Alpha 1.19 - Massive general improvements and changes

Developer commentary:

We're almost done revamping story mode. Pretty much all the tools and programming have been completed. Now, all that's left is to actually finalize the writing and balancing. However, I have a really bad habit of working on the gameplay even when I'm not supposed to. But I'll rationalize it by calling it "preparation" for the story mode release, and as I always say, gameplay comes first.

Among all the other changes, one of my favorites is the new machine gun. How it worked went through many variations, from random scattering to combining a triangle wave and a sine wave to create "lines" of gunfire. In the end, I decided that using a flower polar graph was the one that played the best, as my other methods felt too hard or too easy. This flower pattern gives a good combination of vertical and horizontal dodging requirements, as well as not having too many unfair sweeping motions or literally undodgeable patterns. Those unfair patterns probably still exist, but I think that's also OK, because I also want to instill a fear of firearms into the player, that which didn't exist as much beforehand. Dodging gunfire is meant to be a very important motif for Clairvoyance. When a player encounters a gun, they should feel a looming sense of dread, and whenever the player kills a gunner, they should feel a sense of relief.

The second major feature I want to highlight is the anti-clustering added to the enemy AI. Some enemies aren't affected by it, but 95% will be. It prevents late game from just "kill enemies fast enough so they can't cluster and create impenetrable walls of attack bubbles". It generally limits the number of enemies attacking you to 2 + however many enemies can bypass the anti-clustering or have high range. Not to mention, enemies are generally more spread out and looks more impressive on screen.

-Dan

-Arcade mode

-Increased delay between last enemy killed to levle ending to 3 seconds

-Decreased spawn rates of gunners in early levels

-Added randomized dialogue for the start of each run

-Increased level where difficulty scaling is maxed out from 20 to 30

-Difficulty scaling is more gradual. Previously, the difficulty would increase every 5 levels.

-Spawns a machinegunner every 10 levels

-UI

-Select style page

-Replaced move text with icons in select style page

-Move buttons now show their info on a tooltip instead of on a specific part of the page.

-Styles now sorted in intentional order

-Improved style information formatting

-Move map sectors set uninteractable if not assingable with selected move

-General UI visual overhauls

-Enemy warning is now white by default. It is red if a gunner or boss enemy spawns.

-Floaty text no longer has horizontal velocity by default

-Adjusted look of tooltip textbox

-Tooltip textboxes now fade in

-Updated settings page controls names to make it less confusing

-Updated the "dodging bullets" splash screen

-Fixed multiple scrollbar functionality and scaling

-Rescaled and recolored some parts of the page

-Made "hold to pick up weapon" notifier more noticeable

-Made weapon durability + ammo counter pulse when it changes

-Updated stat bar visuals

-AOE dmaage text is orange

-Controller no longer makes your character jump immediately when starting a new level

-Stat bar tooltips now viewable with controller

-Controls text now dynamically changes for XBox and Playstation controller button layouts

-Controller now goes back from the menu with the east button (circle for PS, B for xbox and nintendo)

-Combat changes (major)

-Until Story Mode is back, everything is unlocked by default

-Added a new defensive mechanic: parry

-Activates on block + press dash

-Negates 90% of the damage

-Damages the balance of the attacker by half of the balance damage it would have dealt

-Drains an extra half the energy cost of the attack from the attacker

-Cooldown between end of parry to start of next parry is 0.3 seconds, decreased by character speed.

-Parry costs 20 energy, scaling with character size

-New ability: Stomp. Hold block + press kick to stomp, and it only hits enemies that are ragdolling

-Added "Amateur" fighting style

-Buffed basic stats, lowered skill ceiling

-Muay Thai mini rework

-when not blocking, has a passive block for the head and legs, reducing 33% of damage taken from the front.

-Muay Thai block% reduced from 85% to 75% (Default block% is 66%).

