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Open letter to Relic Devs
5 years ago
Raffa
Hi guys,
Quick intro: I'm DJ Raffa, a long-term Dawn of War II retail and now Elite Mod player. I've played at the highest level with the best players for much of this time (there's a load of casts on the YouTube
) and while I don't claim to be the best, point is I have the best interests of the game in mind after upwards of 1,500 hours playing competitively and hundreds more watching casts.
For one reason or another you've decided to start supporting the game after years of ignoring it. Now we don't know what your reason is (let's assume it's altruism, lulz), but there are a few things you may have overlooked:
1. The casters use Elite Mod. Indrid has nearly 13,000 subscribers and he casts like a machine. Maestro Cretella also gets well over a thousand viewers per cast and Red_Rupee has come back recently it seems. Unfortunately, none of them are going to cast on your retail version for the upcoming reasons.
2. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that Elite Mod has been supported these years and run by just about the most knowledgeable player ever to play the game, Caeltos, your game balance in retail Dawn of War II is pretty **++heresy redacted++** exploitable. This the reason why, unfortunately, the really good players won't play it. It's only natural that after being neglected for so long your game balance has stagnated as people become more inventive in finding ways to kill **++heresy redacted++**.
3. No new units. This is pretty critical in keeping community interest in an old game alive. Elite Mod has drip-fed a new unit or so in every few months, and even a whole new faction. When combined with the literally painstaking attention to detail put into every single aspect of balance by Caeltos, Elite Mod is going to be more attractive to casual viewers and experienced players. Regrettably, the sad truth is that the decent players who could become really good often try out Elite, get their asses handed to them, then complain about how imba it is and those are the ones you get stuck with on retail - the dinosaurs who don't like exploring new potential in the game.
What I am basically saying is you should seriously consider working together with Caeltos and implementing Elite Mod changes. I don't think there's any shame admitting you're a good distance behind balance-wise having not supported the game for years. By integrating the two versions of the game you'll also get the casters onside -> more publicity -> bigger fanbase for your games. This is the Warhammer 40K franchise, it's pretty massive. There are already so many casual viewers of a years-old game. That will grow with proper support but right now what we have is a split community. Again, I don't know your motivations for supporting the game, but surely your bosses at Sega want as much publicity as possible?
No I'm not naive, this isn't going to happen as there's no way you'd delegate control over a game you support to someone you haven't even met, but if you want to be progressive then it is probably the only way.
Unless this is just testing the waters for a potential Dawn of War III, in which case go ahead and do whatever the **++heresy redacted++** you want haha.
Quick intro: I'm DJ Raffa, a long-term Dawn of War II retail and now Elite Mod player. I've played at the highest level with the best players for much of this time (there's a load of casts on the YouTube
) and while I don't claim to be the best, point is I have the best interests of the game in mind after upwards of 1,500 hours playing competitively and hundreds more watching casts.For one reason or another you've decided to start supporting the game after years of ignoring it. Now we don't know what your reason is (let's assume it's altruism, lulz), but there are a few things you may have overlooked:
1. The casters use Elite Mod. Indrid has nearly 13,000 subscribers and he casts like a machine. Maestro Cretella also gets well over a thousand viewers per cast and Red_Rupee has come back recently it seems. Unfortunately, none of them are going to cast on your retail version for the upcoming reasons.
2. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given that Elite Mod has been supported these years and run by just about the most knowledgeable player ever to play the game, Caeltos, your game balance in retail Dawn of War II is pretty **++heresy redacted++** exploitable. This the reason why, unfortunately, the really good players won't play it. It's only natural that after being neglected for so long your game balance has stagnated as people become more inventive in finding ways to kill **++heresy redacted++**.
3. No new units. This is pretty critical in keeping community interest in an old game alive. Elite Mod has drip-fed a new unit or so in every few months, and even a whole new faction. When combined with the literally painstaking attention to detail put into every single aspect of balance by Caeltos, Elite Mod is going to be more attractive to casual viewers and experienced players. Regrettably, the sad truth is that the decent players who could become really good often try out Elite, get their asses handed to them, then complain about how imba it is and those are the ones you get stuck with on retail - the dinosaurs who don't like exploring new potential in the game.
