Link to Video Blog (Imbedding not functioning)
Video Dialogue
Hello, this is Arkane Priest and this is part two of my blog on Modding in PC games. I’ve linked back to part one below this video in case anyone missed it.
Today we’re going to look at the game Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, and one of its most comprehensive mods, Firestorm over Kronus. We’ll look at the base game first, and then see what the mod has changed.
Dawn of War: Dark Crusade is a real-time strategy game, pitting players of one of several different factions against each other. Each faction has a variety of units that excel at different tasks, creating a classic strategy environment. The footage you see here was taken in-game.
Some of the problems associated with Dark Crusade are that there are several simple, one-minded strategies that dominate all others. This somewhat deters competitive gameplay, as it will essentially boil down into who is using the most overpowered strategy at a point. Another problem is the game’s fan-base, comprised of players of the table-top Warhammer community, was somewhat let down by the exclusion of some units in the table-top game. Misrepresentation of some units also caused somewhat of a controversy. It really left a lot of people saying “I could do it better”
This is where the mod community comes into play. Since the original game, the Dawn of War, the mod community went to work adding in their missing favorite units, modifying the game code to suit their ideas of better balance, and generally proliferating custom content. Their efforts have paid off in several large projects that have been completed, the most recent being Firestorm over Kronus.
Firestorm over Kronus is a massive overhaul of the Dark Crusade game system. It modifies every unit in the game, using formulas based on the table-top game statistics and several balancing principles to create an entirely new gameplay. You might not have noticed that you’ve been watching Firestorm over Kronus since I started talking about it. Arguably, most of the changes made in Firestorm over Kronus have been to gameplay, which you can’t really capture on film alone. The game has essentially been rebalanced into an entirely different game that’s simply based on the same engine. In addition to that, many new visuals have been added, such as custom made models and graphics.
This is a custom model made and textured by community modders for Firestorm over Kronus. It represents a Chaos Terminator, a unit that was not implemented in the original game. There are many other models like this that the community provided visual representation for in Firestorm over Kronus.
Firestorm over Kronus has proven that modding a game can become a serious endeavor, producing results on par with commercial products. There is no doubt that the modding team has gained valuable experience working on this mod, experience that could help them pursue goals in the game development field. It also goes to show that a few members of the community, with a little faith and dedication, can make their ideas a reality.
