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Dawn of War: Winter Assault – Q&A Feature
Chris Leyton
13/08/2005
TVG puts Winter Assault's Lead Designer under the spotlight to answer a few questions on the forthcoming expansion...
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War ā“ Winter Assaults promises to take an exhilarating experience to even greater heights, most notably with the promise of the Imperial Guard and a much more engrossing single-player campaign.
As part of TVGās UK Exclusive look at the forthcoming expansion pack we were recently fortunate enough to chat with Lead Designer Andrew Chambers to put a few questions before himā¦
First of all, can you give us some details about where the storyline of Winter Assault sits with the original Dawn of War?
The story in Winter Assault sits in the same universe as the original Dawn of War, but thatās where the link ends. In the Warhammer 40,000 universe, there are so many opportunities for rich and varied tales, and we wanted to take full advantage of that with a brand new story.
Youāve previously mentioned the need to improve the single-player campaign; how do you hope to do this and what are you doing to bring more variety to this aspect?
One of the focuses of Winter Assault is to provide the player with a much more fulfilling single player experience. There are a number of ways that we are doing this. Every mission now has unique objectives which arenāt available in either multiplayer or skirmish. Also, the player will get a lot more choice in the single player campaign. Not only can they choose whether to play as Disorder or Order, they will also get to choose which race they want to finish the campaign with. All this and more makes for a far more compelling experience.
With the original Dawn of War released during Fall 2004, long time DoW players will be fully aware of the gameās dynamic and the relative strategies required to win ā“ how does the implementation of the Imperial Guard in the game affect these established strategies?
The addition of the Imperial Guard adds so many layers of new strategies that its really hard to list them all. Weāve found internally that our own gameplay styles have had to change when playing against the Imperial Guard in order to account for some of their unique abilities. Just one example would be their defensive, ranged play style, which is definitely the most obvious new element they bring to the table. Not only do all their basic units have the ability to get inside of most of their structures, making it really difficult to wipe the player out early, but all of their weapons have much longer range than the other races. Combined, these two factors make early assaults on the Guard a real challenge.
Thereās a substantial online community following every scrap of information about Winter Assault as well as continuing various discussions about Dawn of War itself, with one of the main topics concerning the issue of balancing between races (in many instances between the Eldars and the Orks). How has Relic tried to address what appears to be quite a contentious subject given the addition of the Imperial Guard in Winter Assault?
We are continually overwhelmed by the positive response we get from our community, and we are definitely striving to ensure we listen to them as much as we can. We are continually watching the forums and reading up on what people are talking about. We also spend a lot of time downloading replays from some of the top online players to see how they play the game, what dominant strategies are presenting themselves and so on. As always though, balance is a continual process, and one that we will continue to work on even after Winter Assault is on the shelves.
Besides balancing issues what are some of the other criticisms that the team have identified and hope to improve with Winter Assault?
We actually donāt see the communityās comments on balance as a criticism, but more as positive feedback in order to keep the game improving with each patch that we release. That said, one of the biggest requests we have from our fans is for additional content, and always in the form of a new race. With that in mind, we are adding the Imperial Guard in Winter Assault!
Naturally the expansion places importance on the introduction of the Imperial Guard, perhaps you could share a little information on the additional features being added and a surprise or two?
One of the biggest features weāve added with the Imperial Guard is a system of tunnels that run underneath all of the structures that the Imperial Guard own. Players can use these tunnels to move squads from one side of the map to the other in a short amount of time, without having those squads out in the open. We also added the concept of Command Squads. Command Squads take the place of the standard āHeroā unit such as a Force Commander. Instead of just one unit, players now get to reinforce the āHeroā with a number of squad members all with different abilities. This is really useful, as players can customize these squads to their strategy.
What are your thoughts and opinions on the RTS genre at the present moment; where do you see future evolutions and can we expect Relic to be at the forefront of this?
The RTS genre is alive and flourishing. Every year we see a number of great products being released, each pushing some element of the genre. That said, as developers we could push these boundaries even more to give the player what they want. Relic will always be at the forefront of pushing an action based strategy experience full of visceral, incredibly entertaining encounters. Our products are going to continue to remove the abstraction from the RTS, giving players satisfying rewards for their actions. As for future evolutions, well, you will have to wait and see what we do with the next few products in order to find that out!
ā I canāt avoid the truth. Being Australian Iām going to have to go with an Ork. If you donāt know why, well, youāve never met an Aussie!ā
With development of both Winter Assault and Company of Heroes taking place at Relic Entertainment, has there been any crossover between the teams in terms of ideas and technologies?
Absolutely, even though Relic is growing as a company, one of the key cultural elements we are striving to maintain is cross proliferation of ideas. We borrow from them, they borrow from us, whatever works. You can see this emerging when you look at Company of Heroes and Dawn of War side by side. In Dawn of War we began to establish the visceral, gritty visual experience of war where your troops are no longer toy soldiers but living breathing warriors assaulting each other in brutal bloody combat. Company of Heroes takes that to the next level by adding an incredible level of graphical detail and combining it with fantastic new gameplay features.
Dawn of War elevated the Warhammer 40,000 brand and achieved significant success; presumably plans are already in place to continue the brand, could you perhaps share a little on the future?
Warhammer 40,000 was already an elevated brand of significant success before Relic and Games Workshop began working together. GW have established themselves as the leader in tabletop war games by creating universes and model ranges that are compelling and entertaining. We at Relic are fortunate enough to be able to work with such a vibrant and deep universe, and itās our dedication to quality that is key to the positive reaction Dawn of War has received. We have a fantastic relationship with Games Workshop, much of which is the reason why Dawn of War is such a success. As for the future, well, youāre all just going to have to wait and see.
Finally, if you were a representative of a faction which would it be and why?
I canāt avoid the truth. Being Australian Iām going to have to go with an Ork. If you donāt know why, well, youāve never met an Aussie!
We would like to thank Andrew Chambers for taking time during a busy period to answer our questions and for the continued insight at Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Winter Assault. TVGās UK Exclusive look at Winter Assault will continue later in the weekā¦
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