Blade and Sorcery U11.0 ---------- 07/25/2022     Brain Version 1.7

We have some excellent improvements in U11, most importantly the ability to control which animations my boys can use, as well as the speed, range, chance, and more. With this addition I was able to create two types of melee brains that are still challenging. Now we have lightweight and heavy bots. Lightweight bots wear light armor and tend to use safer attacks. Heavy bots can use riskier attacks that leave them exposed to counters, but have the armor to afford such risk. Heavy bots with shields are extremely durable, but not because I added any extra HP to them, they're just that armored. It's hard to kill one just by swinging your sword like normal, remember you can mordhau MMP weapons. There are shieldless versions of each wave if you find fighting them unfun. 

Both types of bots have a larger selection of attacks to use and almost all of them have been tweaked to provide what I believe is the best melee experience.

Rest assured I didn't just add "+1000% ATTACK SPEED" to my bots and call it a day. I spent many, many hours tweaking hundreds of different variables across a dozen plus files to create this mod, and I'm quite pleased with the results. 

Unfortunately I had some issues getting Sectory to play well with the bots, both vanilla and custom, so I don't have a custom configuration file for them yet. 


Basic Information ----------

My successful attempt at creating a harder melee wave, done with custom JSON files that alter key aspects of AI attack rates, parry speed/ rotation, and attack distances, etc. No pesky mages, no asshole archers, no ultra-fancy changes, just visceral combat.  This wave shows the potential of Blade and Sorcery to be legitimately challenging experience, as well as a fantastic workout. 

THIS IS NOT AN AI OVERHAUL. This mod does not overwrite existing AI.

Check out the videos listed on this mod page if you need more convincing. 

I personally recommend the 1v1 mixed wave for the intended dueling experience.

After a few months of experimenting with different settings, I recommend:

• NOT USING mods that make your handling speed instant. Kind of defeats the point of physics based combat.
• You set your focus and mana to infinite and set the time slow to 65%-90%. With this new release I thought the default speed (when not losing frames) felt just right.  
• Of course, Medieval MegaPack and Sectory are fantastic, nigh mandatory. 
• Sushin's "Unarmed Combat Overhaul". The fatter grab boxes on limbs lead to much more coordinated combat when things get up-close. (8.3 only)
• Consider installing (sectix or eyya(?))'s "Cinematic Fighting".  While the mod is currently (05/19/2021) pretty buggy and fails to properly adjust the speed sometimes, when it works, it feels perfect for Blade and Sorcery. This mod is how Focus should function in my opinion.
• Highly Recommend ANYTHING by lyneca. Daggerbending and Lashing are incredible mods in particular. holy sh*t he made surgebinding pog
• Using Helmet pack for U11 by HuJohner. Such a simple addition that adds so much to the gameplay. 
  

Handling Recommendation ----------

I personally use and recommend these handling settings:

Self collision: Disabled
Player Disarm: Disabled
Rotation mode: Soft (Default)
Position Spring mult. 0.50
Position Damper mult. 0.50
Rotation spring mult. 0.50
Rotation damper mult. 0.50

I find these settings to cause my swings to go where I want them and better emulate the weight of weapons. 







Specifically what this mod does:

• Strictly Melee. The only enemies allowed to spawn are Melee types. 
• No "Recoil" from blocking NPC attacks.  NPCs will now follow through on their attacks and crush through a piddly defense.  Try to redirect attacks instead of intercepting them head on.  Intercept attacks parallel instead of perpendicular.  You can now force a parry if you swing hard against an attack thanks to the minimum required weapon speed value; an excellent addition to the Brains. 
• NPCs attack more frequently and mercilessly.  After blocking one of your own attacks NPCs may swiftly counter attack.
• Higher Health: Each wave changes the HP of you and the NPCs. The NPCs also have their own creature file with tweaks to things like HP, mass, etc.
• More Weapons on NPCs: Instead of running away after being disarmed, enemies will now have a few backup weapons to use.
• Stagger resistant enemies:  Enemies are not entirely immune to knockdown but won't go down easy. Unless of course you Judo throw them.
• Expanded Attack Animations: The bots now have access to a wider move pool to keep you on your toes.
  

Please note that:

• Waves will be listed as "1v1" "1v2" "1v3" "1v4" under "BossaNova's Waves"
• This mod DOES NOT overwrite or overhaul any vanilla game files, the mod files are separate entities alongside the vanilla files.(Usually postfixed with "Bossa")
• The optional Sectory settings WILL OVERWRITE THE DEFAULT SETTINGS. IF YOU HAVE CUSTOM VALUES YOU LIKE BACK THEM UP/DON'T USE MINE.
• I personally only play on Arena/Modded Maps about the size of Arena. If you play on larger maps and feel like the flow of enemies is too light, be sure to choose a wave file and set the "MaxAlive" value to your preferred number.
• To become fully immersed, please listen to your preferred chaotic combat music.
  

Mods (you should download) used in gifs, videos, and pictures:

• Medieval Megapack (U9.3) by Sushin and others
• Sectory U9 by sectix or eyya
• Realistic Blood (Bleeding) by xyonico
• Lashing U9.3 by lyeneca
• Daggerbending U9.3 by lyneca
• Mystic Hands by lyenca
• Soviet's Extra FX by SuperemeSovietCat
• Helmet Pack for U11 by HuJohner
  

~OUTDATED INFORMATION~

Blade and Sorcery U10.0 ---------- 03/18/2022     Wave Version 1.6 

After many months of on-and-off experimenting/breaking everything, I finally have a version I enjoy playing. This update includes optional custom Sectory settings, uploaded with the permission of sectix (thank you for your amazing mods). Much of the balancing I've done is based off these custom values. However, installing these values WILL OVERWRITE THE DEFAULT SECTORY SETTINGS. I'm sure there's a way to have them only effect my boys, but I'm not that smart, apologies. I also am going to once again recommend NOT using settings that give you unrealistic handling speed. If you are not also bound by the rules of the physics based combat, you're missing out on the core gameplay element.

Rest assured though this update does include many updates to the enemies of the endless wave. Even if you don't use the custom Sectory settings, you will notice a difference. Enemies will spend less time blocking, retreating, and stabilizing. You can now force a parry if you swing hard against an attack thanks to the minimum required weapon speed value; an excellent addition to the Brains. 

OPTIONAL SECTORY SETTINGS FILE CHANGES (non-specific) ----------

Harder to destroy right arms: More chances for enemies to attack with their leading arm. Not impossible, just harder.

Weak Point Focus: An attempt to make combat about hitting that sweet spot instead of just wailing on whatever you can hit. If you hit a vital area/remove a limb, they won't last long. The purpose of this is to reduce the amount of time you spend chasing down enemies that can't fight back.

Slow-Mo for Parries/Big Damage: I've enabled the Cinematic settings included with Sectory. The Slow-Mo doesn't last long but it adds some much needed ompf to big hits.

(OUTDATED)  Installing the Mod:  (05/19/2021) (9.3)

Extract "BossaNovas Endless Melee Wave 9.3.rar" into the "Mods" folder under:
"...\Blade & Sorcery\BladeAndSorcery_Data\StreamingAssets\Mods".

I finally added a manifest.json file so it can be installed normally instead of ghetto style (see below).

(OUTDATED) Installing the Mod:  (03/17/2021) (8.3)

Extract the "BossaNovas Endless Melee Wave" folder from the downloadable .rar file you can get on this page. I use Winrar to extract my files, but you should be able to use the default Windows option.

Drag and drop your extracted "BossaNovas Endless Melee Wave" folder into your "StreamingAssets" folder, which is a subfolder in your "BladeAndSorcery_Data" folder, which is located in your Blade & Sorcery install, which you can quickly access by right clicking Blade & Sorcery in your Steam library, mouse over "Manage", and click "Browse local files".

If you aren't seeing the waves listed under the endless category while playing, try the manual install method.
Take the contents (Brains, Containers, Creatures, CreatureTables, LootTables, Waves) and drop them in:

"[your personal drive name etc.]\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Blade & Sorcery\BladeAndSorcery_Data\StreamingAssets\Default""


(12/28/2020) The information below should be irrelevant, MMP works fine in 8.3 as of today.

(07/24/2020)   On installing Medieval Megapack:   

I could not get Vortex to properly install Medieval Megapack. I personally got Medieval Megapack functional by manually copying MMP's files to the "Default" folder in "StreamingAssets".  I DID NOT overwrite any pre-existing files when prompted.  Overwriting the files will give you an error on your next startup of Blade and Sorcery, as LootTable structure appears to have changed in the 8.3 update.  In order to get the weapons listed on your armory book, you have to copy the values under the "categories" from MMP's "game" JSON file via Visual Studio Code or whatever equivalent you are using, and manually paste them in Blade and Sorcery's "Game" JSON file under the "categories" in that file, ALONGSIDE the default categories.  DO NOT replace any categories.  If you don't feel comfortable doing this, then simply copy pasting MMP's files to the "Default" directory WITHOUT overwriting anything will allow weapons to spawn on NPC's.

If all else fails, you can try to copy the actual MMP weapon JSON files out of their "Item" folders (The Axe, Blade, Bludgeon, Dagger, Greatsword, Shield, Spear folders) and paste them into the same directory as the vanilla weapon JSON files, which is just in the "Items" folder itself. You should see stuff like Item_Apparel_BanditCommonChest and Item_Weapon_1ArmingSwordA JSON files in the "Items" folder; paste the MMP weapon files right there with them. This will make the weapons show up twice in your armory book if you've fixed the "Game" JSON file Categories to show the MMP weapons, but hopefully it will work for the NPCs

Take them out of their MMP designated folders and paste them alongside the other vanilla items in the "Items" folder, in short.