Hello mates! Baron here, and the Sentara Update is officially upon us!
Update 1.2 is now live, and it wraps up everything we’ve been previewing over the last couple of news posts into one big Byeth release. This marks the 2nd of 4 free Byeth Updates, with the goal being to canonize some of the extended lore of Blade & Sorcery through additional content and maps.
Of course I say that was the goal, but then as usual the update spiraled into a bunch of unplanned scope creep... ːamadeus_happyː But luckily things didn't get so out of hand that the ThunderRoad framework exploded, so it's all good, lol.
Now, let's get into it!
Welcome to Sentara
Sentara is a small maritime nation west of Eraden, known for its sailors, traders, pirates, and general seafaring shenanigans. We tried to incorporate those themes throughout this update, with the weapons, armour, maps, and even how water behaves.
New Sentari Weapons
The staple of every Byeth update: a full batch of new themed weapons.
Sentara is loosely based on the aesthetics of Mediterranean maritime nations, so we took inspirations from pirates, sailors, and privateers.
The full weapon list includes a classic cutlass, stiletto dagger, a boarding axe, a harpoon, a dueling sword, and quite a lengthy sabre.
But of course… it wouldn’t be a pirate update without something extra.
Sentari Firearm
We did it boyz; guns in Blade & Sorcery. But... not gunpowder.
Rather than opening the can of worms that comes with real life musket simulation and long, complex reload procedures, we went with a lore-friendly, crystal-based firearm. It works by imbuing a base crystal with an element, then striking crystals together to unleash powerful effects.
Different imbues have different unique effects.
A fire imbued firearm can set enemies ablaze and create zones of fire.
I love all the imbues, but this one really rocks because it feels totally gnarly to shoot.
A gravity imbued firearm does exactly what you probably expect, and hits enemies like a truck, blasting them and all surrounding objects in the cone of fire away.
If you catch an enemy with enough force, you may also blow off a limb!
The lightning imbued firearm is the most insane of the three, in that it flat out gibbs enemies on impact, lol. Quad damage time!
Also, to preemptively answer a question I know folks will have - if you are wondering if the imbue retains when you holster the weapon - yes it does!
You can keep multiple firearms charged and holstered, ready to fire just like real life pirates did.
This is likely the point at which you may be thinking, "But Baron, these look wildly overpowered??"
The rule of cool was very much in effect here, as is often the case with Blade & Sorcery design. The Sentari firearm was designed to be flashy, powerful, but most importantly, fun. Lyneca worked on this firearm, and he and I are very much each others enablers when it comes to circumventing game balance for the sake of cool, lol.
However, jokes aside, I think you will find it is not as overpowered as you might expect. A good balance was struck between having a musket experience that was something between a real life 20 second reload simulator, and a magic boomstick. Feedback received was that the imbue reload on the firearm was just right for Blade & Sorcery gameplay.
Sentari Concoctions
The bottles that some of you guys pointed out from previous news were not health potions; they were a whole big scope creep.
Sentara introduces three new concoctions, designed to be playful, situational, and occasionally chaotic, just like the Sentari themselves.
Feather Draught
Temporarily makes you weightless, letting you “swim” through the air. Just remember, when it ends, gravity comes back.
I guarantee there will be community posts about people falling to their death from this lol.
Burning Draught
Causes the drinker to belch flames and briefly glow, which can be useful as a byproduct to temporarily illuminate dark areas of the dungeons if you have no torch.
Shocking Draught
Triggers a short-term magnetism, pulling nearby metal objects into orbit. This is a very contextual and utilitarian concoction, since you can imagine how useful it would be if you are surrounded my metal-clad opponents wielding metal weapons. YOINK!
For the design of these concoctions we tried to go a direction that was not pure damage tools, since there is already a ton of that in Blade & Sorcery. So the idea here was that they are more utilitarian, and open up creative and emergent gameplay moments.
But we were also aiming for just plain fun.
