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The other thread got dragged off topic and locked I think-- either way, I searched for it about five pages back in the thread list, and couldn't find it. It has been a month since any serious news on the game after all.

So here's a new thread for the latest Dawn of War 2 expansion pack: Retribution.

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http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/09/15/relic-ditch-games-for-windows-live-for-steam/

Steamworks networking and matchmaking to provide co-operative and competitive online play. This new back end will allow players to invite friends into matches from their Steam friends lists, and take advantage of the full set of Steam community features including groups, achievements, and Steam overlay chat channels. We are also going to include an all new matchmaking and ranking set up, built specifically for Dawn of War II – Retribution.

“The move to Steamworks will also allow us to provide features like guest passes, free multiplayer weekends, pre-loading and the ability to provide fast turn-around on future patches and updates.

“To accomplish this transition, Dawn of War II – Retribution will be a completely stand alone title in the series and will provide multiple campaigns to play, as well as all six multiplayer races, with new units for each of the existing five races and one new unannounced one. In a change from our previous strategies with expansion packs, we will not be patching this content back into Dawn of War II and Chaos Rising.

“Owners of Dawn of War II and Chaos Rising will get the chance to try out the full set of Retribution’s Steam features in a multiplayer beta that will take place in the new year. More details on the beta will be announced at a later date.

“Dawn of War II and Chaos Rising will continue to operate on Games for Windows LIVE, in order to preserve the owners of those titles ability to earn LIVE achievements as well as their established friends lists.

“We are going to have more exciting announcements in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.”

On Retribution's multiplayer beta: All DoW2 and DoW2CR owners will be able to participate. It'll take place around the new year.

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[more stuff here later]

So, let me get this straight. Basically anyone who owns DoW2 or DoW2CR won't be able to play online with players from retribution? That's the idea which i'm getting from that. But anyways, we're getting a new race, which will be fun as always

I think so, yes. They found that players complained about having to have both Games For Windows Live AND steam installed and logged in just in order to play even offline mode was a real turn-off. So they settled with Steam instead, as Steam has made some serious leaps and bounds since DoW2 was first developed.

Seems to imply not every race will have a campaign.

Here is to hoping the Tyranids will.

I enjoy Steam, just used to get the new Worms game last week.

I'd love to see Tau as the next race, and at least one new hero in Last Stand.

From what I can tell, all six races will have a campaign. Which means:

Orks
Space Marines
Eldar
Chaos Space Marines
Tyranids
The unknown new faction.

But I could be wrong.

Melissia wrote:Dawn of War II – Retribution will be a completely stand alone title in the series and will provide multiple campaigns to play,as well as all six multiplayer races,

Cynically I do not read that as the intention to have a campaign for all six races.

I really hope to be wrong though.

Yeah, I took the optimistic interpretation rather than the literal ones.

Relic is an awesome company, after all, so I'm hoping for the best (compared to GW, where I have low expectations so I'm rarely disappointed).

I do really hope the Imperial Guard make it into Dawn of War II....I mean, they need to be there. I'm hoping they'll get to be the new race, and it makes sense to me. The IG is a bit more central to the whole 40k universe than the Tau, and the other key races are already in the game.

So here's hoping we'll be able to spew endless waves of infantry at the enemy next time, in Dawn of War II !

Well it's possible. Orks and Tyranids are in, and both of those have equal or greater numbers than Guardsmen in many battles. And Eldar focuses on Guardians, which aren't that much better than Guardsman either. So it can't really be accurately said Guardsmen wouldn't fit in. Besides, there's always veterans, penal legionnaires, and stormtroopers to supplement them, and plenty of special weapons to choose from.

I would think it strange to leave only one imperial force represented.

Though it is an interesting change from table top.

Well i'd wager IG make it in cuz they'll be the most common adversary encountered in that Ork campaing we're pretty much guaranteed to get.

I really need to get my PC upgraded.. played DOW 1 and all the expansions but my PC wasn't good enough for DOW2 :(

To me, this game is a lost cause. The origional was better and captured the aspect of war far better than dawn of war skirmish fighter.

Now, should they implement a system a la risk style campaign, I might get back into it. Oh and if the new race is any of the following: Imperial guard, anything space marine related; then I shall never think well of this installment again.

However as it stands, the multiplayer is still is broken as all hell.

Ofcourse its broken and unbalanced, its based on a GW game afer all

I loved dawn of war. But dawn of war 2 is rubbish. No buildings?? What were they thinking???

They where thinkin CoH in 40k was gonna sell well.

I figured they were thinking "People don't build bases in 40k either--its just part of the terrain" and I appriciate it.

I don't play it. Not that it isn't fun, but I H A T E Windows Live. Thank Bork it's only going to be Steam...even though I wish it was retroactive :/

COMMANDER SUNTZU wrote:I loved dawn of war. But dawn of war 2 is rubbish. No buildings?? What were they thinking???

They were thinking "Building buildings isn't what makes 40k."

They were thinking "watching a Space Marine captain be brutally eviscerated by a Warboss is what makes 40k." so they added in more sync kills with better animations, sounds, and voice acting. The voice acting in Essence Engine games are of unheard of quality AND quantity in the RTS genre. Huge varieties of clips for all factions, and not just responses to orders either, but even idle chatting or combat chatter-- all of which are coded to be situationally appropriate (I recall hearing some Orks saying "get those orks in da ruins to da left!" against an Ork enemy who were, guess what, hiding in some cover-- things like this are awesome and incredibly immersive). The battles themselves are fierce and brutal affairs, which brings its own tactical difficulties... but also rewards.

