BAH Arena V0.3.198: Release Date + Info + Changelog (Patreon)

Hello everyone!

And the time has finally come, time for some big wall texts and for the thing you’ve been expecting for quite some months now: the release date xD.

As I mentioned in the past DevReport some “stuff” got in the way but I didn’t want to get int details because it kind of looked like a total bullshit, but I think now I can talk about it, besides there’s more to be added that happened in the last few days before getting ready to compile.

If you don’t want to read me crying, then skip it to--->>

Just as what happened with the release of 0.1.XX with my “new” pc, started happening again since the past two weeks or so. Meaning constant freezing and auto-restarting, but this time didn’t look related to GPU temperature but something else… what else? I don’t really know and couldn’t find it, maybe it’s still the summer in here where I live that kills any pc, but mainly when UE4 is up and running, when not I can do whatever I want that it won’t freeze lol. This caused the final steps for this release to slow down a lot, reducing considerably my working time.

But if that wasn’t enough, then we’re finally done and ready to compile, aaaand UE4 decides to throw a critical error (I have to include here a “nonsense” as well) preventing me from compiling the game. You can’t even imagine what I felt during these 3-4 days, the stress… weeeell anyway, to make the story short, UE4 decided to change the way it read a type of variable, and changing that variable type to… just the same type it was and compile the code… solved it! xD. Yeah, something this absurd, delayed the release like 4 days. But it took me so many days to find the problem because the error thrown gave no information at all, just a bunch of lines pointing an error on .dlls… yeah DLLs, something that has nothing to do with how you code in UE4 XD (I should have saved the error code to show you so if you have some knowledge on UE4 could see just how “helpful” that error code was).

So, this was basically the last two weeks or so. Good thing is that now that stupid error is solved and the release is about to be done so like they say “All's well That ends well” lol. But this caused a problem. I couldn’t test it as much as I wanted to and this derived in no video-walkthrough for this release, for now (hopefully just like it happened with the 0.1.XX release, my PC will stop freezing and I’ll be able to record again) so I count on you guys to report any unmentioned bug you happen to find.

>>--- Here I finished crying xD.

On to other things, even after making the changelog I noticed I forgot a few additions that have been made, so I’ll mention them here and take the time to expand on some others mentioned:

If you don’t want to be spoiled on some surprises then skip this to --->>

· Destructible meshes has been added. This means you can knife stab or shot some objects and see them how they rip apart. For now, there’s only a few of them and just in one Mission, but the next step in those destructible meshes is to make boxes, plants, etc., etc. destructible so you can find items inside of them.

· Added a new type of interactable object. This time a lever. Said lever can be working at first or it can be linked to a puzzle you must complete first.

· Added an Elevator. But unfortunately, this time is not for you to hop on in but rather to move something else. This was added in a last instance and that’s why we didn’t have a mesh for it, so I improvised something quick, that’s why it’s so ugly, but don’t pay attention to its look but it’s mechanism xD. By the way this can be linked to any other type of interactor, like a puzzle or a lever.

· Remember those light beams puzzles present in Devil May Cry or in Resident Evil 5? Well, something along those lines has been added. It’s a WIP it has to be expanded in order to let you make things like grab them, rotate them, etc. For now, they’re in place but their light beams can be occluded by any other object on its way. Don’t worry though! They won’t kill you if you touch them like in RE5 xD.

· In Resident Evil 5 and 6 as well as some other, you can find those shootable stones that make you unlock extras, right? Well, we started making this implementation, right now there are only on one mission and they serve as a way to unlock only one thing.

· The dismemberment system and how it works: Some time ago, we shown an image of an Infected with his head rip open and we didn’t say what it was. Some people got it right just with that, while some other thought it was a new type of enemy. Unfortunately for the latter, it’s a dismemberment system. It works using the Critical % parameter of the weapon. The handgun has a low critical % parameter and there’s no weapon upgrading in yet available, but it still happens many times, but even though, we added a new Fantasy Card to improve the Critical parameter. Right now, it’s only implemented at about 55% because you can’t dismember legs yet, mainly because there’s no crawling enemy’s mechanics and AI implemented yet. So, to dismember the head just aim for the head, pretty easy, huh? To dismember arms, make sure you hurt it first (when the enemy can’t move it) then once hurt, shoot at it again to dismember it. Dismembering both arms, causes enemies to die, because they’re just useless xD.

· Another thing we did is to get rid of Physx for skin simulations like the jiggly things for Julia, to a better system and to get rid of the problems some of you may have for having a screwed physx installation.

· The dodge system: Pressing F in the right moment (shown on screen) allows you to dodge an attack. But only attacks, no grabs. And not always, because you have to have enough stamina to do it, and the distance at which the attack started have to be close enough for Julia to notice it. Saying this, it’s clear that to avoid the fast attacks that the Big Guy does, you’ll have to smash the F button once you see him coming XD. Also, the dog’s attacks are a bit tricky to dodge sometimes, since they may attack from too far.

