Dawn of War II - Feature Changes

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As a studio, we are very excited to illustrate our commitment to the Dawn of War Franchise. Now having re-launched Dawn of War 2, we are looking forward to new and old fans alike experiencing this exciting universe!

Re-launching older titles is always an interesting and difficult task, and as technology advances and focus shifts it is inevitable that changes need to be made. We wanted to take a moment to sit down and let our community know exactly how the Dawn of War 2 landscape will be changing.

Legacy Dawn of War players may notice that certain features are absent in the re-launched versions of our back catalog. These features include:

- Referee Functions
- LAN/Direct Connect support
- Multi-player Pause
- Games for Windows Live

Due to technical issues and new limitations placed upon these previously offered features, it was in the best interest of overall game health to pull them out. We’re confident that Dawn of War 2 will continue to offer a rich and awarding experience for players. In addition to feature changes, we have also migrated the franchise to Relic’s own Battle Servers. This has some implications for those previously experiencing Dawn of War via the “Games for Windows Live” version.

Windows Live Players will need to be aware of the following:

- Saved games and replays will not load in the Steam-only version
- Experience and player levels will not transfer from the “Games for Windows Live” version to the Steam-only version; these players will see their levels reset to zero
- The Lobby Chat previously facilitated by Windows Live is not a feature available via the Steam version. Dawn of War 2: Retribution is the one exception, since it was implemented entirely on Steam upon its initial release.

We recognize that for some players using the “Games for Windows Live” servers, it will be difficult to part with your experience levels and game-play history. While we wish this was something we would have been able to maintain, we hope that players will look forward to experiencing Dawn of War II from the beginning. With all of these changes, players may find themselves wondering why we are migrating from the “Games for Windows Live” experience to our own battle servers. There are several technical and player-facing reasons as to why we are making this change, and these reasons all add up to significant improvements being made.

The more significant benefits of the Relic Battle Servers are:

- A more stable multi-player experience for our community
- Lag from one player will not affect others
- No more connection problems between peers caused by firewalls/NAT’s being mis-configured
- Prevents certain types of cheats/hacks
- Helps to address those that continually attempt to disconnect before losing a match
- Greater control over de-bugging and technical issues if and when they arise

Thanks to everyone that has supported this amazing franchise so far, we’re looking forward to getting folks back into Dawn of War II!