Combat Arena Alpha
Our biggest Alpha patch yet went live! It came with a bunch of QoL and balance changes, and the first new arena added since initial release! The Cavern arena is the most vertical yet, with many nooks and crannies that skilled players can take advantage of. Read the full patch notes here!
In a follow-up patch, we also introduced Avieon to the Alpha as a playable Kinfolk! Every type is now represented in the arena, which feels good. Launch powerful projectiles from the skies with Avieon, but be careful; if your stamina runs out, you’ll be at the mercy of your opponent on the ground. Read the full patch notes here!
We started reworking our lock-on system. Some of you may remember that we had one before that had to be removed due to being too abusable. We’re working on a version that will hopefully feel balanced to skilled and amateur players alike! Our biggest focus with this is to help keep the player’s target on the screen without providing ranged characters with an inherent advantage while using it. We think this will be a significant improvement to the feel of melee characters. Just like when the last version released, we’ll be extra observant of your feedback on this feature.
In an upcoming patch, we’ll introduce the configuration option to not have Avieon automatically land when it touches the ground (you’ll have to manually toggle flight if you have this option enabled).
We’ll be making improvements to our controller support in the very near future as well! The primary focus will be on improving the feel and making the controls more responsive. One feature we’re especially looking forward to enabling is variable movement and camera speeds that correspond to how far you’re pushing the control stick.
We started investigating and tinkering with a P2P (Peer-to-Peer) system! We were able to get 3 players into the same arena together using P2P, with very solid performance throughout. This is in preparation for future co-op and 2v2. Assuming it performs well in testing, it will also eventually replace our current server-based system for Alpha matches. We anticipate that players who usually have pretty bad ping playing the Alpha will be able to host their matches and gain increased performance. Based on our initial speed tests, things are looking promising. Check the video below for our first successful trial of P2P! This test shows players connecting between different locations across North America.
Single Player
The Settings menu is (finally) getting a facelift! We’re really excited to be adding a version that’s easier to use and much more pleasant to look at. We’re planning to eventually add this version of the menu to the Combat Arena Alpha as well. Here’s a WIP preview of the new UI:
Made many different bug fixes for camping, the biggest of which makes sure that the camp stays in the same place after saving and loading.
We made final adjustments to the Utility AI hybrid mentioned in the last newsletter, and it’s now merged to the single player. We also made a first pass on Hull_Piercer’s combat AI.
We’ve started looking into selectively slowing the speeds of certain animations for NPCs to make attacks more telegraphed. This should give players more opportunity to react to abilities when playing in single player, and also keeps animations unchanged in our more fast-paced PVP environment.
Made several adjustments that affect the look and feel of how NPCs animate. They now smoothly blend between their idle and running animations and vice versa, animate turns better, and face the player more often.
This can also be used to help the movement of playable characters feel better overall. By applying a small acceleration curve to movement, we can vastly improve the look and feel of character movement, without the stiffness it had previously. This method is performant and doesn’t require the use of turning animations! It still requires some workshopping, but we hope that it will be usable in the near future. See below for a sneak peak!
Thanks for stopping by! We’ll see you next time, on June 3.
