i am digging that the imperial knight is not technically a space marine
i didnt know all that lore about the knight errants and the houses and so on i assume its fairly new?
Yeah, all the lore on the Imperial Knights is fairly new IIRC, as the Knights themselves were only released fairly recently. I think a year, maybe two back.
I don't know if they had been mentioned in the lore before that or not, but I don't think they had been.
Imperial Knights are actually pretty old. They were first introduced back in 1990... it just took them 25 years to finally get back to them.
i am digging that the imperial knight is not technically a space marine
i didnt know all that lore about the knight errants and the houses and so on i assume its fairly new?
Yeah, all the lore on the Imperial Knights is fairly new IIRC, as the Knights themselves were only released fairly recently. I think a year, maybe two back.
I don't know if they had been mentioned in the lore before that or not, but I don't think they had been.
Imperial Knights are actually pretty old. They were first introduced back in 1990... it just took them 25 years to finally get back to them.
Reading it makes me want a Imperial Knights RPG. Either on the computer or PnP I don't care I just want.
Huh, guess I learn something new every day. I thought they were fairly new as I had just recently seen the 40k scaled ones come out and hadn't read about them in any of the 40k novels.
Didn't occur to me that they probably had roots in some earlier games.
As for that RPG, yeah, sign me up for that.
I think a simulator game could be fun as well. Mowing down legions of (traitor?) guardsmen or swarms of ork foot soldiers with near-impunity, regular fights against other knights or assorted knight sized war machines, maybe a boss fight against a wolf hound or two, maybe a big boss fight where you have to hamstring a full sized titan?
Hey, maybe combine the two? A knight sim where you level up to improve the machine's speed or turning, buy bigger, better guns and strap on thicker armor or better shields?
Maybe integrate it with the VR units that are coming out. Would really love to do that whole "mowing down helpless foot soldiers" thing from a first person perspective.
That wikia link has a very liberal definition of the "Rogue Trader" era. I think the 1990 date of introduction is correct, when Titan Legions was released for 2nd ed Epic Space Marine. Most if not all of those models and artwork is from that release, I think.
EDIT: Wait, no, 1990 was 2nd edition Epic. Titan Legions was 1994, which is where most of that art comes from. But I think the 1990 army book or the Renegades manual did mention something about worlds where sometimes Knight households would live side-by-side with Eldar Exodites.
I do wonder how they'll handle the "our chapter master devoted himself to Khorne and was half way to a daemon prince" thing though. I'm not an expert, but isn't the Inquisition somewhat less than forgiving about things like that?
I do wonder how they'll handle the "our chapter master devoted himself to Khorne and was half way to a daemon prince" thing though. I'm not an expert, but isn't the Inquisition somewhat less than forgiving about things like that?
Any word on co-op? That was possibly the best, most insightful feature in Dawn of War II.
It was definitely one of its best features.
However I've got a sneaking suspicion it might not be in this time around. The co-op mainly worked since the SP campaign really hewed more towards ARPG territory, you only had 4 heroes and they had a range of capabilities to make use of.
Would still be nice though.
What I'm personally really hoping for (after decent multiplayer) is a new Last Stand mode. No word on that either.
Seriously Relic needs to do a QA session at some point. None of the previews I've read seem to be asking these questions.
+2
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KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
Waaaaay too much standing out in the open. It looks more like a Starcraft than a Relic RTS.
Yeah I've said it before but CoH is my favorite type of RTS. Actual use of tactics rather than mashing huge armies together.
I like both, but the intense micro needed to competently use your forces in CoH frequently drives me up the wall. There's nothing quite like panning the camera back to the front line only to realise that a couple of grenades have wiped out literally 90% of your army. The rock-paper-scissors balance also ensures that if you brought the wrong units into a fight they're likely to die without taking out a single enemy soldier.
Basically what I'm saying is that I'm too slow and dumb for tactics, I'd rather mash huge armies together.
+3
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kaliyamaLeft to find less-moderated foraRegistered Userregular
Waaaaay too much standing out in the open. It looks more like a Starcraft than a Relic RTS.
