I played my first Warhammer 40k table-top battle in 1989. I grew up with and fell in love with the history and lore of 40k. As a founder, in more than one respect, I believe it's my obligation to share my thoughts of Eternal Crusade in it's current form. How are you going to attract new players that have never heard of Warhammer 40k or appeal to others that may have played Space Marine or Dawn of War? What I mean is that there is absolutely no history and lore. There's no story to draw you in. Where's the tales of the undying Emperor and his loyal Marines, the traitorous acts of the Chaos Marines, the plight of the Eldar and the savagery of the Green Skins. If I wasn't already familiar with 40k, I wouldn't have a clue as to what the any of these races are, what their story is, or why the universe in constant state of war. What's the draw? What are we fighting for? You folks up stairs better take note. The only people this game appeals to are those who know 40k and have a computer new enough to run it. 40k is a niche market. The one thing 40k has over all other multiplayer battle games is the story. Give us some. I don't want to be too negative, because I do enjoy the game. I just fear that it's longevity will be short lived without some creative draw to new players. Steam gave me a Squadron Edition to gift away and no body I know wants it.
This game really isn't a teaching tool. It's a vessel to act out your 40k fantasies in a somewhat clunky manner. Beats Deathwing and Space Marine P2P multiplayer (which I don't think exists anymore).
I'd love to see some backstory injected into EC. We don't need CGI movies, just some passages from various novels and some basic back story for each Faction, Chapter, Clan and Craftworld.
And we want to attract multi-players to the 40K universe. Downloading and hopping into EC there's hardly word anywhere in game that informs players what the 40K universe is, let alone WTF is going on and why these various factions are fighting.
If I wanted to play a crappy, half-assed story with NPCs shoehorned into a multiplayer game I'd be playing Titanfall. Story and multiplayer are inherently incompatible.
Two things happened: 1. The game was originally marketed to existing die-hard fans. Very little of what you're talking about was needed, the fans brought it with them 2. Graham McNiel, Black Library writer, actually WAS hired to write some lore for the game. Unfortunately he was one of the casualties of the great Miguel exodus, when it turned out the dreams to create Planetside 40k were far beyond the software, server resources, and staff numbers the developers actually had access to
They probably have a limited license on what they can use in game, as for lore. Some kind of CODEX of warrior types of each race and a history of them would be great.