Sentari Armour Set
Sentara’s faction armour leans more toward mobility and style than raw protection.
The full outfit includes light cloth attire - a shirt, jacket, trousers, boots, hat, and some decorative jewellery. It’s practical for life at sea and has a bit of flair to it.
Sentari enemies will wear mix-and-matched variants of this armour, and players can equip the full set as well.
The jewellery pieces are cosmetic only, for those wondering.
New Faction Maps
One the very first Byeth announcement we stated that we were at risk of breaking our game framework (ThunderRoad) if we were not careful about the content we add in these updates. As such, you may remember me saying NO MAPS because maps are one of those risky things.
But it just didn't feel right!
We knew before Rakta release, and we surely knew after, that there was a hole missing there and it left us uneasy to be adding lore elements from different parts of the world yet you don't even get to see what that part of the world looks like.
We felt this omission would be something that would disappoint the players, and that made us feel bad. So here we are in 1.2 and we are releasing faction-specific maps. (plural!)
Sentara Map
Being a maritime nation, you surely guessed the Sentara map would involve some sort of ship!
The enviro team had a lot of fun making and designing this environment.
A Sentari ship, marooned against a crumbling lighthouse, cracked open to reveal a mysterious crystal.
The lighthouse has some fun effects for you to discover, but I will let you explore it yourself!
The map is a lot bigger than you probably realize, as it includes the ship deck, a captains quarter, a below deck, and a small island with the lighthouse.
There are fun parkour opportunities as well since there are lots of rigging, sails and things to swing on.
Crazy design detail note: the window frames on the ship are designed to mirror the Sentari flag. Absolutely insane attention to detail by the one and only Kaou from enviro team.
Rakta Map
The Rakta are a highly magical and martial people, with their aesthetic being loosely based on an amalgamation of east-Asian cultures.
This new map is a Raike dojo, located deep in the southern tropics of Rakta, where their fierce warriors train for warfare.
This map was an interesting lore expansion for us. Up to now, the only mention of the Raike are from the perspective of the shopkeeper, who describes their homeland as a snowy and mountainous.
But with this Rakta map we wanted to expand on the idea that the Rakta Empire is quite large and expansive, much like Eraden, so this map is located in the southern reaches of the empire which crosses into a more tropical climate.
Both maps are playable in Sandbox, and both can appear in Crystal Hunt as special opportunities to fight for money.
For lore logic, the faction maps lock enemy types - Sentari in Sentara, Raike in Rakta - but Sandbox still lets you mix and match freely, because why not. Sandbox is always a great for "what if" type scenarios in my opinion.
Each future Byeth update will include one faction map, but 1.2 gives you two since the Rakta map is a retroactive bonus.
Before you ask, yes you can ring the gong! This was a critical inclusion, lol.
There are also mounted katana all along the walls of the dojo; great for when you need a weapon quick.
Mapboard Rework
To support these lovely new locations, the mapboard has been redesigned.
The new layout is cleaner, more readable, and introduces tabbed world maps. You can now switch between Eraden, Rakta, Sentara, and future regions via the nice little icon tabs, with the background map updating to match the lore.
This system is also modder-friendly!
Space has been reserved so modders can add their own tabs and custom regions if they want. Hypothetically, a modder could add an entirely new region and have all their location icons neatly grouped there.
Survival Mode Rework
A little scope creep that went out of control; introducing the new and improved Survival mode, which has been completely reworked.
In summary, the new system is highly customizable and progression-based. There are tons of goodies you can tweak, but to give an overview, some of the things that are new:
Earn skills as rewards
Unlock armour sets or full themed bundles
Retain and accumulate power across waves in a roguelite fashion. Will you focus on becoming the ultimate glass cannon fire mage, or will you diversify your skillset?
Play a chaotic roulette-style mode where you pick one reward per wave, which resets after every round. One round you may be blasting with a meteor and the next you are reduced to a rusty dagger.
However as I say, the beauty of this new Survival mode is that it is highly customizable, so you can tailor it however you want and by doing so create new scenarios.
