I normally wouldn't show something this early in development and I may scrap it if I don't like it, but you all have been so great and supportive that I feel like I should let you in early on this one. A new combat system!

When I say "early", I mean really, really early. As in, I just started work on this last night. So it has a long ways to go before I'd put it in the game. The basic ideas are to make combat less predictable, while still allowing time for you to react, to create more meaningful choices in combat, to make combat more visually interesting, and most importantly, make combat more fun.

Lots of animated gifs incoming!!! ːsteamhappyː

Movement and Targeting
In this first gif you can see the "lock on" part of the system. Locking on to a monster changes its health bar to blue, letting you know you've locked on. When locked, your character will face the monster and strafing will allow you to circle the monster. Attacking a monster will automatically lock you on to it. If there are more than one monster you'll be able to cycle through them or break lock on all together to escape if you need to.


Dodge rolling breaks the lock on temporarily, allowing you to dodge to the left or right without continuing to face the monster - which would look really weird! When the dodge is ended, the system snaps you back to face the monster again so you can focus more on what the monster is doing and decide your next move.



Attacking
Attacking a monster is dynamic based on your positioning. If you're a bit far away, your character will perform a powerful attack that gets you in range quickly. If you're close, a more basic attack is selected. Note the monster reacts to getting hit and the slow-motion effect to emphasize successful hits. The reason I dodge roll back after my follow up attack is because Ratman are more likely to counter-attack after being hit. More on that later.

The monster's health bar doesn't drop because I don't have damage hooked up to this yet.

Blocking
In these next two gifs, you'll see that the monster's health bar doesn't blink before he attacks. Instead, his "wind up" before the attack is slower, giving you time to react.

Unlike in the current system, blocking requires timing. Starting your block too early or holding it and waiting for the monster to attack, will result in the monster's attack pushing past your block.

Your character plays animations for both a good block and a bad block.

Monster Dodging
Monsters aren't stupid (well ok, maybe a little!) and will attempt to block or dodge your attacks as well. In this gif, the Ratman jumps back and I miss, resulting in an attack without the slow-motion effect.


And More
This is what I have working so far. In addition to the above, monsters will also have different tendencies in combat. So Ratman might be more likely to dodge an attack and then immediately charge in with an attack of their own whereas Goblins might dodge, but then not counter right away. And Orcs may never dodge, preferring to stay stuck-in and keep the pressure on you.

Attacks (both yours and monsters') don't interrupt attacks. So timing is important if you want to avoid getting hit at the same time you hit the monster. This is where tendencies will matter. An Orc might attack with either one big attack or three smaller attacks in a row. Learning these tendencies will allow you to know when it's best to strike, dodge, or block.

I think the current combat system is fine, but I don't love it. So while I work on other stuff like more quests and finishing up the game world changes, I'll be working on this in the background. I think this new system will create a lot more variety in combat while keeping the system simple to learn and enjoyable to play Even in this very early state it already feels more fun to me, especially with removing the health bar blink and focusing on what the monster is doing instead.

My next goal with this is to finish up the prototype and then allow all of you to load into this test map and try it out! The test map would be a one-on-one fight similar to the gifs above that you could play to get a feel for the system and give me feedback and ideas if you want to. Then we can add and expand on it.

Oh and don't ask me how Brutes or Spellcasters factor into this. Haven't gotten that far... key word here is "early", remember? ːsteamhappyː

We're making some good progress on the new weapons and armor again and I wanted to show some progress! Concept images are on the right.

Tonight's build includes the new tree settings with more options, an override to use the old trees if you prefer them, and the falling leaves system. The new cherry blossoms and new weeping willows are also in this build!




There are five tree options in the slider. These can only be changed in the title menu settings window. Old saves can use any setting so you don't have to start over if you want to use the new trees or want to try switching between the settings.

1. One tree type, one color (green), not animated. This is the highest performance setting but has the least diversity. The falling leaves system is also turned off for this option. The cherry blossoms and weeping willows do animate with this setting, but I'll be creating non-animated versions so this setting is super focused on performance.
   
2. One tree type, one color (green), animated. This is basically the same as #1 except the tree leaves do animate. In this setting and all others following, the weeping willows and cherry trees will also animate. The falling leaves system is turned off as this option is also mostly focused on performance.
   
3. One tree type, three colors (red, orange, green), animated. This is the middle range option and the first one to include the falling leaves systems. The next two options also include the falling leaves.
   
4. Two tree types, three colors (red, orange, green), animated. Similar to the above except there are two different trees.
   
5. All tree types, three colors (red, orange, green), animated. The highest setting and includes all trees and colors.

Note for now I have turned off the small birch trees as I didn't want them taking up spots for choppable trees. These will be added soon as decor similar to bushes and other plants and will be included in the last two options.

The last option is a checkbox that allows you to use the old trees if you prefer them. Checking this will override whatever setting you have in the tree quality slider. In this case the world will also load the old cherry blossoms and weeping willows. The falling leaves system is turned off as it's not compatible with the old trees.



I'd say I'm about 75% of the way through updating the world map with the new art. Still left to do:

• Update the chopping trees system to use the animated falling tree. This would be used in the last two options. The previous options will have falling trees similar to the ones in the game now.
  
• Add the birch trees, new bushes, and flowers. These will also be dynamic depending on which tree option you choose. The higher the option, the more bushes and flowers and the more variety.
  
• Decide what to do with the new pine trees. These look great and I'm thinking about changing the map so the pine trees are mostly closer together, creating a pine forest and something new to explore. If I do this for the new trees I'll do the same for the old trees. They're very different shapes though, so this might be a bit easier said than done. I plan to do this last.

And last, while this isn't specific to the trees, I'm also going to be doing a lighting pass as the sun's current brightness blows out the color on some of the trees, especially the cherry blossoms. This also happens with the new water that I previewed so I'll be adding that after the lighting pass too!

Some good news...all of the new trees and other flora are done and I've started the process of updating the map with the new stuff! These shots show the new cherry blossom trees at the ruins and the new weeping willows and Willow Grove. Like the other new trees, these also move about with the wind.



I'm also updating how the trees are loaded into the game, so there can be settings to use the old trees (for those that prefer them) in addition to reduced tree variety for those with lower specs while still maintaining good visuals.



The weeping willows branches moving in the wind makes Willow Grove look even more magical. When I get a chance I'll make an animated gif.



I'm hoping to have everything changed out with settings support over the weekend. Changing out the trees and rocks is pretty straightforward, but adding the bushes, plants, and the new flowers will take the most time.

There are also new pine trees. I'm probably going to section off an area of the map and make it a pine forest as a new POI and then scatter them just a bit around the rest of the map. I'll take a shot when that's all set up too.

And Now I need to come up with a story quest that lets you place a cherry blossom in your town! ːsteamhappyː

Quick build today to fix a few bugs and adjust some of the art.

• Fixed a bug that caused the Fishing Pier's footprint to always display red, blocking placement.
  
• Shadyee's selling UI will no longer display 1000 gold as the default price.
  
• Fixed a typo in the Gold Teleport Stone's ingredients that caused the icon to display as a white square.
  
• Fixed a bug that created the bit effect and sound when hitting ore that you've already mined.
  
• Reduced the saturation on the tree trunks.
  
• Added more orange to the yellow leaves.

The last two are part of a graphics polish that I am working on to as I think I was pushing HammerHelm too much towards a "toon" look. While I want to keep the hand-painted look, things were getting too saturated and too bright. I will likely be tweaking this again over time.

I received the new art for the Cherry Blossoms, Pine Trees, and Weeping Willows. We're adjusting some parts of the Weeping Willows but overall these came out great and I hope to show them off later today or tomorrow! Once those are done I'll be adding them to the world and performing a final update to the world map with tree placement and tree performance/quality options.

I also turned off the falling leaves system in this build as I haven't finished testing it yet, but I wanted to get these fixes out asap, especially the Fishing Pier bug.

Also, I'll be around today a bit so if you'd like to chat, feel free to drop by the HammerHelm Discord channel!
discord.gg/8326Jef

And be sure to follow HammerHelm on Twitter for some sneak peeks and updates. This account is officially for the game and I'm changing my personal Twitter to be more about game development, which of course will still be about HammerHelm too!

I'm working with "Take The Potion" to help me out with marketing HammerHelm and building awareness and they'll be running the new Twitter account.

HammerHelm Twitter: https://twitter.com/helm_hammer
My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios

I'm wrapping up the first phase of adding the new trees with the addition of the falling leaves. If you're interested in some behind the scenes stuff, I created a video showing how the leaves are created. The system is optimized to only use a few falling leaves generators, moving them around and coloring them to match the tree they are falling from as you move around in the game world.

I think It's a neat little system so I figured I'd share. :)

https://youtu.be/p-xNTR9NGMo
This will be in the next build.

I'm still adjusting the leaf canopy colors and once that's done, the falling leaf colors will be updated to better match the trees.

I have some more stuff I want to add with the trees but the basic implementation is done. Hoping to have the remaining trees (weeping willow, cherry blossom, and pine trees) in the game in a few days.

Once that's done, I'll work on the better looking tree falling system. I also need to audit all of the trees on the map to make sure they aren't floating or too close to another tree. My plan is to do that last once I'm happy with the rest of the parts of the trees.

(click to see full size)

After getting some more information from a couple of players (thank you!), I finally figured out what's been going on with the townspeople walking away from the player character while the conversation UI was open. It's fixed in this build...hopefully this time for good! ːsteamhappyː

On a more fun note, this build also a new tree option. This one having all of the tree types and colors.

You can chop down the trees, however they are using the old tree falling animation. My next task is to set them up to use the new fall animation with the physics in addition to adding the falling leaves.

This setting will also load the new rocks. I'm still playing around with the colors so feel free to post any comments on what you like and don't like about them.

The game now also saves your tree quality choice.

Wanted to give a quick update as I work on changing out the trees. I have all of the new main trees loadable by the new tree system. This includes the two large trees, the medium tree, and the small birch tree. There are also two different colors for the tree bark in addition to the birch. The new rocks are in too!

This screenshot is what the highest setting will look like for trees and rocks. The new flowers and bushes aren't in yet.

You'll note that there are more colors for the leaves, with some variety in the greens, oranges, and reds.

So far on my Dev PC, compared to the current trees, I'm seeing better performance even when I use the highest tree setting with all of the tree variants and colors. So that's very promising!





Left to do:

• Hook up all of the trees to the simple falling down version so they can be chopped down. Birch trees cannot be chopped down.
  
• Update the new rocks so they can be harvested for quality stone.
  
• Add the new flowers and bushes and hook them up to the quality settings.
  
• Create the new falling down versions of all trees based on the gif below.
  
• Add a couple more quality settings for the trees and rocks.
  
• Create the falling leaves system.
  
• Move the trees around to fit better. Right now the new trees are loading in the old trees' locations, but since these have different shapes, they overlap a lot more.
  
• Add the new Weeping Willow, Cherry Blossoms, and Pine Trees once they are completed by the artist.

A pretty big task list, but I'm feeling good about the progress and love how they look. Brightens up the whole game!

This is the new falling down of the trees. I have to build one for each version of each tree that can be chopped down.

My goal is to have the parts of the tree's trunk that remain behind be the parts that you pick up rather than just spawning new logs. The trees are pretty big though so we'll see how it looks once I set it up in the actual game world.

Tonight's build includes some updates to the optimizations and a preview of the new trees!

In the title screen settings you can choose from three different tree options using the slider.



The first option is the current trees. The second option is one of the new trees, set to static, meaning it doesn't animate with the wind. And the final is the same tree, but animating. The non-animating tree setting will eventually be the default for the best performance. I'll be adding more options as I set up the new trees, eventually creating one that has all of the new trees, with different leaf colors, and animating as the top quality option.

The new trees should work the same as the old trees. However, you will notice some popping in and out of other things in the game since these don't hide what is in front of you as much as the old trees did. I'll be updating the map to account for that too.

One last note is that these aren't optimized. So even the low tree setting will get even better!

Edit: I should also mention that right now the tree option choice doesn't save. So you'll have to select it each time you load HammerHelm. When this is fully in it will save of course. Adding the new trees is my focus for this week.

This build also includes:

• Updated the optimizations to no longer hide townspeople. The system was a bit too aggressive and would hide them even when you should see them. I'll be working to add this back in once I figure out the issue.
  
• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused the shadow of something that is behind you to disappear while you could still see the shadow. So the shadows would pop in and out as you moved. This should no longer happen.
  
• Also updated your weapons to ignore the optimization system as they should *always* be in view.
  
• Made a change to the NPC pathfinding code to resolve an issue where an NPC could walk away from you during a conversation, leaving you stuck in place.
  
• Removed a large collider from the tall, thin, green trees. This was way too big and was causing NPCs to get stuck while pathfinding and cause you to get blocked by what felt like an invisible wall when walking near the tree.
  
• Fixed a few quests that were not saving correctly if you were on part 2 or part 3 of the quest.

Working on one of the Story Quests that involves helping a Dwarf create some paintings for their home gave me the idea to add paintings that you can hang in your house!

The paintings are themed on HammerHelm's development over time, starting with it's 2D beginnings all the way up to upcoming new trees, water, and the new logo.


(click to see full size image)

The paintings have a nice watercolor look to them when you see them in game. I also thought it would be cool to have the first bunch, the ones based on HammerHelm's pre-full release, be rewards for Early Access.

So the first five will be Early Access only!

And here's what they will look like hanging in your home.


(click to see full size image)