Era of Combat: Boxing News

- Networking rehash - this isn't obvious right away but took 98% of the time. It allows faster development moving forward

- Faster disconnection detection with options to return to home gym after disconnect using controller button press - there still might be instances of getting stranded, so if you find them, drop me a note with the context and I'll patch it up and get it back to you

- Voice chat for AppLab and in crossplay matches - you need to enable it in game AND, on your Quest2/3 headset you MUST enable you mic either during game installation or by going to the app settings in your Quest hardware menu and toggling to ON. Meta is pretty strict about this and devs cannot force it on from in game. It's a good idea really, but means a bit more work for you.

- Regional lobbies for crossplay: Quest players can now select to use the best region based on ping when hosting. NOTE: when a player is trying to join your lobby, they will NOT see it unless they select the same region as you list your lobby in. This will drastically improve the ping for AppLab players in the same region (IE Japan).

- Quickmatch and Invite a friend options have been removed from AppLab. I found that wireless connectivity issues plaguing the Quest2 really interfered with these modes. I'll probably add them back in down the road, but functionally, lobbies seemed to be more popular anyway (and much more stable).

Crossplay Lobbies & Observers!

- THANK YOU for your patience while we released the Quest2 Version of EOC!

Crossplay is NOW available between Steam and Quest2 players! Also, Steam players may now OBSERVE crossplay matches!

- We'll be back to regular content releases now that the crossplay work has been completed and the Quest2 version is live.

This update contains significant network updates including the larger part of the infrastructure needed to support crossplay with the standalone Quest2 platform. Note that the Quest2 standalone version is about 85% complete at this point. I have also completed the new/updated scheduling server and am working on the crossplay server at the same time as I work on the Quest2 version. Lots of new players coming into the game, not sure what is driving that influx, but it's exciting! Thank you all for your patience and support!

- Close lobbies that do not allow observers and already have a competitor (ie. no room to join)
- Disable with a reminder, the ability to join/create a lobby using the regular guest/host method for scheduled match hosts and guests to limit confusion about how to join (using the big new button). Just during the scheduled match start time of course.
- Crowd dynamics and venue structure optimizations to save framerates in large venues
- All venue load times reduced drastically!

The Match Scheduling Web Portal is it's own system, and contains the following features for players:

- View your upcoming match schedule from anywhere you can reach a web browser:
- Withdraw from these matches
- Create new matches requesting a competitor
- Accept new matches that have been listed
- Get email reminders one hour before matches
- Get email notifications when someone joins/withdraws from your match

*If you already signed up you do not need to again.

How to use it?
- Head into the game and the Match Scheduling section on the wall menu (big chalkboard)
- Enter your PvP alias if you have not yet done so
- Click on the Web portal
- Enter an email and a password for the web portal
- Choose to receive email reminders or not
- Submit the info and wait for a validation email (check your junkmail and spam filters because it could end up there)
- If you don't get the email within ten minutes or so you can resubmit your details which will generate another validation email for you, same process to change your email or password
- Click the link in the welcome email which validates your email address
- The link also takes you to the match scheduling portal where you can login after validation
- Log in!

Notes: The service can be slow. Please be patient with it, and as more people start using web scheduling I'll upgrade the service hardware so it will run faster. Often the requests are instant, but sometimes they hang for 5-15 seconds depending on how bogged down the system is. But you never need to spam click, doing that resets your button presses and you'll have to wait longer. So one click does the trick and leads to better results 🙂

As always, please let me know whenever something seems off and I'll look into it as soon as possible. As with all things game dev, expect hiccups as the service matures. Very best to you all!