Rebound v0.63.0 is live
This update took a bit longer than expected because a bunch of things that don't directly impact the features have been refactored to make it easier for us to build and change features in the future. Not the most fun but essential for long running big projects!
Overhaul to puck interaction with the player body
After a ton of testing and experimenting we've found a good state for the player body and puck interactions. It will make the puck hitting you more predictable. Its purpose is, for example, if you catch the puck with your body it's less likely to go into the net if you're in front of it. This is a buff to defensive play and passing plays. Thank you to everyone that helped us make progress and test this for months.
Re-added backfill
By popular request, we have re-added the backfill feature. It was removed to prepare for ranked but the community was clear in what it wants most of all: A good matchmaking and match experience. Backfill helps keep matches going when someone leaves and doesn't necessarily have to go to a forfeit or mercy. People getting backfilled will not receive any loss penalties if they lose, but will reap the rewards if they help the team win! Leaving a match you were backfilled into will still give you a penalty though. We'll be adding a toggle for whether you want to be backfilled at all in a later update.
Rating calculation tweaks
We've made some adjustments to how ratings are calculated, it should help fix the downwards trend in ratings and stabilise average skill levels towards the starting ratings. Of course we'll keep monitoring and tweaking this as we go.
Added a jumbo arena
Slapville has gotten a big brother. Slapville jumbo is 5% bigger in width and length than its normal sized counterpart. Most people probably won't notice the difference very quickly but it does make a big difference for the people that prefer to play the game in a 4v4 format. The size was decided with the European Slapshot League. We may adjust the specific size in the future after more playtime has been clocked into the new rink. You can select the arena in custom games and in practice mode with the arena command in the developer console (check keybinds). The jumbo arena will not appear in public matchmaking.
Added a difficulty dropdown to bot matches
Previously, you could only play against the hard setting of the bots, now you can select easy mode.
This update's cosmetics
Added tank top, dollar bill mouth item, catphones, basketball head, sunflower hat.
Better start-up error handling
If your Steam authentication has expired and you require a Steam restart, it'll now tell you so instead of just saying it can't connect to the Slapshot services.
Improved leave penalty
The leave penalty should have a lot less false positives when leaving a match that is in theory finished.
Fixed preset changes in parties
Before, when you changed your preset your party members wouldn't see the change until you changed another cosmetic. This is now fixed.
Thank you for your patience. A bunch of these changes were picked from the feedback channel in Discord so please don't hesitate to post there if you have any ideas for things you'd like to see in Slapshot: Rebound.