LMR
Back In Green!
I will when I get a chance
General Discussion
- Thread starter LMR
- Start date
CorvusFortis
Prince
Look foward to it.
LMR
Back In Green!
Here's the tech screen
CorvusFortis
Prince
Looks great! Keep it up! Have you made some more tech icons yourself?
And unrelated question: that was stated in the very beginning of development thread, that Energy will be replacing Gold. Is that still in power?
And unrelated question: that was stated in the very beginning of development thread, that Energy will be replacing Gold. Is that still in power?
LMR
Back In Green!
I've made a couple, some were made by others and re-purposed
I don't remember the energy/gold discussion, I haven't changed it from gold in the test biq
I don't remember the energy/gold discussion, I haven't changed it from gold in the test biq
CorvusFortis
Prince
LMR
Back In Green!
Well, that actually helps me a bit, cos I was concerned that there were too many production increasing improvements. Now, half of those produce "tax" instead, meaning the trade improvements could increase happiness?
CorvusFortis
Prince
Yeah, that sounds fine, since I hardly imaging Necrons establishing marketplaces. They can increase luxury instead of tax.
My thoughts on resurces:
There are not much said about mined metals in WH40K, but there are many alloys for Imperium and other races. So I see two possibilities: represent these resources as alloys on the map, representing metals that required for these allys (for example, "Ceramite" resource will be shown on the map, but represents resources needed for Ceramite). But this way there will be a lot of race-specific resources.
The second way: make some common resources like "Metal Ore" required for all races (or almost all). But every race have to research certain tech for making new alloys from this ore (like Plasteel for Imperium, Bioplastics for Eldar, Fio'tak for Tau etc.) Thic techs will be required for other techs like Advanced Armour.
In second case, I have the following ideas for resources:
Metal Ore - 40k equivalent of Civ3 Iron. A lot of races should require this one, vehicles and heavy infantry particulary. Also for Factories and such.
Uranium or another radioactive material - equivalent of Saltpeter/coal. This should be used by heavy weapon troops and artillery. Ships, power generators and Titans also can use it. Alien vehicles, probably, too.
Promethium - Horses equivalent. I think, this one should be in era 1, not 2, and Mobile infantry shall need it. It will be useful for Imperium, Chaos and Orks. Other races will have something else.
Slag Deposit - I still don't clearly see its connection to plasma generators, but it could be used as resource required for plasma weapons and buildings. Or find something better. Tau will require this alot.
Crystals - will be required for laser weapons. Imperium and Tau can use this for armour.
Archeotech - some end-game units will require this. Obliterators will need it definately.
Relic - another end-game resource. Will be needed for Land Raiders, Demons and Avatars, for example.
Civ-specific:
Adamantium (the only metal that I found is not mined) - used for Terminator armor and Imperial Titans and some Imperial constructions.
Squiggs - probably, should be luxuary for Orks. And Squiggoths will require them, obviously.
Wraithbone - needed for Eldar Wraith-type units and buildings.
Necrons may have Necron Ruins or something like that, but I do not thing that they really need something.
For luxuary the most of Civ3 resources are okay, since in 40k they are not much different, as well as bonus. Also Eldar have some-cat like creature that can be used as luxuary. And there was some rare wood. Cannot recall their names (you mentioned it in your initial list). But when we decide the Strategic Resources, things will go easier.
My thoughts on resurces:
There are not much said about mined metals in WH40K, but there are many alloys for Imperium and other races. So I see two possibilities: represent these resources as alloys on the map, representing metals that required for these allys (for example, "Ceramite" resource will be shown on the map, but represents resources needed for Ceramite). But this way there will be a lot of race-specific resources.
The second way: make some common resources like "Metal Ore" required for all races (or almost all). But every race have to research certain tech for making new alloys from this ore (like Plasteel for Imperium, Bioplastics for Eldar, Fio'tak for Tau etc.) Thic techs will be required for other techs like Advanced Armour.
In second case, I have the following ideas for resources:
Metal Ore - 40k equivalent of Civ3 Iron. A lot of races should require this one, vehicles and heavy infantry particulary. Also for Factories and such.
Uranium or another radioactive material - equivalent of Saltpeter/coal. This should be used by heavy weapon troops and artillery. Ships, power generators and Titans also can use it. Alien vehicles, probably, too.
Promethium - Horses equivalent. I think, this one should be in era 1, not 2, and Mobile infantry shall need it. It will be useful for Imperium, Chaos and Orks. Other races will have something else.
Slag Deposit - I still don't clearly see its connection to plasma generators, but it could be used as resource required for plasma weapons and buildings. Or find something better. Tau will require this alot.
Crystals - will be required for laser weapons. Imperium and Tau can use this for armour.
Archeotech - some end-game units will require this. Obliterators will need it definately.
Relic - another end-game resource. Will be needed for Land Raiders, Demons and Avatars, for example.
Civ-specific:
Adamantium (the only metal that I found is not mined) - used for Terminator armor and Imperial Titans and some Imperial constructions.
Squiggs - probably, should be luxuary for Orks. And Squiggoths will require them, obviously.
Wraithbone - needed for Eldar Wraith-type units and buildings.
Necrons may have Necron Ruins or something like that, but I do not thing that they really need something.
For luxuary the most of Civ3 resources are okay, since in 40k they are not much different, as well as bonus. Also Eldar have some-cat like creature that can be used as luxuary. And there was some rare wood. Cannot recall their names (you mentioned it in your initial list). But when we decide the Strategic Resources, things will go easier.
CorvusFortis
Prince
I just thought that not much attention is given to natural resources in 40k universe, but different factions are often involved in war while trying to secure strategic locations. So what if planet where the mod events take place will be an ancient battlefield and different sides fighting to secure resources left from that times. So common natural resources will be replaced by ammo depots, promethium refineries, uranium mines, STC, foundries etc. This will both resolve the problem and is 40k style, I think.
CorvusFortis
Prince
Starting anew
Introduction
I found about WH40K mod almost as soon as I got an internet access 11 years ago. I managed to download WH2 mod earlier, when I was at my uncle's, and was completely consumed by it. So when I found out about 40k version, I was super-exited. I learned about warhammer from these two mods and now, after 11 years, I am a happy owner of 3000 pts Grey Knight strike force. I met a lot of people, after getting into hobby, and it hepled me indirectly with my Master's thesis. In short, this mod really impacted my life and I REALLY want it to be finished. At this point, I don't care if anyone will play it, even myself, but after 15 years of development and the amount of people's work dedicated to it, it would be a geatest shame, if it will be abandoned.
Here I will post my thoughts about ongoing development. This way I won't lose them and keep everything in one place. I can't give any promises - life is life, and I don't have much free time, and when I have free time, I have a lot of stuff to do, besides Civ3 modding. But I will really try.
Introduction
I found about WH40K mod almost as soon as I got an internet access 11 years ago. I managed to download WH2 mod earlier, when I was at my uncle's, and was completely consumed by it. So when I found out about 40k version, I was super-exited. I learned about warhammer from these two mods and now, after 11 years, I am a happy owner of 3000 pts Grey Knight strike force. I met a lot of people, after getting into hobby, and it hepled me indirectly with my Master's thesis. In short, this mod really impacted my life and I REALLY want it to be finished. At this point, I don't care if anyone will play it, even myself, but after 15 years of development and the amount of people's work dedicated to it, it would be a geatest shame, if it will be abandoned.
Here I will post my thoughts about ongoing development. This way I won't lose them and keep everything in one place. I can't give any promises - life is life, and I don't have much free time, and when I have free time, I have a lot of stuff to do, besides Civ3 modding. But I will really try.
