Patch notes

External Playtest

0.3.3348 (9.27.2018 01:51 AM)

This build was released for External Playtest Round 4, running September 22 - October 5, 2018.

0.3.20580 (8.21.2018 11:26 AM)

This build was released for External Playtest Round 3, running August 22 - September 5, 2018.

0.3.32550 (7.31.2018 06:05 PM)

This build was released for External Playtest Round 2, running August 1 - August 15, 2018.

0.3.24716 (7.13.2018 01:43 PM)

This build was released for External Playtest Round 1, running July 14 - July 27, 2018.

Alpha

0.3.-30955 (6.25.2018 07:12 PM)

This build includes:

PLUTO’S GATE – this is our post-intro “un-training level,” designed by Cabirus to ease your entrance to The Stygian Abyss. This is an updated and revised version of the area played at PAX East.

UPPER EREBUS – this is a level from later in the game with a variety of enemies and challenges. This is an updated version of the area that was playable at E3.

SKILLS

Note: When you are placed in Upper Erebus, you will receive a large number of skills as if you have completed a number of hours of gameplay. Skill descriptions are available in game and in some cases noted below. This is a powerful kit. You will be able to move faster and withstand much more damage than what you have in Pluto’s Gate. But this will help you test a variety of skills for us and give us feedback on them.

• Combat

• Haste
• Sword Mastery
• Parry
• Sprint
• Pitch of the Pedro – Handheld objects can be thrown quicker to deal more damage.
• Lift
• Avatar Smash
• Jump
• Feather Fall
• Wall Run

• Magic

• Mage Sight – Allows you to see mana motes.
• Casting Boost 1-3
• Mana Boost 1-5
• Mana Attractor – Automatically brings mana motes within a visible radius to you.

• Stealth

• Stealth Sense – While crouching, the UI element will indicate how visible you are. (“Open eyeball” is highly visible, “closed eyeball” is undetected”)
• Concealment
• Climb/Mantle – You will automatically mantle over small ledges and objects while moving forward (e.g., holding down “w”)
• Climb Ropes
• Dash
• Dash 2 – While crouching, hold left shift to view where you can dash towards. Release shift to dash. Can leap across gaps. You WILL collide with anything in the way.
• Backstab – While crouching behind an enemy undetected, striking with a sharp object (sword, dagger, etc) will do bonus damage.
• Pounce – Attacking an enemy while undetected will do bonus damage.
• Lucky Shot – While you’re aiming with a bow and arrow, you can time the release when the little arrow indicator is in the center of the bar to receive a damage boost.
• Sniping – Headshots while concealed deal double damage. Can one-shot Tier 1 Skeletons.

ITEMS

• Armor (Basic)

• Masterwork Platemail
• Boots
• Helmets

• Weapons

• Jewel of Befuddlement – Throw this at an enemy and they will be temporarily stunned and forget they saw you.
• Flint Arrows
• Bow
• Water Arrows – Does not deal damage to enemies. Can put out fires.
• Blast Arrows – Deals minor damage. On collision, a blast of air will be released.
• Tripwire – Anything that walks into a tripwire will receive damage, including yourself! Select the tripwire and click Left Mouse to have the placement indicator appear. Move against a vertical surface where the placement indicator is tinted white and click again to place it. If the placement indicator is tinted red, that means an opposing surface is not close enough, and the trap can’t be placed there.

• Memora – A magical means for capturing memories. Raw Memora is used as currency. Memora containing key information or survival skills is greatly valued. (A Memora containing secrets is a quest item in the Upper Erebus mission)
• Silver Sapling – Plant it anywhere in dirt. You will always respawn at the Silver Sapling. It can only be in one place at any one time, so be mindful of where you re-plant it!
• Food

• Fromage du Propre
• Eyeless Nether Fish – Don’t ask, don’t tell.
• Corn of the Erinyes

• Wands

• Move Plant – Cast once to bring a wooden object towards you. On the same wooden object, casting again will push the wooden object away from you.
• Bind Spirit – Charms living creatures and shackles the Undead to the ground for a short period of time.
• Bind Plant – Immobilizes wooden objects in place for a short time.

