Unveiled: Camelot Unchained Newsletter #47 - City State Entertainment View this email in your browser Share Tweet +1 Team Tidings -by Max Porter Hey folks,



Welcome to another Unveiled newsletter! We had to take a little break from these monthly installments to do various things, such as, I don’t know, launching Beta 1?



That’s right you guys, WE LAUNCHED BETA 1! Backers have been coming in droves to join our frequent tests, and much murderous fun continues to be had. As we develop new features and test them, you folks are truly helping us make this game the best it can be.



You can read about our new processes and pipelines, and marvel at some Backer creations in the pieces here in the newsletter. It’s so exciting to be developing these things, and to bring them to you folks!

Since launching Beta 1, we’ve focused more on testing than on streaming, but we’ve still continued to put up raw, unedited, and unrehearsed streams, showing you everything from impressive creative work by our artists and programmers to our latest updates and news. The streams are fun for us, but they are also very important, as we always want to be as informative as possible for our Backers and fans, especially as we head into Beta. 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 news, as well as our weekly Top Tenish updates, check out the News section of our website.



Here in the Fairfax office, we’ve had a long string of rainy days. Apparently, we’ve been getting more rain than the Seattle office, so you know it’s a lot! Fortunately, these are great days to stay in and work on this exciting project called Camelot Unchained®!



It’s been a pleasure for me to put together this monthly newsletter for your perusal once more! Read on for articles, updates, art, and news, in a series of excellent articles penned by members of the team. Also, remember to click on the “view this email in your browser” link on the top right to see the whole thing! Thanks for coming on the journey with us, and please enjoy this, the forty-seventh issue of Unveiled. Hot Topics



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



In particular, we'd love to get your thoughts on this thread about body parts! (You'll have to be logged in!) Dose of Design -by Ben Pielstick Beyond the Beginning of Beta

Now that Camelot Unchained has successfully made its way into its first phase of Beta testing, we here at CSE are already hard at work on what comes next. In terms of design, this means planning out a lot of the exciting new stuff that can now be built on top of the foundation that was laid when we built the feature set for Beta 1.



One of the biggest features to be worked on, as you might expect for a game focused mainly around PvP combat, is the ability system. Although basic sets of starting skills for each of our current nine classes are fully in and working, we still have a long way to go before those classes have everything they’ll need by the time the game launches. We’ve also got a lot more classes we would like to get into the game, so we’re now making sure we can efficiently implement new ability components.



When prototyping content for new systems, the means of implementation can be a bit of a challenge. This is because the first time you try and build something, you’ve got nothing to base it on, and the tools you have to work with are still in their first version, often requiring extra work, because a lot of their most helpful features have yet to be developed.



While the core system that runs abilities on the game client and the server has reached a very advanced stage (in order to support the gameplay needs of starting Beta 1 testing), the tools for actually creating the abilities have yet to get a lot of time invested in them. This means that the process of creating, testing, and debugging skills has been far more time-consuming up to this point than we expect it to be in the future.



Again, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The first pieces of content being prototyped for any new system have to be built in some way initially, so that developers can find out what improvements need to be made to make the process easier. Now that we have some experience building abilities, we have a much better idea of what features will lead to an efficient pipeline to take us from written design to finished ability components.



We’re making a major improvement to our process by changing our method of editing ability data. We’re going from text editing raw XML files to using validated fields in a newly-created set of editors. This doesn’t require entirely new software, just a few expansion modules for our existing editor, which is already in use for many other tasks, such as editing zones and terrain mods, or importing models and textures.



At the same time, we are also working on several other improvements to combat. These include more features for our visual effects editor to create better particle effects. We’re also making changes to the way we create animations to make them work with an improved dynamic blending system, which will lead to smoother and more impactful animations. We’re also making improvements to the way we prioritize sound effects, so that the most important sounds will still be heard even in the midst of large-scale combat. This will ensure that the overall experience of combat continues to improve beyond simply adding more content.



