Hey guys,
So 0.5b1 is being held up at the code stage but we're pretty close.
Great Devourer mode is looking like it might be a victory condition instead of a separate mini-mod (but that's still up in the air - Gorb has disappeared so Miros is taking over the coding front until he gets back), and we've got some good news for people who were having issues with the AI... but we're not going to tell you just yet.
At the moment it's looking like we have two more coding components to complete, then we start testing everything before giving it to you guys.
On the longer-term front, Miros has also come up with an alternate (simpler) solution for the builderless building concept, which means we now have two working models for how to get that done in later releases. So soon you'll all be able to smash buildings down from the hivefleet without a care in the world.
That's all the news we have right now, I'll give you guys notice once we get to internal testing and we should be releasing maybe five days after that.
Edit (8/11/11):
Really sorry about the wait guys. Looks like we finalised on Tyranid Mod: GDM being its own mini-mod - too many things needed to be changed in it for it to work as a victory condition. But don't worry, it's basically set for roll out, just needs two more tweaks. It's a lot of fun to play, and it will be utterly insane to play against.
As for the main mod, we're seriously just waiting on the AI team and one more tweak of our own to go.
But to give you some advance warning, that tweak is that buildings are getting a rename. It'll make it easier for people to know on sight what a building does, and make it seem a bit more like the names are Imperial classifications (Tyranids naming things? Madness!).
So I'm very sorry we're running over schedule. As an apology, I'm gonna try and get some screenshots of the 0.5b2 user interface changes for you soon - the new build bar AND ability bar, because the hivefleet can do more than drop buildings from space. :D
You know this has been going on since 2005, and there hasnt been a 1.0 yet. Could you say what happened to take this so long, because I gave up long ago.
For the same reason Tyranids didn't get into the game until DoW2 - they're hard to do on the original Dawn of War engine, especially since we're doing this as a free time project and it's hard to get committed coders and animators.
Can you explain what is the Great Devourer mode? How does it play when your faction is a nid and what,ll be different if your faction is not a nid?
It's a no limit mod for Tyranids. 100% unbalanced but fun like hell, and is an wincondition for you nid lovers.
It's designed for when you want to play Tyranids against a non-Tyranid opponent but want to be completely unbalanced (mostly for people who want to play crazy matches against the Insane AI). As Cylarne says, it basically removes all population and hard caps for specific unit types.
So rather than being limited to three lictors in game at any one time, you could have as many as you want. And you can keep spawning units without worrying about reaching your population cap.
Awesome! Keep it up, guys! You're one of the few devs still working on a DOW mod, and for that you guys rock!
Great to hear some news on the mod as always. Sounds like you will have it out in a week or two! I don't know how to feel about the buildings being renamed though, personally I know the names of the tyranid building and what they produce and upgrade and what not
A lot of the way we named them originally was literally grabbing a bunch of Tyranid-sounding words and mixing and matching.
We're gonna keep some of that, but all the major buildings will also involve part of the Tyranid species names so you immediately know the sorts of things it makes.
Such as Gaunt Hive, Carnifex Lair, Warrior Chamber, etc, etc?
Similar to, but not quite. We're drawing from their species classifications from last edition - so Gauntii, Carnifex, Tyranicus, etc. We found the buildings tended to match up to the species clusters so much that we might as well employ them. :P
since dawn of war is a rather violent game, dead units tend to leave quiet a bloody mess when they die. Tyranids do not. I used corsix to add blood splat to the tyranid units. I dont think they are supposed to have red blood. Is there a way to make a new blood color unique to the tyranids?
Nope, its impossible as the engine doesn´t allow it (someone please correct me if I am wrong), as far as I know, thats why creatures such as Orcs and Kroot have as well red blood.
bummer, because if it were possible I was thinking of giving Tau blue blood like it says they have in the fluff
Yeah, no, there's a reason we didn't include that. Sadly it can't be done.