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The playable races which are Space Marine, Imperial Guards, Chaos Space Marine, Eldar, Orks, and Tau are fighting in a random Sector somewhere in the galaxy. All of a sudden, the Dyson Sphere of the Outsider passes by. The Outsider calls out to the races, inviting them all inside. In the later parts of the game, the races would fight on the surface of the Dyson Sphere to try and gain a solid foothold on the Sphere before entering. There will be a small crack, allowing the winning army to enter.

All race are playable and the story is different depending on which race you choose, kinda like Retribution.
The Goals of each race'
Space Marine - This chapter wants to go inside to plant the bombs and destroy the Outsider and the Sphere.
Eldar - The Eldar wants to go in and trick the Outsider, making the sphere head towards Imperium space instead of a nearby craftworld.
Orks - They just want something powerful to fight.
Imperial Guards - Also wants to do the same thing the marines are doing but in a different way.
Chaos Space Marine - Wants to steal the power of the Outsider.
Tau - Wants the Outsider to join the Greater Good.

Final Boss - The Outsider.

No.

 Psienesis wrote:
No.

Constructive

It would require far more effort than I am willing to expend to explain why this is a) not a cool idea, b) not in keeping with the fluff or story of the setting, and c) a terrible design plan for an RTS game.

Not a bad idea if there was more than a surface fight and a brief trek to place bombs.

We already have the plot for DOW 3 if DOW2 was to have ANY relevance. Think about what endings could be built upon, Canologically either the Spess Marhines won or the Eldarz won because GW won't kill off Ulthwe or the Blud Ravens 'cause they are to important to the setting. So the only one of them with continuality is the Eldar ending in which Taldeer gets home, and they find Gabrials body and fix him up when the eldar go.

The way I see it the best way for DOW3 to go is to is to add necrons, who are waking up in Blood Raven territory with obligatory Ork Waaghh and chaos incursion. Also...WRAITHSEER TALDEER! Love can bloom after all!

Also the Outsider may of been retconned out, and im also sure that the Dyson sphere theory is only a theory stole from another universe, there is no real evidence he is in one.

*sigh*

Sixty million years ago, the Necrons, at the height of their power, could not destroy the C'Tan. At best, at the cost of billions of lives, they managed to shard most of them.

The Dyson Sphere is built of Necrodermis, which heals and repairs itself. It's also very, very large. A Chapter of Space Marines doesn't have a hope in hell of defeating the Outsider, especially not if they go inside the Sphere to deal with it face-to-face.

The rest of the races listed here have even less of a chance.

DOW3 plot, the Blood Ravens are actually the alpha legion and Gabriel Angelos is actually Alpharius.

welshhoppo wrote:
DOW3 plot, the Blood Ravens are actually the alpha legion and Gabriel Angelos is actually Alpharius.

Gabriel Alpharius the Flat.

welshhoppo wrote:
DOW3 plot, the Blood Ravens are actually the alpha legion and Gabriel Angelos is actually Alpharius.

YOU COWARD!YOU FEWL!Now Carron is part of their army!And so is SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!

Honestly I think Relic is nice enough to give the Aurelian sector a little break now.

The poor place has seen a Tyranid tendril fleet, an Eldar Warhost, a massive Ork Waaagh, a full grand company of the black legion, then follow up invasions by the Alpha Legion and even more Orks and Eldar while the Tyranids never stopped being a problem, and no less than an entire decade of war culminating in the attempted exterminatus of all worlds in the entire subsector and a massive flare up of conflicts while Kyras tried to attain daemonhood.

I think the place has seen enough war by now.

 Psienesis wrote:

Sixty million years ago, the Necrons, at the height of their power, could not destroy the C'Tan. At best, at the cost of billions of lives, they managed to shard most of them.

Well, they did manage to destroy the one that unleashed the Flayer virus. The implication I got was that they could destroy the C'tan that they had caught but that it would have catastrophic consequences (not just because of the Flayer virus).

Anyway, the traditional three, Space Marines, Orks, and Eldar are a shoe in, and I expect the fourth faction to be the Necrons, as Chaos and the Tyranids, the other two big bad factions, have already had a go as the first primary antagonists.

Da krimson barun wrote:

welshhoppo wrote:
DOW3 plot, the Blood Ravens are actually the alpha legion and Gabriel Angelos is actually Alpharius.

