Steel Legion SS - Release Dec 23th 2010

[thudmeizer]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



Dawn of Steel - Steel Legion Mod SS v1.0

Disclaimer
This is to acknowledge that we take no personal responsibility for any hardware damage or data corruption brought forth by the use or installation of this DoW modification. As used, this modification works "as is" and has been thoroughly tested and should not cause any major problems. In the event, however, that something serious does occur, it is up to the user(s) of their computer(s) to make appropriate backups before any attempt is made to install the following DoW modification. Use at your own risk.

Release notes:
This is the release version of the mod featuring the Imperial Guard regiment of Armageddon called 'The Steel Legion'.

Playing the game - Once Installed, run using the shortcut from your START\Programs\THQ.

You will also notice a DEV MODE shortcut: this can be used if you have any DoW1 hack scripts when running the mod (such scripts are NOT included so we don't official support them. Its up to you to learn how to use them).

NOTE: PLEASE MAKE SURE TO UNINSTALL ANY OLD VERSION of Steel Legions if installed under Soulstorm!

Notable Features:
- Diverse new race including over 30 units and 9 buildings.
- All units are army paintable.
- Many upgrades for units.
- Most units have a random displayed look.
- New scale for tank units, to be more equal to tabletop.
- Extended AI that let's you play against steel legion.

New Features specific to SS:
- New upgrades (ie. Salamander can transport Commanders and be seen actually riding in the vehicle).
- New FX, tons of code fixes, additional Speech/Sounds, etc.
- Turbo-charged Skirmish AI = prepare to massively DIE!!
- New campaign "The Battle for Rokclaw Mountains" playable in the Skirmish map list.

Requirements:
- Original Dawn of War : Soulstorm game made by IronLore and distributed by Relic/THQ.
- Soulstorm Patch 1.2.

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Credits

Developer Team

SS Version
Production / Team Head / AI: Thudmeizer
Coding / Design: UnDirector
Interface Design / Prime Tester: MDcertainty
Models / Interface Design / Tester: jONES1979
Testers: DrDoom / Ogra_Chief / Dreddnott
Russian UCS translation: jONES1979 / Wolfclan

DC Version
Production / Head: Maestrorobertus
Coding / Design: Shingouki
Interface Design and FX: Jok, RedG, Shingouki.
New Unit Models / Textures : Maestrorobertus / Jok
New Unit Anims : Shingouki
New Building Anims / FX : Compiler
Additional Voices : Mel Danes, Mr Heiney
AI: Thudmeizer and his team: Larkin, Flenser and Corsix

Laziest Member award = Jok, Shingouki tied for 1st place.
Most Vacations taken = Maestrorobertus.

Please check DC / WA / DoW credits for all the people who worked hard to make that version possible.

Intelligence Report







Live Feed


Bonus Eldar Campaign Map
jONES1979: I finished updating SS eldar stronghold (scar scripted) map and now it can be played by Steel Legion race also. (And by Black Templars, and by Inquisition Daemonhunters SS beta 2 aswell).
Just unpack it to \DXP2\Data\Scenarios\mp\ folder (Create it, if needed). Then, in game, go to skirmish menu, find this map in 5-player maps under name "Eldar Stronghold Kaurava III"
Note: Includes Fixed "Duplicate twice the same code, instead of moving this code to a separate function" issue.
Download it HERE!

[Richter]

WOO!

Always wanted to try this, thank you thud, you are a LEGEND.

[thudmeizer]

Enjoy.. we'll be watching.. however, 2011 will be one of the greatest in DoW1 I can guarantee.

[kirbanator]

Its time to kick a$$ and chew bubblegum and I'm all out of gum. Cant wait to grind chaos minions under the treads of my tanks.

[guardsman lover]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Thank you Thud. And everyone else.

[fuggles]

Wow! It's here! Better see if my steel legion survival waves are still balanced...

[guardsman lover]

The Leman Russ Conqueror doesn't seem to fire on the move for me...even though the tool-tip said it does. No I'm not complaining, I'm having too much fun steamrolling things with tanks.

[thudmeizer]

We're watching so we'll try to accomodate for a next build down the road much faster than in previous times. Hope you enjoy the mod -- lots of work went into it for 2+ years.

[guardsman lover]

I...I just had an audiogasm when the Stormsword opened up with its siege cannon.

Holy...holy shit.

The little heavy bolter next to the siege cannon doesn't seem to be shooting though. Actually it does damage, but there's no animation.

[Gadianton]

I've just finished working 11 hours in a kitchen and gotta get up in 6 more to get back there and yet I am giving up precious sleep to give this a test run...
Thank you Steel Legion team!
Thank you thank you.
:]

....and, that was a blast. I am looking forward to giving it more play.

