Unveiled: Camelot Unchained Newsletter #33 - City State Entertainment View this email in your browser Share Tweet +1 Team Tidings -by Max Porter Hey folks,



Happy end of April and start of May! It’s been another really good month, here at City State Entertainment®. I know we keep saying that, but it’s true. Progress is being made on a lot of fronts, progress toward Beta 1 at a rapid clip. It’s a good thing that we’ve kept up the pace, especially since it’s only getting better. Despite allergies and colds from the changing weather, we forge on ahead, continuing the journey of making Camelot Unchained® a reality!



In other news, the crew out in Washington now have an office space they will be moving into at the start of next week. After quite a journey, the lease is signed, the moving can begin, and maybe we’ll even convince them to appear on our streams a little more often. :)



Speaking of streaming, we have continued our weekly schedule of streams this month, bringing you the latest creative work from artists and programmers, as well as the latest updates and news. It’s been fun as always, and hopefully informative as ever for our Backers. If you want to catch up on any missed streams, they can always be found on Twitch and YouTube channels. For a good read of our news, as well as our weekly Top Tenish updates, check out the News section of our website, and our User Stories to check on our progress.



Of course, our monthly newsletter, which your are currently reading, contains a great deal of information on our progress, and a ton of interesting thoughts and articles as well. Check out Brittany’s State of the Build later in this newsletter, where we are trying a slightly different format highlighting some of the big-ticket items of the month, or mosey on over to the Tech Central section, for a truly epic article from George on HDR. Of course, Ben’s usual thoughtfulness about the development process is on display in this month’s Dose of Design, while we have an unusual style of Artitup, with contributions from a bunch of our artists. To close out, we have a special Lore Corner, followed by a featured C.U.B.E. design!



Now, we had a special guest visit the East Coast office a few days ago: Anna, our our HR/hiring ninja and awesome all-around human being, was in town! We took the opportunity to snap a team picture with most of us here on the East Coast! This is quite a packed newsletter, so I’ll let you get to it without further ado! As always, it’s a pleasure to collect and edit this epic update for your perusal, so please bear with my reminder to click the “view this email in your browser” link in the top right. Read on for articles, art, updates, news, and all the goodness you’ve come to expect, and please enjoy this, the thirty-third issue of Unveiled. Hot Topics

The latest topics of discussion on the forums right now include our animation system, races with tails and wings, and the latest tests.



Join the discussion on the forums on our website to bring your thoughts and ideas to the table! The latest topics of discussion on the forums right now include our animation system, races with tails and wings, and the latest tests. Thank You So fun to have the opportunity to thank the awesome Backers who have sent us cool stuff, once again! A big thanks to Zenksor, who sent us these marvelous gecko-shaped sour candies and a sunning rock for our new office resident, a gecko who lives by Sandra’s desk! Huge thanks to Poxer, who sent us all this white cheddar popcorn! Delicious and amazing. We appreciate it very, very much! Even as I write this, the sounds of happy crunching are all around. Look What You Did This lovely illustration from The Becoming™: The Picts Part 2 shows (or depicts…) the fight between Brude and Eithne. It was drawn for last month’s Fan Art contest by the awesome Backer known as Necromaniak! For our next contest, it’s time for a little fan fiction competition once again! This month, we are publishing the first part of the developed rewrite of the Silverhands Becoming™ story, all about the beginning of a race that commits a great sacrifice in the name of their Realm. For this month’s contest, write up a brief story of a great sacrifice by a character of your own, within the world of Camelot Unchained. It can be about any member of our races and set within any of our Realms, but should have a bit of taste of the dramatic, as well as coming in at 250 words or less! Post your creative creation in the thread you’ll see popping up in the Fan Fiction section of the forums, and we’ll pick a favorite for the next newsletter! As CSE’s resident writer, I’m very much looking forward to reading them all. Dose of Design -by Ben Pielstick Audiovisual Implementation

In a previous newsletter, I talked about the considerations for the general look and feel of combat. At this point in development, we’re actually starting to hook up some of the audio and visual elements to abilities, a task that requires some special consideration due to the unique way our ability builder works.



In a game that had premade abilities, we would simply assign a specific set of animations, visual effects, and sounds to each particular ability, to play any time a player activates it. In Camelot Unchained, however, abilities are constructed by players from a list of available components. Each audiovisual element must potentially be different based on the combination of components that are put together when a player constructs an ability. Therefore, no single component can contain a comprehensive definition for what animations, visual effects, and sounds to play during an ability it is used in. Instead, we need to spread information between components. When those components are combined, their aggregate information must describe what animations, visual effects, and sounds to look up. We must do so for each set of components that can be combined to construct a valid ability. That’s a lot!



The way we are going about this is by using tags. We define a set of tags for each component; those tags can be aggregated when an ability is created from multiple components. When we add up all the tags from each of the components put into an ability, we can then use the combined list of tags to look up the animations, visual effects, and sounds that particular ability needs.



Each of these elements is slightly different! For example, the tags for particles may need to specify what bones of the character’s skeleton they need to be played on, while sounds do not. This means that tags are defined separately for each audiovisual element, along with the extra data needed to fulfill the needs of each data type.



This ends up being a lot of data added to each ability component. In the end, it is necessary given the complexity of the ability system we are creating. Once the remainder of the required code is in place, it will enable each system to read its defined tags from any unique combination of components players have used to construct their abilities, and select the appropriate audiovisual elements to play. For example: if a healer has one Rune component for healing damage, and another for curing wounds, and one Shape component for a ranged projectile, and another for an area of effect cone, then a healing projectile and a curing projectile will look and sound different, and a healing projectile and a healing cone AoE will look and sound different.



In the future, this will also allow us to use this information to determine what happens when abilities interact with each other under our AIR system. When a fire effect and a water effect collide in the world, we will take the tags present on each effect, and use the combined list of tags to look up what to do (in that case, steam etc.), just as if we were constructing a new ability.