CREATURES

• Tier 1 & Tier 2 Skeletons
• Rippers
• Eidolon (Note, cannot be damaged directly)
• Wisps

GAMEPLAY AND BUILD NOTES:

A note on what’s in and not in the build: you are seeing a small slice of the game overall, consisting of a training level as well as part of another level. You’re also seeing only a portion of the skills and abilities the game will ship with, particularly only a small amount of magic spells and runes. We’re also deliberately not including much of the narrative and additional quests, primarily to reduce spoilers.

Item interaction – when you grab an object, we display an indicator line that shows where you are hold that object. That anchor point can impact how and where you can place the object. Sometimes it’s easier to “push” objects than “pull” them.

Item Highlighting – we’re investigating being able to turn off the object highlighting for those that wish to do so. The option is not in this build.

Reward Screen – this is still a work-in-progress and we welcome your feedback on it as well as on the kinds of things you would want to show

Narrative and Quests – we are not exposing much of it at this time to avoid or minimize spoilers

KNOWN ISSUES – there are many more, these are the more likely you’ll encounter:

• Flaming arrows don’t set doors on fire – known bug
• “Combat and Movement feels clunky” – we’re actively working to refine combat and related systems. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.
• “Stealth Light sensor doesn’t work on Mac+Linux” – it will act as full bright for this build pending a Unity engine update
• “Spell X is difficult to use or understand how it is supposed to work” – we’re updating the usability as well as the in-game messaging to address this, but please do still tell us how you think they should work
• “Loading Times are very long” – We’ll be addressing this issue in the coming weeks
• “Is it Localized?” – Localization has not been fully implemented yet, there are dropdowns in the options but most of the languages are currently empty or have default google translations.
• Object interaction – currently the players’ hands continue to appear when carrying an item, that will be fixed so that the hands will not show
• Object interaction – pressing E to drop an item while having the mouse over another object will cause you to drop the first object and pick up the second. That is not the intended behavior and a fix is in the works
• Object interaction – when holding an object, you can hold the right mouse button down to rotate it and use the mouse wheel to move the object closer or farther away from you
• Items – Not all food will heal you and we will be getting better messaging in the game about what the different foods will do for you
• Items – the Silver Sapling won’t plant in various places that look like dirt. We’re aware and working on a fix
• Items – I keep getting the same loot. Not all loot is enabled in this build, there will be more!
• Map – the in-game map is not updating correctly so it’s showing, e.g., the end of Pluto’s Gate, not the beginning. We have fixed this already in the main game branch
• Enemies – Occasionally AI does not initialize in certain parts of a level so that the enemies are standing around doing nothing
• Graphics – The game is really dark – try turning the Brightness up in the Graphics settings
• Loading – There’s a long hitch at the beginning of Upper Eberus – this is related to navmesh (AI) loading, we’re aware and fixing
• Audio – there’s an issue where the volume of audio in menus and the interlude in Pluto’s Gate is much louder than the rest of the game sounds. That is being fixed.
• Mac – occasionally the level will end on a black screen.Reward screen – not all calculations are 100% accurate
• Mac – The build may fail to load on OSX 10.13.5.
• Mac / Linux – Enemy perception is currently very low, an update from Unity should fix that
• Mac / Linux – You may see some rendering bugs related to item highlighting and torch shadows
• Mac / Linux – Performance is currently not to part with the Windows version and we will be addressing that as we continue with development
• Mac / Linux – Some particle systems and surfaces may be black or pink.
• Rare Crash – Interacting with the lever in the physics room of Pluto’s Gate may crash the build.
• Rare Crash – Unity’s crash reporting has a rare crash that is ‘most likely’ fixed with the next release.
• Rare Crash – Using video caching (Social Tab in options) on Windows 10 machines can sometimes cause a crash several minutes into gameplay

BUG SUBMISSION

If you encounter bugs, please follow these steps:

• Open the PAUSE MENU
• Select the “BUGS” option, which will open a new tab with a
• Enter the title of the bug and basic description. Push SEND.
• If you encounter a bug in a specific area, you can take a screenshot that attached the coordinates of the location: Ctrl+F12

• send this to us at support@otherside-e.com with a basic description of your bug

Prototype

0.1.5849.001

Today, we’ve uploaded our new PRE-ALPHA PROTOTYPE for you to test out!

In it, you’re tasked with discovering what led an Underworld settlement to become overrun by undead. Four story tablets detailing the events are hidden in randomized locations throughout the level, such as inside chests, in sarcophagi, on raised platforms, or behind objects. Runestones (a required component in formulas for spells) and bonus gold bar collectables can also be found, sometimes in spots that require careful thought and skill to reach.

This area is infested with a band of fierce skeleton warriors, who you can battle with a longsword, stealthily evade, or devise other clever ways to deal with them. (Hint: Many objects in the world react to fire, air, earth, and plant spells, allowing for fun experimentation.)

While previous maps features blank, featureless walls and floors, the PRE-ALPHA PROTOTYPE shows progress on the game’s “Authored Look,” which attempts to recreate the look and feel of hand-sculpted fantasy miniatures and tabletop boards.

At the same time, it is an early work-in-progress. The visuals and audio will continue to improve steadily over the balance of this year. Current placeholder elements -- such as the player model, the user interface for spell casting, and spell effects -- will be greatly refined.

Its look and quality are in no way representative of the final game, so expect to see a few rough edges, but we hope you’ll like the direction it’s headed.

Play Notes

SWINGING A SWORD & CASTING SPELLS

To swing a sword:

• Draw back to prepare a blow (hold down the Left Mouse button or Right Trigger for at least a beat), then release when you want to make the attack. If you hold down too briefly your attack will be aborted.
• Holding longer produces a more powerful chop.
• Swinging while backing up produces a stab.

To cast a spell:

• Hit Tab or Back to bring up the Rune Menu
• Enter in a spell formula
• Hit Tab or Back to exit the Rune Menu
• Cast the spell by hitting the Left Mouse Button or Right Trigger

A few useful spell formulas:

• MOVE AIR (Ehwaz Hagalaz): Creates a blast of air
• MOVE EARTH (Ehwaz Eiwaz): Levitates stone objects
• MOVE PLANT (Ehwaz Jera): Levitates wooden objects
• CREATE PLANT (Berkanon Jera) (while aimed at a ceiling): Produces a climbable vine
• CREATE FIRE (Berkanon Kenaz): Lights wooden objects on fire

To switch back and forth between Spells and Swords, press 1 and 2 or Y.

Object Interaction

• To interact with an object, tap E or X.
• To grab an object, hold E or X. Then, to drop, hold E or X again.
• Many doors are locked, but since they’re made out of wood can be chopped down, burnt down by spreading fire (by holding a barrel up to a torch, then holding it against the door), or burnt down using a CREATE FIRE (Berkanon Kenaz) spell.
• Stone coffin lids are very heavy, but the player can open them by either:

• Grabbing and pulling up, over, and down. (Note: This is intentionally tough.)
• Casting a MOVE EARTH (Ehwaz Eiwaz) spell on them to make a lid levitate.

• Objects suspended by rope can be dropped by setting the rope on fire.

Controls

GAME CONTROLLER

• Look – Right stick
• Move – Left stick
• A – Jump
• B – Crouch/Uncrouch
• Left shoulder – Hold to sprint

• X – Interact (Tap to frob. Hold to grab or drop.)
• Start – Pause menu
• Y - Switch between Spells & Sword

• SWORD

• Right trigger – Attack
• Hold to prepare an attack. Release to attack.
• Hold longer to ready a chop.
• Hold while retreating to stab.

• SPELLS

• Back - Access menu to enter rune formula
• Right trigger - Cast selected spell

KEYBOARD

• WASD – Move
• Mouse - Look
• Space bar - Jump
• Ctrl - Crouch/Uncrouch
• Shift – Hold to sprint

• E – Interact (Tap to frob. Hold to grab.)
• Escape – Pause menu
• 1 - Select Spells
• 2 - Select Sword

• SWORD

• L-Mouse – Attack
• Hold to prepare an attack. Release to attack.
• Hold longer to ready a chop.
• Hold while retreating to stab.

• SPELLS

• Tab - Access menu to enter rune formula
• L-Mouse - Cast selected spell

In this work-in-progress prototype, you may encounter a number of known issues, including, but not limited to:

• Fire cannot be transferred to crates and lava currently does not set objects on fire.
• Missing audio for opening chests, rune pick-up, and player footsteps.
• Placeholder character model.
• Early pass at vfx for spells and fire.
• Missing or placeholder destruction state for objects like crates and barrels.
• Occasional pathing issues for skeletons.

0.1.5835.001

Patch for prototype on February 12, 2016:

• A skill panel! Skills are placeholder and by no means final, or even close to the order they will be in. Really, it's just a panel to select skills at the moment.

• Double Jump. Like the name says, air control with it is pretty awesome too. I'm able to jump around corners using it.
• Lift object. Limit right now is around 80kg. You can pick up and throw a body easily. Now you can clean up after killing enemies in the combat pit and put them in the dumpster where they belong.
• Better Jump Skill - you jump with more power.
• Climb rope Skill - you climb faster.

Note: basic climb of a rope is now slower.

• Sprint Skill- Beep Beep. You sprint faster than a normal human. Also added a speedometer. -- it comes out to around 15/16 mph top tier athlete, but not Usain Bolt.
• Invincibility - not final name. A chance of returning to life with half your health.
• DASH! A dash ability that acts like the teleport from Dishonored.

• Bug fixes!

• Fix to the IK climbing ropes
• Fix to prefabs and their meshes not being shared causing performance issues.
• Fix to wallrunning -easier to execute
• Fix to wall sliding is also easier now.

0.1.5822.001

Patch for prototype on February 2, 2016:

• Our lead designer Tim and engineer Will have fashioned the bones we can build upon for a robust movement system. They’ve decided – at least, for the moment – to have full body awareness. That means that the body of the player is visible and reacts like any other physical object in the world. Momentum matters. Run faster? You jump further. Chain jumps together and you keep your momentum going. Stop for a second and your momentum is lost. If you pause while jumping wall-to-wall, you start sliding down the side of the wall. Sliding down a slope is fast and running up a slope is slower than on a flat plane.
• Secondly, we’ve stood up the beginnings of combat. There are three attacks so far: a light swing, an overhead swing, and a stab. There’s a bad guy wandering around the space who’s just itching to be hit.
• That’s the feeling we’re going after – but with more robust tactics, movement, and better use of the 3D space than was technically possible in the original games. Enemies with have ‘tells’ so the player can learn to react to them properly. We’re still looking at other complexities like locational damage, status effects, dodging, and blocking. How complex we push the AI in combat is being experimented with, but we expect them to have far more options than “ARRGH kill the player!” and “Oh, no! I’m hurt! Run away!” If they have spells, they’ll use them. If they’re carrying a magic weapon, you can be sure it’ll be equipped.

0.1.5817.001

Patch for prototype on December 21, 2015:

• The last few weeks we've mostly been working on other features, but it has received some love in the form of bugfixing and a new movement ability: wall-running.
• To Wall-run simply sprint forward (Shift + W) at about a 30 degree angle from a wall and jump into it.
• Also, you can jump off the wall if you hit space while wall-running.
• You can also enter a wall-run by swinging off a rope and jumping into a wall at a good angle.

0.1.5816.266

Patch for prototype on December 4, 2015:

• jumping and ropes improvements
• Improvements to the mantle-er
• lights performance
• ground slide has a proper animation tied to it now
• you can ground slide by landing and holding crouch on an angled surface!
• getting out of the jumping state no longer sets your velocity to zero (this was killing your momentum when jumping onto ropes, and when landing on staircases, boxes, etc)
• detecting ropes is a little bigger/easier as well as more refined (if part of the rope is bent and part isn't you will grab the one that isn't. Before it would fail early if any part was bent past 45 degrees)
• bug fix: landing would sometimes make your guys arms hold up forever.
• pressing crouch to fall off a rope will no longer have you in 'crouch toggled on' mode when you land
• faster jump/land animation speeds
• ground slide physics is now an editable asset (instead of instancing one)
• basketball now has bouncy physics that make sense (yes, the NBA has regulations on it)
• bowling pin now has proper physics as well
• Removing the 'glint' intractable on objects.It was an interesting experiment, but feedback proved it wasn't good
• Grab objects is now faster.
• picking up objects now shows a different (heavy) icon for objects that you can't "lift" (anything over 20kg)
• move+bind plant now attach the marionette to the object's center of mass instead of its transform position (the explosive barrel and some other things would have a strange looking offset)

0.1.5805.3091

Initial playable prototype provided to Lore Seeker backers and above on November 24, 2015