A June Bride and Groom and an Update Too!

Folks,

Happy Thursday, all. This is a rare Thursday update, since a lot of the studio will be out of the office tomorrow, heading down south to celebrate the wedding of our very own “Demolition Man” Rob, and his fiancée, Taylor. A good time will be had by all, and rather than wait till next week for the update, we thought we would do it today, instead.

Before we get to our game, I want to take a moment and point our Backers toward one of the folks who has been doing streams about our game/studio. You know him as eLdritch, AKA Cloaking Donkey, and he has launched a Patreon. His videos are highly entertaining, and from what we’ve seen already, he isn’t afraid to speak his mind! So, you might want to drop by the Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/cloakingdonkey?ty=h.

Another couple of excellent weeks are on the books. The new programmers are happily churning out code, as per the User Stories, and the art team is bringing the world to life with new weapons, armor, and animations. Our multiple “Gifting Tier Tests” also went quite well, and we hope to have another test next week. I don’t want to say we’ve almost completed our work on that, but we are awfully close. Given the size, and yes, complexity, of our User Story approach, we’ve decided to also add a TL;DR opening to these updates. So, here we go:

HIGHLIGHTS

18 old cards with 99 completes.

4 new cards with 31 completes.

Today’s Top Ten List:

Fixed threading problem with building loading. Improved terrain generation speed. Improved performance when placing large blueprints. Global reduction of chance of hitching. Long-requested plateau mod in testing. Landed first pass of building with curved surfaces. Lots of movement in re-abilitation – First pass of knockback, armor resistances, block, animation sets for different weapons, multi-stage skills, channeling, ability builder, damage to buildings, collision volumes like fire wall, and counter attack. Several quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes for the next C.U.B.E. push. Progress on groups UI. Progress on C.U.B.E. UI update.

And here’s the full list:

Old Cards:

As a Backer, I’d like to see general improvements in C.U.B.E.’s interface and functionality.

C.U.B.E. version selectable in map selection window. – Complete

Block selection UI shows the Substance and Shape ID’s separately for swapping. – Complete

Keyboard-moveable ghost blocks. – Complete

Blueprint naming supports longer names with additional text characters. – Complete

Add commands to swap block shapes and substances (including blueprints) as an additional safeguard for players when devs make changes. – Complete

Add ability to rotate all blocks selected. – Complete

Gizmos color coded to world space direction. (X, Y, Z) – Complete

Undo and redo. – Complete

As a Backer, I’d like to play in a procedurally-created environment. – Part Four.

Create Plateau Mod – Complete

As a Backer, I’d like to play in new biomes that change according to Realm ownership. – Biome 01

Ambient SFX – Daytime-specific pine forest. – Complete

SFX: Pine needle footsteps. – Complete

As a Backer, I’d like to play in new biomes that change according to Realm ownership. – Biome 04

Neutral – Additional medium assets – fern sets x2 – Complete

Concept Pass: Neutral unique assets. – Complete

Second Concept Pass: Neutral unique assets. – Complete

As a Backer, I’d like to know about smaller changes that don’t have their own user story.

Create an in-game free cam mode with speed control. – Complete

Player character can be controlled independently of free cam. – Complete

Free cam can do a 360° rotation around a pivot, independent of player control. – Complete

As a Backer, I’d like to see the world of Camelot Unchained continue to develop through its lore.

The Great Depths Raid Part 4 – Final Draft – Complete

As a Backer, I’d like the movement sounds of my character to convey the gear I’m wearing, my race, as well as the environment I’m in.

TDD SFX: Light armor cape foley. – Complete

Viking SFX: Light armor cape foley. – Complete

As a Developer and Backer, I’d like to see improvements in memory usage and threading.

First pass compression of building vertices to reduce memory. – Complete

Improve performance when placing very large blueprints. – Complete

Global reduction in instances of hitching by moving several async threading cases to ParLL. – Complete

Server fix for building and ParLL changes – Complete

Improve load times and terrain generation by moving async threading cases to ParLL. – Complete

As a Developer, I’d like to have a selection of weapons that visually represent each Realm’s identity. – Arthurians

First Pass Concept Art: Small shields. – Complete

Small shields: First Pass planning mix and match parts system. – Complete

First Pass Concept Art: Large shields. – Complete

Large shields: First Pass planning mix and match parts system. – Complete

One-handed axe – V2 – High Quality “epic”: Modeling pass. – Complete

Additional shields concept pass on materials, decals, emblems, and parts for pipeline audit. – Complete

As a Developer, I’d like to have a selection of weapons that visually represent each Realm’s identity. – TDD

