Thoughts about the Warhammer 40k MMO

Vortex500 · February 2008

(Pardon my crappy English,a little too tired right now)

I just cant understand how Vigil Games gonna bring the world of WH40k into a MMO. I know its way to early to talk about it... but its fun to speculate... so lets.

To start with I can say that Im not any sort of a fluff guru for WH40k. I own a 1500pts Black Templar Army and know just a little fluff about them.Thats it. The rest I look up on http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page when needed.

I would like if they made the game very "sandboxy". What I mean is that you could start up a Chapter(guild) and choose armor colors,Chapter Badge. You could choose on what planet to set up a chapter Fortress-Monastery.

You could even choose some background story about your chapter. If you choose that you have been fighting tyranids for the last hundred years, for an example, you get a small bonus in combat against Tyranids. You maybe choose to favor close combat instead of ranged and get bonuses in close combat.

I would prefer a PvP heavy gameplay for WH40k. Maybe RvR with planets to conquer on the metamap?

Well... It probably wont be like that^^. lol

Is it gonna be a Fps, a 3rd peson shooter, RTS or what do you think?

You got a large amount of ranged combat in the WH40k Universe, but there are also very much close combat into it too. You got Space marines chapters who very much favor the close combat instead of ranged combat.

Is it possible to have good close combat in a fps game? I can see infront of me how I chase Orks in my Tactical Dreadnought Armour suit. They kite around me shooting me, as I walk around in slowmotion and tries to take a swing at them.

I wonder what playble races there will be in? One Space Marine equals a hundred ordinary foot soldiers in combat, iirc. Maybe hard to balance. lol. I wonder if they gonna do a "Lord of the rings",so you only can play the "good" side, and "monster play" for the evil side?

What about the Tanks,Dreadnoughts and stuff like that... Will it be player controlled?

Well.. I got so much more to write... but I have to go to bed now... What do you think about a WH40k MMO? How would you have done one it?

May the speculation begin...

The Second Day Vet

Kordesh · February 2008

I think it goes without saying that the game is going to have to be RvR heavy. It just wouldn't be warhammer without it. Personally, I'm all about the warhammer fluff, I don't play the table top so the RTS and fluff are all I have =p. I've read, probably all there is to read on the 40k universe, though I'm less versed in regular old Warhammer.

I think it's a bit early to be talking about 40k though. I don't see us hearing anything substantial about it for at least a few years let alone betas or release. Honestly though, I'm glad they're doing it.

Beatnik59 · February 2008

I can't think of a worse setting for a sandbox MMO than Warhammer 40K. I mean, there's no real basis for individual character development when every space marine is more or less the same. No room for personal expression either, or non-combat skills. It's why Warhammer Fantasy is an RPG, and 40K is just tactical.

I envision a game like Planetside more than Pre-CU Galaxies or UO. Fast action, theater-based, with no real "worldy" elements.

Personally, I'd rather play Dawn of War for the 40k feel, but an MMO like Planetside could be fun for a diversion. It would be like a virtual Laser Tag game that never had to end.

M1sf1t · February 2008

Originally posted by Beatnik59
I can't think of a worse setting for a sandbox MMO than Warhammer 40K. I mean, there's no real basis for individual character development when every space marine is more or less the same. No room for personal expression either, or non-combat skills. It's why Warhammer Fantasy is an RPG, and 40K is just tactical.
I envision a game like Planetside more than Pre-CU Galaxies or UO. Fast action, theater-based, with no real "worldy" elements.
Personally, I'd rather play Dawn of War for the 40k feel, but an MMO like Planetside could be fun for a diversion. It would be like a virtual Laser Tag game that never had to end.

Not all space marines are the same. Sure they might have the same basic genetic template/make up but they also all have different traits that are tied to their chapter and Primarch. For example Blood Angels are nowhere near the same a Dark Angels let alone Ultramarines, in regards to the traits they bare or traditions they uphold etc...

Personally I hope they don't go and start destorying lore like Mythic has done with Warhammer Fantasy. I'd cringe if I were to see a female Space Marine. Or if their were no female Imperial Guard or worse yet the Sister of Battle had brothers. /puke !

HYPERI0N · February 2008

One thing i need to point out. Do we really need playable Space marines, after all there are many other races to play as.

M1sf1t · February 2008

Originally posted by HYPERI0N
One thing i need to point out. Do we really need playable Space marines, after all there are many other races to play as.

