Release Notes for Absolver

Patch 1.30.550 (19 February 2019)

• Hi everyone,

• When the Winter Update was released, the balancing of the game was negatively impacted by some bugfixes (notably the fix on stun durations). Since then, we’ve been working hard on balancing, and especially on frame data. Special abilities for Faejin and Windfall have also been tweaked, as well as the Sharp Impact and Unbreakable powers, and a couple of other bugs.

• You will find detailed information on all the changes below. We hope you like them! Please note that at this stage, the patch is live only on PC; we’re waiting on feedback from PC players (Steam & GOG) before deploying it on PS4 and Xbox One in a few days if all is well. So if you’re on PC please let us know what you think, whether it’s on our forums, Reddit, Discord or Twitter !

• All the best,

• Sloclap Team

Gameplay Balancing

Frame data

• Frame data have been reworked in this patch, the main goal was to get back the pressure game while keeping a good reaction time against fastest attacks.

• We’ve also done some work to differentiate attacks with similar properties by trading blockstun frames with hitstun frames and damage. So some attacks now have a better blockstun value (to stay safe and keep the pressure) while others are more risky but have better rewards (better damage and hitstun to follow-up with other attacks)

• We have also nerfed some attacks with several properties (jumping breakers for instance), and ankle stamp has now a startup of 11 frames.

• You can see the full frame data here : Absolver 1.30 Frame Data https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/137K5enErK3GuWo9dLuOe7m4teMnJuutmK8wtAZx7sW0/edit?usp=sharing

Special abilities

Faejin Front abilities

• Left/Right (Parry):
• Startup : 18 > 16 frames
• Damage : 40 > 50
• Shards bonus : 0.1 > 0.15

Faejin Back abilities

• Left/Right/Down (Avoid):
• Stamina bonus : 20 > 25
• Shards bonus : 0.1 > 0.15
• Slowdown duration 6 > 9 frames

Windfall

• Avoid Side (Left/Right):
• Slowdown duration 14 > 12 frames

Powers

Sharp Impact

• Cut damage repartition : 100% > 80%

Unbreakable

• Damage received reduction : -50% > -25%
• Damage multiplier on weapon durability : xInf > x8

Bug fixes

• It’s no longer possible to guard an incoming attack when parried or avoided.

• We fixed a bug when someone received a snatcher without any weapon in hand (after that, only one hit was needed once he/she had a weapon in hand to be disarmed)

• We’ve also fixed the startup frame number displayed for the following attacks (There was a difference of -1 between what was displayed and the reality):

• Head Splitter

• Side Wind Thrust

• Light Swing Slash

• Limbo Thrust

• Body Slicing

• Whirl Slash

• Swirl Slash

• Puropera Cut

• Wrist Jab

• Double Spike Kick

• Stumble Slash

• Wrist Roll Slash

• Drunk Stomp

• Hadrunken

• Forward Lean Slash

• One Inch Punch

• Lastly, the animation of Cleaver Blow is slightly slower, to fit with the 16 frames startup displayed.

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Patch 1.29 543 (07 February 2019)

• Hi everyone!

• We’re happy to announce that the Winter Update is now live for PC and PS4 players – Xbox One players will have to wait a few more days as the version is validated by Microsoft testing teams. As mentioned previously, we were hoping to release it earlier, but with the Xbox One version release and the debugging efforts, it took more time than expected. Winter maps and equipment have been ready for a while, but we thought that it would be a bad idea to release a content update without addressing the major gameplay concerns from the community, so we decided to wait until the fixes were done before releasing any new content.

Update Content

The 1.28 Winter Update features :

• Four new Winter equipment sets available in the Essence Shop: Guide Lieutenant, Mountain Warrior, Uring Idolator, and Uring Heathen.
• Two “snow” versions of maps (Birdhouse, and Shipyard)
• Gameplay balancing and bugfixing (see below for more information)
• Other bugfixes and optimizations (too numerous to list precisely!)

Gameplay balancing

• We have been reading a lot of complaints on manual dodging since the Downfall update. Pretty much everybody has different opinions as to which combat style is the best, which attacks should be nerfed to the ground and which ones are totally useless, but one thing everyone seems to agree on was that manual dodging had become overpowered since Downfall, that it was a sort of free “get out of jail” card that didn’t require much skill, and made combat less interesting overall.

