Release Notes for Hellish Quart

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.08.01.0

FIX:

Added another failsafe mechanism to prevent animation bugs from occurring when Grabbing opponents
Fixed a bug with lowered weapon animation was mixed with the Head Chop victim animation, if Stamina was 0
Samuel AI: Fixed a bug where sometimes he got stuck dodging back repeatedly
Physics calculations tweaks to fix some collision problems
Isabella: Damocles attack has longer active frames to better fit the visuals (but the potential damage tapers off when the velocity of the sword tapers off)
Alexander: fixed headlook
Alexander: fixed some combo attacks not dealing damage after the first attack was blocked

TWEAK:

Isabella: more muscle power for better blade trajectory
Isabella: Damocles attack can no more crush guards, unless it hits the weak part of the blade

NEW:

If High or Low Stance Attack is input before the character fully assumes the Hight or Low Stance, the attack will be delayed until the character is fully in the stance.

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.06.21.0

FIX:

Fixed the Right of Way Crown marker being not visible in non-HEMA duels
Fixed a bug where History Buff mode would ignore Wooden Weapon or FPP choices
Laszlo: fixed a bug where Attack X would not take enough additional stamina on whiff

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.06.20.0

TWEAK:

Zera: standarized hit reaction recovery time
Samuel: standarized hit reaction recovery time
Isabella: thrust attacks shorter recovery times
Marie: Dodge Leg aniamtion moves her further back
You can't push an opponent's who's cut attack is in active phase (push doesn't work if your opponent is in the middle of his cut attack)
Isabella: edge scrape damage on missed point thrust attack is now 20 and not 16
Zera: Combo (RFF) Fwd, Y, Y - second attack is now a bit slower if the first attack was blocked
Zera: larger weak part on the blade (easier to bash through)
Zera: Maximum through steel bash damage is now 25 isntead of 40
Isabella: a different (RFF) Guard 2 animation, for sake of consistency with (LFF) Guard 2 animation
Laszlo: Combo Fwd, Y,X - a bit slower X attack

NEW:

Canceling an in-place attack (before or after active phase) starts a 0.32s cooldown window. If you press an in-place attack again, it will be delayed, until the cooldown is over.

FIX:

Alexander: Fixed Idle Tired and Idle Limp animations not looping

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.06.09.0

NEW:

An option to limit some visuals that may be considered disturbing, for example the hangmen on the Gallows level. This will not hide all the things that might be considered sensitive - after all this is a game about killing people with swords and some of the morbid stuff will be an integral part of the cutscenes.

TWEAK:

More sensitive Long Guard controls
Level Select Menu - level videos now play also when using a mouse to select levels

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.06.07.0

Final Boss: fixed a bug where the boss custom skin would not spawn

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.06.06.0

TWEAK:

A different method of loading levels to prevent Windows thinking the game is not responsive on longer loads
Pressing Push again, during a Pushing animation, will give you 1s cooldown instead of another Push. This it to prevent endless pushing stun, if your opponent is in the corner and you mash the Push button.
AI: AI's chance of defending a Grab is reduced by 20%, except the highest AI difficulty
Tweaks of the new blood decal system
Yendrek: it is now a bit easier to do a squatting leg cut

NEW:

2-player mode: Right Player can now hold Right Trigger in the Character Selection Menu to swap the score with the left player and reassign the game controllers. Note, that currently, if this is done, the score will be swapped, even if the players assign their sides exactly like before.

FIX:

fixed a technical bug in the character selection menu
fixed a regression, where the camera would glitch out when winning or losing in FPP mode
Fixed a bug when the sharp duels button would stay hidden, if you back up from Training menu options back to Main Menu and choose normal duels

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.02.06.0

NEW:

Modding support phase 1: character and weapon skins

TWEAK:

Blood is now being projected to character meshes in realtime, upon hit, instead of being pre-spawned. This may give a bit worse results, but it allows spawning blood on modded character models.

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.05.04.0

NEW:

Alexander: New Attacks

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.04.26.0

FIX:

Father Zera: fixed (LFF) Fwd, B, X not triggering correct guards
Yendrek: now bashes through weak parts of the blade if hit with the shaft

NEW:

New arena: Town Courtyard

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.04.18.0

FIX:

Fixed postprocessing in Wooden Castle level: low quality, FPP, Free Camera
Fixed postprocessing in Burning Castle level: low quality, FPP, Free Camera
Fixed postprocessing in Collapsed Castle level: low quality, FPP, Free Camera
Rebaked lighting in Wooden Castle, Burning Castle, Collapsed Castle

NEW:

New character: Yendrek (Jędrek)
New mechanic: axe pulling
Forest Manor level: Completely new meshing
Meadow level: more trees, changed lighting
Wooden Floor level: limited fighting area to very small (like Gym arena)
New History Buff reward cards
New game language options IMPORTANT: Translations are automatic and often VERY wrong - this will be the case until the very end of production, when the game's text and dialogues are final and locked - only then a localization team will be hired to translate the entire game by hand

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.03.16.0

FIX:

Isabella: Fixed a bug where sometimes Isabella would freeze after switching the leg positions
Marie: fixed a bug where she was still trying to aim the point at the opponent's heart after her thrust attack got blocked
added missing physics friction script on Kalkstein's sword
School Gym Arena: the scoring machine now cancels the lights and beep signal on double kills, if the no-points-for-double-kills scoring mode is selected
Fixed a bug where a final hit audio effect was sometimes cut off in Training mode
Alexander: fixed some second animations in a combo sometimes not detecting hits, after the first attack was blocked
Marta: fixed a bug where thrust IK would turn off instantly when winning

TWEAK:

School Gym Arena: rebaked lighting
Alexander: shorter recovery times after attacks in general
Alexander: a bit slower attacks
Alexander: a bit longer blade
Alexander: wider hit detector in cut attacks to ensure contact
Alexander: more muscle power for better blade trajectory
Alexander: bigger maximum rotation velocity on the sword
Kalkstein: less physics friction on the blade to prevent the "sticky blade" effect in impossible to solve scenarios
Training (HEMA) mode: Stamina and damage also resets for the winner of a round

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.03.13.0

FIX:

The game now recognizes when the fight ends with a draw (a draw is possible with optional rules: if on double kill both fencers get a point instead of no points)
Jacek, Barabasz: some changes in the animtree in hopes to fix, or at least reduce, the self-canceling attacks bug (trying to go around the problem until I figure out what started causing it)
FPP mode is unavailable with wooden or blunt weapons, until the camera system is refactored

TWEAK:

Max rounds increased to 30 in sharp duels (flags will be replaced with numbers if above 7)

NEW:

You can now choose double kill resolving rules when choosing a game mode
Training (aka HEMA) mode: you can now choose between 3 double kill resolving rules
History Buff Mode: you can now choose between 2 double kill resolving rules
Vs. AI, training vs. AI: Player can now choose to be on the right side

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2023.03.07.0

FIX:

Alexander, Father Zera: fixed some normal attacks still triggering when 0 stamina, instead of the "Tired" attacks
Isabella: fixed the Fwd + X LG thrust attack not working properly
Gedeon: fixed LFF Y attack not taking additional stamina when swinging in air
Samuel: fixed damage timings so he can't do two edge cuts in a row during his long lasting thrust animation
Kalkstein: fixed timings between attacks in combos

TWEAK:

Boss Fight difficulty is a bit lower on "Skilled Opponents" difficulty (dif. 3)
Final phase of Boss Fight: unarmored Samuel has a bit reduced health (compared to playable Samuel) on all body parts
Character now can't do a Close Attack (punch etc.) for 0.3 seconds after their previous sword attack hit or got blocked, to prevent Close Attacks launching out of range after the opponent got moved back with hit reaction animation
Marie: slower guard transitions against cuts

NEW:

Cuts can now bash down thrusts (hit opponent's weapon when his thrust attack is in progress)

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.03.05.0

FIX:

Fixed a bug where heavy weapons would not wound Armored Boss through the weak part of his blade (when you bashed through his guard)
Armored Boss: fixed long guard aiming at 0,0,0 instead of the opponent's heart
Isabella, Father Zera: fixed a bug where low thrusts did not cause damage in some specific situations
Music transitions betwen levels should be smoother now
Music volume should go back up to normal level when you start a rematch on the same arena
Gedeon, Isabella: fixed a bug when a close attack would launch instead of Push in some situations

TWEAK:

General swords inertia and physics tweaks for better smoothness
Marta: animation tweaks
Marta: weapon tip thrust detector tweaks
Difficlty 3 now has 10 initial morale isntead of 5
Boss on medium difficutly has now a bit less HP on chosen body parts
Alexander: a bit more muscle power
Alexander: a bit faster attack animations
A bit faster level loading
Gedeon: more damage on cut attacks

NEW:

New Boss battle and Boss cutscenes music

Coming very soon: Carpathian Highlander character

Update 0.3072 (February 20th, 2023)

Marta: attack animation tweaks

Update 0.3071 (February 18th, 2023)

Minor fixes

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.01.29.0

FIX:

Marta: fixed the wrong Close Attack (punch) range
Barabasz: fixed a bug with Long Guard aiming at 0,0,0
Fixed a bunch of bugs where characters were not lowering their swords at 0 Stamina
Marie: fixed a bug where she was able to do some normal attacks at 0 stamina
Isabella: fixed a bug where she was able to do some normal attacks at 0 stamina
Fixed a bug where the final hit sound would sometimes stop playing

TWEAK:

Samuel: Better distance animation blending in Y and Fwd + Y attacks to avoid overshooting
Samuel: Better (Hight Guard) Fwd + Y attack animation trajectory
Shorter next Attack delay after getting blocked (from 0.3s to 0.16s). This does not apply to combos that were input BEFORE the first attack was blocked, they execute without delays. Also remember that guarding works normally, only next attacks are delayed, so it's not a "stun".
Marie: she now does Close Attacks (punches) also when pressing backward or standing in place, not only when pressing forward
Marie, Marta: just a bit larger tip thrust detectors (test) - longer "to neutral" blade transitions after guarding (it will affect blade trajectory when riposting after blocking!)
Stamina: If you drop to 0 Stamina, you will start recovering it after 2.5 seconds, instead of the usual 1. With 0 stamina autoguard doesn't work and "Tired" attacks replace the regular ones.
Stamina: you lower your weapon when Stamina is below 5, instead of 0. You can still attack normally, but autoguard doesn't work below 5.

NEW:

the base value of next Attack delay after getting blocked can be adjusted in Options (temporary for testing)
new feature: If you just blocked a low attack (so your sword is low) and you pressed a high attack to riposte, the attack will have a slight delay, to compensate for the blade traveling time. But if you riposte also with a low attack, there will be no delays. And the other way around - if you block a high attack, and you riposte with a low attack, there will be a slight delay. But if you block a high attack and you also riposte with a high attack, there will be no delays, because your blade is already high.

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.01.22.0

FIX:

Isabella: fixed regression where she was not doing High Guard Damocles attack when pressing Fwd

TWEAK:

Bashing through the opponent's blade (hitting it in the weak spot) no longer takes additional stamina from the attacker

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.01.11

Added a warning about restarting the game after changing the VSync options

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.01.09.1

TWEAK:

Gedeon: attack and blocking timings polish pass
Gedeon: more muscle power for better blade trajectory
Isabella: sidestep attacks are a bit slower

NEW:

arcade mode: added yet another, easiest difficulty level (mainly the boss is easier)

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.2023.01.08.0

TWEAK:

Fencers' starting positions moved back by 0.5m each, so there's actually a free 4m area between fencers, instead of them spawning 4m from each other. This may feel too far in comparison to other fighting games, but it's a "real world" customary distance in fencing, should prevent "sucker punching" with long range attacks.
Gedeon: Tweaks of attack canceling timings for more responsive blocks
Meadow arena: slightly less yellow postprocessing
All characters: tweaks of the next attack input delay after your previous attack was blocked (mostly longer). This is not a typical "minus on block", because you still can block incoming attacks, you just can't instantly repeat the attack after the first one got blocked. This can break combos, but doesn't apply to combos that were executed before impact. This is consitent with real world fencing, where the riposte is usually faster than repeating an attack.
All characters: AI tweaks (work in progress...)
Samuel: Attack animation tweaks for better parry-riposte exchanges
Samuel: Better attack animations in far-close range dynamic blending
Game Speed slider value in Gameplay Options no longer saves, it resets to 1.0x speed on every game restart
Hit reactions from Close Attacks (punches etc.) can now also be cancelled by dodging back
Isabella: increased muscle strength for more accurate sword attack trajectories
Isabella: you can now cancel a linked attack in mid-combo
Isabella: way shorter recovery from attacks after impact (the cooldown for next attack still applies, but she can block way faster after impact)
Alexander: basic cutting attacks slower cancelling on whiffs
Alexander: a bit slower guard animations (by 0.03s)
Marta: slower Close Attack animation and slower rate of repeating it
Isabella: her thrusts are now blocked only if the blade contact was at the top of her blade
Isabella: better aiming when thrusting
Isabella: her sword loses momentum on block way faster now
Barabasz: damage cap on the next attacks in a combo is a bit higher
Marta: Pressing "Push" again after a push will no longer trigger the followup attack, only pressing a proper attack button will do this
Alexander: his blade can now be bashed through by heavier blades if hit at the weak part (top)
Isabella: different Hit reaction animations
Removed the mechanic of reducing the damage on every next attack in a combo sequence or in linked attacks. Although it seemed a good idea on paper, it was not "readable" for players, and seemed like a bug.
Jacek: thrust attacks now have some additional aim
Damage adjustment for thrusts in the game (generally lower, especially for sabers)
Generally longer recovery from thrust attacks for heavy weapons
Barabasz: Damage buff
Kalkstein: his damage is now way less dependent on weapon velocity to ensure more consistent damage outcomes
Kalkstein: his sword tip detector should now detect Hitboxes even if it is already stuck inside one (for example because of physics simulation)
Kalkstein: different Fwd, Y, Y combo
Jacek: more physics muscle power for more accurate blade trajectories

FIX:

Switched to a different physics solver in hopes to improve overall physics accuracy and limit impossible to solve scenarios
Greatly increased the physics solving iterations per frame to try to get rid of the unsolvable collision scenarios which sometimes resulted with the "sticky" swords effect
Lowered down the maximum angular velocity of all swords to try to get rid of the unsolvable collision scenarios which sometimes resulted with the "sticky" swords effect
AI: Fixed a bug where some characters were not respecting the next attack delay after being blocked
Gedeon: fixed a bug where thrusts were recognized as cuts and could bash through the weak part of the opponent's blade
Laszlo: fixed a bug where a low thrust was recognized as a cut (had unreasonable damage, non-bindable)
All characters should now be able to correctly dodge back to cancel Hit reactions
Kalkstein: fixed a bug where he bashed through opponents' blades too often
Isabella: fixed a bug where her hair could pull her head with physics
Isabella: fixed dropping sword twitching

NEW:

Arcade mode (WIP)
Arcade Bossfight (a bit different than will be in the Story mode)
Arcade Bossfight cutscenes (WIP - placeholder voiceovers)

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.12.09.0

FIX:

Isabella: Fixed a bug where her visual representation of the sword was "floating", so the rendered sword model was not exactly where it really was according to physics. This bug did not change the outcome of the fight, but often it looked like the sword missed, where it actually hit.
Samuel: fixed a bug with incorrect attack triggering after a Push
Samuel: Fixed the flesh penetration distance on thrust
Fixed some IK issues when blades penetrate the body on thrust in general

TWEAK:

Castle arena: Camera doesn't zoom out as far in the end of a fight to avoid going into environment geometry

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.11.30.0

NEW:

New character: Samuel
New Arena: Wooden Castle

FIX:

Various small fixes

NOTES:

We decided to release Samuel, the new fencer, first, so you can already playtest him. This way we can have a bit more time making the boss fight and the arcade mode.

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.10.17.0

TWEAK:

Physics system tweaks for better collisions
Different physics collision calculation system
Increased velocity calculation iterations after a blade bounce

FIX:

Increased maximum sword physics velocity

NEW:

new Arena: Village Hut

Known bugs:

HP Reverb G2 VR headset shows a blue border on RTX 2070 Super, but it doesn't on RTX 3080Ti. This looks like a driver issue and not something I could fix in the game.

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.09.28.0

NEW:

Vsync options added

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.09.23.0

FIX:

a few small fixes for Right of Way mechanics
fixed bug where dropped objects (heads, swords...) would slide on the ground
Fixed Father Zera playing regular death animations in ROW mode instead of ROW win / lose animations

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.09.16.0

FIX:

In training mode (aka HEMA mode) the fight now will stop 0.4 seconds after one of the fencers scores a point (0.4 seconds is the time for an afterblow, after this time it won't be scored). The fight will resume after 3.5 seconds.
Fixed regression where High and Low guard was not triggering after scoring a hit in training mode
Fixed a small bug with Credits panel

NEW:

School Gym Arena: added a modern fencing scoring machine which will work in training mode

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.09.15.0

FIX:

Big code polish pass on the grabbing mechanic, to try to prevent various edge scenarios resulting in glitches
Fixed regression: Father Zera not doing intended damage caused by physics system velocity tweaks
Father Zera: fixed transitions in combos from blocked attack animations to regular attack animations
Jacek: Fixed a little animation twitch at the end of the fight
Long Guard is now triggered with a different system (to be more consistent with the rest of the controls)
Alexander: fixed a bug where he did a Back attack instead of a Close Attack when close to opponent
Polish pass on the head look-at mechanic
Fixed regression: increased physics collision detection offset to adjust to a the new faster max angular speed from previous update
Fixed a bug where some of the characters didn't bash away the opponent's Long Guard, if they hit the weak part of the blade first
Fixed bug where some characters' hands twisted for a moment after defending a grab

NEW:

Added troubleshooting tips to Main Menu (may be temporary, until more automated graphics settings detection is implemented)
The game's physics clock now automatically syncs to your monitor's refresh rate
If your monitor's refresh rate is above 145 Hz, the game will try to go to fullscreen and set the refresh rate to 120. If it fails (because of your system settings for example), it will set physics refresh rate to half of your monitor's refresh rate
Added a VR HMD set refresh rate Menu window (temporary solution)
You can no longer turn off "Sync Physics with FPS"
You can no longer turn off vsync (option is still there, but it doesn't turn it off - temporary solution)
Father Zera: added a dedicated Grab finisher

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.09.05

FIX:

Optimization of the Water Mill Arena
Marta has now smoother walking animations (more stable view in FPP mode)
Fixed bug with Marta's Move List not scrolling all the way down
Marie: fixed the bug, where Marie couldn't assume high or low guard right after scoring a hit in Training mode
increased physics maximum angular velocity for swords, which should improve the 'ragdoll vs. original animation' accuracy of fast moving cut attacks
Kalkstein: fixed some animation bugs with attacks

TWEAK:

Push Reaction stun is now generally shorter, but has different length for every character (the heavier the character the shorter stun), but still all Push Reactions can be canceled by dodging backward
You can't push an opponent who is in active frames of an ongoing attack animation
VR Lifesize camera is a bit closer to the fencers for the sake of sharpness of the image, because the focus point of most VR headsets is 1.3m-2m.
VR Camera now has a deadzone, so it doesn't follow Alexander's movements in Idle

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.09.03

Fixed Character Selection Screen 2-player bug

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.09.02

NEW:

Added Virtual Reality mode for SteamVR and Oculus (some things don't work yet - UI during the match for example, win/lose UI screens etc.)
Rematch button after a fight

FIX:

Fixed double fade out after a fight in Survival Mode
Minor UI fixes in Character Select Screen

To play Hellish Quart in VR run Hellish Quart.exe with one of those suffixes (type in command line):

For SteamVR (for example if you have the Valve Index): Hellish Quart.exe -vrmode openvr
For Oculus (for example if you have the Quest 2): Hellish Quart.exe -vrmode oculus

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.08.19.0

TWEAK:

Gedeon: Special Attacks tweaks
Barabasz: Special Attacks tweaks
Alexander: General Attack tweaks
Characters now don't do a low attack leg slip dodge if further than 2.2m from the opponent
Default Muscle Power is now a bit lower (adjustable in Options)

NEW:

Move Lists now show which attack is a FEINT. Feints are attacks which confuse the opponent and cause him to assume an incorrect guard position, unless the opponent presses (or is pressing) Backwards during the attack. FEINTs are indicated visually by particles and audio when performed. TL;DR: Press or hold backwards to block this.

