The newsletter for Eternal Crusade had quite a bit in it yesterday, including info on their progress for Eldar, Orks, links to the Tyranid Swarm video and much more. They are also hiring and discuss a few of the last survey results.
There was a lot today, so I included the newsleter.
via Eternal Crusade
State of the Crusade
I can’t say it’s been a perfect year for us but I can say it was excellent. The road to glorious victory is filled with heresy and chaos gods that we defeated and are stronger for it. That which does not kill us allows us to kill some more.
- Happy holidays, we’re going on vacation till the new year
- We will put the servers on a 3 map rotation, where defender and attacker also rotate on all maps – so check out the new map in this video and the two new classes we’re launching, the Ground Assaults.
- And while you might have missed the Worst of Twitch video, you definitely should see our Tyranid Swarm video, the fixed Tyranid Swarm Video by Zoran and last but not least, the new Map Video.
- If you haven’t already got a Founders pack before we go on Steam, now is the time. You might even be interested in the Relic Item Package which is back by popular demand, items which will never be available again after January 8th,
- I want your money. Shameful plug. More money, I get xenos faster and more people. That’s why we’re hiring because we need more people to make all this more war you are enabling us by becoming Founders. Remember to refer your friends, you get Rogue Trader Points for it!
Carnage Holiday
Let’s start with the Carnage Holiday special setup. With a brand new map out and us going on vacation we want to have fun over the holidays and figured we’d allow you to have some as well. This means that we will have Promethium, Blackbolt and Pegasus Station in a rotation so you will jumping between maps – as well as jumping sides. Yes, Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines will switch between Defender and Attacker on all these maps over 2 game modes.
Add to that the Ground Assault and Traitor Assault classes, new melee tanks with Stormshield and the Mark of Nurgle respectively, a relatively large amount of blood will be spilt.
Tyranids?
As our Player vs Environment (PVE) progresses and our AI moves on with Tyranid models becoming ready alongside PVE maps, we did a small video of the basic swarm of Tyranids. You should really check it out but also the version which shows the real backstory behind the video from Zoran.
We’ll be unveiling more on our upcoming Twitch shows on its progress and are truly excited for you to get scared shitless like us when we deploy the first PVE test map to Closed Alpha. The great thing about how we’re building this is that adding more PVE factions through the free expansions, more maps and co-op game modes is relatively easy. Thank god to modern tools of game development. No more hammer and chisel used here.
Watch the Video
What about Eldar? Orks?
By now, you might have seen a very much sneak peak of the first Eldar playable in-game. It’s only one Eldar, with one massive swinging … erhm …. catapult and placeholder animation adjusted from Space Marines. I’ll be honest, it kind of looks like he spent the night with an Ork but rest assured that our team went in December to Toronto to do motion capture for the Eldar. Yes, amazingly enough, that’s where they live.
You will see more unveils of Eldar in press and on twitch, in States of the Crusade and ultimately on Alpha when we have the rest of the models, classes, vehicles and visual effects for them to have a full arsenal to slay those hoo-mans.
Orks are also coming along, we have one in loincloths using Space Marine animations which admittedly isn’t as awkward as seeing the Eldar using those animations but our outsourcing of that full arsenal is not as far ahead as Eldar. It is though a pleasure to see all the Ork concept art being prepared for outsourcing, like that Trukk. Damn, it has so much potential. Spinning rims. Furry dice. Guitar player hanging on your hood. You know the drill.
When are you going on Steam?
First, we technically are already on Steam. As a Founder buying from us, you get a Steam key and it’s the full game key. Simple as that.
However, as we are turning into Early Access in Alpha state, moving up from Closed Alpha and eventually the packages will stop being the big bang-for-the-buck Founders to the more classic retail prices and packages you are familiar with. We’ll let you know beforehand, no worries, this is just a heads-up that we’re going to Steam, that Founder’s packages are unique and they won’t last forever. Just like chocolate.
So besides the extra Steam goodies we have planned to add to all the Founders packages, you becoming a Founder, friends with Khorne and me loving you a long time, we have a lot in store for the character systems in the end of January.
You will see the first iterations of the personal loadout system, you will be using items both from the Rogue Trader store and get items from ingame sources, visual customization and character progression as well as Warlords and a wealth of other additions. I’m going to shut up for a bit and show you a picture.
Survey Results
We’ve also been going over the results of our 5th closed alpha survey. We’re very pleased to still be above 5 out of 7 on the general appreciation question and actually improving slightly compared to last time. Your favorite chapter is Dark Angels. The Boltgun is still your favorite weapon by a pretty good margin, followed by Heavy Bolter then Storm Bolter. You still really dislike the Lascannon, 21% of respondents said it was their least favorite weapon. We’re waiting on larger vehicle based maps to get in game before we do a deep dive on any Lascannon changes. Your feedback in the surveys and on the forums is very helpful to us and we really appreciate it.
Carnage Holiday
We thank you all Founders and followers for a great year and we promise you, next year will be even greater.
Nathan Richardsson
Senior Producer
Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade
www.eternalcrusade.com