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And now, thanks to the thread title, I've got an image of the Pop-Up Book in my head that won't come out. See Avitus kill. Avitus, however, is breaking the Codex, because he is picking out the weak, numerous targets with a rocket launcher while laughing maniacally. Can you say "Maniacally"?
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Apr 18, 2014 18:47
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Ah, WH40K. I remember being really into this when I was younger - still have a soft spot for the stuff. I really do like the way the guys behind this took the usual weakness of the player character being a 'normal soldier who is somehow able to fight off waves of enemies effortlessly' by having the player character in this game be a literal super-soldier that is second-to-none. That's why I would say the interaction between Titus and Mira CAN seem patronising, it isn;t when you see the rest of the game; it is not from a 'man-to-woman' chauvinism, 'cause in the game you see the poor Imps getting slaughtered by the Orks, and then you see yourself and the rest of the Ultras reducing them to Christmas-themed jambalaya. It also helps that Mira and her men are shown as outclassed, but she and they've not given up. Still, as bloodily cathartic as the grimdarkness 40K is, it is a shame there is not as much as the satire in 40K as there was at the establishment of the thing - I can still recall being totally blind-sided when I found out the derivation of Ghazghkull's name.
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Apr 18, 2014 20:29
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apostateCourier posted:Coolguye, Roboky- what's the spoiler policy for this thread? Same as usual for us, just let things happen so people not familiar with the game can experience it for the first time.
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Apr 18, 2014 23:23
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Stormgale posted:Playing through the way Leandros acts is interesting, I think the reason he is so Whiny and Adherent to the Codex Astartes (Basically the big book of war and tactics all space marines should know) is because he is so young, to him there is nothing the Codex wont answer, while the more older marines accept that sometimes the Rigid plans of the Codex don't work; Say when orcs actually steal your planetary Defense guns against you. The Ultramarines series is basically a six-book treatise on the rigidity of the Codex, and why it's bad to follow it unflinchingly in the face of an all consuming horror from beyond the galaxy, or why it might be a bad idea to follow so exactly something that your greatest enemy have been studying for ten thousand years, while at the same time showing due respect to a work that would make Alexander the Great look like a dribbling idiot. They're really very good. apostateCourier posted:The biggest issue I have with this game is the complete lack of tech priests/civilians. Especially the lack of tech priests. I always figured that whatever Techpriests didn't cap themselves when their precious machines got all orked up found the deepest hole they could, and waited for the sounds of Exterminatus to fade before coming out.
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Apr 18, 2014 23:44
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Zain posted:This was really an amazing game. The only thing I felt that really made it bad was just the p2p multiplayer. It was such a bad idea considering how much twitch you needed in multiplayer. I doubt the servers would still be active if it wasn't p2p. At least it's still fun when the connections not terrible. Samovar posted:Still, as bloodily cathartic as the grimdarkness 40K is, it is a shame there is not as much as the satire in 40K as there was at the establishment of the thing - I can still recall being totally blind-sided when I found out the derivation of Ghazghkull's name. Ciaphas Cain is about as satirical it gets outside of poo poo on 1d4chan.
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Apr 18, 2014 23:59
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Brainamp posted:I doubt the servers would still be active if it wasn't p2p. At least it's still fun when the connections not terrible. I would play the hell out of a Ciaphas Cain action RPG.
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Apr 19, 2014 00:00
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apostateCourier posted:I would play the hell out of a Ciaphas Cain action RPG. done by platinum games
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Apr 19, 2014 00:05
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Ciaphas Cain's saga has Dan Abnett's character overhearing another one of Dan Abnett's characters quoting Starship Troopers, and thinking to himself "That dude's an idiot. Nobody talks like that outside of poorly written action books." I think no more needs to be said over how satirical it gets, and it is GORGEOUS.Brainamp posted:I doubt the servers would still be active if it wasn't p2p. At least it's still fun when the connections not terrible.
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Apr 19, 2014 00:11
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I'm still surprised that they allow the Technopriests to be so blasphemous as to worship the machine gods instead of the emperor. Also I guess I'm a casual fan of Warhammer 40k as in I love the games and playing them and only sorta intersted in the lore. On the scale of goof where does Ciaphas Cain stand exactly? (Also is the book worth getting?)
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Apr 19, 2014 00:16
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Zain posted:I'm still surprised that they allow the Technopriests to be so blasphemous as to worship the machine gods instead of the emperor. This is the thread you want if you want to learn more about the 40k books. I'll just copy what the op said. Mechafunkzilla posted:Ciaphas Cain series, by Sandy Mitchell But yeah, they are pretty fun, and much lighter reads compared to most 40k lit.
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Apr 19, 2014 00:28
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Pretty much anything written by Dan Abnett is an enjoyable read. The main thing that varies from book to book is precisely how enjoyable.
