Vapourware Sui Generis + Exanima Early Access

[Technomancer]

16/5/22

This week we finished implementing all the new damage and related mechanics and have been testing lots of different weapons in detail, tweaking things as we go. We've never really done such in depth testing before, and we noticed a lot of things haven't really been working the way they should. We've been digging deeper and revising a lot of other core mechanics, such as impact, how characters respond to hits and all sorts. Piercing damage also got reworked, with more changes we still want to do to its armour penetrating mechanics.

Testing how many different weapons behave is very time consuming, so at this point it seems most productive to bring the community in to give us feedback so we can finish tweaking things. We're considering creating a new testing branch for this, so that people who play normally on the beta branch aren't caught by surprise and we can get more focused feedback. We should be able to get this going within a couple of days.

The main goal here is to get each weapon behaving more or less as you'd expect, compared to other weapons and how they feel to use in general. There's a lot of issues that have been in the game for a while that we're trying to correct. An obvious example of this is disproportionally high damage from seemingly weak blows, or some lighter weapons delivering huge impact damage etc. We'll post an announcement on Discord with details and some notes on testing, in general we want weapons to feel fun and satisfying to use, but importantly more diverse and true to their form.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Rarre]

I think they are obssesed with combat and items and left the core game exploration and rpg stuff forgotten... after ten years...

 

[Technomancer]

I think they are obssesed with combat and items and left the core game exploration and rpg stuff forgotten... after ten years...

I am fairly certain new story update will come out this year. As for combat this was delayed for years. With weapon features like flips and unavailable skills coming online it makes sense to finally fix accumulated damage issues right now. According to Madoc they won't touch combat for a long time after this rework is complete.

 

[Rarre]

I think they are obssesed with combat and items and left the core game exploration and rpg stuff forgotten... after ten years...

I am fairly certain new story update will come out this year. As for combat this was delayed for years. With weapon features like flips and unavailable skills coming online it makes sense to finally fix accumulated damage issues right now. According to Madoc they won't touch combat for a long time after this rework is complete.

I hope you are right... Do we really need weapon postures? Without rpg elements and the world this game feels like a tekken game or hellish quart's... a great one but...
Everything they add is innovative and good but for some reason they are postponing the other stuff... maybe they don't know how to do it well...

Do we have any clues on the new story content? Is it more map levels? More letters and text? More interactable npcs?
They need another 10 years to finish this... 20 years for a game It's crazy... sad but true... like underrail... AoD... Kenshi...

 

[Technomancer]

Do we really need weapon postures?

Well we do if you want combat to be feature complete. If you don't, devs want it for sure and this is not new. Icons for unavailable skills were in game for many years but any work on them was always postponed because Madoc knew it would be an undertaking. Even in this open test there won't be some for example, because they still need extra animations done for them. With game moving closer to the finishing line, it seems they decided that now is the time.

Do we have any clues on the new story content? Is it more map levels?

One more big main level and possibly one optional. New saving mechanic past portal (I assume it will involve limited and costly resurrection. There is more to it, but spoilers). New monster to fight. New and final (for Exanima) thaumaturgy spell tree - Force. New companion, the Knight who you will meet on the crossroads. This means new dialogue and new lore, obviously.

They need another 10 years to finish this... 20 years for a game It's crazy

10 years is rather excessive, I think Exanima will hit 1.0 in three to five years.

 

[agris]

Do we really need weapon postures?

Well we do if you want combat to be feature complete.

this reads like pure copium. the team isn’t developing content, they’re refining minutiae

 

[Technomancer]

this reads like pure copium. the team isn’t developing content, they’re refining minutiae

This rework was always planned, in relevant conversations Madoc mentioned it for years on the discord.

Believe in what you want though. Content update will come eventually, like it always does.

 

[mediocrepoet]

this reads like pure copium. the team isn’t developing content, they’re refining minutiae

This rework was always planned, in relevant conversations Madoc mentioned it for years on the discord.

Believe in what you want though. Content update will come eventually, like it always does.

 

[Technomancer]

SOON

 

[Rarre]

3 to 5 years for exanima... I was thinking on Sui Generis... With IA and characters, all the world... .

They say many times that the content creation is not the issue and It' s the technical aspects... But they don't stop to update the technical... like the new lighting system and so on... We have 2 npcs after 10 years for a open world rpg... Yess exanima is a prelude... But.. . 2 Npcs with 30 lines text each? Rest of the npcs are zombies or morbs. Maybe I am wrong but seems like they avoid to create the world and are over developing the combat layer of the game. If they finish this combat gem and they put so much effort and originality into worldbuilding, npcs and the open world will be great... But I am becoming skeptic with the years... I backed this game on my 20s, now I am on my 30s... Exanima gold on my 34th bthday?.. Sui Generis for my 40s or 43s? I am not sure I will still be interested in it :S game development is a weird world

 

[mediocrepoet]

But I am becoming skeptic with the years... I backed this game on my 20s, now I am on my 30s... Exanima gold on my 34th bthday?.. Sui Generis for my 40s or 43s? I am not sure I will still be interested in it :S game development is a weird world

This sort of thing is why I've had to reconsider my attitude towards things like Early Access and Kickstarter. I'm older than you and wonder if some of these things will actually release during my natural life even if they're not scams.

