Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade

Warhammer 40,000 Eternal Crusade is an MMORPG that was announced at E3 2013 and is slated to be released in 2015. It will be available for the PC, PS4 and the Xbox One/Ten.

Now many of you think that this is such wonderful news, right ? Well... This is still up to debate since the game is being developed by the people who have given us such wonderful titles like Wet, Dante's Inferno (PSP), The Lord of the Rings: Conquest (DS) and Naughty Bear. However, Behavior (the guys making this thing) pulled in talent from all around - especially from Funcom Montreal (Age of Conan, The Secret World); recently, Graham McNeill and Anthony Reynolds (known for writing the Ultramarines and Word Bearers series, respectively) have been confirmed to be working alongside them as well. The devs have confirmed that if you buy the game, you unlock all the premium content (IE rest of the races), and that Dark Angels and Iron Warriors are *not* the only Space Marine/Chaos Space Marine chapters present. Orks are the only f2p race as of now, and the devs are hoping this will make them outnumber the rest of the other factions, as each Ork is independently weaker. So, that is a higher than average understanding of 40k lore, and is typically considered a genius fucking idea.

Races

The game will debut with four playable factions and one NPC faction, each including several subgroups, and classes.

Orks

Klans: Goffs, Evil Sunz, Deathskulls, Bad Moons (A fifth Klan will be decided by the community.)

Classes: Boyz(F2P race/class), Nobs, Mekboy, Painboy, Stormboy, Weirdboy, Loota/'Eavy, Shoota

Heroes: Skarboy Kommando and Cybork Madboy

Space Marines

Chapters: Ultramarines, Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Angels (A fifth Chapter will be decided by the community.) (here's hoping it's Angry Marines)(Which would be awesome, but probably not going to happen since GW is checking over their shoulders every five seconds to make sure everything is canon. But Black Templars would be a fair compromise, though the devs have pretty blatantly stated they wouldn't be in the launch title)

Classes: Tactical Marines, Devastators, Assault Marines, Apothecaries, Techmarines, Librarians, Chaplains

Heroes: Legion of the Damned Legionnaire and Master of Relics

Chaos Space Marines

Legions: Iron Warriors, Word Bearers, Black Legion, Night Lords (A fifth Legion will be decided by the community.)

Classes: Chaos Raptors, Chosen, Havocs, Terminators, Tactical, Aspiring Sorcerer

Heroes: Fallen Captain and Possessed Marine

Eldar

Craftworlds: Biel-tan, Saim-Hann, Iyanden, Ulthwé (A fifth Craftworld will be decided by the community)

Classes: Swooping Hawks, Striking Scorpions, Howling Banshees, Dire Avengers, Dark Reapers, Fire Dragons, and Warlocks; as well as Wraithguards and Outcast Rangers (Founders only at launch time) acting as "Elites" which cost in-game points to deploy.

Heroes: Autarchs

Tyranids

While Tyranids are confirmed to be in the game, they will not be playable. Instead, they will be an NPC faction, providing enemies for PvE content and acting as a counterbalance to ensure that no one faction remains overwhelmingly dominant over the others.

Possible Future Races

The developers have said that they would like to add all races over time, assuming the game is successful enough. Here is a list of non-launch races that have been mentioned by the devs. Feel free to add to this if you've heard any other tidbits.

Dark Eldar

Unconfirmed, but implied in a newsletter.

Tau

Were noted in an interview by Miguel Caron as being one of the three most requested races, at the time of the interview.

Adepta Sororitas

Were noted in the same interview as being one of the three most requested races. Were also referenced by Creative Director David Ghozland as being on the post-launch list via twitter.

Necrons

Were also one of the three most requested races.

Setting

Notice the planet Simahgr. Take out the h and re-arrange it, and then it spells out as "Sigmar"...Clever eh ?

Now anyone who has knowledge of Warhammer 40,000 obviously knows the setting. However, the games events will be taking place on the Kharon System, located in the northern part of the Segmentum Obscurus. One of the devs said in an interview that it will follow a planetwide contest for a single undisclosed planet, known as Arkhona, and the events that happen from this game will become canon, but the details are yet to be released. The planet in question is somewhere in the Segmentum Obscurus and was once an effective Imperial settlement, but due to the planets volatile nature, no great foothold could be gained on the planet other than small outposts. The planet was also once inhabitated by an alien race, that supposedly was exterminated during the Great Crusade. Now, Tyranids are appearing out of absolutely no-where, , killing everyone left on the planet, apparently coming from the underground of the planet like they had been hibernating there. Weird.

