Additions:

• Prowler now has a driver's license

• Added new items:

  • Machete (One-Handed bladed melee weapon)

• Added new animations and effects to the Prowler reflective of their affliction

Changes:

• Enemies now have a slightly reaction delay when peaking a corner with a gun

• Updated gore impact sounds

• A kick can no longer be started unless a valid door can be hit

• Changed the Prowler's blood color to the correct color

Fixes

• Fixed rook gaining nuclear punches if you held down the punch button before grabbing an enemy from the ground

• Fixed kicking doors through walls

• Potential fix for UI blurring on certain resolutions

• Fixed sub-pixel blurring errors in UI layer

• Fixed states not intended to persist across saves if the load happened before it was deleted

• Fixed character icons now appearing on their respective buttons in the diner

• Fixed Prowler's tail not effecting their movement correctly

• Fixed Prowler's movement mechanics preventing cars from functioning correctly

Additions:

• New system for executions that allows different items to have custom execution animations

  • Fireaxe, Shovel, and Sledgehammer now use a slightly slower execution that kills in one hit

  • Wrench, Crowbar, Knife, and Cleaver now use a slightly faster execution that kills in 3 hits

• Executions now slow the combo timer by 50% for a 5s

• The combo flame now changes color depending on the rate it is depleting

• Overhauled the audio for gore impacts

• Rook's hostage grab now grants the target 50% damage resistance, thus allowing hostages to take an extra hit before being dropped

• Enemies now react to being grabbed by Rook or when seeing an ally grabbed by Rook

• Added placeholder animations for Rook snapping the neck of a hostage

Changes:

• \[Technical] Overhauled how guns evaluate if they are loaded, unloaded, or empty

• Character states are now persistent across level transitions

• Entering the outskirts area remove the "Wanted" state for players

• Exiting/entering the diner now removes/adds the non-combat area state

• Enemy cultists will now load their weapons as soon as they are alerted, rather than loading the weapon as a part of shooting a target

  • As a by-product of this change:

  • Enemies have faster reflexes with regards to shooting

  • You are less likely to pick up an unloaded gun from an enemy

• If the attack button is held down before a respawn, the input will be processed after the respawn

• One-handed blunt melee weapons now recovery faster after stopping and hitting a target

• Removed/updated several loading tips

• Shortened the default combo timer (4s > 3s)

• Reduced the range of the nailgun slightly

• Impact sounds no longer stack to an absurd degree

• Rook's hostage grab can now target enemies that are near him regardless of if he faces them

• Rook holds hostages closer to his center so enemies are less likely to hit him instead of the hostage

• Rook can no longer punch while carrying a hostage

• Canceling an execution will reset the time that the target remains on the ground, they will no longer immediately stand back up.

• Punches no longer create blood sprays when hitting enemies

• Adjusted the hitbox of punches to cover the immediate front of the character more

Fixes:

• Fixed Rook being able to pick up dead enemies as hostages

• Fixed enemies held by rook being stunned/thrown (and causing incorrect animations)

• Fixed firearms supercharging their velocity when being dropped after shooting

• Fixed character states not being 'respawned' during a load if the character lost the state later

• Fixed enemies not being thrown by certain attacks

• Fixed being unable to start an execution properly after swinging a two handed melee weapon

• Fixed torso animation bones not being reset when doing a full-body animation, resulting in occasional incorrect offset of held items

• Fixed guns checking for confinement collisions when not being held by a character

• Automatic guns now properly cease fire when dropped

• Fixed level transition colliders blocking bullets

• Particles from spray paint explosions now function similar to blood sprays

• Fixed being able to keeping punching after picking up an item

• Potentially fixed an issue regarding starting a new game and not properly deleting old save data

Additions

• Added an additional floor to High-Rise

• Added a unique scoretype for kills by car

Changes

• Enemies wielding one-handed weapons now wait a short delay before swinging once they enter attack range

