Eternal Crusade (WH40K MMO)

[Space Satan]

For fuck's sake, angry Joe is a spectacular annoying retard.

 

[Mangoose]

The mechanics will probably be alright since it looks like they just cloned Spess Mehreen.

Now it all depends on the content.

Well I guess it also depends if the servers can handle Spess Mehreen action without lag. Like srsly. Online matches in Spess Mehreen was like U DEAD IN 1 SECOND and U FLY TO OTHER SIDE OF MAP IN 2 SECKONDS. Weird as fuck but it was sufficiently fun that I didn't mind, it was just terrible how little they supported it post-production (of course sadly THQ was going under... Ploxx Relic Games cum back 2 fortyKay).

 

[Mangoose]

Doesn't look too bad:

 

[Gerrard]

Recently they announced that the early access will be MP games only because they "don't have the technology" to make it work in open world, but I thought that has been known for a long time now.

 

[Mangoose]

Recently they announced that the early access will be MP games only because they "don't have the technology" to make it work in open world, but I thought that has been known for a long time now.

Then again Planetside sucks after some number of players at a location.

Guess the question now is, what's the player limit? 8v8 would be... I dunno, possibly fun, as long as it's better than Space Marine's multiplayer. I assume since there's vehicles it will be higher than that?

 

[Gerrard]

They said they will start small but aim for 64 players later. Basically what Nathan said is they want to test the different types of combat situations, so it would start with small team deathmatch gametypes and later move one to things like sieges and stuff, because "if they can't make the combat play and feel good here, there's no point in moving forward".

Also, yeah, the time-to-kill being what it is now made me lose most interest in the game. What's the point of all that armor if you die in a few seconds?

 

[Mangoose]

They said they will start small but aim for 64 players later.

64 players I'll be fine with for a shooter, I always like Battlefield. Obviously not an MMO but eh. As long as it's good I'll be pretty satisfied.

Of course good isn't easy... Space Marine multiplayer was fine with its small number of players, but gameplay and shitty maps just sucked for multiplayer (and for once, I wanted more health bloat... Space Marines dying after 1-2 hits? Ugh). Well NETCODE was the worst.

 

[Space Satan]

I would still prefer they'd choose Imperial guard and Chaos cultists instead of their SM variations. IG could be wasted in millions, and announcing a game that would be true to fluff and athmosphere while killing tens of thousands of SMs in a couple of hours is a joke. Nevertheless could be fun in the end, not a WH dream-game but a decent MMO-shooter.

Then again Planetside sucks after some number of players at a location.

Well, Planetside 2 gets most fun when battle goes from 24vs24 to 96+vs96+. Only then the satistaction of crushing enemy resistance and breaking the stalemate and then routing them out is the greatest.

 

[Dreaad]

Doesn't have any of the weight/power I expect space marines to have. Very few games have captured that element of it, with DoW still probably being the best example.

 

[Mangoose]

I would still prefer they'd choose Imperial guard and Chaos cultists instead of their SM variations. IG could be wasted in millions, and announcing a game that would be true to fluff and athmosphere while killing tens of thousands of SMs in a couple of hours is a joke. Nevertheless could be fun in the end, not a WH dream-game but a decent MMO-shooter.

Then again Planetside sucks after some number of players at a location.

Well, Planetside 2 gets most fun when battle goes from 24vs24 to 96+vs96+. Only then the satistaction of crushing enemy resistance and breaking the stalemate and then routing them out is the greatest.

Eh I think Planetside is only fun when you have an organized group listening to a good leader. Which is... 48 players in a platoon? Best case scenario is an outfit that has 3 good platoon leaders so three platoons, which would be like 144. But again that's best case scenario, and you'd have a bunch of randoms, too. I guess 96vs96 works, 2 platoons with a good number of players that listen. But I dunno about 96+.

That however also requires the platoons hitting different targets. Or even squads within a platoon hitting different targets. Too much of line shooting and endless respawning otherwise IMO.

I mean Battlefield series is already almost a clusterfuck with 32vs32. (But I enjoy it because that means there's a lot of shitty players I can snipe all day)

I guess I agree with you. 40k fluff plays at ~platoon level so like.. at least 24v24 depending on the makeup of the squads. I think different races (e.g. Orks) are gonna have more players in a match or something. Probably 12 Grey Knights in one army.

Doesn't have any of the weight/power I expect space marines to have. Very few games have captured that element of it, with DoW still probably being the best example.

Space Marine was pretty good in that aspect in terms of animation and sounds - except gameplay-wise during multiplayer where you die in two hits

And from what I've seen it looks like they were lazy and just ported over Space Marine. And as an alpha (video from half a year ago) it is possible they could do it right. Key word possible lol.

 

[Papa Môlé]

I dunno about lore but if each Space Marine player had a squad of NPC Imperial Guardsmen attached to him which he could give some general AI commands to (like Arma or M&B) I could see this working, both in the sense of generating larger, more MAJESTIC battles and from preventing Spehss Mahreens from getting wasted easily and in the dozens like in the other game.

 

[Space Satan]

Nope. So far it'll be like planetside - mindless meat grinder with occasional orginized alliances.

 

[Mangoose]

Nope. So far it'll be like planetside - mindless meat grinder with occasional orginized alliances.

Gerrard said may not be able to do open world. Aiming for regular shooter 'arenas' for now.

It is kinda weird though. There are Orks, and we do know for sure that a F2P player can play as Slugga Boyz or Shoota Boyz. There are also Nids... but they for now have no Ork-like F2P option so I have no idea how they will work.

Might as well have some Imps and Cultists, right?

 

[Space Satan]

They announed it's now on Unreal Engine 4.

