Horus Heresy Scenario (WH40k) - Development Thread

[muffins]

I'm in the early stages of creating a scenario around the Horus Heresy.

This scenario is going to have custom units, leaderheads, interface and technology and shall see the Warmaster Horus lead his traitor legions against the Emperor of Mankind in an all-out invasion of Earth! It's going to have only two civilisations (The Imperium and the Traitors) that will be using the full range of Space Marines and Titan units in the fight, plus many others. The Imperium will start with all but 4 cities on the planet but will be MASSIVELY outnumbered by the Traitors. The Traitors will have at the start just four 'landing-site' cities, each named after a Chaos god and packed with troops, tanks, titans and drop pods. However neither side can gain reinforcements (the rest of the Imperium is griped by civil war as Traitor fights Loyalist) until they research technology that permits them to construct reinforcements on Earth.

The overall plan is that without reinforcements the Traitors will eventually run out of steam after subjugating half the planet or so.

I'm also going to use all my own units for this scenario - not even the standard Fraxis units will be getting a look-in - and since I've already created most of the units required I really just have to fill in the gaps.

Unit List - Those marked with a * are yet to be made

*The Emperor of Mankind - (Imperial king unit)
*The Warmaster Horus - (Traitor king unit)
*Deathwing - Late game Imperial UU
*Chaos Terminator - Late game Traitor UU
*Techmarine - Settler
Space Marines link - Standard troops
Devastator Marines link - Space Marines with heavy weapons
*Assault Marines - Close combat Marines with jump packs
Terminators link - Elite Marines in feared Terminator armour
Dreadnought link - A walking killing machine piloted by a fallen hero
Tarantulalink - Early game defensive unit
Rhino link - Earliest mechanised infantry
Razorback link - Tougher version of the Rhino
Predator link - Medium, mid game tank
Landraider link - Late game heavy tank
Vindicator link - Early artillery based upon the Rhino
Whirlwind link - Mid game rocket artillery
Bike link - Fast attack unit
Landspeeder link - Very fast attack unit
Gothic Destroyer
Gothic Cruiser
Gothic Battleship
Gothic Aircraft Carrier
Gothic Advanced Destroyer
Gothic Transport link for all Gothic ships
Drop Pod link - These drop from orbit but I'm using them as an unlimited range helicopter.
Thunderbolt - Fighter Link
Marauder - Bomber Link
Thunderhawk - Helicopter, though I'll probably make a ground attack version too Link
Warhound Titan link - Smallest and fastest of the Titan family. It will still step on a tank and squash it flat though
Reaver Titan link - Mid sized Titan. More powerful
*Warlord Titan - The biggest Titan going. A Small wonder in itself and grotesquely expensive to build there is nothing that can stand up to it's monster guns or void sheilds.

I'm also planning one or two very early-game units (the equivalent of the warrior and spearman in the regular game). Adeptus Arbites and/or Imperial Guard.

As for Marine Chapters involved I'm thinking of having just two for some very practical reasons. Most of the already created units are 90% civ-colour, allowing you to use the same unit as say Blood Angels (Red) or Ultramarines (Blue), but if you want multiple Chapters on the same side then it means editing the palettes of an awful lot of animations. 20 units with 7 animations EACH equals 140 animations to change.

There is no way in hell am I doing that

I don't actually need much help with this scenario - I can create units, sounds, various graphics etc just fine - but I'll need help over the overall look and feel of the scenario.

For instance - what two Marine Chapters to choose? My first thoughts are perhaps the Dark Angels for the Imperium (dark green colour and closest Marine Chapter to the Emperor) and the Warmasters' Lunar Wolves (I'm thinking either a dirty-dark red or black colours regardless of their actual marine colours).

All input is welcome

 

[muffins]

Some unit previews

From left to right -

Deathwing Terminator (Imperial UU)
The Emperor of Mankind (Imperial king unit)
The Warmaster Horus (Traitor king unit)
Chaos Terminator (Traitor UU)

 

[muffins]

The Warlord Titan ... with a Thunderbolt fighter for scale

 

[muffins]

Thunderhawk Gunship, Marauder Bomber and Thunderbolt Fighter

 

[muffins]

Same units, different angle

 

[drzoidberg]

I say you should go with Space Wolves just because of the colors. It'll be black vs white, (ok then, gray) good vs evil. It'll just be cooler if all the good guys are bright and the bad guys are all gloomy. and another brightly colored chapter, Ultra Marines?

 

[The Great Apple]

Those guys look amazing - I gotta learn how to do bump-mapping!

As for chapters - they were actually legions at the time. From reading the fluff bible I would say
1) Blood Angels (are you going to make Sanguinious?)
2) Imperial Fists (The cool yellow guys - Rogal Dorn primarch)
3) White Scars (The lightning biker dudes - Jhagatai Khan Primarch).