For example, perhaps you would like to unlock only weapons as rewards, disabling skills and magic.
Or perhaps the opposite, maybe you wanna do a mage run only where you accumulate magical power with each incremental reward.
Maybe you want to tweak it so you can or cannot take enemy weapons.
For true freedom, there is even an option to allow you to enter the Survival with sandbox equipped gear and skills, in case you wanted to do a very specific custom build run or even if you just wanted to give yourself a starting boost.
Our main goal in the redesign was to give players who have played Blade & Sorcery to death a new way to experience the game. We also wanted to provide a little structured challenge to those who crave it, yet without telling anyone how they should play or have fun.
Another beauty is that the Survival mode works on all maps, including the new faction maps. And best of all, we made it so it’s very easy for modders to plug their own content into the reward system. That means you could play the Survival mode where you are unlocking modded weapons and spells!
Buoyancy Simulation
Sentara wouldn’t be complete without water behaving properly.
What started as a small "I wonder" project evolved into full buoyancy simulation, based on weight and material, and yes, that includes bodies!
New Music
Two beautiful new tracks have been added to the Byeth faction maps, composed by our very own Glamdok, the same composer behind the original soundtrack.
This will be case for the future Khar-Tib and Madlu maps as well.
You can check out the full game soundtrack in this Blade & Sorcery OST playlist over on YouYube.
Survival Achievement Change
A small QOL change, but worth it's own section because of how annoying this achievement was.
Those of you who achieved the the “Wildfolk Stamina” achievement: I salute you. For everyone else who tried and gave up, you surely experienced how incredibly draining the achievement was, as it required you to last 50 rounds in one sitting.
The main gripe here was not even that it was too hard, it was that it was too boring and grindy, which is something we are always looking to avoid. Even if you sat there spamming the "kill all" dev cheat, you are still gonna be sitting there for about 30 minutes.
With the 1.2 change, surviving 50 waves no longer has to be done in a single run. Progress is now cumulative across play sessions, so you can earn it over time without losing everything on wave 49. This makes it much less of a chore.
To those who already broke their backs unlocking the achievement the old way, you get the 0.1% bragging rights!
That’s the Sentara Update, folks!
As always, thank you for playing, modding, and being part of the Blade & Sorcery community. And of course, thanks for all the positivity. It really boosts the team to read all the kind support!
We hope you enjoy exploring Sentara, but for us, we are on to the next Byeth update!
Next stop: Khar-Tib.
Bye for now!
The Sentara Update - Full 1.2.0 Changelog
FEATURES
- \ Add Rakta Dojo level
- \ Add Sentara Ship level
- \ Add Sentara Weapons
- \ Add Sentara Armor
- \ Add Shopkeeper Sentara Items voice lines
- \ Overhaul survival mode with multiple presets for roguelike mechanics, plus options for customization
- \ World map region tabs to view maps for other regions
- \ World map level options board redesign
- \ Implement water physics, including simulated wave mechanics, drift, undertow, orbitals, plus buoyancy on items and ragdolls
- \ Implement AI for NPCs to be able to swim when dropped into water, allowing them to return to land
- \ The survival achievements now tracks waves done over multiple sessions instead of just in one session.