There are actually a few games where they seem to be making progress, but I backed them so long ago (6+ years) that I wish I hadn't because the gaming landscape and my interests have changed enough that I'm unlikely to play it once it eventually comes out (assuming it ever does).

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

At this pace, 10 years is not even close to what the need. The kickstarter debuted in 2012 with a great proof of concept. It even had spell casting. Who knows how long they worked on that prior to announcing? Since 2014, they've given us multiple engine changes, optimizations, and items. That's 10 years later. I guess we also got one branch of Thaumaturgy 7 years in. Big woop. With this kind of progress, they'll need another 50 years to have a a fully fledged game with quests and plot. Dude needs a project manager, badly.


This was one of their pitch videos in 2012. All of this was already made. Other than some polish, there is nothing in the current game that isn't shown here, except maybe proper velvet simulation. This video even shows force spells and two-weapon fighting. We got two-weapon fighting in what...2018? Players still don't have any of those force, blink, or teleport spells.

Vaporware

So very disappointing. I wonder what it would take to buy his tech. and actually do something with it. He doesn't strike me as the type who would sell though.

 

[Technomancer]

I guess we also got one branch of Thaumaturgy 7 years in.

According to Madoc mind thaumaturgy was the most difficult spell branch possible because it deals directly with AI so required a lot of complicated programming. He says other schools are much easier to implement since they are far more straightforward. That being said, after so many years artist who drew original icons for magic vanished, so now they have to redo all icons both for released school and the upcoming one which takes time.

He doesn't strike me as the type who would sell though.

He talked briefly about licensing the engine in the future but this will only become an option after SG because to do work on licensing he would need to stop working on the game.

 

[Technomancer]

Combat beta ("testing experimental" on steam) is out in case someone here wants to play around with weapon flips.

 

[Whisper]

At this pace, 10 years is not even close to what the need. The kickstarter debuted in 2012 with a great proof of concept. It even had spell casting. Who knows how long they worked on that prior to announcing? Since 2014, they've given us multiple engine changes, optimizations, and items. That's 10 years later. I guess we also got one branch of Thaumaturgy 7 years in. Big woop. With this kind of progress, they'll need another 50 years to have a a fully fledged game with quests and plot. Dude needs a project manager, badly.


This was one of their pitch videos in 2012. All of this was already made. Other than some polish, there is nothing in the current game that isn't shown here, except maybe proper velvet simulation. This video even shows force spells and two-weapon fighting. We got two-weapon fighting in what...2018? Players still don't have any of those force, blink, or teleport spells.

Vaporware

So very disappointing. I wonder what it would take to buy his tech. and actually do something with it. He doesn't strike me as the type who would sell though.

Wow, this is sad really

 

[Technomancer]

23/5/22

We've been testing the weapon mechanics rework on a new branch for a few days now, discussing the changes with the community and what further improvements can be made. We already did a couple of hotfixes and we'll probably do one more today which should make it safe to play for anyone, without unexpected deaths or bugs. We will post more details on the changes too, but we wanted to work through any major issues first.

We're getting some good feedback and overall things are working as we expected and very well. We really focused on realism and physics in the redesign, so it's good to see that it has translated well to gameplay too with only some relatively small adjustments to make. There's really a lot of variables involved and a huge amount of different weapons, it was a surprisingly difficult problem to navigate, so we're really happy to see things already working this well. Weapons are fun and satisfying to use, some weapons that previously felt ineffective now work well, lots of quirks and glitches were fixed and weapons feel more diverse thanks to the many new specific mechanics and much more detailed damage model.

The goal here was also to build a new solid foundation for many features that simply wouldn't have worked before without lots of changes and problems. Now that we have fundamental support for them we can start experimenting with planned new features and changes quite easily, and we will likely use the new testing branch to try out some of the more important ones. There's a lot of stuff in this category, and while combat isn't going to be a focus in the near future, some features tie into itemisation, progression and build diversity which are things we are putting some focus on now. Some things we're just excited about and should be relatively easy to do now, so we might start testing them sooner rather than later.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Technomancer]

30/5/22

This week we've been doing almost daily builds on the testing branch, further tuning the new weapon mechanics, but also core gameplay elements and physics. Madoc has been interacting closely with the community, gathering some really good feedback and discussing improvements. We're really happy with the current state of combat, all the changes have come together to make for some very noticeable improvements.

One area we focused on is thrusts and weapons that are optimised for thrusting. Thrusts are more consistent and easier to use effectively, the thrusting capabilities of various weapons are much better balanced and thrusts now have a clear role beyond just a different way to attack. This adds value to some underperforming weapons, like longswords which can now use thrusts more effectively against armour, two handed spears are now relevant and not overshadowed by supposedly lesser weapons and so on.