The AIR system wasn't planned for the start of Beta 1 testing. However, by the time it is ready, the tagging system it relies on will already have had a lot of work put into it. After all, as I’ve just explained, these tags are what the whole ability system relies on any time we play a sound, display a particle, or have the character perform an animation as a part of activating an ability.



Defining these tags and constructing the systems that utilize them is just one small part of the ongoing development of Camelot Unchained. Assigning sets of tags might not seem like as much a part of game design as creating new classes or balancing weapons and armor, but building a game involves a lot of behind the scenes work like this that is critical to making the game function, even though it isn’t readily apparent when you’re actually playing the game.



Hopefully, this provides a little insight into some of the less obvious features that go into creating a game like Camelot Unchained, using a custom engine that doesn’t have any of these pieces already pre-built and ready to use. We’re looking forward to showing the results of these a lot more upcoming features, as we continue working toward the start of Beta 1 testing. Developer Quote “It’s hard to wait, especially in this case when so much time has been spent on the tech. But the world is going to start to not only look better, sound better, [but] really start to feel like a game in very short order.” - Mark Jacobs Artitup -by the whole Art Team, images by Scott Trolan Since Tyler asked Scott to focus on animations this month, the rest of the Art Team pitched in to help write this piece! So, we have a special format in this article. Each artist wrote their own short description of what they worked on this month, for you to read all about. We now present a group Art it Up article from the Art Team!



Sandra: I spent this month working on a second iteration on most of the animations that are currently necessary to support the use of polearms. I’m calling this “PoleArm 2.0.” With this new animation system in place, and the improvements Scott and Andrew have figured out, I can go crazy on movement, without a lot of restraints. Going from our quick pass, upper and lower body independent animations to full body combat animations is a really big step for us animators. Just that one change allows us to make better and more fluid animations.







Along with the new animations needed for the improved animation system, Scott and I are fixing, polishing, and re-adjusting some of the old animation clips, which were very rough, in order to support testing. Once we had stance transitions working with different weapons, we realized we’d missed making an unarmed combat idle. So, I made one for when you’re standing without a weapon, but still on the defensive. As much as everyone loved the lowered "T" pose placeholder, we knew it had to be updated. xD Later, we’ll work on some unarmed punching animations, just in case you find yourself weaponless, or unprepared for a quick fight.



Michelle: At the start of the month, I was creating different Realm variations of a scorpion siege engine. Luckily these went quickly, including the approval process. The difficult part was figuring out exactly how the mechanisms worked, so Jon would have enough visual information to make the in-game version. Jon is already working on the third of those scorpions this week, having worked with me not only on look and feel, but also on how those mechanisms may work. When we have time, and the animation support on the tech side, we’ll work on more mechanically-correct animations. If you check our channel, you can find both his and my streams, if you would like to see the creative process in action.







It’s completely fair to say I don’t have experience concepting UI, so this month has been tough. What I thought would go eighty miles an hour went more like five, as I realized this is pretty dang hard! With great feedback from the team, I’ve been making progress on those UI widgets and full-screen styles, although some things, like the health widgets, have been taking a bit more time than anticipated. There are many aspects we want to communicate, gameplay-wise, and this has become a bit like making a watch out of many gears! So, concepting has been fun, but quite challenging in terms of getting all those gears working together and looking cool.



While UI has been my main focus, I've also been working with Dionne on Realm variation guides for biome areas. These have been quick paint-overs to get the general idea across. My main goal is supporting some consistency between biomes for each Realm. I provide the guidelines, and eventually it’s up to the 3D artists to bring it all together, and to grab me if they need more direction.



Jon: This month, I created the Arthurian, Viking, and TDD scorpion siege engines (low poly, high poly, and materials). Having never actually seen one of these siege weapons in person, figuring out the mechanics was a bit of a challenge for me! With the aid of sketches, pictures, video, and the help of a few awesome Backers, I was finally able to get a decent grasp on how these weapons functioned, which ultimately led to successful models.







Now that we’re tackling the problem of how weapons attach to the characters, we want to get our cloaks back in. The original one was just a quick test asset, so I made a set of generic cape materials, as well as very Realm-specific variations with different looks. The capes have a bit more cloth flow than the first pass cape variations. Upcoming testing around animations and weapons will tell us what we need to do for the next pass.



Additionally, after getting great feedback from the weapon sizing review, I resized and reuploaded all of the weapons that needed to be adjusted in the game. Our main goal is not only retaining some sense of reality, but also making them readable from a distance. While not final, we feel they’re in a good place now.



Dionne: This month, I focused on creating Realm variations for different environment assets we had previously completed neutral versions of. Additionally, I built several cherry blossom willow trees with accompanying ground texture sets. As we create new assets, we always keep an eye on “kit bashing” our assets into new things. In this case, we can take some of the willow tree geo and turn it into creepy swamp trees later. The overall goal here is making sure you don’t see the exact same environment setup for too long when traveling through our huge maps. Because of the scale of the world, and the size of our team, we have to work hard AND smart.







As we continue making new assets, we’ll be able to revisit previous areas to add in more variations over time. For example, the current pine forest will work for now, but we already have more pine trees in progress. Because the terrain editor is so awesome, these can be quickly added in later, when the new assets are done. The next step of all this work will be putting everything into mods, and tweaking the details until they’re…perfect! :D:D:D:D



Mike C: Most of my time has been spent testing all the new particle system changes that have gone in. Bull made several major improvements to the way the editor works. I can now very easily rearrange elements of a particle hierarchy tree, as well as cut and paste between particle systems. Now, when someone needs a variant of an existing effect, it takes only minutes to do.







Some big additions have been introduced to particle rendering, and I have many new options to control which way particles face and align as they are created or move. Furthermore, particles now support several new rendering modes. They can now be lit by the world itself, complete with support for normal maps to give them the illusion of volume or surface detail. I made a few sets of falling leaves for Tyler’s test area, which demonstrate the lit particle/normal map combination. Support for more modes is forthcoming, including a distortion to simulate heat haze, shockwaves, or refractive surfaces. Additionally, particles also support some of the PBR rendering system, for even more flexibility..