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Apr 19, 2014 00:37
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Coolguye posted:Ciaphas Cain's saga has Dan Abnett's character overhearing another one of Dan Abnett's characters quoting Starship Troopers, and thinking to himself "That dude's an idiot. Nobody talks like that outside of poorly written action books." I think no more needs to be said over how satirical it gets, and it is GORGEOUS. Coolguye posted:Pretty much anything written by Dan Abnett is an enjoyable read. The main thing that varies from book to book is precisely how enjoyable. I think you mixed up
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Apr 19, 2014 01:13
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Zain posted:I'm still surprised that they allow the Technopriests to be so blasphemous as to worship the machine gods instead of the emperor. The Tech-Priests of Mars are tolerated simply because the Imperium absolutely CANNOT FUNCTION without them. The Ecclesiarchy has straight-up declared the Machine-God to be another aspect of the Divine Emperor. This is because no one, outside of the Cult of the Machine, really knows how any of their equipment, weapons, ships, and armor works, much less how to build it. The vast majority of Mankind's collective knowledge has been lost. Only the Tech-Priests control one of the last remaining repositories of knowledge, a device called an STC (Standard Template Construct). These machines were originally designed to be the backbone of a new colony, as it would not only contain blueprints for things the colonists would need, it also acted as a factory, able to build whatever was required from the Standard Templates it carried. Most of these, by the year 40K, have been lost; they were either destroyed, buried, dismantled for parts, etc. The Cult's mandate is to find as many lost STC's and ST files as they can. Oh, and the "Machine God" might actually a godlike being that is part of a race of godlike beings who fought with another godlike race at the dawn of time, who led their champions (called the Necrontyr) into battle versus the champions of the other race (the Eldar). Which means their patron had a hand in creating the Necrons. Yep. my dad posted:I think you mixed up That, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't actually Gaunt himself that Cain heard, but it was certainly a stand-in for the character.
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Apr 19, 2014 01:13
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Man I loved your guys' romp through the DoW II games, I'll be looking forward to these videos too. 
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Apr 19, 2014 02:15
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How fun the multiplayer was generally came down to how good your and others in the games connection was. Good connection and fights were a close dance of bullets and chain swords, bad and you die to nades and backstabs from across the map to someone you never saw and can not hurt.
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Apr 19, 2014 02:37
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MadHat posted:How fun the multiplayer was generally came down to how good your and others in the games connection was. Good connection and fights were a close dance of bullets and chain swords, bad and you die to nades and backstabs from across the map to someone you never saw and can not hurt. It got real fun when you ran into some people just blatantly hacking too.
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Apr 19, 2014 03:17
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Zain posted:It got real fun when you ran into some people just blatantly hacking too. It got even funner when you couldn't tell if someone was hacking or was his HP not decreasing because he was just lagging so hard. Iretep fucked around with this message at 03:25 on Apr 19, 2014 |
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Apr 19, 2014 03:20
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I've never really been a fan of the human side of 40k though playing as a Space Marine is the most satisfying thing to date. Generally I'm more of a Nid/Tau kind of person.
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Apr 19, 2014 04:29
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The only thing that disappoints me about this game is that they don't run into a Space Wolves squad and we get to watch as the Rookie slowly dissolves into a tirade about how the Codex is law and that they should hew more closely to Rowboat's greatness. Basically what I'm saying is that most 40k games can be improved by the addition of Space Wolves.
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Apr 19, 2014 04:37
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Did I miss something or do they ever explain what the rest of the Ultramarine company is doing? There are at least 97 Ultramarines that are unaccounted for
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Apr 19, 2014 04:44
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Random blabber posted:Did I miss something or do they ever explain what the rest of the Ultramarine company is doing? There are at least 97 Ultramarines that are unaccounted for The galaxy is a big place, boy. They are needed elsewhere. 3 space marines should be enough to push back an ork invasion.
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Apr 19, 2014 05:44
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Random blabber posted:Did I miss something or do they ever explain what the rest of the Ultramarine company is doing? There are at least 97 Ultramarines that are unaccounted for We will see further Ultramarines being deployed over the course of the game, though it never gives us a full account of the whole company's actions. It's entirely possible they are elsewhere on the planet doing things like shoring up defenses to prevent Orks expanding their influence or other sorts of similar activities. It's also entirely possible that the contingent that has arrived is not a full strength company. This often happens because attrition, being engaged in existing battles, and the need for Space Marines to lend their influence to many battlefields often sees Companies separate into smaller numbers. This was a very important conflict that Titus was more than willing to take himself and a handful of Battle Brothers to, but that isn't to say he wasn't already engaged in some other activity that the rest of his company needed to finish up. The game Chaos Gate for example had you take command of an Ultramarines company that was fairly depleted. The Iron Snakes novels often had a single Marine deployed to take care of certain missions. Some particularly skilled members of different Space Marine Chapters are often loaned to other chapters to train their Marines too! There's plenty of reasons why, but the game doesn't ever really bother to specify anything of the sort.
