IntroFor old school gamers like myself Camelot Unchained is the first of many upcoming throwbacks to the late 90s. Its lead producer and owner is Mark Jacobs. The original creator and big name when it came to Dark Age of Camelot (oh yes that game) that its center focus was around RVR, or as most know it PVP. Still today their are ghost servers around the internet, also you can go to their main website: http://www.darkageofcamelot.com/download the game and get a taste of what may be in store. Typing this up takes a LOT of time so please take the time and read it, enjoy it. Also thanks to Darktide and Rakion for helping provide information for this thread. Purchasing the GameYou can buy the packs here: https://store.camelotunchained.com/ . There is many tiers to this system as you can see. To get in the Alpha you will need to purchase the 250$ pack. Others will get you into betas, and later on. If you want to start out at the front of the pack with some of us, fork over the monies get in and party hard. Subscription BasedCamelot Unchained never tries to monetize you, never slows down, and won’t be “free-to-play.” We respect your commitment to a subscription-based game; in return, you won’t see thinly-veiled grabs for more money. This will be a play to win game rather than a pay to win game. In return they will utilize the money to create new content rather than rely on people purchasing from in-game shops. PvPThe game is based around RvRvR. There are three factions fighting for ultimate power in a territory/conquest/expansion system. The game offers only 3 safe zones which contain the Realm's main city and some support areas. These areas are for new players to get to learn the game as well as provide an emergency supply of resources should one realm get overwhelmed. In between the three factions at the center of the map is Camelot the "One True City" and the main continent. Players conquer territories and throw down stabilizers which will change the geography of the land over time. EVERYTHING in the game is focusing towards RvRvR combat. Crafting, etc all effects the RvR combat. The game isn't RvR centric or focused. The ENTIRE game is all about RvR. Player LandPlayers will be able to own areas of land (limited to prevent hoarding) in the safe areas which are subject to taxation and maintenance costs. You will also be able to claim land in contested areas. Once enough players build on the land stabilizers can be placed to transform the land into the faction's native land-type. This also helps the RvR aspect as flights and boat rides will take less time to travel. Land and resources can provide a source of materials or cash to the owner and players can build various structures on the land for defense or utility. Magical CombatNo longer will you stand by and click buttons while trying to stay awake spamming pre-made spells. In this game you can combine runes to add different effects. The core elements start with Runes which are core elements such as Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light, Dark, etc, etc. For example combining "Fire" and "Ball" gets you Fireball. Likewise you could instead add "Wind" and "Ball" and get a Windball. The various runes out there will create new and challenging opportunities that will have you questioning what the enemy will be using against you. Spells and Runes level as you use them. Spellbooks can be used to inscribe new spells. Keep in mind that creating spells can be tricky and can pay off big or can catastrophically fail. There are also infusions and reagents which further customize your spells. You can modify duration, range, size, area, and side effects. Reagents will add even more effects for example: Ice Storm + Diamond Infusion = Increased damage of the spell Ice Storm + Nightshade = Poison effect added to spell Spells interact with other spells. If you cast a fireball and the enemy casts an ice wall the combination will result in a gigantic stream of steam which could then be blown by wind to do damage. You can also hold a spell for a period of time (like throwing a grenade). Spells are more like living entities than one time casts. An ice wal can be reinforced and essentially "healed" by others using ice on it to prevent it from falling to the fire attacks by your enemy. The spell interaction is very dynamic. Some more examples: Water + Frost = Ice Water + Frost + Storm = Ice Storm Ice Storm + Wind = Amplified Ice Storm Fire + Wind = Fire Blast Fire + Water + Wall + Wind = Moving Steam Cloud Wind Blast + Ally Fire Ball = Fire Ball Speed and Damage increase Wind Blast + Enemy Fire Ball = Deflect Fire Ball Spells also interact with external factors such as interrupts, buffs, debuffs, and player stats such as Panic rating. They also can interact with the weather. Fire may be powered up during the day and weakened in the night. Ice may be stronger during winter. When using powerful magic you run into dangerous side effects. Veilstorms are rare, but smaller ones are common in areas of intense fighting which carry with them various effects for individuals in the area. The Magic system in Camelot Unchained promotes team, skill, and organized combat. CombatAll combat should be fun and like Magical combat physical combat is developed in the same way. The power of each ability is limited by a "value rating" which represents how strong an ability can be after modification by the player. With each new component added to an ability the rating