Combat Arena: Alpha 1.15 Patch Notes

 
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Don’t let the size of the patch fool you!

We held back a lot of other changes this patch to focus on updating the game’s netcode. It‘s a pretty wide-reaching change so we want to make sure it isn’t causing problems for users before we add in anything else. In our testing, we saw an average ping improvement of 30%, and matches felt much smoother overall. Let us know what you think, or if you run into any problems!

Gameplay Changes

  • Upgraded netcode to version 0.5.

  • Melee attacks now have commitment, meaning you can no longer spin your character halfway through the attack.

Balance Changes

Bite

  • Cooldown increased from 2 seconds to 5 seconds.

Bug fixes

  • Fixed a bug that caused flames to spawn in the wrong location.

Combat Arena: Alpha 1.14 Patch Notes

 
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Happy February 2nd!

This date is one that’s close to our hearts since it marks the 1 year anniversary since Kindred Fates was officially funded on Kickstarter!

For the changes in this patch, we focused primarily on major bug fixes and important quality of life features in preparation for the upcoming tournament on February 27th. Will continue making improvements like this in an effort to make the tournament as smooth as possible.

Gameplay Changes

  • The camera now keeps the same look direction (99% of the time) when swapping kinfolk.

  • Updated a ton of ability descriptions to make them more descriptive and accurate.

  • Improvements were made to ranged attack animations in an effort to make them more stable. We make sure our animation has finished before letting another charge fire now.

  • Improvements were also made to the code behind melee attack combos in an effort to make them more stable and reliable.

  • Ranged basic attack animation cycles now restart after one second of not using the ability.

  • The settings menu will now close first, and the escape menu will popup in the proper order when using the escape key.

  • The swap VFX is more stable and should stick to characters better.

  • Anniversary changes.

Balance Changes

General

  • Abilities now persist after a character dies.

Iron Fist

  • Range increased from 10 to 15 meters.

  • Significantly reduced end lag.

  • Lowered drop height by roughly 30%.

Firespin

  • Reduced start up time.

Bite

  • Cooldown temporarily lowered to 2 seconds. Will be reverted very soon.

Quicksand

  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 15 seconds.

Bug fixes

  • If Shovlet dies while using Dig, the ability ends and Shovlet surfaces. This should fix bugs related to that situation, including one which caused him to become invincible.

  • Fixed a lockup that happens after using swipes with Slyphur.

  • Fixed a bug that allowed abilities with multiple charges to fire them as fast as possible.

  • Fixed a bug that caused abilities with multiple charges to fire 2 projectiles with a single click.

  • Fixed a bug that caused kinfolk to inherit other party member’s abilities when switching or dying.

  • The character swap sound now obeys SFX volume settings properly.

  • Mechid no longer slides around at the end of Rush.

Combat Arena: Alpha 1.13 Patch Notes

 
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It’s been a while, and we’ve got a TON of changes so let’s get into it!

TLDR:

  • 4 new abilities (Pilfer, Fling, Dig, Collector)!

  • We overhauled how we launch attacks so that it’s more reliable now!

  • Hurtboxes accurately match character models now!

  • Each team is now limited to a maximum of 1 of each item.

  • Quality of life changes and bug fixes.

Gameplay Changes

  • We've completely overhauled our method for launching attacks. In the past, we had to do all sorts of coding gymnastics to get the attack to actually fire if the animation event responsible for launching it wasn't properly received. Even then sometimes it still wouldn't launch, and your character would just be stuck, not able to fire any more attacks. Now we use two separate animator states and detect when a post-launch state has started. So attacks should overall fire more reliably now.

  • Hurtboxes are now shaped to accurately match the models of each character. No more single capsule hurtbox characters!

  • Ranged Basic Attacks now step through a series of animations instead of always playing the same one.

  • The number of online players is now displayed when queuing for a match.

  • We track when a player is disconnected during a game, which should help our leaderboard be more accurate in the future

  • You can now turn the audio sliders to 0 instead of 1. This allows you to actually mute sounds.

  • The round timer’s color changes to red when there are only 60 seconds left in the round.

  • Added a custom end of game message for “Time out Victories” and “Time out Losses.”

new abilities

Pilfer

  • The user dashes forward, dealing damage and quickly stealing the held item of any target they make contact with. If the target has no held item, the user receives a “useless” Coin instead.

  • The Coin item is unselectable in team customization and has no secondary effects.

  • Usable by Slyphur.

Fling

  • The user throws their held item with all their might in a target direction.

  • This ability’s Type, Damage, and Secondary Effects change depending on the item thrown. Currently, the only difference between thrown items is that Black Mask deals slightly more damage than the other items (we’ll be updating this ability with more item effects in the future).

  • This ability is disabled while not on cooldown if the user has no items to throw.

  • Usable by Slyphur.

Dig

  • The user tunnels underground, becoming untargetable for up to 5 seconds. When they emerge, they deal damage to any character they collide with and stun them for 2 seconds.

  • The attack can be reactivated while the user is underground, allowing them to reemerge early.

  • This ability also allows the user to tunnel under obstacles.

  • Usable by Shovlet… Obviously.

