Unveiled: Camelot Unchained Newsletter #61 - City State Entertainment View this email in your browser Share Tweet Team Tidings -by Max Porter Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate the holiday! May your turkeys be tender and your bellies full. Check out this amazing image drawn by Kara (Inkheart)! We’ve been busy working on Camelot Unchained® this month, pushing forward progress on art, tech, gameplay, and all the fronts required to make a great game. We have some art to show you, many updates to give (check out the monthly update companion to this newsletter!), and articles to share insight with you! This is all part of our new update schedule, where we have gone monthly, replacing the weekly updates. Hopefully, this gives you a big, juicy (turkey day reference!) update to enjoy!



And now (drumroll please) we have some CU art to show you, with words from Michelle!



Michelle:

The world continues to expand and grow. The concept artists have been expanding not only on the environment, but what lives within those environments and the Realms. In our big monthly update, we have some birds of prey among the Realms to look at, and here I give you wild boar exploration, from species that might be found commonly to the rarely seen! We are keeping in mind that a good variety of species will lend itself to the variety of materials, such as leather, and justify those materials in crafting.

It’s not only what lives within our world getting an expansion, but the skies as well, and the events such as the chaotic, magical Veilstorms that appear. Veilstorms are getting art love, with new discovery and exploration into not only the look and mood these events cause, but how they may function and affect the lands they appear over. As MJ talked about in the update, this concept work is more than “just” concept art: George and Andrew are working with me (Michelle) to get the tech we need to bring these concepts to life in our game.



A pair of sky scenes concepted here by myself (Michelle) are seen below, and more can be found in our recent big update!

Here’s a sample of concept exploration from Kara of possible functions and effects Veilstorms might have.

For the players, the armory continues to grow. Through the month, the art team has continued working on sculpting and texturing a variety of medium armor pieces in particular.



There’s a TDD medium armor helm (among other things) showcased in the big update, but here is a peek from the development of the next TDD helm coming down the line! Thanks, Michelle!





We’re heading into the holiday season here, and looking forward to spending time with friends, family, and the cold weather in beautiful downtown Fairfax, Va. However, we’ll be working very hard through the end of the year and into the next, so keep an eye out for even more progress as time goes on! Additionally, on behalf of the whole studio on both coasts and elsewhere, thank you for your support, your patience, and your enthusiasm for Camelot Unchained. It means the world to us that you take an interest, and we hope you’ll think of us fondly this holiday season as well.



This issue of Unveiled contains several articles for you to gobble up (somebody stop me with these Thanksgiving jokes), so dive right in for a view into our thought process and development! We have a Game Tech Update from Mark, detailing a major feature that we can use to great effect in CU. That’s followed by a Dose of Design from Ben on Fabricating Fiction in games, and of course a Community update from Brian in the CMsphere!



Speaking of Community and updates, I have continued to stream Morning with Max this month every Monday and Friday morning, and we have just streamed a live update in our new monthly format! Have a nibble on all those streams, stuffed (yep, still going) with great information!



If you want to catch up on any missed streams, they can always be found on our Twitch and YouTube channels. For a good read of our updates and newsletters, check out the News section of our website.



Let’s move on to the next course of this delicious newsletter! As usual, please bear with my reminder to click the “view this email in your browser” link in the top right to see the whole thing. Read on for updates, articles, thoughts, news, and more, and please enjoy this, the sixty-first issue of Unveiled. Game Tech Update -by Mark Jacobs What the heck is Overmind, and why am I talking about it?

Overmind is, as the name implies, the system that watches over the game and makes decisions based on conditions in the world. It’s not AI in the traditional sense, but rather a very powerful scripting system that is a mixture of spreadsheets and code which essentially tells the Overmind what to look for in the world and to react accordingly. It is relatively easy for designers such as Ben and me to work with and employ in making certain types of games—such as, say, Camelot Unchained.



While the idea of a scripting system like this for games goes back to the MUDs, this system is both far more powerful and easier to use than any system I’ve seen and worked with in the past. Although more powerful systems do exist, you would usually need programming skills to get the most out of them. That’s the difference with our system. While designers can add their own code, designers can access so much through just the main spreadsheet alone that designer-written code is a tiny part of how designers can use Overmind going forward. And that is a very, very important consideration when you are thinking about such things as readability (can a new person understand what is going on), maintainability (how easy it is to work with), and expandability (moar features, I want MOAR!). We are building out the Unchained Engine and Camelot Unchained for the future, not just for the present, and having Overmind will be an important part of CSE’s future plans.



