War of Rights News

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

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

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!

[h2]Character Customization[/h2]

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.

[h2]Uniform Customization[/h2]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
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.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
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.

[h2]Other Upcoming Additions[/h2]

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.



[h2]Steam Lunar New Year Sale - War of Rights 25% off![/h2]



The Steam Lunar New Year Sale is upon us and so War of Rights is currently available at a 25% discount until the 3rd of February.

You can grab the game and join the ranks of immersive 300 player Civil War battles at:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/424030/War_of_Rights/
We look forward to be greeting the fresh recruits on the battlefields and drill camps!

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

Greetings everyone,

War of Rights is currently 50% off, being part of Steam's Winter Sale!

If you want to experience a game where the team is in absolute focus, historically accuracy is of key importance and high visual fidelity paired with 300 player servers is used to immerse you into the role of a Civil War soldier of 1862, you can grab the game at:

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

We look forward to be meeting the many fresh recruits on the battlefields the next few weeks.

On a different note, we hope you enjoyed (and are enjoying) the Christmas event which is currently live. It will remain so for another 3 days.


That's all for now!

Here's to a jolly time for everyone during the holidays.

We're excited to be seeing what 2022 has in store for War of Rights as development will continue.