YOU COWARD!YOU FEWL!Now Carron is part of their army!And so is SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEE!!!

*SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDDDDDDDRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!

I did some shadow writing on DOW II and it's sequels and you should have seen some of the whacky stuff that the writers wrote up.

Some of it was god awful.

Puscifer wrote:
I did some shadow writing on DOW II and it's sequels and you should have seen some of the whacky stuff that the writers wrote up.

Some of it was god awful.

Oh? Do share.

 Troike wrote:

Puscifer wrote:
I did some shadow writing on DOW II and it's sequels and you should have seen some of the whacky stuff that the writers wrote up.

Some of it was god awful.

Oh? Do share.

Non disclosure I'm afraid.

I'm still bound by it as I'm hopeful that some of the dialogue I wrote for Dark Millennium is going into the new mmo.

Did I mention that I really hate Necrons? Nothing about their story is appealing. I get the impression that it was written to appeal to the same demographic as American, low-budget anime (AKA children between the ages of 3 and 7). It's just so... bad.

I won't tell you that your story is bad. I personally don't like it, and it doesn't make any kind of sense in the setting, but if you like it, hey, it's your fantasy right?

As far as Dawn of War 3 is concerned... I will just be happy if we get such a game at all. Relic hasn't exactly struck gold with their recent release of Company of Heroes 2, and while Dawn of War and it's predecessors have been huge sellers for them, they are perfectly content to focus on other titles. That being said, Dawn of War 3 is likely a bad idea at this stage for them. It would cost far too much in development, and the market is seeing more WH40k videogames this year and next than it has in a very, long time. They would be competing against other new titles in the same setting.

The massive shift in gameplay and style from Dawn of War and it's expansions to the Dawn of War II series was enough that many players simply did not make the jump. As well, Dawn of War and all 3 of its expansions were perfectly playable without the use of 3 party servers. Dawn of War 2 REQUIRED GFWL. It's expansions REQUIRE Steam. Both of those platforms greatly limit playability but attaching them to 3rd party servers and requiring an internet connection for online play. (Gone of the days of good 'ol LAN games). This has caused a refocus of gaming in general on PCs, all requiring active connections to online servers which will, eventually, go away.

The community for Dawn of War 1 series games is still much larger than the community for DoW2.

IMHO I think that best move for Relic at this point is to release a large expansion for Dawn of War II that is standalone, and includes new factions. leaving what is already in the game, but adding Dark Eldar, Necrons, & Tau, they would cover all the core groups. The BEST thing they could do would be to sell the game both with and without Steam. Players, that will appeal to the larger group of PC games as well as the Steam crowd. P2P network gaming is due for a comeback IMO.

Well...

THQ went out of business. Relic was sold as part of their (THQ's) bankruptcy plan, and is now owned by... Sega?

So gods only know if there will ever be a DOW3.

ETA: You do know that you can play a Steam game offline, right? Unless it's a built-in multiplayer game (that doesn't have a 1P component), obviously.

 Psienesis wrote:
Well...

THQ went out of business. Relic was sold as part of their (THQ's) bankruptcy plan, and is now owned by... Sega?

So gods only know if there will ever be a DOW3.

ETA: You do know that you can play a Steam game offline, right? Unless it's a built-in multiplayer game (that doesn't have a 1P component), obviously.

Unfortunately yes, we have no reason to believe that DOW3 is being developed at all. I think Sega is a good fit for Relic, and Creative Assembly (another Sega owned studio) is currently developing a Warhammer Fantasy title so I'm sure GW wouldn't be against granting Sega/Relic a license for another 40k game. But right now we have nothing to go on, so its best to assume nothing and not get your hopes up.

 Psienesis wrote:
Well...

THQ went out of business. Relic was sold as part of their (THQ's) bankruptcy plan, and is now owned by... Sega?

So gods only know if there will ever be a DOW3.

ETA: You do know that you can play a Steam game offline, right? Unless it's a built-in multiplayer game (that doesn't have a 1P component), obviously.

yes, you can play a Single Player game offline. Try playing with your buddies... I cannot be the only one left who still recalls P2P multiplayer RTSs. Plus playing DoW 2 online is an exercise in insanity. Try leveling up an army to 60 when every twelve year old player who starts to lose the match just drops and prevents you from getting ANY exp.

 Orblivion wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
Well...

