Build 0.5.2212 is Live!

Build 0.5.2212 is live! This build includes a new story chapter, a rewriting of the current Rockefallen chapter, mid-combo character switching, fast travel, and much more! There are also various tweaks, bugfixes, and some general QoL tweaks and fixes.

Here's an expanded list of the changes:

Gameplay & Narrative:

Mid-Combo Character Switching:

You can now change characters in the middle of combat. To do this, press the Right Shoulder Button on a gamepad or T on your keyboard. Character switching also performs an attack when you hold the character switch button. There is a small cooldown.

Fast Travel:

Fast travel has been added to Rest Points. When you touch a new Rest Point, a fast travel entry is added.

New Chapter 4: Searching for Fangs (current Rockefallen Chapter re-ordered to Chapter 5)

Embark on a quest that takes Amelia near and around Exodus to meet Hans and Fritz, a father and son duo of scientists. With their help, Amelia prepares the search for Susan, the second magical girl to join GARDA. This chapter explores the nature of reality, magic, and fragments of humanity's distant past.

Cinematics:

Amelia Transformation sequence added at the start of Chapter 1.

Enemy Armor:

Some enemies now have Armor. Enemies with Armor can not be hitstunned. A portion of your damage dealt to the enemy erodes their armor. When the enemy's armor breaks, they take additional damage and become vulnerable to hitstun. As of this build, only the Carnassus has armor, though some enemies in future builds will also have armor.

Individual Health Bars:

Enemy health bars are no longer restricted to your locked-on target. Any enemy with damage dealt to them now have health bars until they are killed or leave combat range.

Scanner Upgrade:

The "Scan" utility skill now shows more objects through walls, giving it more utility. Interactable items, chests, elevators, and other objects will show up briefly through walls when this skill is used. Decorative rings have also been added.

Courier Drones:

Courier drones have been scattered throughout the map. When shot down, these drop a chest on the ground with items that can be collected.

Chests:

Most of the pickups in the world have been replaced with animated chest models.

Other Changes:

Game Design / Narrative:

• Various script edits throughout the game, including rewriting of Ch5 (Rockefallen)
• Temporarily removed the Gilded Logs quest to fix a progression bug in Chapter 5 (Rockefallen). It will be restored later, however if you've already started or finished it, it will stay in your Quest Journal.
• Carnassus's first encounter in Chapter 5 health increased to 1.5x.
• Chapter 5 Journal / Task text rewritten.
• Tweaked Jump End Animation logic: player characters now only tumble when they've been falling for at least 0.25 seconds. This makes traversing rough terrain smoother

UI:

• Quest markers now work even if the objective is in another level
• Renamed various interaction popup text items
• Mission Ticker behavior improved when sequential mission ticker events are quickly activated
• Dialogue and Choice Menus now hide when the game is paused.
• Dialogue widget no longer plays a sound when it opens
• Chapter 2 now has a mission selector image
• Character switching tutorial added.
• Pause Menu's "Map" changed to "Skills" for a planned progression system.
• Various tutorial texts edited and images added.
• Enable the Voice Acting volume slider for planned voice acting content.
• Foraging With Piro's quest collectible now says "Supply Drop".
• Various tutorials added.
• Exodus minimaps added.
• Medium font size text wrap character width reduced by 1.
• Healthbars now have a short "death" animation showing a small red cross.
• Some portraits added to certain dialogue sequences.

Cinematics:

• Sounds added to Chapter 5's Carnassus introduction cinematic.

Art / Animation:

• Courier Drones textures added.
• Commander's default standing idle changed.
• Item Trails effect polished a bit.

Performance / Optimization:

• Optimized various materials.
• Optimized various actors by reducing Tick() calls.
• Standing toggle lamps (ToggleLamp01) are no longer persistent, optimizing the save files a little bit.
• NPCs now hide for 2s at the start of their spawn if they spawn in front of you to hide the spawn logic that they have to perform when they're first spawned.

