YO! I'm sorry if this comes as a surprise to you all, but I've completely overhauled the story, remaking it into this newer, hopefully better version!
The OCs are gonna be the same people so Leandra, Hurstwick, Revan and the rest of them are here to stay. Only they'll hopefully be more human and realistic, slowly adopting the 40K lingo and personalities as the game goes on.
Tell me how much you love or hate it!
Tell me what I shouldn't have/should still change!
Tell me your thoughts in a great review!
UPDATE: Fixed a mistake pointed out to me by RedTheBattler.
UPDATE 2: Fixed mistake pointed out to me by Destrark.
Note: Some chapters will remain roughly the same, but have been edited to fit the new overhaul.
Character Application Form – Must be submitted via Suggestion Thread in my Contribution Forum.
Name [Game Name]
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NPC or PC
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In the grim, dark future…
[The following is a fictional game release review by a fictional famous gaming network]
"Destiny! Destiny! Destiny!"
"…as you can hear from the screaming crowds onscreen thousands are mobbing every major shopping center around the world! And why you may ask? Because in just two days, the most anticipated game of the century, Warhammer 40,000: Destiny Online is set to arrive in stores."
Around the globe, millions of people stare at their television screens, closely following the attractive brunette's words. She takes a breath and smirks smugly at them from behind the camera. Leslie O'Leary had been covering this story for a long time and viewers everywhere knew, or had a vague idea, of what she was talking about.
"Let me backtrack for those people who've been living under a rock! Four years ago, on August 15th, 2014, Games Workshop announced at E3 2014, or Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014, that they would be working together with Akihiko Corp and the once-again-independent Bioware Corp to completely remake the virtual reality and mass multiplayer online gaming industries. Using the previously experimental Full-Dive technology in conjunction with Akihiko Corp's Nerve Gear, these three companies would give us something gamers everywhere have only dreamed about. The Nerve Gear is a next-gen virtual reality helmet that utilizes the brand new Full-Dive System. This revolutionary technology stimulates the user's five senses via their brain; thus letting players experience and control their in-game characters with their minds! Coupled with top of the line graphics, superior online gaming servers and a hefty market price of a thousand dollars, this sadly clunky helm will change the gaming industry forever."
A second screen popped up showing the Nerve Gear, a grey, open-faced motorist-like helmet, being used by one of the many faceless Beta testers of the game. The shrouded face's lips move and the person falls asleep, signifying their entry into the virtual world. Around the slumbering gamer, scientists and doctors are clapping and smiling.
"As you can see, the Nerve Gear works just fine and is ready to take you on an adventure like no other. But enough about the console, let's move onto the game itself!"
She gestures and the second screen changes, showing the very familiar trailer of W40K: DO…
"Destiny Online is the latest, and possibly greatest, installment into the epic Warhammer 40,000 series that began as a tabletop miniature war game, the futuristic companion of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, created by Rick Priestley in 1987. Over seven editions and expansions nurtured the still popular tabletop game and twenty console games gave birth to Destiny Online. Many die hard 40K fans believe Destiny Online to be the culmination of thirty-one years of faithful following and according to some Beta testers, this may be true."
"Now, Warhammer 40,000 sets us in the grim dark, war-filled future where humanity stands against an insurmountable darkness. The Imperium of Man stands against savage tribes of Orks, enigmatic clans of Eldar, endless tides of Tyranids and the ever-corrupting forces of Chaos. In Destiny Online, players begin their journey on the planets Ageria, Cyrax and Cerberus of Subsector Regulus, deep in the Korianis Sector of the Milky Way Galaxy. There, they choose the path their character will take and depending on their choices, they can help decide the destiny of the entire Subsector."
The second screen shows the galactic map of the fictional subsector. Red circles highlight one of five planets.
"To start off, Bioware followed the footsteps of CCP Games, the creators of the archaic, yet revolutionary EVE Online. There, players helped create the 'canon' or the history of the game. In DO, during the Alpha and Beta testing stages, the testing players helped shape the history of Subsector Regulus, paving the way for the upcoming wave of players. Also following the theme of most MMORPGs, there are certain features, races and quests that can only be unlocked or obtained by additional payments and purchases."
Leslie places a bronze colored metal box stamped with the Aquila of the Emperor on one side and the eight-pointed star of Chaos on the other.
"For the standard twelve hundred dollars, gamers will receive the Nerve Gear helmet and the Bronze Edition of Destiny Online. The Bronze Edition lets players play as classic humans and allows them to follow the teachings of the God-Emperor of Man or the corrupt path of the Chaos Gods. The Bronze Edition unlocks most of the human classes such as Imperial Guardsmen, Tech-priests and the strange Citizen classes for the Imperium; for Chaos, players have the Cultist, Heretic and Slave classes. The combat classes (Imperial Guardsmen and Cultists) can, upon reaching a high enough level, command squads of men and women to fight alongside of them against their enemies."
