Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello everybody. Today i come with an interesting question which warhamer could best fit and model the protoss race from starcraft. At first i thought tau but realized the fluff where opposites. A young and expanding race which are the tau. While the protoss are a old and dieing race. maybe eldar?? Up to you fellow dakka memebers

Protoss look more like tau. They implement advanced technology like tau. But their honor system and culture is more like Eldar. So I guess they are a mix of both.
Zerg is Tyranid.
Terran is Space Marines.

An interesting connection is in Starcraft the Xel'Naga created the Zerg and the Protoss. In Warhammer the Old Ones created the Eldar and the Orks.

I don't think this fits under 40k 'General Discussion'

Eldar=Protoss. The makers of Warcraft and Starcraft were unabashed WHFB and 40k fans. The Video and Tabletop games are more than loosely linked. The Protoss Carrier closely resenbles artwork from that period of an Eldar Craftworld.

Shame on blizzard. '-_-

They also have some of the WORST plots for their games.

Starcraft: A good guy becomes evil (Kerrigan)

Warcraft 3: A good guy becomes evil (Arthas)

Diablo: A good guy becomes evil (the main character)

Eldar = Protoss (Few but Powerful)
Tyranids = Zerg (Without number)
Imperium = Terran (People)

Also, Eldar, Tyranids, and the Imperium would feth up their Starcraft counterparts.

The reason they're so similar is because they're basicity the same. For people who havnt heard GW originally commissioned Blizzard (which had a different name back then) to make a WHF game. About halfway through development GW withdrew the rights, leaving Blizzard with a half finished game, which was quickly re-named "Warcraft". The reason Starcraft II was so long coming was apparently due to a legal battle between GW and blizzard.

vodo40k wrote:The reason they're so similar is because they're basicity the same. For people who havnt heard GW originally commissioned Blizzard (which had a different name back then) to make a WHF game. About halfway through development GW withdrew the rights, leaving Blizzard with a half finished game, which was quickly re-named "Warcraft". The reason Starcraft II was so long coming was apparently due to a legal battle between GW and blizzard.

Wow... I'm actually gonna look this up. There's legal issues even in starcraft 2??

I don't see how there could have been legitimate legal issues between GW and SCII.

None of the models, including the Terran Marine, look even vaguely similar. Even the 'specs' on the weapons are nowhere close to the same.

vodo40k wrote:The reason they're so similar is because they're basicity the same. For people who havnt heard GW originally commissioned Blizzard (which had a different name back then) to make a WHF game. About halfway through development GW withdrew the rights, leaving Blizzard with a half finished game, which was quickly re-named "Warcraft". The reason Starcraft II was so long coming was apparently due to a legal battle between GW and blizzard.

There was no commissioning of Blizzard. This is pure, unabashed Blizzard fanboyism and plain wrong.

GW already had licensing deals with the then "Big Name" in strategy games, existing from their relationships for 40k games, in the form of Mindscape/SSI.

sourclams wrote:I don't see how there could have been legitimate legal issues between GW and SCII.

None of the models, including the Terran Marine, look even vaguely similar. Even the 'specs' on the weapons are nowhere close to the same.

Take what I say with a pinch of salt, the legal battle part was only a rumor.

moarmoarmoar wrote:

vodo40k wrote:The reason they're so similar is because they're basicity the same. For people who havnt heard GW originally commissioned Blizzard (which had a different name back then) to make a WHF game. About halfway through development GW withdrew the rights, leaving Blizzard with a half finished game, which was quickly re-named "Warcraft". The reason Starcraft II was so long coming was apparently due to a legal battle between GW and blizzard.

Wow... I'm actually gonna look this up. There's legal issues even in starcraft 2??

It is this thread again. Yay, it must be Monday!

vodo40k wrote:

sourclams wrote:I don't see how there could have been legitimate legal issues between GW and SCII.

None of the models, including the Terran Marine, look even vaguely similar. Even the 'specs' on the weapons are nowhere close to the same.

Take what I say with a pinch of salt, the legal battle part was only a rumor.

Plus it's plain wrong, so we'll just ignore what you said.

sourclams wrote:I don't see how there could have been legitimate legal issues between GW and SCII.

None of the models, including the Terran Marine, look even vaguely similar. Even the 'specs' on the weapons are nowhere close to the same.

SCII? No. I have no idea where that came from, as the "legal issues" are far over (at least from my understanding of what happened between the two companies).

As for them looking similar...

Warhammer came before Warcraft. Warhammer 40k came before Starcraft.

Imperium SM = Terran SM. The only difference is that one's strenght comes from their body and the other's from their armor. Guess which one is which.

Prottos are a mix of Eldar and Tau. Some are more Eldar than Tau, though.

Zerg are Nids. Nuff said.

nectarprime wrote:As for them looking similar...

The funny thing is that the new Tyranid design is a case where Blizzard could sue Games Workshop.

But honestly, both companies have blatantly stolen just about everything from their "IP" from other franchises, so I don't think there is a big interest by them to open up this can of worms.

Also, if you were going to compare something to a hydralisk, wouldn't you use a ravener? -.-

There's a lot of little references scattered around Blizzard games to GW games. For instance, in Warcraft III one of the dwarven hero types said something along the lines of "This warhammer cost me 40k!" and the like. There's borrowing back and forth, as has been stated with the Tyranids. Tyranids that came out after Starcraft have quite a bit of influence from Starcraft.

Funnily enough, former GW rules writer and Professional Cool Guy Andy Chambers works for Blizzard now. He wrote much of Starcraft II, and considering how much experience he has writing pulpy sci-fi for GW, I say it fits.

nectarprime wrote:
As for them looking similar...

