Granted it's been several years ago, an entirely different game engine, and much smaller scale PVP, but World of Warcraft had degrading armor and weapons when the game went live. The more your armor or weapon degraded, the less effective they were in combat. I've also played Battleground Europe, which was one the first online massive multiplayer FPS. They had extremely in depth damage models for their tanks and airframes. That was back in 2001. The game is still up and running, and is still the largest virtual game world to date. You can fly or drive from East Central Germany to the North of Britain or the West of France in one continuous zone. I would think with the technology available in the gaming industry today, as well as much more powerful gaming rigs and consoles, it should be doable.
There's a difference between degrading armor as a general item, and degrading individual pieces of armor with area sensitive damage. Besides, degrading armor is pointless unless you have a damage mechanic similar to ARMA. Shot in the leg? Now you hobble. Shot in both legs? Now you crawl. Shot in the arm? Good luck hitting the broadside of a barn. Plus those games you mentioned are prehistoric and far (presumably) less complex than Eternal Crusade. I'd worry more about respectable rendering ranges and explosions that don't look like ass.
I'd really like to see EC take some elements of ARMA and implement them into game. So many games out there, all so very similar, if not down right copycats, as if there's only one way to do a 3rd or 1st person shooter. Would really be refreshing to see EC go the ARMA route versus the COD, BF4, flavor of the month-copy-cat-shooter route when it comes to damage, regenerating health/shields, ect. Dont get me wrong, I understand the lore behind Space Marine/CSM and Orks inherent ability to self heal(not sure of the Eldar). Most books I've read the injured SM has to rest(stationary) when gravely wounded for a short time, while minor wounds are shrugged off and quickly self repair. Let's see that in game! I'm just a bit worried about the armor regenerating mechanic. It goes directly against the lore without any doubts, unless you're a Necron. Plus it just seems down right cheesy. I loved THQs Space Marine game, but the regenerating armor was still a bit hard to swallow. I was really hoping they take the THQ combat mechanics and damage system and expand on them considerably, with a mix of Dark Souls 2, ARMA thrown in.
I'd love EC to go the same route as well but when I hinted this approach while talking to various devs i was very quickly dissillusioned :\
Eldar armor regenerates. But you're really hoping for waaaaay too much considering we already know infantry isn't going to have degrading armor from the screens.
Unfortunately this is a 40k online third person shooter, not a 40k online simulator... a lot of these ideas are way out of the scope of the project. ( But if someone does make a simulator I would play the shit out of it, until then I'm going to enjoy EC for what it is.)
Exactly. So am I cos it can still be a great game. OFP WH40k mod was the closest you can get to a simulator however it lacked other things like a real well done multiplayer mode.
Well the devs have stated they really want to hear what a majority of their fans would like to see. Can Warhammer and Warhammer 40K fans perhaps expect a bit more than "I'll play any 4oK game regardless"? Dont get me wrong, I think the devs have taken on an EPIC task. But if our awesome devs are the Space Marines of the gaming industry, surely they could pull it off!
The current system is actually not terrible. You get the exp for killing the player, and you get the announcement for executing it. It's still not a good system, though. If you shoot someone who's behind cover from far away you won't be able to remove them from the fight as long as there's another guy behind the cover with him. It makes sniping pointless, and it makes defending keeps a pointless exercise in (slow) futility, as the enemies will all but certainly always reach the keep regardless of what kind of fire support you got. This can be easily mended by making explosives, headshots, and overkill (more damage than what was needed to make the kill) weapons like heavy bolters and plasma weapons ignore the wounded state. Combat knife kills should obviously initiate the wounded state, but I do think powerful melee weapons like the chainsword or big choppa should just remove people from the fight once they're killed by them.
