Mega Knockdown News

Difficulty Adjustments

• Easy (and to a lesser extent Normal) CPU players will use Neutral+Throw less often at close range. Hard AI has not changed.
  
• N+Throw is a powerful close range option that many new players don't often know the answer to, especially if they skip the tutorial, and the AI would use it a lot, to the extent that the AI can do midscreen throw loops on a new player. This change should make Easy difficulty easier, and Normal difficulty slightly easier.

UI Adjustments

• In Tutorial mode, you can now see which lesson number you are on at the top.
  
• The win/stage number text now has a slight outline.
  
• Fixed the kerning of the "ARCADE" text in the main menu.
  
• In the options and main menu, switching between mouse and keyboard controls will no longer appear to highlight 2 different options.
  

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If you ever encounter a bug in-game, or you just have some feedback for the dev team, simply press F8 in-game to send us a message directly.

Expanded Controller Support

• Third party controllers boards using the Brook Universal Fighting Board PCB, such as the Snackbox Mini, should now work properly in their default configuration. Previously they had issues because they were recognized by the input plugin as an "Unknown Controller," and the "Unknown Controller" template was not set up correctly.
  
• The game is now using the most recent version of the Rewired input plugin.
  
• Your saved key/button bindings have been reset. Sorry!
  
• Thanks to Exalchion of Junk Food Arcade for testing this change on their Snackbox controllers, and to community member Sente for testing this change on several sticks and pads at their local.
  

Localization

• Some menus have been set up for future localization into other languages.
  
• Community member Andrew Mirror has translated the Main Menu, Arcade Menu and Lesson Select Menus into Russian. Everything else is in english still. To access this partial translation, enter -language=ru into your command line settings.
  
• If you want to assist with translating the game, join the Mega Knockdown Discord (link below).
  

User Experience

• If a player does not make it 3/4 of the way through the tutorial, the game will default to Easy difficulty. You can still change it as you like. The game already did this for players who did no tutorial lessons at all, but this will help out those players who try out the first few lessons, then jump straight into arcade just to get thrown in the trash by the Normal AI.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed air throw displaying a hitbox if it whiffs at max travel distance. Air throw doesn't actually reach that far.
  
• Hard AI will no longer do a couple "dumb" options in specific situations.
  
• Clicking the "reset defaults" button in the rebinding settings with a mouse will now reset your gamepad and keyboard bindings, rather than your keyboard bindings only.
  
• Fixed special move prompts appearing when you hold Guide when the rebinding menu is active.
  
• Fixed Paul's throw not making the right sound effect in the tutorial
  

Options Menu Updates

• The options menu has an updated appearance and has been overhauled under the hood to behave more similarly to the Main Menu. This is not the final Options Menu, but this version is a lot more modular and will allow me to add more settings much more easily.
  
• Pressing the Fullscreen button will only toggle the setting once you close the menu.
  
• If you are running on a non standard aspect ratio, the game will let you know in the Graphics settings
  
• You can now set the difficulty in the Options menu, in addition to the slider in the Arcade menu.
  
• There are new options available in the Options menu. You can now turn off grid lines entirely, or disable replay autosaving.
  
• There is a new category for Gameplay settings. The Mouse menu can now be turned on or off in this category instead of Graphics.
  
• You can now access the Controller Debug menu from the Options menu instead of pressing a secret button in the main menu. This lets you manually adjust the assignment of controllers to players (although navigating the main menu with a controller will still auto assign it to player 1). The game's intelligent auto assignment is good enough for most purposes, but for everything else, you can try the debug menu.
  

Other UI Improvements

• You can now scroll through replay files with a mouse in the replay browser.
  
• Adjusted the Hint and Goal panels in the tutorial to not cover Paul's face at round start. The text in these menus will wrap now. This is not the final tutorial UI, we're planning some further overhauls of these in the future.
  

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These issues were identified with the assistance of community members on the Mega Knockdown Discord. If you ever encounter a bug in-game, or you just have some feedback for the dev team, simply press F8 in-game to send us a message directly.

Online Lobby Improvements (Experimental)

• In an online match, you can now see the total number of wins for each player during the current set, up to the rematch limit.
  
• Once the rematch limit has been reached, the loser will go to the back of the line (if applicable) and the win counters will reset.
  
• Returning to lobby no longer resets the match win count or sends you to the back of the line.
  
• Spectators will now auto-ready after a short delay when players return to the lobby, or the queue order changes, instead of instantly every time the queue changes. This is to prevent an issue where a player would be incorrectly recorded as readied-up if the player ahead of them passed their turn.
  
• Spectators will no longer un-ready when someone disconnects. They can still manually un-ready if they want to.
  
• Note: Some of these changes will need some live testing and may get rolled back.

