Rivals of Aether - Official Thread

[Chuck Tatum]

Why isn't Rivals of Aether on this list?

https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1EHN7ZgYrAfFLICWRTKjNdYPozj1OCkQD5RBR77Pv98k/pub

No side event for EVO Rivals!? HERESY!

 

[RoA_Zam]

Why isn't Rivals of Aether on this list?

https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/1EHN7ZgYrAfFLICWRTKjNdYPozj1OCkQD5RBR77Pv98k/pub

No side event for EVO Rivals!? HERESY!

It's not an official event but RoA will be at EVO

 

[4nace]

YUP! Rivals of Aether will have a Side Tournament at EVO and it's actually happening later today! I tweeted the organizer of that list about it but, they didn't add Rivals. Oh well.

Here is our announcement:
http://www.rivalsofaether.com/blog/?p=474



The tournament takes place today, Friday July 17, at 6PM PDT. You can watch it here:
http://www.twitch.tv/azprojectmelee

Hope to see you all in the chat!

Thanks,
Dan Fornace

 

[lecceo]

so, do we know anything about when open beta will be out? The hype is killing me. Also, will the ranked mode have a ranking list(like top 100 players)?
EDIT: by ranked mode i meant online mode.

 

[Death By Hugs]

So hyped for the RoA side event.

 

[lecceo]

So hyped for the RoA side event.

isn't it over?

 

[Death By Hugs]

isn't it over?

Yeah. I posted this before I checked the stream.

 

[Chuck Tatum]

WATching those tourney VOD's that Zburn posted I just have to say...

I hope you're out there Disafter because I just have to tell you. You can wavedash dash attack with Forsburn and it covers about 2x more distance. You missed SOOOOOO many guaranteed follow ups / combo extensions by not doing it. I was getting so frustrated watching.

I mean there was a lot of other stuff that jumped out to our playgroup as well but that was the biggest thing that just drove me crazy watching...

 

[Cirby64]

WATching those tourney VOD's that Zburn posted I just have to say...

I hope you're out there Disafter because I just have to tell you. You can wavedash dash attack with Forsburn and it covers about 2x more distance. You missed SOOOOOO many guaranteed follow ups / combo extensions by not doing it. I was getting so frustrated watching.

I mean there was a lot of other stuff that jumped out to our playgroup as well but that was the biggest thing that just drove me crazy watching...

The game is essentially in closed Alpha. There will be many, many more techs discovered over the years, at which point the tech you mentioned will seem petty. Just give it time.

 

[4nace]

isn't it over?

Nope, not yet. 6PM PDT is still 3 hours away!
http://www.twitch.tv/azprojectmelee

Thanks,
Dan

 

[ObsoletePixel]

Just a few critiques on the game feel, now that I've finally sat down to play the game

A few characters movement feels... Funky. Forsburn feels too slow to effectively follow up and cover options, I feel like even though he does have his clones he needs a slightly faster movement speed to do just that. Great character design though, love how he plays. In a similar vein, Zetterburn and Wrastor need some tweaks on their run speeds. Wrastor feels too slow on the ground to fit his playstyle, just a slight bump up in speed would be helpful, and Zetterburn's run is slower than his dash frames, leading to foxtrotting in one direction feeling faster than the rest of his movement. I'm not saying Zetterburn is too slow, but he does need some tweaking on that transition from the dash frames to the run frames so it feels a bit more fluid (Forsburn needs this same tweak as well, but not to the same degree as Zetterburn.)

Anyways, Maypul is a wonderfully designed character but I need to critique her recovery a little bit. Her traditional up-b does next to nothing since there's no ledges in this game, making it seem very very situational. If she could angle it slightly, a-la melee Marth, that could be hugely beneficial to her gameplay. Also, she seems far too vulnerable after using her up-b on marked opponents, because they can just nair her and combo her to death, basically leading to a situation where the fact that she used her up-b doesn't even matter, so she should be able to act out of it just a little bit faster or have just a few invincibility frames so that way she's able to come back without getting totally screwed up.

All in all though I really do love this game, it has a ton of promise and I can't wait to see more from it in the future. Great work, Dan!

