A Few Quick Matches News

[p]after a few quick delays, ninja has joined the roster as our 4th playable character. with his unique ability to cancel tilts and aerials straight into specials, his combo game really opens up and allows for maximum creativity! we hope you enjoy him, and can't wait to add even more![/p][p] (there are a few visual and audio bugs with the character, and we've found some hurtboxes to be disjointed, but we are fixing these in a patch later today).[/p][p][/p][p]we really wanted to couple the online update with ninja, but it's just not quite ready yet. lobby systems are proving to be pretty tricky to get up and running. however, we've tested quickplay with multiple players who were previously unable to play the game at all online, and all of the issues seem to be resolved with our new servers. we plan on running a beta branch soon for those experiencing the issue, so even if lobbies aren't fully finished, you will be able to play quickplay on this branch until we complete it. plague is still hoping to finish the full update within one week[/p][p]i do want to say, we get a lot of comments and frustration around the fact that updates are being pushed but the online still isn't fixed for those who cannot connect, and it probably makes it feel like we aren't working on the issue. BUT as a team of 2, i am purely responsible for the gameplay side of the game, and plague is completely handling the network issues. our 2 tasks do not overlap and do not interfere with eachother, so i am free to work on ninja and balance the game / add stages / fix gameplay bugs, while plague reworks the servers. his job is extremely tough for one dev to tackle, but i have absolutely zero experience with networking and wouldn't be able to help speed up the process at all. i do plan on hiring more help once the first round of funds transfer to us, but until then, it's basically the two of us grinding out any work that needs done. i just wanted to clear up any confusion as to why it feels like the network issue isn't being taken seriously. it absolutely is, and we REALLY REALLY hope to be finished this week. at the very least, the beta branch for quickplay will be live.[/p][p][/p][p]thank you all for your patience for ninja, and even greater patience for the network update. i really love this game and want to do everything i can to make it as accessible as possible! if you have any specific concerns, feel free to email [email protected], or leave a feedback report in our discord, linked on our steam page

# BALANCE PATCH 1.1.1, RESTART STEAM IF YOU DON'T SEE THE UPDATE #

## GAMEPLAY ##
### mostly buffing defensive options a little bit to mitigate certain tech chases and zero to deaths ###
- PARRY: vfx only comes out once you enter your invincibility, preventing it from looking like you should have successfully parried. (the vfx used to happen frame 1 due to a bug)
- BURST: invincibility increased from 10 to 15, to make burst baiting a bit more difficult and the window tighter to execute
- TECH ROLL: endlag reduced
- DODGE ROLL: endlag reduced

## EUREKA ##
### i still don't want to gut her completely, but these changes should make her disadvantage feel more fair, and she should have to work a little harder to find kills ###
- UP SPECIAL (orb): hitbox size reduced (it mainly hits behind her now, so it's easier to edge-guard when recovering. hitbox also only lasts for 1 frame. endlag after teleport increased.
- BACK AIR: whiffed landing lag increased, endlag increased
- NAIR: endlag decreased
- DASH ATTACK: startup increased, strong hitbox knockback scaling increased to avoid always comboing into up smash (weak/late hit remains the same). hitbox size reduced for both the strong and weak hits
- UP SMASH: knockback scaling decreased
- FORWARD SMASH: endlag increased

## KNOCKT ##
### actually feels pretty good overall other than that unholy up-tilt. still experimenting with more ways to interact with his projectiles, but it will be saved for a future patch ###
- DOWN AIR: reduced damage and knockback (should prevent the move putting opponents in massive hitstun even at low percents for cheesy kills
- UP TILT: last hit damage and knockback reduced, knockback scaling increased (prevents looping the move into arrow, but allows for kill setups at higher percents)
- BIRDBOMB: damage reduced (the move doing 22 was an unintended bug that happened when i switched the hitboxes to be projectiles)

