We're working on a lot of different things at the moment, the biggest focus being on getting the rest of the story content done. We're expanding significantly on what can be done in terms of level design, it's going to take us a little while to get it all working, but it will make things a lot more interesting and varied. Once we've got the basics working we can resume doing more frequent smaller updates, and we will release some new content quite soon.

In this update we've got a couple of new fairly important features, and some really nice gameplay improvements.

Changes in 0.6.2

• Switch between two sets of weapons with a key press
• unconsciousness mechanic in story mode
• Greatly improved combat movement control and smoothness
• More precise and predictable control over dashes
• Removed sways and stumbles when ending dashes
• No more falling over from huge lunging swings
• More realistic and satisfying character reactions to hits
• Improved physics and behaviours when losing balance and falling
• Reduced graphical output lag from simulation
• Improved supersampling motion smoothing
• Improvements to piercing and crushing damage mechanics
• Improved thrusting with 2 handed weapons
• Numerous animation improvements
• AI combat and pathfinding improvements
• Removed speedup after the simulation fails to remain synched
• Many bug fixes and tweaks

UNCONSCIOUSNESS

Before you start thinking that we're trying to make the game easier, know that this feature was planned long before release. Those who have followed the game long enough can confirm this. One feature of our two-tiered health system is to allow both death and knockouts. Our earliest release of the game was just the practice arena, with an already skilled playerbase and initially very little content, we kept the failure on knockout, and the intended knockout mechanics are now long overdue.

From this point on when you get knocked out you will wake up again. Much like in the arena mode. As it is you will suffer some permanent damage from knockout blows, but various things will eventually happen while you are unconscious. Bad and interesting things, that will spice up the gameplay nicely.

As for difficulty, it will inevitably fluctuate as features and content are added, but even as it is this is less significant than you might think. In practice the aim is currently to take as little damage as possible, in the long run you'll be very glad that not every KO is game over. Some things will inevitably need adjustment and we'll continue to do that with your feedback.

Note that unconsciousness is not a metagame "try again" feature, but rather something that just makes sense within the context of the game. You can still easily find yourself in situations where death is unavoidable.

WEAPON SWAPPING

This apparently simple feature gave us a lot of headaches, but besides some refinements it's mostly working as intended.

Managing that torch that we love and hate in equal measures should be somewhat less of a burden. You can equip the same weapon to both your sets, allowing you to switch between a torch and a shield while using the same weapon, for example. This feature will become even more useful as ranged combat is introduced, and supports some other planned changes to the inventory system.



Best,

Bare Mettle