Hey there gang! The past several weeks have been crazy busy for us, so we wanted to give y'all a quick update on what we've been up to, both inside Project Nexus and out. All that, plus a sweet new merch drop!

On the PN side of things, If you caught our latest update post, you'll know that we're about to roll out the beginning of what will soon become custom stages. In short, we're currently working out the kinks with our mod testing corps before releasing the preliminary editing tools hopefully sometime this week. If you want more details, check out the post.

Of course, that's not all we've been up to. Over on Newgrounds, we just celebrated Madness Day 2024[www.newgrounds.com] and ho boy... This year was stacked. You guys seriously killed it once again with one of the best crops of animation, art, music and games that we've ever seen. We say it every year, and every year we think we've finally hit the peak, but every time you prove us dead wrong. Seriously, if you haven't already, Go check out the Madness Day 2024 collection[www.newgrounds.com] over on Newgrounds, there are some genuine GOAT creations there. Ideally by the end of this week we'll have the contest winners announced as we conclude the final portions of the judging process. It's never easy, this year being no exception, but GOSH DARNIT, we're COMMITTED to getting you TIMELY (enough) results! Results are in! Check out the winners here![krinkels.newgrounds.com]

Oh uh, also we dropped this.

No biggie.

[sharkrobot.com]This time around we've buddied up with Shark Robot to bring you this slick lookin' set of metal cards[sharkrobot.com] with art courtesy of par0llel[x.com]! Ordering gets you the full set of Hank, Sanford, Deimos and Tricky, plus an extra bonus Hank pin. Neat! Hurry though, these bad boys are only available until OCTOBER 15th!


And that's about all we've got for you folks for now. Stay tuned later this week for the initial release of the scene editing toolset and the results of the Madness Day 2024 contest (which are out now!)[krinkels.newgrounds.com] Keep on truckin'!

[You can access this build from the releasebeta Branch on Steam]

⦁ Custom Stages are coming soon! This update gives the game the ability to read custom scene files for the Playground specifically. Until v1.0 of the tools go out (this week we hope?), you can give the new feature a whirl with the Custom Playground Demo I put on the workshop. It's not a very interesting stage, but it was made with the new tools and is meant to demonstrate how easy it is to put together.

⦁ Barrel Cores weren't affecting the firing SFX of the weapons they're attached to. This went away back during the Magiturge update, but we finally caught it. (See Modding below for a related change.)
⦁ Squadmates will now try to get behind shield enemies as they do with G05 Robots and angry G03LMs.

⦁ Modded ammo casings were breaking when assigned. Should be fine now.
⦁ Priority system added to the SoundPath value on weapon addons, so certain parts have more leeway over changing a firearm's sound. In descending order, that order is BarrelCap, Core, Magazine, Extension, Bayonet, and Stock. Any other addons do not affect the weapon's firing audio.
⦁ The LeaveToPlayer Trait is now accessible for character MadCards. It forces the user to only target the player squad, and they can only be targeted for attack by the AI if they're in the last remaining squad. (Example: The S-3LF Eater uses this trait).

It's been three years since this 8-year project finally launched, and we're still adding content.

...but It was around this time last year when Krinkels and I decided that a true Madness game doesn't deserve the name if fans can't make their own content.

The spirit of Madness has always been its creative community, and while Krinkels builds the foundation, it's the contributions of all of you that gives it so much depth. That's why we began the long journey of putting Workshop support into M:PN, and early this year we released a ton of tools for modders to start customizing the game.

But! It's our launch anniversary today, so I'm showing off what's next.



This is the big one! Our roadmap ends with fully developed custom stages, but it starts by giving modders the opportunity to practice world building. We're only a team of two and that means breaking this gargantuan task up into manageable chunks.

That first chunk is custom Playground rooms. The focus here will be on level geometry, doors, and cover, along with character and item spawning. In the first image above, you see the beginnings of the Proxy/Marker system, which dictates the placement of all non-geometry game assets, from waypoints to start positions. That big green cube, for example, is how you tell the game where to place the Playground's control room.

While this system is being used and tested live, I'll be getting things ready for further updates, such as custom doors + cover, interactive objects and access to the event system (a trigger/action manager that makes complex levels possible), dialog cutscenes, and full missions consisting of multiple stages.

On Monday, we'll be releasing the sample room shown above to showcase how easy it is. Then, later this week, after I've had a chance to coach a few lead modders on how to use it, we'll make the Scene Editor tools available.

Thanks again to the modders, the players, and the fans, both old and new, who make game development such a rewarding experience for us. I'm really excited to see what you folks make next. You're why we haven't stopped doing this.

[You can access this build from the releasebeta Branch on Steam]

⦁ Framerate Issues: Enemy grapple effectiveness has always been boosted at higher framerates, as well as a few other enemy behaviors (usually related to attacking). They should now be equally effective (or not) regardless of the refresh rate of your current resolution. Also, those of you having an easier experience on a lower framerate are gonna notice the difficulty boost (up to where it was meant to be).
⦁ Burst fire on thrown weapons should work again.

⦁ New animation events: Event_ConvertSelf() and Event_ConvertGrappleTarget() work a lot like Event_ConvertGrappleTarget_Zed() and let you morph an enemy's type after they die if they were hit with this event, except each takes a string value so you can specify the MadCard of the character you want to reference. The _Zed variant will work as it always has, and will continue use the MadCard of the character calling the event for the conversion.
⦁ New animation events: SplodeEvent_ByName(), SplodeEvent_Friendly_ByName(), and SplodeEvent_Friendly_Hand_ByName() each do the same thing as their corresponding versions without the "_ByName", but take a string value so you can specify the explosion's MadCard.
⦁ New animation event: Event_ChangeFaction() takes a string value for the faction's name and converts the character to that faction.
⦁ The DeathBody and DeathHead values on MadCard_AnimationProfile were being applied in the wrong order (Body was getting Head animations, and vice versa).
⦁ You can use the new RunEvent(throwsky) and RunEvent(throwchest) animation events ("throws" and "throwc" are also valid) to toss your throwables from two new locations. Previous locations were "throw" for main hand, "throwl" for off hand, and "throwhead" or "throwh" for head location (think Swamp Zed puke).

[You can access this build from the ``releasebeta`` Branch on Steam]

⦁ NPCs will now properly swap to the weapon on their back when they run out of ammo or lose the weapon in their hand! You'll see dumb NPCs save their empty weapons when they run out of ammo, but your Arena Hirelings and Story allies will simply discard the empty before swapping.
⦁ Corpus Buffs (bonuses to stats, etc) weren't applying to most NPCs.
⦁ Sanford may not have been throwing his hook when controlled by the AI.
⦁ Dr. Gonne's scarf was unavailable at the Quartermaster.
⦁ The "ResistDizzy" bonus on items (usually armor) wasn't working correctly, but now it is!

⦁ Clockwork Sword will appear in the Playground now, and can also be used as a Root for modding MadCards.
⦁ All three Cryo guns have had their magazines tweaked so that they're now available at the workbench, which will also fix cost issues with those weapons.
⦁ Cryo guns using the correct inventory icons.
⦁ The bonuses representing damage taken from different damage types are labeled as "vuln" on an item's stats breakdown, such as "vulnFire". Note that this will not change how modders refer to these values in their MadCards. We've also added new damage resistences (see MODDING below).

⦁ We've added ``DefaultThrown`` to Character MadCards, so your characters can have grenades AND sidearms assigned. DefaultSidearm can still be used to equip throwables you can hold (like molotovs), but DefaultThrown will only work for thrown slot throwables (grenades, knives, etc.).
⦁ ``DefaultOffHand`` on Character MadCards now has new rules! If the game can spawn the weapon into your off-hand, it will...meaning, unless it's a Shield (or some goofy off-hand item like the Demoniac candle), if your character doesn't spawn with *something* in their main hand, their DefaultOffHand will not spawn at all.
⦁ Because of the above changes, Shields will now obey the rules of ``DefaultSidearm`` and appear on a character's back. You'll need to migrate the shield from DefaultSidearm to DefaultOffHand if you want them to spawn with it in their hand.
⦁ The Recovery value on ranged weapons and their addons was inverting (50 becomes -50, for example) if you didn't specify the value yourself on the weapon's MadCard.
⦁ Access to the Fence's store is granted! Modders can set an item's store to Fence to have it sold for Tokens outside the HQ (the conversion is automatic).
⦁ Custom prices have been added to all weapons and gear under the name ``CustomPrice``. If the value is 0 or less, or if you do not modify it, the normal price calculator will continue to do its thing. Whole numbers only (Nevadeans don't believe in loose change).
⦁ New bonuses for your weapon and armor buffs: ``DamageFromSlash, DamageFromBlunt, DamageFromBullet, DamageFromBite, DamageFromPierce, DamageFromExplosive, DamageFromDeRes, DamageFromForce``.
⦁ Safeguard added to prevent the audio system from breaking the rest of the game in strange ways when it cannot find the event as written.


IMPORTANT NOTE FOR MODDERS: Be sure to update your usage of ``DefaultOffHand`` in your mods! The new rules changes may affect how your custom characters spawn their sidearm.

Madness Day 2024 is exactly 1 month away!
As usual we'll be celebrating on September 22nd and 23rd by hosting our annual Twitch streams where we showcase all you guys' kickass creations. This year however, if all of you are really, really good (and Matt can finish forging this BEHEMOTH,) we may even debut Madness Combat: 12!

If you wish to participate, either by submitting a creation or donating to the prize pool for the contest, click the links down below for more details. Otherwise We'll see you all on September 22nd!

https://krinkels.newgrounds.com/news/post/1468626

https://ko-fi.com/krinkels

So, turns out whatever weird science was responsible for actualizing those Doc plushies had the very lucrative side effect of warping a boatload of Hank[www.makeship.com] and Tricky[www.makeship.com] plushies back into our present reality. Well, we're not one to look gift horses in the mouth (they scare us) so we're sharing the wealth!

Y'all know the drill. Worldwide, flat-rate shipping, high-quality builds, limited time only. This time around, you have until JULY 29TH. So whether you missed out the first time, or blew up your original like I did, don't miss out on this second chance!


https://www.makeship.com/products/tricky-the-clown-2-0-plushie
https://www.makeship.com/products/hank-wimbleton-2-0-plushie

[You can access this build from the ``releasebeta`` Branch on Steam]

⦁ The Arena Helipad had its fog and rain effects optimized. If this helps the framerate of players who were having issues there, we'll be able to apply the tweak to other areas of the game too.
⦁ Murder Room is the biggest perpetrator of wave spawn soft-locks, so it's had all of its nooks and crannies cleaned up. Any surface where an enemy could be knocked out of a stage and prevented from returning has been looked at.

The release branch is up to date with all beta updates (OTHER THAN MODDING, which is still available on the beta branch)!

This one took a while to get out (ONE YEAR since the last full update?!), but now the Creber Origin and all the updates since then are in every build of the game.

As always, let us know if you see any issues with the new updates, or anything else you spot!