They were thinking "making a tactical squad mow down Tyranids from cover is what makes 40k." so they focused on better squad based combat, better squad AI, and better cover mechanics. The squad AI in DoW2 is the best in the RTS business, and the game is far more immersive for it. The cover mechanics of DoW2/CoH are intuitive and easy to grasp, while being quite useful in actual practice as well as theory.

They were thinking "buildings aren't necessary to what makes 40k cool, the units are" so they focused on making the units that were put in cool, useful, and so on. The upgradeable, three-tiered HQ is more justified as the commander asking for more advanced resources and units, rather than as a physical upgrade, which makes more sense from a fluff perspective than two forces building huge military-industrial complexes less than a mile from eachother (instead they utilize makeshift teleporters, drop pod landing sites, webway gates, etc).

They were thinking "Okay, DoW1 was good... now let's go make a BETTER game". Personally, I think they were wildly successful. DoW1 pales in comparison to DoW2 in almost every way, the only way DoW1 can even attempt to be better is by its claim of having more factions available to play than DoW2.


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HoverBoy wrote:They where thinkin CoH in 40k was gonna sell well.

If this was indeed waht they were thinking... they were right. DoW2 was commercially successful (I mean duh, if it wasn't we wouldn't be seeing Retribution right now).

They where right indeed DOW 2 is the superior game IMO.

Well, GFWL was a bad platform, mostly because it made the patching process slow. I am looking forward to free weekends, guest passes and the like, will make more players join the game for sure.

Exactly...I mean, as much as I enjoyed Dawn of War 1, it's not 40k enough. I mean...as long as DoW 2 runs effectively on my comp I will enjoy it more. I just don't like playing Space Marine's as much....if I can get IG in there? I would love it beyond anything else.

Juraigamer: What race do you want? Dark Eldar? Tau? Sisters? As awesome as all those are, you can do a 40k game without them. They aren't core races. The IG is one of the key races that has yet to be in the game.

As to those who complain that you can't build buildings....do you build buildings in 40k? I mean yes there are bastions, but you don't gather resources to spend on buildings and stuff, and neither do real world militaries, which is kinda what 40k is a simulation of.

Melissia wrote:They were thinking "Building buildings isn't what makes 40k."

They were thinking "making a tactical squad mow down Tyranids from cover is what makes 40k."

They were thinking "buildings aren't necessary to what makes 40k cool, the units are."

They were thinking "Okay, DoW1 was good... now let's go make a BETTER game".

Well, this is unusual. I find myself vehemently agreeing with you for once. Well played, madam.

While I'd like IG to be the new race, I can't seem them working in well in such a small-scale game, unless they seriously brake the factional mold. IG have a far greater reliance on vehicles and large, expendable infantry formations than the other factions. I'm not entirely sure how many units the engine or the format can support per player, but they'd certainly need many more than any other faction, I'd think. That said, if they can figure it out, I'd love them to include Gaurd. Especially so if it's a specialized regiment (instead of Cadians, again) such as the Elysians, which would actually make alot of sense in a game that invloves small scale surgical strikes. Add in the fact that they can easily reinforce their infantry formations (via being to grav chute in new squad members) anywhere on the map and you've got an interesting and logical new game play mechanic.

That said, I'd be equally happy with Tau, especially if I can rock a few Crisis Suits.

Funny thing is, the Cadians do actually have Drop Regiments, so...

Bwhahahaha, Elysians! My Cadians steal the spotlight again!

Melissia wrote:I think so, yes. They found that players complained about having to have both Games For Windows Live AND steam installed and logged in just in order to play even offline mode was a real turn-off. So they settled with Steam instead, as Steam has made some serious leaps and bounds since DoW2 was first developed.

What exactly about Steam has "improved" in the last 1.5 years? Unless you're considering the difficult to navigate, slowly peforming UI "enhancement" that was released, which added, so far as I know, zero new functionality.

Not that I'm complaining about Steam, which is pretty solid. Just curious what "improved".

So far as the plague that was GFWL, good riddance. It should never have shipped with both, and how GFWL survives in a world with Impulse and Steam is a mystery.


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Melissia wrote: DoW1 pales in comparison to DoW2 in almost every way, the only way DoW1 can even attempt to be better is by its claim of having more factions available to play than DoW2.

Except in all the ways that matter, I guess you're right. Specifically, and discounting Soulstorm, DOW1 had a better campaign, better writing, better voice acting, higher aggregate reviews, and of course, more Necrons.

Well, CoH has managed to show that they can render masses of infantry and several massive tanks, and still look awesome. Even if they include the IG, Relic has shown they aren't afraid to develop completely new faction systems for factions they have to. E.g. the Necrons in DoW1.

The Orks also show that a horde works in DoW2, and Ive got a few ideas for units....they could maybe make the Leman Russ a thing you can buy upgrades for? Like you get a LRB, and can change the turret and stuff? But ignore this part.....just me going off a bit.

I loved DOW1, especially Winter Assualt, great story and the first time I saw the cron's I was all shapes of excited.

I'd like a Tau focused campaign, personally and crisis suits that are actually agile, instead of elite FW rawking all.

Great news. GFWL smells. Given a choice between the two I'd vote Steam every time. Having to use both Steam and GFWL was ridiculous. Honestly why did they think someone would enjoy signing on to two services before being able to play a match. It's annoys me everytime I boot of DoW2. This will be a big improvement in my eyes.

I still play both DoW1 and Dow2. They are very different games IMO, and are both fun in their own way. I couldn't be more excited about the possibility of a new ork campaign.

The game logo guarantees an Inquisition presence. Main question is who and how.