Hello there! I'm SoulEater. I'll be talking about DOWII in all its glory!
Now who the heck is this guy again??
- I'm a fairly active DOWII player.
- I'm a basic DOW2 modder that has been in the scene for 2-years ish.
- I've made a few simple mini-mods (find on Nexus and ModDb) and also meddled with the DOWII AI for PVP (previously made by KanKrusha, which I later took over) for Elite Mod, and now passed it over to the Eternal mod devs who used it as a base for their AI.
- I basically run the DOW II modding discord server (others are admin too, but I choose to actively manage I guess?)
- Found some technical solutions over the Internet, wrote some guides on Steam and compiled them into one massive guide <Steamcommunity.com>
- Wrote an article on the thrice cursed soundbug of DOWII at ModDB <Moddb.com>
- Was part of the Elite Mod team and former Comms Manager for the mod itself.. a combined duration for about a year-ish (I think).
- Currently moderating for the new Eternal mod, and the revived Codex Edition mod (as of the time of writing this article, left it to focus on Eternal).
- Fairly noisy guy and good at hyping stuff up.
So, I'd like to think my words carry some weight.
Now, I've been thinking about writing a DOWII article for while. After some horrible procrastination and writing blocker, I actually did it! (after months after procrastination).
The purpose of this article is to:
- reintroduce DOWII.
- give context / history on DOWII.
- context on the DOWII modding scene / ecosystem.
- highlight the current active mods for DOWII.
- extol the beauty and grandeur of DOWII.
- attract modders new / existing to the DOW2 modding community, and from other modding communities that could contribute.
Before beginning, I'd like to explain that is my own personal article and only reflects the informed opinion of the article author and is not a reflection of an actual statement from any DOWII mod or at all.
Additionally, there are some comments that might be construed as controversial or biased. This author is all too aware and seeks to proceed anyway as I've done my best to be objective. So, I'll let my points stand on their own as I have given careful thought about them.
Now, to start off this article.. let me quote a modified inspired speech.. (fans who do get the reference, enjoy! 😎)
My friends, it has often been said that I like Dawn of War II.
No, friends...
-----
I love Space Marines striding in glory, Angels of Death incarnate.
I love the dark corrupting host of Chaos, tearing the galaxy asunder.
I love the ceaseless and unyielding Imperial Guard, holding the line for its God-Emperor and Imperium.
(yes, not that fancy smancy Astra Militarum labal. THIS IS THE GUARD, SON!!).
I love the Orks, Eldar and Tau, doing their xenos thangs whatever they maybe..
And I do love the Tyranids, Necrons and other xenos horrors.. ravaging the Imperium onto its end of days.
Wars across prairies, in hive city streets, in war world trenches, in grasslands, in frozen tundra, through deserts, in space hulks, in the warp bounded planets, I love every act of war that can occur in DOWII.
I love listening to gothic chants, punctured by the sound of artillery salvos that thunder. I love the maddening hyme of Chaos, or the ravenous growls of the Tyranids as they devour the galaxy. I love the music and ambience of the universe of Warhammer 40,000.
My heart leaps with joy whenever I tag team with a bunch of great team players from Last Stand.
And the feeling that comes in the campaign.. when the sight of Apollo Diomedes confronting the horrid baneblade and echoing his famous lines of valour...
" IT IS THE BAAAANEEEEEEBLADDDDDDDDDEEEEEEE !!! " or... " BRUVA, I AM PINNEEEED HERE!!! "
And there is nothing like a well played match of PVP, well trained and coordinated players fighting against another team in a round of 3v3 (or at least watching them play it), while salt-bashing each other later in the new salt mines of Elite Mod while continuing their wars in the chat-trenches of their balance channel.
-----
Ladies & Gentlemen... All I ask for is Dawn of War II. Dawn of War II so grand, it would make the Great Rift itself tremble.
Ladies & Gentlemen... I ask you now as a fellow comrade in arms.. what is it that you really want? Do you wish for MORE DOWII as I do? Do you wish for a merciless, bloody wars extended by more DOWII mods? Mods whose fury is built with iron and lightning and fire? Do you ask for DOWII mods to sweep in like a tempest, leading into the second rising of DOWII again after the debacle of DOWIII (whose name we whisper in hushed contempt?)