One-handed spears – V1: Modeling pass. – Complete

First Pass Concept Art: Small shields. – Complete

Small shields: First Pass planning mix and match parts system. – Complete

First Pass Concept Art: Large shields. – Complete

Large shields: First Pass planning mix and match parts system. – Complete

One-handed axe – V2 – High Quality “epic”: Modeling pass. – Complete

First Pass Concept Art: TDD spears. – Complete

As a Developer, I’d like to have a selection of weapons that visually represent each Realm’s identity. – Viking

First Pass Concept Art: One handed Viking hammers. – Complete

One-handed hammers: First Pass planning mix and match parts system. – Complete

One-handed hammer – V1: Modeling pass. – Complete

First Pass Concept Art: Small shields. – Complete

Small shields: First Pass planning mix and match parts system. – Complete

First Pass Concept Art: Large shields. – Complete

Large shields: First Pass planning mix and match parts system. – Complete

One-handed axe – V2 – High Quality “epic”: Modeling pass. – Complete

As a Backer in Beta 1, I’d like to be able to pick an item up off the ground, put it in my inventory, and if applicable, equip it.

SFX: Torch loop. – Complete

As a Backer, I would like to be able to give to my friends and family the extra tiers that come with my pledge.

Additional testing. – Complete

More testing and useability feedback tweaks. – Complete

Update tier art to reflect additional, giftable, tiers included. – Complete

As a Developer, I’d like the Camelot Unchained ability system to fully support the design scope of the game for B1.

Damage converted into an arithmetic expression to facilitate stacking buffs, debuffs, and modifiers. – Complete

Damage modifier buff/debuff added. – Complete

First Pass: block. – Complete

First Pass: counter attack. – Complete

First Pass: knockback. – Complete

First Pass: working equipment resistances. – Complete

Convert all prototypes to craftable skill nodes (except block/counter and projectile/wall) – Complete

First Pass: Ability builder UI functional. – Complete

First Pass: Character transitions between animation sets when applicable. (different weapon types, running, swimming, etc.) – Complete

First Pass: Hook up animations to draw and sheathe weapons. – Complete

First Pass skillnode design and implementation – Gives user the ability to build abilities. – Complete

First Pass skill queueing system to support multi-stage skills and channeling of skills. – Complete

New entity component model:

Componentize physics entities projectiles and trigger volumes. – Complete

Improve entity lookup and targeting for abilities. – Complete

Hook up physics events to ability system. – Complete

Remove TargetDummy entity. – Complete

Remove Combatant entity. – Complete

Player entity 90% componentized. – Complete

As a Developer, I’d like to improve the visual fidelity and speed of creation of our art assets through the investigation, and possible use of, new third party software.

Procedural material creation and pipeline documentation:

Replicate IOR -> SpecMask helper inside editor. – Complete

Example files: Hybrid materials which use PSD resources. – Complete

Example files: Height map graphs. – Complete

As a Backer, I’d like to build with curved surfaces in C.U.B.E. and Camelot Unchained.

Merge to main:

Mesh simplification, geometry issues addressed. – Complete

Find and fix small issues with grid lines. – Complete

Find and fix issue with square morph off by one. – Complete

Increase size of gizmo count UI. – Complete

Release:

Morphs in which multiple locations correspond to the same physical space. – Complete

Additional Stretch Goals:

Improve math for transforming selected range, min corner. – Complete

As a Backer in Beta 1, I’d like the new classes, weapons, and abilities to be supported by their animations.

Combat Locomotion:

Right and left hand holding two-handed longsword – offensive stance. – Complete

Swim Secondary:

Swim movement – 45 – Complete

Swim movement – 90 – Complete

Swim movement – 135 – Complete

Swim movement – 180 – Complete

Swim movement – 225 – Complete

Swim movement – 270 – Complete

Swim movement – 315 – Complete

Combat Flinch:

Right and left hand on two-handed staff/polearm/spear. – Complete

Right hand spear with left hand empty. – Complete

Combat Death:

Right and left hand on two-handed staff/polearm/spear. – Complete

Right hand spear with left hand empty. – Complete

As a Backer, I’d like to know about all the smaller enhancements the MOD Squad makes to Camelot Unchained.

