The BSC (stands for Bat-Shit Crazy) Days was an event with a set of video and text presentations, updates, and reveals held by City State Entertainment on 7/14/-7/17/2014 . The Urban Dictionary meaning of the phrase can be found here: Bat Shit Crazy Urban Dictionary.
For Camelot Unchained, BSC is often used by City State Entertainment to refer to the "crazy" ideas of Mark Jacobs and the City State Entertainment team about their own game mechanics. The BSC Days even was a major early content and gameplay reveal for Camelot Unchained. The event was first planned to go live months earlier than summer 2014. Due to several unplanned delays, it took place in July and lasted four days long. After the delays, the word "days" got ironically changed into "daze" by the CSE team.
More information about that series of events can be found here: BSC Delay info.
During BSC Days, CSE scheduled several presentations, live Q&As, contests, and much more. Among other things, the main objective of these days was explaining the basics of the game contents, such as the magic system, the combat system, the world map and crafting, as well as technical presentations from Andrew Meggs and the team.
BSC Main Presentations
- List of Videos: BSC Videos
BSC Stat Presentation
Summary:
- The stat system for Camelot Unchained is a nod in the direction of old school PnP games as well as to some early MMORPGs
- Player’s actions are directly tied to gains in their stats. Swinging a heavy sword will increase your strength.
- The large number of statistics allows players great control over their character
- Players who like to min/max will enjoy this system.
- During character creation, players will be given points to allocate to their stats
- Players will have meaningful choices to make, as some stats are “locked” at creation and can’t be changed afterward.
- No stat bonuses to items is a major divergence from current generation of MMORPGs, where this is the “accepted” way of doing things
- Instead, crafters will be given greater control over almost every aspect of item creation
- Balancing stat bonuses on items has been a long-term issue for any successful MMORPG
BSC UI Presentation
BSC dayz logo
Summary:
- CSE took the first step in making the MMORPG’s U.I. open-source by a decision to build the U.I. out of Chromium
- Now we are taking it to the next level by placing our U.I. code on GitHub and inviting people to work with it
- Code is already available on GitHub at https://github.com/csegames/cu-ui
- Code will be under the Mozilla Public License
- U.I. codebase also includes jQuery and underscore.js, and is written in TypeScript
- For discussion with your fellow intrepid modders and hackers, hang out in our backer forums at: https://forums.camelotunchained.com/forum/63-ui-modding-hacking/
- Camelot Unchained’s chat system utilizes XMPP, and has been in testing for months with our Internal Testers
- We will soon open chat system to all Backers
- Chat can be accessed through compatible XMPP apps and programs: Backers who are out-of-the-game can talk to players who are in game and visa-versa
- No cross-realm chat will be allowed at launch
BSC Magic Presentation
Summary:
- The magic system of Camelot Unchained is unique to the world of MMORPGs, not in its core concept but rather, in the expression of that concept
- Degree of customization of spells unmatched in MMORPGs
- Interaction of spells on the battlefield take RvR to the next level
- Use and growth of spellbook adds level of immersion and customization
- Geared to players who want to have more control over their characters, and are willing to spend time experimenting with spells and combinations
- Requires players to spend more time talking, reacting, and working as a team during sieges, not just mashing buttons as fast as they can
- A.I.R. system is not only fun, but adds more immersion to the world, while increasing player cooperation and Realm bonding
BSC Combat Presentation
Summary:
- The combat system of Camelot Unchained is one of the most unique systems in any MMORPG to date
- Players literally craft all their own abilities: nothing except the core components of an ability are premade. Epitome of “choices matter”
- Four different categories of components, many with their own customization, yields huge number of possible combinations
- Players can create abilities to match their preferred playstyle, not just play the classes that we create for them
- System supports hard interrupts, positionals, reactionaries, and other staples of hard-core combat systems
BSC Progression Presentation
BSC statue
Summary:
- CSE’s experience point and progression systems are unique among MMORPGs and most, if not all, computer RPGs
- By tying players’ actions directly to their progression in stats, abilities, etc., we add fun and increase immersion
- The aggregation of data over 24 hours allows a very realistic snapshot of what occurred over that period, and advanced data mining brings scaling rewards based on that data
- The progression system rewards players for playing the game as it was intended (no cross-realm Keep Trading), and rewards based not only on individual actions but those of the Realm
BSC Crafting Presentation
Summary:
- The crafting system of Camelot Unchained will cater to both hard-core and casual crafters
- The Vox Magus takes the familiar MMORPG concept of a forge to an entirely different level
- The use of souls in crafted items, while not a unique twist, is being done in an original manner that will allow master craftsmen to make very rare and powerful items
- This will allow crafters to charge premium prices for these items, and rarely will two of these items be the same
BSC Map Presentation
Summary:
- The RvR map mechanics are still at an early stage of development
- The map is made up of puzzle pieces that can change over time
- Players need to claim ownership over pieces of the land
- Players need to place stabilizers on the land to speed up claim
- Realms benefit from the amount of land claimed by players
- Land that is stabilized will move closer to other land that is owned by the Realm, and try to reassemble itself
Other Information and Presentations
- Engineering Presentation: Continuous Patching
- Engineering Presentation: Physics
- Nvidia Presentation
- Team Member Interviews
- Live Artist streams
- A lot of Q&A
Trivia
- Was also called BSC Daze by some of the backers.
- The BSC Days were delayed a month. In the picture that came with the delay announcement was a graphic of a face-palming bat-like gargoyle wearing the Tiara of Shame.
- First time the Gauntlet of Death was played. A simple pick your path and tool dungeon game that often gets requested during livestreams.
- During the BSC Days, Mark Jacobs appeared in videos wearing a floral Hawaiian shirt. Wearing the shirt was a gift to all Kickstarter Backers for successfully funding the Camelot Unchained project in May 2013 where he would only wear black shirts.
- As a reference to the Bat-Shit term, CSE started putting "crazy" cartoon bats on all of their BSC Days materials, and these are still used during the countdown to on-air streaming from the City State Entertainment office.
BSC Song
Sources
- BSC Days Reveal Video
- BSC days day 1 presentation video
- BSC days schedule
- BSC days cartoon bats
- BSC Delay Days of Summer
- BSC videos on official site
- BSC Stat Doc
- BSC UI Doc
- BSC Magic Doc
- BSC Combat Doc
- BSC Progression Doc
- BSC Crafting Doc
- BSC Map Doc
Reveals and Information
| |
| Information | BSC Days • Foundational Principles • P.A.T. Checklists • Stretch Goals • User Stories |
|---|---|
| Media | Bring Out Your Devs • Concept Art • Screenshots • Videos • Unveiled Newsletters |