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PATCH NOTES - Deadhaus Sonata Combat Demo: Blood Bath

New
  • Pause bloodlust chanting while the game is paused
  • New sound effect for blessed weapons.
  • New sound effect for when the vampire hits into a Vanguard’s empowered shield.
  • Added new visual and sound effects for the Vanguard’s empowered shield.
  • Added a damage effect to the centurion’s blessing ability. The vampire will get damaged and stunned if in range of the ability when the lightning strikes.
  • When Exsanguinate hits multiple targets, each target will have a blood, essence, or mana stream.
  • Added intro sequences for each of the four types of legionnaires when encountered for the first time.
  • Improved Centurion and Vanguard shield animations.
  • Add wave count UI, displaying the number of the current wave.
  • Adjusted/polished the Vampire attacks.


Balance
  • Vampire
    • Added a half-second cooldown to the vampire’s heavy weapon attacks.
    • Increased the number of vocal reactions when the Vampire is hit.
    • The blood vignette will be stronger based on recent damage taken (instead of total remaining vitality).
    • Screen shake when hit is much stronger.
    • Reduced maximum knockback distance on the vampire by 66%.
    • Increased maximum stun duration on the vampire by 300%.
    • The vampire will be able to pass through enemies when forced into ethereal state.
  • Telekinesis
    • Telekinesis quick cast stuns less often.
    • Telekinesis quick cast will not knock enemies down unless it stuns them and they have no armour (previously, targets would always be knocked down if they had no armour)
    • Increased initial mana cost of Telekinesis and decreased mana cost over time (total mana cost over the entire channelled duration remains the same).
  • Spearman
    • Redesigned the Spearmen AI to make them more responsive in combat.
    • Change how the Spearmen approach combat. The Spearman will now prefer to charge at the player when an opportunity presents itself, then using thrusting attacks if they would be effective. The spearman will also try to attack from the front and favour backing out to charge range over melee.
    • Increased the telegraph time off the Spearman charge attack by 30%.
    • Reduced the stun duration from a successful Spearman charge by 60%.
  • Bless
    • The bless effect will now be removed from weapons if the centurion who applied it is killed while the effect is active.
    • Increase the duration and effective range of the centurion’s bless effect and increase the likelihood of bless being cast.
  • Vanguard Empowered Shield
    • Vanguard empowered shield effect will be able to stun the player a short time after the effect first appears.
    • Empowered shield effect will no longer prevent the vanguard from moving
    • Vanguard will move and rotate slower (-70% of normal speed) while their shield is empowered.
    • Vanguards will empower their shields only within some range of their target, and the buff will end when their target gets out of range.
  • Shield Block
    • Vanguards and Centurions who hold a shield are much harder to sun.
    • Hitting Vanguards and Centurions from behind will always remove their shield.
    • Angle from which attacks can be blocked is reduced to 75 degrees (down from 90).
  • Spectral State
    • Exsanguinating Lost souls in Spectral state will fully restore essence and mana.
    • Lost Souls spawn less frequently in Spectral state.
  • Centurion
    • Increase Centurion damage and range on all attacks.
    • Decreased Centurion movement speed.
    • Made Centurion abilities (including attacks) non-interruptible by attack damage.


Bugfixes
  • Adjusted the positioning of the spear to better suit how the Spearman wields the weapon.
  • Fixed an issue with missing geometry under the elevator’s platform.
  • Fixed an issue where enemies would get stuck on some geometry after being thrown with Telekinesis. Enemies are now allowed to move down and back into the arena.
  • Fixed an issue causing the brazier fire in the arena to render differently in Spectral and Ethereal States.
  • Fixed an issue causing legionnaires who had been knocked to the ground using telekinesis to play an unintended hit reaction sound effect.
  • Fixed a bug where item pickup dialogue would continue to play while the game was paused.
  • Fixed an issue where form change dialogue could overlap with item pickup dialogue or other form change dialogue.
  • Fixed several issues that would cause a wave of enemies to never complete, preventing the pressure plate from resetting.
  • Fixed a case where centurions would get stuck in a bind pose when attempting to use a skill after their shield had been knocked off.
  • Fixed an issue causing the vampire to stop making hit reaction sounds if hit during stun.
  • Fixed a bug where dead enemies might return to playing their idle animation after falling down.
  • Fixed an issue where enemies may get stuck in idle state forever.
  • Fixed an issue where some effects would not play when enemies have Blessed weapons.
  • Fixed several issues in which weapon effects would persist on the weapon after its carrier had died.
  • Fixed an issue where the next wave sometimes wouldn’t trigger after all enemies are dead.
  • Fixed an issue where blood pools emanating from dead characters would not appear or would suddenly pop in.
  • Fixed an issue where exsanguinated enemies would pop back to their idle animation without blending.
  • Fixed an issue where Exsanguinate bloodstreams would sometimes come from empty points in space (they now always originate from the targets).
  • Fixed an issue where some environmental decals would incorrectly apply to characters.
  • Fixed an issue where knocked-off armour would typically fly off towards a fixed direction (the direction is now random).