CorvusFortis
Prince
Main concepts
I was reading though workshop threads, and it the unit creation received the most attention through the years. General aspects were touched, but no decisions were made. Now, when the units are finished, I can think about them
Story and the scale
As it was intended, the mod will be set on some random planet N, where different factions gathered to fight each other. I will borrow ideas from Dawn of War games here, and say, that they are fighting over remains of Imperator Class titan, contruction of which will replace the Space Race. Some factions may want to get it (Chaos, Imperium), other may want to destroy it (Eldar). DoW also has answers for reasons to fight. Imperial factons do not necessary have centralized command and their orders may contradict. Inquisition can purge Space Marines, if they suspect heresy, Dark Angels may search for Fallen, Imperial Guard may fall to heresy, etc. Eldar and Tau will be single factions, so they will never fight allies. Chaos and Orks are easy - chaos warbands often fight each other for glory, for example. Orks don't care who they fight at all.
The starting unit, which will replace settler, for all faction will be the Webway Gate. Once again, borrowing from Dawn of War, the system got caught in a Warpstorm, which prevents normal space travel. They found an abandoned webway enterance on neighbour planet, though and could safely travel through it to the starting points.Of course, WWG would be unbuildable and required only for authentic start, since it is impossible to give faction-specific settlers as the starting units.
For settling, I will adapt CCM's systems of settler spawning. I am not a fan of early game settler rush and it is completely not suitable for WH40K. It is only fitting theat high command sends base-builders from time to time, when positions are observed and secured. It also make early wars more profitable, and the whole concept of 40k universe is meaningless, merciless war without end. I will try to make factions as aggressive as possible and recommend to play only on "Most Agressive" settings.
Factions
Five "races" - Imperium, Chaos, Orks, Eldar and Tau. Eldar and Tau will be represented as singular races. I knew, there were plans of diving Eldar in different craftworlds, but unlike chapters of marines and legions of chaos, craftworld differences are barely represented on tabletop. While Orks are in the same situation, aaglo has made all units for them and they really have a lot of character. Leaderheads for orks are also ready, and eldar have none. Finally, orks are numerous and often fight each other, while Eldar rarely have inner conflicts and work together to save their dying race.
Each race will have their unique government, except the Imperium - Space Marines have quite different organization and will have unique government.
Imperium
Includes Imperial Guard, Witch Hunters and Daemon Hunters (yes, I prefere the old names). Their focus are strong infrastructure, economics, happiness, but their units can be mediocre or too expensive. They also suffer from corruption and do not have espionage. The idea is to make their early and mid-game hard, but as they gain power, they can roll over anything (standard civ3 experience, lol).
Space Marines
They will have unique Chapter organization. Corruption is minimall, but they may have problems with income and happiness. To replicate Chapter organization restrictions, they will have high free units support number, but don't get much from additional towns, and cities/megas won't give military support bonuses at all. Support cost will be high, so going over optimal number of units is highly restrictive. This hopefully simulate the situation, when you can have limited number of very strong units. To compensate this, Space Marines will have access to cheap servitor/automated defence systems, which can protect captured cities/serve as military police.
Chaos
Chaos will have a lot of problems to deal with. Their command is often decentralized, warlods want to take over, plot schemes, etc. etc. They will have high corruption, reduced worker rate, maybe limited research rate. But their main advantage is high cultural rate. I guess, they will be the easiest race to achieve a cultural victory. They will have more cultural buildings and esnlave sacrificable slaves with several units.They won't be xenophobic, like eldar, orks and impeium. They will also be the best spies in the game, maybe even Elite spies. Finally, their unit support will be more standard with less free units from the start, but more as they gain territory, while their units are almost as good, as Loyal Space Marines.
I also plan to dedicate each faction to chaos god and give unique buildings to represent it. For exapmple, Khornite Shrine will give barracks effect way earlier, before one can build barracks, while Slaanesh Shrine will increase happy faces. Slaves can be either sacrifices for culture, or be upgraded to Daemon units, to represent them being sacrifices to summon Daemons.
Orks
Orks are all about war. They won't have to worry about unit support at all, but corruption will be higher than for any other faction. To compensate this, they will have several "Forbidden Palace" style wonders. They will also have highest military police and draft limits, but lower worker rate and research cap. Maybe, they will produce settlers faster, to represent their fast growth or even get access to building settlers at some point.