[uncle_anaesthesia]

excellent will have to find the handcranck for my old computer n ave a go!

[mdcertainty]

Aha so a Christmans release huh? Hehe. Wait... "- New campaign "The Battle for Rokclaw Mountains" playable in the Skirmish map list." Hmm gotta check this ASAP. Fine present!!!

Thanks mod-team. Oh and Happy Holidays!

[Whiteshield]

YAAAAAY! You guys did fix the Vanquisher's sound for its main battle cannon right? Its sounds like a lascannon. EPIC JOB!

also Thud, are there any noticeable changes apart from some new UI and the salamander?

[jONES1979]

also Thud, are there any noticeable changes apart from some new UI and the salamander?

Rebalanced "tech-tree"/"build order"/"requirements"

New campaign "The Battle for Rokclaw Mountains"

Not a campaign, truly. Just one mission from SS metamap, converted to "run via skirmish" and for the Steel Legion race.

[xhunkx]

THXXXXXXX

[skaredy_81]

This winter is gonna be hot. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

[kirbanator]

Question to anyone. When playing as steel legion is their a real good way in dealing with stealth units?

[guardsman lover]

Sentinels for Armored Company Path. Salamander for Mechanised Infantry path.

Also, its so hard to choose which path to use...all the units on both sides are great. Too bad Leman Russes are capped at 2, so I can't have all the different models out on the field at once....


And the Tank Ace/Vanquisher cannon sound has been fixed, although the veteran tank ace upgrade seems to put the wrong sound back in there again. I think the hull-mounted heavy bolter was supposed to be replaced by an actual hull-mounted lascannon....?

[thudmeizer]

@Kirbanator - like all mods, please read the UCS or unit description as it does mention what units detect stealth units.
@guardsmen_lover - keep finding things.. yeah even with a beta team we cannot find everything.

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Also, its so hard to choose which path to use...all the units on both sides are great. Too bad Leman Russes are capped at 2, so I can't have all the different models out on the field at once....

Balance issue d00d. Its like asking us "hey what other Imperial units you plan for the mod"? Yaaahhhhhhhhhh nuts? Steel Legions has waaayyyy too many units man.. Its bursting at the seams! Any more unit types and we drastically risk diluting the gameplay with units which simply adopt similar functions. What we got is a real good balance.

[guardsman lover]

A tip for eager players: Even if commanders can be garrisoned inside a salamander, they're still better off attached to an infantry squad or out on the field. Only the captain can fire out of the salamander, and even then only in a straight line. Plus, he won't provide an aura while riding the salamander, although its cool to have him there shooting out with his bolt pistol. I WANT TO HIT THEM WITH MY SWORD.

[thudmeizer]

Maybe if Black Peter hasn't given you coal yet, MAYBE Jones might add some extra bits to the Commander-garrisoning-in-Salamander down the road. We'll see.

[guardsman lover]

Hunter-killer missiles are a nice touch on the chimeras. Seriously, I can do drive-bys with those babies.

[Herro]

Well done! Much thanks to all involved in the production of this mod!

[thudmeizer]

Yeah the Mechanized Branch needed those HK Missile mounts on the Chimeras considering they had to contend with some serious competition which the Tank Branch was easy to resolve.

[Cylarne_04]

YEEEHOOOO! Excellent I love this race.

Merry Christmas to all; to all a good night.

[Whiteshield]

DRIVE ME CLOSER! I WANT TO HIT THEM WITH MY SWORD! lawl

[jONES1979]

About a week or two ago, I found here on relicnews a thread dedicated to "Steel Legion Map Pack" made/compiled by Beroc and friends, but link was dead there. Today I found this map pack on filefront. So I provide a link here http://dawnofwar.filefront.com/file/...Map_Pack;47456

Warning. This map pack add a new entities RGDs to Attrib folder of mod, where You will install it. So, It able to broke your multiplayer games and be a reason for a sync error if your LAN-mate will not has installed the same "pack".

[Whiteshield]

@Jones - Yeah I noticed that. Tree entities right?... Would explain why there were plenty of pink boxes the first time I played it. Its all good now

[messenger]

Good lord, new Steel Legion version. This takes me back, nice going Thud!

[RMX]

It's great to be a Dawn of War player today.

Thanks to everyone in the Dawb of Steel team to make this possible.

[csm001]

I just want to say:
1) Merry Christmas to all
2) Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you...

[Ogra_Chief]

I tip my hat to you, good Sir. I thank all the team members for this gem. And now... DRIVE ME CLOSER! I WANT TO HIT THEM WITH MY SWORD!

[kirbanator]

Question is their a way to have the steel legion replace the regular guard fraction in the campaign and how hard would it be?

[Sucal]

Just checking, but this is a final release right? Mostly questioning because the terms of use agreement states that its an alpha release.

