I have a feeling your hopes and dreams will be crushed there, mate... Think of the other MMOs out there... Can a horde and alliance player hang out in WoW? Not really... Can an imp and rep do it in SWTOR? .......waaaait a minute..... In SWTOR you could actually invite ANYONE you choose to into your own home... HOWEVER, guild-ships were locked to guildies only, and one couldn't have cross-faction guilds, because that would lead to meta-gaming on a grand scale (people stabbing their "brethren" in the back)... So, I'm thinking that no, cross-faction guilds won't be possible here, either, mainly because that meta-gaming risk...
A Tau hanging out in a Space Marines guild cruiser? A Tau hanging out in a ork guild? Wut. EC will have Factions. These Factions want to be unified and kill/defeat the factions that aren't their faction. Guilds will be player made and likely be dedicated to 1 of the available factions but of course can branch out. To "hang out" with a Space Marine faction guild as a Tau anywhere you'd have to be in their chat channel or on their guild website. But even then you wouldn't be their "friendly" because different factions. So in-game no but outside of the game sure. There is the ally system though but few details on that. I also recall you talking elsewhere about the ally system working in PvE as well which would be neat.
Lol, imagine a "squad" made up of a loyalist, a heretic, an Eldar and an Ork who all go 'Nid hunting together
I feel like the eldar would troll the fuck out of them like banshee wail them into the maw of a carnifex ^^
Loyalist and heretic fight each other as much as the nids. Ork scratching his head wondering who he should fight first. Eldar sneaking around waiting for everyone else to die so they can move on. Tyranids trying to get everyone off their lawn.
In all fairness, you have 4 character slots to begin with, with which you can create one loyalist, one heretic, one tau and one orc, for instance. Though there are players who will always prefer that one specific faction (for me, the space marines), and play mainly, if not ONLY, on said faction-character! Thus, you can't really "make new friends" that are on the other side of the border in this game. If you have IRL friends that decide to join the game later than you, on a separate faction, then you can use up another character slot... And regarding costs of a guild-cruiser, they're supposed to be special, and thus expensive. Though they should be attainable through in-game cash -means as well.
The point at which I would like to see space ships in the game would be when they are relevant - such as travel to another planet in Arkohna's system. Then yes, I would like to see Strike Forces have to duke it out in their nice cruisers, boarding actions (with a purpose) and everything, to be able to travel between these two or more war ravaged planets/moons/space things. (And Space Ships should be instanced maps that are designed by players - Orks want a space hulk? Sure. Space Wolves want a frozen realm with trees inside a giant domed chapel monastery? Why not. Eldar want a paradise jungle world to call home turf? Sure. *purpose of raid is to either plunder (steal resources) or position - gain/block passage to next zone to affect the war there. Before that point though, I think it would be best to keep our feet on the ground.