Space Marines are the only real counter to Chaos Space Marines. So unless they decide to go with Traitor Gaurdsmen for Chaos I don't see how they would leave them out. Mechanicus Adaptus would need it's counter part The Dark Mechanicus Adpatus as well.

Me personally I could deal with Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines not being playable but I doubt many a fan would feel this way.

heartless · February 2008

Originally posted by HYPERI0N

One thing i need to point out. Do we really need playable Space marines, after all there are many other races to play as.

W40K Online without playable space marines? That like Grand Theft Auto without blowing up old ladies with a bazooka. It just doesn't make sense.

HYPERI0N · February 2008

Originally posted by heartless

Originally posted by HYPERI0N

One thing i need to point out. Do we really need playable Space marines, after all there are many other races to play as.

W40K Online without playable space marines? That like Grand Theft Auto without blowing up old ladies with a bazooka. It just doesn't make sense.

Thing tho is that a single Space Marine in the Warhammer 40k myths is equivalent to like 10 imperial guardsmen, or 8 Eldar. Point is Space Marines are a bit overpowered in 1v1 or even 1v10. That's why they are Marines.

So I'm thinking why not instead have them as a NPC story prop instead? Same goes for Chaos Marines. Otherwise we will have the SWG plague of 100's of marines v everyone else.

slannmage · February 2008

Originally posted by Kordesh

I think it goes without saying that the game is going to have to be RvR heavy. It just wouldn't be warhammer without it. Personally, I'm all about the warhammer fluff, I don't play the table top so the RTS and fluff are all I have =p. I've read, probably all there is to read on the 40k universe, though I'm less versed in regular old Warhammer.
I think it's a bit early to be talking about 40k though. I don't see us hearing anything substantial about it for at least a few years let alone betas or release. Honestly though, I'm glad they're doing it.

No it wouldn;t be a DAOC clone without it............

HYPERI0N · February 2008

Originally posted by slannmage

No it wouldn;t be a DAOC clone without it............

Really how can ANYONE say that when it isn't even at Alpha yet.

heartless · February 2008

Originally posted by HYPERI0N

Originally posted by heartless

Originally posted by HYPERI0N

One thing i need to point out. Do we really need playable Space marines, after all there are many other races to play as.

W40K Online without playable space marines? That like Grand Theft Auto without blowing up old ladies with a bazooka. It just doesn't make sense.

Thing tho is that a single Space Marine in the Warhammer 40k myths is equivalent to like 10 imperial guardsmen, or 8 Eldar. Point is Space Marines are a bit overpowered in 1v1 or even 1v10. That's why they are Marines.

So I'm thinking why not instead have them as a NPC story prop instead? Same goes for Chaos Marines. Otherwise we will have the SWG plague of 100's of marines v everyone else.

I am aware of that. However, and I cannot stress this enough, Space Marines are Warhammer 40K. Yes, I know that there are other factions in W40K, but none are as widely known as the Space Marines. I mean, when you think W40K the first thing that pops into your head are Space Marines, not the Imperial Guard and not the Sisters of Battle (who btw are pretty kick ass themselves).

So again, excluding Space Marines as a playable class would be a bad choice.

-Ellessar- · February 2008

To all you folks who think there can't be Space Marines, please take your heads out of the novels for one moment and look at the actual table top game. I know in the novels the space marines are all uber powerful, but the table top game does not bear this out.

Yes your average tactical squad space marine is better than the average eldar guardian, or imperial guardsman. However it is no where near the ratio of 10:1 in the case of the IG and 8:1 in the case of eldar. Space Marines are S4, T4, BS4, Sa +3, Ld8. It makes them good, hard hitting, hard to break, and survivable. It does not make them all powerful.

Please also remember that by in large there is less diversity in the space marine army list than there is within lists of other armies. Your average space marine is a space marine with similar skills and abilities whether he has a lascanon, a bolter, or a chainsword and bolt pistol. Other armies have extremes. The Eldar Banshies are excellent in close combat, but suck at just about everything else. Fire dragons can bust up a tank like no ones business, but aren't good for much else. Space Marines are the great middle ground. The jack of all trades. Good at everything, but not excellent any one thing. That is where the balance comes in.

