Blade & Sorcery News

Hello mates, Baron here with the latest news! KospY and the team at Warpfrog have been working away on U12 with the goal to try and wrap the update for release. The majority focus has been on trying to finalize the in-game mod manager functionality, fixing issues with the new homemade Dungeon tech, and bugfixing.

Sadly we are experiencing a lot of technical issues and bugs that are preventing release. These are not your little type of "Oh how quaint" physics bugs that could be ironed out in a beta, but more "Hmm, today every Dungeon room transition is broken" type bugs which are complete blockers for release.

For that reason I have the sad duty to announce we will not be able to release U12 this month and it will be likely early 2023. I won't try to guess any exact time as it would be better to just know that we are working with intent to release literally as soon as possible, as soon as we can get these technical issues fixed.

So with that, I thought in the meantime I could do a little preview of some U12 stuff and generally show how it's going, bugs and issues aside.

[h3]Breakables[/h3]

It was a nice surprise for us to see how much interest was generated over breakables in the last news. The funny thing was it was only like one line in the news, but since it seemed to get peoples attention here is a bit more on it!

Big thanks to Drags for recoding all the previews in today's news. ːsteamdanceː



Originally, only a handful of props were breakable, but in response to the player interest we hugely expanded what kind of props are breakable. It now includes a lot more objects like benches, wooden tables, crates, etc and in fact we went a bit mad and it is now 24 breakable props in game, lol. We hope it will make for some pretty interesting and dynamic fights!

Wrestling fans can rejoice at being able to spike people through tables now.



One of the questions that was popping up was if the broken parts of the breakable could be used as weapons. For things like blunt objects, you could always use any object as a blunt object to attack so nothing new there, but for things like ceramic shards the answer was originally no because you would have to add damage handlers to the individual shards.

However since that did seem like a really cool idea and something the player was interested in, we did go ahead and add damage handlers to things like broken pots, so now you can stab away.



While doing the damagers on breakable props there was also a few other goodies stuffed in, such as the addition of 6 new tools to find in the world that have damagers added so they can be used like weapons too. For example, a pickaxe.



[h3]Mod Manager[/h3]

Now let's get into the Mod Manager. The big change for modders and mod-enthusiasts is that whereas up to now we had always used trusty old nexus for hosting mods, these in-headset mods will be hosted on mod.io. Mods that are uploaded here will appear in the headset and can be subscribed and unsubscribed via the in-headset menu.

Modders, if you want to have your mods show up in-headset I recommend you start uploading your mods now so that they are ready to roll before U12 launches.

Here is how it will look in-headset!



There are some nice filters in the manager that you can use for browsing mods, including searching mods by game version. ːpraisesunː So provided the metadata is correct by the uploader, you could now search something by filter such as "U12" + "Spells" to only display spell mods for U12.

But rest assured, if you are not too interested in this in-headset mod manager you can still download and install mods manually the good old fashioned way with any mods downloaded from the websites nexusmods.com or mod.io.

[h3]New Rooms[/h3]

In the last news I mentioned the whole new Dalgarian Dungeon that is planned for 1.0, so a bit of a ways away still, but I did mention that U12 would be adding a bunch of new siderooms that will be expanding old Dungeon rooms.

These were just little extensions added onto current rooms that will eventually be useful for loot purposes, but for now they are just for fun and exploration and to add doors into Dungeons so you can throw enemy through.

Door handles are for losers!



But anyway, in the last news we may have downplayed the whole "we are adding more rooms" just a teeny bit... ːwftogrinː

We have added about 14 siderooms into the game, but we also didn't even mention that there is also about 24 entirely new dungeon rooms being added, lol. For context, the current U11 Outpost Dungeon has something like 50 rooms total, so that's quite a few rooms to freshen up Outpost. ːsteamdanceː



It will be a mix of transitional rooms, standard rooms, and then one will be an "arena-type" room, The Watermill, and by arena-type I mean those rooms that spawn mini-waves like the Chapel or Library but are not the final wave rooms like Watchtower.



Hopefully this will make Outpost Dungeon a bit fresh for anyone who has played it to death, as there will be a lot of new rooms to experience.

[h3]New UI[/h3]

By the way, here is a little peek at some of the new UI changes coming that give it a nice clean look - you might spot there is a Mods tab where modders can add their own mod options.



Well that's it for now folks! This is likely the last news of the year, so from all of us here at Warpfrog a big thank you and much love to all the fans and well-wishers who support us and have followed along with the development of this game. We love you guys and wish you all a wonderful rest of your year. Here is to a great 2023! ːer_heartː

Hello mates! Baron here with the latest B&S news on the roadmap, our next update, and some info on the path to full release.

U11... what an update, eh? ːeaglegagː Our "little update" ballooned into the biggest I think we have ever done, so naturally it nuked our roadmap timeline. But KospY and the team have now been able to go over the damage and adjust accordingly and overall its not so bad, especially when you see what we have been secretly working on.

I know Crystal Hunt still seems like a shimmering oasis on the horizon, so the first part of the roadmap shift is we decided rather than wait a long time for the next update we will be aiming to release a "small" update aimed for December. This will be U12. What is not 100% certain is whether this will all be ready in time as a complete Update 12, or maybe a bit more like U11 where the bulk of the update will drop and then there may be some smaller content patches later.

So without further ado, here are some little teasers to whet your beaks on what the Warpfrog team have been working on for the upcoming update!

[h3]Physics-based Swimming[/h3]

I think you guys all secretly knew this was coming... ːwftogrinː When we added the ocean in U11, the natural player response was then to ask for swimming, haha. We agreed it was a cool idea but we didn't want to add a swimming system that was just moving around with a D-Pad.



Like everything else in B&S, we are aiming for an immersive experience, so the work we wanted to do on it was to make it possible to swim using the motion controllers in an actual swimming motion; it worked surprising well out of the box! Likewise we also wanted to spend the time adding new swimming animations so that your legs don't look too derpy like you are moving around like superman underwater, as well as add some VFX, etc.



You can also see that with this physics based system, objects like the oar will have drag and propulsion depending on the direction of the stroke. In fact any item in the game can now have a new component (meaning it could be utilized by clever modders too!), defining a "drag area"; this areas will be able to cause drag underwater and also propel you in the opposite direction as is the case in reality.



All of these small attentions to detail are quite simply because this is the B&S design philosophy, and we are always looking to push physics innovation and make the most realistic VR simulation we can.

There is not currently any critical gameplay mechanic attached to swimming and it is just for fun, however we do have some new dungeon rooms that will have water to swim in and explore. ːsteamdanceː

[h3]Breakables[/h3]

Here is a little something you probably weren't expecting.



Admit it, since the dawn of B&S you have wanted to break that chair prop over someone's head. Now you can! Or unleash your inner Link and smash a bunch of pots. We just thought this would be a fun addition and might lead to some more dynamic fights.

[h3]New dynamic music system[/h3]

Something we have been working on for a while now; Dungeons will have a new dynamic music system where music will trigger contextually in and out of combat. This should make the Dungeon experience more dynamic and interesting for those who find it a bit to quiet.

Along with this, we should have all new custom-made music tracks for each arena. (currently we are missing just one track iirc) We have long wanted to break away from store bought tracks to make a more comprehensive soundtrack.
The music being custom-made is also good news for youtubers as I'm sure you guys know that there are some unscrupulous companies out there (who shall remain nameless!) who love to spam videos unwarranted with copyright claims. ːsteamdeadpanː

[h3]More Animation Overhaul progress[/h3]

As mentioned many times before, work on AO never ends and will continue all the way up to 1.0 and then probably even beyond.

In the next update, you can expect to see more combat animations, more tweaks, and some new AI behavior such as the AI now shield bashing you.



Shield enemies in general should be more competent, and will opt for a more turtling and riposte fighting style than their non-shield counterparts.

[h3]New outpost rooms, including underwater sections[/h3]

This is another one of those things that will keep being padded out to 1.0; new Outpost Dungeon rooms.

In this case though these rooms are actually side rooms, or you could say expansions to current rooms. We were able to add doors into the dungeons, so now there are these little side rooms to explore, as well as the possibility to smash enemies into the doors. ːwftolaughː We are also currently working on the AI for enemies to navigate through these doors.



Ultimately the point of these side rooms is that in Crystal Hunt they will contain loot, so in that sense they are going to eventually be an optional loot-gaining venture, but for now they are purely just for exploration.



As mentioned in the Swimming section, there will also be some underwater sections and in the future we are hoping to add even more, and maybe even more complex underwater areas. But again, they are purely for fun and exploration for now.



[h2]MODDING[/h2]

Now for some very juicy news that we have been keeping secret for a while... ːsteamsunnyː Since around U11 we have been adding a bunch of goodies for modders to expand the modding scene even more.

Before I forget, a request from the Warpfrog devs to modders: U11.4 will likely be the very last patch for U11 and this will be your last chance to report any issues with modding components and get them fixed before U12. Please touch base with one of the Warpfrog team on the discord.

[h3]In-game mod manager[/h3]

Ye of little faith! ːpraisesunː Heheh, I told you guys Warpfrog would look into it and all this time we were doing just that. We had some technical complications and hurdles that we had to iron out, but the team are feeling more confident now to the point we can now talk about it.

Although we are working as fast as we can and progress is going well, as of yet I cannot guarantee this will be timed for U12. Please just expect it to arrive eventually, without tying yourself in a knot about the exact release date.

The idea is that players will be able to access a mod manager from the main menu and activate or deactivate mods one-click, all from within the headset. No more manual mod installs, although it's worth noting that you will still be able to manually install mods if you like.

Needless to say, this is most likely going to be a dream for Nomad players who will no longer have to fiddle around with apps or link cables and PCs, but PCVR players will benefit majorly too.
As well as being one-click installs, there should also be some cool and convenient filters to sort the mods, but the best of all being able to filter mods by version so that you can very quickly see what mods are updated to the latest game version and what mods are out of date.

Then within the game, there is also going to be a mod options section in the book, for reasons such as if a modder has options to tweak in their mod; players could then access these options via a nice, clean dedicated mod page in the options book.

I will keep you guys posted on progress of the in-game mod manager and let you know if there is any date that is looking likely for release. Remember, we *hate* giving release ballparks only because some players take it as gospel and then are disappointed when that ballpark is missed and this adds unhappiness and pressure for our devs working on it. For this reason it's much more appealing for us to withhold any dates until we are more sure, but just because there is no release dates doesn't mean a lot of progress is not being made!

[h3]New moddable dungeon system[/h3]

Mapmaking has been a thing in B&S forever, but when it comes to Dungeons there was always some complication for mapmakers because we were using a 3rd party asset that meant it was not legally possible for us to distribute the full tools needed for modders to make randomly generated dungeons. While mappers could still make big arena maps, it nonetheless sucked that they couldn't do their own version of Dungeons.

Some of you guys who are regulars in the community might have seen me talking about it before, mentioning that the only way around this would be to literally remake the Dungeons system ourselves so that we would have full ownership, and then we could give permission to modders because we own it. But of course as I mentioned, it would be absolute madness to undertake this.... well... ːwftogrinː

A love letter to our modmakers and mod community, we did just this. Now we can give modders our full permission to go nuts.

The idea is that just like our Dungeon rooms, modders will be able to make their own rooms as if they were small maps, and assort them into their own randomly generated Dungeons so that it will operate like our Outpost Dungeons.
Just like all mapmaking, this would be a ton of work of course, but one nice thing to remember is Dungeon rooms would be a lot smaller to make than the usual large arena maps, so I have confidence some modders are going do some amazing stuff with this. It is also more possible that since the rooms are smaller we could see more collaborative efforts between modders; if a group of mapmaking modders pool together and make some smaller rooms, those rooms could be pooled together towards making a new custom dungeon. So no one modder would necessarily have to carry the whole workload.

In theory, a talented modder or modders could even make their own themed Dungeon biome. We will try our best to get documentation to modders to help them.

[h3]Armour modding support[/h3]

Another modder restriction unshackled - Modders will have the ability to now make custom armours and clothes without any restrictions or 3rd party frameworks, fully native to our SDK. Again we will try our best to get documentation to modders on how the system works.

[h3]A word on scripting for Nomad players[/h3]

Nomad players read these Steam news too, and only because I know I will get asked for news: Still same as always, scripted modding for Nomad is being worked on, progress is being made, but I can't give any release date because it is too unpredictable. Currently it is working and our guy is testing mods with it, but there are still nasty bugs popping up with some mods (all mods are different) and we want to fix that first to prevent a disastrous release.

I know you guys are eager, and some of you guys are impatient, but please remember that this is unprecedented modding support for the Quest and our guy is breaking his back on it already. Being upset or angry for a release date doesn't make anyone move faster than they are capable of and only serves to discourage.



Thanks for your patience!

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[h2]So, what about beyond U12?[/h2]

U12 will be the last stop before 1.0 release, and the 1.0 is going to be gargantuan since it will have all the Crystal Hunt mode rolled into it with features and content that we haven't even revealed.
Rest assured by the way, that game development is not linear where 20 people all hammer the same nail. It is more like a beehive, with many people working on all sorts of different things simultaneously. Work on Crystal Hunt has been underway even as early as U11 as part of the team are focused on it, but we just don't like to spoil things too early.

However just to give you guys a sampler, I managed to twist KospY's arm into allowing me to show you this teaser so you can see just how massive the stuff we are secretly working on is:

[h3]Enter the Dalgarians[/h3]



"The ancient Dalgarian Ruins have opened. The nations and factions of Byeth scramble to claim the treasures within; the great Crystal Hunt has begun!"

Surprise! A whole new biome is coming, completely free as part of Crystal Hunt mode, with all new architecture, design, assets, mechanics, lore, etc. It will look distinctly different from the Outpost Dungeon, and aimed to be comparable in size, although you will see that the scale is so much more huge.

The image above is a WIP room only and not entirely finished or polished. If you look closely you may see some little white mannequins - this is just a Unity asset to give you a sense of how massive and epic this architecture is. It will look awesome in VR.

Big fat reminder: this is not for U12 and we just wanted to give you guys a sneak peak of the end-game. We have a policy at Warpfrog of underpromise and overdeliver, because ultimately we don't want to disappoint the players by over-hyping you guys and then letting you down, so we generally temper ourselves in what we show so that when the update does release you are more likely to be pleasantly surprised.

But if you are not a long-term follower of our studio then you may not have known this is our style, and it may not be apparent just how much we are working on. We are always expanding the game and if you bought the game in 2018 for $20, our hope is that you feel like it was value for your investment in us and that you enjoy following along the active development and expansion of the game, which is a huge part of B&S' identity. We are not racing to any finish line!

So I will leave it there with this little teaser; Dalgarian Dungeons is still too far off and we wanna avoid spoilers too early.

---

That's it for this news, guys! There is so much more secret development stuff about Crystal Hunt I am bursting to share, but the wisest thing is to wait until we are more solidly in the run up to 1.0 release, and for now we will focus on U12. Underpromise and overdeliver!

Cheers!

Hello, mates! KospY and the Warpfrog team are now ready to launch update 11.3, which contains the long awaited new player origins. ːpraisesunː It has long been a request for more variety in the choice of player skin tones and faces, as some players felt a disconnect in VR when they look down and see hands of a skin tone that does not match their own.

With 11.3, players can now choose from a variety of origin ethnicities, and choose from a wide range of skin tones and hair colours, with secondary colours available too.

At the moment we have limited hairs (mostly Madene style), beards and player faces to choose from, so this will be a constant WIP for our modeler, adding face/hair content any time they get a chance.



We had wanted to add these background options and skin tones for ages, but we also wanted to add something a bit nuanced by putting in the work to create lore for the B&S, so in that sense this is also our first pass at bringing lore to the world of Blade & Sorcery.



To give some context to the player origins, here is the world map for our B&S fantasy world of Byeth.



Our game mostly takes place in the Kingdom of Eraden (the location of Outpost Dungeons), so anyone who is not Eradian would be a traveler or adventurer in these lands. Eraden is a lush land of rolling green hills and farmlands, while some of our arena maps (Arena, Canyon) are located across the sea in the desert Kingdoms of the Khar-Tib; an existential crisis looms for the Eradian Kingdom as the splintered warlords of Khar-Tib have begun uniting under one banner... but we won't get into this too much right now. ːwftogrinː

We have a lot of good lore content written already for each nation - their histories, motivations and agendas, but for now we are withholding it until closer to Crystal Hunt, because it will all make more sense tied into that. So for now this map is just to give you some flavour for player origins.
As we have always hammered, B&S will not have any kind of narrative storyline for the player, but we are striving to make a rich lore for our world in Crystal Hunt mode, which could be revealed passively to the player in-game.
Our dream would be to make our world dense IP, with room for many stories and adventures, creating a coherent universe that makes sense for the player; we are really aiming to push that immersive, anti-gamey vibe that a player in VR feels immersed in another world, and not just a video game.

This now largely wraps Update 11. There is some possibility that we could push an 11.4 patch at some point which may be just some content for U11, but we will see.
In the meantime, our plan is to drop the long awaited "Road to U12" news sometime soon, which will go over the significant damage U11's delays did to the roadmap, and to inform you guys of our reworked plan of attack to get to 1.0 and Crystal Hunt; we know you guys have been waiting a long time for this, so thank you for your patience! We should have some juicy things to share in the "Road to U12" news.

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[h2]Update 0.11.3[/h2]



- Added new character origin ethnicities (only for player)
- Reworked the character customization UI
- Added more colors and new haircuts for character customization
- Added the home local map, to fast travel toward the world map



- Update handle icon and add interactive scrollbars to the item and wave spawner books
- Wearables have changed internally in regard to edit mode, some mods using this may break



- Fixed Post-Processing Profiles not being applied when changed on the options menu, with non-English languages selected
- Fixed a few localization issues
- Fixed culling issues in a few dungeon rooms
- Fixed collision issues with some walls in dungeons
- Fixed mirror highlighter that may stay enabled when it should not
- Fixed some door gap between dungeon room
- Fixed some audio sources not being affected by the options volume audio sliders
- Fixed options audio sliders numeric value not showing the correct value after dragging the slider
- Fixed Pointer not swapping when changing side in menu book
- Fixed armour still being editable when disabling edit mode on the mirror

Hello folks, patch 11.2 is here! Full changelog is at the bottom if you wanna see what got fixed.

But it's not just bugfixes - On top of this, we are delighted to say the U11 SDK is finally ready. ːpraisesunː Modders who were stuck and unable to address issues in their U11 mods should finally be able to fix those issues, and as well as modders being able to access all the new components of U11, there are a slew of modder goodies in the SDK. Some examples being:

- A new ProtoLevel for modders to mess around in, introducing all the new changes
- More examples of how to use stuff, like Doors, Levers and Portcullises
- Event Linkers, which allow you to do stuff like perform an animation when you press trigger with the weapon held (easy example: lightsabers turning on)
- Item Spawners, which allows you to pair it with Event Linkers and create more complex mods without any external code - example could be guns.

We are very, very close to wrapping U11 and then finally being able to fully move on to what's next. This patch is just about bugfixes, but there is one last missing piece of the puzzle for U11; new player faces / skin tones / hair options. This will be the last U11 feature and is coming soon, then anything after that would be just a U11 hotfix. I'll drop some little previews of this on social media in the coming days.

That's it for now, guys!

Modders resources:
SDK: https://github.com/KospY/BasSDK
Wiki: https://kospy.github.io/BasSDK

[h3]Changelog 0.11.2.103[/h3]

- Fixed culling issue in library room
- Fixed invisible colliders in Ruins
- Fixed External View Lock not working on Nomad and PC
- Fixed low ocean quality splashes appearing way above the ocean surface
- Fixed some holder functions being inaccessible for modders
- Fixed dungeon debug data (seed and room name) not showing if the level is loaded from the console
- Fixed not being possible to reload the same dungeon level, using its seed, if the level was loaded from the console
- Fixed some locomotion issue in dungeon room LostCove
- Fixed wrong rotation handling of the Falchion
- Fixed handle length on greatswords
- Fixed some lighting issues with the new blood
- Fixed new messages spawning from the last message object anchor position
- Leather Nerf ; Made Stabbing/Slashing/Axing easier on Leather
- Fixed gravity bubble shader issue
- Fixed some canyon navmesh issues
- Fixed Arcwire (lightning staff use) decapitating when gore is not allowed
- Fixed potion decals flashing too large
- Added cosmetic slash and blunt collision effects to leather
- Added cosmetic slash effects to plate armor
- Fixed map board options text not resizing
- Reduced force needed to show blunt impact on armors
- Added loading progression
- SetPhysicModifier methods can now take a negative gravity value, to allow antigravity
- Fixed weird item lighting in Hallway_01
- Fixed holes in Transi_Courtyard
- Fixed walking in to the Dungeon area of Citadel sometimes being invisible

Hello folks, Kospy and the Warpfrog team are pushing a U11.1 patch today that fixes a couple of small issues.

As this is a minor incremental patch, your U11 mods will be fine.
(modders - no manifest change is needed)

Remember, it is only big version updates (U9, U10, U11 etc, the big updates that come every few months with a lot of fanfare), or betas (the optional, opt-in versions that have lots of mod warnings) that break mods, so you should never be caught by surprise for mods breaking.

As a little bonus, our VFX wizard Snooba has included some awesome new blood graphics in this patch for you guys. He made actual 3d blood models from a fluid simulation. Blood looks more volumetric now, so you will notice it in game; it looks great!

Hope you guys are all enjoying U11. ːsteamdanceː We are still working on the player character faces for U11.X, and we will be updating our roadmap soon after we have had a chance to assess the damage U11's release delay did to our updates schedule.

Full changelog below!

[h2]Update 11.1[/h2]

- New blood effects
- Improved shield collisions
- Fixed blood VFX being offset when dismembering
- Fixed long wave names being cut on the wave spawner book
- Fixed long item names being cut on the item info page of the item spawner book
- Fixed wave spawner scroll speed value not being capped at the maximum value
- Fixed backpack inventory interactions being enabled before the tutorial area where this mechanic is presented
- Fixed levers not updating analog events correctly
- Updated main menu flags
- Fixed CreatureSpawner Spawn method not callable from UnityEvents
- Fixed characters being slightly rotated in main menu
- Fixed intro trying to play disabled audio
- Fixed blade rubbing end sound not playing
- Fixed rubbing on stone audio not playing
- Crystal Hunt availability changed from 2022 to 2023
- Fixed message opacity not correctly displaying
- Fixed some text being too small with some languages
- Add missing item categories localizations for the item spawner book
- Fix doors closing shut when grabbing anything else than the handle