Sound effects for all the buttons in the patcher

Fix server selection locking up channel select sometimes on the patcher – Complete

Remember last character & server selections on the patcher – Complete

Sort channels and servers. Hide localhost from showing up for non-CSE users on the server list – Complete

Sort characters listed on patcher by last login date and display last login date – Complete

Auto-select new character after creation so that you can click play and immediately log in to the newly created character. – Complete

Add character deletion to the patcher – Complete

Redesign character selection & creation side panel on the patcher. Now has buttons for create, delete of characters – Complete

Fix formatting for long server names. – Complete

Prevent exceptions when sound is missing on the patcher – Complete

CSE Message of the Day UI module added to the game to display upon login. – Complete

New Cards:

As a Developer, I’d like the Camelot Unchained store to be consistent with the identity and design of the updated website.

Design:

Mock up concepts for new layout of store. 2-4 samples. – Complete

Define our identity as the CSE store or CU store. – Complete

Design the look of the store after wireframe of the site is decided. – Complete

Mock up final example of the site for review. – Complete

As a Developer, I’d like an automated system that can find data related bugs before they become a problem.

Pick a name for the new system. – “Robocop!” – Complete

Create a library to contain the validation items – Complete

Robocop runs a “sting operation” that catches bad materials being assigned to terrain. – Complete

Robocop runs a query that returns all of the materials used in a zone. – Complete

As a Backer, I want to seamlessly move between islands and zones without being aware that I’m moving between different game servers.

Audit NetworkWindow:

Move netClient and worldState from NetworkWindow to NetworkedWorld. – Complete

Clean up NetClient references in various classes (e.g. BuildingController). – Complete

Change netClient to a collection and handle, connecting to multiple servers. – Complete

Handle loading zones. – Complete

As a Backer in Beta 1, I’d like to play in a Party, or Guild – UI.

Health & Status UI Components:

6 body parts health – Complete

Blood – Complete

Stamina – Complete

Panic bar – Complete

Temperature bar – Complete

Active effects (buffs / debuffs) – Complete

Class icon – Complete

Portrait – Complete

HUD:

Draggable elements – Complete

Resizeable elements – Complete

Save out & reload element settings between sessions – Complete

Player Health Widget:

Full Size – Complete

Mini Size – Complete

Target Health Widget:

Full Size – Complete

Mini Size – Complete

Party Widget:

Full Size party health components – Complete

Mini size party health components – Complete

SignalR Client – For live real-time data:

SignalR Client connection – Complete

SignalR Server:

Party Hub – Complete

In terms of the enforced diet our code has gone on: we have pruned 12,000 lines of code from our server, increased performance, added lots of new functionality (as per the highlights/User Stories), and are close to getting all of the old functionality back into the game.

In terms of art, lots to see today. Let’s start with some new stills of one of our swimming animations.

And what happened to that brave and foolish man in armor when he tried to swim? Let’s find out.

But before you can swim and drown, you should be wearing things, holding things, and just, well, doing things. Here are some WIP pieces of things. First up, some Arthurian axes.

Next, a spear of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

And one of the unique weapons (meaning the other Realms don’t have them) of the Vikings is, of course, a hammer. Here’s a work-in-progress.

And what’s useful to have, when one is confronted by a spear? A nice set of shiny new armor! In this case, Arthurian style.

Armor is great, of course, but having a shield might be helpful too. Here are some concept pieces for shields. First up, the Arthurians.

Pretty much what you might expect from that Realm. Pay close attention to the shields of all three Realms, especially around the middle.

And for our Viking friends, some nice sturdy shields as well.

And now, for something completely different, shields for the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Notice some similarities between the shields? Maybe around the middle and the edges? Well, that’s on purpose, because our crafters will have a lot of leeway in crafting these shields when it comes to customizing them for individuals, guilds, etc., both in terms of their looks and their special properties.

Here’s a look at how we will be building a lot of different shields, using the same base model but getting a lot of different shields from them with only the use of the edging.

And let us take a break from weapons and armor to move on to something, well, a bit prettier. Here’s a bit of concept work on some of the trees you’ll be seeing inside the game in a couple of weeks.

Our awesome concept artist, animator, queen of the ducklings, and comic strip writer whipped up another one for your enjoyment. This comic, like so many of the others, is a true story from CSEland. It’s pretty funny and true.

Here’s a couple of shots in our Chrome dev environment from C.U.B.E., with our new UI in place. These are NOT in-game shots yet, but we thought you’d like to see where we are going with them. Quite a change from our default, right?

Let’s end today’s update with something that I know the vast majority of our Backers have been waiting for: the ability to group with other players. Here’s a shot in our Chrome dev environment, with a group made up of JB, JB, and even more JB. I’m surprised that the world didn’t end, since there was so much JB in it. 🙂

Next stop, it goes in game! There’s a lot of interesting info to be gleaned from these screenshots about grouping, health bars, etc., so…

That’s it for now. Enjoy your weekend, all!

-Mark