E3 2010: Interview with Warhammer 40K's Mark Downie

yay... yet another ip butchered for the mmo goddess of greed and if the game aims too look like the presented in THREE FUCKING YEARS this won't be impressive at all.

I ran out, please send me more, less the reptillians envelope us all.

Most of you people sound like a bunch of whine-o's. Of course they are going to take elements of WoW. It’s the most successful MMO of all time. And like it or not the gamming industry is a business and last time I checked it’s not a charitable one.
As far as not being faithful to the IP, that is ludicrous. You can’t take an IP from one medium to another and not have to make changes. Ranting about not being faithful to the tabletop just makes you sound like some old guy complaining about the music these days and telling kids to get off your lawn.
I for one like a game that has story driven content. There is only so much “random” content they can put in before you get repetition. Take x to y location, defend a for b time, advance on q enemy with p ally. Besides, while I will group up with people whom I have developed an online friendship with, there are a lot of times when I get tired of the trolls and annoying 12 year olds and I just want to go off and play through a story.
I will agree that the 2013 date is very disheartening, what happened to the 2012 leak we saw from the THQ conference? Plus if the engine is done, the models already exist, the IP is very developed and you have outlines for game play what the heck will take 3 years to complete? I have been a developer for 11 years and nothing that is that far along should take that much time to complete. Even with extensive testing.

Jezus H christ.

I honestly don't see why my comment had to be greyed out.
Seriously if you can't handle or feel the need to eliminate ideas that don't stroke with yours.....

Fact is that the graphics don't look interesting.
The art looks like so many other mmo's. And it wasn't a real trailer either.
It was a mock up, stated by the developer himself.

Apparently you are not allowed to think that established IP's need to be treated with a minimum of respect.

Common on! Dark Millenium? Dark Siders? Seriously its like the entire world is on friggin crazy pills.

Graphics look decent - not dark enough, but they could never make it as dark as the source material (or as dark as I want!) and still get a profitable number of players, but I can accept that as long as they don't make it too cartoony like WoW/WAR. I actually don't want cutting edge graphics because PvP games need to run smoothly and also need to run on as many PCs as possible, as PvP MMOs need large populations to thrive. I'd rather the game had a decent framerate and smooth animations than astonishing graphics - I'm tired of overly-pretty avatars that move around like jerky marionettes.

I'm hoping for combat like Planetside, with PvP being central, but I would also like to see a little more direction to the PvP and some PvE too. Planetside was awesome when allied Outfits on our server were working together, with a plan and a proper chain of command - maybe a couple of outfits working as tank platoons, a few as infantry drop-troops, one as spec-ops, another as air support, etc. - an alliance like that could easily defeat three times it's number of zerging directionless players. But Planetside was really dull and not worth playing when nothing was happening except zergs - and incredibly dull when servers had low populations (such as off-peak, and later in the game's life) - PvP-only games need a healthy population or they just end up in a death spiral where players play less because less players are playing.

What would be great is if there was an RTS side to the game where some strategically-minded players could just set strategy/orders as suggestions for where people on the ground (playing the marines, guardsmen, etc.) should go next - the "commander" players could have recon drones and be able to supply artillery/orbital support that is directed by players acting as spotters on the ground.

But I'm dreaming - we'll probably get more of a theme park type of MMO in the WoW/WAR style. I don't want a directionless sandbox, or a PvP game where PvP is the only thing to do, but I also don't want a WoW-clone theme park where Orks team with Chaos Marines to take down a Space Marine Dreadnought boss in an instance for loot. I'd hate to log in and hear, on a broadcast channel: "3 marines, 2 IG & 1 warp spider LFM for Abaddon pickup raid - phat loot! - need marine with apoth spec to heal and a farseer with fortune buff" - that would just kill the game for me.

I hope progression is more horizontal (like Planetside) than vertical (like WoW) so progress unlocks flexibility more than additional power - it would be great if, perhaps after doing the tutorial as a Scout, when you become a Space Marine you could choose to either be Assault, Devastator or Tactical spec (with appropriate talents to unlock), but then open up the other roles through play (to give you variety/flexibility), so you could choose before each deployment which role you would play (close combat, fire support, or a mid-ranged hybrid of the two).

You could unlock weapons during play too, so a Tactical Space Marine might start with just a Bolter, but be able to unlock Flamers, Plasmaguns, Meltaguns etc. later, or an Assault Marine starting with Bolt Pistol + Chainsword but being able to unlock Plasma Pistols and each type of Power Weapon as time went on, and eventually unlocking Terminator Armour and weapons. Then maybe be able to convert a maxed-out marine character into a Dreadnought as a one-way deal, if you wanted to, or possibly become a Chaplain, Techmarine, Librarian or Apothecary - so those roles were suitably rare but something to aim for - losing flexibility to gain some additional power that was especially desirable in groups.

I also hope we get Space Marines on the same level of power as in the lore/novels, but not the tabletop game, so a single Chaos/Space Marine would be powerful enough to wreck a squad of 10 Guardsmen/Cultists. How would they balance the game for weaker troop types, you ask? Well, Imperial Guard, Heretic/Cultist and Gretchin players could control a unit instead of a single Space/Chaos Marine - you would control the officer/leader, with the squad members being controllable pets (just like Masterminds in City of Heroes) - so for Imperial Guard you might be a Commissar or Officer/Sergeant and have 9-10 Guardsmen who you could upgrade into Storm Troopers eventually, or play an Ork Runtherd/Slaver with 15-20 Gretchin as pets. Imagine being a Commissar, having one of your guardsmen "pets" not following your orders (bad pet AI or whatever :p ) and being able to execute them to give a significant buff to your remaining guardsmen.

More powerful entities, but still not on Space Marine level, could have mid-size squads, e.g. a Tech-Priest with 4-5 Combat Servitors/Skitarii or an Eldar Warlock with 4-5 Guardians. But Imperial/Chaos Marines/Dreadnoughts, Eldar Aspect Warrior Exarchs, Ork Nobs, IG Ogryns, etc. would be single characters with no squad attached. That way 5-10 marine players could team together to make up a marine squad, but if several IG players teamed together they would basically be making a platoon/company level formation - and of course you could have mixed formations, such as Marines, Battle-Sisters, Tech-Priests and IG teaming together - doesn't happen in the tabletop game, but happens all the time in WH40k novels - anything can happen on the battlefield.

I hope Vigil have vehicles being multi-crewed as well like in Planetside, so each turret or sponson weapon would have 1 player controlling it and 1 player would be the driver - with Predators/Land Raiders/Leman Russ having 3-4 crew, but massive things like Baneblades or Titans (if we're lucky enough to be able to play them - probably not) maybe needing 6-10 crew.

I hope there's more than one loyal marine chapter permitted as well, as I only saw Black Templars in the vid (and I prefer White Scars and Crimson Fists). They could rationalise multiple chapters playing together if they just say that the Imperium force in the game is a Deathwatch operation with attached ImpGuard/Ecclesiarchy/AdMech elements. Heck, character customisation would be awesome if you could design your own chapter from scratch (or your own sisters order, or IG regiment, etc. - and do same with Ork clans, Chaos Legions, Eldar Craftworlds, etc.), or just select one of the famous chapters in the lore (Ultramarines, Blood Angels, etc.) from a dropdown menu and then when you get in-game having access to a chat channel with everyone else who also picked that chapter - almost like an informal guild/clan.

PvE questing would be fine, as long as it is objective-based to seem like a military operation - even some solo quests (spec-ops) so people have something to do while waiting for guild/clan-mates to log in - but PvP should be central to most of the game so I think some PvP opposed questing would be awesome - e.g. one team has to capture and hold an objective, another side has to plant explosives on it to destroy it, and maybe the third side has to steal some valuable tech from the objective.

I usually play PvE-only in MMORPGs and get my PvP fix from games designed for it (MMOFPS and normal FPS games, and also RTS), but this IP begs to be mainly a PvP game with FPS gameplay - turning this into a WoW-clone with PvE raiding as the endgame would be doing a great disservice to the GW licence - Dark Millennium Online needs to be an MMOFPS! All the ex-WoW players have plenty of other games to go to - ex-Planetside players and the huge number of FPS gamers in the world need a persistent MMOFPS with terrain control, meaningful objectives and multiple factions so we can be happy too!

