To The Core – Patch Notes

Patch Notes

Performance

Now the game will automatically detect the hardware it’s running on when first launched and update its default graphic settings accordingly, to prevent crashes on startup in lower end machines.
Restored support for graphics API which allow the game to run on GPU preceding DirectX 12.
Removed unused VR plugins which were increasing the game size by over 200 MB.
Made several performance optimisations across the game codebase.

Resolved bug which caused player character to slide on the ground.
Tweaked player walk speed and ground friction to make player walking feel more believable.
Tweaked air movement to feel more comfortable for platforming.
Added falling “grace frames” when walking off a ledge, during which the player can still initiate a jump before the player starts falling, as they are common in platforming games such as the Mario titles.
Changed the way severity of a fall is calculated. Before the player character would play an hard landing animation which stopped their momentum, depending on how long they were falling fall. As a result instances such as the player jumping upwards would result in this hard landing which would feel jarring. Now fall severity is calculated from the apex height the player reached during their fall, which makes landing outcome feel more consisted for a videogame.
Ledge Climb/Mantling now works with moving platforms.
The player can now cancel a Ledge Climb into a jump by pressing the jump button, which also resets the player second jump.
This was inspired by the similar mechanic in the popular title Rayman 2, which is greatly beneficial to speedrunning that game.
Similarly, the player can now also cancel a ledge grab into a dash, which will immediately teleport the player to the top of the ledge before immediately dashing forward.
Fixed several other bugs related to traversal.

Made player attacks feel more “sticky” towards enemies/breakable objects in range, as it is done in triple A titles.
The player will always prioritise sticking nearby enemies over breakable objects.
I made it so an enemy can still avoid an attack if they are walking.
Changed the input for the uppercut attack to pressing jump during an attack animation while an enemy is in range.
Making it consistent with popular titles such as ‘Jack & Daxter’ and ‘Kingdom Hearts’.
Now the gauntlet icon in the HUD will indicate progression towards reaching full charge of a special attack.
When destroying the core at the top of a tower, a barrier will not appear to both: lock the player in until the core has been destroyed, and prevent the player from falling off the tower and having to climb up again.
Implemented ‘Mimic’ crates hiding enemies ready to surprise the player.
The ‘centurion’ enemies now feature a blend between their charging pose and running animation, to look more realistic when charging towards the player.
Enemy behaviour have been slightly tweaked and rebalanced.

The amount of Shards collected will now always be visible in the HUD.
The first 2 Cores (required to buy upgrades) are now unlocked at 200 Shards and 300 Shards respectively, before going up to the regular 500 Shards for the remaining cores.
This has been done to better balance progression difficulty in the early to mid game.
Some upgrades, such as jet pack boots and double jump gravity ball, feature now an indicator on the HUD to indicate if they’re available to use, remaining uses, and cooldown times.

New sound effect to notify the player when the dash is re enabled after a cooldown.
New sound effect to notify the player when the gauntlet has been charged and a special attack can be used.
Tweaked the gravitation ball particle effect to show more clearly it collapsing rather than suddenly disappearing.
The gravitation ball upgrade now includes a unique sound effect.
Created animations for the power armour appearing when reaching full gauntlet charge, disappearing if the charge is dispelled by a special attack, and being shattered if the player takes damage.
Enemies now possess sound effects to accompany their movement.
Replaced the scroomba laser targetting and beam attack effects entirely.
Destroyed crates and vases will now fade out rather than suddenly disappear.
Breakable platforms now have a shaking telegraphing animation rather than immediately starting to fall apart.
They will also now fade out and fade in when respawning.