We're shaking things up on the Experimental Branch!

These changes are currently available for testing on the Experimental Branch, only on PC. After testing these changes and making other modifications, we will roll changes out to all players.

New Features

Introducing a new Field Effect, Quake!

• Quake: Volleying to your ally deals 25 damage to that ally, and reduces the amount of Quake by 1. Quake also lowers by 1 at the end of your offense.

Quake has been added to replace all splash damage in the game (ie. secondary damage done to allies via moves like Explosion, Bang, and Mindfield, as well as the Echo trait). Splash damage in general has been the cause of many of the game's most unintuitive interactions with respect to how Beasties are wiped, points are scored, etc. It makes it easy to force opponents into unplayabale and unfun situations where both of their fielded Beasties are WIPED. And because splash damage scales with damage dealt to the initial Beastie target, it gave players a way to deal high amount of damage to ally Beasties that otherwise would resist their attacks, invalidating many defensive matchups. It never quite felt right or made sense, and it was time to do something a little more interesting.

Quake provides similar utility to splash damage (it often deals damage to Beasties that are allies of the one you targeted). However, it puts more power in the hands of the team that has had Quake applied to them, giving them the option to avoid damage by taking fewer actions instead. It's another tool that can be used by stall-focused teams to slow down the pace of the game and build up damage through means other than direct offense. It also offers more direct counter-play into teams that heavily rely on frequent passing or increasing their action count, strategies which have emerged as more popular than others over time.

We're eager to see what players can do with Quake and to get their feedback on this experimental new mechanic.

Info Guide

We've added a new menu purely for explaining game mechanics in a simple, readable format. This guide includes detailed reference information on different FEELINGs and Field Effects. It's available from your phone menu as well as during any sport match where no time limit is set, and it replaces some of the more dry and inaccessible NPC dialogue that we previously relied on to convey the details of some game mechanics. In future updates, we intend to add images to some guide sections so it isn't all just text.

Bigmoon Bash Prizes

The game will now account for your past Bash results and award you with in-game rewards based on your performance. You can collect these rewards by opening SportNet.

Etc

• Added a "copy to clipboard" button for Team Codes in the Team Setup > View/Edit Details menu

Balance Changes

Many story encounters have been modified in accordance with below balance changes. In general our intention was to make use of new play and trait changes without affecting the game's overall difficulty balance. Final boss fights in the post-game Expedition mode have had their difficulty notably adjusted with the intention of making each Boss more equally threatning (some were overperforming and some were unerperforming).

FEELINGs

• Wiped: Introduced a new RUSHED RECOVERY mechanic. Generally, anytime WIPED is cured by counting down to 0, Beasties fully restore their stamina. This recovery is now reduced by 10 STAMINA for each stack of WIPED above 1 on the Beastie if they recover earlier than they would naturally. So a Beastie recovering with 2 stacks of WIPED will restore to 90 STAMINA; 3 stacks to 80 STAMINA, and so on. The intention of this change is to reduce the effectiveness of some methods of recovery that circumvent the downsides of being WIPED OUT too easily, such as Team Chant and Torch Pass. WIPED is a special status in the game and any amount of this Feeling applied to a Beastie should be relevant.
• Tender: Beasties that are TENDER are now prevented from feeling TOUGH. If a Beastie is already TOUGH, TENDER does NOT remove the feeling. This small change adds some more usefulness to TENDER, which hasn't seen much use and is outclassed by many other Feelings.