## REND ##
### mostly just needed SOMETHING to happen with neutral special, and a few tweeks to his kit to feel more cohesive. ###
- NEUTRAL SPECIAL: 3 second cooldown added. i experimented with punishing the move with lag on whiff, but it was still so spammable and difficult to predict. with a cooldown, rend gets to keep the option as a lethal way to engage and close the gap, but now opponents KNOW they have time and don't have to worry about the move for 3 seconds. the move is still fun for rend, and can be played around if you're fighting him. a bar has been added to rend's hud to indicate when the move is ready to be used.
- FOWARD SPECIAL: aerial and grounded startup reduced slightly
- DOWN AIR: active frames reduced, endlag reduced (you won't just die if you do it off stage)
- UP SMASH: knockback, damage, and knockback scaling increased (provides a way to kill around the 120-140 range to avoid situations where absolutely nothing will kill with rend except back air and forward smash).

## BUGS ##
- "fetch news and regions" launch crash should be fixed

[p]i really didn't want to have to do this, and originally thought silksong wouldn't effect AFQM numbers too heavily, but behind the scenes we're seeing quite a big difference. so in order to maximize ninja's potential player-pull, we're going to release him sometime after this weekend. i won't give a hard date, but releasing during silksong weekend is basically just gutting your potential growth from releasing a new fighting game character. new fighters are the biggest draw for our genre, and we need to give ninja the release day he deserves![/p][p][/p][p]i know a lot of you have been waiting, i just ask you be patient for one more weekend and one last hurdle. thank you all for supporting a few quick matches

[p][/p][h2]NINJA[/h2][p]i will get the bad news out of the way early which is that i just don't think i'm going to have ninja ready by tomorrow/august. too many outside factors in life interfered and when you're the only one working on a character, that kind of thing can really slow you down. i think i could still technically finish him by tomorrow, but i got some news and i won't be around for the weekend, so if ANYTHING went wrong i wouldn't be here to fix it, and i want to make sure he's actually fun and cool lol. delaying by 1 week let's me cook a little longer, and also gives me time to balance the rest of the cast after cherry's tournament along with the ninja update, so it feels much more like a larger update! there will be at least 1 patch before the ninja patch to fix up some bugs. i feel pretty bad for letting the community down and not getting him out in august as previously stated, but there were just so many other things to focus on before i got to work on him, and because the community was so huge initially, many many issues arose faster than they normally would. it's a good problem to have, but i'm sorry ninja was the sacrifice :(([/p][h2]NETWORK / ONLINE PROGRESS[/h2][p]to those who can't connect online, i know it's been frustrating and i completely understand, but i have good news! plague has made a lot of progress with reworking the online to steam servers. quickplay is fully functional through the steam servers and feels great. he's working on the lobby system now, which will be much more robust than the current version. you'll have public lobbies to look through, and private lobbies for tournaments or to invite your friends through steam friend's list! he estimates that september 12th is the latest the update would come, so it could be earlier than that![/p][p]as soon as plague is done with online, it's workshop time baby!! i'll be hiring to work on the tutorial and other issues so plague can focus on modding. i also may have more character news in the near future[/p]

# NEW PATCH TO FIX SOME BUGS, AND ADDED A RESULTS SCREEN AFTER GAMES. RESTART STEAM FOR THE UPDATE #

## more gameplay balance updates AFTER the tournament. i will be focusing on buffing characters next patch :)) ##

## GAMEPLAY ##
- added a results screen that shows the winner of the match. this is important before the tournament, because before, if a game went to time, there was no way to verify who won. (if game goes to time, player with more stocks wins. if you both have the same stocks, player with less percent wins)
- this results screen will be updated with win and lose animations at a later date!

## BUGS ##
### TRAINING MODE ###
- DPAD savestates works again, as long as you don't have dpad movement enabled
- fixed an issue where switching characters to knockt in training would crash the game
- fixed CPU behavior messing up in local play after exiting training mode
- eureka's up special hitbox is now visible in training mode (don't look....please don't look....)

### LOSING TWO LIVES ###
- losing two stocks is now more difficult. it's still in the game....but i'm close to killing this bug completely i promise lol