In addition to the exclusive “Furious” item set for Pure, offered to those that originally purchased Blade Symphony (premium owners,) we’ve added the “Overgrown” item set for Judgement. Also included in this patch, is an exclusive cape for all of those that have helped us during the time we have used Patreon, which we’ve decided to stop utilizing.
We need all the help we can get, so please help put bugs into our GitHub Tracker and discuss with us on our Discord!
Changes since F2P Patch 1
Changes:
Added ‘Overgrown’ item set to the game for premium owners.
Added Patreon exclusive cape.
Added the Icarus Ensemble sword replacing the broken duplicate item some players received during the transition to free to play.
Changed the name of the exclusive item set for Pure to “Furious.”
Translations:
If you would like to help us translate Blade Symphony, find out how here!
Updated Chinese, French, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, and Turkish languages
Added partial Ukranian translation
Changed the way jumping is handled to take into account the length of time that the player pressed the jump key.
Slightly changed the way wall sliding works to feel more fluid.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed a crash when shaders were set to high, and models set to low.
Fixed an issue where if the user moved their mouse to the left or right fast enough during an attack, a side attack would be performed even if the side keys were not being pressed.
Fixed an issue with the player’s emblem not showing on the Customization Screen if they were on the Main Menu.
Fixed numerous issues on free_district with assets popping in and out.
Fixed the Furious sword using the wrong scabbard model.
Fixed the Furious helmet’s size not matching Pure’s head size.
Fixed the Style Select Screen appearing when players paused the game.
Fixed players being trapped in the ground.
Fixed character skins showing incorrectly when the player died.
Fixed the shader for background emblems improperly stretching.
Fixed characters reverting to their default skin when players changed equipment in the Customization Screen.
Fixed characters having skins equipped from another character.
Puny Human's newest game
While we're hard at work on bringing F2P Patch 2, with more crash fixes, quality of life changes, and performance optimizations, we're announcing our next title.
Check it out when you can, and look forward to more Blade Symphony updates!
Hey everyone!
We've been extremely hard at work since the Free To Play release to make as many fixes as possible. If you're not on our Discord, I've explained there that this is the priority of our work at the moment:
Crashes
Performance Issues
Gameplay preventing Bugs
Graphical Bugs
Gameplay Features
Graphical Improvements
Since release, we've worked hard on fixing lots of server and game crashes, and will continue to monitor the crash reporter. Thanks so much to everyone who has helped out by sending in their crashes, so that we could take care of them!
Also, this patch contains the exclusive items for current owners, so that we may give them out. We will be doing so over the next 24 hours, via an API change. Additionally, there should be a lot less items showing as unimplemented. We're still working on getting these taken care of.
Fixed server crash when players disconnected after throwing a homing weapon
Fixed game crash related to materials attempting to be destroyed that are null pointer
Fixed game crash due to client being unable to retrieve sound mixer capabilities
Fixed (hopefully) players sometimes falling through the world.
Fixed some swords showing as unimplemented
Fixed emblems showing the wrong challenge request in FFA mode
Fixed some players showing as invisible when in a duel
Fixed emblems sometimes not showing when the customization screen is open on the main menu
Fixed numerous water rendering, overlay and viewrender issues.
Fixed Sempre Solace being a Longsword, instead of a Jian
Fixed Shadow Note's scabbard not being attached to the hip
Fixed material issues with Spiked Scordatura
If you paid for the game...
Everyone,
I wanted to send out a quick announcement for those that didn't read our last news post.
"... items for those that purchased the game are coming. In total, 10 exclusive items will be given out to owners of the premium game. We hope we won't have to stop there."
We're working hard to get these in, but as giving them to ONLY those who purchased Blade Symphony, is a whole different set of technical steps, it takes a little time.
We should have them in with a crash fix patch later this week. Thank you for everyone who has hopped on our Discord and helped us solve issues, or provided positive support. We're working overtime to get bugs fixed, and racing to put out a patch.
Here are some sneak peeks at the items that paid players will receive. There are 5 items for Pure, and 5 items for Judgement.
