Mega Knockdown News

Full Color Sprites for Billy

• About 90% of Billy's animations have been revamped with finished art, with the exception of a few throw-related animations. We plan to finish the rest this week or so.
  
• The next character to get final-quality art will be Nick, who should be finished in about 2 months.
  

New Alternate Palettes!

• Every character now has five color palettes to choose from in addition to the legacy green screen and abstract art styles, the latter you can now "unlock" by completing Arcade mode for that character.
  
• If you activate the Green Screen Jeremy DLC, which has been available for free since launch, the legacy art styles will all unlock for you immediately.
  
• We plan to add many more color options to the base game in the future, and the game has robust palette modding capabilities--see this guide to learn more about how to make custom colors:
  

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3240256603

Overhauled Character Select

• Character Select has been rebuilt from the ground up with a new design and more functional UI.
  
• Char Select has a new submenu for easy selection of character color, timer settings, "Strife" mode, as well as stage & music when in Versus mode.
  
• A few visual improvements are planned to this screen (such as enhanced portraits), but this is a starting point.
  
• Added Random Select to offline play.
  
• Favorite color is now remembered per-character.
  
• The rebinding menu within char select has a new look, and it is now a small submenu for each individual player instead of a fullscreen two-player menu. These submenus can be opened or closed without affecting what the other player is doing in character select.
  

Supporter Colors DLC

• In addition to the 5 initial colors we've added to start for each characater, a 6th palette per character is available for owners of the new Supporter Colors DLC. This is a small cosmetic perk we're selling to raise money for further development of the game. It's five bucks adjusted for your region, and you can grab it here:
  

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3067270/Mega_Knockdown__Supporter_Colors/

Other Menu Improvements

• Online lobbies have full color selection just like offline, though stage and music options will come later to online.
  
• Making a Private lobby is now done via a button instead of toggling a hotkey before making a lobby.
  
• More menu strings have been set up for future localization.
  
• Several minor improvements have been made to the functioning of the Options and Arcade menus
  

System Changes

• Replays will now remember your chosen colors, stage and music.
  
• If you select one of the legacy art styles, the AI will pick that too, otherwise it will default to the new art style.
  
• If both players pick the same color (except the legacy art styles), player 1 gets priority and player 2 will be switched over to Color 2 or 3.
  
• Certain keys such as L3 and the Function keys, which used to be "protected" to control certain menus, can now be bound to other things.
  
• Billy and Paul's air moves now (mostly) travel in a more parabolic arc. Other chars will get this enhancement with their new art.
  
• As you progress through Survival or Paul Zone, the color of opponents is now randomized in the higher stages.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where certain types of throw wouldn't push back during a tech.
  
• Fixed some very rare and specific hit detection issues
  

Gameplay and Balance Changes

• Lewis' forward and neutral throws now side switch, and his back throw leaves him on the same side.
  
• This is somewhat for flavor, but it is a buff when Lewis is cornered, and a nerf when Lewis is in the corner. In recent patches I have been working on toning down the oki situation off neutral throws. Lewis still gets great oki off a throw, but a side switch is not always desirable.
• Lewis max hp reduced to 1350 (from 1400).
  
• Piledebunker damage/chip reduced to 350/75 from 400/100.
  
• Pile is a risky move but at far ranges where it is often used, the risk reward seemed to favor Lewis a little too much.
• Lewis 4A, Lewis 4C and Paulcano now have extra whiff disadvantage from an extra square away.
  
• This makes blocking a little better as a callout for these moves, even a little past round start distance
• Nick now does extra chip to Lewis. The amount depends on the attack, but it's usually 25 more chip than lewis would take from other characters
  
• Previously, Lewis and Nick's chip related passives did not stack.
• Billy's air throw is now untechable.
  
• Billy's 5T now does a wallbounce when close-ish to the corner, though the rebound is rigged to leave the opponent 1 space away each time, as before.
  
