Blade & Sorcery News

Hello mates, The Baron here with a U11 status report that is perhaps not exactly what you were hoping to hear. So here it is guys — U11 is not ready for release. ːsteamsadː

We thought about it and thought about it, but in our hearts we just don't feel comfortable to release U11 in it's current state as we feel it still needs significant polish to be considered complete, not to mention we are not satisfied that enough bug-testing was done.

Really sorry about this, guys. To give some context as to how/why this is happening, there are just so many new and major mechanic frameworks added to this update, all of which are new and untested, so we really want to avoid a U8 type situation and release something half-baked.

However, we know how hyped you guys are and how long you have waited, so since we have a build that we are playtesting, we decided this — Let's do an open beta.

This way, hardcore fans who are simply dying to play but also have the sensibilities to know that this is a hardcore WIP with fully to-be-expected bugginess and other jank can join us by getting into the weeds in providing some constructive feedback on the new systems, which we will actively tweak throughout the beta.

Meanwhile, more casual players who are not interested in the development of the game, don't really follow B&S news, or are more just interested in the final finished product can stay on U10 and keep using mods. Most of these type players will probably not even be aware of the beta, since it will be an active effort to opt into it, as opposed to it being an automatic update that everyone is auto-opted into.

So, there will be a PCVR open beta sometime next week. I know Nomad players also read PCVR Steam news to stay informed, so Nomad folk, I know this beta news will be disappointing for you; I added some more Nomad specific news here - (link) which also has some info on the long awaited scripted modding.

Next week I'll post a Steam news that will have the code for anyone who wishes to access the beta, along with instructions for how to do this. That news will also have a brief overview of what to expect in the update, so you can know what to test out and so forth, and I'll probably have a link to some kind of a central location (maybe reddit or a google form) so people can post their feedback and we can collect it effectively.

Cheers, guys!

Hello mates, The Baron here with a little sneak peek at a cool bonus surprise being added to U11 that we didn't mention before. As it relates to graphics, this news is exclusively for PCVR (sorry Nomad folk).

As we have mentioned in the past, we are always striving to push the limit when it comes to PCVR. Whenever I would read anxiety comments from people concerned Nomad could mean the abandonment of PCVR, I was bursting to reveal this secret project because I knew it was being worked on these past months and that it is pure PCVR goodness. ːpraisesunː

As always, the following preview images are WIP and some things may change / not be final.

I present to you, the B&S U11 graphics makeover:



To really understand the impact, have a look at this comparison before and after of the iconic "Dungeons" photo as you would all know well. The top image is as it currently is in B&S, and below is the new and improved graphics.



And another before-after comparison - the top image is the old U10 Watchtower as you know it from U10, and below is the U11 rework. I should note, these changes are only impacting Dungeons right now, with plans to expand into the Arena maps at some point the horizon.



One of the most major changes has been to the lighting tech used; in short, everything in the environment now receives dynamic, realtime lighting from a much bigger variety of light sources. Before this change, static objects had their lighting fully "baked-in", and received dynamic lighting from
only a few sources such as hand-held torches.
In the new update, static objects receive beautiful dynamic lighting from nearly every light source in the game, most notably from the sun, and the result is much more vibrant and crisp than ever was possible before. To keep performance high, most shadows are still baked in and static.



Brick and stone architecture have received a big upgrade. Throughout Dungeons, you’ll feel a much greater sensation of 3D detail. However, this is not simply tessellation; these are individual bricks that are true 3D and can be interacted with, collided with, climbed, etc.
The Warpfrog environment team worked their butts off to make all this possible, so huge thanks to big brain Chris for all his work on this the past months, and to Kaou and Drags for their tireless asset and integrations work.



In interior assets, stone columns and many other elements have been upgraded, optimized, or rebuilt to increase visual quality.



Outdoor environments in Dungeons were improved also; rocks and cliffs assets have been swapped for higher quality ones and majorly improved.



This is about the point that your GPU starts sweating about performance hits. Don't worry! Everything that was reworked is significantly more optimized than the old versions.
Bits of cave rock that protruded out of the map and beyond the player's vision have been removed to reduce overhead. There were some cases where the total polygons and lightmaps for rocks were reduced by as much as 70%. In layman's terms it translates to simply better optimization for Dungeon rooms while still having it look awesome.



