Vapourware Sui Generis + Exanima Early Access

[Technomancer]

can't use the Confusion power that I selected. I can only use the Sense Minds power

After you finish leveling power, you select a new one to "learn". It will slowly fill up until it glows in UI. Then you can drag it to the bar and use it. And select a new power to level.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I have been playing more arena. I am enjoying myself. The improved AI and increased aggression no longer allow you to purposefully underswing to bait an advance only to clobber them with a remise. That used to be an almost infallible tactic. I'm finding feints to be more effective now. Two-handed weapons are still king, though not as much as before. Aggressive charging with a shield is hard to deal with, especially in close quarters.

Attrition in arena is MUCH greater now that you don't slightly heal after matches. Even in victory, if you took an ill fated blow, that character is out of commission for a very long time. I wish there was someway to spend money on healing. All 3 warriors in my roster seem to be perpetually at 50% health. I haven't resorted to pugilism yet, but I think I might have to. I don't enjoy the fist fights. With the updates, pugilism is not as quick to resolve.

Graphical glitch still rears it head infrequently. Its bad enough to where its prudent to forfeit the match. I'll try to get a screen capture. While I am also enjoying the new footwork in open terrain, I reiterate how disastrous it is around obstacles. With how frequent those are, this change is currently a net negative.

 

[Technomancer]

no longer allow you to purposefully underswing to bait an advance only to clobber them with a remise.

Tbh I found that it still works reliably. But not as bad as before, yes.

you don't slightly heal after matches

You do if you hire Physician NPC. He can even save you from 100% red bar.

 

[somerandomdude]

I played this years ago, had it on family share, and I definitely preferred the arena game to the actual dungeon game. After I learned the combat in the arena, working my way through the dungeons was a relatively trivial matter.

There were some gimmicks I figured out playing in the arena that worked just as good against mobs in the dungeons. With a dagger/sword, you could just move forward into the stab, and then back up, and if you got a face stab on something without a helment, it was probably a oneshot, but even leg stabs did a lot of damage to less armored arena foes. Rushing in and backing out worked great with fists as well, and you could win every fist fight in the arena 100% by doing that in 2 or 3 well placed punches. Pretty much all the bottom ranks of the arena could be destroyed by the first sharp pointy knife you got by just rushing in with stabs, and backing out to avoid the attack. Once I got a big hammer, head sniping with overhead swings became pretty easy. Against those shield guys, what I'd do is bait them with double swings, whiff the 1st one by swinging from right to left, and then on the left to right swing, I'd move around them (toward my left their right), and put a turn into the swing, or a full rotation, and these type of head snipes are absolutely devastating, and they get around shields, more damage than overhead swipes if you can position for one. If you do the maneuver correctly, they take a full rotation swing to the back/side of the head. Even if they're wearing plate, and it doesn't OHKO them, it will knock them to the ground, and then you can finish them off. I figured out that for a polearm/2h user, you wanted a very tall character, and if you wanted to stab stuff, then a midget worked better for that. I've oneshot guys wearing helmets with rushing face stabs, because their face wasn't covered, so I definitely like the precision of the hit detection and being able to surgically stab an unarmed spot for full damage.

 

[Technomancer]

I played this years ago, had it on family share, and I definitely preferred the arena game to the actual dungeon game. After I learned the combat in the arena, working my way through the dungeons was a relatively trivial matter.

Clapping zombies is trivial. Since they have minimal combat skills learned and they do not block at all. The deeper you go however, the harder it gets. I wonder if you traveled deep enough. Because nasty things got buffed as well with this new movement system.

 

[somerandomdude]

I played this years ago, had it on family share, and I definitely preferred the arena game to the actual dungeon game. After I learned the combat in the arena, working my way through the dungeons was a relatively trivial matter.

Clapping zombies is trivial. Since they have minimal combat skills learned and they do not block at all. The deeper you go however, the harder it gets. I wonder if you traveled deep enough. Because nasty things got buffed as well with this new movement system.

It's been years since I played it, but the most OP thing was the monster I think on floor 4-5? And those bronze golems/statues. The big monster thing, I got it stuck in a doorway, and kept hitting it with thrusts with a 2h sword, as for the golems, there were some spots where you'd get ambushed by as many as 3 or more, and I recall at least one situation where I funneled them into a choke point, and they were smacking each other until 1 was left, and I just chipped it down with pokes. Working the choke points, and eliminating a numbers disadvantage, or even retreating around a corner long enough to where you got time to get a couple hits on one guy before the others catch up.

I think you were supposed to use crystals or something to deactivate the golems, but I cleared the level out of them anyway.

 

[Technomancer]

It's been years since I played it, but the most OP thing was the monster I think on floor 4-5?

There are many more monster types now. While not all of them are as formidable some are. With this update, all of them are much faster.

Golems got a buff as well. Try fighting that boss of the level - advanced golem. That guards the power armor. He will wreck you. Especially if you avoid door cheese and fight him in his arena.

 

[somerandomdude]

Door cheese is part of the game in a dungeon crawler with limited recovery items. I always tended to avoid fighting in the middle of rooms, and preferred the halls/doors. The entire level layout is your weapon in exanima, so anything you could use to funnel, or trip up/slow down your opponents is simply playing smart.

 

[Technomancer]

25/7/22

This week has been all about Force thaumaturgy and laying the foundations for casting mechanics, animation, visual effects and sound design. Figuring out how these core mechanics work is an important step that's often difficult to navigate and gives us something rough but functional in game to test and develop further.

