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[General Article] Warhammer 40.000: Eternal Crusade: Making a Warhammer 40,000 MMO: The History

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129

The last few weeks have been very exciting for fans of all things Warhammer, but those who were mightily disappointed when the Warhammer 40k MMO was cancelled last year. With the announcement that Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade was on its way, folks began to talk. in a new article, we take a look at the history of bringing Warhammer 40k to the MMO space. Check it out before leaving your thoughts in the comments.

You cannot talk about Eternal Crusade without first mentioning Dark Millenium. This was to be THQ’s first foray into the MMO genre with 40K as its flagship game. We did a host of interviews on the title a few years back. The team building the game had very little MMO experience and was building a version that sounded like World of Warcraft with Space Marines. Some of the design elements that stand out are: it would only have two factions (a major flaw when working with 40K), the main Space Marine faction would have been Black Templars, and somehow Orks would fight next to Chaos.

Read more of Garrett Fuller's Warhammer 40k: Eternal Crusade - Making a Warhammer 40,000 MMO: The History.

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A Goblin Shaman, Chaos Warrior, and Dark Elf Sorceress walk into a bar...


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Comments

  • orbitxoorbitxo Member RarePosts: 1,956

    nicely written.

     

    ive been waiting for an awsome war game since space marine. hoping Crusade will be it!

  • WraithoneWraithone Member RarePosts: 3,806
    Well, I wish you all the best, but I've long since given up on PvP centric games.  Its too bad, as there is much more of a market for PvE, than PvP focused games.  I hope things work out.
    "If you can't kill it, don't make it mad."
  • ZieglerZiegler Member Posts: 159

    Wasnt there a developer who had WH40K before THQ who ended up losing it to THQ? or was that WAR and then Mythic picked it up....

    either way....I wont hold my breath for yet another developer working on a WH40K MMO.

     

    I'd like to see it happen though, and I always thought that a good way to do it would be to level up your army...you start out as a 4 man squad and as you level up you buy more units to add to your group til at max level you have a bonified army to deploy to the field along with your team mates armies.

  • jdnycjdnyc Member UncommonPosts: 1,643
    Excited to see more!
  • ikarrianikarrian Member Posts: 122

    This game is going to get hyped above the roof after the first FMV release. And i cant bloody wait to smash heads on the battlefield. In a Warhammer 40k universe.

    Sorry SOE and Planetside 2. But it would be a change-of-heart in a heartbeat!

  • shamus252shamus252 Member UncommonPosts: 226
    EPIC!

    Sic semper tyrannis "Democracy broke down, not when the Union
    ceased to be agreeable to all its constituent States, but when it was upheld, like any other Empire, by force of arms."

  • uller30uller30 Member UncommonPosts: 125
    Will see what happens I love my eldar but it can not be imperium > orks=chaos > eldar. I want a good game not a massive swing for one faction
  • MumboJumboMumboJumbo Member UncommonPosts: 3,219

    Great write-up Garrett/mmorpg.com !

    You have nailed the NEGATIVES of Dark Millenium and the POSITIVES for Eternal Crusade.

    They may want to soup up that eternal crusade name if it's too opaque reference the story.

    Warhammer/40K has ALWAYS BEEN about many vs many faction combat not good vs evil bs. WH40K also needs more FPS esque combat and perspective - given guns and more.

    =

    So these guys have passed the first hurdle. Be interested to hear what engine they are using next and more about number of players on screen and per zone etc.

    Also what sort of persistence for players winning. Some sort of crusade map control for a strategy layer would be very cool to link campaigns.

    Also vehicles land, air deadnoughts etc.

    Should have gone with Sons of Horus maybe for Chaos. 

    Overall more positive especially if it is successful and they ramp up the number of factions you can play as. Tau etc.

  • spawn12345spawn12345 Member UncommonPosts: 172

    Sounds good but it will fail.

    f2p mmo with f2p guys can only go one faction? that a disaster right there. There is no way in hell any human can program balance around a mechanic like that. There will be huge inbalance from launch until the game dies.

