Redesigned melee hit detection - Will also now fire haptics and a blunt sound for blows that connected, but were not fast enough to damage.
Added Healing Flask - throw it to the ground to create a field that instantly heals wounds of any creature inside it.
Added Scroll of Fireball - conjure a fiery ball of awesomeness to split the ranks of your enemies.
Added The Whirlwind - a dual sword setup that can conjure up even more swords at your disposal!
There are be 25% fewer enemies spawned on Brave and Legendary difficulty. This makes Brave slightly easier.
Orcs now carry heavy armor pieces on Legendary difficulty. This makes Legendary harder.
Moving joystick on touchpad back will now rotate play area 180 degrees.
Increased Piercer's range by 50%
Made ballista smaller by 10%
Added Show Center Marker option to player menu.
Added Quest Area border to portal defence at the end of Adventure Missions.
Into the Source Quest: Crystal will now move around under its dome shield when damaged.
Throwing Darts code has been rebuilt for better performance and consistency. It will also enable adding more throwing gadgets.
Added new armor hit sounds.
Added new throw swoosh sounds.
Upgraded all melee hit sounds for more "umph!"
Choosing Walk locomotion on starter screen will not change to default walk if any other walk locomotions are selected.
Players can now quit wave attack mode mid-game via the menu.
Islands breaking off during wave attack mode will now produce a cloud of dust.
Performance:
Optimized all Orc's animations and skeletons for 30% better calculation time.
Optimized bloom for 300% better performance.
Optimized Oculus Avatar system for 500% better performance.
Optimized all enemy Models and Adventure level tiles for fewer draw calls.
Changed blood trails on melee hits to look better and have fewer draw calls.
Reduced the amount of VFX effects possible on the screen at once.
Overall game should run 5-15% better for Vive users and 10-20% better for rift users.
Bugfixes:
Fixed Shield Orcs' shields not blocking attacks as they should
Fixed a bug where Warchief taking hits on armor would cause him to bleed.
Fixed a bug where Warchief would go berserk before taking any damage.
Dead enemies will now bleed a little when hit. (that consistency!)
End Mission defence quest rune will now show progress in more gradual fashion.
Hotfix 1
Added the sparks back to Fellbran.
Warchief Orc will now lose some of his armor on casual difficulty.
Increased melee haptics strength on Oculus Touch.
Tweaked some equipment on Orcs
Fixed some pathing issues around bigger tiles.
Q: TricksterDev, where are my force gloves?
Postponed for a later update. I was not happy with how the prototype turned out. It was not enough fun and was causing too many glitches. Will have a new approach at this.
Update 11 - Defender's Insignia
This week's update concentrates on improvements to existing quests. There is also a new weapon to unlock, new tile for the procedural levels and some more comfort options you've requested.
New Features and Improvements
New Weapon - Defender's Insignia. A hefty Shield and Hammer that can create a magic barrier. Keeps you safe from enemy pointy arrows while you bash those skulls in. To be found in
Reworked Murder the Flock Quest to be less tedious and more challenging. More guardians will spawn, but they will now count towards completion when killed.
Into the source quest - Added new hit particles and hit animation to red crystal.
Ballista has been made much easier to operate. Will now feel as an advantage when you find one.
New broken tower tile added to procedural levels.
Improved game starting screen to be more informative and less confusing to rift players.
Added new "Reduce Motion" setting to comfort options. This turns off all fluid player motion in the game - mostly teleport and dash.
Added a step rotation option to Twin Stick locomotion.
Added blood effects to projectile weapon hits. Killing blow only for performance reasons.
Bugfixes
Fixed one of the major causes of enemies getting stuck.
Blood particles will now better inherit velocity from the sword swing.
Fixed a few pathing issues around the exit portal.
Red Shaman familiar's projectile will now properly fire shield haptics and sounds on hit.
Enemy thrown axes will now properly fire haptics on player shield and weapon hit.
Sword and shield haptic values have been corrected on vive to feel more natural.
Hotfix 1 - January 13th
Changes and Improvements:
Added an option to long press grip button to switch weapons for vive players.
Wave attack is now locked until player finishes 2 adventure levels.
Into The Source Quest: Red Crystal will now gain impenetrable overshield on brave difficulty and up. No more sniping from afar.
Into The Source Quest: Red Crystal's death ray will now move 30% slower.
Murder the Flock Quest: 3 crows will now spawn at once on Brave difficulty and up.
Modified walk speed values for more gradual acceleration when touchpad / joystick are not fully pressed.
Improved Fellbran visuals.
Updated to SteamVR 1.2 which can fix some of the controller discovery issues or just as well open a whole other can of worms.
Bugfixes:
Murder the Flock Quest: Crows will now properly vanish after quest is completed.
Slighlty Modified Defender's Insignia's force shield movement to be easier to aim.
Twin Stick locomotion now has working step rotation on Vive.
Severely reduced chance of adventure levels to be only 2 tiles long.
Black Orcs will now properly deflect player projectiles again.
Fixed Play space rotation tooltip not disappearing on vive on twin stick locomotion.
Fixed a bug where ballista pitch would work erratically if placed on uneven ground.
Fixed a bug where choosing Reduce Motion option would sometimes not switch to teleport locomotion.
Fixed a bug which allowed super fast teleportation
in reduced motion mode.
Fixed a few z-fighting bugs around the portal.
Fixed a patch of impassable terrain on starter island.
Update 10 - A Stubborn Bug Catcher
Today's update concentrates on quality of life for players. This means new locomotion methods introduced, and a bunch of nasty bugs fixed. A big thank you to everyone who voiced their feedback and helped track issues in the game!
Patch Notes
New locomotion added - Twin Stick locomotion. Use left joustick/touchpad to move and right one to rotate play area.
Changes in D-Pad locomotion - touching the Vive touchpad will move player forward. Pressing not required.
Changes in D-Pad locomotion - pressing the joystick/touchpad will now enter aimed teleport mode.
Teleport Locomotion now supports Play Area rotation on Oculus Touch.
Rewritten a a huge chunk of input and controller code to be more generic.
This will allow SteamVR and OculusVR version to be as similar code-wise as possible - thus, less prone to bugs.
Added Sparks to dessert biome.
Removed screen darkening when low on health. Red vignette is still present.
Increased the strength of movement vignette.
Thrown daggers will not collider with the sword any more.
Throwing daggers can now be picked with any hand.
Fixed an issue where enemies would sometimes get stuck underground.
Fixed an issue where skyships would emerge from beneath the ground.
Fixed a bug where dying in adventure levels would show starter island while loading.
Fixed a few instances of too large colliders on adventure levels.
Fixed a bug where enemies dropped on mission end would sometimes stand motionless.
Fixed a bug where mission end skyships would glitch into portal arch.
Fixed a bug where skyship dropped enemies would sometimes appear frozen in "hanging" state.
Fixed a bug where dying with Crossfire power activated will stop it from deactivating.
Fixed a bug where picking different weapons from the starter island would drop knives to the ground (don't even ask).
HOTFIX 1 - January 1st
Added hit velocity based Blood effects on melee hit.
Increased melee haptics on damaging hits by 300%
Fixed a few pathing colliders in adventure levels.
Fixed a bug where sometimes player's weapon would switch back the the bow on trigger click.
The Poll
Wrapping up our last poll - Force Gloves won with 60% of the total votes. This means you should be getting ready for some new shenanigans pretty soon.
What's the most fun thing you'd like to do with Force Gloves in Trickster?
Update 9 - The Moonshot
Update 9 - The Moonshot
This update brings in final rift support, few new eye candies, a bag of bug fixes and a new weapon - the Moonshot crossbow. This one is made for scoring long-range headshots!
Oculus Touch support is now complete.
Added new universal tooltips for both vive and touch.
Added new unlockable weapon - Moonshot Crossbow, sporting ricochet bolts.
Added asteroid fields to adventure missions background.
Oculus Touch: Weapon change is now bound to A/B buttons on dominant hand controller. App menu is X/Y on off hand.
Increased sword and shield damage by 25%.
Snow fall is back in Nordhall.
Fixed a bug where Player could walk onto enemy islands in wave attack.
Fixed too abrupt elevation changes when using walk locomotion.
Bonus - Pick your next tool!
Vote on what weapon should come with the next Trickster update. Do you want to throw fireballs at your enemies with Burning Gloves, push them into the abyss with Force Gloves or charge them with good ol' Dual Swords?
Vote here!
Oculus Touch Update
TL;DR: If you're on Oculus Touch, you'll get better experience on experimental branch. More info below.
