Today I bring unto you 18 new stage variants to mess about with in Match Maker mode!
What Are Stage Variants?
You may remember when selecting stages that you could choose between hazardless and Type Alpha. With this patch, we introduce Type Beta and Type Gamma to all the stages with hazards/gimmicks. These change the layout, timing, size or movement of the various gimmicks, as well as sometimes goal sizes, to create new scenarios to mess around on.
For example... Rememeber the cool portal stuff on Ring Research? Well in Type Gamma the entire ceiling and floor is a portal, making for absolutely wild plays.
The following screenshots show Alpha, Beta & Gamma on The Clawcade as an easy to see example:
There's also a few small tweaks and fixes to some of the stages to improve how they play. Full patch notes below!
What Am I Up To?
Believe it or not, I spent most of January's dev time seeing how feasible getting a simple online implementation into ZONERS would be using Steam's API. I got something extremely rudimentary working and may continue working on it in the future to add to the public build at some point, but have decided to focus on getting some of the other bits done first so that the rest of the game's content and polish can be rounded off as intended.
In order to maintain my sanity after years of working on ZONERS to... 76 sales... I've also begun putting a few hours into prototyping new game ideas so I can hit the ground running when ZONERS is done.
In many ways, ZONERS is more feature rich and detailed than many complete indie multiplayer games already, but there's still a sizeable amount of things on my list that I'd love to get in the game before I call it quits. If I was working full time on the game, it'd probably only need a few months of focused work, but I increasingly get less and less dev time and so it's taking a while to finish off. Bit by bit, piece by piece, it's getting there!
Peace & Love, Paris
ZONERS v0.39 Patch Notes
ADDITIONS
Added 2 additional stage variants to 9 of the 11 stages (Circle Circuit through to Stardom Stadium). These are available in Match Maker without any unlocking required. When selecting your stage and choosing between hazardless and type alpha, you now have types beta and gamma as selectable! These take the existing hazard gimmicks from type alpha and change their layouts, frequencies or behaviours to create new scenarios to play on. In some cases the sizes of the goals various states will also be altered. Enjoy the 18 new stage scenarios this brings and find your favourites.
FIXES & CHANGES GAMEPLAY
Circle Circuit - changed direction of wheel arrows for type Alpha
Circle Circuit - made it so projectiles are now effected by the wheels again
Plazzma Penthouse - ball cannot be repelled by the magnet sides beyond a certain angle up or down to stop the ball getting stuck bouncing too vertically
Ring Research - Type Alpha Portals made larger and now have a simple idle animation
The Clawcade - Bumper collision masks tightened
The Clawcade - Way players interact with bumpers fixed and improved
Stardom Stadium - Fixed inconsistent delay between sides
Fixed crash that could happen when playing a 1vs1 after a 2vs2
MENUS
When selecting a stage variant in the stage select screen, a new view of the variant is displayed over the galaxy map on the background screen
Fixed the menu guide REF's opening dialogue in Match Maker, Academy & Museum Lobby
Fixed bug introduced in last patch that made you unable to go back the right way when selecting the AI opponents in match maker
MISC
Haunted Hangout - Fixed spectators sprites so that they have glow as originally intended
The Clawcade - Fixed crab bumper display and animation during instant replays
ZONERS v0.38 Patch Notes
ZONERS v0.38 Patch Notes
FIXES & CHANGES GAMEPLAY
You can now perform Blocks on stationary balls
Fixed issue where ball would sometimes appear to jump randomly to another incorrect position when hit with the final part of a melee in some angled circumstances (more noticeable at non-standard sizes)
Attempted to fix issue where ball would sometimes not complete being hit by a melee move if hit during the early parts of the active phase just on the edge of a character's range (more noticeable at non-standard sizes)
Attempted to fix issue where players would become unable to block the ball after a zone break in some circumstances
Speed clamp when electric status is applied to a player has been lowered
Adjusted AI behaviour regarding dodging projectiles such that it should be less likely to get stuck in a loop or dodge projectiles that are not necessary to dodge
