The Pre-Alpha 2 release is now publicly available.

This update brings a complete overhaul to the combat mechanics, a new options menu that allows you to configure everything, and more good stuff. Patch 2a brings major improvements to performance issues and character physics stability.

After our first launch, we've received a load of valuable feedback which we decided to implement. There were a number of important things to revise, both technical and gameplay-mechanics wise before we could comfortably work towards a proper implementation of weapons combat.

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Head over to our Itch page to download the latest installer! New (minor) updates will be patched via the Launcher, so make sure to run that to stay up to date with new updates.

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What's new

Overhauled combat mechanics

In this release, melee combat has seen some major improvements. You now have better control over where, when and how you strike. Chaining attacks is also more intuitive and fluid. But beware, your AI opponents also benefit from these changes!

• Completely revised attack handling
• Improved combat animations
• Added three attack modes to choose from
• Improved attack guard mode
• All configurable in the options menu

Gameplay

• Added a first person mode (work in progress)
• Major improvements to camera handling to be more responsive
• Characters are saved now, no more losing your creations!
• Added blood particles
• Added support for Xbox 360 controller
• Improved combat AI
• Added an orbit cam so you can check out your character from various angles

General

• An all-new options menu that allows you to configure quality, performance, gameplay, camera & combat controls
• Improved character physics to be more stable
• Improved character performance
• Randomly generated characters now also generate random bodies and clothing colors
• You can now generate and save random characters from the armoury

What's fixed

While many issues were fixed in overhauling some of the systems, what was fixed separately (thanks to your feedback).

• Characters now can't get stuck in the attack charge position ('Matrix position')
• Fixed bug where character physics didn't initialize properly
• Fixed a bug where characters would be unable to move after getting up from a fall
• The 'stool of death' shouldn't trap your leg as much anymore
• Fixed some performance issues, but more work is still to be done

Behind the scenes & Next up

Much of time during this release was spent working on behind the scenes stuff. While it might be boring to most of you, we thought we'd share what we've been up to anyway.

Some important back end stuff

Before we can fully dive into the juicy weapons combat, we need to switch to a new & powerful ScriptableObject database. In order to do that, and go from prototype to a scalable solution, we made some major improvements to our game's architecture. This means better development practices, and less repetition in the work we do.

Weapons

Weapons! We've received many requests about when it's coming. Weapons combat has seen much improvement over the past weeks. With a bit more polish to the physics, we'll release a simplified version with a select number of weapons as soon as possible. 

With all that out of the way - we hope you enjoy the changes in this build, and as always love to hear from you in the comments or on the forums! Special thanks to our Kinship patrons for their patience & continued support!

- The Team