THE ANSWERS - COMMUNITY Q&A SESSION #2

BenSauropodStudio

Hi everyone!

We’re exited to present the answers of our second Q&A session!

WHAT IS IT?

Every two weeks, we’ll invite our community members to submit us questions about the Castle Story development. It can be everything from game design, animation and sound design to programming, pathfinding, AI or anything related to the game production.

Afterwards, we will choose 5 questions and sit down with a developer to answer them!

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

1. Simply write your question in this forum post.
   
2. You have until APRIL 20th at midnight EST to submit your question!
   
3. In two weeks, the answers well be posted right here: castlestory.net
   

And now for the answers! Thanks so much for the questions, there were too many for us to answer all of them.

ANSWERS:

Hateeer asks:

“Will there be new Bricktron types?”

Germain (Designer and art director)

Our focus right now is to get rid of the idea of bricktron types and have bricktrons just be bricktrons. We’re building a crafting and tools system that will allow you to equip your bricktrons the way you like. So a knight will only be a knight because you gave him a helmet, sword a shield. Same goes for archers. But you’ll also be able to mix & match, which technically will allow you to have as many bricktron types (or classes) as you like! I hope this answers your question

emreakyel asks:

“Will we be able to craft new weapons like polearms, crossbows, etc.? “
Francois (Designer and programmer)

We’re currently working on a tool and weapon system to be able to craft all kinds of things. Right now, Bricktrons come equipped with their tools, but starting with the next update, they will be able to pick up, drop, and exchange tools freely. Polearms and crossbow we can’t confirm at the moment, but upgrades to existing tools and weapons is a logical way forward with this new system. So yeah! You can expect new types of weapons in future updates.

HateMe asks:

“What's your plan or status on grass and tree regrowth? “

Germain (Designer and art director)

Update 0.6 introduced tree stumps. which served two different purposes. The first one was to give falling trees a horizontal surface to fall from, minimizing the occurence of logs falling off the island. The second purpose was to leave something behind and eventually allow for trees to regrow.

Right now, our in-house build has grass and tree regrowth. It works! And there’s pratically nothing stopping us from releasing it in the next major update. All we need to do is create the different assets for growth states, iron out some performance issues, and plug the ressource spawner when harvesting so that small trees give less logs than big trees for example.

SirMaxeN asks:

“You planed to make some campaign in game when game was in Kickstarter phase, do you still plan on make some missions with great stories? “

Germain (Designer and art director)

That’s a tough one.

We never planned to make a campaign. Castle Story has always been intended to be a sandbox game. Our goal is to make the game “events” memorable enough to become a story of it’s own. Similar to those fabled “battlefield moments”, in which something completely unscripted happens during a regular game and becomes it’s own story. Our focus is pretty much entirely in that direction.

However, we’re building powerful scripting tools using LUA, a simple to use scripting language. With those tools, we can not only code crazy new game modes, but scripted events too. So a campaign mode is not impossible, and leading up to the 1.0 release, I wouldn’t be surprised if we created custom scenarios for you to play. Kerbal Space Program has scenarios, even though is a story-less sandbox game. This kind of thing.

angryeskimo45 asks:

“I'm thinking about getting this game based on what I've seen of it, but my computer isn't super powerful and I couldn't find any suggested specs on Steam. Do you have a suggestion of how powerful a machine would have to be to run this game in it's current state and a prediction on what it might require in it's final state? “

Faviann (programmer)

Our engine is going through intense optimizations right now. Graphically the game isn’t that demanding, but the voxel engine tends to chew through CPU like crazy sometimes. It’s really hard to say, but for the moment, the performance depends on the map size. To put it simply we're aiming for it to be the least demanding possible so that a maximum amount of player get the chance to try it out and have fun. It's gonna be a lot easier to answer once all the optimizations we're working through are done. This is why most unreleased game don’t have minimum system requirements. It’s really hard to tell.

Forgetaboutme

I'll just repeat my previous question.
What are your plans regarding the presettings, especially for sandbox? Things like turning day/night circle on/off, amount of Bricktrons at the start, choosing starting location, coruptrons yes/no and stuff like that.

HateMe

Forgetaboutme said:

I'll just repeat my previous question.

They forgot about you... Good question though : D

tommai78101

Forgetaboutme said:

I'll just repeat my previous question.
What are your plans regarding the presettings, especially for sandbox? Things like turning day/night circle on/off, amount of Bricktrons at the start, choosing starting location, coruptrons yes/no and stuff like that.

My impression:

Isn't that the LUA scripting features coming along that Faviann was answer, where it may be possible for custom campaign mode where you use LUA to set/change the preconfigured presets? And that, the framework isn't there yet, so not to expect being able to do those things until the whole LUA scripting is fully implemented/supported?

Or am I wrong?