Also @ kirbantor, I'm no modder but I'm fairly sure it would be alot of work. For one thing you would have to completely re-record all of the lines and voice acting. Then there is changing references, completely re-altering the base defence mission, etc etc. If anything it would be more work then actually just making this mod.

[jONES1979]

Just checking, but this is a final release right?

We can continue development in case of improve balance and so on...

So if you'll find any issues, report it here or better somewhere here http://www.steellegion.org/forum/index.php

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For one thing you would have to completely re-record all of the lines and voice acting.

Mostly, it can be easily ignored and existed voices can be reused. But for everything else you are right. Replacing the regular guard faction in the campaign is definitely possible, but it require lots of work.

Also, having a "wargearable" Lord-commissar model is very desirable.
What else? New good quality 256x256 icons for "honor guards" squads is needed. Updating of all scar scripts for maps is needed also.

Cause I'm already do such conversion (SoB to BT replacement), and solve all the problems that I'd had got, I can guide anybody who will want make IG to SL replacement. But, of course, I have no plans to make it by myself.

[thudmeizer]

I think everyone needs to appreciate what it takes to do a SL for SS, DH_ID for SS and others coming all in 2011. Lots of hard work people. Temper your requests please.

[the_hunger]

Fine job, Thudo & team. Had some great skirmishes on Kasyr and Parmenie yesterday. Seems very balanced to me; I found no bugs to speak of.

[thudmeizer]

Did the Skirmish AI put up a good fight? Its been utterly tweaked to the max for the SL faction. Other vanilla ones remain the same until 3.3.

[Gadianton]

granted, I started out with the AI on standard so as to get comfortable(again) to SL w/o being quickly overrun, but the AI didn't put much effort to take Critical points to prevent losing a Take and Hold. Is the AI ok to handle such a skirmish? Also, how clever is it with pathing? That is, will it be able to discern a good route to an objective?

[the_hunger]

Posted by thudmeizer
Did the Skirmish AI put up a good fight? Its been utterly tweaked to the max for the SL faction.

SL put up a great fight in skirmish. I use the mod with a few others (I_DH, Soulstorm bugfixes). In a 3v3 on Kasyr, SL made a strong showing with SM and SoB allies. It constructed a fairly well-balanced force, with heavy emphasis on vehicles (to be expected). Saw Chimera spamming in a 3v3 on Parmenie, with good use of commanders and upgraded infantry. AI seems to adapt well to enemy battlefield deployments. I need to play some more skirmishes, but I just did not see anything amiss regarding the AI SL play.

Good work.

EDIT: I should mentioned that I played on "hard" difficulty, annihilation objective, hero-leveling enabled. I don't know how things would go on other settings.

[thudmeizer]

Take&Hold and anything which requires the AI to "hustle" to a specific goals was really never in our mandate to code for the AI although its something someday we'd investigate. I wasn't sure though it was even possible for the DoW1 AI to even notice game countdowns so if it saw it had a minute left to go to X it couldn't do it due to code limitations. However, maybe someday it will be looked at.

[Xapati]

This is awesome! Thanks a lot.

It's great to see DOW1 hasn't been abandoned completely.

[thudmeizer]

It's great to see DOW1 hasn't been abandoned completely.

hehe not even remotely close man! 2011 is gonna be a major year for DoW1.

[kirbanator]

Please don't take it the wrong way. It was just professional curiosity. If i knew how to mod and do scripts i would defiantly give it a try.

[Gadianton]

Thanks for the answer, good to know that for the AI Take&Hold is just GiveUp! :]

[thudmeizer]

Not that we want it coded like that.

[Richter]

Got my ass handed to me on easy. I usually beat enhanced AI on easy. This AI be awesome.

[Herro]

Me and my lan buddies have been able to beat it on up to harder so far (only once though). The AI is really good - it seems to get better midpoint in the game. Usually we can only seem to pull it off by creating a massive gun line and pushing it forward slowly. I've gotta hand it to ya, stormtroopers are one of the funnest units I've used in any mod. Most of the games when I do infantry build I spend most of my time happily microing them all over the place to the point where I forget to build the rest of my army Pure enjoyment. Hoping to get some good lan 3v3's and whatnot to really test the side once all my buddies get back from their Christmas duties and all. Also great work on the tricked salamander~!!

[guardsman lover]

Funny...I'd expect more traffic in this thread. C'mon forumers, this is a mod you've lot have been dying for.

What guns are the Rough Riders using anyways? Its like a rapid-firing uzi with tracers.

Edit: Actually if they're firing on the move sometimes you can make out a laspistol firing animation, but otherwise they shoot that stream of bullets.

[thudmeizer]

We've had over 260 downloads of SL so all good so far since its been released 4 complete days ago.