Highlights
Overview
- This patch features tons of changes to all of the playable characters, ranging from balance tweaks to new mechanics and move overhauls. With this patch, we took a pretty liberal stance on changes: some of them are fairly aggressive or experimental in nature (especially those made to CommanderVideo and Octodad), so we’ll be keeping a close eye on how things play out and making further adjustments (or even reverting some things if necessary) moving forward. Though there are some big changes, this isn’t yet the final vision for the cast - some characters (especially Welltaro) have some aspects that are still a work in progress, and should have further changes coming down the line. Considering the scale of the changes in this patch, it’s not unlikely that overall cast balance will be a bit out of whack in the short term. Our goal was to get some of the bigger pieces in your hands first, then adjust from there to get balance in line. Once you’ve had a chance to try everything out, we’d love to get your feedback! We put together a form so you can let us know what you think on any or all of the changes. Thank you so much for your help! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdqEaebC2XCvf7JX-jOvWcHWqN_ZRODKcFibqJ3mGlbKUN-Q/viewform You can find an overview of the changes to each character below. Keep scrolling to read the complete patch notes - we fit in a lot of fixes and QOL changes in this patch that aren’t covered in this section, so make sure to check them out!
General
Gameplay
- Strong attacks can now be used during run turn animations
- Fixed bug where dashing with the dash button during a walk wouldn't work if you were already holding a directional input.
- Fixed bug where dropping through platforms with the dash button wouldn't work if you were already holding the down input.
- Characters now animate through shield_in when holding the shield button through the end of a roll. - This doesn’t have a gameplay implication, just a visual correction.
- Fixed incorrect value that was causing a perfect shield-esque effect to be possible on the first frame of shield. This behavior should no longer occur.
Custom Content
Bug fixes
- Null costume error fix - Fixed bug where characters and assists who didn't have a base costume defined could crash the game online.
Menu
General
- Dedicated directional deadzones - Directional presses on most menus now use a stricter dead zone that is layered on top of your base dead zone settings to allow for more precise navigation.
Playable Characters
All Characters
- Tech Roll - You are now active earlier in the animation (active on frame 41 → 39) - Distance increased across the cast.
- Standing Jump - Holding forward or backward during jump_squat now gives you a boost of initial speed (jumpSpeedBackwardInitialXSpeed 0 → -3, jumpSpeedForwardInitialXSpeed 0 → 3).
CommanderVideo
- Overview - CommanderVideo has had some substantial changes to his rainbow trail mechanics. Previously having a rainbow trail active only affected side special, allowing you to jump cancel it until the trail was deactivated. This created a character with a pretty fun rushdown and combo game, but it had a few issues. Allowing side special to be repeatedly jump cancelled made the move overly noncommittal, allowing you to cancel a side special done in an unfavorable situation without any downside. You could also use this to run away from opponents on some stages, which although not unbeatable was certainly obnoxious to deal with. While side special was extremely strong, his other special moves were lacking, and mostly had niche to non-existent utility outside of recovery. With this patch, CommmanderVideo’s biggest changes are centered around his rainbow trail. You can now jump cancel any special move if you have a rainbow trail, but doing so will deactivate the trail. Different moves can be jump cancelled at different points - usually, it’s at some point after the hitbox is active. Alongside other changes to special moves, neutral special now has a limited range, is a multihit, and hits at a backwards angle. Down special received the least significant changes here - aside from being jump cancelable with a rainbow trail, it mostly functions the same, so we’ll keeping an eye on it and potentially looking to adjust it more substantially in the future. Our goal with this patch is to preserve the fun aspects of CommanderVideo’s play style while dialing back some of the negatives mentioned above. Since this is probably the biggest change in this patch, this should definitely be considered something of a work in progress. If we do end up moving forward with this direction, it will almost definitely need some adjustments to the numbers. We’d also implement clearer audio and visual queues for gaining and losing the rainbow trail - with the increased frequency at which you gain and lose the trail, it can be hard to track at the moment. We’re looking forward to seeing what you think!
