This is perhaps the largest single update I've done so far. The major technical change (and the reason this took nearly 2 months to get out) is the upgrade from Unreal Engine 4.17 to 4.18. While this shouldn't be too noticeable in-game, it does clear up a few crazy technical bugs that were previously preventing me from updating the custom map toolkit. It also introduces a few other crazy technical bugs (hence the delay), but these have been worked around and should not be an issue. In the midst of this upgrade, I also implemented a handful of new features, a new map, and a lot of bugfixes.

Melee

Melee has technically been in the game since launch but wasn't working quite like it should. In addition to making it more reliable, I've made a number of major improvements to the system:

• Melee impacts now deal knockback based on the world velocity of your hand. Knockback will be dealt regardless of whether or not the punch was hard enough to deal actual damage.
• Melee now also deals a damage bonus based on how fast you are moving relative to the other character. This maxes out at 2000cm/s with a damage bonus of 100.
• Melee now deals headshot damage, meaning that if you are able to punch an unshielded opponent in the head their head will explode.

To put these details into perspective, your character has 70 points of shield, 40 points of health, and the base melee damage maxes out at 50 points for a maximum strength punch. Any damage exceeding a character's shields will be considered for headshot damage. This means:

• A walking melee on an idle opponent (300cm/s) does 15-65 damage. At full shields, the opponent will survive every time.
• A walking melee on an opponent walking towards you (600cm/s) does 30-80 damage. A full force headshot here will result in a headsplosion.
• A sprinting melee on an idle opponent (900cm/s) does 45-95 damage. A half force headshot will result in a headsplosion.
• A sprinting melee on a sprinting opponent (1800cm/s) does 90-140 damage. Even the weakest headshot will result in a headsplosion and a half force bodyshot will result in a kill.
• A falling melee from a very high height, or something equally extreme (>2000cm/s) does 100-150 damage. Again, an easy kill.

No longer are you defenseless if you run out ammo during a gunfight. If you can somehow manage to properly land a flying karate chop to the face, you can turn the tables on somebody in seconds.

New Map: Longing

This map is based very roughly on Longest from Halo CE. It consists of two parallel hallways with a sunken base at each end and some high points that look out over the hallways. It is totally symmetrical, with red and blue sides indicated with colored lights.

It is a considerably tighter space than any of the older maps, filling a much needed gap between the super precise insanity of ZigZag and the contained feeling of Launchpad. You may also notice that it does not contain any concrete, rocks, or grass. This is a much needed change, and you can expect to start seeing this style of building pop up in future content alongside the old environments.

Death Spectators

Death spectators have been completely overhauled so as to work better with VR and provide more information.

• Death spectators now spawn at the correct location/rotation every time on both clients and servers. This cuts down on nausea caused by weird camera jumping.
• Your tablet and laser now come with you into death, so you can check the score, view game options, or change player options.
• In-game text now indicates who killed you.
• Death flash (red to black) now works on clients.
• Death flash now reliably covers your entire vision.

There is also now a pregame period of time to ensure that all players get connected before the game starts. During this period, a death spectator will be possessed and you'll be shown a brief description of the game you're about to play.

Custom Maps via Steam Workshop

Custom maps have been effectively broken for several months due to a workaround for a bug which caused some players to fail to start the game. As of Unreal 4.18 that bug has been resolved, however, so custom maps are back!

I've not been terribly vocal about support for custom maps so far, partially because they were broken, but that will change moving forward. I've updated the template project on GitHub and posted the instructions in the Hailstorm Discord channel for anyone looking to try their hand at map creation. The process is extremely similar to Pavlov's custom map creation, so anyone familiar with that should feel right at home.

I will be giving free Steam keys to anyone willing to submit a map to the workshop. If you are interested, find me on the Hailstorm Discord channel.

Added Main Menu Options

Two items have been added to the main menu:

• Offline Game - Same as "Host Game", but the game will not be joinable.
• Discord - Opens an invite link to the Hailstorm Discord channel

My hope is that putting the link to the Discord channel in such a prominent location will draw attention to it. I've been using Discord increasingly to communicate with users and organize games, so it is important that everyone is aware of it rather than just those who bothered to check the Steam discussion boards.

Bugfixes and Other Improvements

• Jump count option (Allows midair jumping)
• Grabbing armed sticky grenades off your body works properly
• Grabbing a grenade out of your own hand works properly
• Grenade fuse no longer resets when picked up and re-thrown
• Fixed a bug where magazines and grenades inherited recoil rotation from a previously held weapon
• Voice levels boosted from 150% to 200%
• Players spawn on the floor instead of in midair
• added increments of 5% to the jump height selector between 50% and 75%
• Fixed custom games in demo
• Turned acceleration down on bots so they are easier to track
• Fixed lag weirdness at the start of a multiplayer match
• 1 minute time limits no longer create 1 second games
• Custom map thumbnails now load properly
• Fixed infinite loop behavior for 0 second long matches
• Removed offset function to put your feet on the spawn point because it was totally broken on clients
• Engine default camera is now whited out since it is usually possessed very briefly in error