Mega Knockdown News

This update adds a lot more "juice" to hit impacts. By that I mean I've put in more effects and adjusted some animations to enhance the visceral feel you get from hitting and getting hit. Our artist Alan has been asking for some of these changes for a long time, and after EVO I got some good feedback from noted juice enthusiast Adam Heart on how to improve impacts and animation pacing.

New Hit Effects

• Particle systems have been fully overhauled, they're no longer blocky and now more translucent (thanks to "additive" shaders). Certain really big hits have screen filling particle effects.
  
• Hits now have a bit of screenshake. Moves with more damage, push or knockdown properties will shake the screen more. You can turn this off in the options if it makes you motion sick.
  
• Big hits now have 2f more hitstop than before
  
• Strife mode has even dumber and more distracting zoom-ins than before
  

New Move For Maria: House Call

• Maria gains a new special on Back+A called House Call. It's a knee bash that sends her forward a square, letting her stay on opponents and keep the pressure in neutral or during oki. It's similar to Advance Base, but a bit faster, and it doesn't get bonus range vs other "late moving" specials, unlike other moves with this property. We think this will give her more interesting options up-close.
  

Animation Pacing

• Some animation timings have been made "snappier" from anticipation to active frames to enhance the feeling of violence and impact. Marv Vapor Strike and Blazing Ent, Billy B/C, Paul B/C, Nils B/C, Nils Advance Base are among those affected.
  

Fireball Wars

• Paul's fireball now travels more quickly and he spends less time in the animation. This by itself does not affect gameplay. However...
  
• You are no longer guaranteed a fireball clash if both players throw a fireball or other projectile. Fireballs no longer clash at point blank (ever), and if you are minus, you will get hit by a fireball unless you're far enough away. If the fireball would reach you before you get your own fireball out, you're getting hit. Nils is a little better at clashing when minus, but Paul has to be pretty far away for this to happen.
  
• Specifically, if you're -20, you'll get hit by the opponent's projectile regardless of spacing. If Paul is -10 he can clash a fireball from 5 spaces away. If Nils is -10 he can clash a fireball from 3 or more spaces away. Nils Natural Light will beat any other projectile if he's +10 and close enough to land it.
  
• If Natural Light clashes with a fireball, Nils will be +10 or +20 depending on how plus or minus he was before... but he won't have charge. Tricky!
  

Other

• Nils Advance Base now has an anti-air square and deals some chip. We think this will make it more useful for more than just the utility of moving forward on the ground while keeping charge.
  
• Nick's Faith Smasher now deals 25 extra damage to religious fundamenalists (sorry Nils).
  
• Touched up some sprites in Billy's A/B combo to fix the fill layer bleeding out past the lines in parts
  
• Updated some text fields that broke in certain languages
  
• Tengoku Chaos Dunk added to Billy's movelist. It was already in the game, but unlisted.
  
• Fixed an issue causing fireball clashes to trigger visually when they were not supposed to in the Paul v Noel matchup
  
• Fixed some timing issues involving jumping over fireballs
  
• Fixed hitstop on player 2 side not being right sometimes
  
• Natural Light will now more consistently clash with vine
  
• Noel has a new loser quote vs Nick now
  
• Maria jC does chip now
  
• Translations have been updated. We're now more or less caught up in terms of japanese and spanish translation. Portuguese is missing Maria's story mode, that will come in a future update.
  

Sign up here: https://challonge.com/tournaments/signup/33jXN7snmR#/signup/rsrg89zd8

The Mega Knockdown League is a friendly online competition that can be played at your own pace. Free to enter. No region restriction. Players must be on the Mega Knockdown Discord to receive communciations.

League play starts 7PM eastern USA time on August 8. You may play your matches on a flexible schedule over the course of a week, and I will accept late joiners for 24 hours after the event starts.

Prize: First place gets a minimum of $100 USD via Matcherino. The total prize is split 60/30/10, meaning there is a minimum prize of $50/$17 for 2nd and 3rd place.

Format: Round Robin. Participants will be divided into groups. Once the tournament begins, you will have roughly 1 week to play a match with everyone else in their group. Matches will be played over the in game Lobbies. The top 2 players of each group by Match Wins will enter into a finals bracket. The winner of the finals bracket will win the league.

Disqualification: If a scheduled match is not played by the end of the month, it is either a draw or a win, according to TO's discretion. It is understood that some player matchups may not be possible due to scheduling and time zones.

Tournament Rules

• Best 3 out of 5 games per match.
  
• Winner of prior game must keep same character
  
• Loser of prior game may switch character
  
• "Standard" time setting (15 second timer)
  
• Players must be on the Mega Knockdown Discord to receive communciations.