- Rainbow Trail - All special moves can now be jump cancelled after a certain point in the animation if you have a rainbow trail. - Jump canceling any special move now deactivates the rainbow trail. - Hitting invincible enemies no longer gives you a rainbow trail.
- Jab 1 - Hitbox size extended further backward.
- Neutral Air - Startup increased (3 → 4) - Endlag increased (11 → 12) - Landing lag increased (7 → 8) - Tightened hitboxes.
- Forward Air - Startup increased (14 → 15) - Endlag increased (13 → 15) - Autocancel activates later (34 → 38) - Hitboxes adjusted to better conform to the shape of the attack.
- Up Air - knockbackGrowth reduced (60 → 50)
- Back Air - Sweetspot baseKnockback increased (45 → 55) - Autocancel activates later (22 → 28) - Landing lag increased (10 → 11) - Sweetspot is now active for more frames (2 → 3) - Sourspot is now active for fewer frames (6 → 5) - Slightly reduced size of hitboxes.
- Down Tilt - Angle adjusted (361 → 110)
- Neutral Special - Reworked into a quick short-distance multihit beam.
- Up Special - Holding backward out of the startup animation will now reverse the direction you face when cannon angling begins. - Stats adjusted (angle 70 → 80, knockbackGrowth 50 → 40, damage 13 → 10)
- Roll - Normalized frame data to match the rest of the cast, resulting in 2 additional frames of endlag.
Octodad
- Overview - Your feedback on our previous survey confirmed what we were feeling was a big issue with Octodad: it was too tricky to reliably tell the difference between a tipper and non tipper hit on many moves. Hitting with some moves like up aerial that you thought looked like a tipper but ended up not being one was far too common of an experience, and it made him feel kind of finicky and unreliable. He also had some issues with moves that did not clearly convey their hitboxes, like his forward aerial which featured a smear that was not fully hitboxed. For this patch, we applied two main fixes to Octodad’s most problematic moves. First, some moves’ tipper hitboxes have been changed from the lowest to the highest hitbox priority. This means that if you hit a character with both the sourspot and sweet spot of those moves simultaneously, you’ll get the sweetspot. Secondly, we adjusted the sprites of the active frames for moves with conveyance issues. This also included adjustments to many moves where the tipper hitbox changed is now top priority - you’ll find that some of their hitboxes cover less space to balance out how much more easily they can hit with the tipper hitbox. Our goal is for him to require a bit more accuracy to land hits, but to reward you more consistently for doing so. Let us know what you think, or if you think either of the above changes should be applied to any other attacks!
- Optimized Sprite Sheet - Lower end hardware previously could have experienced a hitch when using Octodad due to his spritework existing on two sprite sheets. This has been optimized to one spritesheet, matching the rest of the cast.
- Neutral Air - Startup reduced (11 → 10)
- Forward Air - Tipper priority changed from lowest to highest. - Adjusted hitbox sizing and positioning. - Active frame visuals adjusted.
- Up Air - Tipper priority changed from lowest to highest. - Adjusted hitbox sizing and positioning. - Active frame visuals adjusted.
- Down Air - Tipper priority changed from lowest to highest. - Time between hits reduced by two frames. - First hit baseKnockback increased (35 → 45) - Active frame visuals adjusted.
- Back Air - Now interruptible 3 frames earlier.
- Down Tilt - Adjusted hitbox sizing and positioning on both hits. - Stats adjusted on first hit (baseKnockback 10 → 30, knockback growth 25 → 10) - First hit can no longer hit with a reverse angle. - Active frame visuals adjusted.
- Up Strong - Tipper priority changed from lowest to highest. - Adjusted hitbox sizing and positioning to better match the animation.
- Neutral Special - hitstopOffset increased (3 → 5)
- Side Special - Armor starts later (frame 5 → 10) - Air version final hit stats adjusted (knockbackGrowth 80 → 75, baseKnockback 60 → 55)
- Up Special - Stats adjusted (damage 6 → 8, baseKnockback 50 → 40) - Link frames applied to the aerial version. If you land during the animation, you will continue the animation with the grounded version instead of going into heavy land.
- Down Special - Startup updated with completed pixel art. - Startup now prioritizes connecting to ledges before terrain. - Grounded Attack endlag after successful grab reduced (21 → 19) - Grounded Attack now plays more reliably (instead of the aerial version) when grabbing an opponent near the ground. - Grounded Attack updated with completed pixel art. - Aerial Attack endlag after successful grab reduced (21 → 19) - Aerial Attack sketch updated. - Pull zip to ledge alignment improved. - Pull updated with completed pixel art. - Land updated with completed pixel art.
- Crash Attack - Updated with completed pixel art.
- Crash Roll - Updated with completed pixel art.
- Ledge Roll - Updated with completed pixel art.
- Tech Roll - Updated with completed pixel art.
- Parry Fail - Updated with completed pixel art.
Orcane
- Overview - In the previous patch, most players considered Orcane to be the best or near the best character in the game. While not a problem on its own, Orcane was a bit too good at rushing down opponents and using simple loops for hard punishes. In this patch, we aimed to reduce those aspects while also introducing some new tricks. You’ll find that Orcane’s horizontal speed and many of his most powerful moves are somewhat toned down compared to before. On the flip side, we introduced several mechanics that might be familiar to anyone who’s played him in rivals, including Hydroplaning, Puddless Recovery, and Orcahopping, among others! You can find more details on these mechanics in the full patch notes below. We’ll be keeping an eye on his balance especially, so we’d like to know what you think of how Orcane plays and his power level.
- General - Added Hydroplaning. You will now slide further when inputting and charging a strong out of run turn. - Replaced sketched water spouts with placeholder effects based on down strong. - runSpeedCap reduced (7.6 → 6.5) - aerialSpeedCap reduced (7 → 6) - dashSpeed reduced (8.5 → 8)
- Puddle - Can now pick up puddles at any point during strongs’ start up. - Now disappears when Orcane loses his final stock.
- Up Special - Added Puddless Recovery. You can now press the shield button during the startup to prevent Orcane from warping to his puddle. - Added Orcahopping. If you up special immediately after double jumping, you will get an additional vertical boost if you don’t teleport to a puddle. Note that due to the existence of ledges in Fraymakers, this doesn't go quite as high as it does in Rivals of Aether. - Added ledge grab box to last three frames of aerial activation animation. - Slightly reduced size of late hitbox. - The attack's IASA activates later on, resulting in increased endlag (17 → 20)
- Side Special Air - Hurtboxes tightened.
- Up Tilt - IASA activates later, resulting in increased endlag (16 → 18)
- Down Tilt - Increased endlag (13 → 14) - Reduced size of hitbox in all directions slightly and more significantly backward. - Angle adjusted (80 → 75)
- Neutral Air - IASA activates later, resulting in increased endlag (12 → 13) - Landing lag increased (5 → 6) - knockbackGrowth increased (65 → 70) - Adjusted hitbox size to be smaller and normalized across all active frames.
- Forward Air - Bubble Butt knockbackGrowth now scales with xSpeed.
- Back Air - IASA activates later, resulting in increased endlag (9 → 13) - Landing lag increased (5 → 7) - First hit stats adjusted (damage 6 → 4, baseKnockback 40 → 45) - Second hit stats adjusted (baseKnockback 55 → 65, knockbackGrowth 85 → 75)
- Down Air - Initial hitbox size reduced. - Landing lag increased (6 → 7) - Stats adjusted (damage 3 → 2, baseKnockback 15 → 30, knockbackGrowth 15 → 5)
- Down Throw - Endlag increased (15 → 16) - knockbackGrowth increased (70 → 75) - Sound effects adjusted. - Pixel art slightly adjusted.
