Patch Notes - Version 2.0

[Mane6Dev]

Patch Notes - Version 2.0

It's finally here! 2.0 is our biggest update yet, with patch notes so long that we've exceeded our character limit on both the forums and Steam for a single post. Suffice to say, there is SO much to dig into here. Thanks again for all your patience and excitement! We're proud to be able to finally show off what we've been working on over the last few months.

Reminder: Mane6 will be conducting a 2.0 Post-Patch stream on Friday the 26th at 1PM PDT, during which we review the patch notes and offer our thoughts on the intent behind the changes. Stream link.


NOTICE: Global Player Resets

• Option configs have been reset for all players. Check your buttons and settings before playing!
• Casual ranks have been reset for all players. 2.0 is a very different game than before, so with a new "season" we're giving everyone a fresh start on progression. We meant to do this for 1.0 but missed our opportunity.
  • Note: Casual ranks do not affect who you're matched with and do not unlock anything. They're purely cosmetic.

New Character: Shanty the Goat
As part of the 2.0 update, our first DLC fighter Shanty the Goat will be charging into the fray!

Details
The Shanty DLC package can be purchased for $4.99 USD (subject to regional pricing in Steam) and includes the following items:

• Shanty as an additional playable character.
• The Capricorn (Shanty's stage), featuring fully dynamic music for all characters.
• Shanty Pixel Lobby avatar.

BONUS: Owners of the Shanty DLC will get access to Shanty's Story Mode chapter when it is released later (after the main story chapters are finished, ETA TBD).

NOTICE: Crowdfund backers in all tiers have been sent one Shanty DLC key as part of their promised rewards for helping us reach our stretch goal to fund Shanty's development. Check your email!

DLC FAQ

1. Is there a "try before you buy" option?
   No. You must own the Shanty DLC to select Shanty (or her stage) in any mode.
2. Can I still fight a Shanty CPU without the DLC?
   Yes, but indirectly. Shanty will show up in Arcade Mode and the Salt Mines. You won't be able to select her in Versus CPU or Training Mode.
3. Can my human opponent still pick Shanty if I don't have the DLC?
   Yes. In online versus, your opponent is not blocked from selecting Shanty (or her stage) if they own the DLC and you don't.
4. Can I load combo files with Shanty in them without the DLC?
   No, but replays will work.
5. Does Shanty have Shadow and Backer palettes?
   Yes. The unlock conditions are the same as they are for the other characters.

New Pixel Lobby: Hallowed Grove
Oleander's Pixel Lobby is now available!

New Feature: Replays
About Replays

• Replays are an ingame match recording and playback system.
• The game can be set to save replays manually, automatically, or never!
• You can only save replays of matches with two human players (including ones you spectate). CPU fights can't be turned into replays.
• Replay files are small and shareable. You can import them by drag-n-dropping them into your game window while on the replay browser screen.
• Playback features include speed controls, frame-by-frame, rewind/skip, timecode bookmarks, (nearly) all training mode data overlays, and input displays (for one or both players).

Caution: Version Mismatches!

• A replay in TFH (and most other competitive games) has a limited lifespan. Older replay files will become unusable as the game updates.
• tl;dr: If you want to keep a replay long-term, make a video of it (using your own screen capture software) soon afterwards!

For those of you interested in the technical details, read on...

TFH's replay system is comprised of two halves:

1. A Replay File: a log of all inputs performed during the match. (Since it's a journal and not an actual video, the file size is very small.)
2. A Set of Character Data: which is referenced to interpret the replay file and "resimulate" what happened.

If something changed about the character data since the replay was recorded, the log produces different game actions than originally intended at the time the replay was recorded. When this happens, it's called a "desync", and it prevents the resimulation from working properly.

Most games flat-out prevent players from loading mismatched replays to protect against desyncs. We have decided not to be this restrictive in TFH, on the off-chance that character data is similar enough that it won't cause a desync. If you try to load a replay recorded in a version other than the one you're playing on, the game will caution you but allow you to play it. If a desync does occur during playback, an onscreen indicator will display and the resimulation will halt.

The only solutions to this problem we're aware of is to keep a full set of character data from every version of the game (ever) within the install, or provide access to every previous version using Steam branches. There's also the workaround of including a video encoder, allowing players to conveniently save video of replays right out of the game, preserving the replay in a heavier but more long-term format.

Unfortunately, none of these solutions are viable for us, and we are likely not the team to find something that is. As stated above: if you want to keep a replay long-term, make a video of it immediately. If you wait too long, you could lose your chance!


Native Linux Support Added

• Them's Fightin' Herds now runs natively on Linux!
  • How Do I Get It? The Linux port is built into the base game and automatically recognizes your operating system. No additional purchase or special download is needed. Just install normally from your Steam library and play!
  • But Where's Mac? Native Mac support is still in the works but not far behind, since a Mac port is basically just a Linux port with a few extras added. When we're confident the Linux port is stable out in the wild, we'll add Mac. In the meantime, it's still possible for Mac users to run TFH using Steam Play.
  • Why Native Ports? Linux and Mac ports were promised as a stretch goal during our crowdfund campaign. Native ports run significantly better compared to an emulator (like Proton). We feel strongly about providing full OS coverage to our PC players. And, the work that went into these ports is a necessary first step towards expanding to other platforms, if we ever get the opportunity to do so.
• IMPORTANT: Linux users should disable compatibility mode or else Steam might not give you right files!

Stages

• New Stage: The Capricorn. Shanty's home stage joins the list of destinations with a full set of Dynamic Music System character themes!
  • How Do I Get It? The Capricorn is an exclusive unlock for owners of the Shanty DLC. Your opponent is not prevented from picking it if they own the DLC and you do not.
• New Stage: Hidden Waterfall, our first playable "world" stage (aside from the training grid).
  • How Do I Get It? Hidden Waterfall requires no additional purchase and is pre-unlocked for everyone who owns the base game.
  • "World" Stage? This category describes stages that are not associated with a particular character (but they may exist canonically in a region a character lives in). As such, they won't have character theme variants. Other world stages include the ones visited in Story Mode, which we plan to introduce as unlockables in a future update.
  • So No DMS? There is DMS to a degree. Hidden Waterfall features a "lite" version of our dynamic music system: intros, round transitions, outros, and idle/final round variants, but no character themes. We'd like to explore bringing this type of "lite" treatment to other world stages in the future.
• Oleander and Paprika's stages have been remastered. Textures, objects, and lighting effects have been cleaned up or redone.
• Most stages have received improvements to background object shake animations during heavy hits.
• Character lighting has been brightened on many stages to help them stand out from the background.

Menus/UI

• Credits Roll Added. We finally have ingame credits, so now you can find out exactly who's responsible for this! Includes over 10,000 backers!
• Discord Rich Presence. TFH now supports Discord Rich Presence! (Steam Rich Presence is not included in this update, but is on the way).
• The "Dynamic Music System" option (which allows players to switch off DMS in favor of static stage themes) has been reinstated.
  • This option was originally removed because the "Rapid" toggle (which set the DMS to randomly play domination themes) never worked properly. As such, we did not bring that part of the option back.
• Most major menus have new looks.
• The "match ready screen" has a new look.
• The font of all "body" text has been updated.
• Text has been revised across various menus and options to improve clarity.
• Menus have some filled-in sound effects in a few places where nothing played before.
• The "Select" button is now universal (to prevent conflicts in Replay System controls).
• The main menu newsfeed can now take you to associated web URLs (using the Steam browser).
• The button glyphs for Xbox bumpers and triggers have been de-widened in all areas (except for a few places where we need really tiny ones).
• The version stamp display (present in various menus) now includes a platform marker (WIN for Windows and GNU for Linux).
• The "CPU Difficulty" option has been removed from Gameplay Options in the main menu. (We discovered it uh… didn't actually do anything, with each mode having its own difficulty selector and all).
• Fixed an issue causing low-resolution player portraits to appear in the Match Ready screen.

