Sep 24, 2019

Albion Online - iancurtismayfield

Prior to working at SBI, what was your background in music and audio?

I studied Sound Design and Music Composition at the Film University in Potsdam while working as an audio engineer recording bands and all sorts of audio content in the beginning. By the time I finished my master’s degree I was already working full-time in game audio.

Before joining SBI I have been freelancing as a composer and sound designer focussing on games for 4 years and collaborated with several Indie or mobile studios. The games ranged from simulators and apps to tower defense games like Happy Tuesday’s Hero Defense: Haunted Island - but none of them was an MMO, so entering SBI was a new and interesting challenge.

What was some of the earliest audio work you did on Albion Online? How has your process changed since then?

When I joined Sandbox in early 2017, a lot of the heavy lifting regarding the sound and music had already been done. Albions audio design vision always had two opposing goals: getting the best sound possible while also having it work smoothly on different systems including mobile devices. I spend the first months fixing audio bugs, getting an overview of which parts of the game’s sound were not on par with the rest, and reworking them.

As we have been bringing in new content with every update, I’ve also been in charge of the audio for everything new. One of my first creations was the sound design and the voices for the Morgana Torturer - who I still enjoy encountering because he brought a fresh facet to the Morgana ranks. While reworking the audio of individual mobs is a fairly small and easy task that brings more variation and narrative to the game (and which is still ongoing, because some of our mobs deserve some more love from my side), my responsibilities and the size of the tasks I tackled grew bigger and bigger over the last two years. The first huge rework I did was a complete redesign and extension of all the physical weapons auto-attack and impact sounds.

Back when we launched the game, we used a more general set of attack and impact sounds for all physical weapons. There were differences between weapon classes, like the bows having a different attack and impact than the melee weapons, but one could not hear a progression going from an Adept Weapon to an Elder Weapon – even though the size of the weapon almost doubled visually – and there was no big difference in sound whether a weapon cuts, pierces, or punches.

I wanted to give players a better feel of how heavy, fast or elegant their weapons are and enrich the fights with a greater variety of sounds. The new system has specific attack sounds tailored to the handling and damage of each weapon, as well as different sounds depending on their size, with uncommon weapons like the Grovekeeper having their own sound sets. Also there are now different types of impacts (blunt, pierce, cut, arrow and bolt) and different levels for each, and the timings of the sounds have been tailored to the animations – which was a system rework on its own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tOFlcqEq2Y
There are a lot of other things that have been reworked since then, but there are also a lot of areas that still can and will be improved.

What is your general approach to audio design, and what specific steps do you take to make the game's sound feel more immersive?

Sound and music are the most powerful tools to convey emotions, which are crucial for immersion - so I look at every element and analyze what it really is about and how audio can help emphasize that.

Albion has a distinct style and story world and balances conveying the significance of every action with its own sense of humor. The audio supports this emotional range and helps to create a world that feels plausible and real, rich and interesting, and also reflects whether something is important or funny. Thus it can range from graveness to absurdity and has to be crafted deliberately.

An example of one end of this range and the power audio has is Conquerors Hall. I loved the idea to have an actual place where people have “physical” proof of their glorious deeds instead of a plain leaderboard. Its sole purpose is to honor the players’ achievements and thus the audio is solemn and all about creating a sense of awe. While the visuals are already impressive and beautiful, the sound helped to give it a feel of solitude but also a lightness, so it won’t seem like a graveyard. Without the music, it did not feel important though. So I also wrote a short piece of music to create a feeling of reverence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYHRp0wJgBQ
Audio is usually supposed to go hand in hand with the visual design and animations used for certain characters, but it can also contrast or enhance the story world. You can go and ride into war on a powerful and elegant warhorse - or choose to mount a pig for whatever action you are up to - and while the horse needs to sound elegant and strong, the pig just sounds ridiculous (and cute). With the city NPCs, we took the chance to add more narration and character to Albion by adding voice-overs. We had lengthy discussions about each character, what they should say and with which attitude. I am very happy about how peculiar each of them turned out. We have the same discussions about every new mob and every rework on the existing mobs - to add narrative depth and variety to the story world. We are constantly working on enhancing those to make the game’s sound more immersive.

Because each player forges their own destiny in Albion, it is also important that every action they take feels like it matters. The audio supports that by adding “oomph” to their actions (with the degree of intensity linked to the severity of the action) to give the players a feeling of power and growth. Crafting, gathering or fighting all need to sound bold and satisfying, and when in combat, the weapon sounds should tell you its characteristics and intensities. E-spells are the most powerful, so they have to sound accordingly mighty compared to a Q-spell.