Blade Symphony is now Free To Play
After a year and a half, Blade Symphony is now free-to-play. We didn’t want to do this for lowering complexity (although, it is much easier to develop for now.) We didn’t want to do this for money (there’s only 4 items for sale.) We didn’t want to do this to manage overhead (even if we’re now offloading all inventory stuff to Steam.) We wanted to do this, so that this game could be more accessible, and have a longer life. The game deserves to be tried out, even if it’s approaching 5 years of age, and started development in 2007. So here it is, and thanks for playing.
As for the changes in this release; there’s new unlockables in town! As players progress up the level chain, they will either be given the existing items that you may know and love, or new items that we’ve put into the game. In total, 48 new items have been added. We’ve added this to encourage trading and purchasing, we hope you enjoy the new items!
Here's a sneak peak of all of the new items!
For those of you with performance issues, we’ve significantly improved asset streaming. It’s also a toggle in the video settings to turn it on or off. Please try and play with it, because we know we could stream more aggressively, and want to work on this feature more. We’re also doing our best to improve general performance, so bear with us!
We’ve completely rebuilt duel_castle from the ground up! Castle is a favorite of many, but we wanted to get its performance updated, which involved starting from scratch. Many thanks to Karo, the original author of the map, for allowing us to give it some TLC.
We’ve added a Find Duel option to the Main Menu. There are parameters that can be toggled, but this should help players quickly get into the fight.
Finally, we do want to mention that items for those that purchased the game are coming. In total, 10 exclusive items will be given out to owners of the premium game. We hope we won't have to stop there.
Changelog since Patch 7
Changes
The game is now free.
Added new unlockable path “B” to items system.
Added new version of duel_castle
Added a toggle to turn Asset Streaming on or off in the Video settings menu.
Added a Find Duel option to the Main Menu, so that new players can quickly join a server.
Added notifications for when a player levels up
Changed bb_feint_cancel_amount to 0.35 from .51
Changed bb_feint_cooldown to .75 from 1.5
Changed bb_feintcancel_cooldown to 1.0 from 2.3
Changed Katana base damage to .85 from .90
Players now unqueue from a match when a duel is lost.
Controller button mapping now uses built-in Steam controller mapping.
Replaced Player Level with Time Played in Server Details screen.
Added a notification to alert the server when players level up.
Added new menu scenes to the main menu.
Optimizations
Significantly improved asset streaming.
Removed expensive water from duel_monastery and free_monastery.
Bug Fixes
Fixed duel style image showing the local player’s emblem when receiving a private duel request in free for all maps.
Fixed various issues with emblem shaders and layering system, so that emblems are displayed correctly during a match introduction.
Fixed style button disappearing on spectator controls.
Fixed players to be able to attack after a duel has ended or draws have taken place.
Fixed players seeing white summary screens.
Fixed notifications showing with garbled text when joining a server.
Fixed an issue where the game would crash after a player received an item.
Fixed a variety of crashes (big thanks to Liam Dawe, Prohorov, Unno, and several others)
Fixed reflection issue on various textures in ffa_community
Free-To-Play Date and Patch 7 Release!
Let’s get this out of the way, because this is what everyone has been asking us for two years.
Blade Symphony is going Free-To-Play on March 7th.
Yes, this is soon. We know. Why? Well, in some ways, Blade Symphony has been ready for Free-To-Play for a time already; it’s stable on all platforms and offers the right functionality for obtaining in-game content. The only barrier has been the price. Removing that barrier should, hopefully, mean more players to help us identify issues to solve and test new features.
This is going to be a difficult next month for us; lots of last-minute content creation, testing and and fixing bugs. We’re going to need all the help we can get, so please help put bugs into our GitHub Tracker and discuss with us on our Discord!
We really appreciate everyone’s patience, and we’re excited to put our best foot forward for this effort. This isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon, and we intend to be supporting Blade Symphony well after it goes free to play.
We’re releasing a small patch that includes experimental asset streaming and controller support, as well as some bug fixes and quality of life changes. The Source Engine is 15 years old, but with asset streaming, you should see much faster load times. This is only experimental, but look forward to even more optimization improvements in the days to come.
