War of Rights Alpha showcase

[TrustyJam]

Thank you!

We're very happy to have found such a passionate and supportive community. Without it a small indie production targeting a relatively niche audience (basically either Civil War enthusiasts or FPS players seeking a game almost entirely focused on teamwork over individualism) such as War of Rights would never have been possible.

[Jesper Kondrup]

Great work guys! Especially the environment screenshots looks amazing.

[TrustyJam]

Great work guys! Especially the environment screenshots looks amazing.

Thank you.

[TrustyJam]

Field Report 44: Battle Reports, Demotions & New Faces

Hello and welcome to the Forty-Fourth Field Report!

It has been a very long time since we have released a new field report - the last one having been released at the anniversary of the battle of Antietam back in 2019. It detailed the progress we were making with the artillery branch at the time which was a major game addition. Today’s field report showcases several key systems and features as well as the biggest team composition shake-up we’ve had in years so let us get started!

New Inter-Skirmish Area Flow

Since the initial introduction of three skirmish areas in 2016, to now featuring more than thirty, the player's experience cycling from the completed round to the next round of play has largely remained the same. Throughout the years we have noticed just how often players take screenshots of the end-of-round victory/casualty screen so it has been obvious to us for a long time that this part of the game/result of the game is of key importance to many.

Knowing this, we set out to revamp the entire flow of what is presented to the players when a skirmish area ends and how they are moved on to the next area to fight at. We will detail the exact steps that a player is taken through in chronological order below:

Overhauled Victory Screens



Once a skirmish round ends all of the players are greeted with a new victory screen showing the two winning infantry regiments proudly standing at a key point of the just finished area while the familiar victory jingle is played.

Battle Reports



When the new victory screen has finished all players will be shown the new “Battle Report” screen. This is a quick 30 second replay of the match that has just ended, shown on the overview paper map. It features a number of exciting features such as being able to show the locations of formations, skirmish formations, casualties, officer casualties, dropped flags, cannons and artillery shell impacts. It also shows each player his own position and places where he became a casualty during the round.



All of it is an accurate representation of the round that was just finished (but greatly sped-up).

Players will be able to see how clusters of skirmishers band together to form formations or how a formation is pushing the flank of the enemy and how they respond and position their own formation to halt the advancing enemy and lots of other exciting tactical choices and outcomes!

We can’t wait to see what you all think of the battle report feature and how you use it once it is released (might be a good post-event tactical debriefing tool for our company players for instance!).

A Sense of Geographical & Historical Direction



While the battle report is showing the timelapse of the round just finished, players will notice a familiar voice that is subtitled below the battle report screen and titled as “Historical Events” playing. The narrator (voiced by Campfire Games Historical Advisor George Crecy) will present the historical outcome of the just finished skirmish area while the battle report screen is playing (he will be easily mutable if you’d rather wish to discuss the specifics of the battle report timelapse with your mates instead).

Once the battle report timelapse and historical outcome of the area is finished, players will be taken on a quick flight to the next skirmish area in line to be played while the historical narrator introduces the new area and its relation to the old one from a historical standpoint.

We have seen that a fair few, often newer, players do not realize that they are in fact playing on smaller key sections of either Antietam, South Mountain or Harpers Ferry, likely primarily due to our pop-up text based screens at the start of each skirmish area not being very readable (being shown after the players have deployed, resulting in most players just wanting to get moving or get organized and less so reading a pop-up screen). We believe the in-game overhead flight to the next skirmish area in line to be played is going to help players view our battlefields in more of their entirety than ever before.

Once the flight has settled on the new skirmish area and the historical introduction of it has finished the players will be shown the faction selection screen as the new round begins...

A Work-In-Progress Demonstration

Enough talk about it though. Here is a WIP demonstration of the above 3 new additions to the inter-skirmish area flow of the game. Being a work in progress, please remember that everything is subject to major or minor change.



The inter-skirmish area flow updates are scheduled to be released in the next alpha update. We hope you will all enjoy them when they are released.

Demotion System: Moderating Non-Admined Servers

One of the main goals for War of Rights has always been to bring as much teamplay and organization often only found within passworded servers into the public servers of the game by designing game mechanics to nurture such general player behavior.

This continues to be a major goal of ours and so we take troll reports by our community seriously. One of the major things left for us to squash is providing players on servers with no present admins an option to take matters into their own hands in some fashion in order to limit trollability while the admins are offline (and when they are online as well for that matter). This is where the new demotion system comes into play.

