Vapourware Sui Generis + Exanima Early Access

[Technomancer]

are they going to implemental computational fluid dynamics so that when potions hit the ground and bottles shatter the liquid scatters in the correct directions to account for the inertial movement in the liquid imparted to it by the the player combined with gravity?

Nah, it's basically just a clever shader like in Alyx. Maybe some hacks way later to make it break and spill.

https://youtu.be/8kQW2jFPYZo?t=58

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I'd ask if Madoc is aware he's now a genuine parody of his former self, but I already know the answer.

That answer is no. He's not aware.

He knows only only engine optimizations and material simulation.

Engine optimizations and material simulations have no time for mortal concerns, like playing a RPG in this lifetime.

 

[Technomancer]

Arena update is out. Expect to discover some new arenas, new gear and procedural glaives.

Also, bugs

Spoiler

 

[Technomancer]

20/6/22

The update has been live on the testing and then beta branch for almost a week now and after a couple of patches it looks ready for the main branch. We'll be going live with it along with release notes shortly. The update includes some final content additions to arena, with no more content planned for arena in the foreseeable future. There are still some nice features to add to arena and we're always making new items, but nothing is currently in the pipeline.

We've talked already about a number of improvements we still want to make to combat, many of which we've just laid the foundation for, and some that we think could really improve the feel and pacing of combat in general. We might come back to some of the more important ones in the near future, but for the time being we are trying to focus on other things.

Our main goal now for the story update is of course Force thaumaturgy. You've probably seen early prototypes of the most basic power, force blast, but an actual complete implementation of this is far more complex than that. Complex enough that we've been trying to figure out how to approach it for some time without an answer. The blast can't just be a ball that flies forward and passes through solid objects, or just stops when it touches something, parts of it need to break off or be deflected. We considered using an actual fluid simulation, this was quite doable for the physics, but we couldn't find a way to effectively render this with the fine visual detail we want. We also want some nice lighting that needs to match all this.

We do have a plan for how to develop the force effects now and we're eager to get started and see how it turns out. The core systems, UI etc. for thaumaturgy are already there, but there's a certain amount of casting mechanics and animation work to do and developing the fundamental visual effects for all force thaumaturgy. With these elements in place it should allow us to rapidly build all the different powers, and hopefully we can start showing you some results relatively soon.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Technomancer]

27/6/22

Madoc has had a very difficult and slow week, but we're all excited to be working on new and different things, with progress on the next update being done on various fronts.

The highlight of the update might be force and a new area to explore, but we're also making some updates to earlier content, items and general changes to improve replayability and make new playthrough feel somewhat fresh and interesting. We have a big list of improvements we'd like to make, but we can't possibly get through them all at once, so we're still figuring out how to prioritize many of them. Some of these things also fall into the spoiler category, but inevitably we will talk about some of this when we know what's confirmed.

Remember we said some improvements to combat seemed really important? Well, one of these in particular we all agreed should at least be worked on in parallel with other things, and that would be better combat movement / footwork. We've touched on this on Discord before, and the gist of it is to make the movement more continuous and responsive, eventually allowing new moves like switching lead foot. Dashes in particular have a 1-2 step then pause pattern which works quite well in a duel, but can feel a bit sticky in group fights or just when you're not really in control of the fight or experienced. We're looking at some general changes to the pace of combat, and this becomes critical to making it work. Even on its own, we think it could make the combat feel immediately more fluid and fun.

This is not an easy change to make however, footwork is one of the most difficult problems we've dealt with, and has taken a serious lot of development time already. Often we've tried to make improvements and had to scrap them when we just couldn't get them to actually work. Keeping things consistent and responsive with very unpredictable constant movement and turning inputs, external factors and keeping the character balanced is just very complicated. We've been studying the problem constantly and testing some ideas, and at this point we felt it was worth giving it a shot. We're still not sure the new approach will work, but we're hopeful.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Lim-Dûl]

This thing seemed close to releasable when they were first asking for donations. What have they been doing for like ten years?

 

[mediocrepoet]

This thing seemed close to releasable when they were first asking for donations. What have they been doing for like ten years?

Indexing the atomic weight of all things in order to more realistically simulate the crunching of gravel under your feet as the general public demands. Or something along those lines. It went from "realizable game product" to "mega autistic passion project" at least in the way it's been presented to anyone outside of the dev's mind.

 

[axx]

Madoc has had a very difficult and slow week

Is this some sort of slave-dwarf they keep chained in a dungeon in front of a computer with only notepad and C compiler installed?

 

[Technomancer]

4/7/22

Last week we cautiously talked about improvements to combat movement, we weren't sure yet how much of it would really work in practice or how well. We managed to get the key changes working very well indeed, they've been in the testing branch for a few days, the feedback has been extremely positive and no issues have been found, though we've already made some improvements.

