Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus announced with Linux support, due in 'late 2018'

Turn-based Warhammer: 40K? I could dig that. Looking forward to more details as times goes on!

I'll take a wait and see approach on this one, given that Games Workshop is willing to license their IPs out to literally anyone, which has lead to a veritable deluge of Warhammer and 40K games over the last several years, 90% of which have been garbage. Hopefully this one falls into the 10%.

I'm excited to see another Warhammer 40k game comming to Linux, but I will be rather cautious because not every 40k game is good.

Quoting: KeyrockI'll take a wait and see approach on this one, given that Games Workshop is willing to license their IPs out to literally anyone, which has lead to a veritable deluge of Warhammer and 40K games over the last several years, 90% of which have been garbage. Hopefully this one falls into the 10%.

I'd argue that it's a sea of mediocrity rather than garbage, few games are actually bad, then again few are also actually good and yes, it's a result of GW handing their license over to anyone willing. Now this relatively recent policy (they used to sue anyone for the pettiest things) stems from GW shooting themselves in the foot with various financial decisions, namely insane pricing (55 pounds for a plastic tank c'mon GW) while shrinking their retail distribution and I'm fairly sure licensing is the only thing that kept them afloat. With the big moneymaker (and more importantly tabletop awareness raiser) Dawn of War flopping recently I imagine their licensing output only to increase and it's unsurprising that mediocre developers who often end up making licensed games (as these come with time and money saving prepackaged audiovisuals and concepts) end up making mediocre 40k games. It requires actual effort (c'mon Relic) to mess up a 40k game as everything comes pre-packaged and often already known to nerds who end up developing it (c'mon Relic), all you have to do is apply basic games design (c'mon Relic) or at least steal it from other successful games (c'mon Relic) and give fanbois what they want (c'mon Relic).

My problem with this is that mediocre developers can make a decent game, but don't end up innovating in any way that would make those games stand out above what is considered bog-standard in their respective genres, except with 40k coating. The last two really memorable (and innovative! what a coincidence!) 40k games I've played were DoW 1 and the venerable Final Liberation. Then I would consider DoW2 as it combined a decent story with a mix of CoH/Diablo gameplay and then maaaaybe Space Marine by the principle of being one of the amusingly few real-time action games in a setting that's 100% action and warfare and grim and dark. After that almost everything else I played were decent games, but in every case I have already played a better version of it when it was called for example Panzer General, Aliens vs Predator, X-Com/UFO Defense or Starcraft 2 (c'mon Relic).

Quoting: GuestGame companies must think Linux users only like strategy games or something. It's a good thing though.

And action-adventure games (Mad Max, both Tomb Raider games, Shadow of Mordor...), and car sims (Dirt, Grid, F1, ETS & ATS...), and point&click (too many to list) and platformers (too many to list) :)

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Quoting: m2mg2I'm hoping this isn't the shot away from the Feral Radar, but it seems likely as Feral have ported the other Warhammer 40,000 games. I'm hoping for another non RTS game from Feral.

As I wrote pretty clearly, this is not from Feral.

Did you? I'm sorry, I didn't see that. I've read it at least three times and don't see it. Must be going blind, or dumb.

Quotehas just been announced by Bulwark Studios and Kasedo Games, it's due this year with Linux support.

Is it not clear enough?

I saw the announcement info, I just didn't read it as though they stated it would be an in house port. My bad.

I didn't infer it either so don't feel bad. I don't think assuming that readers will know those company names and know that it means that Feral is not porting the game is "pretty clear"... But I ain't real bright either, so there's that..

Isn't it a good thing that it isn't Feral porting it? Don't get me wrong, they make excellent ports, but I would MUCH rather see the Linux version be developed at the same time by the same people. And hopefully released at the same time as all the other platforms. If Linux gaming is ever to grow, we need this. I am sure there will always be a place for the porting houses, but I would love for one day to have them hired as contractors to help develop the games for Linux rather than porting them after the fact.

Yes! In house ports are great. Feral is awesome, but they can only port so many games. We need more.

Quoting: fractal

Quoting: KeyrockI'll take a wait and see approach on this one, given that Games Workshop is willing to license their IPs out to literally anyone, which has lead to a veritable deluge of Warhammer and 40K games over the last several years, 90% of which have been garbage. Hopefully this one falls into the 10%.

I'd argue that it's a sea of mediocrity rather than garbage, few games are actually bad, then again few are also actually good and yes, it's a result of GW handing their license over to anyone willing. Now this relatively recent policy (they used to sue anyone for the pettiest things) stems from GW shooting themselves in the foot with various financial decisions, namely insane pricing (55 pounds for a plastic tank c'mon GW) while shrinking their retail distribution and I'm fairly sure licensing is the only thing that kept them afloat.

A friend of mine used to be a big Warhammer player (not sure if 40K or not) and pretty much abandoned it a while ago; I seem to recall the explanation involving some sort of deliberate obsoleting of all the models he'd accumulated, and painstakingly painted, up to then. I got the impression rage was widespread among Warhammer players over this. I can imagine some financial suffering resulting.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 21 February 2018 at 5:17 pm UTC

Quoting: Purple Library GuyA friend of mine used to be a big Warhammer player (not sure if 40K or not) and pretty much abandoned it a while ago; I seem to recall the explanation involving some sort of deliberate obsoleting of all the models he'd accumulated, and painstakingly painted, up to then. I got the impression rage was widespread among Warhammer players over this. I can imagine some financial suffering resulting.

I'm out of the loop but this is probably not the real reason. I can not imagine how GW is going to "obsolete" a space marine (or any other unit - they are all kinda generic).

It's an age old discussion when some new edition comes along. No matter what system (or company). People do not want to buy everything - including rulebooks - again, when new versions show up. And some use this as lame excuse to stop an expensive and time consuming hobby they started to dislike over time anyway.

Others just keep playing there old editions, becoming the Old Guard for the next gen players and even go on active hunts for old models.

Especially 40k has e.g. an accepted and detailed rule set to create custom rules for units. And in the end the models are just representing an idea. In other words: Nobody gives a fuck whether the model on the table is a Bike, a Trike or a Quad. The paper the player filed before the game started defines it. Only a nitpicker would complain that he is not "seeing" that plasma bolter on some unit. Nobody plays (long) with such spoilsports.