Now, what does all the above mean for Camelot Unchained? Well, let’s start with some examples of what you can do in Overmind right now. Overmind uses the concept of phases, discrete sections of code that can be activated/deactivated depending on conditions in the world. A simple example would be something like having a clock’s bell ring a certain number of times based on the hour of the day (like I said, simple). We could also accompany that with VFX or other fun things, but again, let’s keep it simple. This bit of scripting could be done all within a spreadsheet, without the designers needing to do one bit of code. This phase will activate based on conditions set up in the spreadsheet, and then deactivate until it is needed again. Again, simple as can be.



Now, let’s kick that up a bit. Let’s say that if it’s midnight, that you set off some VFX as well. And let’s spawn some townspeople to cheer when that happens. And then, one minute later, they disappear. Again, still simple, and all of this can be done through a spreadsheet, not a scripting system which would require the designer to learn how to code. Here, the designer simply needs to enter some numbers in a spreadsheet.



Okay, let’s kick it up some more. Let’s say that we want to set off a one-time home island invasion by lots of NPCs. Well, once again we use the built-in timers in a phase, so that at, say, scenario startup plus 5 minutes, we’ll start spawning NPCs all over the place. Easy-peasy stuff. But let’s also say we want to begin altering the types and numbers of the NPCs based on how many of them are being killed. Once again, this too is already built into Overmind.



Now, with the battle raging, after enough NPCs/players have been killed, we want to make it more interesting, so we’ll set off some weather effects (not in yet). Overmind will be able to do that as well. And if the chaos/killing lasts more than, say, 15 minutes, we can kick off a Veilstorm to fly through the area, inflicting death and destruction in its wake. Yep, Overmind will be able to do that as well.



But wait, there’s more. We have already built into Overmind the ability to control the NPCs and change their behavior on the fly. Now, while we don’t want Overmind to make decisions for your typical Draugr-type undead, we might want it to be able to make group decisions (attack that keep or that defense tower). We will want it to be able to make decisions for the leaders of the NPCs, based on certain conditions that are understood by Overmind. We also have the ability for Overmind to make RNG-based decisions to change things up a bit. One example would be if you had a number of small keeps guarding a larger castle, and Overmind would send the NPCs to randomly pick the order that the towers are attacked, or even to skip that step and run straight for the tower. A nice feature to have, right?



Now, this short write-up only talks about some of the things Overmind can already do. We have things like messaging, logging, and other things also already built into Overmind, with more coming every week. And even as it gets more powerful, it retains the same easy-to-use interface, which was something I asked for when we went into production on this feature. And that interface, which does not rely on engineers to use, will ensure that Ben, me, and other designers will be able to more quickly set up world events—which can be from the simplest of clock chiming to the complicated nature of The Depths—much more quickly and easily than we would have without it. And since we can also load/edit/reload this on the fly, it will not require programmer intervention, new builds, etc. as we iterate on this very powerful and necessary addition to the Unchained Engine and Camelot Unchained. The small team that worked on building out Overmind has done an absolutely fantastic job on delivering a ton of power to our hands in a very short amount of time. Christina, who has been leading the charge on the engineering side (she is also our Lead Gameplay Engineer and has been awesome at that as well), along with Spidey and others, have met the design needs/goals in a very timely manner. Kudos to them for making this all possible!



As you can see, Overmind is a welcome addition to our tech stack, and its impact on Camelot Unchained cannot easily be overstated. And again, while scripting systems have been a thing since the MUD days, the combination of power and ease-of-use is something that we hope will be immensely valuable as we continue on our slow, but ever-forward, path to releasing Camelot Unchained.



For those that celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you enjoy it. For those that simply have the time off, I hope you can spend it with friends/family or doing something you enjoy. I will be with my family and some folks from CSE as well.



As always, we thank you for your patience and support. Hot Topics



We're looking for feedback! If you're a Backer, join the discussion on our Forums via our website and chime in.



Hot topics on the forums right now include the new update format, plans for the future, NPCs, release dates, and of course, all the things people are finding in testing! Come join the discussion and participate in our thriving Community! Dose of Design -by Ben Pielstick Fabricating Fiction

While working on design within a fictional setting such as fantasy or science fiction, it might be easy to imagine that you can simply make up whatever you want. While this is basically true, there are some guidelines that can help make an imaginary setting internally consistent, and more immersive for players.



The biggest thing to start off with is what source material you have to work from. Nothing gets created in total isolation. Even if you’re entirely free to make up your own setting, you’re bound to still take inspiration from a few or several major influencing sources, to blend together in your own way and create something different and new.