Beyond two white dudes in powered armor, I would still say that they look nothing alike. Powered armor is powered armor, it's going to have broad similarities and it's going to be impossible to copyright as a theme, just as a copyright for 'Gundams' couldn't be said to infringe upon 'Transformers'.

The things that make powered armor 'distinct', however, are where I see the comparison basically fail between 40k and SC. The helmets, for example; SC Terrans have a retractable fishbowl-faceplate built into the cowling of their torso armor. SMs have a distinct 'helmet' with equally distinct features, somewhat reminiscent of Darth Vader. The styling of the shoulderpads and iconography are also dramatically different. Then you have the armor's 'fitting'; SC Terrans are more like pilots inside of an exosuit; their hands are located somewhere in the armor's forearms and remotely control the armor's 'hands'. Marines wear their armor like a bodysuit; fingers inside the gauntlet fingers, etc. Terrans have no backpack, Marines do. Etc. etc.

I had completely forgotten about the Ravener, though. The Ravener-Hydralisk comparison could probably be made to a much greater degree than Marines-SMs.

COMPARE A WARP-SPIDER EXARCH (like from dawn of war 2 with the 2 wrist blades) to a zealot. Compare a ravener to a hydralisk. But for marines there is a difference, mostly in the helmet.


In my honest opinion I think the marines from starcraft look A LOT cooler than space marines, but this is coming from a Terran master leaguer

I don't think you can make a comparison between a Warp Spider and a zealot. The zealot is open-faced and partially armored with a personal shield, two energy blades and no guns. The Warp spider is completely armored, and so heavily so that he looks like an inverted triangle. No flesh showing, including full face helm, and two shoulder-mounted guns. No shield, no energy blades.

Belexar wrote:Warhammer came before Warcraft. Warhammer 40k came before Starcraft.

Imperium SM = Terran SM. The only difference is that one's strenght comes from their body and the other's from their armor. Guess which one is which.

Prottos are a mix of Eldar and Tau. Some are more Eldar than Tau, though.

Zerg are Nids. Nuff said.

I call Bunk on you
Protoss are just Eldar, tau weren't even released when Starcraft came out.
Just because they are blue doesn't make them Tau.
Protoss and Dark Protoss are pretty clearly Elves in Space(Eldar)

If the rumors of legal tension between Blizzard and GW is true Blizzards basic argument is Humans in power armor fighting bugs predates GW and 40k. John Stackpole Robert heinlien among others should sue GW for IP infringement.

Science fiction has always been an amalgamation of every bit of history and fiction, science or not, preceding it. For example, Star Wars is absolutely loaded with characters taken from sci fi comics, archetypes from swashbuckling pirate movies and WW2. Hell, it's got magic psychic samurai in it. Saying lawsuits should get thrown around isn't really a worthwhile discussion.

Now a race like the Protoss in 40k would be cool. I don't mean in an aesthetic sense (although I love the look of Starcraft) but in a gameplay sense. A highly advanced, low model count, durable army that's tougher than Marines, but specialized as Eldar would be very cool. Sort of like an Ogre Kingdoms equivalent, come to think of it.

I wasn't really arguing for sueing. More an argument towards the absurd. Like if Starbucks tried to sue McDonalds for servig coffee.

hate to tell you this but just about everything in rogue trader was lifted from a TT game called Laserburn by Brian Ansell. Neither companies are original in any fashion, neither is laserburn borrowing heavily from scfi books, And those books weren't original either! get the picture?

Bryan Ansell is a British role-playing and war game designer. He founded Asgard Miniatures before creating Citadel Miniatures in the late 1970s. Around 1982 - 83, he became Managing Director of Games Workshop, and bought Games Workshop from Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.

My God! He ripped off himself!

Kanluwen wrote:

Bryan Ansell is a British role-playing and war game designer. He founded Asgard Miniatures before creating Citadel Miniatures in the late 1970s. Around 1982 - 83, he became Managing Director of Games Workshop, and bought Games Workshop from Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone.

My God! He ripped off himself!

i said lifted, and went on to say not original then either. context is great ain't it

Underachiever wrote:hate to tell you this but just about everything in rogue trader was lifted from a TT game called Laserburn by Brian Ansell. Neither companies are original in any fashion, neither is laserburn borrowing heavily from scfi books, And those books weren't original either! get the picture?

This is your exact statement.

Your implication is that GW lifted everything from Laserburn by Bryan Ansell. Since Ansell is one of the individuals who worked on Rogue Trader, and his "Imperial Commander"(1981) is what had a major impact on the work he did for 40k, it's not "lifting".

It could be beneficial for both companies to make an RTS where Terran, Protoss, and Eldar could fight against SM, IG, Eldar, and Tyranids.

Kanluwen wrote:

Underachiever wrote:hate to tell you this but just about everything in rogue trader was lifted from a TT game called Laserburn by Brian Ansell. Neither companies are original in any fashion, neither is laserburn borrowing heavily from scfi books, And those books weren't original either! get the picture?

This is your exact statement.

Your implication is that GW lifted everything from Laserburn by Bryan Ansell. Since Ansell is one of the individuals who worked on Rogue Trader, and his "Imperial Commander"(1981) is what had a major impact on the work he did for 40k, it's not "lifting".

It's not original work it's continued/lifted from his previous work. Is Mr systematic happy now?

Nope, not happy.

If you're going to insult me and then imply that I quoted you out of context to make you "wrong", at least be aware enough to realize that your post "in the context" of this thread implies that GW stole the material from Ansell, not Ansell(who worked in development at GW early on) using his earlier work to further influence his next project.

Any idiot is well aware that GW uses material from anywhere/everywhere for "inspiration". Any idiot is also well aware that GW has gone out of its way in many cases to make that "inspiration" into something meshing with their setting.