Rivals of Aether - Official Thread

[Boasting Toast]

Yo! Leeyawshee and I made another video. It's a bit lengthier than normal, sorry 'bout that. Check it out if you want!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSJoGc9t2AY

"DAN FORNICATE"

 

[Miko]

@ RoA_Zam no problem! I'm more than happy to give what feedback I can! might be disjointed at times since I'm doing exams at the moment, but hopefully over summer I'll have more chances to play, and perhaps a chance to introduce the game to some new players!

On the matter of jump-dodging, I too thought it would be very niche in applications, hadn't noticed it gave you less height than jumping normally though, still a nice quirk

As for dash-attacking, that's cool and sensible I think, I was just wondering if it was by design.

Also, yay for more control options! :D might have to pick up Wrastor as well then!

Lastly, somebody mentioned about a bar fest they hosted (which sounds really cool!), and people mentioned that the stages could be larger; I have to agree with this, I love the current stages but none are really very large, wouldn't mind a Final Destination or Dreamland -esque stage!

 

[4nace]

I just found a glitch where I was playing teamzies. When only one died, it said game and went to the victory screen. The guy who didn't die i think was Kragg, and the thing that shows your kills was glitching out for him

Yeah. It's Forsburn causing that glitch. His clone is counting as a player. Will have it fixed for next update.

So here's a new one: one of my friends says he hates smash because short hopping is too hard and he won't play RoA without a short hop button.

On veteran controls the y and b button are redundant... think we could have a 'short hop' button on the control config menu? I think a lot of less experienced players will appreciate that a lot.

btw: 4Nace has already stated that the 99 stocks thing is his exhibition mode for conventions and such. Don't play with 99 stocks for now.

Hmm.. has he tried short hopping in RoA? I struggle in melee at times (looking at you fox) but have no issues in Rivals. I could add it as an option but that would be another thing that players will have to flip through when trying to set up their controls.

I'd just like to reiterate that if Wrastor's smashes will continue to have the same endlag upon landing, then I think he should have a more complex landing animation. In my opinion, it looks very odd for him to be frozen in the same position for such a long time. I initially thought it must have been a mistake or a bug, but if the player can clearly see Wrastor being animated for that time then I think it'd be more clear. Even adding one or two more sprites to that sequence would make it more fluid and clean it up very nicely, I think.

We don't have time to animate old characters! Jk Jk. But the landing lag time is a bit shorter in my current build. We'll look at adding a frame or two of animation during our polish pass but I make no promises.

Hi guys, Dan,

- New to Smash players mentioned on numerous occasions that they didn't feel that the stages were large enough. One person noted they didn't feel like there was space to practice their moves before being engaged and juggled. We only played 4 player, so it did feel a bit chaotic, cramped at times. Kragg's level was preferred for the extra space. I too would like to see some larger battlefields to mix things up.

Lot of people couldn't believe that it was an Alpha build, the game play was so smooth and error free that it played like a complete game. Kudos to Dan and the team, really loving the game so far.

Thanks for the kind words. Glad your group is enjoying it.

In terms of the stages, all the basic stages will be the same size - getting up to around the Rock Wall or the Fire Capitol in terms of the biggest. I have thought about doing a single zoomed out stage (like our Hyrule Temple) but there would be some edge cases to solve for that such as giant pillars and currents. Because the resolution is set, we have locked ourselves in a bit with how big stages can get unless we do a stage where pixels are half as large. I haven't ruled out doing a giant stage yet but its basic version would probably be a small version of it.

Thanks,
Dan

 

[RoA_Zam]

Got some sweet new Wrastor technology that I'm gonna include in my Wrastor tutorial video that you all will like.

Example:

Roll all the way to the edge of Rock Wall on either side and be facing towards center of stage.
Up Special and hold towards the other side of the stage and you ledge cancel the up Special by the middle platform and can attack immediately afterwards.

Usefulness: When an opponent is 30%-90% and on the middle platform, up Special'ing into them puts them in a perfect position for ledge-cancelling into a Bair or Uair, which you can then follow up with anything else afterwards if you read their DI.

Another example:

Short-hop Dair has so little end lag that you can do a Strong attack out of it. The two connect into each other starting around 35% and Ustrong is a sweet spot starting at around 70%. Spacing for Ustrong kill's made EZ.

 

[Mum]

Hey @D4nace, I exhibitted your game to locals at my Brawler club! Though they were slow to pick it up, by the end of the night, everyone was asking how they could get the game. They really appreciated how the game rewards conscious decisions and not button mashing.

Btw, was this intentional or is it a bug? When you slowdown the game, rivals can't die, they just fall infinitely (preventing recovery). It's not a real issue, if you unslow the game, the rivals die.

 

[RoA_Zam]

Hey @D4nace, I exhibitted your game to locals at my Brawler club! Though they were slow to pick it up, by the end of the night, everyone was asking how they could get the game. They really appreciated how the game rewards conscious decisions and not button mashing.

Btw, was this intentional or is it a bug? When you slowdown the game, rivals can't die, they just fall infinitely (preventing recovery). It's not a real issue, if you unslow the game, the rivals die.

Has to do with how he set up finishing a match with the slowing down at the end. As it slows down he removes the kill-zone so that players can't die and it show both players as losing all 3 stocks on the result screen.

 

[RoA_Zam]

For those of you that play orcane, this will make you happy:

Spoiler

 

[someonetookjacob]

For those of you that play orcane, this will make you happy:

Spoiler

That first gif was super sexy!, I can never seem to quite figure out using f-air for movement...
Actually they are all sexy. Bless the puddle jumper in his infinite mischief!

I have been away from this thread for a while but I have been bringing it to locals still. I dont really have any important feedback or comments, just some little stuff.

First, in the past I think I argued that Kragg pillar combos were easily avoided. My opinion has slightly changed, I still dont think they are unfair or too good but... I will say they are good. Its a strong position for kragg to be in, if he reads what option you take he can follow you and get a punish even if you DI out and airdodge.

Second, I played some with the best player in our scene. He's mostly a melee guy but things PM is okay too. (He actually enters PM tournaments with the tag "PM is okay, I guess..." then takes all our money) I think he really enjoyed it, It was interesting seeing the gears turning in his head everytime I did a new thing to him he didnt know about, and how quickly he was able to adapt. I won the first 2 games, then he won... well... a majority. It was nice to see that his strong fundamentals and reads carried over to RoA so quickly. He is a Peach main, and played only Kragg in RoA.

Last (sense it was just being discussed), I would also really like some larger stages. I think the stage diversity in smash adds alot to the experience and something on the order of dream land seems necessary for RoA to me, for stage diversity in tournaments. Something on the order of Temple would also be amazing, I remember when I was a more casual player that stage was always my favorite. And I think that applies to alot of newer players, so it would hopefully help appeal to non smash fans.

 

[Mum]

For those of you that play orcane, this will make you happy:

Spoiler

If you hate wrastor, these will make you happy.

 

[Chuck Tatum]

still pumped for those tourney match videos.\

edit: which I am sure are on the way still!

 

[RoA_Zam]

still pumped for those tourney match videos.\

edit: which I am sure are on the way still!

Still up to @ Xanthus for getting those haha. not me

 

[Xanthus]

I can upload them tonight: Sorry, I've had them for a while and just forgot!

 

[Chuck Tatum]

I can upload them tonight: Sorry, I've had them for a while and just forgot!

Yesterday at 8:41 AM

YOU ARE TORTURING ME!

 

[someonetookjacob]

Yesterday at 8:41 AM

YOU ARE TORTURING ME!

Its like his playing games with us... cruel games where only he knows the controls and he wont explain them before the match starts.