____________________________________________

My questions in bold:

When will we be able to have "random events"? Such as lucky events, unlucky events, events that makes the game more challenging for a brief period of times, etc.?

Also, the scope of the next update, v0.7 now contains the following:

• World Editor
  
• LUA scripting
  
• Crafting
  
• Bricktrons switching roles.
  

Am I correct?

kuzynn

[Question 1] Will you translate game into other languages? Do you need help from community?
[Question 2] Will you host/make a server for matchmaking? It will be easier for players who don't have strong computers or needs to forward ports (but they can't because of Internet provider). Just click FIND A GAME, wait 1/2 minute and the game starts.

HateMe

What about pathfinding and AI, there will be some improvements or changing on that side?

And, also, would it possible to add a new "Cinematic Camera style"?
I'm making some videos, and it would be cool a more free and precise type of camera... it would be amazing!

Robert8034

Hey,

Will there be like a tournament organised by the devs to play conquest PVP together? Right now I played castle story for a long time and i'm seeking a new challenge which mainly means playing against other players.

Mikxl23

Do you guys Plan to Add New crystal Types? We already have Blue Crystal,Yellow Crystal And the Corruptrons Crystal.

Mikxl23

Mikxl23 said:

Do you guys Plan to Add New crystal Types? We already have Blue Crystal,Yellow Crystal And the Corruptrons Crystal.

(Sorry for the bad English I am Brasilian =D)

B4ll3ntin3s

BenSauropodStudio said:

HateMe asks:

“What's your plan or status on grass and tree regrowth? “

Germain (Designer and art director)

Update 0.6 introduced tree stumps. which served two different purposes. The first one was to give falling trees a horizontal surface to fall from, minimizing the occurence of logs falling off the island. The second purpose was to leave something behind and eventually allow for trees to regrow.

Right now, our in-house build has grass and tree regrowth. It works! And there’s pratically nothing stopping us from releasing it in the next major update. All we need to do is create the different assets for growth states, iron out some performance issues, and plug the ressource spawner when harvesting so that small trees give less logs than big trees for example.

Is regrowth still in planning?
Thinking about building a house for my woodchoppers, but if the trees will not regrow there would be no point in it

saltymouse

I have some queries concerning the development of invasion mode; the first being, do you intend to make it fully possible to last indefinitely in invasion. Secondly, is the current difficulty in satisfying corruptron paths, to a degree at which they don't destroy anything, purposeful -(I can explain in more depth if asked). Lastly, do you intend to "fix" the way in which corruptrons spawn; the current issue being the sometimes spawn inside your defenses if your castle is large enough.

Shatojon

Hey Saltymouse,

I'd definitely appreciate some clarification on the Corruptrons not destroying anything purposeful.

The design of Invasion is for lasts to be never ending and see how long you can last for, yes. When it comes to performance, we're constantly working on it, really. It's an uphill battle - adding new features constantly refreshes the need for optimization.

As far as I know, there aren't any plans currently to changing the way Corruptrons spawn. I'll discuss it with the team, though. There are pros and cons to both ideas of dedicated spawn points and randomly selected spawn points.

saltymouse

Ello Shatojon, what I meant by

saltymouse said:

Secondly, is the current difficulty in satisfying corruptron paths, to a degree at which they don't destroy anything, purposeful

was, "is the current difficulty in satisfying corruptron paths, {break in question to to go into detail} to a degree at which they don't destroy anything, {finish of question} purposeful?" Another way I should have phrased this is, "I find it very hard to make my walls in such a manner that they aren't the target of corruptrons, is it intentional that there isn't much of a way to construct an "open door castle" that doesn't require reconstruction?". Of course I don't make any actually blocking walls or any sections of passage to small for many corruptrons to pass through at the same time. Nevertheless the deconstruction of my castle walls is nigh around wave 15-ish.

Shatojon

Well, Corruptrons calculate an open path to your Crystal. If they find one, they will take it. If they don't find one, they will try to break their way in - whether that means destroying walls or destroying mountains depends on which one is quicker/closer.

Does that answer the question?

saltymouse

To clarify a bit more; I see corruptrons that get surrounded in their larger swarms, that then turn to destroy either the blocks they stand on or walls near them. Is that a intended difficulty, the one of which comes with attempts to slow waves without wanting to fix any walls? Not to say I dislike the fact that if I mess up or build too small of slowing canals, I get punished, a game should do that. Though, do to the fact they surround themselves sometimes, even when I build a canal 18 one blocks wide they break something.
edit- I think that corruptrons sometimes break blocks for reasons other than a lacking in large slowing canals.

saltymouse

I could understand if the canals I built on wave 4-9 or whatever, were to small to handle the legions upon wave 26. That would be really fun because I would have to build a way around my canals; rather it be a tunnel or a bridge, then make even larger or "smarter" canal that only has partial slowing walls. But mid sized waves that could easily fit though get caught up in each other, and attack walls undeserving.