They will answer when they have an answer and if they want to answer.

Exactly. I feel this dev team has been very transparent and open about stuff so far

They have one of the best FAQ's around, they showed us pre alpha (NON TEXTURED!) footage, their devs are constantly replying in the forums (the lead programmer has over 500 posts already lol) etc

Yep, and they are truly amazing for doing that.

Seems to me they've quelled my deepest fear of getting rid of a vertical progression tree that makes things obsolete as you go, but I wonder if they've considered the possibility of getting some inspiration of making the game better with time rather than just at launch:

For example; The Eldar are very much like the Color Blue in Magic the Gathering. They will likely have access to hard hitting, but fragile, and potentially expensive weapons. It is, however, their mental abilities that will allow them to dominate players who are not as mentally agile. Like Magic the Gathering, not all abilities are made equal, but every ability, from the very first printing of the game is just as effective as the latest printing. This is a card game, that has both outmaneuvered the capabilities of World of Warcraft, and will undoubtedly be around far longer because it gives players the power to play the game in any fashion they wish, but are still constrained to the limits of the game.

How this translates to EC.

Example 1: (Versatility and Predictable Complexity) An Ork (and everyone else) knows he must play to the strengths of an Ork to do well on the field of battle. However, how he does that is up to him and wont be constrained to just mastering a cycle of buttons. Preparing for battle, the Ork has a range of classes he can pick from, but within each class, the Ork can further dictate what play style he wants to do by investing skill points, gear, and resources into the class. As a stormboy, perhaps having his rocket packed with some extra explosives will give him an extra first punch to the enemy it lands on, perhaps he can go all out and be loaded to the teeth with close combat weapons for a quick win as soon as he lands. The sky's the limit really at how creative the combinations of gear and their translation to combat can be. That's really the point though. If a SM player really wants to arm themselves with a combat shield and a bolter, why not? Unusual? Definitely. They obviously have their reasons for doing so - maybe in conjunction with a librarian's Psychic Wards, the SM's with combat shields and bolters become an unscripted phalanx or more accurately; a moving pillbox, a tactic few would have predicted, or perhaps even found unless they had researched what the rules did in combination with each other. It keeps players motivated to find new strategies and combinations to turn the tide of battle in their favor -and develops community and ever changing - but predictable, playstyles. The SM's will remain walking tanks that rely on team play to be the most effective, the Orks; a green tide focused on overwhelming (dakka, choppa, or otherwise), the Eldar; a fast moving hard hitting glass cannon, and Chaos will be a horrifying combination of 4 rival Gods working off each other (instead of with each other). With so much flavor from each race to tap into, there truly is no end of what can be developed.

Tzeentch will be most pleased.

Example 2: (Expansions) A Space Marine's standard weapon is a Bolter. Its stats will only be modified slightly depending on what ammunition he puts into it. He will never be able to modify the gun or the ammunition over the bounds of the techpriest because that's heresy. (the thought wouldn't even occur to him.). He may however earn a purity seal that perhaps bears the Word of the Emperor - giving him a Ward that resists psychic attacks. He's fine with that for the moment, but eventually stores it away to give room for something else. In a later expansion, when the GK's come into the fold, the SM earns a laurel that reflects a portion of an unfriendly psychic attack. The SM player remembers his old purity seal, and sees that instead of becoming obsolete, the seal complements his ability to fight chaos, because he takes reduced damage from psychic attacks, and reflects some of the initial damage back at his attackers.

Therefore Nothing becomes obsolete, and everything earned is forever valued! That's what I'm Expecting from EC!

I agree there is only so far to progress and should have limited access to supierior equipment

As far as I'm aware, there is no such thing per say as the Mark of Undivided. If there is a mark, then that would be Ascendant, and only the Champion of Chaos has that, aka, Abaddon.

I do like the idea of say khorne, slaanesh etc talent trees, but I was under the impression that talent trees wouldn't really be in this game. Unless they go for a lol style offline talent system, which would be pretty cool imo.

There are class trees, Steven told us that the wraithguard could be unlocked through the warlock progression tree.

http://forum.eternalcrusade.com/threads/so-which-class.3291/

Hi guys, I'm new here, but have high hopes for this title.

I'm mostly concerned about the combat system, since this will be a pvp combat - oriented title.
So I wanted to share with you guys and developers some thoughts.

Most important part is: it has to be satisfying. It has to be a mess.
When I unload a clip into some xeno, traitor or loyalist it would have to be so enjoyable to make me do it over and over again.

So, some random thoughts:

( I know, I know, one can't have everything, but the more, the better ).

- Need awesome sounds and voiceovers; bullet ricochet, collision, screams, low - toned and angry weapon sounds ecc... ( Best game to take inspiration from, here, is F.E.A.R. which has, IMHO, the best and satisfying gunplay, sounds and effects to this date. If you haven't played it yet, give it a go and see for yourselves ). I understand Eternal Crusade will be in 3d person, but i guess it would be the same sauce.

- Need good particle effects on bullet collision and blood sprays. ( Once again, look at F.E.A.R ).
One has to perceive the power of the blows ( camera shake, blurred vision ecc... )

- "Space Marine" had good close combat animations, expand on that?

- What about the environment? Destructible? Static?
Of course tearing down buildings with mah lascannon would be great.

Well, there's certainly much more to say, but to me the keys to success lie in these 3 points :


- Catchy gunplay and close combat ( sounds and voiceover ).
- Effects ( good graphics ).
- Environmental interaction ( destructibility ).

And by that I mean that I would look at other flaws, as absolutely minor issues. ( trade system, crafting system, quests, ecc... )
I'm no expert but these are my 2 cents.

May the Emperor watch over us all... for dark times are to come.

I can agree with those. But I'd also like to add balanced gameplay to that list. When I say that I don't mean class balance, because no MMO has true class balance. I mean effective counters to player induced advantages, like say when one faction has a much higher playerbase than any other. I'd like there to be a counter to that so we don't just see Space Marines or Eldar or whatever roll over everything simply because no other faction can muster that many players to stop them(except orks because they don't really have strategy beyond numerical superiority).

In WoW when fighting in Wintergrasp, if the sides were uneven the disadvantaged side could get a zone wide buff to try and even things out. It never felt it worked 100% but, it was a start!

My only concern would be if something like that was implimented, and (overexagerated example incoming) 1 Imperial Guardsman can suddenly take out 20 Chaos Space Marines with just his lasgun...