Oculus Touch Support
First, hello to all the oculus touch players that already gave Trickster a chance even though it does not have the "Supports Oculus Touch" badge yet. Full support for touch is coming and should be in the game by the end of the week. Meanwhile, you if you pop into experimental branch, you'll find some ready to go updates making gameplay much more enjoyable. Here's what's in:
Proper button layout - no more missing controls.
Dedicated locomotion using the right bumper.
Play area rotation for those sporting 2 sensors.
Interactions based on button presses instead of touches.
Fixed pointer angle in menus.
Whats not in? Proper tooltips to explain functionalities on touch controllers.
So here's a quick cheat-sheet
To move push right joystick forward or backwards.
Pushing right joystick left / right rotates the play area.
Press down left joystick to activate the spell when it charges.
B / Y to access quests and settings
A / X to switch between melee and ranged.
Trigger to interact with stuff. (Duh)
Where's this experimental branch? Right click on the game in steam library. Choose Properties from drop-down menu. Go to BETAS tab. Pick "Experimental" from the drop-down menu. Wait for patch to download. Launch the game.
And as always, feedback is greatly appreciated!
Update 8 - The Chest Of Wonders
Did someone say dual crossbows? Oh yeah.
New update brings in first progression system to trickster. The campaign mode takes you through 4 regions of increasing difficulty. There are new powerful weapons waiting to be unlocked by completing missions along the way.
Update 8 -
New Features
Save system - persistent settings, campaign and unlocks
Campaign map added, split into 5 regions. Complete quests to unlock new artifacts.
New weapon - Crossfire Dual Crossbows.
New Weapon - The Howler Longbow
New Weapon - Battle Axe
New Weapon - The Red Band Greatsword
Fixes and Improvements
Improved snow biome lighting. Chilly!
Fixed Shield being rotated in wrong direction for left handed players.
Added Mixed Reality Videos Support for content makers.
Fixed a bug where Crow quest trees would float mid-air away from the quest site.
Vignette on will now be default for walk mode as well.
Made vignette a little smaller and removed the black overlay on the reset of the screen when its active.
Fixed some bugs with vignette not showing properly when moving after dashing in walk mode.
Fixed a bug where hitting a dead orc would charge the bow power.
Fixed Skyships dropping orcs always in the same spot during end level portal defence.
Update 8 - Hotfix 1
Slight inaccuracy added to Crossfire shots to make the weapon more balanced.
Fixed a bug where shield would sometimes make the shield face wrong wa for left dominant hand.
Fixed a bug where left handed players would need to operate game menu with right hand after restarting the game.
Fixed a bug where switching dominant hand mid game will make weapon power activate on both touchpads.
Fixed a bug where music volume, locomotion vignette and bow draw length setting would not be saved properly.
Added Directional Walk locomotion - controlled by Bumper for Oculus and Touchpad for Vive. Supports forward/backward movement + play area rotation.
Fixed an issue where game would sometimes crash on player death or level end.
Fixed an issue where enemies hit by melee weapon would sometimes not start chasing the player.
Fixed an issue where music volume was not right after restart / level change - hopefully for the last time.
Reduced volume of the sound of enemy axes hitting the ground.
Increase haptics strength for melee.
Known issue: Player can walk over the enemy islands in wave attack mode. If that islands sinks, you get stuck in the air unable to move. Scary!
Update 7 - The Puppet Master
This week's update concentrates on many bugs and issues you've reported. Thanks a lot for leaving the feedback that helps make the game better. To make things a little more interesting than "boring" bugfixes, we're also adding a brand new ragdoll system.
Have fun teaching orcs to fly!
Community Vote
Getting into the voting craze, last week we asked you which feature you'd like to see in Trickster first. Here are the results:
What does it mean for the game? For the next month dev efforts will concentrate on bringing new weapons and ways to acquire them. The mission map will also be expanded with regions you'll have to unlock. The harder the region, the better the rewards will be.
Oculus Touch support
Some time before the end of the year Trickster will also get Oculus Touch support. For a game that's planning on adding multiplayer along the way, having a bigger player pool is very beneficent.
Update 7 notes
New Features Added Ragdoll to the game. Send orcs flying with your mighty punch! Sword, shield and arrow shots all now realistically affect orc bodies.
Changes, Improvements and bugfixes:
Animations:
Fixed a bug where enemies would would shake when taking last step towards the player.
Fixed enemies "wiggling" while walking up the slopes.
Shield orc will now have access to all the animation sets other orcs use.
Added 3 new parry animations and 3 new attack animations.
AI:
Fixed a bug where enemies would rotate left/right before an attack.
Enemies are now less likely to walk inside each other.
Orc Hunters will now properly walk around other orcs when their line of sight is blocked.
Fixed a bug where enemies would stand in place and rotate constantly.
Enemies will now actively move away from the player when he attempts to "walk inside" them.
Fixed a bug where dead enemies would rotate to face the player.
Procedural Levels:
Improved Procedural generation algorythm to create more branches.
Fixed bug where tiles where sometimes placed on top of other tiles, creating an impassable passage.
Stopped Adventure Mode floating rocks from spawning inside islands.
Added bigger clouds to procedural levels.
Other:
Added tooltip to teach new players how to move in walk mode.
Enemy Arrow will now get stuck in a shield with a proper meaty sound.
Changes Music setting to volume instead of on/off
Added haptic feedback to shield.
What's next? Cast your vote!
Vote on the future of Trickster!
Next two weeks will focus on fixes and improvements to AI, animations, weapon physics and procedural generation algorithm. What should come first after that? That's up to you to decide!
Co-op Multiplayer or Loot, Gear and Upgrades
Co-op Multiplayer 3 Player co-op multiplayer that will allow you and your friends to team up and take on the orcs in both wave attack and adventure mdoe.
Loot, Gear and Upgrades New weapons, spells and tricks to learn. Found on the levels, dropped by epic monsters and as rewards for completing quests. Upgradeable with ore scattered across broken lands for even more magic power!
Vote on Google Forms (To make this fair only one vote per email address counts!)
Also, we have a patch today!
Changes, Improvements and bugfixes:
The light is back! The night theme can still be played in some missions.
Added new parry animation for enemies.
Changed player walk logic to make it harder to walk inside enemies.
Teleport will now stop if an enemy jumps in front of you while moving.
Lowered number of spawned orcs on casual difficulty
Opening menu on the hub island will now open it on settings tab.
Made footsteps sound less often. Character will now take longer strides.
Added one more attack animation for orcs.
Halloween Update - Eyes in the Dark
Update 5 - Eyes in the Dark
New melee weapons, quick weapon swap system and a hooded lantern to guide you through the dark reaches of the Broken Islands. Check out the Halloween update for Trickster!
New Features
Halloween is here! Explore new spooky region - Haunted Ridge!
Added a block system and a shield.
Added fast switch between melee and ranged weapons using grip buttons. No more holding the trigger to dive face first into the orcs.
Added a Hooded Lantern to help you navigate dark places. Keep it at your belt to illuminate the surroundings or grab it to use a concentrated beam of light.
Changes, Improvements and bugfixes:
Added one more bow draw length level to settings.
Added 5 new props that can be found on the levels.
Longsword + shield are now be the default melee weapon.
Throwing knives are now an accessory - can be taken along melee weapons to battle.
Fixed at least one cause of stuck menu.
Fixed some pathing issues.
Hotfix 5.1
Added shield bash. Nothing like denting an orc's face in with a shield. Try it - it's very satisfying !
Sword can now parry attacks.
Starting screen will now ask for a preferred locomotion instead of a dominant hand. This setting can of course still be changed in the menu.
Update 4 - Machines of War
Patch Notes
New Features:
Added a Repeater Ballista to game levels. Fried orc on a stick, anyone?
Added a new Quest! Destroy the horde's war machines or use them against their creators!
Added a prop system that fills the islands with small scale objects.
Changes, Improvements and bugfixes:
Added tooltip to let players know they can double tap to teleport while in walk locomotion.
Changed the exit portal to one that can be sieged from 4 sides at once.
Rebalanced end level portal siege quest.
Orc Dropships will now try to stop you from going through the portal.
Modified the level select map to display one marker for each available quest.
Entering the same mission twice will now create a different looking level with the same quest. No more restarting to get new missions!
Added visual feedback to current walk speed.
Added footsteps to walk locomotion. (this time for real!)
Increased walk locomotion initial acceleration. Player will now start moving more rapidly.
Added missing sounds to red crystal.
Fixed missing hashes in animator controller.
Fixed Piercer's power being misaligned to shot direction.
Fixed Piercer's activated state particles not being bound to arrow when string is pulled.
Fixed a bug where controllers would not show up when a mixed reality camera was connected.
