Guardians of L.U.S.T.: six rounds, three stances and combos

Greetings, agents! Rocketman on comms.

In the last Station Log I confirmed that classic combat was coming back. Since then we’ve kept prototyping, testing, throwing away weak versions and rebuilding the parts that didn’t work together.

We’ve now found the format we want to develop: a tactical Gunslinger system built around a revolver, combat stances and growing combos.

The Gunslinger takes the field

The Agent enters combat with six rounds in the revolver’s cylinder and a sequence of combat stances. Every round works like an ability: one hits hard, another pierces a target, spreads damage, sets an enemy on fire, ricochets or interrupts a dangerous action.

The stance decides how the round is used and at which enemy. One stance favours a direct duel, another goes for a distant target, and another turns the shot into an attack on the whole enemy group.

Every round also has a native stance. Fire it from the right stance and it creates Resonance. Chain several resonant shots and the damage multiplier grows. A badly timed shot breaks the chain.

That makes every pull of the trigger part of a bigger plan.

We’ve also been drawing the poses used in attacks. Fully animating every combat action was beyond what our team could fund and produce, so this system stages each attack with hand-drawn poses, camera movement, impact frames, comic lettering and effects. I like the result far more than the formats we tried before. Every shot has its own character, and battles feel cleaner and more expressive.

Building the right combination

The tactical decisions start before combat. Your loadout decides which six rounds you have, and your fighting style decides the order of your stances.

At the start of a fight the cylinder is spun. You can see the loaded rounds, the current and upcoming stances, and the enemies’ announced actions. A few tools let you rotate the cylinder, swap rounds and reroll chambers, but they can’t solve every problem at once.

So you keep making connected decisions:

• Which ammunition and fighting style do you bring into the encounter?
• How do you line up the rounds in the cylinder with the upcoming stances?
• Which enemy action must be stopped first?
• Do you spend a useful round now, or save it to extend a stronger Resonance chain?
• Do you empty the cylinder for maximum damage, or end the turn with a reactive round under the hammer to counter a charged attack or a heal?

The strongest series comes from matching all three layers: the right round, the right stance and the right enemy at the right moment. Your ammunition defines the build, the cylinder order is the immediate puzzle, and enemy intentions force you to adapt during the fight.

Combos look as strong as they feel

The presentation grows with the combo. Early resonant hits use restrained comic lettering. Longer chains bring bigger impact words, stronger effects and more prominent combo ranks. The best series reach stance-specific ratings like SHOWDOWN, DEAD EYE and BULLETSTORM.

The ammunition changes the lettering too. A regular shot starts with a clean BLAM!, while explosive, incendiary, armour-piercing, reactive and ricochet rounds have their own visual language. As the chain grows, the words get bigger and more aggressive along with the hit effects.

A well-planned sequence is stronger mechanically and looks better. The interface gives you what you need to plan ahead, and the comic presentation makes a successful combo readable at a glance.

The new combat system is already assembled in the game, and its core is fully playable. I’m now tuning the balance, refining the presentation and fitting it into the full progression so encounters, equipment, rewards and story transitions work together.

11 earlier comics cleaned up

We’ve been fixing visual inconsistencies in the existing comics. The main issue was the Agent’s face, which changed too much between scenes. We updated him in 11 comics to match the established character design.

Some of these comics also got cleaner framing and presentation. Their stories and events are the same, but the scenes should be easier to follow and closer to our current standard.

The updated comics:

• the intro;
• Assaria’s shower scene;
• the first meeting with Ignis;
• the first meeting with Flor Letal;
• helping Alice;
• Celeste getting stuck;
• Gaia’s comic;
• Marceline’s comic;
• the Princess comic;
• the first meeting with Siren;
• the demon comics.

It’s still surprising how one artist managed to draw about thirty different versions of the same protagonist. We’ve brought eleven of them back to one recognisable Agent. At least I hope so.

Celeste’s animated scene is almost ready

Celeste’s fully animated NSFW scene is close to done. We’re finishing the animation and working on its voice and sound. It’s being made alongside the combat update, so gameplay and scenes both keep moving.

One year of support

This month marks one year since we opened subscriptions for Guardians of L.U.S.T. on Patreon.

Your support and feedback let us keep producing new art, animation, audio and gameplay systems. Your comments and testing also helped us judge the previous combat versions and arrive at Gunslinger.

Thank you to everyone who supported the project during this first year, whether you were there from the start or joined recently.

Proofreading and the next update

The full proofread continues in parallel: dialogue, quest text and everything else players read, so the next build is clearer and more consistent across the whole route.

The next update is planned for next week. Subscribers will get the new build first. Thank you for making another year of development possible.

End of transmission.