Will You Found The Eternal Crusade?
June 25, 2014 by warzan
Tonight sees the launch of the Eternal Crusade Founders Program.
Eternal Crusade is the upcoming MMORPG set in the Warhammer 40K Universe created by Behaviour Interactive.
We have seen Founders Program's rolled out for a number of games recently, and basically they give you an opportunity to jump into the whole experience early (18 Months Early - if they hit their ship date!)
So let's have a look at how it works...
Three Levels
There are three levels of founder each having a full game code at its core (The final game will be a one off cost of $40 for all four factions playable) and then some benefits depending upon your chosen founding level.
$40 Warrior Pack
Contains the Game Key & 40,000pts to spend in Rogue Trader Store & Exclusive Forum Access.
$80 Sergeant Pack
Contains the Game Key & 80,000pts to spend in Rogue Trader Store plus an extra 15% of bonus points taking you to a grand total of 92,000pts & Exclusive Forum Access.
$120 Captain Pack
Contains the Game Key & 120,000pts to spend in Rogue Trader Store plus an extra 25% of bonus points taking you to a grand total of 150,000pts & Exclusive Forum Access.
As key modules are released into the wild the captains will get access first, followed by the Sergeants and then finally the Warriors. And the early access modules sound cool. The game is set on the planet Arkhona (Out near the eye of terror) and founders are going to get to board a ship and spend about a year on the ship combat and ballistics training and in time accessing their own quarters (that you will be able to fit out) and the quarters of other players. It just so happens that it would take about a year to travel to Arkhona from Terra according to the 40K background.
Jump in fast though
There are also bonuses for those that jump in fast (regardless of the level you choose).
When they are planning to test a feature a message will go out to the first 100/500/1000 founders to get involved in the testing. The test will run and then it will be sucked back into the development house again.
It's also worth getting in early to reserve your Character and Squad Names!
The Rogue Trader
So all those juicy points you get can be spent in a store where you can buy stuff to make your experience cooler. The developers have went out of their way to make sure nothing game breaking is in the store (that is all unlocked through play time) but rather you can kill more in style. Currently the most expensive items in the store are about 25,000pts and that includes Legion of the Damn Armour (Complete with flames!).
Fairplay
The guys at Behaviour Interactive are really going out of their way to try and make the program as fair as possible and here are some of the highlights.
- The Founders Program will be open for around 18 Months.
- All 4 factions (Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Eldar and Orks) are unlocked with your code. (In the final Game, Ork Players can play for free - to create the GREEN TIDE! WAAAGGH)
- New items added to the Rogue Trader Store every month.
- At any time during the program you can have your points refunded to you to spend in a different way giving you the chance to try out loads of options.
- If you just want to collect you can buy additional points packages.
- There will be a referral program where you can earn more points for you and your mates!
The Game
Obviously we haven't played it yet, but the developers are not shy of showing the work in progress off, even with grey boxes and temporary textures. This warts and all approach will work well at least with us hobbyists as we are well used to playing with unpainted minis!
Where as the previous unreleased MMO Dark Millennium by THQ focused on a heavy story arc, the guys at Behaviour have focused on what I feel is the core of 40K ... warfare ..., this game when released is touted to support 1000 player battles, with walkers, skimmers and armour all playing a part. (Your major Flyers etc could be somewhere down the line as the game grows, I know because I specifically asked about jumping out of a Thunderhawk 😉 )
They have created huge maps, many square kilometres that have various terrain features and choke points just to create the optimum battlefields.
One last thing...
Ever fancied decking out in some pre heresy gear? Well the developers managed to convince Games Workshop to allow them to create a very very limited amount of 30K gear that will be available in the founders store, in this case for real dollars, and when they are gone, they are gone.
So are you ready to jump into the Eternal Crusade?
"At any time during the program you can have your points refunded to you to spend in a different way giving you the chance to try out loads of options."
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"the guys at Behaviour have focused on what I feel is the core of 40K ... warfare"
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Yep, at least the basic pledge and maybe go for the beta lvl, but if i see the true image of Slaanesh i will sacrifice my wallet in hiers name.
I hope they add Chaos Cultist and Imperial Guard as free2war factions, i don’t know if there is a Eldar equivalent…
Since the Eldar classes seem to be Aspect Warriors (and Warlock), I think Guardian is close enough for Free2War class.
Might be but i’m not sure since they will already be part of the faction from day one i think.
Not bad at all – I’ve been listening/watching the Dark Heresy RP with the level designer as the DM for a while now via Youtube and he’s very invested in the world of Warhammer 40,000. Here’s hoping this pays off.
BoW Ben
The complete lack of game play footage in the video and anywhere on the website is a huge red flag.
—-
Never pre-order anything that you cannot see and observe. So many computer games have flopped in recent years where developers have cashed out in “early access” and pre-orders, only to leave the consumers with a buggy poorly made game that’s totally incomplete.
Completely agree. I clicked through every link on their site trying to find even a scrap of in-game footage, hell, even an in-game *screenshot* and there’s nothing there at all.
The founder packs they’re offering range from $40 to $450. Are you serious? That’s a heck of a lot to lay out completely on faith. It’s also incredibly early to be selling anything given that they say the game is due “late 2015” – that just gives it the scent of “we’ve run out of money, please give us some”.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxH-BQF2CRQV6lXTf41xEeg
By no means saying you’re wrong – as yes I think this is something I’d rather see further down the line – but here are a few videos of their early Alpha footage.
In that case, if they have in-game footage publicly available, it absolutely baffles me why they’re not putting it front-and-centre on the website they’re using to ask people to hand over money (especially given the cost of the higher levels).
I would have thought “here’s some footage, now how about some money” is a far superior sales pitch than “how about some money… footage? oh, go google it if you insist”.
