Vapourware Sui Generis + Exanima Early Access

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Technomancer Since this game is more of a pseudo-physics simulation, how are these less mental spells handled? Combat damage and force relate to the body type of the character, but is it known how mental scores/resistances are represented? I have done tests where I will perfectly target an eligible enemy and hold down the cast button for as long as it takes to illicit an effect (or I run out of mana). Sometimes it works, often times nothing.

That's pretty obscure under the hood stuff, you best ask something like that from madoc on discord or steam. He is pretty good at explaining it and its usually not as simple as you would likely assume.

But I don't really understand your question? I found effects to be working consistently enough. At least on humanoids. On creatures, I just never bother. For humans I know that their mental state is a huge factor but I don't recall in what way. Probably extreme mental states change things quite a bit (panic, rage). Not really sure, never got that invested in mind myself.

I notice that I have to work it in steps. Reveal the mind. Calm the mind. Then apply an effect. I don't bother with demons or the ghouls in the lower levels, but it should work on skeletons. Even when they have a big bright transcendent mind to target, my results are random and typically brief.

 

[Technomancer]

I notice that I have to work it in steps. Reveal the mind. Calm the mind. Then apply an effect. I don't bother with demons or the ghouls in the lower levels, but it should work on skeletons. Even when they have a big bright transcendent mind to target, my results are random and typically brief.

Transcendent is an interesting choice of word, someone was reading lore

 

[deama]

Is this thing done yet? It's been in development for like 10 years.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Correction: The combat tech demo has been in development for 10 years. The actual game's development hasn't even started yet afaik.

 

[Technomancer]

Exanima 0.8.5.3 Beta

This introduces environment impact damage, object interaction improvements and some important bug fixes.

Unless you fall from a significant height, most impacts, even if quite violent, should do maybe 1/3 of your health at most. Any impact/collision can cause damage, including if a fast travelling object hits a character. This damage is based on which parts of the body are hit, which means there's a significant difference between breaking your fall with your hands and hitting something head first. The masses and forces involved are also important. A body can receive multiple impacts in one go, but the overall combined damage should still not really increase from this. For the time being this is all limited to stamina damage, we want to see if the damage system is working well before we start killing all your characters with bumps and scrapes. We have some improvements to the system in mind, but it could be useful to see how it performs without them.


There are a number of improvements to object interaction, which have been on our QoL list for some time. First off, you no longer need to directly target something with the cursor to position an object, this makes things like positioning planks over pits or other voids significantly easier. Objects will also no longer just snap back to their original position if you try to place them out of range or in an invalid position, but rather attempt to land in their current position, if it's still valid. To cancel moving an object and snap it back, simply press the right mouse button. Finally, if you hold "Interact" (default Ctrl) before clicking on an object to drag it, you will now grab hold of a point on that object and start dragging it. This allows making fine adjustments to objects without picking them up and repositioning, and it allows you to drag objects with you as you walk using the keyboard. The drag behaviour for bodies has also been improved.

 

[Technomancer]

Testing branch was updated to version 0.8.5.3c

• Very low collision damage can no longer cause a KO

• Fixed objects dropped with the cursor out of bounds becoming un-interactive

• Fixed weapons dropped by characters not being draggable

• Fixed a glitch when moving articulated objects

• Fixed being able to pick up vertically distant objects

• Fixed lighting glitches occurring under certain conditions

• Fixed a probable cause of errors when moving to a new location with a follower

• Other bug fixes

 

[Technomancer]

Has he mentioned implementing fall damage or are you inferring from the work on Force thaum?

Fall damage in action. Those NPCs had most of their health depleted so particularly aggressive throws knocked them out. Looks like everything is ready for force.

 

[Technomancer]

Upcoming content teaser.

This is an outdated WIP version of the force tree.

 

[Technomancer]

20/2/23

The collision damage system has been in testing for a few days now and it seems to be working very well and as intended. This ended up being quite different and more advanced compared to our original solution as we tried to cover more cases and applications. There's a tricky balance between realism and gameplay here in taking raw physics inputs and figuring out what the outcome should be in different situations. We found some elegant solutions that aren't hacky and temperamental and indeed it seemed to have worked out really well.

