"Livestreaming February 24th, 2016, 3PM Eastern Time - Beta 1 Update!"

Lorgarn

In case you didn't get notified just then, or perhaps your spam-folder picked it up. CSE is planning to livestream tomorrow (Wednesday, 24th) to talk a little bit about Beta 1 and where that progress stands.

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When: February 24th, 2016 at 3PM EST/12PM PST/8PM GMT/UTC (http://www.worldtimebuddy.com/?qm=1&lid=4140963,8,14,100&h=4140963&date=2016-2-23&sln=15-16)
Livestream: http://www.twitch.tv/citystategames
Topic: Beta 1 status

Source: http://camelotunchained.com/v3/livestreaming-february-24th-2016-beta-1-update/

Lorgarn

PSA: Livestream bound to start in roughly 2 hours from now.

http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/generic?iso=20160224T15&p0=263&msg=Camelot+Unchained%3A+Livestream%2C+24th+February+2016&ud=1&font=sanserif#

JamesGoblin

Here is stream summary + Q&A (again, by Vellic) - http://realmsunchained.com/beta-one-update/

Or, just in case, summary + Q&A in written form (part 1):
 

Today, City State Entertainment held a livestream to update backers on Camelot Unchained’s upcoming Beta 1 phase. Players should be reminded that beta 1 will still be the earliest build of the game. Graphics are not finalized. Animations are not finalized. The map is not finished. Crafting is in its earliest stage. Not all the classes are in and those that are, are in very early forms.

In the end of March, they will be closing their store with Merchline – we will get more info on that later.

Now on to the real information! This update is about where they are and what their plans on going to Beta 1. They have been in crunch-time, going through ‘soft crunch’ and now into ‘hard crunch’ – working twelve-hour days to get ready for Beta 1. They are going to work longer and, if it looks like they might not make beta 1, they will be adding more hours to their work days. They will also be adding some new things to their beta 1 list.

They are making good progress and they think that they will be able to deliver Beta 1 on time. They are going to start streaming from the studio again to show themselves working. They are going to have contests, possibly show off some surprises, etc; hoping to have some fun while they put in all these work hours.

Questions & Answers:

When will we get our beta 1 gifts to give out?: It’s almost ready.

Will we have classes for beta?: Yes, three classes per realm is absolutely crucial.

What will crafting look like in beta 1?: Very minimal. It’s going to be a very basic system. It is not intended to be the final system. In beta 1, Mark wants us to see how the system is going to work in terms of details and numbers more-so than anything else. They want to test numbers and probably allow some early theorycrafting and testing.

*Beta 1 servers will not be open 24/7.

Will classes we added all at once or as they are ready?: Probably as they each are ready.

Will they be completed animations for spells or placeholders?: It will be a combination of both. No MMORPG in a true beta 1 has final animations. These will not be Camelot Unchained’s final animations.

Will beta be a ‘play all you want’ or weekend thing?: It will be a mixture. They can’t run it 24/7, it would cost a lot of money and burn players out. And no legitimate beta 1 runs that way. During beta 1 they also want to spin up servers in Europe to test the differences.

How many people will be in beta 1?: Depends on how many beta 1 and alpha backers show up.

NDA lift for beta 1?: Most likely not for the opening of beta 1, but probably soon thereafter. They want to wait for the new lighting system fully realized, animation system fully debugged, and some of the newer terrain in there before that.

Will beta include starter isles or be an altered smaller world?: Not the actual starter islands for the final, live game. They definitely will not have the starter cities in. There will be starter islands.

How different will beta 1 be from alpha content we’ve seen?: Very different. In terms of classes, you will have a very good idea of what you’ll be seeing on classes and Ben will be doing a presentation on this before Beta 1. The same with archery since archery wasn’t in alpha.

Will we be able to build and destroy structures in Camelot Unchained beta 1?: Yes.

Will we have manual aim for archers in beta?: If archery uses manual aim, yes.

Will the things in the beta checklist be checked by IT and Alpha before being considered ‘completed’?: Probably, or almost everything would be.

Will island control be part of beta 1?: Islands moving together? Not a chance. Taking over islands? Yeah.

How detailed are they looked at for visualization of characters?: Not a lot for beta 1. Characters will be wiped early and often.

Can we submit a structure for destruction testing?: That’s a good idea, they’ll talk about that.

*Build instability will be turned on for beta 1.

