UK PC Gamer arrives today... more campaign details revealed

[Croaxleigh]

Ok, first of all I'm not in the UK... but I was talking to a member of the Depth of Heresy team who is. He said that he got his copy of PC Gamer UK today. We only talked briefly, but he gave me a bit of a rundown of a few things. Here's what I remember:

the new stuff I was told about

- Drop Pods can now hit enemy troops
- SM are supersoldiers... it compared them holding a point to "300", though for the SM it's more like "30"
- Less focus on resource gathering and buildng (which sounds like buildings are still in, but not as many buildings)
- Bridges are functional instead of just decoration, and can be destroyed with troops on them (though Assault Marines will automatically jump to safety)
- Assault Marines can deal damage with their landing
- Troops can shoot from buildings the enter, but can be screwed if the enemy bombs or flames the building
- Orbital Bombardment leaves a patch of molten earth where it hits
- Wargear can be collected on the battlefield and equipped on different troops
- Campaign missions may have multiple objectives (such as "save the civilians" or "get the wargear"), and you may have to choose between them... your choices can affect later missions

Again, at least some of this is quite possibly campaign-only.

UK folks can add anything that I left out or got wrong, and everyone can of course discuss some of these juicy tidbits...

Also, keep this in mind.

Do NOT post scans, ask for scans, link to scans, tell how to find scans online, or ask how to find scans online.

Also, please don't quote the article word-for-word... paraphrasing is our friend, and it's fun to boot.

Thanks. *smiles*

[Vrugar Gutslice]

Let's hope that jump troops of other factions will recieve the same landing bonus as the beekees do then. I reckon it would be funny seeing a stormboy barreling into an unsuspecting humie at breakneck speeds.

[jon_the_d]

Love the idea of being forced to choose between objectives - not enough time or whatever to do all of them....sounds brilliant.

the other stuff is the kind of stuff I was kind of expecting. which is a good thing!

All sounds great so far!

thanks for the info!

[Croaxleigh]

Though I kind of doubt it'd be implemented, it could be interesting if the "auto-jump as the bridge falls" thing was dependent upon Morale... basically if your squad was broken, they'd be too freaked out to realize what was happening until it was too late.

[jon_the_d]

just went to the official UK PC GAMER website and in the "in this issue" page, and in "previews" it had listed "Warhammer: Mark of Chaos"

NOT impressed.

[nick2512]

Omg, I want to get my hands on an Australia preview of DoW2. I hate you blokes in the UK, you got all the good stuffs and yet to left us poor colonials to rot in our backyard?
Not happy.

[Croaxleigh]

Oh, as you can probably tell from the fact that I didn't mention it... no news on the other races.

Jon_the_d: They might have originally done that since DoW2 was going to be a surprise for the new issue.

[Vrugar Gutslice]

@nick2512: We can actually get the UK version of PCgamer here you know? It's just a couple of months behind that's all.

[jon_the_d]

huh? originally? that's still on the page today.

and a surprise? there was a teaser advert at the back of pc gamer march edition announcing an exclusive preview of DOW 2....wasn't there?

I thought people had been expecting it?

[insect.warfare]

I hope they don't add too much gameplay and turn off the fanbase.

I didn't really like COH.

[Fightingfirst]

So glad marines sound as if they have become more fluffy with them being truly super warriors instead of what they where in DOW vanilla and subsequent expansions. When does any one reckon new details will emerge on the official dow2 website?

[Demonhorde]

Well my post about the co-op and mission thread was right then all along, the missions will be objective based only and not scripted. I was wondering how they where gonna do the triggers and other gamemechanics to deal with human co-opabillity.

To bad I had wished for more storyline based gameplay like DoW vanilla. But I guess im fine with skirmish type objective based missions aswell. Aslong as the objective will increase in difficulty.

Kinda seems like they moved for a more MP/objective oriented DoW2 instead of storydriven one.

But then after hearing that the ywere going for a deep strike map, and randomness i kinda had that figured out.