These changes will take time, however, so don’t expect to see a whole lot of new classes and ability components showing up right away. Once we do have our new tools up and working, we will be able to add new ability components to the game at a much faster rate, which will allow new classes to be added to testing--starting with the Mage archetype!



While we still have a lot of work to do before CU is ready for launch, many of the features we’re now putting time into are support features like tools, which will make finishing the game easier. As more of our core tech for our client and server stabilizes and becomes optimized, our emphasis shifts more and more toward gameplay features and making the game more fun. We’re looking forward to sharing the results with you, and to your help along the way, testing and providing feedback that will help shape and improve the game. Developer Quote “We’ve kept every promise. One of the things that we’re very proud of is the fact that the things that we laid out are still the things that we’re planning on doing. We haven’t made a single major change to any one of them.” -- Mark Jacobs Art It Up -by Tyler Rockwell Animation

One thing I’ve learned on this project is that there are a myriad of ways one can swing a sword. I’ve also learned how important it is to make that simple thing look good. Over the life of the project so far, we’ve tried a couple of different approaches, but finding the look and feel that works is a journey. We also need the visual style to support the game’s design, and do it with a small team. This problem is a pretty good one for an artist/producer like myself, and for a talented team of animators.



Before we hit the start of Beta 1, we changed the approach to focus around a few key concepts. Characters should move quickly to key poses: Prepare, end of attack, and recover.

Key poses, which are on screen longer, should look strong, well-balanced, and frankly, cool.

Body movement and position should enforce the attack animations and weapon style for further visual clarity.

More contrast in timing and speed between phases. (Prepare, attack, recover.)

Now, these aren’t the only changes, as we’ve continued to improve things, but they are the primary ones. These ideas were meant to support making your character feel a little more badass, by pushing things, in general, beyond where they were. With more variable timing and strong poses, we can get characters who feel like they are tensing up before really whalloping you with a quick attack. With this slow-fast cadence that repeats throughout the movements of our animations, we get a bit more pep, and have an improved visual flow.



The first experiment we completed was on the Black Knight’s special ability, Void Slash, for the Beta 1 abilities. Scott broke it down into those key poses before animating it, so you can see it illustrated. We’ve got a later experiment with the Empath’s basic cast, illustrating the same concepts with smaller movements.



There’s quite a few videos on our channel from around this time period that show Scott working with this new approach. That approach also ended up saving us time in completing the animations.



We recently finished prototyping better support for variable ability timings. As Scott put it, “it’s a challenge to maintain visual appeal while the animation needs to be scaled in time six ways to Sunday!”



Melee abilities are perhaps the hardest to give a wide range of timings without making unique animations. Scott and I spent some effort on breaking down not only the phases of the animations, but all the sub-parts within those phases, so that slow-downs can be introduced without slowing down the whole animation uniformly. Scott, Ben, and Mark also threw in some extra ideas that further support longer ability times without breaking the flow of the melee attack. The end result is a variation to our current approach without much increase in the workload! That’s a very good thing.



The next step is to get the engineering support for the variable timing changes, which will be more obvious once we bring back the ability builder. That will allow players to not only make abilities with variable prep and recover phases, but also see them with the new animations as they are finished!



Overall this is the type of challenge I truly enjoy. Granted, I might not say that all the time in the midst of it, as a challenge is still a challenge--but we’ve grown so much, learned so much, and I’m excited that now it’s time to double down and get ‘er done! Community Spotlight -by Brian Ward

Picturesque TDD home in the woods by Treville.



We’re just at the beginning of all the fun, but in the lead-up to and during Beta 1, it’s become evident that there’s so much creativity around here, you just can’t escape it. From humble houses of the Realm to organic-looking giant tree stumps and massive cities, the buildings that you’ve created have taken us by surprise. Some have been just plain silly, while others are truly inspiring.



In case you didn’t already know, structures in CU are created through Building Mode, either offline or online inside the game client. You first must place a plot (a claim of land) and then you can add blocks to it. In the final game, you’ll need to collect resources when building online in order to be able to make the blocks, but for testing purposes, they are unlimited.





