Hello mates! If you are wondering what U9 is, it is essentially the 8.4 beta as a now completed and stable version. We decided to rename it as U9 and ripple the other updates because what was intended to be a small incremental patch ended up being huge amount of additions, and the difference between 8.4 and 8.3 was so massively significant that it really seemed like its own update. ːsteamdanceː

The roadmap will change accordingly. This name change should also help clear up a lot of modding confusion going forward about what mods work with what version. Instead of a trying to figure out if a mod works with U8.X beta XYZ, the latest version will now simply u9.

So the beta period is over. This will be the live version until the next big update, and as such this should be a good stable version for long term mod reliability (ie mods made for this version won't break as often as they would in betas). And because I know people will ask - mods should not have broken between 8.4 beta 8 / beta 9 when upgrading to U9.

If you have not been following the beta period and are coming straight from U8.3, you will be in for quite a surprise! Here are some of the more major features included in this update:

  This is the big one and the whole reason for the lengthy past beta. The lag spike on spawn issue that plagued U8 has been eliminated thanks to remaking the character system, so the game should be running dramatically better than it was in U8, with performance more in line or better than U7. If you are suffering performance issues in U9 that are not simply spec related, be sure you have removed your mods and checked the pinned topics in Steam Discussions "Issues and Troubleshooting" for some solutions.

  Character decals has been completely reworked, they are now optimized, consume way less memory and look better!

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Decals are not limited to skin and wounds and you will now see dents when you hit plate armor.

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At last decals now support emissive and overtime effect, perfect for fire and burning. ːsteamdanceː

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  Death animations were noticeably missing from U8; this is what gave the combat that visceral and gritty feel that many people missed since U7. It allowed for the player to get that short window to complete a cool John Wick type execution, rather than a 100% pure ragdoll experience. Now with a mix of ragdolls and animations, we are happy to say it is better than ever before!

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Slashing or piercing the neck deep enough has always been fatal in B&S; now you can enjoy some visual effects when you manage to do it.

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    Player customization is still not complete and more and more content will be added as it is made, but for now there are new beard and hairstyles for both the player and AI. The AI now have the chance to spawn with a wide selection of hair and eye colours for variety.

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Preparing our work for the incoming dungeon update, we added the possibility to jump to the direction you are viewing while climbing, allowing you to reach more places as well as improving agility while climbing

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 A long requested feature has finally being added; you can now see the exit wound if your blade goes through the whole body!

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  This option is available from the dev menu (monkey icon) and is solely for goofing around as opposed to a gameplay mechanic feature. It makes your full body a collidable object for your own weapons so you can hurt and stab yourself. Why would you want to do this? We have no idea, but you guys seem to like it. ːwftogrinː

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    Being hit will also display wounds on your own body. Thanks to the new decals system, drinking potions will heal the wounds so you can look new again. Be aware however, it will not repair your clothes! Weapons will also clean themselves when holstered after some time.

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If you have not played the beta, this should be very noticeable! Much cooler sounds have been implemented, especially for metal and shields, to make the combat feel more meaty and impactful.

  Ragdoll Physics Overhaul mod has been integrated (big thanks to SketchCritic for letting us use his work!)
Enemies should fall down in a more realistic fashion, and combined with better penetration and the return of death animations, you should be better able to skewer enemies properly and have less instances where the enemy gets launched backwards when you try to run them through.

Waves have been broken out into enemy categories such as Bandit, Knight, Gladiator, as well as new waves added for each class that are 1v1s and melee only. There are a whole bunch of new warzone waves if your PC can handle it and classic modes like "Circle of Death" and 1v1 escalating difficulty have been re-added.

  Introducing a new gamemode for those who want more challenge and structure. Choose from the randomly generated weapons that spawn with the pedestal and then survive the waves. The Survival mode is selected from the map that is on the table (it's on the left hand side) in the home.

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That is it for the highlighted features! Going forward, U9 will have small incremental patches as is the usual with updates. To give you an idea of what to expect in the next coming months, check out the revised roadmap. (subject to change, as always!) https://steamcommunity.com/app/629730/discussions/4/1743355067106410776/

The Dungeons Expansion will not be this update; that will be it's own huge update (hopefully U11).

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Below you will find the changelog that resume all the work that has been done since the first beta!

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• Performance optimizations
  
• Character system overhaul
  
• New decal system for characters
  
• Improved dying animations
  
• Added tone mapping post processing option
  
• Moved the wave spawner next to the table in arena
  
• Added and reworked some weapon collision sounds and effects
  
• Piercing stuff with a weapon imbued with fire will now emit a sound and generate smoke
  
• Ragdoll materials (flesh, leather, chainmail, plate) are now used for NPC environment damage
  
• Player wounds are now visible
  
• Holstering a weapon will clean them after some time
  
• Drinking health potion will now heal wounds visually
  
• Reworked penetration system and damage calculation
  
• Added skewer detection, now piercing through a body will do a decal and effect on the other side
  
