Dawn Of War Pro

[The_Admiral]

Okay, got Dawn of war soulstorm secondhand and nice dude even gave me the CD key for the other games. :smallbiggrin: Now I found a mod that I think would be good. What does the playground think about Dawn Of War Pro?

[Acanous]

Not sure, never played. Firestorm over Kronus was great, though.

[MLai]

Hi, long-time DOW1 and DOW2 franchises online multiplayer player here.
I also helped Korbah develop DOWpro from its earliest days of vanilla DOW1. I finally left the DOWpro mod team around the Dark Crusade era, over mod development direction differences. I followed the mod for a long time after that, though.

(1) DOW1 + all 3 expansions, without mods:
The below only applies if you're interested in competitive play and multiplayer game balance:
I recommend playing this first, so you get familiar with the base gameplay. This means taking the game online against other players. Otherwise you don't really have a sense of what the base game truly is.
This way, when you try out a mod, you can form a valid opinion of it, for yourself.

(2) DOWpro Mod:
DOWpro, true to its name, was made for the purpose of balancing the game and adding RTS depth to the game. Therefore, if you're not a competitive online player by nature, you may not really need DOWpro.
Also, DOWpro gameplay is very different from the default gameplay. It is much more complex than the default game; its play style is not for everybody.

(3) Firestorm Over Kronus:
It's a great mod, and only 1 of many great content mods out there. Others include Witchhunters (professional-level gorgeous), Inquisition Daemonhunt (professional-level gorgeous), the Bugfix Mod (essential), the Skirmish AI Mod (essential), Steel Legion, Tyranids, and literally dozens of great mini-mods. There are so many great mods because DOW1 was so mod-friendly.

http://all-fans.ru/uploads/posts/2009-11/1259542532_1.jpg
http://home.arcor.de/t.losert/relic00006.jpg
Actual screenshots of mods.

I get my DOW1/DOW2 community information from this site:
http://forums.relicnews.com/forum.php

Edit: Yeah, the Witchhunters Mod did things with graphics I didn't think was even possible with DOW1. It was pretty much DOW2 quality. Relic offered to hire the French lead team member, but he refused.

[olelia]

I think I need sunglasses to look at that armor...and I'm okay with that!:smallcool:

[Fredaintdead]

I think I need sunglasses to look at that armor...and I'm okay with that!:smallcool:

PURGE THE HERETICS WITH THE POWER OF LENS FLARES! *SHING* :smallcool:

[Drasius]

Listen to MLai, for the blessed light of the Emprah shines upon him (also, the teef of Gork favour him too, but we don't tak about that here). I played quite a bit of DoWPro back in the day and the balance fixes and tweaks were always top notch, though as has been mentioned, it was always aimed at the pointy end, so it could occasionally seem a bit odd to the newer players.

[Kesnit]

Others include Witchhunters (professional-level gorgeous), Inquisition Daemonhunt (professional-level gorgeous),

Awesome! I love the Sisters of Battle, but did not like Soulstorm. Glad to see I can play them in DC. Although is there a non-beta version? Googling "Dawn of War Witchhunters" brings up lots of places to download a beta, but I didn't see a final version.

[MLai]

@ Soulstorm:
I liked Soulstorm, personally. The DE have a lot of personality, and I liked the brand new gameplay features of both new factions. And with mods, the imperfect rushed expansion was polished to be almost perfect.
--I don't mind the flyers, but if I didn't want them I could just mod them out.
--There are unresolved minor bugs, but the Bugfix Mod corrected all of them.
--The graphical quality is suspect on many models, but various graphical mini-mods really improved them. There are mods to pretty-up the melta effects, to re-texture the dull Sisters buildings, to put reflective surfaces on all the cathedral windows, to polish the Sisters tanks to a shine, to give the Saint her sync kills back, etc etc etc.

@ Witchhunters Mod:
It was never finished; only got up to late beta in development. However, the mod team did work methodically, and what is playable in the mod is polished, and the only thing not done is the "Tech Branch B" buildings/units.
It's not like the mod is unfinished in random spots. "Tech Branch A" is 100% finished. So as long as you don't go into "Tech Branch B", your game isn't affected at all.
"B" is 80% finished, though, with many finished new units/buildings. So it's fun for kicks.

[Partysan]

I kind of disliked Soulstorm, simply because I was a Dark Eldar player in the tabletop and found their implementation disappointing in comparison to the other races. Actually, I think they might have been implemented this way because they would have played too similar to the Craftworld Eldar, but I still didn't like their feel. It might have been ok for someone who wasn't much into them before though, I'm of course biased there.
On the other hand I always thought the damage-based units in DoW were somehow downplayed anyway. Most of the glass cannons did break easily but didn't actually do that much more damage. Could be that this was just me though, I never rose to the high ranks in competitive play.

Anyway, DoW Pro is a good mod. Not neccessarily a casual mod but a well-made one.

[GloatingSwine]

@ Soulstorm:
--I don't mind the flyers, but if I didn't want them I could just mod them out.


Flyers aren't really a problem in Soulstorm, but they don't really do anything unique. None of the maps are designed around exploiting the fact that you can fly, so there isn't really a layer of flyer specific strategy to be had with them, they're just "vehicle that can't be meleed".

If I could really be bothered to learn to mod the game I'd try and turn them into something like they are in Epic 40k, an off-board special ability (like the DE specials) that you have to pay req/power for.

[Renegade Paladin]

I personally use the Dawn of War Expanded mod (DoWXP), but it's hard to find the install files anymore; the developer kind of quit working on it. I only have it because I was on the dev team as a tester.

He gave Assault Marines the ability to deep strike from the chapel-barracks, so you can essentially deep strike your entire infantry army plus a Dreadnought inside of a few seconds using that and the orbital relay. :smallcool:

[iyaerP]

I personally use the Dawn of War Expanded mod (DoWXP), but it's hard to find the install files anymore; the developer kind of quit working on it. I only have it because I was on the dev team as a tester.

He gave Assault Marines the ability to deep strike from the chapel-barracks, so you can essentially deep strike your entire infantry army plus a Dreadnought inside of a few seconds using that and the orbital relay. :smallcool:

Excatly like spess mehreens should be able to.

[MLai]

In MP competition I mainly use Orkz and Dark Eldar, and it annoys me how most content mods lavish all their attention on Space Marines and more Space Marines. It gets to the point where it becomes a Space Marine single-player mod, nevermind the balance considerations.
One of the good things regarding DOWpro is that it doesn't do this (much).


If I could really be bothered to learn to mod the game I'd try and turn them into something like they are in Epic 40k, an off-board special ability (like the DE specials) that you have to pay req/power for.
If it was possible to mod as such, I would remove all the airplanes (they don't fit in the game), and then make certain ground-based units as flyers which can alternate between the ground level and sky level. First unit that would get this advantage would be the Dark Eldar Raiders; make those flimsy transport boats actually useful.

[Renegade Paladin]

In MP competition I mainly use Orkz and Dark Eldar, and it annoys me how most content mods lavish all their attention on Space Marines and more Space Marines. It gets to the point where it becomes a Space Marine single-player mod, nevermind the balance considerations.
One of the good things regarding DOWpro is that it doesn't do this (much).
Actually, DoWXP didn't either. One of the biggest problems was overpowered Tau, of all things, because one of the devs was a Tau fanboy and programmed the railguns to eviscerate everything in a couple of hits. He finally got booted and the problem was fixed, but the strongest army in the mod as it stands is either Chaos or Necrons, I think. Space Marines being able to deep strike everything doesn't mean they don't get pwned in the face doing it, after all. :smalltongue: