Tonns V - Alpha Release v0.04 Released 25/3/12

[nathaniak]

Tonns V. A backwater planet at the edge of Segmentum Pacificus. For generations, Tonns V has been a mildly prosperous world, its citizens loyal to the Emperor and to the Imperium. Now, war rages over its surface. Great cities fall. Towering hive spires crumble to the ground. Astropathic distress signals shoot out across the void.

In answer, the Emperor's Imperial Guard are deployed to Tonns V. There, they find the true nature of the threat. Half of the planet is in the grip of Chaos. The Imperium responds. Several Chapters of Space Marines send delegations to wipe out their hated foe. Ork scavengers, excited by the prospect of war, urge whole Waaaghs! to further test the beleagued defenders. Next to arrive are the Eldar, in response to a long-recieved prophesy. If Tonns V falls, craftworlds will be next. Finally, as these factions descent on the planet, the most deadly and terrible of them all arrives - a Tyranid splinter fleet, weakened in its last encounter with the Imperial Navy, sees Tonns V as a prize meal.

Six armies, fighting desperatly for survival. Only one can emerge victorious. This encounter shall go down in the Imperial annals as the Battle for Tonns V.

Tonns V is a horde defence mod for Dawn of War 2 Retribution, currently in development. When complete, the mod will hopefully involve several new maps, every race fleshed out as either an attacker or defender, rising difficulty as games progress, and much enjoyment for all.

v0.04 Released!
Download link:http://www.mediafire.com/?wgbf2v8er84yxrv

Changelog

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-Changelog-
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Changelog from v0.03 to v0.04

General
-Temporarily removed starting squads from all races. These should return in the next update
-Added basic attack functionality for Orks, Imperial Guard and the Chaos Legions.

Changelog from v0.02 to v0.03

General
-Please note that currently only Tyranids should be used as the offensive race
-Fixed a CTD on playing as Chaos

Tyranids
-Attacking Termagaunts have an ability that spawns 1 squad of termagaunts, warriors and hormagaunts at each base owned by the player
-Attacking Hormagaunts have an ability that spawns 1 squad of termagaunts, a carnifex and hormagaunts at each base owned by the player
-Lictor Alpha activates 'Attacker (Swarm)' mode which disables the above abilities. Use if the number of units slows your computer down too much.

Chaos
-Havoks changed to 4 heavy bolters and 1 Aspiring Champion. Cost changed to 280 req, 45 power, 17 pop, 20 secs

Space Marines
-Devastator Heavy Bolters changed to 4 heavy bolters and 1 sergeant. Cost changed to 340 req, 55 power, 17 pop, 22 secs

Screenshots:

Spoiler

Alpha testing on Calderis Refinery

In-production map Defence Station 18

Overview of WIP maps

Spoiler

Aims of this mod
-A dynamic and engaging gameplay that is realistic to the Warhammer 40k fluff
-Compatability with vanilla game maps
-New maps designed around the mod
-Defend as Imperial Guard, Space Marines or Eldar against hordes of Chaos heretics, Tyranids and Orks
-New maps with a variety of environments and gameplay styles
-New units, weapons and abilities

Please Note:
-This mod should be played against AI in custom battles with Annihilate victory conditions
-Set AI to 'Expert'
-High Resources is highly recommendeded

[Predalienator]

Always wanted a survival mod for Ret. So will you later include the option of playing as the Nids,Chaos and Orks defending against the attack of Eldar and/or the Imperium?

[nathaniak]

That's in long-term plans, yes. It would involve either a seperate, parallel mod or re-work of current progress though (probably second), so it's scheduled for after initial release.

[laszers]

so, what you are saying is that it will be like last stand on a bigger scale? also with realism, are you including weapon damages, cause that may not work well with a wave mod like this.

either way good luck!

p.s if you need anything from my mod ask.

[nathaniak]

A bit like last stand, yes, but with armies instead of heroes. With fluff accuracy, I'm going to try to make things accurate to the background as opposed to accurate to the tabletop game.

[Copernicus]

Looks nice! If you finish this, I'll never again have to feel sorry for not continuing my old defense mod.

[nathaniak]

Ah, the key word there being 'if'!

Progress is coming on OK. Tyranids now deploy hormagaunts, termagaunts, carnifezes and supposedly warriors. Orks deploy sluggas, shootas and wartrukks. Chaos deploy melee heretics, heretics with autoguns, heretics with lasguns and Chimeras. (CSM are becoming more Traitor Guard and less CSM in this mod).

Ork attack on the second WIP map:

Spoiler

Thing at the top is gone now - just an error due to lack of VPs. They are now hidden under a bunker!

[shadowninja0069]

this looks awesome dude.gl in this.

[General Kong]

this looks promising, ill be keeping an eye on this

[nathaniak]

Update as of 31/1/12: Progress is happening, albeit at a slower rate than I hoped. Nethertheless, I'm slowly but surely forcing this mod into shape. Still no idea how good it will be at the end. The mod is now much more playable - I would release it now, but there are too many bugs, of which many are gamebreaking. Despite this, I've made enough progress to charecterise the current version as IB v0.01 (Internal Build v0.01) and save it to backup. One final note - new maps may not make it to the first few releases, as they seem to have bugs all of their own.

