Vigil Games details Warhammer 40K MMO
by Jason Dobson 
{ May 13th 2008 at 9:00AM }
Says Adams, the game will be "much more intense" and combat-focused than the traditional fantasy MMOs upon which we've cut our teeth, giving us all the more reason to want to trade up our broadsword for a storm bolter. However, the dev notes that the MMO "will be an RPG," adding that "Relic has the RTS angle covered with the awesome Dawn of War series - we are making an RPG." Other interesting tidbits from the article include note that the game will include all of the tabletop game's "important" races, customizable characters, a variety of solo, party-based, and PvP missions, and the possibility of in-game vehicles as well. We can't wait to see how the tabletop war game makes the leap to MMO, but as it stands, in the grim darkness of the far future ... there is only waiting.
[Via Massively]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
epsilon343 @ May 13th 2008 9:05AM
I used to play the 40k tabletop game back in middle school/early high school with about 20 people (surprisingly none of us were nerds) and when I heard about WAR coming out I was a little disappointed because I thought that a 40k MMO would be a little bit more interesting. Seems I should pay more attention now that I actually know there is a 40k MMO coming around.
Shralla @ Jun 8th 2008 11:20PM
If you were playing 40k, you were a nerd.
Whiskey Jak @ May 13th 2008 9:06AM
This might well be the first MMO that I'll play. Nothing beats a Dark Angel.
Dirt @ May 13th 2008 9:11AM
Going to pass on this.
I was looking forward to something like a hybrid Eve Online where I can build my own Space Marine chapter and liberate alien planets and home worlds with some strategy elements tossed in.
There are far too many RPGs available now, and they're all the same. As popular as 40k is, I'm going to bet it lasts a year before they close it down.
Leilock @ May 13th 2008 9:28AM
That would be a good year :)
mocax @ May 13th 2008 9:27AM
Playing as a genestealer would be cool.
Hope it's f2p, like Guild Wars.
Forming squads to clean out space hulks is fun.
Geo @ May 13th 2008 9:40AM
WOW!! Marcus Fenix in Gears of War 3......
Obie @ May 13th 2008 11:19AM
I know right? It looks just like him!
ugg.tryptophan @ May 13th 2008 6:12PM
warhammer 40k had him first
PojoMofo @ May 13th 2008 9:46AM
Normally I would be all over this, but Holiday 08 seems like it is going to be a lot like Holiday 07, jam packed of gaming goddness and there just not enough hours im my day to play everything.
I think this has the "potential" to be great though.
Psyclerk @ May 13th 2008 10:58AM
The Space Marines were around a long time before Marcus Fenix.
The artwork used here is from the cover of the novel Flight of the Eisenstein, part of the Horus Heresy series. So technically, that Space Marine is in the year 30K or so.
t_m @ May 13th 2008 11:06AM
I read this interview several weeks ago.
I still feel as I did then, bummed out that they decided to make it ANOTHER MMORPG. SUre it'll have slightly different guns and a cool setting.. but they could have done something more original.
MMO Squad based tactical combat. MMO Cooperative RTS. Heck, anything...
Tim The Enchanter @ May 13th 2008 1:14PM
MMO squad would be awesome... But even without that, I've never played WOW but I'd jump into this.
Destrin @ May 13th 2008 11:15AM
Vigil Games details Warhammer 40K MMO
Not so much of the actual detail present in this post :(
Grimjakk @ May 13th 2008 11:33AM
Y'know... I think that "all races present" bit is misleading. Given the setting, the players pretty much have to be human, unless its a much bigger RvR-style game than I was envisioning...
The Inquisition tends to "discourage" contact with xenos scum. ;)
GenBanks @ May 13th 2008 1:27PM
I hope it's like Tabula Rasa taken to the next level...
More intuitive and visceral controls, better sense of atmosphere and context, and more unique 'stuff'.
Then we'll have a futuristic MMO that will really take off.
Britboyj27 @ May 13th 2008 1:38PM
I cannot wait for this.
Definitely the first MMO I play religiously. Hopefully they make Space Marines a Hero class...(not keeping with the fluff...) Or something you seriously have to work at. (Keeping with the fluff)
I don't want an entire server of Marines like I have ann entire server of Jedi in Star Wars Galaxies...
Or you should have to TURN to Chaos, you can't just pick it.
Mmmm detail...
Dirt @ May 13th 2008 3:20PM
Not being a Space Marine out the door would be incredibly boring. The entire draw of 40k is to play a Space Marine while crushing your foe. Space Marines are pretty much inducted into training by age 10 anyways, so it's not like you can be an Imperial Guard and become a Space Marine without breaking the fluff and ruining the entire game.
RobLink (MKWii code : 0989 1866 6646) @ May 13th 2008 5:06PM
Going back a bit now, as it's been a long time since I was into 40k, but don't Marines start as Scouts? And aren't they completely seperate from Imperial Guard? I'm sure a Wikipedia search would sort it out for me, but Guardsmen have to go through many years of genetic engineering and conditioning to even make it as Scouts.
Maybe if the game brought you in as a Scout - so technically a Marine - and then you work your way upwards and specialise into Assault, Terminator, Devestator etc. I'm gonna keep an eye on this one.
Britboyj27 @ May 13th 2008 6:39PM
That's exactly what I was talking about when I said "work hard" start as Scout. Work as a team. Marines (in the fluff) are walking tanks capable of killing hundreds of Orks without breaking a sweat.
They're also inducted by 10 and do start as scouts.
I, for one, don't want to see it as "SPACE MARINE MMO!"
ugg.tryptophan @ May 13th 2008 9:49PM
but wouldnt it be awesome to start out beheading orks, then a week later be at a high enough level to bring down choppas with a team? i say yes
t_m @ May 13th 2008 11:41PM
I don't see how normal guilds/groups would work in this universe. A Space Marine teamed up with an Eldar and an Orc teamed up with a Tyranid?
In WAR is kinda makes sense, as long as they split them into good and bad races. But in wh40k everyone is os xenophobic that they'd almost never team together, at least not in the way they do in current MMOs.
I wish they'd base it off the old Epic game. Instead of having one character, everyone has a squad of 5 characters. Leveling up allows you not only to improve their skills, but specialize them. So you could choose to make your "squad" Marine-Marine-Medic-Heavy-Heavy or whatever you wanted. Then run it from a slightly more zoomed out perspective, (a bit more like fallot tactics or ground control) and allow higher ranked players to act as generals and play it almost as an RTS, commanding the other players with on screen objective indicators. etc..
I'm sorry, I love 40k, but I'm pretty much already burnt out on MMOs. Its been the same game since Everquest, just with minor tweaks. Putting it in the future with guns isn't a selling point anymore either.
Longoose @ May 18th 2008 3:56AM
dont wanna sound like a fanboy on what i'm gonna spill. guardsmen will never see themselves don a suit of space marine armor. plus they live relatively short lives. playing a guard on an MMO would consist of being issued your gear and getting whipped by your cranky commissar. oh and uh no genetic modifications go into making guardsmen unless they PDF regiments they were recruited from practice genetic tampering. now being a space marine would make more sense because they do have a harder to earn rank structure. i do agree it'll be lame for everyone to be stomping around as marines. then again not every marine chapter gets along. so the depth in the difference of chapters is what will make it original and less repetitive. think of it, you'd have a lost and damned flame falcon marine being hunted by some zealous grey knights. there's just too much complexity for vigil games to consider and though it'll be awesome for devout fans it wont be as satisfying as the table game.
Grimjakk @ May 23rd 2008 11:26AM
Y'know... this sounds a lot like the "I wanna be a Jedi" complaints that eventually destroyed SWG.
No offense... but there aren't that many Space Marines. Only a million or so. But there are uncountable numbers of Inquisitors, Adepte (Adepteses?) Mechanicus, Imperial Guard officers, Assassins, Rogue Traders, Judges, Pirates, Ecclesiarchs, Sanctioned Psykers, Hive gangers, Astropaths, etc., etc.
If you want to look for something that might work as basis for a general 'tone' to a 40k MMORPG, check out the Eisenhorn Trilogy, the Gaunt's Ghosts series, Necromunda (game), or Inquisitor (game).
And in the original game (W40K: Rogue Trader), you played the eponymous Trader, with your sanctioned retinue... which often included a squad or two of space marines on detatched duty from thier chapters.
Space marines are actually just a piece of the lore...
Dreadp00l @ Jun 26th 2008 3:47AM
Someone has probably already made this point, but I wanna cover the bases. Warhammer 40,000 actually had its start as a 'book, pencil and fist full of dice' RPG called 'Rogue Trader'. I know it sounds weird, but before Nintendo, this was how we did multiplayer =D.