This is a preview of a system that is going to enter production soon and so please keep in mind that things are subject to change between now and its release. That being said, we thought it a good idea to give you a heads up as to the direction we are headed and get your early feedback of it prior to testing it:

Demotion System Preview

We have seen several community members suggesting a vote ban system to be implemented as that is what is usually used in other games but such a feature, we think, would be hugely problematic in WoR due to the limited amount of information we’re passing on to the individual players compared to most other games (no way of checking any kinds of stats to fact check an initiated vote claiming some random guy is a massive teamkiller for instance).

Instead of a vote ban system we have come up with a downvote-based demotion system:

Downvoting

Every player on a server can downvote any other player on their team using the tab screen. Here, they will find a down arrow icon next to all of their teammates.



Upon pressing the down arrow icon next to a player name it will be highlighted to indicate that they have downvoted the individual. A 1 will appear above the down arrow icon to indicate that the player has 1 downvote (if the player already has a number of downvotes his total tally will be increased by 1 upon clicking on the down arrow icon).



A red background will appear behind any player name on the tab screen that has downvoted you. This is to ensure that people are not trying to exploit the system by, say, switching teams in order to try to demote a competent officer of the enemy team without said officer having a clue as to who is downvoting him. It also ensures that I, as a downvoted player, have as much information at hand as the person downvoting me. This is only fair and while it may cause conflict it will also help solve it (both parties know they have downvoted each other and so both parties know to avoid each other in-game).



Demotion Triggered

A downvote towards you only counts for as long as the player who downvoted you is on the server (it doesn’t matter which team he is on for his vote to count). He can leave the server and the downvote will be removed but once he rejoins the server it will be in effect again. Eventually we hope to have persistence between servers (at least official ones) so that this is not only tied to a single server, but either persistent to all official WoR servers or all WoR servers, period.

Once you reach a set percentage of downvotes of the entire server population (it could be 15% server population resulting in a full 150 player populated server requiring 22,5 downvotes towards you) you will be demoted.

Your name on the tab view will get an added “demoted” type icon next to it and the total downvotes you have. This icon will also be shown under your in-game nametag (next to the speaker icon).



A demotion message will be shown to you at the center of your screen. It will inform you that you have been demoted and of the restrictions that apply to being demoted.

It will then run a hidden timer of about 10 seconds before slaying you.

A demotion ends when (on a 150 player populated server) you have less than 22,5 (15% total server population) downvotes against you (this can happen either when the players having downvoted you have left the server, or retracted their downvotes or simply due to the server becoming more populated and so because of the percentage rule it will require more downvotes for you to reach the 15% threshold).

Demotion Restrictions

Upon being slain moments after the demotion has been triggered, you will be greeted by the infantry regimental/class selection screen.

When demoted, you can only ever pick the Infantry Private class to spawn as. All other classes: NCO’s, Officers, Flag Bearers & all of the artillery branch classes will not be selectable.

After having spawned in as an Infantry Private you will notice a red “Demoted” next to your class name “Private - Demoted” in the lower right corner when you press T to bring up the tactical overview.

You cannot pick up dropped flags as a demoted player. Upon trying to pick up a flag you will be shown a user interface message in the center of the screen stating that you can’t do so as a demoted player.

The infraction decay timer (for team damage inflicted by you) is greatly increased from the normal non-demoted rate for demoted players, resulting in much less teamkill trolling being possible for you compared to non-demoted players.

Server Wide Mute Sub-system

Once the above demotion system is integrated we will be able to use some of the downvoting features to expand our VoIP & text chat muting system (pressing the little speaker icon next to players on the tab view) to trigger a server wide (both VoIP & text chat) mute to any player that has been muted by more than 15% of the server population (the exact same mechanic as the downvote demotion system).



Upon reaching this, the server wide muted player will be shown an on-screen message informing him that he has been muted server wide in both VoIP & text chat and a muted icon will be shown under his nametag in-game (the VoIP speaker icon with a red cross over it), letting everyone know why the player they try to communicate with is unable to answer them.

The normal speaker icon next to his name on the tab view will also be changed to one that stands out to indicate that the player in question has been muted server wide.

Sub-System: Minor Demotion

The goal of this additional minor demotion system is to give smaller, often isolated, units on non-admined servers a way to sort their own, often very local, issues out amongst themselves instead of having to use the main (major demotion) system and convince 15% of the server population to vote to demote whatever player they may be having issues with.

For example: If a particular artillery battery is facing a pestering troll that keeps turning the cannons the wrong way/blocking the crew from pushing the wheels in the direction they desire, etc. Using the minor demotion system all that is required for the troll in question to be demoted is more than half of the members of his unit to have downvoted him. If this is done the minor demotion is triggered even though the downvote of the 15% of the total server population is not reached.

