HammerHelm News

Today's build includes the updated combat system!

Notable changes

• There is no longer a concept of a "target" or auto-facing and you can freely change your character's facing when attacking.
  
• Your attacks can hit and damage any monsters that are in your front arc. This means your regular attacks can hit multiple monsters per attack if you position your character to take advantage of this.
  
• Special attacks that affect one monster, such as Dash Attack and the Sword Power Attack, will hit the monster that is most center to in front of you and in range.
  
• Special attacks such as Shield Break and Confuse will automatically hit the correct monster even if there are more than one in front of you. You don't have to be facing it perfectly. As long as the monster is in your front arc the correct monster will get hit.

Some special attacks have also been updated.

• The axe power attack deals extra damage all enemies in your front arc and has a chance to stun the enemies.
  
• The hammer power attack does damage to all nearby enemies and knocks them back. The hammer attack itself does slightly less damage than your normal attack.
  
• The Shield Break special attack can now be used against a monster that has a shield even if it isn't currently blocking.

And some UI updates:

• All of the How To Fight UI have been updated to reflect the new system.
  
• You can access the new UI through the ESC menu and pressing the How To Fight button.
  
• The Special Attack UI now displays the WASD keys for each attack rather than the controller d-pad when using keyboard and mouse.

In addition to the combat updates for your character, monsters have also been updated. Previously all monsters scaled with your character as your crafted better equipment. After adjusting based on your "level", monsters could then be weaker, average, or tough based on that.

In the new system, weaker monsters cap out at a certain level and tougher monsters have minimum levels. For example, when you have Jade weapons you will be more likely to encounter a weak Goblin, but also more likely to encounter a tough Orc. Monsters still scale (so they're never 2-hit kills) but the difference between a weak monster and a tough monsters is pretty noticeable. The healthbar colors for weak, average, and tough have also been added to the How To Fight UI.



This update also includes changes to the Mushroommen, who can now be knocked down and can receive buffs from Mushroommen Spellcasters.

If you are used to playing HammerHelm with the auto-lock targeting system this new system may take a bit of getting used to. I still find myself pressing TAB to target a monster even when testing the new system. Old habits. :) But once you get used to it I think you'll find that the system feels a lot better overall.

Thank you everyone for your feedback while the system was on the test branch. I'm looking forward to hearing your further thoughts on it!

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]

• My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
  
• Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco

Tonight's build includes updates to the combat UI windows and some refinements to the special attacks to make the more reliably hit the correct monster. So confuse will now always hit the monster that has a buff and shield break will always hit the monster with a shield. This assumes that monster is in your front arc.

This update also includes the ability to review all of the How To Fight UI from a button on the ESC menu. When open, you can read the combat information for all aspects of the game.





I have two more aspects of combat that I want to update. The first is the monster level caps and minimums to help upgrading your gear feel more impactful and second is an overall balance pass for stamina use, special attack recharge, and monster hit-points.

My goal is to release this update onto the live branch on Friday evening.

If you'd like to give feedback on the new system before that, you can get the test build by following the below steps:

1. In the Steam Client Library where it lists all of your games, right click on HammerHelm
2. Click Preferences
3. In the window that opens, select the "Betas" Tab
4. Enter the password to download this build - CombatTest2021 - and click Check Code
5. You should get a message that the code is correct
6. Click the drop-down box and select BigUpdateTest

Steam should immediately start a new download with the test client. The new game should be called "HammerHelm [bigupdatetest]". Once the download is complete you can launch the game and you should see "1.7.4" in the title screen.

This build is 100% compatible with current saves. So you can safely use any save you want with this test build.

To get back to the main build:

1. In the Steam Client Library where it lists all of your games, right click on HammerHelm
2. Click Preferences
3. In the window that opens, select the "Betas" Tab
4. Choose “None” from the drop down
5. Steam should then revert back to the main client

Thank you again everyone for the suggestions and feedback!

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]

• My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
  
• Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco

Today's build has the completed updates to the combat system. This includes updates to all of the special attacks to allow them to work without needing a specific target. The last thing left to do is to update all of the How To Fight UI and make them available outside of the tutorial.

I would love to get everyone's feedback on how the new system plays and feels!

To get the test build:

1. In the Steam Client Library where it lists all of your games, right click on HammerHelm
2. Click Preferences
3. In the window that opens, select the "Betas" Tab
4. Enter the password to download this build - CombatTest2021 - and click Check Code
5. You should get a message that the code is correct
6. Click the drop-down box and select BigUpdateTest

Steam should immediately start a new download with the test client. The new game should be called "HammerHelm [bigupdatetest]". Once the download is complete you can launch the game and you should see "1.7.3" in the title screen.

This build is 100% compatible with current saves. So you can safely use any save you want with this test build.

To get back to the main build:

1. In the Steam Client Library where it lists all of your games, right click on HammerHelm
2. Click Preferences
3. In the window that opens, select the "Betas" Tab
4. Choose “None” from the drop down
5. Steam should then revert back to the main client

Thank you everyone!

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]

• My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
  
• Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco

This build includes a rather large update to the combat system. Most notably, it removes the entire concept of needing a "target" to fight. Your regular attacks will hit all of the monsters in your front arc, and skills like Kick and the Sword Power Attack will hit whatever monster you are facing.

I'm still testing this with other parts of combat like Confuse and Lightning and against boss monsters, but I wanted to get it on the test branch as soon as possible so I could get your feedback on how the system feels with no target. Other parts of the game that assumed you had a target, such as opening UI, should also work correctly except now they check if monsters are nearby rather than if you have one targeted. The resource tools have also been updated to work without the need for a target.

In addition, the Shield Break skill no longer requires the monster to be blocking. You can use the skill on any monster that has a shield to remove it.

The UI for How To Fight will also be updated to reflect that there is no longer a target.

To get the test build:

1. In the Steam Client Library where it lists all of your games, right click on HammerHelm
2. Click Preferences
3. In the window that opens, select the "Betas" Tab
4. Enter the password to download this build - CombatTest2021 - and click Check Code
5. You should get a message that the code is correct
6. Click the drop-down box and select BigUpdateTest

Steam should immediately start a new download with the test client. The new game should be called "HammerHelm [bigupdatetest]". Once the download is complete you can launch the game and you should see "1.7.2" in the title screen.

This build is 100% compatible with current saves. So you can safely use any save you want with this test build.

To get back to the main build:

1. In the Steam Client Library where it lists all of your games, right click on HammerHelm
2. Click Preferences
3. In the window that opens, select the "Betas" Tab
4. Choose “None” from the drop down
5. Steam should then revert back to the main client

After playing around with the new system I'm really enjoying it and I think it's a big improvement. I hope you do as well!

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]

• My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
  
• Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco

Today's test build includes some additional updates to the combat system.

• Enemy Spellcasters are now affected by knockdows and stun.
  
• The block stun skill has been balanced to happen a bit less often.
  
• You will now do damage when using the shield bash skill depending on what kind of shield you have.

Left to do:

• Give Spellcasters a way to escape melee.
  
• Adjust knock down times based on what caused the knockdown - kick, shield bash, etc.
  
• Update more special attacks to not require a "target" in order to function
  
• Update shields to be more beneficial based on the what kind of shield it is.
  
• Monsters levels that determine how powerful they can scale, both minimum and maximum.

For now I'm tabling the quick bar for weapons. Played around with it a bit last night and it doesn't feel right. Plus it's easy to open inventory and swap a weapon. I kind of like there to be a bit of risk in doing that anyway. Might revisit it though.

If you'd like to try out the new combat system and offer some feedback, be sure to read the initial announcement as well:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/664000/announcements/detail/5761771209946489585

To get the test build:

1. In the Steam Client Library where it lists all of your games, right click on HammerHelm
2. Click Preferences
3. In the window that opens, select the "Betas" Tab
4. Enter the password to download this build - CombatTest2021 - and click Check Code
5. You should get a message that the code is correct
6. Click the drop-down box and select BigUpdateTest

Steam should immediately start a new download with the test client. The new game should be called "HammerHelm [bigupdatetest]". Once the download is complete you can launch the game and you should see "1.7.1" in the title screen.

Note this build is 100% compatible with current saves. So you can safely use any save you want with this test build.

To get back to the main build:

1. In the Steam Client Library where it lists all of your games, right click on HammerHelm
2. Click Preferences
3. In the window that opens, select the "Betas" Tab
4. Choose “None” from the drop down
5. Steam should then revert back to the main client

Thanks everyone!

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]

• My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
  
• Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco