News

Patch 1.2.2 – Money Match Me, Bro

Ranno and Clairen have been out for 3 weeks now – amassing over 465,000 games played and multiple tournaments under their belts (or collars). As we’ve been working through the occasional bugs and listening to your feedback, we feel we’re at a good critical mass now to release a new patch. Read on for bugfixes and balance changes you’ll be seeing in 1.2.2.

social-image-v2@700wide

New Feature – Money Matches

MM-wager

Got some extra Aether coins? Now you can challenge other players in exhibition or friendly games to a money match. Wager anywhere from 100 – 9,999 coins and battle in up to a best-of-9 to determine the ultimate winner. If you need some Aether coins to wager, you can earn them by playing any game mode. There’s even bonus gold from tutorials.

MM-victory

Full Patchnotes

banner_general

  • Money matches – Players can now wager Aether coins in friendly or exhibition matches.
  • New tutorials – The Hitfalling tutorial has been added to the Advanced Offense section. The Drift DI tutorial has been added to the Advanced Defense section. Check these out even if you’re a veteran!
  • Ranno and Clairen dev mode – Simple dev mode files have been added for Ranno and Clairen.
  • Quality of life changes for poisoned Rivals:
    • Characters now flash green when taking damage from poison.
    • Taunting when poisoned no longer incurs damage.
    • Characters cannot take poison damage for a short time (within 6 frames) of taking poison damage.
  • Removed the option to turn pause off – This caused weird situations where you couldn’t exit certain modes due to having no pause menu. We think hold-to-pause is still superior for tournament play.

Bugfixes

  • Ranno and Clairen now save their random banned state – Previously, both of these characters would always reappear as available in your random bans when starting a new session.
  • Projectile parry lockout – Parrying a projectile now instantly locks out your ability to parry/roll for 30 frames (this is a good thing). Previously it locked it out for 55 frames as soon as you cancelled the parry endlag. This meant you could still be locked out from parrying again even after you lost parry invincibility.
  • Replay names and special characters – Using “#” in replay names no longer acts as a line break.
  • Replay desync issue – Fixed an issue where fastfalling could cause replay desyncs.
  • Game stats save again – Our bad.

Ori and Sein

As a byproduct of a change last patch, Ori was able to avoid being stunned by an opponent’s parry after dash attacking. We’ve fixed this along with a few other small issues.

  • Ori can no longer cancel dash attack if it was parried.
  • Spirit Flame and Charged Flame now deal damage to Ori while they’re poisoned.
  • Reopening Uspecial no longer deals poison damage.
  • Charging Sein no longer prevents Ori from reopening Uspecial.

Ranno

Everyone was scared of the sword, but it turns out The Poisonous Pacifist might have been the one to look out for all along. To keep this monk centered, we’re toning back a few of his hitboxes and knockback values, as well as giving him some quality of life changes on dair, tongue, and sweetspots.

  • Nair startup increased from 2 > 3 frames.
  • Nair knockback scaling decreased from 0.7 > 0.6.
  • Nair hitbox size reduced.
    This was shrunk to remove most of the disjoint.
  • Fair spike hitbox size reduced.
    This was reduced because the spike hitbox was too easy to land. It was even big enough to cause problems when you wanted the normal hit but got the spike instead.
  • Fair spike knockback decreased from 7+0.7 > 5+0.9.
    This reduces the base knockback at lower percentages while increasing it at higher ones. We want this move to still be strong but not absolutely demolish people at low percents.
  • Bair startup increased from 3 > 4 frames.
  • Bair sweetspot size reduced.
    Players would often accidentally get the sweetspot when trying to get the reverse hit.
  • Bair sweetspot now changes which visual effect and sound effect is displayed after 5 frames to reflect the knockback decay.
  • Dair final hit knockback angle increased from 80 > 90 degrees.
  • Dair final hit damage increased from 3 > 4.
  • Dair final hit knockback scaling reduced from 0.4 > 0.25.
    These Dair changes are intended to make the move easier to combo and follow up with.
  • Ustrong recovery (on hit) increased from 20 > 23 frames.
  • Ranno no longer falls through platforms after whiffing Fspecial.
  • Tongue can no longer detect collision with invincible enemies.
  • Tongue active window reduced from 24 > 19 frames.
  • Ranno now receives extended parry stun when his tongue is parried.
  • Bubble time per stack reduced from 45 > 40 frames.
  • Ranno’s collar now flashes white while Nspecial is fully charged.
  • Tongue now shows its collision box when hitboxes are visible.
  • When tongue touches an opponent but fails to reel them in, Ranno no longer goes into special fall.
  • Clairen

    While people have alternatively adored/struggled with our third sword character since Wrastor, Clairen overall is pretty cool. This patch we’re moving a little bit of her power away from some of her non-tippered attacks, as well as reducing active frames on others. Our goal is to make good Clairens shine through exceptional spacing.