Training Mode

• Updated Input Displays.The virtual stick and input history displays now allow for both P1 and P2 to be viewed simultaneously. They have also have new looks and a suite of new placement options.
  • Notice: The new input history is in a vertical format. The old "horizontal" format is no longer accessible.
• The "Health Level" and "Juggle Decay Minimum" options now use increments of 5 (instead of 1) to make them easier to scroll through.
• The "Slow Motion" option has been renamed to "Game Speed", and its increments now run from lowest to highest (instead of highest to lowest) to match the way all the other options with percentage increments work.
• Advanced Attack Data can now show unscaled damage for moves, if you launch the game with the launch option "-unscaledhitdata".
• Sound Options are now accessible from the pause menu of Training Mode.
• Quick Reposition now cancels any currently playing dummy recordings.
• The subheader of the Training Mode controls reference sheet now displays the type of controller you're using (as originally intended) instead of static text.
• Many options have been renamed for better clarity (but still function the same way).
• Training Mode options menus now have a proper "page turn" sound effect.
• The Online Training pause menu and many of its options have revised text (to match parallel options in other modes).
• "Simulated Input Delay" is no longer allowed in combo recording (to prevent stability issues).
• Fixed a problem with dummy recordings where install timers would empty despite them being set to infinite while entering the prerecord state.
• Fixed a few errors with combo recording while the dummy is set to jump.
• Fixed "Death Allowed" being allowed during Combo Training.
• Fixed an issue that prevented training dummies from blocking projectiles immediately after techrolls.

Tutorial Mode

• Tutorial section names and dialogue have been revised for better clarity.
• The QCF and QCB glyphs on the tasklist have been adjusted to display the downward motion.
• Replaced the trial in Paprika's "Link" tutorial to fix a problem with the previous trial resetting too early.
• Fixed an instance of a softlock happening in Pom's level 2 super tutorial after the first successful attempt.
• Note: Many characters have received new moves in this update, but they are not in the tutorial yet. We plan to add them in a future update.

 

[Mane6Dev]

Pixel Lobby

• Pixel Lobby servers can now be hosted on Linux. The only difference is running LobbyServer.sh instead of LobbyServer.bat. Please see this forum postfor detailed instructions on how to host a server.
  • Linux servers are indistinguishable from Windows servers as far as players are concerned. They have full cross-platform capabilities with Windows users.
• There are new cosmetics!
• Reduced volume of the fight cloud sound effect.
• There is now an option to disable the fight cloud sound effect (Pixel Lobby pause menu > Sound & Voice Options).
• The Salt Mines exit in Velvet's Lobby has been moved to a new location.
• Inviting friends now has better player feebdack.
• Fixed leaving a Pixel Lobby bringing you to the main menu instead of the server browser.
• Fixed various minor cosmetic and collision issues across all maps.

Classic Lobby

• Fixed the win counter not displaying correctly in matches fought from Classic Lobbies.
• Fixed an issue where Steam portraits would not show up on the pre-match loading screen.
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from being able to do anything on character select after joining a Classic Lobby from Training Mode.
• Fixed a softlock issue caused when players tried to join a room that no longer existed through a url.
• Fixed instances of music stopping while navigating through menus.

Targets Mode

• Targets Mode has been removed from the game.
  • Why? In short: it's old, too much of it is non-functional, and it has been so since the Early Access release. We had three options: 1. leave it as is, 2. spend limited dev resources maintaining it in lieu of newer, more popular single player modes (like Story Mode), or 3. remove it. We chose option 3, as we felt it was more of a disservice to players to choose either of the first two options.
  • However: we know people like Targets. We do too. It's been part of our identity since the beginning and we don't want to let it go entirely. So, we plan to reintroduce new Targets challenges within Story Mode as Chapter 2 releases, with at least one type of challenge for every chapter, including Arizona's. Though we are sorry to retire Targets in its current form, we feel this new direction will be better for TFH in the long run.

Story Mode

• Story Mode enemy health values have been increased across the board to balance the increased damage characters do in 2.0. Effectively, nothing should feel different.
• The "Game Over" screen has a new look.
• Fixed not being able to skip dialogue during the opening title card of Chapter 1, Section 2 (Reine City).

Gameplay (Universal)
Developer Notes
With 2.0, we are aiming for a game that retains the combo creativity it always had while making stray hits and shorter combos more effective. 1.0 had many combo situations that involved per- hit damage values that bottomed out very early and coasted until the end, resulting in good damage but requiring the highest possible combo skill, since the benefits of tacking on more hits (almost regardless of type) were pretty flat throughout.