Bugfixes:

• Fixed a skinning issue with the beard and mustache models for the male character
• Quest markers no longer overlap use icons
• Fixed a bug where activating a non-active trigger through game script grants the player the item immediately
• Door trigger locations adjusted in Crew Quarters, Exodus, Back-Alley Lab, and more.
• Fix various level art bugs.
• Fixed a bunch of "out of bounds" glitches in New Inverness and the commander's office.
• Fixed the missing collision in the Main Street Cargo Ship.
• Fixed a bug where pausing the game right after ending a dialogue in the multiple choice menu freezes the game in the menu and requires a force shut down.
• Fixed a bug that allowed you to change characters in the main menu and during the manga cutscenes.
• Fixed a bug where switching characters during Amelia's ground pound causes her to hang before disappearing, leaving her axe to stay a bit longer.
• Can no longer jump or air dash infinitely by switching characters.
• Fixed a bug where the first hit of your combo doesn't have a hitbox and doesn't hit unless you dodge or get hit.
• Fixed a bug where jumping after doing H H H H L, Amelia can jump an extra time since she is considered grounded.
• Susan had a similar bug as above with her H H H H H move, this has been fixed.
• Fixed a bug where dashing and character swapping at the same time causes your character to just stand there a bit, by adjusting the character switch timing.
• Fixed an unintentional delay after jumping where Susan can't use her dragon claw and the button doesn't buffer either.
• Fixed a bug where health wasn't being properly stored and retrieved from the Game Instance when used with Character Switching and Rest Points.
• MP now restores properly at Bonfires.
• Refactored the entire use indicator system to prevent various glitches where it can get stuck somewhere.
• Fixed a bug where finishing the Survey Drones quest doesn't give you the photography drone popup and tutorial.
• Fixed a bug where indicators pop up above tutorials, obscuring them.
• Fixed a bug where the UI shows up at the Chapter 5 start cutscene.
• Fixed a bug where certain items in the shop sell for 0 value even though the price isn't 0.
• Fixed a bug where Item Use Triggers are pingable even though they have no yields.
• Fixed a bug where the bonfire menu immediately exits upon opening when playing the game using Gamepad.
• Only dashing + heavy performs susan's Dash attack now, same as Amelia.
• Fixed a bug where characters sometimes do a weird head spin when first looking at another target.
• Fences no longer become solid at a distance due to odd mipmap behavior.
• Fixed a bug where AI can sometimes forget about the player and lose target, often incurred by Character Switching.
• Fixed some conditions where AI can sometimes hang around doing nothing (there is yet more AI to fix).
• Healthbars no longer pop up momentarily at the top left when they first show up.
• Chests now hide during cutscenes.
• Can no longer talk to NPCs when dialogue is already playing since this breaks some stuff.
• Fixed a bug where switching characters when close to a UseTrigger makes the use indicator line get yeeted with the previous character.
• Fixed a bug where the chest opening animation can play repeatedly if the Use button is pressed repeatedly when opening a chest.
• Fixed a bug where Rockefallen's Lobby Door says "Use Elevator".
• Fixed the quest markers in Chapter 5 pointing to New Inverness 0,0,0 when it should be either not visible or inside Rockefallen.
• Fixed a bug where opening the menu during shop transactions can softlock the game in a broken menu state.
• Fixed the progression bugs in Chapter 5 (Rockefallen).
• Fixed a bug in the Equip menu where pressing the character's icon doesn't do anything, only the area directly above or below works.
• Fixed a bug where the payload gets stuck in Chapter 2.
• Fixed some odd collisions in Chapter 5.
• Fixed redundant quest markers at the front of Fritz's Lab.
• Assigned some missing PhysMats.
• Fixed a bug where redundant health bars pop up when an enemy is already assigned a boss health bar.
• Restored the sword sound to Carnassus's portal swords.
• Fixed a bug where some of the magic use triggers play audio even when hidden.
• Fixed a bug where NPC spawners can spawn their player collision blockers even when the NPC isn't spawned.
• Various other bugfixes

Known Bugs:

• The objective marker flickers every couple seconds.
• Forfeiting a drone race after the drone has gone far enough to de-spawn the level can glitch the character's sitting position on return.
• Some characters are missing dialogue portraits.