1. Rivals of Aether II
  2. News

Rivals of Aether II News

Launch Week Madness Patch Notes (v11794)

It's been just under a week since launch and we've been hard at work keeping things rolling with the huge influx of players. This is our first patch that's a little larger than a quick hotfix so we thought we'd list out some proper notes. We've been happily following your feedback on our nolt board, socials, and anywhere else people have been shouting about Rivals on the internet - so don't be afraid to tell us what you think.

You'll see a lot of fixes people have asked for already on here, and we've got even more on our roadmap. We are also VERY aware of feature requests like tutorials, and are actively working towards them. This was something we knew going into launch that we'd definitely want, but simply couldn't fit in with our budget and resources before release. With that in mind we are working on cooking up content and features for new players.

It's touching to see this being one of the most submitted feedbacks, since it's clear what everyone wants is for more people to love the game and be able to get into it as much as themselves. While we work on tutorials and other features, keep doing your part by being welcoming to new players, and giving them a chance to see how awesome our community is. More players = more games and a win win all around!



Patch Notes


[h2]UI, Controls, and Other Polish[/h2]
  • Ranked now has blind character select, meaning you'll only see your own character selection until all players are readied up and the match is proceeding to stage select.
    • Per popular request. Prevents game 1 counterpick shenanigans.
  • Stage Select now shows each player's character choice along the bottom.
    • We couldn't bother to remember that from 5 seconds ago either.
  • Added a sound effect for when a match is found during matchmaking.

  • The store now refreshes after a purchase so new currency & items are present immediately.
  • Added mouse-click functionality to some main menu UI buttons that were missing them.
  • Added loading spinner after purchases to safeguard against duplicate purchases.
  • Added "Confirm Email Address" prompt during account creation.

  • FFA now always selects a random stage and skips stage select.
  • Casual Singles no longer has stage bans. Instead the loser picks stage for game 2 & 3 from the full set of 10 stages.
    • Changed based on good feedback from a lot of players that striking and bans just wasn't something they were interested in for casual matches.
  • Can no longer quit back to CSS in Casual Singles/Doubles/FFA.
    • Players now properly suffer the consequences of their actions.
  • Ranno bubble achievement damage requirement adjusted.
    • While this achievement was possible to do, we thought it was unintentionally much too hard. If you got it before today you are Ahead of the Curve!
  • Added Target Test music.
  • Capped replay storage at 128 replays, if you have more than 128 replays older replays will be deleted as new replays are added.
    • Replay file size is not negligible, so we've implemented this system so the game doesn't eat up all of your storage space. If you would like to save additional replays manually, you can copy replay files from "%localappdata%/Rivals2/Saved/Replays".


  • Store bundles and item previews now include Item Type.
  • Removed placeholder "default guy" icons from featured store display when the store is loading.
    • RIP "default guy".
  • Returning to the main menu now puts you on the expected main menu tab based on where you're coming from.
  • Better currency formatting across regions.
    • Decimal markers are now more worldly and stuff like that.


[h3]A Note on Regional Pricing[/h3]
There's a short note on currency formatting above, so we wanted to also share a little bit of our thoughts on regional pricing in these notes. The people at Aether Studios and Offbrand games all really believe in fair regional pricing. We understand it's not as simple as making it for sale in another region at the usual exchange rate, because those rates often don't reflect the reality of purchasing power around the world.

When Rivals II launched, we had regional pricing set up for the game purchase itself, but our in-game bundles/other purchases weren't reflecting our currency rates for non-US regions. We are very pleased to say we worked hard to get this in ASAP and updated it in the game about one day after launch. If you're noticing that prices are lower in your region now and you did make a purchase in-game day 1, please open up a ticket on our discord and we can help get you the difference in Aether Bucks so you're getting a fair price.

Bugfixes


  • Added a fix for side taunts not working.
  • Save / load state sound effects should no longer play when they shouldn't.
  • Fixed an alignment issue with right player display on versus screen.
  • Added a bugfix for a Forsburn Clone SD issue.
  • Fixed a rare version check crash.
  • "Match Cancelled" / "Match Forfeit" messsages should properly display after being sent back to the main menu to help provide context on why you're no longer on the server.
  • Players should no longer get stuck in a ranked lobby if the other player connected & disconnected while in the "Players Joining" phase. If not all players are present at the end of the "Players Joining" phase the match will be cancelled properly.
  • Local tourney mode no longer shows incorrect button prompt glyphs.
  • Fixed a bug that caused issues in the local tourney mode menu after going back to the character select screen from Stage Select or by Quitting.
  • Implemented fix for Casual FFA hanging on initial ready up.


What's Next

Our first event is coming up soon! These are monthly progression tracks with free unlockables plus a new themed bundle each month. Stay tuned for more info on that soon.

