FIEFDOM Pre-Alpha: Patch #2
White Tower Games is excited to announce that FIEFDOM’s official second patch is live!
We’ve focused heavily on bugfixing, while also building a few new features and improving our framework and netcode at the same time. Do note that not all bugs reported in the first and second patch are fixed, but the majority are – alongside some very needed improvements.
Behind the scenes, we’ve also been prototyping and experimenting with features to improve the responsiveness and weight of our combat. A couple of these experiments made it to this patch, while many more will be finalized and added to the game as time goes on.
FIEFDOM’s next patch will be its first content patch, out by January 23rd. Content patches focus on featuring the work of our artists: new armour pieces, weapons, animation sets / animation reworks, and map changes. Content patches will still address bugs and balancing concerns, as our schedule allows.
9th of January, 2026: FIEFDOM Pre-Alpha Patch #2
Netcode:
Fixed animation desyncs (i.e. playing the wrong animation; or delay in playing animation) caused specifically by our netcode.
Fixed hit registration being perceivably different in local versus multiplayer.
Other players’ parry visuals are more accurate regardless of latency.
Players can no longer offset the prediction offset of emotes. This ensures they will end at roughly the same time for all players.
Netcode attack prediction is now applied differently, in order to not alter the weight of the animation assets. Leads to enemy attacks being less floaty at high latencies.
Refactored how parry and block is handled netcode wise. Leads to significantly less perceived latency on hitting enemy parries and parrying.
Fixed hit registration issue due to LateWindup firing and nulling future impacts.
Netcode optimizations related to armours: far less data to process and send.
Unified several related netcode members to prevent loading values out-of-sync.
Removed a delay and audio location mismatch for voicelines and death sounds
Significant optimizations to loadout cost and weapon stance and layer netcode.
Fixed current weapon being incorrect sometimes when late-joining.
Framework:
Standardized the skeletons of all of our weapons and secondary assets. This will lead to easy to implement future features on weapon visuals and interactions.
When a match ends, a loading connection widget now appears when the server will start changing the map, before the loading screen starts. Prevents feeling like the server had crashed. Adapted widget and related to server travel scenario on advance map.
Fix for popup sticking player if they did not resave settings, spawned and reopened team selector.
Created general system for optimized meshes with movement. Leads to better CPU performance on all maps that use them, that currently being Magna Castellum.
Created general system for moving platforms, elevators and other moving meshes.
Gamemode rounds can now end based on a round-based timer rather than a match-based timer, either or both. Currently only uses round-based end duration for LTS. If a round ends because of Time condition, the round will be won by the team that has the most alive players, if 2 or more teams have the same number of alive players, random will be selected.
Created a unified system for animation times across all animation assets. This will be useful for future, broad changes across attacks, emotes, flinches, etc – and transitions between them.
Removed immersive mode toggle and setting.
Created system for per-map visual overrides outside of standard Unreal Engine post-process.
Removed deprecated packs and assets from FIEFDOM, leading to a smaller disk size. As time goes on, many assets will be replaced, leading to a final game disk size that may be lower than the current one by release time. Continued work on better packaging rules, meaning that download sizes should remain as small as feasible depending on the asset categories that have been changed on a per-patch basis.
Moved gamemode structs and enums to C++.
Optimized the netcode (less total latency) and less CPU cost on playing voicelines
Significant CPU improvements: level actors, armor and cosmetic components don't tick by default, and do so as needed on dedicated server.
Fixed weapon drop sounds not triggering anymore. FIxed drop sounds only triggering once. Fixed drop sounds not triggering on colliding with landscape and skeletalcomponents.
Loadout camera now always moves as expected and has a per-map configurable maximum range.
Fixed matchend screen having more than 3 players shown at once.
Team entries are now scrollable (not fully finalized). Fixed scoreboard always being loaded before teamselect.
Fixed main menu and ingame issue where some widgets could lead to edge case softlock scenario when spamming closing/opening them.