· Another system that makes use of the stamina bar is the physical attack system. This system has been implemented to help you get out of situations like being surrounded by enemies with your weapon empty. It’s not meant to make Julia a Street Fighter character xD but to help her get out on situations like that. So even if she can kill enemies with those attacks, don’t expect that to happen frequently and also, make sure Julia is facing the enemy you want to hit, otherwise you’ll frustrate at her attacking right at the side of such enemy while he’s looking at her waiting for the right moment to attack xD.

· The system we decided to call CQC, is what RE features since RE4, where you damage a key zone, like the head, a leg or an arm and sometimes the enemy get stunned by the pain allowing you get closer to him and pressing the key shown on the screen to cause a huge damage on him. This was shown on a past screen too, and some people also imagined what it was. But I screwed it up and while some of you (sorry, can’t remember the name -.-') corrected on the comments “attack on floor” wasn’t the correct way of writing it, but… I forgot to fix it -.- Also, this system is still a WIP, and sometimes it acts weird making Julia to move out of the range of attack and causing a beautiful attack to thin air, while the enemy recovers peacefully from his stunning. Last thing is, while you can physically attack dogs, you can’t CQC them (they don’t dismember either yet).

· Another implementation is the wandering system for the other enemies other than the dogs. So now they won’t have to be standing still. With the implementation of this system I realized we gonna need a better pathfinding system other than the one implemented in UE4, because it’s really “amazing” to see how retard this system can be making enemies walk against a wall infinitely… lol. The code I use it’s pretty simple to be honest, I first get a random location inside a radius, but making sure such location is REACHABLE by the enemy, then make the enemy go there… and the result… well you already could see it with the dog, but you’ll be able to see it with the other enemies as well now xD. So, for the future we have two options, trying to get A* pathfinding algorithm implemented on UE4, or changing completely the wandering system for a patrolling one with manually specified correct target locations… what do you preffer? A random moving enemy or with specified constant paths that can allow you to learn their movement to avoid being spotted?

· The new and definitive Title Screen has been implemented. Yeah, this is the title screen the final game will have, at the beginning we decided to add and modify a marketplace bought asset of a title screen for the Arena, just to avoid losing time implementing one from zero. But as time has been passing, I thought it would be cool to have something ready for the final game already, so started implementing the Title screen, the Pause screen and the character customization screen. There’re some options yet to be implemented but they’re already there (in gray) so you can see what they will be.

>>--- ‘Till here the end of the spoilers

Something I want to mention again even if it’s been pointed before is that there’s no save system implemented yet. And also, there’s no new Sexttack animations, because they’ve been not necessary for what we’re implementing (if you have any question yet about this, make sure you read the FAQ here). But cheer up new animation lovers xD, because for the next version, we have to implement something related with Sexttacks that require new animations 😉.

One important thing is, that because we’re working on the future save system, I had to overwrite a lot of the code used to save options and unlockables, this resulted in compatibility issues with previous releases. So, you’ll have to configure options again to get them save, and will also have to fight for the unlockables to properly save them now (besides, we changed the unlockable requisites a bit, but don’t worry because we’ll give all of them with the release post).

Phew, I think this was a lot of writing XD. Probably this ruined some surprises for you guys, if you read them all, but it was important info we had to give in order to avoid confusions. But if you didn’t read them, then probably you won’t want to read the changelog xD.

Now on to the important part: THE RELEASE DATE

If everything goes fine, the release date is as follows:

7-7-2020

Note: This date may vary a bit due to different reasons (including different time zones)

Please, make sure to take care and stay safe! <3

See ya in the Release post.

 Any Question? Check this post! => General Info - MUST READ  

The Changelog

If you don’t want to be spoiled on some surprises then skip until the end of the post--->>

-v0.3.198-

+New+ Julia's model with improved polygon count and smoother skin (more than 40 subtasks went into this)

+New+ Soft skin (+ physics) system for Julia with more jiggly stuff

+New+ Skin shaders for Julia

+New+ Mission 3 (with tons of subtask that didn't got accounted for the versioning number)

+New+ Mission 4 (with tons of subtask that didn't got accounted for the versioning number)

+New+ Stamina parameter used for some new actions

+New+ Dodge system for enemy attacks (more than 15 subtasks went into this)

+New+ Physical attack system to help avoid getting surrounded when you have no ammo (WIP) (more than 10 subtasks went into this)

+New+ CQC system meaning you can now hit a key part on the enemy then get closer to him to physically apply a lot of damage (WIP)

+New+ Animation damage system for enemies now showing animMontages instead of sequences

