Dear Community, first of all a big thank you for your patience.
Since patch #11 we have been working late getting multiplayer ready (2-4 player co-op, including possibility for a little bit of PvP action for those who enjoy this). There is still a fair bit of work left but we are creeping closer to the point where brave souls who would like to participate in early testing can do so. We envision three stages to the rollout:
Stage 1 - closed testing on our Steam Test Branch. Invites only. It will be a buggy experience with latency issues.
Stage 2 - open testing on our Steam Test Branch. Anyone can join. Less buggy than stage 1 and some unresolved latency issues.
Stage 3 - update live version with multiplayer. Should be loads of fun with few remaining issues. Crossing fingers.
Hope to see you join us for a bit of multiplayer fun, with «friendly fire» turned on ːsteammockingː
You can follow the progress of multiplayer on this forum on Steam and at the same time apply for access to Stage 1; https://steamcommunity.com/app/611160/discussions/4/
And here’s a link to a first impression Youtube video made by Stage 1 - Early Testers playing co-op this weekend; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=868yImh-FVI&feature=youtu.be
Cheers,
The Trolls
Patch #11 - Combat Patch #3 - Version 0.6.8.1
Changes have been made to enhance close quarter combat and make it feel more satisfying. Apart from that, this is kind of an under the hood pre-patch for major updates to come. During the past months we have rewritten the majority of the game code to support two major upcoming additions to Karnage Chronicles, namely Content Update 2 and Co-op. With the amount of changes done to the game code there might be new issues that we have not been able to discover ourselves, hence this pre-patch to make sure things are good.
Rare Crash: In order to fully support native resolution for different VR headsets we upgraded to Unreal 4.19 but unfortunately this comes with its own set of problems. There is a render crash deeply embedded in the engine code that seems to only effect VR, and we have spent a considerable amount of time debugging and making workarounds, but crashes might still happen when loading from one area to the next, although rarely. If this happens to any of you just fire up the game and try again, all your latest character data will be intact. Apologies in advance to anyone encountering the render crash. We will continue working on a solution to this problem.
NEW STUFF
Changed melee combat. Monsters will no longer stay rooted to the spot, they will instead stumble when hit. There is also a chance that parrying a player's attack will make a monster stumble. Stumbling monsters are unable to defend against attacks.
Added chance of dazing monsters with a strike to the head with a melee weapon. When dazed they will be unable to defend and attack.
Added stealth kill for ranged attacks. Hitting an unaware monster in the head will result in an instant kill. Bosses and mini-bosses cannot be killed in this fashion.
Added several new information boards explaining game mechanics. Some are placed in the lobby where the training dummies are and the rest is placed at the beginning of level 1.
Added patrolling monsters.
TWEAKS AND CHANGES
Changed how monsters make parry decisions. This was done to plug parry dead zones and to reduce the teleport parry issue. Monsters can now parry from any angle and are not using canned animations for parrying.
Changed how monsters make attack decisions. There is no longer a standard delay between attacks, instead the time between attacks will vary depending on difficulty. Keep your guard up.
Changed how monsters make decisions on closeness to player during close quarter combat, this especially effect instances when there is an elevation difference between player and monster.
Added a face stab shield breaker attack to the spear wielding goblin.
Added a leg bite shield breaker attack to the wolf.
Added proper limping and crippled animations to monsters.
Added a "sell all" bag to shop interface. This will sell the whole stack that an item came from.
Added a proper idle animation to the shield wielding goblin.
Added possibility to hit water with a melee weapon.
Changed the shield block effect to be more visible.
Changed the parry effects to be more visible.
Added forward momentum to ragdoll.
Added possibility to hit dead monsters.
Added random antics to monsters that are not engaged in combat.
The shield wielding goblin may sometimes actively use its shield to block incoming arrows.
The knife wielding goblin may sometimes actively use its weapons to deflect incoming arrows.
Changed how long dead monsters stay, they will now dissolve after a few minutes.
Added velocity to banging own weapons against each other, both sound level and size of particle effects will vary depending on velocity.
Combat effects caused by a melee weapon will now show on impact point instead of the weapon tip.
Remade weapon parry and shield block sounds.
Tweaked difficulty on Hard and Impossible. These modes should now provide a more balanced challenge through the levels.
Added terrain rotation to spiders and wolves.
Separated metal and wood on the training dummies.
Striking environment will always result in haptic feedback. How much depends on the velocity of the strike.
Size of blood effects when scoring a critical hit have been increased in size.
Reduced walking speed of roaming monsters.
Reduced sound level from mosquitos, firing crossbow, and using teleport.
Moved starter gloves higher to make them easier to pick up.
Optimized player inventory, this should result in less hand jitter when inventory is full and open.
GENERAL BUG FIXES
Fixed several issues that was causing goblin melee weapons to sometimes ignore parries and shield blocks performed by the player.
Fixed an issue where haptic, audio and visual feedback was not always playing upon successful parries and shield blocks performed by the player.
Fixed an issue causing arrows to sometimes pass harmlessly through monsters.
Fixed an issue causing pots to not always break when hit by an arrow. Now they should always break.
Once triggered, the horn on level 3 should no longer sound again upon re-entering the trigger area.
If the Eye of the Dwarves is not picked up and the player later comes back searching for it, the crystal containing it will again levitate down from the ceiling. Once this quest item has been picked up the crystal will never again appear.
The arrow trap in level 1 should now remember it has been switched off when a player returns to the level.
Fixed an issue where 0 was displayed above monster health bars when their attacks was parried and shield blocked by player.
Fixed an issue where monsters would not cause damage if hitting a player's hand.
Fixed an issue where player belt would prevent monsters from causing damage if it was hit.
Fixed an issue where melee weapons would sometimes go through a goblin spear without showing any parry effects.
Fixed an issue causing monsters to suddenly freeze.
Moved a few loot drop locations that were unreachable.
Fixed an issue causing sleeping wolves to sometimes be standing when spotted by a player. They should now be in sleeping state.
Fixed an issue where it was possible to teleport on top of the ship frozen in ice.
Fixed a few issues with the spiders. They should not attack empty air anymore and generally be a bit better at hitting the player.
Fixed an issue where using a town portal scroll close to the Spider Queen would cause her to reappear even after being defeated.
Fixed an issue where using a town portal scroll before breaking the crystal in level 3 could cause some goblins to start porting in again.
Fixed an issue where the town portal location in a dungeon would become the respawn location of the player after dying.
Fixed a visual issue when selecting save game in the Lobby.
Fixed an issue that was sometimes making a health bar appear in front of the player's face when entering a dungeon.
Fixed an issue that was making some monsters roam across an entire dungeon. They will now roam within their pre-defined area only.
Knife wielding goblin has learned to pee.
Fixed an issue where the rope in the tutorial did not always cut on first try, even if the weapon velocity was high enough.
Patch #10 - Version 0.6.6.0 - Windows MR Support
NEW STUFF
Added support for Windows MR. With this comes the ability to choose between different controller setups by accessing "settings" from inside the game.
TWEAKS AND CHANGES
Changed the heart on the inventory belt to be a health bar, and added showing how much health consumed food will give back. Thus reducing the chance of wasting good food by overeating.
Made it more clear how to use the Town Portal scroll.
Changed how the fire from the Potion of Fire Breath moves.
Changed the angle of the teleport beam on Windows MR.
GENERAL BUG FIXES
Fixed a lighting issue with the ship frozen in ice.
Fixed an issue where dead goblins would poke through the roof of the frozen ship.
Fixed an issue where the rope in the tutorial wasn't always cut even if weapon velocity was high enough.
Patch #9 - Version 0.6.5.5
NEW STUFF
Lowered gravity on arrows and bolts, resulting in a much more forgiving curve.
Added crowd control. By hitting enemy legs they will now run slower for a short time, critically hitting a leg will cripple them for the same duration.
Added riposte to melee combat. Blocking or parrying an enemy attack will prevent them from parrying and blocking attacks for a short duration.
Added ragdoll to enemy death.
Added additional traps to Wyvernscale.
Added additional loot drops and increased chance of getting weapons, armor, and magical drops.
The Vulture Bear is now dropping Vulture Bear Shredder.
The Corrupted Troll is now dropping Bone Breaker.
Added a buckler to the Archer class. It can be found in the player room.
Added a new potion; Potion of Fire Breath. It can be bought in the shop and also found as random loot.
Levels load much faster.
Added volumetric lighting and blob shadows.
Added a new Easy mode that is vastly easier than the previous mode. At the same time the old easy mode is now called Normal mode (which we did not have), and this mode is also balanced to be easier than what the old mode used to be.
TWEAKS AND CHANGES
Changed chests to always drop an item, and increased the chance of getting something good.
Added an additional starter sword for warriors, making it possible to dual wield swords from the beginning. It can be found in the player room.
Reduced enemy melee attack speed for all difficulties.
Reduced enemy run speed on lower difficulties.
Reduced damage from enemies on Easy and increased damage from enemies on Impossible.
Moved start point in Lobby, this should mitigate the out of play area issue with Omni Machines that are placed outside of the room-scale middle point.
Made it easier to spot the secret area in Wyvernscale.
Moved the half-hidden lever inside the throne room of Wyvernscale. Is should now be easier to find, and thus easier to continue the adventure.
Reduced the difficulty of the Spider Queen encounter.
Removed basic gear from the shop, and added improved gear instead.
Increased damage values of some weapons.
Increased damage boost from wearing Ring of Suffering.
Reduced cost of several items, especially potions have become cheaper.
Added a slight shield bump animation for player shield when hit.
Added sprint/walk toggle. Simply click the touch pad / thumb stick to toggle between sprinting and walking. No need to keep it pressed down anymore.
Reduced sound volume from picking up items. It was sometimes uncomfortably loud when playing with earphones.
Added an effect to the Vulture Bear egg while lying in the nest, as most players missed looting it.
Added a portcullis blocking progress until player room has been visited, as too many players rushed on and missed out on important gear before entering first combat. Thus making the game feel much harder than what was intended.
Loot items dropped by enemies and chests will now be saved. Leaving the level and returning will no longer cause the item to disappear.
Items dropped on the ground will now be saved. Players short on inventory space can use this feature to store items. We recommend using the player room for this.
[Oculus specific] Added a check box for toggling 180 degree turning on Oculus.
[Oculus specific] Playing on Oculus will now default with HMD based direction for free movement, and 180 degree quick turn will default as off. Smooth turning is still staying as default. As always, if you don't like the default feel free to chance it in settings to something more suitable to your own needs.
GENERAL BUG FIXES
Fixed an issue where enemy weapons was seen passing through the warrior shield even when the attack was successfully blocked.
Fixed an issue where the drop bag did not properly show that an item was in the drop zone.
Fixed an issue that made it possible to teleport on top of the fireplace inside the player room.
Fixed an issue where initially knocked enemy arrows was huge. They have now been shrunk to size.
Fixed an issue with the middle section of the bridge in "The Eye of the Dwarves". Enemies should no longer get stuck.
Fixed an issue where player arrows sometimes passed harmlessly through an enemy neck area.
Fixed an issue where players would sometimes be shown a loading screen during the last fight inside The Crystal Mines.
Removed the levitating portcullis from the area behind the Town portal location.
Plugged a hole in the ground in the first mosquito room inside Wyvernscales.
Fixed an issue with the portcullis entrance to the Dwarven Ruins. They should now always be open after the key has been used, except if the level is reset.
Fixed a few wrongly set loot locations that was making players lose out on dropped loot from certain enemies.
Fixed an issue where toggle for strafing on Oculus was not saved between levels.
Fixed an issue where the Imp shopkeeper would never greet the player properly if his shop was not visited early on.
Game window should now also be set as active when playing. No need to mouse click it anymore.
Shield Goblin should never run around with glowing feet anymore.
Swords and Sorcery VR Bundle Released!
Murkwraiths, awaken!
We’re excited to share that Nordic Trolls is joining forces with Carbon Studios and Blackjard Softworks to offer you the Swords and Sorcery VR Bundle!
Our bundle contains The Wizards, Karnage Chronicles, and VR Dungeon Knight at discounted prices, offering you all the very best of high fantasy VR experiences with a combined average of 90% positive reviews. This exciting, all-in-one package delivers hours upon hours of adrenaline-pumping action and unforgettable adventures!
The bundle is flexible, meaning that if you own one or two of the included games, you can still get the rest with a discount. All the games are playable on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift and comes packed with movement options that suit the needs of everyone.
VR Dungeon Knight features co-op exploration in procedurally generated dungeons, while The Wizards features an acclaimed system of casting spells using hand gestures. These are games we couldn't recommend more! Adventure awaits!
Check out brand new trailer of the Swords and Sorcery VR Bundle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTYea5C3X70
Patch #8 - Version 0.6.2.5 - Omni
Virtuix Omni specific information
With this patch we give the Virtuix Omni a new try. It's working in our studio with HTC Vive, and we hope it will work flawlessly for Omni end-users as well. BUT you will need to install the latest firmware through Omni Connect. Picking up loot placed on ground and such might prove a bit challenging for Omni users at the moment, but if you use the tip of your weapon instead of your hand it should be fine until we get a better system in place.
NEW STUFF
Dropping items from inventory is now possible.
Virtuix Omni is now supported for end-users.
[Oculus Touch only] Added comfort options for choosing between smooth turning, 45 degrees turn, and 90 degrees turn.
[Oculus Touch only] Made it possible to instantly turn 180 degrees by pulling thumbstick backwards.
TWEAKS AND CHANGES
Added signposts and a cone indicator that should make it harder to miss your room and all the goodies inside it.
GENERAL BUG FIXES
Fixed an issue that could make the teleport temporary stop working.
Fixed an issue that would sometimes teleport the player back to already explored regions of a dungeon.
Fixed an issue that could cause players to appear outside of the map after zoning from one area to another.
Content Update #1 RELEASED!
We are happy to announce that Content Update #1 is live. Hope you will enjoy playing the latest version of Karnage Chronicles and as always we hope to see you on our forums here on Steam. Thank you all for your patience in waiting for this huge update.
Here is a list of what it includes:
Minimum game time per hero class increased from 2+ to 5+ hours.
Completely reworked the start of the game and extended Level 1 to become a proper dungeon crawl.
Real time save system that keeps track of your dungeon crawling progress and allows you to continue from where you left off.
Two NPCs; one a quest giver with full voiceover and dialog options, the other a shop keeper.
Quest journal.
Inventory system.
Complete customization of weapon loadout.
Magical potions.
Magical rings and necklaces.
A magical scroll.
Basic player housing.
A town portal system.
Additional mode of difficulty. We now have Easy, Hard, and Impossible.
New monster class; Spiders.
Quests and rewards.
New weapons.
Additional trash loot.
Randomized item drops from monsters and chests.
Additional secrets and puzzles in level 1 (be sure to search well).
Data Wipe
On the back-end we have revamped everything to allow real time saving, and this, combined with all the new things we have added, makes it hard to keep the old save games. We have therefore made the difficult decision of wiping old save games upon release of Content Update #1 to avoid data conflicts. We have not made this decision lightly, and we apologize for any inconvenience this causes. That said, we believe this patch is the best time to do this, both since we're still in Early Access, and because it happens prior to any additional content increases. Unlocked achievements will not be affected.
Content Update #1, Coming Oct 26th!
It’s been a while since our last patch, but we have not been idle. The patch is almost ready, and it’s huge! We cannot really say there is one thing that is more significant than the other, as there are many that are competing for the spot. Here is a list of what you can expect to see in what we have dubbed Content Update #1:
Minimum game time per hero class increased from 2+ to 5+ hours.
Completely reworked the start of the game and extended Level 1 to become a proper dungeon crawl.
Real time save system that keeps track of your dungeon crawling progress and allows you to continue from where you left off.
Two NPCs; one a quest giver with full voiceover and dialog options, the other a shop keeper.
Quest journal.
Inventory system.
Complete customization of weapon loadout.
Magical potions.
Magical rings and necklaces.
A magical scroll.
Basic player housing.
A town portal system.
Additional mode of difficulty. We now have Easy, Hard, and Impossible.
New monster class; Spiders.
Quests and rewards.
New weapons.
Additional trash loot.
Randomized item drops from monsters and chests.
Additional secrets and puzzles in level 1 (be sure to search well).
Data Wipe
On the back-end we have revamped everything to allow real time saving, and this, combined with all the new things we have added, makes it hard to keep the old save games. We have therefore made the difficult decision of wiping old save games upon release of Content Update #1 to avoid data conflicts. We have not made this decision lightly, and we apologize for any inconvenience this causes. That said, we believe this patch is the best time to do this, both since we're still in Early Access, and because it happens prior to any additional content increases. Unlocked achievements will not be affected.
Friday Fiction #9
A BRIGHT DARKNESS
Mexel ran through caverns. He had to live. He had so much to live for now. He had found it!
Shrieks multiplied and chased him through the underground dark. Or, rather, what should have been the underground dark. But this underground was so bright. Crystal geodes glowed—some red, some blue. Various fungi shed their own luminescence. It was brighter down here than it would be outside on a full moon. Darkness was the traditional realm of fear. And yet Mexel feared this light more somehow. He longed for a shadow to hold and comfort him and hide him away from this this nauseous light.
Mexel ran past statues of ancient dwarves, or perhaps their gods. He longed to study them, to find what wealth was here. The most ancient of dwarven... Read more
Monday Lore #10
On dusk elves
I fear writing these words may well doom me to vanish. Yet my pen keeps running.
The truth of it all, I believe, is in the lexicon—the one we know exists, yet none of us talk about. The loud hush in the library. Only the most initiated, perhaps only few individuals, have access.
What do the most elite of my kind, of the sun elves, not want known? What knowledge is guarded so covetously? It could be any number of things. But I believe I know one them.
Our history talks of three species of elven kind. There is a fourth! The elves of the dusk.
Read more
