Hello Everyone!

After an extensive internal playtest, we've gathered valuable data and insightful feedback. And we're excited to bring you a significant update! This patch features a range of balance adjustments and tweaks, along with some exciting new mechanics to elevate your experience.

Here are some of the key issues we identified and how we've addressed them:

Issue: Games can go on for too long. Fix: We've introduced a *Sudden Death* mechanic to keep things fast-paced and thrilling.

Issue: New players dying too quickly and spending most of their time spectating other players. Fix: We've adjusted the ball's speed curve — it now accelerates more gradually and becomes more dynamic toward the end of the round. This should make the early game more manageable for newcomers. Looking Ahead: To further address this issue, we're planning to implement a ranking system. This will help match new players with others at a similar skill level, reducing the chances of them being knocked out too quickly and ensuring they get more time to play and improve.

Issue: Some abilities, like Hot Potato, felt too powerful and rarely on cooldown. Fix: We've rebalanced all abilities and deflect mechanics to improve overall fairness.

Stay tuned, and we hope you enjoy the improvements!


Ball

• Intercepting the ball will not change the balls target.
  
• Intercept = Deflecting the ball when its targeting someone else
  
• The ball now accelerates more gradually at the start of a round

Settings

• Added separate sensitivity options for Controllers
  
• Added Deadzone settings for Controllers

Deflect

• Deflect duration 1.3s -> 1s.
  
• Deflect failed CD 3s->2.5s.
  
• Perfect deflect impulse increase 20%-60%.
  
• Time to get perfect hit changed from 0.2s to 0.05s.

Hotpotato

• Hotpotato CD changed 10s -> 35s.
  
• Increased stack size change on Hotpotato from 100cm to 250cm per stack

Upwards smash

• Upwards smash ammo 3 -> 1.
  
• Change CD on upward smash 10s -> 8s.

Mimic Ball

• Mimic ball ammo 2 -> 1

Power Boost

• Power boost deflect impulse increase 200% -> 150%

Place bomb

• Changed Cd on place bomb from 10s -> 20s
  
• Placed bomb cast time 0.3s -> 0.1s

Place jump pad

• Placed jump pad cast time 0.3s -> 0.1s

Yoyo

• Yoyo cast time 0.5s -> 0.2s

Redirect

• Redirect cast time 0.2s -> 0.1s

We've implemented a Sudden Death mechanic across all arenas. However, we're already prototyping a variety of sudden death mechanics to keep end-game moments exciting and unpredictable. Our goal is to create a diverse set of mechanics, so each round feels fresh and intense.

• Dynamic Sudden Death Timer
  (The sudden death timer becomes adaptive, starting sooner as more players are eliminated.)
  
• Default Sudden Death Start: 2 minutes
  
• Time Reduction per Player Elimination: 20 seconds

Sudden Death Mechanic

• One Life Sudden Death
  (When sudden death begins, all players are set to just 1 life. Additionally, life and cooldown reduction pickups are removed from the arena, creating a high-stakes showdown.)

• Resolved media lag in videos explaining how abilities work.
  
• Fixed several navigation bugs in the main menu when using a controller.
  
• Spectator camera now behaves consistently with the normal game camera.
  
• Properly capped FPS on the splash screen to improve performance.
  
• Fixed a bug where bombs placed on Rumble Rafts would land on the ocean floor instead of the water surface.
  
• Addressed an Issue allowing players to escape the lobby and jump beneath the level.
  
• Resolved multiple issues with matchmaking and the party system.
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from being teleported back to the lobby after a game.