A Warhammer 40k MMORPG?

[Nobody_You_Know]

I'd love to have a play at this, may actually tempt me to try an MMO or the first time.

You could balance the Imperial Gaurd but you would have to restrict playes to using Commissars and special characters.

A system were you controlled a Commissar for interaction with a computer controlled Ogryn or small Command Sqaud for protection and combat could work quite well.

People also forget that Warhammer already has an in-built balancing systems for the table top game. The points system has been honed over many years and is now well balanced and controls not only the numer and type of soliders but also their weapons.

New players could be offered a set number of points (just like in the tabletop game) and then select a race and then use their points to then choose a character and then equip them or bring support soliders.

150 Points with Imperial Gaurd could by you a Luitenant and a load of grunts, or a Comissar and a single well equiped bodygaurd.... for example.

I definately think that controlling a single human would just not work.

ETA looking at the new concept art there is an Imperial Gaurd Chimera troop transporter in there so maybe they are heading for a system of controlling small squads with their own transpsort.

 

[Twad]

My five cents.

It would not work the way most MMORPG work right now.
Well, grind and leveling should go right out. I hate these gameplay gimmicks. Give me tactics. Give me a billion imperial guadsmens.

That game would need lotsa NPC bots to support the fight, especially where tyranids, imperials and orks are concerned.

All the races are a bunch of xenophobic, trigger-happy psychopaths.
Even the Imprial army and space marines dont always get along.
Temporary alliances between the races are very uncommon (IIRC mostly including Tau, Space Marines, Imperials and Eldars.. basically the "good guys" but they happily kill eachother the rest of the time)
Most of the others will just shoot/smash at everything else on sight.

I would love to play a weak, flimsy guardsmen uselessly pointing my flashlight at some Carnifex.. and somehow suceed to kill it.
Or Play as a Tau Firewarrior on the frontlines.
A Chaos obliterator, literally a walking arsenal.
Play as an Ork, cuz they are fun like that.
There is fun to be had, but players should be able to build up their own customized unit kit and tweak a thing or two on their "stat build", but not become some sort of heroic demigod that eats armies of millions cuz he was bored or because he was grinding for hours.
It should be about player skill first, and unit skill/stats second. Not the other way around. Also, let the fragility of units to stay.

To stay within the fluff of WH40K, well.. its mostly about war, war, war, war, kill, kick then burn or eat the planet.
It -could- be about battles fought on a huge, constantly changing battlefield. Like several races fight for control of a star system (and there are countless star systems in the game map), players choose a race, then choose what troop kind they want to be, then choose a battle they want to join. COuld play like a FPS at the first or third person or something like that. Once a map have been conquered, your race win that "map" and the next map loads.
Each planet could have several maps, controling X% of the maps allows the dominating race to have more tactical flexibility (like occasional airstrikes and stuff like that), but not completely dominate the field.

How to "win?"
Dunno.
After a while, galaxy-wide stats could be made public; what race controls the most planets/systems/whatever. Who has the most victories and defeat. Who control XYZ critical sectors that have the most ressources (population, food, minerals, industrial planet or anything, really) or relic/artifact.
The only way to secure victory.. well, is to conquer the galaxy. Good luck with that.

 

[Ciko]

40k MMO sounds fun, the race alliance thing is a bit tricky tho. I mean in fantasy some alliance worked while in 40k every rece is pretty much for themself.

They might make you a peon and work your way up i.e. you start as scout and work your way up to space marines or be at chaos and start as the fodder like cultist and then work your way up to being a chaos warrior.

or they might just make some races unplayable altogether (like the nids and necrons)

but let's just wait and see, they might do well. you'll never know

 

[Jaythulhu]

I'd love to see a 40k mmo, but I'd be concerned about how bolters and power armour would work in a video game, especially given that bolt guns are mostly a "one shot, one explosive kill" weapon.

Still, as long as the traitor legions are available for play, I'm there. With bells, whistles and grizzly trophies. Glory to the Raven God! Death to the False Emperor!

 

[ma55ter_fett]

It could be awesome but,

how would armor sets work and the epic lootz work I mean there isn't a ton of variety in weapons (cept for orks cause they use "any shooty tig dat brings hurt") in 40k and most of the epic hammers powerswords etc are really rare.

also you would need a squad

 

[sarcastic]

I don't play MMO's. They seem stupid to me.




If a Warhammer40K MMO got off the ground, and got good reviews. I would do everything in my power.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

It could be awesome but,

how would armor sets work and the epic lootz work I mean there isn't a ton of variety in weapons (cept for orks cause they use "any shooty tig dat brings hurt") in 40k and most of the epic hammers powerswords etc are really rare.

also you would need a squad

The folks at THQ managed to devise loot aplenty in Dawn of War 2 - the thing about 40K is there is actually a lot of potential variation on weapons, because technology is holy and is often kept functioning for thousands of years - brand new equipment is really only going to be found in numbers when you're examining say... the Guard. As for weapon types, there's not much variety on the tabletop because it's boiling things down to a very simplistic level and abstracting quite a bit (plus there's all that pesky rule balance). If you've ever looked at say... the Dark Heresy RPG sourcebooks though, you'll see a dizzying array of weaponry and armor and that was mostly just the stuff you'd find in a single sector of the Imperium - the MMO is potentially set in the entire galaxy.

 

[Loop Stricken]

LOL at how small that marine's head looks. He must have a car axle for shoulders or something.

They are genetically engineered to the extent they're no longer human. There was some form of disgram I saw a few years back of a Space Marine in his armour, and the gear really doesn't exaggerate their shape all that much.
Their bodies are massive.

Also to answer the original thread question;
Holy fuck yes do want do want dowantdowantdowantdowantdowantDoWantDOWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!

 

[Epictank of Wintown]

I HAVE THE SOLUTION TO ALL OF THE "ALLIANCE" ISSUES, SHOULD THEY CHOOSE TO GO THAT ROUTE.

Set the WH40K MMO during a Black Crusade.

Or!

Don't even bother. Make a game like PlanetSide. Each faction wants to WTFPWN all the other factions. And set a limit to the number of Space Marines per server: 10,000. By that, I mean full Battle-Brothers. Scouts and such should still be available to players, but are far weaker and play more as stealth/sabotage/repair troops than frontline combatants.

 

[Loop Stricken]

I think a Tyranid race would be the most MMO-friendly race for this setting. Imagine, if you will; starting off as a lowly planet-scrubber, just devouring all the biomass you can on some piddly little rock, level up into a termagant or some such, a few biomass-wargear levels later, hormagaunt! Later, hive tyrant!