Hi Guys!
This update brings a completely new game mode: Chariot races! I also improved the crowd in the blood arena (3d!) and throwing has improved a lot too.
You have the complete list of improvements below:
New game mode! Chariot races
- In this new game mode you can be like Ben-hur and compete to be the fastest to finish (alive) a chariot race! You will have bows and pilums to kill your enemies, while you avoid being hit and crash against the walls and traps.
- You also have a new leaderboard in the lobby that shows the fastest players. The current champion is Turbatus, with an impressive 40s average lap (after bonus x kills)
- The new game mode is available through the Menu -> Arena -> Chariots. Prepare to sweat, a lot! :D
- Instructions:
- The chariot works like a car (with gears). To whip the horses grab the handles with both hands, and whip them at the same time. This will up one gear and start moving the cart.
- The carts have 6 gears, each with different time outs. Once the timeout expires, the gear switches automatically to a lower gear and starts a new time out.
- To turn the chariot grab both handles and bring one arm close to you and the opposite arm forward.
- To break, just pull both ropes
- If you hit a chariot or a chariot hits you, you will slow down to gear 2
- If you hit a wall and you go faster than gear 2, you will die
- You have a bow and arrows to kill enemies. If you hit a horse in the head twice, the horse will die and flip the cart
- The pilum now works as a throwing weapon (you have two in the cart). To put the pilum in throwing position, "double click" the trigger button. This alternates between normal position and throwing position. If you throw the pilum to a wheel, the cart will flip
- To win a race you have to finish 3 laps in easy, 4 laps in normal and 6 laps in hero. There is a leaderboard in the lobby that registers the best time.
- The best time is calculated as the average time of all laps - bonus per kill depending on the type of kill. (e.g. killing a horse gives more points than killing the archer)
- Every time you kill an enemy, another one spawns, so the total number of enemies in the race is always 4.
- Movement options: The chariot races in general are only recommended for people that are comfortable with trackpad movement, as the continuous movement of the chariot can induce motion sickness if you don't have good "VR legs". In this case, you have two additional options:
- You can activate the option to rotate the camera with the chariot. By default you have to physically turn (which minimizes motion sickness)
- Chariots also have the option Dual Drive mode to control the horses individually. This allows you to turn faster at the expense of more complex controls. This might induce motion sickness on some people.
New crowd!
- The new 3D animated crowd replaces the 2D People in the Blood Arena (Finally! :). I will gradually add this new crowd to the other arenas in the next updates and add additional animations and transitions as well.
- The new crowd has 7 levels of LOD, 4 different animations, and has no significant performance hit over the old sprite system.
Throwing
- Revamped the system to throw weapons! Throwing is now more natural and predictable than before.
- Some weapons now have different holding positions. To switch between them "double click" the trigger.
- For instance, the knife rotates 180 degrees to a stabbing position, and the pilum rotates 120 degrees so it's easier to throw.
General improvements
- Archers are now much more accurate in Gladiator and Hero difficulty.
- Changed wall textures of the blood arena to be stone instead of plaster.
- The Minotaur will only appear every five enemies killed (at least). This will stop the frustration of killing a mino and another one spawning right after it.
Day 3 improvements
- Chariots in day 3 don't snap anymore! I know this was very immersion breaking… sorry :) They now move in continuous trajectories.
- Chariots don't collide with each other anymore.
- Archers spawn in different positions so they can't be killed by chariots.
Performance
- Switched to the latest version of Unreal Engine (UE4 4.16).
- Activated forward render. This brings some performance improvements over the previous renderer.
- Added new LOD levels to the 2d crowd. Most noticeable in the new circus maximus.
Fixes
- Fixed the player would be sent to the lobby after being killed in the blood arena.
- Fixed sword master would spawn a broken shield after breaking the left gauntlet.
- Fixed arrows sometimes clinging mid air right after being released.
- Fixed error that would result in a crash if overmind was not assigned
to the player.
- Fixed not being able to select any option in the menu when grabbing a flail
- Fixed crash when shooting arrows very close to the minotaur
- Fixed crash when shooting arrows very close to a tiger
- Fixed crash when putting on a helmet while wielding another weapon
Please let me know what you think either here on the steam forums or on our discord channel:
https://discord.gg/63PBXdQCheers!
NOTE: The focus in the next update will be AI improvements. Stay tuned! :)