  • This should give them the reaction time nerf that was also applied to two-handed melee

• Rook can now take enemies hostage if they are recovering from being knocked down

• The sledgehammer can now hit multiple targets

• Rebalanced the fireaxe

  • Swings are slower, recovery and charge-up are faster, slightly increased attack range

• Blunt melee weapons now recover from a swing faster if a target was hit

Fixes

• Items can no longer be marked as reserved by enemies and enemies should no longer softlock themselves by not being able to find an item because it has been reserved by a dead enemy

• Fixed fists/claws using the wrenches impact sound effects

• Melee attacks no longer play impact sounds if the target has I-frames

• Fixed the restart level button deleting the current level info

• Enemies will now properly lose sight/tracking of players

  • Proper searching behaviour has yet to be implemented

• Lowered the floor pass-through plane to avoid it occasionally clipping over the main floor area

• Broken doors now count as blocking line-of-sight and enemies will no longer instantly open fire on breached doors

• Fixed high-rise's music track not being cleared properly when restarting the level

New Content/Features:

• Completely overhauled 'High-Rise'

  • First-pass at remaking this level, new screens, better layouts, has yet to have a proper art pass

• The SCARRED can now be purchased from the trunk loadout screen

• Added floor passthrough effects

• New systems for managing reactionary dialog from enemies

  • Enemies now have proper custom lines to reaction to playable characters with, and be a bit more creative with their lines

Changes:

• Blunt weapons now visually stop swinging when they hit an enemy to better emphasize their single-target hits and feel snappier to use

• Particles now correctly enter their rest state to reduce gpu usage even when not rendered

• Blood now uses a sensible shader setup and no longer demands your gpu as sacrifice

• Rook's hostage grab now only targets enemies that are knocked down

• Adjusted the animation curve of the Prowler's tail stab so that it feels snappier (while the full animation is the same length, the actual throwing of the attack comes faster so it is more useable)

• Updated the Prowler's sprites to depict their black/brown suit in their portrait instead of their older white suit

• Increased the animation length of Prowler's execution bite (0.5s > 0.6s)

• One-handed melee weapons can be swung continuously by holding the fire button

• Melee projectiles remain live for a tenth of a second after firing now instead of only 1 frame

• Reduced motion blur overall

• Reduce the decal smearing created by getting soaked with blood

• Adjusted the animation for the cursor of two-handed weapons when the weapon is charged

• Added a slight delay to enemies with melee weapons when they release their charged swings

  • This should make melee feel more reliable/consistent as its easier to land hits without the enemy also hitting you.

• Adjusted the start spawn in 'NIGHT PROWLER'

• Added a barrier to the entrance in 'NIGHT PROWLER' to stop characters from entering/exiting the building during the fight

• Enemies now drop their weapons such that they are thrown away from their attacker

• Enemies throw their weapons with less force when being taken hostage/impaled

• Thrown items now have to be moving at high speed to deal damage/knock down enemies

• Reduced the blood earned from taking damage, returns 0.0L after the 3rd hit

• Updated dialog across the game

Fixes:

• Fixed footstep audio not being attached to their emitter correctly and resulting in odd stereo sound behavior

• Fixed cutting melee attacks being able to hit the same target multiple times per swing

• Fixed melee attacks creating multiple blood splatters for the same attack

• Fixed attempt information (score) not being initialized properly when restarting a level

• Fixed Prowler's tail behaving erratically when moving between floors

• Extended the colliders of walls vertically to avoid jumping over walls when falling between floors

• Fixed an issue where items would be flipped incorrectly if a character punched beforehand

• Added exterior region markers to the mall to keep enemies from wandering outside

• Fixed thrown items hitting obstacles near the player when thrown (items are now thrown from in front of the player to avoid unneeded collisions)