• Added self collision debug option
  
• Piercing or slashing neck will now show a bleeding effect
  
• Hats are now using the new character system
  
• Reworked gravity grab visual effect
  
• Added 2 male and female hairs
  
• Added 2 beards
  
• Reworked all waves
  
• New Buckler Model
  
• Survival gamemode added
  
• Updated LIV to 1.5.4
  
• Updated Unity to 2019.4.21

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• Hips move back a bit more when looking down
  
• Improved Shields and Shield Bashing
  
• Increased slash damage on bladed weapons
  
• Adjusted pierce damagers to be overall better
  
• Adjusted damage for all part types (hands and feet should take less damage)
  
• Nerfed Slow-Mo Punch force a bit
  
• Blunt weapons feel more powerful
  
• Daggers can now dismember (though it is harder than usual)
  
• Ragdolls no longer one-shot enemies
  
• Blades and Axes can now pierce wood easier
  
• Sand is now pierceable in the arena
  
• Rapiers now use their own slash damager
  
• The player takes less damage from arrows and fireballs
  
• Adjusted probability of all classes. You should now see more melee than archers and mages
  
• Made Warzone less randomized on faction spawns
  
• Misc balancing changes

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• Fixed infinite loading when loading a save with an item not existing
  
• Added misc error checks
  
• Fixed thumbstick not working with HP Reverb G2
  
• Fixed some lightning issue on maps
  
• Fixed clipping issues on some outfits
  
• Fixed texture issue on Rapier
  
• Fixed an audio issue after player death
  
• Fixed missing jump sound
  
• Fixed missing fall damage sound
  
• Fixed hand going through objects after ungrabbing
  
• Fixed axes penetration
  
• Fixed some Out-of-bound access areas in Citadel
  
• Fixed NPC dying animations
  
• Fixed some NPC navigation issues
  
• Fixed an issue causing weapons and projectiles to unpenetrate when the NPC play some animations
  
• Fixed haptic causing performance issue on Oculus
  
• Fixed mesh particle warning spamming the console
  
• Fixed some missing physics materials
  
• Adjusted Navmesh in arena to prevent NPC getting stuck on the wave spawner
  
• Fixed navmesh that caused NPCs to get stuck on a rock in Canyon
  
• Fixed Water rendering over the waterfall effects in Canyon
  
• Fixed weird lighting of doors inside the sewers of Citadel
  
• Fixed hole in Citadel
  
• Fixed rope at the scaffolding in Citadel
  
• Fixed misc errors and warning

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• Reworked default and mod directories
  
• Effects JSON gradients replaced by colors
  
• Added fleePoint component to manage NPC flee locations
  
• Reworked collision system to make it easier to maintain and update.
  
• Removed materialDamage and materialEffect JSON
  
• Materials is now handling effects and materialDamage is replaced by damageModifier JSON.
  
• Reworked penetration damage logic
  
• Reworked penetration dampening, added temporary modifiers to improve piercing
  
• Added filters into effects JSON to help simplify the collision system
  
• Added audio playing delay option to EffectModuleAudio
  
• ColliderGroups with the same name will no longer override each other's ImbueGeneratedMesh
  
• Fixed Custom Holsters/Quivers making them crash the game
  
• (C# plugins) The struct "CollisionStruct" is replaced by a class "CollisionInstance"
  
• Reworked effects logic, added filters and imbue filters to effects to simplify collision management
  
• Blades and crystals physic material is no longer changed when imbued with a spell
  
• Potion liquids are now moddable (derive from the "Liquid" class)
  
• Removed creature DamageModifier and moved variables to Ragdoll.PartData
  
• ItemPhysic and ItemSpell are now merged into ItemData
  
• Added game mode support
  
• Removed quantity on ContainerData.Content
  
• Added sliceSeparationForce and sliceVelocityMultiplier to creature json
  
• Added loadorder support
  
• Moved back velocityDamageCurve from material damage to damager JSON
  
• Added self damage multiplier on damagers JSON
  
• Reworked container, loot and creature table JSON
  
• Moved avoidance priority from brain to creature JSON

Hey guys, this beta is a bugfix and improvements patch, and hopefully the last step on the 8.4 journey. If there are no major issues with this beta update, it will likely become the 8.4 live version (likely along with one or two additional fixes). This beta update should not break any mods from beta 8.

Some of the more notable improvements in this small update include jumping to view direction while climbing, HP Reverb G2 support, more player customization options, randomized npcs hair, eye colours, etc, and slightly faster spell charging. There is also some changes to prevent the infamous dreaded "infinite loading" screen when you are missing a mod item or spell. This will not make out of date mods work of course, but it will allow the game to load at least.

LIV players - LIV is still broken but it is being worked on and KospY is communicating with the LIV devs. We are hoping it will be fixed for the live version.

As always, this is an opt-in WIP beta, so active testing is occurring and patience is appreciated!


