Will You Found The Eternal Crusade?

June 25, 2014 by warzan

Tonight sees the launch of the Eternal Crusade Founders Program.

www.eternalcrusade.com

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."

"the guys at Behaviour have focused on what I feel is the core of 40K ... warfare"

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