I would love to froth at you about the new release of an ultromod for the original Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Soulstorm, which transforms it into a simalcrum of Epic / Apocalypse 40K. Genuinely would love to. Epic was my first Games Workshop game, and because the first things we’re exposed to are always the ones we believe to be the best, its grand-scale, massed army, enormous Titan-centric battles remain the only way I think 40K should be played. Unfortunately I’ve had more luck trying to elicit empathy in cats than I have trying to download ‘grand release’ of Ultimate Apocalypse at a sensible speed, so can’t tell you much for at least another three hours. But I am going to point at it and say ‘look! Look! Wouldn’t it be amazing if this was as good as it sounded?’
TITANS ENORMOUS EXPLOSIONS MANY MANY MANY MANY MANY DEATHS TITANS
That is Epic, or Apocalypse as Games Workshop now call it. Maybe that’s just as well – the word ‘epic’ just makes me think of insurance adverts now.
The 1.8 ‘grand release’ of Ultimate Apocalypse, which came out on Sunday, is referred to as The Hunt Begins and adds two new factions and an overhauled skirmish mode, and focuses on mod-made factions Inquisition versus Chaos Daemons. This means there’s support for 11 different armies. I guess the original Dawn of War remains the go-to RTS if you want a maximalist adaptation of 40K. This is all multiplayer and skirmish stuff, mind. Singleplayer is further down the line, theoretically, in case that’s your main interest.
TITANS
The mod’s been around for several years, and is popular enough to even have its own mods.
TITANS
This is quite an old trailer, but gives a sense of what Ultimate Apocalypse is going for:
TITANS TITANS TITANS
Persona 3 portable cheat file. I’ll try and lob in some hands-on thoughts if and when this accursedly slow 1.1GB download finally finishes crawling down its tiny tube, but in the meantime you can grab it from here. You’ll need the Dawn of War 1 expandalone Soulstorm, but don’t need any other DoW games.
TITANS
Thanks for the Dawn Of Skirmish *SOUL STORM EXPANSION ONLY* v3.20 RELEASE and Acknowledgments (July 2009)** For SoulStorm v1.20 (Soulstorm + v1.10 Patch + its Hotfix) ** Main Download Link (FAST!!) Secondary Download Link (Faster!) Note: Dark Crusade version coming soon! Meet the Cast: Thudo (Thudmeizer).>> Team Lead/Coder/Gfx/Bonafied Cheerleader ArkhanTheBlack...>> Lead Coder/Scripter LarkinVB......>> Lead Coder/Scripter/Beta Tester Cultist.......>> Additional Heroes Special optimizations Corsix.......>> Coding assistance Dark40K.......>> Coding assistance Zenoth.......>> Beta Tester Inquisitor.....>> Beta Tester/Assistance with camera mod Troubadour.....>> Beta Tester Smokeskin......>> Beta Tester Dreddnott......>> Beta Tester ThetaOrion.....>> Beta Tester Malkor.......>> Beta Tester FinalDeath.....>> Beta Tester QuietDeath.....>> Beta Tester JBird........>> Beta Tester Slash........>> Beta Tester Introduction Prepare for a more enhanced Dawn Of War - Soul Storm skirmish experience! This project started after the release of Dawn Of War with the intent to bring to the global DoW community a more intense and satisfying AI opponent on the field of war. We hope you will agree that has been achieved with the understanding more is to be done in the future. Our work continues to evolve and in the coming months will make current efforts pale in comparison. However, you have to start somewhere and hot damn what a jump start! Its been a slice from start to, well, continuing! We're so looking forward to enhancing the AI even further in the coming months! A Personal Thanks At this time I would like to personally thank all the participating members of the team: ArkhanTheBlack, LarkinVB, Excedrin, and Corsix, as well as our beta testers, Malkor, Zenoth, ThetaOrion, FinalDeath, Troubadour, Slash, JBird, QuietDeath, Smokeskin, Dreddnott and (all who keep our work 'in-perspective' and 'on-track' with our ultimate goals of achieving the most competitive DoW AI opponent we can create!). Its through your dedication, patience, and technical expertise that allowed the work to commence and prosper. Without you fellers, there'd be a pittance of work compared to the greatness this project has become. We've come a long way and do sincerely hope to continue our expert correspondence into the future of the product. CutterShane (Original idea and implementation of the Heroes mod) Alex Gnome (Original idea and implementation of the Camera mod) Disclaimer This is to acknowledge that we take no personal responsibility for any hardware damage