Do you have a favorite character, creature, or spell audio in the game?

Definitely! Of the City NPCs, I particularly love the Tanner and his mix of moroseness and offhand bad jokes. Being a tanner in a middle-age fantasy setting must be quite a challenge for the nose! But he is more than just a grumpy old dude and I always have to smile whenever I hear him cursing the flies, whilst walking past him.

Another creature I really like is the ram mount. It was one of the first mounts with an enhanced sound set including its own speedboost and movement voice. The ram does not really like to be mounted, and as goats sound ridiculous when they scream… that’s what the ram does when it starts running.

You've also written music for some of the game's trailers and videos. Can you walk us through that process?

For the last 4 updates, I was responsible for the whole audio of the trailers, including the music. The update trailers have a certain workflow that is different from other videos we create, as we have a limited time span for their production between the content lock and the update release. This constraint defines our process. First, we decide on an overall concept and “story” for the trailer. Then I usually create different versions of music edits as temp tracks to align our vision regarding the mood and attitude we want to convey. This helps to establish a language and make sure that we all work toward the same tone.

As most of our trailers feature a voice, I often record a layout voice to get a rough feel for timings and so we can iterate on the text and timings too. When we have a proof of concept I either record our “Voice of Albion” Shaun in my studio or hire remote voice actors when we need different roles/characters to get the voice-overs done.

As soon as we have the final voices and settled for a temp version of the music, Our video editor starts recording video material and I start writing the music. I use the temp tracks we chose as a reference for speed, mood, and climax but always try not to get too close to them and make the trailer sound unique. Therefore I start with a similar tempo and then compose the key elements like rhythm, harmony, and melodies with the goals in mind that we set for the different sections of the trailer. Because of the musical style of Albion the instrumentation for the trailers is mostly orchestral yet digitally produced due to time restraints.

When I have a first rough-mixed version I send it over to the team and they iterate changes they want. As soon as the only change requests left are mixing issues, our editor starts to edit the video material to the music. We usually have a few iterations of the music, as well as the video edits. When the video is finished it lands on my table again, to create the sound design for the visuals and make a final mix of all audio layers.

While some voiceover actors work remotely, Shaun Lawton (profiled in a recent article) lives and works in Berlin. What is it like working with Shaun in the recording studio?

Shaun is a very kind and reliable person, which makes it a pleasure to work with him. As soon as you place a microphone in front of him he instantly delivers the warm and disarming narrator voice that shaped our trailers. We can then very quickly focus on nuances regarding the emotions within the stories and dynamics and speed. He has a distinct narrative style that transports a feeling of magic that I never heard in any other voice before - which makes my job as the engineer and director in that situation pretty easy.

Anything else to add?

When you play Albion, you will encounter several situations where you can hear my voice or those of my close friends. I also try to hide at least one of them in each trailer and so far I've succeeded. Want to be immortalized in a game? Keep your audio friends close!

Stay tuned for more Dev Spotlights in the coming weeks.

Sep 19, 2019

Dev Talk: Queen Update Introduction

Albion Online - iancurtismayfield

In our most recent Dev Talk, Robin Henkys, Game Director of Albion Online, offers a first look at some of the huge changes coming to the Outlands with the next major content update, Queen. Much of the Outlands rework is still in the early stages of development, but we want to introduce various parts of it now to give a "big-picture" view of this long-anticipated change. While the next update will have numerous additional features, the Outlands rework is central to our vision of bringing a true hardcore sandbox experience to our players.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5bmUuyQo_o

No time to watch the video, or prefer a written summary? Read on for all the details of his talk.

Filling in the Roadmap

In our last Dev Talk, we set out how we're still proceeding with the roadmap we laid out earlier this year. This is still true, and in addition we have more exciting new content planned which we’ll talk about in the future.

Today, though, we want to get more specifically into our plans for the Outlands and what we’re working on for the next content update, code-named Queen. The Outlands rework is a major milestone of the Roadmap, and it consists of five major improvements we’re planning to introduce in the next update:

An entirely new Outlands map
The ability to freely build Guild Hideouts in the Outlands to live deep in the wilds of Albion
A new method for territory control which allows all guild members to help capture a territory instead of being limited to five players
Improved 5v5 Crystal Realm battles with the ability to participate even if you don’t own a territory, but with additional bonuses for those who do
Zerg debuffs and the smart cluster queue

All these changes listed together makes for some big changes coming to Albion Online, so let's take a closer look at each of them and explain what they are, what function they serve in the game, why we’re excited about them.