James K: This month, I’ve worked with Charles on improving our CSE Store for a future update. We’ve made steps toward making our store more usable on different devices by adding responsive navigation and tier blocks. We’ll lose some chrome, but the usability should enhance our Backers’ experience! The filter section has been streamlined, so that Backers can quickly view the tiers that matter to them.







I’ve also been working on damage icons for our chat and health HUD. These icons were pretty tricky, as we needed to show an element without any colors, and also fit it within a 15x15 pixel frame. With the help of the team and our Backers, we were able to settle on a set of icons that should work well for our first run. Next up: class icons, as well as weapons, armor, and item icons. All of these will probably see some revision throughout development, but are essential in making our Beta 1 feel more like a game.



Tyler: Being Producer on the project while also being the lead environment artist requires a bit of juggling and patience. My focus typically waxes and wanes between the two jobs; However, this month, I’ve had more time to look at art. On that side of things, I’ve been busy updating and adding in some old assets to work with our new rendering engine, as well as importing some new ones when I have the time. The former will be mostly used in the second pass of the existing biomes, and finding ways to create new ones without starting from scratch. This leads into some oversight with Dionne, as she fills in missing Realm variations of assets we’ve previously shown. There’s always a proof-of-concept pass first; Then we follow up with the variations.







In terms of building out biomes, Ben has been busy creating new, rough-pass islands for Beta 1. That initial setup goes fairly quickly, but we realized that the way he assembles things and the way I assemble things are at odds. We took some time this month to scope out a plan to allow quicker iterations of “biomes” by changing the way we assemble maps with our terrain mod editor. My personal goal is seeing people other than myself assemble assets and terrain in different ways than they were intended, to create new and interesting environments. The Art Team can then go in afterward and massage it all together. With that in mind, there are still several days of grunt work and testing to complete, but the payoff should be more variety and more variation from existing assets, with less total time to create.



Any extra time I had after that has been spent making sure Scott, Sandra, and Andrew have what they need to continue improving the animations and animation system for Beta 1. Animation has been a very important focus, one that is already paying off. Believe it or not, I grabbed all the artists yesterday to watch Scott run a guy up and down some hills, then jump off a ledge. That one sentence represents weeks of work by multiple people to make it look and feel good--especially the animation that starts after a few seconds of falling from said ledge!



Next up, we’re focusing on the whole loop of weapons that are carried on the character, can be equipped and unequipped during stance changes, and sitting. Sitting may seem like an oddball one to put in there, but it has design implications that may require stance changes to actually sit and stand back up. Bonus: we’ll hook up some emotes. The challenge of all of this has been utterly awesome, and I’ve personally learned a lot about animation systems from working with the team.



Oh, I almost forgot! I’ve also been slowly assembling a variation on the “Autumn Biome” that has a pile of VFX assets cooked into the environment models. The goal here is giving us real-world test cases of the update to the particle rendering system, and new shaders. George and Dave can enter the map and figure out where our bottlenecks are for the next pass on performance. In the meantime, we get a fun test map full of particles in which Backers can frolic, while giving us feedback on their own rig’s performance. This task has also given me the opportunity to optimize a few assets, as well as get some further play time with glow maps on some of the assets. Fun stuff!



Scott: Constant collaboration between art and engineering this month has allowed for increased speed of implementing, testing, and repurposing animations. Andrew has made tools to allow us to create new animation clips by “mixing” upper body, lower body, right arm, and left arm animations from pre-existing clips. For example, this will allow us to use an existing run locomotion lower body clip and pair it with an upper body clip holding a new weapon type. If ever we modify the existing run locomotion clip(s), they will automatically update any “mixed” clip referencing it. Why is this so useful? Well, this allows us the flexibility to edit and update our assets as the number of required animations grow during production.







We’ve also continued to improve the look of the character jumps, which has been extra challenging, as our characters use server-side physics. However, the payoff has been obvious, with characters blending different movements cycles together as they move up and down hills. We’re also supporting more things like a running jump, vs. your basic standing jump, as well as animations for longer falling time, in case you ever find yourself being launched through the air!



I’ve also had time to improve the look of greataxe swings, as well as make a basic knockback animation, which is awaiting hookup from Andrew. Knockback should be a bunch of fun, as we’ve already queued up some fun ideas to make if look and feel good.



As our first rough pass to support basic combat is concluding, it's very exciting to see where we can make improvements and focus on polished animations! Tech Central -by George Davison HDR Monitors and CU

This special edition of Tech Central comes out of an answer that George wrote in response to a question from one of our Backers about HDR monitors. We present it here, expanded into an epic article for your perusal!



We were recently asked if CU would support HDR monitors via our HDR lighting system.

The short answer is yes; We plan to support the new HDR display modes on hardware that supports it, and this should be a dramatic increase in quality. However, this won’t be exactly the way you would expect.



HDR in film and Displays



HDR stands for high dynamic range. But this is a bit of a misnomer, because the acronym is used in a number of different ways that each mean different things.



The term HDR originates with photography. Most film has a contrast ratio of around 1:10,000. Which means that the brightest white it can show, at a given exposure, and with settings optimized for range, is about 10,000 times brighter than the darkest gray. Or 10,000 layers of gray between the darkest and lightest. This can be called either the “contrast ratio” or “dynamic range” of the image.



A digital camera shooting in RAW has between 2 and 8 times the range of a film camera, depending on the technology. Using this fact, and the ability of many cameras to take multiple versions of the same image at different exposures, photographers can create images with high dynamic range. Which in this case means that details in the image would be visible across a range of brightnesses that is greater than usual for film or for print.



Even as the technology to capture images has improved, displaying them and printing them has continued to use the same standards for decades. And while print will always be limited to less range than even film photographs, the range available to displays has improved recently with OLeds and dynamic LED backplanes.



Tonemapping



Print and standard range displays have a contrast ratio of around 1:64 (as per sRGB and rec 709 standard).



Photographers can produce images with ranges of 1:1,000,000 and some standard display technology can produce ratios of up to 1:600.



