Hallo, kämpfer!
It's been around 6 months. Sorry about that! I've been busssssssyyyyyy
Since the last time I posted, I have:
- Accepted a job with Google
- Moved to New York
- Found an apartment
- Had my desktop computer damaged in the move, requiring me to repair it after moving in to our apartment
So there hasn't been much time for LOTS of work. But I have been doing what I can.
So here, let me formally announce: the next update will NOT be Adventure Mode. It's going to take me a bit to give it the polish and love it deserves.
HOWEVER, in order to not let the game just go forever without more content, I am happy to announce the ARSENAL UPDATE, which will focus on expanding the existing character options.
Over the next several weeks, I'll go over various things that will be in the update (to give myself time to finish it!) First, I'd like to talk about one thing in particular though.
The Vanguard is Getting a Redesign
I had a striking realization a while back: I didn't really enjoy playing as the Vanguard, or playing against him. In his current incarnation, he's really not that fun.
The basic problems (as a quick overview):
- If players don't know how to fight him, they just hammer away at his shield forever. This will NOT work and they get frustrated.
- If players DO know how to fight him (his attacks have specific openings you can exploit) they still can't do anything about him deciding to turtle. (Passive play is NOT something I want to encourage.)
- Since he crushes enemies, optimal play (the concept Blast Brawl is designed to encourage) involves him NEVER attacking and just running over enemies. So he is encouraged to NOT use his actual moves.
- Since his collider is so deadly, his movement abilities (another thing the game completely revolves around) are shit. So he feels terrible to use.
To sum it up: the Vanguard is slow, clunky, encourages the player to not actively use his moves, and STILL is broken and annoying to fight.
I did some hard thinking, and have given him a complete overhaul. The major changes are as follows:
1: HE NO LONGER CRUSHES ENEMIES
This was the most obvious thing I needed to change. I originally made him crush enemies to go along with his theme of being "heavy," and to counterbalance how slow I wanted to make his attacks.
However, him crushing enemies allows him to not require his abilities. It makes getting close to him WAY more dangerous than it should be. It also forced me to make him much slower and hard to maneuver than all the other characters in order to balance him - a direction counter to the core design of the game.
So he doesn't do it anymore.
2: HIS BLOCKING IS NO LONGER INFINITE
Secondly, I wanted to make his passive defenses less powerful. As it stands, basically nothing can get through his shield while attacking from the side - even if the player literally drops their controller and walks away from the screen
Additionally, the blocking felt a little bland, as enemies would just bounce off a little bit and the Vanguard would just slide backwards a short distance. This is a little unexciting.
I want the Vanguard to have strong defensive abilities but I don't want him to have PASSIVE options. So, I changed how his shield blocking works.
- Now, when he blocks an attack on his shield, he is pushed much further back. Additionally, his shield is knocked to the side during his "stun" animation, making him completely vulnerable.
- Each time he blocks a blow, his stun animation grows longer and longer (slowly resetting over time). This means that an aggressive foe can actually hammer through his defense, with their successive attacks eventually becoming faster than his block recovers.
- The Vanguard's "reinforced" block (his defensive move allows him to strengthen his block and rotate his shield 360 degrees) now will inflict knockback on melee foes who strike the shield. However, it has a cooldown after doing so, and the Vanguard can't endlessly camp a corner against hordes of foes.
All this sounds bad, right? Well, not really, since
3: HE IS NOW MUCH FASTER AND MORE NIMBLE
Since his PASSIVE options are far less broken and ridiculous, it allows him to have MUCH better active options!
His movement speed has been improved a bit, and his acceleration/responsiveness is much better.
He now can use his shield as a hang glider! It drastically slows his fall speed, and allows him to move left and right and fairly ridiculous rates.
Instead of his old Sprint ability (intended to let him move more quickly while suffering his defense being dropped, he has a "dash" move which allows him to dodge in any direction (much like the Ninja, though it's noticeably slower). This both lets him weave through attacks he doesn't want to block, as well as just letting him reach areas he couldn't otherwise.
4: A BUNCH OF OTHER MINUTE TWEAKS
There's more, of course - I've gone over all of his abilities and adjusted/tweaked them to make the more responsive and more balanced. But the big changes - the ones that REALLY matter - are all listed above.
I think he plays a lot better! I can't wait for you guys to get your hands on him. :D I just posted a gameplay video where you can see the changes in action.
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Anyway, that's pretty much it for tonight! I'll try to do weekly posts like this, I REALLY can't let things go for another six months like that.
Hmm, I wonder what I'll talk about next week...