If they allow players to change the sub-faction (Craftworlds) of their characters it will likely involve a fee to pay in the store. Because it's a service where they'd have to change it for us while keeping/transferring our character's progression and unlocks. If you mean an actual game mechanic that let's you do that then I think it would reduce the value in the choice, the sales of character slots, and be unfair for the other factions that can't do that as a mechanic.
Well that would be very disappointing. I don't believe in charging for automatic services, lot's of mmos will charge the price of soft drink just to change appearances (swtor) while others allow it for free (cryptic). I'd only believe in charging to change the entire race/faction and transferring progression, but that would cheapen the idea of having factions and the point of even having slots. I'd say adding that simple mechanic would increase the replay value of the Eldar, you still need to pay for more slots if you want to try all four of the different races and future ones. Seeing as the Eldar are unique faction and not one unified Imperium under one banner, I see no harm. I also assume they would add the same function once the Sisters of Battle were added. I see that Space Marines Chapters will function as the different sub-factions for the Eldar. Does that mean certain sub-factions will have different roles? I'd hate to be forced to join a different Craftworld just because a certain role is not available to that sub-faction. But I thought all the Craftworlds had all the same roles, but certain ones were relied more heavily on than others. Certainty is a tough question. I believe that this isn't your typical mmo where you're locked in a typical class/loadout and have to buy $10 slots to experience the other ones. I was under the impression EC was following mix of both Space Marines and Planetside 2. Planetside 2 Only has three factions, but they have different classes and appearances that don't force you to pay to change. My point is not to nickel and dime something for the sake of it. Thus limiting creativity and customization in the name of it. SOE only allows maximum of 7 slots, not sure why they would need more for? (female and male characters?) But I doubt Sony was banking on free money from character slots per account.
I don't understand how such a thing would be automatic since it's a service they need to do for you. SWTOR is a terrible F2P business model in my opinion. Er anyway, Each sub-faction will have access to the same Basic classes, can see here in the Official Basic Class List thread, and some shared Elites & Heroes (can see in the RTS; their colors change to match your chosen sub-faction). Sub-factions will also have more than just their colors unique to them. Such as class variants (Basic, Elites, and Heroes), weapons, accessories, traits, cosmetics, and even vehicles (all of these could make swaps complicated). For example Space Wolves will have a Wolf Priest as their basic support class instead of an apothecary (a class variant). By extent we can expect an Ulthwe Warlock to be different somehow to a Saim-Hann Warlock. LSM Blood Angels Death Company will be an Elite Class option for them at some point. 12. How are Wolf Priests being handled as they are both Chaplains and Apothecary for the Space Wolves? BRENT ELLISON: Wolf Priests are the support role for Space Wolves, replacing the Apothecary. They aren’t as good at healing & medic buffs, but have a Crozius and can offer similar morale bonuses to a Chaplain. - said in forum Q&A Answers Compilation Thread page 2 post #15. "==Sub-Faction Abilities== It always bugs me in dungeon crawlers when there are four classes and four races, and there's an obvious Mage race, an obvious Fighter race, etc. The pressure is even greater for a PvP game, so I totally hear you when you say it would be lame if you felt like you had to be a Blood Angel to be an Assault marine. We're going to allow for unique weapons/accessories/statlines for the sub-factions, but we want to do everything we can to make sure they don't create this situation. Having very situation-specific powers is one potentially good solution. The plan, of course, is for you guys to be involved in giving us feedback for this once you get your hands on the game!" - said in What is Combat Like in Eternal Crusade? by BrentEllison (Lead Designer & Protector) 9. Will the subfactions have noticable strengths? For example, will the Blood Angels be stronger in melee than for example the Ultra Marines? BRENT: The whole reason we chose to just do a limited number of subfactions per faction is for this purpose. However, we are still in the early phases of determining subfaction-specific “traits” so there’s not too much to talk about in terms of mechanics yet. - said in forum Q&A Answers Compilation Thread page 3 post #27. Unique faction or not it's still a game and they're still a business. EC is buy to play so purchase of the game comes with 4 character slots already. If someone wants to play each additional sub-faction then buy the needed character slots ($10 each) and create a character for it or pay for a swap if they make that available. I see no harm in this as it's simple, cheap supports the game, and also has replay value (though time consuming. Maybe there will be boosts though). Sub-faction swap can be compared to to a race/gender/faction/server transfer in World of Warcraft, they charge for each. They also don't have race (which would be "sub-factions") specific stuff. Though they do have some faction specific stuff. I don't know how those are handled. - By the way the Twitch Q&A thread is open, here, if you want to post the question on Eldar sub-faction swapping mechanic or if there will be a sub-faction swap available in the store. Or ask any other questions there. Also after the twitch livestream the forum Q&A Questions Compilation thread opens up in General Discussion.