We translate images from one range to another from sRGB to the actual display brightness, or down from an HDR photograph to a print using a process called tonemapping.



Crunching a high dynamic range into a lower range and displaying without modification would create a washed-out image. Tonemapping remaps the brightness curve to keep contrast high in areas where it is most noticeable.



When printing HDR images, many photographers use a more complex version of tonemapping called local contrast. This process is often simply called HDR in the photography community, but in reality does the opposite. It takes an HDR image and darkens some areas while lightening others, so that it still looks visually appealing when crunched down and displayed on a low dynamic range device, or when printed.



This process creates a cartoony effect, not unlike traditional non-HDR video games.



HDR in video games



HDR in video games aims for the opposite effect of HDR photography. We render the world in very high dynamic range. In our case 1:16,384. Then we simulate the effect of recording this on a limited range film camera. Like film, it blows out in highlights and loses details in the shadows.



This is nothing like how our eyes naturally perceive light, but through film and photography we have been trained to perceive this as a more realistic effect. And it allows us to render the actual lighting using far more realistic functions, which further improves the realism.



Sidebar: How we perceive Brightness



The way the human eye perceives color is not linear. We see a lot more detail in bright areas than dark areas, and the ratio between the brightnesses is more important to how bright we perceive them as being. This curve means that we see something that is about 20% brightness as being halfway between black and white.



The sRGB standard, and now rec 709, use this non-linearity to describe how we store and transmit images between devices so that they look the same everywhere. This is done by mapping this range, so that each perceivable difference in brightness is mapped to around the same amount of room in the numbers used to describe each color. This way, we don’t waste bits encoding variations in dark gray that the human eye cannot even perceive.



Print and standard range displays have a contrast ratio of around 1:64. Some displays allow greater range, but use tonemapping tricks to display a broader range without greatly changing how the images look. Displaying an image from one range on the wrong range display without tonemapping would create an image that looked nothing like the original; it would be washed out or have clipped highlights.



Sidebar: Color Gamut



Color Gamut refers to the ability of a display, or camera, or printer to accurately capture, print or display all the colors that can be seen by the eye. The gamut describes the complete range of colors that can be displayed, captured, or encoded in an image format. sRGB, which is called rec709 when it describes HDTVs, is one standard for encoding images, and describes how a number value in an image file becomes a real-world color.



Rec 709 cannot describe the full range of colors that a human can see. However, this is fine, because it does well enough for the full range of colors that standard display devices can display. Up until the introduction of HDR TVs, that is, which can display both more colors, and more range of brightness than the previous standard supported.

Image via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CIExy1931_Rec_2020_and_Rec_709.svg, creative commons attribution license. Which brings us finally to HDR monitors and Games



Most HDR monitors from the last few years were a gimmick. They traded an aggressive contrast curve for actual visual detail without increasing the real dynamic range above 1:600.



However, there is a new standard now for 10 Bit UHD HDR that most recent HDR monitors support. The new standard brings a dramatic increase in contrast, but even more importantly it brings a larger increase in gamut and moves to 10bit encoding. This allows more fine detail to be displayed in this new range without losing image quality, as would happen if we simply expanded the range of the existing standard.



The benefits of this will be mostly automatic, as long as your video card and D3D support the new standard. However, while it is Higher Dynamic range than all previous encoding standards actual display technology is only now passing the range supported by previous generation CRT monitors.



Technology has not yet reached the point where looking at a TV will feel similar to looking out the window. HDR TVS do not begin to approach the full dynamic range that the human eye is able to perceive in a moment, much less the full range the eye can adapt to over time



The difference between the full moon and the sun is 1:400,000, and a full moon at night still looks bright to our eyes. The real effective range of the eye is about 1:1,400,000,000,000,000, while the best UHD HDR monitors have a real brightness range of around 1:20,000, stored in a data format that is just large enough to not show banding over that limited range.



However, on games that support it, you will see a dramatic increase in color detail. Because although monitor technology has not improved contrast range immensely, we are able to communicate far more subtle variations in images with the new 10 bit storage standard with larger contrast and gamut.



So, gamers can expect to see less posterization (which is noise and lines in smooth colored areas, such as sky), and better color reproduction. And if the game supports it, they may see differences in brightness onscreen that are perceptually around 2-4 times as bright as before.



While this generation of HDR monitors will be a marked improvement for games that support them, don’t believe all of the hype that you see. It won’t be like looking out a window, and it won’t remove the need to have blown-out highlights in video game HDR systems. In some cases, it may not be distinguishable from non-HDR TVs with high contrast tonemapping modes, often called Vivid or Dynamic mode.



Well, that’s about it. Hopefully, you have enjoyed these thoughts on HDR and games! If you are looking for a new monitor today, I would choose a UHD HDR10 or HDR12 display. Technology will rapidly improve, so it might be worth holding off until prices and standards stabilize, but I believe HDR TVs will be the future of gaming. State Of The Build -by Brittany Aubert There’s some old saying about April showers and May flowers. Well, it’s been raining quite a bit here in Seattle, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a whole arboretum sprang up at the turn of the month. And it’s always odd to hear that this is so different than our counterparts in Fairfax, who often experience all four season in a single week.



But despite the wet weather, we’re inside, cranking out code, jamming to the raindrops against the windows. It’s been a number of productive weeks for the programmers at CSE, and our focus in tasking has turned towards supporting the systems we have in place, while still keeping our eyes pointed towards Beta 1.



And with that, let’s get onto this month’s State of the Build, and touch on some of the larger items that came together this past month. You’ll notice a slightly different style in this piece -- as we did with our User Stories, we’re offering a slimmer, more high-level version of our progress, one that is hopefully a lot more readable and will prevent the newsletter from blowing up to 25 pages. Hope you enjoy :)



Fledgling: Last month, I wrote a post-mortem for Unveiled about our new testing process. One improvement we decided on was to create another server in our pipeline. Fledgling now exists between Hatchling and Wyrmling/Wyrmling Prep. We typically keep more stable checkpoints on Wyrmling, usually a build that introduced a major change or update. But as development started to speed up, we had to come up with a solution that allowed us to test more recent code, without locking down Hatchery and blocking the team from submitting their work.