Bzzt projectile buffer reduced from 14 ->10 frames, projectile active reduced from 10->8 frames, and projectile endlag reduced from 14-10 frames
Bzzt projectile electric status time inflictions increased from 15->30 frames for normal and 30->60 frames for charged
Gluup normal projectile end of life explosions can no longer be deflected
Gluup Super ends after a set amount of explosions when connected with ball as originally intended
Gluup Super doesn't do it's combo explosions if destroyed by another projectile
Gluup Super no longer causes unintended hitpause during collision with ball that made it very hard to respond to
Urnest Super gets cleared by other super's and hypers properly
Urnest Super is now always "physical" during all phases as intended
Urnest Super catches opponents during outward movement properly
Urnest Super attempted to fix game sometimes getting "stuck" during certain interactions with this move. Please report specific circumstances if you encounter this again
MENUS
Fixed crash when completing cup with any character that isn't Piro caused by unintended corruption of character completion list. If your list is corrupted, it will be reset upon next starting the game
Bar menu current selection has added animation
MISC
Slightly Optimised instant replay system
ZONERS v0.37.1 Patch Notes
FIXES & CHANGES GAMEPLAY Fixed crash when completing the Parry tutorial in advanced training and proceeding to the next training
MENUS Updated sound during cup ending sequence to have a crowd and make the "See you next time/You're a true champion" happen when the results screen appears
MISC Fixed crash that happens when playing on Core Castle and the scene transitions to the outside one
Power Ups & Credits - v0.37 Out Now!
Happy New Year!
Let's start it with a small bang by dropping the next ZONERS update. The main additions this time are an updated Cup Credits sequence & new power ups option in the custom match settings!
POWER UPS
You can now customise your match settings to allow for power ups to randomly spawn during matches with a wide variety of effects! Check out the patch notes below for more details on how this works.
CREDITS
I've updated the credits assets with new artwork from Gabriel, showing a new celebration screen prior to the interactive credits which also now save your highscore!
WHAT'S NEXT? The next update should include a bunch of Stage Variants to select in Match Maker mode. These will be variations on existing stages that have hazards that change the layout or functioning of the hazards to create even MORE more options!
CONCLUSIONS So a relatively small update this time, but one that still adds yet another new way to play the game. Here's to a new year and the one in which ZONERS will reach v1.0?!
Peace & Love, Paris
[ZONERS v0.37 PATCH NOTES]
ADDITIONS
Added Power Ups option to the custom match options. This can be set to Off, Rare, Normal or Frantic frequencies and you can also alter the types of power ups that appear (All, Good, Bad, Always Random). When turned on, Power Up bubbles will randomly spawn in the field and bounce around. If a player touches it a temporary effect will trigger based on the icon. Effects currently include: Player Grow, Player Shrink, Move Faster, Move Slower, Add Zone Meter, Reduce Zone Meter, Electrocuted, Dazed, Frozen, Goals Smaller, Goals Larger, Goals Recharge, Goal Shields Destroy, Random
Credits sequence now has winner with trophy & crowd leading into updated credits scroll with all new final assets
FIXES & CHANGES GAMEPLAY
Your highscore for the credits sequence is now saved and also viewable in the hall of fame data
If the ball is not near you, you no longer move slightly in the direction you are pushing when a melee switches from buffer to charge/active phase. This is to create more consistency when trying to position yourself ahead of time, especially in non-typical match scenarios
Fixed issue where characters that were larger than the default scale from custom match settings could get stuck on the centre line when moving from stand still
Decreased the vertical size of Piro's melee hitbox
MENUS
Fixed issue with some custom match settings not saving and loading correctly
Fixed display of Character with most Wins/Losses in the Hall of Fame Character Stats page
MISC
Character sprites face right way during daze and electric status effects
Stun smoke no longer produced during freeze status effect
Player status effects now play back correctly during instant replays
ZONERS v0.36 - New Match Types, Character Art & More!
Howdy all,
Phew, what a mad couple of months it has been for me. Both physically and mentally a lot to tackle, but I'm doing well. I hope you've all had a good holiday season thus far.
Well, it's about time I fixed a bunch of things as well as introduce some new ways to play and delicious new artwork!
NEW MATCH TYPES There's now THREE new ways to play ZONERS in Match Maker! When you go to make a custom match ruleset, select the Match Type button and flick through the options to try these out.
Block Break: Break your opponents regenerating blocks to score the points shown on them
Defender: Try and break all of your opponents blocks before they break yours!
Bomb Pass: The ball is now a bomb and will explode after a random amount of time has passed. Try to keep it on your opponent's side of the field. This one is particularly chaotic with multiple balls.
I've also made the Zone Breaker match type unlocked from the start. Full details on these new game types are in the Patch Notes below.
New Artwork Amazing new art work of the characters by the End Card artist Kevin Butler has been put to good use for an amazing new title screen and lovely animations when triggering hyper moves. I've also used these to update all the Steam capsule assets etc. I think these encapsulate the flashy quality of the game nicely!
What's Next? The next update should come sometime in January. I'm hoping to add the update new updated Credits assets I've just received & a new Power Ups custom match option that will spawn random power ups during the middle of the match for even more unnecessary chaos!
Further Ahead... Looking further ahead, I think it's time I accept that some of the content I was hoping to get into v1.0 might need to be pushed back to free post launch content if the game does OK sales wise. Development has taken much longer than I initially anticipated, and this is ignoring the huge amounts of time I devoted before EA launch.
My life has changed dramatically in some ways, whilst also being stuck. I absolutely refuse to leave the game in an incomplete state, and I hope you can see from recent updates how much you can mess about with it as I continue to expand the ways you can play. I'll keep you all updated on the new targets when they get locked in, but I think the most likely thing that will be pushed back are some of the additional characters due to the sheer amount of work each one adds.
Conclusion Well, there's a lot more in this update than I talked about above, so make sure to read through the patch notes.
Have a great holiday period, however you do it, and I look forward to absolutely smashing the rest of this game out in the new year for you!
Peace & Love, Paris
ZONERS v0.36 Patch Notes
ADDITIONS
Added new Block Break match type to custom match settings - A column of blocks sits at the back of each player's side of the field. Hitting an opponents block with a ball scores you the amount of points on the block. The middle block scores the highest and the ones closest to the edges the least. Blocks disappear after being hit but respawn in line with the goal shield times
Added new Defender match type to custom match settings - 15 blocks in 3 columns of 5 sit at the back of each player's side of the field (in default settings). Every time a block is hit by a ball it's destroyed for good, reducing your total by 1. If all of a player's blocks are destroyed they lose. Try to be the last one standing!
