You could make it so that everyone can pvp but only against people 2 levels above or below them - no ganking! Then, make a squad cap for parties to balance the game out so like an Inquisitor could only have 1 or 2 ppl in the party, but guardies would gather in 10's. That way, you'd have to choose wisely - individual power or good team-play? Again, guardies could hire NPC party-members like in Guild Wars - a Commisar would take up 2 spaces, a tank 4 or something to make it balance. 'Nids could have Carnifexes and Lictors and SMurfs can have tanks and commanders too. Perfect balance! You can have the Imperial facion (play as a Sister [AoE power], a Guardie [lots of NPC's or other ppl in the squad], an SMurf [general battle guy] or an Inquisitor [Huge amounts of psychic power and melee, but takes up loads of char slots]) the Chaos faction (Chaos SMurfs [like normal SMurfs but more melee-oriented], Cultists [basically like the guardsmen] and Daemons of each God[with subclasses of Greater and Lesser Daemon]) and finally the Alien Faction (Necron warrior [like SMurfs but more shooting-oriented], Tau[even more shooty], Eldar (awesome psychics, die easily a bit like mages)and the 'nids [like the guard but more melee-ish])

With a bit of work, a WH40k MMO would be awesome. Mods could be Greater Daemons, Hive tyrants, C'tan or Chapter masters and they could give out 'promotions' (just like better skillds and a new skin and stuff) for events. Promotions would be bought at shops too, but only if you are a certain level (again, to balance it out, Guard get more promotions more often and Inquisitors never, etc). Kit your guy out with grenades and better kinds of weapon(better bolter, growing new appendages[strictly Chaos and 'nids hehe]) at the shops.

The game can take place on several worlds, each owned by one faction. They can be like towns, and you can go outside of town to fight mobs (of the races your faction hates) or pvp in the neutral planet for supremacy.

Sorted!

I put yes, but you would only really be able to play "guardsman" ability characters.

I generally feel it would suck.

Mikaze:

Little_Scheer:
The idea of a MMORPG doesn't seem very likely. But I suppose other games have sounded outrageous and ended up being good. If you combine the fps and mmorpg factors I think it might just work.

This is sounding suspiciously like Tabula Rasa and we know that it's shit.

Pardon my noobieness, but what's Tabula Rasa? lol P(
And Ultrajoe, I think you should take a picture of your army and show us, cause now I'm really curious. P)

Tabula Rasa is a human with no memory, they are a blank slate (or tabula rasa) the game though is a scifi muhmorpuhg(MMORPG) and eff pee ess (FPS) well it may be a third person shooter, which while it sounds like a great idea, wasn't because of the controls.

Allow people to play as a squad. Just think about that. Gamewise, most BASIC squads come out to 120 points + upgrades. So even though a lone Marine can take down a lone Guardsman, can 8 marines take down 20? Allow each person in the squad to be equiped differently, leveled up differently and you could have an interesting MMO. Since its not a shooter, a big group would be easier to control. It could have behaviors that they follow, and instead of being directly controling them, you teach them different things and they follow based on that. It would be a system that could work for every race from Nids To Necrons.

In essence, make it a Kill-Team MMO.

Kill-Team style also leaves room for many mission types, from infiltration and assassination to taking part in a crusade with a bunch of other players groups.

Soulfein:
Allow people to play as a squad. Just think about that. Gamewise, most BASIC squads come out to 120 points + upgrades. So even though a lone Marine can take down a lone Guardsman, can 8 marines take down 20? Allow each person in the squad to be equiped differently, leveled up differently and you could have an interesting MMO. Since its not a shooter, a big group would be easier to control. It could have behaviors that they follow, and instead of being directly controling them, you teach them different things and they follow based on that. It would be a system that could work for every race from Nids To Necrons.

In essence, make it a Kill-Team MMO.

Kill-Team style also leaves room for many mission types, from infiltration and assassination to taking part in a crusade with a bunch of other players groups.

