Vapourware Sui Generis + Exanima Early Access

[Humbaba]

zweihanders, the objectively coolest swords in history and making them properly huge too. Most games call regular two handed swords greatswords when they're way too small.

Check out exanima zweihanders:

Spoiler

A bit of a slimmer variant that one.

 

[Technomancer]

A bit of a slimmer variant that one.

Yeah, good thing that they are fully procedural. Eventually, you can get exactly what you like. And in SG you can just commission a weapon to skip rng.

 

[Tyranicon]

Finally got to Master in Arena. I think I'm on the cusp of getting carpal tunnel now.

Disappointed that only polearms and greatswords exist past Adept, which really reduces the usefulness of dual wielding. I don't care how stupid dual wielding master-level maces sound, I want it!

Overall I think it's still a very good game.

 

[Technomancer]

Procedural weapons are nearly complete, glaives are next:

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Not a polearm dude, but damn that looks nice.

 

[Technomancer]

24/1/22

Our big engine cleanup is finally complete. Every little thing is running on new, very streamlined and unified systems. We've added new compatibility and performance options and stripped out a lot of stuff that was no longer needed. The latest and biggest change was updating the terrain system procedural generation, this is now also faster allowing for smoother terrain streaming and has some good detail and colour precision improvements. We're trying to get a new version out on the beta branch later today with these changes as well various gameplay and QoL improvements we've been making over the past couple of weeks.

With all this out of the way we'll be focusing entirely on combat improvements and the dye system, which will roll out in an update with some nice new items and arenas. We've already made some improvements to weapon mechanics and combat. One of these changes is a new overhead targeting system that works similarly to thrusts. When aiming an overhead the targeting plane is softly adjusted to the point on the target closest to your cursor, which makes the controls functionally the same but much more intuitive. Previously you had to aim on an imaginary plane fixed at waist height, so there was quite a lot of guesswork involved when trying to target at head or ground level.

Other changes to combat are the first of several aimed at making the combat feel more consistent and realistic. We are improving weapon mechanics and behaviour and we're removing or adjusting some of the more artificial mechanics. Some inconsistencies between real weapon mass and mass in the wielder's hands were fixed and centres of percussion are much more accurate. We've also made it so that when parts of the weapon below the hilt or grip hit a target or are "parried" this no longer counts as a strike, removing the unexpected and sometimes frustrating cancelling this could cause.

There's a lot more small but important changes to combat, as well as some fairly big ones we're working on. We will probably release these as we make them to get some feedback as early as possible.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Not a polearm dude, but damn that looks nice.

Why do you say not that's not a polearm? The above looks like a fauchard, pretty sure you can see the outline of the blade on

(from "Polearms" on Wikipedia)

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Not a polearm dude, but damn that looks nice.

Why do you say not that's not a polearm? The above looks like a fauchard, pretty sure you can see the outline of the blade on

(from "Polearms" on Wikipedia)

Sorry, I meant I'm not a polearm-dude.

 

[Technomancer]

Not a polearm dude, but damn that looks nice.

Just the beginning. In the future devs will add some decorative and shiny procedural details for tournament weapons specifically. So anything you win in tournaments will look like it went straight from royal armory.

 

[Aemar]

Not a polearm dude, but damn that looks nice.

Why do you say not that's not a polearm? The above looks like a fauchard, pretty sure you can see the outline of the blade on

(from "Polearms" on Wikipedia)

Please remove this pic just in case the devs see it and realize they should really spend the next 2-3 years designing and implementing each and every of those polearms presented there.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Not a polearm dude, but damn that looks nice.

Why do you say not that's not a polearm? The above looks like a fauchard, pretty sure you can see the outline of the blade on

(from "Polearms" on Wikipedia)

Please remove this pic just in case the devs see it and realize they should really spend the next 2-3 years designing and implementing each and every of those polearms presented there.

Too late

 

[agris]

but why isn't glaive on that image?

edit: oh, fauchard is a less-common term for glaive. i see.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

but why isn't glaive on that image?

edit: oh, fauchard is a less-common term for glaive. i see.

I wonder how the third from left(halberds) in 1700 can even function.

 

[agris]

but why isn't glaive on that image?

edit: oh, fauchard is a less-common term for glaive. i see.

I wonder how the third from left(halberds) in 1700 can even function.

The wiki said that they (glaives, halberds) increasingly were ornamental arms and were not considered weaponry one would fight with. similar to dress swords, i take it.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

Yup yup,

for example. I'm betting the real papal security detail has automatic weapons.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Yup yup,

for example. I'm betting the real papal security detail has automatic weapons.

Rumor is that they carry HK MP7's.

 

[Tyranicon]

Yup yup, for example. I'm betting the real papal security detail has automatic weapons.

Rumor is that they carry HK MP7's.

According to the wiki:

The Swiss Guard in their function as bodyguards are equipped with the SIG Sauer P220 pistol and the SIG SG 550 rifle (or its SG 552 variant) also in use by the Swiss Army.

 

[agris]

What’s with the min height being set at manlet levels?

edit: also, classic case of class requirements

 

[Technomancer]

31/1/22

We updated the game this week with the result of all our engine work for compatibility, smart overhead aiming, some other combat improvements and the new roster management features. We've had several reports that the game now works well on Linux with all GPU brands, which is great. We are working on still more general core gameplay improvements, and in particular on new and better weapon mechanics with support for new features now and in future.

