PURE ONYX - May 2, 2019 Test Release

Hey guys! 

As promised, I'm posting our most current build of Pure Onyx!  That being said, we simply ran out of time and still have a couple of days worth of work to fix issues that were left for last,  We'll therefore be releasing another build in the next few days that should be a lot more presentable, and I strongly recommend waiting for that. 

 P.S. if you intend on leaking the release, wait for that one >_>.

PLEASE READ!

This is by all means still a test release of basic mechanics and, well, probably isn't fun yet -- especially with all the cosmetic/input issues.  Mr. Kittyhawk has put in a real Herculean effort on back-end stuff and it'll take a bit to realize the value of it.  Admittedly though, we bit off too much for one release and spent way more time debugging than I wanted to.  There are some serious bugs and a lot of cosmetic issues, so here's the bad news and known issues up-front so that you can temper your expectations :D.   

 KNOWN ISSUES / BUGS / TO DO

• If the game does not start and you get a "Unable to switch screen resolution" error, we believe it's because your display is set to 120 hz.  As a temporary fix, try setting it to a 60 hz mode and the game should start. 
• The H system will break if your Windows date/time/number format locale is not set to English (US).  We only discovered this today and haven't had time to debug it.  If this issue affects you I honestly recommend waiting for the fix that we will hopefully have in a few days.
• Characters may come coated in an ugly green and red noise.  Let us know if you experience this.  We know it's related to the Vulkan API but haven't pinpointed the cause.
• Enemy animations are very ugly at the moment because they haven't been tweaked for the new physics engine.  It was simply low on our priorities and we didn't get to it.  Their movement speed does not sync up with their animation playback speed.  There are some visual glitches in their death animation.  When knocked down they appear to pause in mid air briefly.  
• The H system is functional but not at full quality.  There's only one H scene instead of the intended two for this release.  Transitions are not in place yet and animation quality isn't 100% yet.  H sounds are basic until we extend our audio capabilities for the H system. Enemies don't have a grab animation yet, and there's no cue to avoid it, so it's very jarring when it happens.
• We've temporarily disabled returning to the main menu after the game level has loaded.  This is due to some AI issues we haven't gotten to tackle yet. 
• There's no kind of lust system in place yet, so for now grappling difficulty is randomized. It's currently much easier on a keyboard.
• Onyx's move set animations aren't in yet -- we're still using the old ones from last release.  It will be a major focus of the next major release (the old and new skeletons are incompatible).
• For now, when an H scene ends, it loops back to the struggle portion. 
• The input system is in transition while we adjust for the physics engine.  In general it does not feel good yet. For now there's a small but noticeable lag in movement that exists to prevent physics anomalies, and Onyx flickers between some poses (this is where transitional animations will happen once her actual animations are in place).  
• Jump and knockdown physics haven't been tuned.
• The draw order on the characters engaged in an H scene is incorrect.  They currently display in front of everyone else. 
• Enemy AI occasionally hangs in Idle state until they are hit.  This happens most frequently after getting up from being stomped while on the ground.
• Jump kick only damages enemies immediately after it's triggered, as opposed to the standard behavior of hitting all enemies in the way as Onyx falls.
• Punches thrown immediately after a struggle scene do not land.
• Enemy punches sometimes miss Onyx.
• Enemy AI produces some anomalies during H scenes.
• Onyx's first stomp attack will sometimes miss a knocked down enemy.
• Sometimes Onyx plays two vocal sound effects at once. 
• Punch/damage sound effects do not play when a character dies.
• Onyx can get launched way into the air  if she gets knocked down right as she jumps.
• Onyx teleports to the ground if she gets killed in mid air.
• H attacks won't connect with Onyx while she's standing up from being knocked down (the short period in between knockdown and idle poses).
• Onyx being knocked down in the air can cause some anomalies.
• Enemies can stunlock Onyx by attacking while she's standing up.  They need additional behavior logic for this case.
• Missing the dust cloud effects when Onyx jumps/lands/characters are knocked down.
• Splicers that spawn after the first wave do so in their defensive pose instead of idle.
• Onyx can appear in both Defend and Walk poses simultaneously.
• Liquid particle FX in H scenes currently do not render at the correct depth.  They render behind all characters right now.
• The camera doesn't center on the action in an H scene yet.  We'll adjust camera controls once we add that capability.
• The probability for new bugs is *very high* since we've done so much work on the back-end.  We really need your feedback!  If you notice anything not on this list, especially graphical errors or issues with starting up / crashing / exiting, please let us know!

