[Poise Rework]

So let's face it, the old Poise system was bloated, convoluted, and unintuitive. It also led to a lot of confusion in the heat of battle. So, we fixed it! Now Poise is a very dynamic resource, meant to be managed in a similar manner to Stamina. The basic gist of Poise is the same. You have a certain amount, and upon losing too much, you get staggered. This interrupts your actions and leaves you vulnerable.

The changes are in the minute, but we feel it will make a large difference. Each and every attack has a Momentum value. Upon being hit, your Poise bar is subtracted by the attack's Momentum. If your Poise is less than an attacks Momentum value, you're staggered. Pretty similar to the old system. However, now poise regenerates at a much higher rate when not taking damage. This leads to a nice ebb and flow during battle. It also incentivises smart blocking. Blocking attacks not only reduces damage, but also nulls out Poise damage at the cost of Stamina.

While incredibly simple, we think this rework will add a level of easy understanding and, ironically, at the same time a new level of depth to combat. Be sure to let us know what you think!

[Pathfinding Tweaks]

We had a problem with some of our old Pathfinding. With some attacks and dodges, New Eden would select a point on the map, and aim you to the closest you could get to it. The problem with this was that when your destination was blocked by an obstacle, it would round your destination to the nearest available point. This meant the game would "curve" you around obstacles, leading to some laughably janky gameplay at times. Check out this example:

After a while sitting down with the pathfinding system, (New Eden utilizes a Nav Mesh) I worked out some new methods for pinpointing your destination when encountering an obstacle. Now when trying to dodge or combat thrust your way into a blocked section of map, instead of curving you, the game now stops you in your tracks. I find this much more "realistic", but also a smoother experience. Check out the results:

This system is also applied to Combat Thrust, if that wasn't clear in the prior segments. The Katana, Claws, and Spears no longer suffer from janky dashes in their combos!

Be sure to let us know what you think of these changes!

[PvP Test]

So it's been a while since we tested the PvP in New Eden. Since our last test, we've reworked Blocking and Poise, added two entirely new weapon types, added aiming strikes, and several other little tweaks and improvements. Thus, myself and Bot got together on a test server to try out some PvP with the new Weapon Types! We decided to forego healing and spells in this bout so that we could focus on the core combat flow and feel, making sure to test out the new additions and tweaks. Here's a short bout captured and recorded into a video for you all to enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUxZz-WU75Q&feature=youtu.be

Turns out I was playing with Claws a little too defensively! I'll get him next time for sure haha. Be sure to let us know what you think of the improved combat system!

Thank you all for reading this week's Dev Log! You are all such a motivating factor with your support, and it means the world to us that you're even here to read these! Be sure to give us your feedback when you can! It helps us develop the best game we can manage!