-knockback buff and resistance removed

-no longer has increased energy cost to block

-Wing Chun mini rework

-No longer literally invincible upon starting an attack

-Now activates parry instead of literal invincibility. Parry lasts 0.2 seconds

-Nerfed nonclairvoyant

-Max health: 350->300

-Energy regen: 50->40

-Speed 1.5 -> 1.25

-Arm/Leg power: 1.4->1.3

-Size: 1.13 -> 1.1

-Dash buffs

-Dashing is no longer completely blocked by an enemy, and now only goes at half speed

-Dashes cost 15 base energy instead of 20

-Dashes go 25% further than before

-Generally, all characters max energy has been increased around 50%.

-Every style has a unique starting stance

-Maximum balance now scales on character size, with diminishing returns as a character gets larger.

-Characters may have a custom balance multiplier that increases/decreases their balance, but most will have their natural balance.

-Breaking the balance of larger characters does more % damage to their health, with exponential scaling.

-Balance damage equation: (mapHP * 0.2)^(sqrt(fighter size))

-Fighters now only drop weapons if they are ragdolled while the weapon is equipped

-Camera has a slightly more gradual movement when following the player

-Removed "first strike" mechanic, as it has been made nearly irrelevant by newer combat mechanics

-First strike was a mechanic introduced to change up the player and enemy hitting each other simultaneously. Whoever struck first would reduce the attack of the one who struck second.

-Removed "fatigue" system, as it was annoying and also mostly irrelevant and also mostly only a player nerf as enemies did not tend to spam the same attack as much. I also didn't like the design direction of it. It might be reworked and added back in the future.

-New gene mods:

-Enhanced ATP Processing: When at max energy, boosts attack damage by 10%/25%/50%

-Densified Adrenal Glands: When at low health, 10%/25%/50% increase to attack speed, 33%/75%/150% increased energy regeneration

-Kevlar Muscle Threading: Take 50%/75%/90% less damage from bullets

-Modular Lung Tissue: Standing still gives 50%/100%/150% bonus energy regeneration

-Spatial sense now determines how far the player can see behind them

-Combat changes (minor)

-Trickster energy regen buffed from 30 to 40, speed from 1.25 to 1.3, foresight from 0.4 to 0.5

-All characters given minor changes.

-Chain punch angle is now dynamic, will slightly aim at the closest front enemy

-Gun now aims at the upper torso instead of the pelvis

-Slightly reduced distance where enemies block you

-Updated jump animation and physics

-Adjusted knee strike animation and hitbox

-Kyokushin no longer has access to a single jab

-Staff thrust attack area made shorter

-Lifesteal nerfed from 10%/20%/50% to 10%/20%/35%

-Sonic strikes buffed from 2/3/4 range to 3/3.5/4

-Lithium vacuoles adjusted from 35/70/200 to 40/90/150

-Nerospec: Perfectionist now increases damage by a percentage modifier instead of a flat amount. The multiplier stack starts at 1.00 and each hit adds 0.02/0.04/0.06 to the stack.

-Neurospec: Bully nerfed from 50/100/200 to 25/60/100 bonus damage upon knockdown

-Added a particle effect for dashing

-Combat visuals

-BIG: added cosmetic system. At the moment, they're all unlocked from the start, but more will eventally require unlocks.

-Added particle effect for gunshot at the barrel

-Quantum strikes lightning effect now spawns on the enemy when successful and on you when failed

-Knockdown damage is now part of the main damage number and no longer has a separate damage number pop up

-On the killing blow, the damage number now shows all overkill damage instead of just the remaining health

-Added different particle effect for blocked attacks

-Recolored bonus damage particles to red

-Made all damage numbers more readable

-Item powerup particle effects now scale with character size

-Adjusted weapon art

-Assassin renamed to Prodigy

-Boxer renamed to Warrior

-Enemies

-BIG: Enemies now have a soft-cap on the number that can attack at once. Enemy AI has been given a new anti-clustering feature, where enemies that are close to the player try not to stack on top of each other, unless they are going in opposite directions.

-BIG: All enemies now block and dash at different rates depending on the enemy AI type.

-BIG: New enemy: "Machinegunner"

-50 round LMG, sprays it at you in bursts, with a long recharge.