We've made some adjustments to how JDG works at particularly high levels during long combos. Previously, when JDG activated, a flat reduction in hitpause would kick in to make combo extension slightly more difficult, remaining this way until the combo ended. Now, hitpause will scale along with JDG’s intensity to further pull opponents out of exceptionally long combo strings, and individual high JDG attacks will fail to juggle earlier on.

In addition, a ton of long-standing engine-level bugs that made attack trades inconsistent and unfavorable have finally been cleared up. The combat engine of 2.0 operates smoother and more consistently, so it should be clearer than ever that a loss of an exchange or match was due to player error rather than one of our many funky engine quirks/port priority situations from before.

With these changes, upfront damage in shorter combos compares with mid to high-end combos of the past, while the highest-end combos remain roughly where they are, with some exceptions. Landing big, unsafe, high-risk attacks are now more worth it, and combos "get to the point" faster.

Cosmetic

• Superflashes have new background effects (no more black screen for level 2s).
• The Juggle Decay Bar on the combat HUD now visualizes negative JD values.
• Static stage themes now properly play their intros.
• Attacks that strike an invincible opponent now properly show a "whiff" hitspark as intended. Previously, a slight flash of white light was all that would happen.
• The KO graphic and announcer line now triggers 5 frames after the game thinks a KO has happened to mitigate occurrences of jarring false KOs when rollbacks occur during online play.
• The combo counter now updates 3 frames after a hit to mitigate occurrences of display errors when rollbacks occur during online play.
• Fixed full-JD stagger soft knockdowns not showing up as invalid combos on the combo counter.
• Implemented fixes towards an anti-aliasing bug that would cause horizontal lines to appear overtop character sprites.
• Fixed visual artifacts on grey health appearing during rollbacks in online matches.
• Fixed characters sprites having noticeable vertical "seams" only when facing left ( mirrored).

General

• Throw Whiff recovery increased by 5 frames for all characters.
• Normals now also benefit from reversal timing.
• Cross Canter now disables control of pets in general.
• Attack trades now properly apply the hit properties of both attacks in a reliable fashion (this has affected a TON of attacks over the years).
• Same-frame throw+hit and hit+block situations have been cleaned up. Hits will always win over throws, and blocks will always win over hits. Further, successfully blocking any hit will block all other types of hits on that same frame.

Damage Rebalancing
Opening Hit and Counterhit Bonuses

• Opening attack damage bonus has been increased across the board.
• Multi-hits now carry opening hit and counterhit damage bonuses all the way through.
• All supers that previously lacked any benefit from opening hits now deal bonus damage on top of the above changes.

Scaling

• Damage scales more slowly than before.
• Damage scaling minimum has been lowered significantly.
• The second hit of each combo is now scaled instantly, instead of the first 2 hits dealing 100% like before.

Juggle Decay

• The JD bar decay rate has been decreased.
• JDG now causes additional hitpause reduction at higher values, rather than staying at a flat 2 frames.

Blocking
Preblock

• Increased the minimum distance that all grounded attacks cause preblock.
• Adjusted the more specific preblock distances for all attacks, usually increasing beyond minimum.
• Fixed preblocks persisting long after an attack has ended.

Blocking

• Block hitsparks are now better aligned.
• Fixed a longstanding issue causing block hitsparks to display differently for P1 and P2.
• Fixed an oversight that caused a ton of block animations to display incorrectly, with several frames never showing at all (whups).
• Fixed an issue during crouchblock that forced standing for a frame if the defending player was mashing normal attacks.

Pushblocking

• Pushblocking should now work reliably on every single hit of every type of attack, no matter how rapidly it hits your character. (This mainly affected every other hit of attacks like Oleander’s super).
• Fixed an issue that reduced pushblock timing when additional attacks landed.
• Fixed an issue reducing the incoming blockstun of attacks if they landed during a pushblock.

Instant Block

• Now has its own hitspark, sound effect, and UI accolade (for greater visibility).
• Now negates chip damage completely at low health, like pushblock currently does.
• Fixed not being able to Instant Block when holding a button.

Bugfixes

• Fixed multiple moves hitting on the same frame receiving ridiculous stacked damage bonuses.
• Fixed an oversight causing multiple non-player characters and objects to refund JD mid-combo.
• Fixed backdash out of ground tech not giving the extra frame of invulnerability if done on frame 1.
• Fixed early Negative Edge inputs being prioritized over regular inputs at the correct timing.
• Fixed attacks causing weird trade situations when interacting with armor.
• Fixed being unable to first-frame command normals out of "return to neutral" animations.
• Fixed being unable to first-frame specials out of hitstun and hard knockdown.
• Fixed same-frame airdash cancels having no momentum change.
• Fixed a long-standing bug that caused corners to affect vertical momentum.
• Fixed inconsistent pushing power when various characters walked against each other.

 

[Mane6Dev]

Characters
Arizona
Developer Notes
Arizona has essentially been the blueprint for the game as a whole, so she's been sitting pretty comfortably within the intended levels of dynamism and pacing for awhile, with only a few tweaks here and there over time.

The universal changes in 2.0 further emphasize her already explosive short bursts of damage and setups, but in some areas it was a bit much! Since she has a lot of big single-hit specials and supers that frontload her damage already, these big attacks have been brought a bit closer to their 1.0 versions to allow the opponent to continue existing on screen past roundstart.

Cosmetic

• The "Kiwi/Strawberry" palette has a new look (to further differentiate it from "Sky Cow").
• Fixed lasso discrepancies on the "Jersey" and "Dakota" palettes.
• Fixed a number of small palette issues on various animations.

General

• (Base) Attack damage has been reduced in the following areas to mitigate explosiveness:
  • Heavy normals (5C, 2C, and j.C).
  • Specials (All Headbucks, Stomp B and C).
  • Supers (Trample and Rebound).

6A

• Hitboxes have been adjusted, mainly to reduce crossup coverage.
• Ground movement now steps back a bit during recovery.
• Fixed 6A causing preblock after hitting.

Bugfixes

• Fixed being able to cycle specials indefinitely through empty cancels of 2D during attack strings.
• Fixed Instant Block not preventing KO against Trample.
• Fixed many bugs involving trades with Trample, including situations that would either cause Arizona or her opponent to be lifted into the sky with no reaction, or lifted into the sky with the incorrect type of hitstun (this includes the "forklift").
• Fixed Arizona preventing a counterthrow state if thrown during Counter.
• Fixed meaty 5D Lasso catching jump startup only for P1. P2 could always jump out of it. Now both players can.
• Fixed a bug that caused Arizona to hover in the air for a brief moment if she backdashed towards her opponent, canceled into a jump, and attacked on the last frame of jump startup. (Because video games).

Velvet
Developer Notes
Velvet is another character who is gaining a good amount of baseline benefits from the universal changes in 2.0. With smaller exchanges becoming more explosive in damage, Velvet can shine even brighter when she manages to catch her opponent tripping up in her frosty obstacle courses, then disengage sooner while starving her opponent of super meter.

To keep pace with the 2.0 goal of "getting to the point sooner", her long-reaching heavy attacks and all of her specials have seen an increase in damage, along with more potent and consistent Wind mechanics to keep her (now more dangerous) opponents at bay for longer.

Cosmetic

• New palette: "Neapolitan".
• The "Fluffest Pink" palette has been removed (due to its similarity to "Mulled Wine").
• The "Winter Cake" palette has been removed (due to its similarity to "Valentino" and "Oh Deer").
• The "Valentino" palette has a new look (to further differentiate it from "Oh Deer").
• Fixed small palette issues on Velvet's stand pushblock and neutral getup animations.

General

• Frostbite now has an onscreen timer.
• Fixed Frost effects affecting pushblock timing.

5A

• Pushes back airborne opponents slightly less on hit.
• Reaches slightly further.

5B

• Damage reduced slightly.
• Reaches slightly further (both hits).
• Pushes back grounded opponents slightly less on second hit.

2B

• Damage reduced slightly.

2C

• Damage increased.
• Hurtbox length during startup reduced.

5C

• Damage increased.
• Now has a slightly further attackbox that can hit crouchers.
• Hurtboxes now duck during startup.

Specials (General)

• Damage of all specials increased.
• Chip damage of all specials and supers increased.
• Magic Ice Eruption is now negative on block (now -2, formerly +2).
• Fixed more instances of hitstun being prevented when trading with Velvet's Icicle Missiles and Eruptions.

Wind

• Effect strengthened against grounded opponents walking, dashing, or running towards Velvet.
• Minimum distance for max strength (during startup) increased.
• During Frost effects, Wind no longer adds JD.
• Fixed an oversight that allowed Wind to apply both hitstun and JD during blockstun.
• Fixed a bug that prevented Wind from applying to an opponent who starts moving on their own between Velvet and her Ice Cyclone.
• Fixed an oversight that allowed Wind’s hitstun extension to cause grounded opponents to sometimes (near endlessly) repeat some of their hitstun animation frames.

Oleander
Developer Notes
As a character that does a little of everything, Oleander's cumulative strength made her into a solid choice at all levels, eventually reaching a dominating place at every step. As we toned down certain particularly powerful aspects of her kit, such as the speed of certain teleports and the potency of the "Fred cycle", we exposed underlying issues with the base character that became untenable. Each change made her either overwhelmingly amazing or completely useless/devoid of interesting choices.

Because of this, we've recontextualized her gameplan, allowing her to vary her normal pressure and combo routes with a brand new attack, while normalizing her teleport timings and windows of vulnerability. In addition, Fred no longer feeds Oleander meter and instead feeds himself extra time with charged attacks. Since the cycle of Fred appearances will be slightly harder to maintain, Fred himself has more of an imposing presence while he is around.

Cosmetic

• "The Last" palette has a new look (to further differentiate it from "Pure").
• Fixed a lingering cardboard animation effect on Oleander during Fred Summon (while in the air).
• Fixed Oleander's line layer disappearing during her crouching pushblock animation (again, and hopefully for the last time).

General

• During any double jump that cancels out of attacks, there is now a small period of vulnerability.

New Command Normal: Sinister Sweep (6B)

• Steps forward, aims low, reaches slightly farther, and trips grounded opponents.
• Slightly mitigates pushblocks at the beginning.
• Jump-cancellable.
• Mini-launches airborne opponents (similar to Pom 2B).

Normals (General)

• All jumping normals and almost all grounded normals deal less damage.
• All normals involving the book have increased hurtbox range and become vulnerable sooner.

2B

• Active for longer.

5B

• Active for longer.
• Blockstun increased.
• Now moves Oleander forward a bit.

5C

• Recovery increased.
• Blockstun increased.
• Now moves Oleander forward a bit.

j.B

• No longer lifts the lower body hurtbox quite as high during the attack.

6A

• Reaches higher.
• Has additional hitpause and hitstun against airborne opponents.
• Now moves Oleander forward a bit.
• Fixed Oleander not being able to cancel from 2A > 2A into 6A.

6C

• Damage increased.
• Recovery and hitstop increased.
• Fixed JD not being removed on opening hit if only the second hit of 6C connected.

Shadow Spark

• Oleander's physical movement during grounded sparks has been changed a tiny bit. She now slides back then comes forward to fire, and slides back less after firing.
• Fixed a Magic Spark trade situation that broke opponent’s teleports, particularly Paprika’s.
• Fixed Magic Sparks slowing down when damaged.
• Fixed Magic Spark not applying hitstun on trade.

Chapter Trap

• All traps now apply more hitstop on air block.
• Magic Chapter Trap now self-destructs if Oleander is hit before it becomes active.

Teleport

• Grounded Teleports are slightly faster.
• Air Teleports now match grounded teleports in speed.
• Teleport C (grounded) now has increased startup and reduced recovery, but maintains total framecount.

Specials (General)

• Chip damage increased slightly for all specials.
• Oleander can now cancel into specials out of Study during the first 3 frames of startup (to help prevent an unintentional Study when trying to do a Magic Spark or Magic Chapter Trap).

Magic (General)

• All Magic abilities deal more damage.
• Using Study with full Magic while Fred is out now extends the Fred timer rather than provide Super Meter to Oleander.

Bugfixes

• Fixed Oleander not being pushed back if Fred's attacks were pushblocked (this was definitely not intentional, just difficult to fix).
• Fixed Shadow Blast being able to be pushblocked/CC'd only on every other frame. It can now be pushblocked on every frame.
• Fixed an issue with Oleander’s throw causing her opponent’s items and pets to temporarily disappear while they are contained within her book.

Fred
Cosmetic

• Fred's attacks now have swipe effects.

Attacks (General)

• Charged attacks now extend Fred's timer instead of providing Super Meter to Oleander (but they still take Super Meter from the opponent).
• Hitstop on block reduced across several attacks.
• Fred's attacks now subtract JD on opening hit, like regular normals do.
• Fred now properly pushes himself out of corners he is facing during 2D and 3D so these attacks can hit more reliably.

2D

• Damage increased (both versions).
• JD and JDG reduced (charged).
  • Hitboxes are wider and significantly taller (both versions).
• Charged 2D is now a command grab (but only outside of combos/blockstrings).
• Buries the opponent on KO (because it’s funny).

3D

• Hitboxes are wider and taller.

4D

• Damage increased (charged).
• JDG reduced (both versions).
• Fixed an oversight that prevented 4D from affecting JDG.

6D

• Damage of final hit increased (charged).
• JDG reduced (both versions).

 

[Mane6Dev]

Paprika
Developer Notes
Paprika, another character that was already feeling good to play, only seemed to need a small change or two to allow her kit to fall into place. Many of the universal 2.0 changes help her in unique ways.

The one major thing we decided she needed was a different way to anti-air. Since she is a charge character, her special inputs overlap with the universal anti-air input. A potential solution existed in the specials the boss version of Paprika has in Story Mode. 2.0 seemed like a good opportunity to introduce Belly Flop into Versus.

Cosmetic

• 7 new palettes: "Herd Leader", "Garlic Salt", "Hot Sauce", "Meanie", "Papourri", "Bergamot", and "Royal Blue".
• Throws now have a launch effect animation.
• Fixed some patches in Paprika's floof during one of her idle flourishes.

New Special: Belly Flop ([2]8+Atk)

• A quick and devastating attack that flips upwards, immediately striking opponents before coming back down again with a belly flop.
• Previously this was an attack only seen when fighting against her as a boss in Story Mode.
• Unlike the boss version, this attack is not invincible on the way up.
• Also unlike the boss version, it causes a hard knockdown.

General

• Flower Pot and Edible Gift now have early input leniency.

Bugfixes

• Fixed basket gifts during basket burst not actually being random (instead being chosen based on the types of gifts Paprika had thrown while the basket was out). They are now truly random, as intended.
• Fixed Paprika's basket burst regenerating magic according to the number of flower pots produced, if P2. (Yup).
• Fixed first-frame jabs ignoring gift eatboxes.
• Fixed gifts being able to be eaten (for no benefit) for a short while after players were no longer standing over them or the gift expired.
• Fixed Paprika being able to eat her own gifts an additional time after they disappeared (similar to the issue affecting all players, but this one was specifically her).
• Fixed apples restoring an inconsistent amount of health depending on the frame eaten. (They now always restore 400 health).
• Fixed Kiss being able to be "teched" under certain circumstances.
• Fixed Paprika not being able to negative edge cancel throw into a super.

Pom
Developer Notes
Pom has a bunch of fun and terrifying tools that she channels through her pups, but like any toolset that hopes to cover as many bases as possible, one of those tools will inevitably end up taking on multiple jobs and do such a good job that other tools are invalidated. In this case, it was Pilot Pup. As he's a puppy that automatically homes in on the opponent over time, Pom doesn't have to worry as much about his placement, so his fire-and-forget nature made him a no-brainer for almost every situation.

As we made changes, we made sure to keep his unique aspects while putting emphasis on player input to nudge him back up to speed and into perfect positions. Now that Pilot Pup is focused a bit more into his niche, we went on to bring out more defined strengths in the other puppy options.