Changes since Patch 6
Changes:
Added a Free to Play countdown timer to the Main Menu.
Added experimental asset streaming.
To utilize this feature, right click on Blade Symphony in Steam, go to Properties, and set your launch options to include: +r_particle_streaming 1 +mat_texture_streaming 1
Added experimental Controller Support.
This includes both Steam Controller and regular game pads. We don’t have tons of controllers laying around at our office, so any testing you can perform is welcome!
Bug Fixes:
Fixed polygons and vertices sticking out from characters in-game and in-menus.
Fixed skins not properly updating in the customization screen.
Fixed the Infiltrator skin’s phong value to make it less “bright” in game.
Patch 6 with optimizations and waving flags!
We hope you’re enjoying the Steam Lunar New Year Sale, and the 51% off discount on Blade Symphony. This is a pretty great time for us to throw down another patch, especially for those awaiting optimizations!
When we updated the engine that Blade Symphony uses last year, it was a big step forward, but also meant that some performance diminished. We’ve been listening to the community’s feedback, and have made numerous optimizations. We’re happy to see recorded gains of 30 - 50 FPS on various maps, but join our Discord server and give feedback so we can continue to improve!
Additionally, we heard your feedback about emblems, and have implemented a new type of shader to create a “waving flag” effect on the Customization Screen or during a match introduction. Finally, we’ve added some favorite items from the community; the Holo-armor, Infiltrator and Wakizashi attachments for Vanguard.
Changelog since Patch 5
Changes:
Emblems now have a waving effect when on Customization Screen and during the Intro Camera.
Added Holo-armor Arm and Leg attachments for Vanguard
Added Katana Wakizashi Back attachment for Vanguard
Added Infiltrator Skin and Mask for Vanguard
Team gameplay modes now have glow for team color and enemies based on distance and visibility.
Map change will take place if the only match that needs to complete is between bots, so that players no longer need to wait for it to finish.
Optimizations:
<*>Implemented level-of-detail models (“LODs”) for all characters.
<*>Implemented experimental multithreading in queue_mode.
<*>Optimized sound clearing for invisible players.
<*>Optimized player outline system using polymorphism.
<*>Optimized materials on duel_winter and free_winter.
<*>Optimized rendering path for characters by enabling bone-threading.
<*>Optimized static debug variables by removing non-atomic read on them.
<*>Disabled cascade-shadow-mapping (CSM) on all water textures.
<*>Disabled depreciated r_shadows.
<*>Removed depreciated .dx80 models.
<*>Removed rendering of shadow map displacements.
<*>Removed rendering of viewmodels or viewmodel shadows.
Fixes:
<*>Fixed custom weapon sounds being audible everywhere.
<*>Fixed server crash when server map changes from Control Point maps to Duel maps.
Hopefully you’ve been enjoying the beginning of 2019, we know we have! Not long after Patch 4’s release, we got to work on addressing a lot of the issues that are out there. Patch 5 is a big step forward in getting Blade Symphony into great shape for the future. We’ve also made a lot of progress toward getting more user generated content into the game, and will be pushing lots of great items in Patch 6.
We're celebrating this release with a Steam discount on Blade Symphony, so tell your friends. Tomorrow at 10:00am US Pacific time, it's 40% for a limited time!
In addition, we’ve done a lot of listening and discussion with the community, and fully admit that there are issues with performance in Blade Symphony that we want to address. While it may run pretty well on a lot of modern computers, or even computers from 2 - 3 years ago, it’s not running as well as it did before we moved to a new version of the Source Engine. We went back and looked at the first time we had Blade Symphony running in this version of the engine, and found that it was like someone flipped a switch. For that reason, we are committing all of our available time and energy to ensuring that Patch 6 has a large number of optimizations and improvements to increase framerate, reduce load times and stuttering.
Changelog since Patch 4
Changes
Added Barcarolle Ballad to the game. Returning players might recognize it as Hydraphobia, a sword created by community member Zaelux.
We changed the way colors work so that all characters receive the same colors as they level up. The colors have more “pop” and make unlocking acolor picker much more exciting!
Added names for the colors to identify them in Steam inventories
Added new Vanguard charge animations in Patch 4, but we left it out of the changelog. These are ongoing, and right now look like modifications of Pure’s. More work is coming!
Added a Queue / Unqueue button to the tab menu in duel mode.
Added the following tracer and script changes courtesy of Sader and Niki
Classic Style
Swapped Vanguard’s Fast Left Tier 2 with Tier 3’s animation
Swapped Vanguard’s Fast Left Tier 2 with Tier 3’s animation
Reduced Vanguard’s Balanced String 1 Tier 1 locktime from 0.7 to 0.65
Reduced Vanguard’s Balanced String 1 Tier 1 damage from 22 to 20
Reduced Vanguard’s Balanced String 1 Tier 2 locktime from 0.8 to 0.77
Increased Vanguard’s Balanced String 1 Tier 2 damage from 22 to 24
Reduced Vanguard’s Balanced String 1 Tier 3 locktime from 1.07 to 0.65
Increased Vanguard’s Balanced String 1 Tier 3 damage from 28 to 34
Reduced Vanguard’s Balanced String 2 Tier 2 locktime from 0.9 to 0.8
Increased Vanguard’s Balanced String 2 Tier 2 damage from 22 to 26
Reduced Vanguard’s Balanced String 2 Tier 3 locktime from 1.5 to 0.85
Reduced Vanguard’s Balanced String 3 Tier 2 locktime from 0.8 to 0.75
Increased Vanguard’s Balanced String 3 Tier 2 damage from 23 to 26
Reduced Vanguard’s Balanced String 3 Tier 3 locktime from 1.2 to 1.1
Increased Vanguard’s Balanced String 3 Tier 3 damage from 32 to 38
Reduced Vanguard’s Balanced String 4 Tier 2 locktime from 1.0 to 0.9
Increased Vanguard’s Balanced String 4 Tier 3 locktime from 0.9 to 1.55
Reduced Vanguard’s Balanced Left Tier 2 locktime from 0.85 to 0.8
Reduced Vanguard’s Balanced Right Tier 2 locktime from 0.9 to 0.75
Reduced Vanguard’s Heavy String 1 Tier 1 locktime from 1.35 to 1.28
Reduced Vanguard’s Heavy String 1 Tier 2 locktime from 1.2 to 0.7
Reduced Vanguard’s Heavy String 1 Tier 3 locktime from 1.3 to 0.85
Reduced Vanguard’s Heavy Left Tier 1 locktime from 0.85 to 0.82
Reduced Vanguard’s Heavy Left Tier 2 locktime from 0.95 to 0.93
Reduced Vanguard’s Heavy Left Tier 3 locktime from 1.0 to 0.97
Classic Style and Arcade Style
Increased tracer uptime of Ryoku’s Heavy String 1 Left Tier 1
Increased tracer uptime of Ryoku’s Balanced String 1 Tier 2
Increased tracer uptime of Ryoku’s Balanced String 2 Tier 1
Added partial Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Czech, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmal, Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian and Turkish translations
Updated German and Hungarian translations
Fixes
Fixed queue order in matches so that players are not being skipped when they are queued to duel.
Fixed 2 vs. 2 and 2 vs. 1 duels not respecting the friendly fire setting
Fixed 2 vs. 2 and 2 vs. 1 duels playing the final blow slowdown
Fixed players receiving duplicates of certain colors
Fixed players not being able to unlock attachments
Fixed server time limit not accurately representing the time remaining
Fixed maps not changing on a server after the server time limit reaches 0
Fixed user settings not persisting after a duel has been completed.
Fixed bloom making it difficult to see swords or characters on the Customization Screen
Fixed equipped emblems not resetting when changing characters
Fixed players being put into the match they were viewing, instead of the match they selected to join
Fixed the Honorable Steam Achievement not saving progress toward unlocking
Fixed player level being cut off on the customization screen
Fixed Server Details screen not accurately showing player information
Fixed portions of Docks so that the player cannot get outside of the bounds of the map
Fixed Pure having two unlockable color pickers, and only having four unlockable colors
Fixed Judgement’s character portrait missing in the Summary Screen
Fixed misalignments when unlocking a new level in the SummaryScreen
Fixed a bug where players style choices were being reset after aduel in FFA mode.
