Veteran Inquisitorial Tyranid Xenokiller
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As the title suggests, this thread isn't meant to get your hopes up by any means, we are not likely to see any 40k MMO any time soon.
However, I do like to ask the question - what would you like to see in your 40k MMO if it ever happened? Funding are and technology is irrelevant anything is possible here.
I once wrote a lengthy list of dozens of ideas about what I wanted to see in the failed state of Dark Millennium boiled down they were:
1. An engine crossing the mechanics of Planetside/WAR and Battlefield (4)/Red Faction Guerrilla: Persistent massive world set in a FPS, terrain specific weather, incredible graphics with blockbuster game play, major "RvR" objectives centered in fully destructible / collapsible scenery, vehicles, aircraft, with aquatic and space navy detachments and the capability of playing with hundreds of people at once.
2. RPG levels of customization; will define your role in combat and how you look, but will not give you stat bonuses- No loot drops, gear and rank is awarded through the same type of grind as Battlefield with two exceptions:
- Exploration of the the world grants a great deal of experience, and there would be many secret zones and easter eggs for players to find - some such as ancient reliquaries, holy/desecrated crypts, an active Chaos Coven, or lost xenos technology caches) would be the only way to discover that particular item/ability, like a Digi-Pistol, a Kai Gun, the ability to manifest Doombolts, or an Ardent Blade of a Hieromartyr.
- The achievement of specific commands from your faction - taking a fortress, holding a trench, breaching a hive city wall, ect.
3. A game set for expansion. This more specifically means that at launch I would expect to see only two factions: A Holy Crusade of the Imperium of Man, and the forces of Chaos. Ideally, I would like to see only the IG, Ad Mech, and the SoB acting against Chaos Renegade Guard, Heretech's and Witches. The game would be very well balanced, true to lore and set for great story telling along the way.
4. Expansions means bigger is better: The first expansion would call for the addition of Space Marines from both sides, an expansion of the war to the entire planet. Space Marines would be a class available to those who have achieved a certain rank and would be almost exactly as they are in the actual game Space Marine (and therefore OP), but could only be deployed in certain areas (where the fighting is thickest - ensuring that either: a SM is fighting other SM or MEQ (see below), or a large enough detachment of IG/RIG to be a balanced fight. As a rule we could argue that 12 players playing anything less than a MEQ would equal a SM, or one player in a tank = a SM. SM's who run away from a fight (presumably to grief new players acting on their own, hiding, taking guerrilla action or scouting the wilderness) are immediately reverted back to their default class.
Most people would likely complain that everyone would always want to be 7 foot armor plated behemoths with your own set of weapons, gear and vehicles but, there are many benefits to not being a SM. You are smaller and may not be able to charge through cover, but benefit from it much better than MEQ's. Also, you may be able to crawl or scramble through spaces SM's cannot. At higher levels, you can earn camo cloaks making it much harder to spot you. Your load out as a soldier includes defensive mines, so unless you are Roflstomped by a Drop Pod or Assault Marine falling from the sky, a MEQ would be foolish to assault you through a wall covered by them. Oh, and you can also pilot the vast majority of vehicles of your faction. SM players cannot. This first expansion would also have the addition of the Eldar and Orks (as their own independent factions) raising the faction total to 4.
5. MEQ's for each army would be: IoM: IG - None, SoB - Players who have achieved the rank of Celestian or higher, Ad Mech Skitarri - Pretorians, SM's.
Chaos: RIG - None, Witches - Delta Grade Pysker or higher, Heretech's: Pretorian equvilent, CSM's
Orks: Nobs.
Eldar: Warlocks.
TBA in second and third expansions: DE and Tau. Necrons and Tyranids will not be playable (see reason 10 for info.)
6. Rank Achievement can be carried to any faction you wish. Getting the gear and abilities associated with unlocked rank will still require some achievement in that class.
7. Cross console play between all futuregen consoles.
8. Each class comes with it's own gear and abilities. Take for example the SM, conveniently divided into three classes: Assault, Tactical, and Devestator. If you enter combat as a SM, you can pick one of these roles and may switch out equipment at any time. (you can drop a Heavy Bolter for a fallen Brother's Bolter) but you will retain your class specific skills until you are out of combat. You can have up to 4 skills at a time, each take up an equipment slot and are accessed either on a keybinding on a keyboard or the direction pads of a console controller. Pyskers may take an additional ability in place of weapons, up to three, total of seven, if they wish to go unarmed (but far from defenseless!) into combat.
All players may carry up to three weapons - Main, secondary, and Melee.
9. Abilities range from: Activated equipment: Glowlamps and targeters on the end of weapons, Vox to Artillery Command, Combat Stims, grenades, mines, HUD linked aspex scanner, gas masks, portable mortar, homing beacon, ect.
Psychic: (All abilities have a significant chance of damaging your health!): Doombolt Barrage's: (Pelt's any enemy in sight in a 60ft range with a twisting salvo of Warp energy - most will miss causing devastation around the target) Light of the Emperor: Blinds all enemies within a ten foot radius of you for an instant. Hammerhand: Your next melee attack will cause instant death.
Persistant: All marks of Chaos, Red weaponry or gear for Orks, Sarrissa: Successful Melee Attacks that do not kill an enemy cause enemies to bleed a % of their max health. Stacks with every consecutive hit.
To reiterate, this is much more a FPS / Thirdperson shooter than a full blown RPG. The line is blurry, but my final point will hopefully clarify what exactly the perfect 40k MMO would look like to me.
10. Up and Out.
There's a reason why I want to see a 40k MMO not come out in the next five years, but perhaps in the next ten. This is why.
AI in this game needs to be tactically advanced, a breathing machine between hundreds of well supported servers because in addition to hundreds of thousands of players, the AI will be controlling the minds of perhaps millions of AI soldiers fighting alongside you in the endless war. No where will this be more prevalent than in the awakening Necron race, where the AI will be designed to adapt and destroy you as the player. Unlike in WoW, WAR, or most MMORPG's, NPC's in this game are not passively standing in the endless fields of pasture awaiting slaughter. These NPC's are organizing, scheming unfathomable alien schemes. Exploiting weaknesses in their sleepless hunger to destroy all life. Worst of all, they evolve, they learn from their mistakes. What tactic may have killed a handful of Tyranids before may only kill a few or none at all next time. Lay mines on a wall, waiting for a Carnifex to breech it? Watch as hormagaunts and ripper swarms sacrifice themselves only for you to stand before the might of the leviathan charging behind them. But if you survive, if you aspire to lead your friends and comrades or simply survive long enough, you may find yourself in officer training, staring down upon besieged worlds on a battlecruiser. Your commands will lead championing friends on the ground towards bolder objectives, and the rewards for your faith will be the strength of your faction. As a commander, you can deploy entire armies of NPC's alongside players, call upon death incarnate from whole space faring armada's and carve an Empire among the stars in the name of those who empower you.
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