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[OM NOM]Dawn of War 2: FUCKING TYRANID GAMEPLAY MOVIE!
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Not sure how I feel about Phat Lewt though. On the one hand persistent loot and RPG like mechanics have largely been proven to keep people playing multiplayer games. On the other hand, even if there are such things as varied drops, there is no frigging way I am going to spend my time grinding in an RTS.
Odds are that the more useful and special drops will only be available in multiplayer, which would just mean people playing more games at higher levels in the hopes of getting better items. If it works like that I could really see it taking off. Only problem I can see with that (hypothetical) mechanic though is that it gives experienced players yet another fairly significant advantage over regular players in a game that's supposed to be about strategy, not necessarily who's been playing the longest to get the best stuff.
Although, please Relic, fix the god-damn trust system.
Yeah, having your opponent lag out during a CoH match and hoping you didn't get the loss was the worst thing about the game.
"Lag out." Right. Sure. If you say so.
Hey, I'm not gonna question the guy's honesty even though he just happened to disconnect while I had two Ostwinds in his base and control of all of the map. :P
I see the loot being two categories.
In single player, it has statistical effect on your units, allowing Relic to ramp up the enemy quantity and type by the end of the campaign because your marine squads are decked out in terminator armour and shit.
In multi, if indeed they even have loot which I doubt, I see it being aesthetics only, purely for appearance.
You know what I loved about Rome Total War, how you can create almost a kind of Cal of Duty 4 esque 'class' by ha ving a custom army.
Similarly in Mark of Chaos, multiplayer matches had each team start with a full army, right down to wargear and unit selection.
Id fucking love that here.
I'll be more than happy to. I haven't been disillusioned about a game by a game's community as much as I have CoH.
There's nothing like being stuck at level four when you're as good or better than the majority of level 7-8 players (and you know because you play a lot of them outside of automatch) because every single time you get even a little bit ahead in a game, your opponent drophacks you. Every. Single. Fucking. Time.
I've heard it gets even worse at higher levels. And every time it happened, I wanted to play less and less until I finally stopped playing at all. I haven't played it in about four months, but every time I think about it, I just get angry again. All I want to do is fucking play the game and have fun. I don't care if I win or lose, but let me fucking win or lose, you stupid inbred motherfucker.
For single player - 3
Multi, who knows.
Though I would guess the same three. It is unlikely there will be more.
Like, at this point if they announce it as anything other than Tyranids there will be an uproar.
Just so I can watch forums everywhere explode.
That's going to be weird after playing Dark Crusade, with like... 7? races.
Company of Heroes launched with 2.
Even after one expansion it only has 2. Well, kind of.
It technically has 4 races but only two sides. Axis and Allies.
7 was ridiculous.
Their philosophy for DOW2 seems to be less is more.
Fewer units on screen, fewer base buildings. Makes sense to have fewer races. Tightly focus the experience.
You know they will be in single player. They always show up to pull the strings, elitist assholes.
It was a stick.
Vanilla game, expansion one and expansions two and three.
It is
A: More lucrative
B: Gives them more time to develop the game. Launch with little that is highly polished and then release more.
COH is, and this isnt hyperbole, the best RTS game ever made. I'd say better than Starcraft, better than anything Blizzard has made.
Relic has taken the RTS genre and completely made it their own with COH. The cover system, the morale, the smaller unit sizes and quantity. The relationship between vehicles and infantry.
All of it pretty much made DOW1 obsolete day one.
DOW2 is taking a completely different direction than DOW1 for that reason, it was old fashioned RTSing. The genre has evolved.
I trust Relic to make DOW2 great. That's all really.
And they better make Eldar playable because I swear to God if it's those shitty zerg assholes I quit.
but damn, persistant level-able, loot-hording characters through multiplayer scares me. My playtime is becoming more and more scarce these days and I quit playing mmos because of this grinding to keep up with the joneses shit.
Yay, DotA
Because it works so well in Call of Duty 4, keeping people addicted to the game.
Heck, WoW is all about the loot grind.
You know what makes you want to play a game more than anything else? Seeing another dude with little army men who have shiny gold bolt guns when your assholes are running about with bronze ones. That's what.
It is a smart move. Extremely smart. Loot makes the world go around.
Just assign loot points and then match people based on their armies points total in MP. Very simple way to keep it fair.
Like if giant glowing chainsword of doom is huge and does like triple melee damage on your Force Commander, give it a value of 20 pts then if some guy doesnt have it only match him with people under 10pts total or something.
I for one really want my army in multiplayer to feel like my own. To feel like I have some fucking connection to this swarm of guys running around.
Much like the table top, where customizing and scratch building units is the best way to distinguish yourself from the thousands of other Big Meks etc.
Imagine playing online against the number 1 DOW2 player and his Big Boss runs at your men wielding a ten foot axe in power armour. That is prestige.
Prestige is something that can rarely be found in RTS games. The only thing that separates me from nystrom in COH other than skill is a little tiny rank symbol. That's the reward you get for playing long hours and getting good at the game. A little logo and a numerical rank.
What would you rather have as a reward for being good at the game? A number or golden guns?
And you'd know what reward I want for being good at a game? I want to have fun and, hell, maybe even win.
I don't think so.
Relic make great RTS's, sure, but they've never had an eye for good balance. Starcraft is expertly balanced, but with Opposing Fronts thrown on top of COH, there's way too many gaping holes that can be exploited by players to gain a real edge
I wish I had taken a demo, but just recently a friend and I did Allie 2v2 against an axis and a panzer division player.
Before I could get my supply yard up, before I could capture my third point, the panzer division player had two squads and an mg out locking down my side.
Literally within 3 minutes of that, there was a tank rolling into my base. I didn't even have a supply yard up. I wasn't even close to any kind of anti-tank unit by the time that came in. What was I supposed to do there? He soon had a second then third tank rolling into my friend's base.
These were good players no doubt, but it really goes to show that COH is far from the perfect RTS. I can name many other instances (trenchs being resistant to pretty much everything, stealthed units, the airborne branch, etc.) Great RTS...yes, perfect RTS....no.
And it was much the same way with Dawn of War and even Homeworld. All great RTS's, but had glaring problems when it came to balance.
To me what it sounds like the problem is is that you're terrible.
No, CoH isn't incredible balance-wise, but unless they're exploiting something really glaring and horrible (like the Langres Flakvierling exploit), you shouldn't be beaten that quickly. I have been in the past, when I was new and playing against people that knew what they were doing, but if they had that many units out when you were capturing your third point, I'm sorry, but you're doing something seriously wrong.
But that's beside the point, I do play the game regularly and feel pretty solid in my skill. All of Relic's RTS's have had glaring balance issues, I was using the fact that he had a tank out within minutes of the game starting because that's something that has happened most recently
EDIT: Acccttuuuaallllly, if they do have points like scarab says, why not have the loot thing? You can have three squads with golden Horas bolters, or whatever the fuck, or 5 with stronger armor, or 10 with normal stuff. Points are cool because they're in the tabletop and all.