[Croaxleigh]

Jon: It might be there today, but remember that the street date is the 10th. Today's the 7th. As for the preview in last month's, it didn't mention Dawn of War 2 by name at all.

TimW: You might want to just recap things instead of quoting directly... I'm pretty sure that the mods frown upon that as well. I'll update my original post to reflect this.

[TimW]

Quoting articles is perfectly legal in any context. If a mod asks me to change it, I'll do so.

Accidentally deleted...

It is there and I am reading it right now.

Direct Quotes removed - Grabnutz

Mod asked me to remove quotes, reposting on the next page with descriptions, not quotes.

[Energizer Bunny]

So far, so CoH

[jon_the_d]

@croaxleigh:

no, but it said are you ready for a new dawn and showed a silhouette of a marine from a well known GW art piece.

and seriously, lots of talk around the net about the upcoming DOW2 preview in the next edition of PC Gamer....it is definitely expected.

and what's your point anyway?

[Croaxleigh]

Um... I think my point is that, as I said, they hadn't actually come right out and said that DoW2 was in the issue. Rumors and hints do not an announcement make, and I never said that it wasn't expected anyway. They might have substituted the game name on the website until after the magazine hits its street date.

[Hirmetrium]

Well shit. I need to get me a copy of this in town tomorrow.

[jon_the_d]

yeah but mark of chaos? it's already out. I thought it was a schoolboy error.

[TimW]

Magazine in not updating web-site shocker.

[jon_the_d]

its not that its not been updated, its that they put "mark of chaos" in the first place.

[Shuma]

Ok we get it. It says Mark Of Chaos. Big deal, Mark of Chaos is coming or already came out for the 360 or it could be the exp march of something.

[TheLoneKnight]

Too much complaining about "Mark of Chaos" error, not enough rapturous cheering at Space Marines finally being portrayed as awesome army-kicking supersoldiers.

We shall fight in the shade of Ork corpses indeed.

[Croaxleigh]

And drop Drop Pods and Assault Marines on them. *smiles*

To be honest, though, one of the things that has me most excited is the prospect of maps with bridges that are actually *gasp!* functional. And destructable. There were a few bridge models that you could use in DoW for map making, but they were pretty much for decoration only.

[TimW]

guess I was wrong about the whole direct quotes issue :o

Points of note, in addition to what was mentioned in the OP:

Technologies making the transition from CoH: Havok physics, destructible scenery, HDR and real-time lighting.

DoW2, at least in the single campaign, will focus on a number of persistent characters, who'll be developed over the course of the game. War gear is found on the battlefield, not awarded between missions Dark Crusade style, though there is a Dark Crusade style character configuration screen.

Speculation: you can swap war gear for different missions?

War gear has to be “identified and equipped” before use – you don't get to use the war gear you find in the same mission, presumably.

A rolling demo:

Space Marines land on an imperial world, take cover on an over pass behind some crates
Orks arrive, charge the marines and are instantly pwnd for trying to charge across open tarrain.
Orks throw a grenade at the marines which destroys the flimsy cover and sends the marines flying.
Scene Change: marines are pinned down by heavy fire, orks send in heavy melee units and start pwning the marines.
Marines call in support, commander unit turns up and starts hacking at the orks with his chainsword.

Another Scene:

- Orks are occupying a building, marines then clean them out with flamer and grenades – the building collapses in a spectacular fashion

A further scene: a fire-fight on a bridge over an abyss. Orks throw grenades which destroy the bridge and wipe out a squad of marines, but the jump-pack equipped assault marines are able to use their jetpacks to leap to safety.

The ork warboss destroys everything he comes into contact with until a marine commander shows up with a thunder-hammer.

Less “static base building”. That means, it's present but greatly reduced. Interesting use of the word 'static' – does that mean there's mobile base building?

Gameplay is also less resource gathering driven, but rather about deploying and using “powerful units”.

Characters are often as powerful as whole squads.