All this calls the playable races to action for different, yet to be revealed reasons, and are now to duke it out on the surface of the planet while the Tyranids eat everything. Lovely.

Arkhona is actually just the primary planet in a system, one that has three different colored suns, for some reason, and with ten planets or moons of playable size, so obviously down the line there will be downloadable content where you start fighting on a new planet.

Arkhona, fifth planet from the three suns, hopefully far enough to not fucking melt in the daylight.

Monetization

Eternal Crusade is partially F2P. Without paying, players can access the game but are limited to Ork Boyz, who cannot advance beyond a certain degree. Those who buy the game have access to all factions and full advancement. There is no monthly subscription, however a cash shop is planned. While Miguel Caron mentioned he will have Pay 2 Win "over [his] dead body", players will be able to pay for gear that is about 20% weaker to equivalent gear that can be found through playing the game normally, as well as cosmetics which do not affect gameplay.

The founders program has been released as of the 25/6, which is kind of like a pre-order/current version test (pre alpha/closed beta e.c.t.) combo that comes with pre order like rewards (exclusive decorative things and shit, and something about your ship having a private firing range). Though this isn't free, it's bloody damn worth it (and you don't need to sell organs to afford it) mainly because you get the the game.

Buying the founders program is counted as buying a preorder of the finished game.

Game Features

Read more about the game here

The game will be mostly PvP, happening on one planet at a time. ,A new planet will be rolled out when a planet is conquered No, the game will have multiple continents, with campaigns lasting from a week to unconfirmed, with the actual campaign goals set by a player controlled War Council. When the campaign is over you either win or fuckin lose (tears) and move onto the next campaign, with new planets perhaps coming later. Tyranids are NPCs and will be used in part to keep things a little bit balanced if player faction numbers are too unequal or one faction is dominating for other reasons. They will also constitute the PvE content, probably all of it. In short:

• PVP oriented with splashes of PVE
• Tyranids are the PVE …even though they should be a playable faction…HERETIC. NOBODY WANTS TO PLAY AS A BUG. THEY ARE NOT FUN.*BLAM* and besides, they work perfectly for PvE, and you couldn't balance them properly. Tyranid warrior >> Space Marine, Gaunt <<< Space Marine
• Combat is visceral/skill based over-the-shoulder dakka/melee
• Vehicles confirmed, but in unknown capacity
• Procedurally Generated content. After planets are conquered a new one is made. All dungeons/PVE content is procedurally generated.
• The devs are also regularly interacting with the fans. Which is pretty much unheard of. Ask some fucking questions.
• Players will all get their own space ship which acts as player housing, that you can decorate as you like. Guilds can combine their ships together for larger housing and more options (like guild banking)
• Day/Night cycle
• Weather, which will affect combat
• Friendly fire (if they can find a fair way to implement it)
• Dreads, if they figure out how to implement it
• Perils of the Warp
• Red ones go Fasta
• Executions which give bonus XP when performed, but leave the player vulnerable during the execution animation
• Reviving (talking about examples where a fellow player revives his battle brother)
• Bleed-out, with the option to bleed faster (probably for avoiding executions).
• Crouching, which ties in to the Cover system.
• Players can climb over obstacles.
• Classes that use jetpacks can walljump.
• No P2W, devs are vehemently against buying power, probably the only things you'll buy in the cash shop will be accessories and visual pieces, and possibly other executions (no change in damage or effect, just a different looking execution)
  • Some gear will be buyable, but it will be of inferior quality compared to gear earned through ingame methods.
• Miguel has a weird thing about Ork butts, as in two interviews he's described Ork butts and executions in the same sentence.
• There's been some talk about "multiplayer narrative", whatever that is. (Might be something about battles and results of PvP becoming the actual narrative of the game, and not having a finished story for the players to unearth)
• Playable Hero characters (with a daily cool down).

See also

• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
• Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millenium

Links

• Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade
• Meet the Team Video Notice how the opening looks strangely familiar.
• An interview with the developers, lots of information.
• Official Forum
• Meet the Team 2 This video shows some very early game footage.
• Full Pre-Alpha Footage Gameplay

Gallery

• 

  "We go where we wilt, we slay who we wilt. Let the Emperor judge the righteousness of our deeds!"

• 

  "In the name of the Dark Gods, we will bring down the rotting edifice that is the Imperium!"

• 

  "I reckon these humies are just puny soft gits who need a good stompin!"

• 

  "How foolish they seem to our eyes. Once, all this was ours, and it will come back to us!"

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  Where Ultramarines: The Movie had bolters that looked too big, this promotional artwork of the Tyranid reveal has bolters that look too small.