Some major milestones have been hit in the development of the Hammerheart Overhaul, and it's almost ready to be put into the hands of players for testing. Those of you that are following the Trello board will know that the fighting and command mode have been completed, each with an expanded and more refined featureset than they have in the current version of Hammerheart.
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The weapon types have all been made and animated, and thanks to the physics-based hit detection the different weapon types feel very distinct to one another and there are different skills to using them. In the future there are going to be different weapons within each type with cosmetic and statistical differences (ie Gilded Type S Sword, Inlaid Type G Winged Spear), but the main weapon types are as follows:
- Spears (Stabbing)
- Long Spears (Stabbing, two-handed only, penetrates mail)
- Javelins (Projectile, knocks shields, penetrates mail)
- Swords (Cutting or stabbing)
- Axes (Cutting, knocks shields)
- Long Axes (Cutting, two-handed only, knocks shields, penetrates mail)
- Seaxes (Stabbing)
- Langseaxes (Stabbing, penetrates mail)
- Bows (Projectile)
Other character options that affect fighting are:
- Height (Affects exposed target areas)
- Dominant hand (Affects all combat animations and footing, thus changing the exposed target areas)
- Helmets (Various shapes and sizes, covered part of head is immune to all weapons)
- Mail (Covered part of body is immune to most weapons)
- Shields (Various sizes, immune to all weapons but can be knocked out of the character's hand)
The overhaul will also grant players the much-requested ability to pick any weapon or shield up from the ground. Friendly AI characters will also pick up their weapons and shields if they've dropped or thrown them, given it's safe to do so. Both the fighting and command aspects of the overhaul have much more depth than their counterparts in the current version of Hammerheart.
The implementation of character customization is also complete:
As are the graphics and control settings:
So, what's next? I'm committed to a hard release of the Hammerheart Overhaul, but it's very important that it's tested and iterated on as early as possible so that the release goes as smoothly as possible. With this in mind, I will soon be releasing a test branch that any owners of Hammerheart can play, which will be constantly updated with the latest version of the Hammerheart Overhaul as it progresses. When it's complete, the test branch will be removed and the Hammerheart Overhaul will replace the current version Hammerheart as the main download. There are a few more features that need to be complete before the early version is released on the test branch:
- Encounter progression
- Inventory / encounter rewards system
- Out-of-encounter loadout and party management
- Basic map generation
I'm aiming to have these features complete this month, and when they're done the test branch will be made available to all owners of Hammerheart. I'm very excited to hear your feedback, and as always I'm more than happy to answer any questions you may have.