PFC Progress Report 3

It's been quite some time since the last update and frankly the reason why was to create enough content to present for the 3rd progress report. Not only am I now proud to say that there's enough, but I am also proud to say that the game is now available to play in open beta! I have managed to complete what was needed to be done to release the game in a testable, early-access version of the game, and in this post, I am going to go over as to what was needed to be created in order to be satisfied with publishing the game early.

Round System

With three maps to choose from!

One important feature to include is a way to rotate the maps and the only to do so is to incorporate rounds. The game will collect everybody's KOs and their highest Streak and display who got the highest of each at the end. In addition, the game will display how the same stats for the player as well as their wipeouts. Wipeouts don't show anywhere else since nobody necessarily needs to know how many times a player has died. One cool detail about this system is that if you leave the game and return, so will your stats. This is possible since the server records every player's stats into a table.

Each map has its own lighting, skybox, and ambient noise. The game simply shuffles all the maps and displays them in the shuffled order. This means the order the maps show is random but a map will only repeat once all maps have been shown, allowing each map to have a chance to be played.

To make the game more fun to play, I added 3 tools since the last progress report and I'm happy to discuss them.

Mr. Stabs

One tool that I needed to complete as soon as possible was Mr. Stabs; that'll allow me to make more daggers sooner like Ice & Rogue Dagger. Mr. Stabs, being one of the tools that were made by my friend GearTitan, was one of the first tools ever made in the game. Aside from animation changes and a slight increase in swing time, not much has really changed for Mr. Stabs. I really enjoy the animations for Mr. Stabs. The animations were inspired by the knife from Valorant. I opted to make the animations for Mr. Stabs always stab directly in front of the player as opposed to short slashes. This change makes it easier to hit and a bit harder to accidentally block with the dagger. It also allows the backstab effect to activate more consistently.

From Hell's heart, I stab at thee!

Shield

The iconic tank tool, the Shield makes its return to the revision at launch. The Shield has its same attributes as its original version. With a hefty passive 35% damage reduction and 90% while active, the Shield maintains its presence as the quintessential tool to pick for those who value durability. I chose to remake Shield as soon as possible in order to set up the code for any passive tools. One nice change about the tool is that you no longer have to equip the tool once in order to gain a passive reduction bonus. 

The Shield has a nice updated animation that plays and, at the moment, a simple beam that surrounds the player when the tool is equipped.

Immobile like rocks.

Health Potions

One of the more unique ultimates in the game, Health Potions allows you to quickly heal up your health on a dime. Inspired by the Estus Flask from Dark Souls, Health Potions were made for the game's debut. This allowed me to set up more unique ultimates for the future, specifically, those that don't scale with the player's KO streak. Restoration now comes out quicker in order to accommodate the equip time change made to all tools. As with all tools, Restoration has more polished animations as well as new particles for when you drink them. In addition, an animation now plays when you're hit drinking the potions as well.

It has that cherry medicine taste.

All that being said, the game is ready to play! There's much more that needs to be done for the game to be out of its Beta status. I would like to touch up the effects and visuals in the game as well as create a loading screen and a menu. For now, though, I would like for the public to try the game out so I can collect information on how I'm doing as early as possible.