Minor Changes & Bug Fixes

• Fixed input display appearing during cutscenes
  
• Fixed inconsistent recording of the Survival achievement
  
• Fixed asterisk annotations showing up at incorrect times in the Training mode panel
  
• Fixed word wrapping in Character Select for some resolutions/aspect ratios
  
• You may now select your monitor's native resolution in the options menu, if it was not listed before.
  
• Fixed some inconsistent behavior when changing the resolution.
  
• In training mode, you can now see Player 2's command list in addition to your own.
  
• Player 1's archetype tag now appears in single player character select.
  

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These issues were identified with the assistance of community members on the Mega Knockdown Discord. If you ever encounter a bug in-game, or you just have some feedback for the dev team, simply press F8 in-game to send us a message directly.

This patch represents a continuation of our efforts to improve the visuals of the game, and some helpful improvements on the technical side. About one year ago we started collaborating with an illustrator, and the game has come a very long way since then.

Updated Visuals For Billy

• Nearly all of Billy's animations have been upgraded with more finished sprites as part of our ongoing efforts to improve the game's art.
  
• Billy has a redesigned air throw that slams the opponent into the ground. His air throw no longer causes push, so the opponent is left knocked down and adjacent to Billy. Jerma Billy also has a new air throw animation.
  
• The "fling" at the end of Billy's ground throws no longer shows a hitspark or generates hitstop, and sounds more like a fling than a hit. It still technically does damage.
  
• Many of Billy's sprite pivot positions have been adjusted to be in line with other characters. He will appear slightly taller as a result.
  
• Billy's normal ground throw brings the opponent lower while he breaks them over his knee.
  
• The hitspark for Billy's normal ground throw is now lower so it does not obscure his face.
  

Training Mode Improvements

• You can now reset training mode to a corner position (hold forward or back while pressing restart in training)
  
• You can now change the AI difficulty in training mode
  
• The default dummy behavior is now repeat custom, with "Dummy" as the action.
  
• In training mode the AI can now do "Dummy" + a direction to walk without blocking or attacking, or "Dummy" + jump to jump in place without attacking. "Dummy" + "Neutral" is the training dummy's default state (dummy stands and doesn't block).
  

Performance Improvements

• Cleaned up several old and unused sprites from the sprite atlas, freeing up ~100MB of size from the game's install footprint. This should speed up load times and reduce memory usage.
  

Balance and System Changes

• If a player is combo'd into Noel's vine and they are too close to be damaged by the vine, they now take an extra 100 damage (as opposed to 300 for a direct hit).
  
• Marv Vapor Strike can now be damaged by a vine at the right spacing.
  
• If Marv uses Tornado Blitz on wakeup, it can now hit two spaces in front of Marv, to match the animation. This change applies to Jerma Marv too.
  

New Stage: Sensei Bob's Dojo

• Shotokan Artist Paul earned his yellow belt in karate from Sensei Bob in this quiet strip-mall dojo. It is now the game's training and tutorial mode stage, replacing the desert.
  
• All stage grid lines are now more transparent when the square is unoccupied, they are down to 15% opacity (previously 35%). This is so that they will not clash as much the art of our hand drawn backgrounds.
  

Other Changes

• Paulcano now appears to travel a shorter distance horizontally. Its range is unchanged.
  
• The Reset button has been removed. This was an alpha feature that would let you keep playing if you encountered a softlock. Frankly it hasn't been needed for awhile. You can now bind stuff to the "B" and "V" keys, if you want.
  
• Updated some text in Noel and Marv's command lists to align with the characters' new art.
  
• BLAZING SALT, the character select theme, has been added to the soundtrack, for those who own it.
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where Noel's fighting flurry would do no damage if a vine absorbed a fireball on the same turn.
  
• Fixed an issue involving switching training dummy states during a punish. Now the dummy cancels their punish in this situation.
  
• Fixed some odd visuals related to delay and fireballs
  
• Fixed an issue where the wrong category of controls would sometimes appear in the rebinding menu
  
• Fixed some inconsistent pushing behavior for moves like Fist of Euphoria and Fightning Flail
  
• Fixed issue where lewis would appear to teleport if he uses his slide on wakeup and is hit out of it
  
• Fixed wrong command sometimes showing up for Blazing Ent in the command list and other places
  
• Fixed an rare bug involving certain side switching moves behaving oddly during a trade
  
• Adjusted position of guide text in character select to be more consistent at different resolutions
  
• Fixed issue where character archetype labels in character select would sometimes be cut off on the Steam Deck
  
• Removed a blue stripe on the main menu at the Steam Deck's default aspect ratio
  
• Fixed issue involving online replays that would occur if a player handle contained a period
  
• Fixed issue involving hitsparks getting knocked out of place by some moves.
  

We've overhauled the look of hit impacts, added some polish to the HUD, and made some adjustments to both the competitive balance and the new player experience.

New Hit and Block Effects

• Attacks now have hitstop. (When an attack hits or is blocked, both players now 'freeze' for a few frames to emphasize the impact. Projectiles only 'freeze' the recipient.)
  
• When a player is hit by an attack, a hitspark particle effect is displayed. Bigger hits cause larger hitsparks.
  
• Blocking an attack also generates sparks. Block sparks look different depending on the frame data of the blocked attack. Blocking a slightly minus attack causes a small spark, blocking a punishable attack causes an exaggerated spark shower. Blocking "plus" attacks creates yellow-tinged sparks, to indicate that the blocker is now at a disadvantage.
  
• Teching a throw also causes a unique spark effect.
  

Difficulty Rebalance

• The AI will now be less difficult at lower difficulty levels. It will make more mistakes, and sometimes stand still when you're playing on Easy.
  
• Mega Knockdown's AI is quite aggressive compared to most fighting games (except at their harder difficulties), and will quickly KO you for making a mistake. Many new players ignore what used to be the primary upside of Easy and Normal, which is that you get information about the opponent's next move. Now the AI will sometimes back off or do something sub-optimal, giving the player some room to experiment and learn. On Hard, we didn't make any changes to the AI, so it will still try to ruin your day.
• Reduced the Easy mode HP bonus from 300 to 100 to account for the easier AI.
  
• Difficulty is now displayed next to the current stage in Arcade mode
  

Balance Changes

• PileDebunker and Fist of Euphoria are now -20 instead of -10 if they whiff just outside of range. Paulcano is now -20 if it whiffs just outside of its unsafe range.
  
• You still need to block to take advantage of this situation on defense. If you whiff a -10 move versus a -20 move, the difference is 'fuzzed out' and you will both return to neutral.
  
• Marv's Blazing Ent is now performed with Forward + B instead of Neutral + B. Previously he did not have a standard Neutral + B, which left him without a noncommital oki or space control option at range 2. This change should round out Marv's suite of zoning options.
  
• Marv's Blazing Ent does 50 more chip damage (now 150) to discourage players from simply walking and blocking into close range every time.
  
• Marv's Gravity Spike (J+A) does 50 damage (now 250) to make it more rewarding to land.
  
• Fightning Flurry now does 150 base damage + 100 if the follow up hits land, at any range. It used to do 200 to 250 damage, single hit, depending on range. This adjustment, which utilizes the new multi-hit system, makes Flail less rewarding on trade and (usually) more rewarding on hit.
  

Improved Mouse Menu and HUD

• The mouse controls menu has a new layout designed by artist Alan McMillian.
  
• Fixed mouse menu buttons lighting up at inappropriate times
  
• The mouse menu should no longer come up if you click the out-of-focus game window to focus the game.
  
• Increased minimum size of input display bar so that it usually stays the same size.
  

New Music & Audio Changes

• There is a new Character Select theme: BLAZING SALT by Nabil Anthony (Nabooli)
  
• Implemented a new music system that allows looping segments of songs.
  
• Fixed the "tech" sound effect sometimes not playing in sync with the visuals.
  

Bug Fixes

• PileDebunker no longer causes the opponent to teleport on hit.
  
• Fixed blocking characters appearing to shrink slightly while entering a block animation
  
• Fixed Paul's idle sprite sometimes flashing in place of Jerma when Jerma skins are enabled
  
• Fixed some parsing issues with names in replays
  
• Potentially fixed an issue where the arcade stage would sometimes not reset after winning arcade mode
  

Combat System Visual Adjustments

• If you win the round on a combo starter, it will no longer continue into a combo. If you win mid-combo, you'll finish the combo normally.
  
• Reduced delay on anti air moves so they hit further off the ground
  
• Attack animations have been adjusted to have better synergy with hitstop (usually by reducing the number of 'active frames').
  
• When a player blocks, they no longer take on a green tint.
  

Stage Changes

• Each stage's grid lines are now lighter/less opaque.
  
• Lewis' new draft stage shows up when player 2 is using the hand drawn art style, and the old stage shows up if using jermas. Removed the debug key binding that would toggle this stage aesthetic. Eventually both will be directly selectable in the character select menu.
  

Other changes

• You can now select a random character in online multiplayer.
  
• If you lose in arcade mode and rematch, it won't replay the story scene. If you want, you can play it again by going back to character select.
  
• The Soundtrack's regional price has been adjusted to Valve's recommendations. This has resulted in a price increase for some currencies.
  
• Fixed Flaskin displaying her old name in the character bio screen
  
• Adjusted listed archetypes in character bios for consistency
  
• Optimized some scripts that handle scene changes. This might reduce load times slightly.
  
• The demo has been updated with current changes.