• We therefore focused on improving this for the Winter Update update, in two ways: by fixing a bug we identified which made the issue worse, and by changing some gameplay parameters around manual dodging:

• Fixed an issue on the dodge iframe duration (could be 4 instead of 2 in some cases)

• Reduced the iframes on dodge side from 2 to 1 (still no iframes on dodge forward/backward)

• Reduced dodge distance, and decreased walking speed in combat. Both of these changes make it harder to escape attacks, since the attack movement speed was not changed.

Two other important gameplay issues have also been fixed:

• Fixed an issue where the avoid side (both Windfall special ability and attack property) was not working in specific cases: this issue was also one of the reasons manual dodge was perceived as overpowered.

• Fixed an issue where inputs were delayed (3 frames) after any stun, resulting in wrong advantage frames: advantage frames will now be much more consistent, and in line with their intended design parameters. This will impact attacks, but also Earthquake power, which had an unintended frame advantage up until now.

• These may seem like subtle fixes, but they actually have a significant impact on the game’s balancing, especially for experienced high-level players. We feel that the balancing of the game will be in a pretty good place with this update, so we hope lots of you will try it out, and let us know what you think!

• All the best,

• Sloclap Team

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Update 1.2 (2nd July 2018)

• improved the overall online stability in the open World and Combat Trials.

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Update 1.14 (2nd February 2018)

Debug

• Fixed Revived animation being stuck when the rescuer was interrupted by a hit
• Fixed avoided not slowing down and not preventing use of perfect link

  Balancing

• Kahlt freeze frames have been reverted back to 1.12 state for this patch
• Kahlt stamina cost increased 10 → 15
• Tweaked gold link timings previously changed to have a better game feel
• Tweaked standard release (recovery) to have a lesser difference with gold link timings
• Tweaked knockback in guard previously changed

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Update 1.13 (26 January 2018)

GAME MODES

New content

• Added new 3v3 intro and outro animations, specific to combat style
• Level Design modifications on the Oratian Quarters map
• AFK feature: inactive players are warned, then kicked from 1v1 and 3v3 games after 60 seconds.

Debug

• [SFX] Debug on intro music
• [SFX] Various tweaks on music and SFX events
• [Gameplay] Debug on timer notification for extra time
• [Gameplay] Debug on 3v3 maps: invisible walls should not occur anymore
• [UI] Fixed issue where points gauges would not update when joining an active game

OVERALL

Design Updates

Stagger:

• Add stamina regen bonus (x1.2) & actions stamina cost (x0.8) during 5s when avoid with an attack.
• Increase range & stun of stagger special attacks

Windfall Avoid:

• Increase stamina gain (35 → 40)
• Slowdown increased when avoided

Kahlt Absorb:

• Add freeze frames (6) on attacker
• Increase stamina cost (5 → 10)

Shockwave:

• Increase stun 20 → 30
• Decrease knockback when blocked 168 → 100cm
• Remove stamina instant bonus
• Decrease stamina regen bonus
• Combat
• Combat Style attribute bonuses have been decreased & attack damage scaling increased
• Increase weapons durability & disarm gauge. Give back amount of shards when sheath weapon

Balancing on all attacks:

• Gold link release set specifically per attack
• Damage take in account this release
• Grab Punch: start-up increased 19 → 21
• Breaking attacks: increase knockback when blocked
• Charging attacks: decrease damage and damage scaling
• Increase slightly impact on stamina when guarding
• Dodge anti-spam: increase release 13 → 16 (no changes when cancelled by attack or special ability)

Debug

• [Gameplay] Fixed a bug where some attacks had a faster startup than expected after absorbing a hit (including Grab Punch and Back Tripped Kick)

• [Gameplay] Fixed a bug where Donkey Slap 2nd hit does not connect after absorbing a hit

• [Gameplay] Fixed Twist Parry Strike active frames

• [Gameplay] Fixed parry direction for Twist Hips Slash and Parry Slash

• [Gameplay] Set the target on middle for Spiral Palm

• [Gameplay] Moved the startup visual feedback on the other arm for Collar Chop

• [Dye] Various debug on dye issues with some cloaks and undertops

• [Text] Various text typos fixes in English language

• [SFX] Various tweaks on music and SFX events in the World and cutscenes

• [UI] Debug on picto issues

• [Menu] Essence Shop: Fixed a warglove issue in the shop: Barbarian War Gloves are now available

• [1v1] Fixed a bug occuring when the user score was not reset after matchmaking with a different opponent

• [Gear] Fixed a bug where the Tear Chief Undertop would have better stats when broken compared to repaired

• Misc

• The Attribute panel has been updated

• Menu: The Credit menu has been updated

• Dye Menu: The Dye menu layout has been updated

• Attacks’ advanced details have been added

• We updated the error message displayed when a player can’t get online. If the issue happens to you, please send an email to support_pc@sloclap.com or support_ps4@sloclap.com (depending on your platform) with the error code you have, we’ll look into it

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Update 1.11 (8th December 2017)

3v3 Combat Trial - Overtake

• Overtake Combat Trial is played with 6 players, two teams of 3
• "Coop 3v3 Match": play with your coop group against other players in 3v3 game modes
• 3 Maps are available in this mode

Private matches

• Private 1v1: "Friendly Match" play against a player in your coop group

Prestige expanded

• Players can now exchange fragments for Gear and Weapons
• Players can now exchange crystals for Emotes
• New gear is available through the Prestige System
• Players can now dye their equipment with fragments [EDIT: there is currently an issue with the dye system, it will be fixed very soon!]

Anticheat v.1

• Detected cheaters are now automatically kicked from online play. Additional measures may be implemented, please let us know if you encounter cheaters/hackers.

New screen ratios support

• 21:9 monitor are now fully supported, as well as other screen ratios

Misc

• Players can now customize their emote wheel with newly obtained emotes
• Equipment menu have been slightly updated to fit better with the new features
• Log feed has been updated
• Matchmaking can now be launched from the post-fight menu in Combat Trials

Art

• Players can now fight in both Day and Night versions of the Combat Trials maps
• Combat Trial Maps are now running at 60FPS on PS4
• Various debug in the Main Map (collisions, LODs, shader optimization)
• Lighting issues have been fixed, no more black assets
• [FX] Various debug on all FX

Gameplay

Parry

• active frame reduced from 7 to 5 (same value as absorb ability)

  Gravity

• hit character goes in overweight state
• overweight now also impact lockmove speed
• guard impact reduced from 50 to 15
• stun reduced from 32 to 20, and block stun from 18 to 12

  Earthquake & exhaust

• “charging” property replaced by Absorb property during buildup

  Shield

• add Absorb property during buildup

Debug

• Fixed some issues regarding keyboard + mouse behavior when scrolling and right-clicking
• Fixed some issues with sound, especially regarding to reverb effect and missing audios on some attacks
• Fixed some infinite loadings issues
• Kuretz & Risryn now give the intended amount of XP
• [Gameplay] Avoid successfull now always affects opponent (slow down)
• [Gameplay] Player cannot use shards after being silenced anymore
• [Gameplay] Charging attacks are now always interrupted when hit twice

Known issues

• GOG overlay is currently not functional, this will be fixed very soon.

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Update 1.10 (13th November 2017)

• [Design] Lower XP gains when defeating Level 3 boss and beyond
• [Design] Higher XP gains in Combat Trials
• [Design] Cost of Rift Disks changed to 5 Crystals
• [Design] Marked ones have been reverted to their original form. Halloween masks now only available through Rift Disks.
• [Design] Cost of the Attribute Points reset changed to 3 Crystals

The very high amount of XP given by Bosses made it too easy to farm XP and prestige levels in PvE, which was not the original intention, so this has been rebalanced. Combat Trials also now give more XP, so players will now win Prestige levels and Crystals faster. Rift Disks cost has also been updated to reflect this change.

1.10 and 1.09 also include a number of bugfixes to improve the overall experience.

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Update 1.08 (30th October 2017)

NEW CONTENT

• Prestige levels unlocked after level 60
• Rift Coins replace random loot drops in Combat Trials
• Rift Disks allow to get rarer equipments and weapons
• Win Crystals at each Prestige level
• Spend Crystals to reset attribute points
• Spend Crystals to acquire Rift Disks
• Inventory management: Sort by, Salvage and Repair.
• New equipment:
• 4 new sets
• 3 new Absolver Cloaks
• 9 new masks, including 6 Halloween masks dropped by Marked Ones
• 1v1 maps are now in night mode (temporary)
• New “Bald” haircut available at character creation!

DESIGN UPDATES

Parry :

• Almost all attacks, including thrust attacks, now require a specific parry direction to be countered (exceptions: Hadrunken, Obvious Slash and bare-hands Rush Attack for Stagger style)

Rush :

• Decrease rush acceleration
• Closer rush camera
• Rush attacks: increase stun duration
• Rush attacks: decrease knockback

Note: These are first steps to address fleeing behaviour.

