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Well, I was brainstorming, and I figure that with the broad spectrum of the Space Marines, including some unique characters would be interesting...

For example, a player can choose to be, say, a Veteran (if he has the points, or if the squad is large enough to warrant a leader, or something)

So anyways heres it;

Veteran:
 Squad leader, marines in close proximity get an offensive bonus. And he doesnt have a helmet on. Cause hes just that badass.

Chaplain/Librarian/or whatever:
 Not too sure on this one, but, he should be a lot tougher than normal, and he should inspire the troops somehow.

Flag Bearer:
 Marines close by get a defensive bonus, and a rate of fire bonus . He also can only carry a one handed weapon, cuz the other holds the flag!


Yep. So thats just roughly it. I know it's not too definitive, so feel free to make suggestions / comments!

If you read some of the earlier posts you would know that flag bearers are out.

Well this is one of the general directions we could take for expanding the imperial team.  I know Alhaus desperately wants an apothecary class :wink:

Keep the suggestions coming, you might come up with something we've missed.  We'll see what people actually want once they've tried version 1.

Okay, Veteran sergeant are a good idea in my opinion, but also a bit over-the-top in my opinion. Sure, so may the Carnifex and Lictor, but the Space marines are hard enough and don't need any more.



Again, quite hardcore idea. Still, over-the-top. The Chaplain would destroy a Carnifex in a single swipe of its Crozius, and the Librarian has the power to kill about five in a single swipe.



If you had a Company Standard Bearer, then everyone would want to be one. They have all the hardcore weapons, PLUS the flag which will give them an unfair advantage.

Although your ideas are pretty cool, I think they're a bit off the scale. Quite cool ideas anyways...

As a general rule all the space marine will be wearing helmets, for various reasons. The main one being its easyer and you dont get 3 players with the same face.

For the Libarian, although currently not on the to do list the ideas being chucked about basically gave him the psyker Equ of a gravity gun and some other shiney powers.

The thing about a FPS is its hard to actually "inspire" anyone since thats another person behind the marine and he or she is liable to do whatever he or she feels like doing.

Bonuses to the team are doable, RS1 had them in the form of the commanders ability to Vet units and his aura that gave a defensive bonus.

Generally good ideas tho, and worth thinking about when the time comes as when it comes down to it the Tyranids basic class (the warrior) is going to be generally tougher than a marine and thats without his guant meat shield so were going to have to get some balance going beyond the true insane firepower we plan to give the marines.

I realise that Ammunition concerns, reloading, jams, etc are outside the scope of TT Rules, but have the Dev Team given any thoughts to the ammuntion system?

(Sorry if this has been covered previously)

Asside from regenerating ammo for the nid weapons were just using the standard HL2 ammunition and reloading mechanisms.  We do know weapon jams never make for fun gameplay, from some RS bugs that simulated it.

We'd love to do hellfire ammunition, but it's nigh impossible to make polygon models melt.

PS: I'm loving the spell checker in Firefox 2.0

oh, while we're talking about weapons, have you figured out a type of ammo for the meltagun?

We'll make a new one, "Melta Fuel"

Does a marine spawn with only a certain amount of ammo?

yes, but there may be times when it can be replenished.

go on...

yeah, this is important to know :D

not much more to say than that, there will be a way where you get more ammo, it could be anything, a crate, you can reload when the thunderhawk lands, a rhino transport that you can reload at.

we aint decided yet as theres other priority stuff in the way.

Cool. Aside from the weapons you have right now, will you add any more weapons, such as the Devourer or Missile launcher?

Well that is another of the general directions we could take for expanding EX in later versions.  Again I don't want to commit to adding anything beyond what we need for the synapse mode, until after it's released and played.

anyone who knows me will be aware of my love of MLs, so ill be vetoing for one continually.

dunno if thats a good thing or not but i like my big guns.

The thign is were still so early on in the design and construction of RS2:Ex that we dont know how it will play or how most of the weapons will act.

Were not going to be adding stuff for the sake of it, RS1 did that and it takes 2-3 months of continual testing just to balance the alpha before its released.

Chrome said most of it above, we will learn from the first pubic release, ask what people think and then start adding things as needed.

Right, understood :D

Checking the RS2 wiki (no you cant see it) the Thunderhawk gunship will dispence ammo to all who are near it when it lands, thus allowing you to reload.

how far off is an alpha?

were playing the alpha right now, i think you mean beta. Thats the public release.

all i can say is a while, it will be next year before anything public goes out, mainly due to animation issues (its taking us a while, none of us are pro animators) and the coding of things.

Will you be posting for Beta Testers or are you going to put the Beta out for general release?

unknown at this time, it depends on how dev team testing goes.

If we need more poeple to test be sure we will ask, mainly we will need more nubers for stress testing the server for lag and the like.

As mentioned elswhere count me in for stress testing.

On-topic, how about a Power Fist for Vet Sargeants? I'm not too sure about 'bonuses' for them, but giving the basic tac squad the ability to go toe-to-toe with gribblies like the Lictor and Carnifex would be cool, seeing as the humble Power Fist has been given a new lease on life in the 4th Ed Assault Rules.

were veru much against giving SMs CC stuff, it WILL be suicide even trying it

Guns is the way.

what about the standard space marine powerknife

I don't think there is much "power" in a standard knife.
You might be able to take out gaunts with it, an warriors with a lot of luck, but knife + carnifex = suicide

OK, so you're looking for team play right?  what if the standard bearer was only effective if the squad stuck around the flag 's radius.  The standard could be a weapon or item that limited it's bearer to a pistol or chainsword.  Anyway when one guy dies another picks up the banner.  The radius of the banner could also glow slightly or be like a "buy" icon in CS when you are in its radius so you know for sure when you've got the bonus.  think of it like an aura in warcraft III if you've played that game.  Oh and i think the banner should regenerate stamina or eliminate the stamina limit altogether.

