Named Hero Characters or Nameless Customized characters?

[Bomber Jack]

I'm a huge fan of the Imperial Guard, easily my favorite faction in 40k. However one of my favorite aspects of the Imperial Guard is the sheer number of regiments and their wildly different they are in equipment, culture and aesthetics. Customization is a big part of 40k and especially to the Imperial Guard, so I feel just limiting the Imperial guard to 4 characters (from the looks of it an Inquisitorial Acolyte, Ogryn, Cadian and Tanith First) with a set class would be super limiting.

Don't get me wrong, Inquisitorial Acolyte, Ogryn, Cadian and Tanith First is a cool list but we'd be missing out on being able to slap on equipment, weapons and other traits to our characters, as well as reducing us to just 2 regiments, the inquisition and an Ogryn with set weapons and personalities. We'd loose out on the crazy bastards that are the Elysian Drop Troopers with their Grav Chutes, the Chem Dogs with their combat enhancing drugs, the Death Korps of Krieg with their unbreaking will, The Catachan with their big knives and their even bigger drive to kill.

I understand making models is a time consuming process, but if each class/regiment/character is a fully fleshed out character like in Vermintide that'd make it even more difficult to potentially add in more Imperial Guard representatives.

This is all just a personal opinion and a slight worry of mine, what does everyone else think?

[Gunslinger]

depends what people are looking for, a blank character is good to work with when you have the tools to make the character some one, its unlikely you will get any tool for that in a game like this, you will not be making any major story changes, gear will likely be RNG so your control will be limited, meaning the only real ways to make a story for your character is your looks, something that will likely be very limited

now the other option is the common one for game like this (vermintide, L4D, Deep Rock Galactic) have some named characters, they can have lines which build the story, lore and cutsceens can build on this to make a story even with the limits of the game type

[Vathek1]

Depending on the licensing from Games Workshop, they could incorporate those other regiments through various skins to allow the player to at least "cosplay" as personnel of different regiments. Or perhaps career types for the Imperial Guardsman could be represented by different regimental uniforms/loadouts, similar to how Markus Kruber in Vermintide 2 can be a Mercenary, Huntsman, Foot Knight, or Grail Knight depending on your career choice.

Perhaps in this game, the Imperial Guardsman could specialize as a Combat Engineer/Siege Expert (Death Korps of Krieg), Paratrooper/Air Assault (Elysian Drop Troops), Close Combat Specialist/Breacher (Catachan Jungle Fighter), etc. with each different career choice having a drastically different look to resemble the speciality associated with those famous regiments.

The only thing I'm hoping is for a distinct lack of Cadian Shock Troops, because I've grown a bit tired of seeing every Imperial Guardsman in 40K videogames portrayed as a Cadian. There are so many other interesting regiments in the lore besides the Cadian Shock so a bit of diversity would be nice!

[GRRz|Snake]

Nameless Customized characters is better imo always.

Especially if we have many cosmetics to unlock (watch deep rock galactic...)

Plus you will see more characters other than the same model... (like in Vermintide 2 , even tho they add some cosmetics , they pretty much look the same to me...) i don't want to look the same with others pretty much...

Having your own character feels more of an RPG and you feel more attached to your character that you created.... than playing someone pre-made...

[Bomber Jack]

Originally posted by GRRz|Snake:

Having your own character feels more of an RPG and you feel more attached to your character that you created.... than playing someone pre-made...

This is kinda what I'm getting at, for an Imperial Guardsmen focused game I feel like this is a perfect chance to have a highly customizable blank slate of a character. The Guardsmen are just that in lore, men and women who are a single face in a sea of similar Imperial Guard. While they may all seem the same, but when you get down to each one you'll see each one is truly different and human. That's why I feel like it'd be perfect for this game, each player in a way would be their Guardsmen, everything from their regiment to their choice of minor accessories would make them their own unique Imperial Guard.

While having a set character can be fun for stuff like Left 4 Dead where you're experiencing their survival from start to finish, I feel like this doesn't work tone or lore wise for Imperial Guard. This game really has a chance to nail the wild customization 40k (Especially the Guardsmen) can have on the tabletop and lore books.

[Gunslinger]

Originally posted by Bomber Jack:

Originally posted by GRRz|Snake:

Having your own character feels more of an RPG and you feel more attached to your character that you created.... than playing someone pre-made...

