Status Update 005: MIS_ST_03, Public Build 0.1.xxx, Gameplay Updates, Pay-upfront, and Launcher/Reward updates (Patreon)

Our tiny crew has been really busy working on a bunch of things, so it was time for another one of these. There's a lot to talk about, so I'll try to address everything in the order of the title.

MIS_ST_03:

Story Mission 03 work is in progress since most of the open world mechanics are functional. Right now, it is in a fairly ugly looking, barely fun state, but it's at least playable enough to iterate on internally. We'll have more of the mission to show once it is further along in production, but for now, here's some environment concept art for one of the areas in the mission:

Story Mission 02 requires some mechanics and art assets that aren't available yet, so it will be tackled sometime after 03. Missions aren't necessarily created in the order they're played.

In addition, side mission brainstorming has begun, and we're shifting gears to producing content instead of mostly building basic systems. Internally, content production is speeding up already, but I expect it might take a little while before it is visible to you guys.

Public Build 0.1.???:

The next public build is basically ready to go, but there have been some really recent updates to the Patreon API that we want to integrate with the Launcher before we put out that build. There will be more info about some of the updates going into the launcher that I'll discuss later in this post. Inkrot is working hard on this as I write, so please hang tight!

Gameplay Updates:

There's been a lot of gameplay tweaks, but in general combat has been tweaked to feel better and more polished. Some of the more noticeable system updates you'll see in the upcoming public build will include:

I. Rewritten camera code. Behavior while locked on is much more robust and requires no more manual input. Instead of just rotating with a deadzone to follow enemies, the camera has different logic and tracking behavior based on enemy distance, and moves location as well as orientation for more dynamic, interesting combat. It's hard to really explain this stuff in words, so refer to the video at the top of this post for the details of what it looks like (or wait to test it out in a build).

Some input adjustments have also been made along with this new camera:

right analog stick movement in the x-axis has been remapped to changing targets when locked on; the keyboard equivalent for this is F and G.

Lock on is more intuitive. If you prefer tap to lock on and tap to lock off, the button will behave that way. If you prefer holding, it will unlock once you release the button. Try it out in the next build :) In case you don't know yet, Lock on is left bumper on gamepad, and R on keyboard.

If you get lost, here's the input chart document. (I'll make an easier to read version of this soon, I promise)

As you've seen above, there's also new auto-camera behavior for when you run around without any other stick input for a while, or reset the camera. This was built using a lot of tricks based around how Journey's camera was handled, so I hope you will enjoy it!

Parameters for the new camera are very tweakable internally as well, so expect it to keep getting better. We'll also include some settings in the future for turning certain features on and off based on user preferences as well.

II. Hitstops. Finally got hitstops implemented.

III. UI: Inventory, Quest Journal, Compass, Confirmation Menus. I think the title for this is pretty self explanatory. There's some bugs still, like if you heal it shows negative damage and shows damage effects, but that'll be fixed in the future; there's also no health bar in the inventory screen nor does the game keep you from using items if your health is already full, but that will also be addressed in the future.

IV. Items. Item drops and chest mechanics. Personally written item descriptions. Eventually, some actual meshes that aren't glowing lamps. Not much to say about this, but it's important that it's finally there, lol.

Pay Up-Front:

Patreon released the "pay up front" feature to everyone recently, so we're going to update our patreon to use it soon. We would have started with it to begin with since it works better with our launcher systems, simplifies reward delivery, and it's how people often expect Patreon to work in the first place, but it wasn't available for us until now. So just a heads up that we're switching to pay up front in the future. This means that as soon as you become a Patron or upgrade your pledge you'll receive your reward for the month instead of having to wait. If you're already a patron nothing will change, you'll still be charged on the 1st of the month.

Launcher / Reward Updates:

Along with updating our launcher to support the new API and "pay up front", we're going to move the delivery of monthly rewards to the launcher. This makes it easier as there's a single place for people to get all their older rewards without having to dig through messages. It also makes it easier on me personally as I don't have to worry about making sure I don't screw up a couple mass messages every month. We'll still send reminders every month when rewards go out though.

You can see the button for accessing rewards in the future to at the top of the window in this image:

And that should be it. Thanks for reading and supporting Mahou Arms!