Adeptus Auctores: Eternal Crusade Founders Program .

Greetings glorious sons and daughters of the Emperor.

Oi listen up ya gitz.

Welcome Children of Isha.

KILLFRENZYKILLFRENZYKILLFRENZYKILLFRENZY

With the welcome out of the way for each of the factions, I welcome you dear reader to our little discussion on the Warhammer 40,000 Eternal Crusade Founders Packs.

We had the chance to sit down to a roundtable discussion with Behaviour Interactive’s Miguel Caron, William Murphy from Critical Hit and a few others. As last time, even though he was operating on barely three hours sleep, Miguel is a delight to talk and listen to.

So what did we learn?

GUBBINZ

The most important thing, the sole thing you need to take away from this article is as follows. The Founders Pack is the game. You are spending $40 on a full key for the full game. It is not an early access type situation, Eternal Crusade is fully funded for production. It is not a paid sneak peak, it is the game.

Though there will be a number of similarities to Star Citizen, for reasons that will become apparent, the Founders program is a pre-order, not a crowd funding attempt. So if crowd funding isn’t your thing, put down the flamer, call off the deep strike and listen up.

For spending the money on the game now instead of later in 2015 when the game launches, you get access to the founders program, you get 40,000 Rogue Trader points for use in the game store on items and gubbinz for your characters and you get Early Game Module access. Once more, you are purchasing a game through pre-order. There is no hidden payment lurking down the line. All four factions are unlocked, you have heard about the 18 starting classes that have been announced so far. There will still be the free option for people who want to get all Orky but aren’t buying in. $40 gets you the full experience. Buying in the founders program gets you bonus Rogue Trader points to spend on that experience.

So what, I hear you ask, what about beta? What about Alpha? What about stuff and things?

Lesson One. Alpha & Beta

We’ll do a little illustrative example. There are three packs, Warrior, Sergeant and Captain. Each costs more than the last. If young Space Marine player Sarah buys the cheapest $40 Warrior pack today, she gets put down on the list. If Chaos Space Marine player John buys the most expensive pack three or four months from now…. maybe he had to sacrifice some goats to his dark Gods, that’s between him and his eternal damnation in the warp… he also gets put down on the list at the time of purchase.

Alpha and Beta access are on a first come, first served, as needed basis. Sarah gets in before John no matter how much more he anyone else. This is the the first lesson. You get in alpha/beta when they need people in the order of arrival. If you cannot afford to drop a vast amount of money, that does not affect your chances.

Lesson Two. Early Game Module access

With the launch of the Founders program, we are on the way to Arkhona. It’ll be a long road, it’s around an 18 month journey through the Warp to get to that war torn benighted planet. As we progress along this journey, game modules will be made available to players much in the same fashion as with Star Citizen. You will be able to pick your faction and look over your character many months before arrival at Arkhona. As time progresses and other modules such as firing ranges and training cages become available, you will have access to them as well.

This however is based upon how much you have invested. Everyone will get access to the modules if they pre-order. In an attempt to both stress test the modules and reward heavy investors, this is on a “how much I spent” basis.

Going back to our earlier examples, Sarah spent $40, John spent $120. We’ll say that I spent $80.

If the Firing Range module opens up in January, John gets it first. Captains get the module two months before anyone else. Sergeants, in this example that’d be me, get it a month later. So I can get my hands on a bolter in February. Sarah, having invested the least gets the firing range in March.

If you refer people to the game or purchase the add on packs, this can get you bonus points. If you end up referring enough people to bring you from a Warrior Pack to a Sergeant Pack, your account will reflect this and you will be treated as having ordered the higher level pack.

This is both an entirely fair way to do things and a sensible test of the system. Again, remember, everyone will get access to the modules if they pre-order. How much you spend only dictates when. We’ll all land on Arkhona together however.

Life Is About The Journey (And Service To The Emperor, Heretic and/or Xenos Scum)

So you’ve decided to get the Founders Pack. You’ve agreed to drop some money on the key, maybe purchased a few add on packs. What comes next? Well Behaviour wants the journey from pre-order to live game to be as immersive as possible. This is why they have the early access modules, this is why when you get your hands on the patcher and create a character you will find yourself in a racially appropriate ship.

Like Star Citizen, you will be able to interact with your Strike Cruiser, but this interaction grows over time. Doors will unlock as new modules become available letting you explore the ship, check your character out and examine the items you have bought. Guilds and Squads will, before launch at some point, find themselves sharing their strike cruiser. The Strategarium will let you plan your assault and look over the potential battlefields. They want to entertain us, they want to engage us. This isn’t just a purchase that you come back to some time in the future, it is a crusade launched amongst the stars that they want you to enjoy.
How Many Teef?

So you are excited, you want to get in on this. There’s just that question of money, and a small clarification that was put up on the Eternal Crusade forums for anyone who is currently looking at their wallet and the 40 US Dollar price tag.

Dear Crusaders from abroad.

Here is our final International pricing for NOW but we will add this summer more payment processor for UK Pounds, Mobile payments etc.
The following simple rule is applied. Prices are the same across the planet as the base price is adjusted for currency rates. Over and above, the applicable sales tax is included depending on their residence.

Eternal Crusade Price INCLUDING ALL taxes like mentioned below

Any person in the world (like Russia) can pay in the following currency of their choice:
1-Canada: 42.8$ cnd + 5%-15% in taxes (depending on resident province) = 44.94$C-49.22$C
2-US: 40$ usd – no taxes = 40 $ USD
3-Europe: 29.41 Euro + 20% VAT (7.35 EUR) = 36.76 EUR

Not offered at start:
UK: payment in GBP not accepted at start
Russia and other currency/country: Other currencies not accepted at start
BUT ANY one can buy it using our first 3 currency.

We might round up the total numbers to 37 Euro for exemple but its to give you FULL transparency again. Please share!

BeTrue, BeFair, Be Transparent

Regards
Miguel

Straight from the top. You are not going to face a $40/$40/€40 price tag. When Miguel said to me that he wanted it to be 40k for $40 he was deadly serious.

A Note On The Horus Heresy

I’ve mentioned Star Citizen a few times. Like how they have offered limited run items, there will be some limited items available for Eternal Crusade. These are going to be limited in numbers, 5000 each initially but eventually capped at no more than 5 or 7% of the total player base. These items are strictly cosmetic and are not pay to win buttons. They are for the fanatical fans, or for anyone who just simply has to have Mk2 Crusade Armor…

Personally I’m all about the Mk 6 Beakies.

Enough About That, What About The Rest?

Again, some quick details to inform if not entertain.

• You get 4 character slots for your game key, so you can have one of each faction if you so choose.
• $1 is 1000 Rogue Trader points.
• The three pack sizes are $40, $80 and $120
• They come with 40k points, 92k points or 150k points for use in the Rogue Trader store.
• There are add-on bundles of points in the $5/$15/$30 and $50 ranges.
• There is a completely optional subscription option that will cost you $10 per month and net you 10k points.
• Subscribers will get bonus points the longer they stay subscribed.
• The highest valued item in the Rogue Trader store will never be more than 25k points/$25.
• There is still the option to play for free as an Ork Boy. This is Free to WAAAAAGH
• Items will be added to the Rogue Trader store every month.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heard enough? Want to get your hands on a Founders pack? Either head over to www.eternalcrusade.com or keep an eye on MMOGames as we launch our Founders Key Giveaway.