Internal Build IB v0.01 Changelog

General
New map: Defence Station 18
New map: Last Stand of the 122nd

Imperial Guard
-Squad deploys with 9 GM + sergeant. Sergeant's pop reduced to three
-Commissar no longer adds GM to the squad
-Heavy weapon team now deploys with 3 GM and 3 heavy bolters. HWT sergeant upgrade removed. HWT upgrades currently affect only one heavy weapon

Tyranids
-Heroes replaced with standard termagaunt squads
-All units moved to tier 1
-Hormagaunts and termagaunts now take up no pop, have no resources cost and are built instantly in squads of 30
-Warriors now have a cost of 50 red, take up no pop, and are built instantly in squads of 5
-Carnifexes now have a cost of 250 red, take up no pop, and are built instantly
-Other units removed

Orks
-All units moved to tier 1
-Sluggas and shootas deploy instantly in squads of 20 with no pop or resources cost
-Wartrukks deploy instantly for 25 red with no pop or resouces cost
-Battlewagons deploy instantly for 250 red with no pop or resources cost
-All other units removed.

Chaos
-All units moved to tier 1
-Melee heretics, autogun heretics and lasgun heretics ('Traitor Guardsmen') deploy instantly for no resources cost in squads of 15
-Chimera added to tier 1 (needs retexturing, if I can work it out. If not, this will be replaced with something else)

In Development ATM
-New texture for Chaos Chimera
-New map: Ice Valley
-Fixes for numerous bugs (e.g. AI stops deploying units)
-Gameplay tweaks (e.g. squad sizes, weapon damages, ect.)

Long-Term Plans
-Redevelopment of Imperial Guard, Space Marines and Eldar to fit defensive roles
-Multiple new maps designed for defensive play
-Eventual redevelopment of mod to allow playing both as and against every race (only once other features complete)
-Incorporating feedback from players
-Any other things that spring to mind

Edit: New images

Spoiler

[nathaniak]

Just got the Chaos Chimera's first texture done. What do you think? Does it need more work?

Spoiler

[Gabriel Gorgutz]

I absolutely love this idea! Feel free to use any of the assets in Codex Edition such as the new bolter fx to add to the realism and atmosphere of Tonns V, and thanks for being part of the mod community.

[Squab66]

id say the chaos chimera could do with some added spikes maybe a skull nailed to the turret but not a must

[nathaniak]

It would have that, but modelling is not within my abilities. Unless I can find some spare spikes lying about...

Edit: How about this?

It turns with the tank, not the turret, though

[Squab66]

that's brilliant also will ai launch flanking attacks with stealth units or deep strikes at later stages because that would (in my opinion) add some more challenge than hold the line from gaunt blobs
EDIT:will there be a prep time before they swarm

[nathaniak]

I'm thinking of ways to incorporate deep striking units, yes. I'll probably tweak the red abilities that put a unit in the field. There isn't really a prep time ATM, but the bases are situated quite far away on the custom maps (you have time to build a tier-1 unit). On regular maps, there is one, as the AI captures all the points before moving to attack you! The AI is still in a very basic stage - essentially the regular AI we all know and 'love'. Adjusting it for the mod is in the plans though.

Bear in mind that this mod is still in the alpha phase, so there is a lot to be done, but also a lot that can be changed. For example, I've just re-worked the race selection to tie attacker or defender into the commander that you choose, so you can attack or defend as any race. I'm actually considering removing supression from most weapons that have it - probably won't but, as I;ve said, everything is under consideration.

Work is progessing slowly. I'll probably have a first release in a fortnight, if all goes to plan.

[nathaniak]

OK. First release out. Try it and tell me how many bugs you can find. Hopefully none, but some always slip through...

[nathaniak]

Preliminary patch notes for v0.03:

Spoiler

Changelog from v0.02 to 0.03. Please be advised that this list is a work in progress.

General
-Fixed a CTD on playing as Chaos.
-Chaos do not currently work as the offensive race
-Orks do not currently work as the offensive race
-Space Marines have not yet been set up as an offensive race
-Imperial Guard have not yet been set up as an offensive race
-Eldar have not yet been set up as an offensive race.

Tyranids
-Attacking Termagaunts have an ability that spawns 1 squad of termagaunts, warriors and hormagaunts at each base owned by the player
-Attacking Termagaunts have an ability that spawns 1 squad of termagaunts, hormagaunts and a carnifex at each base owned by the player
-Changed Lictor Alpha to 'Attacker (Swarm) which disables above abilities. Select this if you want to only face gaunts (or if standard attacker slows down your computer)

Chaos
-Havoks changed to 4 heavy bolters and 1 Aspiring Champion. Cost changed to 280 req, 45 power, 17 pop, 20 secs (provisional)

Space Marines
-Devastator Heavy Bolters changed to 4 heavy bolters and 1 sergeant. Cost changed to 340 req, 55 power, 17 pop, 20 secs (provisional)

Screenshots

Image links seem to be broken, so go here

[steven2212]

i'm sorry but the ai just stand there and do nothing? anyone know the issue?

[nathaniak]

Which races are you using? Currently, only Tyranids work as the attackers. Can you give a screen of the battle setup?

[argenex]

Yea same thing happens to me.
The Tyranid AI leader just hangs out by his base in all the maps.
So there is no clear instructions how to run this mod;
-Do you run a custom game and if so what is the victory condition we need to set?
-I've tried annhilation with Tyranids on the attack, and space marines on defend. Tried on Normal Diff. Computer. The Tyranid leader just sits at his base. He only responds if you run up and attack him.
-Tried with Tyranid Defendor (middle hero) Same issue, just stands there and sorta half-tries to defend

You need to give us clear instructions on how to play your mod.
-What game type do we need to choose?
-Do we run the maps individually via the Multiplayer>Custom Game choice?
-What resources do we need to choose? (As I noticed there are no capture points/req/power nodes, I had to switch it to high resources)
-What Computer Difficulty do we need to set for the computer player who attacks?

Thanks.

[nathaniak]

Ok. Choose Annihilate in Custom Games with High Resources against Expert AI. Sorry for the long time to reply - RL issues are slowing the mod quite a bit. Sorry for not making that clear.