Fixed gamemodes not advancing properly on Windows.
Fixed settings scrollbox moving when saved.
Fixed some first-person meshes looking bloody by default.
Bots now switch to next weapon on disarm.
Moved a few dozen structs/classes/enums to C++ for better performance, stability and maintainability – Opens up a few features, too.
Added LODs to weapons that did not have it. Fixed Sulma Halberd LOD being broken.
Platform/RHI specific:
Linux: Fixed mouse movement blocked by 1920x1080 region on Linux while in MENU level.
Vulkan: Added a resolution helper library to correctly obtain valid resolutions under the Vulkan RHI.
Combat & Movement:
Fixed snapping issue related to changing movement states in locomotionFPP, leading to less clunky FPP movement when quickly changing states. Fixed numerous small blending issues. Added better masks for certain usecases. Added lateral, angular based sway when changing rotations, particularly into and out of sprint.
More noticeable parry impacts. Known issue: these still blend out in the follow-up riposte. To be fixed in an upcoming patch.
Refactored logic behind flinch, as they now intentionally overflow should multiple hits occur. Flinch time is now standardized across all sets, leading to faster blending-in to the desired look, and a slower blend out for a better feel. Flinch-to-flinch transitions are now also standardized, and fast.
Fixed issue with riposte FTP causing state re-entry if done quickly, leading to state lingering on last frames of animation, or a snap regarding timing.
Player can now parry within early, normal and late recovery. Applies a feint-like cost in this case, in alignment with the cost of a theoretical CFTP.
Fixed issue with parrying state in queued input always returning to idle.
Parries that come from recovery take longer to visually blend in. Their parrybox and state still trigger instantly.
Parry direction is always the inverse of the previous riposte's when FTP-ing in its windup.
Fixed some states giving faster movement speeds than capped. Added a first layer of cheat guards against basic forms of cheating movement values.
Experiment: inverting forward aim offset direction on the first person viewmodel.
First iteration of capsule-based parry, which is now added to a refactored angle-based parry.
Fixed all occurrences of A-posing locally (not counting pickups – not implemented yet).
Removed issue that kicks could morph, leading to getting stuck after a misinput while kicking.
Removed issue that FTP could work with a shove in some situations, causing double-shove and a-pose.
Jab damage now takes a per-weapon damage value if the jab come from the weapon, it otherwise takes a value from the gauntlets. Fixed issue with jabs using the previous attack’s base damage for their own damage.
Changed Jab damages for all weapons with the new system. Jabs always do Blunt damage, with a maximum of 10.
Kicks now take a per-armour asset damage value on the foot to define its damage.
Fixed regression in animation code base leading to no animations in certain situations.
Fixes to FPP Sprint animation asset. Changed Back Inventory socket from Clavicle_R to Spine5.
Fixed posture DPS timer lingering by removing it on windup, parried. Flinched, BlockingRecovery already removed it, but some states could be accidentally bypassed.
Fixed multiplayer Idle overriding blocking in combat code.
Fixed root cause of issue behind lingering block - can no longer trigger block accidentally after a successful parry.
Fixed being unable to parry after a shove.
Fixed several issues with riposte: possibility of double-queueing riposte, unnecessary tick delay. Simplified input timers.
Fix for floaty “on ice” movement. Acceleration values are not final, and are still far too punishing on changing rotation / direction.
Fixed parry impacts triggering incorrectly (looped).
Riposte window now has a minimum value of 200ms, up to the maximum of the parry window. Meaning that a parry that succeeds early in its window will lead to more control over the follow-up riposte.
Gave form-fitting hitboxes to hand-based jabs and all kicks, fixing their previously exaggerated counterparts.
Jabs now give half the lunge. No more lunge while airborne (jumping, falling)
Simplified sheathing logic.
Better aiming of Rapier stabs.
First-person idle movement is now more noticeable.