• Rook can no longer dive or execute while carrying a hostage

• Fixed being able to grab enemies and keep them in a dodge-rolling state

• Trunk items can no longer be taken out of the trunk in the diner

• Updated the particles created when swinging melee weapons

• Fixed a micro delay in damage from melee projectiles

• Fixed an issue where motion blur would not be applied properly, leading to excess blurring

• Shotguns can no longer be jammed by right-clicking

• Fixed the SCARRED not displaying it's ammo

• In the tutorial, disabled punching after the initial prompt to avoid skipping dialog/prompts

• Fixed the door/garage in the tutorial being considered unnavigable by ai

• Fixed the default color for blood sprays being white instead of red

• Fixed the enemy in the tutorial's first floor arcade room not having its ai enabled

• Fixed cassette for 'Killhouse' listing the wrong track

• Fixed cars not breaking doors correctly when driving into them

• Fixed melee weapons being unintentionally able to hit multiple targets/deal extra damage under unpredictable circumstances

• Fixed the Prowler's tail drawing above their torso

• Weapon loading animations for shotguns, hunting rifle are properly cancelled across respawns now

• Fixed shotgun reticles changing size when hovering over walls

Prowler Rework

• The Prowler now automatically enters executions after tackling

• Rewrote the Prowler's tail stab ability from scratch with various improvements

  • When performing the attack, the character will spin to give it more reach

  • When a save is loaded the ability correctly removes attached enemies

• Replaced the Prowler's default unarmed weapon with Claws

  • Similar to the default fists, kills instead of knocking enemies down, you'll have to get creative to set up executions now.

• Lowered the amount of blood spray created when executing as the prowler

  • Too many overkill executions caused too much of a performance hit, this should help with that

• Adjusted the physics construction of the Prowler's tail to avoid collision issues

  • Fixes acceleration issues when diving over physics props

Rook Updates

• Added Rook's active ability: Hostage Grab

  • Pressing the ability button while near a standing enemy will grab them and use them as a shield until they die.

  • Pressing the button again will snap their neck and drop them

New Content

• Added some new tracks from WITCHA!

• Added new level: the mall

  • Largest level (and most challenging) of the arcade campaign

• Added a new class of weapon, one-handed melee.

  • One-handed melee weapons are far lighter than two-handed and have no charge up time, swinging instantly upon clicking. This increased dexterity comes at the cost of range, power, etc.

• Added nails as a new ammo type/projectile

• Added new weapons:

  • Knife: One-handed bladed melee weapon

  • Cleaver: One-handed bladed melee weapon. Slower than a knife, but has more coverage

  • Wrench: One-handed blunt melee weapon

  • Crowbar: One-handed blunt melee weapon. Increased range and swing speed, but slower recovery time.

  • Sledgehammer: Two-handed blunt melee weapon that can break walls

  • SCAR: Fully automatic medium caliber rifle

  • Nailgun: Safety removed, shoots nails

• Rebuilt the dialog system from the ground up

  • Read dialog at your own pace, fast forward, etc.

  • Branching conversations

• Added several new cutscenes to the campaign, reworked all existing cutscenes

• Alt-fire for two-handed weapons has been implemented, right-clicking with any two-handed weapon does an instant bash that knocks enemies to the ground. This alternate move does not interfere with charging or swinging the weapon so you can combo it to take on larger groups.

• \[WIP] Added an alt-fire to the hunting rifle that scopes in

• Added animations for racking the slide on most handguns

• Added BLOOD currency, getting new high scores in levels earns you blood which can be spent on various unlockables.

  • Blood is calculated based on your highest achieved score, beating a level the first time earns max blood, but any completion afterward only earns the increase in the highscore.

• Weapons can now be unlocked and equipped to the trunk of the car, any level that starts with a car will have the item saved in the trunk

  • This is the first implementation of this system, so currently all weapons are available for purchase from the get-go

QOL

• Added a controls reference tab to the settings menu

  • This currently only shows the default controls, but will be updated to allow keyremapping

• Changed control scheme slightly, right-click is now alt-fire, middle-click is character ability (previously both were right-click)

• Added dynamic cursors for most item classes

• Checkpoints are now created upon completing a level

  • Previously, if you somehow died after clearing a level but before switching floors, it would reset the floor but still allow you to leave.

