This update spend a long time coming. As evidenced by a beachball in a winter update. Try the new ball type out under ‘ball type’ in the character select options dropdown. Aside from gameplay tweaks, we focussed our attention to connectivity issues players have had when playing online and rematching. Despite being inherently hard to pinpoint, we were able to solve various problems. It’s possible new issues come forward shortly after this update, in which case please bear with us as we try to fix these.

Next, let’s go through some of the changes.

Spectator mode
You can now join a game lobby and be a spectator. If the lobby is already full with 4 players you will be automatically assigned to a spectator spot. As a spectator you can watch the match and won’t experience any lag which is ideal for streaming matches and tournaments.

Scaling parry knockback
This is a big chance for higher level play. The knockback duration after being parried is now linked to the speed (and therefore hitpause) of the ball. This should mean no more guaranteed parry K.O’s on lower speeds, making matches reach higher speeds on average. On lower speeds, parry victims will have time to take a swing and the parry initiator can choose to aim towards or away from his or her target.

Clashing limited to facing
You can now only clash with attacks oriented towards you. Clashing was a bit too random and not fun enough to make up for it. This should stop the more odd-looking cases of clashing.

#FreeCorpseJuggling
The hard limit of 5 corpse hits has been removed. However, once the ball is in play in the next burst, active corpses can not be hit anymore and energy is reset. Also, corpse hurtboxes have been scaled down a bit to make more sense visually.

Holiday modifications
The holiday modifications are back! We also added a christmas tree to Room 21 and gave Candyman a nice christmas hat. For all your safety we removed the slippery ice physics in the Abandoned Pool. If you’re reading this you’ll most likely own a copy of the game but if you have some friends or family who, for some reason, don’t own the game there is always the holiday sale. 66% OFF! You can get a 4-pack for the prize of one copy. Ridiculous.

Changes
– Added spectator mode
– Added beachball ball type, unlocked by default
– Corpse hurtbox size is reduced by 25%.
– Dynamic parry knockback, except for serves
– Corpses can now be hit until the ball is fully returned in play
– All player energy is reset at the reactivation of the ball now
– Swing clashes and bunt clashes now only happen when facing each other
– Fixed screen shake interrupting/overlapping which caused long shakes to suddenly stop
– Moved extra impact effect to speeds over 50
– Taunt resets the ball in training mode
– Added a bunt and a taunt to a certain character
– Fixed corpses freezing on special activation of a certain character
– Added an effect on a certain character’s special
– Dice can now also superjump by holding up
– Dice UI graphics tweaked
– Flashing effects can now be turned off in the game options
– Raptor special hold doesn’t default to his smash angle anymore
– Fixed CPU looking to the right after a burst
– Fixed CPU not respecting parries
– Fixed the boombox hitpause meter ignoring the parry hit

Enjoy!

Best wishes from the whole team. See you again in 2016