Leslie pulls out a second similar metal box, this time silver in color.
"This is the Silver Edition, selling at sixteen hundred dollars. Diehard fans of 40K will want this edition as not only are the elite classes of humanity unlocked, the race of Eldar and their varying elite classes are unlocked as well. To explain, the elite classes are highly customizable classes that allow players to not only command greater numbers of soldiers, but send said soldiers on missions independent of the player in real time. That means one player can send his or her squad to fight an enemy on the other side of the virtual continent and inadvertently aid another player as he or she is ambushed by that very same enemy. I can guess many of you are just dying to know the exact names of these elite classes. Well, let me explain the regular classes for the ignorant first, okay?"
"There are only two base classes of Eldar: the Bonesinger and the Warrior. To elaborate and explain other base classes as well, let me outline what each base class does. The combat classes Imperial Guardsmen, Cultist and Warrior let players fight and adventure to their hearts' content and have the fastest possible route to reaching the other four planets in Subsector Regulus. Each class can ascend up to three specialist classes before they can reach an elite class.
"For the Imperial Guard, after players reach a certain point, they can become one of three basic classes: the Storm Trooper Sergeant, the Tank Division Commander or Imperial Guard Captain, depending on the route they take and the tactics they favor. As you can see, teamwork is the main theme for the Imperial Guard, regardless of your combat class. You may also train up certain abilities and skills to become one of thousands of custom classes such as a Medicae, Vox Caster and many more!"
"For Cultists, players can primarily become a Cultist Leader or a Cultist Undivided. Since both classes are kind of vague, let me explain. A Chaos Cultist Leader lets players create a large band of cult followers, favoring numbers over excellence while a Cultist Undivided lets players focus only on their own character, not bothering with any followers to aid them. The custom classes for Cultists vary in purpose and strength; very little has been revealed by the Destiny crew."
"And Eldar players who choose the warrior class can possibly become a Howling Banshee, Guardian or Ranger. Banshees are blade-wielding eldar that move fast and hit hard. However, only female characters can choose to become one. Guardians, on the other hand, allow for both genders and are the Eldar-equivalent of an Imperial Guardsman. Last up are the Rangers, the stealthy snipers and blade-wielders of the Craftworlds. No information has been released on the Eldar custom elite classes as of yet."
Leslie smiles and gestures to another screen near her, this one displaying three robed (well, only two had robes) figures: a Tech-priest, a Bonesinger and a Heretic.
"Ok, next are the Builders, a player class never done before and heavily favored by many of the Beta players of DO. The Builder classes allow players to add to the various built-in cities and settlements of the subsector; you can even create a brand new settlement that will eventually fill with NPCs on its own! Bronze players are initially restricted to modifications to existing buildings but can eventually build small homes and minor defense points, such as turrets and watchtowers. The Builder classes have up to three specialist or custom classes."
"Imperium Tech-priests can become Enginseers, Electro-priests or Tech-Guards. Enginseers can repair most any machine, both on and off the battlefield and have one or two cybernetic augmentations. Electro-priests are combat capable but are best utilized as a support to the actual combat classes. Tech-Guards, or to the diehard 40K fan - the Skitarii, actually fight more than repair. Skitarii are the militant arm of the Mechanicus and best used as defenders rather than builders. Custom Tech-priest classes have been noted to vary according to the tech the player specializes in creating or building."
"Chaos Heretic, unlike the Tech-priest, only has a single special class, the Declared Heretic. The Declared Heretic can take on five forms, depending on your patron god or philosophy. Khorne Heretics can fight fairly well against minor units, build heavy turrets and create altars to Khorne to sacrifice their kills to. Tzeetch Heretics can't fight but can build hidden statues of Tzeetch that corrupt nearby NPCs and cause other players' troops to become corrupted as well. Nurgle Heretics can corrupt crop fields, poison wells and even mutate NPCs. Slaanesh Heretics can bewitch enemies to fight for them and cause daemonettes to appear at random times. Finally, Chaos Undivided Heretics have only a single ability added in to the default Heretic abilities with the same name – Chaos Undivided. This ability can only be used once every few days. The power Chaos Undivided opens a portal to the Warp that lets out a small horde of minor daemons in the general area. And to make the Heretics even better, the Destiny crew has hinted that there is a possibility of Heretics ascending to even more classes. Let's hope it's not all just fluff, right?"
"And finally the Bonesingers. Bonesingers can't advance their class like Heretics or Tech-Priests, but they make up for it by being a great builder and fighter at the same time. Level your skills enough and you can build on the fly while you're in the midst of a fight. It's speculated amongst the Beta players that Bonesingers will have a slew of abilities that put them on even ground with the Tech-priest and Heretic elite/custom classes. There has been no evidence to support this theory but talk has continued just the same."
She sighs and the show goes to a commercial break. She returns and gestures to a third screen.
"The Last class is pretty exclusive only to humans. The strange Citizen and Slave classes popped up during the end of the Beta stage of DO and was actually quite popular. The Citizen class sets players as just that, a citizen of Subsector Regulus. You have none of the combat or craft skills, but you do have the unique set of Citizen/Slave skills such as Plant, Harvest, Bake and Convert. This may seem pointless but hear me out. I had the same skepticism as you guys but one BETA tester showed me the sheer versatility of the Citizen class. Sure you have to work three times as hard as the combat or builder players, but in the end, citizen players have the most freedom to explore the various worlds in DO. They also have a neat little bonus in the next edition~."
Leslie smirks and pulls out a larger metal box, this one very intricate and golden.
"Now this is the Gold Collector's edition, sold only to the BETA testers at fifty percent retail price and then only to the first five hundred non-BETA players. Non-BETA's will have to shill out a whopping twenty grand to get this prize but I'm told it's well worth the price. In this box is an Imperial Guard or Desecrated Guard-styled Nerve Gear Helmet, a beginner's fortune in-game and the chance to skip straight to one of the elite or custom classes. I know I've yet to explain the elite classes but I had to show off this cool helmet first."
Leslie shoves the Guard-style helm on her head and gives the camera a happy salute.
"Okay, the elite classes. Each race has up to two branches of classes that lead up to the final 'elite' class. First up: combat classes, starting with the Imperial Guard. Now the IG players can either become one of the special classes or than can decide, 'Hey, I'm gonna work my ass off and become even more badass than my buddy!' By deciding to specialize as a Commissar, players get the chance to not only command up to seven squads of guardsmen, they can also have their men specialize into different classes such as Heavy Weapons Squad, Tank Specialist and Vox Caster."
"Next, Chaos. Cultist can curry favor by giving themselves to their Gods and possibly become an Aspiring Champion of Chaos. However, they are not true Heretical Astartes, but pseudo-marines that fall short of the real thing. But hey, you get wicked power armor, big guns and strangely bad skin problems…"
"Warrior players can specialize into Exarchs and then to Autarchs, depending on the way you play your character. Exarch players reach great heights in combat and use their experience to help their squads excel and advance. Autarchs find themselves commanding over troops more over leaping right into the fray, but can regress to an Exarch if they decide that they'd rather chop up enemies themselves."
She marches over to another area with an even larger screen.
"Okay, elite builder classes! Elite builders have the ability to not only modify current settlements, but actual build up new towns and villages if given the chance. They also can build vehicles for other players as opposed to those players having to save up and buy them. Each builder class can specialize but only certain special classes can go elite. So be sure you like your class before complaining later."
"Okay, Tech players can go elite if they chose to go the Enginseer path, allowing them to reach the Magos class. But even better, the Magos class has two specializations, the Magos Errant and Magos Explorator. Magos Errants can repurpose and upgrade machines and vehicles, such as a settlement's defense turrets and watchtowers into several story tall defensive wall large and imposing enough to even make an Ork back off. Explorators can search old ruins, factories and downed ships; even extracting and excavating the old machines for their own use."
"Heretic players can't go elite but they do unlock the ability to turn a corrupted settlement or base into a true cesspit of Chaos, transforming the buildings and defenses into their Chaotic counterparts. They can can monuments and altars to Chaos that empower other players and NPCs. Heretics also can add decorative spiked pillars and skewered heads that destroy the morale of invading Imperials."
"And Bonesingers can become Spiritseers, letting them build even more Eldar buildings and help make any Eldar base truly invisible to non-Eldar players. They can also take the spirit stones of recently fallen Eldar NPCs to implant into an empty or recently built wraithguard or wraithlord."
"I'm running out of time but I have one last tidbit for you all to hear. Supposedly, and this is only a passing rumor coming from the development team itself! But supposedly there are certain NERVE Gear that allows the first users to become actual Astartes and Sororitas. For those that don't know, Sororitas are the female version of the Space Marines, called the Sisters of Battle. If any of you find one, remember these words:
"They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me. Like clay I shall mould them and in the furnace of war forge them. They shall be of iron will and steel sinew. In great armour I shall clad them and with the mightiest weapons they will be armed. They will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight them. They shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe can best them in battle. They are my bulwark against the Terror. They are the Defenders of Humanity. They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear."
"Now get out there and get in line for your Nerve Gear! For the Emperor!"