-New enemy AI: "Tyson"

-Fast, erratic head movement

-Strong preference for punches

-More tactical than standard aggressive AI'

-Gunner enemy now fires a volley of 7 shots, but at a slightly slower fire rate than before.

-Gunner enemies will now try to pistol whip the player if theyre too close

-Cybernetic enemy type now has a maximum of 2 morphine shots

-All enemy AI types got at least minor updates to their behavior from back end overhauls

-Bug fixes

-BIG: Fixed most issues with enemies being knocked over and having erratic movement while getting back up

-Fixed the body model bug where the fighter would bend their back too far when a fighter gets up from a weird pose

-Gamebreaking bug band-aid fix: very rarely, a fighter's model completely breaks and stretches way out of bounds. Once going a large distance past the map borders, the fighter will die.

-If this happened to an enemy, it would softlock the player since they would not be able to kill the enemy.

-The cause of this bug is currently unknown as it is very uncommon and nobody has figured out how to reproduce it yet.

-Significantly reduced leg jittering when fully extended

-Fixed hook hand going way too far if leaning back

-Fixed enemy present sorting order clipping into the previous enemy future

-Fixed springloaded legs not showing full description

-Fixed boss spawn buttons in training room not working

-You no longer accidentally put away your weapon immediately after picking it up by releasing the key too early

-Enemies will no longer lock up because they are trying to go to two head sectors in opposite directions

-Fixed controller issue where if you were holding block and you just ended an animation, you would not start blocking again -Fixed most if not all animations scaling for very big and small characters

-Fixed the arm further in the background accidentally being too thick

-Fixed berserk not removing its max energy effect after it's done

-Fixed gun glitchy visual flickering

-Stats displayed in the checkpoint screen will no longer go off the screen

-Pressing the home button on controller can now leave the training level

-Game now scales properly with resolutions that are thinner than 16:9

Alpha 1.18 - Controller support

Developer commentary:

We're currently in the middle of revamping story mode, so it's disabled for now. To be honest, I don't think it was ever that good anyway and I now believe that alpha 1.10 was a mistake. However, I decided it was about time to add controller support. I've always thought the game could work great with the twin stick style controls, and I was right!

-Dan

-Controller support!

-PSA: the code for keybinds has been modified. If you are having issues from this update with the "rebind keybinds" page, reset your keybinds and relaunching the game. If that does not work, reset your game save.

-You must select "Controller" in the settings menu in order to actually use your controller.

-Combat Controls:

-Punch: Right Shoulder

-Kick: Right Triger

-Block: Left Trigger

-Dash: Left Shoulder

-Move body: Left Stick

-Turn around: Left Stick (press)

-Move head: Right Stick

-Jump: South button

-Equip/Unequip weapon: West button (tap)

-Pick up weapon: West button (hold)

-Select next item: Dpad Down

-Use item: Dpad Up

-UI Navigation:

-Left Stick/dPad to navigate buttons

-Start button to pause

-South Button to select

-Right Stick to move world map

-Left/Right Shoulder to Zoom In/Out

-Gameplay

-New mechanic: rolling (with a punch)

-All attacks have a direction, and must hit a body part in order for it to deal damage

-Depending on the body part's current global velocity, it will affect the final damage

-Roll: A hit body part moving away from an attack will have its damage taken be reduced down to 0.75x

-Antiroll: A hit body part moving into the attack will take up to 1.25x extra damage

-The goal is to make slipping into a strike more dangerous, and slipping out less so, but you also have a higher damage potential against enemies that are charging at you.

-Head hit multiplier reduced from 2x -> 1.5x. Head hits were just too lethal. Rolling also increased damage potential by a lot, which stacked with head hits. They are still far more lethal than body shots.