  • MibletMiblet Member Posts: 333

    Whilst I was happy to hear there was another shot at a W40k MMO I don't think it will play out well, if it makes it that far this time.

    I do like the concept of using free players as the Orks, providing a large uncordinated mass of verbally abusive, violent, immature monsters to play as the beloved greenskin boyz.  Though equally this brings up questions of who will play which races, will it be seperated by pay brackets (want to be a marine then cough up the cash....want to be a Terminator?....), if Orks are the free players then how will the relatively fragile Eldar play out?  Balancing nightmare!

    The background and lore for the universe will be trampled into the dirt to attempt to make any of it fit (and allow players the chance to don Power Armor), possibly to the point it will resemble the IP in that there will be the races visually represented.  I also don't believe that Games Workshop will keep their oar out the process enough to let it be a good, let alone great, video game.  But who knows, maybe I will be proven wrong.

  • IllyssiaIllyssia Member UncommonPosts: 1,507
    I think the idea of a free-to-play faction an early one and a weak one for an MMO, and especially a PvP-centric one at that. The only way you can make it work is that they access game content, but are paper tigers of characters that you have to upgrade out of anyway. Also, I question how large the PvP is. Will they go for massive scale. That has always been a tricky one. If they are going for small teams up to 10 then balance is much easier, but you lose the feel of massive PvP and are just doing PvP mini-games. Sigh, without more details it is hard to write much about this one. 
  • OzmodanOzmodan Member EpicPosts: 9,726
    It would be great to see a good Warhammer game, but I won't be holding my breath for this title due to past history of anything involving Games Workshop.  Not a lot of MMO experience on this games staff either.  We will just have to wait and see if they can deliver without too much interference from Games Workshop.
  • TsaboHavocTsaboHavoc Member UncommonPosts: 435
    i recommend the ladies to do a research before posting, but here goes, WH40K isnt balanced and the game wont be, they already stated that, do u want a snotling to go toe-on-toe with a space marine, u already have ur game, Wow  and Gw 2 are that way,   Cheese section --->, if u want balance, hold-hand mechanics, killtenrats, insert casual feature here, GTFO.
  • orbitxoorbitxo Member RarePosts: 1,956
    Originally posted by spawn12345

    Sounds good but it will fail.

    f2p mmo with f2p guys can only go one faction? that a disaster right there. There is no way in hell any human can program balance around a mechanic like that. There will be huge inbalance from launch until the game dies.

    seriously sounds like you dont know anything abt the war lore...if you knew   how the orcs mechanics  will take a role in the game is brilliant! = look it up. not gonna do your homework.

    furthermore your comment sounds like a freeloader comment.

     

     

     
  • RusqueRusque Member RarePosts: 2,785

    The WH40K universe needs to be done right, and throwing the idea of balance out from the start is the best chance at that.

    It does seem like this will be more like a MMOTPS without as much world living side stuff. Basically a persistent counter-strike with varied classes.

    It'll feel good when people see a powerful unit on the field and everyone bands together to bring it down. And knowing that it cost that player more money to have that unit only makes it more entertaining.

    It'll be a give and take system, each side will have a range of classes and it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. If it ends up woefully broken and unfun, I'm sure they'll shoot out a patch to mend it. But I have faith in the idea of it all.

    It's not just some generic shooter #8218, it's WH40K, THQ actually did a great job with Space Marine and I really enjoyed playing it, so if this game plays like that on a large scale - I'll be happy.

    I imagine the potential playerbase is quite large as Games Workshop has many fans. And the people who choose to play as any given race/class will do so based on their already chosen favorite.

  • ThaneUlfgarThaneUlfgar Member Posts: 283
    Sounds good. Hopefully this one actually sees the light of day!
  • MibletMiblet Member Posts: 333

    It's not just some generic shooter #8218, it's WH40K, THQ actually did a great job with Space Marine and I really enjoyed playing it, so if this game plays like that on a large scale - I'll be happy.