But... After enduring over 12 years wallowing in the darkness without a good new successor to the DOW experience (DOWIII never truly existed).. for us, a simple "ordinary" DOWII mod will no longer be sufficient.
(Raises voice) We need a REVITALIZED DAWN OF WAR II! With Mods beyond any other known in DOWII history.
We are but a meagre player-base, the remnants of old-time players less than half a thousand strong. However, I believe that each of you old players are able to rekindle new light in the spirits of new players and modders. We who still believed. We represent a force that could rekindle the flames of war in DOWII again!
It is time for us to awaken. We will remind them of what it means to experience DOWII once again, hearing the drums of war again.
We will remind them that of the renewed glory echoing in our actions bringing it all to life than merely their unrealized fantasies.
Yes, my friends! Soon, DOWII will return in all its true glory and it will illuminate the halls of war asunder once again.
-----
Now, I am telling you, my fellow players and modders, half a thousand strong, that we are all purveyors of DOWII.
And with your help over the years and now, we are now at the precipice of our true goal. What we want are mods that only we can bring. True mods of DOWII! The glorious mods we've all been waiting for!
So you see, we want Dawn of War II mods.
WE! WANT! DAWN! OF!! WAR!! TWO!! MODS!!!''
And... they are coming....
Thank you for indulging my grandiose speech! Time to get on with it! Those who didn't get it combines elements of Hellsing's Major speech from the actual show and the abridged version.
INTRODUCTION:
Now, I'll be briefly introducing and giving context for starters.
Dawn of War II was first released in 2009, followed by Chaos Rising in 2010 and its last expansion Retribution was released in 2011. Powered by Relic's new Essence Engine, this game was a force to behold. The game is about 14 years old.
As it stands, Relic took a gamble by re-inovating and attempted something different. It wasn't the DOW experience like we knew from its predecessor. Base-building tossed aside. War on a massive scale, gone too.
Instead, what we got was condescended intimate carnage and 40k richness. The music, ambience, sound, environment, models, art direction and everything else was superb and amazing. Years later, DOWII remains unmatched, with some 500+ average active players per month <Steamcharts.com> at least for Retribution.
DOWII was later left behind due to the THQ bankruptcy. In 2017, Relic attempted to release a new DOW experienced called DOWIII, but it was more or less dead on arrival after DOWIII had its plug pulled.
Ever since then, there was a dearth of new and better DOW experiences. Granted, the heroic modders of DOWI and DOWII have held the line to hold the torch in keeping the flame of DOW alive and well.
In light with Relic's new projects like Aoe4 and CoH3, it is my speculation that we won't see any new DOW sequels or remasters / remakes in say 6 years at the very least, or if we're horribly unlucky, perhaps at most 10 years (and this is with optimism).
In this interbellum, this is where I believe DOWII will play a crucial role, which I will explain further.
-----
In my informed opinion, DOWII is greatly positioned for greatness. It is one of the last great DOW games (no, THERE WAS NO DOW3!!).
It was so good, it captivated me and I switched to DOW2 (Take it from me as someone who used to play DOW1 to death, and later moved on to DOW2). I've been playing DOW2 for 3 years now, and modded for about 2 years give or take.
Although, the DOWII modding scene is small, gains in modding knowledge and documentation have started shining a light forward and creating new paths.
Admittedly, while I have no experience at all with DOWI mods, one can simply compare them. Even with nostalgia lens, the DOW1 engine hasn't aged too well. After playing DOWII, I was unable to return to DOWI even with mods, my nostalgia rose tinted glasse were shattered.
With that, DOWII mods play a huge role and for vital reasons.
----
Enter DOWII mods.
For any and all games, mods and modding has become commonplace and necessary, to fill in the void that video game companies are unable or unwilling to fill. Whether by fixing bugs, improving the game or even adding additional content, modding is essential for the longevity or even the resurgence of games.
In its current state, the DOWII modding scene is actually fairly young and revived again. But let me give some history so this statement makes sense.
++++
Update: 9/1/2024 (Adding on here)
In Jan 2017, the RelicNews forums that housed most of the DOW1/DOW2 modding communities, mods and modding resources were shut down around the time of THQ's bankruptcy.
I got a former RelicNews admin by the name of Moe to tell me about RN. ---- (Quotes are from Moe)
- RN was a fan made forum that was independent and not under Relic's control back in the day.