Relic aren't talking about: what happens when a character dies, how wargear works in multi-player, will it have CoH style territory systems, other races.

Mentions “an undisclosed multiplayer aspect”.

One other thing: the very next page is a two page mini-preview of Starcraft 2. Without getting into the whole SC2 vs DoW2 thing... let's just say that Starcraft 2 exactly isn't flattered by the comparison.

Screenshots, all on the same map we've already seen:

a zoomed out view of a squad of marines and burned out predator behind some tank traps firing on a mob of orks while two dreadnaughts assault the orks in close combat

a close in view of a synch-kill with an ork flying across the screen, trailed by a merry arc of blood

some orks being hit by an orbital strike

a large background picture of the ork warboss being charged by the marine commander with a thunderhammer

an overhead view of marine squad fighting orks on an overpass with assault marines flying overheard

small shot of an ork warboss fighting three marines

a background shot of three marines taking cover behind some rubble engaging at least half a dozen orks who're occupying an imperial building

a dreadnaught fighting orks on close combat with sundry marines in the background

a beautiful close up of a furiso dreadnaught synch-killing an ork.

close up of the back of a dreadnaught with an orbital strike in the background

another orbital strike

[Hirmetrium]

Subscribers today, everyone else is thursday. I just bought last months :P

Mark of Chaos: Battle March is in last months I believe.

[Croaxleigh]

In regards to the "less static base building" thing... does anyone else get the feeling that this might be not only a way to increase the pace of the game a bit, but also to pave the way for a much more entrenchable IG in the first expansion? Though IG build a lot of buildings in WA/DC/SS, so does everyone else. An IG expansion where they had a lot more bunkers/trenches/etc. than everyone else would really help to establish them as a race that could "dig in" and work their way toward their objectives and would help to give them a more unique flavor than just GM spam 'til you get vehicles.

[jon_the_d]

woooooo!

thanks for the extra info.

as for "static", maybe bases will be replaced by a thunderhawk gunship or something. perhaps they've designed a variety of ships replacing the different buildings function to be called in as more area of the map is brought under your control. They did say about trying to bring in the more powerful units being the focus, instead of requisition. presumably you'll be able to call them in once you have captured a certain area or number of SPs.

And they could just be dropped in at your landing zone, ....

this would eliminate the need for static buildings, and would reduce the amount of faffing about with your base and buildings and power gens etc, as it is stated they plan to.

sounds cool if so!

[Unsung Duck]

Thanks Croaxleigh.


Everything sounds great so far, yay for blowing up bridges!

And finaly I can land my drop pods on top of the enemy again.

[TimW]

Well, the idea of marines building bases was always a little silly, they're supposed to specialise in lightning fast surgical strikes.

My best guess about the "static" line, if it means anything at all, is that they've expanded on the idea in CoH of occupying buildings which can be turned into barracks and reinforcement points.

Once you've captured a territory and you've done "something" to it that makes it "secure" it becomes a usable drop zone where your reinforcements arrive, or it becomes Da Ork Mustering Hut or whatever the fuck Orks build when they want more troops, basically whatever would be faction appropriate. This might also be different for factions, marines can drop units anywhere being marines (soldiers that fight from ships) whereas more slogging based factions like Orks, 'nids or Imperial Guard might rely on capturing territory to receive units.

</rampant speculation>

[jon_the_d]

like the idea of taking over buildings.

dropships still work though, especially for maps which are more jungly or deserty. presumably they're not all gonna be citiscapes with lots of buildings to be taken over?

[Kapp'n]

DoW2 is sounding ridiculously good. The best bits of CoH and DoW together in one game

[neucromaner]

dow 2 is using holloywood science
a grenade cannot destroy a bridge
a grenade cannot destroy a building
a grenade is only 5 kg, the explosive part is maybe 1kg to 2 kg.
a grenade only hurt humies, does not hurt amour.
relic stop this hollywood science nonsense. at least throw a huge backpack load of C4.

and when you flamethrow a building, you do not destroy the people in the building, because a flamethrow only have a small amount of napalm, which cannot engulf the building fast enough. the people would all run away. only direct contact with burning naplam can kill them.