 

[jhunter_d]

All right, I'm back after being busy for a month or so so I might as well give some feedback. Trust me, I didn't apply to playtest just to get the early build. I want to really contribute, even if only a little, to this game and its development. That said, I feel like Orcane's recovery should be gimpable in some way that rewards the Orcane's opponent for going offstage and edgeguarding. Maybe if there was some lag before the teleport it would make for a more balanced move. I dunno, maybe this is a stupid idea, but I just want to get it out there.

 

[RoA_Zam]

All right, I'm back after being busy for a month or so so I might as well give some feedback. Trust me, I didn't apply to playtest just to get the early build. I want to really contribute, even if only a little, to this game and its development. That said, I feel like Orcane's recovery should be gimpable in some way that rewards the Orcane's opponent for going offstage and edgeguarding. Maybe if there was some lag before the teleport it would make for a more balanced move. I dunno, maybe this is a stupid idea, but I just want to get it out there.

Against orcane, orcane's upB recovery is super punishable if you edgeguard them to the point where they're forced to upB to a puddle, then you just sit by the puddle and charge a strong attack that orcane can't do anything about. I think orcane's recovery is honestly the worst in the game aside from his sideB that can only be punished by wrastor neutralB or a parry if it connects with you.

 

[GatorFace]

Do you think it's possible to have some kinda ETA on the new trailer? I really don't wanna seem so impatient, but holy hell I'm so hype I can barely contain it.

 

[RoA_Zam]

Got a sick new icon avatar thanks to my new bud @RocketClauncher
I'm also getting more made for each RoA character over time since I have the money to pay him for it. It's gonna be super nice!

 

[4nace]

Got a sick new icon avatar thanks to my new bud @RocketClauncher
I'm also getting more made for each RoA character over time since I have the money to pay him for it. It's gonna be super nice!

That Zetterburn Avatar is amazing. I am sure people would love to use the other chars for their smashboard avatars (i know i would!)

Do you think it's possible to have some kinda ETA on the new trailer? I really don't wanna seem so impatient, but holy hell I'm so hype I can barely contain it.

Hey! I was working on it all last week into the weekend. We might tie it to an event coming up so if we do it will delay it a bit (we might not tie it to any event though). It will be out within a month I would say. Almost done. One character you have seen before -Forsburn - and one new character. Forsburn does some cool stuff in it too so its worth watching him. Also Splash Art for both Forsburn and the new character.

Also, after grinding for much of the weekend, I had my first in-house online tests. There are still a couple of desyncs I need to stomp out. One involves Orcane vs Forsburn but I can't find why. I will though. Currently the game only supports traditional input lag netcode, but I will be reworking a good amount of the engine to see if we can support rollback netcode.

Here is a picture of two clients running on my PC:

(Note that any visuals that do not affect gameplay - background elements / particle effects etc - will not be exactly the same across two clients. Check the wisps to see that in effect.)

Also I have been changing a good amount of logic in order for it to work with networking. That introduces some hilarious new bugs.
If you can believe it, this bug was due to a single line of code being off:

I will be fixing all these new bugs as well as the bugs Zetterburn has recorded for us. Some of the old ones might just get fixed due to how parts of the engine are being restructured. Will probably get that notorious double puddle finally :D

-Dan

 

[Xanthus]

Sweet, Kragg has a Final Smash!

Also, sorry I didn't get the videos up yet. Got busy last week with a lot of stuff and the videos required some cutting. We left the recording running and friendlies happened after, so it's a little hard to remember / see which were the actual matches. Should ACTUALLY have time tonight to dig through it and split them up.

 

[Game&Watcher]

Aether Forest Returns!

 

[RoA_Zam]

Sweet, Kragg has a Final Smash!

Also, sorry I didn't get the videos up yet. Got busy last week with a lot of stuff and the videos required some cutting. We left the recording running and friendlies happened after, so it's a little hard to remember / see which were the actual matches. Should ACTUALLY have time tonight to dig through it and split them up.

