Dawn of War 2

[SuperHiro]

or maybe it was a test build and it had enhanced hitpoints.

[Jow]

info on Chaos Lord (first commander type) up today. I like his blood sacrifice global - sac friendly infantry to spawn bloodletters (which lose energy over time and eventually vanish back into the warp).

[Lordnine]

Let the Galaxy Burn!

[Two Sheds]

I want to go to there.

[Lordnine]

Preorder is up on Steam. $30 and comes with a copy of Saints Row 2.

[Lordnine]

Tier 3 Chaos units are up.

[Jow]

the great unclean one's stuff sounds fuuuuun.

[SuperHiro]

I hope the other races get a bit of a boost in terms of looks, they look kinda blah compared to Chaos now.

[Jow]

http://www.xfire.com/cms/xf_xfss_dow/" target="_blank

This is a long 40+ minute video of a sample multiplayer game, eldar vs. chaos. Lots to be seen but the resolution is bad enough that it's often hard to see what's going on.

Biggest changes, though, are ones they talk about but don't demo. For example, they're really trying to beef up buildings so they're no longer deathtraps and provide a lot more cover against ranged fire. To boot, shuriken plats and dcannons will now be able to garrison.

Other things:

--walkers are being buffed across the board, receiving extra HP in exchange for an even higher power cost. They did this in the spirit of making walkers the "linebreakers" they originally intended them to be.

--CSM and SM balance was an issue. They've made starting CSMs weaker than tacs but they have the potential to become more powerful with upgrades.

--Tacs have been upgraded with an ability that allows them to fire "special" bolter ammo that does more damage to "heavy" targets (warriors, etc).

etc.

[Turtle]

I suspect tac marines will get more than one type of ammo. I'm thinking flamer tacs will also get inferno bolts at T2 to help make the flamethrower upgrade more useful.

[SuperHiro]

they've updated the achievements on Live to add the exp ones.

[whispa]

I suspect tac marines will get more than one type of ammo. I'm thinking flamer tacs will also get inferno bolts at T2 to help make the flamethrower upgrade more useful.

Now that would be a very nice addition. I haven't seen many flamer tacs around so maybe this will change.

[Lordnine]

Flamer Tacs are actually really good now against everything EXCEPT other SM so if the normal guys in the squad get an upgrade to increase damage against Heavy Infantry I think they would be really good in their own regard.

[Jow]

now up: Sorcerer info, a little video on the new units, and the announcement of a complete ladder reset. For those of you with >1,500 games played (*nudge L9*), my sympathies.

For those who care, this reset also includes Faction Rank, which directly affects your cosmetic unlocks. If you've played a multiplayer game between Oct 14 and Mar 11 when the game releases, your Faction Rank will not be reset. In other words, if you've gotten a ton of unlocks and wish to keep them, you need to go and play a multiplayer game sometime between now and when the ladder resets.

Also, all info except for Faction Rank will be reset if you go without playing a multiplayer game for 60 days.

[Lordnine]

I actually like the idea of a reset. I don't care about ladder rank. I do like my unlocks though. Although if that's getting reset I wonder if they're adding new ones in which case it might be fun to re-earn them.

[Turtle]

Don't care about the cosmetic upgrades. I'd rather have good matchmaking and fun gameplay than superficial stuff.

This reset combined with the changes to matchmaking and how TS is handled should help, but we'll have to see first hand if it actually fixes things.

What I do know is that DoW2 has so far been doing more to drive away new players with the way it matchmakes.

[Lordnine]

Some FFA info

I know a lot of you are dying for some info on FFA and we haven't detailed it fully yet. We've shown it to the press so now I'm going to lay it out for you in as much detail as I possibly can.
Obviously Dawn of War 2 isn't really built as an annihilate game so creating a FFA mode for it was a little bit tricky. We decided to go with a VP FFA mode that works a little like multiple-hill king of the hill in shooters. FFA requires custom maps with more than 3 victory points. Right now it is shipping with two maps:
FFA Calderis Refinery and
FFA Judgement of Carrion (Space Hulk tileset)
Each of these maps has unique spawn points for each player and 7 VPs each. The goal of FFA is to control as many victory points as possible, which will increase your score instead of decrease your opponent's. Each VP you own increases the rate of your ticket increase. The default score for solo FFA is 1000 points and for team 1500.
Team FFA works exactly like solo except there are 3 teams of 2.
On top of this we have introduced a new gameplay mechanic that revolves around VPs. Each victory point on the map has a power supply next to it. These keep the victory points active and capturable. If you or your opponent attacks this structure and brings it down to 0 hit points it will deactivate the nearest VP, making it neutral and uncapturable. If a player wishes to recapture this VP they must select the destroyed power supply and activate a repair ability for a resource cost. The repair will heal the power supply to 100% and reactivate the VP which can then be recaptured.
FFA and Team FFA will be custom game modes only and not have a leaderboard. There are options to add AI, adjusted the VP point levels and the normal quick start option.

