In making progress for the next few areas, there are a few things that I realized needed some attention and I got sidetracked on, so I feel I should talk about them a bit:
(All these are works in progress, of course)
- Enemy Health Bars
Some of the new areas introduce regenerating enemies and some pretty tanky enemies, which makes it harder to judge how well a combat encounter is going when you don't know the enemies HP.
There's more that can be done here, as it would be neat to highlight enemies resistances or if they have immunity to a certain damage type, but this starts getting cluttered way too quickly and leaves a lot to be desired.
- Weapon Attacks
Some of the weapons have had their attacks updated, which notably has doubled the knife/dagger's attack speed.
You likely have also noticed that heavy attacks for most weapons is the 'air slice', but this will be getting updated for many weapons to something more appropriate for the weapon/element/damage type.
- Magic Changes
If you played some of the much earlier betas, you might recall some of the magic worked differently for some elements.
Well I am adding a tab within the inventory so that when you learn a new magic spell or element, it can be changed to something else.
This will give you the option of, for example, using the ice pillar magic on snowy surfaces, or swapping it to the original ice spikes if that's what you prefer.
On that note, the default 'spell' when you use magic directly on enemies will now be the air push:
There are some animation/AI changes that are still in progress, but we'll talk more about those when the update is released, which is hopefully 'soon'.
Upcoming Updates - October
The primary focus for the next update is just more content - More enemies, more equipment, and more levels.
This is another 'block' of levels much like Frozen Fort -> Labyrinthian Caves -> Cliffside, and is also another block of three levels and this chain will be started from talking to Mercie at the Hub. The other levels given by NPCs are in blocks or two or singular, somehow these ended up being the ones with three.
For now I'm just going to talk about the new levels: (These are all unfinished so you can expect some changes)
The Fallen City of Cassard is an oceanside castle. Somehow we ended with a few city-like levels, and while that's great and all, they tend to be very dense. They take longer to make than other levels and can be more methodical/time consuming to explore.
For that reason, this level is ending up a little more split, with a greater focus on getting closer to the large danger-portal and enemies.
Cassard was also originally very key focused, with many hidden keys to unlock specific doors or switches to proceed. Zofia has (mostly) moved away from key-focused missions as they can get messy and/or problematic with multiplayer, as players could take critical keys and disconnect or bring keys from their save in. Both of those are 'solvable', but bring issues of their own, so...
That may be something I revisit later.
You can see an earlier version of the Gilded City as the versus map (Or if you played one of the early betas)
This area is intended to have a lot of underwater sections/combat - Though I don't think underwater gameplay is where it needs to be at, so that will likely get nailed down better before the underwater side gets much further along.
Underwater areas were originally more common, with them being shortcuts and secrets primarily for otter players to utilize. This caused a lot of players to attempt swimming them anyways and drowning, or getting lost with the bluish haze and underwater effects, which is not fun.
The last area is the Atlas Manor. This was originally much different but a lot of elements for it were taken and used in the prologue instead. The new intent for this level is to have a single 'boss' style enemy with much more platforming. I realize giant floating rock islands are kind of a fantasy trope, but so far it works pretty well...
Hopefully there will be more to show soon!
Patch Notes for Sept 30th
This is actually a little sooner than expected as I found a couple of issues that warranted a quicker patch, so here is an additional patch for the base game:
Changes/Fixes:
- Use/Jump button should now both work in dialogue menus - (Potentially) Fixed an issue where settings in split-screen would sometimes not save - Fixed a terrain issue in the prologue where you could fall through the ground - Fixed a debug option that allowed you to skip the prologue - Fixed a menu option that allowed you to 'Return To Hub' immediately starting the game, skipping the prologue - Fixed some texture/model issues in the Gilded City Arena - Adjusted difficulty scaling for co-op, 2-4 players should see sometimes additional enemies and harder enemies (Only currently some enemy types, this is still being worked on) - Fixed ghosts not being able to hit you at close range - Altered parts of Labyrinthian Caves to have sections of blight - Altered some enemy spawns and item placement within Labyrinthian Caves - Grapplehooks now have the correct range underwater - Altered Hub backdrop as it was very empty looking - Temporarily removed the 'regenerating armor' enemy from having a chance of spawning as they could be a problem without certain environmental hazards nearby (stronger possessed armors will spawn instead)
Additions:
- Added difficulty options, they can be found within the Hub - Added a teleporter to the Hub - Added Sentry enemies to the Cliffside map - Added additional travel routes to Gilded City Arena - Possessed Armors have had their drop rate adjusted so that each armor piece has a 4% chance of drop, and a much higher chance to drop silver - Added an additional weapon that can be found in the Labyrinthian Caves level
Patch Notes for Sept 29th
Some quick updates for the main game of Zofia.
Changes/Fixes:
- Selecting the save slot should now show if you have a local co-op player, and their overall level - Inventory should now highlight weapons/armor you have equipped - You can now correctly drop items again - Fixed an issue where if you wore a 'ghost jacket' as a female character, it would be fitted incorrectly - Fixed an armor description that was missing
Additions: - In-game Escape Menu now has an options menu - You can now adjust the FOV in-game from the in-game options menu - You can now adjust the mouse sensitivity from the in-game options menu - You can now adjust gamepad sensitivity from the in-game options menu - Inventory now has tab functionality and can filter between all items/weapons/armor/stats - Added a more detailed 'Stat' page that shows more details on character levels, weapon stats, stamina usage, and armor defense bonuses - There are now some items to purchase in the stores - You can sell items to Morrison now - Added more examinable items to the HUB
Zofia Released! (Into Early Access!)
Zofia is launching into Early Access now!
As before, the launch will include the intro and 'prologue sections', three other levels, and 2 PvP maps. The character editor, online co-op, and splitscreen modes should be available as well.
It's been a long (and weird) ride, but we hope you enjoy it!
Zofia (Early Access) Release Date
Zofia will be launching into early access September 27th!
The launch will include the intro and 'prologue sections', three other levels, and 2 PvP maps. The character editor, online co-op, and splitscreen modes should be available as well.
For added chaos, we also made the airship in the hub area drivable and hid a few secrets.
We'll see you then!
Demo Update!
A quick demo patch to resolve some performance issues. Previously there was only a Windows Demo, so the Linux/SteamOS demo is live now too.
This update should also have a slightly extended intro and a slightly expanded character editor.
Upcoming Updates
I have got a lot of unusual feedback this last month, so in turn I have a lot of unusual changes:
The character editor is one of the more difficult things I have made in this game and I don't think I am anywhere near where I want it to be. While I'm struggling, its at least coming along and some of the options have been expanded.
There is still a lot to be done here, of course.
If you played the Frozen Fort during the open playtest, you may have found it a little weird that the Legion there use bows and arrows, while nearly every other Legion soldier you've met at this point either has a warblade or a firearm.
Well complain no more.
(It looks a little awkward from this angle, but the left hand is holding the mounting bar somewhat like a foregrip)
The archers were easily avoidable by just moving around. You can dodge bullets too, or you can be cool by parrying as soon as you see the muzzle flash.
These have been mechanically difficult to add because of how they function, but the additions of some of the 'old world' tech has made some areas require a little more planning and stealth.
(If you played the OLD prologue or Project Broken Hammer, these may look incredibly familiar.)
Lastly, I believe there was some narrative and character issues with the prologue, so there will be changes here to both the dialogue and how it is presented.
I hope to have all this, and more, out soon.
Playtest Beta Closing (For now!)
We're closing the open beta playtest for now - There will be some notable changes based on the feedback, but such changes might not be ideal for regular updates.
We are going to leave the Demo up of course, so that's still very playable.
Thank you to everyone who played it and left feedback!
Zofia Playtest - June Update
June updates for the open playtest - A lot of these are shared with the demo.
Additions: - Added the character editor and save system - Added 'spawners' in the prologue, but only in a few sections - Added some new enemies and traps
Fixes: - Fixed an issue where your weapon may not equip correct after loading your save - Fixed an animation issue where your character wouldn't look down correctly when holding a 2-handed weapon (So now you can see your shoes) - Fixed some texture issues where some settings were applied to the wrong material - Fixed the damage numbers in the inventory - Leveling attributes is now easier and works more consistently - Stone magic projectiles have been optimized to fix some weird edge case issues - Ice magic projectiles have been optimized to better follow your aim trajectory - Using plant magic's thornwire will now only connect to a single other plant, as previously you could exponentially make new plants and crash the game - Thornwire no longer hurts the player - Wood magic (Thorns) no longer hurts the player and you can stand on it - Fixed several of the Otter's animations - Certain clothing will no longer disappear when sneaking - Fixed the 'left run' animation as it made the camera bounce a lot - Added blocks in certain sections as the player could accidentally get themselves stuck - It is now more difficult to regenerated stamina while swinging with the grapplehook, making extending grappling a bit more difficult - Fixed some issues with various cliff collision - Unarmed punching should now have arm's length of range and do basic damage - The player in the Character editor can now be properly rotated with the gamepad - The escape menu now works much better with the gamepad - Fixed an issue where you might end up with the wrong face after exiting the editor - The archers now choose targets a little better - Arrows should now fly straighter - Grog should now have the correct dialogue - Some pathfinding issues have been fixed - Fixed some issues with the 'join server' UI - Fixed an issue with the save/load menu not being centered - Fixed some weird replication issues with certain enemies
Changes: - Removed cel-shading from NPCs as it caused unexpected performance issues - As requested, the lamp flicker is now much smoother - Disabled some VFX temporarily until we figure out some performance quirks we've ran into with them - You can now attack/magic with only 1% stamina (previously it required a minimum amount) - Updated wall candles - Gave the editor example character all the same clothes regardless of race as it was previously confusing to see it changed when you finished customizing the character (Except for otters, for obvious reasons)