1. The New Outlands Map

When we first designed our current Outlands map, our main concern was adding as much distance between the low and high Outlands as possible. This created a "stretched" map, with the highest-value areas at one end and the weakest areas at the other.

In reality, though, we saw guilds settling wherever there was available space. The overarching problem was that guilds had no reasonable means of progression to the top area, Mercia.

Here's how the new Outlands map will be different:

In the new Outlands, the most valuable areas in the game will be at the center of the map, leaving it open to attack and raids from all sides
Not only the center of the map will be highly attractive: high value areas will also be mixed into the entire world to create local hotspots of fighting and conflict
The number of territories in each zone will be reduced from two to one (see section 3 below for more info)

Also, with the launch of this new world, the Caerleon portal will collapse and the Outlands will no longer be accessible from Caerleon. As with the last portal change, players will be given another opportunity to move their islands should they want to. We plan on revisiting the role of Caerleon in a future update.

2. Hideouts

You may have heard us talking about Hideouts before. We’re very excited about them, and today we'll give you an introductory overview to this major new feature.

What are Hideouts, and how are they placed?

Hideouts are buildable bases guilds can place anywhere in the Outlands
They start out as a Hideout Building Kit, a craftable item that is quite heavy and needs to be transported to the location you want to place the Hideout
Once placed, the Hideout construction site has to be defended for a short time before becoming invulnerable for about a day
The next day, just before construction finishes, the Hideout becomes vulnerable for another short period before it finally becomes established
These attack phases prevent guilds from aggressively “sneaking” Hideouts into their enemies’ backyards

Once a Hideout is established, how does it work?

Once the Hideout is established, it can be entered by anyone the owning guild grants permission to
Inside, you can build crafting stations, store your equipment, set a respawn point and have a Marketplace
Hideouts can be upgraded

Basically the Hideouts allow any guild to have a fully functional base anywhere in the Outlands. You could even grant visiting rights to all players and build your own Outlands city with public crafting stations, Marketplaces, and so on. We're very excited about the tremendous sandbox potential of this system, and we look forward to seeing what players do with it.

3. Open-World Territory Battles

The next change is likely the most controversial, but it is one that we have been thinking about for a very long time. Along with the introduction of Hideouts, we are removing the 5v5 GvG battle system from territory control, and replacing it with a battle system that allows all members of a guild to contribute to help claim territories.

Under the new system, attacking a territory requires you to declare a challenge in the open world. At any point during the day, you can ride to your enemies’ territory, kill their guards and challenge control of the territory.
This will schedule a battle during the prime time on the following day. During the next day’s battle, the defenders can try to remove the attacker’s claim by channeling the territory tower.
The attackers, on the other hand, can claim the territory by channeling the tower themselves.
Note that it is entirely possible for multiple groups to challenge control of the same territory at the same time, enabling three-plus way battles for territory control.
Finally, since armies can attack multiple territories at the same time, bringing all your forces to bear on the same territory may not be the smartest move.

This change finally enables all players of a guild to support their guild’s bid for territory control. It also removes territory control from those players simply seeking the thrill of 5v5 battles, who may not actually care about territories and simply want thrill of the battle itself.

For these players, and everyone who loves high-risk 5v5 action in Albion, we have a special treat: an expanded Crystal Realm Battle system with many opportunities for high-end PvP action.

4. Expanded Crystal Realm Battles

Under the new, expanded Crystal Realm Battle system, players can participate in high-stakes 5v5 fights, regardless of whether their guild holds a territory.

Instead, players earn their participation by acquiring a Crystal Realm Token. These tokens exist in multiple levels, and at different times during the day, the week, and the month, battles of different levels matching these tokens will take place. Players who wish to participate in these battles will need to collect a group of five players, each of whom has a token of the same level.

If they win, they earn a significant reward and the token they were using is upgraded to the next level. If they lose, their token is destroyed.

The exciting thing about this system is that it allows players without strong guilds to still participate in exciting, high-risk 5v5 fights, while still ensuring guilds with strong 5v5 players will continue to reap benefits.

Players can sign up for a Crystal Realm Battle in two different ways:

They can go to the Energy Manipulator NPC in any city or upgraded Hideout, or
They can go enter the Crystal Realm via the tower of an owned territory.

Whichever way they choose, they are thrown into a Crystal Realm Battle and face off against another team. However, if they sign up via a territory tower and win, they will upgrade the power of the territory crystal, which has the following effects:

It adds a general gathering buff for all guild members gathering within the affected territory
The percentage of enchanted resources around the territory is increased
It buffs the territory guards, making it harder for enemies to attack the territory in the open world

This territory upgrade effect means that you can still benefit significantly from having a strong 5v5 team in your guild.

