The Little Gears of War.

As I noted before, I've been thinking about this for quite a while. At least as long ago as my EQ1 days. I find myself tying to add format and coherency to what amounts to a 6 year brainstorming session. My apologies if this gets (is) messy.

I really want to see the 40KMMO break new ground and to that end, I will try hard to not reuse standard MMO terms. Terms like Level and Class date back decades to the old table top days. Sure everyone knows what they mean, but they also bind us into a certain way of viewing the world.

In my version of the 40KMMO we'd start with 4 factions initially, The forces of Chaos, The Eldar, Orks, and The Empire of Man. I'll start detailing out the factions with The Empire of Man (aka The Empire).

To start with there would be three professions available to players; The Inquisition, the Space Marines, and the Imperial Guard. I'll deal with each in turn, starting with the Imperial Guard.

Each Guard player will start as a new conscript. As we run through a series of missions to familiarize the player with the controls and (more importantly) the history of the guard, they will gain the status and recognition to rise to the rank of Private and the game will begin in earnest.

Leveling (and that will be the last time I use that term!) will be based on rising in rank Private, Corporal, Specialist, Sergent and then into the officer corps. The Guard will be unique among the professions and classes in that many of the ranks do have a numerical designation too, like Private First Class, Private Second Class, and so on. I truly hope that I will never log into this game and see "/OCC Lv41 Space Marine LFG". Anyway, moving up in rank will rely on gaining recognition for completing missions and combat patrols. Missions and patrols will be covered in greater detail in another post.

Recognition is also the currency that will allow players to improve their weapons, armor, and other equipment. For the Guard that may mean trading in laser carbines for laser rifles. Frag grenades for krak grenades. It is also how additional personnel and vehicles would be requisitioned. Back to an earlier comment on the concept of loot. In a universe of organized war almost no-one loots. You see some looting in modern wars, but it is for a few collectors items or a few valuables that can be pawned off when the soldier returns home. Needed equipment is supplied by quartermasters, not dead enemies. Nor are soldiers usually allowed to purchase better / different fighting gear with money. Unless you're an Ork, just say no to loot.

If you are familiar with the 40K lore, you know that Guardsmen are soft and squishy compared to most of their adversaries. They make up for that softness in volume. One to One, a soldier is usually not going to be the equal of a Chaos Marine. Guard players will be no different. One to one vs a Chaos Marine or Ork Nob should quickly result in a death animation. Nope, the guard player is going to have to bring friends to every fight.

Since it would be very difficult, not to mention unfair and unpopular, to force Guard players to team up to accomplish anything, we'll make Guard players a team of their own. A "pet class" if you will. At lower ranks, the player would have just one or two squad mates, fighting by their side. As they rise up into the officer core, it could be a dozen of soldiers under their command. The player could issue basic commands (attack, take cover, free fire, focus fire, retreat, etc) and the game would manage the rest (aiming, moving, etc.).

As rank and reputation increase, the player could not only kit-out his/her avatar, but also their squad mates. This could allow for tremendous customization. Suppose a Master Sargent has enough pull to have 5 soldiers in their unit. I might decide that two are going to form a missile launcher heavy weapons team, one will be a communications specialist with a vox unit, and one will carry a melta. You might decide to gear up everyone with camo-cloaks, sniper rifles, and an extra close assault weapon. How cool would that be?!?

Armor and vehicles will be important for all factions and professions, but non more so than the Guard. The limits on requisitioning vehicles will be much lower for guard players than for other professions. Even low level offers should be able to pack their team up in a chimera and head off across the landscape. Initially I think the vehicle pool would include chimeras, salamanders, sentinels, hell hounds, and, at the top of the pack, the venerable Leman Russ battle tank.
Eventually, as expansions are written and released, baneblades and shadow swords, aircraft, and even titans could be made available for high ranking players.

Guard players would be able to freely ally and work with any other Imperial profession. As for differences in unit origin, e.g. Catachan vs Cadian vs Tallarian, I think that initially players should be modeled after the Cadian standard, but if the time, art assets, and desire is there, I suppose that a couple different regemental types could be available.

Since spelling chimera has seems to be slipping out of my grasp, it must be time to knock off for the night. Next post - They Shall Know No Fear