What this humble fan hopes to see in Underhive Wars

Hello! I just realized the forums are open now. I have been hoping for a Necromunda game for years and have been very excited to hear you guys are making one.

I own Mordeheim:CotD and I enjoyed it but I felt there were a few key areas that could have been improved. I am hoping they will be different in underhive wars and I just wanted to share my criticism on the off chance it has an impact on development.

  1. I felt the AI would focus almost entirely on killing my units (as opposed to accomplishing objectives) and I quickly learned I have to stay together and mostly ignore objectives to win the inevitable brawl.

  2. I felt that the skill system tended to mostly give 2% to 5% boosts causing my characters to mostly feel the same. I personally loved in Necromunda table top how much my gangers would diversify and gain unique skills and rolls that made them very different and special.

I also just wanted to add that I loved the territory system in necromunda and it would be cool if you could work that into the game if possible.

Can't wait to play it, thanks everyone for your hard work!

yea i hope they do ive only just found out its in production and im stoked !!! i really hope they have in depth skills, even the ones where you get penalized if your gang member gets injured ..always used to like getting horrible scars would piss him off as i would cause fear ...(if i remember right)

@CptSpaulding said in What this humble fan hopes to see in Underhive Wars:

yea i hope they do ive only just found out its in production and im stoked !!! i really hope they have in depth skills, even the ones where you get penalized if your gang member gets injured ..always used to like getting horrible scars would piss him off as i would cause fear ...(if i remember right)

Yeah, in Necromunda since in vanilla wasn't creatures or enemies that caused fear or terror, your gangers could get horrible scars (cause fear on enemies) or terrifying scars (they cause terror on enemies). As well, i want to see the Brave scars injury (your ganger gets a small leadership bonus).

I also hope we get more in the skill department in order to see a lot more specialization instead of Mordheim where almost every unit played the same and you could interchange your warband members without barely affecting your performance in battle.

I really agree with your points, especially the second one. Mordheim had massive amount of different skills but none of them felt impactful, most of them where just a few % boost to a skill. The special attacks you could learn were also a bit "meh", none of them had any cool animations or effects, just made you do a bit more damage or something along those lines. Using skill points felt a bit like a chore when you had to look through a large amount of fairly similar skills and there weren't any especially cool ones. Also it felt like the skill point system was a bit out of balance, I always had loads of unused skill points because I couldn't afford to use then.
I really hope they Improve on this part for Necromunda, the tabletop was one of my favourite games growing up.

I'd have to agree it would be nice to see different animations for different skills etc , and their affects on enemy players. Also I'd love to see the environment become more alive , with more animated backgrounds etc, a Hive isnt exactly a quiet place, with Shroom spore explosions , overheating decayed generators exploding , fuel sump's getting torched in the distance in some vast cavernous hall.
Electrical discharges , toxic gas eruptions from collapsing pockets. Mutated horrors lurking in the shadows and everything that creeps and crawls waiting for death to bring them food.

Even the characters themselves could have that sort of "idling" sonic hedgedog foot tapping animation.
Make the characters seem alive as they wait on the battlefield to be moved.

@sapien82 said in What this humble fan hopes to see in Underhive Wars:

I'd have to agree it would be nice to see different animations for different skills etc , and their affects on enemy players. Also I'd love to see the environment become more alive , with more animated backgrounds etc, a Hive isnt exactly a quiet place, with Shroom spore explosions , overheating decayed generators exploding , fuel sump's getting torched in the distance in some vast cavernous hall.
Electrical discharges , toxic gas eruptions from collapsing pockets. Mutated horrors lurking in the shadows and everything that creeps and crawls waiting for death to bring them food.

Even the characters themselves could have that sort of "idling" sonic hedgedog foot tapping animation.
Make the characters seem alive as they wait on the battlefield to be moved.

