Maximum Action News

[p]Hey Action Heroes![/p][p]We’ve been cooking up some seriously explosive stuff behind the scenes, and it’s time to give you a sneak peek at what’s coming in the next big Maximum Action update![/p][p][/p][h2]🎬 Replay System Overhaul[/h2][p]This one’s HUGE. The replay system has been rebuilt to be way more consistent, way more cinematic, and just straight-up cooler. Whether you’re capturing your finest slow-mo dive or your most chaotic self-inflicted explosion — your replays will finally do them justice. New camera angles, more consistent playback, improved AI director.[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Auto generated cinematic camera angles![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Choreograph your own action! [/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]🎬 Highlight Mode[/h2][p]Now when completing a level, a cinematic highlight reel of your game play will play automatically! Immediately enjoy the head shots, kicks, dives and slides in true action movie form.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Updated Levels: Jungle & Arctic 2[/h2][p]Both maps have gotten a major upgrade based on player feedback — expect more detail, improved layouts, and better flow for your stunt-packed gunfights. Every corner is now just a bit more cinematic… and a lot more deadly.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Arctic 2 - Updated Runway [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Arctic 2 - Control Room and Missile Silo[/p][p][/p][h2]Rocket Launching, Now with 200% More Badassery[/h2][p][/p][p]In Arctic 2, as you battle through the climactic runway shootout, you’ll see a massive rocket blasting off and exploding in the background — turning the whole finale into a full-blown action set piece. It’s chaos, it’s cinematic, and it’s Maximum Action at its most explosive.[/p][p][/p][h2]More to Come[/h2][p]This is just a preview of the full update — we’re still adding polish, testing, and turning the action dial up to 11. Stay tuned for the full release soon![/p][p]Get ready to dive, slide, and dual-wield your way through chaos like never before.[/p][p][/p][p]Join the discord more info and how to get on the testing branch![/p]

[p]The replay version of the player is being overhauled to be a 1:1 recreation of all of your actions! Dives, rolls, slides, dropkicks, and reloads will all now show up in the replay just how you did them.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Muzzle Flashes, Shells, and Smoke[/h2][p]Gun muzzle effects and smoke have also now been updated to show up in the replay! Finally your replays will start to feel like a real full detail action scene. Make John Woo proud with choreographing your own ballistic shootout.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Both of the above clips were recorded in-game with the free cam mode during replay![/p][p][/p][p]With all of the updates to the replay player, I couldn't resist adding a proper third-person mode to the game! Soon you will be able to experience all of Maximum Action from a whole new perspective. And of course workshop weapons are supported as well![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Maximum Payne Maximum Action[/p][p][/p][p]Progress on 2 new levels. The Jungle rework and sequel. As well as Arctic 2[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The tank boss fight sequence in Jungle is being reworked to be a more dynamic and destructive! I designed a new AI and locomotion system for the tank where it will naturally crest and roll over the terrain and crash through objects.[/p][p][/p][p]New runway section work in progress![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Andy (OptionalSpace) has been hard at work on the runway section of Arctic 2! Lots of new destructible walls and an improved layout. Our goal is to make the runway one of the most climactic set pieces in the game.[/p][p][/p][p]New particle effects and destruction. A new spark effect and a whole new optimized particle driven destruction system is coming soon. Even small objects like bottle and cups will dynamically react to your bullets. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Better controller support and SteamDeck Verification in the works. When playing with a controller proper glyphs will now show up throughout the game. The controller re-binding menu has been reworked to also show the glyphs and work much more consistently.[/p][p]Even some controller support has been added to the editor![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]UI has been fixed to better support 4:3 16:10 and ultra-wide monitor resolutions! Play the game in 4:3 for the true arcade experience.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Localization! The Simplified Chinese localization is also still in the works and more language support is coming soon.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Thanks for reading! Hope you all stay tuned for the next Maximum Action update coming soon! Join the discord for more news and info to get on the testing branch![/p][p][/p]

The 0.90 testing branch has been updated! Go check it out:
Early drafts of the new Jungle level and Arctic 2 level.

Updated Jungle Level
Go try out the updated Jungle level! Enemy placement, textures and placeholder props are all subject to change and further the level eventually will be divided into two for even more action.

Note please walk into
the foggy fence and the end of the village section to teleport to the military base!


Arctic 2
Inside the Arctic tape there is now a button for Arctic 2, the sequel! Fight inside a missile silo. This is also a very early version with lots of placeholder and missing assets.



[h2]WE WANT YOUR FEEDBACK[/h2]
We wanted to get these out for testing much earlier in the development cycle so we could incorporate feedback from you all! @o... and I figured the sooner y'all get your hands on these levels the sooner we can figure out what's working well and what isn't!

Please post in the Maximum Action Discord It would be greatly appreciated!! thanks so much!

Right click on Maximum Action in your Steam library and click on "Properties.." then go to Betas and switch to the "0.90_testing" branch

Patch for version 0.95!
PATCH NOTES:

• Fixed broken Tiny Mode
  
• Fixed bug where picking up a gun over and over kept giving you ammo
  
• Fixed issue where your first person model was always wearing a vest regardless of your character edits
  
• Fixed particle effect issues with glass railing prefab in editor
  
• Added out of map reset to Hotel Endless
  
• Increased size of out of map reset for Rooftop
  

I am so happy to be finally releasing the new player controller update to you all! After months of hard work and fine tuning I think you'll find it is a much needed upgrade to Maximum Action. Dozens of new animations for the player and even more bug fixes.

[h2]WARNING FOR YOUR EDITOR LEVELS[/h2]
Backup your "AppData\LocalLow\BalloonMoose\Maximum Action\Custom\Levels" Folder!!
especially if you are on the testing branch!
Myself and others have encountered a bug where Steam cleared the entire folder of anything that wasn't subscribed to. Meaning any non published levels you are working on could potentially be deleted. Working on a fix for this now!
This happened when booting up the game and the workshop items failed to load properly.

[h2]Full Body Awareness and Rock Solid Weapon Handling[/h2]


No more 4 arms swinging around when looking up and down.

No more head and body dislocation when diving and sliding.

Every movement has been fine tuned and has a unique full body character animation. From a complete in air diving animation tree to rolling around on the ground. Immersive first person character movement like never before.
My goal was to upgrade Maximum Action to the polish level of games like Mirrors Edge while still maintaining the same animation style and feel. It's what Maximum Action always should have been. It will feel familiar yet so much improved.

[h2]New Slide and Slide Kick Animation[/h2]

Sliding has always been in Maximum Action but it was so subtle it mostly went unnoticed. Not anymore, sliding is now an entire other mode of movement with its own animations.
Even further, slide and then hold the dive key to infinite slide. The same way you can infinite dive slide while prone by holding the dive key.

[h2]New Cover System with Auto lean and improved animations[/h2]


Use the auto lean to blind fire around corners and even over low cover while crouched. This feature makes it easy to use cover even while playing with a controller!

Player Bullet Hit Detection Fix

Even further player bullet hit detection has been overhauled so you can shoot accurately around tight corners. No more bullets hitting the wall in front of you while leaning or shooting from cover.

[h3]AI HIT DETECTION FIX[/h3]
Another fix in this update that has been long needed and is still being fine tuned is the enemy bullet detection. Now enemies will correctly aim at the center of the player whether you are diving sliding proning etc. And cover will effectively block their bullets. Until THIS update, the hit detection for enemy bullets against the player would not resize properly when diving sliding crouching. Now you can crouch or lay behind cover and be fully safe from being shot. It's a small fix but you'll notice the combat feels much more tight and accurate, diving and sliding and crouching is much more useful. A beautiful balance of high speed acrobatics and tactical cover shooting. Each equally useful.

[h2]Lots of Settings to Tweak[/h2]

Turn on and off lots of aspect of the new player to tune it to your liking. Enable camera rolling and camera tilting to roll forwards and backwards from diving in full motion sickness glory.

Disable Camera Roll
Use this to disable and enable camera rolling while player is rolling out of a dive

Dive Camera Tilt
Enable / Disable camera tilting when diving

Camera Bobbing
Use this slider to control the camera bobbing rotation intensity of the player

Auto Lean From Cover
Turn off and on the new auto leaning cover system

In the reverse, turn these off and turn down the camera bobbing to have a stable smooth first person camera experience that still is packed full of detail.