or data corruption brought forth by the use or installation of this DoW modification. As used, this modification works 'as is' and has been thoroughly tested and should not cause any major problems. In the event, however, that something serious does occur, it is up to the user(s) of their computer(s) to make appropriate backups before any attempt is made to install the following DoW modification. Use at your own risk. Whats In The Package? o Main Installation Package containing the Enhanced DoW AI scripts (contains ONLY those .ai files that our team altered) o Dawn Of Skirmish SS v3.2 dowai.txt (what your reading) o Doc folder containing information how to add your own faction to the AI project. Installation Piece of Cake! Run the executable and it will extract to where your <installed Dawn Of War folder> is. Once installed, run the newly placed shortcut on your desktop 'DOW Skirmish AI v3.2' or from StartMenu/Programs/'Dawn Of War Skirmish AI Mod'. You will know if the modification is running when on the top-left section of the Dawn Of War Main Menu it will display: Dawn Of Skirmish v3.2. To uninstall this modification, go back to StartMenu/Programs/'DOW Skirmish AI Mod' and choose 'Remove Dawn Of Skirmish AI Mod' to remove the modification from Dawn Of War. **NOTE** This version of the AI mod will only work with the Soul Storm Expansion. What's new in Dawn of Skirmish SS AI 3.2? o Map data base which allows improved pathing checks for enemy units (must be activated by choosing the game mod MapDB in the game menu!) Best Soulstorm Modso Eldar fortress map crash should be fixed (Hopefully)o Other fixes and improvements Extended camera zoom modes Optional installation feature which adds two files camera_high.lua and camera_low.lua to the Dowai_modData folder. If you dislike them you can deselect them during installation or just delete them if you already installed them. The default view is almost the same like vanilla therefore you shouldn't notice much difference until you start to zoom in or out. Thanks to Alex Gnome for the original discovery of the camera settings. AI Highspeed Setting Option set in the game mode panel at the setup of a game. People who experience heavy lag and sync problems in multiplayer should try this option. Some AI calculations are simplified or skipped to increase performance. But beware, the AI could be slightly weaker because of that. Heroes Special Mod Option set in the game mode panel at the setup of a game. Activates the Heroes Special mod which is a rework of CutterShanes exceptional Heroes mod, that specializes only on the unit experience system. Have a look at the Heroes Special readme file for further information. There's also a Heroes Special modding document which describes the inclusion and modification of Heroes Special for other mods. Massive Battles Mod Was also part of Cuttershanes original Heroes Mod. Increases the squad and support cap maximum by 50%. Therefore all players can build squads and vehicles up to 30 squad and 30 support cap. (Except Orcs) Fortress Mod Use this if you prefer defensive games with stronger turrets, mines and fortified listening posts. The AI will also build more turrets and mines as in normal games. AI Donation System Option set in the game mode panel at the setup of a game. - All races donate requisition if they own more than 800 - All races demand requisition if they own less than 200 - All races donate power if they own more than 600 (Necrons: more than 1100) - All races demand power if they own less than 200 (Necrons: less than 400) AI Config Panel There are several options you can change for each difficulty level to adjust the AI behaviour to you liking. 1.) Dancing ~~~~~~~~~~~ Dancing is the ability to run away with ranged units if they are attacked in melee. There are three possible settings: a) Off => Dancing is not used at all b) Standard => The AI is restricted to only dance with one unit at a time c) Godlike => The AI will dance with several units at a time if necessary 2.) Attack Delay ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This forces the AI to wait with an attack until a specif time has passed. You can adjust this time in two minute steps from 0 to 20 minutes. 3.) Tech Speed ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With an increased teching speed, the AI will spend its resources more on teching than on building troops. With a decreased teching speed, the AI will spend its resources more on building troops than on teching. 