- Back Throw - Sound effects adjusted.
- Puddle Boosted Strongs - Added 6 additional frames of hitstop and selfHitstop to make them feel more impactful.
- Side Strong Boosted - Hitbox placement adjusted to reach further backward (now starts from the same place as the non-boosted version).
- Jab 3 - Dust effect added.
- Tech Roll - Adjusted sprite positioning.
- Dash Attack - Adjusted sprite positioning.
- Intro - Sound effects adjusted.
Welltaro
- Overview - Out of all the characters in this patch, Welltaro has the fewest major changes. He has a number of balance adjustments that target overly powerful moves alongside some functionality and usability improvements to moves like neutral aerial, forward strong, and airdash. We’re currently still in the process of prototyping some larger changes to Welltaro, including some conceptual iteration on side special - we didn’t want to hold back the patch because these aren’t ready yet, but you can expect to hear more on these in the future.
- General - dashSpeed reduced (9 → 8)
- Airdash - Ammo consumption decreased (3 → 2)
- Double Jump - Damage reduced (2 → 1)
- Neutral Special - Heart Balloon’s effect on your terminal velocity reduced (multiplier from 0.5 → 0.6)
- Down Special - Startup reduced (29 → 26) - Hitstop increased (15 → 30)
- Jab 1 - hitstopNudgeMultiplier reduced (1 → 0.5)
- Jab 2 - hitstopNudgeMultiplier reduced (1 → 0.5)
- Jab 3 - hitstopNudgeMultiplier reduced (1 → 0.1) - Hitboxes extended slightly backward. - Looping attack sped up.
- Up Tilt - Stats adjusted (baseKnockback 50 → 70, knockbackGrowth 70 → 45)
- Down Tilt - Startup increased (6 → 8) - IASA activates later, resulting in increased endlag (17 → 19) - Stats adjusted (angle 80 → 75, baseKnockback 60 → 75, knockbackGrowth 75 → 65)
- Neutral Air - Angle adjusted (75 → autolink weak)
- Up Air - Late hit now lasts longer (4 → 6) - Now entirely timing based. Previously, you could hit with the sourspot from the beginning of the attack. Now all early hitboxes are the sweetspot, and all late hitboxes are the sourspot. - Second hit stats adjusted (angle 50 → 75. baseKnockback 50 → 40, knockbackGrowth 70 → 25)
- Back Air - Startup increased (13 → 15) - Landing lag increased (7 → 8) - Auto-cancels 2 frames later. - Hitbox size reduced.
- Forward Air - Startup increased (13 → 15) - Auto-cancels 1 frame later. - IASA activates later, resulting in increased endlag (15 → 16)
- Forward Strong - First hit angle adjusted (60 → autolink stronger)
Assists
- Ape - Restored cymbal crash sound effect.
- The Bard - Wheel hit detection improved.
Fraymakers Character Template v0.1.4 (Download Source | Subscribe)
General
- Project Settings - Palette Shader Mode changed from “Limit 64” to “R/G Map” - The shader mode was changed to R/G Map by default because it is based on the official shader used by the Fraymakers Engine. In exchange for efficiency and a larger possible map (up to 65536 source colors), you are limited to only using colors with unique Red and Green channels. Learn more here (control + f “Palette Shader Mode"): Fraymakers Custom Content Deep Dive
Animations
- Standing Jump - Holding forward or backward during jump_squat now gives you a boost of initial speed (jumpSpeedBackwardInitialXSpeed 0 → -3, jumpSpeedForwardInitialXSpeed 0 → 3)
- Up Special - hitstopNudgeMultiplier changed to 0. - directionalInfluence changed to false.
- Roll - Normalized roll to 34 frames with IASA on the final frame.
- Tech Roll - Speed increased (15.5 -> 18) - Added 2 frames of IASA to the end (total frames 41 -> 39)