• Rush attacks were intended to counter players fleeing, but until now the player hit by a rush attack had the time to rush again directly after. With a longer stun and shorter knockback for the rush attacks, and a slower acceleration for the rush, the issue should be less present.
• Also the new rush camera is closer to the character, so the player has not the whole vision of their surroundings, and it feedbacks more clearly when the character is rushing.

Camera :

• The camera position is now lower when close to walls.

Shockwave :

• Range 230cm -> 280cm (as before 1.06) BUT knockback now depends on distance to caster (from 280 when close to the caster, to 84 when at the limit of the range)

Items :

• Added rarity levels to all equipments
• Updated drop rates (Rift Coins and Rift Disks)

BUG FIXES

• [GAMEPLAY] 1v1 rematch : clear shards
• [GAMEPLAY] Shards cannot be filled in practice anymore
• [GAMEPLAY] Charging attacks now lose their property when parried
• [GAMEPLAY] Silence power cannot be used without a target
• [GAMEPLAY] Parrying a double hit attack doesn’t result in being hit by second hit anymore
• [GAMEPLAY] Fixed issue in which character finished in the wrong ending stance when being hit while changing stance
• [NETWORK] Fixed a bug in hit knockback resulting in some awkward teleportation
• [NETWORK] Fixed dodge position replication
• [SAVES]: The game now detects if save is not valid and rollbacks to previous save if needed
• [AI] Fixed a bug when AI would get stuck after a player’s successful dodge
• [SFX] Fixed issue with boss gate SFX sound was playing in PvP maps and during boss fights.
• [DESIGN] Loot drops in Rift Coins and Rift Disks now give items in different color variants

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Patch 1.07 (26 September 2017)

• we have identified a bug which caused animations to play incorrectly and hits not to be detected: this has been fixed and is included in the 1.07 update.

• from a gameplay side, we probably made too many changes at the same time; we have therefore reverted changes made to the dodge mechanic, and done some tweaks to ranges and guard impact of previously changed attacks.

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Patch 1.06 (20 September 2017)

Code

• Fixed power loss issue (powers will be given back to the player)
• Optimization
• Fixed bugs in schools menu
• Fixed item loss issue in inventory menu
• Fixed crash in cutscene
• Improved Combat Trials disconnection issue
• General Stability improvement

Design

• Special abilities
• absorb successful :
• increase ghost damage refill (x2)
• decrease stamina bonus (50 -> 20)
• add +20 protection during 5s
• Avoid successful : decrease stamina bonus (40 -> 35) increase stamina cost 5 -> 10
• Character avoided : Decrease stamina refill (x0.3) during 1.5s
• Stamina malus (-10)
• Parry successful : decrease stamina bonus (30 -> 15)
• Stagger style : decrease range of side special attacks (190 -> 145)

Attacks

• Decrease range and impact on guard of fastest attacks
• Increase impact on guard of Breaking attacks

1v1

• health refill on kill now take in account the health ratio of both players at the beginning of the round

Others

• Increase weight/mobility impact on stamina
• Increase dodge iFrames (2 -> 4)
• Keep shards after death

Shockwave

• cost 2 shards
• decrease range
• add stamina bonus + boost stamina refill during 5s

Exploration

• Decreased maximum number of enemy AIs spawned at the same time
• Improved some enemy AIs detection range
• Fixed navigation issue in Oratian Quarter zone

1v1

• Fixed out of bounds issue in Adalian Columbary arena
• Modification on the cross arena

UI

• "Victory" & "Defeat" localised
• Corrected misspelled english texts
• Fixed cut off localised texts
• School creation: added notification confirmation when school is successfully created
• Social menu: "offline"/"online" information replaced by a colored dot

Art

• NEW: Added six unique masks in the Guidance Bridge, inspired by Devolver Digital games
• Collision and navigation bugfixes
• Performance Optimization

Audio

• NEW: Added two new tracks to 1v1 Game Mode
• NEW: added variety on foleys
• Sound corruption issue improvement

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Patch 1.05 (11 September 2017)

• Various improvements to server connection and matchmaking
• Added double save to avoid complete progression loss if a save get corrupted
• Bug fixes when joining a school
• Beat an AI to unlock your due achievements, there could be a small delay before the achievement pops :)
• Cross-region invitations added
• Fixed Boss progression not being updated (For now, this fix only works for bosses, we’re still working on fixing the Marked Ones progression issue. We apologize about this issue and are still investigating)
• Improved overall stability.

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Patch 1.03 (1st September 2017)

• Crash fix related to combo edition
• Engine crash fixes than can produce corrupted save data
• Crash fix on dialog
• Improved overall game stability
• Fixed save data corruption issue