Warhammer 40k Dawn of War Open Beta

[HaemishM]

Signups Here

For those who aren't burned out on the closed beta of WH40k Dawn of War and want to try it out, Fileplanet is offering a limited open beta, for which you can signup above. I'm downloading it at work now, and already have it at home. If it isn't mediocre (meaning it's either real good or real bad), I'll write it up for the front page.

I'll probably be playing online as HaemishM at some point.

[Anonymous]

It's mediocre.

Boring retreaded RTS with no point in doing anything but building superunits.

Assuming you don't manage to rush in the first few minutes.

woo?

[Rasix]

I think I lost whatever gene or trait that allowed me to have fun playing RTSs online against other people.  Unless I play like 3 hours a day I just get steamrolled by Korean teenagers using some cheesey strategy that I'd feel like a dick if I actually did the same thing.  

Playing for the win and playing for fun at some point become separate things.  Just doesn't seem possible to do both against other people in these types of games anymore.

[Sky]

Playing for the win and playing for fun at some point become separate things. Just doesn't seem possible to do both against other people in these types of games anymore.

Yeah, I'd say that goes for pvp in general. All's fair in love and war, not gaming. That's about sportsmanship.

[Alluvian]

Yeah, I signed up for the closed beta back when and got the email that I am in the open period, but part of me wonders if I even want to play it just multiplayer vs dicks.  Maybe I will play it vs a friend a few times though.

This is a game I will probably enjoy much more in the single player.  I don't really like RTS multiplayer.

[Sky]

I'm not a big fan of the RTS genre, having burned out on it after Dune2, C&C, Warcraft 1&2. But I did have a ton of fun playing LAN AoE with friends, we had a 'no rush' mentality, allowing us to build up decent fortifications. Again, though, agreed-upon rules of conduct superceding what's 'possible' to get away with in the game.

And to continue my minor tangent, I feel the same needs to take place in mmogs before pvp will be any good for more than a few minutes.

Pre-casting Hallywack! 15 yard penalty and loss of down!

[Alluvian]

Yeah, most pvp games require some sportsmanship in order to be fun.  In a deathmatch you pretty much need no corpse camping rules.  In football games you need rules against any plays that emerge as being totally broken or just against the spirit of football.  Like back pedaling 30 yards waiting for pass coverage to break down.  I find that really lame.

[kaid]

other than playing this against a couple close friends I deffinatly would be more likely to play this game single player than multiplayer.

I have yet to find a RTS that has pacing I care for in multiplayer.

[Jain Zar]

Its not bad, but if it wasn't for the 40K liscense I doubt I would give it more than a look.  Its better than Warcraft 3 though.  Needs some more balancing to get rid of the uber units though.  Avatars and Bloodthirsters are a bit sick.

[kaid]

Well thats  usually what the RTS open betas are for is final unit tweaking. Imbalances become really quickly obvious when folks start going all out cheese fests to win.

Kaid

[HaemishM]

Well, fuck me with a rusty railroad spike.

Now, we all know I'm on an underpowered machine. But apparently, according to Relic, I am on ancient technology. I tried to run this thing on just about every setting possible, and no matter what I turned down, my gameplay sucked ass, especially on the tutorial. The game starts out fine, but as more units are built, even units I CANNOT FUCKING SEE, the game starts hitching. First it's bearable, a little hiccup here or there as I'm moving the mouse. By the time I've got 4 or 5 units out, the game will just dead stop for up to 30 seconds at a time and do nothing whatsoever. I can hear sounds going off in the background, but the screen isn't moving. It reminds me of the exact same performance Shadowbane was giving me in the last month of beta/first month of release, a problem which went away with WinXP (I'm on Win98SE). I tried it with no sound, low settings all around, 16-bit graphics, etc. Nothing helped.

It seemed like a fun game, made more so by the license, but I'll be damned if I could play it. Anyone else experience this?

[Trippy]

Is your swap space dynamically allocated (managed by Windows) or set to a fixed size? Do you have one or two hard drives?

[schild]

My system sucks. Can't run mediocre game.