On top of the aforementioned big and obvious improvements, there are also tons of little graphical and environmental optimizations that you can experience for yourself soon enough.



Not so fast - one secret bonus is cool, but two are even better! Also coming to U11 PCVR, KospY has added support for post-processing profile options. This would be things like visual filters, such as "Filmic", "High Contrast", etc.



If you ever messed around with the "ACES" setting in U10 then you might have an idea what it is like already. This is super cool on it's own, but even better is that it will also be moddable. ːsteamdanceː That means modders could get in and make custom 'looks' for the game. This may be very appealing for modders making maps that want a complimentary unique look, or for players who want things like darker/scarier dungeons for example.

So that's the news, guys!

[h3]Great, but when is all this released??[/h3]

I feel you! I'm afraid it is the same news as last week; The team are compiling all their U11 work (today!) to make a playable internal build. With that, we will bug-test and make sure nothing is flat out broken, like the game crashing.
It's hard to say how long this will take because it is a bit like asking how long is a piece of string, and for that reason we decided it is best not to set any exact release date, just in case there is something unforeseen that pops up during bugfixing and delays things. It is better to have you guys be pleasantly surprised to discover U11 has released than be disappointed that a deadline was missed.

[h3]Today is April 1st...[/h3]

If you are reading this news the day it was posted, you might notice the date is April 1st... April Fools Day... How angry would you be if I told you it was all a joke? ːsteamlaughcryː Well don't worry, it's very much real, haha!
We wanted to do something for April Fools Day though, so my good friend Lyneca ("the magic man!") has whipped up something fun for you guys - a whacky April Fools Day mod. You can grab it on nexus here (pcvr only):

https://www.nexusmods.com/bladeandsorcery/mods/5921

What the mod does is for you to find out! Remember the mod is just a joke, and crammed with silliness that is not meant to be balanced in any sense.
The world modifier will change every 20 seconds for a range of weird and whacky status effects, including a few that are hidden - can you discover them all? It would be recommended to run this mod solo so that you can be sure to know what strange bizarro behaviors are being attributed to this mod.

Cheers!

Hello mates! The Baron here with a little sneak peek of some of the upcoming U11 magic stuff that I had alluded to in previous news.

Magic expansion was not directly advertised as one of the bigger features of U11 because we weren't sure how much would/could be included in time for U11, and as always we didn't wanna say too much in case it didn't work out and have people disappointed. We figured it is better that you guys are pleasantly surprised than disappointed. So, surprise! haha

The general design decisions for magic has been (as it always has been) to make Fire a more direct damage spell, Gravity more about utility and versatile function, and Lightning about crowd control. We hope that we can pad out magic with enough features that it can make full mage builds not only viable, but also fun and exciting to play.

So without further ado, let's take a look at some of the magic changes in U11!



[Do take note that all previews are of WIP stuff, so some things may be incomplete. Previews were recorded in a buggy alpha, so forgive any lighting strangeness or enviro glitches in the previews!]

The first things you will notice in-game is magic got some really nice VFX and audio overhauls. There are a lot more particle effects going on including small stuff, like being able to see pebbles from the gravity blasts, as well as in general things just look cooler! These gifs don't really do justice to how cool it looks in VR.

Fire has some beautiful new particle effects, smoke, and heat haze FX. The overall effect makes fire imbue look more like the character in the poster art.



Gravity has a new shimmering haze and purple mist, emphasizing the more vortex-nature of this spell. The new audio similarly has a much more fitting and menacing bassy sound improvement.



Lightning is more crackling, erratic and beefy in the lightning streaks.



So let's get into some feature specifics, starting with Fire.

You may have noticed from that first gif a sneaky fire merge happening... Yes, indeed! Fireball merge is finally complete (being dubbed 'meteor'), and I think you will be surprised to see how crazy it is in-game. ːwftogrinː



Using it is as simple as merging two fireballs (similar to gravity bubble) and then launching it forward. It is pretty powerful at the moment, so you can Kamehameha to your heart content!

Fire staffs finally have a proper feature! By pressing the 'alt' button ("A" on Index) you can utilize the Firesling effect; this launches fireballs from the staff as though your were hurling a rock.

In classic B&S fashion, it is easy to use and mess with, but difficult to master! But once you get a feel for it you will be lethal.