-Push multiplier is now also a balance damage multiplier

-Story mode temporarily disabled as it is currently being revamped

-Added keybind for mouse/keyboard turning around with just one button press (default: Left Alt)

-Naturally spawning enemies now all have a slight randomization on their stat block (from 0.9x to 1.1x)

-Added a button to take no reward in case the player ever wants to do so

-Arcade mode now gives a free upgrade at the very start

-Smoothened ragdoll from airborne

-Enemies more smoothly transition from getting up into attacking

-QOL

-Style select screen now only shows available moves instead of highlighting available moves. It also now shows all available moves, and clicking on an arm/leg move will swap the map to the arm/leg mapping

-Aesthetic

-Modified knife stance

-Enemies now fade away on death instead of popping out of existence

-General UI updates

-Bugfixes

-Knockdown revenge description fixed

-Knife slash no longer knockbacks the wrong direction

-Saving controls should now work across play sessions

-Fixed Muay Thai not having access to hook

-Fixed an issue with the high kick lagging a split second before applying damage

-Fixed enemy getting knocked over simultaneously when you get knocked over

1.17.4.2 hotfixes

-Fixed player skill upgrades carrying over across runs

-Fixed spatial sense range being way too large

-Fixed broken enemy stun/knockdown animations while playin as nonclairvoyant

-Unfinished story mode updates

-Hopefully fixed depot issues for Linux/SteamDeck

Currently still working on the story and gameplay integration of it, but in the meantime, here's some cool new additions and fixes.

If you're interested in following development more closely, be sure to join the Discord at https://discord.gg/SX7cTJaFvZ

1.17.4 QOL fixes

-Pause menu

-Can change settings from pause menu

-Can now view your keybinds

-Gameplay

-You can zoom and move the map with scroll/middle click/arrow keys

-Future enemy fades out and in on knockdown

-Guerilla enemy AI now kicks more than punching to account for its low attack rate

-Bugfixes

-Fixed switching fighting styles through style select sometimes having incorrect style indexing

-Fixed player sometimes spawning with contorted hinge joints

-Fixed future/present enemy position desync on aerial knockdown

-Fixed most visual glitching upon an enemy getting up from ragdoll

1.17.3 visual additions

-New post processing efects

-Added more post processing effects (can be turned off in the settings menu)

Developer commentary: This is just a small package of bugfixes and minor improvements as I'm working on the Alpha 1.18 lore and story update. I might release a few more of these as the writing is being done and story mode is being developed. -Dan

-New fighter mod: Springloaded Legs

-Enemies now check distance from the player's head instead of the center of their body

-Combat balancing

-Arcade mode:

-Wingchun invincibility bugfixes

-Other Bugfixes

-Other Misc

-Tutorial panel no longer leaks into normal games if you exited the tutorial before finishing it

Alpha 1.17 - Tutorial update Developer commentary: This was originally going to be a lore update, where the game would finally receive some "story" injected into story mode, but after I attended a game dev playtest event, I was convinced that the game seriously needed at least a basic tutorial. Perhaps sometime in the future I can make a more inspired tutorial, but for now I believe this is sufficient. To be honest, from a technical point of view, making the tutorial was unbelievably boring, which I kind of expected. Guess I had some clairvoyance on that. It required a lot of repetition and using of the same methods over and over with tiny manual changes here and there, which I suppose is just the nature of making scripted content. Whenever I introduce Clairvoyance to someone, I usually have to tell them, "use the training level to learn the controls". While the training level has a giant billboard labeled "CONTROLS", a lot of people (even seasoned gamers) often still didn't pick up on extremely basic things, such as turning around or dashing. I think it is a case where too much information is packed into too small of a space. This is definitely not helped by the fact that there is a lot of distracting buttons in the training level UI. Furthermore, the level of communication given to the player on gameplay mechanics was in a straight up dilapidated state. If you wanted to know exactly how something works, you either had to deduce it by observation, get lucky with a tooltip in the randomized hints, or dig through the walls of text in the instructions page. A brand new player needs a bit more guidance than a raw list of keybinds. If I introduce things piece by piece and contextualize them at the same time, it's probably a much better teaching method than to dump it all on someone at once. It's not like I'm using groundbreaking teaching techniques here or anything here, but it should be enough for give most players a smoother start. -Dan -Added tutorial -Blue/red glow for move fixed when facing left -Buttons now make a small noise when clicked -Fighters missing attacks now plays a swoosh sound -Jump kick now kicks slightly higher and will more consistently hit the head of an equal height fighter -Damage reduced from 100 to 70 to compensate -Added option to toggle player attack visual -Added a safety to the reset data button -You can't hide your mouse anymore when in a menu screen -New arcade mode boss spawning algorithm -Staff wielding tank: guaranteed every 3 levels, 30% chance ever other level -Fast boss: Every 7 levels, or 20% chance every other level -Heavy boss: Every 10 levels, or 15% chance every other level -Backgrounds extend further downward to fill the screen -Knife stab and slash animation adjusted -Fixed typo for inertia enhancers -Fixed enemy heads snapping into place after stun animation ends -Fixed knife spawning in wrong direction -Balancing: Energy costs for many moves slightly buffed -Roundhouse kick: 40 -> 35 -High kick: 50 -> 40 -Push kick: 45 -> 35 -Jump kick: 60 -> 50 -Flying kick: 70 -> 55 -Axe kick: 50 -> 40 -Elbow: 20 -> 17

