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PURE ONYX October 2022 Progress Update!
🕑 Added 2022-10-31 13:11:16 +0000 UTCHey everyone!
We'll have another Pure Onyx release ready for you later tonight 🎃!
The major change this month is that we've added the Bunny Girl enemies for combat ^-^. Some other significant changes are that we've increased vertical movement speed for Onyx and all enemies, as well as given enemies increased movement range when not performing an attack/action. This looks and feels much more natural -- enemies feel more like moving targets now, but the player has increased mobility.
AltairPL is deep into backend work at the moment upgrading our asset database so that the game starts much faster (among other resource/performance benefits). As this is important, we'll be adding the futa mechanics to the bunnies after he switches gears to integrate it properly with the visual equipment and H content filtering systems.
Mr. Kittyhawk has also integrated our "Aggression Profile" system into the database. This is a backend system that allows for organic AI-based scaling of enemy difficulty. Instead of simply giving enemies more health/damage, any number of their parameters may scale (knockdown time may shorten, defend chance may increase, time between actions may decrease, etc.). We've been doing this for a long time with the wave survival test missions (higher waves = higher difficulty), but it's now integrated in a way that can be used flexibly with actual game mechanics instead of simply the wave spawner.
We have a lot to show and discuss in terms of art and combat as well, so check below for new work there!
Topics for this Update!
- October Release Details
- Bunny Girl Enemies In-Game!
- DK-Doll Sculpt Complete!
- Onyx Concept Animation GIFs
- Background Art Breakthrough!
October Release Details
Tentative Changelog (** indicates items added or being added since the October 25 Inner Circle test release):
- ** Added Bat Bunny enemy for combat, along with her combo attack. Find her in the Red-Light test map and survival mission wave spawner.
- Added new SFX and liquid FX for the Onyx and FemCop 2x Vioreaper scenes.
- Added more liquid FX to FemCop's 1x Vioreaper scene.
- Added Blade Bunny enemy for combat, along with her Whirlwind and Swift Slash attacks. Find her in the Red-Light test map and survival mission wave spawner.
- Added Blade Bunny LOD rig (higher performance in Red-Light map + when she's on screen for H scenes)
- Significantly increased Onyx's and all enemies' vertical walk speed.
- Increased "Nudge" distance across all enemies to prevent twitchy movement and to make enemies more mobile/unpredictable.
- Greatly increased barrel explosion damage.
- Certain enemy attacks can now damage destructible objects.
- Foreground bunnies will now be hidden during grapples / H scenes so as to not obstruct view in Red-Light test map.
- Fixed issue where worm splat FX would shrink/grow while zooming in/out.
Bunny Girl Enemies In-Game!
As mentioned above, we've added the Bunny Girl enemies to the game! It was definitely a lot of work adding two enemies at once, so they still have more attacks to be added. Even with most of their animations "complete" it was tough to predict all the changes necessary before getting them in-game and testing, so Penapsquat and I spent a lot of time this month there.
Mr. Kittyhawk developed AI for two new attacks -- Blade Bunny's Swift Slash and Whirlwind, and I worked on the FX. We also have Bat Bunny's combo in, but it still needs FX.
As mentioned above, we've delayed the futa mechanics a bit until AltairPL is available to add them, as right now what he's working on is super important.
DK-Doll Sculpt Complete!
Demonu has completed the DK-Doll sculpt! I think the bodysuit came out pretty amazing :D. He's done it in such a way that we have both female and futa versions in the event we are able to integrate both (don't worry, the bikini female version is happening also). Colors may change still, and we still have to do a damaged version as well, so we can maybe expect those in the next update.
Onyx Concept Animation GIFs
Limbo has been working this month on creating animated GIF versions of planned Onyx moves so as to help streamline the 3D animation process. For the amount of effort, we've found this helps convey timing information better than any other method. Let's go through some of them :D.
- Standing Punch Combo
This is our current idea for replacing jab spam. Limbo has done a few versions and I like this one best so far, but it may still receive some work. I'd like her to move forward as little as possible with this one, as its intended to be used for sustained high damage at the risk of low mobility (useful during fights, etc). This will be in addition to her existing forward punch combo.
- Enhanced Kick Combo
This is the existing kick combo, but extended and sped up to be more useful. The benefit over punching is additional range and knockback power at the expense of benefits from Onyx's knuckle weapons. Later in the game Onyx's punches will deal much greater damage due to weapon damage and bonus procs.
- Combo Finisher: Whirlwind
Whirlwind is one of the tentative combo finishers Onyx can "equip" via her skill loadout. We're looking at having a few that the player can choose from, but haven't sorted all the details out yet. I'd like each to have some measure of unique interactivity though. This one for example could allow the player to control Onyx's direction and to optionally keep spinning at the cost of Stamina.
- Combo Finisher: Flash Attack
This Flash Attack combo finisher could potentially allow Onyx to quickly dash between onscreen enemies, additionally damaging those between the targets. This one may also be good as a consumable skill instead of a combo finisher. As in, it has a limited number of uses per mission, and requires a slot on the player's quick menu.
- Aerial Moves Example 1
Double Jump, along with Falling Star (left) and Dive Kick are shown here. These are effectively ways for Onyx to quickly return to the ground while dealing damage in her path. Falling Star additionally will hit grounded enemies, and via skill upgrades can create an AoE when she lands.
Aerial skills will become more important once we add actual flying enemy mechanics (right now Vioreapers have similar AI and navigation as ground enemies). Staying off the ground will also be important, as many enemies will have abilities that make being on the ground dangerous (Charger and Blade Bunny are good example already).
- Aerial Moves Example 2
This shows the tentatively named Rising Star aerial combo starter as well as a variation from Limbo on the Dive Kick attack, which quickly propels Onyx diagonally to the ground.
- Aerial Dodge
Aerial dodging will give Onyx i-frames and extra mobility during jumps, and can be used as a method for keeping off the ground for longer when avoiding hazards (Note: she doesn't split in two, this is just fancy presentation by Limbo :D).
- Aerial Takedown
This is one of Limbo's designs, and a neat idea that I hadn't considered. The idea would be to incorporate an aerial element to the combat grapple system that we intend to add later. This could give the player extra flexibility for crowd control / mobility as opposed to simply throwing enemies away from Onyx.
- Rebound Kick
Another of Limbo's designs, this one would begin as a dash attack in which Onyx rebounds off an enemy, and could be combo'd into an AoE kick at a chosen time / position as Onyx returns to the ground.
Background Art Breakthrough!
This is an important topic this month!
I understand a lot of people have strong feelings about AI art, but I'm convinced that AI generation will be an important tool in art production pipelines, not just a novelty, and certainly not as a replacement for good artists. On the contrary, this month has taught me that strong artists wielding AI yields something transhuman.
I've therefore been developing an enhanced workflow for integrating stable diffusion into our background art pipeline. From our experience thus far, it allows for efficient art direction with far less back and forth, and at best can make the "finishing" steps of the painting process *far* faster. This is especially important for us, as a significant portion of the remaining background work will entail overpainting 3D art to give it a style suitable for our cel-shaded characters.
- (Above) Spider cave element example
- (Above) Spider cave element, detail example
- (Above) Spider cave element variations (slimy, painterly, and web versions).
The short version of this process is that I'm able to use our AI setup to transfer a "finished" style to a piece of WIP background art, and then once it's tuned I can direct the AI to use the result of that first piece to paint outward and match the rest of the map to that style. It's laborious right now, as I have to feed it adjacent square chunks (it's a lot like 3D rendering, but manually feeding it buckets), but I can do in a day what would take Xxoom and Zydaline weeks with tedious overpainting.
Below is an example of a "chunk" from one of Zydaline's WIP maps, and the AI generated finished quality chunk -- with background even (added in a separate pass). Form and composition is retained, but the overpainting work is done.
- (Above) A "chunk" from one of Zydaline's WIP maps taken to finished quality with stable diffusion.
- (Above) Detail example
And here's a test screenshot of this background in-game!
I wanted to have an entire map complete to show you guys for this update, but the last few days I've started transitioning to a new PC and simply ran out of time for the month. Expect some great progress on this next month though :D.
Comments
Certainly possible :D. Sorry for the delay on getting back to you D:
Some plan for a Onyx DP scene with the futas? Thanks in advance!
Really appreciate the stable diffusion studies and hope this saves you months of you life time! Make this default for fast prototyping and maybe even AI comes up with grafics that make it in the final game. Keep us updated on how this works out :)
Aubrey
I totally support the addition of 2x Femcop/Onyx. That would be wonderful.
That's no problem!! New characters are looking great! I was wondering about that; how to pitch an idea for a H Scene. If I can suggest one right here it would be def double titty sucking from both of the femcops. Onyx seems to also harbor feelings for femcop hence their passionate kiss after fem's sexy lick, so... why not double tongue action that will eventually lead to both femcops dominating her. One fem is on top of Onyx's face and the other fem going down on her or using her baton ending once again with both femcops laughing at Onyx while sitting on her
Yup, we plan on adding dash attacks :3
Dunno, maybe. Feel free to suggest ideas :D. Will likely be moving onto new characters for now however.
Great improvement to Onyx's mobility. Any plans for Double Femcop/Onyx H scenes?
It's not out of the question eventually -- just a lot of work right now :D.
Nice!! Also i think the dash should be able to get canceled with the punch and kick so shes not running forever lol.
GrobGreenBlob
The dolls look perfect. Is there a chance we'll see some printable STL poses in the far future?
Yup ^-^, not ready yet though D: -- will be looking at that once we add the futa mechanics since it all kind of goes together.
Cereliona
Are the bunnies going to have clothing destruction tied to their HP like the Femcops?
Ryan
Dang :/ looking forward to what you got in store tho! This game us def worth the price keep it up!
Yup, they just aren't ready yet. Only combat stuff for them in this release :(
Yup, a similar system is planned. Check out the character sheet for (most) of the planned combat functionality :D! https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G6QDRnQ8huP2I6Ficbc0aXWL1wz0mRTkXsMRrCKu-K0/edit?usp=sharing
Game is great so far, adding those extra combos will be great and should make the game more interesting. I think you guys should also add a grapple when close to an enemy. A special move should also be added in situations where there area alot of enemies. Streets of Rage would be a good game to follow some of the fighting mechanics.
Aubrey
The progress on this game is so significant each month. It's really impressive. I love it. Very happy to be supporting this project.
Justanartfan85
New combo and finishers look bad ass
Ryan
So are the bunny girls gonna have H scenes when onyx is hit with their H attack?
Brian Kennedy
Can't wait for the DK Sculpt to make it in-game. Love me some skin-tight bodysuit-wearing futa action. I also hope to see spider enemies in the future (dick-spiders?). The environment for them looks great already.
Johannes
Very hyped for the futas xD
Chrissy
Many great ideas for Onyx moveset. I especially like the Whirlwind finisher and Falling Star. More mobility for brawler style characters is very much needed and so far we need more moves to hit enemies that are downed and/or just very small. While playing around the last build I found her ground slide very awkward to aim with. Since it is "down arrow" + "kick button" I always walk down and miss the enemies I am trying to dmg while downed. Looks like Onyx will be ready for smash bros soon. Wait a little bit and she will recieve a mysterious letter.
