The crossroads has received some changes, and while you're there look out for dark tunnels...

A large new area features an all new environment, new creature types, new items and takes advantage of various new level building and engine features. We won't spoil anything, but we hope you enjoy the atmosphere and different pace of gameplay we've introduced here. This also reveals important aspects of the game world.

This level represents the final core set of assets required to complete the game, built using new tools and overcoming various development challenges. This is the first of multiple of its kind, which will begin to play an important role. In coming updates we'll be adding more features, mechanics and creatures to the body of content we're introducing here.




In the last update we introduced a very basic version of our dialogue system. Since then we've been expanding its functionality to support future content. We want to create a dialogue system that integrates seamlessly with the rest of the game and feels dynamic, rather than being a separate mode. The idea is that you can talk while doing anything else, discuss what is happening as it happens, point to things and say something about them, or ask someone to interact with them, converse with multiple people at once, join or leave conversations that are already under way, use contextually appropriate dialogue, even in combat, and generally treat dialogue as a functional and natural part of interaction, just like in real life.

Some of this doesn't have a role in Exanima yet, but the core functionality is now all there. We will soon be introducing more NPCs, and new mechanics that will take full advantage of the system. In this update we have added new dialogue with Derrin, using new scripting, role functionality and AI system interactions. There's a lot of moving parts to making the dialogue feel spontaneous and dynamic, so we'll be keeping an eye on this and refining the mechanics for more dialogue to come. Note that you may not experience all dialogue on every playthrough, as the conditions can be complex.

Our dialogue authoring tools have also received big upgrades, allowing us to more easily create and modify large complex dialogue structures and automate common scripting tasks, which can all be quite difficult and daunting!




Those that have followed us more closely may know that our priority is to create a believable and immersive game world. Everything we do, from physics to itemisation is with that goal in mind.

In this update we introduce a huge number of "mundane" items. These are items that do not often have a practical use for the player, but help create the setting and tell a story. We design our environments to have practical purpose and reason, accurately recreating real world locations, devices and processes. Now we've built a system for randomly introducing a vast number of items in appropriate contexts, whatever those might be in a detailed game world.

We've now reached over a thousand items in the game. The new items make the many containers in the game much more interesting to rummage in, rather than being simply empty or holding a single item you've seen many times before. There are many new improvised weapons among these (including some that may not seem to be weapons until you try to use them as such). In future we will also be introducing new practical applications for more items.





We've always been opposed to an overlay navigation system that would cause you to focus your attention on a UI rather than the game world itself, but what's an RPG without maps? In this update we introduce maps as objects that you can find in the environment, and consult as you would in the real world.

Using our constantly improving texture tools, we've developed a system to procedurally create appealing maps with a hand drawn style. This allows us to easily produce and update maps for locations in the game, and make each one of them look unique in every detail.





We are trying to avoid investing even more time into it, but Exanima's character physics system is a huge beast in need of constant upgrades and maintenance. In this update we introduce new creatures whose proportions and movements proved very problematic. We've had to make extensive changes to some core aspects of character motion, resulting in some great general improvements to how characters move. We didn't quite stop there either.

Characters are much better at controlling their virtual muscles, resulting in smoother, faster and more precise movement. This corrects a lot of wobbly and floppy looking motion. We've also made legs move more precisely and perform less jittery corrective movements. Characters pause less between steps and turns, resulting in more fluid and responsive movement in combat. Head movement was also improved, becoming much more stable and tracking more accurately. The dynamic balancer and various other things have also been improved.

You can see a quick video of the improved animation in action here. A greatsword is used, which due to its size was particularly prone to wobbly movements in earlier versions:


https://youtu.be/mgam61SG3-c




Exanima has a unique aesthetic that is built on our own graphics engine and produced using our own content creation tools. We are constantly improving our engine and tools, and updating the game's graphics to reflect the current state of them, as well as increasing standards of quality. In this update we have various new rendering features and improvements, and we've built new graphics and updated assets using some new tools and upgraded versions of existing tools.

