Heartless & Dreadful : Return By 72 Hours News

So this update is meant to address the lack of using or utilizing lock on, since so many people didn't utilize it, which is okay, I had decided to rework it so the game can be played much better without utilizing the lock on mechanics much.

I've done a small test with a friend of mine who had a hard time using it and he said it felt a lot better so... Success? Maybe?

Don't worry though my fellow hardcore gamer, all of the new additions related to lock on system CAN BE DISABLED in the game's extra settings, or during a new pop up I had added in the Mission 01.

- General - 3 Drop System - Now visually looks correct on an ultrawide screen.
- General - Added distance compensation for all attacks. Based on the distance, the game will now automatically adjust the force of each movement. Basically, if you are far away from the enemy, the character will recieve an additional "push" to ensure the hits land quicker and faster. This option can be disabled, but it is enabled by default since this patch.
- General - Enemy's velocity now gets affected the same way the player's does if they are being pushed down into the ground from mid air.
- General - Lock On now has a small animation when appearing.
- General - Reduced air movement when attacking, this is meant to make the combat feel tighter and more stable overall, in addition, that should reduce the Cheese TM. If you utilized lock on before, you wouldn't notice this change whatsoever.
- Huntress Mission - fixed an issue where if you were to start huntress mission with camera mode set to auto, the camera would be detached from the player... Magic problems coming from having more options, I suppose!
- Lock On - Added Soft Lock On, basically this version of lock on will allow you to keep your directional movement and speed, This option is enabled by default now, but it can be disabled in the extra settings, or during the first pop up that happens in the first mission. Directional moves still work with this lock on mode.


- Lock On - Added an option to enable automatic target picking. This option is enabled by default, but it can be disabled in the extra settings, or during the first pop up that happens in the first mission.


- Lock On - The previous invisible lock on now has a proper icon. It is slightly different compared to using proper lock on. This already existed in the game, but this should make it a lot clearer when it's active.
- Main Menu - Fixed an issue where you couldn't change the camera mode from the main menu's settings.
- Mission 01 - Added a missing image in one of the dialogues.
- Mission 01 - Now, before the first encounter you get a notification asking you if you want to use automation or keep it classic. This happens only once, if you wish to change these settings afterwards, you can use the extra settings in the game's settings.
- Mission 01 - Fixed weird shadows on the rocks.
- Mission 02 - Fixed one of the dialogue images having a line not covered properly.
- Mission 12 - Fixed incorrect image showing up in dialogue with Dominika.
- Shamir - Arch. Needles - Now force the lock on state like other weapons.
- Toothpick - Adjusted the timings of pushing the player.
- Tower Of Blood - Huntress - Fixed an issue where she would only get rewarded 20 seconds instead of getting it based on the style meter.


Known issues -
Two issues, you can read on the below. In addition, you can always check what is being worked on/what's on the todo list below.
https://trello.com/b/suviZn7g/known-issues-and-bug-tracking

If you find any other issues or have some feedback, please report them to me either on Steam Forum, E-mail, or on the stinky Discord server.
For Discord, it may take time to approve new people due to someone having to sleep. Whichever works best.
https://discord.gg/2ZyurUSbeE

Hi, new people, hope you're enjoying the game so far.

To everyone else, the Knight's very much complete now. All that remains is to fix one terrible bug that makes his weapons visually disappear, and to likely get voice acting.

Though, I am not sure when that will happen. Kind of broke with all the medical bs. Might just end up releasing him as is after fixing that issue. And maybe making a mission.

I've done some testing, my friends say he's fun, but you know, opinions and all, lol.

Here's the changelog for this patch:
- Divergence - Fixed an issue where the game would try to store the score when playing with divergence.
- General - Adjusted the tilting power a bit to ensure it doesn't look too weird at some very sharp turns.
- General - Game will no longer set the main character into the combat state during the pause menu if you press anywhere other than the expected buttons.
- General - Input Buffer can no longer be buffered when the game is paused or you are in some other menu.
- Grindblade - Grindblade now has Super Armor, meaning you will no longer be kicked out of the charging state/animation when charging your attack. This has been done due to the fact that it is hard to pull off on higher difficulties. While it sounds busted at first, keep in mind that you still can be damaged during the animation, it just wouldn't cancel anything you do while charging.
This has been added to the upgrades menu and is unlocked by default.
- Huntress - Adjusted Huntress's style gain in order to ensure that some specific mechanics work as expected.
- Huntress - Improved CPU performance when playing as Huntress by reducing some specific calls from the camera.
- Tower Of Blood - Has been unified. Meaning that now instead of a specific button to join a different ToB, you just have to pick the character via divergence and they'll be loaded in, that should make it easier to adjust balance stuff in the future as it is no longer separated via a different scene.
- Upgrades - Reformatted the upgrades text once again to make it even easier to read.

Known issues -
Two issues, you can read on the below. In addition, you can always check what is being worked on/what's on the todo list below.
https://trello.com/b/suviZn7g/known-issues-and-bug-tracking

If you don't want to check that link above, just know that Sinner Style is going to be reworked. It's just things are done in priority.