• Billy's throws have all been reduced in damage by 50 each. 5T can still do 500 with a wallbounce, otherwise "just" 450 (Still a lot).
  
• Billy's throws are really strong because of the oki situations they create. It'll be harder than ever to get up from a KD now that you can't even air tech him, so I'm reducing the reward of his throws a bit.

Visual Changes

• Characters now do unique variations of their throw when doing a back throw. Some of these are works in progress.
  
• Billy now has an alternate P2 palette for the mirror match, and moddable palettes. See our recent guide on how to make custom palettes.
  
• Manual color selection and full color sprites for Billy are coming later this summer. Your patience is appreciated as our artist is hand drawing hundreds of images.

Online and Leaderboard Improvements

• Fixed issue where sometimes the host would move to the next round before clients are ready, messing up replays and probably other things
  
• Fixed an old bug where a joining player messes up online win counts
  
• Fixed syncing of win counts to players joining an in progress match
  
• Fixed how survival high scores are submitted. If you have an old high score that isn't showing up right, launching the game should fix it automatically.
  
• Note, some of these online mode improvements have not gone through extensive testing. If you encounter issues, please press F8 any time when in game to send a bug report.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a visual bug related to blocking a meaty jab
  
• Fixed a rare issue leaving Noel in the wrong square after a blocked plant followed by a whiffed air throw
  
• You can now see the opponent's special move list in single player when you pause or show guide
  
• Fixed too-low position of the special move guide popups
  
• Fixed another rare situation where characters would face the wrong way after a side switch
  
• Fixed training menu not remembering your choices re: HP recovery and attack data if you open and close the menu
  

Full Color Sprites for Paul

• Full overhaul of every single Paul animation. This was a massive undertaking as it required finishing over 100 hand drawn sprites split into lineart and fill layers with palette swap support.
  
• Currently only the default palette is avaialble, or a special alternate palette during mirror matches. We plan to add support for maual color selection in character select later this summer.
  
• In the meantime, we've opened up Paul's character palette to modding. See the Steam Guide for documentation on how to make your own custom character colors.
  
• This is a whole new way of handling sprites in-game, so there might be some issues we haven't caught in testing. We may also continue to fine tune Paul's anims, but likely nothing drastic.
  
• The next character to get final-quality art will be Billy, we're aiming for late summer or so.
  

Balance Changes

• Paul's throw now does push, except in the tutorial. There are now only 2 characters that can do a midscreen throw loop with N+T: Lewis and Nick.
  
• Overall I'm trying to phase out midscreen frame 0 throw loops for most of the cast, and this change is consistent with that.
• Firepaul is now -20 at a distance of 2 spaces (was -10) and -10 at round start range (was +10). Beyond this distance it is still +10.
  
• Paul could noncommitally rack up a lot of chip and be at advantage if the opponent blocked his projectile at round start spacing, a really common situation. Now the opponent gets initiative at this range at the cost of some health. Racking up 150 damage in exchange for being -10 at a very safe distance is still a pretty good deal for Paul honestly.
• Lewis slide is now safe (-20) at max range, but its chip is reduced.
  
• Stand blocking at max slide distance is not the hard callout it used to be now that 5B is -20 at this range. This change is intended to make Slide more fun and less frustrating to use. Although the opponent doesn't get a free punish at max distance anymore, with 20f of point blank advantage they do get to put Lewis in a tricky spot.
• Lewis slide now hits 10f earlier vs other late moving moves (e.g. Lewis specials, Noel flurry).
  
• Lewis' slide startup depends on the spacing between him and the opponent, this is an adjustment of this calculation. Now this move will sometimes trade in situations where it would almost always lose.
• Nick now has 50 more HP to reflect how sturdy and strong he is. And to help him make maybe one more mistake or take a little more chip in executing his basic gameplan.
  
• Nick currently needs a little help balance wise as the recent 5B nerf was not great for him. He may see other buffs in the future.
• Billy's max Shiko Slam damage is now a flat 350 (was 400 at point blank, which was uncommon). The move's chip was reduced slightly to 175 (from 200).
  
