Hey, everyone!
It's time for another Chapter 3 update, and it's a heavy one! Let's get into the details.
NOTE: As we go forward, please check your controller/KBM bindings as new mechanics and button placements have been set as standard with the new combat pass. We've added Block to the button that would usually be "use item", and changed and added other features.
Combat Overhaul
From the early beginnings of It's Only Money, combat is something we've tinkered in the pursuit of a simple system that rewards players who spend the time to master a few basic concepts. Throughout Early Access, combat usually devolved into spamming one of two combat moves and hammering a ragdolled opponent with no thought behind it.
We don't want to lose the simplicity of our combat, but at the same time, having a fight with multiple enemies was usually an exercise in spamming and praying you didn't get hit. Today we're pleased to take a step forward in giving players the tools to mitigate damage, and have more of an idea what our AI are planning to do.
Blocking & Crushing
Blocking makes its debut in It's Only Money. It's a standard mechanic accessible at all times, meaning it's not a combat move. While holding block, you sacrifice stamina in the place of health, meaning, whatever damage you would have taken to health will eat out of your stamina bar instead. This is also true for AI opponents.
While you block damage, you'll also build up a "Retaliation" score. This represents the amount of damage you've taken. Your next punch, or combat move will add this damage as a bonus, encouraging quick counter attacks.
Getting damaged while at 0 stamina will force either the player or AI opponent to be "Crushed". While crushed, you can't sprint, jump or block for 5 seconds and you'll take increased damage. We find it's now incredibly fun to beat up on a MOVR, crush them, and send them flying with a well placed kick.
Dash
What's more, while blocking you can hold a movement direction and hit the jump button to Dash. This will give you some amount of invincibility frames to completely dodge an incoming attack. A perfect dodge will refill your stamina and reset the cooldown timer on your moves, so players who put in the effort to master this technique will be throwing out a TON of damage.
Reworked and Remade Animations
Punching will now drag your character toward your target, helping you hit your opponents more effectively. Additionally, the attacks have been reworked to make them feel more impactful, and the AI reactions and visual effects have had a huge amount of focus to make the fights super exciting.
Castbars
There's a lot of complexity to our AI opponents that we haven't done a great job of showcasing. With Castbars, you'll now see the thoughts and plans of your opponent as they fight.
A Blue Attack is something you can block.
A Red Attack is something you need to dodge (Blocking these will crush you)
A Grey Decision is the NPC deciding to use an item, deploy a machine, or loot something off the ground.
We find the castbars really interesting, and a player with a keen eye can now control a fight with a mob that would previously be very overwhelming.
We encourage feedback either here on Steam or on our Discord as it pertains to the new combat system, but we're very proud of where it's at. We think it's a more exciting, intelligent way to handle combat, however, less dexterous or younger players can still bop their way through a fight.
Full Controller Support
Great news! We finally spent the time to ensure full controller support over a range of devices. Hopefully no more pesky virtual cursors or unexpected behaviours when trying to play exclusively with a gamepad. Please try it out and let us know if we've missed anything, but we're really pleased with the result.
Overhauled Customisation Screens
Buying clothes, getting a haircut, opting into some plastic surgery and browsing your Wardrobe should now look a lot better and run a whole darn lot smoother as of this update. All customisation screens have had a rework, and we're hoping the information of what you own, or what you're going to buy is a lot more understandable and enjoyable to use. Let us know what you think!
Mini Bosses
Throughout Rockhaven you'll notice an unusual purple beam coming from the sky. In time, we'll learn more of what's causing this, but one thing's for certain: Anyone zapped with the beam suddenly grows in size and develops crazy mutations, like fire walking, or the ability to summon allies.
Mini Bosses are prowling the streets of Rockhaven, with a bunch of unusual abilities. If you want, feel free to test your might against them. If you leave victorious, you and your friends will be rewarded with a chest!
There's more to come down the road with the Mini Boss system, but we wanted to have them hit the streets ASAP and gather feedback from the community.
New Island: "La Gordo" "BETA"
Surprise! A whole new landmass just popped up out of nowhere. Welcome to LaGordo Valley, located north of Rockhaven, it's the polar opposite of the city. It's vast, full of nature, and it has a giant airfield located smack dab in the middle.
LaGordo isn't quite as dense or as polished as the city we've been working on for the past couple years, but we wanted to put this new landmass in players hands as soon as we could to gather feedback, and help us prepare to drop a whole bunch of content we're working on that take place in LaGordo.
That's not to say there's nothing in LaGordo yet, and curious players will find a bevy of properties to buy, garages to own, landmarks to discover, and of course, a new mission to introduce some of the weirder locals that live in the Valley. Expect LaGordo to keep getting updates to improve the set dressing, playability, lighting, spawning logic and content offerings going forward - this new island is definitely a work in progress!
New Mission: Open your Mind
Atop Mount Procrastination sits an interesting group dedicated to the art of doing nothing all day. Ingratiate yourself with this odd bunch and you might just learn a unique skill that'll truly pass the time away.
Improved Post Processing and Fog
Before
After
We've also touched up the post processing and fog around Rockhaven and LaGordo to help the city look its best, and with the new fog system there should be an appreciable performance benefit to lower end machines.
And as usual, a bunch of bug fixing and performance improvements!
Our continued thanks to those who thoroughly report their issues and help us identify the source of nasty bugs and unintended performance drops. We hope you'll continue helping us target these, and we hope you look forward to the next update very soon, which we're sure will be equally as dense as this one.
Much love, be safe!
