First and foremost - I apologize for the previous patch
You guys deserve an explanation, not an excuse - So i will be upfront with you.
I mentioned in the patch notes for last week (albeit very briefly) that I had some major corrupted files.
Unfortunately I did not have a relevant backup file on my 'time machine back up drive'
So this caused me to have to rebuild some things from scratch.
I didn't want to fall too far behind on the patches so I pushed ahead and missed some major things.
This is my fault and I am sorry.
Beyond that I came into some personal problems during last weekend. Really made things somewhat crazy.
More than likely ill need to make a trip to a place called Antigonish tomorrow (Thursday) to meet members of my family on my
fathers side (I won't get to into this guys, but i am not looking forward to it and would much rather work on Cycle of Tyrfing that side of my family is very negative imho)
As such I'm taking some extra time to do this newest patch - Again Im really sorry, but i think it's necessary.
This patch will be made available May 15 2016. (evening AST)
So lets put on a smile, and talk about the newest patch
This patch will include the following updates:
Side arms can now be boosted
This means that you can throw 3 items, or perhaps 2 in opposite directions, it is really dependent.
Spirit Dyes can now be applied in the pre run Power up screen at the cost of meta points
Odins Horn, combined with vortex release makes short work of Skoll fenrirson
With the new power ups you can do things like this:
Jumping has been tweaked
I'll say it time and again, small hinges swing big doors.
Ive made some minor tweaks to both how Hervor Handles as well as the collision detection on platforms.
These are small tweaks in the numbers but in my opinion it feels much better.
further tweaks may come based on input, but i think you guys and gals will enjoy this update.
Ledge and Wall Hike
At the peak of your jump, if you are against a ledge or wall, you can press W to wall/Ledge Hike.
This should make a substantial difference in mobility.
This increase in mobility may make areas accessible that otherwise shouldnt, so we are still testing to fine and address imbalances brought by this new ability
The hud's magic bar has been changed
I had a few people not notice the purple magic/mp/mana bar on the top left. In response to that I made it thicker and more styled to be easily seen.
The hud background had been darkened a bit more and given a higher contrast this should make everything easy to read on it.
The Guardian Disir behaves like a living shield and can deal with energy balls for you
He might not be perfect, but he is helpful!
The Title screen now has a background YAY!
This background is still being worked on, but will change depending on your process in the game
Jotunheim theme is unlocked when a certain level of progress is met
Jotunheim now loads up properly
- In the previous patch, this was a bonified F*** up.
Long story short - The file that manages what displays and when became corrupted 2 weeks ago and this hurt the overall development.
I spent hours trying to find a back up but the back ups on my time machine drive were fairly out of date and irrelevant.
So I had to bite the bullet and restore it from scratch. I fully expected hiccups, but not of this nature.
Texture updates The earth texture in Helheim has been redone, its more sharp and I like it quite a bit more personally.
Some Clean up - There is not much to say here, it is the small tedious things that are equally important yet not necessarily easily noticed.
Mimirs new projectile - Some people mentioned that Mimir is too easy, and that's fair enough he is meant to be the easiest boss
that being said I did throw in a new projectile to mix things up somewhat.
Windows 7 and Vista users will be met with a prompt on the first install
of Cycle Of Tyrfing (this is by no means permanent) This prompt will insure
the proper updates occur before playing Cycle of Tyrfing - This prompt will only appear on the first play.
You will see this on your first run, if you have already done what the instructions display, dont worry, just exit and reopen the game!
Lord Prymr Boss
This has been a challenge as Prymr is to date the largest boss encounter in COT, standing at about 75 ft tall (Hervor being approx 5'9 - 6')
Ive attempted a few mock ups that didn't feel right so i began building from scratch.
I altered the camera for 1 thing to accommodate larger enemies, this will be first seen in the Prymr boss
I wanted to keep everything at a consistent zoom in, but had to compromise that goal for his scale.
For the time being, Lord Prymr is incomplete due to this decision, but we are making progress and should have him in place fairly soon!
SvartalfHeim
Svartalfheim stages are still barred for now, (they aren't ready)
But will be made available soon.
Comic colouring
Ill admit this is where scope creep really got me!
As the comic scenes were going to be monochromatic and similar to comic inkings in style.
This is time effective and I'm confident in my skills to produce such a style, but I really wanted to give this my upfront efforts.
This is why some comics are coloured and some are not (they aren't finished yet)
This is a digital inking (although more of a draft in this case) and this
is what you see on the uncolored comics
Often, the comics will go through many variants of this stage before being colored, it's a long and tedious process, but enjoyable. Because it is time consuming though I dont color them until i know I want to stick with them.
New Power up 'Idunn's Apple'
Idunn is a Goddess associated with apples and youth - Her apples grant the gods their eternal youth
In Cycle of Tyrfing the apple serves as a green mushroom, that is a 1up.
This will allow your health to be restored by 3 hearts should you be slain.
Some time is being diverted into a 'proper' Trailer
I do need to put some time into creating a proper trailer - something that goes a bit further than the gameplay compilation i made for this.
After all, failure to properly market the game is a failure of the game.
Call to You
a comic that ended up being unused
If you guys enjoy this game and see it's potential please share this with your friends.
Passionate support is what allows good games to reach their full potential.
Im putting in my best efforts to not only work on the game, but to market it, and create marketing materials.
It is indeed a full-time job. And this isn't a complaint, I'm happy to do this, but I could also use your help.
Please take the time to provide feedback, in the form of a review
your review doesn't have to be positive and you can amend your reviews if need be.
But reviews actually help the games standing and relevance to future supporters.
But more reviews are better for the games development.
You have my absolute respect and appreciation for taking the time to do so.