A minor demotion comes with the exact same restrictions as a major demotion but it only lasts for 30 minutes (the major demotion lasting until there are no longer more than 15% of a server population that has voted to demote you). Once the 30 minutes of the minor demotion are up the system will check if there are still more than 50% of his unit that has voted to demote him. If so, it will be activated for another 30 minutes, etc, etc.

Sub-System: Simple in-game downvoting/muting player menu

An easy to use in-game popup menu when looking at a specific other player and pressing a key to bring it up to quickly downvote/mute them without having to find them on the tab screen to greatly help players be able to vote/mute when the new systems are implemented.

The demotion system is expected to be implemented and released shortly after the introduction of the inter-skirmish area flow updates to the game.

A Community United

It has come to our attention that a much liked community member and long time WoR player as well as crowdfunding backer has recently passed away at a much too young an age. It has been incredibly moving to the dev team to see how the community has banded together to support the people most affected by this tragic loss as well as having shared memories that have been had with the departed.

This is not the first War of Rights community member we have lost nor will it sadly be the last. Because of this we feel obliged to let you all know how we have decided to conduct ourselves as a company when such tragedies occur so as to avoid misunderstandings as to our intentions:

We have decided not to mention any lost community members by name nor create in-game memorials for them out of respect for the loved ones left behind. We do not wish to possibly be seen as riding a goodwill PR wave in order to maximize profits, or by pulling at the heartstrings of our players by exclusively honoring some of the most well known lost members within the community. We do not wish to make the distinction between who is worthy of remembrance via an official announcement and/or memorial piece added in-game by us and who isn’t. To us, every single lost community member is worth honoring and remembering.

We hope our, now very, official stance regarding the matter is, if not satisfactory to the community members currently in grief, then hopefully understandable in the long run.

We would like to send our condolences to every community member who has lost a friend or acquaintance within our community.

Goodbyes & New Faces

Lastly, we would like to say our goodbyes to two, now former, team members at Campfire Games:

Philipp, a key part of our programming team who has decided to leave us to join Crytek in order to continue working on improving CRYENGINE directly. We are very sorry to see him go as he has been an integral part of the technical development of the game for many years and we wish him the best over at Crytek.

Hinkel, a part-time community manager that has been with us since the very early days when the project was little more than a vision. Hinkel is leaving the team due to creative differences. We wish him the best for the future and would like to thank him for the many hours he has poured into the project, mostly unpaid, during the years he has been with us.

To end on a high-note instead of a gloomy farewell we are very happy to welcome Aleksi from Finland to the team as a new full time programmer at Campfire Games!

While he has only been part of CG for a few weeks, Aleksi has already achieved some excellent results which we’re excited to release in the next game update, particularly in relation to increases in client & server CPU performance (up to 30% CPU performance improvements (depending on your setup) compared to the live build with more optimizations on their way!). He has also greatly sped up the overhaul of the transport system (the system which artillery and cavalry is built upon) so expect to see some of those improvements soon as well.

That’s about it for this field report. We look forward to reading your feedback!

[ZeroHero]

Amazing news!

So happy to see this project has been received well.

Congratulations, well deserved!

[jonaz.dk]

Yup! Bloody well done! Keep on rocking!

Estimated numbers looks really great here @TrustyJam You truly found a niche here worth perusing.

The competition in the online FPS civil war game category is almost non existing. Maybe I spotted one alternative!?
The rest is usually top down strategy games.

Super happy it's going so well for you!

[jonaz.dk]

Also I might add a little to your awesomeness and praise. And don't let it get to your head now.

But you are truly living the indie dream as far as I can see. Perhaps there are a few inaccuracies?
And correct me if I am wrong. But it sounds like.

- Completely self made
- Nobody's tax money was used
- No corporate/investment overlords.
- No shitty free to play mechanics in the game.
- No need to do client work to survive. (Or maybe?)
- And you have a first, year long hit in an niche you pretty much own.
- Gets very positive reviews.
- And you crafted a high-end looking game.
- And you post here. ❤

That is just super rare and incredible!

Maybe there were some sacrifices along the way. There must have been. But the position you are in now
Is looking super sweet!
I wish you all continued the best!

[TrustyJam]

Thank you for the kind words, gents.

