Slapshot: Rebound News

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]
- Buffed recharge time of dash by ~30%
- Nerfed dizziness meter of controller by about half

[h2]General[/h2]
- Added new arena Slapville to custom games
- Added quick chat (1, 2, 3, 4 or D-pad); rebindable
- Added a profanity filter toggle
- Added a ratelimit to chat so you can't spam as much

[h2]UI[/h2]
- Added a subtle 'high latency' warning above 50 ping
- Made premium glow more legible
- Added a slider for chatbox opacity
- FPS display will poll over the last second to show a more legible and accurate number

[h2]Cosmetics[/h2]
- Added fox mask, panda mask, frog backpack, frog gloves, cow backpack, goalie mask, fisher hat,
- Added too many variants to count (for when the variants system is introduced)

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
- Fixed back item previews being blurry / low res
- Can now enter passwords to lobbies when the chat was open
- Fixed pressing escape during first time set-up would hide your mouse and leave you unable to continue


We're still working on the backhand rebalancing, Unity physics is proving to be a struggle to get right at the high pace and accuracy we need. We're also still putting in the efforts to make progress on the variants system, which will add a ton of free cosmetics to the cosmetics you already have (that's what the levels are for). We're also looking more into scaling our services properly and getting a better system for the leaderboards generation. Another little experiment we're working on is improved networking latency tricks, more on that soon if it works out.


I just made an announcement in Discord about the Slapshot 1 sendoff.
TL;DR: The previous Slapshot game (NOT REBOUND) shutting down March 8th (tomorrow) 10PM CET/4PM ET
Lvestream an hour before at https://www.twitch.tv/erveon

Happy slapping!
- Erv

Rebound v0.49.0 is live

General
- Redesigned inventory/equipment system
- Added levels to all cosmetics (you have been earning experience for them since launch!), they will see a use in a future patch. Exp is earned only in matchmaking.
- Spectators can now talk to players in custom lobbies
- When scoring, a spotlight now appears on the person that scored
- Added a dev console command (button under escape) to show your Slapshot ID (command 'slapid')

Performance
- Reworked the minimap to provide a significant FPS boost across the board and be more accurate (no longer uses a camera, ty /u/MoodaxYT for the suggestion)
- Moved all possession calculations to only run server-side to avoid performance hitches when someone goes near the puck

Graphics
- Added the ability to use single digit jersey numbers
- Adjusted the white balance on some emmissiveness / flashing lights to look better
- Corrected the flag for Cyprus
- Corrected the glossiness of some cosmetics that had no business being so glossy

Cosmetics
- Added Fez, Plague Doctor mask, Cyborg, Fire gloves, Celebration hat, Gas mask
- Fixed Gallic, Octopus
- Added variants for a ton of cosmetics in preparation for the variants system soon™

Fixes
- Fixed game backfilling when it hasn't started completely yet
- Fixed ability to deselect jersey shop preview
- You can now play practice modes when completely offline
- Fixed rich text issue that people abused to make their name bigger or a different color in chat or replay UI
- Fixed issue where a practice mode could be spawned in the tutorial by resetting it
- Fixed puck going on top of the glass not triggering a faceoff
- Periods now always use the most up-to-date score (it wouldn't count a last few seconds goal sometimes before)

This is a small patch to fix some issues we found urgent plus a few quality of life changes.
Good to know: We've identified that the minimap is a performance bottleneck. If you suffer FPS issues, disable it for now.
A more performant minimap system is in the works that will give you a big FPS boost.

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]
- Increased the score you receive from saves from 25 to 35

[h2]General[/h2]
- Added a 'Post processing' toggle to the video settings
- Added join and leave messages to online servers

[h2]Cosmetics[/h2]
- Added some valentine cosmetics, the featured ones will show up tonight and daily on the 14th
- Added a Team PAX jersey. Allons-y!

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
- You can now report players that have left the game already
- Fixed an issue where controller players would get idle kicked incorrectly in some cases (thank you Mirruh for helping us debug this issue)
- Fixed an issue where the stick wouldn't be able to lower in some rare cases
- Fixed an issue where in some rare cases a goal would be triggered if the puck landed on a specific point on top of the goal

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]
- Made the goal detection more accurate
- Possession calculations are less strict

[h2]Custom Lobbies[/h2]
- Redesigned custom lobby UI
- Added periods system option

[h2]Interfaces[/h2]
- Fixed some issues where exiting some UI would leave you on a blank screen

[h2]Graphics[/h2]
- Fixed missing emissive material on the miner hat
- Hair is now properly hidden in cosmetic thumbnails for i.e. the executioner
- We now have the ability to hide ears for certain cosmetics
- Fixed the bottom half of the cellphone cosmetic
- Created mesh specific team colors (For finer control over materials and the upcoming team features)
- Increased the Arena LED emissiveness
- Fixed jersey preview defaulting when leaving the shop

[h2]Other[/h2]
- Minor minimap optimizations
- Optimized personal stat fetching and leaderboard calculations


We're still working on the cosmetics variations update which will likely be released in several stages, first of which will be a rework of the inventory system. Another focus of ours is to put a lot of effort into the rebalancing of the backhand to make it slightly better to shoot with (less hooking) and nerf its puck carrying capabilities. As always, we're looking forward to your feedback at https://slapshot.nolt.io/

Happy slapping
-Erveon

[h2]Gameplay[/h2]
- Fixed issue where some goals that were a teeny tiny bit over the line didn't count when they should have

[h2]General[/h2]
- Upgraded from Unity's built-in renderer to URP, this means we redid all of the graphics and shaders. The purpose of this is to provide a big performance boost for lower-end devices and make the visual style more consistent. People with decent computers won't notice much of a difference. This makes the game a lot more accessible to people both on PC and Trail.gg. This was a huge amount of work and marks a big milestone for us to start focusing on more user acquisition and fun features! If anything looks off, let us know in the Discord. We'll definitely be tweaking some of the visuals as we go, it may take some getting used to :)
- Added a few more Steam achievements
- You can now switch regions in the custom lobby without having to remake it
- You can now set a custom Mercy Rule in your custom lobby
- The selected region in the server browser persists (doesn't reset when leaving the interface)

[h2]Cosmetics[/h2]
- Added cat ears, bunny ears, donut mouth item, toast rework, cage helmet

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
- Made back-end connections better overall


For the next update, we'll primarily be focusing on a 3 period system in custom lobbies and the variant system which will introduce different colors for your cosmetics. Stick cosmetics may also be introduced here or soon after. If you want to help test these versions early, use !joinqa in #bot-spam in the Discord