Animation: For something that has been featured in countless video games since the late 80s, it’s still incredible how much work goes into making something jump. There are many different animations that go into a single jump cycle (prep, jump, land, and sometimes more), taking into account physics, both gravity and collision, and neither of those include the “feel” aspect. Is jumping responsive? Does it last long enough? Does it feel too floaty? What happens if the player presses the button for longer? And not all of these questions are answered with more code. This is the beauty of game development - a group of really smart people (in this case, Scott, Andrew, and Rob) working together to make something feel right.



Manual Aiming and Siege Engines: Matt had been working on manual aiming for a few weeks and recently progressed forward towards siege engines while we gathered feedback on various aiming modes. The order of these was due to the dependency - manual aiming needs to work before siege engines can even function. But does manual aiming need to be in a final state? Not exactly. There’s still a lot of design logistics that need to be discussed with regard to manual aiming, but it’s functional enough to move forward on the next task. This is one of those nerdy production things that I really enjoy: taking the various puzzle pieces and making them fit into the bigger picture.



Seamless Zone Transitions: Our multi-server tech allows players to jump from one server to the next, but currently there’s a loading screen during this process. Seeing as this kills a bit of the magic, we’ve been working to remove them and make the transitions, you guessed it, seamless. We’ve gotten the first few steps of this working locally, by avoiding deletion of entities that are being transferred between servers, and then removing the load screen itself. We’re continuing to take one step after another as we get to our desired functionality, currently working towards manually placing triggers that players will collide with and set off a transition, and removing the delay when spawning the player back into the world.



Particle rendering: What started as an investigation into some shader optimizations to support large scale battles turned into a full-on rendering upgrade, and now we’re seeing the fruits of that labor. Additionally, we have new shaders allowing particles to be lit by the world, receive shadows, and can use normal maps. A big gain was our improved handling of transparency, which is pretty core to making particles look awesome, and a handful of shader optimizations. Summarized into a paragraph, this doesn’t do justice to the work George, Dave, Bull, and Mike have put in to make this possible. It’s been quite a journey! But this was a big step toward making our game look super pretty, and Mike will be able to make it more gorgeous using his new toys.



Lots and lots of logging: This is probably the least sexy thing on this list. But it’s one of the most important. Sometimes bugs can be difficult to track down, and when we have a live game, moving quickly when an issue arrives is critical. Colin added additional logging to our database, instead of the file system, to better track down some sneaky stability bugs with our proxies. Marc’s recent work cleans up how we tag log messages, allowing us to quickly sort through a pile of text for critical information.



House cleaning: It’s the nature of game development that for each new feature worked on, new and undiscovered work shows up and needs to be addressed. We’re at a critical point in development where we start every task by asking ourselves the question, “Is this truly needed for Beta 1?” Very often, these surprise tasks aren’t related to a specific user story, but instead focus on the savings we’ll gain through either efficiency or decreasing the number of bugs going forward. This indirectly affects every user story. By cleaning up the order of some server tasks, there was a particular issue we avoided where players could load into a zone before abilities or buildings had loaded, getting the game into a really bad state.

JB came up with the idea of moving our skill loading from the file system to the database. This exposes a lot of information to the UI that wasn’t easily accessible before, making our existing UIs more useful without writing a bunch of code that may get thrown out when the new styling is finalized.

While taking the steps to create Fledgling, Tim went through and standardized the process of bringing a new development server into existence. It should go without saying that Fledgling won’t be the last server we create during development, so having the process be more straightforward and less error-prone is key. We’d rather the difficulty in this be in coming up with cute new server names that match our existing naming scheme. Lore Corner -by Max Porter Hey folks, welcome to another story in the Lore Corner! This month, allow me to present to you a rewritten, revamped, and refreshed version of the beginning of the epic story of the Silverhands! This sprawling chronicle was originally written by Mark Jacobs in seven parts, which were then collected into one massive Becoming™ story. Please read on for the developed version, as we call it, of this Becoming tale, which not only tells us a great adventure of the first Silverhand, but also presents some of Mark’s thoughts on The Depths™ and the beings therein. Without further ado, I hope you enjoy! The Becoming: The Silverhands Part 1

The tale of Nuada Part 1

“Your early Trials have gone well, young one,” said the grizzled instructor, wiping the sweat from his face with his glittering silver hand. “For the training you have, you’re the best I’ve seen in many decades. Be proud of yourself.”



The trainee smiled broadly at this hard-won praise, and leaned on his sword, sweating. “I think I will be ready soon.”



“But not too proud,” cautioned the instructor, “For an excess of pride leads even the most honored heroes to a terrible destiny.” The old teacher lowered himself to the ground and rested his back against the base of an ancient oak, letting out a grateful sigh. “This is a good time for another lesson. Recite the tale for me, as you have been taught.”



The trainee slid his blade into the rack, releasing it regretfully from his two flesh hands. The lad looked more nervous than he had during his first Trials, and the teacher had to smile to encourage him. The young man scratched his face and began to declaim the rhythmic lines.





I tell you a tale of the old times, a story of the suffering of the Tuatha Dé Danann. I tell you a tale of trouble, when the land was dark with swarms of enemies, when the world was burning, and all hope for life seemed lost. I speak now for the land, the trees and hills that make our home, and I remember the days of torment, beset by horrors within and without. I speak now the story of Nuada, he of the first silver hand.



In that time, when the greatness of the Tuatha Dé Danann dwindled in the upheavals of the First Breaking, two mighty warriors arose. One was called Nuada, and the other Bres. They were the bright sons of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and their families were closely tied to the throne.



Growing up together, they trained often in friendly bouts that always ended with smiles and laughter, neither able to completely defeat the other. Perfectly matched, a powerful bond strengthened between them.



Nuada pushed himself ever harder, learning a warrior’s way of quenching his emotions in the thrill of battle. His sire had gifted him a magic sword, and Nuada treasured the weapon above all else. He practiced with it from the barest inkling of dawn’s light until it became so dark that moonlight reflected off the blade.



His obsessive training, coupled with his natural gifts, slowly caused him to start to overtake Bres in strength and skill. Bres began to fall for Nuada’s tricks. Try as he might, he could not see Nuada’s attacks coming. The imbalance in their skills increased as Bres grew frustrated, spending more and more of his time training alone. He spoke to Nuada less often, and though he made an appearance at Nuada’s coronation with a smile, his joy for his friend was hollow.



Early one morning, Bres left the lands of the Tuatha Dé Danann to seek his fortune in far-off places. Nuada missed his friend for a while, but he was a warrior and a king above all else. With the kingdom suffering many troubles, his thoughts turned to other matters.



Nuada was proud of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and he wished to be a good king for them, a great king, to rouse his people with feats of courage that could bring them out of those dark times. But this led him to look outward for vindication of his greatness, to wish for fame.



Filled with an intense longing for greater skill, he relished any opportunity to test his prowess. The young man sought out and challenged the strongest warriors in the known lands. Sometimes he felt guilty for the blood and destruction that accompanied these fights, but he told himself that it would be worth it for his growing legend, which could inspire his people for generations to come.



He became Sword Brother and united his Realm as king, which is an epic tale for another time. Even then, Nuada always took the lead in battle, never relinquishing his place at the head of his army. His victories fed his confidence, and as our lands swelled, so too did his glory and his pride. Though he had begun with the desire to increase the greatness of our people, he became more and more focused on increasing his own.





Many years passed, many great events came and went. Late one summer’s day, word came to Nuada that a large and mysterious force of warriors was traveling to the shores of the Tuatha Dé Danann. He rushed home, abandoning his responsibilities at the One True City. With only a few day’s warning, their numbers might well prove a menace to the beautiful capital city of our people, Tír Na nÓg.



The king pretended to be angry that they should waste his time, but secretly he was glad for the chance to build his legend by defeating a great army. At the hastily gathered High Court meeting, Nuada declared that he would meet the enemy in battle himself.



The Voice of the High Court warned Nuada, shaking with age in his white robes. “The enemy must have found a deadly ally or weapon, for they wouldn’t be so brazen otherwise, great King! Stories have reached our ears of a place with no name, called only “The Depths.” Strange and powerful creatures lie therein. Scouts say that the enemies of the Children of Danu have visited that place and returned strangely empowered…”



Nuada smiled confidently at the wittering old man. “We should be unimpressed by such rumors. I vow to cleanse The Depths, once our foes relinquish their lives to my blade. Ever has your king kept his lands clear of abominations and other strange creatures; these Depths will be no exception.”



As the first night-frost of the season settled upon their land, an enemy force was spotted far offshore by the Realm’s scouts. Nuada summoned the Wild Hunt. They assembled in the grey morning light, horses stamping and filling the air with breathless streams of mist.



Before the stern faces of his warriors, Nuada rode up and down their ranks on his eager-eyed steed. “We shall descend upon them like the wrath of the heavens!” he vowed. “I shall find their leader and crush him in single combat. Then we shall show them the mercy of our people, and send the entire army back to their own lands. Well chastened, and with a warning!”



There was no chance for the Courts to talk any longer; Nuada wanted none of their deliberation and sage caution to dampen the fire of his troops. Singing and shouting, Nuada and the Hunt rode out. The Wild Hunt of those days was truly something to see. They raced to the coast, the fire-wreathed hooves of their steeds never appearing to touch the ground. After a day and night of hard riding, the warriors of the Tuatha Dé Danann reached a towering overlook. From there, they could watch the invaders come ashore with the dawn.



Helmets, spears, and blades glinted in the golden light as soldiers poured from the boats in wave after wave. Never before had the Tuatha Dé Danann faced such a force. The Hunt saw even Nuada taken aback, surprised and troubled by these numbers. The king’s eyes glinted as he shifted into his magic senses and stared at the mass of shifting auras below, the auras of living things. His unease increased when one aura tugged at his sight, an aura different from the rest. He sensed something odd within the camp of invaders...a Tuatha Dé Danann man was down there, though Nuada couldn’t pick him out from the crowd. A traitor.



What the king could see was a strange, one-eyed statue carted off a tall ship, then set to stand tall in the middle of the invaders’ camp. Nuada had heard rumors of this statue; it was called Balor, and was powerful and evil in some way.



Then he spotted Bres standing next to it, talking to the crowd of milling warriors. His boyhood friend ashore with the enemy. Nuada’s face grew dark with anger. Bres must die for this betrayal.

Straightening in his saddle, Nuada called upon the Wild Hunt. “The time has come to charge! Wipe this scum from the face of the Realm!” As a single warrior, his army raised their weapons and roared in unison.



Galloping down the steep slope with the Hunt at his back, Nuada called out a challenge. He dismounted with a leap, drawing his famous sword. “If there is a leader among you, I dare him to come out and face me! I shall show you the strength of the Tuatha Dé Danann in single combat!”



Much to the king’s surprise, Bres laughed as he answered the challenge.



Striding out of the armored ranks of the enemy, Bres was greatly changed from the youth Nuada had called friend, so long ago. His aura, which was once bright and true, now radiated a cold, evil light. In his right hand, Bres bore a black obsidian blade. Its shape shifted in the dawn light, as though the weapon were alive. At first, Nuada attributed the sword’s appearance to the flickering light thrown by the torches of the soldiers all around. Then he realized he could feel the sword’s aura, which was dark and malformed. It was alive.



Bres, seeing that Nuada had noticed his sword, smiled broadly. He spoke loudly, so that the entirety of the Wild Hunt would hear. “Behold your doom, proud Children of Danu! I have gone far into The Depths, and I have emerged more powerful than anyone in your little kingdom. My sword is but one of the treasures that I possess, and any of them are more than a match for the pitiful trinkets of the Tuatha Dé Danann.” For a moment he paused, glancing at Nuada’s hereditary sword and licking his lips. “Including your magic blade!” And without the customary bow or honorifics to begin the battle, Bres raised his twisted weapon and charged Nuada.