@jonaz.dk You are correct in all of your assumptions except the not needing to work on the client part as we are in early access (that's my guess at any rate - it's not like we have tried not working on the game :P )

We tried to get funding from the usual Danish funding schemes several times prior to going the crowdfunding route but us not having created any other games prior to WoR made them doubt in our technical abilities. They also could not see the unique approach in creating as hardcore a team experience as they come (no individual stats, upgrades, levels, etc.) nor did they think that our setting was very interesting.

I also think that us being very introverte guys and thus not generally moving in the same circles as many of our peers might have played a part but that is entirely speculation.

At any rate, looking back at it we're of course proud of having been able to pull it off with crowdfunding alone.

- Trusty

[jonaz.dk]

Not needing client work was meant as not having to do work for hire for projects for clients that would distract you from the main project.
By all means you should work on the game client.

I can see why they would doubt you having the ability to pull off such a grand scoped project in general. I would have the same concerns. But you flipping did it anyways.
Just makes you even more badass!

Yeah it can be tricky to appeal to DFI spilordningen.
You have to hit just the right cultural and political tangents to stand the best chances.

From my knowledge on the subject it makes perfect sense why they would choose not to support your project.
Regardless of social circles.

[TrustyJam]

Woups, haha yeah sorry about that - no we've never done any client work/work for hire so I didn't even consider you could be referring to that.

Again, thank you for the supportive words - you are too kind though I think. WoR is and always has been a passion project and so not doing it has never really been a consideration to us.

- Trusty

[jonaz.dk]

Passion project as it should be!

My >assumption< on why DFI did not support you would be the simple fact that your game allows you to play 'the bad guys' set in a real life historical conflict. That would be a big red hard no no for DFI.
Adding unproved track record on top. I believe you never had a chance with that specific project.

Would have been nice of them to tell you up front directly so you didn't have to waste a ton of time applying again and again.

[TrustyJam]

It's an interesting theory in regards to being able to play as the bad guys being an issue. It's extremely narrow-minded if true I think - especially as the gameplay featured is entirely focused on the combat itself and not some political simulation game.

At any rate, if you're not supportive of media that allows the audience to experience a specific historical conflict from both sides then I fear you'll run the risk of dumbing down said media quite a bit - from an enjoyment/immersion standpoint but also from a learning one.

- Trusty

[jonaz.dk]

Naturally I don't claim to speak on the behalf of DFI. Take it as fairly qualified hear-say.
There are most certainly more complexities in the equation.

But yes you get some interesting dynamics when tax money meets funding programs and a stately
bureaucracy.

I most certainly agree such a theoretical (non-transparent on top) policy is an undesirable limitation of artistic and creative expression in the medium.

Though limits are everywhere and we have to navigate them as good as we can.
Take a program like the EU run Media Desk. Now that is a crazy red tape maze you have to navigate. But at least they are more transparent about it as far as I can see with my limited gaze.

I'm sure the DFI people are doing their best with the tools they have.

The bare minimum would be to have clear guidelines for any such program of what you can and cannot do. That would be a start.

[TrustyJam]

Anniversary Update: Musicians, 200 Player Support & Demotion Systems - Released!

Hello everyone,

Friday the 17th of September marked the day of the 159th anniversary of the battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg and so we were excited to be releasing a major update to the game in celebration and remembrance of the courage and sacrifices of the soldiers engaged in what would be America’s single bloodiest day in wartime.

Musicians

Musicians are (at long last) making their way into War of Rights!

Featuring a drummer and a bugler per regiment, the sole objective of the musicians in battle is to relay the orders of the officers to the men outside of hearing distance of the shouts.



On the Drill Camp level outside of combat, musicians (including the fifer exclusively available there) are also able to play a selection of Civil War period tunes should the company want to liven things up a tad while on the march or warming themselves next to the campfire.



When spawned as a musician, press Q in order to bring up a radial menu to select the call/signal or tune you wish to play. Note that you can only play while either standing still or at the quicktime speed.

Musicians can also sync up and play the same call or tune together. All it takes is both of the musicians being in relative close proximity to each other, both selecting the same call or tune and they will sync up with each other.



Note: With today’s update comes the very first musician class introduction into the alpha. Players should expect to encounter various bugs and issues tied to the class due to this.

200 Player Support

Much has changed since the early days of our technical alpha when we supported 32 players on a server and today we are happy to announce that the player cap supported is going to be increased from 150 to 200 players!

This has been made possible thanks to a large number of code optimizations implemented by our two programmers, Mike & Aleksi the past 4 or 5 months.

As an extra present for our community we’re very pleased to announce that the new 200 player slot option will cost exactly the same as what you’ve been paying for a 150 player slot server up until now - that’s 50 additional player slots for free thanks to Gportal’s willingness to work with us which we are very appreciative of.



The 200 player slot option is unlocked in the basic settings for anyone that rents a 150 slot War of Rights server at Gportal - no need to select a more expensive 200 player slot server via the slot slider when renting one.

If you wish to rent your own War of Rights Alpha server you can visit their website over at: https://www.g-portal.com/en/gameserver/ ... er-hosting

Demotion Systems

Today’s anniversary update also includes the very first implementation of the promised demotion system as well as the server-wide mute system in order to give the community a democratic means of policing non-admined servers. Below is a quick rundown of the workings of the demotion system as well as the server-wide mute system:

Downvoting

Downvoting is performed against another player on the tab screen. Here, you will find a down arrow icon located next to the player's name.

Upon pressing the down arrow icon next to a player name it will be highlighted to indicate that you have downvoted the individual. When the player has started receiving votes a tally will appear next to the down demotion arrow showing how many “effective votes” have been cast against the player.

To cast an “effective vote” you need to be on the same team as the player you downvoted. This is to ensure that a highly competitive enemy team can’t just target the best officers of the enemy team in order to remove them from command for instance. Furthermore, if the player you have cast your vote against changes team or you yourself change team your vote will be removed from the tally. Returning to the same team will make your vote an effective vote again. If you no longer wish to vote against a player, you can click the arrow again to forgive the player and revoke your vote.

Your votes are cast persistently which means that should you ever encounter that same player again in another game session your vote will be automatically applied again. For those who play across multiple devices; Steam Cloud will track your preferences.

You will not be able to see which individuals have downvoted you - only your total amount of downvotes received from the players currently on the server. This is a change in design from when the demotion system was originally previewed - there are pros and cons for both approaches but we felt this option was the better to initially test and is subject to change.

Demotion Triggered

Once you reach the vote threshold you will be demoted. The threshold is determined by a server determined fixed percentage of the server population. For example if the threshold is 15% on a 200 player server 30 votes will trigger a demotion.

Your name on the tab view will get a red “D” icon next to it, representing a demotion, alongside the total votes cast against you. This icon will also be shown under your in-game nametag (next to the speaker icon).

When you fall back below the vote threshold your demotion will be revoked and its enforced restrictions will be lifted from your player.

Demotion Restrictions

When demoted, you are restricted to the Infantry Private class. All other classes: NCO’s, Officers, Flag Bearers, Musicians and all of the artillery branch classes will not be selectable.

If you are playing as any of the aforementioned classes when a demotion is triggered you will be immediately slain and greeted by the branch selection screen.

After having spawned in as an Infantry Private you will notice red “Demoted” text in the lower right corner. This will be visible for as long as you are demoted.

Demoted players cannot pick up dropped flags. Upon trying to pick up a flag you will be shown a user interface message in the center of the screen stating that you can’t do so as a demoted player.

The infraction decay timer (for team damage inflicted by you) is also greatly increased from the normal non-demoted rate for demoted players, resulting in much less teamkill trolling being possible for you compared to non-demoted players.

Server Wide Mute Sub-system

Player mutes (initiated by pressing the little speaker icon next to player names on the tab menu) are now tallied up in much the same way as downvotes - the total amount of mutes a person has received are hidden however. Once a certain threshold has been passed a server-wide mute (both VoIP & text chat) is triggered, muting the individual for everyone for as long as said threshold of mutes received by players on the server has been surpassed.

Upon reaching this, the server wide muted player will be shown a message informing him that he has been muted server wide in both VoIP & text chat and a muted icon will be shown under his nametag in-game (the VoIP speaker icon with a red cross over it), letting everyone know why the player they try to communicate with is unable to answer them.

The normal speaker icon next to his name on the tab view will also be changed to one that stands out to indicate that the player in question has been muted server wide.

Horse Teaser (Work In Progress)

Being that this is the anniversary update, we thought it’d be an excellent occasion to share a bit about the progress of getting horses functional in War of Rights. A lot of animation work has already gone into their implementation but you will notice key features such as audio missing.

Many of the systems to be tied to horses are also not ready yet and so their deployment is not exactly imminent. Even so, we hope you’ll enjoy this short teaser.



That’s all for now. A big thank you to our community for offering us the support and patience in bringing the main features of this update into fruition. We look forward to be joining the ranks with you, recruits and veterans alike, as we take the next step towards fulfilling the vision that is War of Rights!