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Apr 19, 2014 05:44
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At least hundreds of them aren't being used as ablative HP for the main Marines like in DoW II. Those poor, poor sons of bitches.
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Apr 19, 2014 06:18
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On the note of Chaos Gate, I tried to get that running on my computer about six months ago so I could LP that, but failed miserably to get it running satisfactorily. So if someone knows the machine spirit ritual to get that guy going, let me know, would you please? Even if I never LP that game I had tons of fun with it when I was little.
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Apr 19, 2014 07:00
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RickVoid posted:These machines were originally designed to be the backbone of a new colony, as it would not only contain blueprints for things the colonists would need, it also acted as a factory, able to build whatever was required from the Standard Templates it carried. Most of these, by the year 40K, have been lost; they were either destroyed, buried, dismantled for parts, etc. The Cult's mandate is to find as many lost STC's and ST files as they can. You forgot corrupted by Chaos. Those are the fun ones.
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Apr 19, 2014 08:53
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One of the possible endgame scenarios for the Imperium is finding a completely intact STC, presumably because it could build another one. This would result in rapid exponential growth of the Imperium's production capabilities and easily end every threat except for Chaos.
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Apr 19, 2014 09:54
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Oh hell yes, this game. As has been alluded to already, it has problems but dammit if it doesn't FEEL amazing right from the get go! I recall when I first started this, the Ork trooper voices really rubbed me the wrong way though, coming off from Dawn of War games. I think I get why they're not too similar, but I'll wait an update or two before going into it. "Coolguye reacts to fantastic and good things" are among my favorite bits of your LPs and this one is definitely going to have more of those coming!
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Apr 19, 2014 10:29
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Coolguye posted:On the note of Chaos Gate, I tried to get that running on my computer about six months ago so I could LP that, but failed miserably to get it running satisfactorily. So if someone knows the machine spirit ritual to get that guy going, let me know, would you please? Even if I never LP that game I had tons of fun with it when I was little. Your best bet is running it on a Virtual Machine, running Windows 98 which was the last OS it worked on. The alternative is removing every single Cultist from the game via map editor because them firing their pistols causes the graphics frig up that crashes the game to desktop.
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Apr 19, 2014 10:51
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my dad posted:One of the possible endgame scenarios for the Imperium is finding a completely intact STC, presumably because it could build another one. This would result in rapid exponential growth of the Imperium's production capabilities and easily end every threat except for Chaos. What other endgames are there? Sooner or later, the Necrons are going to stop pissing around and just atomise everyone, and unless the tyranids just stop, which they show no sign of doing, they're going to eat everyone the necrons don't get, one planet at a time. Unless there's some special civilisation hiding in the fringes we haven't yet met, the Imperium seem to be the only ones with the manpower and territory to hold much of the galaxy, and there's no way they can do that without a massive reversal of their downward spiral. I figure unless someone suddenly finds a way of building and distributing super weapons to half the galaxy's population and then organises them into a decent fighting force, there's no way out of the whole "only war" thing except the eventual downfall of basically everyone. Maybe some uncharacteristically benevolent C'tan show up sometime in M43 to help out?
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Apr 19, 2014 10:58
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MooCowlian posted:What other endgames are there? From the top of my head here are the end games: Orks get a warboss that manages to unify all the orks together and kill everyone in the galaxy. Eldar get their new god alive, it kills Slaneesh and I guess after that they rule over like they did before Slaneesh ate everyone. Do Necrons even have a end game anymore? They were retconned into space Khemri so I imagine they just want to hang around their tomb worlds these days and create their old space kindoms. Nids eat everyone. Humanity finds a STC or the Emperor gets back, kicks chaos rear end and starts a new golden age. Tau faction are a bunch of minor races nobody cares about so they don't get an end game. Chaos finally manages to get out of the eye of terror and spread their religion and bad habits across the galaxy. Ad mechanicus wake up the Void Dragon on mars and it takes over all technology ever or something. Though necrons apparently made the star gods into their slaves so maybe the Void dragon is not a big deal anymore either.
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Apr 19, 2014 11:28
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To explain the Eldar one: The Eldar to save their souls from getting eaten by slaneesh they stick them in the soul gems they carry, these are currently being stored in a giant matrix to try and make a new god. For the Tyranids specifically there is supposedly an even greater Hive fleet that is outside of known space, we are only seeing the splinters of it so far.
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Apr 19, 2014 11:45
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Cradok posted:You forgot corrupted by Chaos. Those are the fun ones.