We also introduced some important changes to object interaction. Object placement is a lot easier and more intuitive, it will try to place objects in the last valid position displayed rather than snapping them back to their original position unless manually cancelled, and you no longer need to target a valid location with the mouse to move an object somewhere where it can rest on something. We've also added a new interaction mode that allows you to grab a point on an object and drag it. With this you can make fine adjustments to object positions without picking them up and drag objects with you as you walk. These are some good QoL changes that we've been wanting to make for some time, we know that these things could feel quite fiddly and frustrating.

There were lots of bug and other fixes and things are looking very solid now. We've tested the really important engine and game system changes and we don't plan to make any more real additions to the test version. We're now focusing entirely on content related things for the full update. Madoc's been very busy with all these new systems and hasn't been free to support the art and level design guys with some final touches they need to make to new content.

Right now we're making an important addition to our terrain design tools which will allow level designers to add and customise procedural terrain brushes with interactive results. This previously required Madoc to program in new brushes, so this will give the artists much more freedom and a better workflow. It's also part of a solution to the problem of creating a large seamless open world with hundreds or thousands of brushes that all potentially need to interact with each other. Nothing really new here, and it's based on existing systems, but it's moved up our to-do list as we're making these kind of additions to a lot of different content right now.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Technomancer]

27/2/23

This week we've mostly been trying to get through the updates to our terrain tools and system as quickly as possible. This isn't just about the tools, but also figuring out how to approach our future workflow and maintain assets that are based on user curated procedural systems that are always changing and evolving.

To explain the system a bit better, our terrain uses "brushes" which are long chains of rules for painting terrain based on shape, elevation, proximity to water, various randomisation functions and custom inputs etc. These generate materials which then have various rules for how they interact and blend with each other and can change the shape of the terrain or add details like 3D grass. A single brush could automatically paint an entire game world, or just do something very specific so that an artist can paint individual details or make fine adjustments. It's the kind of powerful tool that really needs a nice visual interface with interactive outputs to make the most of it.

We implemented and updated the brush system and added the tools to meet our current requirements, it's tightly integrated with existing terrain tools and it has a clear future compatibility path. We probably won't really need to do more with this until we start releasing very large scale terrains. Madoc is still working closely with the art and level design guys for now, to get past some technical hurdles so that they can finalise the new content while he finishes the thaumaturgy additions.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[LostHisMarbles]

Has he mentioned implementing fall damage or are you inferring from the work on Force thaum?

This is the realistic super physics engine they've been working on for 10 years?
For real? Average mass human just casually throws chainmail armored male about 2 meters away with a lazy swing of a polearm?
O.K.

 

[ItsChon]

It's possible the values are overturned for demonstration purposes.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Tuning them back will cost us another 3 or 4 year maybe?

 

[Technomancer]

Average mass human just casually throws chainmail armored male about 2 meters away with a lazy swing of a polearm?

These sorts of throws were not really intended but it is something that players found on their own and madoc decided to keep. They are a bit too powerful but armour mass is not a factor at all currently, for physics calculations characters are basically naked.

 

[LostHisMarbles]

These sorts of throws were not really intended but it is something that players found on their own and madoc decided to keep

Over two decades now, i keep seeing players finding or making excuses for the makers of a product they purchased. Goes way outside game titles.
Without pay or any other benefits, over or under the table, they strive to validate their own criteria and/or their actions.

You don't have to do that. I can comment on the product without necessarily passing judgement on those who believe in it.

 

[Technomancer]

i keep seeing players finding or making excuses for the makers of a product they purchased

I didn't make or find it but I recall reading it on the discord so I thought I would share. Madoc called it "immergent gameplay", something (unintended features) for which this procedural animation was designed for. Throwing didn't happen at all just a few years ago simply because no one figured out how to exploit muscle and animation systems in that way.

I can comment on the product without necessarily passing judgement on those who believe in it.