Eldar
Eldar, just like on tabletop, will be tricky to play. They will be the only fation suffering from war weariness. They will have the lowest corruption, though. Their true strength will lie in their fast units (all infantry can move 2 squares, all vehicles are all terrain as roads and can paradrop) and auto-production units through Aspect Shrines. Their Avatar of Khaine leader unit will be strongest among other factions and can turn the tables early in the game, if generated. In short, I want eldar to avoid long wars and aim for short, victorious engagements, outmaneuvering their enemies and bringing them down with surgical strikes.
Tau
There are too many jokes about them being communists in 40k, so I can't help giving them Communal corruption. Like Chaos, Tau won't be xenophobic, letting them generate culture earlier in captured cities. They also will be the best diplomats in the game. Also, no other faction will hate Tau Government, and they will have easier time assimilating captured civilians and quelling resistance.
I was reading though workshop threads, and it the unit creation received the most attention through the years. General aspects were touched, but no decisions were made. Now, when the units are finished, I can think about them
Story and the scale
As it was intended, the mod will be set on some random planet N, where different factions gathered to fight each other. I will borrow ideas from Dawn of War games here, and say, that they are fighting over remains of Imperator Class titan, contruction of which will replace the Space Race. Some factions may want to get it (Chaos, Imperium), other may want to destroy it (Eldar). DoW also has answers for reasons to fight. Imperial factons do not necessary have centralized command and their orders may contradict. Inquisition can purge Space Marines, if they suspect heresy, Dark Angels may search for Fallen, Imperial Guard may fall to heresy, etc. Eldar and Tau will be single factions, so they will never fight allies. Chaos and Orks are easy - chaos warbands often fight each other for glory, for example. Orks don't care who they fight at all.
The starting unit, which will replace settler, for all faction will be the Webway Gate. Once again, borrowing from Dawn of War, the system got caught in a Warpstorm, which prevents normal space travel. They found an abandoned webway enterance on neighbour planet, though and could safely travel through it to the starting points.Of course, WWG would be unbuildable and required only for authentic start, since it is impossible to give faction-specific settlers as the starting units.
For settling, I will adapt CCM's systems of settler spawning. I am not a fan of early game settler rush and it is completely not suitable for WH40K. It is only fitting theat high command sends base-builders from time to time, when positions are observed and secured. It also make early wars more profitable, and the whole concept of 40k universe is meaningless, merciless war without end. I will try to make factions as aggressive as possible and recommend to play only on "Most Agressive" settings.
Factions
Five "races" - Imperium, Chaos, Orks, Eldar and Tau. Eldar and Tau will be represented as singular races. I knew, there were plans of diving Eldar in different craftworlds, but unlike chapters of marines and legions of chaos, craftworld differences are barely represented on tabletop. While Orks are in the same situation, aaglo has made all units for them and they really have a lot of character. Leaderheads for orks are also ready, and eldar have none. Finally, orks are numerous and often fight each other, while Eldar rarely have inner conflicts and work together to save their dying race.
Each race will have their unique government, except the Imperium - Space Marines have quite different organization and will have unique government.
Imperium
Includes Imperial Guard, Witch Hunters and Daemon Hunters (yes, I prefere the old names). Their focus are strong infrastructure, economics, happiness, but their units can be mediocre or too expensive. They also suffer from corruption and do not have espionage. The idea is to make their early and mid-game hard, but as they gain power, they can roll over anything (standard civ3 experience, lol).
Space Marines
They will have unique Chapter organization. Corruption is minimall, but they may have problems with income and happiness. To replicate Chapter organization restrictions, they will have high free units support number, but don't get much from additional towns, and cities/megas won't give military support bonuses at all. Support cost will be high, so going over optimal number of units is highly restrictive. This hopefully simulate the situation, when you can have limited number of very strong units. To compensate this, Space Marines will have access to cheap servitor/automated defence systems, which can protect captured cities/serve as military police.
Chaos
Chaos will have a lot of problems to deal with. Their command is often decentralized, warlods want to take over, plot schemes, etc. etc. They will have high corruption, reduced worker rate, maybe limited research rate. But their main advantage is high cultural rate. I guess, they will be the easiest race to achieve a cultural victory. They will have more cultural buildings and esnlave sacrificable slaves with several units.They won't be xenophobic, like eldar, orks and impeium. They will also be the best spies in the game, maybe even Elite spies. Finally, their unit support will be more standard with less free units from the start, but more as they gain territory, while their units are almost as good, as Loyal Space Marines.
