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[b]Early Access v0.8 - Blood & Sand[/b]

[b]Full Changelog[/b]

[b]We Who Are About to Die Early Access v.0.8 is here![/b] It's finally time to share this major update with you!

We wanted to overhaul combat, add Sandbox Mode and tackle the most common feedback by the community. [b]There's lot to explore with the Blood & Sand update! [/b]

For more details, check out [url="https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/973230/view/534351013109302036"]Preview #1[/url], [url="https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/973230/view/534351647699110507"]Preview #2[/url] or [url="https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/973230/view/534352273139042515"]Preview #3,[/url] or check out this [b]overview video[/b], which is a complete look at all the new stuff in Blood & Sand! [i](I recommend watching on Youtube!)[/i]

[b]MAJOR new content & features[/b]

[b]NEW: [/b]Sandbox Mode

• Sandbox mode allows you to [b]customize dozens of settings[/b] in the game, changing it fundamentally, and make a [b]Sandbox Profile [/b]to play

• Make your own flavor of the game! Make challenge runs and experiment!

[b]NEW: [/b]Sandbox Steam Workshop support

• [b]Share[/b] your Sandbox profiles with other players on the Steam Workshop

• [b]Browse[/b] and [b]download[/b] other players' runs! [url="https://steamcommunity.com/app/973230/workshop/"]https://steamcommunity.com/app/973230/workshop/[/url]

[b]NEW: [/b]Combat - Attack Direction UI

• [b]A new UI[/b] that shows the possible attack directions

• The new UI is context-sensitive based on the weapon type

[b]OVERHAUL: [/b]Combat Animations & Physics

• [b]We rebuilt the entire character physics and animation systems.[/b] No more weak hits and hit reactions. 

• Every physics ‘state’ is reworked resulting in general physics stability (eg. at low or high FPS as well)

• [b]New: Animation based Hit reactions[/b] instead of 100% pure physics impulses. Movement and hits are more realistic and fluid

• [b]More stable and reliable tired / low stamina:[/b] new Stamina-based animation that adds a clear visual cue for a character’s stamina level. Physics will no longer completely take over the character’s body and you can see heavy breathing

• [b]New:[/b] Pelvis turning during attack, footwork & foot planting resulting in more powerful strikes ("Heavy attacks")

• Improved Combat Stance and Idle poses

• Performance improvements, better blending and smoothing across all animations

• Improved look-at animation (eye contact) and torso bending

• Improved death ragdolls

• Improved animation reaction on knockbacks (character dynamically balance with their arms)

• Soft version of hit reactions play on shield hits too. Based on how you hit the shield, this can create openings

• Improved proportions of the characters

• Big makeover for the character in the Career Menu

• Adjustments to the character general stance and pose for 2H weapons

• Many many attack animation tweaks across all weapon types

• Countless other physics and animation tweaks

[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/36402388/9201dc7404668d301db37f146dc46e0a362f4967.gif"][/img]

[b]OVERHAUL: [/b]Polearms

• [b]3 new attacks for Polearms![/b] Left, Left up and Left down stabs have been added to replace the old generic knockback attack

• Blunt polearm stabs now act as knockback attack

• Polearm stabs update (more correct damage types, stats)

• Moved most polearms up the hands, meaning longer reach

• Updated tooltips to reflect stance switching and more

[b]NEW: [/b]Weekly Report panel

• A majority of the post-battle notifications are now neatly grouped into a Weekly Report panel.

• Shows an overview of all the match bracket levels + how the player rank affects them

• Timeline panel now appears in the new weekly report panel

[b]Betting Overhaul[/b]

• [b]New:[/b] Smart Bets. Eliminates impossible bets

• Betting is now integrated in the match option panels

• Changed the amount of bets to three bets per match

• More user friendly: players will get a warning when switching matches or rerolling and there are active bets

• Bets now also payout patron Favor

• Increase of the minimum bet payout

[b]Patrons System Improvements[/b]

• [b]16 new[/b] patron events!