Taken aback by Bres’ lack of honor or respect, Nuada reacted slowly. He barely managed to block the deadly blow in time, and felt the shock of it all through his fingers.



However, the years of hard training pushed Nuada to regain his composure. He returned blow for blow, turning the fight back. Slowly but surely, Nuada got the upper hand on Bres, and began to drive him back toward the sea.



With each ringing strike, Nuada’s confidence grew, for he knew the battle was over before it began. Yet Bres looked as though he did not sense his doom. As each attack thudded home and forced Bres to retreat, he smiled wider and wider. The smile turned to boisterous laughter as Bres felt the foam lap his sandaled feet.



There, he stopped his retreat. The duel continued for what seemed like hours; Bres took each blow from Nuada, but yielded no further ground. Nuada could not find any gap in his enemy’s defense, despite landing a furious storm of attacks. Bres was totally immovable. His blocks were steady as one of the stout ironwood trees that ringed Tír na nÓg, and his counterblows as vicious as midwinter frost.



As dawn broke fully and spread its golden light over the sand and rocks, the two warriors still battled ferociously, sending sparks into the froth. Frustrated, Nuada put all his strength into a single terrible blow, trying push Bres into the oncoming tide, but Bres’ block didn’t even waver. Carried with the momentum of his attack, Nuada slipped a little. He was finally weakening.



As if Bres had been waiting for this signal, he broke into maniacal laughter. “Hahaha! Come on, great king! Try a little harder! You almost got me that time. Surely you’re not tired; I’m not even sweating yet!”



As Bres’ taunts bit into his pride, Nuada fought all the more fiercely, but could not find an opening to strike a truly punishing strike. As the sun rose over the towering cliffs, Nuada’s fatigue became more evident. Bres took the offensive, driving Nuada back toward the cliffs with powerful attacks that Nuada couldn’t quite match any longer. With each swing of the strange sword that landed on his armor, Nuada felt a cold chill at the point of impact. Was that magic, or fear?



Within moments, Nuada found his back against the stony bluffs. He glanced at the loyal warriors of his Wild Hunt. Their faces were grim, hardened to battle and loss. They silently watched their leader fight for his life.



The grinning soldiers that had come ashore with Bres began to cheer wildly, beating weapons upon shields. “End the match! End the match!” they chanted. His breath heaving, Nuada thought he saw the single eye of the tall statue flicker, as if eager to see death. But it was probably just his fatigue.



Desperation set in. His training took over. Nuada felt his wrists flex, his legs tense for one last attempt. For a split second, Nuada prayed that Bres would fall prey to his skill just one more time.



However, as Nuada began his attack, Bres’ lips curled thin, forming something between a sneer and a smile. This was what he had been waiting for. As Nuada spun, his sword invisible in the bright flash of sunlight, Bres held out his hand where he knew Nuada’s sword would connect. The magic weapon cut through Bres’ armor, but instead of severing flesh and bone, the blade rang as though it struck solid stone. On impact, a jolt of bone-chilling pain surged through Nuada’s right arm, more intense than the numbing cold.



Bres swung his ugly weapon down at Nuada’s treasured sword. The king’s blade split into several large pieces, each one shimmering with frost. For a moment, Nuada stood stunned, frozen by the enormity of what had happened.



A shadow fell across Nuada’s face as Bres raised his dark, jagged weapon once more. He roared with victorious bloodlust as he brought it down, severing Nuada’s right arm at the elbow. He followed with a vicious kick to the legs, dropping Nuada to his knees.



“You have lost, oh mighty King. You put your lands and your people on the line with your challenge, the lands and people that are now mine to rule! Return to Tír na nÓg and tell our people that their true King has arrived!” Bres’ spittle struck Nuada’s cheek.



Despite shock and grave injury, Nuada was not ready to lose. Pushing up with the last of his strength, he tried to butt Bres like an angry bull. But once again, Bres was ready for him, smoothly stepping aside with a mad smile. As Nuada flew past, Bres hacked off the rest of his arm with the impossibly keen blade. Blood and chunks of ice spurted from his shoulder onto the sand. Nuada finally felt the pain as he crashed back to the ground.



“I can keep this up longer than you can, brother. It seems you want a reminder of who is now King.” Bres sneered as he turned to face his troops. “Kill them all but for the cripple!”



Shocked and saddened at the humiliation of their greatest hero, the Wild Hunt was unprepared for the onslaught. The invaders fell eagerly upon the Tuatha Dé Danann, destroying them with frightening ease. Bres’ troops continued their butchery until the last of the Tuatha Dé Danann and all their horses lay dead, bodies scattered piecemeal on the bloodstained sand.



Bleeding, weakened, and ashamed, Nuada watched through a haze of pain. He could do nothing. His legend was shattered, stolen along with his people by the traitor who knew all his moves before he made them, and seemed to have an unnatural energy that drove him relentlessly onward to greater betrayals.



Bres ordered his men to collect all the heads of the slain soldiers. He put these bloody trophies in a sack made of human skin.



Lighting a torch, Bres set his teeth in the same morbid grin. He grabbed Nuada and thrust the burning brand into the stump at his shoulder. Nuada shook, barely conscious of the pain as his wound was sealed. When Bres released him, the mutilated former king slumped over, eyes rolling back in his head.



Bres tied Nuada’s ankles to the saddle of his own Phouka, and threw the dripping sack of heads over its back. Mounting up himself, he pointed out a direction with his twisting sword. “Noble steed, ride now for me, your king. Ride to our old home in Tír na nÓg, unload your burden, and then return to the fleet. And there is no need to be gentle with your passengers.” This last elicited a snort of laughter from his followers. Bres turned from his vanquished friend and strode toward the idol of Balor, the awful, bulbous statue that loomed over all.



