Hellish Quart News

In this update, besides important tweaks to the game mechanics, we also introduce ducats - an in-game currency that you can earn by winning sword duels. Ducats are used to unlock new stuff within Hellish Quart - skins, arenas, upgrades, etc.

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Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2023.11.22.0

FIX:
- Zera, Alexander: fixed sword swing sounds not playing
- Fixed regression: Long Guard is once more disabled for 0.15s after a Long Guard attack
- Jan, Barabasz: fixed occasional "noodle hands" on some LG attacks (there may be more)

TWEAK:
- Decreased the number of physics iterations per frame for less precise, but more stable simulation, to prevent swords from locking up on collision
- Canceling on active frames when the opponent is also attacking is now optional, and on by default (you can disable it in Options)
- Jacek: distance blending on LG Step thrust attack
- Jacek: his faster attacks now deal a bit less damage
- Jacek: a bit longer recovery on base attacks
- Jacek: his (RFF) Y attack now retracts the blade a bit before the strike
- Jacek: Down, Fwd Y, Y combo has more time between attacks
- Marta: The follow-up attack after a Push causes more damage (can kill now)

NEW:
- Introducing in-game currency: ducats. Ducats are earnable ONLY by playing the game. Every time you win a fight in the Arcade, Survival, or History Buff mode, you earn a randomized amount of ducats. Every time you are wounded or lose a match, you lose a percentage of your already-earned ducats. The longer you play each mode, the higher the chance of winning big amounts. Ducats are then used to unlock skins, swords, arena enhancements, new characters, etc. Historically, in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a ducat was a common name for a one Czerwony Złoty coin (eng: Red Golden). Złoty is the currency in Poland to this day.

- New Arena: Small Gym
- Arenas: Armory, Meadow, Small Gym - new unlockable content

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.11.13.0

FIX:
- Fixed a bug where the characters, after pressing the Long Guard, would get stuck in this guard. This bug occurred only when playing using monitors with more than 75Hz refresh rate (for example 144Hz monitors).
- Switched back to detecting the hits from the ragdoll and not from the character skeleton (seems more reliable after all)
- Isabella: fixed the situation where she would return to High Guard pose for a moment, after finishing a High Guard attack
- Jan, Jacek: more muscle power for better swing trajectories
- Jacek: combo timings tweaks
- Jan: tweaked the trajectory of Fwd, Y, X combo to be more blockable
- Marie, Samuel, Marta: down, fwd, LB results in a Taunt, and not a special move
- Yendrek: (LFF) B, B timing tweaks that give the axe time to deal damage before it pulls back

IMPORTANT: Please check the integrity of the game files in the Steam client after this update!

1. Load the Steam client
2. From the Library tab, right-click on the game and select Properties from the menu
3. Select the Local files tab and click Verify integrity of game files...
4. Steam will verify the game's files


Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.11.12.0


FIX:
- Fixed a bug where the arcade mode difficulty was locked out at difficulty 3, regardless of the chosen level.
- Character Selection Menu: when playing with a keyboard, you can only choose your fighters by using the appropriate set of keys for the side you chose. You can no longer press any key to choose the keyboard as your controller (it caused confusion for new players). A panel with a default keyboard controls layout will pop up when you press any key on the keyboard.
- Fixed a situation where you could cancel a Forward attack, and instantly do a Backward Attack, because Backward and Sidestep attacks did not respect the cancel cooldown rule
- Gedeon: fixed a bug that forced him to a wrong foot position when canceling certain attacks
- Father Zera: Bashing through the opponent's Long Guard with a cut no longer disables the damage detector
- Gedeon: fixed a bug where he was not respecting the cancel cooldown in some attacks
- Jacek: fixed a situation where he could bypass the opponent's Long Guard with his Far Lunge thrust attack
- Jacek: his lower guards are a bit higher to get his forearm out of the way
- Jan: fixed a bug where you could not cancel B attack
- Samuel: fixed a bug where you could cancel some attacks on active frames
- Marta: fixed a bug where you could cancel some attacks on active frames
- Marie: fixed a bug where you could cancel some attacks on active frames
- Isabella: fixed a bug where you could cancel some attacks on active frames
- Jan: fixed too long blending to some guard positions
- Barabasz, Jan: (LG) Fwd + Y animation tweak so it's "more" blockable
- Jan: Fwd, Fwd, Y is no longer cancelable
- Jan: Fwd, Fwd, X is no longer cancelable
- Fixed a situation where you would not assume a guard pose, if your opponent started his attack first, and then you started yours right after, but canceled it right away. Now you will assume a guard pose if you do that.
- Updated the Rewired Game Controller Plugin to the newest version to improve Dual Sense controllers support (mainly, it fixes the bug where the button mapping randomly resets for Dueal Sense)
- Updated Playmaker plugin to version 1.9.7 (bugfixes for the editor)


