Robot Roller-Derby Disco Dodgeball News

Update 8.1 is finally out and ready to play!

The biggest addition is more than 50 items, many of which were created by players in the workshop:



This includes a brand new category of cosmetic item: ball reskins!



Additionally a ton of improvements and fixes were made. The game will look better and play more smoothly than ever. Download the update and check out all the changes!


Misc option added to enable / disable custom ball skins
Added link to official Discord server (Community / Discord Lobby)
Added new Misc option: Show Online Chat (on, off, or ‘default only’ like kudos, gg)
Players are announced when they join the room
Added safe mode & safe preset (all video settings off or as low as possible). Hit spacebar within 2 seconds of main menu launching to activate. Will show ‘Safe Mode Activated”. Good if you’re having technical issues or need to enter photosensitive mode
The Kudos key can be used to thank the player who assisted your last KO
Audio lowpass filter added to music while in spawn area, to make it seem like you’re standing outside a dance club

Many changes to ‘pool’ objects like player bots and explosions to reduce any stutter when players explode or respawn
Materials are smartly cached, shared, and re-used to increase overall performance
Better performance around powerup pickup spawning / collect
Fixed physics bug that was reducing effective framerate while moving & looking around, so players at > 120 fps will now have a dramatically smoother experience
Networked player movement is now much smoother
Dramatically improved performance of Aquarium level
Increased network message send rate for smoother movement and less lag for throws and KOs
Dodgeball physics are interpolated, meaning their movement is no longer capped at 120 fps and is overall less jumpy

Improved performance and appearance of ‘stun’ spark gibs
Added glowing rim around ball when it’s available to collect / catch
Improved ball visibility
New bot explode gibs FX
Death Spiral updates to match player color
Improved LightBike effect
Improved BlueFire effect
Improved Energy Shot effect
Improved box explosion effects
Made arena lighting more consistent
Default items show an icon in garage panel

Prevented BBCode from being used in text chat (could be used for spoofing)
Removed extreme reflection glare in Reactor
Room Info button stays enabled after selecting a room and going back to the match search panel
Fixed back button on Workshop Dashboard bringing you to wrong options menu
Renamed Mouth category to Face
Rearranged customization category list
Removed mid-match level up notification
Added more AI pathways in Nexus into center pit
Default spawn shield duration increased from 3 sec to 4 sec
Video Replay quality defaults to ‘Off’ in the Low and Medium presets
Photosensitive preset also lowers brightness
Video Preset value will only change to ‘custom’ if you change a video setting that is determined by the preset
Fixed missing volumetric lights in Trifecta
Fixed typo: “Vote Passsed”
Rearranged 'Workshop' menu button under new 'Community' button, containing Follow / Forums / Discord link buttons as well
Fixed custom songs (from workshop or custom folder) not playing twice - and if your playlist consisted of only custom songs, having it very rapidly switch lighting programs
Light animations now work during custom songs
Fixed an increasingly CPU-taxing loop from occuring when consecutively playing many custom songs
Music player handles ‘all songs disabled’ situation better - doesn’t try to play a new song every udpate. And enabling one song will begin playback again
Remoted unused Trophy category from inventory panel
Thrown balls have a bit of angular velocity
Added more ceiling lights to Nexus
Held dodgeballs are always at normal size, even if you have the big ball powerup
Stopped Arcade from replace completed missions between levels, which was creating the impression that completed missions weren’t getting completion credit
Fixed bug where ending an Arcade match in a level without getting any kills wasn’t giving any credit for Arcade levels completed
Renamed ‘Force Drop’ mission to ‘Disarm KO’
Arcade boss shows ‘Stunned’ text when stunned
Fixed Quick Play matches having blank match settings menu

Update 8.1 is finally out and ready to play!

The biggest addition is more than 50 items, many of which were created by players in the workshop:



This includes a brand new category of cosmetic item: ball reskins!



Additionally a ton of improvements and fixes were made. The game will look better and play more smoothly than ever. Download the update and check out all the changes!


Misc option added to enable / disable custom ball skins
Added link to official Discord server (Community / Discord Lobby)
Added new Misc option: Show Online Chat (on, off, or ‘default only’ like kudos, gg)
Players are announced when they join the room
Added safe mode & safe preset (all video settings off or as low as possible). Hit spacebar within 2 seconds of main menu launching to activate. Will show ‘Safe Mode Activated”. Good if you’re having technical issues or need to enter photosensitive mode
The Kudos key can be used to thank the player who assisted your last KO
Audio lowpass filter added to music while in spawn area, to make it seem like you’re standing outside a dance club