[jonaz.dk]

OMG!! Musicians on the battlefield! @TrustyJam That is sooooooo cool!
Haha imagine walking around and you can only trumpet (correction >bugle<) at the enemy!

And horsies on the way. Nice! Looking really good so far! You could potentially do the whole logistics train with cannons, ammunition, carriages and stuff (not sure it would be that fun though.. maybe for some supporting player types?!).
There are hoof some sliding. Looks super hard and tricky to get working perfectly. Wondering if IK and root motion is enough?
Even Red Dead Redemption 2 has hoof sliding to a smaller degree. And I guess they spent a whole lot of time and resources on making horses.
I think a deep learning based horse animation system would be the way to go. But also hard to execute for a smallish indie studio.

I bet the community is having a party now!

[jonaz.dk]

A few questions if you don't mind sharing @TrustyJam. And fine if you don't.
With the tech and knowledge you are building you just have SO much potential in expanding to other historical wars usually not that represented in first person multiplayer games. The American Revolutionary War, The Napoleonic wars etc. would be obvious candidates.

Is that something you are considering expanding into the future?

I know you are a small outfit with the limitations that comes with that at the moment. But with some effort I think you could really own a broader niche of historical FPS multiplayer games. Just a thought.

[TrustyJam]

Thank you!

Sure, I don't mind answering a few.

Yeah, horse drawn artillery is something we want to support eventually. The battle of Antietam wasn't very cav-oriented, to say the least, but it had lots of artillery batteries engaged. If all goes as planned its introduction is going to make playing as an artilleryman quite a bit more involved as you get to obviously move your battery around at a much quicker pace than two guys pushing the wheels can ever manage. This should open up an interesting hunter/hunted game where batteries will move to provide counter-battery fire or stay at that nice position where you can really hit the infantry hard but at the same time might risk that the enemy batteries end up providing counter-battery fire against you.

The question of featuring other conflicts or even just other periods of the Civil War is one we get asked quite often. We are in no way done with WoR (we don't do estimates as to when we might be - a slow and steady approach will get us there eventually) and so a 2nd project is not really something we think of very often. Another reason for this than the above, is that we don't want to risk all of a sudden losing our focus/interest/passion for WoR and so engaging in too many talks of ideas of future projects has always been kind of suppressed I suppose you could say - it has helped us stick to our vision for the project for close to a decade now.

[TrustyJam]

Hello everyone,

We just completed our first ever 300 player test last night!

We're very stoked about it as it went much better than expected - it really highlighted all of the work our programmers have put into network & client optimizations these past 6 months.

Below is a video of the 300 player test created by long-time community member, Cody.

[TrustyJam]

Hello everyone,

We just completed our first ever 400 player stress test in War of Rights!

Massive props to our programmers Mike & Aleksi for keep pushing the boundaries of what our alpha (and engine) is able to offer.

Below are a few screenshots of the test.

[jonaz.dk]

Impressive as usual! Looks amazing with that amount of actual players!

Are you guys aiming for thousands of players or where do you think it will level out?

I guess from a rendering perspective you could always go down to animated billboards of characters in the distance. And simplified VFX. (If you don't already)

I wonder if it would be possible/feasible from a networking standpoint to do something similar with larger batched groups of soldiers in the distance.

Keep on rocking!

[ZeroHero]

Absolutely amazing achievement!

This project has grown a lot and become a stunning piece of work overtime.

Well done guys!

[TrustyJam]

Thank you gents

We don’t know where we’ll end up in terms of player counts (and many other things!) - it’s the beauty of having no target release date to adhere to.

Had you offered me a solid 200 player experience 6 months ago I would probably have been very happy to settle on that, but things such as visions and wants have a tendency of continuing expanding as I’m sure you’re aware of.

[TrustyJam]

Field Report 45: Character Customization Preview

Hello and welcome to the Forty-Fifth Field Report!

Today, we’re going to be giving you a bit of a preview of a long awaited feature, debuting in its initial form in the next game update: Character customization!

Character Customization

The character customization of War of Rights consists of two segments: Facial & bodily features and uniform customization.

The initial implementation of the system focuses on the uniform customization part and so we will as well in today’s preview. Please note that the system is a work in progress and so changes between now and its initial release should be expected.

Uniform Customization



In the next game update, players will be able to customize the uniform of each player class (Private, NCO, Flag Bearer, Fifer, Drummer, Bugler & Officer) as well as each rank within the player classes (Corporal, Sergeant, 1st Sergeant, Sergeant Major, 2nd Lieutenant, 1st Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Lieutenant Colonel & Colonel).