The Phouka was weirdly delighted, winking its bloodshot eyes at these orders. The mare sped off, determined to made quite a job of it. She sought out the most uneven terrain on the long run, crossed freezing streams, leaped through gullies, and found ingenious ways to batter Nuada’s body as it dragged behind. Sharing a twisted idea of success with Bres’ sick mind, the horse delighted in the moans that came from her weakened victim.



It was a long and painful journey to the capital city of Tír na nÓg. There, where the ancient stone walkway swept up to ornate golden gates, the Phouka finally paused. Rearing up on her hind legs, she dropped the leathery sack of heads on the stone walkway, where it hit with an unpleasant squelch and thud. Its form shimmered and shifted, and the Phouka became an attractive woman, dark hair knotted and thick with sweat and blood. She loosed the rope that bound her to Nuada’s unconscious body, then spread her arms in a gesture of greeting.



The woman proceeded to the gate and announced, in a high, discordant voice: “Hear me, oh great city! Your new king is on his way. You have seven passings of the sun to prepare a suitable welcome!”



Not waiting for a response from the baffled gate guards, she spun on her heel and strode haughtily away from the city, as if daring those within to shoot her in the back.



When they found their fallen hero Nuada and the sack of heads, all that was left of the Wild Hunt, the folk of the city crumpled to their knees and wept, felled in place as if struck dead. Their hero fallen, all the Children of Danu would soon follow.





A Hamadryad healer carried Nuada inside the city and tended to his many injuries, though he did not awaken for a full day. When he finally regained consciousness, he found himself at the High Courts, relating his sorry tale. His face grew hot with shame at his failure.



The speaker of the High Courts publically rebuked and chastised him as no one had ever dared before. “You should have listened to our advice and used caution! Now your foolish eagerness has weakened us and taken many brave soldiers to defiled graves.”



None of their censures hurt him quite so much as his beloved granddaughter Morrigan. Rather than speak, she simply changed her form to that of a crow and flew over his head three times, before disappearing into the trees outside the court. It was a symbol, hearkening back to an old omen of doom. Nuada felt what remained of his pride melt like snow in a hot fire.



Over the remaining days, the members of the Courts met over and over, debating endlessly. Everyone thought they knew how best to react to the sudden change in the fate of their people. Some argued for resistance, ignoring the pact that Nuada made by challenging Bres to that fateful duel. They argued that Bres had broken many traditions, and besides, Nuada hadn’t received the blessing of the Courts beforehand. Other members of the Courts argued for the importance of their honor, and urged surrender.



Nuada could not attend every gathering; he was in and out of consciousness, his battered body barely holding together. While the healer was able to speed the overall healing process, she could not restore Nuada’s arm. Nuada rarely spoke to her, seeking solace in sleep. But he found that even there he could not escape, for his dreams were torturous.



As he was healing, Nuada saw many things. He saw his people failing, their bright lives cut short. He saw darkness deep in the heart of chasms that went on forever. He saw the disturbing architecture and caves of The Depths, and he saw the foul creatures that dwelt within, twisted and cruelly malformed things that made him shudder in his sleep.



Each night ended with the same nightmare: His arm flew from his shoulder and landed on the sand. His blood poured from it, forming a crimson river. The blood flowed past him, bubbling and oozing, then sank through the sand and vanished. His limb lay twitching, surrounded by the broken pieces of his father’s sword.





On the sixth day, Nuada managed to stay awake longer. He felt empty and brittle, like an eggshell that had been drained of its yolk. The king’s confidence had been replaced by humiliation and a seething anger. But his anger did not burn in his belly for those he’d let down; there was nothing he could direct at the enemies of his people. He was not angry because he’d lost the kingdom, or even for his friends in the Hunt, but simply because he had lost the fight. Try as he might, Nuada found he could not care for anything else; his glory was shattered, stolen from him like his arm by a superior foe, and that was all that mattered.



Disgusted with himself, Nuada decided to flee the city and seek the place where Bres had gone, that place of unknown power called The Depths. Grabbing the broken pieces of his sword, Nuada left without a word to anyone. Glancing back at the tree-ringed city, he swore he would never return unless it was to kill the traitor Bres.



As the old king set off on his quest, Bres’ army descended upon the unguarded city, which swiftly surrendered to its new master. Though he had abandoned them, Nuada was disappointed when he looked over his mangled shoulder at the white flags waving on the walls. They could have at least tried to defend his city.



But he spared the people he’d let down only a few thoughts. Nuada turned his mind to the quest ahead, and trudged on.





For years, the crownless king travelled the Realm, searching for the entrance to The Depths. He went everywhere but to his Brothers in Camelot: He could not bear to let them see his shame.



Many folk had heard of the mysterious place in fable, but none could even guess at the location of the entrance. Nuada was often forced to take petty jobs to earn money for his travels. However, he never stopped searching for hints of his quarry in legends or dark rumors.



Nuada resumed his training, bitter at the changes he had to make to accommodate missing an arm and his father’s sword. He had to recover his confidence, find himself again. He had to find a way to make the blade sing again, to make it play the air with its deadly song once more. He had to abandon tricks and weak attempts at victory, to find new strength and power. He would need to be ready to fight once he found The Depths.



Nuada practiced fighting with his left arm. He learned new balance and footwork, and though all he possessed was a mundane one-handed sword, he pushed himself to reach the point where that would be all he needed.



But every time he practiced, he was reminded of his mutilation at Bres’ mad whim. Every time he couldn’t hold more than one thing at once, every time he had to fight with his off hand, every time he couldn’t lift as much weight as he used to, Nuada renewed his vow to kill Bres. It became his sole obsession.



Thus ends Part 1 of the Becoming tale of the Silverhands. Bonus Images! This fortified trading post was created by the Backer known as Bosk, who says this comes after just a month or so of playing around with C.U.B.E.! Check it out! And as one more bonus image, here’s a shot of our friendly gecko at feeding time! Look at her go! Thanks for reading our epic newsletter! As always, as the resident editor and writer here at CSE, it's a pleasure to bring this to you each month. Until next time!



-Max