Will you have all stats ready for beta 1?: The stats that are hooked to abilities and that will be used by abilities in beta will work.

Once they get into beta, what will your new focus be?: Mark hopes to spend more time on design rather than doing other stuff.

Are there plans to release any more races for beta?: Probably not for beta 1.

Will crafters be able to mine in beta 1?: There will probably be a node or nodes for you to gather from.

Will camouflage be in beta 1?: Well they do have archers.

Will there be any creatures in beta 1?: NPC guards maybe, but it’s not a priority.

Will the servers be restricted to only one realm?: No, that would be absurd.

Will you be able to make guilds?: Maybe.

Is beta replacing friday night fights?: Maybe. They would like to see more done with it.

Will beta 1 contain the final game speed or be faster than the alpha?: Some things will be faster. They will see. Going into beta one they want combat abilities to feel like combat abilities, but they may want to speed up travel time some.

Will progression use the nightly report?: They hope to have that in for beta.

Will banes and boons be working for beta?: Some of them will be.

Will weather seasons be active?: No, but they will be tested.

What can we expect for the plot system in beta 1?: In beta 1, you will have to be able to take control of the plot – set ownership – take over somebody else’s plot. There will have to be permissions for the plot. Those are the basics.

Why did you decide to incorporate archers instead of mages for beta 1?: Because archery is a new mechanic. From alpha, they have a pretty good idea how magic is working.

How long will beta 1 run for?: Until it’s ready. It’s an extremely important beta stage for Camelot Unchained. This is where they get a lot of the core systems into the game and test them. Plot ownership. The initial classes. Building destruction. These are crucial, difficult elements to work out and test early.

How has archery class been progressing?: It hasn’t been. They are going to be getting back to it as part of what they’ll be working on.

Will there be speed buffs in beta?: Currently the beta will have archers, fighters, and healers. No speed buff class at the beginning of beta.

How deep will A.I.R. be at the start of beta 1?: Depends on the abilities, they need to interact.

Will you be able to have dodge/parry/action abilities?: Ben will be happy to answer that when he gives his presentation on classes.

Should we expect better character models from beta 1?: They are going to be continually refined.

JamesGoblin

(Summary part 2)

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How important will equipment be in beta 1?: Sort of? Hard to answer since gear grinding isn’t supposed to be a huge part of this game. It’s not as important. But it’s still important.

Will circular construction be available in beta 1?: No.

Are you expecting an influx of players in beta 1?: They’re not expecting to get flooded so the server strain shouldn’t be an issue. They would hope to see some more stretch goals get knocked off.

Will additional payment options be available soon?: They’re looking at Stripe right now as an alternative to Paypal.

Between now and beta 1 will we start seeing updates in IT and alpha?: Yes, of course.

Other than armor and weapons are there other craftables in beta 1?: Probably not. Maybe, but they’re focusing on armor and weapons.

Are there any updates planned for CUBE for beta 1?: Yes, of course.

Will there be more biomes for Camelot Unchained beta 1?: Yes.

Will we have trade caravans in beta 1?: No, certainly not in beta 1.

When will Ben tell us about classes?: Soon.

How big will the beta world be compared to the current map?: They don’t know yet. They are looking at that now.

When can we expect more lore stuff?: More is coming. A story on the depths was just written.

*No swimming yet in beta 1.

What has been the biggest problem so far in getting ready for beta 1?: Hiring new programmers.

What’s the second hardest thing in beta 1?: Continual work with the PhysX engine. Continuing to up the network load they can withstand, etc.

*Anything built on a plot can be taken over by someone else.

Will doors work during beta?: Probably not at the opening of beta 1 but hopefully during beta.

Will it be possible to add a light melee dps class?: Quite possibly, if people enjoy it and it looks like it will work well.

Will there be a land-rush in beta 1?: No. There are lots of territories and these plots won’t be permanent.

Will there be a chat system or will it still use trillion chat?: The in-game chat will be a much more fully-featured chat.

Is class balance important in beta?: Not in beta 1.

Will the office streams be all day or for a timeslot?: Probably a timeslot. Sometimes it might be all day. They don’t want to make the streams boring and don’t want to leave audio on all the time for sure, they need downtime themselves.

The MAGFest convention was interesting, as they took the game there and ran it for four days in a row, allowing people to play the current build. Their booth was very busy and they got a ton of really good feedback. There were a lot of positive reactions to discovering the game.

Youtube recording: