» Category: Patch Notes

Now that the flurry of events from the Rivals Online Championship Series has concluded, we’re taking the opportunity to make some changes across the cast.

• Added angle flipper 10. This sends in the direction that the player is moving.
• When set to “Run” the training mode AI will now turn around when hitting a wall.
• Extended parry stun minimum value increased from 50 frames > 60 frames. Maximum value is still 100 frames.
  • Dan: This change is to avoid situations where you parry a projectile that has extended parry lag point blank and opponents are able to act faster than either player anticipates. The number change only increased the minimum value and not the maximum value.

STAGES

• Spirit Tree side blastzones expanded by 32px.
  • Dan: This change is to decrease the extremely early KOs we are seeing off the side platforms.
• Spirit Tree top blastzone expanded by 8px.
  • Dan: This change is to bring Spirit Tree’s ceiling closer to other stages so it is not as contentious of a counter-pick.
• Bug Fix: Aether Rock Wall pillars will no longer move while the game is paused.

• Charged Nspecial knockback scaling increased from 0.2 > 0.4.
  • Dan: This change is to give Charged Nspecial some more use since we hardly see it except for the extended disjoint that it has over a standard Nspecial.
• Uspecial final hit now has angle flipper 10 which is a new angle flipper that sends in the direction the player is moving.
  • Dan: This change is to remove janky and accidental KOs with Uspecial and also remove super safe KOs when near the edges. Zetterburn players will have to commit to off stage KOs which could result in their own deaths if aimed away from the wall. This change also makes using it at the end of a combo to KO off the top more consistent.

• Bubbles now have extended parry stun.
  • Dan: Long have we suffered from bubble spam. We have protected our prized water creature for long enough. Bubbles had standard parry stun before this patch but now with the new Extended Parry length, players will be able to punish Orcane similar to other projectile parries.
• Bug Fix: Puddle Dstrong reaches 1px higher to avoid strange interactions with opponents on Spirit Tree’s platforms.

• Nair endlag increased from 8 > 12 on hit (12 > 18 on whiff).
  • Dan: With how floaty Wrastor is, he was able to whiff a Nair off stage and still be in a good position to intercept a recovery with a different option. This change makes it harder for Wrastor to whiff and still get his punish. It also makes comboing with 2nd hit Nair less potent while off stage.
• Ustrong hurtbox now includes Wrastor’s head.
  • Dan: Wrastor Ustrong was a little too disjointed when missing his head from both the startup and especially the charged frames. Now you can hit him in the head!
• Bug Fix: Ustrong sweetspot moved slightly to match the art (1px forward, 3px down).
• Bug Fix: Uspecial sweetspot visual moved slightly to match the hitbox (6px forward).

• Initial dash speed increased from 5.75 > 6.25.
  • Dan: Kragg slow. We make Kragg faster.
• Bug Fix: Jab 3 reaches 1px higher to avoid strange interactions with opponents on Spirit Tree’s platforms.

• Ftilt linking hits damage increased from 2 > 3, final hit damage increased from 4 > 5 (total damage: 8 > 11).
  • Dan: While it creates smoke, Ftilt is Forsburn’s least interesting tilt to hit an opponent with. It doesn’t combo as well as his other tilts and dealt the least damage. (9 for the others) By bumping up it’s damage, we will hopefully see it mixed into more Forsburn’s combo games. 
• The first time you teleport into smoke, your double jump is restored.
  • Dan: Forsburn has struggled off stage now that top players are used to his smoke and clone antics. This change gives Forsburn players a more reliable use of neutral special off stage while still keeping a counter since other players can challenge his smoke by attacking off stage or throwing projectiles.
• Super clone now performs a weaker combust when exploding. Sourspot has 6 base knockback, 0.7 Scaling. Sweetspot has 7 base knockback, 0.9 scaling.
  • Dan: This change is to bring some more use to super clone since we rarely see it at a high level. The new combust is the same size as Forburn’s combust which is much larger than the standard clone combust.
• Bug Fix: When the real Forsburn is hit by bubbles, his clone will be destroyed.

• Fair base knockback decreased from 6 > 5.5 and knockback scaling increased from 0.5 > 0.65.
  • Dan: This change is to allow Maypul to close stocks with Forward Air more reliably when her opponent is above 100% while not changing the combo flow of Forward Air below 100% too much.
• Uspecial can now break projectiles.
  • Dan: Some Uspecials like the start of Zetterburns cannot destroy projectiles intentionally. Maypul’s Uppercut had this property but since the hitbox is only above her and not blocking the front of her body, she does not require it.

• Bug Fix: Fstrong final hitbox lowered by 1px to avoid strange interactions with opponents on Spirit Tree’s platforms.

• Bug Fix: Attacks that deal no knockback will no longer destroy Fspecial’s icicles if Fspecial is interrupted.

• Poison stacks now belong to the specific Ranno that applied them. The oldest poison stacks are removed when hitting someone.
  • Dan: This is a big change to the engine that Trevor made that affects normal play very little. If there is only one Ranno in play then nothing changes. If there is more than one Ranno then this allows players to be poisoned by both Rannos with the oldest poison stacks getting removed.
• Dying removes all poison stacks you’ve applied to opponents.
  • Dan: And here we have the reason for the change. We wanted to have Ranno match the other characters where his benefit is removed when he dies. But instead of having it so in a 2v2 or FFA, all poison stacks are removed whenever ANY Ranno dies, we had to make a system where players actually know who poisoned them so only that player’s poison stacks get removed.
• Bug Fix: Bubble’s collision no longer expands when it pops.

• Dspecial now removes burn and poison effects.
  • Dan: Clairen was tired of getting burned.

• Utilt hits 1 and 2 angle flipper adjusted from 4 (horizontal knockback goes toward center of hitbox) > 9 (toward center of hitbox).
• Utilt hits 1 and 2 base knockback increased from 5 > 7.
• Utilt hits 2 and 3 now reach the ground.
  • Dan: These three changes are to reduce the likelihood of people falling out of Sylvanos Utilt without really trying. These changes make the attack much more reliable to finish with the final hit.
• Bair Sweetspot knockback scaling decreased from 1.1 > 1.0.
  • Dan: Now that Bair is much easier to land reliably thanks to our previous changes, it is killing a little too early for our liking.
• Bair can be aimed with the right stick (takes priority over the left stick aiming).
  • Dan: I know some people just want to aim their Bair angle with their right stick. Well now you can!
• Uair frames between hit 1 and 2 reduced from 4 > 3.
  • Dan: This change is to reduce the likelihood of people falling out of Sylvanos Uair without really trying.
• Fspecial endlag increased from 24 > 28.
  • Dan: Fspecial is an incredibly strong burst movement option and does so much for Sylvanos on hit. We needed to make it worse on whiff.
• Fspecial can now cancel off of enemy flowers, Kragg’s rock, Shovel Knight’s rock, Kragg’s pillar, and Ranno’s bubble.
  • Dan: Now Sylvanos can hit more objects and fly around the stage! This change should help reduce the amount of times you are whiffing an Fspecial in certain matchups.
• Grass now dies following the cooldown state after using Dspecial.
  • Dan: This is another big change. We want Sylvanos to be the stage control Rival. He is all about his turf. But we do want him to have to work to get the stage in his favor. This change should hopefully keep Sylvanos players moving around and actively reapplying their grass and flowers to keep the stage in their favor.
• Grass cooldown state duration decreased from 5 seconds > 3 seconds.
  • Dan: Because the grass now goes away, we can shorten the cooldown state so players can start reapplying faster than they would have been able to.
• Bug Fix: All grass is removed on death, including grass that is on cooldown.
• Bug Fix: When Team Attack is off, teammates can no longer attack your flowers.
• Bug Fix: Corrected some attacks that spawned the wrong particles on hit.

• Elliana is now considered to be attacking when outside of her mech.
  • Trevor: Extended parry stun adds 10 frames to non-attacking opponents, so Elliana’s Uspecial would always have +10 parry stun frames without this change.

• Fair hit 2 no longer has tail invincibility.
  • Dan: Ori is not meant to have much disjoint. The character is extremely fast and has great frame data. This change is to remove the disjoint on Fair hit 2.
• Charged Flame startup on release increased from 15 > 19.
  • Dan: With the increased startup, it becomes possible to parry Charged Flame on reaction.
• A whiffed Charged Flame will now disable Sein for 1.5 seconds. Sein will not follow Ori, will not cool down from the Charged Flame, and cannot join Ori for team-up strong attacks during this time.
  • Dan: This is probably the biggest change of the update. The problem was that Ori is a great character alone and Charged Flame was adding too much protection and threat with little risk from the Ori player. There was no reason not to be using it all the time. We started with the question, “What can we do to punish a lazy or poorly used charged flame?” The first part of the change was the increased startup that you see above to make parrying it easier. But the second half is this change which punishes the Ori for whiffing Charged Flame by disabling Sein entirely for a short period. This will hopefully make players think twice before holding neutral special long enough to start a charge.
• Bug Fix: Etalus Fspecial icicles will no longer shatter when you bash them straight horizontally.

• Ftilt hitpause increased from 4 > 6.
• Fair hitpause increased from 4 > 6.
  • Dan: This attack had very low hitpause which made it difficult to DI even if you knew you were about to get hit by it. We are still keeping the hitpause low but increasing it a touch.
• Dair non-spike sweetspot base knockback decreased from 7 > 6.
  • Dan: While we enjoy Shovel Knight being a monster off stage, we want to make sure his options are varied and aren’t just one attack. This change is to peel a little bit of power away from the sweetspot. Now the sourspot and sweetspot have the same KB values, but different angles.
• Dair non-spike sweetspot base hitpause increased from 8 > 10.
  • Dan: The hitpause increase is to give players a bit better chance to DI it and also help distinguish it farther from the sourspot.
• Dair spike hitbox base hitpause increased from 8 > 10.
• Dair spike hitbox hitpause scaling increased from 0.8 > 1.2.
  • Dan: These two changes are the same idea as the previous one. The hitpause increase is to give players a bit better change to DI it and realize they are getting hit by a stronger attack.
• War Horn price decreased from 1200 > 1000.
• Mobile Gear price decreased from 1400 > 1200.
• Ghost Glove price increased from 1000 > 1400.
  • Dan: This is a change that reflects the current meta that we are seeing with many top players preferring Ghost Gloves across most matchups. We do love the laser fantasy of Ghost Gloves and do not want to remove the power spike players get from purchasing them. So instead, we are shifting the purchases to make that power spike later and make the other options more appealing due to cheaper costs. The goal is that in many matchups, the other options might be better upgrades now due to their cheaper costs.
• Shovel Knight can only cancel Fspecial with the dodge button when using Infinidagger.
  • Dan: Shovel Knight being able to cancel regular Fspecial with the dodge button was an unneccesary mixup since he can already jump cancel it. The fact that you couldn’t prepare for any punish after he started it because of the three options led us to removing the dodge button for standard Fspecial but keeping it for a fully charged Fspecial.
• Bug Fix: Chester will no longer follow Shovel Knight if his taunt is interrupted by an attack.

• You can now start training mode with only 1 player.
• If hitpause is interrupted by another hit, your ASDI will happen immediately.
  • ASDI is still checked in the middle of hitpause, so you won’t be able to ASDI if hitpause is interrupted before then.
• Incompatible replays will now show the version number in the replay menu.
• Holding the walk button will now prevent tap jumping with the dpad/keyboard controls.
• Dashing left now behaves identically to dashing right.
  • Previously, dashing left would override dashing right, while pivoting right would override pivoting left, leading to inconsistencies in both empty pivots and pivot babydashes.

• Fstrong and Dstrong fire consume hitboxes angle adjusted from 361 > 45.
  • It already used angle 45 almost all of the time due to the hitpause movement from the normal 2nd hit of both attacks, so this keeps the moves essentially the same aside from a few unpredictable edge cases.
• The burn effect can now be removed by parrying a projectile instead of just by parrying a physical hitbox.

• Ustrong no longer has extended parry stun.
• Ustrong no longer has upper-chest invincibility on startup.

• Clone now spawns on fire if Forsburn is on fire.

• Can now B-reverse Cloud Pop Nspecial.

• Fspecial icicles now have a landing hitbox that lasts 1 frame.
  • Fixes issues like these:

starting stream a little late tonight

in the meantime, enjoy this clip that summarizes the etalus-forsburn matchup pic.twitter.com/h1914xeL1z

— PG | FullStream (@FullStream) May 13, 2020

• Dair no longer goes into the landing lag state after ending on the ground.

• Ustrong no longer has extended parry stun.
• Getting parried now removes his Nspecial charge.

• Fspecial can now ledge cancel.
• Projectiles that spawn inside the plasma field but have the speed to escape the plasma field in 1 frame will now be halted in place so that they get destroyed.
  • Previously, they would escape the plasma field but be unable to hit anything, as the plasma field disables their collision immediately when they’re created, but doesn’t actually destroy the projectile until the next frame.

