Download Codex Edition 1.2.
1: Proper support for 8 players is finally here! While it was previously possible to play on 8 player maps in Dawn of War II, most people were discouraged from doing so due to the lack of available 8 player maps, as well as the janky glitching you had to do in order to make it work. Well, this is no longer an issue. Codex Edition 1.2 now comes with a fully functional 8 player lobby, as well as five (more to come soon) 8 player maps to wreak havoc on. Naturally, you will see these available at the bottom of the map selection list.
2: While the UI for the various menus in the game received a facelift, the gameplay UI was also massively revamped in order to bring it closer to the original Dawn of War from 2004. This means that you will no longer experience information overload as hundreds of glowing icons and pop-ups appear during large fights, completely blocking the view of combat and making it harder to understand what's going on. Effectively, squad icons are now only visible when you select a unit, health bars are slightly smaller, indicators such as movement and selection have been made thinner, and resource icons on resource points were eliminated (I mean... come on... we all know what requisition looks like.) This, among other things, makes the game feel more immersive. While it may make life slightly harder for super sweaty competitive players as they no longer see numbers and intrusive icons everywhere, this mod was never meant to be super competitive.
3: Chaos, Imperial Guard, and to a small extent the Space Marines have all received new units that are now listed in the Factions article, as well as the changelog of Codex Edition 1.2. This does not conclude unit additions, and I am very aware of the lacking Tyranid and Tau rosters that have been mentioned previously, but with Imperial Guard and Chaos now in a good place, I will be able to focus on those other two next.
4: The mod installation process has been simplified with an installer packaged into the .zip of the Codex Edition 1.2 download. This means that all you have to do is point the installer to your Dawn of War II: Retribution install folder, and it will take care of the rest. The mod still has to be launched with "StartCodex.bat" which will be placed into the game's install folder, and you are provided with a "_README_CODEX_EDITION.txt" in the .zip containing the installer that further elaborates on some details.
5: Optimizing the experience is something I've been exploring deeply as I worked on 1.2. Remember those extra .dll files and the 4gb patch that came with the mod initially? Well, I've decided to package them into their own mod, found here. I did this not only because there are more now, but also because I understand that not all computers are made equal, and certain files may actually make the experience worse if you have a really old computer or a budget laptop. That said, I highly recommend that you install it alongside Codex Edition, since Codex Edition itself can make the game cry if you don't support it with those fixes. One of the latest fixes converts the game from DirectX 9 to Vulkan (the d3d9.dll file), which resulted in a 50% improvement in stability and performance for some of my friends, as well as halved RAM and CPU usage. Another one also fixes the UI scaling on 2k and 4k monitors so that the UI is no longer tiny (I suffered that for a long time and finally found the solution.) More information is available in the "_README-P&S_INSTRUCTIONS.txt" file packaged in the Performance & Stability Mod. All in all, this mod is a must-have if you wish to experience Codex Edition in its full glory without problems.
6: In-game optimizations have been conducted by reducing the amount of overlapping craters and decal spam that reduced framerates in areas where combat had passed. This was especially noticeable with abilities like orbital bombardment and Valkryie missile runs that dropped frames in the dozens. Granted, it will still happen if a lot of combat is focused around one spot and the game lasts for an hour or longer, but at least it should no longer be as bad, especially if paired with the Performance & Stability Mod mentioned above.
7: Improved AI. Thanks to Celt and iToaster from the Eternal mod team and our recent collaborations, Codex Edition received the blessing of not-braindead AI. Best experienced with Expert AI, the new Skynet should no longer sit in their base doing nothing, and will actually build more varied units for once. This came as a very refreshing change compared to the vanilla AI that was quite incompetent at using the new units from Codex Edition.
You can read the changelog on the Codex Edition 1.2 page in its description, or from the "Codex_Edition_1.2_CHANGELOG.txt" that will be located in your game installation folder upon installing the mod.
Below is a preview of the new and functional 8 player lobby and its fresh background, as well as some gameplay screenshots that I should probably start posting more often!
And as always, public Discord is available to all!
Why did I choose IG to cause the game to crash ?
The game remembers your last commander choice when you select him, specifically the issue is with the third commander choice; because the IG only has 2 commanders in the mod, it crashes because it can't find that third one. Until I implement the third commander, the solution is to launch vanilla, pick the first or second commander, launch the game, exit, then try the mod again.
This comment is currently awaiting admin approval, join now to view.