Partial joining of jab, shove and kick code with attacks. Fixed consecutive feints causing a softlock on kick. Fixed shove and kick animation lingering if input consecutively. Fixed softlock on shove caused by quickly pressing feint twice or more during combo.
Cleanup of older combat state binds to newer, more relevant and maintainable states.
Re-fixed all tracers except shoves for all weapons.
Restored riposte sound. Has issues in multiplayer: doesn’t trigger all of the time. To be fixed in an upcoming patch.
Added footstep effects and restored jumping, landing and footstep sounds. Footstep effects and audio depend on the surface that you are stepping on.
Added a weapon trail that plays on a desired visual location for each weapon; i.e. the poleheads for polearms and blades for swords. Fists don’t have a trail.
General progress on dismemberment (local only): Fists can no longer dismember. Stabs can no longer dismember. Attacks that are not slashing-damage dominant can no longer dismember. Simplified and united gore logic. Weapons now have gore profiles, defining what sections of the body they can dismember or shatter.
More accurate impact-based rotation and location for character hits.
Optimized bind logic, reducing CPU cost for weapons and some character components.
Fixed fall damage not triggering on Client. Better guards against movement cheats.
Corrected some weapon physics assets (not final).
Fixed regression on backslot weapon not being hidden on switch.
Fixed kicks being misaligned in third person versus first person view. Fixed arrangement of blending layers in FPP to re-allow lowerbody combat movement when stationary.
Emote feints are now free.
Added slight interpolated latency on movement changes to the third-person camera.
Characters, capsules and weapons no longer block the third-person camera. Entirely revamped the TPP camera collision logic. Means third person isn’t as jarring to play.
First pass on forbidding reverse hits on all weapons.
Increased size of head and hand hitboxes.
Different logic for Recovery state for directional FPP AimOffset.
Directional FPP aimoffset is now in AimOffsetFPP base. Mild refactor of functions and order, allows it to have weight outside of idle (i.e. in attacks, parries, blocking), can be expanded to have a per-state weight target. Created layers for all relevant stances.
Fixed incorrect crouching animation on longsword.
Fixed incorrect assignation of tracers in fist’s right attacks.
Created a system for certain armor slots to have a weighted damage value. i.e.: hitting the hands will factor in the armour worn on the arms. This avoids vast disparities in damage on hard-to-hit parts such as hands and feet. Hands and feet have 30% of their damage value come from their slot, with 70% coming from the armor worn on the arms and legs slot, respectively. Damage on the arms depends 50% of its own slot’s damage and 50% of the chest slot’s damage.
Parry timer now gets offset by latency, meaning timers post-parrying (ParryRecovery, ParryConnected and to Idle) will trigger at the right time for all players.
Create system to have parries have a standardized “deployed” time (reaching what is visually considered a parry, within a predictable time of 0,1s), splitting parry animations into several visual states, which are offset by latency to have a relatively consistent experience regardless of latency.
Generally optimized logic of several animation functions.
Added Rapier riposte animations and set their timings. 20% less release time on neutral rapier stabs.
Standardized weapon LODs (always 4, with 2 presets depending on quality/cost ratio) and build settings.
Added armour LODs to most armours (further config needed in chestpieces that use layered clothing or mazovian fur).
Longer turncap blendout, 1,5s from 1,0s to all states, and to 3,0s for GotParried and GotBlocked. Means getting parried leads to a less jarring turncap change.
Added input queue for blocking => After flinch, allows re-entry into block without stopping the bind to release the button and re-enter it.
Fixed issue where shoves or some attacks could get the player stuck. Added a couple log prints for easier detection of these cases in the future.
Fixed crouching speed being offset after kicking. Improved (smoother) crouching animation blending to other movement states.
Fixed kick not forcing Kick state if entered via input queue. Added kick input queue to Recovery. Allow kick in LateRecovery. Allowed parrying input queue in flinched. Fixed shove spam being faster than riposte windup on shoves that are subsequent to a parry. Fixed late windup not existing in combos.