4.) Teching Handicap ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A handicap will slow down the teching of an AI. It will also hoard more resources instead of spending it immediately for units or buildings. You can give allies an handicap or opponents. If you give allies a handicap, all AI's allied with a human player are affected. If you give opponents a handicap, all AI's not allied with a human player are affected. You can use this behavior for example to weaken AI opponents if you don't feel good enough to face them at full strength. Or you want the exact opposite, a real challenge, and weaken your own allies, so you have to do more yourselves. 5.) Allow alternative strategies ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All AI's have 4 different strategies: - A solid all round strategy - A special ranged strategy - A special melee strategy If alternative strategies are activated, the AIs will choose one of those strategies at the start by Dawn Of War Ultimate Apocalypserandom, though the chances of each strategy are influenced by opponent and map size. If deactivated, 6.) Early Harassing ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This allows commanders and combat troops to make an attack at an extremely early state to avoid opposing scout capturing strategic points. If successful, this can severely cripple the opponents resource income and decide the game at a very early state. On the other side, harassing can also lead to a quick sacrifice of troops, which gives the opponent an advantage. Harassing is only possible in the first 4 minutes. 7.) Dynamic Production Buildings ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The AI normally builds more troop production buildings if it has excess resources. This allows often an outproducing of the opponent who can't replace its losses fast enough. Bear in mind that the AI might still build more troop production because of other reasons. IG for example need to build them to increase their squad and support caps. In this case those buildings are normally only built a bit later. This can also hurt the balance between the races since some of them are affected more and others less of it. 8.) Build Relic units ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If deactivated, the AI won't build any Relic units like the Baneblade from the Imperial Guard or the Chaos Bloodthirster. 9.) Build turrets ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If deactivated, the AI won't build any turrets (except Orc Waagh Banners). 10.) Build mines ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If deactivated, the AI won't build any mines. Script Changes (from the original game to what we have today) Available upon request. Comments? Visit us at our home base You can also drop by the official Relicforums here: http://forums.relicnews.com/ Cheers DoW Community and prepare for some serious ownage!
There are lots of strange suns overlooking the oddball planets in the 40K universe, and on Relic’s world, dawn only comes around twice a decade. Each time it’s an event – a different vision of what a Warhammer RTS could be – and ushers in new possibilities. Just imagine what Dawn of War 3 mods could be now, in the age of Steam Workshop.
Read more: the best strategy games on PC.
This time, the series returns to a world where mods can reach larger audiences than ever before. Here’s what we hope to see land in our download folders, like drop pods on an alien battlefield.
A rulebook’s worth of extra Space Marine chapters
Dawn of War 3 will launch with just three factions: Space Marines, Eldar and Orks. Relic have sensibly picked the most-played races of previous games to begin with, but left the weirder and wilder corners of Games Workshop’s fiction unexplored.
While the Imperial Guard, Chaos et al will surely follow in expansions, just as they did in Dawn of Wars past, Relic are likely to leave the many and varied Space Marine chapters of the tabletop game alone (in fact they invented their own, the Blood Ravens, rather than deal with existing lore). That means modders are free to do as they wish with the likes of the ever-popular Space Wolves – basically the Imperium’s Stark family, down to the furs – and the hot pink heretical hedonists in the Angels of Ecstasy.
Skirmish-level combat in the style of Dawn of War II
Relic have re-embraced the screen-filling approach of the original Dawn of War for the new sequel. The series is once again centered on massive armies fed by the constant churn of nearby bases. But Dawn of War II offered an alternate take that was just as good: a smaller-scale game about creeping between cover that was more reminiscent of Company of Heroes than StarCraft.