I also want to see enviromental damage used against enemies using certain battleground elements against them, like shooting at a leaking pipe and shower the enemies with acid or chemical waste. There are many possibilities when it comes to this

Yeh , there are so many different environmental affects which could be utilised .
e.g. A delaque sniper has an almost clear shot on the enemy cawdor leader , the headshot is obscured but there is a high pressure steam valve and vent outlet next to his head . need 18+ on D20 to score the shot
penalties for distance, penalties for difficult shot , bonus for being veteran sniper, bonus for height advantage Sort of stuff like that , and you score it, the valve head explodes with the armor piercing round, the valve explodes and searing hot steam melts the enemy leaders face doing 1d8 + 2 damage.

Or the valve explodes but the valve and steam pipe was part of an older system now defunkt , the enemy now knows your position and returns fire.

These types of interactions would be fantastic.

Every possible environmental affects should be utilised.

As for your original idea, would it be easier just to say do an even split of the enemy force, half focus on the game objective and half focus on the fight itself.
So every match you have the enemy AI going for objective and going for the fight
so you cant just do one or the other you are always forced to try and balance between , going for attack / defend objective and also , getting involved in the straight up fight.

Well, in another thread i kinda talked about that when discussing the types of missions and how it would be nice that we get offensive missions with clear objectives like stealing or blowing up a weapons cache or destroying a water depo.

It's another nice thing that you have to consider: Can i afford to keep fighting a few more turns and steal the weapons of the enemy or would it be more worth it to throw a grenade and win now? Same could be applied to the AI in some cases.

As well, i also threw in the possibility of dedicated destruction consumables like shaped charges like there was in the original tabletop for such missions.

I would love to see , partly destructible environments, which shape and change the map as you play .

Where a short cut to the objective was once clear, now a support buttress from the upper/ adjacent dome has become weakened by Hive quake , unchecked gunfire , corrosion and collapses knocking out / injuring (based on a roll) any gangers in the area of affect.
This would mean you have to work around the environment , and that your not just in it but fighting against it as well as the actual enemy gangs.
So you have to spend one turn or two digging out the trapped ganger or rescuing them from the toxic gases or corrosive acid pool surrounding them. Things where the environment becomes just as lethal as the enemy gangs.
Things which could easily change the gameplay , but its not something that is there every time , its random , and players need to investigate / search on their turn for any environmental systems which could harm / benefit the gangers.

last edited by sapien82

@sapien82 said in What this humble fan hopes to see in Underhive Wars:

I would love to see , partly destructible environments, which shape and change the map as you play .

Where a short cut to the objective was once clear, now a support buttress from the upper/ adjacent dome has become weakened by Hive quake , unchecked gunfire , corrosion and collapses knocking out / injuring (based on a roll) any gangers in the area of affect.
This would mean you have to work around the environment , and that your not just in it but fighting against it as well as the actual enemy gangs.
So you have to spend one turn or two digging out the trapped ganger or rescuing them from the toxic gases or corrosive acid pool surrounding them. Things where the environment becomes just as lethal as the enemy gangs.
Things which could easily change the gameplay , but its not something that is there every time , its random , and players need to investigate / search on their turn for any environmental systems which could harm / benefit the gangers.

Oh, i really like that. Mainly, because it would make perception checks very valuable in planning a battle and using the battleground to your advantage.

In Mordheim, perception checks only revealed traps and loot points, and since traps weren't that dangerous, perception tends to be mostly unused. Something like this will add a nice mechanic and make perception checks something that will greatly help the player

Yeh it kind adds to the whole survival against the Hive in general being able to survive the deadly hive sump and also the enemy gangs takes on a whole new meaning.

Having environmental hazards other than just traps would be amazing, things which temporarily affect your ganger 1-3 turns in game, things which have a lasting affect , 1-3 matches , things which are permanent, such as losing a limb or digit. Losing an eye from shards of glass or metal , things which disable the ganger.

I wonder if they would make the maps procedurally generated , wonder if that is possible

Oh, i would really like traps giving random open wounds debuffs to gangers that get damaged for them, but at the same time i hope they bring back too positive injuries like fearsome/horrifying scars and valiant scars.

