Update: v3 in Development
Hi everyone,
This post is just to let you know that v3 is now in the works. What started as a simple request has turned into the idea that gave me the strongest motivation to push forward with a new version.
I’ve been gathering all the suggestions received here and in private messages, plus the feedback from surveys, and also reflecting on my own gameplay experience with the mod over the past few weeks.
I believe that a small upgrade from previous versions would be of little value: between v1 and the many iterations of v2, we already cover a wide range of tastes in terms of variety and intensity of effects. So instead of tweaking, I’ve decided to go with a completely different style—one that could appeal both to those who tried the earlier versions and want something fresh, and to those who didn’t enjoy the earlier style and might finally get on board with v3.
What’s planned?
Vanilla bruises, made more visible and with a stronger “livid” look
Small facial cuts (nose, cheekbones, eyebrows—believable details, nothing over the top)
Blood, no longer tied to the bruise area or “splattered” around it as in v2, but visibly running down from the wounds
How I’m building it
I’m working with four layers:
Vanilla layer
Relief effects on top of the vanilla layer
Damage effects on top of the reliefs
A dedicated layer for dripping blood
The most time-consuming experiments are happening with that last layer. My goal is for the blood to be clearly visible, but only after the bruises and cuts are already noticeable.
The game doesn’t natively handle different layers appearing separately on body and face. It simply fades in one of eight full textures (for face and body respectively), going from invisible to fully visible. So the trick is to simulate that progression with transparency work.
Too little transparency → the blood appears at the same time as the bruises, which feels unrealistic.
Too much transparency → the blood ends up barely visible.
That’s the balance I’m currently fine-tuning.
Any feedback you share at this stage has a very high chance of making it into v3—unless it’s total nonsense :D
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more updates soon!
Comments (4)
I can't wait! I've been playing with LVL 4 blood of the v2 since it released and it has made the game way better, I also love that it doesn't always look like the same blood pattern so in 8 man matches if everyone is bleeding, each person will have a different pattern, not just for the face but for some they'll have the whole back bleeding, others they'll have only the upper part with blood, some will have blood on the sides of the body or around the neck so it looks more realistic, also the way you worked with the textures so you don't see a very clear cut where the blood stops on the neck area like other blood mods out there was done pretty well
Yes, exactly! I believe the 8 choices made by the developers are meant so that in an 8-man match everyone can have a different one. Plus, sometimes wrestlers get hit in the front, sometimes in the back, so the outcome is always something unique. On top of that, we also have 8 face variations and multiple possible combinations. Then, the “real” blood texture—the one that spills when the forehead is damaged—adds even more variety. Also, if you create a good forehead-blood texture, one that doesn’t cover the whole face, the result is even better because it blends naturally with the bruising blood. This way the face still looks full, but always with different patterns. These are the reasons why I wanted to work carefully on the details of each individual texture, instead of repeating the same work for all of them. I really appreciate that this has been understood and well received.
Thank you for doing this glad I could be of some inspiration 🙏🏽💪
Thank you. And sorry I couldn’t do it earlier, but what started as a simple ‘request version’ turned into the most interesting idea—and the most challenging one for me to realize. That’s why it’s better to take a solid step with a full v3 than to deliver a rushed version.