MAJOR Ash & Rust update for 1 September 2023

The Rationale

As I continue working on Multiplayer, I kept running into some persistent desync issues between the client's player position, and the server's, mostly in regards to Strike and other ability animations that have motion built into them. Eventually I settled on a solution which led me into this big overhaul of all animations, and especially with Strike.

How does it work now?

TLDR: Strike now functions less like a MOBA, and more like Dark Souls/traditional ARPGs. It should be a lot visually clearer what's going on, and hopefully feel more visceral and fun!
Previously, all Strike animations were pretty quick but there was a short Cooldown before the player could attack again, based on what type of Weapons were equipped. Now, all Weapons have an "Attacks per Second" value which dictate the maximum times the player will Strike per second. And instead of super quick animations, the Weapons all have their own timed animations so that they approximate the Attacks per Second speed. Additionally, now the Character Stat "Action Speed" has a major effect on Strike, increasing both the animation speed and the overall Attacks per Second.

Work in Progress

• The new system still has some rough areas, like both hands of the player character often not aligning properly with the weapon. I'm trying to implement a procedural system that will take care of that but if it fails, I'll go through and manually correct them.
• Added some experimental "Stop" transitions when the player stops moving.
• A couple Strike-related Augments will be pretty useless now , like Opportunist, until I rework them.
• There's a known bug if you equip a Right-hand Scepter and an Offhand, and then swap the Scepter for a melee weapon, your Strike range will be bugged. Un-equip and re-equip both items and it should be fixed.

And Lastly

In order to try and expand our playerbase and reach a wider audience in preparation for Multiplayer, I've [temporarily] reduced the price of the game. To anyone reading this who has previously paid for the game at a higher price, please know that every single dollar has gone back into improving this game and that your support has allowed for the continued progress of the project so I just want to say THANK YOU!!! for making this dream a reality.