Rivals of Aether Update 0.0.4
The “Jabs for Days” Update
10/1/2015
Since this update is mostly bug-fixes and only minor balance changes, we are pushing it as a full update. Later in Early Access, we might play with the balance some more and could look at doing Beta Opt-Ins before those changes go live. Because we are still early into our development and learning just like you are, please be patient with our process.
General:
Jab combos are fun, but they don’t give players much chance to style. At high or low percents, finishing a jab combo is optimal unless you expect a tech. Now we are allowing players to get more creative with their jab combos.
- Jab Combos can now be cancelled into tilts on the same frame that they can be continued. Jab 1 or Jab 2 can be cancelled into any of the 3 tilts by holding a direction while pressing the A button. You can continue the jab combo by keeping your stick neutral while pressing A. This works for all 6 characters.
- Jab 1s now cause a flinching animation to grounded opponents instead of knockback. This prevents Jab 1s from being tech-able when hitting a grounded opponent.
- Neutral Respawns: Players now respawn in the center of the stage. This change will hopefully reduce respawning players from gimping opponents.
- Up and Down Angles Adjusted on Left Controller Stick. The input angles for both up and down have been increased. Hopefully now you will have to hold your controller at an angle closer to 45 degrees to register an Up or Down rather than 30 degrees.
Zetterburn:
Alright Zetterburn mains, I know you are worried about your favorite lion. I am here to say that we are keeping his core intact for the foreseeable future. With that said, some of his numbers are a bit off compared to the rest of his kit and to the other Rivals. Therefore, we are hitting some of Zetterburn’s damage numbers so he doesn’t rack up it up so quickly with some of his aerials.
- Zetterburn Down Air Damage Reduced from 15 to 12.
- Zetterburn Neutral Air Damage Reduced from 3,3,5 to 2,2,5.
- Zetterburn Forward Air Damage Reduced from 10 sour, 15 sweet to 8 sour, 13 sweet.
- Zetterburn Up Air Damage Reduced from 15 sweet to 13 sweet.
- Zetterburn Forward Tilt hitbox adjusted to match visual. Has more range forward now.
Kragg:
Kragg players are also worried about their favorite beetle. To that I say, we aren’t impacting much today except we took a good hard look at his Pillar and tried to hit at some of the campy strategies both on stage and off stage. We also looked at Down Special which has the ability to slow down a match greatly due to how safe it is.
- The Pillar will now start falling under the weight of players. One and a half seconds after spawning, the pillar will begin to slowly descend if any player or rock is sitting on it. This prevents players from camping on a pillar below the stage line.
- The Pillar can now be destroyed on the way up, causing Kragg to go into fall state. This will force Kragg to be a bit more careful about when he uses his Pillar on stage and will also allow players to counter the Pillar with a projectile if they can make a good read.
- Kragg’s Down Special Recovery has been increased from 12 to 16 frames.
- Kragg now has an appropriate amount of Parry Stun if Down Special is parried allowing it to be punished.
- Bug Fix: Kragg can no longer tech while holding a rock.
Wrastor:
Wrastor is the king of the air and players are having a great time as long as they can read their opponents. Our Wrastor updates are focused on his Down Air to make the move more enjoyable to use.
- Wrastor Down Air has a new animation that looks and feels way better.
- Wrastor Down Air has a bigger hitbox during the active frames.
- Wrastor Down Air now has a sour spot after the active frames on his wings that causes a weak semi-spike.
- Wrastor Down Air Startup increased from 7-8 frames and recovery increased from 12-15 frames.
- Parrying Wrastor’s Up Special will no longer stop him in his tracks.
Forsburn:
We are still watching Forsburn’s clone very closely but want to give it some more time to develop. We are also watching his recovery into smoke clouds. However, today we are adjusting one of this most used attacks to hopefully open up more creativity in his game.
- Forsburn Dash Attack Damage reduced from 11-9
- Forsburn Dash Attack Knockback Scaling increased from .3 to .4.
- Fixed a bug where Forsburn could not perform the second hit of his Forward Strong with the attack button when facing left.
- Fixed a bug where a clone on fire was causing Forsburn burn damage.
Orcane:
Seems like players are having a great time learning our Whale Cat Snake (terminology courtesy of Sky Williams). We tweaked his Up Air in efforts to make the move more reliable and line it up with other KO abilities.
- Orcane Up Air Base Knockback Reduced from 10-9. Knockback Scaling increased from .75 to .8.
- Orcane Up Air Sour Spot Active Frames increased from 8-10.
Maypul:
Now that the game has been out for a week, players are just now beginning to uncover the craziness that is Maypul. We wanted to adjust some of her gameplay in attempts to open up some variety in her playstyles.
- Maypul Jab 1 and 2 startup reduced from 5 frames to 3 frames.
- Maypul Dash Attack Horizontal Speed reduced from 14 to 12. This is to allow the move to combo into itself more appropriately and prevent it from having too large of punish range.
- Maypul Back Air hitboxes increased to match the visuals.
- Maypul Up Strong Active Frames increased from 3 to 6. Hitbox also adjusted to match her visual.
Bug Fixes:
- We have found a bug causing players to lose their double jumps in specific scenarios. We have removed this issue and expect players to retain their double jumps more consistently.
- AI Kragg will now recover from his pillar in practice mode.
- Fixed a bug that caused frame one of hitboxes to be incorrectly aligned.
- A Profile’s Right Stick Settings should now work in online matches without having to enter the options menu again.
- The Simple Smoke setting has been renamed to Simple Effects. It now also disables particles on the basic version of the Treetop Lodge. We will be adding more effects to this option in later updates.
- Kragg can now create a pillar under the Air Armada due to the stalling potential being removed.
- Kragg no longer retains Super Armor after cancelling his Side Special into Jump into Up Strong immediately.
Online:
- We have fixed some bugs causing players to be automatically matched when glitched or AFK in queue. This should reduce the impact of Wishbone561s even more.
- We have updated the visual at the top of match-made games to be crowns so players are more aware of the best of three format.
- Added a “Game and Set” UI Element for when a Best of Series ends.
- We have fixed a bug that allowed players to deselect a character after choosing ready causing the match to load incorrectly.
- Invites have moved away from best of 3 and are now currently just a counter. Players can play as many matches as they want and scores will reset if they leave. Matchmaking remains best 2 out of 3 series.
- We hope to add series back to Invited games in a later update but for now players can simply leave and then re-invite to start a new series.
- We have updated some of our join / leave logic and have reduced some of the wait time.
- Kragg’s Pillar no longer stutters during Online Play.
Thanks!
Dan