Yeah I've said it before but CoH is my favorite type of RTS. Actual use of tactics rather than mashing huge armies together.
Yeah, it remains to be seen if the boring-looking map is because this is early days or because they are eschewing COH2's intricate and fun terrain mechanics in favor of something more starcrafty. It's too soon to tell but sad i'm not getting hyped up based on early footage.
Also, all other discussions aside, can I just say that I hope that Relic continue their tradition of absolutely awesome voice-work in their games.
Seriously, no other RTS, probably few other games in general, have ever matched the DoW series for me when it comes to voice acting. Every race has their own 'feel' to them, and in those races each unit feels like its own character.
Frankly they quality they maintained is doubling amazing for the sheer volume of contextual voicework every unit had, down to referencing specific units and situations they were encountering. The whole thing gave Dawn of War a tremendous atmosphere to it. When I played Starcraft 2, I was actually disappointed that this was something Blizzard didn't actively crib from.
«Drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword!»
These are the stories of Dwarf Fortress. Legends have been forged there, and meticulousy gathered in one mighty hub: http://dfstories.com/start-here/
Waaaaay too much standing out in the open. It looks more like a Starcraft than a Relic RTS.
Yeah I've said it before but CoH is my favorite type of RTS. Actual use of tactics rather than mashing huge armies together.
I like both, but the intense micro needed to competently use your forces in CoH frequently drives me up the wall. There's nothing quite like panning the camera back to the front line only to realise that a couple of grenades have wiped out literally 90% of your army. The rock-paper-scissors balance also ensures that if you brought the wrong units into a fight they're likely to die without taking out a single enemy soldier.
Basically what I'm saying is that I'm too slow and dumb for tactics, I'd rather mash huge armies together.
Not to mention the whole point of macro is to give your army an advantage in a fight. Getting a kickass economy going in an RTS feels like a waste of time when you end up bringing scissors to a rock fight. I expect there will still be a large amount of counterplay in DOW3, but the fact you can field a large army lets you bring a balanced force that won't just get hard countered. Besides, not having to micro the whole game lets you enjoy the fireworks
What chapter does the imperial knight belong to or am I reading that wrong? It has a dragon insignia, a dragon on it's left pauldron and the color scheme doesn't match the Blood Ravens.
Did they steal it?
Edit:
Nvm, I should've read the previous page. Thanks!
What chapter does the imperial knight belong to or am I reading that wrong? It has a dragon insignia, a dragon on it's left pauldron and the color scheme doesn't match the Blood Ravens.
Did they steal it?
Edit:
Nvm, I should've read the previous page. Thanks!
Also, all other discussions aside, can I just say that I hope that Relic continue their tradition of absolutely awesome voice-work in their games.
Seriously, no other RTS, probably few other games in general, have ever matched the DoW series for me when it comes to voice acting. Every race has their own 'feel' to them, and in those races each unit feels like its own character.
Frankly they quality they maintained is doubling amazing for the sheer volume of contextual voicework every unit had, down to referencing specific units and situations they were encountering. The whole thing gave Dawn of War a tremendous atmosphere to it. When I played Starcraft 2, I was actually disappointed that this was something Blizzard didn't actively crib from.
«Drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword!»
IT IS BETTER TO DIE FOR THE EMPEROR THAN LIVE FOR YOURSELF
*crushes Nob's torso, casually spins him around in the air*
With Love and Courage
+1
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The_SpaniardIt's never lupinesIrvine, CaliforniaRegistered Userregular
edited June 2016
I saw it. I sat in on the private gameplay demo for the game. Gushed at the Relic guys for a bit. Talked to the project director and the studio head for a while and bellowed my praise for the franchise as well as shared some unsolicited suggestions with them. To answer a question from earlier in the thread. I as well asked after the demo about his eye, because he had a bionic one at the end of Retribution, but not in the demo. I also asked that considering that if the game would draw attention to his grievous injuries from Retribution. The not too specific answer I got was that yes his injuries aren't forgotten, he is scarred in the new game, and his eye is not healed, he just doesn't have the bionic implant in. Whether he meant that Angelos just didn't have it in at the moment or he just removed in general because he didn't like it remains to be seen. With all that in mind I suggested that if they were still doing wargear in some form or another that I'd love to see Commissar Yarrick's Bale Eye as a piece of wargear. Just imagine Angelos in melee with an enemy and then mid combo leaning forward and blasting them with the Las-eye.
