March Update! Beastie cleanups, new Plays and new features!

This update brings the game balance up-to-date in time for the open format Bigmoon Bash next weekend! We've also updated a few Beastie sketches and added a few new requested features. If you've kept up with Experimental Changes, not much will be new to you here, but we did make a few more adjustments to balance before wrapping up this update.

Note: As of posting, these updates are not yet out on Mac; they will be coming ASAP.

Beastie Art Updates

Note: Much more is in production than what is reflected here.

• Crabaret: Cleaned up design. Also added a unique feature where every Crabaret is now either left or right-handed, and they do not turn around like other Beasties do as they are always facing sideways.
• Heliath: Cleaned up design and sketch poses added
• Skulkapi: Cleaned up design and sketch poses added
• Grazada: Cleaned up design and sketch poses added
• Druppa: Cleaned up design and sketch poses added
• Platypulse: Cleaned up design and sketch poses added. This design is still incomplete, but we are releasing it as-is since it is an improvement on the sketch previously in the game.
• Albrax, Leobro, Supilero: Updates to their Visual Studies in the Beastiepedia

New Features

• Coach Vibe Selection: In the character creation menu (accessible when starting a new game, or by choosing to "Change Outfit" at any clothing shop) you can now choose your coach's default standing pose! Give your player character more of their own unique personality!
• Raremorph proximity hint: When a recruitable raremorph Beastie is nearby, your Beasties will occasionally react with a "sparkle," giving players a hard-to-miss visual indicator
• Raremorph display in the Beastiepedia: You can now press a button to change which palette is displayed on an individual Beastie's entry in the Beastiepedia, allowing you to more easily view alternative palettes
• Text Resolution Improvements: Text has been updated across the board to use a cleaner, higher-resolution render method. This means less blurriness on large text, and also less texture usage, surprisingly!
• Patch Notification: You'll now get a phone call from Craig when loading an old save file if your Beasties' plays have been altered due to a balance patch
• Added a very small amount of new dialogue available in the Crown Farms area after finishing the main story

Balance Changes

There are many tweaks! This update features a collection of brand-new attacks as well as adjustments to many plays and traits which were a bit too easy to abuse. We particularly aimed to give better tools to Beasties that were struggling or seeing less usage than others.

Field Effects

• Trap
  • Max stacks reduced to 4 (from 5)

Traits

• Shanty: Sets RHYTHM when this Beastie uses a BODY attack
  • Given to Tortanchor in place of Groove

• Groove:
  • 1.2x damage (from 1.3x)

• Foggy:
  • Only ignores opponent’s buffs (previously ignored debuffs as well)

• Trapper
  • New effect: Adds +1 trap to opponent field at the end of every turn

• Clamor
  • New effect: When tagging in, feel NOISY and ally feels +1 ANGRY

Plays

• (NEW!) Splinter - Mind attack, 70 POW, lowers target mind DEF by 2
  • Via level up
    • Crawlurk

  • Via friendship
    • Plumask

  
  
• (NEW!) Flight - Spirit attack, 70 POW. Always targets straight ahead. User TAGS OUT with selected benched ally.
  • Via level up
    • Zefyre, Blitzwift

  • Via friendship
    • Froofulks, Skiffrig, Conjarr, Skulkapi

  
  
• (NEW!) Scream - Spirit attack, 95 POW, target becomes NOISY 2
  • Via level up
    • Noizard, Grazada, Jellibat, Froofulks, Plumask

  • Via friendship
    • Skiffrig

  
  
• (NEW!) Cook - Spirit attack, 60 POW, lowers both opponents spirit DEF by 1
  • Via level up
    • Xiphosaur, Scauldra, Conjarr

  • Via friendship
    • Heliath, Diggum, Duggout, Squimage, Diabloceras, Froofulks

  
  
• (NEW!) Rattle - Mind attack, 50 POW, target becomes Stressed 2
  • Via level up
    • Noizard, Gastic, Wisper, Mistic,

  • Via friendship
    • Troglum, Varkabond, Yueffowl, Albrax, Crawlurk, Collarva, Wormask, Plumask, Rookee, Garood

  
  
• Introduce
  • Removed from
    • Diggum, Duggout
    • Jellibat, Froofulks
    • Noizard

  
  
• Dramatic Exit
  • Removed From
    • Noizard
    • Maraptor

  
  
• Drum
  • Added to
    • Noizard

  
  
• Muscle Memory
  • POW to 80 (from 70)

• Ego Blast
  • POW to 85 (from 70)

• Assess
  • Complete change to new effect: -1 Mind DEF to both enemies

• Overthink
  • User feels Tired 1 (no longer makes you stressed)

• Juggle
  • Only boosts Body POW if ball is hittable
  • No longer moves user to the side

• Challenge
  • POW to 90 (from 100)
  • Target feels 1 ANGRY

• Pierce
  • POW to 60 (from 50)

• Demanding Set
  • Complete change to new effect: SHIFTs ally to net. BODY, SPIRIT, MIND POW +1 to ally. Ally feels 1 STRESSED.