New swords and emblems, now in Patch 4!
Hey there everybody!
Christmas is right around the corner, and before leaving for break, we wanted to give the gift of a Blade Symphony update! Much has happened since Patch 3, and we’re still working hard with the community to fix problems, and improve where we can. As a result, Patch 4 contains lots of great bug fixes, re-skinned items, and lots of behind-the-scenes changes.
So Happy Holidays to you and your family, and we hope that you enjoy the rest of your year!
Changelog since Patch 3
Changes:
Added custom sounds to Dyssonance, Minecraftian Minuet, Tone Death, Serrated Serenade, and Jade Octave.
Added a difficulty setting to the Bot setup menu when fighting an AI Opponent.
The killing blow slowdown effect is back! The last hit on an enemy will slow down time, and now has proper sound and animation fixes.
Added Conical Contata, Lionsflame Lament and Pentatonic Phase blades to the game.
Cardboard Tube is an unlockable item again, those who have bought it previously will receive the Conical Cantata automatically.
Flame Song is an unlockable item again, those who have bought it previously will receive the Lionsflame Lament automatically.
Resonant Phase is an unlockable item again, those who have bought it previously will receive the Pentatonic Phase automatically.
Added five unlockable emblems for each character, visible on the Customization Screen and during the start of a match.
Merged in Valve’s Panorama system from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and DotA 2, replacing VGUI, so that UI changes are easier in the future.
Modified how experience is gained, resulting in more reasonable leveling.
Merged in a new sound-mixer from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to improve the overall audio experience.
Added a Physically Based Rendering shader, used for the new Conical Cantata, Lionsflame Lament and Pentatonic Phase.
Modified lighting on Customization Screen and items with reflections for better aesthetic.
Added the various community translators to the game’s credits.
Bug Fixes:
Fixed a crash caused by pressing Alt+Tab.
Fixed a crash caused by checking a player’s stats during a match.
Fixed crash when hosting a match with bots with less slots than bots available.
Fixed lag compensation not being performed correctly for grabs.
Fixed announcer sounds having a low volume.
Fixed players being able to skip other players already waiting in queue to fight.
Fixed players not being able to call vote non-Control Point maps.
Fixed maps not changing when the time limit reaches 0.
Fixed shurikens flying straight up into the air, based on tracking players in other arenas.
Fixed corpses from other matches in the same arena, appearing in the wrong match.
Fixed some improper text within various Settings menus.
Fixed players not being able to change a bot’s weapon within an AI Opponent fight.
Fixed issues causing audio to crackle at various times.
Fixed cartoon-like outlining appearing for players on MacOS and Linux.
Fixed the ShapeShifter achievement being impossible to achieve.
Fixed various localization strings appearing incorrect.
Fixed default button not being clickable in options.
Fixed walls and tiles flashing bright and having a pink checkerboard-coloured pattern in practice_box and ffa_community.
Fixed lightmapped models having incorrect UV in them.
We hope that you guys will have a lot of fun with our fixes this update. If you want to get involved with our community join our Discord!
Capes for owners, and small Patch 3 release
Patch 3 this week is a very small one. Most of the team are busy with some vacation and personal commitments.
This past week, however, I did spend a good amount of time querying the old item system, organizing and cleaning the owners of cape items, and giving out Capes to the original owners. With this patch, you should now have all the Capes you did prior to the Harmonious Prelude update!
Changelog since Patch 2
Bug Fixes
The code for queuing to matches has been refactored entirely, which should address issues we've seen with queued spectators not getting into a match properly, and multiple bots spawned in the wrong matches.
Fixed some mask items not being properly colored after selection on the Customization screen
Fixed a problem with the berimbau.exe process staying open after exiting the game.
Since a few days were lost by everyone, we're spending this week on working with authors to get former items in-game, as well as the new versions of items in the item store. I hope to also have some of the background emblems in-game by the end of this week.