Lazy. Get to work Scott McNerd haha

 

[GatorFace]

Yo, the RoA Sub is down so I guess I may as well link to a stream I'm doing now. Feel free to request matchups or glitches or stuff in general! http://www.twitch.tv/ultratz

 

[oksas]

watching some of the videos that have been posted in the subreddit and I'm getting pretty pumped (again) for this game. can't say enough how awesome this game looks so far :D

 

[likiji123]

That Zetterburn Avatar is amazing. I am sure people would love to use the other chars for their smashboard avatars (i know i would!)



Hey! I was working on it all last week into the weekend. We might tie it to an event coming up so if we do it will delay it a bit (we might not tie it to any event though). It will be out within a month I would say. Almost done. One character you have seen before -Forsburn - and one new character. Forsburn does some cool stuff in it too so its worth watching him. Also Splash Art for both Forsburn and the new character.

Also, after grinding for much of the weekend, I had my first in-house online tests. There are still a couple of desyncs I need to stomp out. One involves Orcane vs Forsburn but I can't find why. I will though. Currently the game only supports traditional input lag netcode, but I will be reworking a good amount of the engine to see if we can support rollback netcode.

Here is a picture of two clients running on my PC:

(Note that any visuals that do not affect gameplay - background elements / particle effects etc - will not be exactly the same across two clients. Check the wisps to see that in effect.)

Also I have been changing a good amount of logic in order for it to work with networking. That introduces some hilarious new bugs.
If you can believe it, this bug was due to a single line of code being off:

I will be fixing all these new bugs as well as the bugs Zetterburn has recorded for us. Some of the old ones might just get fixed due to how parts of the engine are being restructured. Will probably get that notorious double puddle finally :D

-Dan

That forest stage is beautiful can that glitch be added to some kind of joke mode (that would be amazing)

 

[RoA_Zam]

Another sweet new icon made by my buddy for wrastor. Next up will be orcane I'm thinking. Will keep you all updated.

I'm also bringing RoA up to a fairly large event for melee and PM (90+ people) so it'll get some sweet publicity there.

And I'm slowly building up archives of recordings to make combo video type stuff with each character against each other character. I'll be uploading them to a YT and setting them as private until Dan gives me a go to release them since there's footage you all aren't allowed to see yet (;

 

[someonetookjacob]

Another sweet new icon made by my buddy for wrastor. Next up will be orcane I'm thinking. Will keep you all updated.

I'm also bringing RoA up to a fairly large event for melee and PM (90+ people) so it'll get some sweet publicity there.

And I'm slowly building up archives of recordings to make combo video type stuff with each character against each other character. I'll be uploading them to a YT and setting them as private until Dan gives me a go to release them since there's footage you all aren't allowed to see yet (;

Is that large event Shuffle VII by chance? ( I couldnt find entrance numbers but it should be around what you listed.) Just wondering, because I am going to that event. If it is that thats awesome, because I am dying to play some of the other testers and get a real test of skill.

Either way I will bring RoA there, but I am not really comfortable leaving my laptop set up at a big event like that without me around, So I am not sure how often I will have it out on display, or where... (but I probably wont make it far, so i guess when ever I am not playing PM friendlies I will set it up)

Actually on this topic, I know someone who wasnt me brought RoA to a Columbus tourney, but I dont know who (I couldnt make it) Are you out there? Do you live around here? want to fight and be friends?

 

[RoA_Zam]

@ someonetookjacob im on the fence about registering for Shuffle. I'm like 90% sure I'll be going as long as I get a confirmation on a ride.

I was referring to a diff tourney that I'm going to in Cincinnati this weekend actually haha

 

[4nace]

Hey Guys,

Some good news, some neutral news and some badish news.

First the neutral news.

I have a new twitch account. You can find me here:
http://www.twitch.tv/d4nace

I am giving the Zetterburn account to Bones since he is using that tag on other social media. It makes the most sense. (Which is ironic since Zetterburn is my gaming tag across multiple games from long before Rivals development started).

Starting next week I want to start streaming some online matches against Wrastor (Ryan). We have been playing the last couple nights and I think we are getting close to showing people what it looks like. Not sure when exactly just yet or if it will be ready but look forward to it!

