Herakles and The Princess of Troy

• When you kill the Bandit Lord from a distance and he drops his axe, it would cause an error. This was introduced in a recent patch that altered my code for weapon pickup/drop. This bug is now fixed.
  

• If an upgraded bones ally becomes a rabbit, his head would turn into a black box and his torso wouldn't change into a bunny. This is now fixed.
  
• Unlimited arrows quiver ragdoll drew as a black box. This is now fixed.
  
• In the info tutorial message for unlimited quiver, the quiver image was still the placeholder image.
  
• Quiver is now lined up correctly for ragdoll
  
• During a recent patch, the cape stopped drawing for Herakles' ragdoll. This is now fixed and the cape draws for his ragdoll.
  
• Fixed a bug where music and sound would fade in/out too quickly. Steps were provided into a function I made but milliseconds was needed. So it would fade in/out 16x faster than I had intended. It was almost like no fade was happening at all. I now have more control over the fade amount. I mostly have it set to a simple 1 second fade out and 1 second fade in. Better than an abrupt transition but still very subtle.
  
• Added 2 new music tracks, by Adam Mullen, to the game. One additional level track, as well as a boss track for the campaign.
  
• Added a "Random Level Playlist" checkbox to the Audio tab in Settings. This will randomize the 5 level tracks in the game. This won't change when the main menu music plays (on main menu and credits) or when the new boss track plays (campaign boss level). The previous method was that all level tracks played in a traditional order.
  
• Added a fun little shotgun kickback variable that can be changed via console commands. The command can be accessed by typing 'variables' into the console.
  

• Some achievements will be unlocked upon starting the game. This is because data on them was stored in files or in Steam stats.
  
• If someone was to play the Demo client and unlock an achievement, it will automatically unlock when they purchase and start the full game.
  

• Created animated wallpaper for Herakles
  
• Created an updated Speedrun trailer
  
• Updated Steam page
  
• Updated heraklesgame.com
  
• Updated beckergames.com
  
• Created Demo installer to share on websites
  
• Updated Becker Games free software to advertise Herakles
  
• Posted the new Speedrun trailer on reddit
  

• Added new rules to Speedrun.com. If someones time is really fast, a video link will be required. See the game's Speedrun.com's rules for details.
  
• Reduced the distance to heal in Demo and Classic modes. Previously, the player would heal when they were 1,920 pixels away from an enemy. Now, the player will heal if they have no enemies on the screen. This is normalized to a 1920x1080 resolution. So, someone with a 1440x1080 resolution still won't be healing just because the enemies are off the screen. They would need to go a bit further as if they had a 1920x1080 resolution. This works well and helps newbs. It also doesn't really affect the Speedrun meta since it is not often that the World Record run will have an enemy that far away.
  
• If someone is playing the full game using Family Sharing, they can play the game just as though they own the game themselves, except their speedruns will not be uploaded to the leaderboards. This is to prevent people from exploiting the family sharing to evade bans. The full game, including speedrun mode, is available, except for the leaderboard submissions. The Speedrun results screen will show them personal feedback such as "New Personal Best!" and things like that.
  
• Borderless Fullscreen Windowed setting has been added and can be found on the Settings popup, under Display tab. This setting makes the game stay in a window when in fullscreen. It makes the window not have borders. It Allows the user to use multiple monitors without the game minimizing. It allows quicker alt+tab out of the game.
  
• Added captcha to heraklesgame.com's contact form.
  
• Fixed bug that caused 2 screenshots to be taken. This occured because the system would take an initial screenshot if when entering the results screen, the game is still uploading/downloading data and then a 2nd screenshot once uploading/downloading was completed. This often times resulted in 2 Steam screenshots. Now, the game will still take that initial screenshot (if needed), but it will wait to upload it to Steam until after leaving the results screen. This way, if the game finishes uploading/downloading and is able to take a 2nd screenshot of the final results screen/data, it will take that screenshot and use that instead. So, now the initial screenshot is just a backup in case the user leaves the results screen being the upload/download is complete.
  
• Fixed a bug in my game engine that caused the file_delete function to return undefined if it deleted a file or not. This wasn't causing any problems except in some of my developer-only functions.
  
• Added some extra security to the game's code.
  
• Previously, the arcade popup's OST page was set to only show to "view" if the OST dlc was installed. Now it will show "view" as long as the user owns the dlc (whether they have it installed or not)
  
• You can now right click a hotkey to set it to "Not binded". You can use the gamepad's X button to do the same thing (X on Xbox controller)
  
• Added a confirmation when leaving a speedrun from the map screen. This prevents a simple tap of the "Escape" key to cause the run to end.
  
• Still have it set to simply display the top 10 on any given leaderboard. Once we have 10 people on the leaderboard, I will be able to use a 2nd account to test getting it to display the top 3, the 3 entries above user, user's score, 3 entries below user. It will be much easier to test when we have a full leaderboard.
  
• Pressing the TAB key while in the console will now toggle the console between fullscreen and halfscreen.
  
• Added a secret "hacker" command to the console to change the console's text to a hacker green color.
  
• Implemented a secret thing that I can't talk about, yet.
  
• Tested game on a 11 year old computer with integrated graphics. It ran fine when set to lowest quality and/or windowed mode. Setting to borderless fullscreen windowed helped if in fullscreen. Setting frameskip to 30 in the game and/or main menu also helped. The integrated graphics is the bottleneck. When using a graphics card, the game runs great on the 11 year old PC.
  
• After testing and seeing everyone's leaderboard data, I have decided to increase the lag detection to a higher threshold. It will now be more likely to think a run was too laggy. Based on my data, this new setting should be fine.
  
• Unlocked the "Compare Against: Developer" checkbox on the Speedrun screen. It does not have the developer's attempts files to compare to, yet. But I will be playing the game within the next couple of days on Twitch and generating fresh developer's attempts files. After that, I will upload them as a very small patch (less than 100KB). Pay attention to the discord for an announcement for when they are all ready, so you can play against the developer's times!
  
• When using the gamepad, the mouse was enabled on some popups on the Speedrun screen. Even though the popup was set to use gamepad buttons to control it. I fixed this.
  
• Now that borderless fullscreen windowed is a setting, I have disabled Dynamic Fullscreen Exclusive setting. It is no longer a setting on the Settings popup and it no longer gets loaded from the local settings file.
  
• On the results screen, if the user had previously done part of new route, exited, then came back in to finish the complete route, it would show some -0.06 values for sum of best. Even when Absolute Best was checked, it would show an inaccurate sum of best. This is now fixed to show the values as they should be.
  

• Balanced Recruiting Soldier's #1 level in Demo and Classic modes. The 3 soldiers and 1 pikemen that come overtop of the pit sometimes came in faster than you can get there. For speedrunning, it now feels better and possible to overtake them from underneath with a bow.
  
• Demo and Classic modes now allow you to heal if you are far enough a way from an enemy. This isn't going to be seen much in speedrunning, but it is a good way to make the game easier for new players.
  
• Console tutorial tip is now disabled during Demo's tutorial.
  
• When picking up a weapon that is falling, the collision for pickup was small because the collision for really for colliding with the ground. So, now there is a collision for picking up and a collision for the ground. 2 seperate hit boxes. It required a bit of change throughout the game's code. But it is now capable of more.
  
• Previously, when an owner of Bandit Lord's Axe died or picked up another weapon while the axe was still in the air, the axe would simply fall to the ground. Now it is also able to be picked up while falling. And it also is able to deal damage while falling as well. This isn't something that will happen often, but it is how it should work.
  

Speedrun:

• 3 game modes, consisting of 5 total leaderboards
  
• Automatic speedrun route system - routes diverge any time a player enters a level or acquires a new buff. A segment ends and begins when a player leaves a level. If a player chooses to "Stay in Level" to acquire an item or buff, the level will not end until they exit the level.
  
• Every speedrun attempt is saved in the %USERNAME%\AppData\Local\herakles\userdata Cloud/Attempts folder. These can be used in the future to generate fun statistics. They are never loaded into the game, however, and are safe to delete if you ever wanted to. The game keeps a pruned version of your attempts that only includes your runs that you either had a PB for a unique route or a best split for a unique route.
  
• A pruned file of your greatest speedrun attempts is stored in the %USERNAME%\AppData\Local\herakles\userdata Cloud folder. This file is what the game loads for you to compare against during a run. This pruned file of your attempts only includes your runs that you either had a PB for a unique route or a best split for a unique route.
  
• Attempts stored in the Attempts folder and the user's pruned files are in json format. This way any user can create a simple program to read in this data and use it.
  
• I have implemented a robust anticheat system to prevent hackers and to ensure a fair leaderboard. I will not divulge details of the system, but just know that anyone that attempts to hack the game will be banned from the leaderboards.
  
• Once the speedrun timer starts, it will not stop for pause menus or anything. The Campaign, however, does automatically unlock the cutscenes so that players can skip them entirely. For the Demo and Classic modes, players can simply press spacebar to skip the cutscenes, as normal.
  
• The timing method uses a frame based IGT (In-Game-Timer). If too much lag is detected during a run, the run will be invalidated and will not be uploaded to the leaderboards.
  
• Added Speedrun option on the Arcade popup.
  
• The game has a speedrun overlay when in Speedrun mode. This overlay is present inside of levels, as well as when on the map screen.
  
• Edited Speedrun.com to now have Campaign, Classic and Demo categories. Campaign category has Any% Warpless and Any%. Any% Warpless is for Normal and Hermes runs. A variable can be set to show if the player acquired the Boots of Hermes during the run. The Any% category is for Toasty runs. Toasty is still a secret and will be slowly revealed in the future.
  
• Difficulty in Speedrun mode is fixed to medium. This makes it easier to watch other people's speedruns.
  
• When completing a speedrun, your run will be submitted to the leaderboards. The Speedrun Results screen will show the details about your run. It will also display if you achieved a Personal Best, discovered a new route or many number of headlines may display.
  
• When entering the Speedrun Results screen, a screenshot will be taken. If you your run was still in the middle of being submitted to the leaderboards, a 2nd screenshot will be taken once the submission is complete. This way you have the 2nd screenshot that contains the proper headline, such as "New Personal Best!" or "New World Record!".
  
• Fireworks will display for users that achieve an amazing feat. The colors and firework frequency will be different based on the accomplishment. The fireworks will only play after the run has finished submitting to the Steam leaderboards. This way, no fireworks will display until a final screenshot has been taken of the Results screen.
  
• If you exit a speedrun before finishing it, the run will still be saved as an attempt. It will use any best times or "gold splits" that you achieved during your unfinished run. Unfinished runs cannot be a PB, of course.
  
• On the Speedrun screen, you can click on the Leaderboards button to see how you rank against everyone else. The top 3 runs will always be the top 3 on the leaderboard. The next 3 listed will be the 3 runs above you. The next run will be your entry in the leaderboards. Then the last 3 listed will be the 3 runs below you. If you are in the top 7, then the top 10 will simply be displayed. A button labeled "View All" allows you to view the entire leaderbord on Steam.
  
• During Speedrun mode, lightning charges are limited to 2 columns (10 total lightning charges). The player is able to gain additional lightning charges, but they will not be displayed because they would be in the way of the speedrun's HUD. Lightning weapons are not the most optimal weapons in a Speedrun, anyways.
  
• After completing a Campaign run, at the bottom of the results screen, you can see any buffs that you acquired during the run.
  
• Added monitor refresh rate detection. If someone plays the game with a 50hz monitor, for instance, the game will run much slower and be easier for them. Their runs will also be invalidated and not eligible for the leaderboards. The game detects this shortly after the game starts up and alerts the user that they are using a slow monitor. 60hz and higher monitors are recommended.
  
• Set up Demo to first ask if the player would like to try out the new Speedrun mode. If they choose no, they go to the normal mode. If they choose yes, they begin a speedrun. They do not get to use the speedrun setup screen. And they are limited to the Demo mode. Any run completed in the Demo-client will not be uploaded to the leaderboards until the player buys the full game.
  

Speedrun Settings/Options

• Game mode - Allows you to choose which game mode to play: Campaign, Classic or Demo.
  
• Disable Tutorials - Disables all tutorial systems, regardless of what the settings show on the Settings popup.
  
• Start game here - Allows you to start the game on the Speedrun screen, to get right into the action!
  
• TAS - Enables TAS, which disables highscores. This means your runs while TAS is enabled will not be submitted to the leaderboards. You are allowed to use external tools, like Cheat Engine, while TAS is enabled. In order to disable TAS, you will need to uncheck the box, and the game will then require that you restart the game. Restarting the game is the only way to turn off the TAS system.
  
• Compare Against (Your own times) - Allows you to compare your run against your own times
  
• Compare Against (Developer) - Allows you to compare your run against my times (the developer)
  
• Compare Against (World Record) - Allows you to compare your run against the World Record run. This will automatically download the World Record run's data so that you can run
  
• Compare Against (Custom)
  
• Route Determined By - When showing which route to go down, you can have the game choose between the route with the fastest PB or the route with the fastest Sum of Best. Your run will still be compared to the PB time, however.
  
• Default Weapon Choice - For Demo and Classic modes, you can choose what the spacebar will default to choosing. This way you do not need to use your mouse, as you have it pre-determined which weapon you loadout you want to choose.
  
• Preferred Route - During Campaign mode, this will allow you to only have the game compare your run against certain routes. For instance, you can choose to compare only against runs where in which the Boots of Hermes was attained by only checking "Hermes". You can also compare against runs in which you did not get the Boots of Hermes by checking "Normal". And Toasty is a route that is a secret for now.
  

• Segment Icons - Enables icons to be drawn next to segment names.
  
• Buff Outlines - Enables buff outlines to be drawn to show you what buffs you attained in your PB run. As you attain the buffs again, the outlines will turn to the normal buff icons.
  
• Use Steam Username - During speedrun mode, this will replace the "Herakles" text above the player's portrait in-game with your Steam username.
  

• Absolute Best - This will include your current run's gold splits into your Sum of Best. With it turned off, you can compare your current run to your previous Sum of Best, as well as your previous Segment Best times.
  

Speedrun HUD

• Segment Time - The amount of time since starting the segment
  
• Segment PB - The amount of time it took you to complete the current segment in your PB run
  
• Segment Best - The fasterst time it took you to complete the current segment, out of all of your runs.
  
• Possible Time Save - The difference between your Segment PB and Segment Best
  
• Best Possible Time - The final run's time if you were to finish all of the remaining segments with your Segment's Best time
  
• Previous Segment - How much faster or slower you were in your previous segment, compared to its PB Segment time
  
• Live Segment - Once your Segment Time reaches your Segment Best time, Previous Segment will switch to Live Segment, and Live Segment will display How much faster or slower you are in your current segment, compared to its PB Segment time.
  
• Sum of Best - A sum of all of your segment's "best" times. This is your theoretical best possible time if you had the perfect run.
  

• Segment Name - This is the name of the segment.
  
• Segment Time - Before completing the segment, this is the PB Cumulative Time. PB Cumulative time is the time in the run when you completed the segment in your PB run. After completing the segment, it will be your current run's cumulative time when you completed the segment.
  
• Segment Time Difference - Before completing the segment, this is the difference between your current run's time and when you completed the segment in your PB run. After completing the segment, this will be how far off of your PB run you are at the moment in completing the segment. If this is positive, you are behind your PB run. If this is negative, you are ahead of your PB run.
  

• Compare against - This will show which "Compare Against" setting you chose on the Speedrun screen. Thus, showing whose times you are currently comparing against (yourself, developer, world record, etc)
  
• Hash - This will display after completing a segment. It can be used to help verify that a run has not been cheated or tampered with. It contains a lot of data about the run.
  

Speedrun Results

Non-Speedrun related changes:

• Added a Classic Timer to the settings popup, under the Game tab. This allows you to have the game automatically flip between classsic graphics and normal graphics on a set interval. This is, of course, only for Classic mode.
  
• Using shield to reflect fire back to the dragon now does more damage. This makes the dragon's own fire the best weapon to defeat him.
  
• Settings.ini has been split into Settings.ini and Options.ini. Both are in the AppData/Local/herakles/users/ folder. But Settings.ini is always in the Local folder, inside of the folder. But Options.ini can be either in the Local folder or the Cloud folder for the user. An option in Settings called "Sync Options.ini" can be enabled, which moves the Options.ini into the Cloud folder, to allow gameplay specific options to sync to the cloud. This way if you make a gameplay option change on one computer, it will change on all of your computers.
  
• The Demo-client is now a much smaller download for people. I have stripped it down to not include images that are only used in the full game. I can strip it down further in the future.
  
• Added some Steam stats to track the player's progress. Some of these include how many times the player has completed a speedrun. As well as total speedrun attempts. If a player plays the demo, these will automatically be transferred into the full version if/when the player upgrades. Collecting these stats now will allow me to use them in the future for various things, including achievements. A full list of the game's stats can be viewed here: https://steamdb.info/app/1066010/stats/
  
• On the map screen, the "Rescuing Telamon" snow mountain had a very large window of where to click to activate it. This is because it is fairly diagonal shaped and I am simply using bounding box collision to detect when it is clicked. For this one level's map icon, I have set it to use precise collision detection. This fixed the problem.
  
• On the level complete for Demo/Classic modes, the gamepad button was offset. This is because we had centered the text in a previous patch, but didn't reset the position of where the gamepad button would be drawn.
  
• On the map screen, if you clicked the place button and then used the left or right arrow keys to change level, it would change level even while exiting the map screen. It is not fixed so that once you click play, you cannot change the level.
  
• On the Pumpkin character in Hades mode. His popup had the word "cant" and this has been fixed to say, "can't".
  
• You can now use left/right bumper on the gamepad to navigate the levels on the map screen
  
• You can not use left/right bumper on the gamepad to navigate the tabs on the Settings popup.
  
• The classic graphic for unlocking poison (tutorial info) was the normal graphic. It is now the classic graphic style.
  
• Many new players miss the 2/4 pumpkins in the pit on the training level. A green guiding arrow has been added that will appear after the player has reached all checkpoints and has a pumpkin that is offscreen.
  
• When toggling fullscreen and windowed, interpolation was turning off and not getting turned back to the user's setting. Fixed it so that it now does.
  
• On the level complete for Demo/Classic modes, the screen would say to press spacebar, but in reality it meant to press the "Weapon Pickup" key. Now it will always accept spacebar, even if a player changes their "Weapon Pickup" key to something other than spacebar.
  
• Fixed a bug where deleting a saveslot would not delete it. This was because I forgot to change location of the file to be deleted during the Cloud patch. The location has been fixed.
  
• Fixed bug where if you use left/right arrow keys to change levels, it will change the level/name but not the character's portrait in Chaos/Hades modes. It also wouldn't change the weapons/buffs to the correct character's loadout. It does that now as well.
  
• Fixed bug where poison arrows shot into a Troy Defender's shield caused the floating arrow's image to not be poisonous
  
• On King's Tower, the green cliff background near the bottom was about 4 pixels above the HUD. It is now flush.
  
• The text for rescuing Telamon from the Bandit Lord previously said, "Telamon". It now says, "Telamon!".
  
• Default Master Volume has been changed from 100% to 50%. This way, it is less likely to be too loud initially.
  
• Fixed a bug where the function that is supposed to open a website in Chrome for the user, like the discord link, it would add %22 to the beginning of the URL. This was actually a bug that was introduced with a Chrome update. For some reason the built-in "url_open" function did not work correctly after Chrome's update. To fix this, I add a Herakles.dll to the game. This contains a C# function to open a webpage in a browser. This is currently the only thing in the Herakles.dll. The Herakles.dll requires .NET framework 4.6.1 and so with this update, I have added the dependency of that framework. This means Steam will automatically install this framework for you if it isn't already installed on your computer.
  
• When hitting left/right arrow keys to switch between levels on the map screen, it wouldn't play any sound. It now plays the same sound as if you had clicked on the level.
  
• For the Demo and Classic mode, the training skip popup didn't re-align its buttons when switching to/from windowed/fullscreen mode.
  
• You can now use the mouse wheel to scroll the credits up and down.
  
• You can now use the right arrow key to resume auto-scrolling the credits. You can also now use the left arrow key to autoscroll upwards. You can use left/right to increase/decrease the autoscroll speed.
  
• For credits, gamepad did not work for scrolling. It now does.
  
• Fixed capitalization and punctuation in cutscenes.
  
• Changed default training skip popup button from "No" to "Yes".
  
• The mouse object is now centered when starting the game.
  
• For Mount Olympus, the difficulty in the settings now shows as "Very Hard (fixed)", to show that the difficulty for this mode is fixed to very hard.
  
• Previously, when clicking the classic graphics popup, it would save settings. Now, it will, instead, save settings when the popup closes or when the room/screen ends.
  
• Created a business card to give to people locally. To see its design, check it out on the game's discord server.
  
• Herakles T-shirt link on the Shop's Arcade popup now links to the Becker Games page on Amazon. This includes, not only the Premium t-shirt but also the Standard t-shirt. The Premium shirt is $19.99 and has 100% combed ringspun cotton. Very soft. The men's runs a size small. For the Standard shirt, it is $14.99 and is your more traditional 100% cotton shirt. It uses more traditional shirt sizing.
  
• Updated the marketing images in the credits.
  
• When playing the Becker Games intro before the game starts, it would then show a message that was intended for me. It told me to add code to a script. I now have it set for the game to go straight to the main menu after the intro plays.
  

Added shortly after patch:

• For Classic mode, increased spearmen speed from 2 to 4, matching Demo's speed.
  
• For Classic mode, decreased bowmen speed from 3 to 2, matching Demo's speed.
  
• Only differences now between Classic and Demo are:
  - Telamon does not summon people on Demo but he does in Classic
  - Slashing damage for Bandit Lord's Axe in Demo is "5", in Classic it is "2". This is a nerf to the Bandit Lord's Axe in Classic since the bosses die so quickly to its slashing damage.
  
• Disabled console during Speedruns. I may add a setting to allow console during speedruns, but I think most people would rather have it be disabled.
  
• Set Leaderboards to simply show the top 10 for now. I will in the future have it show the top 3 + the top 3 around user + the user's score + the bottom 3 around user.
  

Will be added very soon:

• Added a new setting called, "Dynamic Fullscreen Exclusive" on the Display tab, on the Settings popup. This is good for people with multiple monitors that are streaming. It allows you to click on another monitor without the game minimizing. With the setting turned on, moving your mouse to another monitor will force the game into a temporary bordered windowed/fullscreen mode. When you bring your mouse back to the game, it will automatically switch back to native/exclusive fullscreen. This gives the benefits of FSE (Fullscreen Exclusive) and also the benefits of allowing the game to always be on the screen/monitor.
  

• Cloud patch, moved file location of saved data into:
  AppData/Local/herakles/userdata/
  There are 2 folders here, Cloud and Local. Cloud stores saved data that is synced between computers. Local stores files like "settings.ini" that should not be synced between computers.
  
• Cloud data is synced between the Demo and Full version. This is more important for the speedrun update coming up, since people playing the Demo will be allowed to speedrun the demo.
  
• If you crafted a torch, it did not mark it as "found/unlocked" yet, still showed up as locked
  
• Bunny feels much better now! No rng, just patterns. When perfected, a player can easily finish Training, collect Hermes and beat Bandit Ambush within 2 minutes. This will be more fun for speedrunning.
  
• The transition to the OST screen was not using the smooth transition function. It was a fast transition.
  It now uses the normal smooth transition. Also patched for any other room that was like this.
  
• When breathing fire, the dragon was targeting too high and it made it hard to always block the fire with the shield. The dragon's fire also missed sometimes. The dragon was targeting the center of the target's head. Now, the dragon will target the base/neck of the target's head. This makes it much better and easier to block the dragon's fire with your shield.
  
• Submitted cover art to twitch. Check it out:
  Herakles on Twitch
  
• Updated the cover art on Giant Bomb:
  Herakles on Giant Bomb
  
• Found a very rare bug that caused clipping through the ground on the "Final Battle!" level. Only saw it once in all the hours I've played the game, but I changed the blocks on that level from being a really tall block (unique to that level) to being just 1 normal block and it draws 2 additional blocks below it.
  
• On Campaign "Final Battle!" level. The blocks that slide into the ground were above the normal blocks' depth. They now slide behind/into the normal blocks and looks better.
  
• If someone was to play the demo without a Steam account, their demo saves will be automatically transfered to their Steam account when they do eventually log in or create a steam account. This will be useful when the speedrun patch is out, since the demo will save speedrun data. Anyone who will want to be in the leaderboards, while playing the demo, will need to have a Steam account, however.