The Relic folks are all class acts. I was giddy during the demo and they were a ton of fun to talk to afterwards.
Pictures coming later.
Also when I was at the Telltale booth I suggested an Inquisition game to them, where you play an Inquisitor investigating Heresy and deciding whether or not to enact Exterminatus. They all nodded approvingly to the idea. Probably, never happen though, but man if we wouldn't love to see them make that game.
I saw it. I sat in on the private gameplay demo for the game. Gushed at the Relic guys for a bit. Talked to the project director and the studio head for a while and bellowed my praise for the franchise as well as shared some unsolicited suggestions with them. To answer a question from earlier in the thread. I as well asked after the demo about his eye, because he had a bionic one at the end of Retribution, but not in the demo. I also asked that considering that if the game would draw attention to his grievous injuries from Retribution. The not too specific answer I got was that yes his injuries aren't forgotten, he is scarred in the new game, and his eye is not healed, he just doesn't have the bionic implant in. Whether he meant that Angelos just didn't have it in at the moment or he just removed in general because he didn't like it remains to be seen. With all that in mind I suggested that if they were still doing wargear in some form or another that I'd love to see Commissar Yarrick's Bale Eye as a piece of wargear. Just imagine Angelos in melee with an enemy and then mid combo leaning forward and blasting them with the Las-eye.
The Relic folks are all class acts. I was giddy during the demo and they were a ton of fun to talk to afterwards.
Pictures coming later.
Also when I was at the Telltale booth I suggested an Inquisition game to them, where you play an Inquisitor investigating Heresy and deciding whether or not to enact Exterminatus. They all nodded approvingly to the idea. Probably, never happen though, but man if we wouldn't love to see them make that game.
Also when I was at the Telltale booth I suggested an Inquisition game to them, where you play an Inquisitor investigating Heresy and deciding whether or not to enact Exterminatus. They all nodded approvingly to the idea. Probably, never happen though, but man if we wouldn't love to see them make that game.
We have a Eisenhorn: Xenos game coming as well as Inquisitor: Martyr.
odds are that at least one of those will have some Heresy for you to purge.
Also when I was at the Telltale booth I suggested an Inquisition game to them, where you play an Inquisitor investigating Heresy and deciding whether or not to enact Exterminatus. They all nodded approvingly to the idea. Probably, never happen though, but man if we wouldn't love to see them make that game.
We have a Eisenhorn: Xenos game coming as well as Inquisitor: Martyr.
odds are that at least one of those will have some Heresy for you to purge.
The Eisenhorn game is a mobile port of a third person game, and Inquisitor: Martyr is an action RPG. I'm talking a Telltale style narrative driven game about the Inquisition.
Also, all other discussions aside, can I just say that I hope that Relic continue their tradition of absolutely awesome voice-work in their games.
Seriously, no other RTS, probably few other games in general, have ever matched the DoW series for me when it comes to voice acting. Every race has their own 'feel' to them, and in those races each unit feels like its own character.
Frankly they quality they maintained is doubling amazing for the sheer volume of contextual voicework every unit had, down to referencing specific units and situations they were encountering. The whole thing gave Dawn of War a tremendous atmosphere to it. When I played Starcraft 2, I was actually disappointed that this was something Blizzard didn't actively crib from.
«Drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword!»
Also when I was at the Telltale booth I suggested an Inquisition game to them, where you play an Inquisitor investigating Heresy and deciding whether or not to enact Exterminatus. They all nodded approvingly to the idea. Probably, never happen though, but man if we wouldn't love to see them make that game.