Trust me, you aren't missing much.

[HaemishM]

AFAIK, my swap space is a fixed size. I don't think I've let Windows manage my virtual memory in a long time.

[Trippy]

AFAIK, my swap space is a fixed size. I don't think I've let Windows manage my virtual memory in a long time.

Okay never mind me then.

[Lanei]

Intermittent pausing of the game seems to be a fairly widely reported issue.

I saw it playing the tutorial, but never for longer than a tenth of a second at most, usaully just manifested as a lack of smoothness in scrolling the screen around, and only when both sides were near troop caps.

According to the beta forum, a fair number of other people have this issue, but only in the tutorial, or multiplayer games with AI players.  Multiplayer with only human opponents doesn't have the issue for those that reported it on the forum.

[Sky]

But apparently, according to Relic, I am on ancient technology.

[HaemishM]

After reading the boards, I see my issue is not an isolated one. I'm going to try some things tonight. If anyone sees HaemishM on their Lamespy thing, it'll be me trying to get a multiplayer game going to see if this issue is in MP or not.

[TenaciousMike]

Tried playing it some last night.  Apparently Gamespy is running the servers on a 286.  You couldn't have a game lobby open for more than 30 seconds before somebody got dropped (usually multiple somebodies).

I played the tutorial just fine with the Terrans... err, I mean the Space Marines.

A lot of people compare it to Starcraft (even though WH40k was around BEFORE SC), but aside from the looks of some of the units, this is new RTS goodness.

A couple of things that set this game apart from normal RTS:

Not units, squads -- You don't just buy 1 marine, you get 4.  With upgrades, you can allow them to have even more in a squad (although you have to add them later using reinforcements).

Reinforcements -- If your squad is nearly wiped out, you can retreat and use a reinforcements button to "build" more units in the squad while in the field.

Morale -- If your units panic, they lose combat effectiveness, but they do get faster movement, so they can run away (to reinfoce).

Versatile -- You can give special weapons to your various squads.  Thus a gaggle of space marines can get heavy machine guns with armor piercing bullets, flame throwers, and even rocket launchers!  You can do this in the field, as well.  A really cool option is the scouts (normally weak little shits) can equip sniper rifles.  You can get 1-shot kills with them, long reload.  But if you get a lot of scouts with them, you can do some damage!

Paper Rock Scissors -- I didn't really get a feel for what counters what, but I know it is there.  For example, I created a dreadnaught walking tank.  This thing took out about 3 squads of orcs all by itself!  And still took minimal damage.  If they had missile launcers of some sort, that would have been a different story.  Missiles are for taking out heavy armor and buildings.  Regular weapons do minimal damage against them.

And this is just the Imperial Space Marines.  I haven't even seen the cool stuff the other 3 factions can do!

[schild]

A lot of people compare it to Starcraft (even though WH40k was around BEFORE SC), but aside from the looks of some of the units, this is new RTS goodness.

It was new when Z did this stuff.

It was new when Perimeter did some other stuff.

Now it's just another mediocre RTS that's a zerg rush to control points with select broken units. Next RTS plzkthx.

[Alluvian]

Well, I never played Z or perimeter so I don't really care what they did.  Last RTS I played extensively was C&C generals because I got someone elses copy for free.  But gameplay that game was pretty much standard C&C.

[kaid]

Hell I just want it to be a competent RTS that dosn't make my computer turn into a llama eating demon that poops all over my apartment.

It looks fricking sweet and I love the warhammer 40k universe and if it is at least as competent an RTS as warcraft 3 then I am a happy boy.

Kaid

[TenaciousMike]

A lot of people compare it to Starcraft (even though WH40k was around BEFORE SC), but aside from the looks of some of the units, this is new RTS goodness.

It was new when Z did this stuff.

It was new when Perimeter did some other stuff.

Now it's just another mediocre RTS that's a zerg rush to control points with select broken units. Next RTS plzkthx.

Whatever Z and Perimeter are, they obviously didn't do it right, or we'd have heard more about them.  This game is pretty good.  Your taste in gaming (and hell, pretty much everything in general) is mediocre.

[Murgos]

Hell I just want it to be a competent RTS that dosn't make my computer turn into a llama eating demon that poops all over my apartment.

It looks fricking sweet and I love the warhammer 40k universe and if it is at least as competent an RTS as warcraft 3 then I am a happy boy.

Kaid

I'm playing Doom 3 pretty smoothly, DoW can definately make my system crawl though.  2200+, 512, Radeon 8500 (gonna pickup a 9800 pro in Sept.)

[Jain Zar]

Im using a Radeon 9600.  Im going back to Nvidia this fall.  So many games lock up and reset if not crash outright, and its all random.  Sometimes it does it, sometimes it does not.  Not to mention updating the drivers ALWAYS causes the system to crash during system reset, and then I have to turn the computer off for an hour till its happy and will let the system power up.  

Then again, I couldn't ever get Nvidia new drivers to work on my old 98SE machine.. Direct X would not approve of them and I had to go back to older ones.

But Schild isn't really right about this game.  Its not great, but it is quite fun, especially if you are a 40K fan.  If you hate RTS and don't care about 40K there is nothing here for you though...

[Alkiera]

Im using a Radeon 9600.  Im going back to Nvidia this fall.  So many games lock up and reset if not crash outright, and its all random.  Sometimes it does it, sometimes it does not.  Not to mention updating the drivers ALWAYS causes the system to crash during system reset, and then I have to turn the computer off for an hour till its happy and will let the system power up.  

I just switched from nVidia(GF2 GTS) to an ATI 9600 Pro, and am very happy.  Haven't had any real issues with drivers or crashes, my games look better and draw faster.  This is running Win2k.  Haven't booted into my 98SE partition since the switch, I expect it to scream bloody murder when I do.

--
Alkiera

[kaid]

I played it a bit last night I got some of the hiccups when I was in a higher terrain res. It actually smoothed out when I lowered terrain res and raised everything else to max.

I seriously need to rtfm for this game hehehehe. It has ALOT of option paths for unit/squad upgrades.

I think it is pretty darn amusing and seems really full featured. Heheh after playing the orcs and getting the big orc boss in one of my squads I um lost the game cause I was having to much fun watching the boss man beat ass.

The orc captain looks hilarious with a big power claw and when he closes to melee range he starts busting ass and just sending waves of people flying.

It is a pretty intricate system with lots and lots of options like attatching various leader/hero units  like bad doks, various sargents and what not to squads. Also once you go up the tech tree you can reinforce squads with various types of weapon options to give your squad more assult, mid or anti vehical weaponry.

The graphics are very tasty and the game play seems fun from the tutorial I played with the orcs. I also dabbled a lil bit  with the eldar and managed to get one of their wraithlord/dreadnaughts out into play. These guys do some seriously wrong looking things to units in melee. Also its flame thrower was having alot of fun just rolling up other infantry.


I will play it again tonight now I have a bit more of a clue how to fortify and defend capture points. Letting an enemy stick a listening post right in weapon range of your base is um not a good idea.


kaid

[kaid]

I was poking around on their boards and it appears that many see the hiccups in the tutorial and the word currently is it looks like some bug or glitch in the ai script the tutorial uses. Apparently it is much less if any issue for the folks who have these problems in multiplayer.

Kaid

[HaemishM]

I tried to get multiplayer going last night, but fucking Gamespy HATES me apparently, but the feeling is quite passionately mutual. The damn game-matching interface lags like a broke-kneed bitch, and getting games that aren't passworded is tough. So I still can't tell if the multiplayer doesn't have the hiccup glitch that the tutorial does.

If you like 40k, it's a decent RTS. What it brings to the table for non-40k fans I'm not sure, since I generally hate and suck at most RTS'es.

[daveNYC]

Played a bit, I enjoy the game, but I'm worried about the QA work.  Had to install the beta twice because the first install had a pile of corrupted files; and now that it works, there are graphical glitches that are annoying the hell out of me.  Transparent colors don't seem to be working or some such.