• Added Patron [b]"Festivals" - [/b]special events that also appear on the Calendar. Each run may only have 1 festival

• Complete redesign of the Patron UI panels and tooltips providing much more information and clarity about the system

• A general rebalance of Favor

[b]MINOR (Content, features, balancing changes)[/b]

Weapon Stance Switching

• Now players can switch between 1H or 2H stances if the weapon is a weapon hybrid (ie. spear/polearm, or 1H/2H weapons) 

Career

• [b]2 extra shop slots[/b], 8 total

• Rearrangement of the shop layout: Shop reroll button as well as shop-discount and -refund are located the bottom of the shop to fit this change

• Upgrade of the resolution of the shop Icons, making them crisper and clearer

FX & SFX

• [b]New:[/b] Shields now have visible damage states (wood and metal)

  [img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/36402388/8144893931d06be94f50ae626656783363a5cdad.jpg"][/img]

• Shields now have new damage particle effects (wood chips, sparks)

• Better impact particle effects, that also showcase attack direction and impact location (provides gameplay clarity)

• Better combat sparks on metal armor and weapon clashes

• Better footstep particle effects and sound (dust etc)

• Hitting the environment now makes a noise (based on which material you hit)

• Much more performant particle effects across the game

• Overhaul of the audience thrown items: audience will throw items appropriate for the tier of the player from the entire pool of existing items

[img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/36402388/c07c24a7eb833d8140a99df37912d92cd8f4b1e7.png"][/img]

Items

• [b]New Item:[/b] Bronze Lophosi War-Chaka (1H Axe)

• [b]New Item:[/b] Rusty Spade (Polearm)

• [b]New Item:[/b] Iron Spade (Polearm)

• [b]New Item:[/b] Iron Voulge (Polearm)

• [b]New item:[/b] Great War Mala (Polearm)

• [b]New Item:[/b] Valkarion (Godly 2H Axe)

• [b]New Item:[/b] Malathrax (Godly 2H Mace)

• [b]New Item:[/b] Leather Ringed Lamellar Chest

• [b]New Item:[/b] Bronze Plated Maille Shirt

• [b]New Item:[/b] Dormorii Scale Shirt

• [b]New Item:[/b] Bronze Plated Chest

• [b]New Item:[/b] Bronze Executor Helm

• [b]New Item:[/b] Leather Bracers

• [b]New Item:[/b] Bronze Plated Boots

Other changes

• Stamina nerfs damage a lot more (60% to 0% stamina scales from 1x to 0.3x instead of 0.6x)

• AI uses more stamina during attacking (because it no longer regens stamina during an attack)

• Weapon weight now scales stamina cost per attack a bit. So heavy weapons cost more stamina (on top of the weight calc on stamina regen itself) 

• Weight impacts AI max stamina more

• Overhaul of weapon damage velocity calculation. Weapon velocity stat now has a larger impact

• Smoothed Attack Animations and weapon speed & damage stability (avoiding random spikes due to physics)

• Impact point velocity of a weapon now matters more (30% to 50% weight of velocity)

• You can now get disarmed (same as unwieldy) if you hit stuff under 30% stamina

• Light weapon class is now below 3 weight instead of 4

• Disabled stab on Hooked Daka's

• Nerf on Great Chaka (durability, minor range nerf)

• Buff for Seal of Approval Scollo upgrade: (Gain +2 Favor with each Patron after every battle) (before: Gain +1 Favor)

• Fundraise maximum values pulled down (300->250, 600->500)

• Item droppers will drop less lutes

• Camera: Minimum zoom is further

• Much more, and many small stat tweaks on many items

Bugfixes

• Fixed issue of fire not being able to deal damage to multiple characters

• Resolved issue of oil patches not catching fire when characters on fire, other than the player, would walk over them

• Fixed issue of player character catching fire when not overlapping the fire

• Fixed issue where Draft was possible on veteran aspirant run after killing end boss

• Fixed issue in the victory overview panel not showing the correct fame multipliers for the equipment

• Resolved an issue where multiple trait prompt messages could go out of bounds

• Keys now update on tutorial tips after key-rebinds

• Pilums and Throwing Asc's will now correctly break after damage dealt

• Fixed a bug where the Senator's Shield would break after one hit

• Fixed issue with item spawners keeping spawning destructible items

• Fixed issue of draft bets paying out the bet amount, not the cost associated with the bet

• Fixed issue where matches would be different when saving and quitting the game in week 1

• Hitting environment makes a sound now

• Audience is more responsive (fame guage-bugfix)

• Fixed a bug where Damage Numbers and Weapon Trail settings would reverse when saving

• Fixed some Steam Deck tooltips being offset

• Countless more bug fixes!

Thank you Aspirants!

Want to [b]stay up to date[/b] on the game and studio's development?

• [url="https://discord.gg/8PEutcdwf5"]DISCORD[/url]

• [url="https://subscribe.jordylakiere.net/Newsletter"]NEWSLETTER[/url]

• [url="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWNMvD_XLJ3unATX8O7aWJg"]YOUTUBE[/url]

As always,

We who are about to die salute you!

Jordy

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