Dawn of War 2 multiplayer beta on Steam for Soulstorm owners

[Rishathra]

It works if you have a non-Steam copy of SS too.  Just activate the code on Steam.  The beta is open for everyone next week.

[NiX]

It's like Valve knows how to generate interest or something. I'm VERY close to buying it on Steam just to play the MP Beta.

[Prospero]

They also knocked 75% of DoW:Soulstorm.

[NowhereMan]

Hadn't checked on this in quite a while. The Venerable Dreadnought in the multiplayer video looks

[NiX]

Still up in the air as to why, but EBStop has pulled DoW2 off both sites. Speculation is that they're steamed (HAR HAR) that Valve has exclusive rights to the beta access.

[Nonentity]

This beta is AWESOME.

I played the crap out of it last night.

Not having to base build and just getting to focus on the unit tactics really is what this series needed. It works, and it works well. The individual upgrades for the commander units is pretty sweet - you can completely change the way you play the unit based on the upgrades.

[Ingmar]

I have this waiting for me tonight for after Naxx. I am super excited!

[Stormwaltz]

I was excited until I noted it was multiplayer only.

I've never found an RTS I could play without constantly pausing. Too much a turn-based strategizer, I fear.

[FatuousTwat]

I thought I knew for sure, but...

Does the game have base building in any form? I keep reading different things. No base building at all, or just no base building in the campaign. Which is it?

[Ingmar]

I was super laggy and couldn't really play it. :(

[Samprimary]

Oh my god. You don't have to dick around with a fucking base.

You don't have to dick around with a fucking base.

No more spending the first four minutes of every match doing the exact same point-foozle-in-direction-of-resources dance. No more 'build order' building bullshit. Just go fuck the shit out of your opponent yeehaw.

[Trippy]

I'm not sure I like this version.

It's nice that it uses the Company of Heroes engine so you have all the facing and cover/positioning stuff (though a lot of the cover is pointless since you end up smashing through most of it just moving your heavy units around). However, the game no longer feels like you are playing a real-time version of the miniatures game. The squads are a lot smaller (e.g. a Space Marine squad is represented by only 3 units on screen, not including a Sergeant), the weapon upgrades no longer resembles the way the miniatures work (can only give one upgrade instead of being able to upgrade multiple squad members) and you can't control as many units as you could in the original game. Also the supression is really damn annoying, and no more rallying like in the original game and miniatures.

It's basically analguous to what Blizzard did going from StarCraft to WarCraft: many fewer units and everything focuses around your Hero (Commander).

I was excited until I noted it was multiplayer only.

I've never found an RTS I could play without constantly pausing. Too much a turn-based strategizer, I fear.

You can just play against computer opponents a la StarCraft and WarCraft. I.e. Host your own game and switch the slots on the opposing side to Comp players. You can also do that to play by yourself (close off the extra slots on your side). You can also pause the game while playing by yourself though the UI isn't really setup to make that convenient.

I thought I knew for sure, but...

Does the game have base building in any form? I keep reading different things. No base building at all, or just no base building in the campaign. Which is it?

No base building at all in the MP Beta. Can't comment on the full game.

[Azazel]

Oh my god. You don't have to dick around with a fucking base.

You don't have to dick around with a fucking base.

No more spending the first four minutes of every match doing the exact same point-foozle-in-direction-of-resources dance. No more 'build order' building bullshit. Just go fuck the shit out of your opponent yeehaw.

I don't get it. I just tried it out.

I had a base. Had to build shit. Queue things up.

It's almost exactly the same old shit. I mean, I enjoyed the original DoW, though I never finished any of the many sequels, and I'm not into RTS MP.

What I'd really like to see would be something with no resources or building at all, where you bought your forces in advance of the battle, to a set number of points, then played on a battlefield where you had objectives and whatnot. Yeah, basically, I'd like to play 40k on my PC, rather than Warcraft 2/Age of Empires/etc with a 40k skin slapped over the top. Hopefully some of the SP missions will be much more like that.

[Malakili]

I am enjoying this so far.  For those who are familiar with Company of Heroes in feels similar.

I'm finding the fact that from the first minute onwards there is generally fighting constantly.  There aren't long periods of building up and army, then making a decisive sweep through and winning the game.  I'm pretty sick of that formula.

Disclaimer: The majority of my play time in this beta so far has been in 3v3 games with the victory point format.  I've heard 1v1 games turn out to be a little cat and mouse-like with a lot of trading control points, but I haven't had that experience myself yet.

[Trippy]

Oh my god. You don't have to dick around with a fucking base.