I also plan to dedicate each faction to chaos god and give unique buildings to represent it. For exapmple, Khornite Shrine will give barracks effect way earlier, before one can build barracks, while Slaanesh Shrine will increase happy faces. Slaves can be either sacrifices for culture, or be upgraded to Daemon units, to represent them being sacrifices to summon Daemons.
Orks
Orks are all about war. They won't have to worry about unit support at all, but corruption will be higher than for any other faction. To compensate this, they will have several "Forbidden Palace" style wonders. They will also have highest military police and draft limits, but lower worker rate and research cap. Maybe, they will produce settlers faster, to represent their fast growth or even get access to building settlers at some point.
Eldar
Eldar, just like on tabletop, will be tricky to play. They will be the only fation suffering from war weariness. They will have the lowest corruption, though. Their true strength will lie in their fast units (all infantry can move 2 squares, all vehicles are all terrain as roads and can paradrop) and auto-production units through Aspect Shrines. Their Avatar of Khaine leader unit will be strongest among other factions and can turn the tables early in the game, if generated. In short, I want eldar to avoid long wars and aim for short, victorious engagements, outmaneuvering their enemies and bringing them down with surgical strikes.
Tau
There are too many jokes about them being communists in 40k, so I can't help giving them Communal corruption. Like Chaos, Tau won't be xenophobic, letting them generate culture earlier in captured cities. They also will be the best diplomats in the game. Also, no other faction will hate Tau Government, and they will have easier time assimilating captured civilians and quelling resistance.
CorvusFortis
Prince
Techs
LIke in my Battle for Armageddon scenarios, I want to rename science intro strategy, or something like that. Unlike warhammer fantasy mod, we don't look at the history of the world, but the game is focused on single "campaign" in a short period of time. Besides, there are barely any science in Imperium - it is often considered heresy to invent something new. So, technologies will represent strategic decisions, like "Deploy Heavy Armor" or "Reinforce Fortificatins". Something like that. Eras will be represented as stages of engagement, like first being "Opening Moves", then "Total War", then "Apocalypse" etc. Rivers won't stop units not because they learned to build bridges, but because they started marching better. Of course, every civ will have unique teches to unlock unique buildings and wonders.
Terrain
I want terrain to represent a war-torn battlefield instead of vigin natural landscape. I want to add ruins as their own terrain type, as well as craters, death forests, etc. Maybe, I will leave this one for later versions, but I want the terrain to represent atmosphere of Eternal war.
Resources
As I mentioned earlier, setting resources in Civ3 style won't make much sence. So they will represent abandoned facilities and stashes, like "Ammunition Depot", "Promethium Repository" or "Amasec cellar".
Worker Jobs
Will be left the same more or less, some cosmetic changes will suffice.
Improvements and Wonders
This is the tricky ones. It will make little sence, if Imperial Guard can build Golden Throne. I yet have to come up on how to represent wonders. It is easier with buildings - they can be standard "trade line". "production line", "happiness line". All factions can build shines and temples, bar tau, who will have unique administrative buildings instead. Barracks will also be common, as well as generators. Income buildings can be represented by command buildings (requistion will replace gold, which is common for many different 40k games), so on and so forth. Small wonders will also fairly standard, just with fluffy renames. Of course, there will be special buildings and wonders for different factions. I will convert as much as possible from DoW and see what I can do.
LIke in my Battle for Armageddon scenarios, I want to rename science intro strategy, or something like that. Unlike warhammer fantasy mod, we don't look at the history of the world, but the game is focused on single "campaign" in a short period of time. Besides, there are barely any science in Imperium - it is often considered heresy to invent something new. So, technologies will represent strategic decisions, like "Deploy Heavy Armor" or "Reinforce Fortificatins". Something like that. Eras will be represented as stages of engagement, like first being "Opening Moves", then "Total War", then "Apocalypse" etc. Rivers won't stop units not because they learned to build bridges, but because they started marching better. Of course, every civ will have unique teches to unlock unique buildings and wonders.