I personally switch these on and off almost every time I play based on how I'm feeling. Sometimes having your head roll with your body just feels so damn cool. Other times it makes me want to throw up. So give it a try yourself!

[h2]Delays and Coming Soon[/h2]
There was so much more I wanted to get into this update but I decided to prioritize getting my progress out to you all first for testing before packing on more fixes and new features. For example, I really wanted to get this new player controller working in the replay system as well, and from some initial tests I've done it will work amazingly. Here's some clips of a rough test

New Player Animations In Replay Test

I decided to save this for the future since I want to make sure I give it the time to polish and cook it into something really special. Rather than tack it on last minute to this update.

[h2]Coming Soon[/h2]

Jungle 2 Work In Progress Screenshot

Andy @optionalSpace and I have been working hard on new levels and really wanted to get them in this update but decided we need more testing and feedback from y'all first. Expect to see rough cuts of our new Jungle rework and Arctic 2 levels on the testing branch soon! We have lots of other new levels in the works as well but want to give them the proper time and care to make them maximum action worthy. For those of you craving new content all I can say is sorry and that it is coming soon! Always feel free to hop in the editor or download some workshop levels in the meantime!

Arctic 2 Work In Progress Screenshot


[h2]Patch Notes Full List[/h2]

NEW SETTINGS AND ANIMATIONS

• Added setting for disabling camera tilting while diving sideways and diagonally
  
• Camera Bob setting now affects the camera bobbing animation strength
  
• Edited player stop walking animation, toned down so less jarring when stopping movement
  
• Smoothed out camera rolling animation transitions
  
• Fixed bug where after rolling camera could be stuck intensely bobbing
  
• Fixed bug where first person hands slowly drift away from guns
  
• Drop kick added back vertical height boost
  
• New diving tree animations for looking down while in air
  
• New / re-added crouch kick animation
  
• New diving in-air state, if you dive off a high object you will stay in the in-air state until hitting the ground
  
• Fixed leaning animations
  
• New blocked pose, your guns will move backwards near walls to indicate being in cover
  
• New Auto-Lean setting, if you aim or shoot you will automatically lean out of cover if possible
  

PLAYER COLLIDER FIXES

• Player bullet hit detection fix, you can now shoot around tight corners without your bullets hitting the wall in front of you
  
• AI-aiming and bullet fix, AI will now correctly aim at the player's center of mass while crouching diving sliding
  
• AI bullet player hit detection fix, the player hit collider now correctly resizes so crouching and diving behind cover correctly blocks enemy bullets
  
• Added Crouch blocking, if you crouch under a low object your player will stay crouched so you don't get stuck in geometry
  
• Tuned player collider size so it's harder to get stuck in shelves and under tables while diving
  

OTHER FIXES

• Tweaked door physics, when you kick open doors they should no longer fall through the floor and stay in the level
  
• Hopefully fixed bug where parts of the level could get impaled and attached to thrown katanas or cleavers
  
• Fixed RPG rocket and m16 grenade launcher trajectory so it aligns with where you are aiming
  
• Fixed not being able to walk straight bug on controllers
  
• Fixed issue with dropped enemy weapons not giving you ammo in endless mode or campaign levels
  
• AI ragdolls will now stay standing / upright if they are not dead, fixing issue of AI falling over and looking dead and then teleporting back to standing
  
• Added popping up out of cover when crouched to the Auto Lean system
  
• Fixed issue with apache prefab shooting while in the editor
  
• Reduced camera clipping through walls while diving and rolling
  
• Smoothed out transition from sliding and rolling to jumping
  
• Fixed issues with game volume setting in options menu
  
• Fixed Walking on controller not being straight
  
• Fixed Diving on controller not being straight
  
• Fixed issue where diving diagonally would make hands and camera over-rotate right and left
  

Hope you all enjoy this update as much as I did making it!
Please post any bugs you find or feedback in the Maximum Action Discord It would be greatly appreciated!! thanks so much!
-George Mandell