War of Rights News

[h2]Update 178: Conquest & Customization - Released![/h2]



Hello everyone,


Today, we’re excited to be bringing you War of Rights alpha update 178 featuring not one, but two major features! The first of which being Conquest, a genre fan favorite, with a unique take and all the gameplay nuance that you would expect from War of Rights! Secondly, the very first implementation of our character customizer with a photo mode to boot!

The past month or two, we have been releasing several Field Reports detailing the specifics of the two main features being released today.

You can find them below:

Field Report 45: Character Customization Preview

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

Update 178 also contains a massive amount of backend code work on the user interface and various game systems. This includes: game modes, spectator camera, battle reports, freelooking and much more beyond the scope of this change log! We have also been making a concerted effort to move away from flowgraphs/visual scripting as they have proven unreliable and unstable throughout the lifetime of War of Rights. These have been rewritten in C++ to streamline the continued development of the game. Moreover, providing a more stable experience for you and for us to more easily debug and fix issues that may arise going forward.

We thought it a good time to give you a visualization of some of the work the programmers Mike, Aleksi, Emil & formerly Philipp have been working on since 2020. The visualization shows file changes made over time where each dot represents a file. Every lazer represents when that file has been modified and by whom. The branches and overall structure constitutes the folder hierarchy. Quite notable from the showcase is the acceleration in progress over the past 11 months since we restructured our programming team.

Busy little bees indeed!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]War of Rights Conquest Sale: 50% Off![/h2]



To mark the release of alpha update 178 featuring the two major game features Conquest & Customization, War of Rights is now on sale at 50% off for the next week!

Now is a great time to pick up your musket, trim your beard, tailor your uniform and join the ranks!

You can purchase the game below:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/424030/War_of_Rights/

[h2]Update 178 Patch Notes[/h2]

• Added Conquest, a brand new game mode for War Of Rights. This game mode focuses on taking control of points scattered strategically throughout the map. Capturing them with the use of the pivotal Flag Bearer class by interacting with the flagpoles. The team that controls the fewest points will suffer a morale drain.
  
• Featured with Conquest are 8 exciting new areas: Smokestacks, Forest Stream, Framing Fencelines and Farmland to Antietam and Corn Crib, Farm Lane, Railroad Cut and Towering Trunks to the Drill Camp level.
  

• Added the first implementation of uniform customization, featuring 8 fully customizable regiments: 6th Wisconsin, 69th New York, 72nd Pennsylvania, 8th Ohio, 1st Texas, 6th Louisiana, 3rd South Carolina and 27th North Carolina. Additionally, a photo mode to let your artistic talents fully capture your custom character in the way you want.
  

• The first implementation of character head customization with a wide range of options to create your perfect civil war digital self.
  

• Greatly improved the quality of shadows on characters and buildings.
  
• Reduced the specular on all distance trees for a less washed out look.
  
• Added a slight color variation to all trees.
  
• Reduced the amount of wind bending on leaves.
  
• Replaced the cornfield distance model.
  
• Increased the depth buffer from 24 bit to 32 bit, reducing the amount of shadow and volumetric fog banding as well as shading artifacts.
  
• Developers can now download the latest server crash memory dump, making it easier to debug server crashes.
  
• If a client should crash, it will now put its memory dump into a new Diagnostics folder in the game directory.
  
• When deploying on a flagbearer, the deploy timer will now display the estimated time to deployment, taking the queue size into account. If the flag bearer is In Formation and you are number 4 in the queue, it will estimate your time to spawn to be 40 seconds, if the flag bearer is skirmishing, the estimated time to spawn will be 80 seconds.This also means that the estimated time to deploy may change drastically as the flagbearer continuously switches from being Skirmishing, to being In Formation.
  
• Made flag bearers able to wave their flag. It can be done by pressing and holding the left mouse button.
  
• Fixed the flag cloth sometimes turning invisible, resulting in flag bearers just running around with a stick.
  
• Updated the benchmark to be more representative of the larger servers.
  
• Increased the camera shake from artillery explosions.
  
• Replaced the default view system with a new camera system, no more freezing into cutscene cameras.
  
• Replaced the localization system and updated the file structure of all localization.
  
• Added a star icon to the officer of your company to more easily locate your officer. It can be seen by pressing T.
  
• Replaced all icons with dynamic ones that now follow the entity they belong to.
  
• Added a new icon to all skirmish and conquest areas, indicating the location of your teams main spawn.
  
• The round timer and morale state indicator on the deploy screen is now able to display exactly the same info as the compass ingame, counter attack, overtime, overtime timer and capture progress.
  
• On the Skirmish gamemode, the UI will now display Capturing in the bottom right corner when you are close enough to the capture point to assist in its capture. Likewise it will now say Defending, if you are close enough to help keep it in your teams favor.
  
