[Interview] Camelot Unchained: Chatting with Mark Jacobs on the Delayed Beta

SBFord · July 2015

With the announcement of the beta delay for Camelot Unchained, Mark Jacobs and his development team wanted to address potential player concerns straight away. We spoke with Mark to give him a chance to lay out the details. Check it out!

Read more of Tim Eisezimmer's Camelot Unchained: Chatting with Mark Jacobs on the Delayed Beta.

UnleadedRev · July 2015

Although, I like Mark Jacobs and what I have seen about Camelot Unchained, as well as both his older games WAR: AoR and the original DAOC...

I won't be giving his project any money, due to how Chris Roberts and RSI aka the Star Citizen game and my beloved WH40K: Eternal Crusade handled the money they received from us backers, and the current state as well as the trend of results, i.e. total 360' on what the game was when we backed it and what they later decided it would be (a shooter and not a MMORPG in the case of Eternal Crusade), and with Star Citizen a disproportionate amount of results when comparing the huge amounts of money they received and what has actually been accomplished.

Dont even get me started about SoA or most of the other kick starter/founders/early access games I have put money into.

I realize it is collective punishment, but I had to draw the line.

My apologies to Mark Jacobs, as its not his fault, but these other Devs and publishers who are giving early access, founders, and backers programs a bad reputation.

blastermaster · July 2015

Delayed?

Boy.. I hope Smart did not pledge for this one...

badoom tishhh!

Alumicard · July 2015

@all the Smart comments, CU doesn't sell chars/ships for 1k+ (18k?) dollars and they never had 85mio to start with. Still they managed to create an engine that can handle 1k player battles around minecraft'ish castles. So never compare RS to MJ pls. One of them delivers and the other has a history of overstating goals and not delivering any games at all.

Two questions at Marc (I hope you still follow MMORPG)

"considering the level and quality of programming we were expecting to have from the new guy"

Did the guy you hired mentioned in the comment seem to be more than he actually is (aka overestimating skills) or was the work just more complex than he expected? No name-shame of course, just wondering if your hireing ads might not include all the crazy stuff you go for ; )

Also about the "we work with Nvidia" comment, does that mean

A: you abandon AMD completly aka "a fury x2 will have sucky FPS"

B: your game will run on Nvidia better than on AMD (*cough* latest Batman with 20 frame on 980 * cough*)

C: none of the above please explain. edit: pretty please with a cherry on top. (also edited: adds-> ads)

Mitara · July 2015

From what I have seen of SoTa, SC and CU. CU is without a doubt the project I believe most in. Im not gonna play it, but at least Mark Jacobs seems to stand by his word and is actually delivering. I didnt think I would say this, but he is actually the guy that gives kickstarters a good reputation.

tinuelle · July 2015

I wish camelot unchained best of luck and give Mark Jacobs a Thumb up until now for his crowdfunding handling that many other crowdfunding projects should do as well.

Now regarding the we work with Nvidea and the question from alumicard above all Logic points to the game and optimized with nvidea cards. If AMD cards run just as well without Any prior optimizing that would be a real shock and pure strafe of luck. But I'm pretty sure the game will run well on AMD cards as well, but you prolly wont see 200 FPS with 4k and oculus rift support with it. Now the question is totally irrelevant unless you are a pro-AMD supporter and nVidea hater. For us others who dont care about ultrahighdefinition graphics, we are just happy that There is a focus on graphics, and support from a hardwarecompany seems to me a good thing.

collekt · July 2015

Originally posted by Mitara
From what I have seen of SoTa, SC and CU. CU is without a doubt the project I believe most in. Im not gonna play it, but at least Mark Jacobs seems to stand by his word and is actually delivering. I didnt think I would say this, but he is actually the guy that gives kickstarters a good reputation.

This is what I've been saying from the very beginning of the Kickstarter. You have to research and make an educated decision when it comes to crowd funding. I could tell right away I didn't want to be involved in SC's Kickstarter despite it being wildly successful. On the other hand, CU has always given me the impression that they were going to be realistic in what they promise and they definitely have been. They don't promise ridiculous impossible feats.

Timesplit · July 2015

@Alumicard, i'm pretty sure the Batman example is because WB decided to outsource their game to a B developer. Not to mention they had a very small team to even manage the work on that game. I think they deserves a little more trust with this game, because you won't ever see it ending up on consoles.

In other words, that means PC is the one and only platform given priority.

MarkJacobs · July 2015

Originally posted by UnleadedRev
Although, I like Mark Jacobs and what I have seen about Camelot Unchained, as well as both his older games WAR: AoR and the original DAOC...