With the tools that came with the new renderer we can mostly develop the visual effects directly in game with real time results, which makes for a smooth iterative workflow. We already have some passable procedurally animated effects, but we still want to improve them and add some nice dynamic interactions with physics. There's quite a few force powers, but they all share the same basic visual effect style and mechanics, with a lot of the variation being a matter of shape and size.

In terms of sound design we've largely been identifying the key elements of the sound, which once again will be shared across most of the powers. We've built up a nice consistent set of punchy, warpy sounds that should cover most if not all the powers already.

With something already up and running in game we're immediately seeing the results of our work and it's quite fun. There's definitely a lot of work to do, but we're getting through it and we'll keep you updated on our progress. Force will add a lot of new tactical and strategic elements to the game and we're excited to see it come together.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Alienman]

Damn, I was hoping range was next. I want bows, crossbows and being able to throw stuff!

 

[Technomancer]

Damn, I was hoping range was next. I want bows, crossbows and being able to throw stuff!

That one is scheduled for the very last moment. Like version 0.95.

 

[agris]

Technomancer what’s your over/under on the likelihood of procedural jrpg casting animations?

 

[Technomancer]

@Technomancer what’s your over/under on the likelihood of procedural jrpg casting animations?

Most animations are procedural in some way because they interact with physics but nothing too grand or over the top. Basically just gestures and hand moves.

We saw it on kickstarter a decade ago so I assume it will look very similar. Just with much better lighting, physics and performance.

 

[Pink Eye]

Is the enemy in that gif using a frying pan?

 

[Technomancer]

Oh shit, fresh teasers!

The idea is that this will actually break apart when it hits stuff, so parts of it can keep going or "splash" off into different directions. I wanted to use fluid dynamics initially, but that just wouldn't perform well with the level of visual detail we wanted so this is a sort of hybrid solution.

This one takes a little while to charge up. It will just be stronger and travel further etc. Dunno about a shockwave, but it will "splash" on the ground.

With more power you'll be able to sort of summon a shield out of thin air with force. The push button to block so many wanted. It doesn't weigh anything, it just consumes focus while up, and you can't do anything else either. Well, you can move.

 

[Pink Eye]

>The push button to block so many wanted. It doesn't weigh anything, it just consumes focus while up, and you can't do anything else either. Well, you can move.

That sounds like the gayest thing of all time. What's the point then if you can't use magic or at least attack with it up.

 

[Technomancer]

That sounds like the gayest thing of all time. What's the point then if you can't use magic or at least attack with it up.

Wdym can't attack. Force shield is a separate high level spell. Attack one is literally the first one you get.

 

[Pink Eye]

Wdym can't attack

That quote says: "you can't do anything else either". So you use your shield and can't attack or use magic. Except to move. That sounds gay.

 

[somerandomdude]

@Technomancer what’s your over/under on the likelihood of procedural jrpg casting animations?

Most animations are procedural in some way because they interact with physics but nothing too grand or over the top. Basically just gestures and hand moves.

We saw it on kickstarter a decade ago so I assume it will look very similar. Just with much better lighting, physics and performance.

This seems really OP. Just knock them down for a free dome split with a maul or pole hammer. It looks like it would probably hit in a cone, if you were to kite multiple targets around a corner and then knock them all down. Something like this could, or should be some kind of stagger, not a huge knockdown, IMO. Use it against a mob with a shield, and if the force connects with their shield, it disarms the shield or something like this, or possibly the weapon if you time it correctly.

 

[Technomancer]

That quote says: "you can't do anything else either". So you use your shield and can't attack or use magic. Except to move. That sounds gay.

Force shield is basically godmode. You need a drawback or it's not fun. You use this spell when some nasty horned monster charges at you and you don't want to eat it and have no time to dodge. Permanent god mode which you can abuse by attacking while invulnerable is even more gay.

 

[Technomancer]

This seems really OP. Just knock them down for a free dome split with a maul or pole hammer.

Magic was always meant to be OP yes.

 

[somerandomdude]

This seems really OP. Just knock them down for a free dome split with a maul or pole hammer.

Magic was always meant to be OP yes.

Maybe it's OK if it's a limited resource you wouldn't otherwise use on regular mobs. Save it for a spot where you can kite 5 mobs back and push them all into a pit with it.

 

[Technomancer]

Is the enemy in that gif using a frying pan?

Ancient depreciated placeholder assets. They didn't really have a dedicated 3D artist back then, so Madoc had to do some things on his own for kickstarter. Enemy is using a fantasy axe.

 

[Pink Eye]

That quote says: "you can't do anything else either". So you use your shield and can't attack or use magic. Except to move. That sounds gay.

Force shield is basically godmode. You need a drawback or it's not fun. You use this spell when some nasty horned monster charges at you and you don't want to eat it and have no time to dodge. Permanent god mode which you can abuse by attacking while invulnerable is even more gay.

I don't want god mode. I thought it was going to be a shield that has no weight which you spawn whenever you need it and only works with one handed weapons. A pocket shield from the ether basically.

 

[Technomancer]

I don't want god mode. I thought it was going to be a shield that has no weight which you spawn whenever you need it and only works with one handed weapons. A pocket shield from the ether basically.

That's some skyrim shit. No summoned items. Force shield is force shield, it's spell effect. An impenetrable force barrier your char evokes with his psionic powers.

Can be brief or you can hold it, burning through focus. Point is, it's skill based. For example you can ditch normal shield completely and go two handed. Briefly evoking the shield when someone wants to hit you. Needs timing. Displacement thaumaturgy has a similar spell which warps you out of existence for a moment. Do it too soon though and you will be completely unprepared for attack.