If you find any other issues or have some feedback, please report them to me either on Steam Forum, E-mail, or on the stinky discord.
For Discord, it may take time to approve new people due to someone having to sleep. Whichever works best.
https://discord.gg/2ZyurUSbeE

Don't mind this one, just pushing an update here due to a soft lock being found.

Still working on other things, though don't expect the game to change too much with whatever comes next. After the playable knight update they'll be a small announcement of what's to come next, I think. We'll see.

- Fixed a soft lock in Mission 03 on harder difficulties.
- When using divergence, the characters will now have a visible portrait in the menu to make it easier to tell who you are going to play as.
- Realm Of The Rogue has been disabled as it's going to receive a rework later.

In case you missed, a small previous update also did the following, it was added as an edit to previous announcement.

- Upgrades - Reformatted a bit so it's easier to read.
- Upgrades - Fixed a missing Comet video from the claws upgrades.

Initially I was going to release all of this with the playable knight update, but, things happen.
I may have a surgery coming up, so I thought I'll just dump it here.
You know. For... just in case reasons.
Edit: Doctor gave me other things I need to do first and then go visit a different one. so I guess no surgery for now. Good thing I said *may*.


- General - Fixed a rare issue where the jumping animation wouldn't play out or have a delayed animation
- General - Minor performance increase for hit effects, there is now a max amount of lights that can be spawned from a hit effect, which will improve performance in areas with a lot of enemies being hit at once.
- General - Minor lighting improvements, as it turns out a specific shader ignored directional light. The player and enemies are now properly affected by it where needed. This does not cause any performance decreases, as it is simply adds information for the shader to take data from.
- General - Lighting has been re-baked in some levels, mainly where it was realtime before. Expect better performance in Mission 01.
- General - Some missing locale(Language) information has been added.
- General - Mission number now shows up in the pause menu.
- General - Multiple enemies recieved additional LODs to improve performance where possible.
- General - The character tilting system now rebalances the character tilt when the camera is not moving.
- General - Charged shot sounds now stop when switching ranged weapons. (Granted, this is probably a more temporal workaround for the annoying charging sound effect not stopping in some scenarios, I think I should take a look into it a bit more later.)
- Huntress - Fixed an issue where Huntress would have "Dodge mode" visisble on her user interface. This was an unintentional side effect from developing playable knight as he reuses the same system.
- Huntress - Reduced the walking speed animation in order for it to look a bit more natural.
- Shamir - Will now properly aim up and down, the aiming system from Huntress has been ported over. This however, doesn't affect the grenade launcher for balancing reasons.
- Shamir - Grenade Launcher - Reduced the damage output of the grenade launcher itself.
- Shamir - Grenade Launcher - Reduced the damage of the explosive dump.
- Shamir - Grenade Launcher - Added a missing muzzle flash effect.
- Shamir - Grenade Launcher - A new move has been added to the upgrades menu. (You know, I probably should have added a cooldown for it... Oh well, enjoy no cooldown while it lasts.)
Move in question:

- Mission 12 - Small balance adjustments for the enemies for that specific mission.
- Upgrade Menu - Split the collected HP/CT upgrade lines so they are easier to read.


Known issues -
Technically, only the Linux one, but that's outside of my hands. Proton team is aware of it and have a ticket for it.
https://trello.com/b/suviZn7g/known-issues-and-bug-tracking

If you find any other issues or have some feedback, please report them to me either on Steam Forum, E-mail, or on the stinky discord. For Discord, it may take time to approve new people due to someone having to sleep. Whichever works best.
https://discord.gg/2ZyurUSbeE

A small update came out after that, it had only two small changes so I didn't make an announcement on it.

- Upgrades - Reformatted a bit so it's easier to read.
- Upgrades - Fixed a missing Comet video from the claws upgrades.

Small bug fixes.
Knight's still in progress, yes.
The track was finished.
https://youtu.be/lc8dFwbDqmE

The new music tracks will come to the Steam's soundtrack as a free update once playable Knight will be fully out.

General - You can't tilt the character anymore after you die by moving the camera.
General - Game will no longer ask you to press jump or dodge to recover if you are dead.
Huntress - Fixed an issue where she would play Shamir's dying sounds when killed.
Huntress - Jumping animation no longer looks a bit weird.
Shotgun moves - Fixed an issue where the gravity and sounds were not playing from the previous update for Gun Fu and Air Combo A
Practice - Now if you die in practice mode and try to restart, it will sent you back correctly to practice instead of Tower Of Blood.


Known issues - Not that I am aware of so far, but please do report something if you find something.
Feel free to check the trello below for more updates and what's in progress and what not.
https://trello.com/b/suviZn7g/known-issues-and-bug-tracking


If you find any other issues or have some feedback, please report them to me either on Steam Forum, E-mail, or on the stinky discord. Whichever works best.
https://discord.gg/2ZyurUSbeE