Dawn of War 2

[IBBoard]

Except that the Starship Troopers film came out in 1997, while Nids (mainily Genestealers at first) turned up from the 1980s and Rogue Trader/Space Hulk. Even the second edition codex beat the film by four years. Before that I don't think there was much in the way of visualisations.

They might have taken inspiration from Alien, but then a lot of things do. Alien just formed a more concrete "big nasty" that took the "vicious killer" and "distinctly not human" alien archetypes and combined them together. If you want a really alien alien species then what better is there to go for than an all-devouring thing that looks nothing like anything else and looks (in general) rather scary?

As for why people like them, it's the description in the previous post. They're an archetypal "big nasty alien" species that does nothing but destroy everything in its wake. It has hordes of minions who can be cheaply sacrificed (because they'll just be consumed back in to the system later) and some strong large creatures. In a universe of "civilised races" they provide a bit of variety, an unknown background and the perfect outsider.

[Sanguinius]

well, i dont really mean the films as much as the books. gw got a lot of ideas from them. the 'fodder' soldiers, aka normal troops, were like the IG 'cause of their strength in numbers. the more elite troops had big body armor, like space marines.

anyways,,,,,back to the topic at hand, the marine photos dont show any glowing skulls or and kind of bling.when they said that the squads would have an rpg-style 'inventory' i hope that uner-gold isnt one of them. "yo, i just tricked out my predator with rims, platinum treads, and golden trim on the seats! i also got a diamond-studded breather so all those nobz can get blinded by the reflection!"

[IBBoard]

And Starship Trooper would have taken "fodder troopers" from 90% of the worlds Infantry units. Ask anyone from any other area of the army about Infantry regiments and they'll probably tell you that they're the gun-fodder grunts. Armoured super warriors is probably also quite a common idea (although the Starship Trooper versions were just normal troopers, more like Tau suits with a regular pilot than enhanced people). There may be some inspiration there, but only because Starship Trooper probably took its ideas from other common themes anyway.

The bling on the Marines was one of the worst ideas they had. I'm just glad that Hangar-8 found how to create his Shoulder Upgrade Removal Tool. Hopefully it's not in the screenshots because it's not in the game, but it could be because they're just not upgraded units (I don't remember seeing them in the original DoW screenshots).

[Sanguinius]

yea thats right they never did have the glowing skull upgrade in the original photos. and yea, i think your right about the starship trooper part.

but also,,,,,
i believe alot of the troopers insperation actually camefrom the nazi's and communists of the times he wrote the books. the movies(though the author didnt make them) basically confirm the because of their themes(goosestepping is obvious). back in the 30's/40's, the russians actually had a prototype "iron man like" suit that provided the wearer with alot more protection against firearms. but because of its extreme cost, multiple flaws(they didnt have good air conditioning as well as the fact that normal conscripts cant usually support 500+ pound bosy suits) and just plain wierdness, it was scrubbed early on. the conscripts are also like the 'fodders' also.

[IBBoard]

Even before the Soviets were making their armour you'll probably find that some of the earliest Sci-Fi covered similar ideas. I've occasionally found out when some of the stories were written and people like Jules Verne and HG Wells were often well ahead of their time.

I can't imagine the Russians could have had the same "flood them with untrained conscripts" approach if they had huge armour suits on, though!

The whole point of conscripts is to bulk up numbers, though. Your well trained soldier has worth and value. Your conscripts are given basic training and are there to make up numbers and provide additional suppressive fire. Why waste good soldiers when you can waste easily replaced conscripts?

We're getting a bit off the original DoW2 theme, though. Lets try to get back to the topic at hand.

[Sanguinius]

yea true we do need to get back. so..no new updates as of now.

[IBBoard]

It has been a little while, but then it's still nine months (very approximately) until it is likely to be released. I'm sure there'll be floods of screenshots and videos as it gets closer to release.

[Sanguinius]

it took me awhile, but i finally saw the updated dow2 trailer with sm vs eldar with an updated end with the captain vs a 'nid. its pretty sweet. i also saw the 'nid gameplay video. cant wait. =)

[IBBoard]

I've not seen those new vids. Then again I've seen the original video, watched it a couple of times, and I still can't see this strange cloud that people say must be Chaos! Any links for the videos?

[stfas]

its actually tyranids. they even showed a trailer of tyranids. and im back from being gone a while <.<

[IBBoard]

Have they said that there's only going to be those four races? There's still a while to go before the release yet, so they've got plenty of time to announce another race. Then again I guess "we're adding Tyranids" gets a big round of applause and following that up with "and there's Chaos" would seem like a let-down. Still, that doesn't resolve the mysterious black cloud that I could never see (or saw as an explosion and discounted or something)

[Sanguinius]

they never really said that their were only going to be four races(at least from what ive heard), but i believe they are going on the original DOW scale, AKA four races in the 1st one, than more in the various gobbledy-goop expansion packs.

[IBBoard]

It would seem to be the most sensible way to work it - four is enough to give some choice but not too many that initial development balance gets too tough - but assumptions can be a bad thing. People assumed we wouldn't see Dark Eldar because they're not very popular, but we got them in Soulstorm

[stfas]

well they got untill next year so who knows what surprises we'll get?

[IBBoard]

At the moment I think the main surprise is angling for "less modability" as the main surprise. If it is then I'm not sure how interesting the sequel will be when I've not got much time to game anyway.