CHANGELOG

Now for some very good news!  We know how to fix pretty much all of the above issues, and just need the time to do it :D.  We can do much more frequent bite-sized updates and fixes now that we're past the major back-end overhaul.   At any rate, here's a list of the positive changes for this release.

• Enemy AI has been added!  They will no longer home in on you like punchy torpedoes, but will instead juke, charge, and even attempt to flank Onyx.  We will add more behavior patterns in later updates.  
• Replaced the "arcade mode" with an "infinite wave" mode for now.   Enemy AI will become increasingly aggressive and more difficult up through about Wave 20.   The wave # is displayed in the upper left corner.
• Pressing F1 will enable the developer UI overlay, which currently shows actor states, enemy AI behavior, hitboxes, and collision geometry.
• Updated enemy animations.  As mentioned above, this will be much more positive once we actually tune them to the physics engine :D. 
• Re-coded combat from scratch and removed virtually all third party code.  Don't expect huge changes on your end yet -- our goal this time around was to get it back into a playable state (we're almost there >_>). 
• We now have true dynamic physics, and have retooled combat to function around it.
• Added physics collision to enemies / Onyx (characters now bump into each other instead of clipping through them). 
• Characters no longer hang up or fly into infinity when they collide with borders.
• Reworked animation queuing system so that characters can’t be in multiple states at once.  
• The combat H system has been added 
• Added a combo system (now we just need combos for it <_<).  Input can now receive complex commands for things like special moves.
• Particle FX for H scene liquids have been added
• Added an H scene for Splicer Thugs
• Added 3D positional audio
• Added additional SFX for combat
• Stomp is now performed with Down + Kick
• Added Vsync to prevent microstuttering and physics anomalies
• Hitboxes have been adjusted, but keep in mind Onyx's real animations aren't in yet.
• Collision system is much more robust and can handle things like multiple colliders for AoE attacks. 
• Updated to Vulkan and Unity 2018.3.  May change to DirectX 12 pending bug reports.

DOWNLOAD LINK

Pure Onyx - May 2, 2019 Test Release on MEGA 

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Currently only Windows 7/8/10 are supported. We plan on adding additional platforms if there is a demand. 

8 GB of RAM and at least a 2GB graphics card are heavily recommended. If you get poor performance please let us know and post your system specs (or send to eromancergames@gmail.com ); we’re still in the early stages of gauging system requirements.

CONTROLS

Keyboard:  

• Movement = Arrow Keys
• Menu Controls: Confirm = X, Cancel = Z
• Punch = Z
• Kick = X
• High Kick = X + X 
• Ground kick = Down + X
• Defend = C
• Jump = Space
• Zoom In = Left Shift
• Zoom Out = Left Control
• Skip H Animation = Z / Space
• Escape = Pause Menu
• F1 = Toggle Debug Overlay
• F2 = Toggle Vsync (not recommended except for testing)
• Quit = F12

Currently Supported Controllers: Xbox 360, Xbox One, Dual Shock 4**

** The popular community made DS4 Windows drivers cause Unity to recognize a DualShock controller as an Xbox gamepad, and we can't tell them apart in code. This means that you'll be gifted with the untold joy of having your controller mapped by default with the wrong controls. You can fix it by rebinding the PS4 controller map, or removing the DS4 Windows drivers. (The latter is HARD, a simple uninstall isn't going to be enough)

BUG REPORTS

If you find a bug we haven’t listed in our known issues, please post the following with your description of the bug. 

• Operating System (if Windows, tell us 7/8/10, etc.)
• Screenshot if applicable
• Can the bug be reproduced? If so, tell us how!
• OS language if different than English

Short Term Future Plans!

I've decided tacking on small sections to an arcade mode each release wouldn't make for a very fun development cycle.  It simply wouldn't add much playability to this kind of game.   Instead, I'd like the completed Arcade Mode to be the major milestone for a retail release -- akin to how many games use the single player campaign for this road marker.

So, how do we get more content out of this style of game without needing a lot of additional assets?  The current idea is a "Mission Mode".  Bite-sized playable sections with a spread of different objectives.  The objectives behave similarly to different game modes, and would include things like time trials, survival, and more unique experimental stuff. There will be a basic progression system, and once you reach certain goals you'll unlock new missions, including boss battles.  If we have the opportunity to down the road, we can eventually adapt this into a full fledged story mode.   

We can eventually construct the arcade mode from everything we produce for the mission mode.  I feel the mission mode can be enjoyable and diverse enough to merit a pre-release on Steam.

Thanks as always guys, and please give us your feedback!

- EROMANCER