Camelot Unchained - And So 2017 Begins & What It Might Bring - MMORPG.com

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Camelot Unchained - And So 2017 Begins & What It Might Bring - MMORPG.com

This week Timothy Eisen reflects on CSE’s top ten weekly completions and asks for your opinions on the next year of development.

Read the full story here

holdenhamlet

This is the one game out of the new batch of MMORPGs that really looks like it could be great.

TENTING

Artwork and attention to detail is amazing. Love the lady on the handle of the sword (No I did not mean that!)

Its really pretty. And I guess it means the game will have some amazing artwork.

Shame its a pure PvP game though.

Im a little in doubt though, I noticed a tiny sentence somewhere, that could lead me to believe there is a faction that is neutral, that cant be killed?
Or was that entirely made up by my wishful thinking maybe....

Otherwise looks really nice, but guess not my game anymore.

Loved the old DaoC, but looking back at what once was and what I enjoy in current MMORPGS, Im not eager to go back in time.

 Also, not a fan of spending hours designing something, just to have it destroyed again.

So sadly, not a game for me, sorry CU Devteam, but I still hope it becomes a succes for you. :pleased:     

Shadanwolf

Couple of comments. #1) CU is the ony game I'm genuinely excited about.....and have been for years. #2) I'm beyond exhausted waiting for beta,since I thought it was going to happen almost a Y-E-A-R ago.

BillMurphy

Hey @MarkJacobs, give us beta. :P

TENTING

You know, I just took a look at your website again to see if there was anything new on there.

Because I have to admit, CU was the game I looked most forward to a year ago, before I realized it was pure PvP.

As I remember the old DaoC (And mind you, this was afterall 13-14 years ago or so, so Im sorry if my memory is poor), But I dont recall that we ever came across the enemy faction while lvling.

I do remember the big PvP area though, where we all gathered outside to get sorted in groups. And then we moved inside and all the groups wasnt working together so people got pissed off in each their groups, cause the other groups were not helping, which made me laugh like I had never laughed before.

So I actually do like PvP, but will CU be a "You can be killed everywhere kind of game?" Or are there designated areas for that?

And tbh, I think I will try out your game after all, cause your races and classes looks so mint. Except Vikings, those poor fellows wont be in high numbers I think and will be the puny pity faction. (Yes I imagine that, but I think so :P )

And also, I need to make a crafter, your creative races and your crafter idea, ok my houses will get burned to the ground, but designing them will be time well spent no matter what.

See you :P

MarkJacobs

holdenhamlet said:

This is the one game out of the new batch of MMORPGs that really looks like it could be great.

Thanks! There's quite a number of independent MMORPGs out there in dev land, aren't there? Hopefully we will all be successful and gamers will have plenty of choices in the coming years!

TENTING said:

Artwork and attention to detail is amazing. Love the lady on the handle of the sword (No I did not mean that!)

Its really pretty. And I guess it means the game will have some amazing artwork.

Shame its a pure PvP game though.

Im a little in doubt though, I noticed a tiny sentence somewhere, that could lead me to believe there is a faction that is neutral, that cant be killed?
Or was that entirely made up by my wishful thinking maybe....

Otherwise looks really nice, but guess not my game anymore.

Loved the old DaoC, but looking back at what once was and what I enjoy in current MMORPGS, Im not eager to go back in time.

 Also, not a fan of spending hours designing something, just to have it destroyed again.

So sadly, not a game for me, sorry CU Devteam, but I still hope it becomes a succes for you. :pleased:     

Yeah, sorry to say you are seeing something that isn't there, we have no neutral faction in Camelot Unchained. Glad you like what you're seeing even if the game isn't for you. Thanks for checking us out though, it is appreciated!

Shadanwolf said:

Couple of comments. #1) CU is the ony game I'm genuinely excited about.....and have been for years. #2) I'm beyond exhausted waiting for beta,since I thought it was going to happen almost a Y-E-A-R ago.

Yeah, we're behind our time. OTOH, we're in really good shape with all our tech so it will be an easier road to LIVE than people expect, especially since we now have five programmers in Seattle and hopefully more coming.