5. Zerg Debuffs and the Smart Cluster Queue

With so many features coming that involve open-world battles, you’re probably wondering how we’re going to deal with all the players these massive battles will involve.

1. Smart Cluster Queue System

The Smart Cluster Queue system prevents large armies from blocking entire zones by overcrowding them. Essentially, this system analyzes how many players from one side are attempting to enter a zone, and calculates based on the players' gear and status how much they're contributing to the fight. It then checks how many players the other side has and how many want to enter the same area, and auto-balances the zone based on the number of players on each side. Excess players are moved to nearby zones, where they can continue the fight in secondary battles.

2. Zerg Debuff

This system adds an "inefficiency" tradeoff to bringing too many people to a fight. Whenever more than 25 allied players are in the same zone, these players will suffer from an “inefficiency” debuff that decreases their combat effectiveness slightly. The more players in your army, the more this debuff increases. This means you will have to choose an optimal army size based on your guilds’ size and abilities, and should not simply collect the largest army in one place.

***

We’ll continue providing more details on each of these features as development continues, hopefully with a dedicated video for each feature. With this talk, you should at least have a good overview of what changes are coming with the Queen update, and how they will work together to completely redefine the experience of living in the Outlands and fighting for territories.

For now, we hope you're excited for these new opportunities for epic large-scale and 5v5 fights, and the ability for guilds of all sizes to live in the Outlands. That's all for today - thanks for watching, and stay tuned for more Dev Talks over the coming weeks!

Sep 18, 2019

The Percival Midseason Patch is Here

Albion Online - iancurtismayfield

Today we launched Percival Patch 5, also known as the Percival Midseason Patch. Here's a rundown of some of the changes and improvements it brings:

Meta Changes and Updated Spells

The patch brings changes across a wide range of weapon and armor spells, with some specific goals in mind. "One of our primary goals with this patch was to reduce the impact of dive comps," says Michael Schwahn, Combat Designer for Albion Online. "And while we buffed a few underused items, this patch brings quite a few nerfs. The recent trend toward buffing items was shifting the gameplay away from our intended direction, so these changes are intended to ground the gameplay a bit."

The patch also brings several new and updated spells. The new Fire Staff spell, Fire Artillery, launches a cannon-like stationary attack on a target that inflicts ongoing burn damage and stacked debuffs. The Nature Staff spell Poison Thorns has been reworked: now simply called Thorns, it has moved from the W to the Q slot and gives 5 stacks that deal additional magic damage to targets.

Finally, Healing Sickness is a new debuff intended to prevent solo healers from sustaining their own HP indefinitely. As healing another target immediately cancels the debuff, this change should only affect solo and small-scale PvP.

New Guild Logs

Today's patch also introduces new and improved guild logs for several long-requested categories:

Players joining and leaving the guild,
Players being invited to or kicked from the guild, and
Guild role changes, including who made the change.

These logs are accompanied by an updated UI, which, in addition to being more attractive and easier to read, also allows for longer lists of names. For more information about the updated guild logs and our plans for future improvements, please see this forum post.

Updated Mobs

Randomized Dungeon mob spells have been balanced and reworked, with many of them receiving improved animations and spell effects for clearer feedback during combat. Affected mobs include the Heretic Brawler, the Undead Governor, and several Keeper bosses, along with the Keeper Bear and Keeper Stump.

Additional Patch 5 Changes:

Updated parameters for crafting station fees
Updated names of mount skin unlocks to include base mounts + improved Trash item description
New icon for Cleanse spell
Numerous fixes related to combat, respawning, terrain, animation, audio, and localization

For a complete list of the changes launching with today's patch, please see the official patchnotes.

Sep 5, 2019

Streamer Spotlight: Boomslang Gaming

Albion Online - iancurtismayfield

Name: Boomslang Gaming
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BoomslangGaming
Main Focus: Tutorial/Compilation videos, some Ganking/ZvZ, and game reviews

This week's Streamer Spotlight is slightly different: as opposed the the Twitch streamers we usually feature, we talked to Boomslang Gaming, who is exclusively on YouTube. He discusses his relatively laid-back approach to making videos, and his passion for helping newer players learn the ropes in the sometimes unforgiving world of Albion.

How did you first get into Albion Online? What were some of your first AO videos?

I first heard of Albion years ago and was getting tired of WOW and decided I wanted to give it a go. To be honest did not enjoy it at first as I was used to being spoon-fed everything from WOW. But I kept with it, and in April 2019 I released my first Albion online video, “Things I wish I knew”. There is so much to learn in Albion and new players can sometimes make mistakes. I have Albion Online to thank for my channel's success!

