s&box

30 changes in this update

- **Directional melee combat** (Mount & Blade style):
- Move your mouse left, right, up or down to pick a direction, then left-click to attack. Hold the button to keep
the swing wound up; let go to strike.
- Right-click blocks on the side your mouse last moved toward. Let go and block again to switch sides.
- **Parry:** raise the right block just before a hit lands to stagger the attacker.
- **Feint:** right-click during your wind-up to cancel it into a block.
- **Chain attacks:** aim and click mid-swing, and your next attack starts the moment the swing ends.
- Attacks and blocks you press during a dodge or kick go off the moment it ends.
- **Combat crosshair:** a dot with a line showing your direction. White while aiming, gold once your attack is locked
in, blue while blocking. The dot turns gold over players and creatures.
- **Damage numbers** under the hit marker when you land a hit.
- **Marketplace:** press E at a market stall to buy, sell and collect your earnings.
- **Housing:** a playtest area with three plots. Read the board, rent a plot at its sign, then build on it.
- **Professions:** press E at the employment board to join a profession and rank up.
- **Families (early):** press G for the Family page, and try the family stations: the marriage altar, vault, ledger
and keep.

- Swords, axes, clubs and spears use the new directional combat. Fists, bows and the lasso keep the old controls.
- Attacking or blocking slows you to a walk. You can still sprint into a fight.
- Pressing Shift while sprinting drops you back to a jog.
- Sprinting drains stamina faster.
- Bandits fight with directional combat: they block, parry, feint, dodge and kick.
- The Supplies statue gives 1,250 gold, enough to try the market and rent a plot.
- New blood: sprays of drops and streaks in different sizes and shades of red, instead of a puff of dots.
- Block and armour sparks are bigger and easier to see.
- The hit marker starts small, grows and fades.
- When your attack is blocked, parried or breaks a guard, the word floats up above your name.

- A single Religious Book can no longer be passed around mid-prayer to bless a whole group.
- While you're critically injured, your health cap updates correctly when your piety level changes.
- The Faithless condition and the Religious Book's description show the right instructions and numbers.

19 changes in this update

Sprint is back: tap Shift while jogging to sprint. It's 50% faster than jogging and only works moving forward.
Sprint stamina: sprinting costs 2 stamina per second. When you run out, you drop back to a jog.
Steer your swings: move the mouse mid-attack and the swing and its damage follow where you're looking. There's a turn limit, so no spinning.
Free placement, starting with the cooking pot: place it anywhere from your hotbar or inventory. Left click places it, right mouse plus the mouse rotates it, and holding E picks it back up.
Playtest statues:
Building statue: turns creative building on or off and gives you the Blueprint and Hammer.
Supplies statue: equips the biggest backpack and gives you a crafting and gathering kit.
Animal statue: spawns a bear, wolf or boar to fight.

Shift toggles your speed: tap once to jog, tap again to sprint. Stop moving to drop back to a walk.
Snappier attacks: after a swing lands, you return to the combat-ready stance right away instead of playing out the whole follow-through.
Smoother first swing: if you don't follow up the first light sword attack, it settles back into stance smoothly instead of snapping.
Bigger lunges: attacks carry you further forward, and the two-handed light attacks and the one-handed heavy got timing tweaks.
Easier building snapping: pieces snap to the spot nearest your crosshair, so no more pixel-perfect aiming.

At sprint speed the legs may look like they're running faster than you're moving.
Free-placed items aren't saved yet and disappear after a restart.
Swing steering hasn't been tested with several players yet, so a hit may occasionally not match what you saw.
Sprint, swing steering and the playtest statues are brand new and barely tested. Tell us what feels off.