Greetings...
This mod at some point may expand to all races, in numerous variation and almost certainly not the same as the Chaos forces are in this - this is because diversity is the key to this mod.
Dark Allegiance (working title) is about the introduction of factions into the armies of Chaos based upon allegiance to one of the Dark Gods or another.
-->It should be mentioned now, if you know of a mod that is similar to this, trying to achieve something like this or may take umbridge with my mod please let me know and we can see what we can do - I just found out that my mod (never posted) for the Dark Eldar I spent a LONG time doing was IDENTICAL in its ideology and execution to a mod made by another group of modders! They worked with a full team and it looks excellent with new models and taskbars etc and so i've just tasted some bittersweet moddingness in this area - the search function can be poor for finding other mods and its annoying now because i'm not sure whether to just throw aside hours of work and not to complete it or to complete it and it be very very second fiddle to what looks an incredible mod. I really just want to generate interest in the DE originally and hoped it'd be taken higher later. So yes, if you read this and think 'hmm, thats sort of familiar' then please tell me. I think this idea is considerably more unique and so I doubt its been done before, my DE mod was very simple (make them like they should be).
So here is what the mod will have, and hopefully in a day or two i'll have screenshots up and a working release should be expected soon. It'll be rough and so i'll need people to test it and give me feedback and even volunteer help if they so wish.
-->I'm not a Chaos collector by the way and never have been, but this idea was too tempting not to try, so if there some errors please correct me.
1. A unique idea (so I think) in factioning Chaos so that you must decide early on of which Chaos God you worship, fear and draw your influence/strength from.
2. All four major Gods are there. Slaanesh (my favourite), Khorne, Tzeentch and Nurgle.
3. New units, including the Gods themselves.
4. Huge reskin project (most standards units built Lv2 and up will have unique skins compared to their heathen brethrin.)
5. New abilites and powers, including 'PLAGUE SWARM'.
6. Your chosen cult possesses unique abilities over other chaos armies who may have chosen another God: If you choose Khorne, your troops will be powerful but your base defences weak (yes positives and negatives); if you choose Tzeentch your units will have higher resistance to psychic abilities, wield more 'magic' themselves, sorcerer powers increased dramatically; if you choose Slaanesh, your units may not break easily (inward looking, self protecting), you'll have high base defences and conversion auras, but may have the unfortunate tendency to sacrifice themselves to Slaanesh's lustful greed and spontaneously explode!; if you pledge yourself to the Great Unclean One, your armies will move with pestilant plagues and disease, feeding swarms and be utterly resistent to poison but may suffer from the despair and grotesqueness and go mad and desert you.
This are working ideas and tendencies, nothing is concrete. Slaanesh has been the biggest difficulty in decided her army traits.
Other features are planned also, but won't be listed yet, as i'm not sure if they'll make the grade or gell too well. So those are the highlights I hope it sounds interesting.
The general concept is as follows;
You start the game, and can build a base structure like a barracks but nothing else. Units built in this time will be generic units. They'll keep your team colours and flags.
However you must then quickly level up your HQ. Upon completion of this you may build anything you wish BUT no units nor upgrades will be available until you choose from your HQ which God your army will follow. These will simply be represented by 4 'upgrade' style buttons. If for example you choose Nurgle, your base will almost instantly now become an army of Nurgles. You may keep your individual chapter, but this is your underlying undying allegiance we are talking about. Don't worry, the choice of God won't take any time at all, it is just a choice. But make it carefully. (My problem has always been that certain races suit certain styles, its hard to be Dark Eldar for example and be closed and defensive, the idea of this is to change that, you may be of varying styles of gameplay for your race, currently only Chaos of course.) If you do choose say Nurgle, suddenly upgrades and units will become available to you. Nurglings are one specific unit in mind, they will be available at a higher tier for example. An upgrade like 'Sick Flesh' will grant a 50 percent reduction in poison damage for example (yes some abilities are simply granted but some must be researched) - and this ability will be for say your standard Chaos Marine and say Raptors. Tier 1 is still important but only as a 'becoming safe' stage to expand, because at this level you may train Chaos Marines of Nurgle, standard CM but they embody the traits of Nurgle. Much thought has been put into whether or not this should be applied retrospectively, and it probably should but its not certain. This as you may notice will mean the Chaos level up slower than most races. But they are going to be the most powerful race by far, just give them time. At tier 3 you gain access similarly as before to more advanced units of Chaos and one unique unit for your race (perhaps Nurglings at this point). New traits are also given (as you level up, new traits are awarded, so if nurgle grants a six traits, 3 positive, 3 negative, you will gain the first pair (good and bad) on your first tier up, then skip a tier and on tier 4 gain your next pair and then on tier six (oh yes...) you'll gain your final traits.
The reason for the greater number of tiers is to slow Chaos down a bit and balance things up. Specialization in each tier is the key.
I'm very tired as I write this, and so I hope it is making sense.
At tier six you may finally summon your actual God. And by summon I mean ask very kindly. Now I know some of you will be thinking 'Whoa! That's a bit overkill'. And yes, it would appear that way. HOWEVER summoning your God is a major risk and a sign of either desperation, a cunning tactic or outright madness or skill. This is because the penalties can be SEVERE for summoning them. For example (and none of htis is finalized yet) if your God is actually brought down (yeah.. right) then you may lose the game (without a leader, who do you follow?) or for example you may have no control on your God, you may have to sacrifice all currently living units, if you do not destroy the enemy in the alloted time your God givse you then they may destroy you instead etc. There will of course be limited time they are alive for, this must be kept balanced but look bloody incredible and shocking.
Some info on the Gods:
Slaanesh's visuals will be made from the Living Soul of the SOB. She will be retextured, enlarged and hopefully have new FX for her abilities etc. Another aim is to add custom sounds (I can imagine a sort of orgasmic cry of twisted pleasure from Slaanesh after a good kill for example... [anyone else watch Goldeneye btw? lol] and sounds will be very important in adding to the fact and covering my arse in not having the ability to model in 3dsmax, good FX , textures, supersizing and new sounds should be well enough.
Khorne, well Khorne will be the bloodthirster remoddelled, enough said really.
Tzeentch, now he is tough. The problem is they have different interpretations and looks, I know the GW people released some official ones but still they've had varying ones of those, some with wings, some without, some with certain weapons some without. And thus i've settled to lose Tzeentch's wings and use the Essence of the Deciever model isntead. I think he'll look great, the alternative was Avenging Angel, but I ruled that the deciever just looked better really for him.
The Great Unclean One AKA Nurgle, will well, this caused the biggest concern (yes, i've been doing skinning etc before AEing..), he is an Ork Big Mek........................................................ waiting for paned look of contempt. I simply can't make one from scratch and Nurgle is just hideously hard to make, theres nothing too like him in DoW BUT if you check the big mek out and then check images of him online, it is not a bad match, a Mega-Armoured Nob was also up for consideration but ultimately ruled out. Nurg however will probably end up looking the best of all since i'm trying so hard to compensate..... for the model mishap. He'll have some smokey effects hopefully for sort of toxic fumes, he'll have a swarm around him (very cool) of pestilence, hopefully some form of dripping oozing effects, and new squishy sound effects. We'll see.
So that is it! That is the summary of this new mod i'm embarking on. I've never published anything i've done before so I hope this threat gets some interest and I can eventually post pictures soon and then the final 'first version'.
Let me know what you think.
Cheers
