Hello my fellow Imperial Citizens and disgusting Xenos! (Heretics will never get a hello).

I hope the game devs get to read and comment on this as it is a way that I thought of as to how to give the Orks not only a much more fair advantage on the field thus giving them a somewhat equal opportunity to win against the other factions, but to also help accomplish the goal of making this game feel like the table top/lore. But more importantly: Chaotic and Fun.

The problem:
Right now the Orks look amazing, but as we all know they need a lot of work in regards to weapon balance , but so far the models feel and look like Orks, you guys NAILED it thus far. But not the battles with Orks. The problem here is that the battles don't feel like how it looks on the table top and lore, there are too few and too weak Orks to have a somewhat equal chance of winning.

The proposition/solution:
Instead of balancing weapons (which is still heavily encouraged) for the time being, why not increase the bodies of Orks? Okay I know how this sounds but please hear me out Devs and fellow gamers. On the table top and lore, every battle the Orks are in will always over whelm the enemy but still due to their low technology and range they have to be up close to shoot and fight properly thus giving them an equal opportunity to win or lose due to their numbers being dropped as they get close. That is the case right now in game, Ork players need to get closer to do some real damage, and you guys nailed that, but due to both sides being equal in numbers, when the Orks get closer they are already at a disadvantage due to the other factions better accuracy thus more likely to lose the fight.

Now I am not suggesting NPC assistance because that would be hell on the servers nor am I suggesting a massive amount of Orks due to the same reason. But rather a slight increase of Orks on the field against the other opponents. As a good example let's use the 20v20 Maps, mostly when there are 20 Space Marines vs 20 Orks, the Orks lose due to the reasons I stated above, but if we do a small increase of 5 like 20 Space Marines vs 25 Orks, then the Orks will get a slight advantage over the enemy thus giving them a better chance to win. Let's call this their Faction Specific Advantage. We don't need to have many Orks, so my suggestion is 5 more in each map, when there are 15 SM's there will be 20, 25v30, 30v35, etc.

This would potentially accomplish several things if done:
1. It would give the Orks equal opportunity to win due to their disadvantages against enemies with lethal accuracy and guns.
2. Would help test the servers capacity of players little by little thus making the fights much better and chaotic while at the same time encounter and eliminate issues with the game later on.
3. It would accomplish the goal on making this game feel like a battle you would see on the table top and lore, with Orks always outnumbering the opposition (obviously not against Nids but this is for PvP), basically making the battles feel like a Waagh! as they should be. Basically it would make the fights with the Orks feel Orky.
4. It will make fights feel amazing and fun once any issues are solved, if this is a success you guys would have done not only made the Orks be like they should but also have the chaotic mess that the 40k Universe is.

Potential drawbacks:
Now I will never ignore potential draw back in any suggestion of mine for the games, I am a big fan of this game and the universe so I will always be 100% truthful in my suggestion/opinions.

The risk would potentially be that the matches would lag to absolute hell. There will always be that risk with changes like these.
But is the risk worth it? With the potential benefits I think so. Though of course the decision is yours to make bEhavior.

Conclusion:
To sum everything up, my suggestion is to increase the number of Orks per match to 5 to give the Orks the advantage they need for their battles, to make the battles feel like they are supposed to in both table top and lore, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY it would make the fights against Orks much more chaotic, brutal and FUN. I hope you give this suggestion a shot.

I also want the opinion/thoughts of everyone else in the community. This game right now needs us to be vocal so it will be the game we all want, I welcome all thoughts and opinions on my idea from both Devs and gamers. So please sound off in the comments, share, and tell the Devs about this.

Katie, Nathan, Brent, and everyone else that is making this game, I hope you read this and take into consideration and please do comment on your thoughts so I know that you read this.

If you read this, then I thank you for taking the time to read this. And as always have a wonderful day. (except you heretical scum)

Thats still a step in the cannon fodder direction that the ork playerbase doesn't want to go in. The orks weren't added for the other playerbases they were added for ork fans. Plus that would play hell on balance. Small weapon tweaks would have bigger impacts due to a larger number of potential users.

The only way large numbers work is if the options available are just flat out weaker. I don't think orks should ALWAYS be weaker than the other factions units because they aren't supposed to be. Orks have hard time winning because they don't use tactics, many aren't smart, and they get confused easily in lore. Now add in the fact that HUMAN players are controlling them and all these weaknesses are removed for the most part.

Another guy with a Space Marine profile picture suggesting that Orks cannot put up a fight with Space Marines and must be only weak boyz in a horde because that's the orky thing to do, right?

