Well, here it is folks: the combat system is playable! I'll just put a little patch-notes type thing here for now, but I'll soon write up a post detailing my thought processes and everything that went into this build, along with my future goals for the game, and how that's coming along. Anyway, here's a quick overview of what's changed since the last build:
COMBAT MODULE GAMEPLAY
- From the main menu, you can now play one of two modules; Combat, and Hideout. The combat module throws you into an arena, and pits you up against a female opponent. Your goal is fairly simple: dominate your opponent, and impose your long, girthy will upon them. To do this, fight them until their health is reduced to 0. They will fall on their knees in a dazed state. Once this has happened, move close to them and press the E key, as shown by the prompt. You will begin to assert your dominance over them, and the camera will be released into free mode so you can get a better look at the action.
-You can move in any direction with W/A/S/D
-LEFT ALT does a dash/roll based on the movement key you are pressing
-LEFT MOUSE does a basic attack
-RIGHT MOUSE puts you into a blocking stance
-SPACE makes you jump
-DASH ATTACK : Doing a FORWARD DASH (W + LEFT ALT) and then immediately clicking LEFT MOUSE will do a DASH ATTACK. This attack is uninterruptable, and unblockable. It also briefly stuns the target if it hits.
-SLAM ATTACK : Jumping with SPACE, and then clicking LEFT MOUSE while in the air will do a SLAM ATTACK. This move is (currently) very difficult to control, but if you succeed in landing near your opponent, you will ragdoll knock them to the ground for a few seconds.
-PARRY : If you start a block with RIGHT MOUSE, immediately before an attack hits you, you will PARRY the attacker. Your opponent is momentarily staggered, and a distinct sound effect is played.
MECHANICS
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- HEALTH : Both you, and your opponent have HEALTH that depletes when hit. If you hit the enemy enough times, and their health goes to 0, they will fall down in a dazed state, and you can have your way with them.
- STAMINA : Your ATTACKS, DASHES, and BLOCKS use STAMINA. If you do not have enough stamina to perform a move, the move will not be performed. Likewise, if you do not have enough stamina to fully block an attack, you will take health damage.
- INTERRUPTS : Any basic attack can be INTERRUPTED if you (or the enemy) are hit. SLAM and DASH attacks cannot be interrupted.
- You can replay the combat section as many times as you like, through the (ESCAPE) menu, or through the prompt at the end of your victory.
MISC. NOTES
-Options menus have been added! You can access them by pressing ESCAPE, and you can change the volume, resolution, and fullscreen mode from there. These settings will all be saved. You can also exit the game, or restart the scenario from these menus. Currently, the Hideout module does not have these menus implemented (due to some incredibly frustrating bugs with the mouse cursor), but you can still go back to the main menu by interacting with the door near the tutorial panel.
-Currently, while player health will deplete, it will never reach 0. This is because this is my first iteration of AI, and while I've tried to make it fairly challenging, I don't want to create a situation where it is too hard, and a player gets frustrated and quits without seeing the victory scenario (as that's kinda the whole premise of the game).
-The Hideout module is unchanged from the last build. I haven't done any substantial work on it, since I put all my effort into the combat module.
Well, that's about it! Personally, I'm quite pleased with how the first iteration of the combat system is working out. Obviously there are a ton of things that need changing/fixing/adding still...but it's not bad for a first attempt. I'd seriously appreciate any feedback any of you have to offer on the project...whether that's features you'd like to see, things you would like changed, etc. Let me know!
