PURE ONYX April 2022 Progress Update!

Hey again everybody!

The April Pure Onyx release will be later today!

This month we've been working on new H scenes for the Vioreaper, and as such a lot of work this month went into H scene storyboards, experimentation, and animation.  The first scene was released with the mid-month $10 tier version on April 22, and we are planning on making a double team scene (and possibly more) for next month ^-^. 

For today we have more progress on the muscle lady boss, syndicate girl enemy, and shady shopkeeper to show off, as well as update on the Splicer Biohound and level design progress.

Check it all out below :D.

Topics for this Update!

• April Release Details
• In This Corner, Semi the Semi!
• Syndicate Girl Sculpt WIP
• Mr. Black Sculpt WIP
• Splicer Biohound Combat Art + Anims
• Scrolling Map Concepts

April Release Details

Tentative Changelog (** indicates items added or being added since the April 23 Inner Circle patched test release):

Important Fixes/Changes

• ** Fixed issue when restarting the stage from Game Over screen that resulted in Onyx's Exhaustion and Poise being stuck at 0%, resulting in foreplay difficulty being at its highest, and Onyx being knocked down on every hit.
• Fixed major issue that caused black screen / UI and other game elements to fail to render after the game ran for an extended period.
• Fixed issue where 100% Exhaustion or Game Over could cause game to soft lock.

H Scenes

• Added first Vioreaper H Scene to gameplay + gallery
• Added Biomonsters category to Adult Content Filter
• Changing adult content filter settings while in-game will now add/remove filtered background H scenes immediately, as opposed to only on map/scene change.
• Projectiles can now trigger H scenes
• Fixed issue with in-gallery input handling allowing changing camera position after it was reset when ending the scene

Animations

• Added hair / improved jiggle and breast animation for Loop3 and Finisher animations for Vioreaper Scene.

Combat

• ** Added a built-in multiplier for grapple effectiveness based on the player's input device.  Goal is for players using controllers to be able to grapple at a similar effectiveness to those using keyboards -- still experimental.

Enemies

• ** Splicer Thugs will no longer spam Onyx with damage attacks during knockdown
• ** Thugs will no longer attack Onyx immediately after H scenes
• ** Thugs will no longer reposition or use the same attack over and over
• ** Thugs will not attack Onyx for a short time immediately after she stands up 
• ** Thugs will not launch H grabs for a period of time after a sex scene involving the player ends 
• ** Enemies in non-agro idle state will now exhibit an AI behavior pattern instead of simply standing in-place

UI

• ** Removed janky 3D mission markers and added 2D mission markers to the world map 
• Fixed gallery unlock popup not showing for most/all surveillance disks
• Long loot window item names now span multiple lines instead of being cut short (such names are temporary)

Performance

• Improved performance of reflections

Other / Misc Fixes

• ** Fixed extremely high disk (H scene unlock items) drop rate        
• ** Disks on the ground will now prevent duplicates containing the same H scene from being dropped
• Fixed issue where items sometimes couldn't be picked up.

In This Corner, Semi the Semi!

Semira, Warrior Queen of New Babylon -- AKA Semi the Semi -- is ready for action!  

We've done a boatload of work on her rig this week while doing textures / materials for Unity, and are now ready to start combat animations!  Penapsquat and TMX have started on her key poses, so hopefully we'll have some progress to show in May :D.   

Syndicate Girl Sculpt WIP

Demonu has been back to work on the Syndicate Girl enemy the past couple weeks!  He reworked her hair a couple times -- this most recent iteration adds some volume since big hair looks better at game cam distance.  He's also progressed nicely with the clothing details.  I think she will be finished next month! 

Mr. Black Sculpt WIP

Kame has been working on the sculpt for Mr. Black, a shady shopkeeper character that will appear throughout the game.  In case you haven't seen his concept art, you can check it out  here (001 | 002 | 003) :D.

And no, he won't be a replacement to our little Robobooty's duder -- there will be multiple shopkeepers/NPCs that appear throughout the game with unique themes / stocks / services.

Splicer Biohound Combat Art + Anims

Ryatta has been working on the Splicer Biohound's combat animations this month.  He's also made quite a bit of progress on the Grenadier, but I'm waiting until we're a bit further on him before we show him off.  He and TK put a lot of work into improving his rig during the animation process since he's the first enemy of this type (non mechanical at least >_>) we've gotten this far on.

As you can see from Limbo's concept art, the Splicer Biohound attacks quite differently than you'd imagine.  Most of his attacks are based around his genetic mutation which gives him the ability to spew a toxic cloud as a breath attack, and also leave one behind as he runs.       

Scrolling Map Concepts

I've been looking at ways we can integrate some unique gameplay elements into the environments, and realized a common technique for this in beat em ups is to exploit the parallax system in creative ways to give the sense that the map is moving in some manner.  I've therefore come up with one idea per major stage for a map or set of maps that utilizes this in order to breakup the standard gameplay sections.

Many of these sections will be combined with "Challenge" ideas, where failure results in loss of a reward via being forced to take a branching path within the stage (a preferable design choice over of loss of lives / Game Over / banging head on wall I think). 

• Slums - Motorcycle Highway
• Junkyard - Conveyor Belts
• Sewers - Rapids / Underwater Current
• Red-Light - Train
• Labs - Freight Elevator
• Skyline - Glass Elevator

Here are two of the above examples that we've done some concepts of so far!

Junkyard - Conveyor Belts

In this set of maps, Onyx will ride a set of conveyor belts that will pass through crusher traps.  Setting skills up for mobility will be important here, as this area may also contain platforming elements where the player has to jump gaps between belts -- some of which may even move at different speeds and in opposite directions.  Onyx will also have to contend with flying drone enemies, as well as ones that leap onto her belt from one in the background.

More difficult sections will also send crushed debris toward the player, making skills like double jump useful for bounding over them.  Failure to avoid these could cause Onyx to be pushed off the belt, sending Onyx to a different map and causing her to miss out on score and loot bonuses for completing this tricky section.  

Labs - Freight Elevator

In this map, Onyx descends a freight elevator that links the labs to the Spider Caverns beneath.  While the elevator is running, enemies may leap down from above or fly up from beneath to engage Onyx.  When stopped, spiders may descend via webs to attack.  I haven't decided on whether this section will be timed, or if Onyx must run the elevator by continuously engaging a damaged control panel when she's not fending off enemies.  Either way, it's meant to be a change of pace from the side-scrolling maps.

We'll discuss more of these map concepts in the future updates!