Hello Aspirants!
After a bit of a wait, update 5 is out! The current game version is increased from beta 0.93 to 0.96 (early access release at 1.0)
This is the biggest update so far, by a lot. Some basic game mechanics have been completely rewritten, and this update tweaks, adjusts and adds things to quite literally every part of the game!
Attention demo players! One of the changes, is that rank score requirements have been rebalanced. They are higher in general. In short, this means it takes longer and more fights to increase rank, extending the demo length (which is limited to rank 6!) Have fun!
Lets get into it:
Demo UPDATE 5 - Changelog
MAJOR CHANGES
- NEW block system: Blocking without a shield is now completely redesigned from the ground up. To block with a weapon, simply hold RMB and aim towards the enemy's weapon while they are attacking. Your cursor turns more blue the closer you get. Your character will automatically perform the correct block and block hitbox size/effectiveness increases by how close you aimed and by weapon skill.
- NEW up/down aiming - before, cursor close to you to cursor far would linearly aim up or down causing accidental foot swipes or accidental swipes above an enemy. Now the distance is based on a curve. To aim down, you must place your cursor very close to you. Between 2-4 meters from your character you aim directly in front. After 4 meters you slowly aim up.
- Overall DAMAGE has been increased and rebalanced. Damage algorithm adjusted in many ways.
- Base STAMINA regeneration rate is now higher.
- Base MAX STAMINA is now lower. In other words, less waiting, but you still can't spam attacks too much.
- Rewards (gold and fame) from matches are rebalanced, in general it scales slower, and doesn't scale to ludicrous levels as much.
- New feature: Enemy armor can now be DESTROYED in battle! Each armor piece (helmets, chest, arms...) has a durability and when it is down to 0 the armor will be removed/destroyed from the enemy, exposing a weak spot. Big tactical and gameplay implication, especially in late game!
- Camera: zoom mins and max limits have been adjusted for a more reliable experience
- Camera: Autocam is now actually useable/intuitive, it will always slowly move your camera behind your back. If you struggle with camera, please enable it!
- Big visual change: character proportions (in general) have been adjusted for taller, more realistic characters.
- Weapons have been scaled up a bit (all weapons). This and the previous has gameplay implications for reach as all combat is animation/physics driven.
- Added a 3d attack direction tutorial widget. Toggle with T. Enabled in the tutorial.
(OTHER) NEW ADDITIONS
- Shield blocking now has live offsetting/aiming even when not targeting
- Added a new AI unit type: Criminal
- Throwing without a target now aims at your cursor, for much more reliable throwing direction
- New item: oriental farmers hat (dyed and regular version)
- New item: face scarf
- New items above also can spawn on civilian and criminal backstories
- New Item: Golden Pan (Dedicated to the Tiny Teams Yogscast stream!)
- Destructibles now spawn coins (more frequently) and some coins are worth 5.
- All the items in the game's shop must now be revealed. (This must only be done once ever per item) Every reveal gives you a bit of fame, based on item rarity. Happy discovering!
- Added an XP bar to the career menu Armory.
- Strafing animations have been remade (forward, sideways and backward strafing)
- Added about a dozen new audience animations + rewrote the audience animation cycling system. (This will be improved a lot more later on)
- New (max) rank: ASCENDED
MINOR CHANGES
- Overhauled/updated the first and last names in the game's prodecural generation system (better cooler names!)
- Disabled tourneys and grand tourneys untill I can rework them!
- Tutorial: Attack section has been rewritten/updated
- Tutorial: Blocking rewritten to reflect updated block system
- Tutorial: Bespoke throwing section added to tutorial
- Tutorial: Intro cinematic has been visually improved a bit further (still work to do)
- Tutorial: Reshot some of the example videos, moved example down and added a way to toggle it on and off
- Tutorial: now has some background music!
- Victory panel has various UI changes and improvements (more to come)
- Victory panel now shows your bracket level increase
- Updated roadmap in the main menu!
- Chaos bracket is renamed to 'Wildcard'
- Kicking and shieldbashing have been updated. Shieldbashing is now reliable, and better than kicking, but especially with good shields and high shield skill.