Arthurian castle, created by Bosk.



In online building mode, we’ve limited the size of the plots that you can place for testing. This is somewhat different from offline mode, where you can place substantially larger plots and can try your hand at building much larger structures with no resource constraints. This is how Bosk, a member of the Builders’ Brigade—a handpicked crew of elite CU builders—was able to create a breathtaking castle, which you can see on the Arthurian Home Island.



But what we’ve seen is that even with relatively small plots, people have made some amazing things. Treville created an incredibly eye-catching and unique TDD tower, reminiscent of an old jukebox. When I reached out to him to find out more about how it came to be, I referenced it as a Wurlitzer, and it turns out that’s exactly how Treville and his mates refer to it as well, but this build wasn’t planned out that way from the beginning:





Wurlitzer by Treville



Treville: “The design was a combination of planning and organic building. I had a general idea of a tower able to fit in that plot size with a rounded roof, but the back of it and such took a life of its own as did the rounded corners. Building is always an adventure in CU, you start with a generic idea in your head and it just grows to something amazing!”





Pimya designed this maze to elicit fear from those who would dare approach it.



Pimya created an ornate, modular, cube-shaped maze. It’s absolutely enormous and uses almost the entire physical area of its plot. The initial idea to create a maze came after seeing Gunnar’s maze, seen during the early days of Beta 1, but also after visiting the California coast.



Pimya: “I was on vacation [...] and stopped at Arrata's Pumpkin Farm Hay Maze! It was super well constructed and I got inspired. Having just started playing with C.U.B.E., [...] I decided to make one myself.”





Cross section of Pimya's maze. It is modular to the highest degree.



Pimya: “I designed it to be modular, thinking if I figured out a good system, I'd be able to make several. It took a week to finish, got totally obsessed with it, so much fun. After it was done, I decided it needed a more intimidating facade than just flat walls, I wanted it to seem like you would be entering something that's alive and scary.”





Interior of Pimya's maze.



Necromaniak is always creating something new and exciting. Lately, he’s been working on a city-sized keep in offline mode, which according to him is the biggest project he’s worked on so far. It’s massive and, “it’s about two-fifths done,” he says. You can see that it’s got a very unique, angular aesthetic to it, as if to challenge would-be invaders. Once building destruction is further along, it will be amazing to see builds like this under siege.





Necromaniak's city-sized keep is already massive, yet it's only 2/5 complete!



In creating a TDD home, Ishaba wanted to take a more organic route: “I began as a personal challenge to make a natural looking building that would be at home in a forest. As my main will be a TDD crafter, I thought that he would shape what was naturally available. At first, I made a single story shop with a ceiling was built in a circular pattern to give the appearance of growth rings for the tree. This evolved into a three story version with an inset spiral staircase leading up stairs out of the shop into the personal areas. Finally, I finished that top of the ancient stump with new growth that would provide shade to the top of the structure.”





Ishaba's tree stump home highlights the TDD's affinity for the natural world.



If you’re in Beta 1, it’s worth checking out the Realm Builder Islands and/or the Contested Island to see what’s out there. Maybe you’ll try your hand at making something in-world. In the meantime, if you’re interested to learn more about the building system, I’ve written up a basic building walkthrough that’s available in the Beta 1 Guide.





Heartfyre's Viking mead hall, created for the Builders' Brigade.





Treville's keep features an organic wood trim, which is fast becoming the distinctive signature of TDD design.





Ishaba's shrine.



There are so many talented people creating amazing things for the CU universe. This is just a small taste. We’ll do more features like this to highlight builds that you’ve created, but the best way to see it is to experience it for yourself!





Necromaniak created this portrait of Andrew with the CU building tools. Thank you very much for reading all the way to the end of our mighty monthly newsletter! I had, as always, an absolute blast putting this all together for you, and editing and writing for it as well. Thanks for your support, and enjoy testing in Beta 1 -- here's to our ongoing journey! --Max

