I will keep this first post quite short and just present some initial thoughts about a Warhammer 40k MMO.
So what should be considered, when developing the game? First of all: what races to choose. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) has choosen the approach of selecting 6 races and putting 3 each into some form of alliance. While the Empire is allied with the Dwarves and also with the High Elves ... well Dwarves hate High Elves to the blood. Nevertheless they are in the same 'faction' or 'realm' (referring to the Realm vs. Realm (RVR) nature of the game).
Taking a look at the other realm reveals an alliance of Dark Elves, Chaos worshippers and Greenskins. If anyone would ask me: that's nonsense. These 3 would just as well kill each other as well as their enemy faction.
So what to learn of this? A Warhammer 40k MMO should not do this at all. There is only one 'alliance' in Warhammer 40k and this is the Empire. Well ... at least most of the time they kind of work together. This includes the Imperial Army/Navy, the various branches of the Inqusition which also inlude more or less the Grey Knights and the Adepta Sororitas and partly also the Space Marines wich are also the last part of the alliance and likely also the most popular army in W40k at the moment. So there is the Empire ... Orcs, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tau, Tyranids, Necrons and Chaos. Well, to be ture, most of them feature internal conflicts as well as the Empire. But this could form a basic list for factions in the game. All of them fight against everyone else. So if one doesn't want to press them into some kind of greater alliance that's what the game should feature as slectable 'races'. To be honest - I don't belive this will happen. No developer will design so many different factions and try to balance them. But as long as there are no further infos about the game actually in development, I will use this as a base for my thoughts.
Furthermore, I think this game should focus on PvP. Anything else wouldn't fit the Warhammer universe well. But as I see the necessities of the market, it would likely also have to feature some kind of PvE.
As I'm out of time for now, this concludes my first post. In the furure I will write about the kind of characters, pepole should be able to play, about PvE elements, the alternatives for settings and camnpaigns and about the server-structure and size to use.
Hope you drop by to read ;)
In order to do WH40K right as an MMO, the developer MUST include the Necromunda gang/hive worlds AND also feature Blood Bowl as a mini game!!! :)
Tue Apr 01 2008 9:23AM ReportI wasn't aware, that Blood Bowl includes W40K ... thought it's just for the setting of WHFB?
Tue Apr 01 2008 9:57AM ReportWhile I agree that the only 'true' alliance is the empire, the major issue here is that we know squat about it, so they could really do anything, as far as GW allows it.
As far as we know, it could be something entirely different. I believe they have even said that they fully intend to create something akin to the standard, not sure.
Anyway, a small comment of HE + Dwarves... yes, they hate each other BUT, and that is a big but, they have a 'friendship' with the Empire and in these times of need, joining the struggle seems feasible. Orcs are actually manipulable, Chaos and DE want to achieve their goals, they can backstab each other later.
The biggest issue with W40K is also one of its strengths... It is just too freaking big! I mean, really, there is an untold number of (habitable) planets within the empire space (millions of them)! I find it too soon to speculate. They could make it so everybody dukes it out in one planet... or maybe it is a system, conquering planets and whatnot... maybe it will be a mmofps, with players being space marines only... or maybe it will be sandbox (yeah right), playing almost like the pen'n'paper Dark Heresy.
Truth be told... we can only wait to see.
Tue Apr 01 2008 3:43PM ReportTo Blind: Umm HE? Dwarves? And we know squat about the Empire? First off I will assume you mean High Elves. 40K doesn't have them, the Eldar are similar in concept. Second, the squats, ie Space Dwarves, were phased out along time ago, and when GW ran forums, you weren't even allowed to mention them. Third, the Black Library publishes lots of novels about the 40K universe so there is actually quite a bit known about life in Imperial space.
Wed Apr 02 2008 7:28AM ReportI mentioned the High Elves and Dwarves in my post as a reference to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the Warhammer Fantasy based MMO currently being developed by EA Mythic.
Wed Apr 02 2008 9:35AM ReportA Warhammer 40k game is already in development. GW keeps a tight rein on their IP. It is being made by Vigil Games and THQ.
http://www.vigilgames.com/games_40k.php
Wed Apr 02 2008 12:47PM ReportLike Tasilla pointed... he mentioned the FANTASY part of Warhammer, thus part of my reply was directed at that.
I'm not saying we know squat about the LORE, I'm saying we know squat on HOW they are going to do it (as in, the game).
Wed Apr 02 2008 2:50PM ReportMMORPG.com writes:
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