Generally it is best to have more rather than fewer sources. Otherwise you risk being too close to your source material, or too generic in the case of a more general source. For example, if you decide that you really like Star Wars, and you make your own world full of bad guys in white plastic armor, force magic, and laser swords, you’re not only going to risk copyright infringement, but you’re also most likely not going to create something nearly as interesting as if you had included a few more sources of inspiration. Continuing with this example, if you took elements of Star Wars and combined them with vampires, Machiavellian philosophy, and the 1929 stock market crash, you might come up with something that is more unique.



This is largely the same in any setting, even if you don’t have to worry about copyright infringement from any of your main sources. How then is it best to decide what sources to use in the first place? While in some cases a lot of research goes into this kind of decision, including competitive analysis and demographic research, the simplest way to pick a source to use is to follow the ‘rule of cool’. That is to say, if you look around at some possibilities of things you could take inspiration from and have a hard time deciding, pick the ones you feel will make the most awesome result. What really gets you excited? What are you going to be able to make the players you expect to play your game excited by? What is going to get the most attention when your game comes out in the midst of a hundred other newly released titles all vying for players’ attention?



This isn’t exactly very scientific, and you might do better to put more research into your big foundational source decisions, but keep in mind, you’re going to be making stuff up, ranging from a very high level to a very low level. You’re not only going to have to decide the entire high level setting for your game, but what your player’s boots look like, the color of the roof on their house, and what kinds of things they eat. Trying to hyper-analyze every decision would be too taxing, and so in many cases its best to just go with what sounds like the most fun to you and your colleagues on your project.



One hazard of simply picking whatever sounds the coolest all the time is compromising internal consistency. Even though it is great to put as many cool things into your imaginary world as possible, there is some measure of suspended disbelief that should be maintained in order to make the setting comprehensible. Too many disjointed elements will quickly become confusing, so it is often important to identify the main influences early on, and to what extent they affect your setting. For example, maybe you identify an architectural style that you like, and then make all of the buildings shared by a given culture in your world share elements of that style. This would almost certainly be better than making every building something cool but completely different, with no unifying style that helps players understand your world.



Even when working with largely historical sources, a significant amount of making stuff up is often required. Most games are not meant to be simulations, and even highly realistic games require some level of abstraction in order to facilitate players using a different display and interface than they would probably experience when doing the same thing in the real world. In a lot of cases, it may be important to players that you get the major details right, but when it comes to things you simply can’t accomplish, due to either a lack of source material or technological limitations, some fabricated elements have to be accepted, which again goes back to picking the coolest possible thing you can find to fill in the gaps.



As you look at what we’re doing with Camelot Unchained, you will see a lot of historical elements present for each of the three Realms. Additionally, you will see a lot of other influences that help make the setting more fantasy-themed. Whether those are taken from the myths and legends of actual historical cultures, or influenced by more modern sources, we do our best to pick out what we think will make the game the most fun, and put it together in a way that still feels cohesive and highly thematic, especially when it comes to a different look and feel for each Realm. If you’re interested in seeing how these elements come together, keep an eye on our art updates, and pay special attention to what makes things like the armor and weapons of each Realm special and unique. Developer Quote “There will be nothing on the market like [Camelot Unchained] based on what we’ve seen to date. That doesn’t mean we’ll be the “best game evar!” but we have a lot of unique and risky things we’re trying to put together into one game.” -- Mark Jacobs CMsphere -by Brian Ward Greetings to you out there in community land! It was excellent to see so many of you pop in during last month’s State of the Game livestream. We hope that you’re enjoying the new switch to monthly instead of weekly updates. For us, this change is something that eases a bit of the pressure off of production so that we can focus on the things that really matter in providing deliverables to you.



For this month’s CMSphere, I thought it would it would be fun to look back and highlight some C.U.B.E. builds that you all have created from throughout the year, as we’ll be wrapping up 2019 very soon.



The C.U.B.E.st of 2019



“Piazza della Repubblica” by Scott Florence

Just a few months ago, I called out this beautiful replica of the famous building located in Florence, built by a prolific Backer of the same name.

“Blacksmith” by Scott Florence

During one of the NuadaPrep playtests, Scott Florence dropped this build onto the Contested Isle. I loved it so much that I spun the servers up the next day to get some beauty shots of it.

“Stone-Walled House” by Deloim

The bulky, oversized structures that Deloim has been creating, often with very fine wall detailing and unique interiors, really caught my attention. Great work!

