FIRST RELEASE OF NEW OPTIMIZED NPCS + MULTIPLE TEAMS
The first version of the new optimized NPCs are now available and we are calling all testers to try it! They can be spawned in hundreds instead of dozens before lagging. They are relatively basic at the moment, things like melee combat and close up physics are still being worked on and there are many features still needing to be carried over - eventually these NPCs will have the same capabilities as the old less optimized physics AI such as command, armor values, etc. They will also come in individual variants later, as of now they can only be spawned in formation. Your goal is to try them out, push them to the limit, and give your highest priority requests for things to be improved upon or added to next!
Tester Objectives:
Test out, record, and give feedback the new optimized NPCs: they currently come in formations 1) Line Infantry Formation 2) Hoplite Formation.
Have them fight various units including the new Napoleonic Cavalry!
Note: waypoints apply to ALL formation teams.
Test out the 4 teams available, these only apply to the formations currently
Make huge epic battles! Try all three new maps
If there are any crashes, send a screenshot of the Crash Reporter popup window that appears
Give us your general reaction and feelings about the new systems!
Give requests on what you want to see next for these NPCs (systems like command, melee, individual NPCs, etc).
Three Levels You Should Visit To See NPCs Showcased:
Napoleonic Formations
Desert Ruins
Soviet Run Demo
These maps are also more optimized than voxel maps!
A Heads Up About That Release Date
Hello all!
We wanted to make this post to inform of you of Cry of Athena's progress. Testing is now in full swing, and starting with the "Blue Danube" trailer, we've begun our effort to bring more awareness to the game!
We’ve had many testers join our ranks in the meantime (NOTE: Testing is now closed due to having enough testers, but join the Discord below to see if more opportunities show up). Already, we’ve received a ton of useful feedback, and it’s allowed us to take note of all the things we must do to make the game ready for launch. As you might imagine, the list is quite long. The true scope of the game has begun to reveal itself!
Let’s jump to another topic for a second: who we are!
We are a tiny team. We all have obligations in real life that, for now, prevent us from working on this full time. We intend to focus on CoA full time as we close in on the release date, but putting a roof over our heads comes first! In fact, there is currently only one programmer (Kami, also the project lead) and he is needing to work a separate day job for a month or two before diving back into developing CoA full time.
Like many of you, we're also lifelong gamers, and that means we have a strong opinion about which studios we really want to emulate. And something that we’ve embraced is the idea of releasing a game only when it’s ready. After all, this will be the first title proudly developed by our company, Simulated Minds.
Lord GabeN once said, “Late is just for a little while. Suck is forever. We could try to force this thing [Half-Life] out the door, but that’s not the company we want to be…that’s not the relationship we want to have with our customers.”
Because we take that ethos seriously, we are announcing that we are delaying our initial release date, and the new release date is to be decided. Needless to say, the extra time spent refining the game will be time well spent.
A commonly asked question is whether this is coming for Quest - the short answer is yes, it will be developed after the Steam release. There'll be more details on this in the months to come.
Thank you for being a part of this journey with us, and tune into the official Discord for updates and to learn about testing:
https://discord.gg/cryofathena
Demo End Date + Builds 141-150 Update Log
First off is the list of changes to the game between Builds 141 and 150. Below that is the end date for the demo, what that means, and what's next.
CoA Build 141-150 Summary
Major Changes:
C4 and Detonator Added - For VR: Pick up detonator and grab C4 off chest, then stick the C4 to objects before detonation - Non VR: Hold left click to see trajectory and throw, then right click to explode - Disclaimer: C4 is currently undergoing testing, so it may cause crashing at some points, use at your own discretion.
Crusader Knight character added to game - Crusader AI added to list (Claymore and Mace variants) - Crusader shield WIP
Unarmed soldiers will look for weapons and pick them up - Applies to both the Unarmed NPC and any NPC's that lose their weapons - Prioritize weapons or enemies depending on distance - Recommend making them pick up physics guns!
Hitting Gun With Melee Knocks It Out Of AI Hands - Fists and blunt weaponry can knock enemies' weapons out easier - Certain weapons are hard to disarm such as rifles and muskets (for close combat purposes)
Added Artillery, Mortar, and Napalm Radios (found at the end of the weapon list) - Added radio communication sounds when calling in strikes using radio - also applies to Radiomen
Restoration god power now heals units and burns zombies/infected
Ranged units set target by closest visible enemy rather than purely the closest unit, which previously made them ignore enemies until they could see the nearest one. Allows for more dynamic ranged fights.
Damage Overhauls
Chest and neck shots will do several times more damage than hitting other regions
Stomach shots do higher damage but not as much as chest hits
player bullets do more damage toward AI
AI let go of second grip on gun when dying
Fixed not falling over if leg shot out
Shooting chest or leg may make them fall over
Melee damage ignores damage reduction multiplier to arms and legs
Melee AI dismember each other more easily without causing more overall damage to health
Blunt damage knocks out enemies or knocks them down at least
Punches also knock them down and apply force
Burning units face direction of where they randomly run with varied speeds
Fire AOE modifications to radius and exposed variables
General Changes And Fixes
Talos takes reduced damage from ranged (10%)
Changed angular velocity strength of character arms to stop them from flopping around during movement
T 72b Tank Ensure Death
Radio Hand Rotation
Fixed Talos not dying to explosives
Caps Lock Hides UI
Slide Grab Bug Fix
Large melee weapons like halberd, great axes can cause dismemberment, launches enemies, and can now cause destruction to buildings. Revised movesets for non-vr character.
Decreased default game volume for new players
Grenade pull pin sound replaced/fixed
Humanoid units can be pinned down (weighing them down will prevent them from standing up)
Decreased AI arrow damage by 1/5th
Optimized main menu island and first tutorial by making it non-voxel for now
Optimized ranged AI visibility check (see if they can hit target before firing)
Fixed laser attachment pointing to origin point of map bug
Demo End Date:
The demo will be concluding on Monday November 20th at 10 am PST. This may come as a surprise for some of you but the demo was intended to only be available between October 9th to October 16th as part of Steam Next Fest, but due to player requests, we decided to extend it and let many more people enjoy it over a longer time span.
By November 20th, it will have been up for 42 days, which is 35 days more days than we initially intended! In that time, we've updated the game 25 times (that's just by time of this announcement, there likely will be several more before November 20th), adding various new features, bug fixes, and modifications as requested by the community. There are much more changes to come with optimization/performance improvements being among the top priorities.
We hope you enjoyed playing the game or continue to have fun will it until the end date. Some of you are likely wondering if the demo will return: the answer is yes, albeit in a smaller form. As it currently is, the demo is much larger than we intended. This was mostly because of time constraints that we didn't have time to decide what should be in the demo and what shouldn't, but we're glad we released this version because we received amazing feedback and learned that players enjoyed the amount of content and gameplay mechanics offered.
If you are willing to help, you can continue to have access to the game as a tester. Testers play the game and record footage which helps us devs substantially to improve the game. In return, testers receive the game for free on release and can play the game anytime. Join the Discord and look for #tester-signup-instructions to see more details. You can also join if you just want to follow development, make suggestions, and be part of the community!
Until next time, Cry of Athena Dev Team
Builds 136-140 Update List
CoA Build 138-140 summary:
Zombies can zombify other humanoid units
Allow ranged units to fire out of trenches/defilades and generally target enemies better
Fixed zombies spamming damage and made AI fist melee much more polished and reliable
AI punches do 1.5x headshot damage instead of 20x (multiplier was like a bullet previously)
Melee AI damage others more reliably and fixed damaging others even when not attacking
Non-VR player flying camera moves faster
Fixed Orcs Having Human Charge Vocal
Fixed non-vr player character slow motion not slowing sounds, slightly sped up slow motion
Fixed footsteps overriding other sounds
Advanced injuries:
When legs are dismembered, units will still be alive but struggle to stand back up, eventually bleeding out
Shooting arms/hands off will disarm units and make them use their fists instead
Units run around when on fire and cannot attack
Explosions overhaul - explosions do tiered damage depending on distance: if close then likely death, if medium distance then likely to dismember legs but they are still alive, and if further then only knocks down units.
Dev notes: Major improvements to how injuries are handled in a first of a series of many upgrades to the injury system. Zombification has returned. Much more content and features to come. CoA Build 137 summary:
Substantial VR melee rebalancing: bladed and blunt weapons do more appropriate damage
Units are more easily dismembered by fast swings of bladed weapons
Stabs do much more appropriate damage (very little damage previously)
Allow destructible debris to damage units it hits
Fixed getting stuck on save screen for non-VR
Fixed Quick/Auto Saves not appearing in list
Player speed slowed slightly
Dev notes: This is the first of more melee balancing and improvements to come, as always feel free to give feedback as it evolves.
