Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millenium

Sogetsu · Jun 20, 2010

Your Adepta Sororitas picture for the group is just stunning.

Aral · Jun 20, 2010

thanks, pity they capped me at 60... i have so much more to share T_T

Kythas · Jul 1, 2010

I hate the fact that they keep comparing this game to WoW. I am not a WoW fan

moneda · Aug 20, 2010

Gamescom Trailerâ€” The Imperium of Man:

http://www.thq.com/uk/thqtv/index?movieId=4220

New screenshots:

Doc · Aug 20, 2010

That was like sex. Lol@DoW2 footage at the beginning.

moneda · Aug 20, 2010

From StrategyInformer:

Strategy Informer: What made you wan to do an MMO based on the 40K universe? Who approached Who?

David Adams: I love 40K. Well, I used to work over at NCSoft, and after I left I swore I would never work on an MMO ever again but then we started doing Darksiders and THQ said to us â€œHey, we're going to do an MMO based on the 40K universeâ€ and I was like â€œ... ok! We'll do it!â€. That was it really, couldn't put it any more elaborately than that.

Strategy Informer: How do you feel about Mythic Entertainment? They've already been working with Games Workshop with Age of Reckoning and so have that experience there already.

David Adams: Honestly, I'm indifferent. The Warhammer 40K IP is similar, but because it's got gun, got that sci-fi setting, that when people see our game it won't even evoke memories of Warhammer Online, they just won't think about it. I dunno I don't really dwell on it.

Strategy Informer: This was only formally announced just recently, although its existence has been known for a while longer â€“ how far a long are you currently in terms of development?

David Adams: We've been in earnest development for the last year and half to two years. We're solidly in production â€“ we have all the basic systems of the game figured out. We're a still a couple of years away though, so its not like we're close or anything.

Strategy Informer: Every MMO tends to have a theme or a particular mechanic they like to focus on, whether it be PvP, PvE, Story etc... what is the one thing you're focusing on with Dark Millennium Online?

David Adams: We want to focus on the moment to moment experience of the game, like what are you doing, what a re pressing, how are fighting, interacting... that's what's really important to us. At the end of the day, we think of an MMO ultimately as a game. I know it sounds a little trite, but I think some people forget that sometimes.

The joke here is that if you take the Nuts and bolts of an MMO, what you do, how you fight etc.. and put them in any other genre, people would laugh at it because it's so simple. It's like what RPG's were like 15 years ago before they really tried to up the ante in terms of effects or animation and all that.

It's funny, because I used to work on MMO's and I left because that's what I didn't like about them. I would look around and think â€œwow, console developers are way fucking better than we areâ€. They do stuff that we wouldn't even know how to do, and their level of just pure craft skill was much higher than ours.

I mean yeah, as an MMO developer you're good at managing a lot of assets, and there are some intricacies to managing an economy and systems like that, but in terms of pure craftsmanship I felt like I was falling behind. So we (Vigil Games) have done Darksiders, we've done a console game, and now we want to apply that superior craftsmanship to an MMO. It's something that will just up the game for everybody else.

Strategy Informer: Can you elaborate on that a bit? I mean what specific lessons are you applying to this MMO?

David Adams: I think one simple lesson is that there's a lot of subtlety in feedback. I mean in Darksiders when you fight a guy its important that the animations flow well together and that there's a good rhythm of you pressing the buttons â€“ when you hit a guy its impactful and you see the results through effects and sound and the controller rumbles... every little detail is important.

I can't even imagine that there's an MMO developer that thinks about the rhythm of their combos or attacks. It just doesn't occur to them â€“ when they hit another character are they really selling the impact? Does it sounds good? Does it look good? I mean they may think about it a little bit, but I don't think they think about it to the extent that you would in a console game.

That's not to say that you can do everything in an MMO that you can do in a console game, but just having that knowledge â€“ it will definitely come across when you interact with the game.

Strategy Informer: How much creative freedom with the IP has Games Workshop given you?

David Adams: They're pretty cool. I mean it's our job I think to try and use the IP as much as humanly possible, but obviously there's places where we have to fill up gaps or make stuff up and they're there to help us and to guide us along. They openly make sure that everything we do fits in with their IP, and they're no unreasonable. We're not working with corporate suits, we're working with the guys who invented 40k, so it's a really good relationship.

Strategy Informer: Relic Games have been working with the 40K license for around 7 years now, do you liaise with them or work with them at all?

David Adams: Yeah there's friendly communication there. We share technology, assets, whatever we can do really. Hopefully they're games and environments will remain different, but whatever they have to share we're willing to look at.

Strategy Informer: The 40K universe has always been more war orientated, a little universe war, all v all type of thing... how are you going to really portray that in this game beyond the usual?

