Kickstarter: $2 million goal
Official Site
Camelot Unchained on Reddit
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What is Camelot Unchained?
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It's a TriRealm (read: three-realm RvR) MMO from City State Entertainment, which was co-founded by Andrew Meggs (Bethesda, Mythic Entertainment, Troika) and Mark Jacobs, previously of Mythic Entertainment and the man who brought us Dark Age of Camelot, arguably the greatest PvP-oriented MMO of all time.
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Highlights from the Kickstarter
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- 3 realms for prime Realm vs. Realm combat
- The game will feature RvR-based leveling tracks for all classes. No PvE-based leveling, loot drops (outside of crafting mats) or other such systems are currently planned. All leveling will come from engaging in the game’s RvR-based systems, whether by fighting other players, capturing objectives, and/or crafting objects to help in RvR.
- An entirely crafting based economy, which not only includes gear but also...
- Construction - players will be able to build structures beyond just their houses, such as forts, turrets, and traps at choke points and high-traffic combat zones
- RvR, crafting, and construction are the three core pillars of the game
- 5 classes per realm at launch, including a pure crafter class. More possible for launch, as stretch goals come out, more definite for post-release.
- Classes do adhere to a variant of the tank-healer-dps trinity
- Classes are different between realms and are balanced in a rock-paper-scissors fashion, as opposed to mirroring them
- Each realm will have at least 3 races at launch
- You will have the choice of playing any realm on each of the game’s servers except that you may play only characters from the same realm on any single server. In other words, one server = one realm.
- The game will be available in English with French, German and other languages based on demand.
- Mark is donating $2 million of his own money to the game, as well as having raised another $1 million, so if the Kickstarter gets funded the game has a minimum $5 million budget.
- Subscription tiers will be based on players' individual choices regarding participation, but will be less than the current accepted norm for MMORPGs.. Mark's stated that he wants to make a niche game with a smaller player base comprised of the players that care enough about a game like this to support it financially. Ideally, it will mean that they'll be able to be more interactive with and responsive to the community, as well as get rid of some trolls.
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Updates
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Update 3: A small tech demo showcasing their in-house engine running 10,000 copies of a model on screen at once with a silky smooth framerate.
Update 5: Making a game out of the web - Details the web-based UI, it's customization, the ability to access elements like chat and markets from any web-enabled device, and for players to make tailor-made tools such as heat maps, death and gear loadout statistics, and more
Update 6: Tuatha De Dannan Concept art and first in-game models and animation
Update 8: The Viking Reveal
Update 11: The Grab Bag:
- The CSE devs is doing everything they can to prevent Buffbots (Buffbots are when players use second accounts/computers to multibox and have one toon stand around in a fight and provide buffs/heals/etc.
- There will be NPCs from which you will be able to skin/scavenge materials. There will be PvE-NPCs (cows and presumably monsters/animals/bandits etc.) and RvR-NPCs (guards, human or otherwise)
- The game will never (NEVER) have PvE expansions that introduce new tiers of gear
- Death penalty - no perma-death, no corpse looting, no instant rez (rez takes time), no self-rez (even for healers), when dead your body can be burned/magically attacked by the enemy (takes time) or you can release, no item decay on death (use/enemy attack based only), limited bind points (there is a healer + crafter mechanic that can come into play [Aw yiss bind point crafting while laying siege), “rez sickness” like mechanic and divine intervention.
- There will be CC, but also a CC resists system, as well as a limit on the number of buffs/debuffs a player can have on them at once. Hard interrupts are also being implemented.
Update 14: A more epic battle - Tech demo from update 13 upped to 1000 characters at once, still with smooth framerate.
Update 16: The Depths - RvR DUNGEON!!!
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The Depths
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What's in The Depths?
- Mines - Contained within the depths are some of themost valuable mines in the game
- The Great Forges - Scattered throughout The Depths, The Great Forges can make special equipment that cannot be found anywhere else in the game
- High-end scavenged materials - As MJ said, "What once was, is no more, except for what can be found under the ground"
- Access to the Veil - to be elaborated on at a later date
Tower Defense Mechanics in The Depths
Once your realm controls The Depths, you will be able to send out NPCs to battle invading realms. At the tenatively-titled "Places of Power", you will be able to transform yourself into one of these NPCs, which range from low-level to boss-esque, in order to battle the invading forces. Additionally, the crafter classes will be able to build traps, weapons, bridges, magic eyes (read: cameras), and more to aid in your defense of The Depths.
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Other Art
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Founder's Points, the Founder's Exchange, and Kickstarter
When you make a pledge on Kickstarter, part of your tier reward is a number of Founder's Points, with the amount increasing in line with the pledge amount. These points will be used at launch in an in-game store known as the Founder's Exchange that will allow you to purchase items available only to people who backed the game via Kickstarter. The reasoning behind the Founder's Exchange is to provide backers increased reward flexibility. For example, while most other gaming Kickstarter's set in-game items as rewards for certain tiers, the Founder's Exchange allows players the ability to pick and choose/mix and match their rewards with the Founder's Points allocated to their tier. Note that Mark Jacobs has stated in crystal clear terms that there will never, ever, be anything on the Founder's Exchange that would alter gameplay or provide any sort of in-game advantage to backers. The Founder's Exchange, as it currently stands, is below.
Much more on the KS page and official site, but these seem to be the defining characteristics of the game and should give you an approximate idea of whether or not you're interested. I'd recommend at least checking out the KS page to see the pledge tiers, which are a little pricier than average but also very generous with rewards.
I'm in for $50. PvE MMOs just can't do it for me anymore. I want combat and sieges and real realm pride and physics and actual stakes in world combat and no more going from overhead icon to overhead icon or killing 10 boars or fetching items and if you want any of these things you owe it to yourself to at least check this Kickstarter out.
