Alpha 1.16 - Further combat depth and feel - 2025Mar14

Developer commentary:

I have come to the realization that I probably should not have made story mode when I did. It was far too ambitious an endeavor at the time, especially while the core combat mechanics were still evolving. Therefore, I've decided to halt story mode development for the time being, and focus purely on the combat and arcade mode, which is just combat and nothing else. I wanted a way to introduce stuns and knockdowns in a way that made sense to me. A "balance" meter came to mind, and it makes a lot of sense. A large amount of damage at once would impose the most force and knock someone off balance, while damage over time would be less likely to do so. Also, someone would likely stumble before completely losing their balance, so I decided to introduce stun AND knockdown as two different consequences of losing balance. Time will tell if the system I have in place is ultimately satisfying or if it will be replaced by something better. Another goal of this update was to make getting gene mods more satisfying. I realized that since your power was incrementing very quickly but in very small increments, it makes it difficult to feel each power increase. I wanted the player to really FEEL the power of each level of upgrade. So I decided to make upgrades far rarer, but each level is an incredible power increase from the previous. Last, the new gene mods are an extreme deviation from the existing gene mods. They have wackier effects and affect playstyles far more than the older mods. When I created the older mods a long time ago, I tried to make them relatively grounded. With this new batch, they are far more fantastical and whimsical, and most importantly, really really fun to play with. -Dan

-Extremely special bugfix:

-THE ARMS AND LEGS NO LONGER GLITCH OUT BY TURNING BACKWARDS!!

-Combat

-New character: Nonclairvoyant -High base stats, but with 0 clairvoyance or spatial sense. -This is not intended to be a winnable character, but only exists to show what it would be like to play as a regular person. -Hitting someone in the middle of an animation no longer does bonus damage, but rather does bonus balance damage

-Gunfire

-Enemies can now hit other enemies -Accuracy is determined by distance to target. Gunfire should be far less accurate unless the gunner is actually visible on screen.

-New mechanic: balance

-Attack interrupt penalty reduced from 80% to 50% -Muay thai penalty reduced from 50% to 25% -Balance breaking is meant to replace the bonus damage -All fighters now have a balance bar. When it reaches 0, your balance is broken. -The larger the fighter is, the harder it is to break their balance. -Breaking balance has 2 possible levels of stun:

-Level 1: Stun

-Happens when a fighter lose all its balance while on the ground. -Attack is cancelled, and fighter is stunned. -After a second, recovers balance and is no longer stunned.

-Level 2: Ragdoll

-Happens when a fighter lose all its balance while airborne OR if a stunned fighter is hit by any attack. -Takes 20% health damage from being ragdolled -Attack is cancelled, fighter is ragdolled. -After a about 2 seconds, recovers balance and gets back up. Larger fighters take longer.

-Balance strength is based on the number of feet you have planted on the ground. These are the current multipliers:

-Both feet: 1x balance damage taken -1 foot: 2x balance damage taken -Airborne: 4x balance damage taken -Weapons are dropped upon being ragdolled.

-Gene mod rework

-All mods:

-Now only have 3 levels, but each level is now a significant power increase instead of very small power increases. -Are far rarer than before

-New mods:

-Cardiac overclock (Energy regeneration increase) -Increases energy regeneration by a flat 7/15/25 -Reactive dermo-armor (Knockdown revenge) -Getting knocked over knocks over everyone else in a range of 5/7/10 units -Does an extra 25/75/150 damage to those affected (if an enemy has this mod, it does not affect the player) -Neurospec: Duelist (Consecutive target bonus) -Hitting the same enemy as previous stacks 5/10/15 bonus base damage per consecutive hit -Hitting an enemy that is not the same as the previous reduces base damage by the stack amount, to a minimum of 50% of the original base damage -Neurospec: Multi-target (Switching target bonus) -Hitting a different enemy from the previous one grants bonus 15/30/50 base damage -Hitting the same enemy reduces damage by half of the bonus damage, to a minimum of 50% of the original base damage -Neurospec: Perfectionist (Flawless bonus) -Hitting an enemy stacks 2/4/7 base damage bonus for all attack -Resets to 0 bonus when you get hit -Neurospec: Bully (Knockdown bonus damage) -Knocking someone down does a bonus 50/100/200 damage -Neurospec: Crowd control (Domino knockdowns) -Instead of 1, you get to knock 2/3/4 more enemies down

