Wearables and appearance:
Gladiator helmet, Crop top armor
Simple gloves (short), Simple gloves (medium length)
Enable material transparency for the Semi revealing crop tops (normal and loose, frayed) and the Loincloth
Updated Loincloth to better match the frayed look on the Semi revealing crop top
Updated default characters to use the new items / capabilities. Use Update existing characters' appearance under Options to get the changes (note that any custom outfits you might have added to the default characters will be overwritten)
Stages / arenas:
New: Gladiator arena
Mechanics:
Assigning xp to a stat in a category no longer clears unused remaining xp (remaining xp below the cost of an upgrade unit was being lost previously)
Implemented an Auto assign xp option per character, that goes through all available category xps and assigns them to one stat per category. It aims for equal ratio growth between all stats in a category, meaning the stat with the smallest growth ratio (compared to that default stat baseline) will get the xp. Note the xp assignment will happen only when (and as soon as) the character is selected
Added an Option that allows other characters to learn (gain xp) from matches they are not a participant in. Reasoning: if you have a main character, that character will gain a disproportionate amount of xp compared to their opponents, which will lead to always fighting characters that are weaker in comparison. How it works: not all characters will gain xp. Only the past opponents of both characters involved in the match - who are weaker than either of the two - will gain xp. All category xps gained are a percentage of the maximum xp gained by any of the two fighters for that category (i.e. learn from the best). Currently the learned xp is 2/3 of the xp gained. The option is off by default and needs to be set under Options
A closed, hard head accessory like the Gladiator helmet deters the opponent from initiating face hits, and prevents access to the wearer's mouth. Kiss actions cannot be initiated while wearing such a helmet
A hard top armor like the Crop top armor deters the opponent from initiating certain chest attack actions. It also prevents the wearer from initiating any sort of smothering actions. On the other hand it gives a willpower damage bonus when performing chest driven attacks against an unarmored opponent, and prevents endurance damage during certain actions
Head accessories (e.g. helmets, crowns) can now be unequipped during the post defeat phase (both through the list of choices, or independently by npcs)
Clearer structure in certain actions
Other:
Stage selection screen improvements, showing both selected characters and a background shot of the selected stage
The last stage / arena used is now saved (independently) across sessions for the the versus, tournament, gauntlet and challengers modes. The option is saved only when being used (i.e. not when selecting it, but on confirming the selection by starting a match)
Added wearable clipboard in the Character editor. Can be used to transfer a wearable from one character to another (note: if you want to transfer the whole outfit use the Outfit copy / paste options under the top drop-down) or even as a primitive form of undo, where you can copy a state, make changes to the wearable and then paste the saved state if you change your mind
Added Copy / Paste functionality to the tweaking section of the character stats editor, to easier share the tweaked stats between multiple characters
Target responses are delayed by 0.75s, to give the actor a chance to perform the action or at least its introduction, and make it feel a bit more like a dialogue
Incremental updates to the default dialogue that add context awareness. Dialogue updates will continue iteratively, as they are quite time consuming and doing them in one go wouldn't leave enough time for other meaningful updates. For now only the default dialogue is being updated and expanded, and will serve as a template for the others. If you want to see how it feels make sure both your selected opponents use it (rather than bitch, honorable or innocent)
Internal support for marking an item as un-equippable (used for e.g. horns and such) so it wouldn't be taken off when removing headwear
Condition support for the new mechanics re: closed helmets / hard shell clothing (i.e. armor)
Fixes:
Fix race condition happening on win that could result in the old action flow taking over the win flow and causing the game to go into a never ending loop
Fix certain edge cases in which two characters would perceive their historical performance against one another in slightly different ways
Fix potential crash in edge case when exiting a match and the boost effort routine runs one last time after the characters' role histories have been cleared
Reset and re-apply corresponding morphs always when (un)equipping an item
Fix resetting all default characters not clearing their memories and wins/draws/losses
Fix no normal map intensity slider in the skin material editor when going from no normal map to a new one