Many changes to ‘pool’ objects like player bots and explosions to reduce any stutter when players explode or respawn
Materials are smartly cached, shared, and re-used to increase overall performance
Better performance around powerup pickup spawning / collect
Fixed physics bug that was reducing effective framerate while moving & looking around, so players at > 120 fps will now have a dramatically smoother experience
Networked player movement is now much smoother
Dramatically improved performance of Aquarium level
Increased network message send rate for smoother movement and less lag for throws and KOs
Dodgeball physics are interpolated, meaning their movement is no longer capped at 120 fps and is overall less jumpy

Improved performance and appearance of ‘stun’ spark gibs
Added glowing rim around ball when it’s available to collect / catch
Improved ball visibility
New bot explode gibs FX
Death Spiral updates to match player color
Improved LightBike effect
Improved BlueFire effect
Improved Energy Shot effect
Improved box explosion effects
Made arena lighting more consistent
Default items show an icon in garage panel

Prevented BBCode from being used in text chat (could be used for spoofing)
Removed extreme reflection glare in Reactor
Room Info button stays enabled after selecting a room and going back to the match search panel
Fixed back button on Workshop Dashboard bringing you to wrong options menu
Renamed Mouth category to Face
Rearranged customization category list
Removed mid-match level up notification
Added more AI pathways in Nexus into center pit
Default spawn shield duration increased from 3 sec to 4 sec
Video Replay quality defaults to ‘Off’ in the Low and Medium presets
Photosensitive preset also lowers brightness
Video Preset value will only change to ‘custom’ if you change a video setting that is determined by the preset
Fixed missing volumetric lights in Trifecta
Fixed typo: “Vote Passsed”
Rearranged 'Workshop' menu button under new 'Community' button, containing Follow / Forums / Discord link buttons as well
Fixed custom songs (from workshop or custom folder) not playing twice - and if your playlist consisted of only custom songs, having it very rapidly switch lighting programs
Light animations now work during custom songs
Fixed an increasingly CPU-taxing loop from occuring when consecutively playing many custom songs
Music player handles ‘all songs disabled’ situation better - doesn’t try to play a new song every udpate. And enabling one song will begin playback again
Remoted unused Trophy category from inventory panel
Thrown balls have a bit of angular velocity
Added more ceiling lights to Nexus
Held dodgeballs are always at normal size, even if you have the big ball powerup
Stopped Arcade from replace completed missions between levels, which was creating the impression that completed missions weren’t getting completion credit
Fixed bug where ending an Arcade match in a level without getting any kills wasn’t giving any credit for Arcade levels completed
Renamed ‘Force Drop’ mission to ‘Disarm KO’
Arcade boss shows ‘Stunned’ text when stunned
Fixed Quick Play matches having blank match settings menu

Been putting out a bunch of updates over the past few weeks, and I wanted to post an announcement for them for anyone not following along on the Release Notes thread.

The big new features are: Steam Friends integration into room search, A room inspector to let you see who's in a room before you join, stackable inventory items, chat scrolling, and a bunch of new video and misc settings to customize your gameplay experience.

Here's the full patch notes:

• Fixed issue where mode / level randomization was not totally random
  
• AI bots will try to avoid players in their way, prevents bunching
  
• Prevented error where passive bots (e.g. Juggernaut, Pinball, Teamwork) get stuck in ‘Target Threat’ behavior without being able to collect a ball, forcing them to wander and stack up near the player
  
• Halved XP gain for juggernaut mode
  
• Can no longer increment individual missions in Juggernaut
  

• Fixed time limit matches not counting as regulation PvP for mission accounting
  
• Reduced delay / stutter when saving mission progress
  
• Added leaderboard for badge level
  

Features:

• Crafting ingredients and DodgeCoins will now stack in your inventory. They’ll stack automatically when you launch the game. Any new individual items you’ve acquired will be stacked at this time. Items purchased off the market, that have trade restrictions, will apply to the whole stack. Crafting works the same for stacked items - it just picks one item out of the stack for crafting.
  

Fixes & Improvements:

• Improved formatting of end-round stats. Right-hand level / badge display only shown if player has a badge. Level label is easier to read. Bot profile pic has less washed-out glow.
  
• Added back original StatBrag notification, now with particle effect and ensures that it doesn’t overlap with notification bar
  
• Godlikes can no longer count as hot potatoes or mid-air throws
  
• Ninjas and Alley Oops no longer count as mid-air throws
  
• Fixed navigation buttons disappearing from ‘Search’ panel if the join room process failed
  
• Fixed hung state if you were currently connected to a server and tried to create a match on a different server
  
• Bar indicating mission progress made during round now flashes & animates
  
• Fixed laser lights appearing as black bands in Glow In The Dark mode
  

• Fixed issue preventing stacked Dodgecoins from being used in badge crafting
  
• New menu: Options / Misc. Currently has just one setting: 'Show tips on match start'. Many more items will be added to this menu over time.
  