- Added decal support on shields, arrows, quivers and bows
- Hair, eyes and skin color player customization is back
- NPC hair, eyes and skin color are now randomized
- Reduced default character height in character selection
- Adjusted depth for Bardiche and Northern Axe
- Increased spell charging speed a bit
- Adjusted fireball throw direction
- Increased arrow tip length
- Lowered velocity threshold for blade penetration on wood
- You can now jump while climbing in the direction you are looking
- Jumping while climbing will automatically ungrip hands
- Jumping while climbing is now possible with only one hand gripped (not only feet)
- Added a bit more force to jump while climbing
- Separated Wood pierce value from chainmail for axes in damageModifiers
- Improved buckler model and textures
- Improved Axe Depths to make axes easier to pierce, while making it harder to take out
- Updated LIV to 1.5.4
- Adjusted Containers for Berzerkers and Rogues to use LootTables rather than Items defining for weapons.


- Fixed infinite loading when loading a save with an item not existing (often happen with mods removal)
- Fixed gap and LOD issue on female mage armor
- Fixed clipping issues on female mage glove
- Fixed hand going through an object gripped with the other hand
- Fixed some skinning and clipping issues on bandit hand gloves
- Fixed some lightning issue on Citadel
- Fixed player height not saving correctly
- Fixed new carts missing audio
- Fixed thumbstick not working with HP Reverb G2
- Fixed texture issue on Rapier
- Fixed missing climbing grip sound
- Fixed missing penetration exit effect for fire imbued weapons
- Fixed handles not applying blood decal
- Fixed issue causing the character to disappear when changing hair
- Fixed an audio issue after player death
- Fixed missing grip sound while climbing
- Fixed missing jump sound
- Fixed missing fall damage sound
- Fixed hand going through objects after ungrabbing
- Fixed baron hat color
- Fixed axes not being able to penetrate wood
- Fixed some Out-of-bound access areas in Citadel


- Added disallowDespawn option for ItemSpawner and ContainerSpawner
- Added CreatureTableSpawner

Hello mates! 8.4 Beta 8 is now released, featuring the much anticipated, new and improved blood and wound decals, plus the return of the dying animations. The re-addition of dying animations is what contributed massively to the visceral and cinematic feel of combat in previous versions, versus the pure ragdoll experience as has been the case in U8 up to now. This means no more stabbing guys where they get pushed back; you can now properly skewer enemy again. Combined with some more big performance improvements, this should make the combat similar to the "U7 combat feel" that many players loved, but now with all the goodness of U8 additions, like armour and new models, etc.

With all the changes and additions, U8.4 has actually almost become it's own full update where it was supposed to be a small incremental update... ːeaglegagː But we think you guys are gonna love how the combat feels now. The end of the beta period is very near now and assuming everything looks good, this is looking like it will be the last beta and the 8.4 live version should be released soon. Then finally on to U9!

If you are unsure how to opt into the beta, instructions are here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/629730/view/2957137317359486739

And as usual, it is a good practice to clear out your mods on new beta versions in case any break. If you find your game not loading, you can follow the help here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/629730/discussions/2/2450469119947281759/

• Added the new character and weapons decal system
  
• Added new pierce, blunt, slash and burn decals on characters
  
• Improved dying animations
  
• Added tone mapping post processing option
  
• Moved the wave spawner next to the table in arena
  
• Added and reworked some weapon collision sounds and effects
  
• Piercing stuff with a weapon imbued with fire will now emit a sound and generate smoke
  
• Ragdoll materials (flesh, leather, chainmail, plate) are now correctly detected for NPC environment damage
  
• Reduced Max Alive for most waves
  
• Player wounds are now visible
  
• Drinking health potion will now heal wounds visually
  
• Holstering a weapon will clean them after some time
  
• Reworked penetration system and damage calculation
  
• Added skewer detection, now piercing through a body will do a decal and effect on the other side
  
• Added self collision debug option (for fun, not recommended for normal play)
  
• Misc performance enhancements
  
• Piercing or slashing neck will now show a bleeding effect
  
• More weapon balancing

• Fixed NPC dying animations
  
• Fixed head shadow missing in first person view
  
• Fixed character locked in jump animation when game is paused
  
• Fixed wood penetration with bladed weapons
  
• Fixed ungrab causing the NPC to float sometimes
  
• Fixed issues in survival mode
  
• Fixed navmesh issue on stairs in Market
  
• Fixed blood effects on Ragdoll impacts when gore is disabled
  
• Fixed Dismember via TK still occurring when dismemberment was turned off
  
• Fixed gravity ring on NPCs being flipped the wrong rotation
  
• Fixed hands being seen through the rounded shield
  
• Fixed an issue causing weapons and projectiles to unpenetrate when the NPC play some animations
  
• Fixed minimum stabbing depth in arena sand
  
• Fixed Minor Navmesh issues on Arena, Market, Ruins and Canyon
  
• Fixed orientation issue when grabbing alive NPC
  
• Fixed NPC neck issues after beheading
  
• Fixed haptic causing performance issue on Oculus
  
• Updated Unity to 2019.4.19

• Reworked (again) collision system to make it easier to maintain and update.
  
• Removed materialDamage and materialEffect JSON. Materials is now directly handling effects and materialDamage is replaced by damageModifier JSON.
  