PATCH NOTES - Deadhaus Sonata Combat Demo: Blood Bath

New
  • Added Bless ability to the Centurion enemies. The Centurion calls down a bolt of El’Sabayoth’s lightning to enchant the weapons of their allies, granting bonus magical damage for a time. This magic damage can harm a vampire in mist form.
  • Added an initial implementation of a Spearman type of legionnaire to the combat arena level. The Spearman is capable of attacking from afar, either charging at the player with their spear or thrusting at the player at closer range. If the charge attack connects, it will stun the player. This is a work in progress.
  • Added ground smash effect for mace heavy attack.
  • Mace heavy attack will always knock back enemies.
  • Added Vampire’s reaction dialogue for the Werebat cinematic.
  • Vanguard legionnaires now will raise their shield when they enter a blocking state. If the player hits the character while they are raising their shield, they will be stunned.
  • Added new mist effects for the ethereal and spectral states.
  • Added a new voice line for each time the vampire enters a trinary state for the first time.
  • Added new voice lines for higher-level minor arcana pickups.
  • Adjusted spectral state emissive values on the vampire.
  • Adjusted the Vanguard’s animations to make them easier to recognize from afar.



Balance
  • Increased all card drop lifetime by ~15%.
  • Adjusted the card time-out visuals to support gameplay.
  • Hitting a vanguard when their shield is empowered will stun for longer.
  • Vanguards with empowered shields will not move.
  • Footmen no longer perform the 3-hit combo.



Bugfixes
  • Fixed a typo where the “Sunshard” sword was referred to as “Sunsword.”
  • Fixed a typo where each type of mace was referred to as “Mace”. Restored names of “Morning Star” and “War Maul.”
  • Fixed an issue where the same dialogue line would play for the above weapons.
  • Fixed an issue where the Sorcerous Blood card played outdated lore.
  • Fixed an issue where the Werebat cinematic played out of sync.
  • Fixed an issue where legionnaire ‘struggle’ animations were not looping properly.
  • Fixed mist effect from disappearing when dashing in quick succession.
  • Fixed a crash when exiting from the combat arena to the main menu and returning to the combat arena.
  • Fixed an issue where legionnaires may sometimes get stuck in their idle state.
  • Fixed an issue where mist form was still usable while stunned.
  • Fixed an issue where some of the vampire’s armour pieces turned ethereal blue during a mist form dash in Physical state.
  • Fixed an issue with the pause menu using outdated UI in some circumstances.



PATCH NOTES - Deadhaus Sonata Combat Demo: Blood Bath

New
  • Added Discord button to main menu
  • Added Steam wishlist button to main menu.
  • Added pulsing effect to item and minor arcana cards to warn the player that the pickup card will disappear shortly if it is not picked up.
  • Added a queue system to allow the player to pickup multiple pickups at once, to a maximum of three pickups.
  • Added UI support for gear and weapon pickups. The card art and name will appear on screen along with the corresponding sound elements after each pickup.
  • Added further refinement to the drop system and further tuned drop percentages for all available items and minor arcana cards.
  • Added new mist FX for the physical realm
  • Added Mace Weapons
  • Added sound effects for Mace light and heavy attacks
  • New skill on the shielded legionnaire.


