UNMODDED Soulstorm vs Dark Crusade

[Smokedice]

So I like the campaign to Dark Crusade a lot, and I hear people say Soulstorm's campaign is similar but worse.

Is it really that bad? And no, not interested in talking about UA right now, I would rather play unmodded.

[Lexter]

I dont think it is worse. And sisters are quite a show.

[Bolt]

Soulstorm clearly wasn't finished.
-the mission scripting is in a beta state of assuming things but not checking for them which may cause errors and crashes if you do something before it becomes a mission goal or another way than intended
-some of the campaign's skirmish maps have design bugs in terms of pathing, no line of fire where it looks like there should be a line of fire possible and some hill spots where small units can get stuck
-air units move and attack weird (shots not aligning with targets, weird attack animations) and despite being air units they can get stuck at a spot, unable to free themselves
-there are still pathfinding issues when infantry and vehicles come together where infantry always tries to make room for vehicles, even enemy ones, that try to pass through their squads and that even if it causes one or both of the units to get stuck
-loading units into transports still has issues with squads sometimes only moving towards the unit and close to it but fail to enter it until finding the magic spot where they'll do it
-the attack behaviour setting to prefer structures as targets fails to work (at least I've never seen it work), even on artillery units, making it useless
-there's still an issue with huge range weapons among a squad or vehicle which means the squad / vehicle won't get close enough to use all available weapons but only that one with the highest range - no matter the behaviour setting; so you need to manually move your units in combat a lot
-unlike Dark Crusade cheap units that die fast but also reinforce fast, intended to keep the enemy busy, can't be set to auto-replenish forever but will stop that once at their maximum squad size; this somehow defeats the purpose of these die fast, replenish fast units that are intended to keep the enemy busy as due to that they now keep you busy
-the AI, as with the other Dawn of War titles, still cheats: moves it's units there where you have none, reads your input (assign a sniper to kill an enemy hero - the hero will turn back before the sniper is even visible to that unit), is omnipresent on the map, has no click delays and is not troubled by overlapping unit effects that make it hard to see relevant indicators sometimes

I don't know if that's a bug or intended:
-if a unit that is ordered to teleport itself somewhere is hit by a knockdown / knockback effect it'll waste it's teleport charge but still not get teleported but knocked back instead; the animation isn't a protected action that happens no matter what
-an execution move makes the unit performing it immune to damage but not to status effects and morale loss

I can't really touch the basic Soulstorm after touching UA. It feels so tame compared to UA despite being Warhammer.

Imo UA Soulstorm is the best RTS I've touched so far.
Had C&C 1,2,3 with addons, including OpenRA, C&C Generals + Zero Hour + fan mods, Age of Empire 1,2 with addons, including many fan mods and maps, KKND 1 + 2, Starcraft 1 + 2 with addons, Supreme Commander + FA, Warcraft 1,2,3 + addons, Dungeon Keeper 1 + 2, Syndicate + Syndicate Wars (except American Revolt), Empire Earth + addon, Stronghold. Eventually I forgot some...

Point is: UA really pushes the game to it's limits and while still unbalanced it offers more variety and options than in many other games which is also thanks to Dawn of War's unique melee combat and support for a lot of special combat features. It can burn you due to it's complexity and speed but after you're bored with the regular game I'd definately recommend it, unless you want to take it slow, because UA is anything but slow.

[Captain Boreale]

Dark crusade much better every aspect. I only play this for sisters of battle. :) Just play once It's worth a try.

[Temp]

dark crusade's campaign has extra missions in between the skirmishes for example, the "hyperion peaks" and "pavonis" . they are pretty cool. meanwhile soulstorm's campaign is basically skirmishes and stronghold missions