In honor of our inclusion in this week's TurnBasedThursdayFest, we're releasing a special preview of our upcoming Major Update. This will be a massive update including the addition of two new characters! Why not try it out and give us some feedback?
This patch adds 2 new characters: Maria & Nils
Both these characters have new Arcade Mode stories and can be used in all modes. In single player modes, you can unlock Nils and Maria by beating Nick and Noel's arcade mdoes, respectively, or by selecting "Unlock Everything" in the options. Because Maria is a newer character, many of her animations are not final.
For full beta patch notes, see here: https://pastebin.com/DgDgV6sf
To access the public beta branch: Right-click Mega Knockdown in your library and click Properties Navigate to the Betas tab. Select the Maria Beta. Launch the game. You are now playing the beta!
If you have comments or encounter any issues, please press F8 to notify the dev. Your feedback will ensure that this patch will launch as smoothly as possible. You can also hop on the discord (https://discord.com/invite/bGVftKK ) to find matches and discuss the new update.
May Update
New Languages Added: Japanese and Spanish
Mega Knockdown may now be played in Japanese (translation by Warlocs) or LATAM Spanish (translation by LeapyLad). There is a language selection button in the lower right corner of the main menu, and another one in the Options menu.
There are a few lingering text strings still in english, such as Online log messages, but the game should be fully playable in these languages now, in addition to English and Brazillian Portuguese as before. If you notice an issue with the translation, you can press F8 to report it.
New Animations
Finished quality sprites have been added for Marv's B attacks (the wood pillars) and Noel's throw (the chomp).
Balance Changes
Nils' Void Cutter no longer deals self damage.
At an early stage Void Cutter did a lot more damage at the cost of self damage, but this was dialed back to the same as Paulcano--but the self damage stayed. So it doesn't make a lot of sense to add a drawback to a worse Paulcano.
"A attack" damage has been adjusted for some characters.
Nils A attack (first hit) now deals a flat 125 damage, instead of 150 for the crouching version or 100 for the walking version of the move. Nils B attack (first hit) increased to 125 damage (from 100).
This is intended to make his uncharged A and B a little less useless, while keeping charged A/B damage above average.
Marv A attack (first hit) now deals 50 damage (down from 100)
Universal 6A is, in general, a really strong tool, and Marv could basically play rushdown with it just as well as anyone else. We're going to try reducing 1st hit damage to give him a little disadvantage here, but the reward is still decent on a clean hit.
Paul A attack (first hit) now deals 75 damage (down from 100)
Paul has not been taking his training very seriously so his jab has lost a little bit of power. He won't trade hits as effectively, but his full A combos are still quite strong.
Online Improvements
The game now offers more explanation of what happens when you are sent back to the lobby view, or back to the lobby browser.
When someone goes back to room during a match, or disconnects during a match, an explanatory message will show in the Player Room's log window
If you lose connection with a lobby and get kicked out to the Online menu, an explanatory message will show in the Online menu.
User Interface Improvements
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The clickable mouse controls now use the same glyphs and color scheme as used elsewhere for attack/block/throw.
Fixed some alignment/layout issues with a few menus when the game is in 16:10 aspect ratio.
Increased the "fade in" speed of some scenes to make menus easier to navigate.
New fonts are being used in several places. For instance, Arial Black has been mostly replaced with Montserrat.
Tutorial Improvements
In Lesson 16 (Different Types of Throws), the player's HP has been reduced significantly. If players fail the third part by getting hit, they will now be KO'd, allowing them to retry instead of getting stuck in a confusing situation where the opponent is no longer easily throwable.
In Arcade mode, Sensei Bob now offers additional Sensei's Tips telling the player about the "Next Move" hint in single player, and explaining how to bring up the Combat Log.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue where your first click in the Main Menu screen would sometimes do nothing.
In the Demo, fixed an issue where achievements were not unlocking correctly.
Fixed an issue where the Green Screen Jeremy DLC was not being registered correctly on Linux.
Fixed the alignment of some "alerts" that appear in the Main Menu (such as when a lobby is open for joining).
Fixed an issue where a deactivated Animator object was being given instructions during the Credits, causing a log warning.
Marv & Jayne Update
For much of the early access period we have been overhauling the in-game character sprites with hand drawn art. This patch marks an important milestone, as we have now upgraded almost all sketch-quality character sprites to finished quality, and we can shift our efforts to elements like backgrounds, endings, and final polish.
New Sprites for Marv, Jayne & Nils!
Marv and Jayne's animations are now in full color. A few animations are likely to get improvements, such as his air throw.
Nils, an in-development charge character, now has finished quality sprites as well. You can fight him at the end of Nick's arcade mode, or if you want to help test out Nils, join the Mega Knockdown discord for details: https://discord.gg/WDPduQM8Eh
Expanded Steam Timeline support
The game now uses the Steam Timeline API to mark up your Steam Game Recordings (such as the one that appears in your Post-Game Summary). A label now indicates the start of each match so that you can more easily clip out highlights and share them with your friends.
Facepunch.Steamworks has been updated to the newest release version (2.4.1) to interface with this new Steam feature.
Bug fixes
Paulcano now has the same hitstop on P1/P2 side. Nils Void Cutter now has the same hitstop as Paulcano, including the combo version.
Fixed an issue where the wrong "delay" sprite would sometimes appear after whiffing an air throw that moves forward 1 space vs a blocking character
MacOS support now in testing
Mega Knockdown is now playable on Mac, but more testing is needed before we can say it is officially supported.
If you want to join the Mac test, join the Mega Knockdown discord for details: https://discord.gg/WDPduQM8Eh
Version 0.9701 Update
Fixed an bug where Jayne would briefly disappear when Marv has frame disadvantage.
Fixed an bug where Marv's with B attack animation had the wrong timings.
Toned down Marv's reactions to Jayne's attacks.
Adjusted the timing and positioning of some of Marv's animations
Added a WIP version of Marv's updated sweep animation.
March Update
New Sprites for Marv & Nils!
Color has been enabled for Marv's animations, and several finished quality full color animations have been added. He's a very complicated character to animate so he's maybe 60% finished now. We hope to have him finished, or mostly finished, by the next regular content update.
A few of Marv's animations have been tweaked & retooled slighty. For instance, Jayne now vanishes briefly into smoke on a ground hit, and Marv will react more to Jayne doing different attacks.
In parallel, work has been started on getting Nils some finished full-color animations. Nils, being much simpler in design, is maybe 30 or 40 percent finished now. (Nils is a new character currently under test. Information on how to access Nils is on the official Discord.)
Nils' color palettes have been overhauled. Previously he mostly had copies of Paul's palettes, now he has 10 of his own.
Performance Improvements
The game will now preload several textures and other assets when it launches. This should mitigate longer-than-usual load times when you enter a match for the first time that session.
Fixed an issue where the combat log would use too much memory late in the match, leading to possible performance impacts.
Several assets now have "crunch" compression, significantly reducing their size on disk and load times. For most textures this should not lead to a noticeable loss in quality. Hard disk footprint is down roughly 15% compared to the last patch (950mb->810mb).
A few scripts have been cleaned up to reduce their performance impact.
Version 0.969b Update (Hotfix)
Fixed a problem with "Find Match" where players attempting to join a game would sometimes not get the signal that the host is ready for a peer-to-peer connection, sending the host player to an empty lobby and leaving the joiner unable to connect. This can still happen if the connecting player cancels connecting or has a connection problem, but the matchmaking queue should be much more reliable now.
Fixed a problem where an invisible object was blocking mouse clicks in the Rebinding menu in the character select screen. It should work better for mouse-pilled users now.
Found a bug, or have feedback to share? You can press F8 at any time during gameplay to send the developers a direct message. We read everything we receive.
Version 0.969a Update (Hotfix)
Fixed a bug where joining the online matchmaking queue, going to play other modes, and then coming back to cancel the search later would not actually close your lobby, leaving behind empty "ghost" lobbies for awhile.
Found a bug, or have feedback to share? You can press F8 at any time during gameplay to send the developers a direct message. We read everything we receive.
February Update
This update includes several UI improvements and quality-of-life features. Our next update is likely to include finished quality animations for Marv. (Cover image is by our artist Alan, of course).
Brazillian Portuguese Support!
Nearly all text in the game (anc achievements) has been translated to Brazillian Portuguese thanks to hard work by community member Stealph. You can switch languages in the main menu or in Options.
If you encounter an issue with the translation, you can press F8 to report it.
If you are bilingual and want to help translate the game into your native language, join the official Discord to learn more.
Online Matchmaking Improvements
The default button in Online mode is now "Find Match," which lets you wait for players while playing other game modes.
If enough other players are online when you're in the Main Menu, but no lobbies are open, the game will suggest you "Queue Up" and start searching for games. Currently this will trigger if 2+ people are online I may adjust this number upward. (I, the dev, am frequently flagged as in-game while testing the game in the Unity Editor, and I might not see your lobby when I'm doing that)
If a lobby IS open, you will see the "Jump In!" icon instead, like in the last patch.
We hope these additions will make it easier to find games organically. You can always hop in Discord as well.
Replay Takeover
In you turn off a replay's Autoplay, bring up the Strategic View and start clicking input buttons, you can override a player's actions in the replay.
This is currently doable with mouse/touch input only. If this feature is popular we can find some way to do takeover with other input methods, such as by holding another button down.
This feature started out as a bug, originally, but it was cleaned up to behave more consistently.
New In-Game Menu System
Across game ALL modes, the pause and end-of-round menus have been overhauled completely to use a more modular and flexible navigation system, similar to the other, newer menus in the game.
This new system should behave more consistently in general, allows for me to more easily add options and features in the future, and supports translations. The actual functioning of the menus has not changed much, for now.
This is a huge change to an important game system, so it may create new issues that were not caught in testing. If you find a bug, press F8 in-game to report it.
UI and System Changes
If you get a perfect KO in most modes, the announcer will shout "MEGA KNOCKDOWN" instead of "KNOCKDOWN," and the game logo will appear on screen.
Several UI/HUD elements that used images of text now use dynamic text which is more performant and can more easily be localized, such as move lists, the "win" screen at the end of Arcade, the credits, and many more examples.
The "guide" display which comes up when you hold Tab/Select is now mostly glyph-based instead of text-based.
You can now close the pause menu with "resume" instead of having to press pause again.
Dialogue in Arcade now uses a new font which better supports extended characters, but mostly looks the same besides.
When you unlock a new color by beating Arcade with a character, you will now get a popup in the win screen.
Resolved some weirdness with Guide/Pause menu elements sometimes incorrectly appearing over/under other UI elements
The Credits have been reformatted slightly and new names have been added. (The last update was in early 2023!) The total credits roll time is now slightly shorter.
You can now change your first assigned movement or combat action in certain tutorial missions, like you can in other parts of the game.
The Training data panel now looks more like the Tutorial HUD windows. The Training/Tutorial menus now have a green color scheme instead of purple.
In training, the the Manual dummy is now expressly labeled as being controlled by player 2.
Some in-game text fields use new fonts.
The "click to continue" screen which appears if your game launches out of focus has been redesigned slightly.
Gameplay and Balance changes
When two invulnerable attacks collide, they will now "clash" for minor damage and knockback (no knockdown) instead of passing through each other harmlessly. This will occur regardless of frame advantage.
Nils jC now acts like Billy/Paul jC, meaning it now does chip damage and hits "only" one square ahead. (Nils is a new character currently under test. Information on how to access Nils is on the official Discord.)
Nils' Natural Light is now +10 from 2 squares away instead of -10. It's still minus when used point blank. This is meant to improve the reward of connecting with Nils' projectile, and fits better with the flavor that it functions similarly to a "sonic boom."
At the right range, Nils' Natural Light can now hit Jayne's extended limb when Marv uses Vapor Strike. This reflects the intended result of this interaction.
Under-the-Hood and Optimization
Updated the game to the most recent Unity 2021 LTS version, as well as some 3rd party plugins.
In the tutorial, some status checks that were running every frame now only happen once.
Cleaned up some scripts for a very minor performance improvement
The "Submit" action has now been fully decoupled from the left mouse button. This was already the case in most scenes, but it was necessary for the funcitoning for the old menus. This was also causing unwanted behaviour like causing highlighted buttons to trigger if empty parts of the screen are clicked, or clicking a button causing it to fire twice. Note that you can still click buttons as normal. This just fixes "bad stuff."
Removed some unused textures. Thanks to this the game's filesize has gone DOWN by about 15mb compared to the last patch.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue related to starting a match when the matchmaking queue connects you to an opponent while you're in another mode.
Fixed a visual glitch with Marv Vapor Strike on player 2 side.
Fixed Marv reacting too slowly to Jayne's extended limb getting hit by PileDebunker
Fixed the tracking of time spent in Training Mode for the achievement (it used to tick too slowly sometimes)
Fixed some strange behaviour in the tutorial where the displayed input choice was sometimes not correct if you changed your inputs, or the opponent's displayed "next move" was incorrect.
Fixed normal mode arcade clear not tracking correctly for some characters
Fixed Nils not tracking Survival Mode/Paul Zone high scores.
Cleaned up some code causing Null Reference Exceptions in rare situations
Version 0.968b Update (Hotfix)
Fixed a bug where blocking a projectile would sometimes cause the "being hit" animation to play, which could destabilize the gameplay state and create other issues.
When blocking minus attacks, block animations tend to end early to speed up the flow of gameplay. As part of the above fix, this behaviour no longer applies to projectiles. At least for now.
Found a bug, or have feedback to share? You can press F8 at any time during gameplay to send the developers a direct message. We read everything we receive.
Version 0.968 Update
Replays are now enabled for arcade mode!
Fixed an issue where replays would sometimes not correctly show the players' chosen art style if they were using Jerma skins
Some additional pt-BR translations have been added (thanks Stealph)
You can now switch languages in game from the main menu or Options instead of editing the game's launch options. Currently only EN and pt-BR are supported, and some parts of the game are still being set up for localization.
The game will now auto-detect your system locale and switch you to portuguese by default if your system uses it.
Added a new Marv animation (marv's anti air A special)
Fixed Jayne's color palette support in some Marv animations
