[ver.0.0.65-demo] – 28/09/2023
Comment:
- This patch is almost all about animations!:
. The entire animations system for the main character has been reworked from the ground-up, until now everything relied on raw animation data, that meant that I had to manually create all the variations for every set of animation state.
. For example: For ‘sprinting’ I needed to have 6 total different animations, 3 for each health state (healthy, injured, critical) plus another 3 almost identical ones when the player was holding a handgun.
. You can imagine that this system would scale terribly bad over time as more systems, weapons and actions get added to the game.
. For that reason the entire animation workflow has been reworked from 0 into a new system that relies on layering animations on top of one-another with control over every section of the character’s body.
. Going back to the previous example: now I only need only 1 ‘sprinting’ animation instead of 6 and the 3 health states and all possible weapon handling variations get layered on top independently of other sub-animation systems.
. This change was necessary to account for the new character mechanics being introduced in this patch plus the two new melee weapons to be added in the next one, the sooner workflow optimizations are implemented the greater the gains!
- The ‘bug fix’ and ‘crash fix’ sections of the patch notes have been moved closer to the bottom since I barely had to use this sections (I don’t think there has been a single crash issue so far) **knocking on wood**
- All things said, below are the patch notes, I hope you’ll enjoy these new changes and look forward to the next Halloween patch!
New Features:
- Added an option in the ‘gameplay’ settings section to swap the gamepad glyphs between XInput and DualShock4.
- Added the ‘Quick turn’ / ‘turn 180 degrees’ action, keyboard & mouse users have an extra dedicated mappable input for this, gamepad users can trigger the action by pressing the ‘sprint’ button while moving backwards.
- Stamina system added to the game:
. The system is divided between two resources ‘stamina’ & ‘max stamina’, one dependent on the other.
. Actions like quick turn, shooting, sprinting or in the next patch attacking or blocking with melee weapons will drain this hidden stamina stat, this resource will always rapidly replenish whenever the player is idle but it cannot surpass the ‘maximum stamina’
. The maximum stamina pool decreases slowly over time but it can be replenished with healing items and by resting in some of the safe areas in the game (lower combat difficulty modes only)
You always retain 60% of the total maximum stamina you start with, no matter what you do.
. The current effects of running out of stamina are slower movement speeds and a reduction in your chance to land a critical head-shot with firearms, it will likely include in the future slower quick turn speeds, lower damage & speed of melee attacks and possibly a penalty to damage blocking.
. The goal of this system is to allow for players to plan ahead with short bursts of continuous actions, whether it may be ambushing or evading enemies, the game favors the prepared and those who do not underestimate their perilous circumstances.
- The ‘Stamina Solution’ healing item can now also be used on it’s own without the need to combine it with another item.
- A new healing item has been added to the game that combines and improves the effects of its base solutions.
- The new animation layering system now allows for players to get visual feedback on the health state of the player while aiming with weapons.
- Acceleration leaning implemented into the game, the player will now dynamically lean in the direction of movement, resulting in better visual locomotion fluidity, this has no bearing on gameplay, but it does improve the presentation of the game.
Adjustments:
- With the goal of maintaining balance with the new stamina system, the base acceleration rate of enemies have been slightly reduced across all combat difficulties.
Bug Fixes:
-
Crash Fixes:
-
Known Issues:
- There's a small issue with the game not recognizing input bindings that affects users who have previously launched the game with previous versions, there's two ways to solve this:
. Navigate inside the game with the mouse to the settings ''controls' sections and press the 'Restore Defaults' button, this will overwrite the old configs.
. Delete the old input.ini file at:
. Windows: %USERPROFILE%/AppData/Local/BalkWaters/Saved/Config/WindowsNoEditor/input.ini
. Linux: ~/.config/Epic/BalkWaters/Saved/Config/LinuxNoEditor/input.ini
. I'll address this as soon as possible with a hotfix update.