What I am basically saying is you should seriously consider working together with Caeltos and implementing Elite Mod changes. I don't think there's any shame admitting you're a good distance behind balance-wise having not supported the game for years. By integrating the two versions of the game you'll also get the casters onside -> more publicity -> bigger fanbase for your games. This is the Warhammer 40K franchise, it's pretty massive. There are already so many casual viewers of a years-old game. That will grow with proper support but right now what we have is a split community. Again, I don't know your motivations for supporting the game, but surely your bosses at Sega want as much publicity as possible?
No I'm not naive, this isn't going to happen as there's no way you'd delegate control over a game you support to someone you haven't even met, but if you want to be progressive then it is probably the only way.
Unless this is just testing the waters for a potential Dawn of War III, in which case go ahead and do whatever the **++heresy redacted++** you want haha.
8
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
redbeard
+1 To this. I totally agree with raffa.
WarNikolai
If you mean another race then yes, its okay... But please, Im sick of Imperium forces. Add Tau instead. They already have one model, the commander lol.
Ruzdreg
For new features in The Last Stand, I always imagine that Wargear items could level up, too, offering typically only slight stat improvements, but could even get new traits / abilities. I vision wargear being able to level up to level 5. However, wargear could only level up / gain experience only when elite tokens are equipped, which themselves would no longer take up any wargear slots and would have their own specific section/slots. These would also make the game harder in some ways - based on the elite tokens equipped and the cumulative amount across the whole team.
I.E: Elite token 1 would add new enemy units to the waves, a unit that would normally not be seen during that wave (or even in the typical The Last Stand) Take wave 1 of the Blooded Colosseum, from one player, it would add, say 2 Slugga boyz mobz that could appear before the Shoota boyz. A second player with Elite token 1 could add those feral Nobz mob (the one with 2 Nobz with Choppas) 1 in each other gate to the one that the Slugga boyz would come from. And then if the third player has the Elite token 1 equipped, then there could be say a couple of Uge Choppa Nobz that appear in the same gate as the Slugga boyz mob, but shortly after the Shoota boyz have appeared.
Elite token 2 would increase the amount of units in the waves but based on a formula. I.E: The first one would increase the amount of enemy units during the first round of a wave by 50% (but with at least one extra unit regardless. So on wave 2 of the Blooded Colosseum where the first round was a unit of Hormagaunts and 2x Termagant broods, with at least 1 Elite token 2 in the team, the first round of wave 2 would then have 2x Hormagaunt broods and 3x Termagant broods.
With a second Elite token 2, the second round of units will be affected in the same way. So, using wave 2 as my example again, there will be 3x Termagant broods in one of the second gates and 3x Hormagaunt broods in the other (instead of 2x in each)
With a third Elite token 2, the first round could repeat shortly after the final round for that wave. However, this round wouldn't be affected by the first Elite token 2. So again, using wave 2 as my example, shortly after the second round where the now 3x Termagants and Hormagaunts appear, the first round would then re-occur, containing the originally intended 2x Termagant broods and single Hormagaunt brood. To make things interesting, the gates for this re-round wouldn't be the same as the original round.
Note: Commanders and super heavies are never duplicated, so only ever 1 Lictor Alpha on wave 17, only ever one Baneblade and wave 16 of the Blooded Colosseum would be untouched. Also, the first and second round would take into account Elite token 1. So, if those Slugga boyz were to appear on wave 1 and before the Shoota boyz, this would make them the new round 1, so they would be susceptible to the unit increases and even be re-rounded as mentioned above.
Elite token 3 would upgrade each and every enemy unit in some way. As there are 3 players, there could be potentially 3 upgrades for each unit. Example: Shoota boyz first upgrade could give a Big Shoota to one of the Orks. Second upgrade could add a Nob Leader. Third upgrade could add a second Big Shoota, which now allows the unit to perform the "Aiming? Wotz dat? ability and equips the Nob Leader with Stikk Bombs.
SykA
Gorb
We already have a thread on this, with opinions on both sides. Please take the discussion there, and I'm positive your voice will still be heard.
Redundant thread, locked!