goes up. Like magic a player will be able to control almost all of the aspects of the physical combat in the game. There are 4 basic ability components: Primary – Assigning a weapon such as a sword, axe, polearm, etc. Secondary – The method of attack be it a stab, slash, pound, etc. Combining a sword primary and a slash for the secondary would equate to a sword slash attack. Modifiers – Optional add-ons, which a player can use to further tweak their abilities to suit a desired playstyle. These are the largest set of components, and cover things such as adding range to an attack, width to an AOE attack, or directing an attack to a specific body area. Modal Components – These change the state of the character in some way, such as an offensive or defensive stance. So you could make a sword that utilizes a slash with an AoE range that targets the legs and applies a weakening effect on hit. Abilities will have "disruption values" which is reduced by "disruption effects". Whenever you perform an attack if you are disrupted enough from hostile abilities the attack will fail. If the disruption was very high then the disruption could also have a negative effect of the attacking player. The stronger the ability disrupted the more backlash from the ability. This means you will be able to tailor your combat attacks to lets say deal more damage and have a higher disruption chance or deal less damage but have less chance of the attack being disrupted. Armor That Makes SenseRather than making armor pieces add up in value to equal the defensiveness of your character each piece of armor in Camelot Unchained will ONLY protect areas they represent. Unlike the way of most games, armor only protects the part of the body that it covers. Your helm doesn’t help you when you are struck on the leg! Body parts will take damage individually and each part has it's own pool of health and injury effects. A shoulder wound could reduce how fast you can swing a sword, but it won’t stop you from running away. A player can utilize the combat creation to target specific areas of the bodies to fully develop their class. Players will also live a lot longer than in games these days. Your character will not die from an insta-gib combination of attacks. This will add strategy and tactics to the game. Stat SystemCamelot Unchained brings back old school stats but in a way that is new and unique. You will receive stat increases in certain areas by utilizing skills and abilities that would naturally effect that particular stat. This allows players to min/max their character progression unlike MMORPGs of current where you gain a prescribed stat increase every time to gain a level. Camelot Unchained is geared towards providing individuals with player customization and building to allow for significant differences between classes and during the creation of your character you will be allotted a generous amount of points to allocate to your stats. Players will improve stats in the game by performing actions that utilize that stat. So swinging a large sword will help your strength which will help you carry heavier swords. Players will improve skills based on how frequent they use them. Casting fireball will increase your proficiency with the fire and ball components. Players will also improve passive abilities. A skill which reduces enemy fire resistance will become more effective through the usage of fire spells. The progression of stats and skills will be soft capped, but the progression is being carefully tweaked to allow new players to be competitive with veteran players. Primary - Stats that can be raised or lowered both during the character creation and that will be raised or lowered based on usage. Strength – Increases carrying capacity, and allows use of heavy weapons and armor Dexterity – Reduces Encumbrance penalty, and allows use of medium weapons and light armor Agility – Increases movement speed, and allows use of light weapons Vitality – Increases maximum Health Endurance – Increases maximum Stamina Attunement – Increases capacity for summoning the power of magic through the Veil, and allows use of magic ability components Will – Improves control of magic, and reduces the chance of the Veil reacting in a negative way to magic spells drawn from it Faith – Allows use of magic granted by Greater Powers Resonance – Allows use of voice- and instrument-based abilities Eyesight – Increases Vision range and allows use of targeting abilities Secondary - Stats that do not progress based on usage but can be allocated all the same. Presence – Affects how NPCs react to the player-character, as well as the effectiveness of certain abilities Clarity – Reduces the effects of Panic on the player-character Hearing – Increases the player-character’s Detection rating Mass – Increases the difficulty of pushing the player-character, and grants increased pushing power Derived - Stats that come from the combination of your primary and secondary stats. Health – Increases the threshold for wounds and fatal damage to the different parts of the player-character’s body Stamina – Increases the maximum value and regeneration rate of Stamina, when used by movement abilities Movement Speed – Increases the maximum movement speed of the player-character Vision – Increases the distance at which other players normally become visible Detection – Increases the distance at which concealed characters may start to be detected Encumbrance – The burden of the