We made the low option of Bitey Pup much harder to get clipped by most attacks, as its hurtbox now gets closer to the ground. We also fixed an issue that made Momma's autoblock send her home immediately after any exchange. With a more defense-heavy Big Momma, low-profile puppy attacks and projectile erasure coming in from all bark-type attacks, players should have more opportunities to absorb, then land, big decisive blows to their opponent.

Cosmetic

• Fixed some visual errors on Pom's falling animation.
• Fixed a small color issue on Pom's shadow palette during her Bark! animation.
• Fixed some general palette bugs with Momma and Papa.

General

• The input window for dismissing puppies has been tightened.

Pilot Pup

• Homing speed lowered.
• Minimum homing distance increased (puppy will stop and await player input at wider distances before moving in on the opponent).
• Homing now only starts after the pup has floated into place.
• Homing now eases into place instead of going straight from max speed to zero.
• Dive angle is steeper.
• Attack now causes tumble instead of groundbounce.
• Both attacks now cause additional hitstop on hit.

Bitey Pup

• Hurtbox of low attack squashed.
• Low attack hitbox active frames extended.

Big Momma

• Autoblock no longer drains health.
• Command grab active frames and recovery period extended.
• Bark range increased slightly.
• Bark properties now properly match Pom's.

Big Papa

• Bark range increased slightly.
• Bark properties now properly match Pom's.

Tianhuo
Developer Notes
Tianhuo is a character with high, consistent pressure coming at you from unique angles and timings. In 1.0, this pressure was relatively free from the constraints of resource management, so we wanted to introduce more Magic usage back into that playstyle.

We've slightly widened the flight-cancelled gaps in her pressure to allow attentive players more opportunities to take advantage of the openings. However, in addition to 2.0's universal changes, we further reward the Tianhuo player for finally catching their opponent by increasing first-hit damage of Volcanic Crash and removing the damage reduction of Ran Shao Feng.

The angles at which she can engage opponents have changed up enough that we felt she needed a new option (she could use Magic on) to introduce one more layer to left/right situations. The unique pushblock-ignoring properties of her new Volcanic Dash attack keep her opponents on their toes, since the grounded version only truly crosses up at specific close ranges. Both versions maintain advantage on block, extending her pressure at the cost of Magic.

Cosmetic

• The afterimage effect on Tianhuo during Ran Shao Feng has been toned down from a raging boil to a controlled simmer.
• Fixed a missing pupil on the first frame of stand throw.
• Fixed some model errors with the recovery animation of 2C.
• Fixed Tianhuo's Arcade Mode ending jingle using her outro from Velvet's stage (instead of her stage).

New Special: Volcanic Dash (236+D)

• Crosses up, causing an explosion behind Tianhuo.
• Costs 1 Magic, refunds a set amount on hit and a separate amount on block.
• Ignores pushblock.
• Air OK (of course).

General

• Volcanic Crash is now more powerful if done raw. Its opening hit damage bonus has been increased, it refunds JD, and it can now counterhit.
• The initial height of Tianhuo's Flight (from the ground) has been raised slightly (when not in Ran Shao Feng).
• j.A hitbox shrunk (removing the lower, second part of the hitbox).
• Firecrackers performed from the ground are now considered grounded for a few frames (the framedata remains unchanged).

Ran Shao Feng

• No longer puts a damage-reducing debuff on Tianhuo.
• Fixed air normals during Ran Shao Feng speeding up Tian’s flight speed when moving up or away from the opponent.

Bugfixes

• Fixed an inconsistency with Tianhuo's super jump that prevented it from recognizing any combination of inputs other than purely opposite directions. (For example, she previously could not super jump with 1>7 or 1>8).
• Fixed Tianhuo not being able to negative edge cancel Volcanic Crash into a super.
• Fixed Volcanic Ash sometimes causing the game to crash if done while Tianhuo was in any slowdown effect, like Velvet's Frost.

Predators

• Due to 2.0 damage changes, Predator health has been adjusted to be able to survive upfront damage at the same relative rates. Damage done towards players remain unchanged.
• The Panther no longer uses universal ungulate hurtboxes during attacks. Its new hurtboxes are generally longer to better fit the shape of its body.
• The Bear now actually makes sounds during all throws/command grabs.