Collector (passive)

  • The first Passive Ability to be implemented! This Passive is used by Slyphur, allowing them to hold up to 3 items instead of just 1 like most other kinfolk.

  • This passive is very useful when used in conjunction with the new abilities, Pilfer, and Fling.

Balance Changes

General

  • Each team is now limited to a maximum of 1 of each item
    (RIP full Peach teams).

  • Status effect damage (poison and burn) no longer cancels channeling abilities such as Rest, Sharpen, Fortify, etc...

  • Dodging and dash attacks now travel a fixed distance (with the exception of Bounce).

  • The user’s momentum is now canceled at the beginning and end of dodges and dash attacks (only at the beginning for Bounce).

Caustic Cloud

  • Damage per-tick reduced from 15 to 12.

Scorch

  • Damage per-tick reduced from 15 to 10.

Spore Dance

  • Other abilities can be used much sooner after using Spore Dance now.

Thrash

  • The user can no longer swap during Thrash.

  • The user can no longer use other abilities while using Thrash.

  • The user can no longer move in between separate punches of Thrash.

Rockslide

  • Adjusted collider sizes of rocks to more accurately match the VFX.

Bug fixes

  • Fixed a bug that occurred when more than one ability is active at once. Using Poison Cloud, followed by Wither with multiple charges, would sometimes launch a second Poison Cloud instead of a charge of Wither. This would also happen when using Explosion followed by Scorch.

  • Teleport now ignores collisions with walls, trees, and other objects.

  • Fixed a bug that would occasionally cause too much damage to be applied at the end of an attack that is capable of dealing damage multiple times, such as Angelic Ray or Scorch.

  • Fixed a bug that caused Iron Fist’s hitbox to linger much longer than intended.

  • Removed a memory leak on the main menu.

  • Made it possible for attacks to damage multiple targets.

  • If your character dies while caught in Quicksand and a new character is spawned in, the new character won’t be slowed down until its initial immunity has completed.

  • The VFX that is displayed when a new character is spawned now moves with the new character.

  • Fixed an issue with Scorch and Caustic Cloud that caused frame rate drops.

  • Fixed several issues with dash attack colliders (Rush, Bounce, and now Pilfer). There were a few situations previously where you could fall out of the world while using these abilities.

  • Fixed an issue with lob attack’s reticle disappearing.

  • Fixed a small bug with quicksand displaying over Lumala's halo.

Combat Arena: Alpha 1.12 Patch Notes

 
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We’re back again with another big patch!

This time around we’ve added unique Health values for each character. These values roughly equate to what we’re expecting the character’s Health to be at level 50. In addition to this, we’ve included several much needed bug fixes and some changes to how status conditions are applied.

Gameplay Changes

  • Lock-on camera tracking has been adjusted. The lock-on camera tracks a bit slower now, requiring the user to make small manual adjustments to their aim in order to reliably hit their shots. It no longer perfectly centers the reticle on the target at all times. We’ll continue making improvements to lock-on in future patches.

  • Removed player tag from all displays except the main menu.

  • A sound now plays when the user is matched with an opponent.

Balance Changes

Adjusted health values

  • Embear: Max Health at current level increased from 250 to 255.

  • Kodoki: Max Health at current level decreased from 250 to 235.

  • Lumala: Max Health at current level increased from 250 to 260.

  • Mechid: Max Health at current level increased from 250 to 260.

    • Physical Defense decreased from 140 to 135.

    • Special Defense decreased from 130 to 125.

  • Shovlet Max Health at current level increased from 250 to 280.

  • Skulken Max Health at current level decreased from 250 to 240.

  • Slyphur’s Max Health at current level (250) has not been adjusted.

Caustic Cloud

  • Now only inflicts Poison if the enemy is struck by 3 ticks of damage from the same instance of the ability.

  • Grounded hitbox activation delay removed.

  • Damage tick rate increased from 1 tick per second to 3 ticks per second.

Scorch

  • Now only inflicts Burn if the enemy is struck by 3 ticks of damage from the same instance of the ability.

  • Grounded hitbox activation delay removed.

  • Damage tick rate increased from 1 tick per second to 3 ticks per second.

    Gaia Volley

  • Hitbox adjusted to be much more accurate to the ability’s visuals.

    Thrash

  • Cooldown increased from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.

    Firespin

  • Removed knockback delay.

Explosion

  • Added knockback on hit.

Wicked thorn

  • Added knockback on hit.

Bug fixes

  • Fixed an issue that prevented attacks from dealing damage or applying effects if the user was knocked out, or swapped out.

  • Fixed a bug that caused Iron Fist’s hitbox to linger much longer than intended.

  • Fixed an issue that prevented the “swap character” audio from playing in all cases except the beginning of the round.

  • Removed unintended light beams from Quicksand and Scorch aiming reticles.

Combat Arena: Alpha 1.10 & 1.11 Patch Notes

 
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Welcome everyone!
This time we’re bundling the changes from the last 2 patches together, since 1.10 didn’t have it’s own patch notes when it released. The biggest changes in 1.11 include more accurate sizing for attacks reticles, and a higher cooldown between swapping characters.