It’s up to modders now to pull that version of the game into the modern world – to refocus Dawn of War around tiny squads of persistent characters. It’s far more satisfying to watch jetpacked assault marines crash-land into their enemies when they’re in close-up, after all.
A stomp back in time to Warhammer 30,000
There’s a period in the 40K universe – a long time ago, in galaxies far, far away – that’s arguably more compelling than the one the tabletop game concerns. The 31st millennium saw the birth of the Chaos marines, in a vast civil war that set man against man and claimed 2.3 trillion lives – according to the records of the Black Library, at least.
This was Warhammer’s Paradise Lost: a tragic battle between angels and an intensely personal struggle for the Emperor of Mankind, then a towering hero rather than a rotting god-king in a chair, against Horus, the Warmaster he had trusted like a son. Could you ask for more potent material to turn into a fan-made campaign?
Mad Orks: Fury Road
There are two post-apocalyptic reference points that feed into all of Games Workshop’s future fiction: Judge Dredd, and Mad Max. When the latter returned in last year’s Fury Road, the resemblance of George Miller’s frenzied speed freaks to Warhammer’s own orks was uncanny. The rolling, ramshackle convoy stirred up to chase down Furiosa was a WAAAGH! in everything but name.
Replace Relic’s greenskin warboss with patriarchal tyrant Immortan Joe, and the ork war boyz with, well, the war boys, and you’re halfway to finishing what will surely be the top skin-swap on the Dawn of War III Nexus.
A point system for armies
Dawn of War III multiplayer needn’t look like the MOBAs. Instead, imagine pitched fights directed by players with perfectly matched but hugely divergent forces.
Tabletop Warhammer players have long known the joy of totting up a 1,000 point army in their heads, before overpowering and outmaneuvering an equally-strong enemy. In fact, one of the chief complaints about Games Workshop’s newest ruleset, Age of Sigmar, stemmed simply from the fact that it launched without a point system.
In this dream mod, base-building would be out of the question. You’d feel the cost of a lost unit all the more keenly, knowing that you couldn’t simply barf out another.
Blood for the blood god
Relic’s final slice of Dawn of War II DLC was a gore mod that turned up the frequency and scale of blood effects, leaving nice, white Eldar uniforms covered in the claret exploding from their comrades. Such was its gratuity that the developers warned it made battles “hard to see”.
Basically, this needs to happen again in Dawn of War III. Make it so, modders. Do it for Khorne, the Chaos god of war, murder and senseless destruction. Do it for the lord of rage, sat on his skull throne. Blood mods, for the blood god! And maybe also a free camera mode. Ta.
That’s our brains emptied out onto the page – is there anything else you’d particularly like to see the Dawn of War community turn their tools to? Do tell in the comments.
Dawn of War 2 modsIn the months leading up to the release of Dawn of War 2, statements from Relic Entertainment caused many to believe that the game would be unmoddable. This was proven to not be the case, as the first Dawn of War 2 mods were released during the game’s open beta within a few days. Since that time, Relic has provided a map editor to allow players to create custom maps and a number of fans have created tools which allow other types of modding to be possible as well. Members of the modding community share their tools and creations in forums such as the official Relic community forums and fan sites such as the RelicNews forums as well. Jeff Lydell, project lead for Dawn of War 2, has stated in interviews that the development team knows that modding is important to fans of the game and that they are looking at ways to allow for easier mod creation and integration. He also mentioned that the development team was looking at the tools that the modding community has already made so that future Relic tools would complement existing community tools instead of overlapping them in function. Dawn of War 2 mods – Community-Made ToolsThe Dawn of War 2 online fan community has been dedicated to creating tools which allow for the creation of Dawn of War 2 mods. Tools such as 'Cope’s Whatever Tool' by Copernicus let users easily change game attributes and offers the option for users to create their own add-ons to expand this functionality. 