Eternal Crusade is created by fans for fans. We put all our efforts into making a long lasting game that will evolves with its community's need over the years. Like said previously, if Add-ons and other ways to customize the experience are needed, you can be sure we will include them.
About HUD buttons, there shouldn't be much since we are a 3rd person action game (the Mouse control the camera). You can expect something similar to Planetside 2 and Battlefield 4 in terms of amount of HUD content, but way more customizable. The in-helmet look is what we are aiming for but we need a bit more testing to see how far we can push the immersion effects before it hinder usability.
Could you give us a look (doesn't have to be any good) on how this helmet-like HUD will look with the 3rd person camera? It might look very weird, I can't really imagine it looking immersive (sorry if this "insulted" you).
I'm guessing it's just going to be a very minimal hud but curved slightly to give it that in-helmet look, however since it's a third person game it may be odd. Something like this I imagine but without the helmet showing.
Yup, that's what I expected it to look like, but this one in 3rd person would seem like someone is live-feeding you from behind.
I cannot show you something yet (sooooonnnnn!) but the helmet feeling will indeed be toned down since you are in 3rd person after all. We want to give the feel of it w/o going too far - because, like you said, it doesn't make sense to see yourself from inside your own helmet We do think though that the HUD should have enough visual treatments so make it blend with the game world. It needs to be discreet but also contribute to the whole Warhammer 40K experience. With the visual tests we have made so far, a minimalistic in-helmet feel works great in 3rd person By in-helmet feel I mean curvy/tilted elements and augmented reality-style markers (plus some effects like noise/static, etc.)
Will there be effects like dirt specs covering the screen when near an explosion or blood splatter etc.
We should have these kinds of effects, yes (that's the plan). It is a good way to connect the player and the game it-self, giving that "I am on the battlefield" feeling. As long as it doesn't take too much juice to display them. But we will probably give an option to turn the quality down or remove it entirely to fit low-spec computer. Gameplay-specific effects will be mandatory though, like being blinded by a grenade, etc. Still a lot to investigate on that end based on gameplay and target specs for launch.
Stumbled on this on Deviantart, unofficial of course but heck, it gives even me ideas! Truly shows how much potential a fun can be squeezed into a 40K themed interface or general HUD.Chatting in such a fashion with Squad-friends could be fun for sure. Almost feels a bit oldschool RPG esque haha, if you get what I'm saying?