 

[Gerrard]

What were they using before? I heard some rumors it was Unity but I couldn't find any place mentioning it specifically.

 

[Baron Dupek]

What were they using before? I heard some rumors it was Unity but I couldn't find any place mentioning it specifically.

I guess the same as Space Marine (action TPP no cover shooter a'la Gears of Wars) - Phoenix Engine?

 

[Mangoose]

What were they using before? I heard some rumors it was Unity but I couldn't find any place mentioning it specifically.

I guess the same as Space Marine (action TPP no cover shooter a'la Gears of Wars) - Phoenix Engine?

Yes I thought so, too (which was the Darksiders engine actually), because the alpha gameplay looked a lot like it. I hope this doesn't change things too much, though it wouldn't be a good management decision to almost start over. So (at best) I'm assuming they are using UE4 mostly for world, art, vehicle, etc assets while maintaining Space Marine-esque mechanics.

Oh and Space Marine was more than a shooter.. It was a really good melee + shooter. Mostly because it was ridiculously easy to switch between the two "modes." I wouldn't even say switch... If you are zoomed in/aiming with your crosshair, if you simply press one of the melee buttons you immediately make a melee attack. Same for the opposite: You are busy meleeing? Click the shoot button or the aim button then you immediately shoot.

I guess it's like Devil May Cry (mechanically) where you can shoot or melee without any pause, just that there was more emphasis on ranged combat versus melee being too simple to a certain degree. As in the problem with melee was there were barely any combos... If you've played Dynasty Warriors it's mechanically a carbon copy. On the other hand, Dynasty Warriors can't even compare, because your choice of attack was very very important. And there was an Execution mechanic that was very unorthodox and looked stupid on the cover, but it was rather important yet challenging-ish to use in the actual game because that was the only way to regain health (no health boxes at all, and no auto regen of health, just your shield) - and at the same time you were vulnerable during the Execution so you could lose health while regaining health Lulz. (That might have been a carried-over Darksiders mechanic)

Note I'm talking about the mechanics and not the encounters or level design... Ork encounters were awesome because melee swarmed you insanely and there would be ranged enemies at the same time, especially rokkit troops that could destroy in a few hits... Game went to shit when you switched to fighting Chaos because no swarming so I never felt like I even needed to melee unless I needed to regain health via Execution.

So I'm not completely praising Space Marine at all... Just saying I really liked the fundamental mechanics, but the encounter design (which I've finally learned is just as important as mechanics) was completely bipolar.

I'd rate the game 6/10. Though I'd still recommend it for 40k fanboys and/or people that think the melee/ranged hybrid mechanics are interesting.

 

[Echo Mirage]

How is the U4 engine for massive open world with tons of players?

Right now reading the EC forums. The model for the game appears to be. Arena battles of some sort at launch with Planetside 1-2 open world in the next few years. But I see a lot of people not willing to buy that line at all. Stating that if open world was always going to be the real meat of the game then it should have been the first thing worked on and released. Or they say simply that arena gameplay alone simply cannot nor will not carry the game until it reaches that point.

 

[vonAchdorf]

New Alpha "Gameplay":

 

[Makabb]

This is an eternal alpha ?

 

[Mangoose]

This is an eternal alpha ?

I dunno, really. But from previous videos it seemed like they already had combat and gameplay set, and had not worked much at all on the graphical aspect (animations, textures especially).

I think the main thing they haven't shown much is vehicles and objectives/maps and stuffies.

Seems close to or at least halfway to beta, but take that with a grain of salt because that's just based on watching these videos.

 

[Mangoose]

How is the U4 engine for massive open world with tons of players?

Right now reading the EC forums. The model for the game appears to be. Arena battles of some sort at launch with Planetside 1-2 open world in the next few years. But I see a lot of people not willing to buy that line at all. Stating that if open world was always going to be the real meat of the game then it should have been the first thing worked on and released. Or they say simply that arena gameplay alone simply cannot nor will not carry the game until it reaches that point.

Arena gameplay will carry the game if it has good netcode and is supported well. Space Marine stayed alive quite well despite really shitty netcode and lack of new maps and everything. People just got bored eventually, really.

I think the arena gameplay in Space Marine worked because it was quite unique... Not a lot of games have Jump-soldiers that do massive damage on landing and then are balanced melee vs ranged. Actually it may more-so be the fact that you can switch so easily and fluidly between melee and ranged - no need to press a button to change stances, you click your melee attack button and you melee, your click your ranged fire mouse button 1 and you immediately shoot as well as clicking right mouse button immediately puts you into "zoom" even if you were meleeing a millisecond ago. That's part of why the melee jump-soldiers worked, you not only could jump in and melee, but you had a useful off hand pistol, too.

Then you had heavy weapon units that had somewhat unique advantages and drawbacks, as well as middle-of-the-line rifleman-types.

Sadly the maps were only slightly above average, and there were like only 1-2 maps (maybe just 1, I don't remember) as time went on. And netcode was so shitty because it would basically have one random player hosting an ad hoc server.

 

[Darth Roxor]

slow movement, over the shoulder camera, poppin da moles, AAAwesome finishers

i'll stick to Tribes

 

[Mangoose]

slow movement, over the shoulder camera, poppin da moles, AAAwesome finishers

i'll stick to Tribes

If it's anything like Space Marine, it's quite fast when you sprint, hip fire is decent, it's just slow when you right click to aim.

And very fast if you're an Assault Marine. As the Assault Marine (in Space Marine) you'll fly up with not much distance, but then you have a long range to slam down and that slam down is really fast. Only slow class was the Devastator.

Space Marine was actually too fast, IMO.

 

[Caim]

This is an eternal alpha ?

Well duh, the Alpha Legion's in there?