BillMurphy said:

Hey @MarkJacobs, give us beta. :P

LOL, working on it Bill, we're working. Though this may be a sucky week as a whole bunch of Fairfax got a cold/flu/plague thing at the same time, including me.

MarkJacobs

TENTING said:

You know, I just took a look at your website again to see if there was anything new on there.



Because I have to admit, CU was the game I looked most forward to a year ago, before I realized it was pure PvP.



As I remember the old DaoC (And mind you, this was afterall 13-14 years ago or so, so Im sorry if my memory is poor), But I dont recall that we ever came across the enemy faction while lvling.



I do remember the big PvP area though, where we all gathered outside to get sorted in groups. And then we moved inside and all the groups wasnt working together so people got pissed off in each their groups, cause the other groups were not helping, which made me laugh like I had never laughed before.



So I actually do like PvP, but will CU be a "You can be killed everywhere kind of game?" Or are there designated areas for that?



And tbh, I think I will try out your game after all, cause your races and classes looks so mint. Except Vikings, those poor fellows wont be in high numbers I think and will be the puny pity faction. (Yes I imagine that, but I think so :P )



And also, I need to make a crafter, your creative races and your crafter idea, ok my houses will get burned to the ground, but designing them will be time well spent no matter what.



See you :P

Cool! FYI, on a community-run poll on our Forums, the Vikings were the most favored Realm so far. Thanks for giving us a chance, I hope you like what you see over 2017.

TENTING

Is ok Mark! I changed my mind!

No other game as of yet beats your race designs and so many from the start, I hope you give us a lot of character slots from the get go!
 

TENTING

MarkJacobs said:

TENTING said:

You know, I just took a look at your website again to see if there was anything new on there.



Because I have to admit, CU was the game I looked most forward to a year ago, before I realized it was pure PvP.



As I remember the old DaoC (And mind you, this was afterall 13-14 years ago or so, so Im sorry if my memory is poor), But I dont recall that we ever came across the enemy faction while lvling.



I do remember the big PvP area though, where we all gathered outside to get sorted in groups. And then we moved inside and all the groups wasnt working together so people got pissed off in each their groups, cause the other groups were not helping, which made me laugh like I had never laughed before.



So I actually do like PvP, but will CU be a "You can be killed everywhere kind of game?" Or are there designated areas for that?



And tbh, I think I will try out your game after all, cause your races and classes looks so mint. Except Vikings, those poor fellows wont be in high numbers I think and will be the puny pity faction. (Yes I imagine that, but I think so :P )



And also, I need to make a crafter, your creative races and your crafter idea, ok my houses will get burned to the ground, but designing them will be time well spent no matter what.



See you :P

Cool! FYI, on a community-run poll on our Forums, the Vikings were the most favored Realm so far. Thanks for giving us a chance, I hope you like what you see over 2017.

O noo   So guess I might end up in pity faction! Well so be it, my faction will make the best looking houses then! /flex!

MarkJacobs

TimEisen said:

I knew Bill played a summoner. Now summon a healer and port them to CSE headquarters!



Tis that time of the year when the great PVPer known as Winter closes its icy fist around the small creatures of this planet in an effort to take some of us with it when it finally relents.

LOL, yeah. Today sucks from a health perspective. I was feeling off on Friday (as the video showed) and by Sunday it blossomed into a cold/cough/plague thing. I was totally out of it yesterday, at least today I can get some work done.

Thanks for the article, as always!

TimEisen said:

TENTING said:

Is ok Mark! I changed my mind!

No other game as of yet beats your race designs and so many from the start, I hope you give us a lot of character slots from the get go!
 

That is what stands out to me in DAOC (for its time) and WAR. The detail and uniqueness of every race is seemingly a trademark of the MJ brand of MMORPGs. I liked to alt but after WAR I was a full blown alt-O-holic!

Hehe, thanks! One thing I can promise about Camelot Unchained is that we will have a ton of races with each one being unique and not mirrored. I'm an alt-O-holic as well.

Theocritus

Liked DAoC, have no interest in either of its successors

MarkJacobs

TENTING said:

MarkJacobs said:

TENTING said:

You know, I just took a look at your website again to see if there was anything new on there.





