Some good stuff is going out with this one. Two new special palettes are being added (with special unlock conditions), new animations/hitsparks, and numerous bugfixes.
We did a lot of restructuring and cleanup of our Pixel Lobby code while we've been working on Story Mode, things players shouldn't notice, but if you experience any general oddities or crashes in the Pixel Lobby, particularly issues introduced with this patch, please let us know.
This update is likely going to be the last one before the end of our Early Access period. We'll have more info on our 1.0 release soon.
For now, have some patch notes:
Unlockable Shadow Palettes
It is now possible to unlock shadow palettes for all characters via either of these two conditions:
- Win the "Apex Predator" bonus during a Salt Mines run to unlock the shadow palette for the character you played during that run.
- "Apex Predator" is obtained when a player earns enough salt to become the boss bear, then manages to defeat all other players during the Final Showdown.
- You must be playing on an official (blue) Pixel Lobby server to unlock shadow palettes this way. In the very near future, we plan to extend this capability to partnered (green) servers.
- Purchase the "Shadow Palettes Pack" DLC on Steam, priced at $1.99 USD (subject to regional pricing). This instantly unlocks shadow palettes for all current and future characters.
"Tennis Shoes" Backer-Exclusive Palette
We present this special palette pack as a reward to those who contributed at least $12 USD to our crowdfund campaign back in 2015.
- You must enter a unique product code into Steam to unlock this palette pack. The code will be sent to qualifying backers via email through Backerkit.
- NOTE: At the time of this writing, Valve is still processing our request for the 10,000 keys we need for everyone. It might be a day or two after the patch until they go out. We'll make a separate announcement when that happens.
- EDIT: We received the keys and distributed them on 2/26/20.
- This palette pack will always remain a backer exclusive.
Menus/UI
- The title screen has been updated with the current logo.
- Fixed a typo on the match ready screen (the GGPO Frame Delay explanation).
Pixel Lobby
Salt Mines
- There are now icons beside the button prompts on the Salt Mines HUD, to help players better match the prompts to actions.
- Press F to do whatever it is you bound it to do.
General
- Fixed a sound attenuation issue that was causing certain sound effects to play at full volume no matter where a player was in the lobby. This affected fight clouds (start and end), emotes, and water splash sounds, which should all now respect the distance you are to them.
- The length of a full day/night cycle has been extended to 10 minutes (up from 5 minutes).
- The time it takes to transition from day to night (and from night to day) has been extended to 10 seconds (up from 2 seconds).
- Overworld notifications no longer cut off long player names.
- Overworld notifications now have a black outline, making them easier to see over bright terrain.
Gameplay
General
- All characters' shadow palettes now have an improved, unified color scheme.
- All characters now have improved swipes and hitsparks on normal attacks, with more on the way.
- Tianhuo's stage now has additional background Longma characters.
- All characters now properly transition to a falling animation when KO'd into a stagger state while airborne. No more "air flop", sorry.
- Fixed various inconsistencies with the frame number meter is actually spent when activating a level 1 super. On all characters, meter is now spent on the same frame the input is completed, as intended.
- It is no longer possible to prematurely land on the floor when an air throw connects close to the ground.
Arizona
- Arizona's Headbucks and supers have a new set of swipes and hitsparks.
Velvet
- Velvet now has a proper set of animation effects for her Wind ability.
- The effect for Icicle Eruption now instantly disappears if Velvet is struck. Before, only the hitbox was doing so.
- Fixed an error on Velvet's command list (introduced in the previous patch) that said her level 1 super was "air ok". It is not, and never has been.
Oleander
- Oleander now has an entirely new animation for 6A. The frame data remains unchanged.
- Oleander now has slightly-improved effect for the book's attack arc during 6C while Fred is out. We plan to do more with this later when there is time.
- Oleander can no longer cancel her backdash into a forward dash during the i-frames.
- Fixed an issue that caused Oleander's palette to scramble during her fall animation after certain knockdowns.
- Fixed a bug that prevented Oleander from double jumping after an air tech if brought into the air from a grounded state. Air techs now always refund her double jump.
Paprika
- Paprika's backdash now behaves more in-line with all other characters.
- Paprika can no longer cancel the startup of Zippy Teleport into a throw.
- Fixed a bug that caused Paprika to reappear in the wrong spot during Zippy Teleport while affected by Velvet's level 2 super, or when another Paprika teleported at the same time.
Pom
- Pom can now combo Bark! into her level 1 super when her opponent is airborne and at max Juggle Decay. Previously, this would only work if the opponent was on the ground when hit by Bark!
- Fixed various puppy palette miscolorations on spawn/exit animations.
- The animation effect around Big Papa during Pom's level 1 super is no longer cardboard, again.
- Fixed a bug that prevented Pom from floating or air dashing after an air tech if brought into the air from a grounded state. Air techs now always refund those options.
Tianhuo
- All Firecracker attacks have a new swipe effect.
- Fixed inconsistency in damage between grounded and air throws during Ran Shao Feng.
- Fixed a bug that caused Volcanic Crash to push Juggle Decay beyond its limit.
- Volcanic Crash no longer keeps a hurtbox through its animation (after it connects). Tian now loses her hurtbox when Volcanic Crash connects.
- Tianhuo's collision box during her airdash now properly matches the position of her character model.
- Tianhuo is no longer obscured by the flames of Volcanic Bash
- Whiffing an air grab during Flight now ends Flight (while NOT in Ran Shao Feng).
- Fixed a bug that prevented Tianhuo from air dashing after an air tech if brought into the air from a grounded state. Air techs now always refund her air dash.
Known Issues
- If you choose "random" on character select and it lands you on the Tennis Shoes palette, the special announcer line may play improperly.