Gameplay Overhaul, Air Dashes, Ice Cube (New Suit) (0.38.0)

This is our largest patch to date in terms of gameplay impact. It aims to improve pacing and increase player freedom and expression in moment-to-moment gameplay. This is accomplished by speeding up various mechanics (knockback, jumps, etc), by introducing faster and more freeform aerial movement (airdashes), and by reworking several gear pieces to give them more movement-based and offensive-minded utility. The new Suit (Ice Cube) also reflects this, with its movement and edge cancel-focused passive abilities.

Huge thanks to the Discord community for helping test these changes over the past few weeks.

General

• Air dodge replaced with Air dash.

  • No longer grants invulnerability.

  • Much faster and actionable nearly immediately.

  • Now regained when hit by opponent.

  • Can now be used directly out of tumble (once hitstun ends).

  • Can grab ledge out of air dash.

• Reduced jumpsquat frames from 5f -> 3f. This means that jumping and wavedashing are 2 frames faster.

• More horizontal speed is maintained when jumping from run.

• Players get knocked back faster when hit. This is especially noticeable with spikes. At high knockbacks hitstun has been reduced to account for this.

• Slightly reduced hitlag (the freeze frames when landing an attack) for both attacker and defender.

• Decreased empty landing lag from 5 frames to 3 frames (an "empty land" is when a player lands while not mid-attack).

• Decreased base ground friction for all suits. This should make successive jumps -> aerial attacks feel smoother. It also makes edge cancelled aerials easier to perform.

Suit Scaling

• Suits are now different sizes from each other. This impacts hitboxes, hurtboxes, and projectile sizes.

• The "base" size is roughly 4-5% larger than the previous universal size.

• Increased run speed and max aerial drift speed universally by ~3% to partially compensate for this size increase.

• Suit size changes per suit, in comparison to previous universal size:

  • Space Suit +4%

  • Oleg +9% (additional +8% when Enraged)

  • Television +5%

  • Skelebob +4%

  • Cloak +5%

  • Copter +7%

  • Ice Cube +2%

The overall sizes were increased for a few reasons.

1. Bigger hurtboxes and hitboxes makes it slightly easier to land hits and combos, which should lead to more satisfying gameplay and should also help offset the overall higher gameplay speed this patch.

2. For aesthetic reasons I wanted more focus on the characters. Larger sizes enable me to slightly increase artistic detail for gear pieces and their skins.

3. Lastly, scaling everything up gives me room for future Suits I have planned that will be relatively smaller.

The variations in sizes should lead to greater variation in "feel" of suits, as they have slightly different ranges and vulnerabilities with their attacks and positioning.

New Suit - Ice Cube

• Added a new suit, Ice Cube: "a slippery ice cube, courtesy of the kitchen staff".

• Ice Cube trait: Icy - low traction, especially when wavedashing.

• Ice Cube trait: Cold Snap - Primary Weapon attacks are edge-cancellable.

• Added Frost Knight skin and several palettes for Ice Cube.

This is a moderately advanced suit (3/5 difficulty stars) that can achieve blistering ground speeds due to its extremely long wavedash. Its edge-cancelled grounded attacks also allow for lightning-fast, otherwise-impossible combo extensions. However, it is the lightest (easiest to KO) suit and its base stats are middling.

Television

• Successful aerial attacks can be immediately cancelled into teleport.

• Teleport is faster, shorter-range, and no longer grants invulnerability.

• Reduced run speed.

Previously Television's Teleport was mostly useful for its defensive capabilities, allowing players to snap to ledge or mix up their landing while getting juggled.

It is now significantly more useful in neutral and offensively, allowing for rapid repositioning and aerial followups.

Note that the teleport can be buffered mid-hitlag while connecting with an aerial. Also note that hitting an opponent's shield does not allow you to cancel the attack into a teleport.

Oleg

• Increased rage damage cutoff from 75 to 80.

• Oleg now increases in size while enraged.

• Oleg now gains Iron Hide (Super Armor while charging strong attacks) only while Enraged.

Enraged Oleg should feel more "boss-like" with this change. While the increased size does make him more vulnerable, his enraged attack radius is huge, and Super Armor becoming more situational should highlight its utility.

Space Suit

• Increased run speed.

Copter

• Aerial jump is now snappier, while retaining double jump cancel mechanic.

• Slightly increased run speed.

• Reduced max hover time from 120 to 110 frames.