THQ went out of business. Relic was sold as part of their (THQ's) bankruptcy plan, and is now owned by... Sega?

So gods only know if there will ever be a DOW3.

ETA: You do know that you can play a Steam game offline, right? Unless it's a built-in multiplayer game (that doesn't have a 1P component), obviously.

Unfortunately yes, we have no reason to believe that DOW3 is being developed at all. I think Sega is a good fit for Relic, and Creative Assembly (another Sega owned studio) is currently developing a Warhammer Fantasy title so I'm sure GW wouldn't be against granting Sega/Relic a license for another 40k game. But right now we have nothing to go on, so its best to assume nothing and not get your hopes up.

When Sega acquired Relic they also acquired some of the 40k liscenses. looking at what studios are producing 40k based games it seems sega has a majority of the game genres covered except Turned base games as Space hulk and Silthrine's up comming "Warhammer 40k: Armageddon" have shown.

 Ninjacommando wrote:

 Orblivion wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
Well...

THQ went out of business. Relic was sold as part of their (THQ's) bankruptcy plan, and is now owned by... Sega?

So gods only know if there will ever be a DOW3.

ETA: You do know that you can play a Steam game offline, right? Unless it's a built-in multiplayer game (that doesn't have a 1P component), obviously.

Unfortunately yes, we have no reason to believe that DOW3 is being developed at all. I think Sega is a good fit for Relic, and Creative Assembly (another Sega owned studio) is currently developing a Warhammer Fantasy title so I'm sure GW wouldn't be against granting Sega/Relic a license for another 40k game. But right now we have nothing to go on, so its best to assume nothing and not get your hopes up.

When Sega acquired Relic they also acquired some of the 40k liscenses. looking at what studios are producing 40k based games it seems sega has a majority of the game genres covered except Turned base games as Space hulk and Silthrine's up comming "Warhammer 40k: Armageddon" have shown.

They can't have acquired the license, because THQ's license was an exclusive and that simply isn't true any more. Its very possible that Sega acquired a new 40k license from GW since buying Relic but we've had no announcement so its just speculation at this point..

Puscifer wrote:

 Troike wrote:

Puscifer wrote:
I did some shadow writing on DOW II and it's sequels and you should have seen some of the whacky stuff that the writers wrote up.

Some of it was god awful.

Oh? Do share.

Non disclosure I'm afraid.

I'm still bound by it as I'm hopeful that some of the dialogue I wrote for Dark Millennium is going into the new mmo.

Gonna call B.S on that one without proof.

Here is a different plot for DOW3

After the events of DOW2 sub sector Aurelia is still getting harassed by more small local Tyranid and Ork invasions. Remnants of Chaos still exist. But all these are just a former shadow of what they once were. The Imperial Guards and Space Marine continues to hold them off with ease.

Little did the Blood Ravens know, Calderis is home to a Necron Coreworld and the ancient evil within are now awakening and ready to conquer the entire sub sector. The Overlord of this dynasty unleashes its powerful machines, conquering and securing Calderis and has began attacking the other planets. The Imperial Guard and Blood Ravens are fighting off the Necron Invaders from the other planets. The Overlord also has a secret weapon, the Tesseract Vault containing a Transcendent C'tan Shard within. There are two ways to defeat the Necrons, one is through brute force by the combined might of the Imperial Guards and Blood Ravens, the other way is to attack and disable the vault, releasing the C'tan shard, than fleeing allowing it to destroy the Necron forces on the planet.

However another great evil enters the sub sector, Dark Eldar has launched a massive invasion on Meridian and the rest of the sub sector, hoping to bring as much pain and suffering as possible to the races of this sub sector. Can the Guards and Blood Ravens defeat the deadly Dark Eldar and still fight off the Necron at the same time?! find out in DOW3

 Kain wrote:

Puscifer wrote:

 Troike wrote:

Puscifer wrote:
I did some shadow writing on DOW II and it's sequels and you should have seen some of the whacky stuff that the writers wrote up.

Some of it was god awful.

Oh? Do share.

Non disclosure I'm afraid.

I'm still bound by it as I'm hopeful that some of the dialogue I wrote for Dark Millennium is going into the new mmo.

Gonna call B.S on that one without proof.

Call what you want, son.

I know what and who I've written for, as do my family and I don't have to reveal anything to anyone as I signed an NDA.

You don't believe it? Fine.