Plays

• (NEW!) Rumble: Support play that applies 2 Quake to opponent’s field. Makes the user 1 angry.
• Explosion: No longer deals damage to the entire field. Instead applies 2 Quake to opponent’s field, and 1 Quake to your field.
• Mindfield: POW reduced to 35 (from 45). No longer deals damage to target’s ally. Instead applies 2 Quake to opponent’s field.
• Bang: No longer deals damage to target’s ally. Instead applies 1 Quake to opponent’s field.
• Updraft: Costs 40 STAMINA to use (from 34). Players have discovered many uses of Updraft that give a lot of value with very little drawback. This tweak gives opponents greater opportunity to limit how many times the play can be used, introducing more effective counterplay.
• Juggle: Now shifts its user sideways. This change means players need to plan a little more in order to make effective use of Juggle. Previously, the move was too easy to use in too many circumstances, giving players great benefit without any drawback.
• Dump: Target now always get an easy receive. Dump has been a little too easy to use, and difficult to play against. This adds a slight drawback to one of the strongest and most-used attacks in the game. It also better reflects the move as a simulacrum of a setter-dump in real volleyball.
• Bounce: POW increased to 80 (from 50). Now auto volleys to the target’s ally. Bounce was previously too similar to Careful Shot and Slice, without offering any interesting distinction. There also was no solid attacking option for Beasties hitting sideways using Body POW. This adjustment gives Bounce more of a unique niche, and indirectly buffs Goofsder, a Beastie that has been underperforming.
• Soulcrusher: POW reduced to 110 (from 120).
• Vigor Beam: POW reduced to 125 (from 135).

Traits

• Echo: No longer deals damage to target’s ally. Instead applies 1 Quake to opponent’s field.
• (NEW!) Welcoming: +40 Stamina to your ally as they Tag In. This is now Bongus’s recessive trait as it no longer gets Crafty. Crafty was seldom used and not very effective on Bongus, whose POW stats are overall lackluster. This trait better cements their role as a strong pivot and supporting Beastie.
• Performer: Boost to DEF increased to x1.5 (from x1.3). Surgus and Plumask, two Beasties with this trait, have been somewhat underperforming. Our intention is to give these two more of an edge and make them more viable relative to other Beasties.
• Tireless: Removed from the game! Seakit now has Hunter, Scrubbub and Grubiron now have…
• (NEW!) Momentum: 1.3x damage just after moving or tagging in. Tireless was not a very well designed trait. In the vast majority of circumstances, it was entirely useless. And when it was useful, it was overwhelmingly effective to the point where it had no interesting counterplay. Our intention is to offer these Beasties options that are more generally useful and better convey their theme.

Playbook Changes

• Slide: Added to Goofsder
• Rumble: Added to Tortanchor, Boldlur, Shloom, Demolipede, Millimine, and Yamyth

Stat Adjustments

In general, since our last patch, Mind offense has been dominant in PvP. One of our overall goals with these changes is to bring the game to a more equitable balance where Mind attackers aren’t more effective than others.

• Across the board: Beastie’s “Ally training” values have been adjusted to better reflect each Beasties’ specialties and create more diversity among the cast.
• Bongus:
  • Spirit DEF: 90 (from 95)
  • +Mind DEF: 65 (from 60)

• Surgus:
  • Spirit DEF: 90 (from 95)
  • +Mind DEF: 65 (from 60)

• Illugus:
  • +Body POW: 65 (from 60)
  • -Mind POW: 90 (from 95) Compared to its family members, Illugus has been overperforming, particularly because it gets more value from its traits and plays. This change slightly reduces their stat efficiency to make up for their otherwise more effective playbook/traits.

• Armantis:
  • -Spirit DEF: 70 (from 105)
  • +Mind DEF: 105 (from 70)

• Bandicraft:
  • +Body POW: 67 (from 60)
  • -Mind POW: 85 (from 92) This slight change reduces Bandicraft’s overall stat efficiency to make up for their otherwise more effective playbook and traits compared to Hopra and Kassaleet. It brings Bandicraft’s effectiveness more in line with other Beasties that have the Captain trait (Beetlback and Tortanchor). It also better solidifies Bandicraft’s specialty as a supportive setting/passing Beastie.

• Blitzwift:
  • -Body DEF: 62 (from 68)
  • -Mind DEF: 47 (from 57) Since high-level players have discovered Blitzwift’s effectiveness as a supporter Beastie, it has made waves. These changes make Blitzwift a little more fragile, and easier for opponents to mitigate. In general Blitzwift has always had a stat total that is a little bit too high in tandem with a trait that is overwhelmingly useful.