I agree that it’s utterly baffling, especially since it’s often big name companies that do it as well.
Agreed. You shouldn’t be paying for what sounds to me like an alpha/beta test & the devs should know better than to dangle ‘exclusives’ in front of people they know to be invested in the IP, often to obsessive levels, in order to secure funds. If they need money to finish it then crowdfunding is a more legitimate means of doing so. I personally wouldn’t want to play a game for 18 months+ that wasn’t anywhere near finished, I feel the experience of testing would ruin the experience of the final product. A year and a half of playing a… Read more »
Is this going to be PC only?
Having seen some footage it looks okay and the game sounds great but I just think they’re going the completely wrong way in securing funds for it. For a game that relies on combat so much, it’ll be nice to see some and it’ll be nice to see how it looks/runs with more than a single character model. I’d rather they were just more honest and I really think a well concieved kickstarter would suit their own needs more as well as their potential consumers needs at this point.
No.
The answer I’m giving is a resounding HELL NO!
The fact they’re trying this crap so early screams dodgy scam to me and salt it would be GW who takes the wrap when the company fails to deliver.
The video games industry deserves little if any faith.
Considering the rocky history of Warhammer MMOs and that this is mostly sight unseen, I’m gonna have to wait and see.
This smacks of paying to beta test. No thanks.
I think 4 factions is a terrible idea too. The biggest complaint in most MMOs I’ve played is how difficult it is to get groups together. In a two faction game, you’re effectively cutting the player base in half when it comes to grouping. Some games have tried 3 factions, but cutting the player base into thirds turns out to be an awful idea. Cutting it into 4? Are they serious? That sounds like a game breaker to me.
“This smacks of paying to beta test” That’s exactly what a founders program is… is it not 🙂 You are buying the game early, you get to help test it out (remember an MMO can only be tested properly with hundreds of players simultaneously) and you get early access to bonuses etc. The only risks as I see them are… 1) The game turns out to be rubbish, hopefully the founders have a loud enough voice to ensure that doesn’t happen. 2) The game never comes out, a very real risk in the video game industry these days, and definitely… Read more »
Preordering a game usually gets you access to the Beta, but not 18 months before release! That’s just taking the proverbial. 18 months out, we are talking standard beta testing and that is usually done for free by players selected to take part. It’s free because the developer is actually getting something out of it. Beta tester are essentially volunteer workers. Having said that, all beta test data, characters etc are usually wiped before release. If this program is allowing progress to continue into the launch, then its actually early access. The last MMO I preordered gave me 5 days… Read more »
@warzan – Problem is, this isn’t really even a beta. Once you join the founders program, you don’t get access to the game. They’ve even indicated that you’ll get early access to rooms on your transport ship so you can check out the pretty, but not the actual game. This is a long way off. Further, this game is more lag vulnerable than a “real” MMO, because it’s skill rather than math based, like planetside. The concept of one single large world is entrancing, but really, how does it work with half your customers in europe and half in the… Read more »
As much as I want this game to rock, I just don’t like all this pre-ordering, early access, crowd funding, and now founders programs. You wouldn’t go to a shop and buy something off the shelf that was only half completed, so why should we do it with games? Just seems like its giving the companies too many opportunites to take our money and not care if they don’t finish the product. May sound harsh, as many games would not get made, but if the company couldn’t make it without our money then they shouldn’t make it in the first… Read more »
No.
1.) 99% sure the game will suck
2.) i dont pay for beta access
3.) mindless pvp is not my thing
But mostly 1.
NO!
Name a single 40k video game apart from the DoW series that’s been worth it?
Those prices for a game without any footage or evidence of progress/quality is the equivalent of buying slimming pills over the internet. Some over-expensive, nicely packaged nonsense may eventually arrive but you know that it probably won’t do what you expect and you’ll just end up feeling sick!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VymCZspMS-4&list=PLFE010B0EEA9E5F06
I think this videos sums up Pre Order and Early Access games
18 months to go? Ermm…ok I’ll hang on a bit thanks. If what they’re touting is what they’re really trying for then you’ve got to admit, it looks good. With the whole paying for beta etc. I think you’ve all got to face the fact that this is the way things are now. Downloads only. Beta versions. Crowd sourced funding. All these things make it easier for developers and publishers. Whether they result in better games is a matter of debate but either way I think we all need to just suck it up. You can choose to get in… Read more »
Looking at these responses I have to assume most of you aren’t very familiar with the way the current way video games tend to work. This game appears to be Planetside 2 (a very fun game that, guess what? Had a founders program just like this) mixed with the Space Marine 3rd person shooter gameplay (which was solid and fun to blast around in) So many games do these ‘founders’ programs nowadays. In fact, it’s uncommon for a massively multiplayer game like this not to have a founder’s program. Some people have a problem with it, which is fine, but… Read more »
You’re missing the point that most people don’t equate “the last stages of the game’s development” with the fact that this game is still 18 months away. I don’t play a *lot* of computer games these days, I’ll admit, but I play enough that my general experience is “last stages” = “beta” = “up to 6 months before the game releases”. Also, not one person in this thread has blamed it on “GW being gougy”. We’re more than capable of realising that GW aren’t the developers, thank you very much. But hey, carry on calling us all ignorant and blind… Read more »
I coulda sworn I saw a few comments on the ‘GW is doing it again’ train, but maybe I read wrong. And while the full release might be 18 months away, the first of the playable content for founders is planned on being released in fall, which is a damn sight sooner than the first playable content for Star Citizen was available. And again, full release is planned for 18 months away. Which means all that intermediate time is filled with beta access. And that isn’t abnormal in the slightest. Remember MWO? If you don’t, it’s beta access stage lasted… Read more »