I won't be giving his project any money, due to how Chris Roberts and RSI aka the Star Citizen game and my beloved WH40K: Eternal Crusade handled the money they received from us backers, and the current state as well as the trend of results, i.e. total 360' on what the game was when we backed it and what they later decided it would be (a shooter and not a MMORPG in the case of Eternal Crusade), and with Star Citizen a disproportionate amount of results when comparing the huge amounts of money they received and what has actually been accomplished.

Dont even get me started about SoA or most of the other kick starter/founders/early access games I have put money into.

I realize it is collective punishment, but I had to draw the line.

My apologies to Mark Jacobs, as its not his fault, but these other Devs and publishers who are giving early access, founders, and backers programs a bad reputation.

No, I will not accept your apology because you don't ever, ever have to apologize to a developer for not backing their (or my) crowd-funded game. And, this is not a bit of "reverse psychology" because I've said the same thing on MOP and other places. You have ever right to back or not to back my or any crowd-funded game for any reason you choose.

My thanks for even considering it and, once we launch, I hope you like what you see and decide to buy the game.

Again, my thanks.

JamesGoblin · July 2015

I would back it if only CU had playable goblins. But guess what, they are adding even more humans instead =(

On a serious note, that sky looks lovely

MarkJacobs · July 2015

Originally posted by Alumicard
@all the Smart comments, CU doesn't sell chars/ships for 1k+ (18k?) dollars and they never had 85mio to start with. Still they managed to create an engine that can handle 1k player battles around minecraft'ish castles. So never compare RS to MJ pls. One of them delivers and the other has a history of overstating goals and not delivering any games at all.

Two questions at Marc (I hope you still follow MMORPG)

"considering the level and quality of programming we were expecting to have from the new guy"

Did the guy you hired mentioned in the comment seem to be more than he actually is (aka overestimating skills) or was the work just more complex than he expected? No name-shame of course, just wondering if your hireing ads might not include all the crazy stuff you go for ; )

Also about the "we work with Nvidia" comment, does that mean

A: you abandon AMD completly aka "a fury x2 will have sucky FPS"

B: your game will run on Nvidia better than on AMD (*cough* latest Batman with 20 frame on 980 * cough*)

C: none of the above please explain. edit: pretty please with a cherry on top. (also edited: adds-> ads)

Yep, I'm still here! And yes, I still follow MMORPG. I may spend most of my time on our own Forums and MOP but I do read MMORPG and I have a positive affection for some of the folks here on staff and on the forums. As to your questions:

1) Did the guy you hired mentioned in the comment seem to be more than he actually is (aka overestimating skills) or was the work just more complex than he expected? No name-shame of course, just wondering if your hireing ads might not include all the crazy stuff you go for ; )

Nah, he is a bright guy and a talented programmer. I have to take him at his word that he just received an offer that he couldn't turn down. And in terms of our hiring process, yeah, we flew him out here and he/we spent a lot of time talking. I think he knew exactly what he was getting into before he accepted our offer.

Also about the "we work with Nvidia" comment, does that mean

A: you abandon AMD completly aka "a fury x2 will have sucky FPS"

B: your game will run on Nvidia better than on AMD (*cough* latest Batman with 20 frame on 980 * cough*)

How about

C: We will do our best to make sure that all of our Backers/players who are using cards that meet our specs can play our game well. We will not abandon AMD cards and, to their credit, Nvidia has not asked/hinted/winked/etc. that we should do that.

We can't focus on both at once and Nvidia's PhysX tech and our long-term relationship with some of the folks there made them the best choice for us. FYI, we actually investigated Havok first.

And the cherry was unnecessary but I do like cherries.

MarkJacobs · July 2015

Originally posted by Mitara
From what I have seen of SoTa, SC and CU. CU is without a doubt the project I believe most in. Im not gonna play it, but at least Mark Jacobs seems to stand by his word and is actually delivering. I didnt think I would say this, but he is actually the guy that gives kickstarters a good reputation.

Thanks so much for that, appreciated. That means a lot, even more so because you are not going to play Camelot Unchained.

MarkJacobs · July 2015

Originally posted by tinuelle
I wish camelot unchained best of luck and give Mark Jacobs a Thumb up until now for his crowdfunding handling that many other crowdfunding projects should do as well.

Now regarding the we work with Nvidea and the question from alumicard above all Logic points to the game and optimized with nvidea cards. If AMD cards run just as well without Any prior optimizing that would be a real shock and pure strafe of luck. But I'm pretty sure the game will run well on AMD cards as well, but you prolly wont see 200 FPS with 4k and oculus rift support with it. Now the question is totally irrelevant unless you are a pro-AMD supporter and nVidea hater. For us others who dont care about ultrahighdefinition graphics, we are just happy that There is a focus on graphics, and support from a hardwarecompany seems to me a good thing.

We are going to do our best for AMD cards as well, we owe that to our Backers. After all, we didn't say "CU Kickstarter - Powered by Nvidia Only!" so...

MarkJacobs · July 2015

Originally posted by collekt
Originally posted by Mitara
From what I have seen of SoTa, SC and CU. CU is without a doubt the project I believe most in. Im not gonna play it, but at least Mark Jacobs seems to stand by his word and is actually delivering. I didnt think I would say this, but he is actually the guy that gives kickstarters a good reputation.

This is what I've been saying from the very beginning of the Kickstarter. You have to research and make an educated decision when it comes to crowd funding. I could tell right away I didn't want to be involved in SC's Kickstarter despite it being wildly successful. On the other hand, CU has always given me the impression that they were going to be realistic in what they promise and they definitely have been. They don't promise ridiculous impossible feats.

Thanks! I'll stick to difficult feats, they are so much easier.

MarkJacobs · July 2015

Originally posted by JamesGoblin
I would back it if only CU had playable goblins. But guess what, they are adding even more humans instead =(

On a serious note, that sky looks lovely

LOL, thanks! The sky is coming along nicely as is the terrain. I can't wait to start showing off the improvements.

BTW, I like goblins too, just saying.

Tamanous · July 2015

I've posted that I expected a delay but damn, not getting that programmer in time sure hurt things.

Must have beta before the Canadian winter is over! RvR warms the blood!

Ozmodan · July 2015

Well from what I have seen, CU has a game that is light years closer to finishing than anything Chris Roberts has produced.

If you were going to crowd fund something, there is a much better chance this will reach release close to what they proposed.

Slapshot1188 · July 2015

@MJ Any plans to at least drop the NDA?

JamesGoblin · July 2015

Originally posted by Slapshot1188
@MJ Any plans to at least drop the NDA?

NDA should be dropped at some point in Beta (recent info by CSE from Reddit).

dwarfus · July 2015

The mere fact that Mark comes on here and replies is amazing. I've started and run multiple companies and as a CEO/founder, your time is short beyond imagination.

He engages the community, stands by his word, and the game is looking great. I don't mind waiting for the best, rather than receiving something less.

I used to follow the half recruiting rule: info session or source 64 people, receive 32 applicants, phone screen 16, interview 8, offer 4, hire 2, keep 1 after a year. It helped a lot to stem inevitable turnover.

winter · July 2015

Delayed? Wow I wonder if SB Ford has contacted Derek Smart yet to get his take on this?

romanswinter · July 2015

@MarkJacobs

Hey Mark,

Awesome to see you on here. I am a CU backer and have no problem waiting for you and the gang to get things right before letting people in Beta. I have the utmost confidence you guys are doing a great job.

Also, I wanted to know if you got the bottle of viking mead I sent to your office. I applied for a job there several months back and thought I could bribe you with the some good old fashioned mead. Unfortunately it didnt seem to work out but I would love to know if you actually got the mead and had a chance to try it.

Keep up the great work!

JamesGoblin · July 2015

After watching yesterday`s Q&A, there is actually bunch of good news in it! Mark made it look bit darker to avoid being accused of sugarcoating the delay, I guess.

To be more precise, from that Q&A (starting around 11:50): a new character artist is starting on Monday, a new environmental artist started today, and third (unspecified) one is "probably coming here in a couple of weeks, and we`re gonna make decision whether to add him". Also, this week "we signed a senior server engineer" (starts working in September).

MKnance · July 2015

so is this game like basically off of camelot like the kingdom camelot with witchcraft etc

Torcip · July 2015

A lot of these kickstarted MMOs seemed to be surrounded by both devs and donators who do not really understand how long it actually takes to develop an mmo that woeks atleast halway decently. But we're missing what's truly important, what does Derek Smart think about this?

Gyrus · July 2015

Nice to see Mark Jacobs on here talking about his game.

FWIW though, I think CU will find itself in trouble if the whole Star Citizen thing implodes / explodes. Simply because it will change the rules for crowdfunding and many projects (including CU) will get scrutinised.

As for CSE and their handling of crowd funding:

The good was the "refund on request"

The bad was the "Founders Points" which (IMHO) turned the whole thing from a KickStarter campaign into an online shop. That is something that I think could easily end up haunting both CSE and KickStarter in the future.

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