Blade & Sorcery News

Hello folks! Another beta update with a variety of bugfixes fixes is here, included the much awaited return of full body tracking. Damage values have also been rebalanced to hopefully make weapons feel a bit nicer and especially make blunt strikes finally feel meatier; let us know how it is for you. And last but perhaps most importantly, Baron's Hat is now fixed, so we can all place down the pitchforks. ːsteammockingː

The beta is drawing to an end, with the only key missing piece now being decals. The new and improved decal system is almost complete and should roll out in the next beta, and if it is successful with no issues then it is likely that the B8 beta will become the full live version of 8.4, so the finish line is in sight!

[h3]Enhancements[/h3]

- Re-added full body tracking support
- Hips move back a bit more when looking down
- Hats are now using the new character system (Skinned meshes)
- Optimized performance on Market, Ruins and Canyon maps

[h3]Damager Rework[/h3]

- Blunt weapons feel more powerful
- Damage has been altered for all weapons
- Daggers can now dismember (though it is harder than usual)
- Dismemberment is a bit harder now
- Ragdolls no longer one-shot enemies
- Bladed weapons can now pierce wood easier
- Sand is now pierce-able in the arena
- Rapiers now use their own slash damager
- The player takes less damage from arrows and fireballs
- Shield bashing should feel better to use now

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

- Fixed NPC scaling issues after a long play time (hopefully)
- Fixed item swap grabbing issue
- Fixed Baron's hat
- Fixed lightning and gravity imbue VFX on characters
- Fixed dismembering using Gravity
- Fixed missing pointer is the character selection menu
- Fixed missing pointing hand pose when targeting UI
- Fixed NPC armor debug option
- Fixed handling issue on plates
- Fixed fists collision haptic
(This should include modded spells colliding with hands on cast)
- Fixed shaman staff not able to shoot fireball or do gravity slam
- Fixed deflected fireballs going through NPC

[h3]Modding[/h3]

- Removed quantity on ContainerData.Content
- Updated to latest version of addressable: 1.16.15

Hello folks! Just another small update to the beta; a few goodies but most importantly fixing some issues like the options not saving and also reducing the number of spawned enemy back down closer to original levels. Heads up, there may be more back and forwarding throughout this beta with regards to waves as tweaking based on feedback will occur.

If anyone is having trouble with loading screens when changing versions, be sure to check the pinned help topic in troubleshooting called "if you have infinite loading" because it will have the answer you need.

And remember, the 8.4 beta is opt in, which you can learn how to do here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/629730/announcements/detail/2957137317359486740 Otherwise you are still on version 8.3.

[h3]Enhancements[/h3]

• Added "Endless (Melee Only)" waves to Gladiators, Bandits and Knights
  
• New NPC type: Berserker: (Runs same pace as rogues, Attacks way more often, duel-wields axes, does not recoil when you parry, added to Melee, does not wear helmets)
  
• Removed "Daggers" from 1h LootTable
  
• Added more lift force to head during beheading

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

• Fixed some menu options not saving
  
• Fixed NPC not spawning with gender slider set to 100%
  
• Fixed non-melee NPCs spawning in Mixed Melee
  
• Fixed Battlemages spawning in Mixed Melee
  
• Max Alive has been reduced in most waves: (Wave 1 is unchanged, Wave 2 is 5 from 6, Wave 3 is 6 from 8, Endless is 6 from 8, Survive is 10 from 20, Stress Test is 50 from 100, Warzone is 8 from 7)
  
• Fixed Warzone waves to make it so you are not the prime target for both factions
  
• Made Warzone less randomised on faction spawns
  
• Removed Warzone CreatureTables
  
• Adjusted probability of all classes. You should now see more melee than archers and mages
  
• Battlemages: (No longer use Fireball and only utilise Lightning and Gravity at close range (Is currently bugged :( ), Move slower, Now utilize their own brain, Battlemage Gladiator set is now base mage set, Bandit Battlemage armor set has been reworked, Moved to "Ranged" class, Now appear in Wave 2)
  
• Rogues now move a bit faster
  
• Rogues are now in melee, meaning they spawn in the first waves, and now spawn in melee only waves
  
• Rogues attack a bit faster
  
• Mages should no longer use lightning halfway across the map
  
• Renamed Containers to be less confusing
  
• All Wave NPCs should now have hair and beards
  
• Difference between Melee and Ranged spawning has been altered
  
• Decreased overall number of enemies per wave. (this is testive, need overall figures, feedback requested)
  
• Fixed errors where "BucklerRound" was not found.
  
• Removed "Shield Rearm" from Shield enemies
  
• Minor wave changes
  
• Fixed neck deformation on ragdolls
  
• Fixed physics materials on Arena gates and Home head trophy
  
• Fixed a despawn zone in the back of Ruins

[h3]Modding[/h3]

• Added sliceSeparationForce and sliceVelocityMultiplier to creature json
  

Hello mates! Work progresses on the 8.4 live version as the Warpfrog team continue to fix all the bugs and missing elements following the complete character redo. If you have opted into the 8.4 beta you should get a little beta update on Steam and Oculus. If you have not opted into the 8.4 beta you should consider giving it a look as it majorly addresses and remedies all the optimization woes of the early U8 versions. Info on the 8.4 beta and how to opt in is here. Cheers!



[h3]Enhancements[/h3]
- Added 2 male and female hairs
- Added 2 beards
- Reworked candle particle fx
- Reworked all waves
- Improved ragdoll performance
- Added game mode support

[h3]Fixes[/h3]
- Fixed saves not updating from older version
- Fixed NPC hand and feet stretching after playing for a long time
- Fixed flag floating in the arena
- Fixed blood decals growing on ground
- Fixed flying objects not damaging player
- Fixed archers aiming feet instead of chest
- Fixed NPC neck stretching too much when grabbed
- Fixed missing Dane axe
- Fixed NPC sometime not equipping their weapons correctly on spawn
- Fixed mesh particle warning spamming the console
- Fixed player arms falling and stretching abnormally
- Fixed NPC / player collision avoidance
- Fixed weapons spawning at the center of the map
- Fixed debug options resetting between maps
- Fixed archer floating after being killed while aiming
- Fixed NPC wrist twisting weirdly when picked up after being sliced
- Fixed mesh duplication after slicing sequentially hand, lower arm and upper arm
- Fixed lots of missing physics materials
- Adjusted Navmesh in arena to prevent NPC getting stuck on the wave spawner
- Fixed navmesh that caused NPCs to get stuck on a rock in Canyon
- Fixed Water rendering over the waterfall effects in Canyon
- Fixed weird lighting of doors inside the sewers of Citadel
- Fixed hole in Citadel
- Fixed rope at the scaffolding in Citadel
- Fixed misc errors and warning
- Updated to Unity 2019.4.16

[h3]Modding[/h3]
- Added loadorder support
- Moved back velocityDamageCurve from material damage to damager JSON
- Added self damage multiplier on damagers JSON
- Reworked container, loot and creature table JSON
- Moved avoidance priority from brain to creature JSON

I've waited many months to type these words so I'm gonna enjoy it... HELLO MATES, The Baron here and you know what that means... I have the pleasure of telling you that the long awaited U8.4 is now available as an opt in beta. ːpraisesunː

[h3]What is this update, and why did it take so long if it is not a full update?[/h3]
This is the critical performance patch. As many of you have experienced, U8 had some performance issues tied into how the characters spawned, causing things like lag spikes, cpu strain, poor performance, etc. Issues arose because B&S grew outgrew the original simple concept from back when the game was first conceived, but as a result KospY and team found they had reached the limit of optimization with that original character framework, meaning there was no possibility of improving performance any further unless they went and redid the whole thing. They went and redid the whole thing. ːsteamsunnyː

It took many months, but the Warpfrog team have redone the entire character system and it is now much, much better for performance.

[h3]So where is U9?[/h3]
It is underway! Work will continue on 8.X, but rest assured there are other Warpfrog team members working on U9+ and will continue to do so. The team is broken into different specialties so even if coders are rolling out 8.X patches and fixes, other team members are working simultaneously on future aspects of the game. There is lots of juicy U9 stuff to talk about, but we elected not to on the basis that it might have upset some people to hear about cool upcoming U9 stuff when they were still struggling to play U8, even though work was happening simultaneously. So we decided that when U8.4 is all squared away, then we will get into U9 news cycles. ːwftogrinː

Do note, the roadmap for U9 has changed and gotten bigger and more complex so that throws the current roadmap out of whack. The very loose, pinch of salt, don't take my word for it, non-committed ballpark is Q1 or Q2 2021. The roadmap will be updated in the near future so keep an eye out for that is now updated.

This 8.4 patch was a huge, huge hurdle for KospY and team, as without the redo performance issues would have plagued the game indefinitely, making future things like the Dungeons Expansion unenjoyable if not downright impossible. So it surely took a while, but hopefully you all agree this was worth the time and effort in the big picture.

[h3]What to expect from this beta[/h3]
BUGS. As mentioned, the entire character system was rebuilt from scratch, meaning literally everything related to the characters had to be redone, from adding back in kick and dismemberment to configuring animations. As such, damn near everything is a bug risk and you will surely find a bug which you can report on the discord if you wanna help out. You will also likely roll across missing content that is in the process of being re-added.

This patch was all coding changes (other than a few goodies KospY threw in), so on the player side you will mostly see nothing different; but you should feel the difference.

So since this is not the full release, only the beta, the question for you is: Should I opt into the beta?

[h3]You should not opt into the beta if[/h3]
- Bugs make you stressed or sad.
- You wanna keep using mods (8.4 will break mods until modders have a chance to update).
- It annoys you to have missing features (blood decals need to be re-added, character customization is incomplete, etc, etc).
- You don't care about performance issues in U8.

[h3]You should opt into the beta if[/h3]
- You don't mind WIP things and are just curious to see how it's going.
- You wanna help the Warpfrog team by finding and logging bugs.
- You wanna help by testing performance on your system and then giving a performance log (discord is best for submitting).

To opt into the beta on Steam, go to the game properties > beta and type the code Upd84betaPlease. Update: No code is needed anymore! It is even easier now, you will see the beta in the dropdown that 8.4 beta is an option and when you select it the game will update. REMOVE YOUR MODS! Your mods won't work, and I also recommend you clean your save file so your game is fresh by deleting the folder located at Documents/mygames/BladeAndSorcery. (100% do this if your game wont load) I'm bracing myself for the floods of 'cant get the beta working' threads because of mods. ːsteammockingː



Oculus users, you can access the beta through the menu Version and Release Notes on the Oculus Store page, not the game in your library. (counter-intuitive, I know)



The beta will end when all components of the character system are re-added and all bugs are found and squashed, at which point 8.4 will be live as an actual automatic update. And just to note - this is not the end of optimization. Further performance tweaks and optimization will always keep going for maps, etc, and that will not end until v1.0+.

Here are the patch notes - do take careful note of all the things missing. As mentioned, everything is being re-added, and there is a lot to do:

[h2]Update 8.4 (beta)[/h2]

[h3]Enhancements[/h3]

- Added new hairs and beards for male and female characters
- Added new whoosh sounds for different weapons
- Added a new control panel for the monitor view
- Added a new spectator mode that automatically follow player across levels
- Added infinite imbue debug option
- Added console search field
- Added spell wheel open/close animations
- Added an option to disable blood
- Improved feet placement while climbing
- Improved armor detection precision
- Hitting the arm while grabbing it will disarm the NPC
- Added new hit sound when the head collide
- Integrated ragdoll joints values from Ragdoll Physics Overhaul mod. Big thanks to Sketchcritic for allowing us to use his work :)
- Misc options changes

[h3]Performance optimizations[/h3]

- New optimized character & creature system (no spawn lag anymore, improved performance, LOD...)
- Optimized ragdoll performance
- Improved memory management
- Reworked and optimized dismemberment system
- Reworked and optimized armor hit detection
- Added an option to reduce physic accuracy
- Added an option to reduce texture quality

[h3]Fixes[/h3]

- Fixed mage hood visible from first person view
- Fixed an issue causing character to broke when customizing a character with specific weapons
- Fixed player head probe lightning issue
- Reduced player character idle movements
- Updated Unity to 2019.4.12 LTS

[h3]Modding[/h3]

- Assets bundle management is now using addressable
- Enum are now serialized as string in JSON files
- Simplified serialization of quaternion, vector2Int, vector3Int and layer mask in JSON files
- Misc JSON changes

Hello folks, we just released update 8.3 which includes another slew of bugfixes and performance optimizations. However, in terms of further optimization, we unfortunately have reached a dead end with the current third party character system ːsteamsadː
The current character system was an acceptable solution for the beginning of the project, but now with the new ambition of the game we simply need to stop finding workarounds on a system that is simply not suited for our needs. So, in an effort to better optimize the NPC spawning and rendering performance, we are in fact going to redo the whole character system.

KospY and the team already started to work on a custom made prototype and the new system should drastically simplify our workflow, allow us to support non-humanoid creatures, make characters/armors/creatures moddable as well as hopefully fixing (for good!) the performance issues about characters including the dreaded lag spike on character spawns. It's too early to say if this will be a golden fix for performance, and we would be hesitant to make promises, but the theory seems really promising. This overhaul will take some time, but it is planned to be released as a "minor" update of U8.

Besides spawning lag, if you are still feeling performance issues in general even after 8.3, be sure to try all the various graphics options included in the option book, and also remember that mods may impact performance too. Also, you might have missed the following new options were added to help lower spec video cards (click to enlarge):

(atlas refers to resolution, so lower is better at the cost of graphics)

And here are some other performance tips if you are struggling (all in options book):

1. Lower render scale
   
2. Disable shadows
   
3. Disable antialiasing
   
4. Limit persistent bodies / items to 1 or 2
   
5. Reduce character quality
   
6. Enable fast gen
   
7. Play on Arena map
   
8. Remove mods causing performance issues (check possible console errors spamming with F8)
   

In other news the game Store pages are finally getting a long-overdue makeover since the screenshots and information are dramatically out of date! Our concept artist also did a brilliant job by reworking our store cover ːsteamhappyː

Below the full resolution images if anyone would like it as a wallpaper (with and without logo):
https://imgur.com/7wdaX7R
https://imgur.com/2WeUJcy

Thanks for your amazing support and stay safe!

Cheers!
Baron, KospY and the Team


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[h2]Enhancements[/h2]

• Screenshots are now saved to a smaller format (JPG, can be changed in game.json)
  
• Added metal footstep audio
  
• Added death audio
  
• Added focus depleted audio
  
• Added a debug option to disable armor detection on NPC (increase spawning performance)
  
• Added an option to enable/disable character expression (decrease performance)
  
• Added whoosh audio to fire imbue
  
• Added haptic to imbue whoosh and spell charge
  

[h2]Performance optimizations[/h2]

• Optimized character texture sampling
  
• Optimized armor hit detection
  
• Misc optimizations
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Added missing handle orientations on bucklers
  
• Fixed feet tracking not working correctly
  
• Fixed a shadow issue on characters
  
• Fixed weapons on ground not being cleaned when level change
  
• Fixed dropped bows not being auto-cleaned while in combat
  
• Fixed NPC sometimes not dying when dismembered
  
• Fixed HDR colors on screenshots
  
• Fixed imbue issue with the small buckler
  
• Fixed medium shield handle issue when swapping hands
  
• Fixed left wrist stats position on female character
  
• Fixed male/female ratio option not working
  
• Fixed NPC pickup animation issue
  
• Fixed female ragdoll joint limits issue
  
• Fixed missing inner mouth on one of the male face
  
• Prevent NPC to come and go when looking for weapon
  
• Fixed slicing damage not being correctly applied
  
• Fixed dual blade staff imbue acting on both blades
  
• Fixed a misconfiguration preventing some shields to be pierced
  
• Fixed fireball and lightning decals not showing on shields and props
  
• Fixed reloadjson command not working
  
• Fixed wrong damager icons on item spawner
  
• Fixed flanged mace imbue flickering
  
• Fixed bow and wrist blade imbue animation issue
  
• Fixed archers missing their first shoot too much
  
• Fixed water splash effect
  
• Fixed arena flags rendering issue
  
• Fixed staff not accelerating spell charge speed
  
• Fixed missing audio when shooting fireballs from fire imbued staff
  
• Fixed fire imbued staff not consuming imbue energy when shooting fireballs
  
• Updated Unity to 2019.4.1 (may fix some crashes)
  
• Misc error fixes
  

[h2]Modding[/h2]

• Added an option "allowDecals" on items. This option is disabled by default to avoid some imbue issue related to the shader conversion and missing variants
  
• Merged "creatureID" and "creatureTableID" in creature table and wave JSON to an unique field "referenceID"
  
• Merged "itemID" and "lootTableID" in container and loot table JSON to an unique field "referenceID", allowing JSON mods to append any existing container and/or loot table ("referenceID" being the JSON merge key)
  
• PlayerDefault container spells and apparels will now be loaded each time the game start (should be useful for mods adding spells or changing player outfit, as you simply need to override this JSON)
  
• Fixed custom holderSlot not working correctly