Dawn of War II Beta Stats Outlined

[modeps]

http://evavhost.com/i/news/DoW2logo.jpg

In case you didn't realize it, your activity in Dawn of War II has been being monitored by the folks at Relic to help improve your gameplay experience. Late yesterday, they released (http://community.dawnofwar2.com/blogs/?p=516) a summary of some of those statistics including information like who are the most popular heroes, average game length, most popular game modes, and more, as well as an explanation of each. Pretty cool stuff.

When players first start playing DOWII online in Ranked matches, the Eldar and Space Marines are the more dominant races among novice players. However, more skilled players with higher TrueSkill rankings see a precipitous drop in Space Marine success and by the looks of it, learn to use the Tyranids more effectively. This shouldn’t be that surprising though, since the Tyranids require a deeper understanding of the game mechanics to play really effectively.

Going forward, we will continue to share this type of information with the community. We hope it will give you additional insight into the changes we make and the rationale behind the decisions.

I'm a stats whore, I love seeing this type of thing.

[drakkarim]

any plans for a REAL demo? not the steam pile?

[<JEDI>~ASH]

Why end the Beta? Relic should release the day 0 patch to beta test. We don't want another issue like OP Tyrants or gimp Apocs.

[drakkarim]

Why end the Beta? Relic should release the day 0 patch to beta test. We don't want another issue like OP Tyrants or gimp Apocs.

don't you know? now that beta is done today, the game on the shelves tomorrow is 100% perfect.

otherwise, god forbid, a game in beta and on retail shelves would imply publishers are selling unfinished software, we can't have that kind of tomfoolery going on, the consumer might get upset and spew some vomit on some ignored game forum.

:)

[Bushido]

I was less than impressed with the beta. I love building a base in RTS. I love building airsupport. This game has none of that. Its Company of Heroes *with lasers* Which is great for people that thought, "I Love WWII, but I want more infantry and less vehicles and no air because its in the future." It seems as though the license prevents the developers from taking the game beyond the tabletop miniatures.

[Zurik]

I felt like this one was closer to the tabletop experience than the first game. Also, I felt the opposite of what they say about people playing Tyranids more at higher skill levels. I had an easier time playing Tyranids when I was first learning due to the low unit cost and effective swarming, but a harder time learning the Space Marines because its all about cover and flanking.

[Cutter99]

I had some kind of obnoxious love-affair with the beta. The idea of taking the attention-shift mechanic out of RTS games and putting all the players focus on really intricate and well-animated infantry *mayhem* is just glorious.

I'm very interested to see how well Relic keeps up with their promise to provide copious post-launch content.

[Sarconix]

I will admit to playing an embarrassing amount of this beta, mostly Space Marines and Orks. Quite enjoyable and, yes, different from DOW1, but I think they can coexist. This bodes well for the retail release, except for the fact that my (single-core) Athlon 3800+ was having a lot of trouble with it.

[greenapple]

I was less than impressed with the beta. I love building a base in RTS. I love building airsupport. This game has none of that. Its Company of Heroes *with lasers* Which is great for people that thought, "I Love WWII, but I want more infantry and less vehicles and no air because its in the future." It seems as though the license prevents the developers from taking the game beyond the tabletop miniatures.

Or its great for people that simply like the W40K setting.

I'm not sure what makes you think the developers WANTED to go beyond the tabletop rather than going more TOWARDS the tabletop. Given they shift from DOW1 (where they clearly adapted the license to more standard RTS norms), it looks to me like they're conciously moving more towards the license, which includes a shift away from some RTS main stays. Not everyone's cup of tea, admittedly, but not a "crazy" thing to do with the W40K setting.