News

• 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.