Patch Notes / Weapon Improvements, Strike Cancel, Missed Style Points

Hi everyone!
I've been working on the new practice mode and I still need more time to finish it.

In the meantime, I've prepared a ton of neat weapon improvements, style point fixes, bug fixes and more.

Weapon Improvements

Strike Cancel

If you've ever had that moment when you're charging up a strike and suddenly there's no one to hit, or you've changed your mind on the fly, you've had no choice but to release your strike. That was before...

Now you can cancel the current attack (while charging/holding it) by pressing an opposite key (throw/strike). Each weapon has a special spin animation to indicate the cancellation and add a new verb to your creative expression : )

Dagger

• Slightly reduced cooldown after grappling an enemy (when grounded and mid-air),
• Holding jump while finishing the chained dropkick allows you to get a vertical boost (instead of a knockback)! It's a small special variation to the move to make even crazier combos possible.

Bow Improvements

• Now you can fire the basic bow shot MUCH faster, this quick shot does less damage (like with a quick sword slash), but allows you to juggle enemies and react quickly to jumping enemies, or you can wait a bit and charge it for full damage,
• A jump instantly charges your first basic bow shot to the full damage,
• Added new sound for the Rapid Three strike.

Fixed Spear

• Your first move on a jump should always be Stingray (the piercing move). There was an inconsistency where you would charge Sweep instead. Fixed now.
• Fixed. Spear clipping trough walls when thrown too close to a surface,
• Fixed small visual bug when spear appears more thick.

Shield Improvements

• Stamp is triggered not only by knocked enemies, but also by jumping enemies,
• Stamp Slam is more consistent,
• Air Parry now works with the shield(there was no knockback in the air).

Style Points

There are special achievements for unlocking ALL style points in each category (Actions, Parkour, Chaos, Bonus). These achievements are really hard, but having 0.0% completion in 3 out of 4 of them seemed very suspicious. If you are just one or two style points short in some categories, you should be able to unlock them now! Hints below:

• Fixed Object Slam style point,
• Fixed two missed chaos points: Flaming Domino, Friendly Fire,
• Fixed Crashed. Now called Surface Bounce (it's a non-lethal crashing kick).

Other SP changes:

• Fixed the description for Crashing Kick (it only triggers when lethal),
• Kicked Arrow is now Kick Parry (a well-timed kick to send back an arrow or blessed heavy projectile),
• Added New Air Parry style point. This move deserves its own <3

Flow improvements

• You can slide immediately after an edge climb (just hold the key in advance, like with slide on land),
• You can slide immediately after dashing to a grounded weapon,

Other Things

• Improved Headless. They can now turn 180 and slash when you approach (you don't have to collide with them, they'll hear you). Now they are more comfy, to practice parry for example,
• It takes a bit less time for Deadmen to turn around after their pierce strike.
• You can't slam a barrel if there's no ground underneath it, you'll just pull it towards you instead (just like with enemies),
• Debug/Speedrunning. Hold TAB to activate in-game timer with a kill counter.

Steam Deck / Controller

• Jumping off Ropes & Chains is now triggered on button press (not on release) to avoid accidental jumping off.
• The Ropes & Chains option is hidden from the options as it only works for keyboard & mouse controls.

Whew... that was a big one.

Let me know how the new Strike Cancel feels. At first I only made one animation (for the sword) as a test and was wondering if it was worth including in this patch, but when I turned it off I immediately missed this feature, sounds like a good sign!

Yours.
cptnsigh