We have a Eisenhorn: Xenos game coming as well as Inquisitor: Martyr.
odds are that at least one of those will have some Heresy for you to purge.
The Eisenhorn game is a mobile port of a third person game, and Inquisitor: Martyr is an action RPG. I'm talking a Telltale style narrative driven game about the Inquisition.
One thing that confuses me about the art style thing is the suggestion that DoW2 wasn't clear or that it was hard to follow. I can't recall any time that I had trouble picking out important information. Units like plasma cannons, las cannons, Fire prisms etc all had vfx that stood out and could be read.
More importantly, and I sincerely hope this hasn't been forgotten in DoW3, is that DoW2 had some of the best audio feedback in any RTS. Units would shout out important battlefield information like spotting, what was shooting them and what they were engaging along with grenade throws etc. All those lines also added greatly to the feel of the game and the setting. Similarly nearly all of the weapons could be distinguished by sound alone - missile launchers for example could be picked out from the firing sound, same with lascannons, brightlances, plasma cannons, suppression platforms and so on.
I'd also throw a shout out to CoH2 for unit lines - at least in the initial release. Unfortunately they shied away from unit specific lines with the added races preferring more generic lines in their place.
I am not too worried about lack of cover in the video as there is a very important tag line at the bottom. Pre-alpha footage. Stuff will change. I mean there was no UI in the videos. I am curious what that is. They said there will be a cover system, it might be more DoW than DoW2. But it is still early in development.
One thing that confuses me about the art style thing is the suggestion that DoW2 wasn't clear or that it was hard to follow. I can't recall any time that I had trouble picking out important information. Units like plasma cannons, las cannons, Fire prisms etc all had vfx that stood out and could be read.
Just to start, I wanted to make it clear this whole post is tremendously subjective:
Personally I found discerning between different styles of tac marines / devastators, or different variants of orkz kind of awkward in the middle of a brawl. With all the incidental environment detail (which was nice, don't get me wrong), bits flying around, and detailings, it could be tough to discern what was what. I mean say when I got a Seer Council, I'd frequently lose track of it amongst all the squads that had Exarchs. Similar with the Warlock, because they all shared the same model with minute detailing differences (this was helped somewhat when the permanently altered the Warlock model to give him horns).
Basically toning down the visual noise and focussing on emphasising model differences and maybe even some lighting changes can seriously help in those scenarios. In DoW 2 I felt like the game depended heavily on the unit icons above each squad to the point that it was often all I would really stare at as things really kicked off. Which when you're putting major art assets into each unit / squad, you want to avoid. At its extreme it becomes something like the Supreme Commander problem, where you're better off looking at an abstracted picture than the actual visuals. DoW2 never went to that extreme, but I felt like it certainly had elements of that same problem.
It's something they'd never really have need of in say, Starcraft, because everything looks pretty unique and are designed that way. In DoW that's not really possible given the franchise, but there can be ways to alleviate it. That's where good visual design can help, so that you don't need to depend as heavily on HUD elements to make the picture as readable. This is doubly important when you're massively increasing the army sizes that are going to be running around in the game, and given the (apparently?) lower unit health counts and faster gameplay, that readability can help a lot.
It's why TF2's (original, it's gotten muddied over time) art style was such a revelation. Compared to other modern military style games every single class was easily readable and well lit from clear across the map. Within a fraction of a second you could tell team, class and even weapon, all with zero need for HUD elements to showcase that. And that's an amazing accomplishment in such a hectic game where you've got a dozen guys running around at breakneck speed scrapping with each other in confined spaces. Compared to franchises like Battlefield there was basically no comparison.
That's as far as readability goes. There's also the simple practical concern that in a game with much larger unit counts, you can't afford to have as much system resources being dedicated to the more minute individual detailing. To a large extent that stuff is almost never noticed except in the quiet times, and you're far better off with more sweeping and obvious details and differences when it comes to having a visual "impact", particularly with the faster gameplay.
All of this of course, is YMMV.