Sounds great but I wish it was ranked.

[Jow]

Seriously? With it not being ranked we're basically GUARANTEED to start having some fun "friendly" games again, which I'm honestly kinda stoked about since I don't do ranked anymore.

Besides, even if they DID make it ranked, the three of you play so much more than any of the rest of us that 6 mos from now if we wanted to try ranked FFA with you we'd be stuck facing players with Trueskills in the 20s and 30s.

[Matrix]

Seriously? With it not being ranked we're basically GUARANTEED to start having some fun "friendly" games again, which I'm honestly kinda stoked about since I don't do ranked anymore.

Besides, even if they DID make it ranked, the three of you play so much more than any of the rest of us that 6 mos from now if we wanted to try ranked FFA with you we'd be stuck facing players with Trueskills in the 20s and 30s.

Yah i will be up for some friendly games, i might do ranked at some point but looking at my time it is unlikely. I also not sure how long it will hold my attention, props to you guys to sticking to the game for that long.

[Lordnine]

Ranked team FFA would add some nice variety to the 2v2 and 3v3 matches. Hopefully when they have more FFA maps they will add an extra ladder for that.

[McKnight]

Already wrote this in the Bargain Bin but thought I'd repost it here if anyone's interested in DoW2 and still sitting on the fence.

It's available now for £5 at THQ. You'll get a code which you can register and then download off Steam (Or the THQ site if you are so inclined)

[aldredheron]

I'm slowly starting to become more excited about another Dawn of War rather than another Starcraft game, despite having a near obsession with it a few years ago. I doubt I'll even be seeing another Starcraft until after World of Warcraft: The Search for the Last of the Credit Cards is out. And yes, it'll be anagramed. Blizzard seems to be moving away from RTS', sadly. We thankfully have Relic here to pick up the slack.

[Lordnine]

Some new info from todays xfire match.

- steve blum does the voice for the chaos lord
- warriors have a special ring around their feet that indicate they're a synapse creature and that they're applying that effect on surround units.
- after killing a unit, the plague sword spawn a chaos version of the defeated unit
- plague marines have passive hp regain
- nukes worth 500 red
- carnifex leaves a vehicle wreck after death.
- venom brood gives ranged synapse (yellow ring) which gives increased ranged damage.
- chaos resource called favor of the gods.
- ravenor alphs can now construct hive nodes. Hive node emits gassy cloud that slows nearby enemies and and increases defense from ranged fire for your own.
- bloodletters have passive knockback attack. Also pretty weak, around 1000 hp.
- calderis refinery has been reskinned (for free for all only?)
- adrenal gland warriors have melee synapse that boosts melee damage
- plasma dev still its own unit. Plasma projectile moves pretty fast.
- terminators can still NOT be built at the base
- AV weapons still have a high % chance of hitting heavy armor, but heavy armor no longer takes as much bonus damage as use to. (mostly just 100% damage from most weapon types)
- players will be able to control some of the IG in the campaign.
- melta damage type good against all types of armor (AV and AI weapon in one), pretty short range. Multimelta does not give additional abilities for the dread. Melta beam is more white and blurry than lascannon beam

[Jow]

After killing a unit, the plague sword spawn a chaos version of the defeated unit

Yay, Chaos warp spiders. THAT ought to be fun.

[ChrisGrenard]

After killing a unit, the plague sword spawn a chaos version of the defeated unit

Yay, Chaos warp spiders. THAT ought to be fun.

I'd be more afraid of Chaos Howling Banshees or even Chaos Seer Council

[Turtle]

Glad to see special Nid synapses come back. They basically did what I recommended they do, bring them back, but make sure that the graphics effects to show them working are clear to the player so that there's less guess work. Hard to see green glowy stuff around nid heads are easily missed in a pitched battle.