The game was a well visioned move to take the background story and IP from Warhammer Fantasy and drop it into a sci-fi genre. The RPG had just been made obsolete when I was introduced to the tabletop game, although when I bought the tabletop game starter set, you could still find the Rogue Trader book in the 'new' rack at some comic/game/hobby shops, as well as the 'rogue trader' branded 10 man marine squads in the 'Mk. V' armor style complete with the chainsaw attatchments for the bolters (ala Gears of War). With the recent resurgence of interest in oldskool roleplay, GW has come out with a new RPG called 'Dark Heresy', I just got a copy but haven't even had time to get past the credits and table of contents. Sadly, only Rick Priestly had a hand in creating the new RPG. I don't know what happened to the other original creators such as Andy Chambers, but I suspect a gory dismemberment by the corporate machine. As much as I love the game, I'm equal amounts disgusted with the Games Workshop monster. When I put my models on the shelf for good, it felt like the army lists were being restructured every 12 months, and that meant getting new Coda for each army I played (Chaos Undivided, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Cadians, Tyranids) and in the case of the Tyranids, the changes were so sweeping that 90% of my painstakingly painted brood were no longer legal to field at tourneys or sanctioned events without heavy modifications. If you take your army painting seriously (and I mean serious enough to put the care and effort into so your army looks as good as one in a White Dwarf battle report) , you know how slim the odds are of taking a finished, based and armor-coated figure and modifying limbs and weapons and having it look as good as good as the original. I felt like GW was going far beyond making a tidy profit on their schwag. I tallied the cost I paid for all my squads, commanders, coda, vehicles, 3rd edition upgrade (etc ad nausem), and estimated the cost of 5 years of citadel brand supplies (not just cause GW makes em, but becuase they are, IMHO, the most perfectly formulated paints available for scale modeling. I've tried them all and Citadel outperforms any other)based on 3 months of receipts from Hobbytown USA, and the total was approx. $12,000 over 7 years of playing!!! Still though, as disgusted as I am with what GW has evolved into since their stock went public, I wouldn't even catch a glimpse if Blizzard released a 'World of Starcraft' (and you know they will... probably 8-12 months after they release Starcraft 2) at the same time THQ released Warhammer 40,000 online. If THQ can get it right that is. Soulstorm was a purchase I regretted about 2 hours after install. They are a quality developer, and I've enjoyed playing quite a few of their titles, but they havent done a project that stands out in the 'shock and awe' category, and as I mentioned a bit ago, some of their titles really seem impressive and exciting, but are an epic buzz-kill at runtime. I've checked out the teaser's for Dawn Of War 2 and they look effing phenomenal. I'm a bit leery about their decision to go with a non linear single player campaign mode again. It was a fun concept in DOW: Dark Crusade, but they got lazy with Soulstorm and kept the single player campaign at the status quo. Content wise, Soulstorm amounted to nothing more than an expansion to Dark Crusade, and I'm a little pissed about paying core price for it. I'm really praying and hoping that DOW 2 smokes Starcraft 2 at relase time. Starcraft was a blatant cut and paste of some of Warhammer 40,000, and I know I'm not the only one who sees it. You would have to have an IQ of 10 to not see that Zerg = Tyranid clone, and that the Terrans and Protoss are based heavily on the Imperial Space Marines/Guard and the Craftworld Eldar. At this stage, THQ really looks poised to go head to head with Blizzard in the sci-fi RTS arena, and I think that whoever wins that battle is going to have a lock on the market share of subscribers when the MMOs are released. I know that Blizzard hasn't said a single word about developing a Starcraft MMO, but WoW has got to die sometime, and I'll wager the time of death will be a year and a half after Wrath of the Lich King arrives, notwithstanding them raising Sargeras from the dead to get another expansion out to milk every last drop from the monster. Blizzard has made a fortune from WOW. They've got their nails into more fiends than the Columbian cartell, and yeah, WoW is cheaper than crack, but only a fool wouldn't have a brand new drug ready to roll when crack, er, WoW isn't fun anymore. Common sense says that Blizz has development of a Starcraft MMO well underway in a sealed underground bunker somewhere to keep it all hush hush until they are set to drop the hammer on the MMO junkies, and you know that they are going to use all the knowledge of what they did right with WoW in its development. Starcraft was Blizzard's crown jewel prior to WoW, and it's not a question of IF, but simply WHEN it will release, and as far as content and gameplay goes... it's gonna be pure chiba. I'm hooked on WoW right now, but when the WH40K MMO drops, I'll be subscribing on day 1, but if it fails to deliver the goods, you know Blizzard will have something amazing cooked up for me to waste another cople of years on.
Aaron @ Jul 3rd 2008 3:07AM
It says all the important races will be PRESENT not playable. so let's not get ahead of ourselves. and besides. IG and a few space marine chapters have been known to fight along side and yes, converse with alien races.
secondly. IG have different weapon options. maybe they can have an IG guy use a weapon a SM cant. so you'll need one in your party etc etc. And even though im a SM player, IG are highly underestimated. if played right they are a very dangerous army to play against. But this could be said about any race.
honestly. i could go on and on about how they could make this game different and fresh from WoW or any other MMO. but they wouldnt be easy to do.
I.E. close combat. if you are engaged in hand to hand you have to use skills to get out or be forced to fight. so you could have a SM charge a chaos marine into hand to hand and have the IG snipe him from afar while you fight. if the chaos marine wants to break away he'll use a skill to disengage and get the hell out. with back up to make sure he makes it.
this could be done with the same "initiative" rule except tweaked. if the guy youre fighting has a higher initiative its easier for him to break away etc. he hits more then you (faster) but he might be weaker. etc etc
all in all if they took elements from the TT game and put it into action in the MMO it would be very interesting. things like WS...or BS..or S, T, Armor value, invulnerable saves (make them slightly resistant to power weapons or fists in the game etc), initiative. how many attacks they get so on and so forth. close combat rules (slightly tweaked) cover rules, psychic abilities (and tests). it goes on and on.
this has the POTENTIAL to be a WoW killer. but all this stuff i listed is just small stuff, let your imagination take it and think of what they could do if they stuck to the TT rules and simply tweaked some and put them in this MMO.
but sadly it also takes time to make. so if they rush it, it could ruin it. hope they take their time and do it right.