As well, some traps should put debuffs on your gangers and deal damage such as chemical burns that last for 2 turns or a piece of debris that falls and stuns all the gangers caught in the area.

Dunno if the maps could be procedurally generated, but that would be a plus to see an underhive ever changing. Also, it would make battles more unpredictable

Something else that could be improved is non-aligned hostile NPCs. In Mordhiem there was the Town Crier who scattered your forces but was never seen. In Necromunda there's the mission type that has monsters attack isolated gangers. This could be made really cool if there actually are monsters like giant rats, spiders and the millipedes that are in the lore. It would add depth to stradegy and make the hive seem more alive and dangerous. I wouldn't say every battle, but randomly.

Yeah, i remember that rule. Specially annoying because the results of the roll were 3:
1-Nothing happens
2-A ganger gets attacked. Takes 1 wound and has to reload his weapon.
3-The ganger dies. No injury rolls or anything, the ganger and his gear is lost.

I really would like the idea of having more neutral enemies around the hive that aren't full mega murder like chaos demons. And also, make engaging with them worth your time. For example, if you see a giant spider and you manage to kill it, you would be able to scavenge spider glans, or spider eyes (a gemstone)... Things that you can sell for a nice amount of credits.

It would add a lot more to the game, specially with less dangerous enemies like giant rats that would be there to annoy you, but also it would make the player think if it would be worth it to take out that spider not only for the XP, but also for the money

One thing I see say rats doing is forcing you to consider the possibility they'll be there in movement. Like Heavy Gunners. On TT it works to have them hang back and support from superior range, but with creatures possibly there you have to consider that. Rats would logically be fairly easy to kill, but if your Gunner is alone they need to protect themselves to not be swarmed, so you may even have to have teammates there to support them in just in case, or risk it.

Also, if they add Wyrds then there'd be another reason to have them as one specialization was beastmaster, so the Wyrd could come with a pack of these beasts if they specialize in that role.

One that would be easier to pull off would be Plague Zombies as the animation and model are almost the same/

Ok, that's a good idea. Mainly, because the only guns you can fire in melee are pistols. Having to keep a guy or two behind to defend you heavy ordinance against whatever may creep out of the underhive is actually something nice.

I also remember you could have releasable units in TT that were on your side if they had a control collar. You wouldn't be able to control them directly, but they would fight on your side.

And if i remember correctly, only scavvies had access to plague zombies.

Well Scaavies and Chaos Cults of Nurgle, but the former is probable expansion race and the latter is something I'd personally like to see but the chances of them being included are rather unknown seeing as they're a Gang War expansion rather than from the 3 Codexs. Regardless, from the books there was "recently" a rather large Plague Zombie outbreak in the lore and they're a consistent threat, so as a hostile NPC they make a lot of sense.

You may be referring to Pit Slaves, which would work to both boost a gang and be an expansion. Pit Slave gangs are Outlaws, but later they could add both gangs and allow you to buy a slave. I mean they're basically Cyborgs so why wouldn't you want one?

@glarghface said in What this humble fan hopes to see in Underhive Wars:

Oh, i would really like traps giving random open wounds debuffs to gangers that get damaged for them

I'd rather they didn't. Because that would likely lead to the same hitpoint system they used in their version of Mordheim which really don't work with 40k weapons.

I'd like them to have a mission objective system like the actually TT game had.

You had kill missions, take and hold, capture objectives, etc.

I didn't like Mordheim's deployment variations. Split your team into 3 strike teams, scattered. They really ruined being able to make your choices tactically. Many, if not most people avoided the missions in Mord that had those if at all possible.

It isn't fun not being able to deploy your team how you would like imo.

I'd like to see them have deployment zones like the TT, with place to deploy all over the deployment zone for your side. Then YOU get to choose if you break off 2-3 members of your gang to one side, or keep them together.