Given that Xenos are not considered"core" to the game and therefore no attempt to get them into founders access looks likely. I would say the answer to this is probably going to be an awkward shoe in if xenos get added during the beta. I trust that they won't just reskin the mehrines into Eldar form then take off some toughness and add abit of speed. But I've no idea what the score is about balancing the xeno factions when the "core" of the game has already been tested in the FA. How much of the "core" game will they be willing to change in order to accommodate the xenos? Its not as simple a tweaking a few stats to balance for the Xenos, they (are supposed to) have very different capabilities and tactics to the mehrines. As a Xeno player I'm seriously wondering if there is any point in being a founder. Even worse though is the creeping worry that Eternal Crusade is becoming Eternal Mehrine. We have seen very little in the way of solid progress for the Xenos in over a year. Yes we have the leaders and faction votes but they are not necessarily a huge commitment of resources. There are loads of issues with fitting Eldar into a shooter like this. How are the Swooping Hawks going to be made effective? How are Banshees going to close the distance? How is the Scorpions stealth going to work. How are the wraithcannons and D-scythes going to affect the downed state? ....etc...etc. These questions have been asked several times but if they do get acknowledged then the answer is mostly ambiguous. This is fine. It is still in development. But when will these issues be addressed if not in FA with the core mechanics? The message from the Nathan indicates that the Founders Beta will be about expanding the game from 32 v 32 up to what ever they can manage. When will the Xenos get in? Post launch?
I think you've missed the point on their current development plans. They are thinking of the eldar and orks as they build the game so the architecture is there to support them and not a shoe in later. Founders Alpha is intending to be a core mechanic tuning phase. Are the time to kills appropriate? Should the heavy bolter fire faster? Should we add a jam to it? Is everyone rolling assault again because its too powerful? Even if the Orks and eldar were 100% ready it's likely that BE would still run a marine v marine alpha to answer those questions. The more variables you put in, the more your core mechanics get clouded. Look at what blizzard has to go through trying to tune starcraft's 3 way fight and thats with decades of data.
I get what your saying, but what I'm worried about is the point of the current development plans (Founders Access). If the core mechanics are derived around a limited pool of variables, then how can they accomodate a new set of variables further down the line. Adding the Eldar and Orks is going to be hard so shouldn't they be considered for inculsion in the FA. Starting with the mehrines makes sense. Moving to Founders Beta, and ramping up the scale of the game based on those mechanics, before the Xenos are added seems.... at best naive and at worst like the Xenos are now a stretch goal. I would like to know where along the line it is planned to address issues like the OP's and all the others raised that concern the playstyle, capabilties and balance of the Xenos. Because at the moment it doesn't seem to be on the agenda.
About 35 minutes in is the talk of lock on. I honestly don't know, hit-scan versus projectile was being discussed last time I was in the loop of things, but pending that question the lock on is either an aim assist or an automatic hit. Either way he talked about balancing the pistol out for this so I'm hoping Eldar are being taken into account. There's been talk of Eldar being more dodge/speed focused than health/armor focused so part of that balancing will probably be aimed at that. We always knew Eldar would be the hardest race to play, that's just how 40k works, yo.
You know they are already working on Eldar classes right? they said that a few months ago but they also said they won't be ready for the first part of the EA...
The spoke about it in Epi 9. Check that one again and it will be a bit clearer for you. They state that it designed so you don't have to keep "turning to face". I don't think it has anything to do with projectile weapons, apart from pistols (as these are CC weapons).
No, no yeah I know. There is not target lock outside of melee though, they said as much. I thought you were just worried about the tracking melee/pistol shots. As far as dodging melee goes, just dodge. Yes it follows you but the animation will still go through in the wrong direction if you time it right and we'll probably have more dodges on hand than other races.
I do share the concerns expressed here. I really hope Alexis and Brent are taking Xenos combat styles into account while iterating on melee combat. And I really think they do. Brent has answered one question about Swooping Hawks in the 9th or 10th twitch that seemed to show they are indeed thinking about Eldar classes : SH are being designed to be some sort of flying jammers that prevent their targets from fighting efficiently if they don't react to the SH' attack. We still don't know how exactly that will be implemented but at least the intent is there and fits to the lore imho. About the target lock I am sure they already think about how to implement it in a way that allows Eldar to be dodgy and Orks to be brutal. Maybe the lock could cost some stamina on time (and when the character turns or dodges) and deactivate itself when exhausted. Eldar could dodge and turn faster and/or for reduced stamina cost. Hope we can have more details in the next twitch.
You guys have to take into account that the target lock will also benefit Eldar players, it will be really good for all our classes if shuriken pistols are automatic (high burst damage) and it will be specially good for striking scorpions because of the mounted shuriken catapult on the scorpion claw and the dual shuriken pistols on the chainsabres.
