We spoke to Head of Studio Miguel Caron about the upcoming Warhammer 40K title

Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade, an upcoming 3rd-person combat RPG by Behaviour Interactive, is gearing up for its slated late 2015 release. Following E3 you can expect to see its founders pack program open up. We recently had the opportunity to discuss this and much more with Behaviour’s Head of Studio, Miguel Caron!

Transparency, Founders Packs and the Business Model
Miguel was quite passionate about the studio’s dedication to being as transparent as possible with its fans, with two-way daily direct contact. “Be true, be fair, and be transparent!”

As mentioned above, the Founders program will launch following E3. Behaviour is open to fan opinions on how they’d like to see the program work before E3 rolls around, so let your voice be heard on the forums by then. Pricing is currently planned to range from $40 to $120; it will not be a tiered system, what you get for $40 is all four factions unlocked, plus you’ll get founder’s points to spend.

The business model is a hybrid—this is a premium game with one F2P sub-faction, the Boyz. There are no P2W mechanics: as Miguel told us, “I’m completely allergic to Pay-to-Win!”

Player Factions, Squads and Commanders
The four player factions—Space Marine, Eldar, Ork and Chaos—are the heart of the game. Within each faction is structure: a certain number of players will make up a Strike Force, and that number a tiny subset of players will be assigned to the War Council. Commanders, who are chosen by the players, play the middle-man and convey orders from the council to the squad. While following these orders isn’t required, they can net you an experience bonus and offer strategic gameplay.

We inquired whether or not having players elect the Commanders would become a popularity contest. Miguel agreed that at first it may play out this way, but it should end up self-regulating itself: Commanders that don’t do their job well will quickly become unpopular and be overthrown.

Open World and Procedurally Generated Content
Eternal Crusade’s content consists of about 85% PvP and 15% PvE. There are procedural dungeons that you can enjoy for PvE, which can be replayed many times and you may find that they have “reassigned” themselves.

The true focus of the game is on the PvP: what it is to be a soldier in the 41st millennium. PvP content is open world, with Tyranid invasions to fend off while trying to complete your squad objectives. As your squad grows and conquers more territory, you’ll have more borders to protect, and this may trigger Tyranid invasions, adding another challenging factor into your gameplay. This isn’t the only way you’ll encounter the Tyranid: expect to also confront them during their random skirmishes in the open world and within the procedural instanced PvE dungeons.

Skill Progression and Weapons
The game is vertical, skill-based progression with an “asymmetric balance”; you’ll gain requisition points and can unlock different tools as your skill increases. Combat in Eternal Crusade requires player skill, and regardless of how “powerful” you are, you can be taken out just as easily to a player who employs ingenuous tactics in the appropriate situation.  

Weapons have tiered quality; one example that Miguel provided was that “guns may heat up, but an epic one would take longer” to do so. While using weapons you’ll find that ranged and melee usage are split pretty evenly, and they can be fluidly swapped between in-game.

You can choose to play with either a keyboard/mouse or with a gamepad. Both are touted to have the same feel for play and should be easy to swap between. You may also find that one input device may be more comfortable to use for ranged gameplay, and the other for melee, but that will vary by player.

Space Marines, have no fear: you can have a Thunder Hammer!

Prepare Now For War!
Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade is heating up to be an immersive experience, and a passionate team of developers are actively listening to their fans long before the expected 2015 release. Make sure you head over to EternalCrusade.com to sign up for their newsletter, register for beta and stay tuned for more information about the Founders program during E3 in June!

Ann "Cyliena" Hosler, Managing Editor