Free Company VR Patch #14: New Weapon and Audio Improvements
Gameplay
Added a new weapon: Flail
Deduced drag and improved weapon responsiveness
Major performance improvements
Audio
Added NPC voices and ragdoll sounds
Added voice volume setting
Increased footstep volume
Patch #13.2
Changes
Additional fix for inconsistent weapon damage detection for Quest users
Patch #13.1
Changes
Possible fix for inconsistent weapon damage detection for Quest users
Increased grip strength by ~30%, reducing weapon drag
Free Company VR Patch #13: Physics Update
[previewyoutube="vxehIT3ss48;full"]
Highlights
Physics/Combat
Completely remade the player movement system, allowing for sprinting and physics-based jumping/ climbing
Significant improvements to the interaction system. Grab positioning is much more reliable and problems with miss-aligned grab points have been fixed
Weapons now have a greater sense of weight and drag. Added the new option "Weapon Physics" in settings, allowing switching between "Default" (new physics) and "Arcade" (old physics)
New hand physics
Bow has been remade to be fully physics-based. Held arrows now have collision
Doors are now physics-based
Many adjustments to NPC physics
Improved colliders in all maps
NPC damage reduced by 75% when attacking another NPC, lengthening battles and increasing the impact the player can make in battles
Adjusted NPC HP and attack scaling. HP has been reduced overall for high level NPCs
Weapons now apply bleed damaged while the enemy is stabbed
Removed movement speed variation based on hand height
General
Added a main menu. Sandbox Mode and Free Battle have been moved to the main menu
Game can now be closed from the main menu
Changed default player skin. Options to change skin is not yet available
Added equipment options and god mode toggle to Free Battle
Added a grip angle setting
Performance improvements
Minor UI changes
Fixed floating ragdolls
Changes Since Last Beta Update
General
Major performance improvements
Improved player physics stability
Increased player acceleration
Increased the maximum number of active ragdolls, helping with cases where NPCs would not react properly to hits
Fixes
Fixed NPC weapons not properly colliding with player's
Fixed a case where weapons would behave strangely after being dropped by an enemy and picked up by the player
Changes Since Start of Beta
Gameplay
Changed held weapon alignment. Weapons are now held with a "handshake" grip and are tilted more forward than before. This can be adjusted with the "Grip Offset" setting
Strengthened hand rotation speed, making lighter weapons much more snappy and less floaty
Holstered weapons are now always be grabbed by the handle
Made it less likely to accidentally damage friendly NPCs
Lighting and post processing changes. Game is now slightly brighter overall. Additional lighting changes to be coming shortly to brighten up nights and indoors
Made it easier to remove axes and the spiked mace from flesh
Slightly increased NPC blocking frequency
Increased poise damage done by player
Added a one-time sprinting prompt
Made props in the tutorial intractable
Minor player physics improvements
Fixes
Fixed AI Armies charging too early, causing them to trickle in instead of as a group
Disabled snap and smooth turning when commanding units
Enemies now ragdoll properly after being hit during a death animation
Fixed issues with the dagger on the camp table after completing the unit commands tutorial
Fixed tree colliders in forest arena
Fixed renaming units in camp and sandbox mode
Fixed cases where bow users would hit teammates
Fixed bow users having perfect accuracy regardless of archery skill
Fixed cases where NPCs would play the fallen struggle animation before fully on the ground
Fixed dead NPCs not dropping weapons properly
Fixed issues with picking up some dropped weapons
Fixed floating arrows when hitting NPCs in certain states
Fixed grabbing quivers from holsters
Patch #13 - Beta Update 3
One more beta update. Changes are coming to the main branch on Friday, September 24th.
Major
Changed held weapon alignment. Weapons are now held with a "handshake" grip and are tilted more forward than before. This can be adjusted with the "Grip Offset" setting.
Strengthened hand rotation speed, making lighter weapons much more snappy and less floaty
Lighting and post processing changes. Game is now slightly brighter overall. Additional lighting changes to be coming shortly to brighten up nights and indoors.
Enemies now ragdoll properly after being hit during a death animation
Minor player physics improvements
Fixed issues with the dagger on the camp table after completing the unit commands tutorial
Made props in the tutorial intractable
Fixed tree colliders in forest arena
Added a one-time sprinting prompt
Patch #13 - Beta Update 2
Last beta update before releasing on the main branch. To access the beta, right click Free Company in your library, select "Properties...", select the "BETAS" tab and opt into the beta branch.
