Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade

[9TurningMirrors]

Eternal Crusade is a Third Person MMO Shooter set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The game is being developed by a company called beHaviour.

Each player controls a character belonging to one of four factions from the 40K universe - Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Eldar or Orks.

The players will be able to spawn transports and light tanks (Rhinos and Predators are confirmed) as well as various infantry classes (see below for a list.)

The original plan was for ongoing campaigns on single server. That idea has now been put on the back burner but instead we will see large maps containing a diverse array of objectives, terrain types, etc.

The game is going into closed Alpha for Founders on Monday, 14th September.


You can pre-order the game here https://www.eternalcrusade.com/join-the-war If you use this referral code EC-2BH716SCLHPX8 we both get an extra 4,000 RTP.

Speculative release date is sometime in the first half of 2016.

The first trailer is for the Space Marines (although featuring Dark Angels I guess it should be first )

Latest video from the Devs

The Hero and Elite classes function a little like MAXES in PS2 taking in-game resources to spawn and having a timer but have to use a pre-configured loadout.

The basic classes are:

Space Marines

• Tactical - basic grunt
• Devastator - heavy weapons
• Assault - jump pack and melee specialist
• Apothecary - combat medic

Orks

• Shoota (final name TBD) - general dogsbody
• 'Eavy/Loota (final name TBD) - big guns
• Stormboy (final name TBD) - similar to Assault Marine
• Painboy - medic/nutter

Chaos

• Tactical - general dude
• Havoc - Chaos Heavy Weapons
• Raptor - he jumps about and hits people with a big axe
• Aspiring Sorcerer - probably similar to the Marine Apothacary

Eldar

• Dire Avenger - infantry
• Fire Dragon - short ranged anti-tank
• Dark Reaper - long ranged anti-infantry
• Swooping Hawk - jump pack but shooty not melee
• Howling Banshee - melee anti-heavy infantry
• Striking Scorpion - melee but with possible stealth
• Warlock - psychic support dude.

NB: Eldar get more basic classes because each of their classes is focused on a particular aspect of warfare. The other races have fewer classes but are more flexible in their abilites and loadouts.
Factions

At launch there will be four factions: Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Eldar and Orks.




These are subdivided into:

Space Marines

• Ultramarines
• Blood Angels
• Dark Angels
• Space Wolves
• Imperial Fists

Eldar

• Ulthwe
• Biel-Tan
• Saim-Hann
• Iyanden
• 
  

Chaos Space Marines

• Black Legion
• Word Bearers
• Iron Warriors
• Night Lords
• Alpha Legion

Orks

• Goffs
• Evil Sunz
• Bad Moons
• Deathskulls
• Blood Axes

Each subfaction will have some minor traits to make them feel a bit more like their background counterpart. No details on that as yet.

Pricing Model

The game has a fairly wide pricing model.

There's an option to pay once for the whole thing and unlock all four factions. There is no subscription cost.

Or you can pay to unlock a single faction at a reduced price.

If you don't fancy that then you can play as an Ork for free but your class choices and vehicle options will be limited.

To continue funding the servers there is a cash shop.

Players can buy 'sidegrades' to Hero Classes, Weapons and Vehicles. The sidegrades should work in a similar way to Planetside 2 i.e. a weapon might trade rate of fire for accuracy but overall the intention is that both weapons will be roughly balanced against each other.

Things that require resouces to spawn in-game e.g. Hero Classes will still need those resources.

I myself and really looking forward to this game and have dropped cash for the Captain's back. However, the basic founders package is the cost of the game at release ($40) plus a bonus of $40 worth of in-game currency.

 

[9TurningMirrors]

It sounds as if people think this is meant to be some kind of RTS a la DoW, which it is not.

It is similar to PS2 with each player controlling a single character at a time.

The release of this pre-alpha footage is a mixed blessing, I admit. On the one hand it does look a bit ropey. On the other, I remember the state of PA in alpha...it had less content than this....

 

[9TurningMirrors]

Update with today's twitch.tv Q&A session.

http://www.twitch.tv/40kcrusade/b/546586715



Clip notes:
05:40 Some Tac Marine play.
07:00 Predator in action. Each faction's vehicles will have a proper racial feel. So Orks get the equivalent of Ramshackle, Eldar stuff hovers, etc.

24:00 Devastators including supression mechanic, using terrain to brace heavy bolter.