[Alluvian]

No problems installing, and no real performance issues even in the tutorial.  It hitches a LITTLE bit now and then but nothing that I would have even noticed really if others had not pointed it out in advance.  All I have for a system is:

AMD 2500
1 gig DDR400 ram (running at 333 fsb due to cpu)
5900 XT (overclocked past Ultra)
Nforce2 sound and mb chipset
win xp
8mb cache on the hd

So far I really think the game kicks ass.  I love the squad customizations you can do, I love linking leaders to a squad and how that affects the overall morale and performance of the troops being led.  I like the separate squad and vehicle caps.  I like how some of the units are limited to 1 per side, but think this should have been carried further into other units.  Only one squiggoth for the orks for example I think would make sense.  I like how the orc buildup is based on amount of orcs and their waagh banners, which gives them a very different feel than the space marines.

It is a great game overall that actually took the 40k license into good effect.  Setting up my space marine troops with flamethrowers to take advantage of ork morale issues, and then next game giving them rocket launchers to help with potential eldar armor rushes is very nice.

I played the tutorial for space marines and orks.  No actual multiplayer yet since I pretty much despise multiplayer competitive rts.

The fun way to multiplay an rts is to play cooperative IMO.  Skirmish mode, 2 humans against 2-4 computer opponents.  And the game appears that it will definately have this mode at some time, the ping commands and ping settings are designed to let human allies know where your troops are for example.

Oh, and the game is drop dead gorgeous.

[kaid]

After trying the bloodthirster, squiggoth and the avatar of the eldar I have to say that squiggy wins it for being a bad mofo.

The squiggoth also takes a lot more stroking the system to get into play so it evens itself out. He is really good at both anti building/anti massed infantry units. The bloodthirster and avatar are just over kill on infantry but are not as good with killing lots of them. The bloodthirster and avatar do seem to kill buildings super fast but squiggy on a kamakazi base run does more overall damage. He can beat ass on huge hords of orks while still blowing the shit out of buildings its really impressive to watch.

I was playing the eldar some more last night and they are very nifty. Their base infantry is pretty weak but they get some great support weapons early on to even that out and eventually their aspect warriors and their tanks are really fricking sweet.

The prism tank is awsome to watch it has the combo of hard hitting anti vehical weapons and a big area effect artillery that maims and scares the crap out of infantry. It also looks hella cool I spent some time last night just super zoomed on watching the eldar vyper and prism and they are so very well modled.

kaid

[kaid]

Oh note to space marines if you play against eldar WATCH OUT FOR DARK REAPERS! Those things are amazing anti heavy infantry anti vehical units.

Kaid

[daveNYC]

The Chaos 'peon' unit is... disturbing.

Minefields are fun to zoom in on and watch the bodies fly around.

Only played Chaos and Human, but the different building methods are rather cool.  I'm not sure if the Chaos guys have some Home Depot thing in warp space but it is cool to see them open a portal and lift a building out.

Space Marine vehicles don't seem to be all that, but that's probably just me.  I still need to try out a Terminator squad.

[kaid]

The space marines vehicals are pretty much exactally where they should be at for look and power. They are also a lot more "normal" seeming than things like eldar dreadnaughts and chaos defilers or ork squiggoths.


I do like the fact the focus of the game is on infantry. Vehicals are huge boosts in the game and are very very nasty but still most of the work is done by the ground pounders as it should be with some tank backup.

One of the nastiest combined arms groups I sent against an enemy base just to see how it worked was a seer council in assult mode followed by a fully equiped squad of dark reapers and a prism tank for fire support.

I was doing really good but then my seers broke moral ooops it was then time to RUN AWAY.

I really do like all the ways you can gear up your squads depending on what you are facing.

If I am going against space marines as an eldar I start going for support weapons and dark reapers to crack their shells. Against orks you equip your troops with flamers and work on howling banshees to try and crack the moral on their big squads and then chew them up.

Space marines have less infantry types but all of their infantry is high quality and can be equiped as needed to deal with what you are going up against.

All in all it looks to have a lot more going for it tactically than WC3 did and I really liked wc3. This deffinatly will be a buyer when it comes out.

kaid