Currently War of Rights features over 130 playable infantry regiments and artillery batteries. Each of which has a wide range of unique and distinct features. There is no small amount of work required to maintain both the historical accuracy of the uniforms and player customization agency. Consequently, we will be rolling out uniform customization options on a per-regiment basis in future updates. We look forward to hearing from the community what their most anticipated regiments are so we can tailor our efforts accordingly!

Until the facial & bodily features part of character customization comes online, you will all be given a random head configuration that will be your persistent appearance whenever you use a customized uniform. Should you opt to not use a customized uniform you will be given one of the pre-made characters already created for the selected regiment (the ones currently given to all).

The uniform customizer allows you to change just about any uniform and equipment asset that is acceptable from the historical constraints of your selected regiment, player class and rank.



Several in-game environments and poses are going to be featured as well as an in-depth photo mode for you to view (and share) your creation in a way that suits you by changing settings such as time of day, weather, depth of field focus,blur amount, field of view, saturation, contrast, photo filter, sun & moon rotation, sepia and wind on/off.



We expect to be expanding the features of the photo mode based off of feedback from the community once it is released as we can see its possible uses in a wide range of scenarios.

Other Upcoming Additions

We thought it best to give you all a bit of a sneak peek regarding some of the other work that is currently going on at Campfire Games.

We’ve been rewriting the code handling the game modes in an effort to better combat bugs (especially plaguing the Picket Patrol mode currently) going forwards. It also allows us to start expanding the amount of game modes supported in the game - expect to hear more about the latter in the near future.

The rewritten game mode code, as well as a rewritten spectating and freelook systems are all scheduled to be released in the next game update alongside the initial character customization. The same goes for an easy way for us developers to download server crash dumps from any War of Rights server which will greatly help us in being able to fix various server related bugs & crashes quicker.

Artillery has seen a few improvements for the upcoming update as well. Exploding rounds nearby should result in a more prominent screenshake and blackouts in order to convey the sheer power as well as danger to the players better, the canister misbehaving for the CSA variant of the Napoleon cannon is fixed up and the lanyard is now once again visible.

Many more additions and fixes are scheduled for the next game update but we thought we’d just share some of the most often reported ones. As always, thank you for reporting the issues you come across. It is an instrumental step in our bug squashing effort.

Lastly, we hear a lot of questions about how the horse implementation progress is coming along so we thought we’d let you know that our animator is currently focusing on creating some of the animations very much required in order for its release to become a reality; jumping, stopping when about to hit an object at low speed as well as hitting an object at high speed (resulting in the rider being thrown off of the horse if the object is immovable and in a trampling if said object is another player on foot).

Below is a render of a work in progress animation of a jumping horse.



That’s all for now. Until next time, have a good one.

[TrustyJam]

Field Report 46: Public Test Branch: Conquest Mode & Customization



Hello and welcome to the Forty-Sixth Field Report!

Today, we’re pleased to be announcing the release date (18th of March) of the public test branch featuring a new game mode as well as uniform and head customization!

New Game Mode: Conquest

When the public test branch opens come March 18th, you will all be able to experience the work-in-progress new War of Rights game mode, Conquest. We’re inviting you all to help us not only stress test it prior to releasing it to the live branch of the game but also to give you the opportunity to shape the future of the mode via your feedback during the testing as the amount of Conquest areas are scheduled to be heavily expanded prior to its release in the very near future.

But what exactly is Conquest? If you’ve played practically any multiplayer first person shooter game the past 20 years, chances are you’ve come across the mode in some form or another: The mode essentially revolves around two teams fighting for the control of multiple capture points. Each capture point owned results in a slow ticket (or morale in our case) drain of the enemy team. The first team to run out of tickets/morale caused by taking casualties + the drain due to enemy controlled capture points, will lose the round.

While the above basics of the mode are unchanged in War of Rights, our conquest mode retains several features from the Skirmishes game mode (as well as a few new unique ones) created to maintain the organized team play our game has always focused on first and foremost:


First, let's take a look at key War of Rights features carried over from the Skirmishes game mode to Conquest, and thus very familiar to you all:


Formation state buffs are identical to the ones found in the Skirmishes game mode, i.e. suppression resistances and stamina recovery - or a lack thereof should you be out of line.

The morale cost of dying is also still tied to the formation state of the players and the overall team morale levels (Battle Ready, Engaged, Taking Losses & Breaking) are also still used, just as Skirmishes.

Artillery batteries that support forward artillery battery spawns (as seen in Skirmishes) are featured in each Conquest area.