“Basilica of Santa Maria Novella” by Scott Florence

Our Mr. Florence isn’t done recreating real-world buildings in CU! Here’s a day-night cycle timelapse he created.

“Towers and Town Walls” by MumbleFish

MumbleFish has been busy creating an entire town. Hunco commented, “I would have been just as impressed with just a shot of that windmill.”

“Cherry Keep” by Treville

Finally, I could not make a list of the Highlights of 2019 C.U.B.E. Creations without including the namesake of The Siege of Cherry Keep, so here it is in all its glory:

What will you create?

There’s still a whole month left in 2019, and we can’t wait to see what things people will make in the new year. Share your creations with us in the Beta 1 C.U.B.E. Creations forum and we may even feature your build in the newsletter. Thanks for all your continued creativity and dedication to the cause! State of the Build -by Max Porter Hey folks, this section is changing up a bit, as we are changing our updating process.



Welcome to a summary of the highlights (of the highlights) from the month’s progress! If you want the biggest, juiciest slices of the monthly update pie, well here you go, with a scoop of ice cream on top.



These items are only a small selection of what got done, and we shared the big list with you in the monthly livestream. Check it out there, or in the monthly update email going out!



Gameplay: WIP - Gameplay - The Skald - The last but not least of Camelot Unchained’s support classes, the Skald, is in its final stages of internal testing. The Skald is the only support class with a melee weapon, The Harmonic Frostaxe, making it more of a frontline fighter and not one that lurks in the back of the fight. Using a combination of damage shouts, buffs, and debuffs, in addition to its melee abilities, the Skald should be a force multiplier on the battlefield. We are in the process of cleaning up some ability bugs, but we hope to have this class available for Backer testing shortly after our Thanksgiving break. Please note that the initial release of the Skald will have placeholder animations for some abilities.

Infrastructure: WIP - Infrastructure - Texture Building - Cheyne has been working on improving our build pipeline for textures and materials. This includes a tool that will allow programmers to easily experiment with how textures are compiled together for use in-game. In particular, Cheyne is hoping to use this tool to improve mipmap calculation. This will improve how textures look at a distance and will also reduce specular aliasing (the flickering artifacts on some shiny materials).

Cheyne has been working on improving our build pipeline for textures and materials. This includes a tool that will allow programmers to easily experiment with how textures are compiled together for use in-game. In particular, Cheyne is hoping to use this tool to improve mipmap calculation. This will improve how textures look at a distance and will also reduce specular aliasing (the flickering artifacts on some shiny materials). WIP- Infrastructure - Transparency Improvements (AOIT) - We have implemented a new system for blending transparent objects in our game. This system eliminates the artifacts you could see where our large draw distances and high dynamic range would cause bright particles and other partially transparent objects to discolor the background behind them. This is also an order-independent system, which keeps most of the advantages of the old system, allowing us to draw our scenes quickly in single large chunks and free of sorting-order artifacts.

Tech Improvements: WIP - Tech - Overmind - Work continues apace on our version of Skynet for the Unchained Engine. New features have been added to its core functionality and it continues on its march to taking almost complete control over a game. Fortunately, we can always count on code working as intended, so we have nothing to worry about, right? :)

Work continues apace on our version of Skynet for the Unchained Engine. New features have been added to its core functionality and it continues on its march to taking almost complete control over a game. Fortunately, we can always count on code working as intended, so we have nothing to worry about, right? :) WIP - Tech - NPC Behaviors - Over a short period of time, NPCs have gone through a great number of improvements. At the forefront, the processing update time of running the NPC behavior trees themselves has been cut by nearly 5 times by making a uniform system for target selection. This also allows NPCs to track multiple types of targets, similar to players’ ally and enemy targeting, and lets NPCs determine when placed damage-able items (siege engines, fortifications, dragon's web placements, etc) are blocking their path, which means NPCs are now able to attack those items as well. Core behaviors have been updated using the support of nested behavior trees, allowing NPCs to use new shared core behaviors, while using specific combat behaviors to better support their individual classes. New core behaviors continue to be developed to support advancing scenario tech, which includes easier design control on when NPC should try to capture an objective, defend specific locations on the map, and find and attack the closest enemy.

Over a short period of time, NPCs have gone through a great number of improvements. At the forefront, the processing update time of running the NPC behavior trees themselves has been cut by nearly 5 times by making a uniform system for target selection. This also allows NPCs to track multiple types of targets, similar to players’ ally and enemy targeting, and lets NPCs determine when placed damage-able items (siege engines, fortifications, dragon's web placements, etc) are blocking their path, which means NPCs are now able to attack those items as well. Core behaviors have been updated using the support of nested behavior trees, allowing NPCs to use new shared core behaviors, while using specific combat behaviors to better support their individual classes. New core behaviors continue to be developed to support advancing scenario tech, which includes easier design control on when NPC should try to capture an objective, defend specific locations on the map, and find and attack the closest enemy. WIP - Tech - Navmesh - Our custom Navmesh and Pathfinding system has achieved a major milestone. With the 2D (terrain) feature set now working, we are finishing the 3D capabilities that round out the full system. Lee has been working very hard on this, and is now joined by MikeD to help drive things home. The focus has turned to performance optimization and bug fixing. Once finished, we will have full support for NPC navigation in our complex, real-time and destruction-rich environments, from tight corridors and stairways in multi-level structures, to dense forests and rough terrain. We are very proud of this system, and look forward to bringing it to our players very soon.

Our custom Navmesh and Pathfinding system has achieved a major milestone. With the 2D (terrain) feature set now working, we are finishing the 3D capabilities that round out the full system. Lee has been working very hard on this, and is now joined by MikeD to help drive things home. The focus has turned to performance optimization and bug fixing. Once finished, we will have full support for NPC navigation in our complex, real-time and destruction-rich environments, from tight corridors and stairways in multi-level structures, to dense forests and rough terrain. We are very proud of this system, and look forward to bringing it to our players very soon. WIP - Tech - Knockback - Matt has been working very hard on a knockback system that will add a lot of excitement to combat in the game. With both melee and projectile-based knockback undergoing successful internal testing, we're having fun sending enemies flying with powerful slams and smashes, and explosive arrows. Following some polish and optimization, we're excited to bring this system to our players very soon.

Matt has been working very hard on a knockback system that will add a lot of excitement to combat in the game. With both melee and projectile-based knockback undergoing successful internal testing, we're having fun sending enemies flying with powerful slams and smashes, and explosive arrows. Following some polish and optimization, we're excited to bring this system to our players very soon. WIP - Tech - Ragdoll - MikeD completed our Ragdoll 1.0 system, which we've been testing internally for a few weeks now. Aside from providing unlimited variation in entity death poses (and reactive corpses!), the system supports partial ragdoll effects on limbs and other body parts, allowing knockback and other effects to produce realistic physical responses to the forces acting on entities.We expect ragdoll to land soon after we complete our internal testing!

All About Art: WIP - Tech/Art - Skybowl/SkyDome - Having a great sky and backdrop can be an immersive and enjoyable experience for players. This is something that was brought home to me when I (MJ) first experienced one of my favorite games of all time, Knights of the Old Republic. I want our players to feel the same way about this game, and well, take it up a notch or two. To that end, Michelle and George have been working out concepts for the sky and the backdrop that will look great. Andrew is also jumping in to lend his technical and artistic guidance as well. This is the beginning of that journey for CU. One of my personal goals is to have one of the most memorable skydome/skybowl in any game to date. I don’t want people to feel like they are “just” playing a game, I want them to feel they are in a real world.

Having a great sky and backdrop can be an immersive and enjoyable experience for players. This is something that was brought home to me when I (MJ) first experienced one of my favorite games of all time, Knights of the Old Republic. I want our players to feel the same way about this game, and well, take it up a notch or two. To that end, Michelle and George have been working out concepts for the sky and the backdrop that will look great. Andrew is also jumping in to lend his technical and artistic guidance as well. This is the beginning of that journey for CU. One of my personal goals is to have one of the most memorable skydome/skybowl in any game to date. I don’t want people to feel like they are “just” playing a game, I want them to feel they are in a real world. Concept art - Snow monsters - Adding more depth within the world biomes. These odd ice and snow monstrosities are the creation of freezing cold fronts that coat the lush evergreens in rime (frost). MJ got the inspiration to add these to the game from an article he read about Zao Onsen in the Prefecture of Yamagata in Japan, and the art team was happy to oblige. Between the heavy winds and the sheets of ice, storms bend and distort normal ol’ mountain forests into something fantastical that will create memorable landmarks in the game and something cool to find within the environment. Final Note -by Max Porter Hey there reader, thanks for reading all the way to the end of Unveiled number sixty-one. As our updates have changed and grown, so too has the newsletter evolved, yet it continues to be a pleasure to put together. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this issue as much as I have in collating, editing, and writing it. Let’s look forward to another great newsletter coming up! As always, thank you for your patience and your kindness, your generosity and your interest. Let’s keep making a cool game! That’s all from us for now, so -- Max out!