• Large new level featuring all new environment
  
  
• Two completely new encounter types
  
  
• Many new items, including some with special properties
  
  
• Huge amount of mundane items and objects
  
  
• Various new dialogues, from quick comments to lore discussions
  
  
• In game lootable maps
  
  
• Item randomisation system for large quantities of items and contexts
  
  
• Significant additions and improvements to crossroads area
  
  
• Two new arena music tracks (and one in story)
  
  
• Improved character muscle control
  
  
• More fluid combat movement
  
  
• More precise and decisive leg movement
  
  
• Better head motion and tracking
  
  
• Dynamic balancer improvements
  
  
• NPC initiated dialogue with reply mechanic
  
  
• Emotion and context driven dialogue interactions
  
  
• Ability to change topics during conversation
  
  
• Dialogue can be progressed faster with rapid response
  
  
• Ability to resume interrupted dialogue
  
  
• Combat AI adjustments based on community feedback
  
  
• Adjusted thrusts to have similar timings to other attacks
  
  
• Improved slash damage mechanics
  
  
• New environment features and structure
  
  
• Better interactivity with many objects
  
  
• Improved quality of many assets
  
  
• Improved shading quality and many materials
  
  
• Improved physics performance
  
  
• Improved AI path-finding and moving object avoidance
  
  
• Improved post-processing and effects
  
  
• User interface improvements
  
  
• Improved behaviour and stability of articulated bodies
  
  
• A certain gentleman has refined his combat skills
  
  
• Tweaked energy mechanics of a certain unique armour
  
  
• Fixed incorrect role configurations on certain characters
  
  
• Fixed relations with AI characters not evolving as intended
  
  
• Fixed NPCs having incorrect dispositions towards new encounters
  
  
• Improved the effects of certain items that help you see
  
  
• Fixed health values not saving correctly
  
  
• Fixed ongoing healing effects not saving correctly
  
  
• Fixed missing procedural item textures when loading many items
  
  
• Fixed some systems experiencing freezes after inventory interactions
  
  
• Fixed potential black icons from window and task changes
  
  
• Fixed a crash occurring when opening an already open container in the inventory
  
  
• Fixed corrupted 3D grass on Intel graphics

This update is only a part of what we've been working on. There are multiple levels already in the works, thaumaturgy is nearly ready to be added, more creatures are coming and various other features are at various stages of completion. We've done a lot of "housekeeping" over the past months, still upgrading engine systems and tools, but we hope to focus on more gameplay relevant features and content from now on.

The next major update will feature thaumaturgy and more story content. This will likely be followed by a smaller arena focused update that also introduces procedural weapons. The remaining updates will focus adding the last story content, more in depth NPC interaction and various less critical gameplay features.

Two new levels have been added to the game, featuring all new content, and also music. With these maps we've pushed for a new level of quality, detail and variety, taking advantage of new engine features and development tools. The first 3 levels of the game have also undergone extensive changes and improvements, an updated tileset and a lot of all new exclusive items.

Over 130 new items have been added across the game, including new item types like bevors and hats. We've also remastered or replaced many assets to better fit the game's current level of quality and aesthetics.






In this update you can meet your first potential long term ally. This provides a whole new dynamic and a fresh way to experience the game.

This was an important first step for the NPC interactions to come. With Exanima's inherent complexity, creating a competent companion was not simple. He is an asset to any player, and we will continue to make companions smarter and more self-sufficient until they feel almost like equals. We will expand on possible interactions, and importantly dialogue, which we can also use to better expose the story and lore.

Your companion will gain experience and learn new skills, much as you do. They will also learn to fight better, become more confident and undergo some other changes in their character.




Dialogue makes a first appearance in this update. We are still only using dialogue in a basic capacity, but it will soon become a much more prominent and important feature in the game.

Our goal with dialogue is something fully real-time and interactive. It is not a separate mode of interaction, but a part of it. You can talk while performing any action. Dialogue can have practical applications, you can point at something or someone, even while walking, and say something relevant. Tactical applications during combat can also be part of the same dialogue system. People can randomly witness the conversations of others, and perhaps join in, or simply learn something. There are countless applications, it is an implicit part of the world and how you interact with it.






You may have noticed that Exanima's world has been suspiciously flat. Our characters have not been good at moving or keeping their balance otherwise, and when characters lost balance they'd flop like a sack of potatoes.

This is no longer the case. The "balancer" is what has allowed characters make dynamic movements in combat and stay upright. This was overhauled to deal with more difficult ground, such as stairs or rocky slopes, and it is now active all the time, not just in combat. This new balancer does more than just upright movement, it functions even when tumbling or cartwheeling through the air, allowing characters to control more motions and regain their footing dynamically. Characters can now trip, slip, jump off ledges and generally deal with loss of balance without just falling over and resetting. Character can also recover quicker depending on the severity of the fall.