I'm sorry if I sound malicious but this isn't the first time I heard this "suggestion" and I really don't like it. Don't like being Cannon Fodder. Now is our chance to have some orky love in a game. I won't have that taken away because it seems unorky to some Space Marine players (I'm just assuming you're Loyalist).

This was well thought out though.

Orky forum lurker : unleashed!

I've been thinking about ork representation in EC for a while : be wary that I've yet to try out the game myself. Since Free2Waagh and NPCs are out of the question (shame about NPCs, beeing Nob who gets to boss dumb boyz would probably be fun), and orks beeing not numerous it looks like we have a very lore contradicting situation on our hands.

So, if we can't add up player numbers or make orks squishier (because it'll result in orks beeing cannonfodder which is only fun for other factions, but not ork players), why not promote orks acting like a chaotically organised mob?

What if unlike other races we'd get bonuses for sticking together: shooters would shoot more accurate and boyz might take just a little more punishment. Imagine ork having a special taunt - WAAGH! which is purely cosmetic unless used near allies. The more allies use it near you the better bonuses you get. Also orks might need spawn related things that would allow them to spawn closer to their allies more efficiently then other races.

While this way you won't have tons of orks vs few marines, at least you'll make it look like orks are swarmy, simply because there will be 2-3 teaming up on you. A drawback to that would be the fact that this kind of mob is not very flexible and might get chased around and outcapped.

TL;DR : Motivate orks to gather in mobs by adding mob bonuses. Other races get the feel that orks are swarmy because they are always bunched up.

1. First you forgot the Drawback, that every Ork will be weaker then a player of the other races, and that is not fun.
2. Second, the conclusion shows the problem in your thought process, and also why you forgot point one. The orks are not there for SM/CSM to fight against, they are here for the Orkplayers to have fun.

(Still I give credit for a reasonable well written post, but you just looked at it from the wrong perspective. And Xenos players are fed up with being only there to be an interesting target for the SM^^).


EDIT: I see value in what you are suggesting. Orks are supposed to be numerous, and there are ways to achieve this feeling, without gimping them in a 1v1.

For example the (timed) Waaaagh mechanic as hinted at/explained by Brent. It might decrease the respawntimes (or set them to 0) for short bursts.

How do we balance this now? Isn't this the same problem?

We give the other races similar, but different mechanics.
Maybe the Eldar get the (timed) ability to spawn anywhere from Webwaygates, or spawn more Exarchs.

This way, for short amounts, we get this flavorfull (and tactical) combat. In these scenarios, we could give SM more accuracy and let Orks respawn faster. We could also make it asymetrical in a diffrent way. Maybe this Orkgroup doesn't enjoy the fast respawn waaagh, and picks the melee waaagh were everyone gets bonus HP and meleeforce. Maybe the SMs don't want Accuracy, and get "Stand your ground" or "Charge!", or they get more vehicles. (These different abilitys I all made up just now).

Oh, these will be Warlordpowers btw^^

Best way to fix the "why no swarm!?" Question is a good backstory that explains how the orks on Arkohna are an elite group of orky vets and body gaurds involved in a very successful pre existsing waaaggghhh.

I mean if some how magically SM can field hundreds upon hundreds of dudes to be mercilessly slaughtered on a daily basis we can probably bend the rules for orks and why they are there as well.

Seriously if the 40k sustained the types of casualties we see for SM there wouldn't be any left. We have easily mulched a number of chapters wirth of numbers into paste and bits by now amiright.

this could potentially be fixed by allowing orks to respawn on their squad leaders.

This means that individual squads are more likely to form up as a mob, and will get into the fight faster. It will feel like there are more orks because there will be fewer people running between capture points and whatnot. Moreover, it gives a sort of boss to the squad because there would be a benefit to protecting your squad leader. The squad leader in essence becomes the Nob of the group because he buffs and guides the orks towards their objective and acts as a rally point for all things orky.

To prevent this mechanic from becoming over powered, two things can be done: make the squad leaders more distinguishable from the other orks with a boss pole or a big thing that essentially says "Shoot Me", make orks sacrifice their squad leader bonus in order to get this ability. Basically, instead of the normal squad leader bonuses, make ork squad leaders have the option to be able to take a big "Tellyporta" backpack that would be some big walking target.

A big part of the orky flavour lies in their use of vehicles, to me. Trukks with demolition balls, looted vehicles, orky encampments, etc etc etc.

What they are planning on doing is good enough already. Removal of respawn timer via buff or in the last 2-5 minutes.

I think the WAAAGH mechanic sounds good on paper, looking forward to testing it.

It would be cool if we can start seeing different armor types so we can look less uniformed and more of a patchy junkyard like mess of an army...propa orky like.