    I liked the single player game even if I thought it was a little short (not amazing by any means but better than most Game Workshop inspired games), but I was one of the many that had huge issues with the game despite being well over the rec spec, many that were never resolved with THQ telling everyone that had such issues 'it's your fault, deal with it'.  So my experiences with that game are not overly favourable :(

  • describabledescribable Member UncommonPosts: 407

    has to be better than WAR (which was good in concept, but failed in the most basic sense.... how many content updates has it actually had - 1... )

    spent too long trying to get every race a zone area each step of the way, rather than concentrating on the world.. and then filling it with content.  some areas felt rushed, some felt unused (a lot of dwarf areas) and some just didn't quite fit in.

    i won't talk about the awful engine used either... it had so much potential, now all it has is PVP levels and PVP everything.... it's not WAR, it's just "meh"

     

    can't wait to play Eldar...  i just must you know make sacrifices daily so nothing happens to this game.... all the lore and stories in the world can't make a game stand up.

    we know warp spiders are awesome, we know terminator armour gives us goosebumps... but it must be FUN .... rather than "i have to log in, and do this.. and this.. and rhw agfhjdgf hdsgfgsdh"

    hopefully no crafting in this game, not every MMORPG needs crafting... seriously... it doesn't even fit the lore.

    "nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week

  • EvolvedMonkyEvolvedMonky Member Posts: 549
    Originally posted by describable

    has to be better than WAR (which was good in concept, but failed in the most basic sense.... how many content updates has it actually had - 1... )

    spent too long trying to get every race a zone area each step of the way, rather than concentrating on the world.. and then filling it with content.  some areas felt rushed, some felt unused (a lot of dwarf areas) and some just didn't quite fit in.

    i won't talk about the awful engine used either... it had so much potential, now all it has is PVP levels and PVP everything.... it's not WAR, it's just "meh"

     

    can't wait to play Eldar...  i just must you know make sacrifices daily so nothing happens to this game.... all the lore and stories in the world can't make a game stand up.

    we know warp spiders are awesome, we know terminator armour gives us goosebumps... but it must be FUN .... rather than "i have to log in, and do this.. and this.. and rhw agfhjdgf hdsgfgsdh"

    hopefully no crafting in this game, not every MMORPG needs crafting... seriously... it doesn't even fit the lore.

    Maybe not crafting but an item system. I played an online fps once that had a item grind of sorts.

    You could get permanent armor and weapons but you also had to spend in game cash to get mods to improve and specialize said armor and weapons. Also the mod items broke down as you got damaged so it was a cheap item grind that gave you a push to do ur best in a match so you could keep up ur gear.

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  • YuuiYuui Member UncommonPosts: 723
    VERY worried about this. THe company making this so far made only shovelware. 

    # A GRIM, ODD, ARCANE SKY
    # ANY GOD, I MARK SACRED
    # A MASKED CRY ADORING
    # A DREAMY, SICK DRAGON

  • YamotaYamota Member UncommonPosts: 6,593

    Sounds awesome but please let it NOT be a PvE ThemePark but PvP focused either sandbox or MOBA type MMO.

    Sandbox will most likely not happen so rather MOBA style matches than stupid PvE quest based MMO.

  • YamotaYamota Member UncommonPosts: 6,593
    Originally posted by spawn12345

    Sounds good but it will fail.

    f2p mmo with f2p guys can only go one faction? that a disaster right there. There is no way in hell any human can program balance around a mechanic like that. There will be huge inbalance from launch until the game dies.

     

    Yes that sounds like a very odd decision. Even if the F2P characters would be much weaker than the paid characters, that still does not counter the fact that there will be ten times as many of them, atleast.

     
  • MaliceMalice Member UncommonPosts: 9
    First thing dont let mythic or Ea anywhere near it
  • RazephonRazephon Member UncommonPosts: 628

    I really think people don't understand their business model.

    It is a B2P game with the option of F2P. Thats the impression I get from the latest interviews.

    Currently waiting for the MMO industry to put out something good.
  • XiaokiXiaoki Member EpicPosts: 3,821


    Originally posted by Malice
    First thing dont let mythic or Ea anywhere near it
    Second thing: dont let the developers of Naughty Bear or Doritos Crash Course near it.


    ....oh wait, that already happened.

    Seriously, dont get excited, the developer Behaviour Interactive is terrible.

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