TWEAK:
- Animation transitions tweaks, which should result in quicker blending to guard poses from attacks, and in effect, more responsive blocking.
- Jacek: is generally ~6% slower
- Jan: tweaked the Fwd, Fwd Y animation to be more blockable by the Long Guard
- Jan, Barabasz: tweaked the (LG) Fwd + Y animation to be more blockable
- Samuel: is generally ~4% faster
- Marta: tweaked weapon inertia
- Marie: tweaked weapon mass and inertia
- Gedeon: tweaked weapon inertia for more stability on collisions
- Jacek: Longer recovery in Back attacks on whiff
- Jacek: weapon inertia tweaks
- Isabella: tweaked the (RFF) LG + Fwd + X thrust attack animation so it is clear that it aims at the torso.
- Increased next Attack delay after canceling the first attack from 0.2 to 0.26s


NEW:
- New move: Taunt. A short move that makes the opponent assume a lower or higher guard, just like a normal attack would. This is more of a psychological move, a short twitch, that may trigger your opponent to react (for example cancel his attack, whiff, or dodge). Assigned to Left Bumper on gamepad, or Y+B on gamepad, or Y+H on keyboard or R on keyboard. Please reset the controls to default if you changed them, or assign Taunt manually.

- New Attack Canceling rule: If your opponent started an attack, you have 0.3s in which you can cancel your attack even in active frames. In other words, when the opponent is attacking, the "no canceling on active frames" rule is suspended for 0.3s.

For example: you start your attack, and right after, your opponent starts his. This would result in a double kill or a "parry and riposte". With this change, you are no longer committed to your attack, and you can cancel it any time (by pressing Backward) to assume a guard position and block his riposte. Remember that canceling still triggers the cooldown for the next attack, so you can't cancel-spam attacks, even if your opponent is swinging in the air.

- Isabella: new Long Guard combos to break the somewhat OP one-button-mashing-stab tactic (you can still do it, but now you have to cancel to break the combo, and not just mash the button)
- Added UI button glyphs for Playstation controllers, that will show, if your first hooked up controller is a Playstation controller


Known bugs:
- If you play in more than 60fps, the Long Guard does not go back to the Neutral Pose, when you release the Long Guard button. We are working on resolving that issue now.

- Grabbing someone sometimes doesn't trigger a corresponding animation
- Training matches don't have win / lose animations yet

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.10.19.0

TWEAK:
- Jacek: (RFF) Back + X attack has a bit longer cooldown to still allow switching legs upon block
- Jacek: tweaked the trajectory of (RFF) Fwd, Fwd, X (Far Lunge) attack, it also has a bit longer recovery time on block
- Father Zera: fixed some regressions and tweaked timings on all Holy Stance attacks
- Father Zera: (RFF) Holy Spear attack triggers an anti-thrust center guard, rather than anti-thrust upper right guard
- Father Zera: Holy Stance attacks have less homing
- Father Zera: increased damage of some attacks so it fits the visuals and common sense (a big, 2 handed sword cut should deal more damage than a saber cut, etc.)
- Isabella: decreased damage of some attacks so it fits the visuals (quick snap cuts should not deal 80 damage etc.)
- Kalkstein: (RFF) Back, X attack has longer startup

FIX:
- Kalkstein: (LFF) Fwd, Fwd, X attack triggers the correct guard

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2023.10.14.0

TWEAK:
- Father Zera: his Back + Y snap cut deals more reasonable damage now and has a bit longer recovery
- Jacek: Fwd + Y attack has a bit longer recovery (if not canceled)
- Isabella: rebalanced sword inertia vs. muscle power
- Isabella: doesn't lose as much movement speed when tired

- The camera has a bit wider angle
- The cutting damage detector is now connected to the graphical mesh of the weapon, instead of the ragdoll. This should improve the consistency between the background simulation and the visuals. This may be reverted in future updates if it ever causes unforeseen problems.
- Stables Arena: Fighters' start positions are now further from each other
- the default Audio Speaker Mode is now set to Stereo. Options to change this to 5.1 or 7.1 coming soon.