And i think Alhaus has a great idea in the apothecary because he encourages team play.  Don't make his attacks better though, just let him heal(mabye a passive ability in a radius like the banner), revive, and mabye give adrenaline or something.

mabye a techmarine to repair armor within his radius, and give special bullets and weapons(to hand out to others of course)

what would result is a NEED for team play.  IF a medic,  or tech dies then your chances of survival go down so you would need to keep an eye out for each other.  OR, if the banner falls, you've got to go in and dig it out from the bugs to get that ability back.

standard bearer is not in our plan at all, if it cant carry a usefull weapon then theres no point given how massive an advantage the nids are liable to have if you only have a pistol.

Additionally a standard is a huge freaking flag, inherantly cool looking but in RS2 your going be doing a lot of stuff, like crawling thoguh sewers, and fighting from building to building. Getting through a doorway with a massive banner is a issue so best not to have em.

Same reason our sargents dont have the backpack mounted banner.

team play will not come from special units, it will cme from core game dynamic and thatswhat were woking on.

im would still like mto see specialist marines tho, but as a support class later on once everything else is working.

you could still use the tech or apothcary though, i think the idea of passive abilities are still solid.

i am against anything like that. we got it in RS 1, with the commanders passive healing ability if your in its specila radius he can move about the battlefeild using the command map and options.

however, the best team tactics is to stick together, have 75% of the squad with similar weapons(bolters in this case) for tactical flexability of being able to keep your foe under cover. whilst you have a couple other specilists! ie a flamer guy and a meltagunner guy..

flamer guy to give pian to anybody that gets close or melta guy to take out the bigger beastys.

(i dont think there is going to be a flamer) so lets replace it with heavy bolter or something whitch im shrue is going to be for the heavy class(still not shure what the heavy weapon is) as i am not a dev i dont really know what weapons there are...

anyway, back on my rant on teamplay.

teamplay isabout sticking together with a group of like minded indivdules who can work together and watch each others backs.

if your a loner, you cant be forced to teamplay. all you can do is take a cheap yet effective class to provided a distraction.

ie boltgun marine.

so the rest of the team players can move into a better position of firing angles. or better defence.


just dont do a leroy jenkins though

there is liable to be some passive stuff as vets will provide a squad bonus of some kind.

Heavy weapon is the Heavy Bolter.

speculating on tactics right now is semi pointless as we dont know how the game is going to play.

ah but the concept of teamplay have similar elements in every FPS, you will alaways get the loners and the teamplayers. its just having it so both can be satisfied

I've created a list of weapons I believe you guys should consider. I won't go in to them, I've kind-of got them in my head... except, I will just say one thing: Has anyone asked about the flamer?

Flamers are low on the priority list, due to their technical complexity.  I'm starting to wish i'd gone for Plasma instead of Melta weapons for V1  :roll:

we have a list too you know, its very extensive and includes everything right down to different types of boltgun ammo.

Please do not assume were being lazy but you can count the Dev staff on one hand, unless you wanna make, animate and code the guns yourself they will be delt with when we have time, you know once ive finished my dissertation, once chrome has time from coding and his real job, once Alhaus finishes his University work, once Raziek also finishes a dissertation and when the others have time or are properly trained in there respective areas.

I think its timie for that FAQ...

Well gotta say, Plasma gun is easier... and FAQ = good idea

A melta does not really make any sense to me, if used against nids. Since they are not made of metal (for what we know) and therefore, plasma seems more interesting to use on them. But heck, melta looks so damn good!

When a carnifex is getting a bit too close for comfort, I know what I would sooner have  :wink:

Plus a melta gun dosnt need to recharge and risk blowing your hand off :P

anyway, the melat is kinda of a uneque FPS kinda weapon, its going to be very interesting what its going to be like to use.

*smashes the door open on his mircrowave, turns it on then points at people* similar to this.. but with a visible beam and more concentrated heat at a higher temprature

also the closer you are to the source of the beam, the mroe BBQ'd you get.

it also sets stuff on fire.

Trust me, i can get into accidents with nerf pistols ;)

LOL  :P

The melta gun is the perfect weapon for taking out a nid since it works like a hairdryer on 'roids. Intense heat at the point of impact causes any water in the target to become agitated, become steam and then superheated plasma.  Think of it like this: all the water in your body becoming superheated = bad.

that and for a nid to charge a guy with a melta is suicide, the beam becoming mroe intense the closer you get, so at point blank range most nids combust.

as soon as a nid player spies a melta wielding marine he should be sending in the infiltrated/cloaked/stealth lictors to go for the surprise kill...

but that sounds like a pretty good tactic for a nid player regardless of the foe he faces

or send in the brood as decoys/cannon fodder while he or she gets close.

so the nid player will be treating gaunts more like weapons than squad mates, i like that. makes for a very alien lack of morals feel.

yes, we loook at the broods as a piece of wargear. You (in theory) either buy the type of brood yoou want (ranged, medium, assult) or are equipped with one depending on your class selection and then use them as you wish.

there entrly disposable, although can be "reloaded" (i.e. you can spawn more, the exact way is not decided yet) and should add a very tactical aspect to the nids.

You will have to balance the loss of your brood (and the subsiquent resupply of them) against possable damage done by them Vs the SMs. As a Nid your a HUGE target (look at the screenshots of the zonathrope, hes the smallest nid) and the SMs have some big guns.

broods are your defence as well as your offence, both a shield and a weapon.

well thats the plan anyway.