We’re very interested in seeing how the increased time between swapping characters affects gameplay.

Gameplay Changes

  • Many aiming reticles have been adjusted to more accurately match the scale of their ability. This includes:

    • Startle

    • Roar

    • Explosion

    • Scorch

    • Rockslide

    • Quicksand

    • Caustic Cloud

    • Iron Fist

    • Angelic Ray

  • Characters can now move while using basic ranged attacks.

  • All characters (with the exception of Kodoki and Slyphur) have had their jump height reduced.

  • Added VFX for Slowed and Stunned crowed control effects.

Balance changes

Swapping Characters

  • Cooldown increased from 1 second to 5 seconds.

  • When attempting to swap party members before the cooldown has ended, a small error sound will play (we plan to add visuals for this cooldown in the future).

Wicked Thorn

  • Kodoki now uses a different animation when casting Wicked Thorn.

  • Wicked Thorn is now only capable of damaging or staggering targets once it is fully grown.

Quicksand

  • Adjusted hitbox to more accurately match the shape of the attack.

Rest

  • Channeling time increased from 1 second to 3 seconds.

Firespin

  • Increased size by 1.25x.

Wither

  • This ability can now be used while moving.

Bite

  • Damage reduced from 80 to 60.

Slyphur

  • Physical Attack stat reduced from 130 to 100.

Bug fixes

  • Improved Iron Fist’s accuracy in online matches.

  • Fixed a bug with Rest that prevented characters from becoming staggered after receiving damage during the channel time.

Combat Arena: Alpha 1.09 Patch Notes

 
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We’re just about ready to open the flood gates to all remaining users with alpha access! This patch is mostly a bit of house cleaning as we gear up for that. The biggest changes here are bug fixes like, being able to consistently play multiple games in a row, and characters not getting stuck in animations.

Gameplay Changes

  • Camera no longer zooms in when aiming attacks (we will revisit this as a setting in the future).

  • Matchmaker will now search for an opponent for 5 minutes instead of 2 before ending.

  • Added support for 3D sound.

balance changes

Caustic Cloud

  • Time before first damage tick increased from 0 to 1 second (is now consistent with Scorch).

    Thrash

  • Cooldown increased from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.

  • Damage reduced from 20 per hit to 15 per hit.

    Bounce

  • End lag reduced from 2 seconds to 1 second.

Bug fixes

  • Fixed several bugs that caused errors after playing multiple games in a row.

  • Fixed a bug that caused Rush to deal no damage in many cases when used by Mechid.

  • Fixed a bug that caused Shovlet and Lumala to become stuck in their charge up animations.

  • Altered Rest’s ability description to be more accurate.

other

  • Added a credits page.

Combat Arena: Alpha 1.08 Patch Notes

 
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We’ve got a boat load of changes for you this time!

This patch fixes several all too familiar bugs, and adds more depth to the character customization menu. We’re also serving up a fresh batch of balance changes, as well as a brand new move for Shovlet!

Gameplay Changes

  • Status curing items now grant 5 seconds of immunity to the status they cure.

  • Improved the positioning accuracy of most spawn attacks, especially when used on slopes or behind walls.

  • Characters will now rotate to face the camera direction when melee attacking.

  • Added additional ability description info on the team customization page (we’ll continue adding to this in future patches).

  • Added the ability to delete teams from the team list.

  • Added Low Medium and High quality graphics options to the settings page

balance changes

Mechid

  • Increased the end lag of Mecha Strike and Thrash.

    Lumala

  • Increased Special Attack stat from 70 to 80.

Rest

  • New ability added to Shovlet! This ability restores 50% of the users max health, removes any status conditions they might have, and gives them the Asleep status condition.

    All stat buffing abilities

  • Channeling time increased from 2 seconds to 3 seconds.

    Bounce

  • Reduced damage from 40 to 20.

    Spore Dance

  • Increased active collider time from 0.25 seconds to 0.55 seconds.

    Angelic ray

  • Reduced healing from 5% per tick to 3% per tick.

  • Increased tick rate from 1 per-second to 1 per 0.6 seconds.

Bug fixes

  • Fixed a bug that caused Rush and Bounce to deal damage multiple times to the same target.

  • Fixed a bug that caused characters to not be able to use abilities in some cases.

  • Fixed a bug that allowed users to move before a match had officially begun.

  • Improved the accuracy of the round timer.

  • Adjusted several colliders in the Ruins Arena and Riverside Arena to make them more accurate.

  • Fixed a bug that caused logging in to take longer than necessary in some cases.

Combat Arena: Alpha 1.07 Patch Notes

 
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Get ready to welcome another wave of players!
The wave 2 rollout went smoothly, so we’re gearing up to roll out wave 3 to several hundred more player tomorrow afternoon! In the meantime, we’re doing a bit of clean up and adding a few new servers this patch.

Gameplay Changes

Added servers in the following regions:

  • US West

  • Europe West

  • Australia East

Bug fixes

  • Improved dodge logic to be slightly more accurate in online matches.

  • Fixed a bug that caused some area of effect projectiles to become stuck mid-air after colliding with certain objects.