This is kinda what I'm getting at, for an Imperial Guardsmen focused game I feel like this is a perfect chance to have a highly customizable blank slate of a character. The Guardsmen are just that in lore, men and women who are a single face in a sea of similar Imperial Guard. While they may all seem the same, but when you get down to each one you'll see each one is truly different and human. That's why I feel like it'd be perfect for this game, each player in a way would be their Guardsmen, everything from their regiment to their choice of minor accessories would make them their own unique Imperial Guard.

While having a set character can be fun for stuff like Left 4 Dead where you're experiencing their survival from start to finish, I feel like this doesn't work tone or lore wise for Imperial Guard. This game really has a chance to nail the wild customization 40k (Especially the Guardsmen) can have on the tabletop and lore books.

see the issue with this is i expect the game will have it play out as your team is the only one sent in and you keep succeeding and build a story from that, if i am wrong and the game is playing as if you are nameless guards that die and are replaced then a blank slate would be logical but i dont think thats the case i think it will be much the same as Vermintide

[Bomber Jack]

Originally posted by Gunslinger:

see the issue with this is i expect the game will have it play out as your team is the only one sent in and you keep succeeding and build a story from that, if i am wrong and the game is playing as if you are nameless guards that die and are replaced then a blank slate would be logical but i dont think thats the case i think it will be much the same as Vermintide

I don't think that has to be the case, you could still have players be the only team sent in and still have them be blank slates, they aren't mutually exclusive. Just look at Deep Rock Galactic, the characters may have one of two voices that exist but other than that they're pretty much blank slates for the player, but upon failure it doesn't imply death. Loosing a round could just be considered "non-canon" with only the winning rounds being considered "canon" or be explained as them somehow getting away, granted in a 40k setting that doesn't make much sense.

Besides the Guardsmen don't need VA's or preset back stories to be considered characters, you could leave that up to the players. Players making up their own characters or self inserting into their Guardsmen could be a lot of fun, almost like a video game version of Only War or Dark Heresy. Story could be presented through you getting intel and messages through your Vox Caster, through the environment, log books and records found throughout the level or through NPC's found that are hostile or friendly.

[Mr. Wiggles]

Originally posted by Butcher:

Originally posted by Bomber Jack:

This is all just a personal opinion and a slight worry of mine, what does everyone else think?

I think it is more fun to unlock informations about characters and have them voiced by professional actors rather than having soulless pieces of clay.

Especially if the game has a linear story

[Gregor Eisenhorn]

I'd FETHING love to be able to play as someone like Mad Larkin, Oan Mkoll, Elim Rawne or even Tona Criid. The Tanith First and Only has so many memorable characters that it would be weird not to see at least a cameo.

[Gunslinger]

Originally posted by Gregor Eisenhorn:

I'd FETHING love to be able to play as someone like Mad Larkin, Oan Mkoll, Elim Rawne or even Tona Criid. The Tanith First and Only has so many memorable characters that it would be weird not to see at least a cameo.

as much as i enjoy them i cant see them being in the game, too many issues with if GW owns the characters or not

[TommyFortress]

just popping in saying they arent sadly really imperial guardssmen

[Bomber Jack]

Originally posted by TommyFortress:

just popping in saying they arent sadly really imperial guardssmen

If that's true then that's a massive disappointment and has killed a lot of the remaining hype for me. My excitement already took a hit seeing how the primary antagonist seem to be Chaos Nurgle themed zombies, this makes it even less exciting.

[TommyFortress]

Originally posted by Bomber Jack:

Originally posted by TommyFortress:

just popping in saying they arent sadly really imperial guardssmen

If that's true then that's a massive disappointment and has killed a lot of the remaining hype for me. My excitement already took a hit seeing how the primary antagonist seem to be Chaos Nurgle themed zombies, this makes it even less exciting.

the description of the game even says they arent imperial guardsmen, they are some kind of inquisitorial stormtropper with guardsmen tech

[Gunslinger]

Originally posted by TommyFortress:

Originally posted by Bomber Jack:

If that's true then that's a massive disappointment and has killed a lot of the remaining hype for me. My excitement already took a hit seeing how the primary antagonist seem to be Chaos Nurgle themed zombies, this makes it even less exciting.

the description of the game even says they arent imperial guardsmen, they are some kind of inquisitorial stormtropper with guardsmen tech

he is referring to the fact they are convicts i would guess, so they are not guard but penal legion