Rank rebalance, camera sharing, better bots, camera preset, custom quick chat,..
Update v0.68.0 is now live! 🏒
Highlights
- Ranks have been rebalanced
- Share camera settings
- Better dodgepuck bots
- Premium: Customize quick chat
- Premium: Camera presets
- Premium: Extra 12500 Pux
Full patch notes
- Ranks have been rebalanced to follow a proper gaussian curve. They'll be more consistent and better reflect how you compare to others. -- Most people will have a lower rank than before. This doesn't change how your skill is relative to other people, just makes it easier to compare. - Camera settings and chat settings have been moved to their own settings tabs (camera and social). - Premium users can now completely customize their quick chat messages -- This is moderated the same way as normal chat. Toxic behavior will result in loss of chatting privileges. - Added camera presets for premium users. You can make new presets, rename them and remove them. -- Two new keybinds have been added to cycle through your presets in an active match. Default is keypad 1 and 2. (Bottom of controls settings) - Premium users will now get $5 of pux (12500) for being a premium user. This applies to all people that were premium already and future premium players. - Birthday event: Log in between December 7 and 14 to receive something to celebrate 2 years of Slapshot: Rebound! - Added a really cool neon stick. Keep an eye on the shop 👀 - Added gloves: Frostbite, Deathgrip, Claws. These will be feature in the Patreon vote (one of them will become exclusive to Patreon). - Improved performance related to puck positions and lifting - Fixed a bug where the tilt animation for the stick lift would be incorrect sometimes. - Fixed a bug that would rarely crash the entire Slapshot Services server caused by a third party library - Fixed a bug where the face-off puck drop would be inconsistent. Now a puck drop always happens except for in Dodgepuck.
Why the rank rebalance?
The ranks were drifting because the ratings were settling over time after implementing ranked. This caused the distribution to have unwanted local maxima and minima. The "curve" looked like this:
Because we now have better insight into how the ratings have been settling, we were able to adjust the system to form a more proper gaussian curve. Coincidentally this also makes the rating differences per rank more uniform - meaning the gaps between ranks in similar scenarios are way closer than before, making climbing the ranks a lot more satisfying and make more sense.
The stats above are made based on active players that have completed their placement matches.
You may ask: Why is Legend 1%? We opted to make the Legend rank unique in a way where if you come across a Legend player - you know they're the top 1% of the game. We weren't sure if we'd keep it this way with the rebalance so we polled the community and you all voted to keep it at 1%. If you want to participate in votes that have an impact on the game, feel free to join our Discord and click the bell in #get-roles to be notified of future polls.
GLHF Oddshot Games
Introducing Dodgepuck!
Hi Slappers!
We're happy to introduce a new game mode to Slapshot called Dodgepuck! Dodgepuck has no goals but it does have multiple pucks. It's a team-based game mode where your goal is to hit the opposing team in the head with a puck. It's not easy, trust me.
To spice things up we've made a custom dodgepuck arena that features a few obstacles including tires that have significant bounciness to them so you can make some insane plays for your montages. There is only the initial faceoff (and potential overtime faceoff). Scoring does not interrupt play.
Our objective for this patch was stability improvements and refactoring of a bunch of old code. The most fun way to do this is to make support for more game modes in the process thus dodgepuck was born.
Changes
- Added a new game mode: Dodgepuck. Available in custom games. - Added a new arena: Dodgepuck (creative, I know) with obstacles and zero goals. - Taught bots how to play dodgepuck (they'll get better at it soon) - Matchmaking: Changed the way parties are weighed in matchmaking to make for more fair games. You'll be way less likely to queue into a party with anyone in it much above your own rating. - Added a game mode and arena selector to the Bot Match practice mode -- Note: When playing dodgepuck with bots, make sure to select hard or they'll hardly score - Improved the performance of various game elements - Took Outdoor and Outdoor Night out of the map rotation and selection for investigation related to a C++ run-time error we've been chasing. (Let us know if you still encounter it!) - Added a consent pop-up for personalized ads (they were not before, and will not be if you decline). - Added cosmetics Snowman, Frozen and Gingerbread.
Please let us know what you think about dodgepuck. Is it fun? Is it too difficult? We're hoping to feature the game mode in the upcoming Pond (social hub) as the primary game mode to practice and mess around in while you're in a queue (or not).
Keep on slapping, Oddshot Games
Plushie campaign funded!
The Plushie campaign is funded! 🤩🥰
We really want people to be able to have a physical Slapshot item so we helped push it over the threshold. I'm assembling a plushie army to take over the world.
From now until the 29th of October you can grab a limited edition Slapatar plushie! ːreboundː We need to sell about 200 of them for the campaign to be funded.
If this one does well, we'll definitely do more with different cosmetics and/or have Goosan/Trainer Buddy plushies. The stick is detachable from the plushie so you can swap them out with potential future plushies.
Also, every plushie sold gets an in-game code for the exclusive 'knit' cosmetic, which makes your head look like a plushie in-game.
Plushie giveaway, outreach survey, server performance, bots in custom games
Rebound v0.66.0 is live
Hiya Slappers,
Want a chance at 50 USD of in-game currency? Scroll down to the outreach survey!
This is a small update that adds the ability to add bots to custom games and improves the performance of the online servers. We're not done with the performance improvements yet but are seeing good progress.
In custom games, you can now add up to 3 bots. You can play with them or against them. Matchmaking games do not have any bots currently, it is only an option in custom games.
We've also added a region lock for OCE, where if you have more than 150 latency it will not let you use its matchmaking. Custom games are unaffected by the region lock. Other regions do not currently have this restriction.
Plushie giveaway
On October 7th, we're launching a plushie campaign with Makeship! From today until October 6th at 6pm (GMT), you can enter into a giveaway for the very first one! The plushie ships worldwide, so there are no restrictions on who can enter.
We're conducting a survey to figure out where to best focus our efforts on acquiring new players for Slapshot while we ramp up for full release. One submission will be picked at random to win 50 USD worth of in-game currency. https://forms.gle/3T4MZTtExDTM7afz6
GLHF!
Balancing, ranked leaderboard, shop rework
Rebound v0.65.0 is live
RANKED & MATCHMAKING
- We did a small rebalancing of the rank distribution (see below for the new distribution curve) - Added a leaderboard for ranks (found in the rankings tab). You can find the top 50 rated players there (with 50+ matches played) - Fixed a critical issue that impacted match balancing. Many matches will have much better balancing now. - Re-added the leave warning. You get 1 free leave per hour. Leaving during the hour grants you a 5 minute matchmaking ban.
SHOP REWORK
- Redesigned the shop to be easier to navigate and have a better user experience - Added a 'Secret Stash' which is a personalized shop for you (yes, you!) - it'll only contain items you don't have yet.
COSMETICS
- Added a LED jersey and LED cap - Added a Goosan backpack
GENERAL FIXES AND IMPROVEMENTS
- Improved the connections to the Slapshot Services. It should cause less chat disconnects and server crashes. - Made a potential fix for the wrong rank icon being shown at the end of the match - Streamers: The clubs command now allows you to force a team to use a specific kit (more info by using the clubs help command)
GLHF!
Ranked: Preseason 1
Sup Slappers,
I'm happy to introduce ranks to Slapshot: Rebound! You'll probably have questions, and I have answers - so let's get to it
What ranks are there?
- Bronze I - Bronze II - Bronze III - Silver I - Silver II - Silver III - Gold I - Gold II - Gold III - Platinum I - Platinum II - Platinum III - Legend
What will the average rank be?
Low to mid gold.
How many people will be Legend?
Less than 1% of the playerbase.
Is there a separate playlist?
No. We opted to have the public playlist be entirely ranked to not split the playerbase. Over the last few months, updates have been rolled out to slowly transform it into ranked.
More casual players, don't fret - this is supposed to be a balanced gamemode. The purpose of the ranks is to see how you measure up to others and to track your own progress.
When do I get a rank?
It requires 10 placement matches before you get assigned a rank.
Did my rating reset?
No, ratings were not reset. You'll still need the placement matches though!
Rewards?
More info about rewards will be released later.
Rewards?
More info about rewards will be released later.
My rank is fluctuating a lot
Yep, we have not added any protections against this because we want your rank to reflect your current rating as accurately as possible. In some ranks, most notable around Gold, your rank might go up/down a lot in a few matches because a lot of people are banded around that rating.
While ranked is released, it does not mean our work on matchmaking and rating calculations is finished. Our aim is still to create a good distribution that will ultimately cause less fluctuations.
What does preseason mean?
It's so when people say they want more/different features in it, we can say "hey, it's a preseason!".
Seriously though, just like we're using Early Access so the game's direction can be determined with the community, the same is true for ranked. We didn't want to add any bloat features or things people don't really want - so it will be a living feature just like the rest of the game. Got feedback for us? Please post it in our Discord. We'd love to hear it.
I'm playing against ranks that are quite different from mine
Yea, that can happen when there's not a lot of people online. Our system is made to prefer giving you any match over none at all. We're working towards some marketing pushes that'll help introduce more players to Slapshot and thus improve the matchmaking experience!
Is ranked finished?
Nope. We'll keep working on it. Tell us what changes or extra features you want to see!
New body/puck physics, rating calculations, jumbo arena,..
Rebound v0.63.0 is live
This update took a bit longer than expected because a bunch of things that don't directly impact the features have been refactored to make it easier for us to build and change features in the future. Not the most fun but essential for long running big projects!
Overhaul to puck interaction with the player body
After a ton of testing and experimenting we've found a good state for the player body and puck interactions. It will make the puck hitting you more predictable. Its purpose is, for example, if you catch the puck with your body it's less likely to go into the net if you're in front of it. This is a buff to defensive play and passing plays. Thank you to everyone that helped us make progress and test this for months.
Re-added backfill
By popular request, we have re-added the backfill feature. It was removed to prepare for ranked but the community was clear in what it wants most of all: A good matchmaking and match experience. Backfill helps keep matches going when someone leaves and doesn't necessarily have to go to a forfeit or mercy. People getting backfilled will not receive any loss penalties if they lose, but will reap the rewards if they help the team win! Leaving a match you were backfilled into will still give you a penalty though. We'll be adding a toggle for whether you want to be backfilled at all in a later update.
Rating calculation tweaks
We've made some adjustments to how ratings are calculated, it should help fix the downwards trend in ratings and stabilise average skill levels towards the starting ratings. Of course we'll keep monitoring and tweaking this as we go.
Added a jumbo arena
Slapville has gotten a big brother. Slapville jumbo is 5% bigger in width and length than its normal sized counterpart. Most people probably won't notice the difference very quickly but it does make a big difference for the people that prefer to play the game in a 4v4 format. The size was decided with the European Slapshot League. We may adjust the specific size in the future after more playtime has been clocked into the new rink. You can select the arena in custom games and in practice mode with the arena command in the developer console (check keybinds). The jumbo arena will not appear in public matchmaking.
Added a difficulty dropdown to bot matches
Previously, you could only play against the hard setting of the bots, now you can select easy mode.
This update's cosmetics
Added tank top, dollar bill mouth item, catphones, basketball head, sunflower hat.
Better start-up error handling
If your Steam authentication has expired and you require a Steam restart, it'll now tell you so instead of just saying it can't connect to the Slapshot services.
Improved leave penalty
The leave penalty should have a lot less false positives when leaving a match that is in theory finished.
Fixed preset changes in parties
Before, when you changed your preset your party members wouldn't see the change until you changed another cosmetic. This is now fixed.
Thank you for your patience. A bunch of these changes were picked from the feedback channel in Discord so please don't hesitate to post there if you have any ideas for things you'd like to see in Slapshot: Rebound.
Rebound v0.62.1
Rebound v0.62.1 is live
Europeans: Check out the announcement regarding the Heatwave tournament with a €300 prize pool in our Discord. Announcements for the other regional tournaments will come soon as well.
Display leave button when the match ends, not forfeit button
You can now leave the match as soon as the match ends - no longer need to wait for the end screen.
Fixed leave penalty happening even when the final goal was scored
Before, you could get a leave penalty from leaving 'early', when in reality the last goal was already scored / buzzer buzzed. This has now been fixed, so you don't need to worry about leaving as soon as the match ends.
Fixed stuttering puck
We removed an outdated feature that would allow you to configure the network smoothing. Some people were toying around with this, causing stutters in their puck - this is now resolved.
Non-premium can now set the latency sim from last match toggle
People were confused about this setting, thinking latency simulation was only for premium users. Non-premium can now use the toggle where it'll calculate their latency sim from their last match, which was on by default.
Made leave penalties harsher
You no longer get a warning strike when leaving a match, you immediately get banned for 5 minutes from matchmaking. If you commit to an online match, you are expected to finish it. With the newly introduced forfeit vote, you can cut it short without penalty if your team agrees.
Increased the idle kick timer from 45 sec to 90 sec
With the removal of backfill, we no longer need to get AFK people out of the match ASAP. This leaves a bigger grace period for those that didn't realise the queue popped, for example.
Infrastructure upgrades
Upgraded our database. You might see some minor speed improvements.
Hey everyone, Slapshot: Rebound v0.62.0 is now live
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ADDED FORFEIT
- Only enabled in public games - Votes can be started after half the game has passed OR someone has left (who gets a penalty) - A team has to unanimously decide to forfeit, otherwise it fails - There is a 30 second timer to cast your votes. Those that haven't voted by then are assumed to vote no. - Upon success, it immediately ends the game. No leave penalties are given to the remaining players. - Upon failure, there is a 30 second cooldown before a new forfeit vote can be started in the entire match - Forfeit votes cannot be started during overtime - If a player of the team that's voting leaves during a forfeit vote, they will be marked down as 'yes' immediately - The 'leave game' button is replaced by the forfeit button when a vote can be started -- This is intentional design to discourage rage quitting. If you really have to go, start the vote and then immediately leave. - When you can't start a forfeit vote (e.g. too early, one in progress, cooldown,..) the leave button is back with the leave penalty warning
NEW
- Added a prompt for new players that asks whether they want to play a bot match first before going in an online match - Removed backfill. The forfeit replaces its purpose. Backfill wasn't much fun for anyone and took people out of the matchmaking cycle. - Added new arena: Colosseum -- This will only be available in custom matches until we are confident that it does not impact gameplay, then it will be added to pubs.
COSMETICS
- Added a no hat variant of plague - Added black variant of the monitor - Added magician hat & jersey, crab gloves, bikini, glue backpack, unicorn hat
OTHER
- Fixed Slapshot Services connection instability with specific TLS versions
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Unrelated to the update but dear to my heart - we have recently found out about the passing of the_human_shieldz. Shieldz had been playing Slapshot for a really long time and has had quite an impact on many people in the community including myself, his SPL team and many many others he has crossed paths with. As a tribute to him and with his family's blessing, we have remade the statue in the pond to honor his memory. If you need anyone to talk to, please know that my DMs on Discord are always open @Erveon#0001