Flag bearer spawning is also featured and works in an identical way to Skirmishes.


Now, let’s concentrate on the features unique to Conquest:


There are 3 capture points per Conquest area (marked by flagpoles as well as UI icons).

We wanted to give the flag bearer a more pivotal role in Conquest. Unlike in typical conquest modes you may be used to where standing by the flagpole will capture it for your team, we have coined a different approach:

The flag bearer will have to approach the flagpole and attempt to raise their flag to the top of the pole, if they successfully raise it to the top the point will be captured.

Should the flag bearer perish or abandon the raising of the flag any of their allies can attempt to finish raising the flag and capture the point for their team.

Enemy controlled capture points can be neutralized by approaching the flagpole and lowering the enemy flag.

Flagpoles can only be interacted with provided you are not "Out of Line".

Conquest is designed to set us free from the strict historical constraints we are bound by in the Skirmishes game mode. Not having to worry about if the initial spawn points, battery locations, capture point locations, area boundaries, units or time of day featured in the game mode are historically correct results in a great amount of flexibility which we’re hoping will allow us to bring you some interesting new scenarios to experience. We plan on allowing server admins to dictate which playable units are to be available as well as whether or not to flip the starting spawn positions of the teams in the future, for instance.




The winning/losing conditions for Conquest are as following:


If a team reaches 0 tickets/morale before the round timer runs out, either via the enemy team controlling more capture points than them or killing their players, the team enters Last Stand (i.e. no additional respawns). Once close to all of the players in Last Stand have been killed the team will lose the round.

A team can also force the enemy team into a Counter-Attack. This happens when one team controls all 3 capture points. When Counter-Attack is triggered, the team with no points in their control will have a few minutes to retake a point. If this is not done in time, the team will lose the round. A Counter-Attack can be triggered while in Last Stand.

Should the round timer reach 0 before any team has depleted all of its morale, the winner of the round will be based on the overall morale level: A “Engaged” team versus a “Taking Losses” one will for example win. Should both teams be at an identical morale level (say “Breaking” versus “Breaking”) the round will end as a draw.



During the public test branch phase, Conquest will feature 4 playable areas on the Antietam battlefield. These are all very different in both overall area size as well as distance between spawn to the first capture point and/or distance between each capture point in order for us to gather your feedback of what works and what doesn’t. Do you prefer action-packed small areas with less than 100 yards between each point or would you rather play the massive ones with 400 yards between them, allowing for some extreme flanking movements? Your given feedback will be used to shape the future of the, possibly, dozens of Conquest areas as we look to expand the mode considerably before its release to the live branch of the game.

Character Customization

The public test branch also sees the very first introduction of customizable characters. Being that this is the very initial implementation of the feature, only a select few regiments will be available for customizing. As the development continues, the hundreds of regiments & batteries featured in War of Rights will eventually all be supported.

For more information about the uniform specific and photo mode features of character customization, please read Field Report 45 at: https://steamcommunity.com/games/424030 ... 5651768366

Head Customization



We’re pleased to be bringing you head customization when the public test branch goes live come March 18th. Originally, this feature was scheduled for a later release but Mike, the programmer responsible for the customization system’s creation, found enough time to squeeze it in there for you.

Head customization is game-wide. This ensures your facial characteristics are carried over to whichever regiment or battery you’re playing as, allowing for some sense of familiarity between player interactions.

Other Additions

The public test branch build contains a massive amount of additional changes - many of those are primarily backend ones such as: The game modes (Skirmishes, Picket Patrol, Conquest & Drill Camp), in-game UI, end-of-round skirmish cinematics, spectator camera and benchmark all having been converted to C++ instead of primarily using their former visual scripting based setups. This should result in considerably less bugs going forward as well as a slightly more responsive UI. The side effect of this is that certain features such as freelook and the free flight spectator camera, may feel slightly different during rotation and movement.

Due to the sheer amount of converted/rewritten systems it is important to note that initial issues such as bugs, instability and missing features are likely to be encountered.

The overhaul of the freelook mechanic has also resulted in less head/body clipping during animation playback (There are a few edge cases remaining currently but we expect those to be resolved soon).

Lastly, the benchmark has been updated to more accurately reflect the current number of supported players in the game (going from 150 soldiers firing to two opposing lines featuring a total of 320 soldiers).



That’s all for now. We very much look forward to hearing your feedback on March 18th of what is shaping up to be one of the biggest updates to the game we have ever released.

Keep your eyes peeled for the release of the public test branch as well as information about how to access it come Friday.

- The Campfire Games Team