Previously movement was limited to a 1-2 step pattern and a return to default stance before a new movement can be performed, the new system allows you to change or reverse direction at any point, keep moving without delay and offers better granularity for distance travelled. This makes for fluid, accurate and responsive movement, with big implications for the dynamics and pace of combat. It's also just a lot fun. To support this there were some foundational changes to footwork, which improve character balance and allow more daring manoeuvres.

This is a big change that really affects how you play and what you can do. You can dash forward to attack and still reactively dodge as you do so, you can change your angle of attack and generally reposition yourself very rapidly. The lengthy commitment to one movement that could be frustrating for players and easily exploitable against AI is no longer a thing. We are still working on the AI using the new system and generally have yet to realise all the implications, but it all sounds great and we're absolutely loving it so far.

With the AI changes complete we'll be ready to take all this to main branch, even the release notes are ready. This slight detour was absolutely worth it, we're glad we finally managed to make this change which we've been wanting for years now and that it was this successful.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Turn_BASED]

4/7/22

Last week we cautiously talked about improvements to combat movement, we weren't sure yet how much of it would really work in practice or how well. We managed to get the key changes working very well indeed, they've been in the testing branch for a few days, the feedback has been extremely positive and no issues have been found, though we've already made some improvements.

Previously movement was limited to a 1-2 step pattern and a return to default stance before a new movement can be performed, the new system allows you to change or reverse direction at any point, keep moving without delay and offers better granularity for distance travelled. This makes for fluid, accurate and responsive movement, with big implications for the dynamics and pace of combat. It's also just a lot fun. To support this there were some foundational changes to footwork, which improve character balance and allow more daring manoeuvres.

This is a big change that really affects how you play and what you can do. You can dash forward to attack and still reactively dodge as you do so, you can change your angle of attack and generally reposition yourself very rapidly. The lengthy commitment to one movement that could be frustrating for players and easily exploitable against AI is no longer a thing. We are still working on the AI using the new system and generally have yet to realise all the implications, but it all sounds great and we're absolutely loving it so far.

With the AI changes complete we'll be ready to take all this to main branch, even the release notes are ready. This slight detour was absolutely worth it, we're glad we finally managed to make this change which we've been wanting for years now and that it was this successful.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

My drunk retard knight will feel slightly lighter on the chromosomes now.

 

[gerey]

Still no option to rebind swings from different sides to another button.

 

[oldbonebrown]

This game really needs good gore effects. But I dread the thought of how long that would take to implement.

 

[Technomancer]

This game really needs good gore effects. But I dread the thought of how long that would take to implement.

0. Madoc hates tacky gore. There is a strong desire in the community for it, but so far he was pretty adamant about his stance. Apparently even adding dynamic blood decals for environment is under a big question since it would be very complex.

 

[whydoibother]

Still no option to rebind swings from different sides to another button.

But we'll get semi-liquid vacuum physics!

 

[Technomancer]

11/7/22

Adapting the AI to the new movement has proved to be a much bigger and more interesting task than we anticipated. The rate at which AI can make and apply decisions was massively increased and so were the possible tactics. Unchecked this gave the AI very jittery behaviour and uncovered quite a few problems that we weren't aware of, both specifically and generally in the way it was making decisions. There was quite a lot to investigate and address and we had to make the AI consider its options much more carefully and properly commit to them. We also found it necessary to introduce important core changes in behaviour for different types of creatures.

We've been iterating on this for a few days with some public tests and the updated AI is definitely much more varied and interesting in its behaviour, resulting in some engaging combat that feels much less repetitive, which was one of the main goals with the new movement system. A lot of work has been put into the AI, but we're realising now how much it was being held back by some fundamental issues. The combat is very open ended and AI here is far from an exact science, so we'll be observing and tweaking things over time. As always your feedback is very welcome and useful.

Some have reported an increase in difficulty at least on the higher skill levels. A general increase in difficulty is not our aim, but the way we design the combat AI is to first make it as strong as we can, and then reduce its effectiveness in terms of tactics, prediction, accuracy etc. If we have a higher ceiling to work with then we can reserve this for special encounters and combatants of rare exceptional skill, which is something we always really wanted, but couldn't quite pull off.

We will inevitably make adjustments as we observe the AI more over time, but it's in a good place now and we're super happy with all the changes and just how much fun we've been having with the combat, it really is a huge change for the better. The latest build is fresh off the line from last night, but it seems to be solid and so we're ready to properly move on.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Pink Eye]

Technomancer You're slouching your duty!
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/362490/view/6277472037877215678

Exanima 0.8.4
Big combat changes, general improvements and some arena goodies.
Since our last update we've made some major improvements to core gameplay systems and many incremental changes and additions based on feedback and our own goals. There's also some nice late content additions for arena. Our next update is entirely story focused, so we wanted to wrap all this other stuff up and get these very important changes out now.