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.08.14.0

NEW:

Marta: has new X and Long Guard + X combos (that should also fix the attacks spamming)
Marta: a quick cut attack (Down, Fwd, X)

FIX:

Marta: fixed some Long Guard attack triggering
fixed bug where you were able to train with sharp weapons in FPP
Barabasz: adjusted feet colliders to prevent feet dragging on the ground
Marta: Close Attack (punch, kick) is now triggered properly at very close distance
Marta: Fixed Long Guard: Y, X attack not inflicting damage if the first attack in the combo was blocked
Fixed regression: a cut in the weak part of the blade now forces through the opponent's guard and inflicts reduced damage if scores a hit

TWEAK:

Marie: a bit less inertia on the sword
Marie: a different High Guard + X attack animation (a very quick cut)

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.08.12.0

TWEAK:

Water Mill Arena: Optimizations
FPP camera: FOV tweaks
Weapon inertia tweaks in all characters
Marta: tweaked the blade strong part vs weak part ratio
Physics collisions system tweaks
Marie: a bit more stable tip control in Long Guard
Marta: low thrust attacks now aim for the Opponent's Hips
Empty Arena: lowered the fog fx opacity

FIX:

Marta: Fixed wrong sword tip collider size (was too big)
Marta, Marie: if the Opponent is not facing us, the tip aiming is stronger in Long Guard (aims at the heart)
Marta, Marie: if we are not facing the opponent, tip aiming is weaker or completely off in Long Guard
Fechtschule Arena: fixed a lighting artifact

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.08.07

FIX:

Marta: added legs mesh underneath the dress
Marta: dress material is now two-sided
Added triple check before "Head Off!" animation to prevent occasional bug, where the head gets chopped off, despite the grab was defended
Fixed bug where in Training mode guards would turn off in some characters after a win

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.07.29

FIX:

FPP mode is now sharp weapons only, until camera systems are sorted out to not show insides of the head meshes in No Blood modes
Alexander: Fixed a bug with wrong camera looking direction during the FPP Grab Finisher
Fixed bug where round score did not reset if you quit to Menu during a fight

NEW:

Training Mode: Static opponent option is now added with 99 rounds (optionally can be controlled by player 2)
Marta: HEMA gear Character Selection picture

NOTES: There is no head shadow in FPP mode yet, will be fixed later on :)

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.07.28

FIX:

Fixed bug, where if there was a duble hit in training mode, the first one that scored a hit, played an uninterrupted win animation. Now a lose animation overrides the win (on double hit).
Armory arena: Fixed too much DoF blur on closeup camera
Generally lowered DoF everywhere
Fixed Marie's Left Upper attack in Long Guard
Dodging back to safety after being pushed or your blade being bashed away should now be more reliable (it is froced and not dependent on state of previous animation now)

NEW:

New character: Marta
New mode: FPP (NOTE: Hellish Quart is designed as a side-view game. FPP mode is added just for fun, as an "afterthought". I will try to do what I can for it to feel better and better, but it is just an "extra" thing, a gimmick. For now it is super unpolished, but it will be improved over time - but the "regular" game comes first)
Training (sparring) mode scoring
Zera: Closeup Win camera
New music track: Marta

TWEAK:

Dodging when in Long Gaurd is now impossible
Only cut attacks from above can Bash the opponent's blade
Laszlo: Low attacks during Long Guard have different animations
Dynis: ragdoll tweaks
Dynis: a bit slower in-place attacks
Marie: ragdoll tweaks
Marie: thicker blade cut hit detector
Alexander: Cloth tweaks

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.07.04

FIX:

fixed face blurring in Win Cameras
fixed camera double fadeout at the end of duels
fixed Marie's active ragdoll not responding to the Muscle Strength slider in Options

TWEAK:

you can now go absurdly low with the Muscle Strength slider
Randomizer can't select the same arena twice in a row now (and it also makes the bug where music volume stays lowered in the second duel on the same arena obsolete)

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.06.25.0

FIX:

Sound Effect for chopping off hands now responds to Audio Volume controls in Menu

TWEAK:

Reverted dynamic Depth of Field on most arenas back to fixed DoF (dynamic focusing and defocusing the background proved to be distracting and sometimes focused on less meshed parts of the arenas that should always be out of focus by design)
FPS Optimizations in Stables Arena

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.06.24.0

NEW:

Wine Cellar Arena
Nürnberg Fechtschule Arena
Water Mill Arena
Stable Arena
Synthetic HEMA swords mode
Black Fencer Synthetic swords (with audio)

TWEAK:

Depth of Field (camera focus) is now dynamic, focuses on fencers
Marie: a bit more accuracy with the sword tip with thrusts
Isabella: updated Move List
Minor tweaks of swords' inertia
Various other tweaks

FIX:

Father Zera: physics fixes
Fixed a bug where changing the postprocessing quality in Menu didn't work on some arenas
Removed obsolete and no longer working "Push Down Blade" attacks from all fencers (now you just cut-attack into opponent's Long Guard to bash his sword away)
Fixed a bug where exact same 2 characters were picked way too often by randomizer in History Buff mode
Various small fixes

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.05.25.0

FIX:

Fixed bug when a character could still inflict damage on afterblow with a "phantom" sword after he let go of the sword (but with hand not cut off)
characters with custom hats and heads skins should not spawn and drop their original hats when killed
radio music in Gym Hall arena now reacts to Fight Music Volume Slider and not Ambient Volume Slider like before
Increased sword collision detection radius to prevent physics freezing for a moment because of unsolvable scenarios
Fixed Father Zera's left shoulder IK problems

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.05.24.0

FIX:

Fixed bug when a character with cut off hand could still inflict damage on afterblow with a "phantom" sword
Fixed Isabella's cuts from Posta di Donna having too much physics damping
Fixed bug where sky was not rendered in Pause Free Camera
Fixed bug where Isabella left shoulder was influenced by IK (looking dislocated)
Fixed bug where Left player could choose customizations for the Right player in 2-players mode
Fixed bug where History Buff cards were a bit smaller than the screen on ultrawide monitors

TWEAK:

Isabella: less damping on sword
Long Guard no longer Binds to the opponent's thrusting weapon, if the opponent is not in Long Guard
UI sounds pass
Sword-hit-flesh sounds pass
Kalkstein: a bit less sword inertia

NEW:

Master Volume slider
Laszlo: new Win animations
Laszlo: new Win but Wounded animations
Laszlo: Win camera shot
Laszlo: Customizations and HEMA gear
Gedeon: HEMA gear
Zera: HEMA gear
Kalkstein: Superior Fencing HEMA gear
Kalkstein: HEMA steel sidesword
Marie: Tempus Fugitives / PBT Hema Gear

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.04.09.0

NEW:

New character: Alexander

FIX:
Fixed bug when some Close Attacks (kicks, fists) animations were not interruptible by next animations
Fixed bug when some Hits Reactions animations were not interruptible by next animations
Fixed bug when some Hits Reactions animations were not playing fully, even if uninterrupted
Fixed some bugs with guard animations priority when changing feet stances
Various small other fixes

TWEAKS:
Further tweaks of the blade collision system
Various small tweaks

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.03.29

TWEAK:

Further tweaks of the blade collision system
Marie: general tweaks, new combos
Isabella: a bit slower
Active ragdoll polish pass

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.03.9.1

TWEAK:

Zera, Isabella: swords penetrate the body on thrust hit

FIX:
Fixed regression: bug where some characters wouldn't deal damage on thrust attack

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.03.09.0

TWEAK:

Further tweaks of the blade collision system
Tweaks in linking attacks for all characters
Limited maximum blade angular velocity to limit occurrences of "impossible" physics situations, and blades getting stuck as a result
Kalkstein: Less sword inertia

FIX:
Jacek: Fixed a bug with linking Fwd attacks
Fixed some characters triggering Victory animation multiple times

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.03.05.0

TWEAK:

Snow Hut arena: lighting tweaks
Marie: small thrust hit animations tweaks

FIX:
Fixed regression: Grab animation mechanics
Fixed regression: Sometimes characters would turn off root motion after a defended Grab
Blade Push (RT button) has priority over Close Attacks (punches, kicks etc.) if they hit simultaneously
Grabs have priority over Blade Push and Close Attacks if they hit simultaneously
Grab and Blade Push have active frames now, instead of a single distance and angle check at the moment of pressing the button
Isabella: Combo "Fwd, 1, 2" has now near-far blending
Laszlo: Fixed wrong guard response on second attack of "Fwd, 3, 4" combo
Fixed a bug where "Down, Back, 2" attacks worked as "Down, hold Back, 2" attacks. They now work normally.

NEW:
Procedural Feet Stabilization - due to large amount of polish needed, this will for now remain optional; off by default, you can turn it on in Gameplay Options

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.03.03.0

NEW:

Added procedural feet stabilization to minimize sliding

TWEAK:
Further tweaks of collision system
Further tweaks on weapon inertia
Swords audio tweaks

FIX:
In case of a double hit, a victory animation can now be interrupted by a hit animation, and not only by death animation. If the character survives, the "wounded victory" animation will play
Fixed bug when sometimes characters wouldn't play victory animation if they get hit after the victory starts
Fixed bug when characters would sometimes not turn on root motion back on after being grabbed
Gedeon: fixed bug where followup attacks in a combo string often did not detect impacts

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.02.26.0

NEW:

Isabella: New attack animations (replacing some older attacks)
Isabella: all new "tap-tap" defeat animations for training mode for every body part
Isabella: training mode "win" animations
Customization: Red Dragon HEMA training gear
Customization: Spes HEMA training gear
Modern School Gym Arena
Training mode with steel blunt weapons (before it was wooden wasters only)
New weapon impact sounds for longswords and rapiers
Different method of triggering blade clash sounds (one independent clash sound, instead of every blade making it's own)
Separate volume slider for blade clash sounds

TWEAK:
Different physics collision detection system (more precise blade on blade contact detection)
Increased physics simulation iterations (more precise simulation, takes a bit more processing power, but it's worth it)
Isabella: faster attack linking
Isabella: tweaked longsword inertia to behave more realistic (so it feels heavier)

FIX:
Jacek: fixed blood not showing on blade
Fixed bug where "tap-tap" losing animation in training mode was played with 0.7 speed, because defeated character had 0 stamina
Isabella: Fixed left hand IK issues
Isabella: Fixed too much stamina consumption by some of the combos
Zera: Fixed left hand IK issues
Fixed bug where some of the characters couldn't grab an attacking opponent during his whole attack animation, and not only during the active frames of the attack animation
Fixed bug where there was no sound in "win camera", when winning or losing in no blood mode

Known issues:
Isabella's attacks are Work In Progress - more to come.
Isabella's move list is not fully correct yet, because of new attacks are in progress
Level select panel: School Gym level shows Watchtower preview instead of School Gym preview

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2022.01.03.0

FIX:

Marie: Fixed minor bugs in AI
Gedeon: Fixed minor bugs in AI
Kalksten: fixed bug where you could push away the opponent's weapon with a thrust
Manor arena: minor memory optimization

TWEAK:

Minimal amount of damage for every weapon is now 11, even if you set the damage multiplier in Options to minimal values. This will cause a successful hit to always cause some damage.
Survival and History Buff Mode: arenas will no longer repeat two times in a row changed music tracks in Watchtower arena
Known bugs: Jacek's AI can freeze after defending grab (this bug will disappear after AI refactoring, which will be soon)

Next update plans: Migration to newest engine version and changing the rendering pipeline (the game should look better and will allow to add modern graphical options, like RTX, DLSS, FidelityFX, etc.).

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2021.12.18.0

NEW:

All characters can now Bind Blades (keep contact with opponent's blade using Long Guard, if the opponent is also in Long Guard or makes a thrust attack, or has a thrust-oriented weapon). Precision of the Bind varies (best for nimble weapons, worse for tip-heavy weapons, worst for fencers under influence ;)). From now on Long Guard (aka Blade Bind) is the best stance for blocking thrusts, while the normal stance is mainly for blocking cuts (but it can still block thrusts, just not as well as Long Guard)

All characters can now push away opponent's blade, by making a cut attack into opponent's blade, when he is in Long Guard

Marie: many new attacks (mostly form Long Guard)

New music track in Abandoned Church

TWEAK:

Gedeon can now bash through weak part (the top section) of all one handed blades
All characters: Long Guard idle animations now blend near-far depending on distance
All characters: slight changes to AI to accommodate Blade Bind mechanics (temporary, AI will get a full refactor soon)
Father Zera: a bit slower attacks

FIX:

Fixed bug, where there was a delay in triggering Long Guard stance, if you pressed - Long Guard while walking backward
Fixed bug where not all music tracks were selected to play when randomized

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2021.11.25.0

NEW:

Watchtower arena (experiment - some blade-stopping obstacles are on the arena) WORK IN PROGRESS (just to test, will be finished in a couple of days):

Long Guard has now Blade Bind functionality: a) Holding Long Guard snaps your blade to the opponent's blade, if the opponent is also in Long Guard, or does a thrust attack b) Holding Long Guard greatly improves defense against thrusts c) If you attack, you break the Blade Bind d) the default guard of thrust centric and semi-thrust centric weapons is considered to work like if they were in Long Guard (currently: Marie, Kalkstein); they can be bound by Blade Bind, even in default guard

If your cutting attack hits the opponent's blade and your opponent is in Long Guard, your opponent will stagger for a split second

TWEAK:

Marie: Aiming with wrist is back on, but set to 50% and calculated during pre-ragdoll pass
Jacek: Increased damage
Barabasz: Increased damage
Meadow arena: redone lighting
Jacek, Barabasz: shorter cooldown time before next attack is possible after being blocked
Abandoned Church now has empty marks after looted paintings
Father Zera doesn't wear a cross (will be a flask instead later on)

FIX:

Laszlo: Fixed bug where Lunge attack was causing incorrect guards, dependent on which button you triggered the lunge with
Laszlo: Fixed bug where in thrust attacks, the point of the sabre was causing same damage as the edge "near-miss" cut; now point deals full dagame, and edge causes minimal damage

KNOWN ISSUES (with this update):

Binding is not yet complete (it works only for Marie, and partially for Jacek and Laszlo)
Binding doesn't have attacking mechanics yet (just blocking)

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2021.11.10.0

NEW:

Wooden Church arena
Level Selection Screen: Previous level selection is now saved for this session

Update 0.2422

Fixed: changelog menu section not appearing

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2021.07.26.0

NEW:

Added Customization menu (WIP)
Added Jacek customization (WIP)
Added Isabella customization (WIP)
Level select: random Button
Added an option to unlock cursor during fights (in Options\Gameplay)
Some new History Buff cards
Choice of sharp or wooden weapons in whole Fight section
Added Mouse button rebinding
Deformable snow in Snowy Hut level

TWEAK:

Level camera postprocessing adjustment pass
"Empty" level is now "Brick Floor" level (still relatively empty for low PC resources consumption)
Wooden weapon sparring moved from Fight to Training section
When you press F3 during fight, Stamina Bar now stays visible until you exit the game or press F3 again (temporary feature)
Loading process refactor to lower memory demands minor optimization pass (normalized max texture resolutions) to lower memory demand to be under 4 GB RAM
What's New panel now shows all history of updates

FIX:

fixed: Bug where some History Buff cards wouldn't render text

Known issues:

Blood decals still have shape of original clothes, ignoring customization
When hit in the head or chopped off head original hat falls off, ignoring the customization
Sharp weapons drop instead of wooden on defeat with wooden weapons

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2021.06.23.0

NEW:

New character - Kalkstein

FIX:

Laszlo: Fixed bug where thrust attacks could bash through rapier guard (only actual bashing attacks to upper section of rapier should cause rapier block to give in) Laszlo: fixed some typing bugs in Move List Gedeon: fixed some typing bugs in Move List

TWEAK:

Gedeon: more explosive step attack animation Gedeon: corrected blade trajectory in Long Guard Thrust attack Isabella: Tires a bit less quickly and regenerates way more quickly

Known issues

Kalkstein: pushing the blade doesn't work correctly yet Kalkstein: Long Guard attacks are still not all in Kalsktein: Generally fresh, not balanced yet etc. Kalkstein: Uses saber AI for now, dedicated AI is coming soon

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2021.05.19.0

NEW:

Marie: New special moves

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2021.05.18.0

NEW:

Gedeon: new special moves (new animations)

TWEAK:
Gedeon: has 5% more HP on chest and stomach
Marie: deals 15% more damage
Marie: is 3% more accurate when aiming in thrust

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2021.05.12.0

TWEAK:

Lowered Grab defense time from 1s to 0.5s
Isabella: Some attacks are 2% faster
Isabella: Most attacks deal 30% more damage
Isabella: 5% stronger muscles
Jacek: Some attacks are 4% slower
Laszlo: Some attacks are 4% slower
All sabers: more likely to give in when bashed by a longsword (larger weak part of the blade)

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2021.05.10.0

FIX:

Laszlo: fixed bug where you could launch an obsolete attack animation

NEW:

New character models (not playable yet, we are animating them now)
Jacek: Win but wounded animations

Hint:

If you want all non-cosmetic things (like Laszlo character) unlocked from the start, type this secret code on main menu screen: hqall

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2021.03.25.0

FIX:

Fixed bug where you could spam Push Hand very fast with Marie and standarized Push Hand timings for all characters
After Grab Break characters now dodge backwards to prevent spamming Grab, which sometimes led to characters passing each other for a moment

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2021.03.24.0

FIX:

bug where when Laszlo is selected, the visible name is Marie

TWEAK:

Marie doesn't constantly repeat push and attack scheme, when in close range

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2021.03.02.0

NEW:

Ambient Audio slider in Audio Options Foliage Density slider in Graphics Options

TWEAK:

lowered wind sound on Steppe level less grass on Steppe level (a bit higher fps on low spec machines) Jacek on Aggressive AI uses more cuts rather than stabs (easier)

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v.0.21011

FIX:

Fixed bug where Barabasz saber's collision box was too long
Fixed bug where Pause could break time scale in some cases
Fixed bug where attacking could sometimes result in wounding self
Previous: Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2021.02.23.0

FIX:

Fixed bug where while holding back + left or right and attacking would instantly cancel the attack

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2021.02.22.0

TWEAK:

AI tweaks

Empty Arena has music back on stripping down Meadow scene for additional FPS (wip)

FIX:

Isabella: changing stances when on the right side is now done with correct up/down diection instead of left/right in game logic
Fixed bug when Jacek tried to enter ragdoll mode after decapitation
Fixed bug where Isabella sometimes freezes when changing high and low guard stances
Pushing down the blade (hold Long Guard and press one of low attacks) now works on Marie

NEW:

Barabasz: some new attack animations (beginnig to differentiate Barabasz from Jacek)
Added new music track for Gallows arena bashing an idle blade makes it lose aim upon thrust for 0.3s (for example: bash Marie's rapier right before she attacks and she will lose aim for a moment)
Practice mode (wooden weapons, no blood, endless) - in production / unpolished yet

Hellish Quart pre-alpha v. 2021.02.17.0

FIX:

Isabella: changing stances when on the right side is now done with correct up/down diection instead of left/right in game logic Fixed bug when Jacek tried to enter ragdoll mode after decapitation Fixed bug where Isabella sometimes freezes when changing high and low guard stances NEW:

Barabasz: some new attack animations (beginnig to differentiate Barabasz from Jacek) Added new music track for Gallows arena