June 2020 Progress Update!

Hey all!!   I hope everyone is doing well :D.  

I plan on releasing the Inner Circle test release from the end of May for all patron tiers in the next day or so.  We'll also have an Inner Circle update within the next week that will show off our progress on the Splicer boss (he's complete!  -- just needs animations), additional progress on the Fem Cop enemy, and an update from Mr. Kittyhawk and APL's progress on the game database. 

There's a lot to show off here, so we'll get right into it!  

Topics for this Update

• WIP FemCop Enemy!
• Splicer Looter Details and Animations
• Charger Animations
• Police Boss "RoboBadCop" WIP
• Vioreaper Stuff~
• H Scene Fluids System Details
• The Console Window and YOU!
• Input System Improvements

WIP FemCop Enemy!

This is one you weren't expecting I'll bet!  That's okay, we weren't either :D.  

We hadn't been planning on starting on female enemies for a little while, but we've been happy to add a great new sculptor to the team!  Please welcome Happy Otter ^-^.

Since it's his specialty, Otter will be assisting us primarily with high poly female enemy sculpts for now, and has already done a great job of matching our style for the project, as shown by this faithful rendition of Limbo Limbo's original concept. 

As for the FemCop character, she's the first police faction enemy in Pure Onyx that we have a high poly sculpt ready for.  

For female enemies, you can expect a variety of hair styles and color palettes.  They may also feature elements of clothing destruction (one idea we're workshopping with this character is her coat getting blown off from damage) and as with Onyx, various modes of undress during H scenes  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) .

Splicer Looter Details and Animations

The Splicer Looter is a trickster version of the Splicer Runt.  A lot of classic beat 'em ups have a non-combatant enemy that is basically an agile power-up dispenser (the gnomes from Golden Axe are probably the most well known), and while that's the core role of the Looter enemy, we're expanding on the modern ideas of this archetype that were used in 2013's Dragon's Crown.    

Some of our ideas for these guys include

• Looters will not only drop items when you hit them, but they will *steal* power-ups and loot that are on the ground.  Beating them up before they get away will knock it back out of them.
• They may even steal loot from chests while she's busy with other enemies! (again, it can be knocked out of them before they get away)
• Looters will place traps for Onyx to run into, especially when she's on their tail or after she hits them.
• Some of these traps may be H related  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)  
• Looters carry all sorts of toys >_> in that big sack o' theirs.

Expect to see this guy added to the game relatively soon -- probably as soon as we add basic item drops and power-ups.

 Charger Animations

The Charger is nearing completion!  This guy will require a lot of FX work to emphasize his animations -- especially his dash attack / breath attack / and ground pound skills -- but is one of the top candidates for the next enemy we add to PO.  Once we're out of our early testing phase and into actual mission content, this guy will most likely show up as a boss before recurring as a regular enemy.

H Scene Fluids System Details 

We added the first iteration of the layered H fluids system in the last Inner Circle release!  

This system adds fluid visuals from H scene finishers, and these will persist and build up on Onyx throughout the level based on the H scenes that occur.  The system currently has four zones (head / torso / crotch / legs), and for this release the Thug scene will load up the crotch zone, up to level 2.  We plan to do additional stuff with this, such as add particle FX / stringy drips that come off of Onyx as she moves. 

I've included an example image above showing what the progressive build-up may look like in just one scenario :D. 

 Police Boss "RoboBadCop" WIP 

Limbo has begun work on sculpting the first Police faction boss, (working name RoboBadCop) :D.  As with the Splicer Boss, he'll likely go through a few rough designs as we home in on features that work in 3D.  Limbo's been working on the idea of making his suit modular so that we can achieve some more complex ideas with the suit animations, and possibly transforming at different stages of the boss fight.

Vioreaper Stuff~

As of the last Inner Circle release, the Vioreaper is in for combat testing!  He still has a pretty long to-do list to get him and other flying enemies where I want them however.  

Currently, he's using ground enemy AI, so once we add flying enemy AI he should become more unique and dynamic.  As we do this, we'll improve his motion patterns to be more organic and floaty.  His stinger attack is functional, but I'd like to increase his wind-up time, and he still needs some FX graphics added to spice it up.  Currently he can fire diagonally, which makes him a bit overpowered.  This will be adjusted when we finalize the six-axis facing direction code. 

The Console Window and YOU!

We've added a command prompt to Pure Onyx, available via the tilde [`] key!  Introducing  POSH, the Pure Onyx Shell ^-^!

Well, In actuality, it's been there, but it only has had logging capability up until now.   Mr. Kittyhawk has begun adding commands that should speed up testing, and will be available in the next release (not the one in a day or two -- the one after that).  For the time being, the console will be available to you guys as well, so we encourage you to try to break stuff :D.

Here's the small but growing list of commands for the next release:

• GodMode
• Help
• Info
• OnePunchMode
• SetGameSpeed
• SetWave

Mr. Kittyhawk has also added an intellisense feature that will show you how to use a command as you begin typing it.  

If you have any ideas for additional commands, let us know!  I'm sure more will become obvious once we add more gameplay elements and features.

Input System Improvements 

Last month's Inner Circle release features quite a few changes to the input system.  

The first is that players can now change between input devices mid-game without the need to restart.  Onscreen prompts / control tips / and the like will update dynamically.

The second is a big one, and it should greatly improve the playability of the game for anyone with a high refresh rate monitor.  We're currently partway through the process of making input completely independent of frame rate, and as such a lot of players that experienced inconsistencies with jumping or attacks firing should notice a big improvement. 

Lastly, we've added control screens to the game (currently only for Xbox, PS4, and US keyboard layouts).  They aren't mappable yet, but we do intend on improving this once we get past the upcoming UI overhaul!