• Reworked penetration damage logic, added extra damage at specific depth and/or when piercing on the other side
  
• Reworked penetration dampening, added temporary modifiers to improve piercing for thrown weapons
  
• Added filters into effects JSON to help simplify the collision system
  
• Added audio playing delay option to EffectModuleAudio
  
• ColliderGroups with the same name will no longer override each other's ImbueGeneratedMesh
  
• Fixed Custom Holsters/Quivers making them crash the game
  
• (C# plugins) The struct "CollisionStruct" is replaced by a class "CollisionInstance"
  
• Reworked effects logic, added filters and imbue filters to effects to simplify collision management
  
• Blades and crystals physic material is no longer changed when imbued with a spell
  
• Reworked potion liquid logic. Potion liquids are now moddable (derive from the "Liquid" class and override "OnLiquidReception" method), then custom liquid can be set from the Item module JSON
  
• Removed creature DamageModifier and moved variables to Ragdoll.PartData
  
• Fixed zone events
  
• ItemPhysic and ItemSpell are now merged into ItemData. Old ItemPhysic json should be still compatible but ItemSpell will need to be redone (you will have to do an ItemData and add an ItemModuleSpell)

Hello folks! Another beta update with a variety of bugfixes fixes is here, included the much awaited return of full body tracking. Damage values have also been rebalanced to hopefully make weapons feel a bit nicer and especially make blunt strikes finally feel meatier; let us know how it is for you. And last but perhaps most importantly, Baron's Hat is now fixed, so we can all place down the pitchforks. ːsteammockingː

The beta is drawing to an end, with the only key missing piece now being decals. The new and improved decal system is almost complete and should roll out in the next beta, and if it is successful with no issues then it is likely that the B8 beta will become the full live version of 8.4, so the finish line is in sight!


- Re-added full body tracking support
- Hips move back a bit more when looking down
- Hats are now using the new character system (Skinned meshes)
- Optimized performance on Market, Ruins and Canyon maps


- Blunt weapons feel more powerful
- Damage has been altered for all weapons
- Daggers can now dismember (though it is harder than usual)
- Dismemberment is a bit harder now
- Ragdolls no longer one-shot enemies
- Bladed weapons can now pierce wood easier
- Sand is now pierce-able in the arena
- Rapiers now use their own slash damager
- The player takes less damage from arrows and fireballs
- Shield bashing should feel better to use now


- Fixed NPC scaling issues after a long play time (hopefully)
- Fixed item swap grabbing issue
- Fixed Baron's hat
- Fixed lightning and gravity imbue VFX on characters
- Fixed dismembering using Gravity
- Fixed missing pointer is the character selection menu
- Fixed missing pointing hand pose when targeting UI
- Fixed NPC armor debug option
- Fixed handling issue on plates
- Fixed fists collision haptic
(This should include modded spells colliding with hands on cast)
- Fixed shaman staff not able to shoot fireball or do gravity slam
- Fixed deflected fireballs going through NPC


- Removed quantity on ContainerData.Content
- Updated to latest version of addressable: 1.16.15

Hello folks! Just another small update to the beta; a few goodies but most importantly fixing some issues like the options not saving and also reducing the number of spawned enemy back down closer to original levels. Heads up, there may be more back and forwarding throughout this beta with regards to waves as tweaking based on feedback will occur.

If anyone is having trouble with loading screens when changing versions, be sure to check the pinned help topic in troubleshooting called "if you have infinite loading" because it will have the answer you need.

And remember, the 8.4 beta is opt in, which you can learn how to do here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/629730/announcements/detail/2957137317359486740 Otherwise you are still on version 8.3.

• Added "Endless (Melee Only)" waves to Gladiators, Bandits and Knights
  
• New NPC type: Berserker: (Runs same pace as rogues, Attacks way more often, duel-wields axes, does not recoil when you parry, added to Melee, does not wear helmets)
  
• Removed "Daggers" from 1h LootTable
  
• Added more lift force to head during beheading

• Fixed some menu options not saving
  
• Fixed NPC not spawning with gender slider set to 100%
  
• Fixed non-melee NPCs spawning in Mixed Melee
  
• Fixed Battlemages spawning in Mixed Melee
  
• Max Alive has been reduced in most waves: (Wave 1 is unchanged, Wave 2 is 5 from 6, Wave 3 is 6 from 8, Endless is 6 from 8, Survive is 10 from 20, Stress Test is 50 from 100, Warzone is 8 from 7)
  
• Fixed Warzone waves to make it so you are not the prime target for both factions
  
• Made Warzone less randomised on faction spawns
  
• Removed Warzone CreatureTables
  
• Adjusted probability of all classes. You should now see more melee than archers and mages
  
• Battlemages: (No longer use Fireball and only utilise Lightning and Gravity at close range (Is currently bugged :( ), Move slower, Now utilize their own brain, Battlemage Gladiator set is now base mage set, Bandit Battlemage armor set has been reworked, Moved to "Ranged" class, Now appear in Wave 2)
  
• Rogues now move a bit faster
  
• Rogues are now in melee, meaning they spawn in the first waves, and now spawn in melee only waves
  
• Rogues attack a bit faster
  
• Mages should no longer use lightning halfway across the map
  
• Renamed Containers to be less confusing
  
• All Wave NPCs should now have hair and beards
  
• Difference between Melee and Ranged spawning has been altered
  
• Decreased overall number of enemies per wave. (this is testive, need overall figures, feedback requested)
  
• Fixed errors where "BucklerRound" was not found.
  
• Removed "Shield Rearm" from Shield enemies
  
• Minor wave changes
  
• Fixed neck deformation on ragdolls
  
• Fixed physics materials on Arena gates and Home head trophy
  
• Fixed a despawn zone in the back of Ruins

• Added sliceSeparationForce and sliceVelocityMultiplier to creature json

Hello mates! Work progresses on the 8.4 live version as the Warpfrog team continue to fix all the bugs and missing elements following the complete character redo. If you have opted into the 8.4 beta you should get a little beta update on Steam and Oculus. If you have not opted into the 8.4 beta you should consider giving it a look as it majorly addresses and remedies all the optimization woes of the early U8 versions. Info on the 8.4 beta and how to opt in is here. Cheers!


- Added 2 male and female hairs
- Added 2 beards
- Reworked candle particle fx
- Reworked all waves
- Improved ragdoll performance
- Added game mode support

- Fixed saves not updating from older version
- Fixed NPC hand and feet stretching after playing for a long time
- Fixed flag floating in the arena
- Fixed blood decals growing on ground
- Fixed flying objects not damaging player
- Fixed archers aiming feet instead of chest
- Fixed NPC neck stretching too much when grabbed
- Fixed missing Dane axe
- Fixed NPC sometime not equipping their weapons correctly on spawn
- Fixed mesh particle warning spamming the console
- Fixed player arms falling and stretching abnormally
- Fixed NPC / player collision avoidance
- Fixed weapons spawning at the center of the map
- Fixed debug options resetting between maps
- Fixed archer floating after being killed while aiming
- Fixed NPC wrist twisting weirdly when picked up after being sliced
- Fixed mesh duplication after slicing sequentially hand, lower arm and upper arm
- Fixed lots of missing physics materials
- Adjusted Navmesh in arena to prevent NPC getting stuck on the wave spawner
- Fixed navmesh that caused NPCs to get stuck on a rock in Canyon
- Fixed Water rendering over the waterfall effects in Canyon
- Fixed weird lighting of doors inside the sewers of Citadel
- Fixed hole in Citadel
- Fixed rope at the scaffolding in Citadel
- Fixed misc errors and warning
- Updated to Unity 2019.4.16

- Added loadorder support
- Moved back velocityDamageCurve from material damage to damager JSON
- Added self damage multiplier on damagers JSON
- Reworked container, loot and creature table JSON
- Moved avoidance priority from brain to creature JSON

I've waited many months to type these words so I'm gonna enjoy it... HELLO MATES, The Baron here and you know what that means... I have the pleasure of telling you that the long awaited U8.4 is now available as an opt in beta. ːpraisesunː

This is the critical performance patch. As many of you have experienced, U8 had some performance issues tied into how the characters spawned, causing things like lag spikes, cpu strain, poor performance, etc. Issues arose because B&S grew outgrew the original simple concept from back when the game was first conceived, but as a result KospY and team found they had reached the limit of optimization with that original character framework, meaning there was no possibility of improving performance any further unless they went and redid the whole thing. They went and redid the whole thing. ːsteamsunnyː

It took many months, but the Warpfrog team have redone the entire character system and it is now much, much better for performance.

It is underway! Work will continue on 8.X, but rest assured there are other Warpfrog team members working on U9+ and will continue to do so. The team is broken into different specialties so even if coders are rolling out 8.X patches and fixes, other team members are working simultaneously on future aspects of the game. There is lots of juicy U9 stuff to talk about, but we elected not to on the basis that it might have upset some people to hear about cool upcoming U9 stuff when they were still struggling to play U8, even though work was happening simultaneously. So we decided that when U8.4 is all squared away, then we will get into U9 news cycles. ːwftogrinː

Do note, the roadmap for U9 has changed and gotten bigger and more complex so that throws the current roadmap out of whack. The very loose, pinch of salt, don't take my word for it, non-committed ballpark is Q1 or Q2 2021. The roadmap will be updated in the near future so keep an eye out for that is now updated.

This 8.4 patch was a huge, huge hurdle for KospY and team, as without the redo performance issues would have plagued the game indefinitely, making future things like the Dungeons Expansion unenjoyable if not downright impossible. So it surely took a while, but hopefully you all agree this was worth the time and effort in the big picture.

BUGS. As mentioned, the entire character system was rebuilt from scratch, meaning literally everything related to the characters had to be redone, from adding back in kick and dismemberment to configuring animations. As such, damn near everything is a bug risk and you will surely find a bug which you can report on the discord if you wanna help out. You will also likely roll across missing content that is in the process of being re-added.

This patch was all coding changes (other than a few goodies KospY threw in), so on the player side you will mostly see nothing different; but you should feel the difference.

So since this is not the full release, only the beta, the question for you is: Should I opt into the beta?

- Bugs make you stressed or sad.
- You wanna keep using mods (8.4 will break mods until modders have a chance to update).
- It annoys you to have missing features (blood decals need to be re-added, character customization is incomplete, etc, etc).
- You don't care about performance issues in U8.

- You don't mind WIP things and are just curious to see how it's going.
- You wanna help the Warpfrog team by finding and logging bugs.
- You wanna help by testing performance on your system and then giving a performance log (discord is best for submitting).

To opt into the beta on Steam, go to the game properties > beta and type the code Upd84betaPlease. Update: No code is needed anymore! It is even easier now, you will see the beta in the dropdown that 8.4 beta is an option and when you select it the game will update. REMOVE YOUR MODS! Your mods won't work, and I also recommend you clean your save file so your game is fresh by deleting the folder located at Documents/mygames/BladeAndSorcery. (100% do this if your game wont load) I'm bracing myself for the floods of 'cant get the beta working' threads because of mods. ːsteammockingː



Oculus users, you can access the beta through the menu Version and Release Notes on the Oculus Store page, not the game in your library. (counter-intuitive, I know)



The beta will end when all components of the character system are re-added and all bugs are found and squashed, at which point 8.4 will be live as an actual automatic update. And just to note - this is not the end of optimization. Further performance tweaks and optimization will always keep going for maps, etc, and that will not end until v1.0+.

Here are the patch notes - do take careful note of all the things missing. As mentioned, everything is being re-added, and there is a lot to do:



- Added new hairs and beards for male and female characters
- Added new whoosh sounds for different weapons
- Added a new control panel for the monitor view
- Added a new spectator mode that automatically follow player across levels
- Added infinite imbue debug option
- Added console search field
- Added spell wheel open/close animations
- Added an option to disable blood
- Improved feet placement while climbing
- Improved armor detection precision
- Hitting the arm while grabbing it will disarm the NPC
- Added new hit sound when the head collide
- Integrated ragdoll joints values from Ragdoll Physics Overhaul mod. Big thanks to Sketchcritic for allowing us to use his work :)
- Misc options changes


- New optimized character & creature system (no spawn lag anymore, improved performance, LOD...)
- Optimized ragdoll performance
- Improved memory management
- Reworked and optimized dismemberment system
- Reworked and optimized armor hit detection
- Added an option to reduce physic accuracy
- Added an option to reduce texture quality


- Fixed mage hood visible from first person view
- Fixed an issue causing character to broke when customizing a character with specific weapons
- Fixed player head probe lightning issue
- Reduced player character idle movements
- Updated Unity to 2019.4.12 LTS


- Assets bundle management is now using addressable
- Enum are now serialized as string in JSON files
- Simplified serialization of quaternion, vector2Int, vector3Int and layer mask in JSON files
- Misc JSON changes

Hello folks, we just released update 8.3 which includes another slew of bugfixes and performance optimizations. However, in terms of further optimization, we unfortunately have reached a dead end with the current third party character system ːsteamsadː
The current character system was an acceptable solution for the beginning of the project, but now with the new ambition of the game we simply need to stop finding workarounds on a system that is simply not suited for our needs. So, in an effort to better optimize the NPC spawning and rendering performance, we are in fact going to redo the whole character system.

KospY and the team already started to work on a custom made prototype and the new system should drastically simplify our workflow, allow us to support non-humanoid creatures, make characters/armors/creatures moddable as well as hopefully fixing (for good!) the performance issues about characters including the dreaded lag spike on character spawns. It's too early to say if this will be a golden fix for performance, and we would be hesitant to make promises, but the theory seems really promising. This overhaul will take some time, but it is planned to be released as a "minor" update of U8.

Besides spawning lag, if you are still feeling performance issues in general even after 8.3, be sure to try all the various graphics options included in the option book, and also remember that mods may impact performance too. Also, you might have missed the following new options were added to help lower spec video cards (click to enlarge):

(atlas refers to resolution, so lower is better at the cost of graphics)

And here are some other performance tips if you are struggling (all in options book):

1. Lower render scale
   
2. Disable shadows
   
3. Disable antialiasing
   
4. Limit persistent bodies / items to 1 or 2
   
5. Reduce character quality
   
6. Enable fast gen
   
7. Play on Arena map
   
8. Remove mods causing performance issues (check possible console errors spamming with F8)

In other news the game Store pages are finally getting a long-overdue makeover since the screenshots and information are dramatically out of date! Our concept artist also did a brilliant job by reworking our store cover ːsteamhappyː

Below the full resolution images if anyone would like it as a wallpaper (with and without logo):
https://imgur.com/7wdaX7R
https://imgur.com/2WeUJcy

Thanks for your amazing support and stay safe!

Cheers!
Baron, KospY and the Team


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Screenshots are now saved to a smaller format (JPG, can be changed in game.json)
  
• Added metal footstep audio
  
• Added death audio
  
• Added focus depleted audio
  
• Added a debug option to disable armor detection on NPC (increase spawning performance)
  
• Added an option to enable/disable character expression (decrease performance)
  
• Added whoosh audio to fire imbue
  
• Added haptic to imbue whoosh and spell charge

• Optimized character texture sampling
  
• Optimized armor hit detection
  
• Misc optimizations

• Added missing handle orientations on bucklers
  
• Fixed feet tracking not working correctly
  
• Fixed a shadow issue on characters
  
• Fixed weapons on ground not being cleaned when level change
  
• Fixed dropped bows not being auto-cleaned while in combat
  
• Fixed NPC sometimes not dying when dismembered
  
• Fixed HDR colors on screenshots
  
• Fixed imbue issue with the small buckler
  
• Fixed medium shield handle issue when swapping hands
  
• Fixed left wrist stats position on female character
  
• Fixed male/female ratio option not working
  
• Fixed NPC pickup animation issue
  
• Fixed female ragdoll joint limits issue
  
• Fixed missing inner mouth on one of the male face
  
• Prevent NPC to come and go when looking for weapon
  
• Fixed slicing damage not being correctly applied
  
• Fixed dual blade staff imbue acting on both blades
  
• Fixed a misconfiguration preventing some shields to be pierced
  
• Fixed fireball and lightning decals not showing on shields and props
  
• Fixed reloadjson command not working
  
• Fixed wrong damager icons on item spawner
  
• Fixed flanged mace imbue flickering
  
• Fixed bow and wrist blade imbue animation issue
  
• Fixed archers missing their first shoot too much
  
• Fixed water splash effect
  
• Fixed arena flags rendering issue
  
• Fixed staff not accelerating spell charge speed
  
• Fixed missing audio when shooting fireballs from fire imbued staff
  
• Fixed fire imbued staff not consuming imbue energy when shooting fireballs
  
• Updated Unity to 2019.4.1 (may fix some crashes)
  
• Misc error fixes

• Added an option "allowDecals" on items. This option is disabled by default to avoid some imbue issue related to the shader conversion and missing variants
  
• Merged "creatureID" and "creatureTableID" in creature table and wave JSON to an unique field "referenceID"
  
• Merged "itemID" and "lootTableID" in container and loot table JSON to an unique field "referenceID", allowing JSON mods to append any existing container and/or loot table ("referenceID" being the JSON merge key)
  
• PlayerDefault container spells and apparels will now be loaded each time the game start (should be useful for mods adding spells or changing player outfit, as you simply need to override this JSON)
  
• Fixed custom holderSlot not working correctly

Hello, folks! The following is from KospY himself:


Following the release of U8, we are working hard to fix the performance issues and bugs.
We are happy to announce that today with the 8.2 patch, most major issues should have been fixed,
and performance should be back to around how it was in U7.

Obviously it will not be the last patch for U8 as there is still many issues to fix (see known issues at the bottom). We will continue to work on U8 for some time to bring more performance improvements, fixes and even some minor content.

Thanks to everyone for their patience while we were working on fixes. U8 was an huge update and a pretty major challenge, such an update for an early access game is not something common, and we hope the majority will be happy of all the changes ːsteamhappyː


You will find below the changelog of update 8.2 (as well as 8.1!)


Features / Enhancements

- Added female version of the "gladiator" armor
- Improved gravity & TK push effect
- New punch sounds


Performance optimizations

- Optimized NPC spawning performance
- Enabled incremental GC
- Fixed point cache generator not disposing correctly
- Added new character quality options for performance testing / low-end computers
- Misc performance enhancements

Fixes

- Fixed game parameters not saving correctly
- Fixed character customization not saving correctly
- Fixed an issue preventing U7 save file to load (infinite loading)
- Fixed an issue with characters being merged between male and female
- Fixed mirror light not lightning player head
- Fixed some wave issues
- Fixed wrong axe penetration effect
- Fixed characters not moving their mouth when speaking
- Fixed missing colliders in Arena
- Fixed fireball telekinesis highlighter showing on hit objects
- Fixed characters getting their mouth deformed after switching gender in the character selection screen
- Fixed player hand animation being way too fast (climbing fix)
- Adjusted male hand pose and fingers colliders for climbing
- Fixed a climbing collision issue with locomotion
- Fixed gender not refreshing correctly in character selection
- Fixed female pose in character selection scene
- Fixed debug collision marker
- Fixed arena and ruins spikes
- Fixed tree spikes on Citadel
- Fixed magic staves not regaining imbue energy
- Fixed music not looping in the character selection scene
- Fixed dummy head material being wood instead of fabric in the home
- Fixed light probe not taking into account directional light (dark area should lit objects better)
- Fixed baguette sword holster
- Fixed harmless warnings in the log to avoid clutter and wrong diagnostic
- Updated to Unity 2019.4 LTS (may resolve some crashes)



Features / Enhancement

- New "Gladiator" armor for NPC (male only)

Performance optimizations

- Fixed a performance issue with UI
- Reduced general CPU usage
- Fixed a Oculus only issue causing performance drop when both controllers are vibrating
- Market: Optimized terrain, trees and disabled grass
- Optimized terrain on Arena and Canyon
- Heavily reduced draw calls on Citadel
- Reduced CPU usage on Citadel
- Improved locomotion CPU usage
- Fixed wrist stats CPU spike when shown
- UI auto disable when the player is far
- Temporary disabled face expression causing a performance issue
- Reduced default shadow distance and max number of corpses
- Improved staff gravity shockwave performance
- Misc performance enhancement