Added Bomb Pass match type to custom match settings - The ball is a bomb! Once hit, a timer will be set and it'll begin counting down. If the bomb hits a back wall, 3 seconds are taken off its timer. If it's on your opponent's side when it explodes you'll score a point! First to a score of your choosing wins
A brand new titlescreen has been added
New animated character portraits based on the new titlescreen art displays when triggering hyper moves
FIXES & CHANGES GAMEPLAY
Piro shot no longer shrinks over lifetime and life span changed from 60 to 75 frames
Fixed Clawcade crash introduced after changes for 2v2
Updated ball gravity to be effected by custom ball speeds
Fixed ball gravity variables getting messed up after Crabhammers hyper move
During instant replays, the ball now correctly shows the effects and sounds for scoring a goal every time
Fixed issue in clash tutorial where doing a melee straight after winning a clash would count towards the objective
During King match, when King does Pet Turret and Shield move, sfx now play when the shield takes damage
When using keyboard and mouse controls, the mouse cursor updates position to follow character's speed during active portion of melee move
Fixed issue where game would freeze when completing matches of 2 rounds or more with infinite time
Improved AI's ability to respond to attacks from close to the middle point
Fixed bug where if you dashed the same frame you started the active part of a melee your hitbox would still be active
When playing with more than 1 ball active and the multi balls are started again, all balls will set off with the same speed as intended
MENUS
Zone Breaker match type is now unlocked to use from the start and associated unlock milestones have been replaced with bonus money
When changing match type a description of the match type is shown at the bottom
When changing match type some settings update to a default value for that match type
When choosing whether to load or save a template, the name of the template no longer is visible
When saving a new template a new digital keyboard is displayed for name input with a gamepad
Max template name length has been increased from 10 to 15 characters
Fixed text scroll display in CSS when choosing mode other than Time or Score
Updated the profile name input to a virtual keyboard for gamepads that matches the one used in custom match template name inputting
Improved the "Outline Playfield" accessibility option
Fixed issue introduced in last patch where you couldn't choose your profile in the Academy menus properly
Fixed issue introduced in last patch where you couldn't navigate or leave the cup registration menus
Fixed crash during cup dialogue introduced from last patch
Fixed crash introduced in last patch that happened on some menu transitions
Fixed crash when retrying Clash Tutorial
Fixed crash in shop when buying certain character colours and going from the bottom to the top of the list
Fixed Special Items menu from having a blank spot at the bottom
Removed achievements associated with unlocking additional match types
MISC
Urnest now does a silhouette like every other character on Core Castle stage during the background transition
Princess' last colour palette cloak effect altered slightly
Princess' cloak effect now properly displays on alternative palettes for her moves and end of match victory
King's theme now correctly stops playing if you skip the pre-match dialogue
Tons of small other fixes
Quick Update
Hey everyone, just a quick note from me,
I'm aware there are some issues with the current build and have managed to fix most of them on my end already. Unfortunately, I updated the engine before posting a newer build and it broke some things which has delayed the fixes.
It is coming as fast as possible, but working retail during Black Friday and Christmas has meant 11 hour shifts and such and honestly struggling to stay awake the few hours I have. On top of all the above, I recently made and hosted a 5 hour gameshow that ended in me coming out as trans in every area of life, and so I've been continuing what has been a whirlwind of a year in rather dramatic fashion I suppose. The creation of zoners and it's strange, queer cast, has been an instrumental expression of my own internal struggles, in my own, typically Paris way I suppose. And so, at least, I hope you can see the true heart behind my desire to represent all sorts of people as not just some cynical marketing attempt.
All I can really do is apologise for the delays my personal life has had on the game since launch. Like a bus, all the changes and steps forward happen at once. I assure you all that ZONERS is very much pressing on the back of my mind and I haven't at all forgotten about it.
The next update, along with fixing all the issues introduced in the last update, has a bunch of new match types to play the game in (as in brand new ways to play the game!) and a new fancy titlescreen, as well as some QoL updates and general tweaks. Then I have some new assets to use to work on a new Intro and make the Credits sequence proper. Lovely stuff.
Thanks for your patience in the mean time. Let me know if you have any major issues. I hope I can do right by the small handful of you that have bought the game :)
Love & Peace, Paris
ZONERS Goes 2v2!
Hey all,
Phase 2 has officially begun, and the first update is a doozy. I introduce to you the totally chaotic, probably completely unbalanced and unfair 2v2 to the match maker. Play with any combination of human and AI players in teams of two.
To accommodate this mode I had to completely change how a whole boat load of inputs and variables are captured, but I think it's been totally worth it. Even just playing with CPUs I've had a great time.
Speaking of which, you might have noticed the last few updates the AI was a bit broken (as in barely functioned). This patch makes it a lot more reasonable again thankfully as well as a few of the usual tweaks and fixes. Full patch notes below!
