Major Update 1.1 – OPTIMIZATION, ENGINE UPGRADE, AND MORE! (2/29/2016)
Kingdom Games is proud to announce that FIVE: Guardians of David Major Update 1.1 is live! We’ve focused on optimization, navigation, Impact & responsiveness among many other tweaks and changes. Our optimization passes have drastically improved frame rate across the entirety of the game! Many of you pointed out that navigation was difficult and followers were not responding appropriately and we’ve made great strides to improve both across the game.
Many of you have mentioned our abilities lack the oomph and power that they all appear to have. What is Impact & Responsiveness? When you activate an ability it should quickly respond and provide the type of impact, sound, screen shake, and beautiful visuals that you would expect from a powerful ability. We’ve made great strides to improve Impact & Responsiveness for all of the Mighty Men.
Environment Optimization
FIVE: Guardians of David has had a significant optimization pass across the entire game. We could not be more excited to share the results. The optimization pass touched on everything including art, design, and engineering. Players will experience smoother gameplay throughout!
Optimizing is an ever present thing in our lives, and we will always be working to improve performance for as many configurations as possible. With this update, we take a large step forward. Enjoy.
Navigation
The entire game has received extensive work, tightening up the navigation grids used within the environments. These efforts benefits players with smoother and more reliable movement and combat actions.
Engine Upgrade
We took the step of upgrading the entire game from Unity 4 to the latest Unity 5 version. This upgrade aided in extensive performance boosts. On average, we see a 100% improvement across the game. We’ve seen framerates double on most configurations.
Localization Support (COMING SOON!)
We have taken steps to begin converting the game to support various languages. We feel it is very important to offer the game in as many languages as we can over the course of time, and these initial steps will allow us to do that. Expect to see these languages released in the coming weeks and months. We are going through the content process now and testing the system to ensure it’s a complete localization (excluding VO). All in-game copy will get converted to the proper language via drop-down selection in the options (Once available)
Combat Visual Improvements
In order to help communicate all of the action, several visual changes have been made with the addition of lighting and better color use to distinguish the player, follower, and enemies. In addition, blade trails and other VFX are showing their true glory, with smooth actions and pounding force.
User Interface Change
We wanted to give players a clear health and stamina view for the controlled hero, so we redesigned the main ability bar to give it more mass (no more see through areas that had been non clickable), but also a color that allows the information to be read more easily and not blend in with the background. We really like the new design and would love to hear if you do too! Post any suggestions you may have to improve upon this new version.
Another change you will notice is the Auto Equip feature in the inventory screen, now has a couple of options for you to choose from, that will make better selections based on a type of item increase you are looking for.
Start of Game Alterations
This was a big one, but we feel we have listened to feedback and addressed the comments about the start of the game being a bit slow. We addressed this by expediting the player through parts of the first 4 levels, which we determined to not be critical to story nor character development. Players should find this experience to be far more enjoyable and streamlined to get you into the meat of the game quicker.
Level Configurations and the Save/Continue System
The version of the continue markers and the save system at launch, didn’t mean our goals, and as comments showed, added confusion or frustration to the player. As that is never our goal, we have made an initial pass to address some of the frustration.
How it works now:
- During the play session, the continue markers work as progress through a map.
- A Save Game will save what map you are on, but not your progress in that map.
- Removed all A/B map scenarios. Where you save, is where you start
- You will now also get a mission to exit the area to help guide you when an area is complete
Finally, we want to add that we are actively working to add a better solution for a “Town Portal” system in future updates. Stay tuned!
General Improvements
As with any update, there are a number of various fixes throughout the game to smooth out. This update is not different. Below you will find a number of fixes within the update that did not exactly tie into any of the above larger improvements.
Make sure to keep spreading the word about FIVE: Guardians of David and the FIVE: Raffle!
Goal #17 Key!
Fill in the ______
973_Y-HBTLW-8FDZ9
Today is _riday!
Next goal is @ 1,800. Should we do something special for 2,000?
