Weapons Grade Studios Developer Blog

It’s been pretty slow going for a few months now due to personal circumstances as well as reaching a threshold of completion. The game runs and does so pretty well, but there’s obviously still work to be done, namely, ART! As of a couple of months ago, I’ve been working with a new artist to get some sketch art into the game and playable, but (like most in the industry) he’s very busy with other works, and so it’ll take some time to say the least. 

So while all that’s going on, I’ve been heavily focused on getting the netcode to a consistently working state, and as of yesterday, I’m officially implementing the updated framework for the AI I thought up some time ago.  New AI Framework: The new AI Framework is designed for the AI to learn based on both player inputs as well as it’s own attacks. It starts with an equal chance to do any combo, and then increases the likelihood of attack patterns based on their rate of success over time. As a result, each individual AI will be relatively unique coming up with different attack combinations based on a player’s own inputs and play-style. Later versions may include a centralized hub of effective attack patterns for all characters. 

Netcode Updates After running into a seemingly endless queue of issues trying to implement GGPO into GM:S 1.4, I’ve decided to create my own, similar set of codes and functions. At this point, everything works pretty well except the most important part: synchronizing the games consistently. Because Evolver has pixel perfect collisions, a single frame of mismatched inputs can lead to some wildly different gamestates. I’ve tried several solutions to sync the games without drastically increasing latency to little avail, but I’ve definitely made progress. 

·         Added auto combos

o   Mashing any key will always output the basic string assigned to that button. Now mashing the button at the end of the string will also do the stance burst for that string, and mashing R2 while holding forward will autosuper if done at the end of an auto combo. This is to give casual players more equal footing without robbing more seasoned players for putting more time into the game. Auto combos can do as much as 50% damage or so, and they can be even more effective when strung together with good timing.

·         Updated ArtiSen Burst mechanic

o   Armor earned now drains over time

o   Green health is now drained when attacking; more armor is awarded than green health drained

o   Fixed bug where cooldown drained when not attacking

·         Added spider charts to character select

o   Players can now see 5 point attribute chart of each stance they choose

o   Chart updates in real time based on current character build

·         Updated parry mechanic

o   Parries now destroy projectiles and repeater attacks, but only parry individual hits of 2 hit attacks such as Unko’s staff attacks

·         Updated shadows

·         Created demo mode which runs AI vs AI for 30 seconds to interrupt start menu; prevents memory leaks and serves to demo game without player input

·         Fixed bug causing health to reset if killed by environment

·         Fixed bug where game would freeze due to hitboxes with obscure hitAdvantage decimal places

·         Updated grabs on slopes; slope combat still iffy

·         Fixed bug where Briah would fly away when hit on dash

·         Fixed bug with Thadeo’s lightning attacks crashing game

·         Fixed many character attack animations to hit more consistently and/or fairly

·         Added recordable AI to practice mode

·         Repaired window sizing tool

·         Updated Unko’s super to respond to sand attacks

·         Fixed bug where Synergy was locked in practice mode

·         Increased Elena’s invisibility duration from 3 seconds to 7 seconds

·         Fixed bug with Pause Menu restarting tutorial

·         Fixed bug causing throws and breakers to animate at current attack speed

·         Decreased hitStop by 35%

·         Updated slow motion functionality for augmentBursts

·         Fixed bug with quick moves list displaying incorrectly in pause menu

·         Players can now only store 2 breakers at once

·         Wakeup attacks now have armor

·         Decreased Briah super damage

·         Removed throw cancels; the same combos are still possible, but the input timing is different.

·         Removed super cancels; see above.

·         Fixed a bug where the game would freeze on enemy respawn during Amy super

·         Fixed a bug where Auriel could teleport enemies out of the ring

·         Increased meter earned while hit by 200%

·         Fixed a bug where annihilation kills weren’t displayed in notifications

·         Fixed bug with deselect on VS AI

·         Fixed bug where kits were displayed based on player side

·         Increased camera functionality

·         Updated menus to show options available in completed project

·         Repaired and updated Survival & CoOp Survival

o   Updated map structure to improve game flow

o   Repaired timer programming

o   Updated HUD for player 2

o   Added XP to HUD

o   Capped starting HP/MP

o   Repaired game end sequence

o   Repaired bots

o   Updated scoreboard functionality with consideration for online scoring

o   Update bot functionality

§  Bots have decreased reaction times

§  Bot attack speed will increase over time

§  Bot movement speed will increase over time

 o   Added boss battles

§  Bosses will spawn periodically as playable characters with reduced starting health

§  Bosses destroy all enemies on spawn causing them to drop mp

§  Killing a boss grants bonus XP and points

 ·         Extended Practice Mode -  Practice mode now has general settings as well as a programmable AI

o   Vitality settings

o   Senergy Settings

o   Input display

o   Show hit data (damage, hit zone)

o   AI Options

§  Default Action (Idle, Run, Jump, Guard)

§  Wakeup Action (Idle, Evade, Repulse, Attack)

§  Auto Recovery

 ·         Added input to clear selected stances at player select

·         Repaired Wakeup Attacks

·         Added hit type notices (Counter, Reversal, Infinity, Wakeup, Throw Reverse)

·         Select now goes back in menus

·         Improve playable character AI

o   Decreased difficulty of easy/normal bots by limiting combo damage

o   Improved difficulty of harder AI by limiting poor option selection

 ·         Buffed Break Burst hitStun

·         Added gameplay settings

o   Gore

o   Default bot difficulty

o   Delete Loadouts

·         Added guard crush

o   Certain attacks will now crush repulse bursts

o   Supers will generally crush repulse bursts

 ·         Updated hit/hurtboxes to increase consistency of certain attacks