Update 4 - Prepare to Die

Thanks for your patience, spinners. We've been a bit long between major updates, which was due to some small project work we took on (Spin-related) for which we are under NDA. We should hopefully be back to bi-weekly updates from now.

We thought we would be in Taipei for TGS, but it was cancelled due to coronavirus. We spent a few more days on our XD difficulty patch making it as good as possible. Details below.

Looking forward to feeling everyone's rage at the XD levels.

FEATURES
• XD DIFFICULTY
  - The hardest, most furious difficulty has arrived, XD (Xtreme Difficulty) contains more taps, more colour swapping, double match notes, faster note speed, full length tracks and new “beat holds” (requiring lift offs similar to regular hold notes)
  - Beat Holds will not damage the player for lifting off early, but will damage the player for not lifting off at all
  
  
  
  
• Scratch zones!
  - All levels have been updated with Scratch Zones, build up huge energy and score by repeatedly moving the wheel left and right - for when a spin or a bunch of notes in succession just wasn’t hype enough
  - Scratch zones will flash when maximum score has been reached
  
• Note sounds!
  - A short, high-frequency ticking sound (for when notes hit the wheel) can be enabled in the sound options
  
• Practice mode!
  - During any level hit pause and enable practice mode and you will be unable to fail
  - You can snap to the cue points in the level (using B and N - “Back” and “Next” for snap left and right) and G to “Go to start cue point”
  - Gameplay can be slowed down or sped up with P and Left Shift + P
  
  
  
  
• Editor update
  - Place beat holds with shift + 3
  - Place scratch zones with 6, to end a zone place a hold note tail with shift + 4
  - Horizontal slices in hold notes should be much easier to place and manage now
  
• New track artwork for OST levels featuring a clear badge showing they are from OST Vol.1
  
• Tutorial (Easy) has been updated to include scratch zones
  
• Tutorial (Hard) shortened and only includes lift off notes, beats and beat holds
  

BALANCE
• Inject (Expert) made slightly less difficult (more like a 2/10 than the 5/10 it was)
  
• This Is It (Expert) difficulty more in line with its rating (mainly in the non-drop sections)
  
• Flight (Easy, Normal, Hard) difficulty more in line with its rating
  
• Scoring for FC runs will now be fully consistent
  - Previously there was an issue with being able to gain a higher multiplier before a hold note (when a beat note started in the same place) and having that note be worth more than it should
  
• Spins now have a fixed amount of points, there are no more points to be gained by delaying the spin and tapping late
  
• Various levels (New Game, Coming Too, Spin Cycle, I See Lite) have been polished based on Discord feedback (thanks user @glovetheglove!)
  
• Gamepad players will now have a speed boost for the widest flick sections in hold notes
  
• Multipliers are disabled in SpinFM (this is to better facilitate a more fair weekly Champion Challenge tournaments and fairer competition overall
  

POLISH
• Spinners now appear from their placement upwards rather than before and after their placement (this now makes sense as the spinner activates at the beginning of its placement not the middle
  
• Spinners now render as a world object (as opposed to on the track) - their width should be uniform between difficulties and track speeds
  - To place a beat spin, simply place the two objects on top of eachother and it will now render on the track correctly
  
• Spins have a fresh new look
  
• When holding an equal score on the leaderboards, your name will appear first, followed by others in the equal place
  
• Every single level has had a once-over and been tightened up (if any of these suck hit us up in Discord to complain)
  
• Rattlesnake (Easy) has a more concise musical cut at the end (similar to the Normal ending)
  Intro sound volume has been lowered
  
• Music has overall had volume lowered to make room for note SFX
  
• New Game (Easy) preview loop has been fixed
  

BUG FIXES
• The crazy particle bug in the Coming Too level has been fixed
  
• Spam resistance (forced damage when spamming left / right to avoid cheese) no longer activates during a scratch. This prevents punishing players during fast motions after scratch zones
  
• With hold mouse to move off, a secondary tap binding will also “hold” the wheel (secondary tap used to only tap, which meant players could not use this button for hold notes)
  

As always, please join our community at https://discord.gg/spinrhythmxd to let us know what you think.

Happy spinning!