• Turnabout
  • Complete change to new effect: 55 POW, POW x2 when stamina is below 34

• Raw Fury
  • Always goes where it is targeted

• Supercommit
  • Removed from
    • Jellibat, Froofulks

  
  
• Freezer
  • Changed name to Freezeray
  • POW to 80 (from 40)
  • Removed from
    • Plumask, Noizard

  
  
• Richochet
  • Can be used without volleying

Beastie

• Plumask
  • Plays Removed: Floater, Prepared Attack, Jammer
  • New plays added (noted above)
  • Level-Up moveset tweaked

• Fetcham
  • Plays Added: Comeback

• Shloom
  • +10 BDEF
  • +10 SDEF
  • +10 MDEF

• Albrax
  • -5 MPOW
  • +5 BDEF
  • +5 SDEF
  • +5 MDEF
  • Plays added: Assess, Lock Target
  • Level-Up moveset tweaked

• Bandicraft
  • -10 BPOW
  • +5 BDEF
  • +5 SDEF

• Riplash
  • +10 BDEF
  • +5 SDEF

• Squimage
  • Plays Added: Juggle, Pump Up, and Heart Harden

• Opposur
  • -5 MPOW
  • +5 BDEF
  • +10 MDEF
  • Plays Removed: Spike
  • Plays Added: Vigor Beam, Raw Fury

Fixes and Other Changes

• Added a short delay after turn changes where the "Skip Defense" button can't be clicked, preventing players from accidentally mashing through it. Also added more strict enforcement of selection position so that the player's first Beastie is always highlighted when new turn selecton begins.
• Away Teams no longer are summoned while the player is on Expeditions, preventing random low-level ones from appearing.
• Changed the game's texture page size from 4096 to 2048. This means that the game will load textures more frequently, potentially reducing performance, but it also means loads will be smaller in size, which should reduce many crashes due to memory allocation failure.
• Fixed an issue where clearing inputs in the Keyboard Config or Controller Config would clear inputs for both input methods. This bug also prevented custom controls from being saved unless both control methods had their inputs manually edited.
• Fixed various issues with the "VS" splash screen before a multi-point match sticking on the screen if a story scene or trait activated shortly after the match began.
• Fixed an issue with displays larger than 4300px not being recognized in the game's resolution settings
• Fixed Away Teams displaying in the wrong location on the map when appearing in the Chroma Sea
• Players' online name will now be updated to their in-game name if it is updated, so that Bash Results in newsletter etc. display the correct names.
• A potentially large fix for netcode; previously, large messages were not handled correctly, which led to some messages being dropped (most notably this would manifest as failing to join a lobby for no apparent reason)
• Improved selection of Beasties when selecting a target to tag in, in Field View, when one Beasties is offset due to floating in the air in front of another
• Fixed shadow on Diggum tails on their hills
• Fixed shadows on ropes which can be lowered (for real this time)
• "Maverick" trait no longer ignores opponent Traits when using some non-ball attacks (Cyclone was the primary offender)
• "Treat" trait now triggers when applied via Trait Dance
• "Chill" trait no longer prevents them from being made ANGRY by allies (this matches our intention, and the description of the trait)
• Added a missing "-" character to the font that displays team titles in the team title edit menu
• Beasties in inaccessible sections of certain areas will no longer spawn to avoid an unrecruitable Raremorph appearing somewhere
• Deprecated news post images are now automatically deleted on game start
• More safety checks to prevent players from exiting Expedition mode by mashing the "back" button, and some auto-reporting to help us find if and how this interaction might still be possible
• Fixed an issue with the wrong item being selected when navigating to a deeper layer of the Info menu
• Beasties traits and boosts now reset at the end of every turn while on the bench, correcting rare interactions with Beasties being moved off the field at strange moments during the offense turn
• Beasties recruited from Expeditions now remember special plays they learned during Expeditions. They also remember their recruitment location from the Expedition, and will have an event/memory of their journey to the summit.
• Added Ball shrooms to an area of Quartz Canyon which was missing them
• Attempted fix for an obscure crash that could happen after matches when certain scenes triggered after certain events
• Beasties with the Self-Assured trait will no longer yearn to be BOOSTed.
• During Bigmoon Bashes, win counts now don't update until they are collected from the server, preventing accidental double-counts and incorrect displays.
• The Superorganism trait now checks whether the Beastie is wiped when the trait resets, so that Trait-Danced Superorganisms still recover from WIPED correctly.
• Fixed text display issues during the credits sequence
• Adjusted spacing on a few menu screens to fix badly wrapped text or improve readability
• Adjusted layout of a couple areas
• Improved Combo Play generation combining "full restore" effects with "heal" effects
• Alessia's interaction no longer reads "Tower Tourney" before the challenge is unlocked
• Fixed a rare issue where certain Riley "reaction" scenes could double-trigger
• Adjusted Marlin's tutorial AI to de-prioritize attacking open lanes
• Fixed typos