Terrain
I want terrain to represent a war-torn battlefield instead of vigin natural landscape. I want to add ruins as their own terrain type, as well as craters, death forests, etc. Maybe, I will leave this one for later versions, but I want the terrain to represent atmosphere of Eternal war.
Resources
As I mentioned earlier, setting resources in Civ3 style won't make much sence. So they will represent abandoned facilities and stashes, like "Ammunition Depot", "Promethium Repository" or "Amasec cellar".
Worker Jobs
Will be left the same more or less, some cosmetic changes will suffice.
Improvements and Wonders
This is the tricky ones. It will make little sence, if Imperial Guard can build Golden Throne. I yet have to come up on how to represent wonders. It is easier with buildings - they can be standard "trade line". "production line", "happiness line". All factions can build shines and temples, bar tau, who will have unique administrative buildings instead. Barracks will also be common, as well as generators. Income buildings can be represented by command buildings (requistion will replace gold, which is common for many different 40k games), so on and so forth. Small wonders will also fairly standard, just with fluffy renames. Of course, there will be special buildings and wonders for different factions. I will convert as much as possible from DoW and see what I can do.
CorvusFortis
Prince
Units
Last but not least. Small toy soldiers firing at each other with flashy little guns - that's why we are here. I will certainly rework the concepts which Goldflash introduced first, but I want every single 40k unit to present in the mod, even it will affect ballance in the end. But I will try to do my best to make them all useful at least at any specific situation.
There won't be much upgrades, since there are no new technologies and in 40k scientific breakthroughs rarely occures. On tabletop one can field all types of units simultaneously. I want this to be the case for the mod too. So, expect a lot of auto-production.
Another problem is how to represent units's stats an funcions. According to lore only? According to tabletop? According to their stats? According to their function? How to differentiate them?
For example, Imperial Guard's tanks are tougher then Space Marine ones. It is easy to represent. But Space marine tanks have better accuracy then Imperial tanks. At the same time, Imperial tanks hit harder, when they hit. Imperial tanks have more random number of ranged attacks then space marine ones. And there are special rules too... Also, shooting vs melee. AI cannot use artillery properly, and trying to give every shooting unit bombardment range, will screw everything in favor of human player.
So, I am leaning to lore and function than to tabletop experience. BfA development taught me never to try to replicate another game 1 on 1. I have to try to represent spirit and "feeling", not try to make experience as close as possible. For example, assaut marines are better on attack, then on defence, but even in defence they will be better than ork boyz, which are, in return, cheaper.
Here's some ideas of units by faction.
Imperial Guard
Imperial guard will have a lot of cheap, weak infantry, But I have an idea of giving them and only them, army-type unit "Platoon Standard" which will allow them to combine two foot units into one army-style unit. This will make guardsmen useful even in later game. This will represent nicely their tabletop abilities to unite different squads into a single big unit. On the other hand, their Vehicles are one of the best in the game and baneblade is one of the strongest "superunits".
Witch Hunters
Witch Hunters can borrow some units from Imperial Guard and Space Marines, like rhinos and valkyrias, but their main force will consist from Sisters of battle. SoBs will be something in between a space marine and a guardsman, just like on tabletop. But, obviously, they won't have platoon standarts. Vehicles are mediocre, but will have an edge (Exorcist is a very strong artillery piece, while penitent engines are one of the best walkers on attack).
Daemon Hunters
These are hard one to balance. While, like WH, they will borrow some units from IG and SM, their bulk are Grey Knights, which are, basically, space marines +1. Maybe, I will give them Chapter government, actually. Or, maybe, GK units will just cost more shields. Grey Knights main feature is that, while they don't have variety of space marines, they are all psykers, so can detect invisible, have defencive bombard, etc. etc. Or. maybe, they will have a chance to enslave "psychic bolt" unit, when they win battles, which can be used as missiles to instantly bombard enemy. All of them will have "stealth attack" against daemon units too.