• Nspecial’s fist no longer detects collision with the ground/platforms on the first frame it is created.
  • This allows it to hit a mine placed on the ground when fired from directly above.
• Nspecial’s fist can no longer pass through platforms.

These patch notes apply to the Steam Workshop beta branch of Rivals of Aether. You can access this version of the game through Steam Betas if you own Rivals of Aether.

New Features

Thanks to the addition of Giik to the developers (along with the rest of our talented team) this update brings a ton of new planned features to Steam Workshop. One of the largest pieces is that stage scripting is now available – opening up the ability for Workshop Developers to get even more creative and push boundaries with their stages.

• Stage scripting is now available! Unlock this in your stage by opening its config.ini file and changing the scripting parameter to “1”. There’s no way to do this in-game; you’re gonna be dealing with that folder a lot anyway so get used to it!

Scripted stages will get 2 new tabs, in addition to Terrain and Player spawns: Markers and Article Spawns.

• Markers can be used for various reference points, like a moving platform’s path or the limits of where something can spawn. You can have 96 of these in a stage, and you can change their color as well as icons for better organization. Use the get_marker_x and get_marker_y functions to reference their positions.
• You have access to 3 different types of stage articles: obj_stage_article, obj_stage_article_platform, and obj_stage_article_solid. You can change which type the spawner will create in the editor, and the script set the article will use is dependent on the number of the spawner.
• Article spawners spawn articles. Shocker. You can place up to 99 of these in a stage total, though there’s 96 spawners. If you hit that 99 spawner limit, 3 of those are gonna use the same scripts. Though each placed spawner has its own set of properties.
• Yes, that means you have 96 sets of scripts stage articles can use. You can check which script set a stage article is using with the get_article_script function.
• Scripted stages will now detect the folders “/sprites/articles” (for sprites loaded via sprite_get), “/scripts”, “/scripts/attacks” and “/sounds/sfx” (for sounds loaded via sound_get).
• The spawners can display custom icons in the editor by adding the files “icon1.png”, “icon2.png”, etc. in the “/sprites/articles” folder. That should keep things nice and clear.
• Article spawners also have an array of Spawn Variables that you can change in the editor; This will be passed into the actual articles using the spawn_variables array.
  • For example, changing ARG3 in the editor will change spawn_variables[3] when the article actually spawns.
• The config.ini file also has a section for rule overrides! With this, you can change or disable things like stock and time limits, or force teams to be on for custom game modes. Setting the rule override to -1 will disable the override.
• The stage editor now also has a Save + Playtest feature! This way you can quickly test out how the stage looks and behaves with articles enabled in a match.

• Custom stages now also have Aether layouts! With this, you can create an entirely different layout for the stage. You can also make article spawners only activate if the stage is in Aether or Basic mode, so you can keep decorative articles on Basic mode (or just keep things ridiculous regardless).
• If you want a background layer to use a different sprite in Aether mode, put a file in the sprites folder with “a_” as a prefix. For example, the ground layer in Aether mode should be named “a_ground.png”. You can also rename the “thumb_big.png” file to “thumb_big_strip2.png” if you want to have a separate thumbnail for aether mode on the stage select!
• Players and stages alike also have new scripts: user_event0 – user_event15. These scripts don’t usually run; instead you call them using the new user_event function.

To provide examples for developers to dig into we’ve created two new stages packed with new functions from this update. You can download The Sandbox to check out advanced Stage Scripting and our original custom stage Bamboo Lodge to see its new Aether Mode.

New Functions

• set_view_position
• end_match
• get_match_setting
• get_marker_x/y
• is_special_pressed
• is_player_on
• is_aether_stage
• get_player_hud_color
• get_article_script
• print_debug
• user_event
• music_play_file
• music_stop
• music_set_volume
• music_fade
• music_crossfade
• is_laststock
• suppress_stage_music

New Player Variables

• burning_color
• activated_kill_effect

New Objects

• obj_stage_main
• obj_stage_article
• obj_stage_article_platform
• obj_stage_article_solid

Miscellaneous Changes

• Loading or reloading a mod now shows progress.
• Projectiles now display their hitboxes when enabled.
• The error for a custom script failing to compile now shows which script failed.
• Hitboxes now have the variable “can_hit_self”. This will let them hit the player that created them, but not teammates.