This is what I do for a living and I will not break an agreement I've legally signed and am bound to.

Good day.

 Tardzan wrote:
Here is a different plot for DOW3

After the events of DOW2 sub sector Aurelia is still getting harassed by more small local Tyranid and Ork invasions. Remnants of Chaos still exist. But all these are just a former shadow of what they once were. The Imperial Guards and Space Marine continues to hold them off with ease.

Little did the Blood Ravens know, Calderis is home to a Necron Coreworld and the ancient evil within are now awakening and ready to conquer the entire sub sector. The Overlord of this dynasty unleashes its powerful machines, conquering and securing Calderis and has began attacking the other planets. The Imperial Guard and Blood Ravens are fighting off the Necron Invaders from the other planets. The Overlord also has a secret weapon, the Tesseract Vault containing a Transcendent C'tan Shard within. There are two ways to defeat the Necrons, one is through brute force by the combined might of the Imperial Guards and Blood Ravens, the other way is to attack and disable the vault, releasing the C'tan shard, than fleeing allowing it to destroy the Necron forces on the planet.

However another great evil enters the sub sector, Dark Eldar has launched a massive invasion on Meridian and the rest of the sub sector, hoping to bring as much pain and suffering as possible to the races of this sub sector. Can the Guards and Blood Ravens defeat the deadly Dark Eldar and still fight off the Necron at the same time?! find out in DOW3

This sounds much better... though the DE armies in previous DOW games were seriously disadvantaged, being extremely fragile with no real way to emulate their hit-and-run tactics. They'd need some significant beefing-up to be viable as a major threat in the game, their core build mechanics are simply not conducive to being effective armies against the power-armored mainstays (Bloodravens and the SOB from Soulstorm).

That... is much better.

Aurelia is a bit overdone by now, IMO. I'd much prefer for DoW 3 to move on to a new setting.

I generally dislike the Necrons as far as "bad guys" go. For my part they have been and always will be a very minor part of the setting.. something so distant that it is rarely mentioned and demands very little attention. Obviously that is bias on my part and I am not making a case against them, or trying to discourage people from playing them. But I think that they (and the Tau) both lack a certain quality that the other races in 40k do not. They are sort of shallow by comparison. Like two dimensional images stuck in a three dimensional setting.

The "Core Races" (for lack of a better term) in 40k are rich, diverse, and fully relatable factions. Despite being alien to us (sometimes literally) they have all the necessary human characteristics for us to relate to them. Good, Evil, Love, Hate, just to name a few. The Necrons and Tau are sorely lacking in those. In my mind they are "Un-Grimdark" in the same way that an Ork Therapist would "Un-Orky". The setting is so rife with hatred that it spills over into every part of it. It's one thing that all the other races share. Humans hate aliens, traitors, heretics, and in some cases they hate themselves. the forces of Chaos hate the creature in the materium because they envy them so strongly. The Eldar loath humanity and all the lesser races for infesting the galaxy that they once ruled. While the Orks are an exception to this, they are also the comic relief in many ways, and are sort of immune.

Necrons (all but a VERY VERY small few) are completely void of thought, emotion, need, and want. They are machines that march because... they are commanded to. There is no malice in it. It is not frightening, or intimidating.

The Tau are even worse. They are so definitively two-dimensional that they stand out sharply. There is absolutely no depth to them at all.

While both of these issues can be cured with better writing, it may be easier to fix if we just took what we know about them and used it in setting, in a way that does not offend existing material.

In your story, the Tau should be the main antagonist: They come with their expansion fleets to blast away anyone and everyone who resists them. The enter Subsector Aurelia and commence their conquest. Weak and thin of number from fighting too long with the local Ork and Tyranid remnants the Space marines and PDF are not match for the Tau fleet. The Eldar arrive to "aid" the humans and prevent the Tombworld from falling to the tau - knowing that the Humans are too ignorant to discover it, but the Tau would likely create foundaries, and mines which would lead to the awakening of the tombs.

Dark Elves arrive to harvest the Tau - gotta have their skin to make more blue dyes y'know

The Tau Fleet's arrival triggers a defence mechanism in the Tomb Complex that awaken the necrons early, and the ensuing bloodbath results in the local Chaos cults rituals coming to fruition calling back the Black Legion (since Abby made a cameo at the end of the last game).

Poof, you have a story.