With this come various improvements to movement both in and out combat. In combat movement is now faster and also more responsive, allowing characters to quickly move in new directions without having to shuffle their feet as much.



Since we began our journey to make a game, our most ambitious goals have been with AI. What we're trying to do, as much as possible, is that if you imagine an approach to a situation, or a way you can modify or prevent an outctome, you probably can. For example, say you were promised a reward, but rather than complete the task, you decide to find out where the reward is stored and steal it. Something like this would not normally be possible, and so called "AI" is notoriously bad if you veer off the scripted path.

There is much more we want in terms of dynamic interactions with AI, but we've been focused on core gameplay features, and have neglected huge aspects of the game, for too long. In order to complete Exanima's story and content, we had to introduce major new features, like intelligent friendly NPCs, dialogue and mind thaumaturgy. If we tried to build these features without the proper foundations we'd ultimately get nowhere. We've now taken the time (perhaps too long!) to completely rebuild every aspect of our AI.




We want all our AI encounters to appear like living, thinking beings, not mindless drones that blindly perform a specific task. They are driven by emotions and other states of mind, they have varying personalities, they remember interactions with others and form relationships, they have social and non selfish behaviours.

You might startle someone unexpectedly and cause them to become scared or agitated, but they may calm and reassess the situation. They might defend themselves, but not wish to harm their attacker and behave accordingly. They can understand a stranger fighting in their defence, and may be grateful. They might act to defend someone they care about. They can even, potentially, form social groups among themselves. These are some simple examples of things that are not predefined game mechanics, but that occur organically as part of the simulation. Players and NPCs are treated in the same exact way, based on observable behaviour alone. There is no cheating, no making decisions based on things they shouldn't know.

This is basically our artificial brain, emotions, memory, decision making, impulsive behaviour. But what of more structured and complex tasks? If we were to now simply override it with strictly scripted behaviours, it would become irrelevant.



As soon as you tell NPCs to behave in a certain way and also give the player freedom to act as they please, things can start to go very wrong. It is a very difficult problem, and the less restrictions you place on the player, and the mechanics of the game world, the more difficult it becomes. Player and mechanical freedom are at the core of our design philosophy, we have spent years devising a solution to these problems, a solution we call the "role system".

"Roles" are basically collections of traits and behaviours. They can be specific and character defining, such as "King of Ardent" or very situational such as "person crossing bridge", they can also be relational, such as "friend" or "customer". They can be real or assumed, they can influence personalities, spread information, reputations and conflicts, and model various real world behavioural effects. Single characters have many roles assigned at once, they come and go, change and evolve.

There is a lot of complexity behind how roles function and interact, but the core concept is that we can keep building our library of roles, to expand on how characters can behave, adapt to situations, perceive and relate to eachother, and use the same tools and systems to also define more specific behaviours, without locking characters into situationally inappropriate ones.

This will be a long journey, but is essentially now a matter of content. Already now the role system is modelling all our behaviour, and we have the means and tools to keep building more.



Still falling under the AI umbrella, we felt it was time to address other things too. Combat AI as been completely rebuilt, it is more varied and much more tactical, allowing the most skilled AI to keep experienced players on their toes and not just fall into simple but effective patterns. It can be proficient with different fighting styles and weapons, and it is much more careful about accidentally hitting allies. Pathfinding has also been updated to negotiate more complex environments, avoid moving objects and more.


These are all complex systems, and all fresh from the production line. It will no doubt take us some time to iron out the kinks and especially to actually take advantage of new features. But we now have a true solid foundation, and an array of tools at our disposal to create better and more interesting AI.



Changelog for 0.7.0:

• Large new late game area, the Crossroads
  
  
• New optional area, the Catacombs
  
  
• Over 130 new items
  
  
• Reworked and improved first 3 levels of the game
  
  
• First companion NPC introduced
  
  
• Dialogue system
  
  
• Completely rebuilt AI systems*
  
  
• All new combat AI
  
  
  • More intelligent and tactical behaviour
    
    
  • Improved timing and footwork
    
    
  • Better proficiency with different weapons
    
    
  • More fluid and human-like AI inputs
    
    
  • More pronounced difference between AI skill levels
    
    
  • AI can smartly avoid friendly fire
  
  
• New dynamic balancer*
  
  
• Greatly improved movement on uneven ground
  
  
• Increased speed and fluidity of combat movement
  
  
• More accurate and responsive cursor control
  
  
• Improved general animation fluidity
  
  
• Improved thrust mechanics and animation
  
  
• Improved feint mechanics
  
  
• Improved armour damage mitigation mechanics
  
  
• Added a stagger effects for blocking with a shield on low stamina
  
  
• It is no longer possible to defend with depleted stamina
  
  
• Improved walking and running control and animations
  
  
• Improved hit reactions and death animations
  
  
• Many specific animation improvements for all character types
  
  
• Extensive additions to environment features and variety
  
  
• More detailed and varied ground surfaces
  
  
• Improved rendering quality, effects and post-processing
  
  
• Improved texture asset production quality
  
  
• Improved shading and global illumination
  
  
• Better wear effects on armour featuring dents and more
  
  
• Visual improvements to item icons
  
  
• Full UI support for 1440p (4k is on the way)
  
  
• Cursors that scale with resolution (customisations coming)
  
  
• Improved combat experience gain mechanics
  
  
• Improved lore related experience gains
  
  
• Perfomance improvements
  
  
• Improved loading times
  
  
• Fixed weapons sometimes not sliding free colliding with environment
  
  
• Fixed characters simply giving up when suspended over a high drop
  
  
• Fixed issues caused by alt-tabbing during loading screens
  
  
• Fixed vsync not working correctly on some systems
  
  
• Fixed not being able to switch weapons while under attack
  
  
• Fixed Sprint to Dash input option not working correctly
  
  
• When an arena fighter ranks up, the previously highest loadout is copied
  
  
• Increased weapon variety of arena master level fighters
  
  
• Introduced RNG balancing for arena opponent generation
  
  
• Improved random NPC generation and fashion sense
  
  
• Short spears can now be used one handed
  
  
• Various changes to the practice arena opponents
  
  
• Many more fixes and small improvements

We're going to be rapidly adding to what these new features bring to the game, but we didn't want to keep you waiting any longer. We've got a lot more lined for upcoming updates too.

Best,

Bare Mettle

This update features a large number of improvements, largely based on recent feedback and to balance recent changes. We've also finalised some features that had been incomplete for some time.

Cumulative changelog from 0.6.5.3 to 0.6.5.4:

• Increased parrying speed
  
  
• Increased impact mitigation for many armour types
  
  
• Item quality now affects trade values
  
  
• Exceptional items now come in all colours and variants
  
  
• Reintroduced superior soft leather goods
  
  
• Correct lacquered materials for all quality levels
  
  
• Match prizes substantially increased
  
  
• Added dynamic brightness adjustment for darker arenas and weather
  
  
• Reduced output lag and improved visual accuracy of simulation results
  
  • This was already good, but now it's even better!
  
  
• Improved cursor tracking accuracy during rapid player movement
  
  
• Fixed weapon masses being calculated incorrectly and inconsistently
  
  
• Improved two handed sword overhead attacks
  
  
• Added many new items to early story content
  
  
• Redesigned many early story encounters
  
  
• New undead voices
  
  
• Fixed torch easily getting caught in the environment
  
  
• Fixed cloth collisions not working
  
  
• Added a warning when entering manager in a match
  
  
• Added colour coding to fighter names in match view
  
  
• Many fixes, tweaks and performance improvements

Best,

Bare Mettle

This update features a large number of improvements, largely based on recent feedback and to balance recent changes. We've also finalised some features that had been incomplete for some time.

Cumulative changelog from 0.6.5.3 to 0.6.5.4:

• Increased parrying speed
  
  
• Increased impact mitigation for many armour types
  
  
• Item quality now affects trade values
  
  
• Exceptional items now come in all colours and variants
  
  
• Reintroduced superior soft leather goods
  
  
• Correct lacquered materials for all quality levels
  
  
• Match prizes substantially increased
  
  
• Added dynamic brightness adjustment for darker arenas and weather
  
  
• Reduced output lag and improved visual accuracy of simulation results
  
  • This was already good, but now it's even better!
  