Second the good news.

We are finishing up the third Rivals of Aether trailer now. Flashy has recorded another great track and has really outdone himself. The Trailer is our best yet and showcases some great work from Ellian, Midio, Ryan and Johan.

Now the bad news.

We won't be releasing the trailer until one month from now. It'll be tied with an upcoming event. I won't say which. Might be gaming related, might be smash related, might just be something silly like Father's Day. .

We plan to finish up the Treetop Lodge stage and have that be part of our May Developer update. But you'll have to wait until June to see our latest character! That doesn't mean development has slowed down though. Ellian and I are hard at work on character 7.

Thanks,
Dan Fornace

 

[someonetookjacob]

@ someonetookjacob im on the fence about registering for Shuffle. I'm like 90% sure I'll be going as long as I get a confirmation on a ride.

I was referring to a diff tourney that I'm going to in Cincinnati this weekend actually haha

Ah, well if you decide to come to shuffle we will have to find eachother! (also, registration closes tomorrow, so decide soon!)

Also exciting news on the streaming dan!
And I am just going to jump to wild conclusions and assume RoA is going to E3!! WOO! SPECULATIVE HYPE!!

 

[GatorFace]

Hey Guys,

Some good news, some neutral news and some badish news.

First the neutral news.

I have a new twitch account. You can find me here:
http://www.twitch.tv/d4nace

I am giving the Zetterburn account to Bones since he is using that tag on other social media. It makes the most sense. (Which is ironic since Zetterburn is my gaming tag across multiple games from long before Rivals development started).

Starting next week I want to start streaming some online matches against Wrastor (Ryan). We have been playing the last couple nights and I think we are getting close to showing people what it looks like. Not sure when exactly just yet or if it will be ready but look forward to it!

Second the good news.

We are finishing up the third Rivals of Aether trailer now. Flashy has recorded another great track and has really outdone himself. The Trailer is our best yet and showcases some great work from Ellian, Midio, Ryan and Johan.

Now the bad news.

We won't be releasing the trailer until one month from now. It'll be tied with an upcoming event. I won't say which. Might be gaming related, might be smash related, might just be something silly like Father's Day. .

We plan to finish up the Treetop Lodge stage and have that be part of our May Developer update. But you'll have to wait until June to see our latest character! That doesn't mean development has slowed down though. Ellian and I are hard at work on character 7.

Thanks,
Dan Fornace

Ah, drats. S'a shame we won't get the trailer or the new character 'til June (inb4 the trailer is released on my birthday tho). At least I can still be psyched about the balance/quality of life changes in the May Build! whenever that comes out Dan pls It'll be way cool to see the game-in-development being played (and possibly edited) on stream; although it's pretty silly thinking about an alpha of an alpha being played.

 

[likiji123]

Hey Guys,

Some good news, some neutral news and some badish news.

First the neutral news.

I have a new twitch account. You can find me here:
http://www.twitch.tv/d4nace

I am giving the Zetterburn account to Bones since he is using that tag on other social media. It makes the most sense. (Which is ironic since Zetterburn is my gaming tag across multiple games from long before Rivals development started).

Starting next week I want to start streaming some online matches against Wrastor (Ryan). We have been playing the last couple nights and I think we are getting close to showing people what it looks like. Not sure when exactly just yet or if it will be ready but look forward to it!

Second the good news.

We are finishing up the third Rivals of Aether trailer now. Flashy has recorded another great track and has really outdone himself. The Trailer is our best yet and showcases some great work from Ellian, Midio, Ryan and Johan.

Now the bad news.

We won't be releasing the trailer until one month from now. It'll be tied with an upcoming event. I won't say which. Might be gaming related, might be smash related, might just be something silly like Father's Day. .

We plan to finish up the Treetop Lodge stage and have that be part of our May Developer update. But you'll have to wait until June to see our latest character! That doesn't mean development has slowed down though. Ellian and I are hard at work on character 7.