• Added a restart level button to the pause menu

  • PRESS R TO RESTART HARDER

• Locked levels are now visible in the contract menu with a tooltip for how to unlock them

• Completed levels display their achieved rank on their polaroid in the contract view

Changes

• \[Technical] Reworked how contracts and levels are saved

  • This new system is far more robust than the one previously used in the demo.

  • Unfortunately saves prior to this patch will not be compatible.

• \[Technical] Reworked how music data is stored

• Implemented new system for cultists weapon randomization

• Reworked tutorial

• Reworked changing characters in the bar

• Arcade Cultists now have a small chance to spawn with SMG's, Nailguns, Knives, and Wrenches

• Added 'Slashed' score type for bladed weapons

• Adjusted the animations for charging two-handed melee

  • The first pass of these animations were too subtle to quickly identify in actively gameplay, with these more exaggerated animations it should be easier to tell when your attacks are ready.

• Updated the description text for several levels

• Added sounds for thrown bladed weapons killing enemies

• Added blood now smears as you move when killing several enemies in close-quarters

• Moved the window next to the primary entrance on 'Killhouse' to prevent enemies from immediately pursuing the player.

• Removed the destructible walls in 'High Rise' since they led to some shader issues and didn't add much gameplay wise.

• Taking damage now awards a fixed amount of blood that is determined based on how many hits have been taken previously

  • 0-1 hits > 3 blood

  • 2 hits > 2 blood

  • 3+ hits > 1 blood

• Reworked unarmed weapons (Fists, claws, etc.)

  • Improved animations, response time, and utility

• Kicking a door now creates a time-slowing effect

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where enemies could not respond to sounds properly

• Fixed enemies being pushed out from under the player when being executed

• Fixed being able to move while doing an execution by charging a melee attack before starting the execution

• Fixed high-caliber bullets not creating blood sprays when penetrating targets

• Fixed a bug that prevented enemies using melee weapons from being able to swing while pursuing a target

  • Enemies are even more skilled now at using their melee weapons.

• Lowered the default unreal lighting quality to 1 (increasing it has no graphical improvement, thus unreal was using far more resources to render simple lights)

• Fixed melee projectiles spawning significantly more bloodspray particles than intended, increased the particles in a single spray slightly to compensate.

• Fixed some blood spray particles colliding instantly upon spawn and thus not being as visible as intended

  • These last few fixes should greatly improve performance by about +20FPS

• "Drag to sign" text on the contract pen no longer prevents the selection of the pen

• Fixed breaking glass at the start of 'High Rise' starting the level early

• Replaced navigation modifiers at several entrances to now discourage enemies from roaming outside instead of being incapable of pathing outside

• Cultists will not pursue sounds that they can only reach by exiting their building

• Characters can no longer use their special ability while in the diner

• Fixed health bar hearts not resetting correctly when regaining health

• Items can no longer be picked up through walls

• Executions can no longer be performed through walls

• Returning to the diner as a different character than the one previously selected in the diner will now automatically update the player's selected character

  • This should resolve some meta-data related issues when changing characters (i.e. rook's name being displayed when the prowlers should be shown instead)

• Fixed the Prowler's tail from occasionally colliding with bullets and blocking sound checks

• Fixed animation desync in the handgun firing animation

• Potential fix for a crash relating to killing an enemy while knocking a door into them

This patch is focused on addressing core combat mechanics and performance. Two-handed melee weapons provide better feedback as to when they are ready to swing, and have been adjusted to feel snappier in their swings. Learn the timings, crush your opponents. Guns have had several improvements, their contents are now saved between floors (you no longer have to rechamber a gun if you previously made sure it was loaded). Guns can no longer be stuck through walls and fired, instead characters will pull their weapons back when close to a wall and cannot shoot until space is made. This also varies based on gun length, so a hunting rifle is less suited to close-quarters levels when compared to say, a pistol. Plan accordingly.

In longer levels, performance would often drop as more enemies are killed. It has been discovered that the blood that would splatter characters (decals, not the particles that fly everywhere) would stack exponentially. So 1000's of these decals would be applied to a small space. This has been fixed an now only a couple decals will remain permanent, and the rest will fade over time.

Additions

• Added new & updated existing melee animations to provide better feedback and make them feel snappier without compromising gameplay.

• Added sounds to the charge-up of melee weapons

• Reworked how blood splatter decals are handled The spray of blood that would decorate nearby characters could stack to obscene amounts, leading to performance issues. This should majorly help performance on longer levels.

• Implemented a new system for saving the components of entities

• Guns now save their contents No more rechambering your gun between floors, make sure you're loaded before moving on and you're good.

• Added new 'confinement' handling to guns, guns can no longer be shot through walls and characters will pull their guns back when too close to a wall. No more playing it safe by shooting enemies through walls, get in there and do it yourself.

• Added pump animations to the sawn-off

• When dual-wielding weapons and using the alternate stance, a slight auto-aim buff is applied making it easier to hit targets while using this stance Outside of the beginning of high-rise, there was very little use to this ability. This should help it be more useful in spur-of-the-moment situations that would be near impossible to pull off otherwise.

• Added more loading screen tips

• Added some text to the pen in the contract window to make it clearer how to start a contract

Fixes

• Removed developer hotkeys

• Fixed bladed weapons not creating gore effects

• Fixed recoil animation of Tactical Pistol, Auto Pistol from effecting its firing trajectory

• Fixed a bug with enemies not being able to use their melee weapons correctly

• Reduced the intensity of water spill iridescence

• Fixed an issue where freshly picked up melee weapons could not be swung

• Debris from doors should no longer land at odd angles and block critical information below them

• Adjusted the Bartender's dialogue with regards to the contract folder to make it clearer where it is.

• Fixed signature disappearing after signing a contract

Known Issues:

• The Prowler does not unlock properly after beating the demo Because the story progression systems were so taped-together for the demo this likely won't be fixed until I rework them. If you want to play as the Prowler you can do this: Beat their level and return to the bar, before entering the bar escape to the main menu, click continue to reenter the game. This will save the Prowler as your current character but will skip the ending cutscene, you can then play whatever levels you want as them. (unfortunately you have to repeat this process anytime you close the game)

• Killing an enemy with a shotgun whilst using shrapnel from a nearby door to knock them down in the same frame crashes the game. This bug refuses to go away, so currently you can kill someone so hard it kills the universe along with them.

This update contains Hotfix 0.4.1 alongside some additional fixes and is now available for the main branch. Additions:

• Added randomized weapon spawns This also allows for many more weapons to be accessible in the demo, technically adding 5+ new weapons (KSG, Sawn-Off Shotgun, P90, Garand, Auto-Pistol)

• Added more weapon spawns across all levels

• Added various new props across all levels

• Added some new handling systems to cars, making them easier to control

• The contracts menu will now auto scroll to the newest available contract when being opened

• Added a discord server button to the main menu

• Added some new loading screen tips

Fixes:

• Fixed weapons not returning to their correctly held positions after resurrecting No more telekinesis. This also fixed an issue regarding being unable to kick doors, execute enemies from far away, etc. Abilities wouldn't be attached to their 'slot' correctly after resurrecting.

• Fixed high-score comparison always being visible, even if it was the first time a level was beaten

• Fixed animated recoil of handguns impacting muzzle trajectory when firing too quickly Liked the implications for gameplay on this one, but it proved too confusing for newer players when their shots wouldn't land and too much was happening to be able to see why. Enjoy fanning the magnum now.

