Update log
Full We Who Are About To Die update
The complete published notes, normalized for clean reading and source attribution.
Extracted changes
- Gameplay
- Maps
- Events
AVE ASPIRANTS!
Welcome back to the third and last Preview on the upcoming Anniversary Update. First, a surprise - eagle eyed gladiators will have noticed the Anniversary for the game is actually ... tomorrow. Well, sharpen your daka's and chaka's:
The update is dropping tomorrow!
AI Gravitation Points
A quick second dive into the AI!
The AI in WWAATD uses "steering behavior" - basically, the AI doesn't have logic to go from hardcoded A to B to C, they instead have a list of general desires steering their movement every second.
They want to move towards their enemy, away from allies, away from traps, etc. All this gets added up and that decides their movement. It makes for super interesting movement, emergent surrounds and much more - all dynamically.
But, it's a bit too predictable. It ends up being too precise - perfect placement, almost robotic. We noticed once the AI finds an optimal place they don't move that much, and so it kind of made fights more static than before. Not the "combat dance" I envisioned.
To fix this, we've thrown something in the spanner. Introducing the Gravitation Point! There are now invisible balls in each map that can either attract or push away in the AI's steering behavior at a certain strength.
These spheres move around the map slowly and generally push characters around, forcing the duels and fights going on to also move as a whole. It makes for a WAY more lively and dynamic movement in the arena.
We use the reverse - a big map-wide attractor - in the field battle map of Draft, to make sure the reinforcements end up near the middle in a big skirmish.
I thought this was quite a clever fun solution, and wanted to show it off!
Corner-Me-Not
We've also added custom code for the AI to detect and prevent being cornered.
When retreating/escaping, the AI generally moves backwards, but if there is no space to go backwards, it will now take a less-favourable position sideways or even toward the enemy, desperately trying to avoid being cornered.
A cornered enemy will adjust the weights of potential locations (color coded here) based on where it's allowed to go. Here escaping via the rightmost wall is the best option (in this worst case scenario)
CONTENT - TRAITS
In preview #1 and #2 I revealed a bunch of traits with the new Attributes system - but we've also added some new general traits.
Harvester
It's almost harvesting season! With harvester, random enemies can carry pouches of gold, similar to the Valerius event or the Coin King Elite fight. These pouches get knocked off and can be picked up for a meaningful gold bonus.
Rabble Rouser
Reverse underdog? This trait sees the usually-minor-enemies grow up to full blown strength. You better kill quick in Survival matches, and Elite Fights especially need to be very carefully chosen.
Marked For Blood
A quarter of 1vs1's are stacked against you and spiced up. You could avoid duels entirely, or risk the extra challenge.
Hunted
1% chance for an Elite to appear in a random match. Surely... it won't happen to you right? This is a major negative trait alright - it could be nothing, but you wanna make sure you're ready, just in case.
CONTENT - ELITE'S
I showed off 2 of the new boss fights, lets look at the remaining 3!
Magistrate Magnus
Here to pass judgement, the Magistrate, clad in all bronze, is the lead imperial
Source