  
• Improved cursor tracking accuracy during rapid player movement
  
  
• Fixed weapon masses being calculated incorrectly and inconsistently
  
  
• Improved two handed sword overhead attacks
  
  
• Added many new items to early story content
  
  
• Redesigned many early story encounters
  
  
• New undead voices
  
  
• Fixed torch easily getting caught in the environment
  
  
• Fixed cloth collisions not working
  
  
• Added a warning when entering manager in a match
  
  
• Added colour coding to fighter names in match view
  
  
• Many fixes, tweaks and performance improvements

Best,

Bare Mettle

We released 0.6.5.2 as soon as we could, and we promised more updates soon. This update includes the second outdoor arena and various improvements that didn't quite make it into 0.6.5.2. More is on the way.

We've made some changes to how characters tense their arm muscles during attacks. This was done in response to some long standing concerns about attacks being weak and difficult to control under some conditions. The change has corrected these issues and made swings generally faster and more predictable. It has been in beta testing with very positive feedback so far, but may still require some balancing.


Changelog from 0.6.5.2 to 0.6.5.3:

• New outdoor arena: The Maw
  
  
• Increased the strength characters put into attacks
  
  
• First functional cloth physics
  
  
• Wind effects
  
  
• Sandals added, four different pairs
  
  
• Made shields a less popular choice for NPCs
  
  
• Fixed a bug giving some containers a very low capacity
  
  
• Fixed various terrain rendering issues on Intel HD Graphics
  
  
• Fixed lacquered metal rendering (only new items for now)
  
  
• Rolled back to non adaptive VSync for non Nvidia hardware
  
  
• Various fixes and tweaks

Best,

Bare Mettle

We released 0.6.5.2 as soon as we could, and we promised more updates soon. This update includes the second outdoor arena and various improvements that didn't quite make it into 0.6.5.2. More is on the way.

We've made some changes to how characters tense their arm muscles during attacks. This was done in response to some long standing concerns about attacks being weak and difficult to control under some conditions. The change has corrected these issues and made swings generally faster and more predictable. It has been in beta testing with very positive feedback so far, but may still require some balancing.


Changelog from 0.6.5.2 to 0.6.5.3:

• New outdoor arena: The Maw
  
  
• Increased the strength characters put into attacks
  
  
• First functional cloth physics
  
  
• Wind effects
  
  
• Sandals added, four different pairs
  
  
• Made shields a less popular choice for NPCs
  
  
• Fixed a bug giving some containers a very low capacity
  
  
• Fixed various terrain rendering issues on Intel HD Graphics
  
  
• Fixed lacquered metal rendering (only new items for now)
  
  
• Rolled back to non adaptive VSync for non Nvidia hardware
  
  
• Various fixes and tweaks

Best,

Bare Mettle

In the past months we've been trying to break free of the endless cycle of improving core features and instead focus on adding what's needed to finish the game. This includes quite a few things, but the really crucial ones are terrain, dialogue and thaumaturgy. Those are what we need to continue and complete the story.

Adding terrain was a late decision. We had an incomplete terrain system, and we thought to get it to a state where we could use it for some outdoor arenas. Since then everything's been hugely improved and optimised to support larger and more complex maps, many more dynamic lights and objects, more detailed and realistic graphics and physics, and many other features and improvements.

Our terrain wasn't just incomplete, it was fundamentally outdated, it could never support all the things we've come to rely on. We could have maybe worked around these limitations, but it would have been a waste of time. We had to completely redesign and redevelop it.

Knowing we had to go back to the drawing board, making an improved and complete terrain system that could also support all these advances, we thought we should take it a step further. Rather than build our engine around two types of environments, we could try to adapt everything to work in the same way, make a unified system that could seamlessly integrate terrain and modular environments.

It would take a lot of work, not only to develop the terrain system, but also to abandon the comfortable constrains of highly segmented and flat environments. The payoff was clearly huge though, it opened up many exciting possibilities for future level design and visual variety.

After much head scratching, prototyping, developing and refining we finally succeeded. We have a fully functional integrated terrain system with all the bells and whistles. We have our first outdoor arenas, we're preparing to release new story content with it and we will also be adding it to existing content.





Version 0.6.5.2 features the new terrain system in the form of arena matches that take place outdoors, with variable time of day and weather conditions. Many new items have been added, some important new features and a host of critical or required changes.

There's more content and additions that are very nearly ready, but this much has made it through testing and seems stable enough for you to get your hands on it. We'll be releasing some more updates shortly.

While we've tried to avoid spending time on improving things, a few improvements snuck their way in as we worked. There's some notable upgrades to combat physics and animation, and in adapting things to bright sunlit settings we've made some nice enhancements to lighting.

