Folks,

Woot! Happy, happy Friday everybody! Let’s start with some great news for all of our Alpha and Beta 1 Backers: It’s time for some weekend testing! Check your e-mail later today for confirmation, but the plan right now is to run two separate tests this weekend, one on Saturday, the other on Sunday. So, Welcome Back Weekend Testers!

Besides that, it was a great week for CSE (once we got our power back), and work proceeds swimmingly on a number of fronts. As you can see from today’s Top Tenish list, our game is becoming more game-like every week, and the resumption of weekend tests is further evidence of where we are at and where we are going over the next few months, as we head into Beta 1!

For all the other highlights of the week, let’s hit our Top Tenish!

Top Tenish:

Weekend Testing – Yep! This weekend we will have two scenario tests, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, each for three hours. The build will be the same one that you folks have seen today, but now it will be open at times that work for the vast majority of our Backers’ different time zones. Look for an email from us later today to confirm the test times, but as of now, we are looking at the 12PM-3PM Eastern Time block on both Saturday and Sunday. So, if you haven’t been able to get into our weekday tests, now’s your chance to see what a 100x100x100 battle looks like! And please, if you haven’t been in one of our tests yet, read the document that will accompany the invitation. Especially the parts about the known issues, purpose of the test, and hardware requirements. Testing: We’ve had four days of testing this week, allowing us to find and fix several issues with the help of our Backers. And we get to have fun while doing it in the 100x100x100 deathmatch scenario. We’ve also begun limited testing of our next scenario’s mechanics and map, as well as performance testing of our servers running on GCP (Google Cloud Platform). Tech – Item Health Scripting and Container Support: Christina has added fairly robust support for item health/durability. We will then be able to do things like decrease this value when weapons or items are used for a skill, or make armor lose health when attacked, or make items such as torches lose health when equipped. Additionally, she’s added in support for container “drawer” support. This allows containers to have sub containers, each with their own requirements. Tech – VFX/SFX/Animations on Physics Entities: Thanks to Rob, we can now play VFX, SFX, or animations upon projectile hits. In the short term, this allows us to add these elements to our arrow and siege impacts. Additionally, it makes a big difference to visual feedback and immersion, and is cool and necessary for a real game. Design – Dragon Fang Scenario and VFX/SFX/Animation Debugging: Ben has been busy this week, primarily on two fronts. He’s working with Caleb to test and debug the next scenario map, which uses a capture point, and soon a capture-the-flag mechanic. Additionally, he’s working with Rob to help debug VFX/SFX/Animations issues to improve combat. WIP – Tech – In Game Map: JB has begun work on a map within the UI. While not meant for the release of CU, it will be used to facilitate testing and scenarios during Beta. WIP – Tech/Art – Container and Trade UI: JB, James, and AJ have been working on the art and implementation of new UI updates. The most recent additions are the container UI within the inventory and an updated Trade UI. Art – Characters 2.0: Jon finished the materials on the Arthurian light armor at the start of the week, and will soon move onto the TDD armor rebuilds. Art – New Scenario 2 Environment Models: This week Jon created a very elaborate dragon skull to define one of the capture points on the new map. Today, he’s following that up with a large claw for one of the other points, and a bunch of other skeleton pieces to use on the map. WIP – Art – New Environment Assets: Dionne is staying ahead of Tyler by creating new assets to use in the world of CU. This week, she created a new dried grass set, as well as a new fern set. These assets will first be used in the next scenario map. WIP – Art – Healer SFX: dB has been working through the current healer classes to create SFX events. Additionally, he’s quickly re-hooking up the pre-existing assets to other classes. WIP – Art – VFX: Mike has re-hooked up several classes’ starting abilities after our ability XML refactor, while continuing to improve the look of some of these VFX. This includes improved AOE slash effects, improved body hits, sprint, and different deflect VFX. WIP – Art – New Ability Animations: Following up on Ben’s new designs, Scott, Sandra, and Joe have been working on new animations, one for each class. We’re using these new skills to make more dynamic animations, VFX, and SFX. This work will inform quality changes we want to make to existing animations to improve the look and feel of combat. WIP – Art – VFX and Capture the Flag Concepting: Michelle continues her long trek through over 30 different types of skill effects. We’ll use this work later in the new abilities previously mentioned. Additionally, she’s begun work on the various models we’ll need in the new scenario, like capture points, and the “flag.”

For art this week, we start off with a WIP video from Scott of the Black Knight’s Void Slash ability. This video covers the initial “block out” where we focus on the posing, then goes into a rough pass of the timing.



Jon has finished his update to the Arthurian medium and light armor. Later, the animators will rig these to test out the meshes and improve them for animation needs.





On the smaller side of things, Dionne put together a new grass set, which we’ll use in the next map.



For the next scenario map, we decided to create some unique assets to differentiate the capture points from one another. Ben created this wonderfully simple placeholder block out of a dragon skull.



However, Jon saw something much grander, and came up with this:





Next, we have some styling work on the container UI from James.



And lastly for art progress this week, we have some sketches from Michelle of possible capture-the-flag assets in the next scenario.



A whole lot of art this week as we work through our Beta 1 goals, and look for opportunities to improve some extra work along the way.