Yes 8 marines can kill 20 guardsmen, statistically speaking 20 guardsmen will get 10 hits, 3-4 wounds which is one dead spacemarine, meanwhile 7 spacemarines will hit 4 times with 3 wounds which is 3 dead guardsmen.

I think a 40k MMO is possible, but it would have to be handled carefully. I have been brainstorming ideas about various 40k game (primarily a FPS based on a guardsman rising through the ranks of a space marine chapter), and I've had a few thoughts.

1). Hampering the Growth: Your main focus seems to be on the Space Marines, and their super-human status being an unfair advantage. However, you've overlooked the fact that it takes a long time and effort to become a marine. If people want to play as a "space marine", have them start out as a neophyte (or a "scout"). They have a base human statline, but they also have the promise of growing into everyone's favourite 8' tall acid-spitting monstrosities. They have certain class-based quests to complete, which will award them a new portion of the space marine growth process (i.e the second heart, the third lung, all leading up to the Black carapace (which allows them to wear full-fledged power armor)).

2). Have bonuses for "weaker" classes: I hear you saying "Who wants to play as a guardsman, they suck?!". Perhaps we need to throw in incentives for people to want to play guardsmen. Have better equipment available to them (i.e they can use things like grenade launchers and plasma guns earlier than the SM). Have a broader variety of ending classes (i.e everyone starts out as a conscript, but can end up as an inquisitor, a Senior officer, or maybe even an assassin). And definately have a greater access to vehicles (The guardsmen can use many more vehicles than every other race, so use them!)

3). I want my bugs!!!!: I can sympathize with you on this on, Joe. I am myself a hardcore bug freak. I think they could be easily integrated. My idea involves using digestion pools to change your form (i.e when you reach a high-enough level, you can change from a gaunt to a warrior, genestealer, or even a Carnifex!). Tyranids would have faster regen times, and could canibalize to regain health (like the undead from WoW). And, to make the 'Nids a major melee class, they'd be faster than anyone else.

Those are my thoughts. Hope they're helpful somehow.

Also, I'm going to be posting my ideas for my 40K FPS soon. I'd be glad to hear some imput.

The problem with your idea Irish, is something I like to call the "Star Wars Galaxies"-syndrome. In SwG, the developers made the class "jedi" freely avaliable as a starting class, after the game had been "alive" for a couple of years, when jedi previously was an unlock-class only, this led to that everyone and their dog became a jedi, which in turn led to conflict with the fluff, which SOE chose to completely ignore.

Now, if someone could start out as a neophyte, taking into account all the 12-year olds that GW undoubtedly has convinced into buying this hypothetical 40K-MMO, the game world would be FLOODED with thousands of 12 year old wannabe space morons (or wannabe slaneesh space morons, going "I liek seks!!11").

Seeing as Space Morons are (according to the fluff) quite a rarity (be happy if you've got a stuffed one at home), this would lead to enormous conflict with the fluff, causing most non 12 year old marine fan-players to get the hell out. Probably leaving the game half-populated by 12 year old space morons, screaming "i liek seks!!", "for teh emporer!!!1111" and "maim keel burn!!!!", which, in turn, eventually will lead to the games demise.

No, a 40K Mumorpuger, IMO, would have to be based on a Necromunda-like environment. No Space Morons, no Necrons, no superpowers coming out of your ass. Perhaps introduce some kind of Alien, quite Human-like, race (ala Inquisitor), confine the game world to a Hive (They aren't really small mind you). Focus on Character development, "gangs" (going with a theme that if you're alone, you're dead), perhaps gang wars, etc.

If you want a 40K game involving big army battles, make it an FPS.

From what i've seen of the info, it's going to be based on the medievil warhammer universe, so we'll be having axes and swords and the like. Very WoW orientated.