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Apr 19, 2014 12:20
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I thought Warhammer 40k was like the origin of the term grimdark and was super serious. This actually looks amazing. Installing Dawn of War right now since that's been sitting on my steam for years.
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Apr 19, 2014 12:35
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40K's a tough one for me. This may not be the thread for it, but I'd be curious to have someone explain the appeal. Space Marine is less absurd than most, and I can even like the early Cain novels before some editor cracked the whip and said "back to the GRIMDARK!"...but the appeal of the setting as a whole eludes me. 40K is so absurdly dark and nihilistic I assume it must fall into self-parody...but no, then I find everyone wants to take it seriously and treat it as "serious dark literature". Never mind that the setting was created by 80s hair metal fans, no, it's a major franchise now and demands respect. People in this very thread are quoting the fluff with reverence, whereas with a less-popular franchise they'd be a lot more awkward and trying to pass it off as "just knowing stuff". The 40K fandom is a proud one, and much of what it's proud of would get it smacked down for loving genocide and supporting neo-facism elsewhere. So I suppose my question is...why does it get a free pass for all the terrible things it loves to revel in?
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Apr 19, 2014 12:46
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Beartaco posted:I thought Warhammer 40k was like the origin of the term grimdark and was super serious. This actually looks amazing. Installing Dawn of War right now since that's been sitting on my steam for years. 40k suffers from the problem of it never originally meant to be taken seriously... then people did, now it's kind of trying to do both at once with varying degrees of success
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Apr 19, 2014 12:50
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I think it amounts to the individual fan. I like 40k for the sheer overkill presented in the setting (which is what makes it a good universe for video games) and the inherent absurdity present in it. Sure, there may be fans that take it 100% seriously - but those exist for just about everything (a valid, yet somewhat disgusting comparison could be anime which is totally Pinnacle Of Art And Don't You Dare Suggest Otherwise You Broody Gaijin (TM)). I'm enjoying 40k in a campy way - Space Marines are really an extension of Heroic Action Protagonist in all its stupidity, Chaos puts spacesuits on cartoonish devils with pitchforks, Space Elves are... space elves and Tyranids are straight out of sixties "science fiction". It's not exactly intellectually stimulating, but it's fun, and occassionally accidentally funny (see: Rowboat Girlyman, who is more or less guaranteed to pop up in this thread). I wouldn't touch most of the books with a ten foot pole, though. I read a couple when I was younger and was put off by how same they are even then (William King being a particular example).
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Apr 19, 2014 12:54
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Loxbourne posted:40K's a tough one for me. This may not be the thread for it, but I'd be curious to have someone explain the appeal. The thing is, 40k was made to be a parody. I probably mention this too often, but Ork Warlord Mag Uruk Thraka is Margaret Thatcher. The problem is that it's hard to parody something as extreme as right wing policies of Thatcherite Britain by exaggerating them, because someone out there is going to agree with you. I certainly can't take the setting seriously, which is probably why I enjoy stuff like Dawn of War and Ciaphas Cain novels the most.
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Apr 19, 2014 13:00
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my dad posted:The thing is, 40k was made to be a parody. I probably mention this too often, but Ork Warlord Mag Uruk Thraka is Margaret Thatcher. The problem is that it's hard to parody something as extreme as right wing policies of Thatcherite Britain by exaggerating them, because someone out there is going to agree with you. Yeah, I certainly enjoy it the most when it's almost parodying itself (Ciaphas Cain, some of the Brothers of the Snake stuff... Actually, most of that book), or when it at least seems aware of how silly it is (Most Dan Abnett stuff)
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Apr 19, 2014 13:23
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Most of my experiences with 40k are the games, and the Cain books, of which I own and love the first Omnibus to death, read it all the time, and I never get sick of Cains stories. I've not yet had a chance to read Greater Good yet, which sucks, on the plus side I have a healthy appreciation for the setting in all of its absurdity, and I now think it's a bit silly whenever people act like it's an entire super-serious thing with no humor. I should probably pop this into the PS3 and play along, I've had it for a while and just never had a chance to give it a shot.
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Apr 19, 2014 14:59
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You'll also note almost any 40k that intends to be taken seriously dials back the Grimdark a ton and introduces innovations like relatable or sympathetic protagonists or people who at least give a drat about other people and aren't piles of nihilistic violence at all times. In the RPGs I've run, I've written both kinds, and if we go for as grimdark as the setting usually writes itself we're going for absurdity and hilarity, and if we want to play Crazy Technofeudal Call of Cthulhu, we make everything less dark and remove some of the constant nihilism and hyperbole. Writing 'serious' 40k stuff is really something to do for fun and with the awareness that the central conceits of it all are completely ridiculous, though. But sometimes something terrible or ridiculous can be a lot of fun anyway.
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Apr 19, 2014 15:11
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