27:00 Players can spawn from buildings, or Rhinos.

28:00 Four sizes of location (the places that dictate who controls a territory)
Outpost - few scattered buildings, one or two control points.
Depot - Larger, provides supply. The more supply the better its defences.
Fortress - Holding this will grant abilities to commanders
Stronghold - the focal point of the hoped for 500 player battles. Will require armour, heroes, multiple classes working in concert to take these places.

31:00 Spawn rooms will have multiple exit points to befuddle spawn camping.

32:00 Devs think that Sisters of Battle are a Space Marine faction.

But they want to put in as many factions as they can, eventually. Possibly with inter-faction allying.

33:00 Being saved after being put into a downed state so that you can be executed/saved. Support classes can get you back up multiple times, other classes only once.

34:00 Drop Pods are going to be in but expensive to use.

35:00 Aiming for 500 vs 500 matches. Slightly slower paced, more tactical gameplay than Space Marine. Rhino does look like more than four Marines can get in it!

36:30 Different weapons have different attack and blocking values. You can only guard for a limited amount of time.

39:00 Loadouts have a number of points. Each piece of equipment takes up X or Y points to balance things out.

Marine classes on the loadout screen are:
Tactical
Assault
Devastator
Apothacary
Terminator
Chaplain
Librarian

Classes are a bucket rather than a straitjacket. The progression tree can cover several classes, but some things will be restricted from certain classes.

41:05 Hero classes - they want them to be powerful but take resources and have a cool down. Resource Points are generated at a fixed rate over time.

42:00 The faction leaders get their own budget of RP which they can allocate to particular areas of the battlefield.

43:20 There will be chapter specific classes in the game but they are still being worked on.

46:50 Faction differences in combat - e.g. Eldar weapons will be more focused e.g. Eldar good at short ranged, have long ranged specialists, weaker mid-range. Fastest bikes. Strong psychics.

49:00 They want to have meaningful territory control. There will be permanent effects. Territories don't just flip - they have to be held and reinforced to use them.

50:00 There will be overarching objectives on the planet told as part of the campaign's story. These will be your main goals, not just trading territory back and forth.

52:00 It will be a living world: hidden areas, secrets to uncover, not static.

53:00 Psykers have a number of warp charges. These don't regenerate on their own. Perils of the Warp builds up as you use your psychic powers.

56:00 Sorcerer being worked on and will hopefully be demoed soon.

56:30 No super heavies or Lords of War at launch. The experience is primarily an infantry experience. Titans would invalidate players so they would not want to put them on the battlefield.

Fridays are going to be regular twitch.tv livestream (hopefully)

Next things they want to show off include the Day/Night Cycle.

Animations will be motion captured, but they stress that this video is still pre-Alpha stuff.

Access to the game for Founders will be January at the latest...possibly before.

01:05:30 A Predator has crew positions for driver, main gunner, side sponsons and hatch gunner.

01:07:19 WAAAAAAGH! (No, really.)

 

[9TurningMirrors]

Possibly I need to make it clearer.

A few Hero classes are unlockable as part of the Founders Program.

There will be different but equivalent versions available to those who buy the game later.

Once you have unlocked a Hero class you get to spawn it by buying in-game requisition points.

Dumping of the Original Post for historical record.

TLDR: Space Marine + Planetside 2 = Eternal Crusade.


Warhammer 40,000 Eternal Crusade is a third person MMO shooter. Each player controls a character belonging to one of four factions from the 40K universe - Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Eldar or Orks.

The players will be able to spawn transports and light tanks (Rhinos and Predators are confirmed) as well as various infantry classes (see below for a list.) Battle will take place on a 'single' server so there will hopefully be the kind of battles we see in a large TT game.

There will be a limited amount of PVE in the form of instanced raids against AI Tyranids. Interestingly, Tyranids will also spawn and attack the dominant faction with increasing numbers.

You can pre-order the game here https://www.eternalcrusade.com/join-the-war If you use this referral code EC-2BH716SCLHPX8 we both get an extra 4,000 RTP.

Although it isn't scheduled for release for a good eighteen months (late 2015/early 2016) the developers, Behaviour have relented to fan pressure and opened up not only pre-orders for the game but also the embryonic cash shop.

The first trailer is for the Space Marines (although featuring Dark Angels I guess it should be first )

Latest 'pre-alpha' footage.

