The latest monthly newsletter from City State Entertainment, the developers behind the long awaited MMO, Camelot Unchained, has just been released. It provides intriguing insights into some major updates and improvements in the game's movement and encumbrance systems, the development of its AI, as well as the introduction of CU’s crafting mechanics, which have now rolled out and started receiving feedback.
First and foremost, this month's newsletter was missing something we've become accustomed to. Concept Art!. Instead, the team outlined some changes the movement and encumbrance systems have seen by detailing a significant overhaul encumbrance has gone through in the past month. The developers have been experimenting with various ideas over the past year, including altering the base movement speed and removing the Armor Encumbrance stats. The current update, according to CSE, combines the best elements of the old and new systems, promising a smoother and more enjoyable gaming experience for testers. Some of the changes include increasing the base movement speed, the maximum movement speed, and a recalculation of how encumbrance slows characters down.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the newsletter is the progress made in the development of the game's AI system. CSE states that they have been quietly working on building one of the most powerful AI engines in the MMO genre, which is clearly a hefty boast. What followed in the newsletter is a rather complex explanation, denoting the challenges of the destructible world of Camelot Unchained, along with the multitude of character types, abilities, and characteristics, which all are factors that the team had to consider when fleshing out the system. According to CSE, the team has now shifted their focus from the foundational systems to building a massive library of behaviors that leverage the rapid advancements made in their AI capabilities over the past few years.
The newsletter also highlights the evolution of the Unchained Engine's AI capabilities since the game's Kickstarter days, which, as of this article, is over 10 years ago. The team states that there have been significant improvements, including the pathfinding system , which has been transformed from a simplistic solution to a “state-of-the-art” mechanism that can handle the complex world of Camelot Unchained. NPC perception has been improved to support multi-target detection, tracking, and analysis for both offensive and defensive purposes. Furthermore, the hierarchical behavior system has been upgraded to offer more sophisticated logic than ever before. After more than 10 years, it’s certainly good to see these systems evolving, even if many non-backers are still awaiting their chance to test these new systems for themselves.
Last but not least, last month we wrote about the crafting revamp that the developers outlined as a major step forward in last month’s newsletter. The introduction of the new crafting mechanics, has reportedly already received positive feedback from the community of testers. The team states they are excited to build upon the progress made in April and bring more updates and features to the game in May. With significant improvements and updates hitting the game monthly, and the team welcoming several new developers over the past few months, it’s evident they are making an attempt to speed delivery of Camelot Unchained. While there are no plans for any public tests anytime soon, we’ll keep out eyes out for more information on updates as they become available.