    • Utilt endlag (on hit) increased from 14 > 17 frames.
    • Utilt sourspot damage decreased from 8 > 6.
    • Dtilt sourspot damage decreased from 7 > 5.
    • Nair final tipper hit angle changed from 32 > 37 degrees.
      The old angle was a little too good at getting some surprising kills which wasn’t our intent with this move.
    • Fair landing lag increased from 8 > 9.
    • Fair recovery (on hit) increased from 13 > 14 frames.
    • Bair sourspot damage decreased from 6 > 5.
    • Active frames reduced on some moves:
      • Fair active 3,3 > 2,2.
      • Bair active 4 > 2.
      • Fstrong active 4 > 2.
      • Dtilt active 3 > 2.
      • Jab active 4 > 2.
      • Ustrong active 4 > 3.
    • Fspecial endlag increased from 24 > 32 frames.
    • Fspecial’s endlag can now only be cancelled if the move started in the air and ended on the ground, or if it hits an opponent. The cancel window is now 3 frames later on the air to ground version and 3 frames earlier when hitting an opponent.
      The windows were moved to make the reward for hitting easier to follow up on, while on a whiff we don’t want this move to be too safe.
    • Fixed a bug that prevented aerial Fspecial from being cancellable on hit with a double jump.
    • Taunt animation updated.

    Forsburn

    Nothing to see here, just a little fix to some clone issues.

    • Clone explosion command duration has been increased from 6 > 7 frames.
      This prevents an issue where it could happen twice when holding Dspecial.
    • Clone attacks while Forsburn is poisoned no longer cause damage to Forsburn.

    Let us know how you like the new characters along with any other thoughts in the comments below! As always, thanks for playing.

    NA RCS October Recap

    The NA Rivals Championship Series monthly is over for October – with some surprising results. If you missed the event and were hoping to catch it spoiler free, here’s a playlist with the VoDs where you can watch the tournament in peace. Go check it out on YouTube and come back to this article later to dodge spoilers.

    Though we’ve had thousands of players by this point in the season, only the top of the standings will secure their travel vouchers to our finals at Genesis 5.

    na-standingsStaying on top is only getting tougher as entrant counts rise (440 entrants this Saturday!) and competition gets fiercer. With just 3 events left, including this one, top players were working hard to solidify their leads and make some last minute jumps.

    Though most players wouldn’t have predicted the outcome of this event, Windows was making it his mission to at least land in the top 8. He stepped away from his usual position as a commentator this weekend citing that, “[he’s] been playing better recently” and wanted to get at least one top 8 this year.

    VexX | DolphinBrick has also made some massive jumps the last few months with amazing placements. His first and second placings have shuffled the top 4 around and his consistancy makes him a player to look out for.

    Even Burrito | LBO and T2 | CakeAssault will have to watch their backs with players rapidly closing in.

    You can see the full standings and follow the race on smash.gg, or even even find yourself there if you’ve placed high enough at any events.

    Congratulations once again to Windows for taking home the gold in one of the biggest online events this year!

    There’s also still time to register for our RCS Season 2 finals at Genesis 5. Just like last year, we plan to make this an event to remember. You can still sign up with regular event pricing at smash.gg/G5.

    Ranno and Clairen Controllers by Controller Chaos

    If you’re a fan of custom controllers, Controller Chaos has just added some amazing Rivals designs by El Ranno for our two newest characters. You can pick them up on controllerchaos.com in the Rivals section, as well as find designs for our other original characters.

    promo-image-clairen-gcc@700-wide

    promo-image-ranno-gcc@700-wide

    By popular demand Controller Chaos has also added Xbox One controllers to the Rivals line. They even do custom requests so don’t be afraid to reach out if you want one of these designs on an Xbox 360 or your other favorite controller.

    promo-image-clairen-xb1@700-wide

    promo-image-ranno-xb1@700-wide

    Patch 1.2.0 – Ranno and Clairen

    Welcome to the Rivals of Aether 1.2.0 patchnotes! There are plenty of exciting additions to Rivals today including two new characters, Halloween seasonal colors, a brand new ranked season, and more. Read on for all the detailed notes and other good stuff.

    patchnotes-social-image-v4

    New Characters – Ranno and Clairen

    ranno-clairen-steam-image@three-quarter-sizeRanno, The Poisonous Pacifist and Clairen, The Flame’s Salvation are now available on Steam! These Rivals come as a DLC two pack and can be added to your roster for $4.99.

