in big massive battles I feel healers are relagated to spend most of their time not enjoying the fight and only spend it healing. A good example to avoid this "healer class" was made by guild wars 2. In it they tried to break the "holy trinity" of tank/dps/healing by making every character able to heal/rez in a certain way.
How do you plan to make healers NOT BORING? I have played healers before but they slowdown the pace of the game. In your creative design process are you taking into account that having too many healers creates less fighting? less WAR?
I am curious to know your perspective on creating dedicated healers and how that would affect your game.
I guess I'm compelled to ask about itemization for the Eldar. Weapons and armor for Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines and Orks seems to have a bit more variety. What I mean by that is for example your typical space marine can wield a bolter, a melta, a lascannon, etc. Where for Eldar, the Aspect Warriors are a bit more limited in what they can bring onto the battlefield (Fire Dragons use fusion guns, Dire Avengers use avenger shuriken catapults, etc)
My question is, how do you plan to make progression for Eldar classes varied and interesting?
Heard some great discussions in my thread, but let's not veer away from the main topic . This is the "ask the devs a question" thread. Lets try to redirect discussion elsewhere, so we don't lose sight of asked questions and follow-up answers (In fairness, I'm guilty dropping a few off-topic posts myself.)
My question: Psyker abilities
When it comes to throwing out psychic attacks, will it be so simple as aiming and "shooting"? Or will there have to be a build-up of energy in order to direct the attack? Just making mention that lore wise, VERY few psykers are able to throw around such abilities without catastrophic effects. And even then, it wore them down to the brink of death, such as Tigurius of the Ultramarines, reportedly the most powerful Librarian Space Marine. Will there be any chances of extremely negative side effects, either towards the player or the PLAYERS TEAM if psychic abilities are abused? I've had more then a few Librarians brains explode due to bad dice rolls on the tabletop.
we'll my guess here is that for most of the psychic abilities we don't want to kill the 'caster' himself now that does not mean we will completly deviate from lore, but at this point the best I can give you is that stuff is not final.
We will definitely make sure that we are close to lore but not on expense of gameplay.
Originally posted by Batpimp
Hey patrick.
thanks for answering our questions.
My question:
in big massive battles I feel healers are relagated to spend most of their time not enjoying the fight and only spend it healing. A good example to avoid this "healer class" was made by guild wars 2. In it they tried to break the "holy trinity" of tank/dps/healing by making every character able to heal/rez in a certain way.
How do you plan to make healers NOT BORING? I have played healers before but they slowdown the pace of the game. In your creative design process are you taking into account that having too many healers creates less fighting? less WAR?
I am curious to know your perspective on creating dedicated healers and how that would affect your game.
we will not have the usual MMO class system. If your player has some sort of healing ability it will be usable while doing combat in some sort. I seriously doubt there will be dedicated healers - that would just not fit with this type of game at all.
Originally posted by Policenaut
I guess I'm compelled to ask about itemization for the Eldar. Weapons and armor for Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines and Orks seems to have a bit more variety. What I mean by that is for example your typical space marine can wield a bolter, a melta, a lascannon, etc. Where for Eldar, the Aspect Warriors are a bit more limited in what they can bring onto the battlefield (Fire Dragons use fusion guns, Dire Avengers use avenger shuriken catapults, etc)
My question is, how do you plan to make progression for Eldar classes varied and interesting?
Let me come back on this as soon we have finalized the design for the Eldar - but for sure we will have a variety of skills, armor and weapons, not less than other factions for sure!
Patrick Balthazar Tech Lead - Behaviour Online Lead Programmer - Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade www.EternalCrusade.com - #eternalcrusade - @lordpada
Chapter,Craftworld(...etc) resource are divided in faction(like Biel-tan members capture a location and only them get the resource) or just taken by the whole faction?
Any future plans after the first war decided(yes, Eldar going to win) or thats too far to look at the moment?
(like: the second war taken place in the same planet or in another?, the npc faction is the same or another like chaos Malal belivers or nekrons? any plans implement huge scale space combat?)
Chapter,Craftworld(...etc) resource are divided in faction(like Biel-tan members capture a location and only them get the resource) or just taken by the whole faction?
the factions subfaction are a team and the warcouncil speaks for the whole faction so i dont think that they will not share ressources
Any future plans after the first war decided(yes, Eldar going to win) or thats too far to look at the moment?
(like: the second war taken place in the same planet or in another?, the npc faction is the same or another like chaos Malal belivers or nekrons? any plans implement huge scale space combat?)
an early concept said that there would be a new planet after a campain but dont know if this still is the thing atm
We are listening to all of you and we will make sure as many players as possible will be happy with the system in the end - that is for sure!
And just as conclusion to this: thx all for the interest and the dedication you show, I am sure together we will make a great game everyone can be proud of!
Hi Patrick, long time lurker at this thread but just wanted to pass my thanks and appreciation of your time in all the questions you answer.
I love this open approach and direct interaction between the game developers and the fans/enthusiasts. It really feels like Eternal Crusade is being produced as a full team effort
Keep up the great work and fantastic interaction/communication.
Chapter,Craftworld(...etc) resource are divided in faction(like Biel-tan members capture a location and only them get the resource) or just taken by the whole faction?
the factions subfaction are a team and the warcouncil speaks for the whole faction so i dont think that they will not share ressources
Any future plans after the first war decided(yes, Eldar going to win) or thats too far to look at the moment?
(like: the second war taken place in the same planet or in another?, the npc faction is the same or another like chaos Malal belivers or nekrons? any plans implement huge scale space combat?)
an early concept said that there would be a new planet after a campain but dont know if this still is the thing atm
well the idea of a campaign is that most of the planet will be involved, but it doesn't mean that a planet belongs to one faction at the end of the campaign - we will add more territory (new planets) at some point, but probably not after each campaign Also defeated factions can have their next campaign be to win back territories etc.
The Tyranids will stay the only combatable NPC faction for a while - we have plans to change that after launch, but to early to discuss that
Originally posted by aconti
Originally posted by patrickbalthazar
We are listening to all of you and we will make sure as many players as possible will be happy with the system in the end - that is for sure!
And just as conclusion to this: thx all for the interest and the dedication you show, I am sure together we will make a great game everyone can be proud of!
Hi Patrick, long time lurker at this thread but just wanted to pass my thanks and appreciation of your time in all the questions you answer.
I love this open approach and direct interaction between the game developers and the fans/enthusiasts. It really feels like Eternal Crusade is being produced as a full team effort
Keep up the great work and fantastic interaction/communication.
Thx - we will, it is great to work with the fanbase so close together, and you can be sure we will continue doing that as much as possible. We are makeing a game with you guys together for you and us, so any feedback and any suggestions are always welcome, and when we are ready to show stuff we will, not only to show progress and do marketing, but also to get you guys involved early and get feedback on what makes you guys happy and what not.
Patrick Balthazar Tech Lead - Behaviour Online Lead Programmer - Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade www.EternalCrusade.com - #eternalcrusade - @lordpada
Having been completely put off Planetside 2 by the huge amount of blatant cheating and hacks I can speak from experience about how cheating can wreck the enjoyment of a skill based game.
Obviously PS2 is a free to play game so the threat of bans hold less weight and hopefully people will have more monetary investment in EC and have more to lose, but people are people and if they find exploitable code they will still hack it.
So my question is whether anti-cheating and anti-hacking measures are being considered from the outset?
in one word - YES
to be a bit more detailed: our strategy is the following:
- make game mechanics which don't ask for cheating (probably the most important one)
- make all gameplay verified on the servers (e.g. position updates aka "can this player have been traveling this far in this time?")
- add logs and metrics to observe player behavior and to be able to replecate it (needed for finding countermeasures)
- have a dedicated team on working for anti-cheats (mostly transfer mechanics to be observed by the servers automatically)
when it comes to client side cheats, e.g. wallhacks, we will not create crazy anti-cheats - those things will always be hacked no matter what you do, but as mentioned in the first example - if the gameplay does not need you to be wallhacking, then we won much more - less interest in building a cheat
Patrick Balthazar Tech Lead - Behaviour Online Lead Programmer - Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade www.EternalCrusade.com - #eternalcrusade - @lordpada
yes this all sound awesome, time for some questions.
for vehicles will we have it so you need more then like one person to use a tank like a predator. So to use the tank properly you would need one person to be a dedicated drive, another to use the gun and turret and then a person for ever sponson. I believe the first planteside had something like this as one person driving and controlling the shooting of a tank is kind difficult, And would hopefully encourage team work or team play.
Also will there be a animation for getting in and out of said vehicles, much like in APB or GTA were they open the car door and then close it and not like in planetside 2 were you just Teleport inside our out, i think it would be real cool to see that.
and lastly. ETA for a Emperor blessed and adeptus mechanicus approved forum?
What kind of rewards will be given for completion of PvE content? You guys have said that Eternal Crusade won't have a traditional loot system, so will there be weapon/armor unlocks through achieving certain milestones in PvE content or can we expect something different? Also, will there be leaderboards?
yes this all sound awesome, time for some questions.
for vehicles will we have it so you need more then like one person to use a tank like a predator. So to use the tank properly you would need one person to be a dedicated drive, another to use the gun and turret and then a person for ever sponson. I believe the first planteside had something like this as one person driving and controlling the shooting of a tank is kind difficult, And would hopefully encourage team work or team play.
the last update i got is that the driver will have a weapon but not always the tanks main weapon so yes there will be a crew
found some quotes:
Q: Will vehicles require a crew of multiple people(1 gunner 1 driver)?
A (August.2013 Patrick): The driver will probably have a front facing gun of some sort, but multiple people can have 'shooting slots' e.g. predator
A (20-25.08.2013 Steven): You can put men in the vehicles! After all, Rhinos and Wave Serpents and Trukks are primarily troop transports.
A (20-25.08.2013 Steven): Tanks will likely be crew-manned; the driver may have a small gun, but we expect major guns to be available seats for other players to take, while the driver dodges the incoming fire.
Also will there be a animation for getting in and out of said vehicles, much like in APB or GTA were they open the car door and then close it and not like in planetside 2 were you just Teleport inside our out, i think it would be real cool to see that.
I would like it to, but animations are always some stress for the server i would prefer that you just not get into the vehicle immediately and have to push the button for some seconds to get in (3 or 4 sec)
this way we would prevent vehicle hoping in a combat situation
and lastly. ETA for a Emperor blessed and adeptus mechanicus approved forum?
done when its done. soon. we are working on it.
pick an answer that you would like most
Originally posted by Policenaut What kind of rewards will be given for completion of PvE content? You guys have said that Eternal Crusade won't have a traditional loot system, so will there be weapon/armor unlocks through achieving certain milestones in PvE content or can we expect something different? Also, will there be leaderboards?
here is an answer from patrick regarding dungeons (PvE)
A (13.08.2013 Patrick): so the dungeons will be mostly generated - similar to a system that hellgate london used, but a little bit more interesting. that also does not allow for too much story and too much specific AI in there, but we will add for sure the 'fun' factor to make them interesting enough to repeat those many times, also we have some mechanics in mind which will be revealed later that will give incentives to actually clear these dungeons, not only for PvE but also for PvP purposes.
it's too early to tell, we have some design and some ideas, but in general we want to make it immersive - that probably means animations, but I won't go as far and promise it, we need to consider gameplay here and make sure it's fun to enter/leave vehicles and that you have the possiblity to leave them in time before they get blown up in emergency situations - like everything we want to add, we will prototype it, make people give feedback and interate on the feature until (if possible) everyone is happy
I tweeted about it I think last week, we had it working, but we where not happy with functionallity and overall quality. So like everything we touch we want to keep the standard high and interate at least one more time on it before we release it. But it's not far anymore, believe me when I say, we want that forum too!
We want to be immersive - a tyranid who drops a bolter gun? come on, that just does not work, lets say that those Tyranids where protecting an artifact in that dungeon and you get to loot that and exchange it for valueables or use it for crafting or something like that.
yes, we want to see the global progression, frontlines, rates and other improtant stats, especially for the war council to plan attacks and have an overview of the battlegound and stuff like that. If there will be some sort of kill counter and lists of who killed the most people in pvp - I won't go as far and say yes or no to that. I have answered this in another post in length, it's just not as simple as just saying yes or not to that.
Patrick Balthazar Tech Lead - Behaviour Online Lead Programmer - Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade www.EternalCrusade.com - #eternalcrusade - @lordpada
Have you devised or agreed on the number of weapons, perk slots &/or equipment each character will be able to carry yet?
Space Marine is a great game and there is so many things that Relic/THQ did well but i do think it was a bit limited in the character load out options. Mainly only having two perk slots and not all perks available to all classes even when unlocked.
I understand lore wise this made a bit of sense but it did/does limit the flexibility of each class character. At the moment I think Call of Duty Black Ops 2 is the only game that offers true complete load out & class personalization? Not saying this is the best way of doing it but I think if you were to take the Space Marine load out as an example and simply add 1-2 more perk/skill slots plus weapon attachments/wargear etc then I think this would certainly form the basis for good character customization and variety?
Have you devised or agreed on the number of weapons, perk slots &/or equipment each character will be able to carry yet?
Space Marine is a great game and there is so many things that Relic/THQ did well but i do think it was a bit limited in the character load out options. Mainly only having two perk slots and not all perks available to all classes even when unlocked.
I understand lore wise this made a bit of sense but it did/does limit the flexibility of each class character. At the moment I think Call of Duty Black Ops 2 is the only game that offers true complete load out & class personalization? Not saying this is the best way of doing it but I think if you were to take the Space Marine load out as an example and simply add 1-2 more perk/skill slots plus weapon attachments/wargear etc then I think this would certainly form the basis for good character customization and variety?
here is a little conversation between patrick and me regarding this topic
so patrick says:" more options then space marine multiplayer had"
Originally posted by Savij
hey patrick
in the vigila mortis forum you answerd a question about equip
Dedicated weapon classes - for sure, we still want every class to have a melee and a ranged component, but your primary weapon will be select able.
does that mean that it will be like in spacemarine? where my tactical always had a combat knife and a boltpistal as secondary weapon?
or will he be able to carry a chainsword or a plasma pistol? or to early to ask that?
Originally posted by patrickbalthazar
yes, think of space marine, we want to be able to always fight melee and ranged, but which component is the stronger one, the 'primary' one is up to the player to decide, by changing loadout and skills
Originally posted by Savij
hmhm that will be good in a gaming way (balance)
but extremly bad in a RP way but i will not judge until i played it so you do not need to fear my wrath.... yet
Originally posted by patrickbalthazar
hmm, not sure why you have a RP problem with it - let say you choose a ranged 'class' and use a storm bolter twohanded, you will also carry a knife to be able to do some melee dmg, else you would not be able to defend yourself at all. also if you carry lets say a thunderhammer you will carry a pistol to do some ranged damage so the enemy can't flee.
Originally posted by Savij
ah sorry
for me the problem would be that i cant carry a bolter as main weapon
a bolt or plasma pistol for sec. weapon and a chainsword for melee
in the novels almost all marines have a chainsword even if they have a bolter for ranged combat.
and that does not sound possible in EC (if i understand you right)
Originally posted by patrickbalthazar
so you mean like in space marine? that is exactly what i mean, but you will have some sort of restriction, you e.g. won't be able to carry e.g. a two handed ranged weapon and a two handed melee weapon (as of current design) you will have to say you are either melee class or ranged class, but having a bolter and a onehanded sword, sure, like in space marine!
Originally posted by Savij
ah i was talking about the multiplayer but if it is like in the singleplayer than its fine to me
Thanks Savij, this certainly sheds some more light on the developers thoughts over load outs. Good to see that Space Marine seems to be the starting point for Patrick and the team.
I think most fans would be happy with a continuation/expansion on what Space Marine provided in terms of gameplay, balance, customisation, weapons and load outs?
Patrick, I am wondering about future Eternal Crusade releases. This game has no subscription (thankfully), I'm wondering how the cost of server upkeep could affect things. Is there planned purchasable expansion packs? IE, Races, worlds, etc.? How does Behvior intend to keep the game "new" and "fresh" say, 3 years after launch? What plans are in place to keep a large and active player base? Warhammer Online never got any expansions, aside from a few class releases that were already pre-planned, and we all know where that game is going. Dayum Shame, too.
An environment question: How detailed can we expect it to be? Some MMO's have absolutely huge areas to play in, but they are just so... Barrens! (I'm looking at you, WoW.) I'm good for large, maybe even HUGE fields, as long as they are detailed with plenty of scenic backdrops, land marks, and areas of interest to fight over.
I can't remember if this was answered or not - but did you guys pull any things from the recent codex/supplement drops for TT that goes towards the game?
What other "modes'" of gameplay are there, aside from kill the enemy and capture the fortress? Will there be objectives, like capturing relics, lost geneseed, template technology? I can imagine Ork command issuing orders to capture a stockpile of Imperial Guard weapons and equipment, leading to looted weapons and battle tanks. Same with Chaos warbands.
How will the PVE vs 'Nids affect the war effort? What resources will we need to aquire to win a battle?
Can I be a scout sniper, complete with camo-cloak?
Thanks in Advance, boss!
Needing is Wanting... Wanting is Coveting... Coveting is Sinning... I am SO going to Hell.
Lots of questions :O i try to answer what is already confirmed
Originally posted by freakishbean
Patrick, I am wondering about future Eternal Crusade releases. This game has no subscription (thankfully), I'm wondering how the cost of server upkeep could affect things. Is there planned purchasable expansion packs?
there will be a shop where you can buy cosmetic stuff and you need to buy the game if you want to play anything else then orkboys. in the twitch Q&A miguel talked about merchandise and that they will make it if we want it.
and there are other things planed to spend money on, like faction swap and additional characterspace
IE, Races, worlds, etc.? How does Behvior intend to keep the game "new" and "fresh" say, 3 years after launch? What plans are in place to keep a large and active player base? Warhammer Online never got any expansions, aside from a few class releases that were already pre-planned, and we all know where that game is going. Dayum Shame, too.
the plan is to ad all TT factions to the game, if possible (they may come in a expansionpack each?)
the world will change after a campaign ends. for example we will fight on other pieces of 1 planet or even move to another planet!
the future will also bring new classes, vehicles and equip for sure!
An environment question: How detailed can we expect it to be? Some MMO's have absolutely huge areas to play in, but they are just so... Barrens! (I'm looking at you, WoW.) I'm good for large, maybe even HUGE fields, as long as they are detailed with plenty of scenic backdrops, land marks, and areas of interest to fight over.
this is a shooter so you will find random cover anywhere on the world, even on wide open fields.
for details i will quote some devs:
Q: Will the game design be dark and gory?
A (07.08.2013 David): The building’s appearance will be affected by the controlling faction. We have a dark and grim game but we don’t want to fall into the trap of gore escalation. There will be gore where it makes sense to have it.
Q: How gory will it be such as will body parts be able to be blown/sliced off?
A (28.08.2013 Steven): We’ve already got a really gory execution in the game. Space Marines & Eldar are more efficient in their kills, but Orks and especially Chaos are pretty bloody disgusting.
I can't remember if this was answered or not - but did you guys pull any things from the recent codex/supplement drops for TT that goes towards the game?
cant answer that for certain but they get TT stuff from GW so its kinda possible
What other "modes'" of gameplay are there, aside from kill the enemy and capture the fortress? Will there be objectives, like capturing relics, lost geneseed, template technology? I can imagine Ork command issuing orders to capture a stockpile of Imperial Guard weapons and equipment, leading to looted weapons and battle tanks. Same with Chaos warbands.
in Dungeons you can fight through tyranids to claim something important at the end which benefits your faction.
you can also try sneaky gameplay as 1 man army.
How will the PVE vs 'Nids affect the war effort?
answered that above
What resources will we need to aquire to win a battle?
there will be different conditions to win a campaign, they maybe different for each faction and there may be different ways to win for all factions
Can I be a scout sniper, complete with camo-cloak?
sorry >
Q: How do you plan to make stealth work?
A (August.2013 Patrick): We are currently not focusing on any stealth mechanics
Thanks in Advance, boss!
i think patrick will complete the answers abit when he comes online (in 3-4 hours)
An environment question: How detailed can we expect it to be? Some MMO's have absolutely huge areas to play in, but they are just so... Barrens! (I'm looking at you, WoW.) I'm good for large, maybe even HUGE fields, as long as they are detailed with plenty of scenic backdrops, land marks, and areas of interest to fight over.
This is what I think Space Marine did/does really well. I think the levels, scenery and backgrounds capture the WH40K universe brilliantly and certainly the level design, atmosphere, grandeur and scale of some of single player campaign levels are excellent.
I imagine and hope for levels/worlds similar to that in EC.
Cash shop (No Pay 2 Win!!!!), buy factions (starting factions) or the whole game, merchandise (possibilities like e.g. t-shirts), cosmetic stuff for your character, probably some unlockables buyable, character slots, faction change (not decided yet if possible), name change, etc.
The really important part is going to be: this game will not be pay2win!!!! it's f2p for parts of the orks faction, but if you invest full price game money, you get all factions at launch.
We will update the game with additional armor, weapons, vehicles, (flyers), races, classes, world parts, planets, spaceships...I think we got currently ideas and plans for most of them for half the century LOL. We will not stop developing the game and we will not stop adding new things to it - well at least as long we have players
Yes, we got them, and we use them and get inspired by them - TT rules will not 100% apply to our game, but they give us good ideas about how we want the game to behave. So don't expect the RPG system to calculate and roll like the TT, but expect the results to be similar, what i mean is the 'unbalanced balance' of the game, some classes are good against others, but bad against a third one - we want to be close to the TT for those things.
But we might not end up using all the rules form the new codices, there is a good chance we go for more fun instead of going to be exact to all rules and codices in general!
Well don't expect quests like in an MMORPG, most of the game is combat and war - on PvE and especially on PvP level! but yes, we will have campaings for factions, orders for strike forces and objectives for squads and even for single players. Don't expect book like stories, unless you write them yourself - commanders and war council will be able to create those orders/objectives and you can choose to follow them or not.
They are bothersome to every playable faction, they might take over buildings you posses, they might interfere with your battle plans, they guard the important relics and they are in general going to be very unpredictable. Sometimes they might help a winning faction, sometimes they might fight them - they create opportunities and they make sure you have to always consider other options - this is war and you might win everything, but also loose everything!
this is not only about resources, territory, buildings, equipment, unlockables, relics, artefacts, tech, etc... there is many things that if possessed might turn the tide for your faction - but also it's to early to point out exact conditions and reveal exact mechanics
There will be sniper weapons, and we want you to have many possiblities to change your armor, tint it etc so you can appear very stealthy, but we won't have a button that makes you invisible as of now. Ofc this might change at some point, but no promises.
Patrick Balthazar Tech Lead - Behaviour Online Lead Programmer - Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade www.EternalCrusade.com - #eternalcrusade - @lordpada
thank you for all of the time and effort you put into keeping the fans informed. Having been a fan(TT) since 1997, I've been waiting for this project to become reality and I'm really impressed to see the level of work between the community and developers being demonstrated here.
I've been reading this thread since it was created and I have to say, balancing the development piece and the fan appeasement piece has to be a lot of work (probably more than I'll ever know).
This level of interaction and work (by all parties), makes me very excited.
I would just like to take a second to say thank you again.
I followed almost all major MMO releases during last few years and I can tell that I never saw this kind of developer communication with community And official forums aren't even open yet And commitment that gives me very high hopes for Eternal Crusade
BTW If i got it right we are getting gameplay footage by the end of this month ? Well only 5 days left max
There will be sniper weapons, and we want you to have many possiblities to change your armor, tint it etc so you can appear very stealthy, but we won't have a button that makes you invisible as of now. Ofc this might change at some point, but no promises.
We will update the game with additional armor, weapons, vehicles, (flyers), races, classes, world parts, planets, spaceships...I think we got currently ideas and plans for most of them for half the century LOL. We will not stop developing the game and we will not stop adding new things to it - well at least as long we have players
so flyer are confirmed but after release?
on the release we will se the "on rail" flyer? (like a dropship)
Comments
Hey patrick.
thanks for answering our questions.
My question:
in big massive battles I feel healers are relagated to spend most of their time not enjoying the fight and only spend it healing. A good example to avoid this "healer class" was made by guild wars 2. In it they tried to break the "holy trinity" of tank/dps/healing by making every character able to heal/rez in a certain way.
How do you plan to make healers NOT BORING? I have played healers before but they slowdown the pace of the game. In your creative design process are you taking into account that having too many healers creates less fighting? less WAR?
I am curious to know your perspective on creating dedicated healers and how that would affect your game.
I guess I'm compelled to ask about itemization for the Eldar. Weapons and armor for Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines and Orks seems to have a bit more variety. What I mean by that is for example your typical space marine can wield a bolter, a melta, a lascannon, etc. Where for Eldar, the Aspect Warriors are a bit more limited in what they can bring onto the battlefield (Fire Dragons use fusion guns, Dire Avengers use avenger shuriken catapults, etc)
My question is, how do you plan to make progression for Eldar classes varied and interesting?
we'll my guess here is that for most of the psychic abilities we don't want to kill the 'caster' himself
now that does not mean we will completly deviate from lore, but at this point the best I can give you is that stuff is not final.
We will definitely make sure that we are close to lore but not on expense of gameplay.
we will not have the usual MMO class system. If your player has some sort of healing ability it will be usable while doing combat in some sort. I seriously doubt there will be dedicated healers - that would just not fit with this type of game at all.Let me come back on this as soon we have finalized the design for the Eldar - but for sure we will have a variety of skills, armor and weapons, not less than other factions for sure!
Patrick Balthazar
Tech Lead - Behaviour Online
Lead Programmer - Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade
www.EternalCrusade.com - #eternalcrusade - @lordpada
Chapter,Craftworld(...etc) resource are divided in faction(like Biel-tan members capture a location and only them get the resource) or just taken by the whole faction?
Any future plans after the first war decided(yes, Eldar going to win) or thats too far to look at the moment?
(like: the second war taken place in the same planet or in another?, the npc faction is the same or another like chaos Malal belivers or nekrons? any plans implement huge scale space combat?)
the factions subfaction are a team and the warcouncil speaks for the whole faction so i dont think that they will not share ressources
an early concept said that there would be a new planet after a campain but dont know if this still is the thing atm
be always up to date about Eternal Crusade
WH40k:EC dev Tracker
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Dakkadakka Savij
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Hi Patrick, long time lurker at this thread but just wanted to pass my thanks and appreciation of your time in all the questions you answer.
I love this open approach and direct interaction between the game developers and the fans/enthusiasts. It really feels like Eternal Crusade is being produced as a full team effort
Keep up the great work and fantastic interaction/communication.
well the idea of a campaign is that most of the planet will be involved, but it doesn't mean that a planet belongs to one faction at the end of the campaign - we will add more territory (new planets) at some point, but probably not after each campaign
Also defeated factions can have their next campaign be to win back territories etc.
The Tyranids will stay the only combatable NPC faction for a while - we have plans to change that after launch, but to early to discuss that
Thx - we will, it is great to work with the fanbase so close together, and you can be sure we will continue doing that as much as possible. We are makeing a game with you guys together for you and us, so any feedback and any suggestions are always welcome, and when we are ready to show stuff we will, not only to show progress and do marketing, but also to get you guys involved early and get feedback on what makes you guys happy and what not.
Patrick Balthazar
Tech Lead - Behaviour Online
Lead Programmer - Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade
www.EternalCrusade.com - #eternalcrusade - @lordpada
in one word - YES
to be a bit more detailed: our strategy is the following:
- make game mechanics which don't ask for cheating (probably the most important one)
- make all gameplay verified on the servers (e.g. position updates aka "can this player have been traveling this far in this time?")
- add logs and metrics to observe player behavior and to be able to replecate it (needed for finding countermeasures)
- have a dedicated team on working for anti-cheats (mostly transfer mechanics to be observed by the servers automatically)
when it comes to client side cheats, e.g. wallhacks, we will not create crazy anti-cheats - those things will always be hacked no matter what you do, but as mentioned in the first example - if the gameplay does not need you to be wallhacking, then we won much more - less interest in building a cheat
Patrick Balthazar
Tech Lead - Behaviour Online
Lead Programmer - Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade
www.EternalCrusade.com - #eternalcrusade - @lordpada
yes this all sound awesome, time for some questions.
for vehicles will we have it so you need more then like one person to use a tank like a predator. So to use the tank properly you would need one person to be a dedicated drive, another to use the gun and turret and then a person for ever sponson. I believe the first planteside had something like this as one person driving and controlling the shooting of a tank is kind difficult, And would hopefully encourage team work or team play.
Also will there be a animation for getting in and out of said vehicles, much like in APB or GTA were they open the car door and then close it and not like in planetside 2 were you just Teleport inside our out, i think it would be real cool to see that.
and lastly. ETA for a Emperor blessed and adeptus mechanicus approved forum?
the last update i got is that the driver will have a weapon but not always the tanks main weapon so yes there will be a crew
found some quotes:
Q: Will vehicles require a crew of multiple people(1 gunner 1 driver)?
I would like it to, but animations are always some stress for the serverA (August.2013 Patrick):
The driver will probably have a front facing gun of some sort, but multiple people can have 'shooting slots' e.g. predator
A (20-25.08.2013 Steven):
You can put men in the vehicles! After all, Rhinos and Wave Serpents and Trukks are primarily troop transports.
A (20-25.08.2013 Steven):
Tanks will likely be crew-manned; the driver may have a small gun, but we expect major guns to be available seats for other players to take, while the driver dodges the incoming fire.
i would prefer that you just not get into the vehicle immediately and have to push the button for some seconds to get in (3 or 4 sec)
this way we would prevent vehicle hoping in a combat situation
done when its done. soon. we are working on it.
pick an answer that you would like most
here is an answer from patrick regarding dungeons (PvE)
A (13.08.2013 Patrick):
so the dungeons will be mostly generated - similar to a system that hellgate london used, but a little bit more interesting. that also does not allow for too much story and too much specific AI in there, but we will add for sure the 'fun' factor to make them interesting enough to repeat those many times, also we have some mechanics in mind which will be revealed later that will give incentives to actually clear these dungeons, not only for PvE but also for PvP purposes.
be always up to date about Eternal Crusade
WH40k:EC dev Tracker
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Dakkadakka Savij
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thx Savij, always nice when you help us answer
@Animations for entering/leaving vehicles:
it's too early to tell, we have some design and some ideas, but in general we want to make it immersive - that probably means animations, but I won't go as far and promise it, we need to consider gameplay here and make sure it's fun to enter/leave vehicles and that you have the possiblity to leave them in time before they get blown up in emergency situations - like everything we want to add, we will prototype it, make people give feedback and interate on the feature until (if possible) everyone is happy
@Forums:
I tweeted about it I think last week, we had it working, but we where not happy with functionallity and overall quality. So like everything we touch we want to keep the standard high and interate at least one more time on it before we release it. But it's not far anymore, believe me when I say, we want that forum too!
@Loot:
We want to be immersive - a tyranid who drops a bolter gun? come on, that just does not work, lets say that those Tyranids where protecting an artifact in that dungeon and you get to loot that and exchange it for valueables or use it for crafting or something like that.
@Leaderbords:
yes, we want to see the global progression, frontlines, rates and other improtant stats, especially for the war council to plan attacks and have an overview of the battlegound and stuff like that. If there will be some sort of kill counter and lists of who killed the most people in pvp - I won't go as far and say yes or no to that. I have answered this in another post in length, it's just not as simple as just saying yes or not to that.
Patrick Balthazar
Tech Lead - Behaviour Online
Lead Programmer - Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade
www.EternalCrusade.com - #eternalcrusade - @lordpada
Hi Patrick,
Have you devised or agreed on the number of weapons, perk slots &/or equipment each character will be able to carry yet?
Space Marine is a great game and there is so many things that Relic/THQ did well but i do think it was a bit limited in the character load out options. Mainly only having two perk slots and not all perks available to all classes even when unlocked.
I understand lore wise this made a bit of sense but it did/does limit the flexibility of each class character. At the moment I think Call of Duty Black Ops 2 is the only game that offers true complete load out & class personalization? Not saying this is the best way of doing it but I think if you were to take the Space Marine load out as an example and simply add 1-2 more perk/skill slots plus weapon attachments/wargear etc then I think this would certainly form the basis for good character customization and variety?
here is a little conversation between patrick and me regarding this topic
so patrick says:" more options then space marine multiplayer had"
be always up to date about Eternal Crusade
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Other EC Sites i'm in:
Dakkadakka Savij
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Thanks Savij, this certainly sheds some more light on the developers thoughts over load outs. Good to see that Space Marine seems to be the starting point for Patrick and the team.
I think most fans would be happy with a continuation/expansion on what Space Marine provided in terms of gameplay, balance, customisation, weapons and load outs?
Patrick, I am wondering about future Eternal Crusade releases. This game has no subscription (thankfully), I'm wondering how the cost of server upkeep could affect things. Is there planned purchasable expansion packs? IE, Races, worlds, etc.? How does Behvior intend to keep the game "new" and "fresh" say, 3 years after launch? What plans are in place to keep a large and active player base? Warhammer Online never got any expansions, aside from a few class releases that were already pre-planned, and we all know where that game is going. Dayum Shame, too.
An environment question: How detailed can we expect it to be? Some MMO's have absolutely huge areas to play in, but they are just so... Barrens! (I'm looking at you, WoW.) I'm good for large, maybe even HUGE fields, as long as they are detailed with plenty of scenic backdrops, land marks, and areas of interest to fight over.
I can't remember if this was answered or not - but did you guys pull any things from the recent codex/supplement drops for TT that goes towards the game?
What other "modes'" of gameplay are there, aside from kill the enemy and capture the fortress? Will there be objectives, like capturing relics, lost geneseed, template technology? I can imagine Ork command issuing orders to capture a stockpile of Imperial Guard weapons and equipment, leading to looted weapons and battle tanks. Same with Chaos warbands.
How will the PVE vs 'Nids affect the war effort? What resources will we need to aquire to win a battle?
Can I be a scout sniper, complete with camo-cloak?
Thanks in Advance, boss!
Needing is Wanting...
Wanting is Coveting...
Coveting is Sinning...
I am SO going to Hell.
Lots of questions :O i try to answer what is already confirmed
there will be a shop where you can buy cosmetic stuff and you need to buy the game if you want to play anything else then orkboys. in the twitch Q&A miguel talked about merchandise and that they will make it if we want it.
and there are other things planed to spend money on, like faction swap and additional characterspace
the plan is to ad all TT factions to the game, if possible (they may come in a expansionpack each?)
the world will change after a campaign ends. for example we will fight on other pieces of 1 planet or even move to another planet!
the future will also bring new classes, vehicles and equip for sure!
this is a shooter so you will find random cover anywhere on the world, even on wide open fields.
for details i will quote some devs:
cant answer that for certain but they get TT stuff from GW so its kinda possible
in Dungeons you can fight through tyranids to claim something important at the end which benefits your faction.
you can also try sneaky gameplay as 1 man army.
answered that above
there will be different conditions to win a campaign, they maybe different for each faction and there may be different ways to win for all factions
sorry >
i think patrick will complete the answers abit when he comes online
(in 3-4 hours)
be always up to date about Eternal Crusade
WH40k:EC dev Tracker
Other EC Sites i'm in:
Dakkadakka Savij
Reddit EC Savij1337
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This is what I think Space Marine did/does really well. I think the levels, scenery and backgrounds capture the WH40K universe brilliantly and certainly the level design, atmosphere, grandeur and scale of some of single player campaign levels are excellent.
I imagine and hope for levels/worlds similar to that in EC.
Again big thx Savij!
@Monitization:
Cash shop (No Pay 2 Win!!!!), buy factions (starting factions) or the whole game, merchandise (possibilities like e.g. t-shirts), cosmetic stuff for your character, probably some unlockables buyable, character slots, faction change (not decided yet if possible), name change, etc.
The really important part is going to be: this game will not be pay2win!!!! it's f2p for parts of the orks faction, but if you invest full price game money, you get all factions at launch.
@Updates/Expansins:
We will update the game with additional armor, weapons, vehicles, (flyers), races, classes, world parts, planets, spaceships...I think we got currently ideas and plans for most of them for half the century LOL. We will not stop developing the game and we will not stop adding new things to it - well at least as long we have players
@Environment:
Imagine Space Marine, bigger - and gory, dark, grim and everything you'd image a hostile planet would be which is important for all factions
@New Codex:
Yes, we got them, and we use them and get inspired by them - TT rules will not 100% apply to our game, but they give us good ideas about how we want the game to behave. So don't expect the RPG system to calculate and roll like the TT, but expect the results to be similar, what i mean is the 'unbalanced balance' of the game, some classes are good against others, but bad against a third one - we want to be close to the TT for those things.
But we might not end up using all the rules form the new codices, there is a good chance we go for more fun instead of going to be exact to all rules and codices in general!
@Game Modes:
Well don't expect quests like in an MMORPG, most of the game is combat and war - on PvE and especially on PvP level! but yes, we will have campaings for factions, orders for strike forces and objectives for squads and even for single players. Don't expect book like stories, unless you write them yourself - commanders and war council will be able to create those orders/objectives and you can choose to follow them or not.
@Tyranids:
They are bothersome to every playable faction, they might take over buildings you posses, they might interfere with your battle plans, they guard the important relics and they are in general going to be very unpredictable. Sometimes they might help a winning faction, sometimes they might fight them - they create opportunities and they make sure you have to always consider other options - this is war and you might win everything, but also loose everything!
@Winning or Loosing:
this is not only about resources, territory, buildings, equipment, unlockables, relics, artefacts, tech, etc... there is many things that if possessed might turn the tide for your faction - but also it's to early to point out exact conditions and reveal exact mechanics
@Stealth & Sniper:
There will be sniper weapons, and we want you to have many possiblities to change your armor, tint it etc so you can appear very stealthy, but we won't have a button that makes you invisible as of now. Ofc this might change at some point, but no promises.
Patrick Balthazar
Tech Lead - Behaviour Online
Lead Programmer - Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade
www.EternalCrusade.com - #eternalcrusade - @lordpada
wow that alot detailed and new information! beating it into my brain already
thanks for sharing.
be always up to date about Eternal Crusade
WH40k:EC dev Tracker
Other EC Sites i'm in:
Dakkadakka Savij
Reddit EC Savij1337
EternalCrusader.com Savij
Hey Patrick and Savj,
thank you for all of the time and effort you put into keeping the fans informed. Having been a fan(TT) since 1997, I've been waiting for this project to become reality and I'm really impressed to see the level of work between the community and developers being demonstrated here.
I've been reading this thread since it was created and I have to say, balancing the development piece and the fan appeasement piece has to be a lot of work (probably more than I'll ever know).
This level of interaction and work (by all parties), makes me very excited.
I would just like to take a second to say thank you again.
Looking forward to reading more.
Thank you for the new info Patrick
I followed almost all major MMO releases during last few years and I can tell that I never saw this kind of developer communication with community
And official forums aren't even open yet 
And commitment that gives me very high hopes for Eternal Crusade 
BTW If i got it right we are getting gameplay footage by the end of this month ? Well only 5 days left max
Will sniper weapons be hitscan?
so flyer are confirmed but after release?
on the release we will se the "on rail" flyer? (like a dropship)
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