Because I have to admit, CU was the game I looked most forward to a year ago, before I realized it was pure PvP.





As I remember the old DaoC (And mind you, this was afterall 13-14 years ago or so, so Im sorry if my memory is poor), But I dont recall that we ever came across the enemy faction while lvling.





I do remember the big PvP area though, where we all gathered outside to get sorted in groups. And then we moved inside and all the groups wasnt working together so people got pissed off in each their groups, cause the other groups were not helping, which made me laugh like I had never laughed before.





So I actually do like PvP, but will CU be a "You can be killed everywhere kind of game?" Or are there designated areas for that?





And tbh, I think I will try out your game after all, cause your races and classes looks so mint. Except Vikings, those poor fellows wont be in high numbers I think and will be the puny pity faction. (Yes I imagine that, but I think so :P )





And also, I need to make a crafter, your creative races and your crafter idea, ok my houses will get burned to the ground, but designing them will be time well spent no matter what.





See you :P

Cool! FYI, on a community-run poll on our Forums, the Vikings were the most favored Realm so far. Thanks for giving us a chance, I hope you like what you see over 2017.

O noo   So guess I might end up in pity faction! Well so be it, my faction will make the best looking houses then! /flex!

LOL, that works.

donger56

I had some hopes for this game about a year ago, but now it just seems to be yet another project constantly delayed and stuck in development hell. I have no expectations to see this released in 2017 at all. I still don't know what to make of it other than it seems to be trying to be DAOC 2.0 I'm not sure if that will work for them or not, but it might be interesting to see if it ever actually moves forward in development. At this point it certainly looks like Crowfall will be out ahead of this project. The games are very different in many ways, but I know many people are interested in both.

cameltosis

This is currently the only MMO on the horizon that I'm looking forwards to.

The big thing that has stood out to me is CSE's willingness to invest in the underlying engine and tools. Most MMOs have some great features but everything starts falling apart when you try to do large scale multiplayer stuff (you know, the actual point of playing an mmo....) In almost all cases, it's because the devs haven't invested in their engines. They take off-the-shelf engines and then hack at them until they fit their game.

CSE, as I understand it, have started from scratch. I can't begin to imagine how complicated and time consuming it has been - i built a basic physics engine for my dissertation and it nearly killed me! - but I have always felt it is something that is necessary to build a proper MMO. It sounds like it's paying off though, 1000s of players/bots on screen all running about with no lag, thats exactly what we need!


Keep up the good work Mark and team, I want the game now but I'm more than happy to wait. This may well be the first MMO where the tech can fully support all the features of the game!

nurso

TENTING said:

So I actually do like PvP, but will CU be a "You can be killed everywhere kind of game?" Or are there designated areas for that?

I think that MJ said, that maybe there will be safe-zones around the starting cities ... maybe! Everywhere else is PvP 'enabled', so there is a (tiny) possibility that you encounter an enemy hunting party deep within your realm territory.

Wizardry

Well the terrain definitely looks  nice but where is the game video,do we just go on promises?Well i guess He hasn't really promised anything either lol,we really need to see something other than terrain generators and thee nice textures they used.

MarkJacobs

Theocritus said:

Liked DAoC, have no interest in either of its successors

Thanks for playing Dark Age of Camelot. Maybe you'll like another game we do. No worries either way.

donger56 said:

I had some hopes for this game about a year ago, but now it just seems to be yet another project constantly delayed and stuck in development hell. I have no expectations to see this released in 2017 at all. I still don't know what to make of it other than it seems to be trying to be DAOC 2.0 I'm not sure if that will work for them or not, but it might be interesting to see if it ever actually moves forward in development. At this point it certainly looks like Crowfall will be out ahead of this project. The games are very different in many ways, but I know many people are interested in both.

