October Update: SUPLEX

New Animations, Visual Improvements & Fixes

• Billy has an all-new back throw animation.
• New reaction animations have been added to Billy and Paul's back throws.
• Billy now has a proper idle animation.
• Several of Billy's sprites have been updated to fix pixelation/edge effects.
• Compression has been turned off for some sprites to improve quality (at the cost of a little disk space/possibly performance).
• Fixed an issue where an attacker's sprite would be flipped in the wrong direction for a single frame after landing a back throw.
• Fixed an issue where the fling at the end of the Bily Buster would display a hitspark if it beat another throw.
• Fixed the sort ordering of Maria ground throw/Noel back throw/paul back throw so the grabbed opponent is properly drawn behind the grabbing player.

New Time Setting: Rapid

• The "Rapid" time setting may now be chosen in character select. Currently this gives 5 seconds of thinking time per turn after one player locks in, but it may be adjusted upward with testing.
• Most players queue up their next action quickly each turn, but time controls can help keep the game moving at a quick pace. The default thinking time (Standard) is 15 seconds, which is sufficient to prevent stalling, and the next fastest time was the much faster "BLITZ" at 3 seconds. This left a gap for a "moderately fast" time setting for competitive play.

Balance Changes

• All characters except Nick and Lewis now push their opponent 1 space backward after their back throws. Lewis' forward/neutral throw (which side switches) will carry him an additional space forward.
• In general we're trying to weaken midscreen throw loops that involve N+Throw as an oki option. After most forward throws were given extra push, Back Throw became a very strong option as a midscreen punish because it left the opponent in a point blank KD. Now it should still be worth it to hit a back throw to put the opponent in the corner, but other midscreen punish options should be back on the table. This will also help most back throws look better visually.
• Marv Blazing Ent is now -10 at range 3 (round start range).
• This should open up some lower-commitment counterplay to this move, especially for characters like Billy and Paul with no zoning tools.
• Marv Blazing Ent damage reduced (300->275).
• This will put its damage more in line with other zoning tools like Firepaul (250 damage).
• If Nils only has half charge (back charge), Natural Light will be -10 at range 2 and will only do 225 damage (instead of 250).
• This will help create a more meaningful difference between the two charge levels (and the two variations of Natural Light), and gives a slight drawback to whiffing Advance Base.

New Music Tracks

• The win/lose menu now has two new music tracks by Nabooli: one for winning (THE RUSH), one for losing (ON THE EDGE). These new tracks will be added to the soundtrack pretty soon.
• Currently RUSH will play in local VS after either player wins, but it might be changed to ON THE EDGE later.

Chinese Localization now in beta

• Warlocs Localization has been working with me on Chinese localization, they previously did our Japanese translation. They are currently testing the Chinese--and you can too! You can select Chinese from Options or the main menu language selection. Press F8 at any time in game to send me feedback on the translation.