They can be included in an MMO. Plus I'm assuming that the developers will allow players of other non-Marine armies/races to play the more specalized classes. IE: Eldar players will not be mere guardians they will be the aspect warriors. Chaos will not be mere cultists they will be chaos marines, maybe minor demons who knows. Your average Imperium player will not be an average Guardsman he will be an assasin, an inquisitor, a commissar, etc.

The game can be balanced with the inclusion of space marines as playble. Not including space marines as playbale would be a massive mistake in my opinion. No model more captures the essence of 40k than a space marine. They are the very basis for the entire genre and they are the army and the models on which other armies and other models are balanced.

And like the OP I am hoping for a sandbox game here. I doubt that is what will happen, but I cna still hope.

CleffyII · February 2008

I want to make a Kamisar. No Running for you little peon.

I can see it being made many different ways. Truthfully, I wish they would make it faster because I would like a 40k mmo more then what WAR is. You cannot even play the undead faction in WAR, like Vampires who can summon a legion of skeletons.

My favorite design for it takes homage from several games.

I would prefer to see it Instance based with central massive environment hubs. In the practical sense, going non-instance while trying to simulate a universe with massive ground conflicts is just not feasible to accomplish on release without a gigantic budget that has never been used before.

From the central hub you can go to instances(public or private) that support up to several hundred people. These instances I would prefer to encompass, Guild Base, PVE Campaigns, and PVP WarGrounds.

In the PVP Wargrounds have it so its only a limited amount of sides, and each side represents 1 of the factions that can participate depending on variables of the given PVP type. Then when you join and are in the waiting room you can choose what position you want to take when the battle starts. In the PVP its 1 life type deal, or limited reinforcements. Empty spaces are taken by NPC AIs.

xray00 · February 2008

Actually they can easily make this a PvE based game rather than an PvP based game. How? Follow the template already established by Dark Heresy - players are part of the Inquisition. With three differnt Ordo it will give them a great deal of varieity in setting up the game and even allow them to work in some PvP (the various Ordo do come into conflict at times - especially when their goals conflict which is not uncommon).

it would be the easiest method of doing this game. RvR similar to what WAR is going with really is not appropriate. While the obvious sides are Imperial vs Xenos the Xenos side is far to fractious to really play together unless you really limit what faction are available. Necron really don't work with anyone, their goals are far too alien. The Tyranid will eat their allies and reprocess them into more 'nids. The Tau and the Eldar could find common ground but not for long. The Eldar are far too reculsive and aloof while the Tau are all about 'spreading the word'. Orcs could work with Chaos again - for how long? The Orcs are notoriously unreliable. if the Warlord keeping them banded together gets killed the Orcs will fall into a bitter struggle for new leadership. Niether of these two factions could work with either Tau or Eldar.

Of course, another way to go at this would be to make the Human Empire the 'bad guys' (not that there are good guys) and make the Xenos the player races. It would be an approach that would certainly surprise everyone and provide a massive amount of variety for both the players and the devs.

All in all, developing a WH40k MMO is not really that challenging from a purely design point of view. There is actually more flexibility in how they approach this than there is in the Fantasy version.

Your best bet not to be disappointed to not to hook yourself on any one idea and keep an open mind.

k9wazere · February 2008

Is anyone else frustrated by the number of MMOs with only 2 factions? Be it Horde vs Alliance, good vs evil, or Ice Cream Salesmen vs Dentists United, devs only seem interested in providing two sides.

I would love to see 3 or even 5 factions, so we can form alliances, break them, form different alliances, and go all-against-all depending on server politics.

Please, not another game with two sides locked in conflict. It's so cliche.

Silverwatch · February 2008

First off i am a massive fan of 40k and have several armies for different races and the whole idea is what kept me playing. A traditional sandbox type game similar to pre-cu SWG could work but in reality 40k is epic battles, lightning fast reactionsand fighting etc.

A sandbox game wouldnt work imo, i dnt want to be playing an assault marine or eldar bainshee and press 1 and then 4 then 5 to win. I can see a game similar to planetside, that was 40k without the 40k background, it was epic battles over bases with use of every type of veihcle. i loved planetside and tbh if 40k was made into a MMOFPS it would work very well. I see everyone likes the look of Darkfall which is close combat twitch based mmo which would also work with the 40k units.

For example if playing a close combat character such as bainshee who would move very fast to win fights you could have:

Mousebutton 1 : Attack

Mousebutton 2: Parry

or similarly with an assault marine/ commisar that combines range and close combat but move slower than bainshees since they have range:

Mousebutton 1 : Attack

Mousebutton 2: Fire Pistol

MouseButton 3: Parry.

