[ver.0.1-demo] 01/05/2023

Comment:

• Hello everyone! This isthe largest update so far since the game has been made public and italso converts the demo into what can be considered a featurecomplete build of the first level of the game. It took awhile but I can now start mainly focusing on the development of thesecond level and the likely commercial release upon itscompletion. Alongside the new gameplay features, thisupdate also includes tons of code-refactoring improvements to ensurethe production of future content moving forward becomes moreefficient, since this is a solo-project, workflow enhancements willalways take top priority. Below are the list of changesthis patch brings!

New Features:

• The entire saving and loadingof data has been overhauled:
  • The loading of sub-areasinside the main level is now multi-threaded which highly reducesthe chance of stuttering issues occurring when new areas arerequired to load.
  • Saving is now alsomulti-threaded.
  • Upon dying, the level is nolonger required to be reloaded from scratch to ensure gameplaystability: The game screen will now fade out; the playerwill respawn and gameplay will resume seamlessly, this improvementalso means that the changes in the world like enemy wounds, corpsesand blood stains will remain during the entire play session.
• The Nightmare puzzledifficulty has now been added to the demo, completing the set of allpossible 12 combat and puzzle difficulty variations intended to bein the game.
• The close combat system hasbeen added to the game with two new weapons you can find in the mainlevel.
  • Its a very rudimentarysystem that consists of light and heavy attacks, and blocking withthe weapon equipped.
  • All three actions consumelarge amounts of stamina in varying degrees, and deplete thedurability of the weapon per interaction (meaning you wont losedurability if you hit the air)
  • The durability of an item canbe viewed on the inventory screen.
• The enemy poise system hasbeen reworked:
  • Staggering an enemy beforewas only possible through headshots (chance based criticalattacks), it now works using a threshold value that once depletedwill trigger the stagger animation, you can deplete it with allmanner of attacks but the bias is in favor of critical and heavyattacks.
• Added the ability to consumeregenerative items in real-time without accessing the inventoryscreen; an icon on the bottom-right of the hud will appear whenselecting different consumables (make sure to hold theconsumable button to activate the healing action.)
• Added a post-process visualeffect to better indicate when the player gains new lives or losesthem upon death.
• The game now pauses properlywhen the Steam overlay is called.
• The game will now pause if itdetects a controller has been disconnected.

Adjustments:

• AI improvements:
  • An AI director thatcoordinates all the active AI in the game has been implemented.
  • Enemies are now able toperceive each other and react in different ways depending on thecontext:
    • Enemies will now betterspread out across the map since they always take into account theposition and movement goals of other enemies that they are awareof.
    • The AI is now able to reactto the awareness level of other perceived AI, meaning that theywill enter a hostile state if they see another hostile AI, orenter search mode if they see or hear another AI in search state.
    • Enemies will now coordinateto better surround the player instead of blindly all moving on theshortest path towards the player.
  • The AI is no longer allowedto roam too close to choke points like doors that the player mustto go through to exit certain areas, in most cases they alsorepresent blind spots where the player is made unfairly vulnerablebecause of the design of the camera system.
  • The vision and hearing rangesof enemies have been reduced to compensate for their improved AI.
• The player no longer has towait for UI menus to finish fading in or out to receive backcontrol, this was mainly an issue with the inventory UI, but otherinterfaces were affected by this as well.
• Replaced the handgun modelwith another one of higher fidelity.
• Added new scene assets.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed a rare bug where enemiesattacking you with both arms would trigger an unintended double hit.

Crash Fixes:

Known Issues:

• The entire input system of thegame has been migrated to an improved Unreal Engine 5implementation, keybinding customization will be temporarilydisabled until the transition is fully implemented.