A new weapon is coming to Knight Club + on January 8th. The Fist is a fast-hitting weapon that has a lot of combo potential. There have also been some big changes made to the core systems that make combos easier to pull off for all weapons.
Fist Attacks
Neutral
Unlike the other weapons in the game, the Fist has a neutral attack. This is a fast-hitting jab that deals low damage. Perfect for keeping your opponent in check at point-blank range.
Side Ground
The side attack is a forward-moving dash punch. This has a slower start-up than most other side attacks in the game but is a great tool for whiff punishes and combos.
Side Air
In the air, the side attack changes to a close-range clap. This has high stun and makes juggling your opponent a piece of cake.
Up
A fairly standard uppercut that is good at anti-airs and launching grounded opponents. When used in the air, there is no upward momentum.
Down
A low angled attack that can hit through narrow platforms. The attack is the same in the air and makes for a great jump in tool.
New Achievement
A new achievement is being added for winning 25 games using the fist.
System Changes
Knockback Scaling
Knockback scaling used to be determined per attack, with some attacks knocking you back much farther on subsequent hits than others. This scaling was also pretty high in general. After a few hits, your opponent was sent flying across the screen making it almost impossible to follow up. This mechanic was added to prevent infinites and combos from getting too long, which it definitely succeeded at doing, but it also caused a couple of problems.
First, while it did reset the match to neutral, it did so in a way that was a little too extreme. There were simply too many instances where players would be a fullscreen distance apart and had to move back toward each other. Not that big of a deal but it created more of a lull than I'd like.
Second, knockback scaling being specific to each attack made it hard to know how knockback would behave. This was a needless complication. All knockback scaling is now dependant on the number of hits in a combo, rather than the attack itself.
Wall Tech
Because of the reduction in knockback scaling, I needed another way to make sure players don't get destroyed in the corner. The solution is Wall Techs. By pressing the jump button just before you hit a wall, you will tech out recover without bouncing off of the wall. Like all techs, you can choose the direction you want to go. Up, down, left, right, or neutral. If you mistime the tech you will be locked out of future attempts until the combo ends. However, the window is very generous at 15 frames.
This only works against a wall! You cannot tech when you are bounced off of the floor. It is called Wall Tech, after all.
Air Stun
If you have played Knight Club + for any amount of time you probably noticed that being in the air is Extremely Good. Air mobility is very high, there is no jump start-up, you can block anything in the air, jump-ins are very powerful, the list goes on. In an effort to nerf the air a little bit so you actually have to think about jumping from time to time, I have added an additional 5 frames of hitstun if you are hit while in the air.
Now the attacking player is much more plus when hitting an airborne opponent. This, along with the knockback scaling changes, opens up more combo opportunities. And of course, it never hurts to be more plus in general.
See you all on January 8th!