+New+ Dismemberment system (WIP: you can't dismember legs for now, because there's no crawling enemies AI implementation yet) (more than 20 subtasks went into this)

+New+ Wandering system added to Infected as well, not only for dogs anymore

+New+ Cheap wet surfaces shader (you can see them in the Exterior area in Mission 2, especially in the Mansion porch)

+New+ Culling configuration for big levels, to alleviate drawing distance charge

+New+ Title Screen (this is the look it will have in the game) (WIP) (more than 15 subtasks went into this)

+New+ Pause Screen (WIP)

+New+ Character Customization Screen look

+New+ Way of handle saving stuff like unlockables for the future saving system

+New+ Unlockable requisites including the ones for the new hair style and outfit

+New+ Hair style

+New+ Outfit

+New+ Fantasy Cards for this release

+New+ Programming implementation for the new FCs including the increasing of the weapon's critical % parameter

+Change+ Added a blur effect to the pause screen to avoid mesh shaking

+Change+ Made the interaction area for Julia bigger so it's easier to interact now

+Change+ Tweak and rebuild of lighting and fog in the Exterior Area in both Mission 1 and 2

+Change+ Improved the interaction system, now when a heal item is equipped using it will have priority over other interactions like jumping over, etc.

+Change+ Getting rid of Patreon rank checks for unlockables since now everyone can unlock them

+Change+ Tweaks made to roughness and specular channels to avoid Julia's skullcap being so different from hair

+Change+ Updated Mission 3 related info vars to add the corresponding preview image

+Change+ Updated Mission 4 related info vars to add the corresponding preview image

+Change+ Updated some Sexttacks animation morphs to avoid boobs clipping into straps (for outfit with those)

+Change+ Changed the Infected disintegration FX to make it look more similar to the dogs one

+Change+ Updated the version number to reflect the new update

+Change+ Updated the Changelog to reflect all the new stuff

+Fix+ The handgun appears as unloaded even when there's ammo on it already

+Fix+ Julia enters sometimes in an infinite animation loop when reloading the handgun

+Fix+ Knife can't hit enemies lying in the floor

+Fix+ The handgun crosshair opens too much with slight movements

+Fix+ Enemies can grab Julia when she's interacting with something else

+Fix+ Enemies' gens act weird during grab animations

+Fix+ Physics on enemies' gens have misconfigured collisions

+Fix+ Julia's hair color resets after level changing

+Fix+ After getting ammo, if there's any qty left, this disappears like if it was dropped by an enemy

+Fix+ The big trees in the Mansion's courtyard can cause Julia to stuck in them forcing a reset

+Fix+ Retrying the Mission 1 during the sewer's countdown causes an inventory lost

+Fix+ The Julia's Interactor area goes through the floor now that such area is bigger

+Fix+ Enemies drop more than one keyitem even when only one is specified

+Fix+ Pressing F consecutively while examining the hatch at the beginning of Mission 2 at the Exterior area causes the text to stuck and stack on the screen

+Fix+ Dogs sometimes turn 90º to one direction before jumping causing them to go into places they shouldn't

+Fix+ When getting an item in the exact moment it's disappearing or while Julia's running and she passes the item while stopping causes an inability to interact with anything else forcing a reset

+Fix+ Doing a physical attack or a CQC attack when there's no equipped weapon makes no damage on enemies

+Fix+ Doing a physical attack, a CQC attack or a Knife stab is counted as a shot from the equipped weapon for the stats

+Fix+ Julia and enemies meshes are a bit floaty (in the sewers sequence it may look like Julia is still floating when the camera moves far from her, but that's a visual glitch from UE4 making her shadow to disappear on her feet)

+Fix+ Knife stabs won't show enemy damage animations

+Fix+ Sometimes even when the button is showing up to get an item, Julia still won't get it

+Fix+ Some morphs aren't working with the new Julia's outfit

+Fix+ When opening the door to the Mansion in Mission 2, the rain appears inside it

+Fix+ Sometimes the porch floor won't appear wet like it should in Mission 2

+Fix+ Character customization background lines cover some important parts of Julia's model, like her face

+Fix+ Some levels are missing the way to capture environment light to project it onto Julia, causing her to have some green reflections in some areas like her eyes

+Fix+ Enemies can grapple Julia for Sexttacks other than the blowjob one when the new outfit is still a no-go for those

+Fix+ (Not totally confirmed that this is fixed) Landscapes like the Exterior area have problems with physic interactions like enemies going ragdoll when dying causing a Fatal Error

+Fix+ Julia shaders have a too strong SSS

+Fix+ Some navmeshes aren't properly built

+Fix+ Title screen is still warning about some unbuilt lighting for objects

+Fix+ Enemies shot after jumping over an obstacle will make them falling to floor instantly in an unnatural way

... and a lot behind the scenes work.

-Meguido