOU CAN HAVE BILLIONS MWHAHAHA!