Also glad to see the plasma bolt moving faster. PDevs were essential for line breaking when d cannons weren't around, but they fired so slowly then the bolt traveled slowly, you rarely hit a target. Then there's terrain issues.

If I was there, I'd probably ask they had done anything to fix the terrain height change issues that plague certain maps.

[Jow]

plasma projectile speed: i still remember l9 bitching mightily about plasma back in the day. I'm ready to hear it again.

[Lordnine]

The only problem with Plasma back when was that Eldar had no counter to it. Since then both Rangers and Warp Spiders have been considerably buffed so that they can actually do their job. It's unlikely that it will be a problem.

[Turtle]

Only now Devs will be even nastier with the librarian to cover them. They setup and break down much faster near a librarian, and the Lib can use that knockback wave.

This is basically a nice T2 buff for devastators, especially at a time in the game where in the span of a single devastator (or platform) setting up you can lose your entire army.

The good news is that Super Heavy Armor (used on Terminators and the new Tyrant Guard, and I forget what else) no longer have all those ridiculous damage bonuses against it. Much like the changes to making Heavy Armor more useful overall, the same was done to Super Heavy Armor.

[Turtle]

http://www.gamereplays.org/dawnofwar2/p ... elic-xfire" target="_blank

Two videos in that link, the first is a marketing video showing off snippets from the Free For All multiplayer mode. The second video is the aforementioned live broadcast of a game between developers, it shows off both a Nids vs. Chaos match, along with a bit of FFA from a space marine player's perspective.

Should be fun having 6 players in FFA mode in DoW2, good for learning as well since if you're getting beat by another player, back off, blow up the VP's generator, and let some other player fight him for a bit and jump in while they're both weak.

It's also a game mode where even if you don't expect to win, you can still just roll out and get a lot of fighting in, which will help new players just learn how to use their units in a more fun environment. They can go around playing kingmaker, since you can see everyone's point count and how many VPs they control. It gets even more fun when you set the required VPs high, like to 2000 which is the max.

From watching these videos I also noticed a lot of other small improvements. Notably for the SM Force Commander. Previously, the FC's Battle Cry ability would make the commander do all special attacks. The only problem is that special attacks have more complex animations that take longer to hit. These special attacks wouldn't hit moving units, whereas normal attacks, as long as the animation starts to play, even if the target unit moves away it still gets hit. Now, it looks like special attacks do hit moving units and the unit making the attack turns to follow the target, so popping Battle Cry in a fight is less of a detriment and overall a better deal. This would confuse the hell out of new players who go against even moderately skilled players who understood this, where popping battle cry would simply cripple a force commander instead of being a benefit.

[Lordnine]

First review is up here. Final Verdict: 91%

You can also see a list of the new maps here.

Looks like we get:
2 1v1
3 2v2
2 3v3
2 FFA

[Natus]

Just bought this via the UK sale and boy I was wrong about DoW2. I loathed the demo because I felt it reduced DoW's brilliance to a fiddly, micro-y game about squads. Now I'm really looking forward to the expansion. If I keep playing this game so much, I just may have to get the expansion at full price.

Anyway, my only real disappointment is that there are only 8 1v1 maps in the latest build of DoW2. is that possible? There were tons more in vanilla DoW2? What's up with that? What am I missing?

Thanks!

[Lordnine]

Patch notes for Chaos Rising are up. There are fewer changes than I expected. Some balance highlights.

Units can now be damaged by grenades while entering a building but before fully setting up (yay!)
• Angel Gate: Destroyed buildings at the top of the map to prevent garrisoning issues (yay!!!!!!!)
• Roks global ability now costs 500 Waaagh
• Kommando Nob's Rokkit Launcha damage reduced to 65 from 72 (it's a start)
• Warboss Powerclaw now does 190 damage, up from 150 (wow that's not really needed)
Eldritch Storm now costs 500 Psychic Might (woohoo! now I might get a Seer Council Plus a Storm!)
Webway
• Holo-field ability added to farseer webway gate, when activated cloaks nearby units.
• Webway gates are now permanently cloaked when playing as the Farseer hero
Warlock
• Warlock’s merciless Witchblade now drains 15 mana per hit, down from 30
• Weapon skill reduced to 70 from 90
• Warlock no longer leaps and knocks down enemies (Hah!)
Ravener Alpha
• Corrosive Devourer damage reduced from 180 to 135 (Awww)

[Jow]

• Kommando Nob's Rokkit Launcha damage reduced to 65 from 72 (it's a start)

That was my biggest bitch for a while. I remember going on the official forums and bringing it up and basically got laughed at, saying it was perfect as is, they'd never change it, blahblahblah. Since then I think the damage has been nerfed three times (this being the third). I suspect this, combined with the general walker buff, is going to be damn near perfect.