Slamming the staff on the ground activates the Twin Firebolt feature. These bolts will circulate and home in on enemy, a bit like a magic missile (although with a chance to miss).



Next up, Gravity has received some more utility additions.

The player is now effected by their own gravity bubble, making you lightweight inside the bubble, and able to jump higher and slower. You can combine this with the new Gravity ability to "Gravity Jump". This is achieved by simply blasting gravity on the ground to launch yourself upwards; very useful for Dungeons! Combining the two effects can give you some strategic advantage and leap great distances.



Continuing on this note, one of my favourite new additions is the Gravity Glide. This new feature is achieved by simply blasting and holding gravity downwards (think Ironman or something) as you fall, to engage in a featherfall type effect where you can glide to safety.



As well as being just cool to do, these new Gravity features should open up some new traversal options for the Dungeon, and alleviate some problems for players who hate climbing.

Gravity now has a staff alt effect too! Being dubbed "Gravity Hammer", the staff can whip up objects and suspend them as though they were weightless, allowing the player to slam enemy with them or launch them like missiles.



If you were wondering if you could also whip enemies up into the air - not at the moment! We are thinking about adding this, though it is technically still possible to do by grabbing the weapon in their hand and lifting the weapon with them holding onto it, haha.

Finally, Lightning.

Lightning is still heavily WIP so some stuff is missing in this preview due to missing final VFX; namely the staff slam feature, which blasts a shockwave around the player stunning everyone - the ultimate in crowd control! So maybe I will keep this one a surprise that you can see in-game yourself.

But here is something you might like, the new staff feature: Lightning Arc



It's so fun! It's still majorly WIP in terms of balance and bugs, but to activate this you simply press and hold the alt use button to create a lightning whip-type arc. The arc will stun those it touches, but it also decapitates! Swing it at the legs of an enemy charging towards you and both legs will slide off. ːpraisesunː

Also, here is something fun: Lightning now has proper metal conductivity.



Lightning transfers between metal objects, so this can lead to some really crazy scenarios with lightning blasting everywhere. Be careful you don't accidentally charge all your enemies swords!

But on that note, 'overcharging' enemies will also cause them to release their weapons, so no more enemy infinite blocking your lightning with their weapons.

___

That is about all for now, folks! Still no word on the Soul spell, which is still not planned until the later updates. I should also note that this features listed above are not everything planned for magic! There is still a whole bunch of more magic features coming, but likely in U12 (or possibly U11.X at a stretch).

If you are wondering about U11 release time, still no solid date, sorry! I am sure a few people are getting antsy because it was slotted for Q1 and we are now technically approaching the end of Q1. This is why we never give release dates anymore, haha.
We are looking like the update could be finished by the end of Q1 (end of March) but we would really like to / need to do testing and bug-finding, so realistically it may not be available until April. Perhaps there will be an open beta, or it might be more efficient to just do an internal beta bug-fix blitz and then release the live update sooner (which means less version confusion/mods breaking a million times during beta versions). I will keep you guys posted when we know the release plan!

If any Nomad players are reading, here are the answers to the questions I know you will have, haha: Yes Nomad will received these updates (minus the graphics changes), the update would be released some time after PCVR (maybe a week or two), and still no news on scripted modding! (I promise I will let Nomad players know immediately as soon as there is)

Cheers!

Hello mates, The Baron here with the latest news from Blade & Sorcery, and to give you a little preview at what is coming down the pipeline.

The team is fully in U11 mode, and we have been expanding quite significantly which means Warpfrog is a beehive of activity right now with everyone working on lots of different systems and features simultaneously. So here is a glance at some of the wide variety of cross-department things that are in development at the moment --

[h3]STEALTH[/h3]

Here is a classic B&S example of one of those type things that wasn't even supposed to be a thing - We were surprised and pleased to see how many U10 players were gravitating towards stealth type playstyles even though we had warned the stealth in-game was pretty rudimentary.

Well, for these folks we have added some nice new features and AI improvements for you!

Big stealth improvements for AI mean they now become alert when being touched, if a weapon or object is thrown or dangled around in front of them with telekinesis, if they find a dead body, or spot light from a torch.



Sight is now based on light level and crouching, so a player crouching in the dark is much harder to spot than one standing in the light, and similarly bodies hidden in the dark will be less visible to an AI.
There is also now a small grace period between the AI seeing you to become alert. This means you will get less AI insta-spotting you from across the map and beelining towards you with murderous intent.

