Today's patch is addressing a few very specific things, while we prepare for the launch of Free Carnage and the next patch.

1.3.14 Patch highlights are:

- Fix for infinite veteran spawning exploit
- Storm Shields, Looted Umie Armor (Go buy it!), a Pirate hat and such
- Space Marine Venerable Chainswords change color based on faction
- Changed the display name on most Ork items
- Fixed rare server crashes
- Fixed a bug where Gatekeepers Bastion scope could not be toggled
- Fixed the floating Narthecium (AKA the Ghost of Brent AKA Pets)
- Fixed Daemon Bolt, so it is less likely to explode when used next to low cover
- A couple of other exploits and fixes as well.

That's 700+ fixes since we deployed Update 1.3 two weeks ago, which is our usual velocity. Since we're optimizing, fixing, and improving features and functionality, we break things, and we need to iterate on them after people try them out in a Live environment.

Remember to set your region to EU or US unless you want to be matched in both regions. We've also called in some reinforcements for some low-level Melee bugs, and the new world map should be showing up on UAT as well.

Free Carnage Launch, and FAQ

We are in full preparation for the full launch of the free version of Eternal Crusade and the two updated Premium versions.

We've started gathering the FAQ for the free version, and what current players are getting as a thank you from us.

- 20,000 RTC ($20) given to you when you log in the first time after the 1.3 Content Update.
- A Steam giftable and tradable package of the premium version of the game. You can give it to a friend or sell it on the Steam Marketplace.
- The Venerable Items will no longer be available for purchase, unique to you before the transition.
- Something more which will be nice. Maybe bedazzle the old Venerable look?

The people that will buy the new Imperium edition receive instead four faction DLCs. The DLCs can also be bought separately on Steam.

You can check out here difference between the various versions.. As you can see, this isn't a full "Free to Play" conversion, you still have to unlock the game.

The reason for so much being accessible in the free version is that a free player has to be valuable to the paying player. And for a free player to be valuable, he has to have fun.

Likewise, for the free player to have fun and become part of our growing community, a fun experience, and an easy upgrade path has to be there.

It is also because of balancing. One class of one faction would ruin balance and matchmaking. This is, of course, all subject to change, as we'll adapt based on the results from the soft launch of the free version (sometimes called closed beta) and after it launches.

The above are consider "Free Players 101" except we didn't put in a bunch of pay walls. There is only one. Upgrade to Premium. And when you buy those 20,000 RTC or Squadron Edition - which is the same - you get to spend the 20,000 RTC, it's not used to upgrade. It's a threshold you have to pass, nothing else.

As always, you don't have to buy a single thing in the in-game store to get the best stuff, which all comes from playing and we'll continue to keep it that way. More weapon mods and such are constantly being made which makes your in-game weapons even more customizable. Yes, that's why Abaddon's grace was nerfed but still has the fire. We might nerf it again but adding a mod to add fire to your weapons sounds more fun.

Thanks, everyone! Keep the feedback flowing.

Nathan