• Singleplayer, Local Multiplayer, and Online Multiplayer now grouped as their own menu, accessible via the new 'Play' button.
  
• New “Help” menu contains Guide and About links (and “Mode Details”) if in a match. About removed from Options menu.
  

Features

• Friends Integration. On the Search panel, you'll see a friendly robot head next to the player count if the room contains one of your Steam friends. (Note: this only works if the room host has updated to 8.0.5, so while this is on the beta it's not fully operational)
  
• Player Inspector. On the Search panel, select a room and hit 'Info' to view all the players in the room, their levels, and whether they are Steam friends with you.
  
• Chat scrolling! Can scroll chat with page up, page down, home, and end keys. Hold down page up or down to scroll quickly.
  
• Added Misc option: "Show KO Text in arena". This can suppress the 3D text that appears at the location where a bot was KOd.
  
• Added Misc option: “Scoreboard Hold / Toggle”.
  
• Added MIsc option "Kudos filter": show all, or show only mine (default is 'show all')
  
• Added ‘refresh’ button to inventory to scan for newly acquired items (marketplace or item store)
  
• Added Video option: Arena Brightness. This slider adjusts the intensity of the dance club lights.
  
• Added Video option: Self Particle FX - disables particle effects for ball hold / charge / and on Fire (killstreak) for the local player for increased visibility
  
• Added functionality to ban specified Steam IDs from uploading scores to leaderboards
  

Improvements / Fixes

• PowerUp missions no longer advanced by catching a ball thrown by a player with that power-up. Some PowerUp missions (Pogo, Super Boost, Jetpack) can be advanced by catching if you have the PowerUp.
  
• Fixed null refs causing Arcade Boss particles to last forever
  
• Quitting Online MP match brings you back to the Online MP menu
  
• Find Match panel says ‘Random’ for mode entry if it’s a random mode
  
• Added clear warning on launch if Steamworks did not initialize
  
• Toned down brightness flash on ‘slo mo boost’
  
• “Match Settings” to “Call vote” if not the host
  
• Added team tint to usernames in chat
  
• ‘No Look’ KOs are tracked
  
• Changed Basic KO mission to hits required 15, reward 3 MP (down from 25 / 5)
  
• Slightly improved performance gain when lasers are set to Off
  

Been putting out a bunch of updates over the past few weeks, and I wanted to post an announcement for them for anyone not following along on the Release Notes thread.

The big new features are: Steam Friends integration into room search, A room inspector to let you see who's in a room before you join, stackable inventory items, chat scrolling, and a bunch of new video and misc settings to customize your gameplay experience.

Here's the full patch notes:

• Fixed issue where mode / level randomization was not totally random
  
• AI bots will try to avoid players in their way, prevents bunching
  
• Prevented error where passive bots (e.g. Juggernaut, Pinball, Teamwork) get stuck in ‘Target Threat’ behavior without being able to collect a ball, forcing them to wander and stack up near the player
  
• Halved XP gain for juggernaut mode
  
• Can no longer increment individual missions in Juggernaut
  

• Fixed time limit matches not counting as regulation PvP for mission accounting
  
• Reduced delay / stutter when saving mission progress
  
• Added leaderboard for badge level
  

Features:

• Crafting ingredients and DodgeCoins will now stack in your inventory. They’ll stack automatically when you launch the game. Any new individual items you’ve acquired will be stacked at this time. Items purchased off the market, that have trade restrictions, will apply to the whole stack. Crafting works the same for stacked items - it just picks one item out of the stack for crafting.
  

Fixes & Improvements:

• Improved formatting of end-round stats. Right-hand level / badge display only shown if player has a badge. Level label is easier to read. Bot profile pic has less washed-out glow.
  
• Added back original StatBrag notification, now with particle effect and ensures that it doesn’t overlap with notification bar
  
• Godlikes can no longer count as hot potatoes or mid-air throws
  
• Ninjas and Alley Oops no longer count as mid-air throws
  
• Fixed navigation buttons disappearing from ‘Search’ panel if the join room process failed
  
• Fixed hung state if you were currently connected to a server and tried to create a match on a different server
  
• Bar indicating mission progress made during round now flashes & animates
  
• Fixed laser lights appearing as black bands in Glow In The Dark mode
  

• Fixed issue preventing stacked Dodgecoins from being used in badge crafting
  
• New menu: Options / Misc. Currently has just one setting: 'Show tips on match start'. Many more items will be added to this menu over time.
  
• Singleplayer, Local Multiplayer, and Online Multiplayer now grouped as their own menu, accessible via the new 'Play' button.
  
• New “Help” menu contains Guide and About links (and “Mode Details”) if in a match. About removed from Options menu.
  