Peace & Love,
Paris
[ZONERS v0.35 Patch Notes] ADDITIONS
2v2 mode is now selectable in Match Make mode! Play with 4 players or any mix of human and cpu opponents. After everyone has selected characters and a stage, you'll be able to pick a team in any combination of two you desire
FIXES & CHANGES GAMEPLAY
Bzzt - Reduced the distance the ball or projectiles with spin applied travel before their sharp angle turn
Ringressa - shot can now be deflected by melees again and now under every circumstance as normal
Rhapsody - Altered spin values slightly so it's a slower turn but at earlier distances
Fixed issue with AI where it wouldn't release it's melee moves
Fixed issue with AI where it would try and projectile when ball is moving towards it rather than away
Fixed issue with AI where it would be able to aim backwards when on the left side of the field
Lots of other small AI tweaks to generally try to improve behaviour
King cup match hp reduced from 150 to 125 on Super Rank and 250 to 175 on Hyper Rank
Fixed bug with default keyboard controls for spin being wrong
MENUS
Changed how the underlying controller detection works to accommodate 4 player
Characters now bob in the match transition animation
The End of Phase 1 is here! - ZONERS v0.34
Greetings all,
v0.34 Today v0.34 of ZONERS goes live and with it we officially reach the end of Phase 1 of Early Access development. This is a smaller patch focused on animating the training mode character (Dum-E), adding two new advanced tutorial missions and tweaking/fixing a few gameplay and other issues.
Dum-E will become fully unlockable and playable at some point in the future, complete with a very unique gimmick that you can't see in the training mode! But you'll have to wait for this, as their gimmick is effected by the other characters... ooo the mystery!
UPDATED ROADMAP So with Phase 1 complete, it's time to update the road map to better reflect the current status of the game and goals going forward. If you take a look at the image below, you'll see a number of things have been moved around, combined and even added.
As always, these are subject to change. Currently the only thing taken away from v1.0 is the Trials, which I am now aiming to add after launch, provided there is enough demand. In this same vein, it is quite possible 1 or 2 of those extra characters in Phase 3 get pushed to post launch too. We will have to see how fast development goes on the remaining tasks.
For now, the focus is on adding new ways to play with Stage Variants, a special 2v2 mode & New Match types, as well as generally improving the other aspects of what's in the game to make everything as intuitive and clear as possible.
INCREASED PRICE DELAY It's a constant point of deliberation in my own mind whether the price should actually go up as the game becomes more feature rich and complete. Looking at the state of the game, I've decided the price of the game will NOT be going up until the end of Phase 2. At this point, the game will be really quite polished, with a lot of fun to be had, and the final Phase being some pretty hefty additions that round the entire package out. I feel like this is a fair tradeoff.
Well I best get cracking on with Phase 2. As mentioned in previous posts, this isn't going to be such a long dev time to get complete relative to both the content and personal issues I had during Phase 1. But do expect the same undulations in terms of larger patches and smaller ones as I work to increase the game's options and modes of play, and make the whole thing from start to finish feel extremely polished.
Added Disable Melees & Disable Projectiles options to custom match settings
FIXES & CHANGES GAMEPLAY
Fixed bug with Ringressa's projectile where dashing through it would cause it to get removed instantly
Ringressa projectile laser now has a fading effect after completing so it doesn't instantly visually disappear
Ringressa projectile laser now updates visual distance properly depending on whats its path & calculates this in a more optimised manner
Fixed bug where when exiting a match during Crabhammers' Hyper move the ball gravity would not be reset
Dum-E base moveset Super move adjusted to have narrower spread, faster projectile speeds and shooter life span, making it more similar to a shotgun
Drawing in a Clash no longer stuns both players, it just knocks them back
Fixed issue where any situation with a ball gravity modifier would not account for pauses/slow downs in game speed
Fixed bug in main tutorial where holding the Super move before releasing it would trigger multiple "ticks"
Fixed crash in Ball Aura Advanced Tutorial when ball hit the projectiles
Fixed bug where currently selected Advanced tutorial rank requirements were dependent on the one you started with if you chose "Next Training" at the end
Fixed crash at start of King boss match
Fixed and improved darken background accessibility setting and updated the default value. Your profiles will need to be remade after this patch
In the custom match settings screen, moved the Disable Supers and Disable Hypers buttons to the Player category
Fixed bug on advance tutorial select when holding the analogue in a direction that would stop the cursor from moving
MISC
Updated the way character draw angles are handled when going from a moving to a idle state
ZONERS v0.33 Out Now - Princesses, Parries & New Clashes
Greetings all!
