Maiden & Spell News

Hello everyone!

After about 2 and a half weeks, the balance-beta is over!
We made a LOT of changes and adjustments. Many of the characters got new movement options, buffed moves, opportunities for counterplay in certain matchups, and more.

If you've been playing with friends on the main branch, you might be surprised at the new tools your favorite character has. Be sure to check them out when you get the chance!

But first: the game also now has an official Korean translation, thanks to one A1NVERSE! He's been a member of the M&S community from the beginning, and was kind enough to make an official translation for the game.


Without further ado, here's all the changes that came out of the Beta!
There's so many, you might just have to try the game out yourself to get the full experience.



- Added a Korean Translation for the game.
- Fixed issue where "ghosts" would be left behind in lobbies.
- Fixed issue where P2 getting hit would sometimes desync match spectators.
- Fixed issue where the Training menu could crash
- Fixed issue where the Training menu option text would bleed over the screen in Japanese
- Fixed issue where bullets would sometimes not be properly erased over netplay
- Fixed issue where the lobby chat would make the framerate dip when people typed in Asian languages
- Fixed issue where the framerate would drop in certain stages if not playing the game in English
- Fixed issue where Stormbeast's Doppelganger would aim the wrong way in netplay
- Fixed various typos




Dimi Dark
- Bullet speed increased 1.1x

Lat Dark
- Attack length 240 > 260
- Movement speed while firing .65x > .6x
- Visual effect adjusted

Time Stop
- Now applies .7x movespeedmult to enemies within clock

Arcane Magic
- "Slow" status affect adjusted
- Movement speed multiplier x0.7 > x0.8
- Attack interval multiplier x1.4 > x1.2



Bolt Strike
- Uncharged shot now fires a faster bullet (speed 28px) when focused, with a spawn delay of 700ms
- Will no longer be erased by Novi Life while charging
- Uncharged movespeedmult .35x > .4x
- Uncharged spawn time 500ms > 400ms
- Doppel's uncharged spawn time 700ms > 600ms
- Uncharged bullet speed 12 > 14
- Movespeedmult while charging increased .1x > .15x
- Full charge time 950ms > 800ms
- Full charge bullet speed 5.5 > 6.5

Doppelganger
- Will now only go half distance if fired while Focused

Flashstep
- Widened window for tap-movement tech to 100ms



Lat Holy
- Time for the attack to have a hitbox now starts at 500ms and decreases to 400ms after 600ms of charge time
- Input window for minimum distance increased 30ms > 60ms

Novi Holy
- Input window for minimum distance increased 30ms > 60ms
- Now gives 1.2x movespeedmult when tapped

Novi Dispel
- Now gives Strong Invincibility to user
- Now gives opponent .25x MoveSpeedMult for 1500ms when hit with initial burst




- P2 color adjusted for visibility

Claw Swipe
- Angle between bullets 13 > 11
- 20px deadzone removed

Lat Fire
- Now has a deadzone of 20px

Novi Fire
- Active time 450ms > 500ms




-P2 Color adjusted for visibility

Sniper Shot
- Input window for minimum charge increased 30ms > 60ms
- Attack lock now happens as soon as shot is fired
- Full charge time 600ms > 500ms
- Full charge angle 12 > 10


Bind
- Attack lock 1000ms > 800ms
- MoveSpeedMult .35x > .8x
- Width is .9x what it was before
- Now only deletes other Bind bullets within a 550px radius
- Time bullets are on screen 10s > 12s

Knife Juggle
- Cooldown reduced 4s > 3s
- Time until knives fire reduced 2.6s > 2.1s
- Knives now have a hitbox while they spin (hitbox becomes active 800ms after firing)

Vanish
- Now has Strong Invincibility for 400ms at the beginning of the move




Stun Wave
- Invin time 600ms > 500ms
- Move Lock 600ms > 625ms
- Spell Lock is now Action Lock, lasts for 700ms
- Direction Lock removed
- Radius reduced 350px > 325px
- Stun time increased 1100ms > 1200ms
- Now deletes bullets that haven't spawned in yet




Lat Life
- Spawn delay increased 500ms > 600ms
- Warning flower visual effect adjusted

Novi Life
- Spawn delay on large flower 500ms > 430ms
- Now grants 1.2x Movespeedmult for 430ms




Sapphire Flare
- Changed to Tap instead of Hold
- Movespeedmult no longer input dependant
- Bullet linger time reduced by 500ms
- Cooldown increased 2 seconds > 2.5 seconds




Now have 100ms of ActionLock at the beginning of battles

Hello everyone! I hope you've all been staying safe.

As it'll likely be a little while before I do more serious content updates, I wanted to try to get the game's balance in a better place for those that are playing online on a regular basis.

After reading a lot of feedback on the Discord, I thought that the best move going forward would be to temporarily open a beta branch so we can try a lot of different changes to characters.

Since I don't want to split the playerbase between the "proper" game and a rapidly changing beta for too long, my goal is to only have the beta open for a few weeks at most. Hopefully I can make some progress towards having a well balanced game in that time.

To access the beta branch:

1. Right click the game in your Steam library
   
2. Click "Properties"
   
3. Go to the 'Betas' tab
   
4. Select 'Beta' from the drop down menu
   

Again, while the beta is running, many of the game's regulars might be on the beta branch, and thus their lobbies won't be visible on the main branch. If you're having trouble finding a match online, the place to look for opponents is in the Discord!

https://discord.gg/mns

Also, since the Beta branch will likely be in constant flux, I won't post the patch notes here (as they'll likely just be out of date all the time). I'll keep accurate patch notes in the Discord, and post the finalized patch notes once all the changes are done.

Hope to see you online!

Hi everyone! I present to you... a minor bug-fixing update!

Well, there are a few new things.



Selectable skill levels! Feel free to warn people of what they're about to get into by taking you on. Or to convey how terrible you are.



With that out of the way, let's talk future content!

My original plan with Maiden & Spell was to gradually introduce new costumes and characters over time. You might have seen a little bit of a preview of this; if you've checked out the Art Gallery or been hanging around the game's Discord.



Like this one! Look at how cute it is!!

Buuuuuut, as you might have heard, there are going to be quite a few exciting games coming out over the coming months! And if the plan is to bring new attention to the game, maybe small updates over time aren't the way to go.

So, change of plans! Instead of making tiny updates every few weeks or so, I'm going to put everything I want to add in the game into one big update, and release it a few months from now. That will likely happen late summer/early fall.

Costumes, DLC characters... who knows what the future holds? We might even... switch things up a bit.

I'll let you all know a little in advance what's coming, so stay tuned for that. Stay safe until then!

There are still a few pesky bugs I'd like to fix in a minor update, most notably the crash that occasionally happens when you exit a netplay lobby. I believe that this is happening because of a flaw in the Gamemaker Steam Lobby API, which means it's difficult for me to nail down the cause. If you see any random updates that don't do anything, it's probably my attempts to fix this! If you have any info on the conditions for this crash happening, please contact me and let me know.


One more thing before you go! If you're reading this the day it's posted, then Bandcamp is giving 100% of revenue to artists today! It's a perfect time to pick up the bonus OST tracks from Hagane's Bandcamp if you haven't already:

https://steelplus.bandcamp.com/album/maiden-spell-original-soundtrack

See you all again in the future!


Full patch notes:

-Added an adjustable "skill level" to player profiles
-Added additional bullet transparency option to the Battle Options
-Added Turkish and Romanian flags
-Added separate keybind for chatting in the lobby
-Alt-tabbing out of the game will now mute game music, except for in the Music Room. You can disable this functionality in the Sound Options

-Chat log now stores messages for longer; additional messages can be seen by opening a text window
-Chat log now includes messages when someone:

• Joins a lobby
  
• Leaves a lobby
  
• Challenges someone
  
• Spectates a match
  

-Adjusted visibility of Silent Redhood's kunai
-Adjusted visibility of Stormbeast's clone
-Added a visual effect to Royal Arcanist's basic attack

-Fixed issue where Filipino flag was upside-down
-Fixed issue where game would occasionally crash when the host disbanded a lobby
-Fixed issue where Stormbeast's Flashstep would have a full cooldown timer when interrupted
-Fixed issue where being stunned or Time Stopped would prevent certain actions from happening, such as Butterflies firing or Paralyze activating
-Fixed issue where you could move your character with the control stick in Training Mode or online lobbies even if you had a menu open
-Fixed issue where "ghosts" of other players or challenges would linger for people in a lobby
-Fixed issue where, during online matches, bullets would be erased on one player's screen but not the other
-Increased the time that spectators have to connect to matches, to prevent disconnections

MAIDEN & SPELL's OST is now available for purchase! (Sorry it took so long!)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1252590/Maiden_and_Spell_Soundtrack/




Includes all of Hagane's great tracks from the game in high quality format! Feel free to listen to your favorite song on repeat for as long as you'd like.

Hagane has also commissioned a few members of his circle to do special bonus arrangements of the tracks! They'll be included on his special version of the CD that you can find here:

https://diverse.direct/%e9%8b%bc%e9%89%84%e9%9f%b3%e6%ba%90/hgst-0001/

Or digitally here:

https://steelplus.bandcamp.com/album/maiden-spell-original-soundtrack

So if you want some really cool extra tunes, be sure to pick that up!

Hello Maidens and others!

Ever since the game launched I've gotten a lot of feedback, replays and discussion of the character balance right now. In addition, I've gotten the chance to fight a lot of different people online!

I had predicted that there would be at least one unwinnable match-up or broken move at launch... yeah, there were a few.

So the patch to fix some of those imbalances is coming tomorrow. The game's testers and I have been working hard on this, and hope that it makes the game a little more playable.

Here are the preliminary balance patch notes! Times are in milliseconds, distances are in pixels at 1080p resolution, speeds are in pixels per frame at 60fps, and angles are in degrees, unless otherwise stated.




Lat Dark
- Bullet spawn radius 75px > 140px
- Combo length 250ms > 1000ms (the time until you do the first part of the spiral rather than the second)
- Movement speed while firing .55x > .65x
- Attack length 280ms > 240ms
- Bullet speed 7.5px > 9px

Novi Starfall
- Bullet scale .9x > 1x

Arcane Magic
- Adjusted delay to be slightly less dependant on distance





Unfocused movement speed 8px > 8.75px

Dimi Life
- Bullet spread 10° > 12°

Lat Wide
- Distance between rings 250px > 220px

Butterfly Thrall
- Bullet spread 10° > 12°
- MoveSpeedMult .7x > .8x

Novi Life
- Increased number of times it erases non-invincible bullets





Swordplay
- Direction lock .3x > .4x

Swordstorm
- Direction lock .3x > .15x

Dodge Roll
- Invincibility Time 550ms > 350ms
- Move speed boost
- Duration 100ms > 200ms
- Speed 1.7x > 2x
- Attack Lock 0ms > 300ms
- Direction Lock Length 200ms > 350ms
- Now slows your movement by .4x for 400ms after execution (Can be canceled by using a different attack)





Bolt Strike
- Can now be charged for longer and grow larger

Discharge
- Fire delay 0ms > 160ms
- Bullet spawn radius 0px > 150px
- Effect added
- Fire time is now the same on doppel and player, instead of being delayed





Unfocused movement speed 11px > 12.5px

Sniper shot
- Arrow maximum speed 25px > 22px
- Minimum angle 15° > 12°
- Fixed arrows 'appearing' faster than bullets locally
- Fixed bug where arrows would not rollback properly

Bind
- Shape of bullets has changed to be tighter, number of bullets increased
- Magnus Damage 15/tic > 10/tic

Knife Juggle
- Now cancels MoveLock and MoveSpeedMult
- Speed of knives increased 12px > 14px

Vanish
- Speed during invisible 1.3x > 1.6x
- Speed reduction on appear .2x > .4x





Lat Water
- Bullet speed reduced 6px > 5px and 4px > 3.5px

Saphire Flare
- Maximum combo decreased 7 > 4
- Angle now becomes shallower as button is held
-Total angle goes from 60° > 30°
- Distance increase with each combo increased
- Direction Lock .1x > 0x
- Direction Lock can no longer be canceled with focus
- MoveSpeedMult .2x > .15x





Lat Holy
- Bullet sprite adjusted so that the time it doesn't have a hitbox is more apparent
- Time for the attack to have a hitbox 400ms > 500ms




- The cooldown time when a cast is interrupted is now half the normal cooldown, instead of the full cooldown.


----------------------------------------------------


You'll also be able to see these values for yourself in the updated Training Mode!



These are some of the numbers working behind the scene to make the moves what they are. It's kind of like a character's frame data!

You can see there's 9 little timers counting down when you do moves. They determine things like how fast you can move while attacking, or when you're able to attack again.

They are, left to right top to bottom:

-Move speed mult: Your character moves more slowly while this timer counts down.
-Move lock: Your character is unable to move.
-Direction lock: Your arrow tracks the opponent more slowly.
-Attack lock: Your character is unable to use most Basic/Wide attacks.
-Spell lock: Your character is unable to use most Offensive/Defensive Specials.
-Action lock: Your character cannot use any other attacks.
-Invincibility: Your character is impervious to damage.
-Cooldown Hold: After this timer counts down, a move that's waiting to go on cooldown (Like Dreadwyrm's Garnet Flare) will go on cooldown.
-Combo: Combo moves will do the next move in the combo, rather than starting from the first move.

Hopefully that's not too confusing! There's lots of numbers on the backend.

The patch will hopefully drop Wednesday at around noon. I'm still doing some last minute bug fixing, so depending on that it might be a little bit earlier or later!

Please look forward to it!