David Adams: Obviously this is going to be more action orientated than a typical MMO, it's going to be more visceral, more responsive, cause and effect etc... PvP is going to be important to that because it's about war, but we don't want to neglect PvE. I would say that our game is pretty balanced, there's an equivalent amount of PvE vs PvP content. We wanted, as a player, to feel like you had a choice on how you wanted to play the game, if you want to be a hardcore PvPer, great, if you want to do the more exploratory elements of the 40K universe, we've got content for that too. We're going to have an avenue for both types of player.

Strategy Informer: A few MMO's are now experimenting with the Free to Play business model instead of traditional subscription. The eastern market is more comfortable with that model as they've been using it for years, but you're just starting to see it come into North America and Europe â€“ are you thinking of going to straight into a F2P model or are you sticking with subscription?

Tim Campbell: At this point in time we're trying to keep our options open because we don't believe right now that one business model is going to work for every territory around the world. You're right, Free2Play is very much in experimentation in the US and prevalent in the East, but we don't believe that things are going to get homogeneous. We think those preferences are going to be maintained and we're not going to be able to predict what they are. What we're tying to do is create flexibility in the way we're designing the game and the systems around that so we can find the right alchemy for territories when we do ship that gives us the greatest potential.

Strategy Informer: Because this is pretty much a first look at the game, can you explain a little bit about the set-up? The fiction that the MMO will be based around?

David Adams: The beauty of 40K is that it's a giant world, lots of space to plan, lots of systems to play around with. We have our own system called the Sargos Sector, there are multiple planets within this sector where our game takes place. Gameplay will take place both on and off planet. There will be a central storyline but that will more to tie things together in the backdrop. There's going to be multiple stories and stories with different points of view â€“ but they'll be some climatic struggle centred around some alien constructs, a mystery will unfold and there will be a high-stakes struggle for dominance. These are all themes that are prevalent throughout the 40k universe, so we're working with those because they're tried and true and they're what people are familiar with.

Strategy Informer: I assume you're going to divide up the playable races by factions? They only thing is, apart from ones like Imperial guard and Space Marines who can stick together, not all of the other races fit neatly into 'factions'. The Eldar, the Tau, the Necrons, Tyranids Chaos... had to generalise them. Are you going to try sticking with the traditional two factions or branch out to more?

Tim Campbell: We're going to have two overall factions in the game, and all of the playable races are going to fit into one or the other.

There are compelling reasons why that works in this situation and our game, and Games Workshops are completely on board with it so we're not doing anything that violates the IP or the fiction â€“ the details though will be revealed in the near future.

Strategy Informer: Obviously you can't talk too much about the races at this point, but can you give a rough indication of how many you're going to use at Launch? Will you be using all of them?

Tim Campbell: The number of races at launch is something we're holding back at the moment, but it's safe to say that there's a lot of races in the 40k universe, and it would be really hard to do all of them at launch. It's going to be some number less than all of the races, so we'll have to pick and choose.

That's what's great about the IP though because you have this runway and you know where your future content is going to come from. There's probably more content in this IP that we'd ever be able to build, even over a long time. We're not going to run out of content any time soon. We gain comfort in that because we're not going to have invent new races or anything.

Strategy Informer: Coming back to combat, another staple of the 40K universe is the vehicular element. Everything from a speeder or a tank all the way up to a Titan take part in these ferocious 40K battles â€“ will that be represented at all?

David Adams: We have three different classes of vehicles in the game: personal craft that you use to get around the world, public transport that everyone uses, and combat vehicles. Take tanks for instance â€“ multiple characters will be able to jump into them, they'll drive, man the turrets, vehicles will have physical interactions with the environment. They're going to use what we call 'Cart racer' physics, the fun side of physics so you don't need an advanced degree just to control them. You won't have to worry about tipping over or getting stuck, but you will be able to go over things.

Strategy Informer: It's obviously too early to talk about a specific release date, but do you have a window you're looking to hit?

Tim Campbell: We do: we're slating the game for release during our 2012/13 fiscal year, so that will be sometime between April 1st 2012 and March 31st 2013.

Strategy Informer: The MMO space is starting to get more and more populated now â€“ can you just sum up what you think will make your game stand out from competitors?

David Adams: We think our IP, the moment to moment gameplay, the vehicles, the PvE and PvP integration. That's where we're being innovative, and that's where we think we're different. We have our unique blend of sci-fi with a little bit of fantasy and horror thrown in. We're embracing guns and action gameplay, we're embracing compelling and high quality vehicles. We think that's a lot for us to stand out and take ownership of.

Strategy Informer: How soon do you think we'll be able to see s playable build, or footage off real gameplay?

David Adams: We're hoping by the end of the year we'll have something to show.
Click to expand...

Doc · Aug 20, 2010

David Adams said:

Sector, there are multiple planets within this sector where our game takes place. Gameplay will take place both on and off planet.
Click to expand...

Space combat!?

David Adams said:

The joke here is that if you take the Nuts and bolts of an MMO, what you do, how you fight etc.. and put them in any other genre, people would laugh at it because it's so simple. It's like what RPG's were like 15 years ago before they really tried to up the ante in terms of effects or animation and all that.

It's funny, because I used to work on MMO's and I left because that's what I didn't like about them. I would look around and think “wow, console developers are way fucking better than we are”. They do stuff that we wouldn't even know how to do, and their level of just pure craft skill was much higher than ours.
Click to expand...

I want this guy to be my best friend and what he says is so true and I'm glad they are going with a third person shooter point of view. I think DMO's combat is going to kill every other MMO on the market when it releases. With this interview alone they have given us clear specifics on the game itself, PvP focus, great combat, and the deep story and lore that we WH40k fans love from the IP.

I cannot wait.

Aral · Aug 20, 2010

two factions! booo! Purge the HERETICS!

Blackwolf99 · Aug 20, 2010

Two factions in a 40k game is very disappointing. Par for the course, I guess. Not really excited about "cart racer" vehicles, either. Oh well. Still gonna play it. Three years is a long time. I'm sure all the details will change. They always do.

Kythas · Aug 21, 2010

Blackwolf99 said: ↑

Two factions in a 40k game is very disappointing. Par for the course, I guess. Not really excited about "cart racer" vehicles, either. Oh well. Still gonna play it. Three years is a long time. I'm sure all the details will change. They always do.
Click to expand...

Halo had Cart Racer physics and the warthog was still fun to drive

Sogetsu · Aug 22, 2010

Blackwolf99 said: ↑

Two factions in a 40k game is very disappointing. Par for the course, I guess. Not really excited about "cart racer" vehicles, either. Oh well. Still gonna play it. Three years is a long time. I'm sure all the details will change. They always do.
Click to expand...

Agree, as previously stated.

Those new screenshots are just awesome..

2 Faction PvP games rarely* work, bring the DAoC 3 faction style in to play pleaseeeee! Or at least something more 40k-sh

Xenzoku · Sep 1, 2010

Im not impressed with the 2 faction thing but could see it coming. Hopefully they may just turn it into what it should be: All out war. Problem is at the end of the day no matter what they decide to choose, there are always going to be people who dont like the decision.

But hey plenty of time till we can probably play it. In the mean time im thinking of starting collecting + painting again Just need to decide on which race to pick up lol. Any suggestions?

Deadend · Sep 1, 2010

Really I wonder why they would use the 40k IP if they are going with factions it just makes no sense what so ever. It's not going to get you many fans from the table top games and for the most part mmo fans are getting bored with two faction games. Also the reason why Warhammer Online didn't really do anything for me either.

But I also only read that its overall order/chaos so that isn't saying that they will be playing nice with each other. So I guess it just wait and see I really think that guy in the interview should have just kept his mouth shut if that's all he was prepared to say about it.

And I would like to add that I think all these game makers need to stop acting like they are protecting state secrets or something.

Sogetsu · Sep 1, 2010

It will still attract a lot of Warhammer 40k fans, just like Warhammer Online did, albeit a brief moment for most.

Its easy to do 2 factions, and its been the norm somewhat for the past 2 years.

I'm not saying that should justify a new game having that "mechanic" but I believe that's probably one of the many reasons.

Mister Meister · Sep 1, 2010

Pssh the factions are clearly outlined. Space Marines vs. All.

Doc · Sep 1, 2010

Mister Meister said: ↑

Pssh the factions are clearly outlined. Space Marines vs. All.
Click to expand...

QFT. I don't think there is a point in making this a PvP game because who is not going to be playing a SM.

Deadend · Sep 1, 2010

Doc said: ↑

QFT. I don't think there is a point in making this a PvP game because who is not going to be playing a SM.
Click to expand...

Me....... I would rather play one of the odd armies like Tau,Tyranid or what will probably never happen Daemons. I'm getting pretty tired of humans,elves and orcs in my MMOs.

Sogetsu · Sep 2, 2010

deadend said: ↑

Me....... I would rather play one of the odd armies like Tau,Tyranid or what will probably never happen Daemons. I'm getting pretty tired of humans,elves and orcs in my MMOs.
Click to expand...

But those are all in the 40k universe as well. Heh.

Tyranids wouldn't work. What about... Chaos Space Marines? Or is that assumed ; )

Ding · Sep 2, 2010

maybe they'll bring the Squats into play.

2 faction pvp, really? I have to go with the above comments; have at least 3 faction war, a la DAoC.

Slares · Sep 2, 2010

CHOAS SPACE MARINES FTW

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD

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