Version 0.4.1.a is now released, it's a big one! We will try to highlight the big changes here but as always you can read the whole detailed change log at the bottom of the post.
Online Lobbies / Spectating
This update contains some pretty hefty improvements to our online functionality! Players can now compete in rotation king-of-the-hill style with up to 7 other players, and spectate matches that are in progress.
Current features of the lobby system:
- Players can leave the rotation if they wish to only spectate
- If only two players are in the rotation, players can rematch as much as they want
- Players will be automatically skipped if AFK
- Lobbies can be private and steam friends can join or be invited
- Steam profiles can now be viewed
- Total amount of players online is now shown
This is pretty much version 1 of the new online stuff and next we will work towards matchmaking queues (from the menu or training) and more persistent data (like wins, losses, and rank, etc).
Cid Art Updates
Much like Roy with the last version, Cid has had her entire animation library updated and brought up to the current generation of tech. She now has animated swipes and special ones for using her electric attacks, completely filled out secondary animation for her side grenades and dog tags, and in general a polish pass on the animations themselves. Along with that she has probably had the most gameplay changes which are detailed in the character section.
Menu UI Changes
Changed the animations and layouts for all menus in the game, should be a bit faster, smoother to navigate, and look a bit better.
Keyboard Configuration
Added support for mapping the keyboard. In the controls options, alongside the controller options there are now options for mapping keyboard keys for Player 1, Player 2, and Training Mode functions. Player 2 now defaults to un-mapped and will need to be mapped to be used.
Menu Input
There is no longer a separate (un-mappable) set of inputs for controlling the menu versus controlling in game, now whatever your inputs are mapped they will be used for the menu as well.
Training Mode - Playback and GameState
Removed Playback and GameState UIs and options to enable, and added a popup that shows when any of the functions are triggered. There will eventually be a way to access this stuff from the menu but for now it will need to be just the keyboard mappings.
Training Mode - Maxx Happy Hour Toggle
Added toggle in training mode to disable Maxx's 4-bar automatic super "Happy Hour", now you can choose to practice buffed or not with meter options enabled.
Sound Options - Mute when Alt-Tabbed
Added sound option for toggling if alt-tabbing causes the game to mute or not.
There is a ton of adjustments to the gameplay in this one and we'll try to highlight the major changes.
Chained Light Attacks
Light attacks that can chain cancel into other light attacks can no longer do so if the attack was parried. Previously, these moves had to have their chain timings restricted with regards to parry in order for them to still be negative when countered. Since they can no longer chain, we can get a little more freedom on the chain timing and speed it up in some cases.
ATC - Less Hitstop
Hit stop across the board for almost all parried moves has been reduced by around 2 frames. Defenders will need to react slightly faster if they want to counter attacks.
ATC - Orients Correctly on Crossups
When parrying a crossup, the defender will now orient towards the attacker instead of away (like normal hits), should just look better.
JTC - Less Reward
The universal overhead JTC mechanic has been adjusted a bit in order to slightly reduce it's reward on hit.
- Two more active frames
- First two active frames will no longer hit against crouching opponents
- Less hit stun. Less advantageous against standing opponents and counter hits are now only combo-able against crouching opponents
- Horizontal distance is slightly decreased
- Push back is slightly decreased
Special Move Meter Gain
All specials moves now grant their meter for initiating them on the second frame instead of the first. This ensures that you do not gain meter for kara-cancelling a normal-special into an ex-special.
Collision Boxes - Empty Jump Hurt Boxes Reach Lower
Empty jumps have had their hurt boxes slightly extended downwards. This should make them easier to hit by defenders.
Collision Boxes - Shorter Standing Characters
All characters hurt boxes are slightly shorter when standing. This will make air to ground attacks need to be timed slightly later than before.
Collision Boxes - Wider Hurt Boxes When Crouching
All characters have had their crouching hurt boxes slightly extended. There will now be a greater difference between standing / crouching hurt box distances and allow for more things to work against crouching opponents.
Battle Camera
The game camera changed a little bit. Horizontally it will move smoother and a bit slower, and vertically it will move higher and slightly slower.
Damage
Damage in the game has been adjusted slightly. Counter hits now grant +25% damage instead of +10%, supers minimum scaling increased from 50% to 55%, and the combo scaling values have been reduced a bit in order to limit longer combos a bit.
Crossups - Physical Collisions
When crossups happen and players are intersecting with their movement boxes, the scale at which this is resolved has been increased from 0.5 to 1.0, which effectively disables this feature. This was used so that when players jumped almost directly on top of the other and landed behind, that they would not be pushed so far away when landing on the ground. With changes to the jump velocities and movement box sizes, this is no longer needed and looks much better.
Crossups - Corner Non-Crossups
When both players are in the corner and one is jumping onto the other, non-crossup attacks will now land on the defender. Previously, if a move was not considered a move that can hit crossup, it would completely whiff and the attacker would land inside the corner.
Crossups - Airborne Proximity Origin
The origin position for all attacks' proximity boxes has been extended so that it doesn't come from the exact middle of a character. This doesn't really change anything for grounded attacks, but for airborne attacks that landing right above the defender it should help and avoid proximity blocking putting a character in a weird flipping situation (proximity block -> get crossed up -> walk back into the front -> proximity block again -> etc).
Crossups - Blocking Input Check Improvements
How the input for blocking is stored and referenced by the engine is now done as a unique case instead of like any other input, and is now calculated immediately before processing the collision logic for a hit. This fixes an unblockable case when being crossed up on the same frame that a move hits.
Crossups - Less Pushback When Crossing Up
Added a scale value that can be applied to an attack's push back only when hitting as a crossup. Set to 0.5, this means that moves that hit crossup will only apply 50% of their push back instead of 100%.
Previously, depending on a character's jump velocity, the character's move boxes, the attack's hit boxes, and the attack's push back, an attack could easily hit in front and land behind, or hit behind and land in front. Because of this, airborne attacks that could cross up needed to have their hit boxes and push back finely tuned to prevent it from happening. Due to that delicate balance, any change to a character's jump arc would have a strong chance of messing it up and re-introducing the case. It also meant that all the airborne normals needed different push back distances because they had different hit box sizes.
With the new method, we're able to standardize the push back distance for all airborne attacks (set to 2.0, which is higher than most crossup normals had before), and then scale it to 1.0 when it hits as a crossup (lower than crossup normals had before), and avoid this case and delicate balance all together.
Hit Stop - Adjustments
Hit stop for medium and heavy attacks have been decreased slightly, and slightly increased for specials. This should speed up the combat when using normals, and give more impact and better cancelability for specials.
Meter Gain - Adjustments
Global meter scaling has been increased from 125% to 150% but the curve for how it scales during a combo has been reduced. Players should gain more meter for stray hits and less for combos.
Input - Charge Super Input
Charge super can now be done with the first forward input being any forward instead of strict forward. This means you can now input charge super with DownBackward -> DownForward -> DownBackward -> Forward.
Input - Charge Buffer Increased
Amount of frames to charge for a charge move has been slightly increased from 40 to 44, requiring a bit more charge time for specials / supers.
Input - Post-DTC Attack Leniency
When DTCing, leniency for the followup attack has been slightly increased from 12 to 14, making it a bit easier to do combos with.
It's been a while now since we've had a proper gameplay patch and this one has quite a bit of changes. Below you will find some changes that are applied to the characters as a whole, and then their individual changes.
Walk Forward - Slight Speed Decrease
All characters have had their forward walk speeds slightly reduced, generally by the same amount so that their differences remain intact. Felt like it was a bit too easy for characters to invade each other's space.
Walk Backward - Slight Speed Increase
Similar but opposite of the walk forward change, some characters have had their backwards walk speeds slightly increased. This should make the differences between forward and backwards and bit less drastic overall.
Dash Forward - Slight Distance Decrease
Many characters have had their forward dash distance slightly reduced, they will cover a bit less ground.
Jumps - Faster Startup
All characters have had their jump startup frames decreased to 4. This is a reduction from 5 for all characters other than TYara, who was reduced from 7. This should allow characters to get into the air faster.
Jumps - Longer Air Time
With the above reduction in startup, these frames have been applied to the airborne time of the jump. The total amount of frames should be unchanged but will give the character more time to attack and the defender more time to react.
Jumps - Higher Arcs
Character's have had their jump arcs height increased. This means that they will leave the ground at a faster speed, reach a higher point, and hit the ground at a faster speed. This will make jumping characters need to time their attacks a bit better, and also allow grounded defending characters a better chance to counter.
Grounded Light Punches - Increased Block Stun
Most grounded light punch attacks have had their block stun increased. This should allow better advantage when going for a followup attack when blocked.
Grounded Normal Attacks - Hurt Box Adjustments
Many grounded normal attacks have had their hurt boxes adjusted during their active and followthrough states. In general during active frames, hit boxes should extend farther than their hurt box counter part, and during followthrough, hurt boxes can sometimes extend farther than the hit box did during the active frames. This means that attacks can be whiff punished from a greater distance than they would hit and should be an improvement to whiff punishing and footsies in general.
Airborne Normal Attacks - Standardized Pushback
All airborne attacks now apply the same amount of push back. Up until now it was on a per-move basis. This should feel more consistent when landing air-to-ground attacks.
Airborne Normal Attacks - Increased Block Stun
Most airborne normal attacks have had their block stun slightly increased. This should allow better advantage when trying to follow up with a grounded attack when blocked.
Roy is in a pretty good spot overall, his changes are mostly in line with the global changes and a few new things.
- Forward walk is slower
- Backward walk is faster
- Forward dash doesn't go as far
- Light punches chain faster and are better on block
- St.LK is faster
- St.MP is better on hit and block
- Cr.MP forces stand and is better on block
- St.MK is faster
- St.HP has better hitbox
- Cr.HP reaches farther
- Jp.HP is better on block
- St.HK charged version is faster
- Cr.HK goes farther
- Jp.HK is slightly worse
- Gunshot light version no longer hits agent fireballs
- Gunshot medium has less push back
- Gunshot heavy juggles less far
- Headbutts have more push back on block and better advantage on block
- Super Gunshot has more active frames
- Super KnuckleSandwich no longer moves forward during active frames
Cid has changed the most out of the characters and she has gained a few more tools.
- Art is completely updated (model and animations)
- Damage scale is slightly reduced
- Health is slightly reduced
- Forward walk is slower
- Forward dash doesn't go as far
- St.LP is no longer cancellable
- Cr.LP has less push back
- St.LK cancels into St.MP / Cr.MP slower and the advantage is different
- St.MP and St.HP can now be backdashed out of while holding
- St.MP(Normal) is better on block
- St.MP(Charged) is better on hit but worse on block
- Cr.MP(Normal) has less range
- Cr.MP(Charged) has more range
- St.MK reaches farther
- Cr.MK is slightly less effective
- Cr.HP has better hit box
- St.HK is better on block
- Grenades have less active frames but have had their speeds adjusted
- KnifeRush heavy version has a higher juggle value
- KnifeWheel animation is much more indicative when it is safe
Not a whole lot changed with T.Yara, she will be the focus of our next update, but for now she got a few gameplay adjustments.
- Damage scale is slightly reduced
- Forward dash doesn't go as far
- St.LP has a higher hit box
- Cr.LP can chain faster
- Jp.LP is better on block
- St.LK is more whiff punishable
- Cr.LK has less range
- Jp.LK has a higher hit box
- Cr.MP is faster but less range
- Jp.MP is better on block
- St.MK has fixed hurt boxes
- Cr.MK has more range but is slower and worse on block
- Jp.MK can no longer crossup and is better on block
- Cr.HP got a better juggle
- Jp.HP is better on block
- St.HK is more whiff punishable
- Jp.HK has more active frames and is better on block
- Jp.Splash has a higher hit box but is better on block
- ShieldCharges can no longer be DTC'd, are now super cancellable, are now airborne, have less push back, and charged versions are better on block
- FlyingGoddesses have had their oki adjusted
- BreakYourBones have had their oki adjusted and normal have been slowed down
Not a whole lot different with Dog other than some small adjustments, shouldn't really play any differently.
- Forward walk is slower
- Jp.LP is better on block
- Jp.LK is better on block but has a worse hit box
- St.MP has had its' target combo timing adjusted, is better on hit and on block
- Cr.MP is more whiff punishable
- St.MK second hit will now beat a parry -> jab
- Cr.MK has less push back
- Jp.MK is better on block
- St.HP has a lower juggle value
- Dw.Fw.HP is better on block
- Jp.HP is better on block
- St.HK doesn't launch as far
- Cr.HK does not corpse hop as easily
- Jp.HK is better on block
- Run->Slide normal version has a higher juggle value
- Run->MidStrike both versions are better on block
- Run->LeapStrike both versions stay on the ground slightly longer
- PinWheel->Dive all versions now have correct CH bonus, worse on hit and block
- Super PinWheel now hits lower
- Super Run is now a 4-bar super
Agent-G has received a fair bit of changes but his game plan should be the same.
- Damage scale is slightly reduced
- Health is slightly increased
- Forward walk is slightly slower
- Forward dash doesn't go as far
- St.LP doesn't reach as far and is better on block
- Cr.LP is better on block
- Jp.LP is better on block
- St.LK is better on hit and block, is no longer airborne from frame 1
- Cr.LK is more whiff punishable
- Jp.LK is better on block
- St.MP is better on block
- Cr.MP is faster and better on block
- Jp.MP is better on block
- St.MK is now super cancellable
- Fw.MK now combos into followup on hit, worse on block
- Fw.MK->Followup is slightly worse on dtc (hit and block)
- Jp.MK has better crossup hitbox and is better on block
- St.HP does not get pushed as far out of the corner when juggling, fixed proximity issue, slightly less damage
- Cr.HP has slightly less damage
- Jp.HP is better on block
- St.HK is slightly better against opponents directly above him
- Cr.HK has less push back
- Fw.HK has more reach and doesn't launch as far away
- Jp.HK is better on block
- CrescentKicks have had their normal versions damage standardized and juggle physics adjusted
- CrescentSplits have lower damage, knockdown for more frames, and are slightly worse on block
- LunarDiscs have had their spawn position pushed slightly forward, fast versions are active longer but don't go as far, regular versions reset against airborne, regular versions are better on hit and block
- Super Lunar Geyser reaches farther
Maxx got a fair bit of changes but in general his game plan should also be the same.
- Damage scale is slightly reduced
- Forward walk when buffed and non-buffed is slower
- Backward walk when non-buffed is faster
- Forward dash doesn't go as far
- Forward throw doesn't throw as far
- St.LP has less push back
- Cr.LP has less push back
- Jp.LP is better on block
- St.LK is slower, has less range, has more push back, and has less hit and block stun
- Cr.LK is now special cancel-able, is now chain cancel-able into other lights, is slower, has more push back, and has more hit and block stun
- Jp.LK has a higher hit box, is worse on hit, and better on block
- St.MP is better on block
- Cr.MP is better again opponents directly above
- Jp.MP has a better crossup hitbox, is better on block
- Jp.MK can now always hit crouching opponents, doesn't push as far out in the corner
- Jp.HP is better on block
- St.HK now causes a hard knockdown against airborne opponents, is better on hit
- HookSwings are all better on block
- HornyToads are invincible against airborne sooner
- GroundAndPounds whiffed has more recovery, light version goes slightly less far, hits push the opponent out slightly more
- Super LastCall (Non-Buffed) last hit better hit box, slightly less damage
- Super LastCall (Buffed) has more active frames, slightly less damage
That's it for the main changes in the update, but there's a ton of other little changes sprinkled around. If you want to dive deep into the thorough patch notes, you can find them here
We'll be hosting and streaming an open lobby pretty regularly from our Twitch channel. If you'd like to watch some matches of the game feel free to tune in, or if you want to play on stream feel free to boot up and join the lobby!
Thanks so much to everyone in the discord who helped us test the lobby / spectating functionality. These things have a ton of moving parts and we are fortunate to have such a friendly and helpful community.
As always if you want to keep up to date with development, please follow us on social media. If anything, definitely join the discord!