    Ranno is our third Rival to represent the water element while Clairen fights on the side of flame. Pick them up today on Steam or try them for free in their tutorials, accessible through the solo menu in game.

    Halloween Seasonal Colors

    The Rivals are ready for Halloween with festive costume colors available in all gameplay modes. Be on the lookout for spooky Orcanes and mummy Maypuls as you scare your way through ranked and exhibition.

    halloween_skins_image-v4

    Ranked Season 3

    Patch 1.2.0 marks the beginning of ranked season 3 for the online ladder. This means that everyone gets a clean slate and fresh climb starting at 1000 ELO in ranked mode. All records from last season have been immortalized on the Steam leaderboards, and new icon rewards will be available to you depending on the rank you achieved.

    s2-icons

    Congratulations to everyone who secured medal placements (bronze players at 1200+ ELO, silver at 1500+ ELO, and gold at 1800+ ELO).

    banner_general

    • Parry Cooldown – Missing a parry now gives it a 20 frame cooldown. We added this to prevent people from spamming parry back to back, as the reward for landing the parry was too high in some situations (and it was frustrating to play against).
    • “Random” Stage Selection – When choosing random on local stage select, you can no longer get the same stages you played on in the previous 2 games. This technically makes random, well, less random… but it feels better since brains are dumb. Online stage select already behaves this way so this brings local up to speed.
    • Outward Sending Hitbox Normalization – We’ve normalized all outward hitting moves so that the sides don’t kill off the top blastzone earlier than the top of the move. This makes our intent for these types of moves actually line up with the execution. Knockback has been adjusted to keep relative power levels the same based on the new formula.
      • Shine (charged and uncharged) knockback has been adjusted to be the same when hit from the side, but will now be a little stronger on the top and bottom. Increased from 5+.55 > 7+.65.
      • Forsburn’s Combust sweetspot knockback has been increaesd from 4+1.1 > 7+1.3. Sourspot increased from 4+0.9 > 6+1.1.
      • Absa’s Dspecial knockback changed to 5 + 1.5.

    Bugfixes

    • The Spirit Tree really wants you to pick it – Fixed a bug in local stage select that allowed The Spirit Tree to come up on random even if it was banned.
    • What happened to my dodge – Fixed a bug where you would lose your air dodge when getting hit during its startup, but only if you air dodged out of a tumble.
    • I’m taking you down with me – Fixed a game crash that happened when bashed clone explosion was parried.
    • AZCards’ Long Lost Bug – Fixed a bug that stopped Kragg from destroying an opponent’s pillar in the ditto.
    • Angles thinking face – Removed angle flippers on Etalus ice shards.

    Ori and Sein
    While Ori and Sein were close to how we wanted them to feel on release, Sein ended up hogging more of the spotlight than we liked. This patch we’ve toned down some of their moves that were simply too good and gave Ori a few quality of life improvements as well.

    We’ve specifically targeted charged flame to subdue the little orb of doom and have also made the duo easier to use with default controls.

    • New Charged Flame mechanics have been changed:
      • Hold special for 15 frames to initiate charged flame.
      • If you let go before 55 frames (about 1 second) it will stay charged until you tap it again. If you let go after 55 frames it will blow up as soon as you release.
      • Maximum hold time has been reduced to 4 seconds.
      • Sein now has 10 frames of startup before exploding.

    This change is intended to make charged flame less oppressive in coverage, more difficult/impressive to time correctly, and more user friendly with default controls.

    • Charged Flame active frames decreased from 12 > 4.
      Twelve active frames was TOO MUCH.
    • New Dash attack can now cancel into anything after hitting the sweet spot successfully.
      • Dash attack sweet spot size increased from 8x8px to 20x20px.
      • Recovery increased from 16 > 18.
      • Sour knockback angle changed from 361 > 45 (only higher on grounded opponents).
      • Base knockback increased from 8 > 9.
    • Fstrong recovery increased from 18 > 20. On-whiff recovery increased from 27 > 30.
    • Team-up Fstrong recovery increased from 18 > 24. On-whiff recovery increased from 27 > 36.
      Spamming team-up Fstrong was too good. It’s already a great kill move that lasts a decent length so we’d like to encourage people to be more precise with it.
    • Team-up Fstrong hitboxes reduced in size.
    • Team-up Ustrong and Fstrong multihits now pull toward the center during hitpause.
      This fixes an admittedly funny issue where Ori could send enemies flying if they traded with this attack.
    • Ori can no longer fastfall on hit to prevent Ustrong from rising.
    • Both Ori and their target are now invincible when aiming Bash (Dspecial).
      This makes bash usable in free for all and doubles.

    banner_wrastor
    Wrastor is a tough bird to balance since he constantly walks (flaps?) a fine line between too good or not good enough. While it’s fun when you’re getting the reads, he’s more often frustrating to play as than not – especially against heavies who take too long to KO.

