Slapshot: Rebound News

There was a performance issue related to previewing sticks in the shop with a preset that was made before stick colors were released, causing lasting frame drops for the rest of the session. This is now fixed. Thank you to those helping us figure this annoying bug out!

We've also enabled an extra variant for the Futuristic helmet :)

Small patch, big impact.

[h2]Gameplay - Removed the catch-up mechanic[/h2]
After weeks of testing with various levels of players, we've decided to remove this mechanic to better reward more skilled and coordinated gameplay. This mechanic used to let you go over the max speed if you have been skating in a straight line. This was originally intended to give defenders a chance to catch up again if they had been outplayed, but as the game and meta evolved, it was no longer beneficial and hindered good gameplay. The change will allow people that have outplayed an opponent more room to make a pass or shot. It will encourage better team positioning both for offense and defence.

[h2]Matchmaking - Special case for parties[/h2]
We have optimized the in-match balancing for games where 1 party of two players is present. Before, it would put the party on a team and then alternate adding players to a team sorted by their skill rating as normal. This broke in this scenario and caused many suboptimal matches. This case is now handled separately and will go through every possible team option and pick the one with the lowest difference in rating between the teams.

[h2]Cosmetics[/h2]
Added May's Patreon cosmetics: Ladybug wings, bee outfit, bird wings.

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
- Optimized some legacy player input code on the server for faster/better input handling (read: less lag, better accuracy)
- Party indicators will now show up at the end game scoreboard too
- Fixed hairstyle sometimes not showing up in cosmetic previews
- Made several performance improvements to the UI

GLHF
The Oddshot Games team

Hey Slappers,

Another small patch, this time to improve performance in the bundles UI.
Because it was previewing so many cosmetics at once, some PCs couldn't keep up.

The UI now only shows the full bundle itself.
You can still see the individual cosmetics when clicking on the bundle to go to its details.

I've also found a free performance improvement for all UI with a scrollbar which is in this patch too.

GLHF
Oddshot Games

[h2]Performance[/h2]
- Fixed a memory leak caused by cosmetic preview textures not properly being released
- Improved memory usage for cosmetic loading and unloading

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
- Fixed team indicator not showing on slapstation / colosseum for some people
- Fixed bundles not correctly previewing hairstyles
- Fixed the iron helmet clipping with hair

GLHF
Oddshot Games

[h2]Matchmaking[/h2]
Tweaked backfill to be less strict. We've been monitoring the change from last patch and are putting it on a middle-ground.
This means you're more likely to get a backfill but it will still take skill range into account properly and have a hard cap.

[h2]Slapshop Bundles[/h2]
Added bundles to the shop. We've polled this featured in Discord and you overwhelmingly voted yes!
- A new tab called Bundles was added to shop
- Bundles are a collection of cosmetics you can purchase using Pux. They can be outfits or other related cosmetics.
- Bundles are not on rotation, they will always be available in the shop.
- If you already own one or more items in a bundle, it will subtract the cost of those items from the bundle.
- A 10% Pux discount is applied to all bundles (except when there is only 1 item remaining).
- Unless a cosmetic in a bundle has the 'Exclusive' rarity, it will still be featured in the normal shop rotation

[h2]Purchasing Pux[/h2]
With the introduction of bundles, there will be more things that cost more than the smallest Pux package.
We never want to force people to purchase more Pux than they need, so we added a way to buy a custom amount of Pux.
In the Pux purchasing menu, we added an interface where you can put in the exact amount of Pux you want to buy.
This will calculate the cost for the Pux and allow you to buy only that amount.

Prices are calculated based on the ratio between the Pux in a package, applying the same ratio to their prices.
E.g. With 12 500 Pux = $4.99 and 27 200 Pux = $9.99, 20 000 Pux will cost $7.55

[h2]Slapstation Arena[/h2]
- Created several performance improvements for the Slapstation map
- Fixed goal spotlights in Slapstation not showing correctly
- Added Slapstation to the public map rotation (matchmaking games)

[h2]Quality of Life[/h2]
- Added an indicator in matchmade games to show which players are in a party (yellow line to the left of their name).
- Added new loading screens (from the community competition!)
- Added new tips to the loading screen

[h2]Cosmetics[/h2]
- Added beret, trenchcoat and earrings for Patreon
- Added Kazxi's jersey and Frowny Puck

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
- Made a bunch of fixes related to the cosmetics preview UI (invisible heads etc)
- The shop stick previews will now use the currently equipped stick colors to avoid confusion

GLHF,
The Oddshot Games team