Swordai News

The servers are now open, and all players are invited to dive into the tower and test their dueling skills! I'm excited to see you explore the updated tower areas, new fights, and improved mechanics.
If you encounter any bugs or issues during your adventure, please report them in the bug-report channel on the Discord.

Your feedback is invaluable in making the game the best it can be!

Thanks so much to the 3000+ players who signed up!




[h2]Gameplay Features & Mechanics[/h2]
[h3]General Updates:[/h3]

• Adjusted Othari NPC attack aiming after a kick to prevent stabbing over players' heads.
  
• Cripple status effect now blocks jumping.
  

[h3]Loot & Crafting:[/h3]

• Loot crystal mechanics improved: Crystals now allow completion of loot interactions if decaying unless decayed multiple times (prevents abuse).
  
• Fixed a bug where loot crystals would flicker during looting.
  
• Added a lesser crystal infuser in the T1 dungeon area.
  

[h2]UI & Visuals[/h2]
[h3]UI Improvements:[/h3]

• Tower menu improvements: Fixed resizing bug during server list reload and made it more visually appealing.
  
• Fixed the cultivation UI to correctly lock items you cannot afford, avoiding confusing server rejection.
  
• Made the chat appearance cleaner, and improved the combat log with more human-readable terms (e.g., "Right Hand" instead of "hand_r").
  

[h3]Visual Fixes:[/h3]

• Added baseboards and minor details across various tower areas.
  
• Improved decoration in the Initiation Trial and the T1 tower crafting room.
  
• Fixed a floating banner and misaligned torch in Memories.
  
• Fixed misaligned walls in the Initiation area, upgraded textures.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Flame Acolyte loot table, ensuring all ingredients drop.
  
• Brightened a few dark areas for better visibility.
  
• Updated visuals for the tower entrance, adding new trainers and challenges.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]
[h3]Major Fixes:[/h3]

• Fixed a rare Puppeteer boss bug where she would get stuck if the aggroed player stood in a certain spot.
  
• Fixed Guard Captain achievement not being granted properly after a kill; players will now receive it the next time they enter the tower.
  
• Fixed AI issues with lost souls to give them a stronger identity; they now use Mist Step as a dodge (planned future improvements for more creative use).
  
• Fixed a bug where essence rewards were not displayed correctly when performing katas on the server.
  
• Addressed alt-F4 loot crystal bug to ensure all items drop properly.

[h3]Navigation & Collision Fixes:[/h3]

• Fixed stair collision bugs in the left path of the new dungeon area.
  
• Fixed a nav mesh issue in the big hexagon room of the T1 dungeon.
  
• Fixed a bug where a respawning barrier statue could cause collision issues if players stood in its spawn point.
  
• Adjusted colliders separating rear and left paths in the new dungeon.
  
• Blocked players from walking too deep into mist portals without a soul key in the tutorial area.
  
• Fixed an issue with the block instructor NPC in your home not rotating to face the player properly.

[h3] Server & Networking Fixes:[/h3]

• Improved server performance by fixing issues with kata orbs and lights.
  
• Fixed a bug with server transfers during red portal use and enhanced error handling for failed transfers.
  
• Fixed packet routing to improve ping for cross-region gameplay (e.g., NA to EU, SA to NA).
  
• Switched the main NA server from East to Central for better scalability and performance during the playtest.
  

[h2]Optimizations & Performance[/h2]
[h3]Performance Enhancements:[/h3]

• Fixed FPS drops by addressing issues with particle system culling
  
• Adjusted the kata orb jumping puzzle in the T1 crafting room to reduce performance issues.
  
• Mist portal optimization: Added additional lights in dark areas and tweaked visuals for smoother gameplay.
  

[h2]Planned Improvements & Miscellaneous[/h2]
[h3]Decoration & Polish:[/h3]

• Memories boss fight redesigned from a chaotic NPC vs. summon fight into a more balanced duel for all skill levels.
  
• Continuous decoration efforts for the T1 tower crafting area and general detail improvements.
  
• The 2nd stage of the Initiation Trial is slightly easier to achieve a C rank, with no change to higher grades.
  

[h3]Miscellaneous Fixes:[/h3]

• Fixed a bug where crafting resource counts wouldn’t visually update when depleted.
  
• Improved error handling for portal failure cases, returning to a white portal if unrecoverable.
  
• Added icons to the Steam inventory backend for better visual clarity when viewing backpack items.
  
• Fixed a bug where escaping from the crafting menu wouldn’t close it correctly under certain conditions.
  

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2321890/Swordai/

Greetings Swordsmen!

In preparation for the third playtest going live on the 30th of September, Patch 0.6.0 has been deployed to the playtest build, here are all the changes alongside the trailer:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Gameplay Features & Mechanics[/h2]
[h3]Loot & NPC Updates:[/h3]

• Added loot tables for All NPCs and Chests in the Tower.
  
• NPCs have a chance to drop loot crystals.
  
• Looting players' unbanked items when harvesting their soul crystals after killing them in the tower.
  
• Chest loot quality scales up over time if not looted.
  
• Time loss on death in the tower now scales based on progress depth.
  

[h3]New Tower Area:[/h3]

• A major new section was added to the tower, larger than existing areas, and interconnected with other parts.
  
• Several new NPC types were introduced, including a new Mini-Boss.
  
• New spike traps added.
  
• All new NPCs give reasonable tower time when killed.
  

[h3]Crafting System:[/h3]

• Added crafting stations in the tower for infusing crystals with essence.
  
• Added a shard merging station to turn lesser shards into minor shards.
  
• Void storage crafting station introduced, allowing access to banked items.
  
• Added a new crafting area in the T2 dungeon for working with 2nd-tier materials.
  
• User Interface & Visuals
  

[h3]UI Updates:[/h3]

• Updated tower climb server select screen with a brief explanation of tower mechanics (UI aesthetics to be improved).
  
• Fixed UI bug with dodge cooldown not displaying properly.
  
• Improved error handling for interactions with Steam inventory (more useful offline information).
  
• Fixed a display issue in the summary popup when runs end with zero essence.
  

[h3]Visual Effects:[/h3]

• Added VFX/SFX for activating secrets.
  
• Upgraded all animations to use the new 5.4 Engine retargeting and foot placement system, and redid the idle animations for improved realism.
  
• Upgraded textures with nanite tessellation.
  
• Added new VFX for chests and coffins, optimized for better performance.
  
• Redesigned chest smoke and coffin VFX.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]
[h3]General Bug Fixes:[/h3]

• Fixed camera clipping during emotes.
  
• Fixed navmesh bug causing NPCs to get stuck on the staircase outside the puppeteer room.
  
• Fixed bugs with barrier and bind statues not respawning or dimming properly.
  
• Fixed various map issues, such as floating objects and misaligned textures.
  
• Addressed a rare crash that could occur when switching levels.
  

[h3]Server & Networking Fixes:[/h3]

• Fixed server transfer issues with players following friends through red portals but not spawning within the same spawn point.
  
• Improved server performance, including optimizations for kata orbs, lights, and candles.
  
• Fixed a server maintenance notification bug.
  
• Added error handling for potential network errors during dungeon traversal.
  

[h3]Steam API Fixes:[/h3]

• Addressed retry handling for Steam API failures in specific cases.
  
• Resolved issue where Steam inventory service wouldn’t load item quantities correctly for players with over 65,000 items.
  

[h2]Optimizations[/h2]
[h3]Performance Enhancements:[/h3]

• Fixed performance issues with particle system culling, significantly boosting performance.
  
• Optimized dedicated server performance for kata balls and particle systems.
  
• Improved FPS in busy dungeon areas by optimizing lights and candle effects (switched to Niagara effects).
  
• Added tesselation toggle, with tesselation now defaulted to on for new users.
  