• Fixed the position of a light on 'Clean Cut'

• Fixed a sector triangulation error on 'High Rise'

• Fixed being able to enter floor transitions while dead

• Adjusted the position of the high-score panel in the contract view

• Optimized various lights

• Potential fix for the Prowler not be available after completing the demo

• Potential fix for not being able to continue playing after returning to the diner from the ending

• Removed the garand from spawning immediately in Killhouse

• Fixed music track VITAMASS not looping

• Kicking/dodge-rolling into a neon sign no longer deals damage This caused some issues where you would accidentally kick a sign while kicking a door, forcing you to take damage.

• Fixed being able to exit the level bounds on 'Dead Drop'

• Fixed quitting via the pause menu being able to advance story without completing the required level

• Fixed an issue where some characters ability slots could not be loaded correctly

• Fixed an issue where items spawned in car trunks would not be removed correctly from the trunk and would lead to save conflicts

Known Issues:

• Killing an enemy with a shotgun whilst using shrapnel from a nearby door to knock them down in the same frame crashes the game. This bug refuses to go away, so currently you can kill someone so hard it kills the universe along with them.

This hotfix fixes many major issues in the current public demo.

Due to some technical issues, this build is not yet available on the main branch. You can access this version of the demo by changing your beta branch to 'prerelease' [img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/45479572/fc0fb76000c5037e2fa8ff09c48e89e0db280d9e.png"][/img] Additions:

• Added randomized weapon spawns This also allows for many more weapons to be accessible in the demo, technically adding 5+ new weapons (KSG, Sawn-Off Shotgun, P90, Garand, Auto-Pistol)

• Added more weapon spawns across all levels

• Added various new props across all levels

• Added some new handling systems to cars, making them easier to control

• The contracts menu will now auto scroll to the newest available contract when being opened

Fixes:

• Fixed weapons not returning to their correctly held positions after resurrecting No more telekinesis.

• Fixed high-score comparison always being visible, even if it was the first time a level was beaten

• Fixed animated recoil of handguns impacting muzzle trajectory when firing too quickly Liked the implications for gameplay on this one, but it proved too confusing for newer players when their shots wouldn't land and too much was happening to be able to see why. Enjoy fanning the magnum now.

• Fixed the position of a light on 'Clean Cut'

• Fixed a sector triangulation error on 'High Rise'

• Fixed being able to enter floor transitions while dead

• Adjusted the position of the high-score panel in the contract view

• Optimized various lights

• Potential fix for the Prowler not be available after completing the demo

• Potential fix for not being able to continue playing after returning to the diner from the ending

• Removed the garand from spawning immediately in Killhouse

• Fixed music track VITAMASS not looping

• Kicking/dodge-rolling into a neon sign no longer deals damage This caused some issues where you would accidentally kick a sign while kicking a door, forcing you to take damage.

• Fixed being able to exit the level bounds on 'Dead Drop'

• Fixed quitting via the pause menu being able to advance story without completing the required level

• Fixed an issue where some characters ability slots could not be loaded correctly

• Fixed an issue where items spawned in car trunks would not be removed correctly from the trunk and would lead to save conflicts

Known Issues:

• Killing an enemy with a shotgun whilst using shrapnel from a nearby door to knock them down in the same frame crashes the game. This bug refuses to go away, so currently you can kill someone so hard it kills the universe along with them.

[img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/45479572/960367374bb8ea9d67c22fb07686eb542bb1550a.png"][/img]

RitualRX is a brutally violent, blisteringly fast, adrenaline-filled shooter set within a pastel paradise ruled by cults. Control excommunicated sinners as you shoot, slash, and slaughter your way through a city where ritual is prescribed and the only treatment administered is an overdose of lead.

Play the free demo and get a taste of the action! Play The Demo

If you're interested in the game's development, want behind the scenes content, or just want to report some bugs:

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A free demo for RitualRX will release June 8th!