EDIT:
All of THAT said, I'm looking at the footage that Matrias posted, and I'm not really noticing what you I would call a 'lack' of detail on the units there. In fact it still looks fairly grimdark to me as well. I don't get the complaints I'm seeing around the net about it supposedly being a more cheery art style.
H3KnucklesBut we decide which is rightand which is an illusion.Registered Userregular
edited June 2016
The picture with the three heads in a pile of skulls is cool, but something about the way the eldar helmet's cone slopes back from the forhead reminds me of Schwarzwald from The Big O.
Waaaaay too much standing out in the open. It looks more like a Starcraft than a Relic RTS.
Yeah I've said it before but CoH is my favorite type of RTS. Actual use of tactics rather than mashing huge armies together.
I like both, but the intense micro needed to competently use your forces in CoH frequently drives me up the wall. There's nothing quite like panning the camera back to the front line only to realise that a couple of grenades have wiped out literally 90% of your army. The rock-paper-scissors balance also ensures that if you brought the wrong units into a fight they're likely to die without taking out a single enemy soldier.
Basically what I'm saying is that I'm too slow and dumb for tactics, I'd rather mash huge armies together.
See, for me, Company of Heroes 1 struck a damn near perfect balance between fielding large armies and allowing for tactics
Playing against the AI (which, again, is most of what I do) the hard counters against infantry units like machine guns didn't kill them fast enough that I ever felt like I needed to micro the hell out of every single unit I had, and gave me time to react when they did get pinned down. Same with tanks, though those tended to die a bit faster under sustained fire and especially if you played a shit faction like the British who had only one tank worth using and it was their endgame tank... but I'm not bitter!!!
But I really don't know that you can take the structure of a game like CoH and apply it to 40k. CoH works partially because of the equipment and environments involved. You can't really translate that kind of combat to 40k without making it lose its inherent 40k-ness. Space Marines don't take cover. Space Marines are cover
Maybe if you went in a crazy Creative Assembly Total War-style direction and significantly changed how other factions worked, you might be able to translate the CoH feel into the Imperial Guard. But you'd have to have completely different cover and AI mechanics for like every single faction and I sincerely doubt Relic are in a position to do that if they even want to
As is, I'll settle for something like DoW1's cover system, rather than the micro-heavy nonsense of 2 that kept me thoroughly uninterested outside of the campaigns
Posts
https://www.dawnofwar.com/images/gabriel-main-1080.jpg
The word 'massive' appears 20 times in that article.
Huh, guess I learn something new every day. I thought they were fairly new as I had just recently seen the 40k scaled ones come out and hadn't read about them in any of the 40k novels.
Didn't occur to me that they probably had roots in some earlier games.
As for that RPG, yeah, sign me up for that.
I think a simulator game could be fun as well. Mowing down legions of (traitor?) guardsmen or swarms of ork foot soldiers with near-impunity, regular fights against other knights or assorted knight sized war machines, maybe a boss fight against a wolf hound or two, maybe a big boss fight where you have to hamstring a full sized titan?
Hey, maybe combine the two? A knight sim where you level up to improve the machine's speed or turning, buy bigger, better guns and strap on thicker armor or better shields?
Maybe integrate it with the VR units that are coming out. Would really love to do that whole "mowing down helpless foot soldiers" thing from a first person perspective.
Now i'm sad that it's not likely to happen.
EDIT: Wait, no, 1990 was 2nd edition Epic. Titan Legions was 1994, which is where most of that art comes from. But I think the 1990 army book or the Renegades manual did mention something about worlds where sometimes Knight households would live side-by-side with Eldar Exodites.
Shouldn't he be missing half his face and with a bionic eye?
That's kind of how he ended up at the end of the SM campaign after getting a little... smashed.
Well, going by another concept/render he's missing an eye and has a few scars, but not much more than that (visibly anyway).
https://www.dawnofwar.com/images/gabriel-panel-1080.jpg
I do wonder how they'll handle the "our chapter master devoted himself to Khorne and was half way to a daemon prince" thing though. I'm not an expert, but isn't the Inquisition somewhat less than forgiving about things like that?