IMPROVEMENTS
- \ Various cpu and memory performance improvements
- \ Audio memory usage optimizations
- \ Improved memory usage on imbue vfx point caches from 8MB > 64KB per item imbued
- \ Player menu optimizations
- \ Improved localizations
- \ Improved and reduce logging
- \ Improved wrist stat placement with thicker clothing
- \ Improved imbue transfer vfx
- \ Rebalancing/Handling Changes to some Rakta Weapons
- \ Emissions rework on Rakta Weapons
- \ End Tower lighting improved greatly and reduced lightmap memory and disk usage
- \ Improved lightmap quality across various assets
- \ Reduced asset bundle size
- \ Improve azure start visuals on Nomad
- \ Switched to optimized ladders on citadel
- \ Added improved azure star reflections in the ocean
- \ Improved Flamethrower vfx
CHANGES
- \ Added damagers to corks
- \ Add voice volume slider to options menu
- \ Added rakta pottery loot tables
- \ Add chicken drown sound effects
- \ Make chickens easier to drown
- \ Update throwing star bag and Throwing Dagger quiver tiers to T2 to match their contents
- \ Adjusted holster rotation for some single edged weapons
- \ Made all branches available to be put in all slots
- \ Using focus will no longer have a fixed minimum cost when activated before it starts to tick down
- \ Added zipline wheel to sandbox player containers
- \ Reduced minimum velocity needed for axes to damage
- \ Added hat-covered blendshape to all hairs
- \ Slashing staff can now dismember on its stab
- \ Add expiry time to projectiles
- \ Add amplitude curves for voice audiocontainers for lip syncing / haptics
- \ Add spinning blade puff vfx
- \ Show the male and female variants for the battlemage gloves on the one picture on the book
- \ Updated Apple item preview image on the item book
- \ Buffed the imbue stats for the Ancient Dalgarian Tool weapons - the Gravity imbue will last longer and the weapons are easier to handle
FIXES
- \ Fixed npcs getting stuck on amphora spawn points in Metal Storage 1
- \ Fixed a baked shadow issue on beach stairs in home
- \ Fix shopkeeper clipping through ground when he spawns
- \ Add missing Rakta Duel wave localizations
- \ Fixed issue with player getting stuck when moving out of water
- \ Fix UIEndGameMenu race condition causing end game menu to not show up
- \ Avoid NRE from the player in the options and end game menus
- \ Make dropped items in home able to be deleted on the book
- \ Fix NPCs skipping animations if grabbed or pushed when standing
- \ Fix for Gravity Hammer affecting sliced parts
- \ Fix gravity imbue being invisible
- \ Fix ethnicities failing to apply body materials
- \ Fix issue causing player to get multiple instances of spells from the skill menu
- \ Fixed images not rendering on the UI Display Message
- \ Fix android imbue transfer vfx spawning at the players feet
- \ Fix chicken tail using chicken neck interactable
- \ Prevent NRE on golem head crystal effect controller
- \ Fix NRE on the Inventory UI when changing language
- \ Fixed: coins stacks added to inventory adding individual coins to your stash
- \ Fix hand poses not being reset when exiting a merge early or after casting it
- \ Handle potential NRE on SpellMergeData unload
- \ Fix Wrist Menu visibility according to the ShowWristStats option
- \ Add null/empty/whitespace check for item data category string before checking if shopkeeper dialog dict contains it
- \ Show the skill tree and infuser skills popups texts in the selected language
- \ Force set isShooting and isReloading to false when the bow module's stop ranged attack method is called
- \ Removed references to brick1 in all rooms and replaced them with breakable rocks
- \ Fix mod io settings error in log
- \ Fixed Ocean in Main Menu edge being too extreme
- \ Fix negative colliders in LootChest_Large_Static.prefab and LootChest_Medium_Static.prefab
- \ Fix colliders on static chests
- \ Remove duplicate Manikin MeshPart from Human Male Officer Shoulders 01 and 02
- \ Fixed missing physics materials on chests
- \ Fixed Canyon Water Wheel Unassigned reference exception
- \ Crate_0.7m_Closed_LOD2 wrong rotation fix
- \ Removed locomotion collider from arena and citadel blocking out of bounds
- \ Fixed torch flipbook texture outlines
- \ Fixed Shop mesh holes and Buy Point Cloth clipping
- \ Fixed Chapel small holes in entryway
- \ Fixed Granary general meshing update (fixed clipping meshes and bad lightmapping)
- \ Assign main handle left to improvised wrist, officer legs
- \ Set handled mass on all chicken ragdoll parts (Fixes NaN mass causing infinite velocity)
- \ Fixed fabric in Library being affected by wind
- \ Removed nonexistent reference to "DungeonHumansNormalMelee" in dalgarian gate
- \ Fixed Barrel meshing/collider issue by splitting the mesh from the item.
- \ Madene, Kharese and Sentari head skinning fix
- \ Fix large objects not blocking NPC sight
- \ Fix for brain NRE when more creatures are spawned than the pool has in it
- \ Fix NPCs running at hyperspeed when they come out of the pool
- \ Fix zones applied forces staying on items/npcs after they are despawned then spawned again
- \ Fix creatures being affected by slow zones even after despawning and respawning
- \ Fix issue with zone still applying to items/creatures that are despawned/holstered when they have multiple colliders
- \ Fix NRE from despawning creatures if they never had their multipliers/modifiers initialized
- \ Fix Hinge Drive NRE
- \ Fix for statuses causing NRE
- \ Fix performance bug in Item.GetLocalCenter, affecting most radial or cone item searches
- \ Fix underwater effects persisting after teleport
- \ Add navmesh obstacle to ingot pile prefabs
- \ Add navmesh obstacle to large loot chest prefab
- \ Strip enlighten keyword from shaders on windows to reduced shader variants
- \ Strip _USE_SSS_ON on android to reduce shader variants
- \ Fix ragdoll slicing errors
MODDING
- \ ThunderEntity.SetPhysicModifier now takes an optional `originPart` parameter to avoid applying modifier to detached parts
- \ Make effects gradients public
- \ Add ModOption ApplyOnLoad check, so that mods can disable having their option applied when the savegame/mods are loaded
- \ Pull a few skill utilities out to static methods
- \ Runtime blendshape activation for ManikinParts (Hat-covered hair blendshapes)
- \ Add missing Interactable Action methods
- \ Handle customPhysicBody property fixes
- \ Add event manager item touch mouth event
- \ Fix itemspawner spawnOnLevelLoad not actually calling Spawn
- \ Add some new json params to item and collider group
- \ Added merge keys for ContainerDatas, CreatureTables, LootTables, WaveDatas, and BrainModuleHitReaction to allow modders to override specific entries in lists
- \ Load sessionprefab prefab in LoadAddressableAssetsCoroutine
- \ `Creature.airHelper` removed, moved to `Player.airHelper`
- \ Added PID-based physics movement controller, named `PIDController`
- \ Added new Survival-related `SkillData` properties
- canSpawnAsReward: Whether the skill can appear in any survival mode
- allowInRouletteMode: Whether the skill can appear in Roulette Mode
- Generally this should be true if the skill cannot kill enemies if you only have it and its dependent skills
- combatSkill: Whether the skill has a use in combat or is more utility
- allowOnFirstWave: Whether the skill can ever show up on the first wave of combat
- \ Bundles
- New CatalogData type, allows for spawning of groups of items and skills
- Bundles support Items, Skills and can have LootTables that will be randomly picked on spawn
- \ Loot Table Rework
- Loot Tables can now include Skills and Bundles
SDK
- \ Change Odin to TriInspector
- \ Added new catalog editor
- \ Make bow string audios addressable
- \ Fix armor part wizard not showing monoscript field, fix missing root issue
- \ Fix the address references in ItemModuleBow being unused
- \ Catch specifically if a modoption fails due to a nullable attribute being used
- \ Add overload to prevent mods breaking when accessing Creature.airHelper
- \ Fix ID map arrays not generating in SDK
- \ Ensure Creature UVs are wrapped around when sampling from the IdMapArray
- \ Add default value field for part blend shape activators
- \ Remove missing references from hand overlap colliders list on Handle awake, prevent NRE from missing references
- \ Fix ItemModuleAI ranged weapon data being force-populated
- \ Add code to find and/or remove duplicate IDs from text datas
- \ Generated permutations of features for lit moss so variants are compiled for usage by modders
- \ Update wpn materials to all use the SDK reveal textures. Remove old references to a MossMetalMode metallic map