equipment a player-character is carrying and wearing, reducing the player’s movement speed, casting speed, and attack speed Carrying Capacity – Increases the amount of weight the player may carry, including all armor and weapons. Players that are heavily encumbered will suffer penalties Panic Rating – The degree to which Panic events affect the player character, causing increased ability failure chance and reduced Stamina regeneration rate A Look Into StatsAs you can imagine stats play a large roll in the game let us look at some of the stats and how they will effect the game. Weapon/Armor Stats As you have read there are stats that increase your ability to utilize various weapons and armor. If you want to be a tank you will need to add points to stats that will reflect that. Carrying Capacity Rather than being able to carry tons and tons of items you will be forced to pick and chose what you are willing to carry with you. You will not be able to bring 2,000 arrows, 400 potions, and 2 sets of armor. Of course the developers have stated that Camelot Unchained isn't a PvE grind game where you go into the wilderness to pick flowers so the amount of random items in your inventory will be drastically reduced and filled with things that make a difference. Mass & Pushing A player with more mass will have a larger character and your character will grow larger (physically and visually). This means you can stand in front of people to block attacks and will not be thrown by a wind mage. Physics and common sense will make a difference! Magic, Control, and Healing You can specialize in burst with Attunement, over-time with Faith, and the ability to over-charge your spells with Will to get the better bang for your buck from spells. Balancing these three will add complexity to the magic system. Panic When your health starts getting low, you are CC'ed your character could become unresponsive. This is a new system that is being developed and subject to change. If you wish to break free from crowd control faster or want to perform when at low health then this stat will help. Banes and BoonsBoons are positive effects you can add to your character and banes are negative traits you can assign. For each Bane that you choose, you are allowed an equal Boon. There are a variety of each depending on what class you play, role you play and what race you are. Gear ProgressionCamelot Unchained has stated they will not put stat bonuses on items in the traditional sense either. Rather than adding a ton of stats to the weapons and armor that force players to gear grind the developers are keeping it simple. Armor will provide defense increases and defend you. Weapons will have damage increases that will increase your damage. There will not be arbitrary stats added to items. Weapons have the basic damage amount and armor has the basic defense allotments. The type of weapons and armor you can utilize will depend on what stats you have allocated. Rather than strength adding to damage it simply change what weapons and armor you can utilize. The 3 Factions & Races The Arthurians The Realm of King Arthur strives to be the embodiment of nobility, honesty, and righteous strength. They believe they are destined to save the world, not purely through conquest but through virtue and greatness of spirit. Golems (Image not available) The Tuatha Dé Danann The Realm of the Tuatha Dé Danann strives to become one with nature. They revere the forest for its fierce beauty and its unyielding grip on life Fir Bog (Image not available) The Vikings The Realm of the Vikings follows the path of blood and steel to greatness. In the tall peaks of windswept ice they make their homes, waiting for the moment to conquer the lands below. Jötnar (Image not available) CraftingCrafting will offer in-depth and colorful changes to traditional crafting. Most of the armor, weapons, etc will be crafted. Weapons and armor have durability and heavy damage requires the help of a pure crafter. Combatants that are not adept at crafting will be allowed to carry whetstones and repair kits which will repair minor damage. They will also be able to do basic tasks such as gathering, mining, harvesting, etc. You will also be able to craft basic arrows and potions. This will mean you do not have to find a crafter every 30 minutes and adds some self sufficiency. Crafters will be split into three sub-classes: Takers - They take from the land such as gathering and harvesting. Shapers - They shape raw materials gathered from the takers. Makers - They make the finished product from items that were shaped from the takers. Crafting will take time and will drain resources to prevent rapid influx of items. The VoX Magus (Crafting Continued)This is a magical focus object that will allow for LOTS of customization and power options that crafters can use to make their items. With it the crafter will be able to control almost every aspect of the final item - say goodbye RNG! Like combatants’ soul shards that are captured in battle, soul shards are limited in duration and number. With the VoX Magus a crafter can use its of their own soul or captured souls to enhance items. They can only utilize a certain number of shards at any given time which will limit the amount of powerful items one crafter can create. Souls will grant additional power to items and can make them more resistant to wear, breaking, etc. Souls can also be used to power spells that are engraved in the very select items.