Hey everybody! I know, it's crazy that I'm doing another dev log without going on hiatus for a year first but it's happening and you're reading it!
I got some feedback from some high level players regarding Wally's balance and buggyness so I have a little update here to address that! That's enough of an intro so here's the info:
Wally's New Special Attack!
The previous implementation of Wally's Reflect attack was less useful and more confusing than I had intended. The point of it was to be like a counter attack that would reward a player for observing their opponent's actions and responding accordingly but it never really worked out that way. That's why I gave him a completely new attack that even introduces a new wave type: the purple reflection wave!
The new Reflect sends only a single wave, but that one wave will reverse the entire wave group that it collides with, even super waves! Oh, and if two reflection waves crash they just instantly cancel each other out so no worries about triggering an infinitely recursively reflection and collapsing the universe or whatever.
Wally's Trait Nerf!
I also received some feedback that Wally's Slow-Mo trait was too powerful, being able to end a round with a single use of hype mode. I tested out ending his hype mode after landing a single hit but that was too jarring and felt unfair to Wally but I think I landed on a pretty good compromise. Wally's hype meter will decay faster with every attack he makes and every hit he lands (attacks increase the tick down speed by 25% and hits increase it by 50%). So the more aggressively a Wally player is during their hype mode, the less slow-mo time they will get.
Wally's Bug Fix!
Wally had a little severe bug that could cause the game to be stuck in slow-mo. Woops. That should be good now.
Additional Bug Fix!
An eagle-eyed player also noticed that the game was completely busted when you set the board height to max. This is also fixed now!
WaveCrash!! 1.3: I'm Still Alive!
Howdy, everybody! It turns out, I'm still around and so is WaveCrash!!! That's right, it's the I'm Still Alive Update!
And we have a very special guest for this update! Dropping into Crash City all the way from Detroit, it's Wally, star of Aerial_Knight's Never Yield!
That's right, it's a dang crossover episode! If you haven't played Aerial_Knight's Never Yield, you can correct that here: https://www.aerialknight.com/
This dimension hopping free runner comes with a unique bag of tricks. First up is his trait, "Slow Mo". It causes everything in the game--waves, blocks, other characters--to slow down whenever he activates Hype Mode.
This can be used to avoid oncoming waves, set up your counter attack or just take a moment for yourself. You deserve it.
Wally's special attack is "Reflect". For the reasonable price of 6 purple blocks, he launches a super wave that is a mirror image of the last normal wave your opponent sent.
This is the epitome of a counter-attack! Set up 6 purples and then keep an eye on your opponent's moves to maximize its impact!
But this update doesn't only include a brand new crasher! It also contains some long overdue bug fixes and balance updates.
Additions
Since Wally comes with his own set of unlockable palettes, all of the other characters on the roster have an additional unlockable palette as well!
Character Updates
Phoebe -
Phoebe's charge up ability is a lot of fun, but also allows her to play very safely without doing much movement. So I've made a few changes to address that.
Added a time limit for how long Phoebe can hold her attack charge.
Slowed down the block attraction effect of her charge
Ji-Yoon - Ji-Yoon's teleport was a little tricky to manage since it often happened on accident when players were at the edges of the playfield and her special attack was underwhelming to use so I've made some changes to fix that.
Teleport no longer activates when direction is held at a boundary/barrier. Instead, you must release the direction and then press it again. No more accidental teleports!
Ji-Yoon's special attack, Echo Burn, now has a minimum block length of 6. This means it will create a wave that covers the distance you've traveled in the past few seconds or the last 6 blocks you've touched, whichever is greater.
Hana - Hana's strength level was a little underwhelming after all her nerfs so her blocks now fall a bit faster when they start falling and accelerate quicker as she moves around.
Darlene - Darlene was always intended to be a "high power with a drawback" character but it turns out her drawback (needing to take time to charge up her attack to avoid throwing weak waves) made her not very fun to play. So now she no longer has that weakness! Her attacks now start at normal strength and can be charged up to super waves.
Bug Fixes
Fixed bug causing waves to stop moving in doubles mode and rendering it unplayable.
Fixed being able to input directions during Hawk Justice's attacks and breaking his animations in all sorts of ways.
WaveCrash!! 1.2: The Power of Friendship
...and by "friendship" I mean "feedback"!
Hey, everybody. It's been a bit since the last update but thanks to some detailed feedback from a dedicated group of players on our discord server, I'm here with a fresh patch straight out of the oven! If you want to join in on the discussion, you can hop in at https://discord.gg/flyovergames. And now! Patch notes gooooooo!
Character Changes
Phoebe - Phoebe has been an interesting character to balance. Since part of her core identity is lacking hype mode, it's always been difficult to find a suitable way to make her seem appealing and unique. I tried adding the ability to charge up her attacks to increase her wave speed, but it turned out to not be a big enough benefit and also wasn't particularly fun. So here's another twist on her trait, Nega-Hype Drive:
That's right! She can still charge up her attacks, but now rather than affecting the wave speed, it allows her to gravitate blocks to herself! Phoebe was always meant to be a crasher that's all about standing her ground with the use of her shield special attack, so now she has a way to really make that payoff.
Hawk Justice - I like what Hawk Justice does (jumping over waves, getting in the opponent's face, etc.) but he wasn't quite good enough at it, so I've made a few adjustments. First up! His trait, Close Quarters, now also confers invincibility for a brief duration when attacking on the line.
As long he's blinking, he's safe! The dropkick animation has also been speed up a little. The purpose of the trait was always to encourage very aggressive play, and now it should be a little safer to actually use.
Second! I've added some functionality to his special attack.
You can now hold the attack button to extend his air time! I wanted to make the ability more useful as a tricky counter tool and less obviously telegraphed.
Darlene - Added an indicator effect to show when she has reached enough charge for a regular attack. Tried out a meter that filled up over time at first, but it was too visually busy and the meter fills in less than a second at higher speed levels anyway so I went with a more emote like route.
Also slightly reduced the time for a medium strength charge to 45% from 50%. Enjoy!
Other Things
Added an infinite round time option to the game options. Just keep on going past 300 seconds and you can't miss it!
Bug Fixes
Fixed various problems with Hawk Justice's special attack persisting after round end and doing various other things it wasn't supposed to.
WaveCrash!! 1.1 Update!!
Hey everybody! WaveCrash!! has been on Steam for a month now which means it's time for a long overdue bug fix update. Thanks for all the feedback to help me track down the bugs y'all. There were some good feature suggestions as well but for now this is just some bug fixes and improvements. Change log, go!
Bug Fixes
Fixed unlockable palettes not actually unlocking. Turns out, it's not enough to just make a palette, you also need to assign it to the character that is supposed to be able to use it. Oops! The palettes you've already earned should now show up properly.
Fixed inverted mode not using the correct win condition during times up and sudden death scenarios.
Fixed Darlene's special attack (Meteor Impact) affecting characters that were supposed to be intangible (Hawk Justice during his special attack and Ji-Yoon during her teleport transition).
Fixed controller mapping screen defaulting the keyboard control to player 1.
Fixed wording on the "press button to join" UI in the character select menu to more accurately specify that it's any button, not just A/enter
Balance Adjustments
Decreased the windup delay for Darlene's special attack to improve its effectiveness to make up for being more easily counterable by Hawk and Ji-yoon. This was kind of an impulse decision, but it just felt bad inadvertently nerfing her without giving her something in return.
I'm going to try to get the next update out in less than a month but I promise nothing! Thanks for playing or at least reading the patch notes!