Features

• Friends Integration. On the Search panel, you'll see a friendly robot head next to the player count if the room contains one of your Steam friends. (Note: this only works if the room host has updated to 8.0.5, so while this is on the beta it's not fully operational)
  
• Player Inspector. On the Search panel, select a room and hit 'Info' to view all the players in the room, their levels, and whether they are Steam friends with you.
  
• Chat scrolling! Can scroll chat with page up, page down, home, and end keys. Hold down page up or down to scroll quickly.
  
• Added Misc option: "Show KO Text in arena". This can suppress the 3D text that appears at the location where a bot was KOd.
  
• Added Misc option: “Scoreboard Hold / Toggle”.
  
• Added MIsc option "Kudos filter": show all, or show only mine (default is 'show all')
  
• Added ‘refresh’ button to inventory to scan for newly acquired items (marketplace or item store)
  
• Added Video option: Arena Brightness. This slider adjusts the intensity of the dance club lights.
  
• Added Video option: Self Particle FX - disables particle effects for ball hold / charge / and on Fire (killstreak) for the local player for increased visibility
  
• Added functionality to ban specified Steam IDs from uploading scores to leaderboards
  

Improvements / Fixes

• PowerUp missions no longer advanced by catching a ball thrown by a player with that power-up. Some PowerUp missions (Pogo, Super Boost, Jetpack) can be advanced by catching if you have the PowerUp.
  
• Fixed null refs causing Arcade Boss particles to last forever
  
• Quitting Online MP match brings you back to the Online MP menu
  
• Find Match panel says ‘Random’ for mode entry if it’s a random mode
  
• Added clear warning on launch if Steamworks did not initialize
  
• Toned down brightness flash on ‘slo mo boost’
  
• “Match Settings” to “Call vote” if not the host
  
• Added team tint to usernames in chat
  
• ‘No Look’ KOs are tracked
  
• Changed Basic KO mission to hits required 15, reward 3 MP (down from 25 / 5)
  
• Slightly improved performance gain when lasers are set to Off
  

This is a huge update that's been in the works for a long time and am very excited to be able to let players finally get their hands on it!

It's the "Missions and Badges" update, and it will probably dramatically change the way you play the game.

Basically, you're now rewarded with Mission Points for winning matches, earning end-round awards, doing well in Challenges and Arcade mode, and for completing new random skill-based Missions that are assigned to you. More Mission Points will unlock higher-level profile Badges, which unlock new and more challenging missions to complete.

It's meant to be a fun meta-game to keep new players around longer and bring new challenges to veteran players. Winning matches will be more meaningful, your moment-to-moment tactics will change based on your Mission incentives, and you'll have a good use for any spare parts or decals laying around.

More information can be found in this guide: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=823456701




There's also a large number of smaller features & bug fixes that people have been asking for. Here's the other patch notes:

• Kill types can now stack. So you can score a Helicopter Dunk, or a Ninja Dunk. Score, XP, and DodgeBux are calculated by using the full normal value of the primary KO type, and each additional (stacked) KO type is worth half their normal value.
  
• Steam Cloud now syncs your cosmetic choices, and mission data.
  
• Added ‘advanced shaders’ video setting, which when off disables water in level Aquarium. Setting defaults to Off, and is off for low and medium presets, but is ON for High presets
  
• Added ‘frame rate cap’ option: None, 30, 45, 60, 75, 85, 120, 144, 160, 165, 180, 200, 240
  
• End round flow of: round stats / XP & Items Gained / Mission progress is no longer timed, players click through them
  
• Got rid of theArcade unlockable perks system, was mostly redundant with the addition of Missions. All Arcade perks are unlocked by default, but still may only appear at certain Arcade rounds.
  

• Fixed getting stuck in chat if chat input window open when online match advanced to next match
  
• Fixed bug where catches were sometimes getting scored as combos (when victim thrower was throwing a potential combo ball)
  
• Fixed pathfinding issue in Fort
  
• Fixed team option being hidden when mode set to random
  
• 
  Fixed missing spawn ceiling colliders in Nexus, Octagon, and Trifecta
  
• 
  
• Fixed issue where passing the cube to an online player who was close to the capture point could sometimes results in them re-collecting the cube after they captured it
  
• Fixed crafting panel getting ‘stuck’ when crafting while game paused in offline matches
  
• Fixed bug that was treating friendly and enemy targets as equal priority when determining homing target
  
• If item schema fails to download, item drops will not be displayed (but can still be collected)
  
• Decreased Fire Wave emission rate to improve performance
  
• Fixed Arcade saying ‘Round Won’ when you lost
  
• Stopped particle effect from playing again when returning to craft result panel after viewing detail
  
  
• Crafting ingredients are sorted by advanced first, then basic
  
  

It's a lot of changes, so as always I'm open to feedback. Drop a note below to let me know what you think or if you encounter any issues!