Hey, it's been a while.
Feels like I say that every post huh
This time, it actually has been awhile though, a full 3 months since my last post.
For good reason, since the game has been developed a lot more than last time, to the point the game is now in it's Beta State.
Let's talk about the Flowing Combat Combo Update (that is the name of the update for my playtesters)
What's new?
A lot, mainly balance changes and making the AI smarter/better to fight against, plus Chapter 2 is finally finished (after 4 months, god this game is not coming out in 2025 is it)
Enemy AI Additions, Balances, Etc.
Enemy Stamina System
Enemies now have a stamina system
You don't though, but bascially whenever you hit an Enemy or if their attack gets Perfect Blocked, they'll lose stamina
Once they completely lose all of their stamina, they'll go in a defensive mode where they'll back away from you and will block your attacks.
Though for certain enemies, once their health is below 15%, they'll go into a Adrenaline Mode permenantly until either you or they lose.
In this state, they'll be 2x as aggressive, 2x as fast and resistant to being knocked down,
can't be Stunned and can't dash or block, plus they will attack whenever they can.
Enemy Tag Out
When an Enemy sees that the Enemy Attacking You, either has their health at 1/3 of their max or is defending due to lack of stamina, then they'll tag out and begin to attack the player in order to defend/help the other enemy.
That was quite a bit, but now it's your turn.
Aidan's Balance and Changes
Eye for an Eye
You can now be stunned and knocked down, just like the enemies.
Added this to make sure that you're not just totally bullying the enemies, now the enemies can knock you down and/or stun you as well.
But unlike the enemies, you can increase your resistance by simply upgrading it.
Still though, I would be careful, as soon as you fall down, they for some reason (I actually did not code this) they will just begin to attack super fast
Slugfests
One thing I liked that happened in some boss fights in the Yakuza games is when the game would put you into a slugfest, but my issue is that they happened like 3 times throughout the series
So, if you and an enemy hit each other at the same time a couple of times in a row, you'll both get into a Slugfest, you'll need to smash X (or hold it, if you have the accessibility feature enabled) to win.
Just so you're not trying to get into slugfest with bosses and just keep spamming them, all bosses will automatically win Slugfests, until their health reaches below 25%
This gives a little risk and reward, as it mainly depends on how fast you are to respond.
No Free Get out of Jail Card
Blocking no longer negates all damage, it just reduces damage by 25-30%.
Why? To make Perfect Blocking make more sense and also because I was playing a Hajime No Ippo Roblox Fighting Game and in that game, Blocking doesn't negate all damage either.
Now let's get onto the story.
Story
As mentioned before, I finally finished Chapter 2.
Why did it take so long?
Procrastination and being Burnt Out, plus I am animating a show with my friends, so that also is taking up my time.
I was able to get a couple more cutscenes finished and I'm a lot more proud of them due to how much more complex they are than the copy and paste animations I was doing before.
Currently, I'm working on a long fight and just making sure it's fun to play and not super buggy, plus I'm working on a Boss Fight as well at the end of this long fight, who has their own moveset with some special abilities.
That is 2/7 Chapters complete so far, also it's seven, as the beginning to middle of Chapter 3 has been combined with Chapter 2, for better pacing.
Since changing chapters 3 times within an hour or two does get annoying and make the game feel like it's going too fast.
That's all for now, now with the foundation set in place, Chapter 3 should take less time to develop than Chapter 2.