Mitts 0.1.3336

A big one: a long-awaited fix for online input lag at higher ping, a full skating movement and animation overhaul, a new goalie save type, and a round of bot AI fixes.

🌐 Netcode

• Fixed online responsiveness getting progressively worse — and inputs occasionally dropping outright — the higher your ping climbed. The system that compensates for latency now calculates the correct lead directly from your connection instead of trying to converge on it over time, so it's accurate immediately and doesn't run out of room on bad connections. Measured eliminating dropped inputs entirely across the whole range tested, including matches that were seeing inputs dropped roughly half the time at 200ms ping.
• Fixed a visible snap in the puck's position at the exact moment you release a shot online — it used to jump slightly from where it actually left your stick.

⛸️ Skating

• Reworked skating physics — speed now builds up over time instead of snapping to top speed, braking skids you to a stop instead of reversing instantly, letting off the stick coasts you much farther, and turning carves like an edge instead of redirecting on a dime.
• Skaters now move as one connected body instead of a loose upper and lower half, and lean naturally with that new movement — digging forward out of a start, leaning into a turn, sitting back on a hard stop — instead of snapping into poses or rocking with every stick tap. Turns properly bank, and a hard braking turn gets its own distinct dug-in stopping pose.
• Fixed arms looking overstretched on certain reaches, and fixed a knocked-down player floating above the ice with their skates clipping through the surface instead of lying flat on it.
• Fixed replays always showing a sprinting skater gliding like he was cruising, and fixed replayed wrist shots always showing a forehand grip even when the original shot was a backhand.
• Fixed other players' lean, turning posture, and body-check recoil direction sometimes not matching what they were actually doing online — previously approximated locally, now read directly from them. This also fixes leans not appearing at all in goal replays and the replay viewer.
• Should run a bit lighter under the hood, especially with more players on screen.

🥅 Goalies

• New: the half-butterfly — on a low shot headed just past one pad, the goalie now drops only that pad and stays up on his other skate instead of dropping fully into a two-pad butterfly. It's quicker to recover from and pushes immediately if he needs to slide further. He still goes to the full butterfly for anything through the five-hole, anything above pad height, a shot he hasn't read yet, or when a second attacker threatens a rebound on his other side.
• Fixed a screener standing directly in front of the goalie blinding him completely — he can now lean around a close-in screen to pick up the release earlier.
• Fixed wraparounds sometimes sliding through the post when the goalie's pad only looked like it was sealing it — he now has to genuinely seal the post, facing the right way, before conceding; weaker goalies also push to the post more slowly, so it's a real race by skill level.
• Goalies now push to get squared up for a rebound shot when shuffling over wouldn't get there in time, instead of being stuck shuffling or sliding to the post.
• Fixed goalies setting up against a pass from behind the net or the corner based on where the puck currently was instead of where it was actually headed, leaving the far side open.

🤖 Bot AI

• Fixed lower-difficulty bots occasionally failing to stop or whiffing a body check they'd already committed to.
• Fixed bots setting up breakout passes to a streaking teammate without accounting for how far he'd actually coast before stopping — they no longer feed a pass that would be whistled offside.
• Fixed puck carriers flinching side to side when a defender matched their pace right on their hip — they now drive a confident, straight line instead of juking themselves into a strip.
• Fixed 5v5 point defensemen swapping sides and crossing paths awkwardly whenever one of them pinched down — they now hold their side.
• Fixed defenders still getting credit for covering a man after they'd already left to chase a loose puck or carry it themselves — attackers can now actually get open in that gap.

Compatibility

• Network protocol updated this patch — everyone needs this build to play together.