Mostly recruiting hell and one technical faceplant. Fortunately, we have solved both of those problems and are better off for it. In terms of DAoC 2.0, not at all. We've been very clear that we can't be DAoC 2.0 simply because we don't have the PvE content that DAoC. Now, if you said we'd like to be the RvR 2.0 game, that would be quite accurate. And I'm sure that Crowfall will be out sooner than us, they've already said that they will go the MVP route, which we are not. Nothing wrong with either path, just different. And yeah, CF and CU are so different, in so many ways, that RvR/PvP players should rejoice if both are successful.

cameltosis said:

This is currently the only MMO on the horizon that I'm looking forwards to.



The big thing that has stood out to me is CSE's willingness to invest in the underlying engine and tools. Most MMOs have some great features but everything starts falling apart when you try to do large scale multiplayer stuff (you know, the actual point of playing an mmo....) In almost all cases, it's because the devs haven't invested in their engines. They take off-the-shelf engines and then hack at them until they fit their game.



CSE, as I understand it, have started from scratch. I can't begin to imagine how complicated and time consuming it has been - i built a basic physics engine for my dissertation and it nearly killed me! - but I have always felt it is something that is necessary to build a proper MMO. It sounds like it's paying off though, 1000s of players/bots on screen all running about with no lag, thats exactly what we need!





Keep up the good work Mark and team, I want the game now but I'm more than happy to wait. This may well be the first MMO where the tech can fully support all the features of the game!

Yeah, the engine has consumed most of our programming time till now. That percentage will continue to shift over the next few months which is so necessary. As to thousands of Bots and Backers on screen, yep, last weekend's test showed that. This weekend we'll open the game up to our Beta 1 folks so that they can see that as well. Should be a lot of fun.

Thanks for your kind words and support, both are appreciated!

nurso said:

TENTING said:

So I actually do like PvP, but will CU be a "You can be killed everywhere kind of game?" Or are there designated areas for that?

I think that MJ said, that maybe there will be safe-zones around the starting cities ... maybe! Everywhere else is PvP 'enabled', so there is a (tiny) possibility that you encounter an enemy hunting party deep within your realm territory.

Yep, the starting cities are indeed safe zones, but other than that, there are no safe areas.

Wizardry said:

Well the terrain definitely looks  nice but where is the game video,do we just go on promises?Well i guess He hasn't really promised anything either lol,we really need to see something other than terrain generators and thee nice textures they used.

And screenshots don't do it either, I know that. We'll be modifying our NDA and live streaming rules once we are strongly in Beta 1. That means don't expect a full lift day 1, but we will gradually be doing it over time.

I expect people to be skeptical, especially when I/we throw around the 1K+ number. Our Backers have seen it in action, and will continue to see it as we move through the rest of Alpha and hit Beta 1. We're late, but we are technically really solid, and that's the most important thing. Well, at least to me.

Wreckoniing

I like the fact the mark acknowledges the issues they are running into during dev, and isn't making excuses to cover up. refreshing to see

Sovrath

Wreckoniing said:

I like the fact the mark acknowledges the issues they are running into during dev, and isn't making excuses to cover up. refreshing to see

It's also refreshing to see that he is professional and doesn't "snark back" at people who have rude observations, don't see things the way they do, or are highly critical.

Something that the younger set of indy developers, at least a few notable ones, need to learn.

Nanulak

Nice writeup. I am ready for CU in 2017, beta at least. I expect big things in 2017 for CU. My only question is what the heck are places of power and what do they do in the game?

Lokero

cameltosis said:

This is currently the only MMO on the horizon that I'm looking forwards to.

The big thing that has stood out to me is CSE's willingness to invest in the underlying engine and tools. Most MMOs have some great features but everything starts falling apart when you try to do large scale multiplayer stuff (you know, the actual point of playing an mmo....) In almost all cases, it's because the devs haven't invested in their engines. They take off-the-shelf engines and then hack at them until they fit their game.

CSE, as I understand it, have started from scratch. I can't begin to imagine how complicated and time consuming it has been - i built a basic physics engine for my dissertation and it nearly killed me! - but I have always felt it is something that is necessary to build a proper MMO. It sounds like it's paying off though, 1000s of players/bots on screen all running about with no lag, thats exactly what we need!


Keep up the good work Mark and team, I want the game now but I'm more than happy to wait. This may well be the first MMO where the tech can fully support all the features of the game!

Those are basically my exact thoughts.