STOP this hollywood science in the game.

[Croaxleigh]

Neucromaner: It's a GAME. It's not real life, it's not supposed to be realistic. Besides, how do you know what flamethrowers and grenades can do in the 41st millenium? *smiles*

[Grabnutz]

Have you seen the size of a stikkbomb?

[TimW]

dow 2 is using holloywood science
a grenade cannot destroy a bridge
a grenade cannot destroy a building
a grenade is only 5 kg, the explosive part is maybe 1kg to 2 kg.
a grenade only hurt humies, does not hurt amour.
relic stop this hollywood science nonsense. at least throw a huge backpack load of C4.

PROTIP: The weapons technology of the 41st millennium (WHERE THERE IS ONLY WAR) is 'somewhat' more effective than what we have in the 2nd millennium.

Example:

and when you flamethrow a building, you do not destroy the people in the building, because a flamethrow only have a small amount of napalm, which cannot engulf the building fast enough. the people would all run away. only direct contact with burning naplam can kill them.

40k flamers don't use napalm, they use something called prometheium, and the properties of prometheium are completely unknown. You can't make any kind of comparison with the performence of 20th century weapons.

[Grabnutz]

Additionally, the point of flaming a building would be to drive the occupants out, which you've confirmed yourself; "the people would all run away".

[jon_the_d]

@neucromancer:

c4?

you think that's the best they've come up with in the 41st millenium?

frag grenades yes, should not destroy a bridge. krak, melta, plasma etc. should do whatever relic deems them capable of doing for gameplay's sake.

just like to see what you'd say about a vortex grenade lol!

[Fightingfirst]

Vortex nades would be so cool to include. They can cripple titans imagine your whole army running against one lonely guardsman (not sure if they are marine only weapons but hey) and he chucks a vortax nade. Bye bye your whole army in to space.

[TimW]

Oh yeah, Imperial build material is refered to as, uh, ferrocreat I think, or something like that. No one knows what the properties of that are either. So, you have weapons of unknown yield interacting with a materal of unknown strength... yeah, I'd say relic can show whatever they like. 40k is supposed to be rediculously over the top anyway, it's part of the appeal.

[Panama]

OOOOOOH YEAH blowing up bridges (and buildings) sounds like a whole world of fun. What could be better than collapsing a bridge when a large enemy force is on it

[Jordan]

PROTIP: The weapons technology of the 41st millennium (WHERE THERE IS ONLY WAR) is 'somewhat' more effective than what we have in the 2nd millennium

I never really got why 39 millenia in the future we're sticking knives on the end of our torch guns

[TimW]

See the part about being "rediculously over the top".

[Croaxleigh]

Because knives look cool when stuck on the ends of guns. *smiles*

[jon_the_d]

that's becaus eo fthe fall into the dark age of humanity. we have lost knowledge and skills needed to reproduce the ancient technologies of the golden age.

plus it's cheaper.

emperor has to watch his budget.

[ZimZum]

I hope they don't add too much gameplay and turn off the fanbase.

Yeah. Wait, what?

I like the sound of jet troops jumping clear of falling bridges. Making it dependant on morale would be a bad idea, and not make much sense. Now that the drop pods are bigger, it looks like we'll be seeing the occupants disembarking properly, which will be pretty cool. I like the thought of the doors dropping on some Orks and marines strolling out over the top of them.

Edit:

*smiles**smiles**smiles**smiles*
*smiles**smiles**smiles**smiles*

You must be the happiest poster on this forum, Croaxleigh.

[TimW]

40k in a nutshell:

[jon_the_d]

TimW:

LMAO!

Love it!

and so true!

[Croaxleigh]

ZimZum: My life is sunshine and rainbows. Either that, or I'm in denial.

[Shuma]

Old pic is old.

Aniway:

I hope they don't add too much gameplay and turn off the fanbase.

What?