Both of the above: Doesn't want IG because they zerg. Wants Tyranids. The IG are entirely viable and could be implemented in a fairly balanced manner just by giving them a few unique mechanics, something which has been discussed in this very thread. They trump 'nids for playability easy, both by being human and having a wide selection of multi-crew vehicles. How are you going to multi-crew a Carnifex, one of you controls the right leg and the other the left?
One Operates locomotion One Operates the primary weapons system - Venom Cannon/Crushing Claws etc. One Operates the secondary weapon systems - Tail, Thornback, scything talons etc.
People keep suggesting that the imperial guard employ squads through the usage of sergeants. I say let the "squads" be completely independent of player control at all. For all intents and purpose the conscripts of the imperial guard are ordered to be cannon fodder for the more powerful and specialized troops of the guard. The task of the conscript is a mindless one, just like the tyranids. Have the conscripts be commanded by the devs just like the nids. When an objective is set the conscripts and all of the supporting supplies go with them. the conscripts provide the mass of bodies for the guard, while the storm troopers, veterans, snipers, tankers, and Valkyrie pilots support the main assault, or use them as a distraction for their activities. This would keep the fluff of the guard intact, reduce frustration of being flimsy, force large scale flights, but possibly sacrifice performance.
This doesn't make sense. While it's true that the Tyranids have better elite infantry than the IG they are also even more reliant on a numbers advantage and swarms of extremely weak units than IG is. If you think that guardsmen dying en masse doesn't work in the game how do you expect gaunts dying en masse to do so?
Simple. Don't use them as a class. This game is suppose to have a requisition system, right? Players could use said requisition to summon gaunts or gants, even ripper swarms, as minions. Seeing as how bE is already working on Tyranid as NPC it shouldn't be a problem getting them to work properly against actual players. "But, Isaac! They could do the same with the Imperial Guard!" True, but it would be a waste should you summon a squad of conscripts only to see them get wiped out by a plasma cannon one minute later. Whereas the lesser tyranids would otherwise be disposable, leaving your already sub-par gaurdsman without meat shield to protect him. Of course, this is all just speculation on how it could play out.
Except they wouldn't do that for the same reason that they wouldn't give IG some form of player squad, it'd kill performance. It is very unlikely that there will be any form of summons or minions in this game. Similarly, the non-garbage Tyranids are actually overall stronger than space marines, so there's a balance disparity in either direction you take that. Never mind the obvious lore issues with sentient Tyranids.
It wouldn't just kill performance, it'd just be bad overall. A.I in most games is awful, especially in open world games where you can't script their paths tightly.The only thing they're usually capable of in an MMO is to run in a straight line towards the enemy (usually getting stuck on something along the way or warping all over the place) and spam extremely simple attacks at it. Letting hundreds of players who rely on NPC's spawn their own braindead NPC squads and then go to war would be a clusterfuck of epic proportions, and not in a good way. There'd be hundreds of NPC's cluttering the battlefield, eating performance and screwing things up. The only "pet" mechanics I can see in this game would be if, say, an ork could spawn a bomb-squig and send it after an enemy every now and then. But class-enforced squad mechanics? No I don't think so
What happens when the character you control dies? there is a hp bar for each character with you? how is gonna be the melee combat when you have 5 characters? how do you manage consumables and ammunition? how accurate should be the AI? if your 5 characters are as powerful as a SM, what happens when you lost 2 of the 4 AI? can you rez them, they just respawn or you are just weaker than everybody else until you lost your entire squad and respawn again? Final and most important question, why do you want AI in a pvp game?
And that's beside the fact that giving IG five-man squads and making a whole squad equal to one of any other race would be doing them a discredit and portraying them as far weaker than they actually are. I did some looking around, and apparently a lasgun powerpack typically has enough energy for 150 shots. Give them a decently high rate of fire and factor in the known properties of lasers, and that means the standard issue gun for the IG is an AR-sized LMG with no recoil and a muzzle velocity of lightspeed. With magazine sizes like that, Guardsmen will be able to shoot all week and reload Sunday morning. Other than that, well they can pretty much shoot anything a Space Marine can shoot. Just sometimes they have to dig in first or stick it on a vehicle.
