We've done a number of updates over the last few days, here are the combined patch notes for these changes:
- Added a lobby setting for changing how much damage you take from going outside the screen's edge. This will now default to 50%, instead of the previous value of 100%.
- Added a lobby setting for changing how much force the player bounces back with when leaving the screen's edge.
- Changed time before a player starts regenerating health from 5 to 7.5 seconds.
- Increased knockout time from 3.75 seconds to 5 seconds.
- Changed health to regenerate at a speed of 25% health per second instead of regenerating instantly. This only applies to the regeneration that happens when avoiding taking damage for 7.5 seconds, you will still get back all health instantly when recovering from a knockout.
- Added a preset option for playing with easier levels and lobby settings the first time you start a game.
- Fixed a bug where you wouldn't always get a bronze medal in time trials even though you cleared the required time.
- Fixed a bug where the join text in the lobby would not always disappear correctly.
- Fixed an audio issue on maps with attached Oblinterator beams.
Our main focus for these changes has been to make the game more friendly to beginners. We've selected out a few levels that are easier to get started with, which the game will now recommend the first time you start a lobby.
We've also introduced an option to change how much damage you take from leaving the edge of the screen, which allows you to bounce back one or more times instead of the previous instant elimination.
This will now default to 50%, which means you will survive falling out of the map once, but if you do it again before recovering your health you will be eliminated. We found this option makes the game much more focused on playing to defeat your enemies, rather than waiting for them to make a mistake. You can always change this option back to 100% however to go back to how the game was before.
With these changes, we've also made some tweaks to decrease how fast you recover from a knockout and the health regeneration rate, to give players more time to throw out their opponents from the map after knocking them out or damaging them enough,