Slapshot: Rebound News

Most of our time was spent working on performance and other less flashy but very important things.
There's still a bunch of things related to that that aren't ready yet so stay tuned for more boring but essential things!

[h2]New gamemode: Freezetag![/h2]
Freezetag lets you choose between being a tagger and a runner. This works with a 'best of' round system.
The round ends when the time rune out (runners win) or all runners are frozen (taggers win).
- As a tagger, hit the runners to freeze them.
- As a runner, get away and tag frozen teammates to unfreeze them!

This mode has no pucks, it's all about movement.
Freezetag is available in custom games. Let us know what you think of it!

[h2]Performance fixes and improvements[/h2]
Significantly improved CPU usage of the game as well as memory allocation (less/no more stutters!)
Nerd stuff ahead: The reduced memalloc produces 82% less garbage each frame, putting less strain on the GC which avoids stutters.

[h2]Quality of Life[/h2]
- Completely remade our Steam integration. Should not make a difference right now but will help us integrate with Steam more in the future (Rich presence, Steam sockets & relay for player hosted servers)
- Further improved toxicity and false positive detection

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
- Fixed some ice reflection related issues
- Fixed no goal horn playing if nobody on the team is credited with the goal
- Fixed some inputs getting discarded is they last less than a game tick

[h2]Cosmetics[/h2]
- Added cultist jersey, cat beanie, bandana (mouth), cauldron, suspenders, poutine stick, nasher jersey (stay tuned!), snail hat & jersey, facial hair: lumberjack, balbo, chad & disguise glasses
- Added new variants for Goosan, Star eyes, visor helmet, wireframe hat & fedora (will be enabled later today)
- Replaced the fart goal horn. Everyone that's bought it is eligible for a free refund for the next 7 days if they don't like the new version (⁠help for a ticket)
- Resized the league winner crown based on feedback

[h2]Other[/h2]
- Added a new loading screen by community member Rev
- Added Steam (Points Shop) & Discord chat stickers (Goosan Walk & Slapshot Smile) by Rev
- Renamed dodgepuck arena to 'Obstacles'
- Added an XL version of the Obstacles map

[h2]What's next?[/h2]
Our major focus areas are a game replay system, releasing more performance improvements and introducing new latency reduction tech.

Good luck, have fun!
The Oddshot Games team

- Fixed stick colors on the goop stick
- Fixed controller navigation to the Career button
- Fixed the very dark variant of the crown

[h2]Summer![/h2]
- We've refreshed the locker room to feature a summer theme!
- The Island arena has replaced the Colosseum in public game rotation

[h2]Your Career[/h2]
Many people liked the idea I pitched last patch notes so we created it.
You can now follow your rank & rating more closely in the Player -> Career interface.

[h2]XL Arena[/h2]
For custom games, you can now select the Slapstadium XL arena, which is a lot bigger than the default arena size.
The arena is intended for matches with lots of people, such as 6v6.

[h2]Quality of Life[/h2]
- Enabled the jparty command in the dev console to join parties without being Steam friends. When someone creates a party, the dev console will tell you the party id. Others using the jparty party_id command where party_id is the id shown to the party creator allows them to join the party.
- New custom game lobbies are now shown at the top of the list rather than on the bottom
The Top 50 rated players in 'Rankings' now shows their skill rating
- Changed the 10 minute queue achievement to make it accumulative over multiple queues and not 10 minutes in 1 queue
- Added a new loading screen by JustCoopz

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
- Fixed a stanchion clipping into Slapstadium and Slapville ever so slightly (did not affect gameplay)
- Fixed custom player spawn in goalie practice
- Worked around a bug in the Unity engine to re-enable simple latency diagnostics in-game when you run the mtr command or report a server, this will help us take action sooner when servers aren't performing well.
- Fixed the minimap for the Jumbo arena, it now more accurately lines up with the real positions
- Fixed the ability to play in practice mode without an internet connection
- Fixed the highlight for the oil stick
- Fixed changing arenas in goalie bot practice starting the match timer

[h2]Cosmetics[/h2]
- Added new bundles to the shop: Goop, Exotic Hair, Basic Stick Colors
- Created a system to support variants for decals (mouth, eyes, face)
- Added several new goal horns: Fart, Hell, Slapshot Horn, Metal
- Added: O Canada face decal, Dream Hair, Popsicle Stick, Scarf, Goosan Head, Beach Body, Fancy Suit, Lys face decal, Short full beard, Mozart hairstyle
- Added Goop set: Goop mouth, Goop stick, Goop back (covers body), Goop hat (covers head)
- Added dark variant for Mjolstick, earless variant for Frozen
- Reworked 'Manbun', 'High Ponytail' and 'Punk Rock'. Their old versions are available as variants.
- Updated the Crown's visual style (for league winners)

Special thanks to Addzin for the new goal horns and Rev for the concept work for a bunch of the new cosmetics!

GLHF,
Oddshot Games

This patch is mostly fixes, quality of life and setting us up for future updates.

We've been a bit preoccupied making sure all our systems could handle the increased player count and provide support in a timely manner. Thank you so much for all your support and just for playing the game. It's so awesome to see so many people enjoying the game!

[h2]Patch Notes[/h2]

[h3]Fixes[/h3]
- Fixed an issue in replay state handling that could rarely cause a player to be stuck in replay cam during gameplay
- Tweaked the latency simulator to be more accurate to a real scenario
- Fixed the stick highlight for the Bowie knife
- Fixed saving of the 'simulate last game' setting for non-premium players
- Fixed hovering over the rank tooltip while a scene changed happened causing the tooltip to stay there during gameplay
- Fixed the puck spawn location not working on open obstacle practices
- Fixed some head overriding cosmetics causing other slots to show an invisible head sometimes
- Re-enabled the league and premium showcases

[h3]Quality of Life[/h3]
- Added a mercy rule setting to bot matches (player requested)
- Removed the pond preview button because we moved it to the arena system so our artists can work on it better
--> Yes this means you can access it with the 'arena pond' command but it's still WIP and will be overhauled completely.
- Added links to our Discord and socials on the main menu for easy access
- Changed the icon for party indicators, it's now more clear that it means they're in a party together
- Changed the league section in the esports tab to include a short video to showcase the skill ceiling
- (Dev) Changed how we handle logging to be able to act on issues faster and proactively

[h3]Cosmetics[/h3]
- Added new variants for Turtle Shell, Edge LED (these launch later today)
- Added Fish Head, Father's Day cosmetic (for this Sunday), USA Stick (for 4th of July)
- Added new hairstyles: Top Knot, Afro, Halfie, Slick, Lawyer

[h2]Request for Feedback[/h2]

There's some things we're thinking of adding based on player feedback and we'd love to know if our solutions are what you'd like to see. Let us know if we're heading in the right direction!

[h3]Career[/h3]
Players have been wanting more insight into their rank and when they will promote/demote. To tackle this we came up with a 'career' page that would be accessible from the 'Player' tab, showing you your rank, specific rating and how far you are from promoting/demoting as well as a short history of the matches you have recently played. Is this something you want? Should it contain more/different information?



[h2]Creator Program[/h2]

There's been a lot of talented people applying to the Slapshot Content Creator Program and we're happy to showcase those that have been accepted. Together, they've been creating amazing content right alongside us and are helping Slapshot reach new heights. Interested? More info here.

• Bolty https://www.tiktok.com/@boltyslapshot
• Chewy https://www.tiktok.com/@chewy_
• TartTizzle https://www.tiktok.com/@tarttizzle
• Mojo https://www.tiktok.com/@mojosclips
• LaffTrakk https://www.youtube.com/@lafftrakk
• FrownyBrowny https://www.tiktok.com/@frownybrowny
• Crusade https://www.youtube.com/@CrusadeSlapshot
• SPMZ https://www.tiktok.com/@spmzgg
• Leebrenner10 https://www.youtube.com/@Leeroy10
• MrMayhem_Nc https://www.tiktok.com/@mrmayhem_nc
• Octo https://www.tiktok.com/@octo.spl
• Trevmonkas https://www.tiktok.com/@trevmonkas
• Mieldprairie https://www.twitch.tv/miel_de_prairie
• CowArmy33 https://twitch.tv/osl_official
• CorruptWolfy https://www.tiktok.com/@corruptwolfy
  
• Whiffleroar https://www.twitch.tv/whiffleroar

Thank you for playing, GLHF!
- The Oddshot Games team

[h2]Goal horns![/h2]
- Added a new cosmetic type: Goal horns.
- Added a new bundle in the shop with a few boat horns
- Added a 'thunder' horn to the Norse God bundle. Everyone that bought the bundle before has received it for free.

[h2]Arenas[/h2]
- Added the Island arena. It is accessible from bot matches and custom games
- Removed Slapstation from the public game rotation due to performance complaints

[h2]Matchmaking[/h2]
- Created better balancing for the teams within a match
- Made matchmaker a bit stricter, avoids instant matches with suboptimal balancing

[h2]Quality of life[/h2]
- Added native support for PS5 controllers, you no longer need to use Steam Input for it
- Added controller icons for DualShock and DualSense controllers (PS4 & PS5 controllers)
- Latency simulator has been made more accurate (take round trip time into account)
- Latency simulator is now on by default so new player experience in tutorial and practice is closer the online experience
-- It'll estimate the latency, then after having played a match uses the latency found in that match
- Region selector now shows the estimated latency to a region and color codes if it's good or not
- Added advertisements for premium and the leagues for your respective region
- Made some huge infrastructure improvements, making a bunch of operations significantly faster
- Added more server-side metrics and monitoring to find out about bad performing servers quicker
- When changing or adjusting camera settings, 'reset zoom' is used so settings are more accurate and less weird angle issues
- Added support for 800x600 resolution for the people with potato PCs
- Added the ability to view variants of items in bundles by clicking on the item, this'll bring up the item details UI

[h2]Cosmetics[/h2]
- Added a camera helmet cosmetic for the creator program
- Added selfie stick, makeshift stick, skull cleaver stick, reinforced stick
- Added more variants to the premium hoodie, all existing and future premium users get these for free

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
- Better stability for game server startup
- Fixed an issue where if the server fails to start, you have to reboot to queue again
- Fixed the variants for the bird wing cosmetic
- Fixed playstation controller icons for quick chat not showing correctly
- Fixed an issue where sometimes the purchase confirmation UI would incorrectly assume you own a cosmetic already

[h2]Creator program[/h2]
We have launched a creator program to work with those that are creating content for Slapshot.
Oddshot Games is determined to help you create great content and want to support you in the process!
For more information check out the info page here: https://oddshot.notion.site/Public-Slapshot-Creator-Program-e869eda1d76e48bf91a13d40aff2703b

GLHF,
Oddshot Games