Tweaks

- Reworked waves
- Added fabric physic material
- Minor weapon visual tweaks
- Increased imbue duration and reduced hit drain
- Tweaked some collision sound and effects
- Axe imbued with fire can now pierce metal and stone (like daggers)

Fixes

- Fixed broken waves
- Fixed wrong effect when pierce is done by pressure
- Fixed slicing texture being randomly invisible
- Fixed physic rope material missing
- Fixed missing cursor in character selection screen and death sequence
- Fixed spell menu not closing when hovering holster
- Fixed spell continuing charging if we press grip
- Temporarily removed axis highlighter as it was buggy
- Fixed wrist stats missing on left arm (male only)
- Fixed NPC using two weapons at the same time
- Fixed some NPC navigation issues on Market and Canyon
- Fixed an inaccuracy issue with material detection on NPC
- Fixed some warnings in the log
- Fixed fabric bleeding blood on pierce



- Some amd GPU seem to cause double vision (RX 5XX more specifically), rolling back from an older driver may fix the issue
- Face expression are missing
- Beheading sometimes not kill the NPC
- Left wrist menu with the female character is wrong
- Archers has some animation and shooting accuracy issues
- Picking weapon animation for NPC is wrong
- Wrong grab position on female ragdoll
- Female ragdoll joint limits are wrong, causing some animation and ragdoll issues
- Particles can't be seen in the mirror
- Male/Female ratio slider is not working
- Full body tracking don't work (foot rotation is wrong)
- Water splash is not working correctly


- More hairs, beards and faces options for male and female characters
- New blood decals
- New/cleaner dismemberment
- Spell menu animations
- Spell sub menus (more than 10 spells, for modding)

Hi everyone!!

Update 8 is now released!

First, I wanted to thanks everyone for their wonderful support during this Early Access, it's a really great thing and such a good motivation for me and everyone in the team!

So U8 is now out and you can play right now! It's a major milestone for B&S as the game now feature all the main combat mechanics planned : spells and armors, allowing us to work on the next steps for the game, player progression and dungeon!

But, our focus should still be on U8 during the next coming weeks as we plan to work on minor updates to implement some missing features as well as working on bug fixing.
We are aware that there is some performance issues on U8 and we advise everyone having problem with this to roll back to U7 (using the steam beta tab) while this is being investigated. We really want the game to run as smoothly as possible on different configuration and we will do our best in the next coming days to better optimize this.

Below you will find the full changelog with some gif of the new U8 features :)

- New spells: Fire and Gravity


- New map: Citadel- New characters design- Added armors support to NPC- Added hit material detection on characters, allowing different behavior and protection for flesh/clothes, leather, chainmail and plate- Replaced models and textures of bow, quiver, arrows and large shield- Added magic staves- Lightning spell rework for consistency with other spells, improved vfx and audio- Added the possibility to select a spell and imbue the closest blade while holding a weapon (enabled for bow and wrist blade)


- Wrist stats and spell menu overhaul- NPC are now able to throw fireballs and use gravity to push their opponents- New cast and throw animation for NPC- Spell merging and staff shockwave only work with Gravity (other spells will come later)- Added the possibility to deflect a fireball with some weapons- Spells sound effects overhaul- GPU painted blood decals on bodies- Player fall damage (can be disabled from the debug menu)- Blood decals overhaul- Added motion blur option to spectator mode- Game can now run without any headset (spectator mode only)- Added new console commands: "SpawnCreature", "SpawnCreatureTable", "GetCreatureTable", "SetPlayerFaction", "ToggleBookMenu" and "SetTimeScale" (type "help" in the console for more details)- Added 4K screenshot support to spectator mode- Updated Unity to 2019.3.14f (LWRP is now URP)

- Physic materials and collision system overhaul- New effect system for sounds, VFX, particles, decals and painting, improved performance- New slow motion sound effects- Lightning bolts performance enhancements- Added more physic props to environments- Improved Market map- Changed stereo rendering mode from single pass to single pass instanced (better performance)- Added damage relative to penetration depth- Added penetration using pressure- Improved hit detection- Improved accuracy of penetration position- Flesh is now easier to penetrate with a blade- Improved item throwing flying rotation- Improved player body hips position- Added Early Access text to spectator mode- Reworked knockout logic- Increased player view distance- Misc performance optimizations

- Fixed collision detection inconsistencies- Fixed light probes not working correctly- Fixed lights flickering in some situations- Fixed bow not shooting arrows in a straight line- Fixed arrow rotation when nocked- Fixed spectator camera not changing from first person view to third person- Fixed spectator click after loading a level- Opening console locks keyboard spectator commands

- Gladiator armor (for the arena)- New blood decals- New/cleaner dismemberment- Spell menu animations- Spell sub menus (more than 10 spells, for modding)