Slapshot: Rebound News

Hey Slappers! Here’s an update to prepare the game (and you!) for the next one that will launch in two weeks and mark the end of the first pre-season of Slapshot Rebound.

[h2]Pre-season 1 is ending![/h2]

We entered Pre-season 1 with the release of ranked, which will be ending on December 19th, marking the beginning of Pre-season 2. This will be the last season before the full launch of the game next year!

Of course a season ending comes with rewards! All slappers who have reached a rank at least once will receive the exclusive Pre-season 1 stick. You will also receive all the sticks for each rank below the one you have achieved. I’m sure you have some questions, so here’s some answers:

How many matches do I need to have played at a rank to get the rewards?
None. Reaching it once will have qualified you for the rewards of that rank.

Will my rank reset at the end of the season?
Ranks will be soft reset, meaning you’ll need to do placement matches again but it’ll still take into account the rating you achieved last season for matchmaking during those placement matches.

When do I get the rewards?
They’ll be distributed around the start of the new season.

How do I know which rewards I qualify for now?
We don’t have a way to show this right now, but will add something during the next season. Your best bet is to just get the highest rank you can in the next two weeks :-)

What’s changing next season?
We’re always changing how ratings and matchmaking work throughout the seasons. This gives us a chance to let those changes shine better with a clean slate. Expect more improvements throughout pre-season 2 as well.

[h2]Rebound birthday![/h2]

It’s that time of the year again! On December 7th, Slapshot Rebound is celebrating its third birthday since releasing into Early Access in 2020. To celebrate this, everyone that logs in between December 7th and December 14th 2023 will receive an exclusive cosmetic just like previous years.

Previously, we gave away a party hat and a cake hat. This year's exclusive cosmetic features three candles and frosting, designed to be worn with different hairstyles (allowing the candles to protrude playfully).

[h2]Player milestone[/h2]

Slapshot has also reached a fun player milestone on Steam today! This means 1.5 million people have added the game to their Steam library. Welcome to the Slappyverse, everyone!

[h2]Patch notes[/h2]
Right, this is a patch, so there have to be patch notes too. Most of the changes are preparing for the next patch, but there’s a few things you will notice already!

[h3]Reworked tutorial[/h3]

The tutorial has been changed to accommodate for a true first time player experience, giving a better insight into how input works in Slapshot and making sure every step is easier to understand than before so new players are better equipped before they get on the ice!

[h3]Winter is coming[/h3]

We’re moving on from the autumn locker room to a cozy winter cabin! Let’s decorate it soon :-)

[h3]Cosmetics[/h3]
- Created a new internal shader, so we can get more creative with cosmetics and dynamic colors
- Added Snowglobe hat, Reindeer hat, Christmas tree jersey, blinking lights stick, turkey ‘jersey’
- Added the Candles anniversary cosmetic (unlockable Dec 7 to Dec 14)

[h3]Fixes[/h3]
Fixed stick highlight not working with the goop head

GLHF,
The Oddshot Games team

Hey Slappers, this is a small update to address some bugs and improve the matchmaking.

- Further improved matchmaking variables based on new statistics and player feedback
- We're back in the Autumn locker room now that the Halloween event has ended
- Switched out the Island arena for Slapstation in the public match arena rotation
- Fixed the cones in obstacle practice getting highlighted like the puck
- Fixed an issue where the default stick would not always get highlighted
- Remastered the Salmon stick

GLHF
The Oddshot Games team

[h2]Halloween update![/h2]
This is a smaller patch because I took a little break this month but we've still got some fun stuff for you!
Just for logging in between now and the end of October, you'll unlock a free Halloween cosmetic "Skeleton mask".

We've also decorated the locker room to be more spooky 👻

[h2]Individual player muting[/h2]
- In the menu while in-game, a new button called "mute / unmute" will allow you to mute individual player's chat.
- When you have them muted, you won't see any of their chat (including quick chat). You can unmute them from the same menu.
- The scoreboard will show you a muted indicator on the very right.