Any idea when the update for non-owners of CR is going live? I'm holding off on picking it up for a while but I'd like to check out the new units.

[Turtle]

The only problem with using the Rokkit Launcher was the KNob's pathfinding, but overall, it was way too easy to stealth around and take out, or force withdrawals from vehicles by blasting them in the back.

Still means that Eldar will want to keep Banshees and Rangers around their vehicles to spot and tie up the KNob since that damage reduction only means to Falcons maybe 2-3 more rokkits before it kills.

Also, it's likely the stealth patch list will be double the size of this, since CR is a big expansion and Relic often has trouble keeping track of all the smaller changes.

Also, you Eldar missed a couple huge changes:
Shiruken cannon now cost no energy, can garrison structures, and have higher health. It already has way more damage than any other suppression weapon, and you can get one right out of the gate.

Banshees now take 50% less ranged damage while Fleet of Footing with an Exarch. Great for those mass Banshee charges.

Techmarine Turrets can be made into Missile turrets.

Force Commander power fist (my usual weapon) gets even more damage. And his Terminator armor wargear has the lightning claws option, making him useful again.

All Walker vehicles (Dreadnaughts, Wraithlords) have had drastic HP improvements, often well over 1200 HP. Their attacks usually do AoE/splash damage too.

Zoanthrope windup speed increased to 2s from 1.5s. This, combined with the changes to the way artillery fires means that SM have a chance against Zoan spam by charging forward towards the zoans, or just staying moving.

Oh and the usual bunch are whining before playing. Forums are going crazy.

[Lordnine]

Also, you Eldar missed a couple huge changes:

Banshees now take 50% less ranged damage while Fleet of Footing with an Exarch. Great for those mass Banshee charges.

Actually I did see that change but consider it unnecessary and expect it to be patched back the way it was before after the NEXT patch. It did have the comical affect of making all SM players on the forums go into cardiac arrest though.

[ChrisGrenard]

When I saw the banshee change I laughed maniacally.

[Lordnine]

Any idea when the update for non-owners of CR is going live? I'm holding off on picking it up for a while but I'd like to check out the new units.

It's been announced that the patch is releasing tomorrow at about noon eastern time. So new units a day early!

[Turtle]

Awesome!

Sadly, the Devastators still have a power cost. Not sure why the shiruken loses it, but the devastators keep it. Although I wouldn't be surprised if there were even more changes to suppression weapons that aren't listed. Shirukens are currently the top of the line suppression weapon in the game, however they don't do anything else and can be countered easily enough in T1.5 and beyond. I guess the fact that devastators can get extra damage and soft-AV ability, along with an upgrade to go full AV is something.

I'm going to enjoy using the FC shield and sword against Eldar though, -20% ranged damage is huge when you need to weather through guardian spam fire.

One thing to note is that SM have improved options in T2 to deal with banshees with exarchs.

For example, there's the librarian, which can take banshees in melee and have many abilities that allow SM to more easily deal with banshees, like instant setup devastators, the repulsion wave, and warp blast. Dreads are also improved, and the razorback got a small but significant damage boost to its already effective gun that will help kill banshees.

I'm going to love the Veil of Time ability alongside devastators, making them not only instantly setup and breakdown, but also move insanely fast. If I see guardians with grenades moving in, or banshees coming from a different angle, I can pop that ability and instantly breakdown the threatened devastator, zip it into a different piece of cover, and setup again instantly before the grenades are even thrown.

That said, 50% is freaking huge reduction. Not going to enjoy the warlock's triple speed banshees, assuming they didn't nerf that.

Oh and, anyone for a Free for All match tomorrow to celebrate? I want to give the new force commander a try, same for the hive tyrant.

[Jow]

yeah, i'd like to, but won't be around until after 9 pm EST. I'll look for yous.