"Kyras left much corrupted, and cleansing had to be thorough and merciless."
also the official forum portraits show more of his face.
It was definitely one of its best features.
However I've got a sneaking suspicion it might not be in this time around. The co-op mainly worked since the SP campaign really hewed more towards ARPG territory, you only had 4 heroes and they had a range of capabilities to make use of.
Would still be nice though.
What I'm personally really hoping for (after decent multiplayer) is a new Last Stand mode. No word on that either.
Seriously Relic needs to do a QA session at some point. None of the previews I've read seem to be asking these questions.
And furious anger towards all xenos.
She has my approval.
Feels like a step back from DoW2.
This looks... okay, I guess.
Dunno why they're complaining about the DoW drop pods? They were plenty dynamic / useful.
Waaaaay too much standing out in the open. It looks more like a Starcraft than a Relic RTS.
Yeah I've said it before but CoH is my favorite type of RTS. Actual use of tactics rather than mashing huge armies together.
Two armies mashing together is like, 99% of faction tactics in 40k. See: any piece of 40k artwork ever.
I like both, but the intense micro needed to competently use your forces in CoH frequently drives me up the wall. There's nothing quite like panning the camera back to the front line only to realise that a couple of grenades have wiped out literally 90% of your army. The rock-paper-scissors balance also ensures that if you brought the wrong units into a fight they're likely to die without taking out a single enemy soldier.
Basically what I'm saying is that I'm too slow and dumb for tactics, I'd rather mash huge armies together.
Yeah, it remains to be seen if the boring-looking map is because this is early days or because they are eschewing COH2's intricate and fun terrain mechanics in favor of something more starcrafty. It's too soon to tell but sad i'm not getting hyped up based on early footage.
«Drive me closer, I want to hit them with my sword!»
Not to mention the whole point of macro is to give your army an advantage in a fight. Getting a kickass economy going in an RTS feels like a waste of time when you end up bringing scissors to a rock fight. I expect there will still be a large amount of counterplay in DOW3, but the fact you can field a large army lets you bring a balanced force that won't just get hard countered. Besides, not having to micro the whole game lets you enjoy the fireworks
Did they steal it?
Edit:
Nvm, I should've read the previous page. Thanks!
i am laughing so hard.
IT IS BETTER TO DIE FOR THE EMPEROR THAN LIVE FOR YOURSELF
*crushes Nob's torso, casually spins him around in the air*
The Relic folks are all class acts. I was giddy during the demo and they were a ton of fun to talk to afterwards.
Pictures coming later.
Also when I was at the Telltale booth I suggested an Inquisition game to them, where you play an Inquisitor investigating Heresy and deciding whether or not to enact Exterminatus. They all nodded approvingly to the idea. Probably, never happen though, but man if we wouldn't love to see them make that game.
Negative, strategic value Absolute.
We have a Eisenhorn: Xenos game coming as well as Inquisitor: Martyr.
odds are that at least one of those will have some Heresy for you to purge.
Bravely Default / 3DS Friend Code = 3394-3571-1609
The Eisenhorn game is a mobile port of a third person game, and Inquisitor: Martyr is an action RPG. I'm talking a Telltale style narrative driven game about the Inquisition.
Telltale made me feel bad about my choices, regret the path I took, even if it was the best one.
Warhammer Telltale? All guilty, all the time. No regrets.
Telltale would be good.
Also, Obsidian RPG.
More importantly, and I sincerely hope this hasn't been forgotten in DoW3, is that DoW2 had some of the best audio feedback in any RTS. Units would shout out important battlefield information like spotting, what was shooting them and what they were engaging along with grenade throws etc. All those lines also added greatly to the feel of the game and the setting. Similarly nearly all of the weapons could be distinguished by sound alone - missile launchers for example could be picked out from the firing sound, same with lascannons, brightlances, plasma cannons, suppression platforms and so on.
I'd also throw a shout out to CoH2 for unit lines - at least in the initial release. Unfortunately they shied away from unit specific lines with the added races preferring more generic lines in their place.
