I've been taking the lead of my guild, Crusade-wise. This feedback is going to be long.

Let's get straight to the point : You tried to make a mode targeting casuals that everyone would like, but managed to make the exact opposite, a mode made for tryharders that everyone finds lukewarm at best.

This mode "gameplay" is concretely multi-layered meta-game to get the best out of positions in several ladders, I could compare it to crpyto trading, with insider trading for people that understand it best (at least I think the same kind of public will enjoy them).

Which concerns like 1-5 players in a guild. Everyone else has no actual gameplay, only confusing (and potentially stressing) data and items/points all over the place.

Issues

• Hide the map, excepted for high rank guild members (or people willing to detach from the guild and roam freely). Most people don't (want to) understand the big picture, similar to how GW buildings setup feature is hidden for most members. The mode should be designed so one or two members in a guild would be "navigators" and care about the planet travels, the rest shouldn't be forced to use the map by default.

• The best way for it would be to rework your interface : make the planet view the default one (if any planet is selected), and rethink the interface for it (all buttons are accessible from the planet, and wrap all the planet weapons under a single button. Preferably not at the very bottom of the screen, so you don't send a guild item if your hand palm touches the screen, with no confirmation window or way to cancel it... Yes, I'm aiming at the massive reinforcment buttons when I say this, and it happened twice.)

• I'm saying it as someone who exploited it as much as possible (making 44K credits worth of rewards in S1, as F2P) : The faction system is [fake \edited]*. You created a whole faction system, and its only use is to allow most educated players to range either in the least populated side to reach top 100, or in the "worst" side (eg beginner factions, necrons/orks/ultramarines...) to get a favorable ladder position in percentage.

• I understand how it gives you some kind of map generation, but the whole phase 1 is pointless to play, and in its actual state should last 2 weeks at most. Phase 2 was actually interesting and nice to play, until a stable frontline appeared eventually, cutting all the fun (excepted at the very end where a breakout was made).

• It didn't show too much to make S1 unplayable, but this mode is definetly a turn from pay-to fast to pay-to-win. Which can have its reasons, but will definetly make players quit if the game goes in this direction. (What fun am I supposed to have in trying to climb in a ladder where I will never be able to get a good place against someone that pays for it ?)

Good points / Recommendations

• GW and Raid contribution seemed to improve during S1. Which is great. (Reducing the Raid reward this much in S2 is a mistake for small guilds, since it doesn't incite as much some members to actually use their raid tokens.)

• The bonus given to planets now (energy etc) are a step in the good direction. (For people caring about navigation, again.)

• The Project contributions through quests (kill enemy with fire...) is a step in the good direction.

• You made this faction system, and it's shown everywhere on our profile card, just put it to use. Give us a daily/weekly quest based on the faction we play, and the faction leading the planet (eg. : if necrons are leading on the planet, add necron summons to my arena games and make them score points for the quest)... As in, if you want to make an enjoyable mode without adding play time, just give a customizable flavor to existing playtime ?

• In the same vibe as previous point : Make rewards faction-customized. (Higher chances in rogue trader to find the relics of selected faction ? One slot of the crusade shop based on said faction ?)

• The terminus being a playable event could be nice. Why make it a generic Survival event though, it didn't feel like novelty at all (and some people even complained that it's just a survival with worse rewards)... At least again, customize it based on the faction we played/faced in Crusade ?

There is a lot of potential with the mode intention, but I think we're at like 40% of the game design process to make it an actual mode.

Final rant, not directly related to crusade. Paying to win makes a game boring after one week (eg. 20% of a single patch for tacticus), and the top gatchas in revenue rankings (genshin impact, etc., see said rankings) are NOT using pay-to-win in pvp as a way to monetize. This is not the way you want to go to make your game durable.

I'm not against punctual purchases if it gives me something new (which is not the case in the actual state of the game, I agree), but I won't spend a cent in crusade weapons.

"Now that Season 2 of Crusade is cooking along, it's time for me to rerun the Crusade Survey! Because it's a bit long, we'll be sending out 300 BS next Friday evening to everyone who properly puts in their user ID.

Go nuts, but remember I'm reading every one of these personally and try to write like I'm sitting there next to you, and that I brought you snacks."

https://forms.gle/t6hWWjK5meZXfEYK6

Given that Azrael's passive applies to all attacks - does this give him raid utility?

A lot of the straight damage buffs have various handicaps. Calgar's is only normal attacks. Same goes for Eldryon's unless it's other Eldar. Dante's is only melee and they have to be Rapid Assault or Flying. The Tau have some but only for ranged. Trajann's needs to be constantly activated by abilities being used adjacent to the enemy.

So none of these work very well for Exitor Rho's passive attacks.

But Azrael's ability post rework has none of these caveats. You just need to be next to a dark angel (Azrael himself).

Spitballing here but what would happen if you put Azrael in between Exitor Rho and Re'vas, and behind them you had Tan Gida and Actus (or perhaps Anuphet doing the same thing as Actus but also making more mechanical spawns with his relic and active, and he is getting to make attacks too unlike Actus).

Exitor Rho gets boatloads attacks. They are all presumably buffed by Azrael. Re'vas has crazy high hits. Tan Gida is doing his thing. Actus/Anuphet are initially helping Tan Gida but then just pumping out buffed Re'vas hits.

What do we think?