Space Marines
Space Marines are super-human warriors and will have the strongest infantry in the game. It will be compensated by high shield and support costs. Vehicles are mediocre - not bad, not good. They also have one of the weakest "super-units" in the face of landraider, but it will be produced more often. Ultramarines will be all arounders with Tyrannic War Veteran as a special unit, which is a bit better than Standard marines. Black Templars will treat all terrain as roads with their unique units, to represent their zeal to join the battle. Space wolfs will have stronger attacks and stealth attack abilities, because they are melee-oriented hunters. Blood angels are about close combat and swiftness, so their death companies will have bad defence, but +1 movement and blitz. Their vehicles are also faster. Dark Angels are all about grim resolve and their units benifit from additional defence.
Chaos
Chaos will be weaker space marines, but also more numerous, making them potentially way more dangerous, especially in later game. They also benifit from cheap cultits, which are better than Combat Servitors and easier to build and can summon daemons, which are unique for every civ.
Black legion are all-rounders, which can build stronger Chosen units. World Eaters are all about close combat and martial glory. Their units and daemons are better on offence. Thousand Sons are about magic and shooting. They can detect invisible units and strong defenders. Death Guard is about survivability, so will benifit from additional HP. Finally, Emperor's Children are swift and strike first. Their unique units will have defensive bombardment and daemons - additional speed. Finally, Renegades and Heretics. They are quite different from other Chaos and, basically, more offensive-oriented imperial guard with chaos government.
Orks
Ork units are generally weak, but numerous. They don't have high HP or defence, but still pretty strong on offense. Even their defensive units can effectively assualt possition, if needed. Vehicles are generally weak, but cheap and fast. Their heroes are pretty strong too. Goffs are about stronger close combat, and they have better infantry. Bad Moonz are addicted to shooting, so they have bonus artillery and grot units. Evil Sunz are about speed and have faster and stronger vehicles. Blood Axez have better discipline, their commandos are stronger and they can use some imperial vehicles. Death Skullz are about looting, so they have more imperial vehicles. Snakebitez are more savage and their unique units are cheaper, require less resources, but also weaker.
Eldar
Eldar units will be average on stats, but very fast, with 2 movement points for infantry and ATAR for most vehicles. Their aspect units will probably be autoproduced, and will be one of the best in their purpose (e.g. Banshees are great at attacking, Striking scorpions are best infiltrators, etc.) They often can Blitz to represent their Battle Focus rule.
Tau
I am not sure, how to represent Tau, TBH, but maybe they will be very defensive faction. All of them will have defensive bombardment to represent "Supporting Fire" rule from tabletop. Kroot and Vespids will be the only units good at attacking. Or, maybe, vise versa - Kroot will be defenders, while Tau units are attackers.
Last but not least. Small toy soldiers firing at each other with flashy little guns - that's why we are here. I will certainly rework the concepts which Goldflash introduced first, but I want every single 40k unit to present in the mod, even it will affect ballance in the end. But I will try to do my best to make them all useful at least at any specific situation.
There won't be much upgrades, since there are no new technologies and in 40k scientific breakthroughs rarely occures. On tabletop one can field all types of units simultaneously. I want this to be the case for the mod too. So, expect a lot of auto-production.
Another problem is how to represent units's stats an funcions. According to lore only? According to tabletop? According to their stats? According to their function? How to differentiate them?
For example, Imperial Guard's tanks are tougher then Space Marine ones. It is easy to represent. But Space marine tanks have better accuracy then Imperial tanks. At the same time, Imperial tanks hit harder, when they hit. Imperial tanks have more random number of ranged attacks then space marine ones. And there are special rules too... Also, shooting vs melee. AI cannot use artillery properly, and trying to give every shooting unit bombardment range, will screw everything in favor of human player.
So, I am leaning to lore and function than to tabletop experience. BfA development taught me never to try to replicate another game 1 on 1. I have to try to represent spirit and "feeling", not try to make experience as close as possible. For example, assaut marines are better on attack, then on defence, but even in defence they will be better than ork boyz, which are, in return, cheaper.
Here's some ideas of units by faction.