• Shiko Slam is a plus on block low that does a massive amount of damage on hit or block. Billy does need it, but this is in line with recent reductions in chip damage across the board.
• Billy loses side switch protection since he has an option to chase down retreating opponents (jump C).
  
• Previously billy could not travel 2 spaces and was vulnerable to timer scams. Now he has a risky option to get back in if the opponent runs away.
• Jump C can now hit adjacent air opponents, has 5f faster startup and some character specific properties. Billy, Paul and Nick have vertically traveling jC's that don't reach as far, but do some chip and are -20 on block. Noel and Lewis have more horizontal jCs that do less chip reach a little further on the ground, and can be up to -10 when spaced. Marv still has his unique jC that is plus on block and evades N+B attacks.
  
• Previously jB was the only really consistent jump in and jC was a hard callout to get a knockdown on side switch. Now jC should be more useful in more situations.
• Jump B is now -10 when used on wakeup or if your forward movement is totally blocked.
  
• This is meant to reduce the potential reward of jumping while already in someone's face to avoid throws and "beat" blocking. jB is still +10 when used at any other spacing, which is most of the time.
• If you are more than 5 spaces away from your opponent (e.g. out of range of all normal attacks) with 10 seconds remaining, the clock will tick at half speed. This is to discourage very passive runaway play with the life lead, which theoretically could be a problem in some matchups.

New Stage

• Noel has a new (draft) stage, the Greenhouse. This was a safe haven for many exotic and endangered plants before it was ruined by Montero's thugs. The plants that survived have become twisted and overgrown.
  
• Paul mirrors now take place in the Dojo, because it's a nice looking stage.
  

Visual System Changes

• Adjusted delays and timings of attacks so that many interactions should look more natural. This is an ongoing process and there will be some things that still need to be cleaned up.
  
• The maximum height at which characters can be juggled has been reduced.
  
• Sweeps now have 5 fewer active frames across the board to look better with hitstop
  
• Total duration of some moves such as jA, jC and Firepaul have been reduced slightly by reducing the number of recovery frames. This is a cosmetic change not affecting block advantage, intended to help the flow of the game.
  
• Jerma Paul's throw now hits multiple times. This is a cosmetic change with no effect on gameplay.
  
• Paul's Paulcano dragon punch now does 2 hits. This is a cosmetic change as it does the same amount of total damage even in the rare/unlikely situation that only 1 hit lands.
  

Improved Localization into Brazillian Portuguese

• Under the hood, more menus are now ready to be translated.
  
• Community member and 10+ time tournament winner Stealph is helping translate the game into Portuguese. Paul's story mode and most of the menus are now available in pt-BR. To play in portuguese type -language=pt-BR into the Steam launch options.
  
• We still need to get the in-game text boxes and tutorials ready for translation and that will come in a later update, hopefully this summer. When the game is more or less fully translated, we will make the localization option easier to get to in-game.
  

Miscellaneous Changes and Fixes

• Further optimized the game by packing menu and stage images into atlases to improve filesize and loading times. The filesize went DOWN in this patch to 740MB (from 830MB) despite the many new Paul sprites.
  
• Better console logging during F8 bug reports
  
• jC will no longer play the "switch" animation if the game detects that you will be hit out of it.
  
• The online lobby can detect certain kinds of disconnects better and will respond accordingly, preventing "ghost" players from staying in a match in rare instances.
  
• The Versus screen pops in sooner after character select.
  
• Paulcano is now listed in the training menu as 5f to match its actual startup (it previously said 1f). No gameplay or visual difference here as it is still fully invincible on startup
  
• Revised the wording of the "Different Types of Throws" mission
  
• Fixed bug where you could change characters during the versus screen popup
  
• Fixed a bug where jB was -20 on whiff at some spacings
  
• Fixed a bug where sometimes you get the wrong Tutorial mode opponent
  
• The tutorial mode opponent now lets you hit him in situations where he used to block.