I hope someone from Vigil reads this :)

So, it was a fake trailer? -_-

Something they are hoping to get done by 2013? -_-

As someone who was very eager to play what was showed, that's just kinda lame. It's way too early to be doing publicity. That kind of thing can bite you in the ass. Or were they hoping to drum up some investors resulting from fan reactions?

So disappointed. I'm suddenly reminded of Duke Nukem and Daikatana for some reason.

LoL apparently the comment section is already being "handled" by fans.
Or the thought police.

Yea well, you are all going to get what you deserve so enjoy being a *BEEPBEEPOBLEEP!* while you can.

Not to jump on the train some more but another thing popped out from the interview. They can't even tell us a base set of races that are going to be in the game. They are implying Chaos, Orks, and Space Marines and alluding to wanting Eldar. But they haven't even commited to any right now.

As far as art direction goes, I think all of the above is true. Yes it looks great now. Yes it will look less cutting edge in 3 years. Yes, the game will have to make concessions to poly counts because of the PvP requiring massive and massive amounts of units on screen.

One thing that give me confidence is that this is Joe Madiera's company. He is one of my favorite comic artists and pretty much legendary. I can't imagine he's going to let me down visually.

Looks like they have 2 factions only at the moment. (Check the info on the official site) It might change of course.
Ugh 2013? By that time, I'll be in my water farm in Mars enjoying the red planet weather with my 5 concubines.

Couple things to say here.

On the art direction, and a lot of the criticism on it, I think a lot of people are jumping to conclusions far, far too early before any can really be made. I mean, really, we only have this trailer to go off of. That's it. No screenshots, nothing. Just this trailer. I personally, do not think the design looks 'cartoony'. Also, if you know anything about the actual tabletop game, the models are all somewhat cartoony in proportions. Look at pictures of imperial guard models on the games workshop website. They're not that realistic. But what little i've seen from the only available glimpse of the game doesn't look cartoony.

Also, I don't think they've strayed from the path of GRIMDARKFUTUREOFTHE41STMILLENIUM. For starters, it's far too early to tell. And not every planet or location in the galaxy of Warhammer is dimly lit, ringed with skulls, covered in gore, and full of decayed cherubs swinging censers and chanting in gurgling voices. It's certainly prominent, but the galaxy of 40k encompasses an infinite amount of different planets and different cultures to go along with them. This is confirmed in various 40k novels (I have hundreds of them, seriously.), games, and even art. I don't doubt that the game developers will include the right amount of GRIMDARK in the game when it's released.

In regards to gameplay, we haven't really seen much, and we haven't really been given any concrete confirmation as to what the play style will be like. While I would be surprised, it's not far fetched to think that it may be a PvE-centric game. I certainly hope not, but you never know. Everyone on here is making assumptions based on a short trailer with no other information to go on.

What I want is a PvP-centric game, with enough good PvE content to attract those people who'd rather do quests and kill npcs. There's more than enough lore and universe content to allow for both PvE and PvP to flourish. Raids on space hulks or chaos temples, to PvP fights to control manufactorum districts for war production bonuses.

I for one will put my vote in for horizontal progression, instead of WoW's vertical progression. Better yet, i'd like to see a mix of the two.

Also, as customization is one of 40k's strongest attractions, I would also like to see either free choice when creating a character in regards to chapter/regiment/legion/Ork tribe. But, as long as i'm not forced to play the vomit inducing Blood Ravens chapter, i'll be happy.

As for the release date, it was quite a blow to learn that it would take another three years (A little more, I think, actually.), for the game to come out. I'm surprised that it would take so long to release, even though it's already (Supposedly) been in the works for three years already. I will be one Emperor forsaken soul if the world ends in 2012 and I haven't gotten a chance to play the game. A simple announcement and some screenshots would have been fine, instead of releasing a trailer to get everyone mega-pumped about a game that won't be out for three years or more. It's torturous.

Anyways, that's that. I think people need to calm down and realize that we don't know anything about the game yet, so there's no reason to jump to conclusions off a couple minute long trailer. We simply don't know, and i'll reserve my judgement until the game nears release, or we're actually given some substantial information.

To the developers: Don't make the same mistakes Mythic did.

Good night, and remember, the Emperor protects.