I could see it working like that but i have thought of this for some time but the balancing issues would be apparant. I beleive that Imperial Guard and Space Marines would probably be under the same faction. A way of balancing could be if it were similar to planetside, the more ranks you go up the point points you can spend. The better veichles etc needed more points to unlock so you have to specialise. Say a guardsman had to spent like 90% points to become a space marine, space marines cant fly ships etc since they have chapter serfs who do that but they could pilot say a landspeeder. I think that could work as 1 space marine can either have a veichle or specialise in 1 weapon, e.g. heavy bolter or w/e. This would promote factions/guilds working together since an example would be say a few assault marrines who without say a guardsman who can drive a transportship would be hard bitten catching up on foot to rolling battles similar to planetside.

And on the subject as to whether a standard guardsman can be a commisar, you could spend points on becoming a commisar and this would provide a 'buff' to the sourrounding troops within X ammount of feet around you, this would mean the commisars would lead from the front and provide bonuses to other troops, similarly with space marine chaplains/apothecaries etc who would provide different bonuses.

I could see a game where you have several guardsman flying troops ships which contained say 20 guardsman each or say 5 marines. I believe this could work.

Whilst this is a pretty epic post i cant see them designing and planning more than 4 factions to begin with and i would predict they would be:

Faction 1: Imperial Guard/Space Marines

Faction 2: Eldar

Faction 3: Orks

Faction 4: Chaos = Heretic legions, traitor marines, demon spawn maybe?

well please tell me what you think. should they hire me ^^?

Sharajat · February 2008

I'd love to see this as a 5 faction RvR game. I'd see it as more of an FPS/RPG hybrid. Something like planetside with heavier RPG elements. I'd also like to see tons upon tons of grouping. To that end I'd rather have smaller worlds, or at least ways to channel players together. I also don't want multiple servers. One server, and one server only. It needs to feel like a massive, eternal war. All races should be able to chat with eachother in a zone, though there should be private race-only communications as well. Let people form and break alliances at will.

The 5 factions I see in the opening:

Space Marines - Obvious. Those have to be there.

Chaos - ditto. Chaos is too iconic

Eldar - Eldar really are an interesting race.

Orks - once again, too iconic to leave off the list.

Tau - An interesting alien race that isn't too stupid. I can't help feeling the Imp Guard will be space marines lite.

M1sf1t · February 2008

I'd be just as disappointed if there were no Imperial Guard, Adaptus Mechanicus, or Sisters of Battle, or any of the Inquisitional forces included in a WAR40k MMO. If all we get to play is Space Marines then that will be lame IMHO. Warhammer 40,000 is so much more then just Space Marines even though they are the best known characters in the IP. Also you have Dark Eldar, Necrons, Tyrnaids which should be in. Of course there are other alien races in the IP but they aren't played in the TT game but they are there in lore.

Shifty360 · February 2008

*waiting innocently for a Blizzard fan to yell Starcraft clone*

*whistles*

heartless · February 2008

Originally posted by M1sf1t

I'd be just as disappointed if there were no Imperial Guard, Adaptus Mechanicus, or Sisters of Battle, or any of the Inquisitional forces included in a WAR40k MMO. If all we get to play is Space Marines then that will be lame IMHO. Warhammer 40,000 is so much more then just Space Marines even though they are the best known characters in the IP. Also you have Dark Eldar, Necrons, Tyrnaids which should be in. Of course there are other alien races in the IP but they aren't played in the TT game but they are there in lore.

Speaking of other factions, would be interesting to see how they will be incorporated into the game. I'm guessing most of them will be NPCs.

Just wish we had some solid info on the game.

Vortex500 · February 2008

Thanks for the input all. Well like I said its probably way to early to talk about the game... but its interesting to hear some ideas and thoughs about it.

So when do they release it ... 2009-2010? Want it know! *cries like the child in the toystore*

LETS PLAY BALL! Gonna watch some Super bowl now (yeah some of us here in Sweden watch it too. lol)

The Second Day Vet

HYPERI0N · February 2008

I would like to paly as Either a -

- Necron : Evil robot from the distant past.

- Tyranid : ZERG RUSH!!!

Howdy, Stranger!

Thoughts about the Warhammer 40k MMO

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Thoughts about the Warhammer 40k MMO

Comments