Thanks,
Dan Fornace

The streams sounds like fun! i may watch it if i can
Cant wait for the trailer and i am so exited for the treetop lodge stage

 

[jhunter_d]

I'd like to comment about something I noticed with Forsburn: if you're playing with hitboxes on (which sometimes I do just to get a feel for attacks), then the hurtbox of a Forsburn hiding in his own smoke can still be seen, effectively removing the point of the smoke. It's a minor bug, that doesn't affect anybody not playing with hitboxes visible, but I still think that it's worth looking at.

 

[CaptainCrisb]

Hey Guys,

Some good news, some neutral news and some badish news.

First the neutral news.

I have a new twitch account. You can find me here:
http://www.twitch.tv/d4nace

I am giving the Zetterburn account to Bones since he is using that tag on other social media. It makes the most sense. (Which is ironic since Zetterburn is my gaming tag across multiple games from long before Rivals development started).

Starting next week I want to start streaming some online matches against Wrastor (Ryan). We have been playing the last couple nights and I think we are getting close to showing people what it looks like. Not sure when exactly just yet or if it will be ready but look forward to it!

Second the good news.

We are finishing up the third Rivals of Aether trailer now. Flashy has recorded another great track and has really outdone himself. The Trailer is our best yet and showcases some great work from Ellian, Midio, Ryan and Johan.

Now the bad news.

We won't be releasing the trailer until one month from now. It'll be tied with an upcoming event. I won't say which. Might be gaming related, might be smash related, might just be something silly like Father's Day. .

We plan to finish up the Treetop Lodge stage and have that be part of our May Developer update. But you'll have to wait until June to see our latest character! That doesn't mean development has slowed down though. Ellian and I are hard at work on character 7.

Thanks,
Dan Fornace

It's all good! If there's anything I've learned from following MOTHER 4 since 2009, it's that sometimes good games just take a little more time than usually expected

 

[PabloTheDinamic]

I can't wait for a newer build/demo/thing! Specially with the new trailer and character.. It might be the grab-monkey- grass speculated thing!

 

[HermitHelmet]

Yo, if we getting a character with DJCs in the next patch... HYPE

Also, bringing a friend round to play SSB today hopefully, will try and get some RoA in and some feedback. EDIT Not happening.

 

[RoA_Zam]

CONFIRMED FOR SHUFFLE VII BOYS. RoA will definitely be there Saturday and Sunday. If anyone else is going there you should get my your phone number privately so we can meet up and play. Xanthus will be there too and I'll be with him most of the time since we're teammates.

Also I'm heading to a Cincinnati tournament today where I'll be showing off some RoA to about 90 people. Pretty hyped for some melee, PM, and RoA woo!

And my friend is working hard on getting every character made in Rivals of Aether as an icon/avatar. He's finishing up the 3rd one today.

I'm super tired rn at 7am but everything is just super hype for me so yay!

 

[CaptainCrisb]

Hey everyone! I forgot about this post but...

I have found that when I start ROA it's about 60fps, then after a few seconds, it goes to like 30. Is this normal?

I can confirm now. This bug seems to only happen at random when waiting too long. The game slows down to 30fps and lasts for quite a while. This is one of the strangest bugs I've encountered. It seems to mostly occur for me at Merchant Port, Air Armada, and the stage selection screen. (and like I said, it's usually when sitting around doing nothing too long)

 

[Death By Hugs]

Hey everyone! I forgot about this post but...

I can confirm now. This bug seems to only happen at random when waiting too long. The game slows down to 30fps and lasts for quite a while. This is one of the strangest bugs I've encountered. It seems to mostly occur for me at Merchant Port, Air Armada, and the stage selection screen. (and like I said, it's usually when sitting around doing nothing too long)

Okay. Thanks for making that clear.

 

[AbsoluteBlack]

Going to release a combo video for the March build sometime this week, in the editing stages currently.

Let me just say, you guys have no idea what's coming for you. To quote my roommate/training buddy,

"When you play Zetterburn, it's like being Luigi above Marth, except always."