-All previous mods are completely revamped and simplified:

-Venom glands (Poison): over 5 seconds, does 10%/20%/35% max HP damage alongside 15/25/50 flat damage -Sonic strikes (AOE attacks): does 10%/20%/30% attack damage over 2/3/4 units range (default fighter is approx 4 units tall) -Muscle overclock (Animation speed increase): increases attack speed by 20%/40%/75% -No longer reduces energy cost -Inertia enhancers (previously Titanium muscle threading) (Mid-animation defenses) -Reduces flat damage taken mid-animation by 15/35/60 -Reduces balance damage taken by 30%/60%/100% -Reduces first strike penalty by 25%/50%/75% -Energy total (Lithium vacuoles): increases total energy by 35/70/200 -Blood absorption heals a flat 10%/20%/50% per level -Energy no longer regenerates mid animations. Energy regen has been increased in other places as compensation -Energy regen has been increased across the board -Blocking now reduces energy regen by 50% instead of completely stopping it -When overlapping enemies hit, prioritizes hitting the lowest HP alive enemy, then the lowest multiplier limb. -Ragdolls are more realistic and less floaty -Move icons no longer swap sides when facing left -Attacking now overrides blocking so you dont have to release block before attacking

-Small animation adjustments for:

-Uppercut -Knee -Available moves to styles have been slightly modified -Tae Kwon Do new effect: take half damage for 1 foot and airborne balance damage -Flying kick damage buffed from 120 to 175 as it is now far more difficult to hit -Increased fighter base mass by 50% (AKA 33% less knockback) -Ragdoll knockback now scales at a root instead of linearly. Small knockbacks are slighty increased and large knockbacks are slightly decreased. -Low kick speed slightly reduced from 0.25s to 0.30s

-Bugfixes

-Fixed boss AI again -It would randomize attack 1 to 3, but I moved attack 3 to be distance based so if it chose 3, nothing would happen and it would stop forever -Sector and movement indicators no longer slightly lagging behind the player fighter's movements -Arms no longer flail when blocking while in non-combat walk animation -No more big color flash when enemies spawn -Fixed issue where having the explosive gene mod reduced knockback to basically zero -Fixed weird leg positioning while getting up from ragdoll state -Door area lighting issue fixed

-Other

-Fighter bodies are now slightly gradiented instead of hard colors with a slightly lighter colored inside torso -The only reason the torso was light was to be able to see the front arm. With the gradient, that is no longer necessary. -Fighter's heads are no longer completely stiff upon death. They can now roll around like an unconscious person's head would -Ragdoll physics generally improved -Updated style descriptions -Updated layer render sorting order -Player now is on top of enemies, so you always know where exactly all your limbs are -Enemy attack areas show up above your health bars and indicators so they aren't hidden by them -Arcade mode now counts toward unlocking things -Added "WIP" to story mode. There is still lots of work to be done on story mode, especially the "story" part. -Arcade mode is a far more complete experience, as it is simply using the combat mechanics of this game and nothing else. I highly recommend players play arcade mode at the moment. -Added visual for explosion effect -Slightly thickened thigh hitbox so it is slightly thicker than calf hitbox -Added infoboxes for options menu buttons -Training now lets you give yourself mods -Attack hit particles scale in size and number based on damage done -Fixed typo in "Game Settings" button -Room type/arcade level now displays on the top left

[ 2025-03-14 07:51:20 CET ] [ Original post ]