Fixed snapping issue in first-person when entering or exiting sprint.
Fixed snapping on crouching, on attacking on crouching, and on returning from crouching.
Added blending when switching weapons on both FPP and TPP AnimBPs, will be improved with proper sheathing and unsheathing animations for next patch.
Increased blocking turncap to 150 from 200 (X and Y).
More reactive sprint to idle blend for FPP.
Changed timings from various stances to avoid miss=>hit and other unintended timing issues.
Added impact VFX which is a different asset depending on the armour type you have just hit (currently only works in Local, will be added in multiplayer for the next patch).
Fixed camera going down when colliding against short assets or at odd angles. Fixed camera going down and triggering sounds when the jump height was short.
Fix for kick locking movement when jumping to kicking. Added kick to combo. Dropping weapon forces switching weapons to fists.
Fixed issue where feint-to-parrying could get the player stuck in multiplayer.
Fixed issue where shoves or some attacks could get the player stuck due to negative timer. Added a couple log prints for easier detection of these cases in the future.
Fixed suicide causing VFX and SFX to spawn at world origin.
User Interface:
Binds now support using mouse wheel up and down for binds. Scrollbox now does not consume input when an input key selector is active.
Fixed issues with settings not unmapping all other input keys properly, leading to a different keybind being used on map change or when restarting the game.
Added chat keybinds.
Fixed incorrect TMB2 image for mouse keys.
Your entry on the scoreboard now gets highlighted for easier differentiation.
Fixed chat being openable while TeamSelect is visible
Fixed savegame issue with spectator sensitivity, leading to not being able to move the spectator camera on your first spawn.
Emote page shows current emote key.
Scoreboard entry adds [Dead] next to a nickname if a player is dead or [Spectating] if he's spectating in a single team gamemode. Spectator entries are placed at the bottom of ScoreboardTeam. Fixed wrong padding in Scoreboard for team2 and 3. Adjusted padding in all entries so entries don't overflow and spectator entries don't appear below decorations.
Added new icon assets for all weapons. Known issue: these exceed margins of their respective slots, will be fixed for next patch.
Better CPU optimization of several UI components (moved common logic to C++).
All fullscreen widgets can close with ESC unless overriden otherwise.
Improved how postprocess materials are handled for effects (i.e. low stamina, low health). Reduced the visual weight of the low stamina material, now a lot milder and with a mild blue overlay at maximum.
Added extra left slot for weapon inventory (Names: weapon_inventory_l_back and (weapon_inventory_l_front).
Refactored controller interface getters for input types (directional slash, directional stab, hybrid keybinds, toggle sprint).
Created hybrid keybind system; the initial selection of vertical angle (i.e. overhead, horizontal, underhand) has its side defined by the X vector that the player is aiming toward (aim to left while pressing any overhead bind => leftoverhead). Added directional-only binds to avoid odd overrides with certain key combinations. Check the settings panel to try it out!
Removed triggering scoreboard on death in some situations.
Fixed HUD toggling heartbeat on death sometimes. Fixed blocking icon being active at spawn if dying while blocking. Fixed queued attacks or timers not being unset on death for Combat and Interactions, leading to grunts or weird behaviour on death.
Changed default player loadouts for this patch.
Your user settings are now persistent across session.
Fixed many UI overrides issues, validating end conditions on selected map changed.
Fixed parry capsule not updating location inbetween parries if no camera movement was detected. Fixed parry capsule location being offset by one tick on parrying or ending parry. Fixed parry capsule Z location not being normalized, leading to spikes depending on view pitch.
New two-handed sword flourish. Adjusted polearm flourish’s asset and timings (shorter).
Fixed button images loading sequentially rather than multi-threading where possible.
Maps:
Removed collision from river proxy asset on Volaster, which was covering entire level, resaved vista rock material as it was complaining about the flag, used with static lighting.
Starting cleanup on Volaster, removing/merging some sublevels.