Bah I don't want a 40k game where you can't do anything on your own, misanthropes like myself can't play those games, people tend to become retarded, or already are creatures I don't wish to socialize with, when they join groups. I think if you were to make the Space Marine a really annoying class to play people would back off of it, like the druid in WoW, no one wants to be the druid in WoW not even druids, I place the blame on the lead designer since he plays a warrior and turned that game into basically pvp only once you hit the max level (for gods sake people a warrior shouldn't beat everyone and their dog, literally in the case of the hunter, in damage. Sure a tank is supposed to have a big impact , but it shouldn't have more impact than a howitzer does)I quit once I saw the writing on the walls (a new set of gear came out and still the old pvp gear was better). OK back on topic, the other idea I had was to let people unlock the Space Marine after a bunch of effort, set it so you lose exp (god I hate that function too) to slow people down some, just make it really hard to become a spacemarine, but totally worth the effort.

No, it can never be done.

The best they could do is take Dark Heresy [GOD LIKE GAME!] and make it into an MMORPG.

The problem then arises with the whiney douchébags. "Waaah! I want to be a Space Marine! Waaaagh! I want to be a Tau in a Battlesuit! Waaah! Why can't I have a Plasma Cannon? Waaah!"

In other words, the only way to make a 40K MMO game work is to raise both hands, extend your middle digits and tell everyone who isn't a guard player to fuck off.

What you are left with, however, is the basis for a truly excellent RPG experience! Consider what Dark Heresy has to offer:

ARBITES - The "Paladin" class... no, I can't say it with a straight face either. Arbites are the Judge Dredd class. They have the big Daystick of Teeth Removal +3, they have Carapace Armour, and they have no sense of humour whatsoever. They are most definately the "Tank" class.

ADEPTUS MECHANICUS - How can you not love a character that needs a relgious incantation to make the Toaster work? Ad-Mechs not only allow for some weird and wonderful gear (Mechadendrites + "choir girls" = 40K Hentai), but they can also help fill the "Rogue" niche by disarming traps, and generally repairing anything that gets busted up. If all else fails, making someone's head twist 180 with a Servo Arm is fun.

ASSASSIN - Despite what the name may suggest, Assassins tend to be the Sniper of the group. Specialising in using Sniper Rifles to make up for their otherwise unremarkable combat skills, the Assassin could easily be enchanced by adding in some "Stealth" abilities, basic trapmaking and so forth.

CLERIC - He doesn't heal, but he does hurt! Religious bigotry has never been so fun! In Dark Heresy, Clerics have the best wages out of any class, allowing them to purchase the swankiest gear. They are not as good in combat as Guardsmen or Arbites, but the superior gear angle, and the potential for "Acts of Faith" to be added into the MMO would make them neat.

GUARDSMEN - Your basic footslogger. Not big, not clever, but most definately capable of blowing the hell out of anyone. Guardsmen would be the class for those who want an uncomplicated life devoted to hurting people.

SANCTIONED PSYKER - Hello nutjobs! Sanctioned Psykers are the "Spellcaster" of the group, if by Spellcaster you mean "portable nuke with the pin held in by sticky tape and prayers to the God-Emperor". Potentially devastating to himself and others, the Sanctioned Psyker would no doubt be nerfed into a reliable casting class, despite the fact half the fun of the class comes from the various mental instabilities his traumatic life provides, as well as the possibility we'll get to see Daemons rip out his soul and use his face to wipe his own anus.

SCUM - Everyone's (least) favourite class! Scum are the Thieves of the 40K universe; your downtrodden, backstabbing Hive Gang filth who seek only their own glory and success. Nobody likes him, but that's just fine; it's hard to complain with a knife in your spine.

Bah assassins are meelee capable too, some of them (AND YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) are horrifyingly capable melee combatants, I'm not sure why the Dark heresy would be any different. You could justify the other races as well, I just don't want to type all that I would have to in order to get that across, the eldar would be fine at the very least.