Just to start, I wanted to make it clear this whole post is tremendously subjective:
Personally I found discerning between different styles of tac marines / devastators, or different variants of orkz kind of awkward in the middle of a brawl. With all the incidental environment detail (which was nice, don't get me wrong), bits flying around, and detailings, it could be tough to discern what was what. I mean say when I got a Seer Council, I'd frequently lose track of it amongst all the squads that had Exarchs. Similar with the Warlock, because they all shared the same model with minute detailing differences (this was helped somewhat when the permanently altered the Warlock model to give him horns).
Basically toning down the visual noise and focussing on emphasising model differences and maybe even some lighting changes can seriously help in those scenarios. In DoW 2 I felt like the game depended heavily on the unit icons above each squad to the point that it was often all I would really stare at as things really kicked off. Which when you're putting major art assets into each unit / squad, you want to avoid. At its extreme it becomes something like the Supreme Commander problem, where you're better off looking at an abstracted picture than the actual visuals. DoW2 never went to that extreme, but I felt like it certainly had elements of that same problem.
It's something they'd never really have need of in say, Starcraft, because everything looks pretty unique and are designed that way. In DoW that's not really possible given the franchise, but there can be ways to alleviate it. That's where good visual design can help, so that you don't need to depend as heavily on HUD elements to make the picture as readable. This is doubly important when you're massively increasing the army sizes that are going to be running around in the game, and given the (apparently?) lower unit health counts and faster gameplay, that readability can help a lot.
It's why TF2's (original, it's gotten muddied over time) art style was such a revelation. Compared to other modern military style games every single class was easily readable and well lit from clear across the map. Within a fraction of a second you could tell team, class and even weapon, all with zero need for HUD elements to showcase that. And that's an amazing accomplishment in such a hectic game where you've got a dozen guys running around at breakneck speed scrapping with each other in confined spaces. Compared to franchises like Battlefield there was basically no comparison.
That's as far as readability goes. There's also the simple practical concern that in a game with much larger unit counts, you can't afford to have as much system resources being dedicated to the more minute individual detailing. To a large extent that stuff is almost never noticed except in the quiet times, and you're far better off with more sweeping and obvious details and differences when it comes to having a visual "impact", particularly with the faster gameplay.
All of this of course, is YMMV.
EDIT:
All of THAT said, I'm looking at the footage that Matrias posted, and I'm not really noticing what you I would call a 'lack' of detail on the units there. In fact it still looks fairly grimdark to me as well. I don't get the complaints I'm seeing around the net about it supposedly being a more cheery art style.
Mister Angelos is looking swank as hell there.
I think he'd look better with a helmet on, mind, but if he wants to block bullets with his face, who are mortals to argue?
Spoilered for not to spam with a wall of half a dozen pics.
See, for me, Company of Heroes 1 struck a damn near perfect balance between fielding large armies and allowing for tactics
Playing against the AI (which, again, is most of what I do) the hard counters against infantry units like machine guns didn't kill them fast enough that I ever felt like I needed to micro the hell out of every single unit I had, and gave me time to react when they did get pinned down. Same with tanks, though those tended to die a bit faster under sustained fire and especially if you played a shit faction like the British who had only one tank worth using and it was their endgame tank... but I'm not bitter!!!
But I really don't know that you can take the structure of a game like CoH and apply it to 40k. CoH works partially because of the equipment and environments involved. You can't really translate that kind of combat to 40k without making it lose its inherent 40k-ness. Space Marines don't take cover. Space Marines are cover
Maybe if you went in a crazy Creative Assembly Total War-style direction and significantly changed how other factions worked, you might be able to translate the CoH feel into the Imperial Guard. But you'd have to have completely different cover and AI mechanics for like every single faction and I sincerely doubt Relic are in a position to do that if they even want to
As is, I'll settle for something like DoW1's cover system, rather than the micro-heavy nonsense of 2 that kept me thoroughly uninterested outside of the campaigns
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Well, DoW2 did that to some extent.
The great thing about CoH's gamplay evolved on its own to meet its own goals.
good takeaways, both.