Gameplay
Holstered weapons are now always be grabbed by the handle
Made it less likely to accidentally damage friendly NPCs
Made it easier to remove axes and the spiked mace from flesh
Disabled snap and smooth turning when commanding units
Slightly increased NPC blocking frequency
Increased pose damage done by player
Fixes
Fixed AI Armies charging too early, causing them to trickle in instead of as a group
Fixed renaming units in camp and sandbox mode
Fixed cases where bow users would hit teammates
Fixed bow users having perfect accuracy regardless of archery skill
Fixed cases where NPCs would play the fallen struggle animation before fully on the ground
Fixed dead NPCs not dropping weapons properly
Fixed issues with picking up some dropped weapons
Fixed floating arrows when hitting NPCs in certain states
Fixed grabbing quivers from holsters
Patch #13 Beta Is Live
The latest update is now available on the beta branch. To access the beta, right click Free Company in your library, select "Properties...", select the "BETAS" tab and opt into the beta branch.
Physics/Combat
Completely remade the player movement system, allowing for sprinting and physics-based jumping/ climbing
Significant improvements to the interaction system. Grab positioning is much more reliable and problems with miss-aligned grab points have been fixed
Weapons now have a greater sense of weight and drag. Added the new option "Weapon Physics" in settings, allowing switching between "Default" (new physics) and "Arcade" (old physics)
New hand physics
Bow has been remade to be fully physics-based. Held arrows now have collision
Doors are now physics-based
Many adjustments to NPC physics
Improved colliders in all maps
NPC damage reduced by 75% when attacking another NPC, lengthening battles and increasing the impact the player can make in battles
Adjusted NPC HP and attack scaling. HP has been reduced overall for high level NPCs.
Weapons now apply bleed damaged while enemy is stabbed
Removed movement speed variation based on hand height
General
Added a main menu. Sandbox Mode and Free Battle have been moved to the main menu.
Game can now be closed from the main menu
Changed default player skin. Options to change skin is not yet available in the beta.
Added equipment options and god mode toggle to Free Battle
Fixed floating ragdolls
Added a grip angle setting
Performance improvements. Some more work needs to be done before increasing max battle size
Minor UI changes
Bug fixes
Progress Update
Just a quick update on the state of the physics rework. The major hurdles have been cleared and I'm expecting the update to be hitting the beta branch in less than a month. Below is a list of changes you can expect:
Points marked with an asterisk are still in development*
Completely remade the player movement system, allowing for sprinting and physics-based jumping/ climbing
Significant improvements to the interaction system. Grab positioning is much more reliable and problems with miss-aligned grab points have been fixed
Weapons now have a greater sense of weight and drag. An option will be available to choose between the new weighty weapon physics and the old "arcadey" snappy physics*
Improved hand physics
Player can now set own skin to any of the existing soldier skins
Removed movement speed variation based on hand height
Option to adjust grip angle*
Improved performance and increased max battle size*
Remade NPC physics to respond better to collisions and be less wobbly overall (Not shown in the video)*
Below is a video of some of the changes. I'm still tweaking the stab friction and weapon drag so the final handling of weapons will probably look pretty different on release. [previewyoutube="rfprVP8LqP4;leftthumb"]
Free Company VR - Roadmap and Progress Update
Below is an overview of what can be expected in future updates, in order of priority.
Physics-Based Player Movement
A fully physics-based player locomotion system in currently in development that will allow for expanded movement options, including jumping, climbing/hanging, and properly responding to other physics objects. Work on this is about 50% done. [previewyoutube="bBiISERMiEw;full"]
Interaction Improvements
The locomotion changes will also come with a combat redesign. Weapon gripping will be more intuitive and will swing with an appropriate sense of weight. Enemies will respond to being hit and grabbed more appropriately.
Performance Improvements
After the core experience is in a state I am happy with, I will do another round of optimization adding better LODs and improving AI performance. This should also allow for larger battle sizes.
Audio Improvements
Voices will be added to NPCs along with more ambient sounds to make larger engagements more believable.
New Maps
The currently available maps were not designed with physics-based movement in mind and will be receiving some changes. Additionally, new maps will be added to take full advantage of these features.
Sandbox Features and Demo
More content for sandbox mode, including more spawnable objects, bug fixes, and in-game workshop map rating. To encourage more user-generated content, a demo with access to sandbox mode will be released.
Full Release
Free Company VR will leave early access after these changes. Development will continue as usual based on player feedback.
Free Company VR Patch #12: Sandbox Update
Sandbox
Added build options for placing walls and other structures