[h3]Hotfixes:[/h3]

• Removed heterogeneous smoke volumes on coffins and chests that caused FPS drops, but the rework of chest smoke VFX is pending.
  
• Disabled corpse smoke VFX for improved performance and aesthetics.
  
• Adjusted AI to better punish players who stun themselves with reckless kiai.
  

[h3]Decoration & Polish:[/h3]

• Ongoing work on adding small details, trim, and baseboards to various areas of the tower and dungeons.
  
• Still decorating new tower areas—missing wall decorations and baseboards.
  
• Future work includes polishing crafting stations and finalizing features for upcoming playtests.
  

[h3]Miscellaneous:[/h3]

• Made the jump in the new starting area easier to take.
  
• Fixed a mispositioned collider in the tutorial area.
  

And that concludes our sneak peek of Patch 0.6.0, don't forget you can still sign up for the playtest via the Store page.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2321890/Swordai/

I've significantly updated the progression through the game so that you start with no abilities and gradually unlock them as you progress by collecting loot, completing katas/challenges, earning essence, etc.
The entire backend database structure has been overhauled to use the Steam Inventory Service heavily. Along the way, I've also implemented a bunch of QoL improvements based on feedback and some significant animation improvements.



The new ability crafting system lets you build a custom loadout from any abilities that you have unlocked. Abilities have a type and must be slotted into a matching slot. So for example, there are multiple "dodge" abilities but only 1 dodge slot so you can pick exactly one dodge for your loadout. You can have one kick, one dodge, two offhand abilities, two passives, and two warcries. You can also add a Kiai upgrade and there will be similar options for other slots in the future.



Because of the database changes this update comes with a reset of your cultivation upgrades, everyone will start from scratch. For this update, I am mainly focused on the new player and single-player experience so until the next patch, only single-player and the freeform server will be accessible.



[h2]Patch Notes:[/h2]

• You now start with no abilities (not even kick/kiai/dodge) and unlock them by progressing through the game.
  
• There is a new interface for unlocking and equipping abilities that lets you make a custom loadout and an animated tutorial for using it.
  
• You now have a backpack that stores loot you collect which you can view by hitting B. At the end of a level, your backpack contents are added to your stash.
  
• Beginnings has some visual improvements and the tutorial text has been streamlined.
  
• All instructional text in all levels now uses rich text to add inline images and bolding/highlighting for increased clarity.
  
• Rewards for completing each challenge/kata and separate rewards for S grading them have been implemented. These rewards are used as requirements for various things in the ability system.
  
• Memories has had all of its instructions updated.
  
• The 2 secrets in Memories now give rewards.
  
• The animation system has been updated to use the new UE 5.4 system for foot placement along with a bunch of other tweaks that should make it look a lot more natural.
  
• All abilities now have detailed rich text tooltips that describe exactly what they do. You can view that from the ability menu on the cultivation tab, or by hitting "enter" while in the game and mousing over the icon in your hotbar.
  
• A few small UI changes that should make NPC behavior feel more natural when you attack immediately after they start blocking.
  
• Fixed a bug where alt-tabbing in and out of the game with multiple monitors that had different resolutions would cause visual glitches sometimes.
  
• Added a hit reaction sound to Aspiring Swordsmen.
  
• All challenges/katas now show your current grade in real time as you progress through them.
  
• Some of the ability recipes are not currently craftable and won't be until the next update comes out that updates the tower climb to match the new system.
  This update will add crafting areas to the tower and you will need to bring specific items to specific locations within the tower and combine them into higher-tier materials. Some ability recipes also have a T.B.D question mark item in their recipe, and can't be crafted yet.
• Fixed the ember heart blessing in memories.
  
• Fixed a bug in memories where in the final fight if you killed a statue, then died, and came back it wasn't respawning.
  
• A few minor visual bug fixes (a floating torch, a broken material on a piece of floor, etc).
  
• The game server now properly uses the Steam inventory service for essence as well, all previous server-side content is working. this was more work than one might think as Steam uses a different data format for their server API vs the client one.
  
• Misc. minor tweaks to text instructions and a few minor cosmetic changes.
  

I will be opening up a new playtest soon, don't forget to request access to be added to the list!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2321890/Swordai/


- Alex

This patch includes the first portion of a server sharding system that will allow different areas in the tower to be controlled by different server processes, so that the overall number of simultaneous players and npcs in the dungeon can be greatly increased without performance issues. Note that within each regional server there is a single unique dungeon, so you can still control areas, contest the boss, etc. The only change is that now different server processes control different parts of the dungeon which will allow for a very large number of concurrent players.

In addition, this patch includes most of the client side features of the new ability loadout system but without the UI. Loadouts can currently only be changed via chat commands. The next patch will contain a set of prebuilt example loadouts that players will be able to switch between via chat commands. In the future loadouts will require crafting, equipping and upgrading abilities but the UI and server side code for that is still in progress.

I also implemented a number of smaller changes to the core gameplay based on player feedback from the June playtest. The most impactful of these are making the early release portion of swings blockable and adding a new "block assist" feature that will nudge your mouse input in the direction that blocks a swing of the person you are currently targetting if they are charging an attack or swinging and near you. The "block assist" is just strong enough to significantly reduce the frequency of minor input errors, most of the time you won't even realize it exists.

Finally, a significant portion of the server side system for securely managing player inventories is also functional now, but is hidden for the time being.

Changes:

• The tower entrance and the rest of the dungeon are sharded into two processes. A second sharding patch will come later this quarter that will split the dungeon itself across several processes as well.
  
• The client side loadout system is implemented but without UI.
  
• Implemented a "block assist" that makes it such that if your enemy is attacking with an overhead it is easier to block "up" and harder to block "up right" or "up left" while all 3 of the down blocks are totally unaffected.
  
• Changed the way your upper body rotation is replicated / smoothed. I think you should feel like you have significantly smoother control of your character
  
• Made attacks blockable during Swordai's equivalent of the "early release" attack phase.
  
• Fixed a bug with the overhead swing where the sword was turning off to late and you could hit someone in the shin with the recovery
  
• Made the sword turn on later when doing an overhead swing when you are looking up
  
• Changed the down left swing animation
  
• Made the up right and up left swings slightly floatier to allow for a bit more swing manipulation
  
• Added a limited turn cap effect to your camera while swinging so that people aren't confused. The "real" turn cap is enforced server side and is on your character, not your camera and that is unchanged.
  
• Completely removed the dead zone for mouse input in drag click mode at max sensitivity
  
• Starting a block cancels the hit reaction animation so if you try to start blocking shortly after getting hit it feels more responsive (shouldn't really affect gameplay too much, but might reduce partial blocks when you are getting comboed) and might make 1vX feel a bit better
  
• Added visual smoothing to the drag click direction indicator so it looks better at high sensitivities. Your actual mouse input it not smoothed, it just captures the mouse delta of the most recent frame, the change is purely cosemetic.
  
• Fixed a bug where if you got kick stunned while jumping you would hover in mid air until the stun ended.
  

Thanks to everyone who took part is this playtest, it was awesome playing with you all. Over the course of the week, about 1,000 chests were looted and millions of damage was dealt. The least killed boss was Korgothok with only 20 kills, followed by the puppeteer with 55 kills.

Over the next few months I'll primarily be focused on implementing the loadout / ability system and integrating it with the loot system. This will significantly expand the options for 1vX situations and in particular dealing with multiple NPCs, while also allowing players to augment their build to focus on particular play styles ranging from combo focused high damage builds, to more defensive, blocking oriented builds, and more.

During that time, I'll be running events every few weeks to test out and balance new abilities and collect feedback. We'll hop on and equip specific loadouts and either do team fights, 1v2s, duels, or dungeon runs. For more details be sure to join the Swordai discord.