Good luck everyone!
Patch 2 Hotfix
Hi everyone!
We just pushed a hotfix for Patch 2 to address some minor bugs that popped up. More exciting things coming soon!
* [9.1b] Altered final cinematic so that movement is not restricted in following level.
* Fixed soldier robovoices in Eleazar intro comic
* Fixed missing cache VO
* Reimported loot data to remove 75% evasion items
* Fixed Edomite Shawl icon
* Fixed destructibles not dropping currency
FIVE: Raffle Update
Hi everyone!
We have surpassed 1,600 followers! Our community grows larger everyday!
This is a special winner announcement because we are giving away a stone from the Brook of Elah to the winner in addition to a copy of FIVE: Guardians of David.
And the winner is...
BreVaun!
I have added you to deliver your key and to get your information to send you the stone!
Next goal is at 1,700 followers. Let's get it!
FIVE: Raffle Update!
Hello all!
It's a whole new year, and we are back from the holidays. Our group membership shot up over the break, so we are happy to announce our next FIVE: Raffle Winner, Doomfrost.
Next goal is @ 1,600 members, and we are rapidly approaching it.
Good luck everyone!
Patch Notes and Steam Sale!
Hi all,
Here are the notes for Patch 2. We're also participating in the Steam Winter Sale, so check us out at 40% off!
Enemy Adjustments
Overall many of the enemies you will face in the adventure, have been modified and tweaked to better represent the difference between the various styles. This can range from Hit Points to damage and critical % chances. Be wary as you venture forth…
Tower Shield Entities o Now correctly use their "Hunker Down" ability
Added VFX to archetype enemies o Berserker leap
o Berserker combo attack
o Dragoon spear jump
Alchemist Archetype o Fixing it so alchemist can't be killed upon activating death explosion ability
o Fixed targeting so death explosion will hit both enemies and friendly, not just friendly
o Added alchemist specific VFX
o Fixed VFX so they will persist after his untimely demise!
Spread Shot Archetype o Spread shot enemies now turn in place, they'll face the player and continue attacking instead of remaining stationary
General
• New VFX will activate under members of the FIVE who have fallen in combat.
• New Game Start Loading Screen and all loading screens altered to a new style
• Added the new "Donation Comics" that are unlocked via the Donation Takers.
• David no longer becomes invulnerable after multiple deaths
• Cloth armor icons better resembles style when worn
• Ambient and Environment sounds turned off during comics
• Moved icons under fog layer and fixed icon referencing issue
• Miracle Stone "Pillar of Fire" item tooltip had wrong title ("Flames of Fire"). Corrected title tooltip.
• Edomite cloth armor icons updated to better reflect actual armor
• Enable tooltips for minimap icons
• Tent objectives are now properly highlighting when the player has the quest to burn them
• Distractions pots size has been reduced to not look like a watermelon being thrown.
• Switching to a member of the FIVE who is defeated at the same time, no longer pauses the game indefinitely
• Fix to menu dropdowns being left on screen if escape was pressed while in options.
• Fixed bug causing some keys not to be reassigned properly thus not updating ability bar with change.
• Fixed a bug where missions beyond act 1 were not giving out money awards
• Fixed a bug with donation allowing an item to be donated more than once.
• Loading Screen tweaks to improve placement and readability of information
Heroes
• Added disabled icons for the inventory and ranked abilities buttons
• Added sounds to Shammah's cut scene in Act 2
• New trail VFX colored for enemies for most enemy basic attacks
• New color-coded projectiles for sling, bow and javelin
• Sling should look proper on character sheet
• Armor skinning textures fixed on various pieces
• Updated melee attacks that had weapon trails
• Changed the action bar so that ranked abilities can be brought up when playing as the teens
Ability Adjustments
The focus of most of these changes was to adjust the abilities that have no cost to use, yet do comparable or more damage than abilities that do have a stamina cost.
Abishai o Aimed Shot: Damage buffed to be brought more in line with Shammah's Charged Shot. Now starts at 150% damage and scales to 200% damage. Old values were 120% to 145% damage.
Benaiah o Bite of Vengeance: Damage nerfed. Starts at 50% damage and scales up to 60% damage per strike at max rank. Ability used to be 60% to 85% damage per strike.
o Cleave: Damage down 10% across all ranks, from 100% damage to 90% damage at max rank.
Jashobeam o Quick Attack: Slight nerf to max rank damage and a buff to base rank damage. Max rank down to 40% damage per strike from 45% damage per strike. Base rank up to 32% damage from the old value of 25% damage per strike.
Shammah o Spread shot: significantly nerfed from 7 shots at 100% dmg down to 5 shots at 45% dmg at max rank. Ability now starts at a base of 3 shots and 35% damage, ranking up the ability now increases the amount of shots and the amount of damage alternating each level.
Uriah o Line in the sand: buffed to deal more damage, from 150% to 200%. Tooltip also updated to show the damage it deals. Uriah lacks AoE abilities so we're scaling up the one he has.
World
Act2 o Adding fire icon VFX for a mission indicator to help guide players to the brazier
o Lowering the collider on the most southwestern siege tower so it does not interfere with player navigation.
o Fixing the navigation around sheep fences so the player paths through the fences and does not get stuck behind them
o The siege of Keilah and other interactive elements of gameplay
Act4 o Prisoners are now represented with one mm icon which turns from pinging to static when player arrives in slave pens
o Turned off highlighter for prisoner icons
o Checkpoint added to Goliath the Gittite fight
o Removed some ambient spawns around merchant checkpoint
o A sound plays when clicking on the slaves to free in Heralds of War
Act6 o Removed pots from the rooftops of buildings which would cause loot drops that the player couldn't reach
o Fixed some loose collision around north facing cliff that allowed players to fall off
o Fixed a bug where Enos arena failed to reset if the player left the
o Freed some donation NPCs that were embedded in cliff walls
Act 9 o Added some dynamic blockers to prevent the player from leaving the arena during the boss fight.
o Fixed bug 5268 - Couldn't complete 2nd scout outpost if played in a different order.
o Moved unreachable cache
Act 10 o Ulam should prove to not be a pushover any longer
Act11 o Final boss gates are now correctly lowering after Zaham is defeated
o Israelite soldiers are now correctly deactivating if the player skips the Uriah cinematic
o Cleaned up collision in the valley outside the camp to make it easier to navigate
o Adjusted location two FIVE caches that were previously out of player reach
• Remphan had his visuals updated to look more as intended
• Some adjustments to loading levels from map table in Zion
• Blessing Givers will not eternally “ping” the minimap
• Fixed a bug where Zaham's damage values were flipped
• The Map Table mission script will not end early any longer.
• Update to world map level fixes display of number of found caches
FIVE: Raffle Update
Hello everybody!
I have been unable to get in touch with Winner #14 to deliver their key, so we will be doing a keydrop today!
To make things a little interesting, we will be dropping a key live on Twitch during our show today @ 5:30 EST/4:30CST
We will also be going over our upcoming patch, so come chat and have those windows open ready to redeem a complimentary copy of FIVE: Guardians of David!
FIVE: Raffle Winner!
Hi everyone,
Can't believe we're over 1,400 members now! This is really exciting.
Our next winner is: alexsweden92
Next goal @ 1,500!
How is everyone enjoying FIVE? Let us know! Post on the Community Hub and tell us what you think. And if you have a few maybe even post a review.ːsteamhappyːːsteamhappyː
Chris
FIVE: Patch 1 is live!
Highlights
Follower Combat AI – The follower FIVE heroes will be far more interested in engaging the enemy
Several locations have had their navigation cleaned up
Equipment
Item Values added to Tool Tips
Tint mask adjustments for various armor pieces
Zion
Map Table adjustments to user experience
Fixed a map that would on occasion allow a user to become stuck in limbo when loading from Map
Zoom and ESC while using the map table should behave as intended now
Quiz Adjustment (Question had a vague choice for an answer)
Cave Story wall will not properly give tooltip to Act being highlighted
Unlocked Vendors/Blessing Givers now ping the mini-map when they are unlocked
Improved visual feedback for Quiz selection
Story
Adjustments to various Voice Over lines throughout the game
Naomi has a few new things to say (Added new VO for Naomi)
Various Mini Map adjustments for map to be closer to actual locations
Lots and lots of smaller issues resolved in all levels. From small sticking points, to new sounds added to events
Update mini-map for prisoners of war mission
Pigs of war mission no longer completes until after Eder’s dialogue is complete
There is now music and fire sounds during the ending cut scene of 2.5
Weapon crates now play sound when collected
Several NPC characters have changed their clothes to better represent their personality
David should no longer keep his picture around when he has left the group
Well of Bethlehem now makes a sound when you collect water from it
Some tents would not burn correctly, they are now properly flammable!
Combat
Alchemists have been adjusted and are a bit more explosive
Blessings have had their visuals modified
Enhanced balance and stability within targeting system
Some balance changes for Buffs, and leveling out a few overpowered abilities. Reduce any iWIN buttons
Resolved some issues where character defeat was not behaving properly
Splinter shot had its VFX adjusted to be correct with design
Bread counter added to ability bar (Yay)
New incapacitated effect will be applied to any of the FIVE who are defeated in combat
NEW Voice Over to let you know you are out of Stamina when trying to use an ability
Adjusting Hammer Slam cooldown
Explosive Shot AoE size adjusted
Explosive Trap AoE size
Increased length of Shammah's pot throw abilities (Hornets’ Nest and Disease) to better match the particle
General
Resolved an issue with map fog choking up the CPU
Escape menu should behave normally and not show where it shouldn’t
User can no longer open the area map(Tab) while paused
Player is informed if they do not have enough shekels to purchase an item
A certain chicken has become a bit more crazy…
Loading screen adjustments for placement of information
Fixed contention between “on death” animations and last animation before death
Fixed aesthetic issues identified with swapping ISR and JEB clothing
Sounds added for various object interactions
Sound now plays when eating bread
Fixed issue with Event context reset values after a game load/restart
New game will properly reset donation values
Fixed a bug when exiting the comic viewer, sometimes causing the game to get stuck
Developer update to the community
Hello Friends,
Thank you all for your support and interest in FIVE: Guardians of David!
We have spent years designing, coding, iterating, and polishing our flagship PC title. Based upon your feedback, FIVE is showcasing the quality elements of gameplay, art, and design we’ve worked tirelessly to deliver in most areas of the game, and with your help we can make it even better. The "Let’s Plays", Reviews, Streams, and Interviews, have been a blast! You should know we are listening to every critique, suggestion, and compliment to make FIVE into the most unforgettable take on the story of King David and his FIVE Mighty Men. We truly value your opinions, the players in our community, and we are making changes to reflect the comments and suggestions of the community while also addressing feedback from continued play-testing both internally and by you, our players.
In the following weeks, expect a series of patches to address community feedback received from the Community Hub, Social Media, and other channels. If you would like to email us any feedback or comments, please email to the following: Support@KingdomGames.com
We have already started on the following items: • Follower combat AI and enemy AI
• Early Game Flow, get you into action and character advancement systems faster
• Overall navigation/interaction “trouble spots” and movement fluidity
• Equipment balance and variation
While we do have plans for exciting future content, we want to ensure that our core game is an unbelievably solid base to build upon. Our current focus is on the above listed items, but if you have other suggestions, please post them in the suggestions Sub-forum. Great ideas have already started rolling in from there and we would love to see that continue. We are excited to continue refining and improving FIVE, not only through patches, but also with future content expansions that will really bring FIVE to the next level.
Once again, thank you all for your support and interest in FIVE: Guardians of David.
