Dawn of War 4 Draws on 2004 Original for Longer Battles, On-Field Reinforcements

Theysen said the first question for the team was whether to draw from Dawn of War 1, 2 or 3, which he described as great but very different games. King Art chose the first game because it was the more classic RTS, with base building and large battles, and the team treats it as its north star.

King Art examined how large battles were and how long they took in the original, Theysen said, and decided on a larger and longer time-to-kill system for Dawn of War 4. He said the team wanted battles to take a while so players can throw more units into them. He also said the design considers the risk that a player wins the battle but loses the war by putting all resources into one fight, a balance he said different RTS games handle very differently.

On-field reinforcements were not in King Art's initial design, Theysen said. He called the system weird, saying it does not make sense lore-wise and is not common in modern RTS games. After the team tested it, he said, they loved it because it brings macro management and the economy into battles as well as real-time unit control and micromanagement.

Theysen said auto-healing or auto-reinforcing everything can make battles easier but can hurt or complicate the economy. Players focused on the big picture can put units on auto in battle, he said, while players focused on micromanagement can optimize fights and spend less time on macro. He cited that choice as an example taken directly from Dawn of War 1.