Dawn of War 3 will support custom armies

More details have trickled out on Relic's still-not-formally-announced grimdark RTS sequel Dawn of War 3, including word that plans are afoot to let players "build your own custom mega army."

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Though Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III is still not formally announced, that hasn't stopped publisher THQ and developer Relic from talking about the RTS sequel. The latest revelations come from Relic marketing manager James McDermott in an interview with Eurogamer, covering topics including custom armies.

"Looking at what we had real success with with Dawn of War II - Retribution, with the DLC, and with customisation and building their armies and collecting being a big part of what 40k fans really love, we want to make that a big part of DoW 3," McDermott said. "There's going to be lots of opportunities to expand and build your own custom mega army. That's definitely an area we want to invest in. We see a good opportunity."

Customisation is a staple of the tabletop miniatures wargame, from paint schemes and replacing figures' components with snazzier parts to flat-out inventing new factions. The most recent DoW only supports relatively limited custom paint options. How exactly will it all work in Dawn of War III? Until the game's revealed, who could possibly say. But custom armies!

McDermott also backed up THQ core games head Danny Bilson's remarks that Dawn of War III will combine elements of the first two with new elements and MMO aspects. DoW 3 "is going to have a much larger strategic component to it, more of a global battle going on with little tactical things, sort of MMO-like," McDermott explained.

"We're trying to leverage even more so on the Games Workshop tabletop game, and then combine that with the game mechanics people have said, 'If you were to make a DOW3 we would like this kind of balance of things,' and what we think would be good for strategy games as a whole."

Bilson had hinted in 2010 that Dawn of War 3 might be free-to-play, depending on how well the F2P Company of Heroes Online was received. Considering that it shut down in February this year, you can probably scratch that out.

McDermott also teased the announcement Relic is due to make at the Gamescom show in August, saying "There is something cool and I think people will be really pleased to hear about it." If we all wish hard enough for a surprise Homeworld 3 announcement, it might just come true.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 13, 2011 8:15 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Dawn of War 3 will support custom armies.

    More details have trickled out on Relic's still-not-formally-announced grimdark RTS sequel Dawn of War 3, including word that plans are afoot to let players "build your own custom mega army."

    • reply
      July 13, 2011 9:31 AM

      Hooray!
      I hope custom icons are included.

    • reply
      July 13, 2011 9:34 AM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        July 13, 2011 10:09 AM

        I'm thinking the choices are going to be cosmetic.

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        July 13, 2011 10:11 AM

        That's... pretty much true in DoW2 already. Too much of the game devolves into race/hero picking before the match even starts.

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          July 13, 2011 1:22 PM

          yeah.. picking 1 hero is definitely like picking a whole army.. wait what?

          • reply
            July 13, 2011 1:26 PM

            No, I mean picking a hero simply because it counters your opponent's choice of heroes.

            I've watched a couple DoW2 tournaments that were completely decided by who was able to change their hero last. Most tournaments now have some dumb hero-picking rules to try to even things out, but even then matches can be decided by who won the initial coin flip that decided who got last-pick on the very first game.

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      July 13, 2011 10:35 AM

      Homeworld 3 please.

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        July 13, 2011 1:47 PM

        I can only imagine how well detailed it will look based on how they've handled DoW and CoH.

        Ships with lots of turrets, missiles shooting at other missiles, fighters shooting at torpedoes, crews being vented into space, ships breaking up into pieces dynamically. Whatever it is it will be amazing!

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      July 13, 2011 11:27 AM

      [deleted]

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      July 13, 2011 11:38 AM

      Seems to me they'll be offering 'digital miniatures' as DLC., so if you want a certain unit you pay for it. It'll be balanced like the tabletop as units will be assigned a point value.

    • reply
      July 13, 2011 1:32 PM

      if you build armies based on points... unf

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