CSE has taken the time to build a proper foundation, while everyone else is building their castles on sand.  I think this is what will ensure their game survives on the market.
It certainly has cost them some serious development time, and I think they have fallen way behind time-wise because of it, but, in the end, I think it will pay off for them.

MarkJacobs

Wreckoniing said:

I like the fact the mark acknowledges the issues they are running into during dev, and isn't making excuses to cover up. refreshing to see

Thanks. One of the things I say at the studio is that I like reasons, not excuses when something goes wrong. Own up to it, explain why it happened, learn from it and move on. I try to communicate a failure/problem to our Backers the same way. Sometimes I go into too much detail for some folks, but I'd rather say too much than too little.

Sovrath said:

Wreckoniing said:

I like the fact the mark acknowledges the issues they are running into during dev, and isn't making excuses to cover up. refreshing to see

It's also refreshing to see that he is professional and doesn't "snark back" at people who have rude observations, don't see things the way they do, or are highly critical.

Something that the younger set of indy developers, at least a few notable ones, need to learn.

Hehe, I was young once too. I am still capable of being snarky at times on our Forums, but I've toned it done a lot since 1999 and even then, my snarkiness was quite tame compared to some I've seen over the years. Thanks for the kind words. I'm far from perfect, but I try to do things the right way, this is one of them that is important to me since I've been doing it since the 80s. Gad I'm old.

Nanulak said:

Nice writeup. I am ready for CU in 2017, beta at least. I expect big things in 2017 for CU. My only question is what the heck are places of power and what do they do in the game?

Places of power are everything from mines to ruins  to The Depths. It's just a catch-phrase we used during the Kickstarter as shorthand for a much longer explantion. 

Lokero said:

cameltosis said:

This is currently the only MMO on the horizon that I'm looking forwards to.

The big thing that has stood out to me is CSE's willingness to invest in the underlying engine and tools. Most MMOs have some great features but everything starts falling apart when you try to do large scale multiplayer stuff (you know, the actual point of playing an mmo....) In almost all cases, it's because the devs haven't invested in their engines. They take off-the-shelf engines and then hack at them until they fit their game.

CSE, as I understand it, have started from scratch. I can't begin to imagine how complicated and time consuming it has been - i built a basic physics engine for my dissertation and it nearly killed me! - but I have always felt it is something that is necessary to build a proper MMO. It sounds like it's paying off though, 1000s of players/bots on screen all running about with no lag, thats exactly what we need!


Keep up the good work Mark and team, I want the game now but I'm more than happy to wait. This may well be the first MMO where the tech can fully support all the features of the game!

Those are basically my exact thoughts.

CSE has taken the time to build a proper foundation, while everyone else is building their castles on sand.  I think this is what will ensure their game survives on the market.
It certainly has cost them some serious development time, and I think they have fallen way behind time-wise because of it, but, in the end, I think it will pay off for them.

Thanks. It's one of the reasons we fell behind (I can't put all of our delay on that, it wouldn't be true) but it is also one of the reasons we're in great shape as 2017 begins. 

Torval said:

Pretty impressive keeping toolchains and software working on current server versions. I think that shows a lot of foresight. A lot of businesses don't it.

When we can stream 1K Bots + new animation system + improved VFX system, then we can all smile, CSE and Backers. 


Thanks again for the article and the follow-up posts folks. I'm fading fast from the cold/plague thing so I don't know if I'll be back tonight. Bye!

nurso

MarkJacobs said:

And screenshots don't do it either, I know that.

What's the reason to not release a 10-15 min video of the current 'massive client' test? I mean, there are already some screenshots of the latest engine-test on the main site ... the move to moving screenshots aka a short video shouldn't be that big, IMO.

Kajidourden

Ehhh, Crowfall looks much more promising, if not at as AAA polished. CU is going to be DaoC 2.0, Crowfall will actually be a new game with way more interesting concepts outside of solely RvR.

That said, I intend to let them both speak for themselves as they develop.

Dullahan

One of Crowfall's main tenets is making an MMO that can be played seasonally, while CU is probably going more for the long-term traditional approach. That makes them pretty different.