Still very early days. A lot of people are going to die performing execution moves on a large battlefield, I think.

Eternal Crusade (aka EC) will take place on a 'single server' a la Eve using Pikka server technology to avoid the network issues that were the bane of Space Marine. They are expecting to host fights with 'hundreds of players' per area.

At the moment we only have pre-alpha shots of the in game models. Much of which is looking pretty darned similar to Space Marine. However, there are going to be many more classes per faction when the ability to unlock Elite and Hero classes is factored in.

The Hero and Elite classes function a little like MAXES in PS2 taking in-game resources to spawn and having a timer but have to use a pre-configured loadout.

The basic classes are:

Space Marines

• Tactical - basic grunt
• Devastator - heavy weapons
• Assault - jump pack and melee specialist
• Apothecary - combat medic

Orks

• Shoota (final name TBD) - general dogsbody
• 'Eavy/Loota (final name TBD) - big guns
• Stormboy (final name TBD) - similar to Assault Marine
• Painboy - medic/nutter

Chaos

• Tactical - general dude
• Havoc - Chaos Heavy Weapons
• Raptor - he jumps about and hits people with a big axe
• Aspiring Sorcerer - probably similar to the Marine Apothacary

Eldar

• Dire Avenger - infantry
• Fire Dragon - short ranged anti-tank
• Dark Reaper - long ranged anti-infantry
• Swooping Hawk - jump pack but shooty not melee
• Howling Banshee - melee anti-heavy infantry
• Striking Scorpion - melee but with possible stealth
• Warlock - psychic support dude.

NB: Eldar get more basic classes because each of their classes is focused on a particular aspect of warfare. The other races have fewer classes but are more flexible in their abilites and loadouts.
Factions

At launch there will be four factions: Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Eldar and Orks.




These are subdivided into:

Space Marines

• Ultramarines
• Blood Angels
• Dark Angels
• Space Wolves

Eldar

• Ulthwe
• Biel-Tan
• Saim-Hann
• Iyanden

Chaos Space Marines

• Black Legion
• Word Bearers
• Iron Warriors
• Night Lords

Orks

• Goffs
• Evil Sunz
• Bad Moons
• Deathskulls

Early models have been shown. These are pre-Alpha shots so a lot of work yet to be done.




Pricing Model

I confess to finding this a little confused as Behaviour seem to have gone for every popular option.

Want to play for free? Then you can hop onto the Ork faction although your classes and vehicle access will be limited.

Behaviour are hoping this will a) make Orks act as the Zerg faction by default and b) draw people into the game.

Like microtransactions? Then at launch you will be able to pay for one or more of the factions of your choice?

Prefer to buy the whole thing in one go with no subscription costs? Then buy one of the Founders packs.


These unlock all four factions. As a thank you to Founders you also get $40 worth of in-game currency to spend in the Founders Store.

Except you can also buy a subscription which will give you an increasing number of RTP per month.


The Cash Shop

Weirdly the fans demanded that Behaviour open this thing up early so that they could throw money at them. The developers have obliged but some of the prices are a little on the high side.

For example, you can buy a Limited Edition Ferrox Pattern Bolter for $35.

There are only 2,500 of each of these to purchase and like Planetside 2 they are a side grade to the normal bolters that the less well-off amongst us will be using.

The Founders store also offers the ability to unlock Hero classes for each faction. Equivalent but different Hero classes will be available to unlock using in-game XP latter in the game. E.g. Founders can unlock the 'Outcast Ranger'. Later on everybody will be able to unlock 'The Ranger'.















There are two heroes for each faction plus a couple of bits of extra fancy looking armour and two player vehicles such as Marine Attack Bikes and Eldar Vypers. Heavier vehicles such as Predators have been confirmed.

Some of the items added to the Founders Store over the next year and a half will not be available purchasable by non-founders once the game launches.

There will however be the opportunity to unlock equivalent options.

As I said, prices are a little high; the head developer has said they are looking into the pricing model.

Then again, they have sold a couple of hundred of each of the limited edition weapons at $35 a pop.


However, being a Founder isn't just about giving Behaviour more money for a game that they already have funded!

Founders will get to join in with the Alpha and Beta testing of the game as it is developed (in batches, mind you).


The War Itself


The war is going to take place on a planet called Arkhona. We don't have much in the way of detail on this place yet but Founders will get to run around on their ship as it travels to Arkhona.

