Вот самое главное.
When most fans think about Dark Crusade and what they can expect, they compare it with the changes that Winter Assault introduced to Dawn of War Classic. Winter Assault changed almost the entire gameplay with the severely modified tech trees.
Dark Crusade on the other hand doesn't change all that much. As our colleagues from the clan Templars of Twilight already presented, each race will get their new unit as well as some minor tweaks but most tech trees and features remain untouched. Most? Well, maybe if there wasn't the new infiltration system. It is supposed to be more effective and add some depth to the game.
This means that units can shoot and decap now even if they are in stealth mode. Of course this feature requires severals tweaks. The scout infiltration now costs 260 requisition and 100 energy. To uncloak such units, every race has different options, such as the Chaos Lord who drops an item which unclocks stealthed units in a certan radius but which can in turn be destroyed. Or the Eldar for example who now longer uncloak units with the Farseer but once again with their Warlocks.
Less numerous but still remarkable are the changes to the persistant races. Now Dokz have an additional skill besides their fighting juice: time bombs. These get dropped and explode after a few seconds causing some nice splash damage. In combination with the fighting juice we can already expect some nice suicide moves by the crazy doctors.
Furthermore there are some changes like the Mek Shop which is no longer required for Tier 2. Instead you can even build trakks from your HQ. (Greetings from DoWPro). You can find similar changes for all races. The Libirian can be build up to three times now which will be a lot less tough though with only 500 Hitpoints. The Eldar get their plasma grenades back for tier 1 but with a proper nerf..
The Tau:
With the Tau, Relic adds another high tech race to the game. Remarkable right from the start is that you can choose between two barracks. One of these is for the production of Tau warriors in impressive armor. The other one offers the Kroot which give you a selection just like in a zoo. The Tau are focused on ranged combat while the Kroot are the way to go for close combat.
You will notice the opportunities for of variation in the tech tree in the other races as well. Beside the already mentioned changes for the Orks which don't need the Mek Shop for Tier 2 anymore, the Space Marines for example are now able to build the Armory right from the beginning without the current requirement of a Barracks.
You will also notice that the graphics have been improved once more. After each shot of the high tech Tau units, be it the Tau Commander or the big mobile artillery which digs into the ground to cause more damage, you get the feeling as if the whole world was about to collapse.
Another characteristic of the Tau: in the very late game you get access to two different buildings - but the player has to decide which one he wants to build. You can either unlock the last steps of the Tau warrior tech tree or you get the final Kroot units. While Tau warriors gain the ability to build tanks like the Hammerhead, the Kroot get huge animals that look like dinosaurs, like the Knarloc which devoured every unit with one single attack move in our test version. In both cases you will from that point on be able to produce the super unit of the Tau: the Etheral. he has the size of the Farseer and does not seem very threatening.
But I soon noticed that this little Tau magician is much more dangerous than he appears. He gives any Tau unit on the battlefield an advantage, he also has his own version of the orbital bombardment: A blue plasma blizzard.
The Necrons:
According to our latest poll results most of the players are looking forward to the Necrons. With good reason! The Necrons are offering a completely new way of playing the game in comparison to the other existing races. You might say in contrast to any other race in a RTS.
The first suprise lurks right after the first click on the headquarters, the Monolith. Workers as well as Necron warriors don't cost any resources. Requisition doesn't exist at all for the Necrons. Instead you get an orange bar with percentage numbers where you usually find the counter for the blue colored resource called requisition. But this isn't everything by far. Our built Necron Warriors refuse to capture any points. I quickly got the advice that the Necron worker will forfill this duty.
Furthermore I got told that the number of units are just limited by the pop limit. You also just need plasma to build additional buildings, units and upgrades. The percentage bar shows the current tech level and can be increased by building listening posts.
Also quite interesting: around the Monolith you will see several destroyed vehicles. These are not just there for the looks, in the later tech levels they can get get resurrected as the respective units. If they get destroyed they will become those wrecks again... but right where they were destroyed! This gives you the advantage that other units can't to anything to harm these wrecks but you still get the same radius of sight the unit would give you. The disadvantage is that if the player rebuilds the unit, it rises up right from the point were it lies, even if this happens to be in the enemy base.
Because of these and several other divergences, this race should add an entirely new game feeling for the Dawn of War fans.