Bugfixes

• Online custom stages no longer crash if the selected stage was on page 2 or above.
• Replays now save the correct custom stage if the selected stage was on page 2 or above.
• Articles no longer crash if the sprite_index is below 0.
• Pre-draw and post-draw now run during playtesting and in the workshop window.
• The game’s file path is no longer copied to your clipboard on launch.
• All 16 palettes on workshop characters can be used online now.
• The buddy in the 5th custom slot no longer crashes the game.
• Having a workshop character in player 4’s slot for more than one match no longer crashes.
• Landing during a move now properly updates the hurtbox.
• Selecting a workshop character resets the color selected back to 0, meaning you can’t “copy” a color slot from a basegame character to a WS character, which can cause crashes if out of range of that character’s palette list
• Freezing a player no longer crashes when the ice breaks.
• Setting an opponent on fire on specific palettes as a workshop character no longer crashes.

• The game should no longer crash when hovering over a replay saved from the workshop branch.
• Buffering an attack after a parried jab will no longer put you in parry stun.
  • This does not apply to anything that would cancel the jab.
• Stage collision extended by 1000px downward to prevent objects like Ranno’s bubble from getting stuck under the stage.
• Playtest room platforms raised 4px to match the average platform height.
• Pressing jump and special at the same time while the special is on cooldown will no longer perform a grounded double jump.
• You can now perform all character-specific special cancels with the right stick set to Special.

• Uspecial final hit starting base knockback decreased from 8 > 7.
• Uspecial final hit final base knockback increased from 5 > 6.

• Dstrong hitbox moved 20px upward (now only reaches as far down as Wrastor’s feet).
• Nspecial no longer goes into the landing state when it ends on the ground.
• Nspecial endlag increased from 16 > 20.
  • This makes up for the 4 frames of landing that were removed.

• Dspecial spikes ground detection width adjusted from the full sprite width > 9px.
  • This will cause them to be destroyed even if the edge of the spike is touching the ground, like in this clip:
    

• Empowered Nspecial returns Forsburn’s double jump right when the smoke appears (6 frames earlier than before).
• Hitting Forsburn’s clone with bubbles will no longer deal damage to Forsburn.

• Jab 2 no longer goes into parry stun.
• Jab 2 can now be canceled into jab/tilts even on whiff.

• Sweetspot fair hitstun modifier decreased from 1.0 > 0.9.
• Cloud kick hitpause decreased from 12 > 9.
  • There are now 3 fewer frames where the cloud kick is at full strength.
• Hitting Absa during the 8 frames between placing a cloud with Fspecial and the hitbox appearing will cause the hitbox to not appear.
  • Same behavior as if you hit Absa before she releases special during Fspecial.

• Jab animation updated.
• Tilt boost window expanded by 1 frame.
• Fstrong hit 1 SDI multiplier decreased from x1 > x0.
• Hitting a player with Uair restores your Uspecial.
• Getting hit during Fspecial will destroy all of your icicles (15 frame window after icicles are created).
• The lifespan of strong attack shards now increases by a smaller amount with full charge: +10 frames > +4 frames.
  • This prevents the shards from interfering with Etalus’ own attacks:
    

• Bair sweetspot knockback scaling decreased from .6 > .55.
• Bair sweetspot active frames decreased from 8 > 3.
• Bair sweetspot’s removed active frames are now a new hitbox that has the same knockback stats as the sweetspot, except weaker base knockback that decays from 7.5 to 5.
• Bair sourspot knockback scaling decreased from .55 > .5.
• Bair sourspot base knockback now decays from 8 > 5.
• Bashed projectiles that are sent straight vertical will now face the same direction Ori is facing instead of always facing right.
• Sein will no longer disappear if Ori is KOd while performing a team-up strong attack.

• Tech roll speed decreased from 11 > 10.
• Fair strong hit (non-spike) inward range decreased by 8px.
• Needles will no longer break Kragg’s pillar from above.
• Dspecial’s air stall is not used up if the grounded version is interrupted.
• Bubbled enemy drift acceleration increased from .25 > .4.

• Bair max pin time decreased from 192 > 96.
• Bair sweetspot width reduced by 8px (still has the same max range).
• Bair strongest sourspot moved slightly outward to reduce the deadzone between it and the sweetspot.
• Bair now has 10 frames before it can be cancelled on whiff.
• Ustrong has 2 new hitboxes between the existing ones. They have the same knockback as the weaker of the two hitboxes that surround them.
• Fspecial hurtbox reduced on the top.

• Ori’s spirit flame will no longer remove Dynamo Mail’s charge if it doesn’t deal knockback.