    To alleviate this, we’re making some changes this patch to allow him to wrack up damage faster while still being a stylish glass cannon.

  • Air Friction increased from .04 > .05.
    Wrastor dies very early so this gives him a little help in making him very slightly harder to KO horizontally.
  • Increased the size of Dstrong hitbox from 30×40 > 50×50
    This used to be one of Wrastor’s signature moves but recently it’s looked a little lackluster. We’re increasing the size to make it a more enticing option.
  • Fair strong hit damage has been increased from 6 > 7. Weak hit damage stays 5.
  • Bair damage increased from 5 > 6.
  • Dair sour spot damage increased from 4 > 6. Strong hit hit dair is still 7.
  • Nair damage increased from 5 > 6.
  • Jab 2 Damage: 4 > 5.
  • banner_maypul

    Maypul has been suffering a little bit from the same problems as Wrastor in that she’s very powerful in theory, but fails to reach her potential when played online. To add to this many of her hitboxes also feel slightly unreliable. To compensate we’ve made quite a few of them bigger this patch as well as tweaked the properties of a few other key moves to make her more forgiving to play.

  • Maypul’s air friction has been increased from .05 > .06.
    Maypul dies very early so this gives her a little help in making her very slightly harder to KO horizontally.
  • Utilt recovery decreased from 13 > 10. (whiff decreased from 20 > 15)
    The reward didn’t match the commitment for this move. This change makes it still easy to punish on whiff, but gives Maypul more reliable aerial follow-ups if she hits.
  • Dash attack hit 1 has been updated to more reliably link into hit 2.
    This makes the move connect consistently similar to other moves with two parts like Zetterburn’s forward and down strongs.
  • Uair hitbox 3 increased from 70×60 > 80×80.
  • Nair hitbox 1 (inside hitbox) increased from 70×40 > 90×40.
  • Fair hitbox increased from 60×80 > 80×85.
  • Lily bite damage increased from 4 > 8.
  • banner_zetterburn

    We’re giving a bit of Zetterburn’s recovery back so he doesn’t get snuffed out too early offstage.

    • Wall jumping after down special has been reverted to give Zetterburn his jump back, but only once until he touches ground again.
      This should give Zetterburn some nice recovery mixups while not swinging the pendulum back to pre-Ori patch where his recovery near the wall was monstrous.

    banner_kragg

    Kragg throw rock. Kragg tall rock need improvement. Kragg smaller rock need improvement too.

  • Kragg’s pillar can now be broken by a hitbox as long as the hitbox owner’s feet are below the top of the pillar. Previously, the center of their hitbox had to be below the top of the pillar. This is still the case with projectiles.
    This change was made to avoid situations like Zetterburn fair sweetspot breaking a pillar from above, causing Zetterburn to die if he autocancelled the fair.
  • Kragg rock shards now die when reaching 500 pixels above the top of the screen instead of 100px.
  • Kragg’s rock is no longer destroyed by Etalus uair, Wrastor Dair hit 1, or Forsburn cape.
    These moves now interact with the rock by moving it instead of outright breaking it.
  • Let us know how you like the new characters as well as any other thoughts in the comments below! As always, thanks for playing.

    MuffinBros Controller Skins Giveaway

    MuffinBros has just released their first Rivals of Aether controller skin (with art by the fantastic Eric Y Huang) and are doing a giveaway to celebrate! You can enter to win 3 different types of skins as well as a poster version right here:

    > Zetterburn Graphic Giveaway: Rivals of Aether & MuffinBros Graphics

    RoA-Givaway

    The giveaway runs until October 23rd with one random winner at the end. If you can’t wait until the end of October, you can grab the poster or controller skins on MuffinBros’ store:

    > https://muffinbros.com/product-category/graphic-shop/rivals-of-aether-controller-skins/

    We’re working on adding more characters right now, so leave a comment below on which character you’d like a skin for next.