• The flag bearer position of your company will now be highlighted on the map on the deploy screen as an orange flag. Friendly flag bearers of other companies will be displayed as a blue or red flag for the Union or the Confederacy.
  
• Rewrote the user graphics and keybindings saving to be more reliable (Your current settings will be wiped)
  
• Fixed the tabview not scrolling to the top when typing into the search field.
  
• Fixed the chat sometimes losing focus while it’s active, forcing the player to hit enter twice to get rid of it.
  
• Added a graphics option that disables collisions between corpses, greatly improving their performance on heavily populated servers. It defaults to on.
  
• Added an option in the sounds menu to disable the tinnitus effect.
  
• Officer order chat messages will now only display to players in the same company.
  
• Updated the steam rich presence for the menus, showing what you are doing on the menu to your steam friends.
  
• Added an advanced mode to the framerate display to give more information.
  
• Fixed players occasionally getting stuck on the wrong side of a fence when vaulting.
  
• Potential fix for placing shells sometimes removing the artillery sponge rammer item.
  
• Reduced the amount of network transmissions whenever a player is interacting with the artillery or limber.
  

That's all for now. We look forward to be expanding upon both Conquest and Customization in the weeks and months to come.

See you all on the fields of glory!

- The Campfire Games Team

Hello Everyone,

The public test branch is now once again available for everyone to test throughout the weekend!

This round 2 of testing includes 4 new Conquest areas situated on the drill camp level as well as 4 additional customizable regiments.

A number of visual and technical improvements & bug fixes have also been added.

Below is a great little video created by community member Steve Lovaski, showing you the steps required to change from the live branch of the game into the public test branch.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Note that we recommend you to take a backup of your live branch War of Rights folder located in steamapps/common/War of Rights for a quick way to be able to revert back to the live branch without having to redownload the game, should you so wish.

We will be active on the public test server throughout the weekend to gather as much feedback from you as we possibly can and so we hope to see a great many of you joining in.

- The Campfire Games Team

Hello everyone!

The first round of the public test branch: Conquest & Customization testing phase has now ended. We'd like to thank everyone that took part in testing throughout the weekend! We gained a lot of valuable data and feedback that will help us to ensure as good a deployment of the features to the live branch as possible.

Before a live release happens, however, we'd like to invite you all to partake in round 2 of the public test branch, starting this Friday 25th and running throughout the weekend. Here, you will be able to test out new customizable regiments, new Conquest areas and a host of bug fixes/system improvements unique to round 2.

We look forward to be seeing you all!

- The Campfire Games Team

Hello everyone,

The public test branch featuring the first implemtation of character uniform & face customization as well as Conquest, a new game mode featured in 4 test areas, is now available!

Below is a great little video created by community member Steve Lovaski, showing you the steps required to change from the live branch of the game into the public test branch.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Note that we recommend you to take a backup of your live branch War of Rights folder located in steamapps/common/War of Rights for a quick way to be able to revert back to the live branch without having to redownload the game, should you so wish.


Known Issues

- There is a chance of your client crashing when leaving a server.
- First person head rotation when pushing the right wheel of the cannons backwards does a crazy spin.
- Conquest Capture Point icon letters may be initially offset when you join the test server.
- Partially captured Conquest Capture Points icon letters might not get updated correctly (light blue for USA, light red for CSA).
- Various UI is placeholder/missing (such as the overview maps of the different conquest areas).
- Some outer fringes of the Conquest areas are in need of a level design brushup, especially regarding finer details.
- Flag bearers currently have sword scabbards.



For more details about the contents of the public test branch, please read our newly released field report 45 & 46 at:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/424030/announcements/detail/5317064205651768366

https://steamcommunity.com/games/424030/announcements/detail/4971416741011819883

[h2]Hello and welcome to the Forty-Sixth Field Report![/h2]

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!

[h2]New Game Mode: Conquest[/h2]

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:

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3. Artillery batteries that support forward artillery battery spawns (as seen in Skirmishes) are featured in each Conquest area.
   
4. Flag bearer spawning is also featured and works in an identical way to Skirmishes.
   

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

1. There are 3 capture points per Conquest area (marked by flagpoles as well as UI icons).
   
2. 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.
     
   • Once the flag bearer has placed their flag on the pole, the flag spawn will no longer be available and the bearer will be given the loadout of a private.
     
   • A new flag bearer can then spawn at the staging area, giving the enemy a window of opportunity to attack the point while the defending company is without a flag bearer.
     
   • 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.
     
3. 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:

1. 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.
   
2. 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.
   
3. 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.

[h2]Character Customization[/h2]

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://store.steampowered.com/news/app/424030/view/5317064205651768365
[h2]Head Customization[/h2]



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.

[h2]Other Additions[/h2]

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