CoA Build 136 summary:
Great hammer significant upgrade/rebalancing: now launches and dismembers enemies
Added Tartarus Music: "Three Headed Hound"
Decreased Size of Blood Decals
Zombies don't stunlock themselves when attacking
Fixed "Effects" graphics setting not appearing
Dev message to players: Reminder that the demo will not be around forever in its current form with the amount of content it has, check out the previous announcement for details. Come join us in the Discord to discuss the game and what's next.
Update 19.5: Level Editor, Flatscreen, AI Improvements/Fixes; Various Bug Fixes
Changes:
Level Editing: Players can toggle between freeform spawning anywhere or only where there is pathing for AI for their level
Level Editing: Undo/Redo buttons
Added confirmation pop-up before saving a level in flatscreen mode
Renamed "Levels" button to be "Load/Save Levels" to be more clear
Level editing props hologram adjustments
Reduced horse health because it was tanking too many bullets
Sorceress AI improvements: less jittery movements; no more back strafe bugging out
Hephaestus Melee Damage Increased
Physics zombie run cycle modification to allow it to run straighter
Cavalry can turn more sharply now and go longer distances before circling back around for another charge
Greek Island Main Menu: made ruins more navigable for movement;made slope to waterfall more smooth so units don't get stuck
Greek Island Main Menu: made watchtower and palm trees climbable
Bug Fixes:
Fixed Cavalry not saving and loading properly. Cavalry now spawn correctly on custom maps
Fixed Cavalry Not Targeted by Ranged Units
Fixed Cavalry premature dead body deletion
Fixed Can't Stab Elephant
Fixed Zombie Can't Target Elephant
Flatscreen Character: Fixed issue where reloading the weapon while holding the magazine would cause the gun to glitch out
Flatscreen Character: Fixed issue where could not rotation hands with 1 or 4 when menu was opened and closed
Flatscreen Character: Fixed issue where left hand would not be able to be moved sometime after play
Flatscreen Character: Fixed bug where player could not fire minigun in Flatscreen mode
Fixed god scale down into mortal mode not spawning player directly below
Fixed Line Infantry/Riflemen Chasing Enemies Without Interruption
Fixed blood decals floating in the air
Fixed Sorceress standing idly after death
Fixed Elephant Not Targeted By Sorceress
Fixed RPG AI rocket floating in air after launched
Fixed Cavalry Launching Talos
Cavalry: Fixed Slow Speed Downhill
Fixed Giant A posing after death
Fixed Flatscreen camera not showing physics gun line (right click)
Fixed Barghest causing units to glitch out if dropped and alive after bitten
Dev Log:
Update 19.5 is a series of improvements and bug fixes based on feedback, footage, and reports given on Update 19. It also adds some features like being able to spawn things either freeform or only on pathing for the level editor as well as a streamlined undo/redo button. AI behaviors are also improved and various bugs were fixed. We'll be needing many more tester videos so get some if you can - thanks for the footage and feedback so far! Stay tuned for some large updates coming in the near future..
Major Update 19: Voxel Landscapes; Battle Elephant/Cavalry AI; Flatscreen Mode
Major Changes:
<*> Voxel landscape deformation and level editing system implemented (first version) <*> Can be found on Parnassus_Voxels <*> Flatscreen mode added for CoA <*> Flatscreen player character implemented (tutorial can be found in Tutorial document) <*> Physics based Battle Elephant AI implemented <*> Physics based Greek Cavalry AI implemented <*> Main Menu island implemented <*> Player character upgrades (in detail below) <*> Weapon upgrades (in detail below) <*> Added “Floating Island” - empty levels with several different biomes: Desert, Grass, Gravel, and Ice
Player Character/Player Weapon Upgrades
Updated overall player physical character system to V3
Includes new systems under development to be revealed at a later date
Added hip holsters to store any weapon at the player’s hips
VR Hand Grabbing Logic has been improved.
VR Grab-Pulling has been improved.
Improved pulling VR pawn over the edge of buildings when reaching the top
Falling animation if in air
Hid spawn icons on hand
Added player vignettè setting to pause menu
Added slashing damage to all stab weapons (they can now stab from all angles instead of just one, which was previously the tip of the blade)
Ballista bug fixes
including fixing ballista inability fire below a certain angle
Polished all stabbable weapon stab logic
Polished hand grabbing of all weapons and props
Improved Arrow and thrown weapon logic
Attachment system: Improved physics bounds and grab locations
Important Changes:
Slight size variation for all units when each are spawned
Large units take reduced damage from other large units so they can have prolonged fights rather than killing each other in one attack due to overwhelming amount of damage (minotaur, cyclops, elephant, Talos)
Prevent large units from falling over when grabbed in mortal mode (Talos, giant, minotaur, cyclops, gorgon, scorpion, centaur)
Removed Linear Angle, the 45 degree ramp and renamed Long Linear Angle to Ramp
New smaller geometry added to level editor
Added German armbands for each team for riflemen and SMG versions
Punches were doing too much damage and killing most humanoids in one hit
reduced damage in each tier to around 1/4th to 1/5th of original value
Gun melee damage also often did one hit kills
reduced damage to 1/4th to 1/5th of original values
Removed tracks that were too “epic” from music list and retained sandbox music
Bug Fixes
Fixed giants standing after death due to wounding animation not playing
Fixed giant causing momentary lag when spawned
Fixed physical zombie killed in one hit to head
Everglades: fixed spawning clipping under level near river
Fixed barghest accelerating in slow motion
Fixed barghest spazzing out when attacking non-human characters
Significant barghest optimizations
Significant zombie optimizations
Fixed Zombies not attacking
Prevent Talos bleeding when hit (since he is made of metal)
Fixed artillery projectiles going through ground instead of exploding
Fixed Meteora going through ground instead of exploding
Fixed AI rockets not impacting ground and exploding
Renamed artillery sporadic to Artillery (Random/Persistent) to be more clear
Javelin deletes self instead of getting suspended in air
Decreased recoil on Mac10 (no suppressor)
Fixed Sniper AI rifle orientation
Fixed Commando only spawning in with red team material
Fixed giant hands being crooked
Dev Log:
Has it really been 3 months since the last update? Kept you waiting huh? Thanks for your patience, testers, Update 19 is finally out and consists of major updates like the voxel landscape editing and deformation, new physics AI, flatscreen mode, and upgrades to the player system among many other important changes as listed above. As mentioned before, it took a while because we were overhauling the player character and upgraded to a new UE4 version. Note that flatscreen mode is still relatively basic and lacks a few core features that VR has such as level editing but you can already spawn things and set up battles, use the voxel tools, and you can play as a flatscreen character - it is already a lot of fun. Other features mentioned are also in their infancy so do give us feedback. The tester bulletin has been updated with new goals - we're looking forward to feedback and videos, this is a huge update!.
Some goals for testing:
Test the new volume for music (previously was overly loud) and let us know about the overall tempo and mood of the chosen music. The tracks originally included epic trailer music for the game, but we found that it was often too epic for the amount of action taking place on average.
Try out the new voxel terrain system by either sculpting your own levels or destroying the terrain using various explosives.
Test out the new physics AI - the cavalry and the battle elephant!
Test out flatscreen mode by choosing the third option under Cry of Athena besides play in SteamVR and OculusVR.
Let us know how you feel about the first version of the main menu that you first spawn into.
Update 18: WW1 Trench Level, Catapult NPC, 33 New Props
AI Additions:
Catapult NPC added: siege weapon that launches a volley of rocks at enemies, good at hitting crowds of enemies. Turns and moves slowly so is weak against spread out or fast moving enemies. Currently AI-controlled only.
Bomber NPC is now a full physics NPC (previously was the older non-physics zombie with an explosive barrel)
Maps
WW1 Trenches level added
New music track made for Trenches plays in level
Added 33 new physics-based props to the “Props” menu in the Level Design menu (and to the “Weapons” menu in the Battle Spawn menu)
Converted all loose objects in maps to props
Ensures they can be saved/deleted via the menu
Added ability to save/load props spawned in map
Bug Fixes
Ballista: Fixed issue where grabbing the rod would cause player to be pushed back
Ballista Bolt: Fixed issue where it would be improperly grabbed when in God mode
Prevent musket and rifle infantry from killing player in one hit due to bug
Fixed issue where guns would destroy themselves after a period of time in inventory
Fixed issue where stab weapons sometimes faced the wrong direction when stored in inventory
Ensure the Waypoint flag does not stack on top of itself when spawn button is spammed.
Reduced performance cost of bullet impact from player and AI MG Gunner
Napoleonic Infantry: Added musket preview in hologram
Dev Log:
Hey folks, been a while. You might be wondering why updates are further apart - we’re working on much larger systems instead of smaller, easier additions/bug fixes that only took a week or less to implementations in previous updates. Among the big stuff we’re working on are upgrading Unreal Engine versions, adding new player systems (like swimming, resizing players, side holsters, etc.) and working on more fully physics AI, each of which are big tasks that take longer to implement than the series of bug fixes and implementations you saw in updates before. These bigger changes will of course take more time so you won’t see them in-game for a time. In this update, we’ve made some new additions including the catapult, the first of many AI controlled siege weapons, the WW1 trenches level, and many more props to use in the level editor!
Update 17: Ballista Siege Weapon Added, Major Fixes to Crashing and Freezing
Crashing Fixes:
According to logs, the destruction system was causing a huge amount of the crashes, even if destructibles weren't present on the level.
Disabled destruction system and replaced all destructible buildings and objects with static variants (destructibles were mostly on Everglades and the pillars in Labyrinth Gunfight).
Freezing Fixes:
Many AI behavior tree systems (almost 2 dozen of them) had a major bug which froze the game. This was due to NPC’s trying to decide if they should engage in close range or far range behaviors, but there was no behavior path for ranges in-between the two values, so the NPC’s infinitely looped through checks until it froze the game. This was the cause of almost all the freezing, and has been fixed.
General Additions/Improvements:
Implemented and added Ballista as a spawnable turret to Weapons menu, as per request. Ballista does huge damage to crowds and also single targets. Must be cranked to reload - don’t miss!
Fixed Godscale hands doing immense damage while barely nudging enemies
Increased arrow damage by 3 times previous amount
Fixed Valley Hilltop Defense missing shadows
Added small elevation changes and terrain texture variation to Parnassus Flat
Decreased Ladder damage
Turned off preset grip on two handed guns for now because grabbing it rotated the weapon on the yaw axis too much
Blood splatter from old AI optimized to have fewer particles
Modified ranged damage multiplier vs player to be less because AI projectiles disproportionately were killing players
Menu Changes
Moved all gameplay options from the Wrist menu to the Pause menu
Added “Delete All” button to the delete menu. This clears the entire level of units, weapons, spawners, god powers, bodies, and decals.
Fixed issue where pressing “Delete Weapons” would destroy attachments on held weapons and weapons in player’s inventory
Fixed issue where selecting primary menu buttons would not select/deselect correctly.
Bug Fixes
Fixed bug where turning the music on and off would not work properly
Fixed issue where turret & attached gun would try to destroy each other
Fixed issue where clearing weapons would destroy attachments on gun held in hand or in player's inventory which causes soft crash in game
Fixed issue where deleting weapons would delete mags out of holsters
Ensure objects clean themselves up when needed and do not hang around in memory
Dev Log:
This week we focused down on the crashing and freezing issues players had, which we knew was a big obstacle to having a full, fun session. We removed all instances of destructibles from the project because according to crash logs that system was the cause of many random crashes. Destructibles will eventually return when we upgrade to using a new destruction system. We also resolved freezing caused by conflicting AI behaviors. In all, there should be much less incidence of crashing/freezing.
Thanks to your testing footage and crash logs, we have been able to resolve almost all of the game crashing/freezing by replicating the battles you made.
Biggest addition to the game this week, as requested by a few of you - the Ballista. The Ballista turret is now in the game in the Weapons Menu. It does heavy damage to large crowds and single targets like Talos.
Update 16: Green Skull Event Pt 2; Various Bug Fixes
The “Return To Labyrinth” Halloween (PART 2) event is live 🎃 !! First two testers to find the Green Skull in the Labyrinth will each receive $10 Steam gift cards! Important notes in the bullet points below. Happy hunting.
Keep in mind there are Red and Blue skulls in the Labyrinth, these do not count. Truly a trick instead of a treat!
Only those who have not won before are eligible to win a gift card
God mode is disabled temporarily
Once you've found it, let it be known in the #tester-chat!
If you found the Green Skull, submit your footage below!