The Steam Deck is coming out very soon, and we should be receiving a dev kit today. We know some of you want to play Exanima on it, and we've been realising that its features might make it a surprisingly good fit. Proton compatibility and performance seem excellent now that we've sorted that out, but we need a decent control scheme and some adjustments for the small screen. The Steam Deck has two sticks, two trackpads, a touchscreen and lots of buttons and triggers. We've come up with some new input mechanics for controllers which seem to work really well, and we think we've found a way to take advantage of all these controls without sacrificing any of the game's complexity. We've already done all the Steam API integration and all of this will also equate to pretty good support for all controllers via Steam.

All this has been keeping Madoc busy, in the meantime the rest of the team is divided between finishing up some new arenas and items and future story content.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Siveon]

31/1/22

We updated the game this week with the result of all our engine work for compatibility, smart overhead aiming, some other combat improvements and the new roster management features. We've had several reports that the game now works well on Linux with all GPU brands, which is great. We are working on still more general core gameplay improvements, and in particular on new and better weapon mechanics with support for new features now and in future.

The Steam Deck is coming out very soon, and we should be receiving a dev kit today. We know some of you want to play Exanima on it, and we've been realising that its features might make it a surprisingly good fit. Proton compatibility and performance seem excellent now that we've sorted that out, but we need a decent control scheme and some adjustments for the small screen. The Steam Deck has two sticks, two trackpads, a touchscreen and lots of buttons and triggers. We've come up with some new input mechanics for controllers which seem to work really well, and we think we've found a way to take advantage of all these controls without sacrificing any of the game's complexity. We've already done all the Steam API integration and all of this will also equate to pretty good support for all controllers via Steam.

All this has been keeping Madoc busy, in the meantime the rest of the team is divided between finishing up some new arenas and items and future story content.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

I haven't considered devs making steam deck exclusive control options. Sounds cool.

 

[Gumsmith]

Perhaps the Steam Deck users will find that the game actually controls better without the mouse waggling involved.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

What’s with the min height being set at manlet levels?

edit: also, classic case of class requirements

Messing around in arena mode, I made the shortest, oldest, fattest woman possible. Named her Maggie Flapjacks. Her bizarre physique and center of gravity made reckless sweeps with a maul absolutely devastating. They tended to land very hard right on the opponent's head, which would have normally been a miss for an Adonis character attacking the same way. Berserker granny.

 

[Technomancer]

7/2/22

We received our Steam Deck dev kit a few days ago and have been adding full controller support and a number of general quality of life improvements. The performance we're getting on this tiny handheld PC is impressive, it runs the game on high settings and medium supersampling at ~150 fps, which means it's actually rendering 600 frames a second, all while staying cool and composed. The game is certainly well optimised, but it does some pretty advanced rendering with fully dynamic lighting, shadows and global illumination; the performance really exceeded our expectations. It looks phenomenal.

We are also working on more core gameplay improvements. We've made some improvements to how characters negotiate obstacles on the ground, we've greatly improved greatsword handling and also allowed characters to control the height of swings. This is something we eventually want to make into a new close combat skills for targeting horizontal attacks, but for the time being it does a lot to mitigate swinging over heads or into the ground. Combined with the recent additions of edge alignment correction and overhead alignment characters now have very complete control over weapons.

If you're one of those w... wizards that already plays Exanima on a controller or you're curious to try it out then good news, you should see proper controller support on the beta branch in the next few days. We're adding bindings for everything, new control methods and interface mechanics and even some selection thresholding for UI controls, item icons, and in world objects. This is great for controller and touch screens, but the latter is something we've been wanting to do even for the mouse so you don't need to be pixel perfect when trying to click on small objects like keys or levers.

Our aim for now is to allow you to do everything in the game without needing to take your hands off the controller, and to make basic controls work well. There's a lot more we can then do to make things like specific interface interactions more streamlined. Exanima's controls and interface were not designed with controllers in mind, so we've had to think outside the box, but that's when interesting things happen. Either way let us know if you have any suggestions for improvements.

Something else that was on our to do list and got prioritised is a quick use power binding. You will now be able to select a power to use with a single key press and no bar. It wasn't really needed with mind, but will be useful with force and other domains that are bit more combat focused.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Gumsmith]

And also allowed characters to control the height of swings. This is something we eventually want to make into a new close combat skills for targeting horizontal attacks, but for the time being it does a lot to mitigate swinging over heads or into the ground. Combined with the recent additions of edge alignment correction and overhead alignment characters now have very complete control over weapons.

Most intriguing, I'd definitely like to try that out. Swings sailing over the head of my opponent is a common problem for me with some weapons.

 

[Gumsmith]

Beta got updated.

If I'm not mistaken the polearms do seem to be behaving better. Easier to plant the blade into someone's head rather than whiffing over it.

Off the top of my head:

Exanima 0.8.3p Beta

-Controller support

-Controller bindings for all gameplay functionality

-New aim control mode for combat targeting

-New camera controls optimised for controllers

-Several new input mechanics optimised for controllers

-Dilated interface and icon hitboxes

-Partial (WIP) interface controls

-You can now select a power to use with a single key press

-Improved greatsword handling

-Characters control swing height to avoid swinging to ground or over opponents

-Improved how characters position feet near obstacles

-Added smart selection for small world objects near cursor

-Fixed new global experience not applying on continue

-Fixed numerous input system quirks