Hello everyone, I have just uploaded beta patch 0.25.
Although I had intended to impement more Scenario Mode content in this patch, I wound up getting distracted by numerous other changes and fixes. Regardless of that though, I'm very happy with this patch.
I have made further improvements to the AI, making them more pro-active about seizing opportunities to attack and giving them some new behaviours that were missing from the previous AI overhaul, such as the ability to dodge behind enemies and charge their attacks from a distance. The 'Risky' AI style has been replaced with the 'Charger', who takes advantage of this new behaviour as much as possible.
Players can now also block attacks from behind while holding (charging) their attacks with the sword held behind their back. This blocking system works the same way as blocking from the front and gives players a new technique to use when fighting multiple opponents. Skillful players will be able to block an attack from behind and then use the counter to attack the opponent in front, or quickly turn and deal with them.
Although I never got around to improving the 'Dojo' stage as I had intended this patch (I will next patch), I have made improvements to the Bamboo stage again. The elite bandit at the shack now feels more like a mini-boss should, and I have given him some goons who will stand and spectate the fight without interfering unless you get too close or try to escape. Just as in the past, Bamboo is serving as a blueprint and a testing center for how Scenario Mode should work and experimenting with making interesting encounters. I'll be carrying these mechanics into the other levels in due time.
As always, thanks for playing, and thank you to my Patreon subscribers who are still generously supporting the project. Hopefully I can get this damn game released sometime soon, but not before it's ready.
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Beta: 0.25
-- PATCH NOTES --
Gameplay Improvements & Changes:
- Adjusted AI behaviour to attack more proactively. Reworked the 'dodge behind' behaviour to work better (and at all)
Added more parameters to make the styles more distinct.
Other minor changes to make the AI more intelligent.
- Attacks from behind can now be blocked by holding the sword behind you (the charge state) and aiming it the same way as a regular block.
This should make crowd fights a lot more interesting.
- Changed 'Risky' style to 'Charger'. This style will now attempt to use a lot of charged attacks from a distance.
- You can now cancel a combo by holding the attack button before it releases.
- Counter timing now must be slightly better to activate the flash and sound effect - ie: a good counter.
- Reduced range of the low slash, increased range of the high slash.
- The delay before respawning now can now be skipped in Scenario Mode.
Additonal Content & Visual Changes:
- Further improved 'Bamboo' Scenario Stage. Enemies now gather around to spectate when fighting the elite bandit at the shack.
- Added 'Sky' stage.
- Redesigned the bandits. Forest bandits now have unique appearances instead of being randomly generated each life.
- Added 'tied' haircut.
- Improved blood stain tracking during animations & Improved blood from the mouth effect.
- Blood can now be wiped from the face when doing the 'facepalm' emote.
- Sword now retains blood when moving between screens in Scenario Mode.
- Adjusted turning around after attacking so that the player's stance matches the end of the strike
- Enemies now turn their heads when alerted from behind.
- Improved flash effect when countering.
Bugfixes & UI Improvements:
- Fixed blood stains not syncing with the body during death (managed to break this when implementing the pose system without realising - oops).
- Fixed issues with the blood stencil / prop system in Scenario Mode.
- Fixed players getting stuck in solid boundaries when turning around.
- The menu now renders at a fixed resolution to make the text draw more consistently.
- The menu now uses more fonts.
- Fixed characters displaying the wrong pose when there are two players in the main menu.