Dawn of War 2 - Retribution Eldar DLC incoming

A new cosmetic-only custom faction is coming to Dawn of War II - Retribution as paid DLC, this time an Eldar army inspired by the black-clad forces of Craftworld Ulthwé.

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Having previously tarted the Space Marines up as the Dark Angels with Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Retribution paid downloadable content, developer Relic has announced it's giving the Eldar a DLC makeover next.

The cosmetic-only Eldar Ulthwé pack will customise your multiplayer Eldar army with a new look styled after the forces of Craftworld Ulthwé. All units are deck out in slimming new black skins, with a fair number getting new and custom outfits too.

Tweaks include a Farseer insipired by Dawn of War - Dark Crusade character Farseer Taldeer, new robes for the Warlock Commander, a Wraithlord based upon concept sketches for the original tabletop miniature, fur cloaks and new helmets for Seer Council warlocks, and snazzy lightning decals for the Falcon and Fire Prism.

The Ulthwé DLC's price hasn't been confirmed yet, but it'd be surprising if it weren't the same as the $7.49 Dark Angels pack. It's due to arrive alongside the next Retribution update.

Relic recently revealed that it plans to let players "build your own custom mega army" in the still-not-officially-announced Dawn of War III, though there's no word yet on exactly what this will entail.

Cosmetic tweaks along the lines of the Ulthwé DLC are common in the original Warhammer 40,000 tabletop wargame. It's not difficult to imagine DoW 3 coming with a set number of alternate parts, accessories, and decorations for players to customise their armies, then selling extra packs of bits as DLC. Such a setup would allow players to tinker while still supporting the post-launch income stream Relic has created with these DoW 2 faction packs, though this is of course pure speculation.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 18, 2011 10:00 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Dawn of War 2 - Retribution Eldar DLC incoming.

    A new cosmetic-only custom faction is coming to Dawn of War II - Retribution as paid DLC, this time an Eldar army inspired by the black-clad forces of Craftworld Ulthwé.

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      July 18, 2011 11:00 AM

      Very nice, this and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine will rock.

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      July 18, 2011 11:05 AM

      [deleted]

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      July 18, 2011 11:13 AM

      Hopefully this is free for CE buyers again :3

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      July 18, 2011 12:04 PM

      and here I hoped the Dark Angels and the Last Stand DLCs were a misstep relic.

      Shame on you relic, shame on you.
      I once looked forward to your Company of Heroes and your Dawn of War for epic soundtracks, beautiful visuals and great gameplay.

      Divert from the path you have taken, you can yet be SAVED!

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        July 18, 2011 12:47 PM

        /applaud

        I concur with the above and don't know how little trinkets can interest people when the gameplay is so bland and boring with no replayability.

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        July 18, 2011 12:50 PM

        Jumped the Shack. For shame!

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        July 18, 2011 1:25 PM

        Honestly don't see what's wrong with cosmetic DLC. It doesn't eat much in the way of resources from patching/development (actually, in most cases it *adds* resources and incentive to overall post-release support, including patching), and it gives many fans what they want, while not affecting gameplay at all. I don't know how much you actually play Dawn of War 2, but chapter packs like these have been one of the most persistent requests since vanilla was released.

        Your beef seems more to be with that there are sufficient people willing to pay for cosmetic-only DLC rather than with Relic supplying demand.

        Personally will probably pick it up since I got Dark Angels for free and the 3.16.1 patch notes look mostly excellent.

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        July 18, 2011 1:53 PM

        What is the problem? It does not affect gameplay, and even if you don't buy it, you get to enjoy a higher variety in how your opponents look. Not to mention the army painter, custom logo capability, and Ork Freebooterz dlc is all free and included in the game for everyone to use.

        The only bad DLC for a multiplayer game is map packs, like Call of Duty does, because it divides the player base and makes joining matches a pain in the ass. Relic is handling this superbly, and it is a win-win situation for everyone.

        Personally, I'll gladly pay money for cosmetic Barbie shit for my army to support the developers of a game that provided me with so many hours of entertainment. I bought all the Killing Floor DLC for this exact reason.

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          July 18, 2011 2:11 PM

          I think its that people prefer their games to simply be a game, and not a storefront where they are marketed to and nickled and dimed constantly. People go on saying that this is fine, but really when I buy a game I want to whole thing. Not for the dev/publisher to go "Oh, but if you really want everything you need to buy this skin here. And this map pack. And pay to unlock this extra stuff. That'll be an extra $60, please."

          tl;dr: I want a game, not a storefront or digital shopping experience.

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            July 18, 2011 2:21 PM

            Games have 100x more content than 10 years ago, but cost the same price. You are getting a full game when you buy one. Retribution is a full game "out of the box". All the DLC stuff was made after the game shipped by a small group of people within Relic.

            I'm of the mindset that if DLC existed 10 years ago, companies like Looking Glass might still be around. Making companies rely purely on bi-annual product releases is absolutely silly when there is a huge segment of the player base that loves DLC and would gladly pay for it.

            Haven't we seen enough good companies fold over the years because they were so heavily reliant on Publisher funding as the sole lifeblood during droughts of revenue between products?

            The dollar to hour value ratio of games already dwarfs pretty much any other type of entertainment. I will gladly show my support for a developer if a game warrants it.

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            July 18, 2011 2:49 PM

            But you're ok with expansions?

            Anyway, I agree that "on the disc cosmetic DLC" is bad for smoe of the reasons you stated. But this DLC for Retribution doesn't really fit into that at all. Jeff Lydell- the game's producer- talked about how Dark Angels might have been a one-off sorta deal- they had gotten a lot of people asking for exactly that kind of DLC so they decided to give it a try. If it failed they were going to drop DLC altogether, but it did well and... Point is though, they didn't make Retribution and go, "We're going to make these DLC packs for all this stuff and then charge people for them post-release."

            Paid DLC and the whole storefront marketing may be unfortunate to some, but it's one (of the better) method of dealing with what gamers expect and demand in terms of extended post-release support services.

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        July 18, 2011 2:36 PM

        Paid cosmetic DLC is good, if it ends up paying for free gameplay DLC. TripWire, the guys behind Killing Floor and Red Orchestra, really get this and do it the right way.

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          July 18, 2011 2:57 PM

          Thus far, every piece of paid DLC (unless you consider the Space Marine helmet for the Steam summer sale to have been a piece of paid DLC) has come out alongside a respectable patch, and Jeff Lydell's response on that question to one of GameReplays' interviews was basically that THQ gives Relic more resources to support Retribution for the DLC.

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      July 18, 2011 12:55 PM

      well hell, I thought the Eldar in Retribution were Ulthwé since thats what DoW2 had. Looking at the Eldar trailer now it looks like Alaitoc?

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      July 18, 2011 3:11 PM

      [deleted]

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