Alpha 1.16.5 -Fixed roundhouse, high kick, low kick arm glitching out when far from spawn point -Fixed research room not being able to escape -Knife enemy spawns with a knife -Knives no longer sometimes change orientation in hand

Alpha 1.16.4 - kick rebalancing

-Kicks generally slowed down, but do more damage. Punch damage generally decreased.

Alpha 1.16.3 -Arcade mode now gives a mod every 3 levels instead of every level due to the increased mod power -Player attacks are no longer delayed by 1-2 frames -Fixed arcade not spawning bosses -Fixed muscle overclock, inertia enhancers, blood absorption description typos -Removed outdated hints -Added "hardcore mode", which disables incoming attack indicators -Updated bullet visual effect -streaks across a small width instead of the entire screen -the attack location is visible in hardcore mode -Added combat guides to instructions page

This is a minor content update but I think it makes the game look so much better that it deserves a "regular update" announcement Alpha 1.16.2 - Small background visuals update -Updated every background art to a more simplified art style that does not clash with the character models -The previous background sprites were far too detailed in relation to the level of detail on the characters. They use very few colors and make heavy usage of gradients. -On top of the aesthetic matching and less distraction from the combat visuals, simple backgrounds are much quicker to make, which means that much more variety in background art will soon be made, such as multiple backgrounds art per room type, and more room types in general. -Player and enemy shouldnt hit each other simultaneously anymore if one stuns or ragdolls the other -Arcade mode music replaced with Sole Replicant and no longer breaks during intermission screens -Checkpoint flavor text updated -Removed WIP style from style select -Updated 1.16 patch notes to include the addition of axe kick

-Staff no longer freezes your character's controls if you kill an enemy with the backward thrust at 1 durability

Alpha 1.16 - Further combat depth and feel - 2025Mar14

Developer commentary:

-Extremely special bugfix:

-Combat

-Gunfire

-New mechanic: balance

-Level 1: Stun

-Level 2: Ragdoll

-Balance strength is based on the number of feet you have planted on the ground. These are the current multipliers:

-Gene mod rework

-All mods:

-New mods:

-All previous mods are completely revamped and simplified:

-Small animation adjustments for:

-Bugfixes

-Other

Alpha 1.15 - Aesthetics focused update Developer commentary: This update was developed very over the course of a few very hectic months of my life. I don't want to get into the details, but in short my living situation became uncertain. If you're reading this, that means I've successfully finished what I would consider a major update and pushed it live, yayyyyyy The general focus for this update is supposed to be aesthetic improvements, but in reality it's more of a hodgepodge of random stuff. HOWEVER I do believe a lot that random stuff is quite cool and great additions to the game. I'm quite satisfied with how a lot of it turned out. The new bloom and lighting effects are probably the highlight (lol) of the update, but my personal favorite change was the addition of these new fighting move icons that show up in the move map editor and in game next to the sector indicator. -Dan