Don't expect a full ship but we will have access to the firing ranges to help test and balance weapons, a personal quarters and the ability to examine and equip those arguably priced Founders things.

Just in case one of the four playable factions gets a little too fiesty the Tyranids will be showing up as NPCs that will attack any faction that gets too powerful.

The other function of the Tyranids is to act as the baddies in PvE raids taking place under the surface of the planet. This is only going to be a minor aspect of the game compared to the actual PvP war.



The extensive Game FAQ can be found here. The devs are pretty good at answering questions on the forum and then updating the FAQ.


I myself and really looking forward to this game and have dropped cash for the Captain's back. However, the basic founders package is the cost of the game at release ($40) plus a bonus of $40 worth of in-game currency.


I'll keep this updated as more information comes out.

NB: I am starting a new thread as I now have access to my proper account.
Have added latest YouTube footage.

 

[9TurningMirrors]

New Trailer with gravelly-voiced man!

YouTube Footage No8

Summary: "Katie Fleming, Steven Lumpkin, and Alexis Leveque recently showed off a 9v9 battle. Later on, Ghislain Barbe showcased the new Space Marine model, updates to the grenades, and jump packs. The show finished up with a Q&A and cake!"

Apologies for not updating in a while but I've just switched jobs and things have been a bit heretic...I mean hectic!

 

[9TurningMirrors]

The latest Twitch Feed in which they explain what they have been up to.

 

[9TurningMirrors]

The different races DO work differently.

Eldar have more classes available to them than the others but they are more specialized, for example.

When I get a spare hour I will update the first post to make things a little more obvious.

 

[9TurningMirrors]

That is a valid point and something they are trying to address.

Orks are the 'free to play' race. You don't need to buy the game to play as one of the basic Ork classes but if you do buy the game (or just the Ork Faction) then you unlock the ability to spawn Hero Classes, vehicles etc.

The intent of this - and I remain sceptical as to whether it will actually work in practice - is that lots of people who want to play will join up for the fun but not stump up cash will play Orks. Further, Orks will have some kind of cumulative buff for the other greenskins nearby. So Orks should end up with the kind of Zergy mob style of fighting that they should have.

The big elephant sized fly in the ointment room is whether people will want to join in with this given that:

a) Looking at rough polls on the offical forum Space Marines are the biggest faction by far, then CSM, then a big gap before the Orks and finally the Eldar.

b) The Devs have stated that in a straight up fight a Marine can take on two or three Ork Boys...but a skillful Ork player could kill an average Marine player one-on-one.


*IF* there are many more Ork players than Marines then they might be able to put up a decent fight and things will balance out as per the TT game.

And I remember the massive faction swings between servers and factions that we had in WAR.

There is a lot of talk from the Founders about Eldar fighting the campaign very differently from the way SM and CSM do - that they will not be trying to seize and hold ground, for example.

I hope they get this to work but unless they can address the inherent population balance I fear this game may be SM vs Tyranid Bots a lot of the time.

 

[9TurningMirrors]

Okay, Behaviour have announced an 'upgrade pack' of sorts for the 'Free to Waaagh' players.

"For Under the war call of “Da biggast WAAAGH! Eva”, the brutal Ork forces are gathering in the Segmentum Obscurum ready to fall on the Kharon System. Join them and get your share of loot and glory. Get your Pioneer starter pack today and start looting Arkhona before the massive core of the green tide hits the planet.


As a Free to WAAAGH! Ork, you will have the full and complete access to the core of the Ork units: Loota, Shoota and Choppa boyz. In addition you will be able to spawn and use, on a daily basis, an Ork Warbike and an Ork Trukk. The rest of the Ork progression will be unlockable through the store at your discretion. You will be able to unlock the classes and vehicles you want according to your gameplay preferences.
Boost your Free to Play Experience

Boost your free to play experience and join the Founder’s group with this pack. In addition to the items and bonuses included in the pack, you can play a closer role in the production of Eternal Crusade by taking part in the discussions with the development team."

You can pick up the Ork Pioneer Pack here.

At first I was pretty skeptical about this. It doesn't really seem to offer much...a unique helmet and gun...some extra in-game currency...hmm...mildely tempting.

Then somebody pointed me to this article on MMORPG

"As some consolation, if Pioneers wish to, they can purchase additional Rogue Trader Points, and if their RTP total should reach or exceed forty thousand, they will be automatically upgraded to a full game key, getting access to all the features and factions available in Eternal Crusade."

Which actually makes the bundle a bit more attractive. Remains to be seen if there will be similar bundles for the other factions.

 

[9TurningMirrors]

This week's twitch stream in handy YouTube Format

They are focusing on SM vs CSM to get the 'balance of combat' right before working on the Eldar and Orks.

Early Access isn't going to be the standard 'bug hunt' with more features slowly added in. They want to make 'polished modules' of each sub-section of the game which we will be able to go into and test a more 'finished' project.

Slightly concerning that the lead dev has said that his 'Free to Waaagh' Ork will be his casual character and that his Space Marine one will be his dedicated 'strategic' character..

The latest footage of the marines looks decent. The animation has a good balance of speed and power but with the weight one might expect from power armour.

 

[9TurningMirrors]

Latest streamy thing.

 

[9TurningMirrors]

I am trying to be optimistic. The game is till in 'pre-alpha' stage so there is a lot of work yet to be done.

So far it is still looking a lot like Space Marine 2.0 but with extra bells and whistles.

 

[9TurningMirrors]

At last some news worth reporting on.

Alpha Testing for Founders starts on Monday, 14th September. Invitations will be sent out in batches starting with a couple of hundred accounts. The order will roughly be based on the date you made your purchase. The Developers are hoping to have all Founders in testing by the end of October if they can.

"On Monday September 14th, the people that have Captain’s packs or higher in terms of RTP and were the first to buy, will start to enter the Closed Alpha. We will start slowly with admission in the 100s, with the eventual goal of getting all Captain’s pack and higher in by October.
If you want to get in as part of the Captain’s wave, you can still secure your spot in it by buying, or upgrading, to a Captain’s pack before we start the Sergeants’ wave. I know; shameless plug but more Founders means more war. In the grim darkness of the far future, there can be only more war."

Link

Note that the game plan has changed significantly.

"So you might be wondering what’s in this Closed Alpha and what you are getting early access to as Founders?

Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade is far from complete. It is still in development, will evolve and will be updated weekly. We are a Massive Online Shooter and the Closed Alpha focuses only on creating a great Shooter experience, before becoming Massive.

The persistent world, meta-game, continent, territories, theater of war, campaigns, character progression, thousands of items, customized loadouts, visual personalization, more game modes, commanders, PVE and other MMO aspects, as well as the last factions will gradually be added to the Closed Alpha and well into Beta.

It’s true; we once said we’d have individual modules of these available, then we changed focus and scope to a full vertical slice available this Fall. Then we got Unreal, good people left, good people joined, things changed, designs iterated and optimized, playtesting lead us in new directions and voila, we were confident we could move Closed Alpha, a vertical shooter slice from Fall to Summer.

And here it is, still technically Summer.

How is it different from what I’ll experience when we launch, you ask?

Besides many of the core systems mentioned above, what you will find is a very traditional entry into individual maps basically. These are individual outposts or fortresses with various game modes. Soon there will be different biomes like snow or lava and “mutators” as we call them, like a warp storm or night mode, which highly affects the factions abilities to fight on the same map. You will enter a queue and jump straight into the fray.

This will evolve over time when more core systems are added. Culminating in the larger theater of war on a continent with territories which have outposts and a fortress, mutators and instanced PVE encounters. This moves us more and more away from the “map” mentality, to the “open world” territories and massive battles.

How that evolves and how long that takes is entirely dependent on our progress, feedback, technology and of course, you.
We are excited that you want to help us develop the game in this early state, give us feedback, test and be able to have a great impact on its direction.

We will be with you, shooting you and on the closed Founder’s forums. The first rule of Closed Alpha is: you do not talk about Closed Alpha. You will be under NDA, which we hope we can lift as soon as possible, so you can spread the gospel as evangelists, leading the masses to the light."

Latest interview with the developers.

Lastly, the some of the Devs have created Steam Accounts as part of a 'Slaughter the Devs' idea where Founders get to play against/with them as part of the Alpha Testing. Whether or not this means the client will be directly downloadable from Steam is unknown.


Apologies for the long hiatus but IRL this year has been a bit...challenging for me.

 

[9TurningMirrors]

The Founders program has now closed but the game is now on Steam Early Access.

Here you can find an article on the game from PC Gamer.