What is your general approach to making videos? Do you plan out activities in advance, or head out into the world and see what happens?

Depending on the vid I will line up a script to some degree, but almost always end up freestyling. Some people do not like that and others love it. When it comes to PvP content it's totally down to what happens.

Do you have a favorite video, or a favorite moment from a video you could share with us?

I have two favorite videos. First, my Black Market flipping video: I was told by a friend that if you go to the outer starting towns and purchase tier 2 items for 2-10 Silver per item, you can transport them back to Caerleon and sell them for 200-1200 Silver each. It is to date my highest viewed and liked video and makes me proud that I shared it instead of keeping it to myself!
https://youtu.be/NkF5Xeogv0o
Second, I really enjoyed making “Albion Online Blue Army Vs Everyone! OOPS - NASA - BMATS - MOUNT - WIN!” Here I used music overlay for the first time and I wanted to try and line up the music with the action onscreen.
https://youtu.be/m4H4xxQBP1g
What are some aspects of the game you'd like to cover in the future?

I am looking forward to the Hideout feature, and if I am honest it is all I am thinking about! I have made a new guild with my group of friends and we focus mainly on ganking and open-world PvP. (Gank Kings is the name and we are recruiting.) A Hideout will become our treasure cave of looted bodies!

Do you have any advice or tips for other players who are considering being Albion content creators?

I would say be honest and open, the community has grown a lot over the years and there is not much left to teach experienced players. If you get hate or dislike keep going as there are people out there that like your content! Just do what you feel like doing and be natural and people will enjoy it and come back for more.

Anything else to add?

I want to thank Albion Online and the staff at SBI for making an amazing game and being super supportive to the community and creators.

Also a big thank you to the two alliances I was in, plus Xanadu, Whackingparrot, Eadoin and my other friends. Without those people and alliances I would not have made it this far this quickly.

And lastly, thank you to all my subscribers and people that whisper me ingame to give me support!

Can you share some of your favorite videos with us?

Random PvP Moments:
https://youtu.be/O8Fq7nE1TcY
Level Gathering Tiers Fast:
https://youtu.be/F1DUgLGee30
Making Money Artifact Salvaging:
https://youtu.be/jTCSLQT3ZqY

Sep 2, 2019

New Seasonal Rewards Are Here

Albion Online - iancurtismayfield

Take the Heretic Challenge

For the entire month of September, take the Heretic Challenge to collect limited-time rewards. Earn points for open-world activities, unlock chests to get valuable loot, and claim your very own mount skin, avatar border, and more.

NEW MOUNT SKIN: This month's Challenge introduces a brand-new mount skin: the Heretic Cart. Once obtained, this mount skin will permanently unlock this wild, wicked wagon for all characters on your account. (Note: this skin requires any tier of Transport Ox as a base mount.)

NEW AVATAR BORDER: Adventurers who rack up enough total Challenge Points will also earn the Heretic Challenge avatar border. This non-tradable item permanently unlocks this crazed, ramshackle avatar border for one character.

SEASONAL SPECIALS: All month long, reach weekly goals to unlock Heretic Challenge Chests. In addition to valuable rewards like Adventurer's Tomes, Silver, resources, and other loot, you'll also have a chance to unlock three new furniture items: the Heretic Stove, Heretic Toolboard and Burning Barrel.

As always, you can earn Challenge Points by gathering, fishing, farming, and killing monsters. Points count simultaneously toward a daily bonus, a weekly unlockable chest, and the monthly mount skin and avatar ring reward. So log in, head out into the open world, gather points, and claim these rewards while they last!

Claim a Jousting Horse Mount Skin in the New Referral Season

A new referral season starts today! Refer your friends to Albion Online and get three fantastic rewards: the Recruiter's Guild Banner, the Recruiter's Pile of Tomes (worth a total 100,000 Fame), and the Jousting Horse mount skin - the first-ever regular riding horse that displays your guild logo!

The current referral season lasts until maintenance on October 1, so you've got until then to refer your friends and claim your rewards. (Note that the Jousting Horse requires any tier of Riding Horse as a base mount.)

How to Earn Seasonal Referral Rewards

Send your referral link, which you can find here, to a friend. (You must be logged into your account on the website to view this page.)
Your friend registers an account and starts playing Albion Online (preferably along with you!).
The first time your friend purchases at least 30 days of Premium, they will trigger a reward for you.
On top of that, for your very first referral ever, you'll receive a T8 Recruiter's Pile of Tomes, worth a whopping 200,000 Fame.