Combat


Visual -Added icons next to sector indicator in game to indicate which moves are currently seleted to execute -There is a glow behind the icon. Blue means ready to use, red means not enough energy -Decreased ragdoll velocities on death -Damage particle actually goes in the direction associated with the hit instead of a random one -Intimidation success no longer wins the level immediately, but rather has all enemies run away and stop spawning -Health and energy bars now glow according to how high the values are Functional -Lifesteal buffed from 0.75%+0.25(LVL-1)% to 1%+0.5(LVL-1)% -Blocking -Should now only affect the direction the fighter is facing -Block damage mitigation buffed from 50% to 66% -Knockback is now reduced by the same percentage that damage was reduced, for any reason. -Block perviously reduced knockback by a flat 66% -Wing Chun invulnerability previously did not reduce knockback at all -Added blocked damage floaty text color (grey) -Fixed jab attack area direction and position -Previously was too high angle and spawned too far forward -Updated animations: push kick, flying kick, knife slash, knife stab -Slightly increased staff thrust attack area size -Enemies -Nerfed monster HP from 3000 to 1500 -Nerfed heavy boss HP from 1500 to 1000 -Both those enemies just took way too long to kill -Heavy boss AI tweaked to use more slams if the player is close and more strikes if the player is far -Jab now has slightly less range, and the attack location is more standardized

Lighting


-Slightly darkened global lighting so light effects can be visible -Added slight bloom to everything but UI -Added lighting effects to: -Gunshots -Most particles -Attack areas -Enemy attacks now slightly glow. -The more powerful the attack, the stronger the glow -Reduced saturation for all enemy colors -If they're too bright, they'll start glowing due to the new lighting.

Audio


-Fixed hit sound effects only sometimes playing -Multiple new tracks -OST are on the Youtube channel -Added some previously unused OST to the game -Adjusted main menu track

Misc visual stuff


-Added a casual running/walking animation for when there are no more enemies -Added a background for security room/keycard room -Changed floaty text font and styles -Adjusted map node info display -Added icons in the style select screen editing menu -Updated fonts for most text assets -Updated generic lab hallway parallax background -Fleshed out descriptions for all player stats -When something is not unlocked, added text to show how far you are into the unlock -Added some link buttons to the main menu

Bugfixes


-Fixed arcade mode win infinite loop -Fixed enemy walking animation glitch where their legs would stretch really far -Should have fixed arcade mode sometimes having enemies hit you in the checkpoint screen -Removed intimidation check from happening in arcade mode -Fixed update log text going into the header -Fixed combat stim effect having double its intended particle count -Should have fixed the monster and heavy boss AI -If after this I still get reports of them standing around doing nothing, I'm just straight up rewriting that thing -Fixed fighter particle system sometimes jumping around the screen -Elbow no longer attacks twice -Pressing ESC on main menu now closes submenus -Gene mods now properly add levels when getting them as a reward after the first -Enemy fighter render layers should be more properly sorted


[ 2025-02-18 09:21:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Alpha 1.15 is very close to a public release, and we're looking for more alpha testers for this and future updates! You will be able to get your name/username (you choose which) in the credits page as an alpha tester, and explicit access to experimental builds and features that are not available for the public until later. The responsibilities of an alpha tester are very simple: just play the game's test version when requested (sometimes specific parts of the game) and report bugs you find. Testing will often happen in bursts, so there is a lot of downtime, up to weeks or even months at a time, where no playtesting is needed. To become an alpha tester, just join the Discord server and ping me in the chat. My account is dan_qz Thanks for your time, Dan

Alpha 1.14.3 -Recolored most pages into dark mode -Revamped text box to adapt size -Removed some outdated splash arts -Modified main menu UI -Fixed again rooms not giving rewards thinking it is reinforced when it is not -Fixed major bug where too many rooms were reinforced per encounter

Alpha 1.14.2 -Removed high score from displaying on main menu (Score has become more and more irrelevant) -Version text now appears at all times in very small text at the top center of the screen -Fixed windows build not existing lol

Alpha 1.14.1 -Added a join Discord button on the main menu -Updated menu buttons to glow brighter on mouse hover -Enemies and player now overlap properly -Changed graphics for some UI elements