Official The Joker "Get a Load of Me" Reveal Trailer
He's been waiting in the shadows for far too long. The Joker is officially joining the MultiVersus cast!
MultiVersus is a free-to-play platform fighter with an ever-expanding cast of iconic characters and legendary universes, various online modes, in-game events, on-going content-filled seasons, and more.
Hey there, everyone! Our last blog highlighted all the big revisions to the MultiVersus netcode. This week we’ll be digging deep into the upcoming Combat Refactor and some of the exciting changes to the way the game is played.
From seasoned vets to brand new players, the combat in MultiVersus needs to make sense for players of all skill levels. From a combat philosophy perspective, we always want to make sure MultiVersus combat rewards smart, well timed, calculated play in a fun, engaging and fluid way. During Open Beta, MultiVersus prioritized combat that was flexible and snappy, emphasizing the moment-to-moment combat encounters. We loved the fluidity of that combat, but we wanted to equally reward more strategic play without removing the fluidity. While our evolved combat prioritizes more strategic and “neutral” play, we feel that these changes for our launch still preserve the soul of MultiVersus combat while evolving it in a positive direction.
MultiVersus has a diverse group of characters with many different abilities, skills and playstyles. When we decided to rebuild our netcode from the ground up, it gave us the opportunity to rebuild our entire roster of characters in an overall effort to tune the cast to be both fun to play as and against. In short, when we launch, MultiVersus combat will be easy to pick up, but truly challenging to master. Let’s get into the details.
Improving Clarity
There is a lot going on during a MultiVersus match, with flashy moves and explosions all over the place. During Open Beta it became clear that a number of players found it challenging to track the details of combat during matches, so we made a number of changes to improve the overall clarity of battle. While the fundamentals remain the same, we think you’ll appreciate the tweaks we’ve incorporated to improve the flow of a match, making the moment-to-moment easier and clearer for players to observe.
New Engine
Old Engine
You may have noticed that characters seem a bit bigger this time around, and you’re not wrong. We think it’s very important to be able to quickly react to what your opponents are up to and having larger characters really leads to improved readability. Our in-game camera is also more dynamic and will pan and zoom accordingly, depending on what is going on in-game. When you’re fighting an opponent 1v1, the camera will zoom in to bring you closer to the action, but when combat moves to the wider parts of the map, you’ll see the camera pull out to capture allthe mayhem. The dynamic camera does a fantastic job of keeping the game feeling snappy and fast, while improving readability so that you can better understand your opponents’ actions.
Next, we added a set of animations that will not only improve the game visually but will also help you to identify exactly what your opponents are doing at all times. You’ll now be able to see unique animations that showcase which state both your character and your opponent are in. Many of our updated animations not only help players read gameplay tactically, but also improve how visceral it feels. We want to make sure that your hits feel impactful and satisfying when you land an attack. We’ve also paired these animations with revamped sound effects that help to add to that visceral impact. On top of that, as we discussed in our last blog, the game’s new netcode will improve both the clarity and accuracy of combat, leading to a much more consistent and reliable experience for you and your friends, even across the country.
Dash Attack
A new dash attack has been added to all characters! Dash attack is an intuitive combat entry that can quickly close the distance between you and your opponent. After beginning your run animation, dash attack allows you to strike your opponent with a bit of extra forward velocity on your side. This addition gives players more flexibility and creative possibility as it can be used to start a combo or be weaved into the middle of combo strings. You also can input forward direction twice in quick succession to use your dash attack, enabling you to use it as both a quick attack, or a powerful combo ender. The dash attack speeds up combat in an organic way while adding greater complexity, mobility and player expression to your toolkit.
Parry Time
Parry has also been added to the game and it’s kind of a big deal! Parry is a high skill mechanic that gives you a new defensive option in MultiVersus. When properly utilized, a player who parries will recover more quickly than the attacker and will have the opportunity to launch their own attack. This gives a tactical advantage, but it requires precise timing to pull off and if you miss that timing, you could be left in a vulnerable spot. One goal of ours is to keep combat moving and fluid, and a parry gives you a ton of defensive expression, while not slowing the pace of battle. There is a great risk/reward mechanic to attempting a parry – do you risk parrying an opponent’s attack knowing the more precise timing could leave you exposed? We hope making these trade-offs during real time MultiVersus combat will add fun dimensions to how players can express themselves.
Character Kits
At launch, every character from our Open Beta period will receive kit tuning to improve their overall feel. Some characters will also receive all new abilities to replace previous moves, such as Harley’s balloons. Digging a bit into the details, the hit volume, timing and placement of all hits has been adjusted for every single move. Now, no matter which character you pick, their moves feel much more precise and impactful. A lot of attention and care has gone into designing the MultiVersus character kits, and we’re looking forward to you getting your hands on these reworked characters.
Harley Balloon: New Engine
Harley Balloon: Old Engine
Players First: Join the Community
We can’t wait for you to put your hands on our combat experience when MultiVersus launches on May 28. However, we’re not done! We’ve built a variety of tools that allow us to continue to improve the game over time, meaning that once the game is live, we’ll take in your feedback and continue iterating, so that our community continually has something to look forward to after launch.
Please be sure to follow us on our social channels and join the official MultiVersus Discord for the latest news about the game. We’ll be back with more updates soon. Stay tuned!
FIRST APPEARANCE: Batman: The Animated Series (September 1992)
SPECIAL MOVES Stuffie Bat Batter Up!
DESCRIPTION: Harleen Quinzel was a psychiatrist at Arkham Asylum until the fateful day she met the psychotic villain The Joker… and everything changed forever. After years of being The Joker's sidekick and main squeeze as Harley Quinn, she finally found the courage to leave and forge her own destiny. Her rise to power hasn’t escaped Batman’s notice, and he’s noted that she has the potential to become one of Gotham City's, or even the world’s, greatest villains.
Character: Shaggy
REAL NAME: Norville Rogers
FIRST APPEARANCE: Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! - “What a Night for a Knight” (September 1969)
SPECIAL MOVES ZOINKS! Power Uppercut DESCRIPTION: The last thing Shaggy remembers before The Change was exploring another spooky old mansion with his pal Scoob, just like any other day with the gang. He found a strange glowing crystal and, thinking it was rock candy, went to take a bite. There was a FLASH… and then blackness. When he came to, he found himself in possession of incredible powers. He doesn’t know where they came from or how they work, but he’s vowed to use them to vanquish evil and protect the little guy. As soon as he gets some lunch, that is.
New Character: Bugs Bunny
FIRST APPEARANCE: “A Wild Hare” (July 1940)
CREATOR: Tex Avery
SPECIAL MOVES A Safe Investment Special Delive-Rocket
DESCRIPTION: One of pop culture’s most enduring icons, Bugs is a movie star, action hero, and sports legend with a career spanning over half a century. With plenty of Multiverse experience under his belt and a long history of team-ups, Bugs is arguably one of the least-fazed fighters in the face of this multiversal mayhem. He’s humble about it, but this smart aleck rabbit has been yukking it up on screens small and large since before most of these other fighters could walk. Armed with his wits and a few ACME-brand accessories, he’s ready to let loose the looniness.
MultiVersus Developer Series: Netcode
Hey there, everyone!
We hope you enjoyed our recent MultiVersus Developer Update video, because we couldn't wait to share it with you. Leading up to launch, we'll be releasing several blogs that take a closer look at the new features and changes that'll be heading to MultiVersus when we launch on May 28. We couldn't be more thankful for all of the invaluable feedback we received from the community during our Open Beta period and we can't wait to show you all what we've been working on. In short, when MVS returns it will incorporate a smoother, more reliable online experience. Let's dive right in, shall we?
REBUILT FROM THE GROUND UP
During Open Beta, MultiVersus utilized a client server model netcode, meaning that, for many players, hitting your opponent felt slightly off at times. Put another way, after you pressed a button, the logic for what you saw was calculated on one of various servers and if you weren't in close proximity to one of these servers, the latency made for a poor, imprecise experience, not only for you, but also for your teammates and opponents. This meant that people in different regions of the world had issues playing with their friends, and that needed to be fixed. Quite simply, our old netcode didn't meet expectations, and the only way to truly remedy the situation was to rebuild it entirely from the ground up.
So, without going into too much technical terminology, our team built a deterministic netcode that is tailor made for MultiVersus, regardless of mode or number of players. Our goal was and is to deliver world class online play that is fair, dependable, and gives us the flexibility to build for the present and future of MultiVersus. By vastly improving our networking foundations, we're able to optimize the experience for a variety of modes, including 1v1, 2v2, 4-player free-for-all, and more. Properly architected rollback networking is incredibly cool in that it essentially predicts what each player is going to do next and then uses those predictions to keep the moment-to-moment gameplay buttery smooth and consistent. Basically, our new netcode allows for a much more dependable and predictable competitive and cooperative experience that will benefit all players.
These videos demonstrate MultiVersus' rollback netcode in action. First we showcase a lower ping environment. The blue line indicates the path that the client predicted and the red line indicates the state after rollback has happened.
Next we show a higher ping environment. You can see that even with higher ping, the game still manages to maintain a smooth look and feel.
IMPROVED MATCHMAKING
With improved netcode, comes improved matchmaking. During Open Beta, matchmaking was often determined by latency, meaning that people were often matching with opponents in nearby regions, since being in closer proximity would yield higher quality matches with lower ping and better connections. Our new netplay will allow for people to play more seamlessly with friends and opponents who are farther away, rather than being largely dictated by geographic location, matchmaking will focus on grouping players by their actual skill level, creating a worthwhile experience for everyone. How do all these changes play out? We've been actively testing with very positive results so far, resulting in better connections for players with noticeable improvement to the overall experience.
It truly is our goal to have the MultiVersus online experience feel as though you're sitting next to your friends on the sofa playing locally, only with less sharing of the snacks.
THANK YOU
We can't thank you enough for being a part of the MultiVersus community. Be sure to warp into our Social Channels and join us on Discord to discuss our netcode improvements.
We'll be sharing more game information with more blogs posts to follow leading up to the game's launch on May 28. See you next time!
MultiVersus - Official Developer Update: The Road to Launch
Join MultiVersus Game Director Tony Hyunh for the latest & greatest updates coming to the game at launch. We've got so much to show you over the next few months. Catch you in the 'verse May 28th!
MultiVersus is a free-to-play platform fighter with an ever-expanding cast of iconic characters and legendary universes, various online modes, in-game events, on-going content-filled seasons, and more.
https://multiversus.com
Filmed on location at the WB Studio Tour Center. Book a studio tour today: https://www.wbstudiotour.com/
MultiVersus - Open Beta Update
MVPs, thank you for the support during Open Beta! The feedback and inspiration has been amazing. Open Beta will close on June 25 as we prepare for full launch in early 2024. MultiVersus will be back better than ever with new content, features, modes & more when we return.
Taking home the gold for all you MVPs 🥇
Couldn't have won Best Fighter without you guys so thank you to everyone who voted! And, thank you #TheGameAwards
Open Beta: Season 2 Patch Notes
Overall patch summary
Season 2 Begins!
Season 2 starts with a new Battle Pass packed with content. We heard your feedback and made sure that there are no tiers without rewards. We also tuned the number of points required to complete each tier so that the Battle Pass feels both engaging and rewarding.
Badges!
You can now equip up to 3 badges and show them off to the MultiVerse!
The Store is Open!
Check out the new MultiVersus in-game store! All cosmetics and characters are all in one place now! Browse away!
Multi-Path Traffic Acceleration!
We've put in place some network traffic optimizations and Multi-Path Traffic Acceleration. This is just the beginning and we're seeing promising results, but we will continue to improve our online experience for everyone!
Maps
Scooby's Mansion (No Roof)
Increased blastbox size by 10%.
Ringouts were coming a bit too fast on the map so we increased the size by a bit.
Space Jam Map Updates!
We're now keeping score of baskets made!
Scoring a basket now awards points based on the distance thrown. Try for some difficult 3 pointers!
Basket scores will now be broadcasted on the BIG screen!
Attacking a player holding a basketball item will cause that player to drop the item. Try fighting for control of The Court!
The Court's walls can no longer be attacked and will only break on a player wall bounce.
Space Jam is still only available in Custom matches or in the Lab.
Any feedback would be appreciated as we continue to hone in a version of the map for queue!
Tutorial
Intro tutorial has been simplified, removing a number of steps
VO clips have been added to the intro tutorial.
Players are now given the option to go into arcade or their first match after finishing the intro tutorial.
Silly Queue
]Jump into Silly Queue to try our BIG new ideas!
Our new game type is Big Head Mode! Characters will have large heads, and even larger cooldown reductions! Use your newfound knowledge to take home the win!
New items added to the game.
‘Bounce Pad’: Place a spring pad that will launch anyone that steps on it upward.
‘Proximity Mine’: A placeable mine that will detonate when enemies get close
‘Drumstick’: Cooked chicken leg that will when thrown will turn hit enemies into Chickens for a short time
Cosmetics
Evil Morty (Unlockable with: 1500 Gleamium) Samurai Batman (Unlockable with: 2000 Gleamium) Fern (Unlockable with: 2,000 Gleamium) Uncle Shagworthy (Unlockable with: 2,000 Gleamium) Baker Street Tom and Jerry (Unlockable on tier 50 of the Free Battle Pass) Astronaut Velma (Unlockable on Tier 1 of the Premium Battle Pass) Tea Time Reindog (Unlockable on Tier 42 of the Premium Battle Pass) Maestro Bugs Bunny (Unlockable on Tier 50 of the Premium Battle Pass)
For more info, click here: https://multiversus.bugs.wbgames.com/patch-notes