- Added a small chance to disarm an enemy when you shieldbash them
- AI now rolls their spine less intensely during attacks, making them more reliable to block.
- Battle panel UI and spacing in general restructured and updated
- Battle panels now show the host's favor after their name
- Lion's Roar arena variation with top platform now has the bottom fenced off
- Shop orders no longer overwrite items you held
- Improved coin pickup sound/volume
- Removed the ability to damage teammates post victory
- City center, tutorial and career menu maps had their lighting built (looks better!)
- Career menu tutorial now explains a bit about bracket levels and ranks
- Targeting camera has been drastically adjusted for a more clean/reliable camera, closer to when you're not targeting
- UI redesigns on shop elements
- Stamina Regen UI is colour coded in the career menu Armory
- Updated and fixed some particle effects. More dust, and shield splinters!
- Mud in pit levels has increased detail normal maps
- Throwing AI has been updated/fixed
- Various UI alignment adjustments in career menu
- The audience fame guage during battle now scales slower (in both ways). Its harder to disappoint or impress the audience.
BALANCE CHANGES
- X vs 1 got a buff to the single enemy AI
- AI combat distances have been adjusted (how far they want to stay with certain weapons)
- Price algorithm for all weapons and armor has been tweaked. Weapon class and traits are weighed in better now. Overall, 2 handers are more expensive now.
- Polearm left attacks require less stamina.
- Attack stamina cost is now scaled more properly by attack speed (Overall, the stamina cost per weapon is more stable for every attack. Before fast weapons would require less stamina because your attack is shorter.)
- Rank score requirements have been rebalanced for less frequent ranking early game.
- Bracket levels have been adjusted to grow faster if you take difficult matches (up to +3 lvls per win)
- Lategame AI will be less passive (more changes coming)
- Armor decays scaled by your run's length. Late game armor decays much faster, needs more upkeep.
- Overhead strikes, stabs, and 2 handed attacks no longer lock your hands at low stamina. In other words, these attacks and weapon types are much less reliable/controllable when you are out of stamina.
- Lowest attack speed has been increased (so less slow motion attacks at low stamina)
- Rebalanced several events that were too punishing or had too much reward
- Rebalanced some stats on Maille shirt, Furhide Chest, Gathaldaka, and more
- Fame holds are cheaper now on the high end.
- Patron events are now more frequent!
- Throwing skill assist base level is increased (at low throwing skill, you get more assist - easier/better throwing!)
- Stamina skill now affects your stamina regen rate more
- Lowered the "Not enough stamina" boundary to 20 across the game (eg. for kicking)
BUGFIXES/OPTIMISATIONS
- Various animation-related optimisations
- Optimised and improved AI navigation mesh generation speed
- Fixed bug where equipment would sometimes be lost after a Luck of the Draw match
- Fixed bug where some keybinds were missing
- Fixed a few bugs with jittery animations
- Fixed lighting bug on city center floor
- Fixed various texture resolution issues
- Fixed bug where you could not open the paused menu in the career menu with ESC sometimes
- Fixed bug where entourage gave you naked/lvl 0 allies
- Fixed bug where enemies throwing would increase your throwing skill
- Fixed bug where betting as Slave you lost half of the gold of the whole sum
- Fixed camera colission issues on the Pit
- Fixed bug where in-battle coins would spawn incorrectly.
- Fixed character name missing on skill screen
- Fixed/removed really loud AI melee sounds in the tutorial
- Fixed seethrough team colour effect happening on your feet due to the floor on some maps
- Fixed bug where a teamkilled ally is counted as 'survived ally' in victory screen
- Fixed bug where F1 removed the cursor
- Fixed bug where you were invincible in the tutorial (bit of a happy bug, but its over!)
- Fixed bug where you'd keep walking automatically after opening the victory panel
- Fixed various sound related bugs
- Fixed issue with failsafe for when an AI does not make it into the arena
- Fixed bug where sometimes your character speed did not initialise properly
- Fixed bug where sometimes the tip in the battle menu would be empty
- Fixed bug where you can save and quit and reload to trigger a pending repair
- Fixed issue with partial AI pathfinding not being properly detected
- Small pit gate now remains open to temporarily lower the chance of issues of AI getting stuck untill I properly fix