'Santos’ Tools 2' by Santos expand on the functions of the original Santos’ Tools for Dawn of War, letting users import unit models into 3DS Max and export new and changed models into the game. Other community tools have been created to make packing Dawn of War 2 mods into game archives easier, loading user maps into the game, and editing in-game text without having to make the changes to the appropriate files by hand. Gameplay and Unit ModsDawn of War 2 mods have been created for both the singleplayer and multiplayer portions of the game, adjusting unit stats, weapons, and even the units that are available in the game. Mods have even been made for the DLC game mode 'The Last Stand', editing the heroes, wargear, and enemy waves in various ways. Some Dawn of War 2 mods are group projects for balance testing or tournament purposes, while others have been the vision of a single creator who wants to play the game in certain ways. In addition to making simple changes to wargear and unit stats, some mods such as 'Dawn of Warhammer 40k 2: Warpstorm over Aurelia' by HorusHeretic and Mirage Knight seek to add a variety of new units to the game from 40k races that have not yet been introduced in Dawn of War 2. Other mods like 'Men of the 89th' by Eihger take assets that already exist in-game and use them to great effect to drastically alter the singleplayer campaign. Community MapsThough community maps don’t get as much attention as some of the more high-profile Dawn of War 2 mods, they represent an integral part of the modding community. Since the WorldBuilder map creation tool is included with the game, mapping is one of the most accessible types of modding for the game. Numerous users have created maps for others to play, including maps for the 'Free for All' multiplayer mode introduced with the release of the Chaos Rising expansion. Map packs have been created as well, allowing players to add several maps to their game at once to increase their map options. Maps such as 'Koth' by LondonDuncan provide players with new 'Free for All' options, while maps like 'Ozymandias' by Ira Aduro and 'Sunrise in the Hive' by Brcasius let players experience AI skirmishes and multiplayer battles on new terrain. Custom TailoredOne of my favorite parts of computer games is what happens when you become bored with a game. Let's face it – even your favorite game can become boring after you've played it for hours on end. With a PC game, however, that isn't nessicarily the end of the game's life. If the game is popular, you can often download mods that change it significantly, breathing new life into your old favorite. Dawn of War 2 is a very popular game indeed, so it's no surprise there are some great mods out there for it. I messed around with a number of them and picked out the best so you know what to download. Ultimate ApocalypsePart of Dawn of War 2's appeal is the sheer spectacle of it all. Big, tough guys with big weapons are shooting big mechs and big aliens. When people or aliens die, they die in big bursts of glory with big chunks of blood and guts flying everywhere. It's like a monster truck doing a backflip; absurd, completely unnessecary, and totally awesome. Ultimate Apocolypse simply turns it up to 11. You'll find new units in this mod, spanning even more technology tiers. You'll also find new structures, that can deliver incredible destruction. Why settle for blowing up just one screens worth of terrain when you can blow up four, right? Finally, the army sizes are dramatically increased, so you'll be fielding way more units than in the normal game. If you are looking for some sort of challenge or balance, this isn't going to be great mod for you. This is simply an 11-year old's fantasy lived large. But there's nothing wrong with that; the Total Annihilation franchise had some great games based on that and little more. Space Hulk ModSpace Hulk is a board game in the Warhammer 40k universe that centers on the adventures of a group of Space Marines who have to investigate a 'Space Hulk' – a giant ball of junk floating through Imperium space. These hulks often contain information or technology of great age and value, but as you might expect, they also often contain nasty aliens that must be eliminated. Those aliens are actually played by another player, who tries to stop the Space Marines. The Space Hulk mod essentially replicates the board game within the Dawn of War 2 engine. There are a number of Terminators in the Space Marine squad, and a second player can play the role of the aliens (called Genestealers). It's competitive game, but not in the way of Dawn of War 2's normal multiplayer. Finding a match by yourself can be hard, but if you have a friend with Dawn of War 2, playing with them results in a very unique experience. Finding MoreThese two mods should provide you with hours of additional fun from Dawn of War 2. But what if you want more? Lots of projects, in various stages, are available on the Relic News forums. You can also find a map editor there, so you can make your own new maps for the game. Finishing Dawn of War 2 is not the end – it's only the beginning! Comments are closed.
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |