Valgrave: Immortal Plains News

Summary: As requested, players now will have full control over the volume of all aspects of the game! We've also changed how mouse input is handled which should improve accuracy and fix the rotation hitch some have reported. As for balance changes, some melee buffs and the long anticipated nerf to HomingSpheres.

Major features:
- Added volume sliders in settings menu for:
- Master
- Music
- Sound Effects
- Interface
- Ambient

Minor features:
- Mouse movement is now driven via raw mouse input (no longer factors in delta time).

Balance changes:
- Whirlwind changed from 8 damage every 1 second -> 4 damage every 0.5 seconds (same total damage, but feels better when people are right on the edge of the damage raduis)
- BlinkBehind cooldown 8 -> 7 seconds
- KnockupPunch cooldown 8 -> 7 seconds
- BlackHole cooldown 9 -> 8 seconds
- ForwardDashAttack damage 10 -> 15 (we want to encourage more players to use this offensively, not just for escaping unfavorable situations)
- Sprint movement speed multiplier 3 -> 2.75
- SwordSlash
- Cooldown 2.5 -> 3 seconds
- Clamp velocity on finish 1250 -> 850
- No longer forces downward at the end of the dash
- HomingSpheres damage 20 -> 15

Bug fixes:
- Fixed occasional mouse rotation hitch.

Summary: Leaderboards! You will not see an entry for yourself until the next time the leaderboard's respective stat is updated. Meaning, as soon as you win once, an entry for you in the "Most Games Won" leaderboard will be added (unfortunately there wasn't an easy way to pre-populate the leaderboards for everyone). This is not resetting your current stats. Also, there is a limitation with the Steam SDK where you can only get the Steam names of players you are friends with or currently in a lobby with. So until we find a workaround, their Steam ID will be shown instead. Its a work-in-progress, but I wanted to get something out there as soon as possible.

Major features: Added leaderboards for most wins, most games played, and most kills.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed all server errors introduced from v1.0.13.
- Fixed issue where in some scenarios, the server would fail to stop matchmaking before the match starts.

Summary: Added the ability to invert the Y-Axis through the Gameplay tab of the settings menu. Also reworked roots to behave more like a "true" root, that is, no jumping or using mobility abilities to break out of it.

Major features:
- Added an option to invert Y-Axis.
- Reworked roots (from LaserBeam and GroundWave) to prevent jumping, and prevent the activation of mobility abilities (BlinkBehind, ForwardDaskAttack, KnockupPunch, SmokeBomb, SuperJump, and SwordSlash).

Minor features:
- Reduced the queue timer from 3 minutes to 2.5 minutes. Hopefully this slight reduction will make the wait less painful but with minimal impact on the number of players per match.

Balance changes:
- GroundWave root duration reduced from 2 -> 1.75 (with the new root changes, it should be significantly easier to chain roots).

Bug fixes:
- Fixed a bug where SpearThrow wouldn't play explosion effect in close range situations.
- Fixed a bug where current player count would not account for players who left before match starts.

Summary: Mostly bug fixes from the previous patch as well as some quality of life changes with HomingSpheres, LaserBeam, and the spawn selection phase.

Minor features:
- Improved spawn behavior of HomingSpheres so that it's initial rotation points towards the target character if homing. This should make close range combat more predictable.
- LaserBeam now always shoots in the direction of the crosshair. Before the angle of the beam would try and intersect what was targeted by the crosshair, which would result in the beam shooting off to right when targeting characters or Dragons in close range.
- Added a sound effect on selection of spawn location markers.
- Updated music during spawn selection phase.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed a bug where abilities weren't being dropped on death (introduced in v1.0.13).
- Fixed a bug where Dragon kills were counting towards player kill count (introduced in v1.0.13).
- Fixed a bug where periodic effects from certain abilities would persist after death. These abilities include Whirlwind, FireRain, and Blackhole (introduced in v1.0.13).



Summary: This is primarily a code refactor, but a significant one that should resolve a handful of issues regarding the strange behaviors we have been seeing with sound effects lingering indefinitely. We've also enabled speed hack detection in the engine and fixed a few bugs around the visual representation of players remaining in a match. Due to the nature of this change, I would anticipate the introduction of new bugs so please let us know of any strange behavior you encounter so we can address them as quickly as possible.

Major features:
- Enabled speed hack detection
- Implemented a blue-green deployment system so that we can safely deploy breaking changes into isolated environments to ensure not to impact players who haven't updated their clients yet.

Bug fixes:
- Fixed a bug where your games played stat would increment even when leaving or disconnecting from a match that hasn't started yet
- Fixed a bug where the in-game player count would not properly account for players who left or disconnected before the match started
- Fixed a bug where sound effects would linger indefinitely

Performance optimizations:
- Lowered the maximum number of times per second at which characters replicate from the server to clients. This should improve CPU performance on the server by not wasting CPU cycles replicating information more than it needs to yet without having a perceivable difference from the clients perspective.



Summary: Fixed a handful of bugs around the deathcam, game over screen, and Dragon projectile behavior.

Minor features:
- Reduced ability disenchantment sound by 50% (far too loud in my opinion)

Bug fixes:
- Fixed a bug where Dragon's projectiles would always miss you when standing immediately next to them
- Fixed a bug where UI wasn't getting removed on death or immediately after game ended
- Fixed a bug where the camera would detach from the winning character at the end of the game



Summary: We have a big update to our websocket plugin which we use to communicate with the matchmaking service. The functionality will remain the same from a player's perspective but we are hoping this will resolve the issue some people are having with not being able to queue for matches at all.

Major features:
- Matchmaking websocket update

Balance changes:
- AntiProjectileBubble duration 5.5s -> 4s
- BackStab damage 10 -> 15 | Damage multiplier 2.5 -> 2 (Total bonus damage 25 -> 30)

Minor features:
- AntiProjectileBubble will now have a distinct sound effect when hit to better indicate when it blocks an ability
- LaserBeam visual effects should have much closer timing to the actual hitscan (attempting to improve the "that didn't hit me" sentiment)



Summary: Entirely rewrote ForwardDashAttack collision logic in attempt to resolve server crash

Minor features:
- Changed color of enemy spawn selection markers from red -> orange
- Crosshair is no longer visible when the game ends (end game screen shots were being ruined by that crosshair in the middle of the screen...)

Make sure to update your game client in Steam. Please inform me of any server crashes you encounter after updating. Thanks for your patience on this problem everyone!


Summary: Overhauled projectile targeting for more precision as well as a few buffs and bug fixes

Projectile targeting update:
- Crosshair shifted to the right like traditional 3rd person shooters for better visibility of ground targeted abilities
- Projectile targeting is significantly more accurate towards crosshairs
- Improved accuracy of aim collision detector
- Projectiles no longer shoot in undesirable directions when targeting close characters or terrain

Balance changes:
- RisingWall duration 10s -> 7s | CD 4s -> 8s (goodbye wall stacking)
- Meteor damage 20 -> 25
- FireRain damage 7 -> 8 per second (35 -> 40 total damage over 5s)
- BlackHole damage 2 -> 3 per second (10 -> 15 total damage over 5s)
- SwordSlash damage 7 -> 8

Bug fixes:
- Crosshair no longer turns red for teammates
- Deathcam now works properly and will track your killer for a brief period of time before spectating
- Fixed bug where the start group selection screen would remain uninitialized and show "Message about start group selection" and a "0.0" countdown timer.

Working on:
- Adding Y-inverted axis to keybindings
- Issue where some people queue indefinitely
- Issue where some people cannot connect to server and get pushed back to entry map
- Advertising campaign with streamers to draw in more people
- Enabling speed hack detection

Note: Two patches in the same notice this time because Steam was down when I tried to post last time.



Summary: We finished keybindings and wanted to get them out to you asap for testing.


- Keybindings are now in the game! Please try it out and give us feedback. You can even set multiple actions to the same key.
- Saving your mouse speed and settings should work now


- Saving your mouse speed and other settings should work correctly
- Server join times have been reduced in many cases by over 15 seconds.


- Fixed the most recent server crash we've seen, it was only a single instance in 48 hours. Stability is high.
- Valhalla has been replaced with Valgrave everywhere now.


- Adding Y-inverted axis to keybindings.
- Issue where some people queue indefinitely. Thanks for everyone working with me.
- Issue where some people cannot connect to server and get pushed back to entry map.
- Advertising campaign with streamers to draw in more people.




Summary: Turning down people's ability to fly drastically since its not a fun way to die. Also tuning laserbeam since air mobility will drop this patch. Swordslash changes are very tentative and I'd love to get feedback on this. I think it keeps the feel of the ability while not making it a must take.


Knockup Punch CD 3s -> 8s
Laserbeam DMG 45 -> 30
Laserbeam CD 5s -> 6s
Superjump 4s -> 5s
ForwardDashAttack 5s -> 8s
ForwardDashAttack DMG 10 -> 15
SwordSlash Aims Down at 10 degrees
SwordSlash clamps velocity to 1250 on finish (was 2000)


- Sound at beginning of match changed to bell, thanks for voting


- Fixed server crash with Forward Dash Attack
- Fixed server crashes when spawning in
- Some fixes to spectator, let us know if its not working



- New way to connect to matchmaking to help people with websocket problems
- Rare bug where the server cannot connect to Steam and crashes
- Keybindings and setting saving upgrades