The highlight of this update is the most major changes to combat yet, as well as some smaller, but still very important ones. The combat is faster, more responsive, more solid and realistic, many lingering quirks have been properly addressed. These are transformative changes and we're excited for what it brings to the combat and what it allows us to do going forward as we finalise more skills, itemisation and gameplay features.

We've been through a lot of major development hurdles, making our own engine, tools and complex unique game systems, exploring with players the implications of these fundamentally different approaches and how we can make the most of them. With the game being in uncharted territory it's hard to imagine a time when it won't seem like things should or could be improved, and constant community feedback and requests ensure our to-do list is always growing. The major content goals for the game are now few however, and our road map to 1.0 includes a whole lot of gameplay and quality of life additions, many of which we've now covered here. We will continue to improve the game after full release, but it's good to check some of those boxes.

NEW COMBAT MOVEMENT SYSTEM
Movement and footwork are the foundation of the entire combat and probably the single thing we've iterated the most on. Making the movement physics driven, reactive, somewhat realistic and responsive to the player all at the same time is something we've always battled with, without a clear idea of what might ultimately be possible.

For a while now we've been trying to figure out how to fundamentally change the movement so that it's not limited to a fixed step pattern and returning to stance before moving again. If characters could move freely and without pausing the combat would be much more dynamic, faster paced and responsive. Our plan looked promising, and we decided this was too important and had to be attempted.

These things don't always work out, we've a hit a few dead ends in the past, but this was a huge success on many fronts. You can now change direction, cancel movements or continue moving without waiting for the previous movement to complete and without pausing between steps. There is also more granularity to how far you move based on inputs. In order to support this we had to also work on the dynamic footwork and animation systems, making for better balance, control and cleaner animation under all conditions. These changes combined offer a level of control we previously didn't think we could achieve.

This is a massive change for combat, with huge implications. We have also had to do significant work on the AI to adapt it to this, and tried to make it more engaging and tactical in the process. It will likely take you some time to learn how to make the most of this new movement and everything it allows. As with everything, you do need to work in harmony with the physics and body motions. We've been having a lot of fun testing and polishing these changes with the help of our Discord community, they've been met with very high praise and we're really excited to see the combat evolve in such a big way.

WEAPON AND DAMAGE MECHANICS REWORK
We recently introduced procedural weapons, but this was an important first step of a larger itemisation and weapon mechanics overhaul. In this update we've got a huge rework of how weapons work, the damage system, armour mitigation, how everything interacts with physics and more. We've added a lot of detailed data to weapons to describe their features and how each part of a weapon should behave, there's many new weapon and weapon part classes and subclasses.

This allows a much more detailed model for how weapons behave and supports many new and future features. Weapon are more diverse and balanced with specific advantages and uses, various long standing issues with the damage system were properly solved, there's support for new itemisation features and skills and generally brings important improvements to gameplay and realism.

There was a big focus on more realistic physical behaviour of weapons, but always with the goal of improving gameplay and balance, playing to the specific strengths of different weapons, breathing new life into some underperforming weapons and categories. There have also been improvements to core physics, character animation and attack mechanics to support this. Some weapons can now also be dynamically flipped to strike with the reverse side, something which will be extended to more weapons and different grips over time.

Beyond the immediate improvements, this new platform with very detailed weapon data combined with component wise procedural generation allows us to do much more still going forward. The goals is to give weapons ever more mechanical differences, techniques, motions and gameplay features that distinguish them well beyond what stats can do.



CONTROLLER AND STEAM DECK SUPPORT
Despite the lack of proper support some of you were already using controllers and it's a frequently requested feature. Steam Deck support was also requested and we worked on Proton compatibility, special UI scaling, control schemes and various input and performance optimisations with surprisingly good results.

Exanima is a game that does not naturally lend itself well to controller input, some aspects of interaction by necessity remain cursor based, but we developed dedicated control schemes for all core gameplay and user interface. The game can be played fully on controller and it's quite a fun and different experience.

Cumulative changelog for version 0.8.4:

• Weapon mechanics and damage system rework
  
  
• New combat movement system
  
  
• Two new arena environments
  
  
• Remastered courtyard arena
  
  
• Nine new armour pieces making two full sets
  
  
• New procedural weapon: glaive
  
  
• Velvet procedural material added
  
  
• Detailed physics data for different parts of weapons
  
  
• Specific behaviour and damage from different parts of weapons
  
  
• Many new weapon and part subcategories with different behaviour
  
  
• Haft types with different behaviour and sounds
  
  
• Reworked weapon damage and armour mitigation mechanics
  
  
• Major slash rework with hewing and cutting damage
  
  
• Some weapons can now be flipped to strike with the reverse
  
  
• Improved thrusting mechanics
  
  
• Improved remise behaviour
  
  
• Core physics engine improvements
  
  
• Animation system improvements
  
  
• AI combat improvements with adaptive behaviours
  
  
• Smart overhead targeting based on cursor relative to opponent
  
  
• Dynamic swing height adjustment, preventing very low or high swings
  
  
• Improved edge alignment control
  
  
• Improved greatsword handling
  
  
• Added fading feature for objects obstructing the camera
  
  
• Improved camera obstacle avoidance behaviour
  
  
• Improved cursor behaviour for look function
  
  
• Smart selection for small objects and inventory icons
  
  
• Steam Deck support, performance, UI and control optimisations
  
  
• Proton and Linux GPU driver compatibility fixes
  
  
• Full controller support via Steam
  • Dedicated movement and aiming controls
    
    
  • Feathered object and UI cursor interaction
    
    
  • Full menu and UI navigation and interaction
    
    
  • On screen keyboard support
  
  
• Controls to quick cast a selected power
  
  
• The roster can be rearranged via drag and drop
  
  
• The roster is now colour coded
  
  
• Shop items are neatly and persistently arranged
  
  
• Shop items displayed from newest to oldest
  
  
• Shop stock rotation rate increased
  
  
• Arsenal tabs can now be scrolled
  
  
• Arsenal correctly scales to different aspect ratios
  
  
• Brushes can now be used from inside the arsenal
  
  
• Added a confirmation prompt for forfeiting tournaments
  
  
• Performance improvements

Best,

Bare Mettle

 

[Technomancer]

Get off my back, can I have some sleep! Do you know that in some places it is night when it's day at yours.

 

[Gumsmith]

With the new movement system it looks like they've taught the AI to dodge, it's quite good at making subtle movements to put itself just out of range of your swing, as well as keeping itself within optimal striking distance. Dropping your sword and fighting with your bare hands is no longer an "I win" button because the AI will just bob side to side and backwards as well to avoid your fists, instead of blundering about like before. A good change overall, though the AI's movements are uncanny.

 

[Technomancer]

18/7/22

The game is now officially on version 0.8.4, which includes some major updates to combat, lots of general and quality of life improvements and various additions and updates to arena content. Be sure to check out the full release notes here if you haven't already.

In the past week we made some further refinements to footwork and lots of tweaking and adjusting AI, with lots of specific adjustments made for various creatures. We've added a new layer of controls for different creatures and races describing how they move and perform other tasks which allows us to make many new adjustments very easily.

Now we're back to focusing entirely on the upcoming story update. We all know the major features of this are a new area and Force thaumaturgy, but we also have a big list of things we need to add eventually and things we'd like to add. We tend to pick and choose from this list as inspiration takes us and time allows, so we're not sure yet how much and what will make it into the next update just yet. Technically just one item from this list would match our tentative roadmap to make this one of 3 major content updates for version 1.0, in practice there are many things we think could really improve replayability and the game in general which we'd like to include. Either way we'll let you know what we're working on and what progress we're making, so long as it's not something too spoilery.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[agris]

This slight detour was absolutely worth it,

Should be project's tagline.

 

[Gumsmith]

We definitely spent a bit longer on this than we thought we would,

agris

 

[Perkel]

so is this game more than few rooms like it was 10 years ago ?

 

[Alienman]

Combat seems to feel a lot snappier. Having fun on a new playthrough. Some new cool weapons too, long knives and stuff.

 

[Kruyurk]

Technomancer You're slouching your duty!

This dude wears velvet from head to toe. How dare you question his level of commitment?

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

In light of all the tweaks/updates, I loaded this up. I haven't played it since I built a new rig about 2 years ago and switched to Linux. This game looks absolutely great on full settings. Was getting 143FPS with no dips. I would occasionally get a psychedelic graphical glitch where the screen strobe blue and violet gridlines. I haven't worked it out yet. Its very random.

Gameplay is smoother. AI has gotten much better at dodging overhead strikes, but far worse at defending against thrust than I remember. AI is more aggressive than I remember too. Overall combat is less of a drunken brawl--so long as you stay away from walls and objects! The new footwork suffers greatly when around impediments. Rather than pushing the object like before, the leading foot tends to go over/around and the hind foot catches the object. Individual legs tend to twist and clip. Very obnoxious.

I started messing around with Thaumaturgy in dungeon mode, but can't use the Confusion power that I selected. I can only use the Sense Minds power. Spellcasting UI seems like it will be inadequate for combat. Arena mode is much better. The tooltips are welcome and overdue. I also like the "day cycle". Item pricing is more approachable, thiugh that might just be my memory.