The Camelot Unchained Kickstarter is coming along nicely.  They broke a $1,000,000 two days ago, and tomorrow they should be announcing their stretch goals which I hope (and believe) will increase the number of pledgers — pledgers actually being the issue and not the amount they pledge since the average donation is quite high.  I’m rooting for them!

What I really want to write about tonight is the little teaser from Mark and CSE.  You can see the image on the right.  I’m thinking it’s going to be some sort of mystical realm or area unlocked by winning the ‘realm war’, mirroring the Darkness Falls mechanic from DAoC.  Essentially whichever team owns the most territory gains access to this highly coveted spot.  In DAoC, Darkness Falls was home to fantastic PvE leveling and gear for most players.  In CU, however, there is no PvE progression — what will get players fighting to gain access to such a place?

This location could easily contain highly coveted materials, such as rare ores to mine out of the ground, used in the crafting of amazing weapons.  Guilds will want to own the place so that their crafters can enter and begin harvesting.  When the ‘purge’ occurs, or another realm gains control, the crafters will have to be defended and/or scurry out.   Players would want to own it, benefit from owning it, and have fun taking it back.  It fuels the war and rewards players for trying.

The area may actually be full of epic PvE mobs.  Mark has been very careful not to rule out killing monsters.  In one of the recent Kickstarter updates, killing monsters for their materials was even confirmed as a possibility.  Kill a deer, take its pelt, make some armor.  The same principles can apply to killing mystical beings inside this magical realm of awesomeness.  Kill them, harvest their essence, and allow crafters to imbue magical properties onto weapons.  These magical properties don’t even have to be stat based — a glowing blue flame sword or a shadow-black hood with billowing dark clouds of mist coming off it will get everyone crawling over each other just to get through the door.  I haven’t read anything, or heard anything from Mark in our discussions, to rule out the possibility of killing mobs for this sort of stuff.  All we know is that there won’t be gear progression or leveling up on mobs.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if CSE is sitting back and looking at all the ideas coming from their fans thinking, “I like that one.  Let’s do it!”  And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. (more…)