You don't have to dick around with a fucking base.

No more spending the first four minutes of every match doing the exact same point-foozle-in-direction-of-resources dance. No more 'build order' building bullshit. Just go fuck the shit out of your opponent yeehaw.

I don't get it. I just tried it out.

I had a base. Had to build shit. Queue things up.

Using the Space Marines as an example you don't have to build a barracks to build regular infantry (e.g. in DoW I your HQ can only build Scouts and Techpriests), don't have to build a Vehicle Pad, don't need to build structures for upgrades (just need to upgrade your HQ), and on and so forth. In fact there aren't any "builder" units at all for building buildings (not counting things like turrets and stuff).

[Azazel]

Ah yes, ok I'd forgotten the myriad of buildings you had to build for each unit type. OK, that's an improvement. (Can your buildings and dreadnoughts and shit be repaired at all now?)

Regardless, I'm not in love with it.

[Trippy]

Ah yes, ok I'd forgotten the myriad of buildings you had to build for each unit type. OK, that's an improvement. (Can your buildings and dreadnoughts and shit be repaired at all now?)

Regardless, I'm not in love with it.

Yes they can still be repaired, assuming you have a unit with the Repair ability. The Space Marine Techmarine Commander has that ability, for example.

[apocrypha]

What I'd really like to see would be something with no resources or building at all, where you bought your forces in advance of the battle, to a set number of points, then played on a battlefield where you had objectives and whatnot. Yeah, basically, I'd like to play 40k on my PC, rather than Warcraft 2/Age of Empires/etc with a 40k skin slapped over the top. Hopefully some of the SP missions will be much more like that.

Myth: The Fallen Lords and Ground Control were like that. Awesome games. Worth digging out if you've never played them. Just be careful with the drunken grenade-throwing dwarves in Myth!

[Malakili]

What I'd really like to see would be something with no resources or building at all, where you bought your forces in advance of the battle, to a set number of points, then played on a battlefield where you had objectives and whatnot. Yeah, basically, I'd like to play 40k on my PC, rather than Warcraft 2/Age of Empires/etc with a 40k skin slapped over the top. Hopefully some of the SP missions will be much more like that.

If I recall, Warhammer 40k: Rites of War was like that.  I might be wrong, but it is definitely turn-based, so its not really an RTS to begin with.

[Trippy]

What I'd really like to see would be something with no resources or building at all, where you bought your forces in advance of the battle, to a set number of points, then played on a battlefield where you had objectives and whatnot. Yeah, basically, I'd like to play 40k on my PC, rather than Warcraft 2/Age of Empires/etc with a 40k skin slapped over the top. Hopefully some of the SP missions will be much more like that.

If I recall, Warhammer 40k: Rites of War was like that.  I might be wrong, but it is definitely turn-based, so its not really an RTS to begin with.

Rites of War was more like WH 40K Epic in that each unit on the screen represented an entire squad (it used the Panzer General engine). Chaos Gate was the one were you controlled individual squad members using an X-Com/Jagged Alliance style "action points" system and you picked your units before the start of the battle.

Edit: action points

[Azazel]

I played through Chaos Gate back in the day. I can't recall if I finished it or not but it was fun for the time.

Though those AP games play more like Space Hulk than 40k.

[JWIV]

So I spent some time with this over the weekend.  Maybe it's because I'm old and scared of new things, but this is not the game for me I fear.

The instant action aspects are nice, and I'm sure that the zerg/rush brigade is having a collective stiffy over the end of base building and dirt farming. 

There are two main thrusts to the game play it appears - unit micro and hard counters.  Neither of which I'm particularly fond of.   

Oh well.   That said - all of you should buy it so that Relic becomes wealthy enough to say fuck it and make another Homeworld and damn the financial risks. 

Back to playing the original  DoW and reading the Horus Heresy series for my 40K fix.

[Malakili]

There are two main thrusts to the game play it appears - unit micro and hard counters.  Neither of which I'm particularly fond of.   

Yeah, hard counters are a HUGE part of the game.  A little too huge in my opinion.  There are some units that, no matter how well you play them, will get utterly destroyed by another type of unit.  This is pretty standard for RTS games, so its not something new.  The problem is that with the relatively small number of units on the battlefield at any given time, running into a hard counter and losing just one or two units very quickly can be devastating to your chances of winning.  Don't get me wrong, I am going to buy this game, I've had more fun playing this game online in beta than I have in any RTS since star craft, but there are definitely some legitimate annoyances.

[Trippy]

Released game discussion over here now:

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=16256.0