• Can no longer maintain hover while using secondary attacks in the air.

Skelebob

• Increased run speed.

• Piercing Shadow damage through shield reduced from 1/2 to 1/3.

Crosbow

• Can now shoot in air. Can turnaround while shooting in air.

• Projectile is now affected by gravity.

• Reduced shield damage and shield stun multiplier.

Buckler

• Now usable in air. Can turnaround while in air.

• Successful attacks no longer gain a hitstun bonus against shielding or countering enemies.

• Increased start lag by 2 frames.

• Hitbox now lasts 2 frames longer.

• Slightly reduced hitstun.

• Now gives slightly more momentum.

• Despite now being usable in the air, Buckler retains its ability to be edge canceled. (If you use buckler from the stage, but dash off the ledge mid-attack, the remaining attack lag will be cancelled).

• Decreased buckler damage to 4/8 (uncharged/charged). knockback is unaffected by this damage decrease.

Buckler was previously quite limited in its utility, mostly to call out shield-heavy opponents and allowing for occassional cool edge cancelled followups. The new Buckler is no longer quite as punishing against shield, but it now provides significant utility as a mobility tool in the air, allowing for bursts of speed and rapid changes of direction. It also allows players to contest opponents shielding on platforms.

Harpoon

• Decreased start lag by 2 frames.

• Decreased range (it is now 3 chain links shorter than it was before).

• Now usable in air.

• Deals moderate damage and low knockback to opponents when used in air. (Doesn't go through shield).

• When the aerial harpoon connects with the side of a stage, it acts as a tether and pulls you toward the stage, aiding in recovery.

Due to its long range and slowness, Harpoon was previously in a weird state - oppressive at less experienced levels of play, but considered weak among veterans. By reining in its extremes (faster but shorter) it should feel more balanced across experience levels. The situational aerial utility should help it stand out more from other grab-based secondaries.

Spiked fist

• Now deals extra hitstun against shielding opponents (like buckler used to).

• Deals less hitstun against non-shielding opponents.

• Can now turnaround while in air.

• Reduced damage from 12 to 8.

By introducing Buckler's old anti-shield hitstun multiplier, this change is intended to make Spiked Fist gameplay more interesting for both attacker and defender - baiting and predicting shield is now more important, and followups are less one-dimensional due to the variation in hitstun. This is also intended to reduce emphasis on usage against aerial opponents (Spiked Fist sometimes competed too well with Primary Weapon aerial attacks in this area).

Plunger

• Reduced endlag of all throws by 1 frame.

• Slightly reduced knockback scaling on Up Throw and Back Throw (this makes followups more consistent at higher damage).

• Slightly extened inner range of grab.

Gauntlet

• Reduced endlag of Up Throw and Down Throw by 1 frame.

• Slightly reduced knockback scaling on Up Throw and Down Throw (this makes followups more consistent at higher damage).

Chakram

• Forward Tilt projectile is now affected by gravity.

Warp Mine

• Faster toss, place, and detonate.

• Strong toss has less range.

• Explosion is weaker against opponents (unchanged when self detonating for recovery).

• Self detonate is now wall-techable.

These changes are intended to make Warp Mine feel a little less cumbersome to use (especially when caught offstage without an onstage mine to teleport to), while also reining in its potential for projectile spam.

Parasol

• Up special and side special send at more horizontal angles, making them more effective for KOing and comboing offstage. Increased damage of weak hit of up special from 4 to 6.

• Parasol projectile now falls faster.

Jet Boots

• Can now cancel hover into jump and air dash 2 frames sooner, aerial attacks 1 frame sooner.

• Decreased start lag of Down Special (Spin Attack) by 1 frame.

AI

• Bots now utilize air dashes, new air secondaries, and TV teleport cancels.

• Fixed issue where bots would stop recovering while their opponent was respawning

UI/UX

• Gamepad inputs now automatically remove focus from lobby chat box.

• Increased time limit for FFA Arena matches.

• Simplified intro tutorial.

• In custom stages players will now always face toward the center when they spawn.

Bugs

• Fixed rare buggy interaction between grab and UFO side special.

• Fixed bug where players could unintentionally fall through moving platforms during hitlag.

• Fixed bug where players would respawn too high.

• Fixed crossbow visual glitch in loadout menu.

• Fixed bug where warp mine could clip through stage.

• Improved stability of private lobbies.