As well as vision related improvements, sound was also improved regarding stealth; the AI will now react to noises beyond just footsteps.



And of course, this means they will also become alert if they hear an ally yelling. But to counter this, here is something fun:



You can now muffle enemies for a proper stealth kill! Muffling enemies will silence them from alerting any of his friends. Although if you wanna go straight for the kill, the system has also been improved so that head stabs yells are more sedated while neck stabs/throat cut are completely silent. So no more guy shouting AGGHHHHH when stealth killed.

[h3]MAGIC[/h3]

There is a ton of work being done in magic but unfortunately not a huge amount to preview as everything is heavily WIP, so things are missing VFX, etc.

Our last spell is still a way off ("Soul" - unlikely to arrive until U12), but in the meantime we are padding out all the missing mechanics of the current fire, lightning and gravity spells. This would be to flesh out the current spells more like Gravity, which has multiple functions, merge effects, staff effects, etc; we are adding similar functions for the other spells so you can use staff effects, and so on. I think you are all gonna be surprised when you see just how much extra utility is being added to the current spells. This should make full mage builds a lot more viable and interesting to play.

Although there is a ton of progress on this it is all very heavily WIP so I reckon this work on magic deserves its own featured news; hold tight and in the future when I can gather some clips I will do a Magic-specific news and go into more detail.

But I can't leave you empty handed, so here is a little sneak peek at a fun new function for Gravity:



[h3]APPAREL SYSTEM[/h3]

Work has begun on the new system for wearing clothing; this will be an important aspect of Crystal Hunt mode and the introduction of a shop where players can purchase and equip things.

Like everything else "non-gamey" in the B&S design philosophy, we are wanting to avoid any kind of UI for the shop and shopping experience. As such, items will be "on the rack" for purchase rather than a simple menu item, so you can take things from the counter and see how they are before you buy.



The wearing of armour is very simple; simply place it on your body.



Since the armours are segmented, this means the player can mix and match different armour pieces to make the perfect set. Perhaps you like the leather gauntlets but the metal breastplate for example.

[h3]CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION[/h3]

Another one of those things that has been on the todo list forever. We have been lacking character customization options for the longest time, ever since we redid the character system in U9.

While it is unlikely that the scope of character customization from U7 will ever return due to technical reasons (making troll characters with big long arms and messed up faces, etc), we wanted to at least have a selection of player faces and skin tones to represent different ethnicities. Our modeler is currently working on these new player faces, and here is one he completed just recently:



A little side note to this is we are working on official lore right now, and have someone designated for this. We are hoping to plot out all the fictitious cultures and lands of the B&S universe, as well as faction stuff.
You might have heard me before say that B&S will never have a story mode, but instead would likely lean towards some "low level" lore; the kind that a player pieces together from the environment rather than a narrator VO that just spoonfeeds you. In this universe the player character is not "the one", where the world revolves around the player like so many other game tropes. But I digress!

[h3]INVENTORY SYSTEM[/h3]

Nothing to preview for this unfortunately, but an inventory system is being worked on in anticipation of the shop and Crystal Hunt mode. It's still in the early stages, but the idea is a player could pick up clutter-type items (not weapons) and store it for later, with the application here being for collecting Dungeon loot. Of course knowing the B&S community, the ability to collect clutter is surely going to lead to a surge of game clips featuring all sorts of prop shenanigans.

[h3]DUNGEON STUFF[/h3]

Dungeons will continue to grow all the way to 1.0, so it should be no surprise to hear it is still being worked on.

The team continue to work on adding rooms to the Dungeon (by 1.0 we are hoping for at least twice as many rooms as current), while another section of the Warpfrog team are working to squeeze the best graphical fidelity possible out of PCVR - There are some crazy exciting visual improvements being made, but I don't think it will be ready for U11 so this will be definitely a news for later.

In the meantime, here is something fun coming:



Doors! Such a small addition but with big ramifications for how Dungeon rooms can be designed.

Our doors will of course have full physics simulation with fine hitboxes. This should enable all sorts of interesting stuff, like kicking in doors, smashing them open, wedging them open with knives and so forth.

[h3]VFX[/h3]

As mentioned earlier, we are constantly pushing PCVR to be the most visually stunning it can be. Our VFX team member is working on some new spell effects that include smoke and trails.





[h3]ANIMATION OVERHAUL[/h3]

Work on the Animation Overhaul has finally begun! I know this is one of the top hype changes coming for many people, so I'm really delighted it is now underway. However, this is a huge undertaking and there is a lot to do so I am unsure exactly how much / little of the AO will be included in U11. It will depend on how well the development goes.

The goal of AO is to make the AI more responsive in defending itself through parrying, while relying less on dodge-jumping backwards. Enemy attack animations will be improved by replacing derpier attack animations with video captured combat animations that are being custom made. And finally, some of the sillier behaviours would be ironed out, such as not having AI thrust with an axe, etc.

Here is some very early-WIP tests for the AI doing a better job at blocking attacks. (ignore the red bar over the enemies heads btw; it is an invisible mechanic for the player related to the AI alertness) Do take note that this is literally only the beginning, so these are just glitchy and unpolished internal tests!



And another example of the enemy trying to block and riposte. (glitches and wonkiness present, as expected)



So as I say, very WIP and glitchy but a promising start to a better system.

A stretch goal for AO (as in we will see!, no promises) is that we could have custom animation pools for different weapon sets. So for example a rapier AI would have a fencing stance and only use rapier specific animations, whereas a sword and shield guy would have his own set of animations, a dagger guy another set, etc. The feasibility of this will greatly just depend on time and progress!

[h3]PERFORMANCE[/h3]

If you have been following the B&S development over some time you will know this is a perma-task! However I did want to reassure PCVR players that although we are always pushing the graphics and effects, any extra overhead is countered by performance gains. New progress has been made on improving performance for collisions, effects and audio, as well as map optimizations to reduce any strain from increasing the graphics and effects.

___________________________

That's it for now, folks! This was just a broad look at everything going on, but as these different components become more refined I can start to do more in-depth looks at each individual one.

2022 should be an exciting one for B&S! Don't forget you can follow the roadmap for PCVR here.

And because I absolutely know Nomad players are going to ask - U11 release for Nomad would follow PCVR after it is sure the release was free of any game-breaking bugs. So the best guesstimate you can get for Nomad is to look at the PCVR roadmap and add a few weeks to the PC estimated release dates.

Cheers!

Our biggest update ever is now available! This was a huge undertaking for us as the effort was borderline making a new game. We really hope you enjoy it, as it is the first step to Blade & Sorcery becoming 'more' than a sandbox.

If the download doesn't appear, try restart the Steam / Oculus client.

Remember to remove all your mods! Like every major update, U9 mods will not work in U10 and will need an updating. Delete all your mods from StreamingAssets/Mods and/or Vortex or your game won't work. Please be patient in giving modders the time they need to update their mods; they are well aware they need to update their mods but just need time.

After deleting your mods it is wholly recommended you delete your U9 save file to make sure your game is nice and fresh for U10, which is a major update. You can do this by deleting the folder located at Documents\My Games\BladeAndSorcery\Saves. This is a good idea even if you had no mods, as sometimes Steam can do strange things on updating. If you have any issues at all, especially with loading, it is almost certainly this cause.

[h2]UPDATE 10 FEATURES[/h2]

[h3]Dungeons Sandbox[/h3]

The big one; semi-procedurally generated Dungeons with pre-spawned, patrolling enemies. This was a gargantuan undertaking, but the goal of Dungeons was to add a sense of structure and objective to Blade & Sorcery for players who craved something a little more than a pure sandbox experience.



This release is the first step on that road. It should be noted that U10 Dungeons is still a sandbox experience, in the sense that you can take with you any weapons you spawn from the Home, and currently the only objective of Dungeons is to get to the end.

The long term goal which will follow in subsequent updates is to have a loot system, skill trees, and an objective to Dungeon delving. But for now, this U10 release will give you a really solid idea of the direction we are going, as well as a peek at what B&S looks like at a higher development scope.



Currently we have approximately 50 rooms in the generation pool - by full release we are aiming to at least double that.

You can access the Dungeon from the Home map menu by selecting to travel to "Greenland".

[h2]Patrolling AI[/h2]

A huge step for B&S AI; enemy in the Dungeon will not be spawned by the player through the book spawner. Dungeon AI will have patrols, idle animations, a FOV, and will respond to sound. However, as we mentioned before, please don't expect a polished stealth game; our 'stealth' system is basic but we will continue polishing and maybe even expanding it based on community reception.



[h2]Modding / "The Surprise"[/h2]

Given the madness that has been ensuing on Reddit and Discord, we think you guys have all figured this out already, but if you watched the U10 trailer you may have seen 'the surprise' we had mentioned on the roadmap was in fact... the chicken! But it is not just the chicken itself that is the surprise! In actual fact the chicken is symbolic of something bigger: It is the first ever non-humanoid creature added to B&S, which means... you guessed it, B&S will officially support custom creatures for modders! That's the surprise!

There will be a creature framework for modders to add non-humanoid creatures into B&S. On launch there will be no documentation or a sample creature to work from, so modders will have to fumble around a bit until we get that to them, which will be asap! It should be a huge boon for the modding community to be able to add non-humanoids creatures with native support. And who knows, maybe we have some non-humanoid creature plans of our own.. ːsteamsunnyː



But what about this fella? His name is Jonathan... apparently. We did not expect such an outpouring of love for this little guy, nor did we anticipated that people would like him as a pet in the Home, which was not planned haha. However, based on the insane response to Jonathan we decided to add a little Jonathan easter egg into U10... Let's see who out there can figure it out first. ːwftogrinː

[h2]New Character Screen[/h2]

Bye-bye to our trusted old black void character screen. We won't show you any preview here so that you can enjoy the surprise of getting a sense of how much bigger and grander in scope B&S has become.

[h2]New Home[/h2]

And speaking of goodbyes, the home that has been used since the alpha will also be retired. This new home is a modest little dwelling, but we are formulating plans on expanding it under 'The Progression Update' concept. We have pretty cool ideas, but you know how we like our little secrets, so we will just tease you for now! ːsteamdanceː



[h2]New Weapons[/h2]

The newest weapon additions should give you a little taste of what we meant when talking about "tiered weapons". It still might not make full sense until progression and purchasing weapons/armour is implemented in future updates, but you should get an idea of how the quality and reliability of weapons range from some new T0 (tier zero) to T3 weapons. However do note that nothing is really balanced, so expect tweaks.



The higher quality the weapon, the longer it retains an imbue whereas T0 weapons will not retain an imbue at all.



[h2]New Animations[/h2]

While still not the "animation overhaul" we mentioned before, NPCs have been addressed to stop the behavior of them charging into you and have some better range-finding, so less swatting air. Some new animations have been added in as well as some old ones removed (RIP jumping spin attack).





Some polish is still needed however; in attacks you may experience some "Achilles spam"... we will keep refining!

[h2]Revised Arena Maps[/h2]

In an effort to make the Blade & Sorcery universe more homogeneous when it comes to lore, some old arena maps have been revised with updated textures and colours to better mesh the locations together under a more consistent art direction.





[h2]Revised Enemy Armour[/h2]

Similar to the revised maps, some enemy armours have been revised to be more lore appropriate. This will be an ongoing process until we hit 1.0.



[h2]Performance Enhancements[/h2]

All these Dungeon rooms are nice, but not so much if no one can play it! As always, work on performance optimization continues for U10 (it is a never ending process). Unlike normal arena maps, Dungeons does not load in one big chunk, so (hopefully!) you won't get the same kind of performance strain as you would with a huge map like Citadel for example. Dungeons will load in concealed chunks to give the impression of a continuous, seamless dungeon but without the performance strain of loading the whole thing. It's really cool!

Some (not too many) rooms are very large, and have many enemy all at once. Those will be the expected trouble rooms if we have any, so we are eager to see how players get on because even on those large rooms there was a lot of work done on optimization.

We also have the new system implemented where enemy outside a certain range will have their physics disabled, so they don't contribute to overall physics strain. Only enemies actively within fighting range will impact performance. This should mean you could have more enemy on screen in the background without any issues!

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Well, I think that is everything! Please enjoy this update and thank you to all the fans who have supported us to get to this point. Blade & Sorcery started out as a small wave area game, so please know that it is truly the fan support and enthusiasm that makes magic happen and propels the development!

And a big shout out and thank you to the full Warpfrog team, who busted their chops on this ambitious update.