- It later became the "defacto official" forum for Relic, so to speak. At the same time, Relic allowed RelicNews to remain independent. Relic devs did use the forum to talk to the community back in the day. But Relic later started building their own websites for specific games (eg: DOW1+2, CoH series etc.)
"They were and they weren't, it was an odd situation. They started as fan forums, and Relic devs would post. When THQ happened, we became official, but retained our independence. It was great for us and an absolute landmine from a corporate PoV, which is why sometime around CoH Relic launched their own forums."
"I mean the advantage of using us was that Relic wasn't really liable, because we were "just a fan forum", so they didn't have to worry about Games Workshop's army of IP lawyers yelling at them over mods or whatever"
------
RelicNews was later shutdown on Jan 2017 by the admins and moderators of RelicNew themselves (not by Relic), because they saw the decline of visitors due to next gen platforms like Reddit and Discord.
"But yeah so between usage declining due to both forums not being en vogue, therefore fewer new users popping in, and both existing users and mods moving on in life and becoming too busy to put in multiple hours a day on this, the whole thing wound down "
Credits: Thank you, Moe from the 15th Fleet (compromising old RelicNews staff) who explained this to me to a new blood XD
++++
Subsequently, newer forums for DOWII/DOWIII were later shut down too (for reasons I am not familiar with, though speculation is that Relic wanted to save costs). As such, for a long time.. there were no centralized DOWII modding communities. Most were separated individuals and isolated groups of modders.
There were tiny groups of DOWII modders, which gave hope and enough to survive. Amongst the largest are Elite Mod, the Astartes Mod and the Last Stand Forgotten Emerald mod, besides other smaller individual and isolated modders.
Later, a group of modders formed a centralized modding community on discord. Led by Arch-Magos Noot, his modding discord server first called "Noot's World" and later the "Nootspheric Network" was a shining beacon in an otherwise barren DOW2 modding scene. This led to discussions and breakthroughs for DOW2 that were were previously lost or never discovered before, as more people were centralized in one area.
All of which is where we are today.
----------
Here are some examples of proper DOWII groups and mods plus related communities in action.
Active DOW2 Mods and Groups (Discord Links):
---- (updated 21 December 2023)
Dedicated DOWII Servers:
⦁ Dawn of War II: Discord.gg
⦁ The Last Stand: Discord.gg
PVP / PVE Mods:
⦁ Elite Mod: Discord.com
⦁ DOW2 Eternal: Discord.gg
⦁ DoW2 Codex Edition: Discord.gg
⦁ Vengeance of the Blood Ravens / Astartes Mod: Discord.gg
Last Stand Mods:
⦁ Forgotten Emerald Last Stand: Discord.gg
⦁ The Last Stand Project Mod: Discord.gg
Community Servers:
⦁ DOWII Russian Server: Discord.gg
⦁ DOWII Korean Server: Discord.gg
If you're interested to learning or contribute to modding, COME JOIN THE DOW2 MODDING SERVERS!! There is always need for more modders..
DOW2 Modding Servers:
⦁ DOWII - Modding Community: Discord.gg
⦁ Nootspheric Network: Discord.gg
Others:
⦁ Dawn of War (general server linking DOW1, 2 and 3): Discord.gg
⦁ RelicNews (Unofficial): Discord.gg
⦁ 15th Fleet (discord server with former RelicNews Admins / Mods): Discord.gg
----------
Lastly, before my braincells finish, I'll very briefly just touch on the modding stuff.
In brief, modding areas include:
- Animation
- Modelling
- AI
- LUA / Scar code
- Music / Sounds
- Actually making your own mod and changing unit attributes (Copes Tools)
- Visual mods.. etc.
- UI modding (oh what a nightmare)..
- Changing some simple code.. maybe to change your campaign faction colour and badge etc.
- Maybe adding your own badge for PVP.
- Lots more!
And that ends my long-assed article.
Thank you for reading this insane glob of coherent words I managed to string together!! XD
To conclude, DOW2 has so much amazing unexplored potential.. and especially considering the state of Relic.. this may be the best time to do some modding and get the DOW we wanted!
To those who read till the end... here is your reward!!!
THE NECRONS HAVE RETURNED IN DOW2!! (All thanks to the DOW2 Modding Community).
See you guys there and happy modding!
Note: I actually wrote this article without ChatGPT. HAH!! XD
Disclaimer: Most of the screenshots are taken by myself or other players / modders.