Reinforcements were said to be coming from the Space Wolves (Lemon Russ), and Dark Angels (Lion´el Johnsom)

Pick any two

You've gotta remember this is Warhammer 30k, not 40k. The Blood Angels don't have a defective gene-seed (and so aren't slightly weird in the head), and we're talking legions, not chapters (10,000, not 1,000 I think).

Also, the Marines should be outnumbered by the basic guardsmen, should they not?

 

[muffins]

I used to play the Imperial Fists

The black/white, dark/light colour scheme sounds better than what I was planning. White, grey or yellow for the Imperials perhaps?

... and I'm really going to have to get my head around to calling them Legions and not Chapters.

For the Imperials, the Guardsmen will outnumber the marines of both sides but they are going to be really, really weak compared to the marines. My line of thought is that Earth is the capital of an Imperium of over a million worlds and so is largely orginised around governance etc. Therefore there are no armanents factories, tank fabrication plants or titan manufacturing facilities. Earth is just protected by the fleets of the Imperial navy (who flee to their Lunar shipyards in the face of Horus) and lightweight ground forces backed up by a few loyal marines. Thus both sides will have to research technology and build factories to get the better units.

I'm thinking of having some of the primarchs as great leaders/army units, though I'm unsure how the palettes work for army units. I remember someone made an army unit once but I can't remember who.

@TGA - Bump mapping is dead easy. You just create a black and white version of a map/texture your using and then just add it to the SAME map in OpenFX, only as a bump and not a surface map. You then have two textures (one normal, one black and white) shareing the same "map", if you follow.

The aircraft I just took a screen shot of the model with the map location visible, cut out just the map portion and then copy-and-pasted parts of pictures from real, painted Forge World Thunderbolts and Thunderhawks etc (I cheated )

 

[Smoking mirror]

Cool, You finaly got around to adding custom textures. It adds quite a bit of time to making units (especialy if you want to do it realy well) but is certainly worth it.

I'm learning 3dsmax at the moment, I'm probably going to use it to make the models and texture them and then I'll import them in to Open FX for animation... I'm having a lot of dificulty with body scripting etc in 3d max, it's realy a very complicated program.
My Housemate has a degree in 3d design so I may be able to get some assistance.

I'd be tempted to help out with a few special units once I get things up and running... What sort of look are you going to go for with the Imperial guard? I think the IG of the homeworld would be very traditional and with hints of ceremonial dress. However back when GW did the concept art for HH all the IG looked the same, more or less like Cadian shock troops...

 

[Neomega]

Some unit previews

From left to right -

Deathwing Terminator (Imperial UU)
The Emperor of Mankind (Imperial king unit)
The Warmaster Horus (Traitor king unit)
Chaos Terminator (Traitor UU)

Those aren't renders are they!?

 

[Snorken]

I'm really looking forward to this scenario!

 

[muffins]

Cool, You finaly got around to adding custom textures. It adds quite a bit of time to making units (especialy if you want to do it realy well) but is certainly worth it.

I'm learning 3dsmax at the moment, I'm probably going to use it to make the models and texture them and then I'll import them in to Open FX for animation... I'm having a lot of dificulty with body scripting etc in 3d max, it's realy a very complicated program.
My Housemate has a degree in 3d design so I may be able to get some assistance.

I'd be tempted to help out with a few special units once I get things up and running... What sort of look are you going to go for with the Imperial guard? I think the IG of the homeworld would be very traditional and with hints of ceremonial dress. However back when GW did the concept art for HH all the IG looked the same, more or less like Cadian shock troops...

I think it was you that posted the texturing "how-to" in the OpenFX thread. The first time I hit F12 after using your method, my jaw hit the ground

If you want to help out with a few units I'd be very grateful Feel free to make them any way you like if you do. I'll use them whatever they look like.

 

[Lozzy_Ozzy]

Hmmmm.

If this scenario is still going...

There were also the Emperor's elite guard (even more elite than the avergae marines), who wore golden armour and wielded special polearms.

And they had more technology, like robots and jetbikes.

And Termies were more available.

If this is still alove, I can crack open all of my WH40K resources and get more info for you.

And, BTW, what you have done so far looks great, and the idea sounds great!

 

[muffins]

Just proving that this project IS still on the go

 

[Sildo]

Do I realy need to say more?

 

[aaglo]

Lightning claws? They look terriffic

 

[Snorken]

Excellent!

 

[GrandAdmiral]

Just proving that this project IS still on the go

Glad to hear that!

 

[muffins]

The animation of Horus is done. Just have to render him now. I tried to animate his death like he dies in WH40k - burned from inside his terminator suit. Not sure I'm that happy with it but it'll do.

 

[aaglo]

well, I'm happy with it
'cos it looks great!