[h2]Highlights rework[/h2]
We've tackled the highlight shader that takes care of the stick and puck highlights to be more consistent and not affect non-highlighted models.

- Before, there was a bit of transparency to the stick. This is fixed now.
- The gloves will now avoid the highlights (despite 'obstructing' the stick)
- Highlight colors are more accurate now. We've also changed the preset colors to make them look closer to what they did before (you may need to reselect yours!).

As a part of these improvements, we've also remastered a bunch of sticks: Fork, spatula, iridescent, oil, frost, zombie, Mjolnir, butcher, butter knife, bowie knife, scythe, camo, bone stick, sword

[h2]Matchmaking[/h2]
We've made the matchmaking a bit stricter on the extreme ends. This should make for more balanced matches. On Tuesday this was tuned a bit too extreme to the other end, a middle ground has been launched today that makes for a better balance between match quality and queue times.

[h2]Cosmetics[/h2]
- Added free Skeleton Face paint (log in during October to get it!)
- Added lightning stick, modern stick, zombie jersey, zombie head, balaclava, military jersey, jetpack
- Reworked the duck mouth (old version became a variant)

[h2]Other[/h2]
- Changed the API lobby limit to only count towards the limit if there's less than 2 players in a lobby
- Fixed an issue where item pictures would be influenced by the locker room lighting
- Fixed gloves not rendering in replay and spectator cameras (happened since 3 days ago)
- Fixed candy cane stick
- Fixed frost stick not applying the stick tape and base color cosmetics

Good luck, have fun!
The Oddshot Games team

[h2]Autumn is here[/h2]
As the Slappyverse is cooling off after the summer, we've moved indoors to get cozy.

[h2]Netcode[/h2]
We've made some significant improvements to the netcode which will cut down perceived latency by a decent amount. The improvements have been made to processes that handle sending and processing of packets, making them twice as fast on both client and server.

This will not change the network latency. The change will be felt, not seen in the ping number. It does not make network ping lower or higher. Online gameplay will look smoother when your fps and refresh rate are 60 or above as well.

[h2]Improvements[/h2]
- With more cosmetics being added every patch, we've increased the shop's featured slots from 4 to 5 and the daily slots from 6 to 10 items.
- Ranked leaderboards now requires you to have played a match in the last 7 days to appear on it (does not affect other stat leaderboards)
- We can now blacklist accounts from the ranked leaderboards and will remove alt accounts from it. The blacklist is on a per season basis
- Increased the networking timeout to game servers when you lose network connectivity, giving you a higher chance to reconnect.
- We have completely disconnected the game from all Unity services to reflect our lost trust in the engine maker
- Improved the video RAM usage of cosmetics with high resolution textures

[h2]Fixes[/h2]
- Switching teams during item preview no longer resets the selected variant
- The default spectator camera is now back to being the caster cam
- Fixed scorebug not displaying the gamemode specific team names
- Fixed switching teams while looking at a bundle visually showing its price as 0 pux
- Fixed cosmetics not being able to apply dynamic colors to multiple pieces of geometry
- Fixed the 'spectate' command making the player move when you move the spectator camera

[h2]Cosmetics[/h2]
- Added a dark variant to the celebration hat
- Added new variants to the camera helmet (content creator program)
- Reworked the existing pumpkin head cosmetic (the old ones are now variants)
- Fixed hair colors on the Goosan cosmetic
- Added Patreon cosmetics for October (Halloween)
- Added elegant hairstyle, superhero jersey and mask, deathknight jersey and stick, hazmat jersey

[h2]SPL Season 11[/h2]
The North American league returns. Join the SPL in its 11th season.
Signups open from Sept 25th to Oct 6th. The season starts Oct 16th.
https://forms.gle/e6xxGQxwwvKn4UQy9

Good luck, have fun!
The Oddshot Games team

- Fixed low framerate users getting strange input glitches
- Fixed controller navigation on the main menu
- Fixed default bot match length