Comment away, I do not percieve critique of the game as personal attack on me, that's fanaticism. I'm just keeping this thread going with conversation and random trivia.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I'm just keeping this thread going with conversation and random trivia

So like, just, mild fanaticism.
Thanks though bro.

 

[Technomancer]

6/3/23

We've switched over to the new terrain brush system and made a few other nice tool additions such as the ability to paint over and replace or remove specific materials and globally manage, replace and remove individual brushes and materials on the terrain which makes experimenting with different brushes and palettes much easier. It's all working well and we're already seeing some interesting results and possibilities.

We finally developed our procedural copper alloy (brass, bronze etc.) material. Madoc had attempted this before, but it proved particularly difficult and wasn't getting satisfactory results so it was postponed. We are now replacing many story items with updated procedural versions which are brass like or have brass elements, so it became urgent. It turned out really great and we're eager to do all sorts of things with it besides these updated items. This is the last procedural material type we still had to tackle so we can consider the whole system complete.

Different qualities and conditions of our new procedural material for copper alloys like bronze or brass, finally completing our lineup of dynamic materials:

Madoc is now back on completing the updated thaumaturgy system and force powers. We might update the test branch again soon, but this is just for some general fixes, tweaks and making sure everything works well with the new back-end changes rather than add new gameplay features.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[agris]

This is the last procedural material type we still had to tackle so we can consider the whole system complete.

 

[Technomancer]

agris yeah, I get the jest. Should be for real though, if something comes up it would use already created materials as a base. But nothing really to add in materials, they've got it covered with leather, cloth, velvet, silk, iron, steel and now bronze. Which is all you need for the late medieval/renaissance setting. Bronze alloys were only needed because ancients loved the material for some reason.

Here is another example of new material in action, this is a normal topside iron mace with brass material applied instead.

 

[agris]

Technomancer does Madoc have any business sense, in that has he ever explored commercialization this procedural materials system?

 

[Technomancer]

@Technomancer does Madoc have any business sense, in that has he ever explored commercialization this procedural materials system?

Not really, he doesn't care for money much. From what I understand so far they get enough from game sales to continue development indefinitely. Commercialization basically means licensing engine and this is unlikely because it would distract him from the game too much, it would not be a fast project. Maybe when proper modding support will be implemented there could be some traction in that area. I know some modders of the game want to make their own games on it.

 

[Gromoer]

Aside from this ‘physics’ schtick, game looks really good visually. Like it’s really hard for me to like 3D at all, as it seldom has any character and looks kind of boring and same-y probably because of shared engines. But some games especially those with their own engines happen to look at least distinguishable. Like for example Realms Beyond.

Spoiler

 

[Technomancer]

13/3/23

Our focus now is on completing force thaumaturgy. We've worked on effects, physics, lighting, sound, targeting, animation, new mechanics and UI features, but we're still not done. In the test branch we introduced large back-end changes to the AI that allow it to react to and engage with things other than characters. It has all sorts of future uses, but right now this is for the various force powers which the AI must respond to, in some cases leading to combat behaviours as some force powers react to being struck. Our AI interactions are always nuanced and unique to the situation, individual, and are driven by emotional states and relations, so there's always some complexity and careful balancing to driving AI behaviour.

Something else we still needed for force powers is an important addition to the pathfinding system. The new pathfinding is mainly based on the shape of solid objects, but things like some force powers aren't exactly solid and don't contribute to the shape of things, but could be hazardous, should be avoided or need to be navigated around. This addition introduces a new layer to our 3D pathfinding data and a system for abstract obstacles. We needed this feature for force right now, but it has many important applications with additional requirements such as the presence of specific hazards being extremely dynamic, circumstantial and subjective.

There's still work to do on the AI side of things, but we made great progress and we've got all the various parts of the AI behaviour working, now we mostly need to coordinate it and try to persuade the AI to actually do more or less what we want it to.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

So if the player creates a persistent AoE effect, BareMettle wants the AI to recognize the hazard and navigate past it. Cool--I just hope it doesn't hold back release for long! The mind powers have potential, but are underwhelming against Examina's enemies. I'm hopeful force powers will deliver the mage supremacy splendor that I adore.