I think pretty much everything we know about the game so far leans more towards balance than lore. 1 ork boy killing a space marine in a 1v1 and etc. Then again I can't think of a game that follows the lore too closely. Neither the tabletop , dawn of war games nor space marine. Normally a combination of both is needed. But in reality balance is more of an issue when it comes to multiplayer games. So I'm voting balance. Hopefully outside of gameplay no lore would be broken.
I'm assuming this is because there is no ONE lore. "Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 exist as tens of thousands of overlapping realities in the imaginations of games developers, writers, readers and gamers. None of those interpretations is wrong." - Gav Thorpe Personally, I have no difficulty seeing the tabletop as "closely following the lore", in part because GW's version of the setting has been written to fit its rules, not the other way around. But from what I've seen, what most people are referring to when they talk about "canon" is actually "what it says in this favourite book of mine", but very often this is simply ignoring (or rather, not being aware of) what it says elsewhere. The only challenge lies in finding that sweet spot between balancing and "established common ground" - in short, something that doesn't feel *too* far away from what is still supported in the source material. Which is primarily a challenge because of the many opposing subjective expectations that players may have, rather than what the many conflicting or ambiguous instances of said source material allow.
I agree with this. But for all the varying stories there are points on which most would agree. That for example the space marine is a very heavily modified elite post-human soldier, geared well that can normally hold his ground in ranged and close combat . Then you have dawn of war where ork boys can take them on with ease. Dawn of war 2 where they can't. And space marine where one captain kills armies and a warboss. If anything we are headed for dawn of war balance so far. And I'm not sure the spacemarine fanbase will accept this very well once the game is out.
If space marine-players want to win everytime they probably should go and play a singleplayer game and use cheats. Eternal Crusade is about other stuff too, and it is good to remember that not only the imperium (more specifically the space marines) are OP in their lore.
If the space marine fanbase and/or the EC player base has a huge problem with Orks standing up to marines 1v1, the game could accommodate that. But if its going to use the TT answer, which tends to walk hand in hand with the lore, it also needs to build in horde mechanics. That means population limiters on the elite factions and bonuses to grouping up for the hordes. I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark here and assume that players who want the Space Marines to slaughter some enemies 1v1 are not going to be best pleased if the game pops up a message to say "Sorry, too many marines logged in right now. Enjoy your battlefield experience as a lowly Ork shoota boy. Remember, the fact that you're about to get stomped is entirely lore compliant and hey - this is what you wanted, right?"
I like it. As some other people have said before me.. the lore is already pretty balanced because of the table top game and it's need to be balanced as well. All races are OP in some way shape or form which makes for a great game. IF it did come down to it i'm sure they would have to lean more to balance then lore. o
Population limits would be awesome in that this would actually recreate an experience closer to the background - but I certainly agree with the fanbase not going to stand up for this. It's safe to say that as much as people clamour for "staying true to the lore", being able to play their favourite faction whenever they want tends to come first either way. Group bonuses on the other hand? Hell yeah. I really hope we're going to see something like this in the game. And not just for Orks (but Orks - and later on IG - should benefit the most from them). Bonus hitpoints and increased accuracy are likely effects; both can be explained by increased morale affecting the character's combat prowess, from calmer aiming to ignoring injuries as they are swept forth in a wave of glory.
The awkward squad are those who want the game to "stay true to the lore" and also want to play the overpowered races such as, to pick an example at random, the Space Marines. And with no restrictions on them being able to do so, 'natch. I'm not sure about group bonuses if its not part of a horde vs elites mechanic, as it may encourage zerging behaviour. That's generally not a good thing in open PvP.
Balance is necessary to make any multiplayer game good. Lore is going to be bended in some way no matter what, as long as they dont screw things up too badly then I can live with it.