• Conjarr:
  • -Body DEF: 63 (from 110)
  • +Spirit DEF: 85 (from 63)
  • +Mind DEF: 110 (from 85) Based on its playbook, Conjarr excels at disruption from the net, but its defenses made it particularly weak to offensive types that tend to target the front row, so Conjarr struggled to excel at its role. It also didn’t fully make sense for a small and wise Beastie to have stronger Body DEF than other stats.

• Debugly:
  • +Mind DEF: 99 (from 91)

• Goofsder:
  • -Body POW: 85 (from 90)
  • -Spirit POW: 25 (from 30)
  • +Mind POW: 95 (from 85)

• Riplash:
  • -Spirit POW: 29 (from 30)
  • +Mind DEF: 105 (from 100)

• Scauldra:
  • -Body POW: 20 (from 35)
  • +Mind DEF: 65 (from 50)

• Shloom:
  • +Body POW: 110 (from 100)
  • +Spirit POW: 110 (from 100)
  • +Mind POW: 110 (from 100) Shloom has been underperforming compared to most other Beasties, owing to how difficult it is to make good use of with its difficult trait. The intention of this change is to make it more threatening with a little less set-up.

• Varkabond:
  • -Spirit POW: 50 (from 55)
  • +Body DEF: 60 (from 55)

• Boldlur:
  • -Body POW: 86 (from 88)
  • -Spirit POW: 22 (from 30)
  • -Spirit DEF: 82 (from 87)
  • +Mind DEF: 55 (from 40) Boldlur is designed as a premier tanky Beastie, but its particularly weak Mind DEF meant that it was often WIPED quickly. The intention of this change is to neutralize its greatest weakness and make it more consistent.

• Duggout:
  • -Body DEF: 90 (from 95)
  • -Spirit DEF: 60 (from 65)
  • -Mind DEF: 75 (from 80) Duggout has proven to be an overperforming hyper-aggressive Beastie with a lot of quick setups into high damage. Its Unflappable trait particularly limits the counter-play available into it, making its defenses more operative in determining its longevity on the field. The intention of these changes is to make offense more effective into Duggout.

  Bug Fixes and Technical Changes

  Engine Fix Testing

  We found another area of the game's underlying engine (Game Maker) which was unstable and potentially buggy on some systems. The issue had to do with how memory was allocated in some circumstances, and could lead to sudden and unpredictable crashes, including when the game was starting up. Because this error is very hard to reproduce, we're interested to see whether this fix has any impact on some players' stability.

  Text Changes

  We have made a significant change to how ALL VISIBLE TEXT in the game is loaded and displayed, in preparation for the localization process. This may lead to new bugs - we will be on the lookout for reports of such issues.

  Other Fixes

  • Corrected mouse selection bounds and render positions for Beasties during sport matches, particularly in high-elevation areas.
  • Reduced how often the game checks for updates from the internet, lowering bandwidth usage.
  • Fixed an issue with Slide have boosted power on the Serve
  • Updated wording on some Recruit Conditions to be more clear
  • Fixed crash related to entering certain characters when naming Beasties
  • Fixed an issue with a certain save file/data corruption that could happen from the player respawning badly in a certain post-game area
  • The game now defaults to having "Borderless Fullscreen" enabled to prevent issues on some monitors (apparently; I'll be honest, I don't know what this means, but someone asked for it in a feedback report).
  • Working on improvements to the netcode to better and more consistently detect when a player has disconnected and end the game accordingly, rather than hanging forever. This change requires changes corresponding between the client and the server, so we can't fully implement changes until all versions of the game client are running matching updates.
  • Corrected issue with Craig giving players the Old Guidebook regardless of research progress.
  • Removed flashing effects from scenes in the Mermaid Club if flashing effects are disabled in settings
  • Corrected issue preventing Raymond from appearing in the lobby before story boss matches.
  • Adjusted spacing of some UI elements
  • Added clearer outline for Beastie stamina bars during sport matches
  • In-match effect popups now clear more quickly when Sport Speed is set to higher speeds
  • Adjusted collision on some tree models to prevent players from easily getting out of bounds in some area.
  • Adjusted some level layouts to prevent jank and out of bounds collisions. Made it possible to backtrack from a certain screen in a post-game area.
  • Fixed some typos