Camelot Unchained: Piercing the Veil

[Regolyth]

So the fine folks over at Camelot Unchained hold a Q&A for the founders. This week's was particularly interesting, so I'm going to post it here for everyone to read. However I'm going to post the one from last time first, just to catch everyone up. And in case you didn't know, they have this thing about ducks. It's weird.



Greetings my dear duckies and welcome to the first Piercing the Veil™!!!

Piercing the Veil will be a semi-regular event that we shall host until the game shuts down or until the end of time, whichever comes first! We intend for this Q&A to be both fun and informative. We will answer silly questions right alongside the more serious game-oriented questions. My chief endeavor is to help build an informed and happy player community and PtV is one of the tools that I believe will help me achieve that goal. Keep an eye on the forums for new discussions where you can post questions. Thanks to all of the Founders who took the time to post their questions for this PtV!
Renée Machyousky, Community Manager, City State Entertainment


Oakblade Asked: Are there any live Ducks near the office and do you feed them?

You wouldn’t want to feed the ducks around here. These are some severely jaded ducks. They eat a mixture of buffalo chicken wings and asphalt, and they actually experience road rage. We prefer our ducks bright yellow and plastic, with their innocence still intact.

Sornin Asked: Will guilds be able to form formal alliances with other guilds in order to share communications and resources?

Do I blow a cute fuse each and every time I see a baby duck? YES! We absolutely want our players to be able to create formal alliances. I was in a rather small guild in Dark Age of Camelot, and being part of an alliance made for much easier group finding as well as intel and resource sharing. So, if Mark said no to alliances he would have to deal with some pretty epic pouting…from me.

Harvest Asked: Every Class will have different Specs?

Maybe, sorta, kinda, yes and no /dodge! Sorry to be evasive on this one. We have discussed things like: having classes that do one thing very well, or having classes that can be specced multiple ways, as well as having combinations of both. Rest assured that if we went with limited class speccing, we would make up for it by having a greater number of classes than we laid out during the Kickstarter.

Mirelind Asked: Did you get any ideas from this forum that you are going to put into the game?

Mark has said that the Becoming™ tale for the Bean Sidhe was inspired by a couple of questions from the forums. We believe that it’s extremely likely that Founders are going to come up with interesting ideas for us to incorporate over the lifetime of the game. As a matter of fact, Mark has a reward system that we will talk about in a future PtV. Mark would say it is ‘an oldie but a goodie’.

travy Asked: How will up-scaling a pledge work?

Like magic of course! Our programming team is working on this now; we will have actual answers for you at the end of the month when we hope to reopen Paypal with fresh tiers. I like saying ‘fresh tiers’.

Meddyck Asked: Are “Arthurians”, “Tuatha de Dannan”, and “Vikings” the final names for the 3 realms or could those change before release?

These are not yet set in stone! I am on a steady diet of Founders’ thoughts and opinions, and this topic is no exception. I distil down what you folks say into a readily digestible formula for the team to consume (even though many of them are happily active and/or lurking on the forums). Fun Fact: Mark was originally going to use “Sidhe” instead of “Tuatha de Dannan” but he thought “Tuatha de Dannan” just sounded cooler.

Hellraise Asked: Are you planning to organize the forums with structured / moderated questions and topics or are you happy to keep it as it is?

Definitely planning a re-org of the forums. As we say, it’s on the list. We’ve had a lot of feedback asking for a simpler design and once we port over to our own hosting, we will have far greater control over the set-up, mods (the code kind), etc., and we do plan to simplify some. We are also planning to have localized subsections of the forums for our communities that prefer to read/write in languages other than English, provided there is enough interest, and so far there is from at least three non-English reading/writing communities.

Incan Asked: Do you have any idea of what the world will look like?

Many, you should see our dry erase boards here! Ideas are not something this team is lacking. It’s rather like our confection situation actually. There is nothing congealed enough to bite into yet however. As you know, Mark has said that this will be a large world, and while the art team ready the throwing daggers every time he mentions that, we do all agree that we are better off with a map that is maybe a bit too large rather than one that has people feeling crammed in.

Peter kokocha Asked: Have you ever eaten DUCK?

Umm. I umm. You see, what happened was…well, it kinda flew into my mouth… OKAY!? It also just happened to be dead, nicely crisped and covered in an amazing orange demi-glaze. As for the rest of the team, they have informed me that during the Kickstarter, some kind Founders sent over some Peking Duck for lunch. They report that it was yummy!

Phoxx & Fenris Wolf Iron Asked: When will the next 24-hour live stream be?

We are considering having one for the re-launch of Paypal tiers later this Fall! This time we will be prepared, as opposed to the big guy strolling in here and suggesting, “Hey we should stay up for the last 24 hours of the Kickstarter!” At which point everyone wishes they hadn’t stayed up quite so late gaming the night before. I am sure most of you can relate.

Nibs Asked: Will we be able to swap out the music files like we could in DAoC? I loved being able to swap out the 2 default combat musics to my own choices.

We haven’t discussed this before today but I believe that we will give players the ability to do so!

Belatucadros Asked: Mark recently finished a document on the magic system, which he said was then discussed amongst the group at CSE. How much of it survived the group contact? Specifically Andrew, who would be making tech decisions.

Our programming team was so on board with the Magic Systems doc, that they started suggesting embellishments and talked about how it would work, rather than how it couldn’t. They are good at life. We were all excited actually and the whole team had questions and suggestions. It was inspiring! I think Mark was rather pleased with our reaction to his ‘idears’. In all fairness, Mark usually spends a lot of time talking about his system ideas with the team before he works on the design docs, just to get our initial feedback and suggestions.


That’s it for this round folks! Thanks again for your participation

[Regolyth]

Here is the second post of the Q&A. There's some crafting information in here that I thought some of you might like.

Piercing the Veil™ #2

Welcome Ladies and Lords, to another juicy installment of Piercing the Veil™! It’s been a very busy few weeks here at the studio, and yet I am happy to make time for PtV. You guys ask some great questions and it’s truly fun for me to answer them. I will open with a question directed at me.

Oakblade asked: Do you like lurking in the forums?

I prefer to call it prowling, but yes I actually do enjoy it I would have been doing it whether Mark hired me or not. Hmm, I maybe I shouldn’t tell him that.

Fanglo asked: Will there be a male race that has good abs and runs around shirtless like in the movie 300?

Gosh, men’s abs are all the rage these days! They have their very own reality TV show now, don’t they? Although we jest, this does bring up a good point. There have been many discussions in the studio and on the forums about character appearance. Really what it boils down to for us is that ‘pretty’ is only entertaining for a short while, so it better have something of substance backing it up. So, while we do want our game to look good, and our players to be able to make characters that are unique and personalized, we will be focusing WAY more on actual game mechanics and performance than avatar sex appeal. Fear not, there will be plenty of avatar customization! We are not fans of boob-sliders, (or ab-sliders for the purposes of this question) but we do want there to be enough be plenty of options for folks to make as pretty or ugly a Dvergr as they see fit. Hmm. Pretty dwarves. Welp, there went my credibility.

TheMeph asked: How will CU reach out to all the possible niche players? Will we see ads and banners, or will it be purely on word of mouth?

We are a niche game as you mention, so I wouldn’t expect to see much in the way of standard ads and banners from us. Mark tells me: “We will do the same sort of stuff we did back when Mythic was developing Dark Age of Camelot. Lots of viral stuff spread out over the next two years should work well for us. If we are more successful at launch than we expect to be, that’s one thing, but we need to spend our money wisely and on the game’s development.”

Ophis asked: If you use a system of measurement in the game, will you use the imperial system, the metric system or a custom made system?

Apparently you’ve never heard of the ‘rubber ducky’ system of measurement? In all honestly this has not been talked about yet…

Mac asked: Will it all be this dark? Or will there be some hope and light? I’m not all about puffy unicorn ducks with rainbow wings. But must we have a world that is so extremely dismal?

Such a timely question good sir! Why just this day I am editing a lighter Becoming™ tale that the boss sent my way. See, what happened was, he was at his desk, channeling H.P. Lovecraft and writing all of these dark, dark things, when all of a sudden, the clouds outside cleared and a bright rainbow did appear! So bright in fact that it blew the blinds clear off the windows and shone straight into his eyes! The rainbow’s essence then entered his very soul and he was possessed to write this tale. It is rather uplifting, not Disney mind, yet light-hearted enough for a puffy-unicorn-duck-with-rainbow-wings to happily digest You won’t have to wait long to read it. It will be part of our next Camelot Unchained sprint. So, yes, although we are making a horror genre game, there will be light, for what is darkness without it?

Ortu asked: Will we be able to hang the heads of our enemies over our gates as a warning to anyone foolish enough to come knocking (read: will there be any sort of decorative battle trophies)?

Omg, yes please!!! The truth: I haven’t been in on a conversation about this yet, but I would be very surprised if there hasn’t been one, and further surprised if we did not end up having battle trophies in the game.

aylwynn asked: When do you plan to announce the “release” title of the game?

I am pushing for us to do so when we re-open PayPal this Fall Mark is pushing back a little as he wants to be really sure about the name. Can’t argue with that. We have been working furiously on our accounts system, which we need to have in place for the PayPal re-launch. In fact, just this week we ran the system through its first paces and it passed with flying colors! So, soon the people who purchased Guild Tiers will be able to invite their guildies to the forums. Which is good, because I am pretty sure they have already constructed a voodoo doll of me and are planning to practice their runes on it if we don’t get this up, stat.

Sinikin asked: When CU finally launches what faction do any of the CSE team hope to play primarily?

As my British friend Adam would say, “why, you cheeky little monkey!” Would that we could tell you my friend. I can say, that from an informal survey, it seems pretty evenly divided here in the studio. It’s clear that we won’t all be on one big happy team I mean, we are essentially daytime roommates right? So there is likely to be plenty of, ‘drink the last of the milk will you!?’ type rage that we feel the need to exact upon each other. Also, as you know, many of us are/were DAoC players (and creators) and so, we have our allegiances. Some folks are saying they will play multiple realms. MJ feels (and I agree) that if we tell players exactly what each of us will play, there is too much potential for players to feel that we favor one faction over the other.

Kevin.K asked: Has there been any thought yet on seasons and day/night cycles? Is there room to break away from typical Earth norms? I’m curious what sorts of impact the veil could have on seasons and what potential impact that could have on gameplay/strategies/crafting. As a simple “off the top of my head” example, perhaps in a certain season some rivers become poisonous due to the oils of nearby plants. Or may in some regions a season cause a near continuous thick fog severely limiting visibility.

Yes, there have been many conversations here in the studio surrounding day/night cycles, weather, seasonal influences on game play, veil influences on game play etc. Day and night cycles for the game are confirmed. In addition, we have a lot of other cool ideas (and backers do as well!), yet we need to find that sweet spot where we implement just enough of them to keep people engaged and entertained, without feeling overwhelmed or worse, frustrated.

Torkaal asked: We speak about mages with PBAoE. Can you to be sure that each realm will have a PBAoE mage?

As Mark has stated, we will not have mirrored classes in Camelot Unchained. It would make our lives easier if we planned to have them, but we aren’t going for easy, we are going for awesome. PBAoE spells can be quite powerful and we would have to think very carefully about giving that type of ability to only one or two realms.

Kristian Vad Bovtrup asked: I personally loved the 8 man groups in DAoC, how large do you see the groups being in CU?

We are still discussing group size but are comfortable saying that we too like 8 and think it could work in Camelot Unchained.

Nelapsi asked: Do you plan to let us choose directly a class like Helbound? Or do we have to choose an archetype like “priest” and then, at a certain level we’ll be able to become a Helbound?

Currently we don’t plan to use an archetype or class evolution as you lay out. It’s certainly something that we have discussed, but given the limited number of classes we will have at launch, it seems like an unnecessary step.

Daliden asked: Have you considered the use of 3D sound and bind-able, per-recorded sound bites for the characters (“Help me!”), allowing you to identify the direction from which the plea for help is coming from?

No, we haven’t considered this yet.

Azhadi asked: Do you plan to give Equipment & Material also a sort of Banes & Boons system to add depth into the choice of equipment, so there isn’t the [overall] truly best type of armor or the best material, but maybe the best for my play-style? Like iron plate armor gives a +xx resistance for slice and earth-element but also suffers from -xx resistance to blunt and lightning, as an example.

Absolutely. We want crafting to be as dynamic and interesting as possible and having that level of diversity in terms of advantages and disadvantages, is at the heart of what we believe will be fun for our players. We want Crafters to feel that they can really put their mark on what they make. The more options we can give them to do so, the greater sense of ownership and pride they are likely to have in what they craft and sell.

Karinuna asked: Will we see some parts of Mark’s stories as a Cinematic Intro, or what kind of Intros will we get?

Not likely. As much as Mark would love to see some of his idears as cinematics, it’s not in the budget for us.

Sornin asked: How will the lore of Camelot Unchained be communicated within the game world in light of the absence of the typical PvE channels such as quests and NPCs?

This will be done through out-of-game devices such as the Becoming™ tales as well as such in-game items such as libraries and hopefully, our take on a ToK-like instrument.

Meddyck asked: If after launch major changes are made to how a certain race’s boons and banes work for balance reasons, will characters of that race get to respec their boons and banes?

Yes. We might also allow them a full character respec if the B&B changes were significant enough to warrant it.


That’s it for this round folks! Thanks again for your participation

-Renée Machyousky, Community Manager, City State Entertainment

[Morreion]

I read the duck stuff too and I can only conclude that there's a rather large private joke going around that we don't know about!

[Laethaka]

if their tech office complex is like the one at Redwood Shores in California, it's built on reclaimed/paved wetlands so there's hella geese & ducks wandering everywhere still trying to live there

ugggh yeah it's actually pretty sad

[Morreion]

There's a decent amount of wetlands being restored here in Ohio, I go out hiking around and the wildlife love it there for sure

If you're into nature photography, check out my alter-ego blog here. Yeah, I get out of the house and do other things than read about gaming...

[Regolyth]

The duck thing started back during their Kickstarter campaign. I'm not sure how it started, but people started sending in rubber ducks for some reason. Once one person did it, it kind of snowballed into everyone doing it. There were lots of DAoC-themed ducks (I remember a particularly cool viking one). When MBJ did his daily/weekly updates, he'd have the ducks all lined up around him. He'd open some during the video too.

So the duck thing has continued over to the development stage of the game now. I wouldn't be surprised to see some duck-related stuff within the game itself, as a type of easter egg.

[Laethaka]

haha excellent

this blog is great, Gack!! I miss America... the area i'm in now is totally environmentally devastated. Though it does have gorgeous, intense weather...

[Morreion]

Thanks, Laethaka! I like photography as much as screenshots, hah!

Any pictures you've taken of Lesotho would be cool to see!

[Regolyth]

Edit: So it just occurred to me that they post this over on their website and anyone can see it; you don't have to be a backer to view it (as I thought you had to). So I'll not repost the entire thing, but snippets that I think y'all might be interested in, instead.

Piercing the Veil #3

Doulos asked: Are their any thoughts on an in game cash shop? And what kinds of things you might sell there such as pets?

[Absolutely, Mark has a lot of thoughts on in-game cash shops within a subscription game (even if the price is below average). Unfortunately, none of them are suitable for printing here. I shall summarize for you though, “BLEEP, and BLEEPING, BLEEEEEPITY BLEEEP!”

Leiferon asked: I love making gear templates for different classes. It’s fun when there are many important stats (including resists). Unique items and drops ensure that very few people ever have the same exact gear on. How will Camelot Unchained encourage unique template builds?

Since there won’t be gear drops in our game, all the gear must come from our crafters. They will have the ability to make really powerful, diverse and unique items. Those looking for a WoW (or even DAoC) style system where item bonuses are the key to success (and for the popularity of certain items) will find that this won’t be the case. Gear from our crafters will be useful, though not crucial, in helping the wearer. Mark has spoken about avoiding some of the typical MMO tropes when it comes to gear. He points out that gear is generally used by designers as a carrot to keep players playing (and paying). We won’t rely on such things in Camelot Unchained.

[Morreion]

I like Mark's attitude on cash shops!

I wish this was a PvE & RvR game like DAoC... *sighs*