Do I want PvE to be fun and rewarding? Of course. Do I want it to get in the way of PvP? No. If you're not here for PvP, then go play another game. Warhammer 40k is not for you. This a setting where war is the answer. It's the only answer we've ever had, and the only answer we'll ever need. Genocide, tyranny, fascism and absolute paranoid xenophobia are the only way to survive. Billions die by the moment in the name of countless battles across the galaxy. A thousand human sacrifices are made daily so hyperspace travel through what can be called hell still works. There is a hidden realm of suffering and torture that exists within the Eldar webway, a place that would give Clive Barker nightmares. There is a species built for nothing but war that would conquer all that exists if it could stop fighting amongst itself. A hive mind species seeks to literally devour all living matter, while another biomechanical one seeks to annihilate it. The Ruinous Powers seek to permanently meld the Immaterium with realspace and drown all that exists in an ocean of madness and violence. Mankind's greatest defenders are ultra fanatical Catholic Nuns organized into an army of shock troops and legions of genetically enhanced super soldiers who desire nothing but the destruction of everything that isn't human. IF YOU ARE NOT HERE FOR PVP, THEN GO PLAY ANOTHER GAME WHERE HOPE STILL EXISTS. WARHAMMER 40K IS NOT FOR YOU.
I think I'm going to be rather disappointed if people star churning out vehicles and dreadnoughts and terminator armour within the 1st month of the servers going live. It's should take months to earn weapon upgrades and the what gear you have should be tactical in certain situations and not a case of "lets blitz some newbies, I'll load up my dreadnought".
Yea, that's gonna be tricky. While I agree that there needs to be a reasonable timeframe for earning things, I don't know what that is, and for what things. Vehicles for instance. Single player vehicles should probably be able to be "built" if resources can be "saved" (if applicable) where-as larger items I think should be done by guilds/clans/chapters/whatever. I don't know if the "Planetside" model would really be good either cuz like you're saying, it'll just make things trivial. As far as armors for instance, that's going to be really tricky. Do you start off with Power armour? Then maybe qualify for a variant like Aegis or Artificer? Do you Unlock Terminator after a few months? Eventually Dreadnought? And can you ever go back (would you want to)? Lore wise of course you couldn't. And do you unlock weapons within those armor sets? And going back to vehicles, let's say the Orks got the Kult of Speed as their last race (probably be pirates). Do they automatically get vehicles... ? Would be a little odd for them not to, or at least not very quickly. And Lord only knows with all the other races and classes what progression paths, how they would individually develop them. My head hurts.
So it should sit perfectly well with people who live in heavily urbanised areas for whom walking home means avoiding the attention of ork like gangs or with people living in small towns that have all the life and vibrancy of a Necron tomb world.
What I envision when I see think about this game is a complicated skill tree that you spend some for of rewarded experience on, not one that gives you better skill but more chooses your career path. For example if you want to be a terminator you will have to choose one skill path that allows you equip terminator armour (then branches off to lightning claws, storm hammers, assault cannons ect) and then onto the Dreadnought, other skill paths will take you through the heavy weapon route, another will take you through the vehicle pilot route, another the assault route with jump packs. Each path should permanently lock all other paths out and everyone should have multiple characters if they want to use different equipment. I don't want Bob the assault marine to become Bob the Terminator and then Bob the Lascannnon guy and then Bob the Rhino pilot simply because Bob has lots of resources. I want Bob to pick a career path and stick to it, choosing different branches from that path as he goes along. So Bob the terminator will always be Bob the terminator, unless he can advance to Bob the Dreadnought but then he will never be able to go back to his terminator suit. The player controlling Bob will have to create Fred and advance him to Fred the assault marine if he wants to use a jump pack. Every choice should be tactical, every piece of equipment performs a specific role, if your guild turns up with 100% terminators they're going to lose as the other team will simply frag the snot out of you with heavy weapons and Landspeeders. Things like bikes and boars/cyboars should summonable equpiment/mounts for lightly armoured assault/fast attack troops that haven't choosen the jump pack skill path.
I can appreciate that, and think it is a good idea. My ask would be; can one be independent of the other? I should not have HAVE to PvE if PvP is my thing and vice versa. I plan on doing it all, but from the posts here I can see that it would leave to some hurt back sides.
As I've described elsewhere, there should be an entrance test for potential players: 1. Grab their heads with both of your hands and fixate them. 2. Look them deep in the eyes; make sure that they can not avoid eye contact. 3. Start humming until your voice has fallen down to the deepest sound that your vocal cords can create without tearing apart. 4. Again, make sure to look them straight in the eye and then start growling "GRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMMMMMDARK" for exactly twelve (12) seconds, not one more or less. 5. Unless a distinct glow starts developing in the subjects' eyes, they are not fit for a Warhammer 40.000 MMO and should undergo immediate application of Class-B amnesiacs to remove any and all memories of this process, as well as of this game.