Balance
  • Wearable armour will now drop as grouped pieces (arms and hands, chest and back, legs and feet) instead of individual pieces for each body part.
  • Removed the ability for players to pick up their old weapons after picking up a new weapon.
  • Reduced maximum movement speed of all enemy types by 20%.
  • Adjusted the damage output of the six available swords to have each sword do slightly different amounts of physical damage, but minimal stability damage.
  • Added rarity color coding to swords, corresponding to their approximate damage output.
  • Added a progression to armor drops, so that successfully completing a set will make more powerful armor become available. At present, there are two distinct sets of armor with three pieces each.
  • Change mace-class weapon mechanics to perform stronger knockbacks and stuns, and reduce their vitality damage.


Bugfixes
  • Fixed a case where a piece of Brigand’s gear was inappropriately being referred to as part of the Fledglings when the lore audio was played.
  • Reduced enemy clumping.
  • Fixed a crash which occurred when re-entering the combat arena.
  • Fixed positioning of some weapons.
  • Re-add blood splatters on-screen during dismemberment.
  • Fix an issue where the vampire would be rotated in the wrong direction when ending mist form sometimes.
  • Locked camera controller during cinematics


Performance
  • Various optimizations.


PATCH NOTES - Deadhaus Sonata Combat Demo: Blood Bath

New
  • New Vampire Viktor:
    • Armor and weapons are available for upgrades (see below).
    • Cloth Simulation applied to capes when equipped.
    • Animations are a work in progress and NOT final.
  • New Legionnaires: Added a number of new legionnaires to the arena, with different armour, weapons, and size variations, replacing the previous legionnaires.

  • Added Minor Arcana: Minor Arcana are skill cards that enhance the behaviour of a Tarot Skill. Each Minor Arcana has five levels available, available as occasional loot drops upon killing enemies. The following Arcana have been added:
    1. Sorcerous Blood - reduces the heal amount of Exsanguinate by 20%. For each level of Sorcerous Blood, an additional 10% Mind damage is added to the skill.
    2. Dispossession - reduces the heal amount of Exsanguinate by 20%. For each level of Dispossession, an additional 10% Soul damage is added to the skill.
    3. Hemomancy - adds 60% base damage to Exsanguinate and a further 10% for each level of Hemomancy, but increases the Mind cost of the skill by the same amount.
    This system is a work-in-progress, in very early stages without an inventory, and will continue to be developed and refined.

  • Added weapons and armor: New weapons and armor drop as cards for the vampire to use to defeat any foe they may face! Armor pieces increase the vampire’s maximum vitality level for each piece equipped.
    • There are two different types of armor that drop, for a total of 6 pieces:
      - 3 piece set of Brigand’s armor.
      - 3 piece set of Fledgling’s armor.
    • There are six unique swords available.
    • Picking up each weapon and piece of armor is accompanied by audio describing the lore behind the item.
    Known issue: the new armor and weapons will remain opaque when switching into Ethereal state or Spectral state. The equipped gear should be translucent in these states.

  • Tarot cards:
    • Card art for all pickups.
    • Audio voice-over for each pickup.
    • Sound effects for each pickup.
  • Kythera Integration: Now being used for AI.
  • Updated Combat Arena for future Player Crypt integration.
  • Tarot cards have sound effects for when they're dropped/picked up.
  • Added a slight step forward to the Vampire’s heavy attack.
  • Mist Form dodge will now play a different animation depending on the direction in which you dodge.
  • Removed ground target decal during lock-on targeting, replaced with UI reticle.
  • Audio tracks will now fade out with the screen fade when leaving a video.
  • Adjusted how the vampire animates into a stop from a run.




Bugfixes
  • Buttons can no longer be interacted with when the screen starts fading to another level.
  • Fixed an issue that would cause shield-wielding legionnaires to occasionally use incorrect animations.
  • Fixed an issue that would allow shield-wielding legionnaires to use an ability that should only be usable by legionnaires without shields.
  • Fixed an incorrect rotation on one of the newly added legionnaire shields.
  • Fixed inconsistency between vampire and camera’s starting orientations.
    Fixed an issue where scrolling through the menu videos with a controller/keyboard did not trigger sound effects.



The Apocalypse team would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday long weekend!!




PATCH NOTES - Deadhaus Sonata Combat Demo: Blood Bath

Balance
  • Increased base rotation speed of vampire by ~50%.
  • Vampire rotation speed now scales with bloodlust.
  • Improved animation blending of the vampire during turns.



Bugfixes
  • Fixed an issue with the transition to the reveal camera cinematic in which the camera would occasionally move into strange locations far away from where it should be.