New update!

This one brings improvements to the grip system (the new sticky grip is much more reliable now, I recommend you guys to try it!), a new system to detect if the sword hit the enemy with the sharp edge, and additional changes to the blood arena and lobby.

I hope you like it! :)

Grip Improvements

• Sticky grip only unlocks weapons after 0.5s of pressing the grip and only if the controller speed is lower than 75. This greatly reduces the instances where the player unintentionally loses the weapon in the middle of a fight.
• Lock grip has the possibility to use "trackpad up" button instead of the trigger to unlock/lock the weapon. You can change it in the options menu.
• Added option to hide hands when holding weapons.
• Removed the possibility of disabling the physics grip in the options menu. Is now the only mode in the game.

Sword hit angle

• Damage now depends on hitting the enemy with the right angle, and also hitting them with the sharp edge of the blade.
• Under the new system damage is reduced to 10% if you hit the enemy with the blunt edge (e.g. back side of the Katana) or with an incorrect angle. This is a hit or miss model, so if you hit them correctly you get 100% of the damage, and 10% if you don't.
• Tolerance depends on difficulty. The current set up is: +- 30 degrees hero, +-40 Gladiator, +-50 Novice.
• Visual and sound effects change depending on the strength and hit angle.

Blood Arena

• Blood arena is now locked until day 3 is completed.
• Added new panel at the blood arena gate to show your current rank and max score.
• Removed skeletons and mummies from the list of enemies in the blood arena. It will only spawn humans and minotaurs.
• Reduced Minotaur frequency to 1/8 (from 1/5)
• Added a few stones on the floor.

Gameplay

• Shields now push human enemies and tigers when they attack you!
• Stones now deal 35 damage vs flesh and 10 vs armor.
• Reduced stabbing minimum speed to 200 from 250.
• Reduced safe distance to 100. This allows you to get closer to enemies. I will further reduce this distance in the next updates.
• Added sounds when punching helmets.
• Use risky attacks is now disabled by default for new players. You can still activate it in the options menu.

Group AI

• Slower disengage velocity to 160 vs 220 (gladiator, sword master, Barbarian)
• Enemies always make a sound when attacking if they are behind the player.

Chariots

• Increased break speed of horses (0.5 to 0.35). You can break faster now!

Lobby

• Brightened up the lobby and made overall lighting adjustments to the area.
• Changed sign materials so they are less reflective.
• Fixed UV maps of the barrels (they were darker than they should be)

Fixes

• Fixed lobby menus not working.
• Fixed custom training not spawning archers.
• Fixed enemies getting stunned and not attacking anymore.
• Fixed error when trying to add blood to a sword that can't have it.
• Fixed new players not seeing the early access panel.
• Fixed blunt weapons being able to stab.
• Fixed stabbing not doing full damage.
• Fixed barbarian sword not registering a hit at tip of the sword.
• Fixed momentum damage not being applied to armor.
• Fixed shield bash against gladiators

Internal stuff

• Updated to UE4 4.16.2
• Completely switched to Grip motion controller (VRExpansion Plugin)
• Added animation granularity to gladiators
• Added blocking blend parameter at Gladiator level. This will allow to block with shields and swords in the future.

As a side note, I know some of you guys are experiencing frequent crashes. If that is the case, please send me the logs to multiversevr@outlook.com and I will try to fix it asap.

You can find the logs here:
C:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\GladiusVR\GladiusVR\Saved\Logs

Cheers!