RIVALS OF AETHER II IS OUT NOW

Rivals of Aether II is OUT NOW! We're extremely excited for launch after 4 years of hard work. This last year has been an amazing development journey as we held beta weekends and gathered player feedback. Now after months of limited play periods, and your help making us one of the top games of Steam Next Fest, Rivals II is finally in your hands! Servers are up and it's time to get battling.

https://youtu.be/83cu7cs5aM0

What's Next


If you haven't been following along, we want to share that this game is planned to be a long term project. One we keep updating and balancing for years to come just like the original Rivals of Aether.

Our plan is for all future gameplay content to be free (like characters and modes) and to support development with optional cosmetics only. No grinding for characters. You can learn more about our approach in our Deep Dive Series on YouTube, and also a peek at what's on the horizon with our roadmap.




New Player Resources


If you're just getting into the game, welcome! Make sure to stop by our discord and check out our tutorial article that offers tons of resources to get started with any character or skill level.

We've also just released a new video series today aimed at beginners that covers each character's basics. You can view them all over on our YouTube.




Feedback, Bugs, and Suggestions

We're always taking suggestions and making improvements to the game. If you'd like to give us your feedback, we have a suggestion board that's live over at: https://rivals-of-aether-ii-launch.nolt.io/

We try our best to respond directly there. We've also got a very active discord that's a great place to chat with other players. Our discord is the best place to report bugs. The devs are there too and we have a ticket system in place where you can log an issue and hear back from us on a fix! Make sure to use this if you need help, since it's the best way to ensure we've seen your problem.



Patch Notes


While we were hard at work during Next Fest making sure things went going smoothly we also made some small balance changes to the game. This article includes just a few patch notes for brevity's sake, but you can view the full notes on our website. Expect future patch to be available on Steam and designed to be more digestible.



  • Players now receive coins as they gain XP, allowing additional Aether Coins to be earned outside of character levels and event progression.
    • We want to make sure players are getting enough coins, so we're adding a new way to earn coins via XP and keeping an eye on these values. Reminder: Events also give players coins and our first event doesn't start until November. Keep in mind the normal rate you earn coins at will be higher once our final system for earning them is live.


  • Tap jump joystick threshold lowered while dashing/running.
    • This allows you to tap jump with full forward momentum.


  • Landing after being launched downward will no longer cut your hitstun in half.
    • Previously, spiking aerial opponents would often end up leaving the attacker disadvantaged. This change should make aerial spikes feel much better to land.


  • You will no longer incur 25% extra hitstun when spiked off the ground.
    • The reward for landing a grounded spike was disproportionate to how easy it was to find, often leading into a charged strong attack at low kill percents.


  • Early-knockback gravity reduction frames are now dependent on the character’s hitstun gravity instead of always being 5 frames.
    • This means floaties will reach full gravity faster, while fastfallers will take longer to reach full gravity. It’s a very small change, but the goal is to make floaty characters slightly more susceptible to being comboed while also helping fastfallers not get juggled quite as bad.


  • Shield DI can no longer cause you to leave a platform.
    • This removes the ability to shield DI a recovery move at ledge to automatically ledgehog it.


  • If all four players are on the same team when readying up on the character select screen, then they will be assigned random teams.
    • There will be an actual “Randomize Teams” setting for this eventually once we have a more fleshed out match settings menu, but this workaround will allow players to randomize teams for now.


Known Issues


We're also watching a few known issues from the Next Fest demo last week. We don't have a fix yet, but wanted to make people aware that we are tracking Steam Deck lobby issues and controller/mouse and keyboard support issues to address. If you encounter any bugs, please report them and let us know over in our official Discord.

Thanks for supporting us and checking out the game!

Halloween Bundle

Our first seasonal bundle is here! Clairen, Ranno, and Zetterburn show off their spooky best with some of our first cosmetics in Rivals II with our Halloween Bundle.



This bundle features 3 skins with all new looks and visual effects, 3 new icons, 1 emote, plus Aether Coins and Bucks! You can purchase this bundle through the in-game store. Includes:

  • Slasher Clairen skin (Epic) + Slasher Clairen Icon (Epic)
  • Vampire Zetterburn skin (Rare) + Vampire Zetterburn Icon (Rare)
  • Black Widow Ranno skin (Rare) + Black Widow Ranno Icon (Rare)
  • Slasher Clairen Emote
  • 25,000 Aether Coins
  • 250 Aether Bucks








If you haven't been following along with the project before today, we want to share that this game is planned to be a long term project. One we keep updating and balancing for years to come just like the original Rivals of Aether.

Our plan is for all future gameplay content to be free (like characters and modes) and to support development with optional cosmetics only. No grinding for characters. You can learn more about our approach in our Deep Dive Series on YouTube.

We hope you enjoy the launch day for Rivals of Aether II!

Watch the Champion of the Beta during Next Fest!

Watch the champion of the Beta stream during next fest!