During testing we investigated and solved some pre-existing core physics issues with some surprising results. These were causing occasional glitches like weapons getting stuck in weird ways or making odd fast movements, or characters doing sudden spins, but it turns out there were less obvious symptoms like missed collisions, weird weapon handling and juddery motions. Fixing the root causes of these issues combined with the general animation improvements has made combat feel and look much more solid and fluid.
We will continue to make specific adjustments as we receive more feedback and experience things more ourselves, but weapons and combat are in an excellent place now and we can call it a wrap. The new very comprehensive systems and exhaustive data give us the tools to make adjustments, improvements and introduce new features easily. Having solid core mechanics that are well tuned was a very important step to continue to build on gameplay and itemisation features. We are now looking at packaging this up into an intermediate update as we switch our focus to force thaumaturgy and other story centric features.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Pink Eye]

Force Thaumaturgy... Maybe one day...

 

[AdolfSatan]

A question for those currently playing the game: I think it's been about two years since I tried the latest build... Has any of the changes in mechanics since then actually made the game more fun to play?

 

[Sibylla]

only some additions in combat like dual wielding, the rest of the game became even more tedious

 

[Technomancer]

A question for those currently playing the game: I think it's been about two years since I tried the latest build... Has any of the changes in mechanics since then actually made the game more fun to play?

Define fun, what do you like? Fresh changes made combat less lethal somewhat. You can also flip weapons and use backspikes etc. now. They also added magic spells, but I forgot when exactly. Maybe you saw that already.

 

[Technomancer]

6/6/22

This week we've mostly been busy finalising some assets for this intermediate arena update. There's 2 new arenas and one of the old favourites is getting a face lift, there's 2 new armour sets and a new procedural weapon.

We made some improvements to our tools and developed some nice new materials, which for us is quite a big deal as we have a strong procedural workflow based on our own tools where once developed a core material type can have many variants and be used in many contexts.

We have also been making a few more improvements to weapon mechanics and catching up on some bug reports. The mechanics for weapons sticking into things and binding on hits have been reworked, it's a lot more consistent now and not prone to some odd behaviours that could result from the old system.

Although we don't plan to introduce it just yet, we have been making some progress on the dye system and contained liquids, which have other applications such as alchemy, but not only. We do have basically everything we need now to make dyes functional, but an important step that we don't want to rush is defining exactly what all the dyes, lacquers, paints etc. are, how they can be used, where and when they would be applied, how rare and expensive they are and so on. While we want to keep the dye system very simple to use, without getting bogged down into the impossible complexity and tedium of actually realistic dyeing, we still want the dyes themselves to have a degree of depth and realism.

The new assets are basically done and we expect to have everything ready within a few days. After that we'll be focusing on the major changes for story. There's quite a lot in the works for story beyond force and a new area, but we're not sure yet in what order these will come.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Technomancer]

13/6/22

We're very nearly ready with the update, we should be able to put it on the beta branch tomorrow for a final quick round of testing, and we don't really expect any issues with it.

We've been making further improvements to our tools, particularly for character asset development. The layered slotless armour, procedural materials and extreme physique etc. morphing make creating character assets very complicated and problematic. We've been looking to improve this system for a long time, and when we introduced the tournament armours in the last update we created and used new tools which greatly simplify the process, solve many problems and improve quality. The new tools still lacked some features making them not yet suitable for everything, and there's room for further improvements, so we've been adding to these as we worked on some new items for this update. At this point we're pretty much done developing new assets like this for Exanima, so we will be slowly remastering older assets using these new tools instead.

We also finally added velvet to the repertoire of procedural materials for clothing and armour. This is a difficult material to do, which is why it took us this long to include it.

There's been a few more refinements and fixes and we think the game is in a really good place now as far as combat and arena goes. There will be some more additions and improvements there, but with this update released we will be focusing entirely on story mode for a while.

In other news, we've been hearing that AMD is finally addressing OpenGL performance issues in their drivers. If true this should mean that people with newer AMD GPUs at least should see a massive performance improvement for Exanima, and that we can stop wasting our time trying to work around the issues ourselves.

That's it for now, update on beta branch probably tomorrow, main branch and full release notes should follow immediately after.

Have a great week!
-the BM team

 

[Technomancer]

This level of velvet is simply unacceptable.

I'm waiting on them to improve the velvet cloth.

Ctrl+f velvet:
Nothing.

I mean, velvet quality aside the rest of the stuff sounds like impressive work.

Rejoice, for the long wait is over.


We also finally added velvet to the repertoire of procedural materials for clothing and armour. This is a difficult material to do, which is why it took us this long to include it.

 

[agris]

Although we don't plan to introduce it just yet, we have been making some progress on the dye system and contained liquids

we have been making some progress on the dye system and contained liquids

dye system and contained liquids

are they going to implement computational fluid dynamics so that when potions hit the ground and bottles shatter the liquid scatters in the correct directions to account for the inertial movement in the liquid imparted to it by the the player combined with gravity?

these motherfuckers, all they had to do was put some quests in and make new goddamn maps!

ERYFKRAD get ready for velvet 2.0 - liquids edition. Thixotropic liquids will take them the longest, but it's important they get this detail right for when ye olde ketchup bottle breaks.