Changelog for 0.6.5.2:

• Terrain based outdoor arenas
  
  
• Time of day and weather system
  
  
• Many new items, including:
  
  • Brigandines
    
  • New shields, including kite shields
    
  • Many new footwear items
    
  • Jackets
  
  
• Complete in game manual
  
  
• Improved combat, animation and physics
  
  
• Local reflections
  
  
• Lighting improvements
  
  
• New arena music
  
  
• Improved interactivity for many common objects
  
  
• Improvements to pugilism impact mechanics
  
  
• Alternative characters require unlocking (one unlockable now)
  
  
• Introduced inventory and container space mechanics
  
  
• New portable containers
  
  
• Smart randomisation of match locations and music
  
  
• Added shopkeeper to arena
  
  
• Added encumbrance gauge to management screen
  
  
• Added restart prompt to practice arena after death
  
  
• Improved in game menus
  
  
• Many sound improvements
  
  
• Various updated graphical assets
  
  
• Functional and visual tweaks to equipment
  
  
• Numerous other improvements and fixes
  

Best,

Bare Mettle

In the past months we've been trying to break free of the endless cycle of improving core features and instead focus on adding what's needed to finish the game. This includes quite a few things, but the really crucial ones are terrain, dialogue and thaumaturgy. Those are what we need to continue and complete the story.

Adding terrain was a late decision. We had an incomplete terrain system, and we thought to get it to a state where we could use it for some outdoor arenas. Since then everything's been hugely improved and optimised to support larger and more complex maps, many more dynamic lights and objects, more detailed and realistic graphics and physics, and many other features and improvements.

Our terrain wasn't just incomplete, it was fundamentally outdated, it could never support all the things we've come to rely on. We could have maybe worked around these limitations, but it would have been a waste of time. We had to completely redesign and redevelop it.

Knowing we had to go back to the drawing board, making an improved and complete terrain system that could also support all these advances, we thought we should take it a step further. Rather than build our engine around two types of environments, we could try to adapt everything to work in the same way, make a unified system that could seamlessly integrate terrain and modular environments.

It would take a lot of work, not only to develop the terrain system, but also to abandon the comfortable constrains of highly segmented and flat environments. The payoff was clearly huge though, it opened up many exciting possibilities for future level design and visual variety.

After much head scratching, prototyping, developing and refining we finally succeeded. We have a fully functional integrated terrain system with all the bells and whistles. We have our first outdoor arenas, we're preparing to release new story content with it and we will also be adding it to existing content.





Version 0.6.5.2 features the new terrain system in the form of arena matches that take place outdoors, with variable time of day and weather conditions. Many new items have been added, some important new features and a host of critical or required changes.

There's more content and additions that are very nearly ready, but this much has made it through testing and seems stable enough for you to get your hands on it. We'll be releasing some more updates shortly.

While we've tried to avoid spending time on improving things, a few improvements snuck their way in as we worked. There's some notable upgrades to combat physics and animation, and in adapting things to bright sunlit settings we've made some nice enhancements to lighting.

Changelog for 0.6.5.2:

• Terrain based outdoor arenas
  
  
• Time of day and weather system
  
  
• Many new items, including:
  
  • Brigandines
    
  • New shields, including kite shields
    
  • Many new footwear items
    
  • Jackets
  
  
• Complete in game manual
  
  
• Improved combat, animation and physics
  
  
• Local reflections
  
  
• Lighting improvements
  
  
• New arena music
  
  
• Improved interactivity for many common objects
  
  
• Improvements to pugilism impact mechanics
  
  
• Alternative characters require unlocking (one unlockable now)
  
  
• Introduced inventory and container space mechanics
  
  
• New portable containers
  
  
• Smart randomisation of match locations and music
  
  
• Added shopkeeper to arena
  
  
• Added encumbrance gauge to management screen
  
  
• Added restart prompt to practice arena after death
  
  
• Improved in game menus
  
  
• Many sound improvements
  
  
• Various updated graphical assets
  
  
• Functional and visual tweaks to equipment
  
  
• Numerous other improvements and fixes
  

Best,

Bare Mettle

We're working towards some major features to support the rest of the story content and bring it to its conclusion, these are not ready yet though so in the meantime we've expanded on the arena mode and core gameplay with some really big improvements.