Imperial Guard
Imperial guard will have a lot of cheap, weak infantry, But I have an idea of giving them and only them, army-type unit "Platoon Standard" which will allow them to combine two foot units into one army-style unit. This will make guardsmen useful even in later game. This will represent nicely their tabletop abilities to unite different squads into a single big unit. On the other hand, their Vehicles are one of the best in the game and baneblade is one of the strongest "superunits".
Witch Hunters
Witch Hunters can borrow some units from Imperial Guard and Space Marines, like rhinos and valkyrias, but their main force will consist from Sisters of battle. SoBs will be something in between a space marine and a guardsman, just like on tabletop. But, obviously, they won't have platoon standarts. Vehicles are mediocre, but will have an edge (Exorcist is a very strong artillery piece, while penitent engines are one of the best walkers on attack).
Daemon Hunters
These are hard one to balance. While, like WH, they will borrow some units from IG and SM, their bulk are Grey Knights, which are, basically, space marines +1. Maybe, I will give them Chapter government, actually. Or, maybe, GK units will just cost more shields. Grey Knights main feature is that, while they don't have variety of space marines, they are all psykers, so can detect invisible, have defencive bombard, etc. etc. Or. maybe, they will have a chance to enslave "psychic bolt" unit, when they win battles, which can be used as missiles to instantly bombard enemy. All of them will have "stealth attack" against daemon units too.
Space Marines
Space Marines are super-human warriors and will have the strongest infantry in the game. It will be compensated by high shield and support costs. Vehicles are mediocre - not bad, not good. They also have one of the weakest "super-units" in the face of landraider, but it will be produced more often. Ultramarines will be all arounders with Tyrannic War Veteran as a special unit, which is a bit better than Standard marines. Black Templars will treat all terrain as roads with their unique units, to represent their zeal to join the battle. Space wolfs will have stronger attacks and stealth attack abilities, because they are melee-oriented hunters. Blood angels are about close combat and swiftness, so their death companies will have bad defence, but +1 movement and blitz. Their vehicles are also faster. Dark Angels are all about grim resolve and their units benifit from additional defence.
Chaos
Chaos will be weaker space marines, but also more numerous, making them potentially way more dangerous, especially in later game. They also benifit from cheap cultits, which are better than Combat Servitors and easier to build and can summon daemons, which are unique for every civ.
Black legion are all-rounders, which can build stronger Chosen units. World Eaters are all about close combat and martial glory. Their units and daemons are better on offence. Thousand Sons are about magic and shooting. They can detect invisible units and strong defenders. Death Guard is about survivability, so will benifit from additional HP. Finally, Emperor's Children are swift and strike first. Their unique units will have defensive bombardment and daemons - additional speed. Finally, Renegades and Heretics. They are quite different from other Chaos and, basically, more offensive-oriented imperial guard with chaos government.
Orks
Ork units are generally weak, but numerous. They don't have high HP or defence, but still pretty strong on offense. Even their defensive units can effectively assualt possition, if needed. Vehicles are generally weak, but cheap and fast. Their heroes are pretty strong too. Goffs are about stronger close combat, and they have better infantry. Bad Moonz are addicted to shooting, so they have bonus artillery and grot units. Evil Sunz are about speed and have faster and stronger vehicles. Blood Axez have better discipline, their commandos are stronger and they can use some imperial vehicles. Death Skullz are about looting, so they have more imperial vehicles. Snakebitez are more savage and their unique units are cheaper, require less resources, but also weaker.
Eldar
Eldar units will be average on stats, but very fast, with 2 movement points for infantry and ATAR for most vehicles. Their aspect units will probably be autoproduced, and will be one of the best in their purpose (e.g. Banshees are great at attacking, Striking scorpions are best infiltrators, etc.) They often can Blitz to represent their Battle Focus rule.
Tau
I am not sure, how to represent Tau, TBH, but maybe they will be very defensive faction. All of them will have defensive bombardment to represent "Supporting Fire" rule from tabletop. Kroot and Vespids will be the only units good at attacking. Or, maybe, vise versa - Kroot will be defenders, while Tau units are attackers.