Well I don't think there are 20 programmers sitting on their computers monitoring and changing player characters to different factions 24/7. The same way I don't imagine that when I was given a free server change, there was some poor under paid man at Bioware Austin with 6 children to feed that had to sit and press hundreds of buttons to swap my character from the pvp to the rp server. It's the software that allows you to do these things. The same goes for character appearance change, there is no digital barber employee cutting your hair so why justify paying £10 for one? Supporting the game is great, but it shouldn't be looking to increase profits in such a mediocre way that (bad business) mmos promote. "Sub-faction swap can be compared to to a race/gender/faction/server transfer in World of Warcraft, they charge for each." - That's the kind of bad promotion examples I'm talking about. And other publishers and developers look at that and try to emulate it. No paying £20 to swap your gender is not a service, it's exploitation. You will never be able to justify that as a service to me. The cosmetic items and paid expansions should be more than enough to generate extra income. "Unique faction or not it's still a game and they're still a business." - Yeah, I understand that? I'm not some cruel customer that sits on a mountain of gold, trying to take a product for free and not spend one coin. There are better ways of doing it though. "I see no harm in this as it's simple, cheap supports the game, and also has replay value " - I do. And I wouldn't call $40 cheap either, those prices add up. And if this is how it turns out how will people be able to play the future factions? Not sure what the cap slot is? I assume 16 of them would be required to experience all the different sub-factions, which would leave little room to play the new ones. So already we have pay walled existing content, and less customiations and roles to experience. Am I the only one concerned about this direction? It's not just about the $10 money it's the smaller options for your character to change certain role and customisation. I've role-played with 16 toons on swtor and it was not as fun when having to make the same toon 4x in order to access different roles and customization options in gear. "By the way the Twitch Q&A thread is open, here, if you want to post the question on Eldar sub-faction swapping mechanic or if there will be a sub-faction swap available in the store."- Thank you, I tried viewing it but it seems I'm not allowed, got "error". I will just hope for the best, maybe a dev will read my posts.
I think I managed to answer my own question though. 19:42 AJ: Do my guild mates have to pick a specific sub-faction allegiance? Not sure if it's related, but the way he said: no you wouldn't be locked in a sub faction and if there are going to be any limitations it would be a logic one, like factions only. So everyone may be able to swap between their Craftworlds, Chapters , Warbands etc. But I was also speaking lore wise have you heard of a Eldar moving to another Craftworld?
Sorry If I appear to rant on about something already answered. Kind of new and have not read everything concerning the game. Just reading the lore alone about the Eldar was enough to overload my mind. More on customization: Will we be able to change our colour scheme on three/four or more base levels? Or locked to the specific colours of our Craftworld. For example Ulthwe has black and white. I would prefer if we could choose our colours, but keep our Rune flags to show what Craftworld we belong to. Game Workshop gives you guides on what to paint, but they have never been a requirement that this Eldar armour must be [insert colour]. This is how I hope it turns out. Keeping our Craftworlds Rune imprinted on our clothing and cloaks, while not all looking alike. ^ Not this:X50 =
I'd vote for this at the top. If Space Marines like Captain Titus can run about with no helmet, why not the Eldar too? Of course I'd wear the helmet in battle, but it would be nice to have to option to toggle it off in battle.
I took that as a guild can be comprised of members from any sub-faction ie a Saim-Hann player in the same guild as a Biel-tan player etc. Dedicated themed guilds are left to the players to make. Q: [58:52] Will my armor pieces match or will they all be different colors? A: Everything will be in line with the IP, but we will look into customization. - said in Twitch Episode Summaries page 2 post #15.Between Eldar craftworlds and aspects there could be quite a few customization options. I also recall Devs saying we might be able to choose colors near the same shade of our sub-faction but I couldn't find it. If that's possible maybe that first one has a dark enough green shade to pass for that. Certainly looks good. But I've also seen quite a bit of resentment in the forums against "rainbow armies" that would result from too much customization. Devs are going with in-universe stuff and do have narrative for the game too. So we'll see. By the way there's these too (game: Star Wars Republic Commando) EDIT: Oh and yes we can remove helmets. 10. Will we ever see a face designer for each faction and following that be able to equip and unequip a helmet? BRENT ELLISON: Helmet-less characters are still planned but won’t be present for the initial Founder Access. - in Q&A Answers Compilation Thread page 3 post #21.Q: [51:52] Can you give any information on Character creation? A: You will have a no-helmet option and be able to pick a head. - in Twitch Episode Summaries page 4 post #28.
Hehe, yeah the Arc Troopers are probably the ones that said: "To hell with us all looking the same, I'm going to express my identity!!" I can understand we don't want to see this: That's why I said maybe restrict the colour palette to blocks. Kind of like DCUO