Initially we focused on longer term goals, thinking we would add some skills and arena features for a nice intermediate update. When it came to adding these features however we found that they placed demands on our animation and other systems that they couldn't meet. This led to the most thorough and extensive overhaul of our animation system yet. Improving animation and gameplay has been a constant and often fruitless struggle from the first day of development. Realistically we'll never consider it truly finished, but this latest iteration has certainly brought them to a new level.

As usual, the update took longer than expected. We've got a lot of stuff that's almost done and we would have liked to include it, but we don't want to keep you waiting any longer. The current version should be stable and brings a lot of big improvements. Over the next few days we'll be releasing a series of smaller updates as the rest of the features and content are completed.

There's a few incomplete things still, notably the lack of ceilings in ogre matches can on rare occasion lead to an unfortunate death. We will correct this ASAP.


Here's the changelog for version 0.6.4.3:

• Ogre matches in arena mode (more tiers coming)
  
  
• New Close Combat skill technique: Dual Wield
  
  
• New Shield skill technique: Synchrony
  
  
• New Shield skill technique: Ward
  
  
• New Shield skill technique: Persist
  
  
• New Shield skill technique: Endure
  
  
• New Shield skill technique: Mobility
  
  
• Added shield block stamina mechanic
  
  
• Added shield item statistics
  
  
• Added merchant hireling NPC in arena mode
  
  
• Hireling NPCs now come with various ranks and equipment
  
  
• Many new items (more on the way)
  
  
• Improved footwork and balance
  
  
• Improved combat stances
  
  
• Reworked all combat and most other animations
  
  
• Improved parrying and blocking
  
  
• Improved thrust accuracy and power
  
  
• Improved action transitions and dynamic posing
  
  
• Sped up recovery from falling
  
  
• Various improvements and fixes to combat mechanics
  
  
• Improved AI combat tactics
  
  
• Improved NPC equipment choices
  
  
• More variety in master level opponents
  
  
• Gave AI more human-like use of controls
  
  
• LtR swings are now easier to execute
  
  
• Various graphical improvements
  
  
• Analogue stick movement via XInput
  
  
• Numerous bug fixes and improvements

Best,

Bare Mettle

We're working towards some major features to support the rest of the story content and bring it to its conclusion, these are not ready yet though so in the meantime we've expanded on the arena mode and core gameplay with some really big improvements.

Initially we focused on longer term goals, thinking we would add some skills and arena features for a nice intermediate update. When it came to adding these features however we found that they placed demands on our animation and other systems that they couldn't meet. This led to the most thorough and extensive overhaul of our animation system yet. Improving animation and gameplay has been a constant and often fruitless struggle from the first day of development. Realistically we'll never consider it truly finished, but this latest iteration has certainly brought them to a new level.

As usual, the update took longer than expected. We've got a lot of stuff that's almost done and we would have liked to include it, but we don't want to keep you waiting any longer. The current version should be stable and brings a lot of big improvements. Over the next few days we'll be releasing a series of smaller updates as the rest of the features and content are completed.

There's a few incomplete things still, notably the lack of ceilings in ogre matches can on rare occasion lead to an unfortunate death. We will correct this ASAP.


Here's the changelog for version 0.6.4.3:

• Ogre matches in arena mode (more tiers coming)
  
  
• New Close Combat skill technique: Dual Wield
  
  
• New Shield skill technique: Synchrony
  
  
• New Shield skill technique: Ward
  
  
• New Shield skill technique: Persist
  
  
• New Shield skill technique: Endure
  
  
• New Shield skill technique: Mobility
  
  
• Added shield block stamina mechanic
  
  
• Added shield item statistics
  
  
• Added merchant hireling NPC in arena mode
  
  
• Hireling NPCs now come with various ranks and equipment
  
  
• Many new items (more on the way)
  
  
• Improved footwork and balance
  
  
• Improved combat stances
  
  
• Reworked all combat and most other animations
  
  
• Improved parrying and blocking
  
  
• Improved thrust accuracy and power
  
  
• Improved action transitions and dynamic posing
  
  
• Sped up recovery from falling
  
  
• Various improvements and fixes to combat mechanics
  
  
• Improved AI combat tactics
  
  
• Improved NPC equipment choices
  
  
• More variety in master level opponents
  
  
• Gave AI more human-like use of controls
  
  
• LtR swings are now easier to execute
  
  
• Various graphical improvements
  
  
• Analogue stick movement via XInput
  
  
• Numerous bug fixes and improvements

Best,

Bare Mettle