Today I bring to you v0.33 and along with it some exciting new changes. But first, Princess now has all of her animations and has been tweaked and balanced to improve her overall gameplay. Now the power she wields is much more evident! With this, all 8 of the base playable characters are now animated! Exciting stuff. This means we're finally drawing to a close on the end of phase 1 of the Early Access development, and more polish and content related goodies will start to be developed. More on that later.
Next let's talk about two of the bigger changes/additions to the core gameplay...
New Parry System
You might remember that parrys in ZONERS were what happened when you dashed into a ball, and if you dashed the moment a ball was touching you you'd do a perfect parry. Well no more! Perfect Parries have been completely removed from the game, and what were once called a Parry are now called Blocks (with accompanying in game graphics).
This change isn't just to remove something though, it is accompanied by a new mechanic which are the new Parry. Pressing the melee button the moment a ball is touching you will cause you to immediately return it in your chosen direction. This is a powerful but high risk move, especially at high speeds. This change was made to give the game more depth but also make the naming and behaviours more intuitive.
New Clash System
In ZONERS, when players melee a ball at the same time they enter a Clash state. Before this was resolved by both players mashing buttons as fast as they could. But this introduced some design balance issues as well as accessibility problems for a chunk of players. So after much though I redesigned the clash system to require one single, well timed press. Here's how it works:
Players enter a clash state
Graphics show up telling them to wait
After a randomly decided amount of time, the graphics change to "PRESS NOW!"
Whoever presses the button first wins the clash
If a player presses the button too early they automatically concede the clash there and then
But these aren't the only changes made to the game. In fact, there's been quite a lot of fixes and tweaks that should improve your experience overall. Scroll to the bottom for the full patch notes, but one example is there is now no longer an arbritrary limit on the number of projectiles you can throw!
What's Next?
So there should be one more patch and Phase 2 of Early Access dev will begin. This patch will animate the character you use in the training facilities and update the training modules to include the new Parry and Clash mechanics and make any appropriate alterations to existing ones.
Things will get pretty exciting pretty quickly after that. My extra artists will be producing lots of new assets, new content will be coming to the game in the form of match types and stage variants, and general game presentation will continue to improve, with many other things yet to be revealed. I'll update the roadmap at the end of phase 1 to convey the current state of the game and the new road ahead, as I continue to carefully consider what additions are worth my time for v1.0.
A new action has replaced the old Parrys (which are now known as Blocks). To perform this new Parry you press the melee button exactly at the moment that a ball is in a small area in front of you and travelling towards your side of the field. Instead of doing a melee you will automatically do a Parry causing the ball to gain some power & aura and immeditately deflecting it in the direction your aiming with minimal pause. This move is risky as if you miss the parry you might miss also meleeing the ball if it's travelling fast, and you have less time to aim. However, due to it's very quick turnaround, it can be a deadly surprise, especially on balls in a hyper state!
FIXES & CHANGES GAMEPLAY
Piro's projectile lifetime reduced from 90 frames to 60 frames
Piro's projectile now has a minimum size of 25%
Bzzt's projectile now has a limited life span of 30 frames (excluding deflections)
Bzzt's super can now hurt the king
Ringressa's projectile now leaves a small visual effect where it was firing during despawn to make where the laser was clearer
Gluup's Super no longer has the unintended effect of maxing out a contacted ball's level and no longer sometimes bounces during the explosion sequence
When Urnest applies spin to melee moves the amount the speed of the ball is modified is increased from 0.8x to 1.5x
Urnest's projectile deceleration decreased
Urnest's Projectile doesn't decrease speed whilst spinning and if it contacts a ball will knock the ball in the target direction
When Urnest's projectile grabs a ball on its return, Urnest will now do the new parry on the ball on contact
Rhapsody's spin amount lowered so it happens over a slightly longer period of time
Princess Melee drawing is now correct on both sides of the field
Fixed crash with Princess' Melee
Princess Projectile is slightly larger and more visibly changes between hold and move states.
Princess projectile now only bounces before it holds position
Princess projectile now knocks ball in final spin direction when it connects with a ball during the spin
Princess Super now indicates the direction the ball will be travelling after the rewind
Princess Super now also stores the hyper state and remaining time of said state of balls when activated
Princess Super adds 30 frames of hitstun to any balls in a Hyper state when the rewind happens making it less effective as a counter to opponents hyper moves
Hitting a ball after triggering Princess' Hyper now consistently will make the ball go into hyper speed
Princess' Hyper no longer causes vibrations the entire length of the time stop
During Princess Hyper time stop, she now draws in the correct place and updated FX for the inverse effect
Princess' spin on balls holds in place for a shorter amount of time
Normal character projectiles are no longer arbritrarily limited to 1 per character. Using Ringressa's when one is already active will cause it to end early. Urnest's still behaves like a yoyo. Crabhammers will despawn any existing bumpers when using his
Most projectile speeds have been decreased by roughly 10-20%
Most character moveset lengths have been increased by 1-10 frames
By holding the Super button down, Piro, Gluup, Urnest & Rhapsody's Supers can now be held for up to 30 frames before releasing, giving you time to aim them if you wish
Perfect Parries (dash the moment a ball touches you) removed from the game
What were known as Parries are now known as Blocks & have a new holofield graphic showing this
Removed the small hitstun that was applied to a ball when contacting one during the buffer part of the melee
Updated spawn position of Block holofield gfx text
Clash system has been changed from requiring button mashing to a single press. This makes it more accessible and each clash less predictable as just being the fastest masher was! Indicators on screen tell you to wait until a random invisible threshold is reached. Whoever presses the button faster wins. If you press too early you lose. If neither player presses in time then it's a draw. Think of it like a quick draw
Losing a clash now gives you 30 frames of hitstun first, then a reduced stun period of 30 frames (from 40 frames) and knocks you back with less speed
New clash holofield images to indicate various statuses and some small changes to the fx
Timer for ball being in hyper mode increased from 120 to 240 frames and hyper timer will always be a minimum of 60 frames left after contact with a melee
Adjusted the speed boost when ball has an aura so the max is slightly lower but the minimum it slows down to before the aura ends is 25% of final speed rather than 0%
Slightly decreased ball deceleration
Updated the way ball movement collision is handled so it can't go "through" certain objects in certain states at high speeds
Default round length changed from 120 seconds to 90 seconds
Fixed bug with move speed gravity during a stunned state not accounting for altered game speeds like hitpause or slomo
Fixed a bug where players that are in a hitstun state that contact a ball were having their direction of stun state altered
Fixed issue with auto melee assist not working
Adjusted AI melee behaviour, notably charging
Adjusted AI projectile behaviour to account for changes to projectiles
Adjusted AI clash behaviour
Fixed error in code that caused the AI's increased odds for super and hyper moves at higher AI levels to be flipped
Fixed crash during bonus games related to changes to slow motion goal changes from previous update
Fixed issue where the first bit of damage against the king would show up small
When King is defeated the background changes to original grid pattern so it's easier to see & more of the left over king objects are cleaned up
MENUS
Fixed bug in Match Maker when going back from arena select to the css before the arena select has faded in completely that the alpha values for the css would not be correct
All emotes during dialogue now have outlines to help them stand out more
Emotes during cup dialogue now have relative spawn positions based on each character's sprite. For example the "shout" emote will always spawn on the characters face co-ordinates
Removed "shot no" custom match option
Made "Ready" button stand out a little more in the custom match settings
Hidden the current mode settings in the bottom left when selecting custom match settings
Textbox coloured rim now properly appears on bottom edge
Fixed outline drawing on REF in the Gallery menu
Added outline to Zoners emblem medal during some transitions
MISC
Fixed visual bug where dashing into an edge of your play side would cause a massive distortion ripple
Fixed way tracked player distance is tracked so moving directly into a wall no longer counts as moving
Very slightly changed 1 line of dialogue of Princess with King based on feedback from representative group
White part of ball trail is longer to match more closely the coloured part
Fixed Ringressa's key art colouring on a part of it for palette swaps
Fixed very small part of Gluup's 10th palette
Fixed Gluup's colour palette main colours being the wrong way round on a couple of palettes
Updated Princess' colour palettes
Fixed bug with Ring Research background getting stuck with the crystals in their "pink" state
Update v0.32 - Giant Enemy Crabs
Howdy all here with another update,
This time the main updates are Crabhammers animations, a few other smaller bits, and a ton of polish & bug fixes. Crabhammers Super move has been completely changed and their Hyper move tweaked to be more enjoyable to use. See the patch notes below for more information.
Just Princess left for the base character animations! My sfx guy will be doing all the character VA work soon and there's much more to come over the next few months as well. Feel motivated to keep going and excited to get phase 1 of Early Access wrapped up pretty soon at last.
Urnest attempted to fix bug where game would hang in an infinite fx loop if Super has a ball and connects with player on last hit of melee
Rhapsody Hyper Speaker time before automatically firing changed from 90 frames to 120 frames (2 seconds)
Crabhammers Projectile Bumper now destroys normal projectiles that touch it and gets destroyed by special projectiles
Crabhammers Super changed to "Claws for Thought". This Super summons one of the Crab Mechs claws at your Y position where it'll try to follow the opponents Y position for 180 frames (3s) before firing a laser across the whole horizontal width of the arena. If this laser connects with ANY player or ball (piercing), it will hit them in that direction. A powerful pressure tool with the danger that it can also hit the user!
Crabhammers AI reduced amount tries to use Super move
Crabhammers Hyper Mech claw flipper angles adjusted so that the closer to the tip of the claw the sharper (more up and down) the return angle, where as before it was the same angle regardless
Crabhammers Hyper Mech middle spring save changed to claw defend. Pressing any of the face buttons during the hyper will cause the claws to temporarily guard the middle. If the ball makes contact with the claws during this time the ball will be pushed away at a perpendicular angle by the claws shoving it
Crabhammers Hyper move gravity properly reset after zone break
Princess' Melee tweaked to behave more similarly to the other characters, removing multiple bugs and strange play behaviour
Fixed crash when ball makes contact with the shot barrier after a zonebreak
When playing with Zone Breaks turned off, hitting the final shield slows the ball down and reduces its level down
Fixed bug where you could trigger Hyper moves in the middle of a Super in some instances and cause issues such as no longer being able to use the Super. Might be mostly exclusive to keyboard users
Made possibility for AI aim error a little broader and more consistent
Attempted to fix aiming issue with AI where it could change aim when it wasn't supposed to be able to during active part of melees or parrys
Attempted to fix bug when playing against AI where after you score a zone break sometimes the AI would try to hit the ball and it would get stuck in its holding pattern
Attempted to fix sporadic bug where sometimes when starting a match nothing would happen and players would be stuck in limbo
MISC
Updated Piro's moving animation
Urnest Projectile Charged FX position fixed
Rhapsody Daze animation fixed
Crabhammers Hyper move background colour changes properly when multiple Mechs are active
Crabhammers Key Art colouring fixed and palette swapping updated to correct some errors
Crabhammers 10th colour has been changed
Visual iframe flashing stops when doing a quick recovery
Stopped charging particles appearing straight away so if you immediately release a move it doesn't show any
Fixed bug where players on the right side of the field would be facing the wrong way for one frame at the start and release of their melee attacks