 

[AbsoluteBlack]

@ C Chuck Tatum We (bigfriendlygames) posted those, not Zburn. Not all rivals content is his, lol.

Disafter doesn't wavedash much, tis true. He has so much melee experience, a wavedash being faster than a dash isn't intuitive for him; it's not like he plays luigi.

 

[RoA_Zam]

@ C Chuck Tatum We (bigfriendlygames) posted those, not Zburn. Not all rivals content is his, lol.

Disafter doesn't wavedash much, tis true. He has so much melee experience, a wavedash being faster than a dash isn't intuitive for him; it's not like he plays luigi.

I took it as a compliment but yeah it's not mine. I've hosted tourneys before but the vids weren't recorded well since Scott isn't nerd enough.

My understanding of wavedashing is that it's preferential and very rarely actually necessary. The old time you'd want to use it is if right analog was set to strong moves and you wanted to do tilts while retreating or approaching an opponent without changing directions at any point. Or easier ways to approach with jab combos. Everything else, davewashing is pretty unnecessary. I'm just used to doing it as a muhlay player

 

[AbsoluteBlack]

^I was under the impression that for forsburn it was pretty noticeably superior, but I can barely wavedash so I haven't tested it myself.

 

[Chuck Tatum]

it definitely is like much much superior. Forsburn without aggressive wavedash is a much different character IMO. There are many situations where wavedash -> dash attack is guaranteed and normal dash attack is not guaranteed. Also Forsburn is like crazy slow and wavedash makes him pretty fast so that is too useful to ignore.

I also think wavedashing is optimal with many characters in many situations in rivals and we will see people do it a lot as they start to get good. Almost every character gets a big speed boost wave dashing. Of course as players get better they will begin to exploit it more, I would be very surprised if it didn't happen.

Kragg has wavedash only combo's... so does Forsburn so does Zetterburn. Even Wrastor can use wavedash to great effect especially inside wind tunnel.

 

[someonetookjacob]

Just a few critiques on the game feel, now that I've finally sat down to play the game

A few characters movement feels... Funky. Forsburn feels too slow to effectively follow up and cover options, I feel like even though he does have his clones he needs a slightly faster movement speed to do just that. Great character design though, love how he plays. In a similar vein, Zetterburn and Wrastor need some tweaks on their run speeds. Wrastor feels too slow on the ground to fit his playstyle, just a slight bump up in speed would be helpful, and Zetterburn's run is slower than his dash frames, leading to foxtrotting in one direction feeling faster than the rest of his movement. I'm not saying Zetterburn is too slow, but he does need some tweaking on that transition from the dash frames to the run frames so it feels a bit more fluid (Forsburn needs this same tweak as well, but not to the same degree as Zetterburn.)

Anyways, Maypul is a wonderfully designed character but I need to critique her recovery a little bit. Her traditional up-b does next to nothing since there's no ledges in this game, making it seem very very situational. If she could angle it slightly, a-la melee Marth, that could be hugely beneficial to her gameplay. Also, she seems far too vulnerable after using her up-b on marked opponents, because they can just nair her and combo her to death, basically leading to a situation where the fact that she used her up-b doesn't even matter, so she should be able to act out of it just a little bit faster or have just a few invincibility frames so that way she's able to come back without getting totally screwed up.

All in all though I really do love this game, it has a ton of promise and I can't wait to see more from it in the future. Great work, Dan!

Just to comment briefly on your post.

I think the slower run speeds fine personally, it makes dash dancing feel great without having to give everyone a really high run speed. It personally doesnt bother me at all. I think several characters from smash games have similarly faster dashes than their run speeds. And for forsburn at least you can get a bit more speed by using wavedashing. As for wrastor, he is meant to be a aerial character, so he doesnt need a great run speed. But he does have the slipstream and he is really fast in that, so I really dont think he needs a speed boost.

You know about wall jumping right (Just incase you, or anyone else newer to RoA dont knowwww... I'll explain it a bit.)? With maypul especially, if you up-b by the wall you can then cling to the wall by holding twoards it and jumping, then when you release you jump vertically and get your second jump and up b back. All characters can wall jump once per airtime, even out of the helpless state. So with that She can get alot of height when by the wall Her recovery is real bad though, but I think thats an important part of balancing her ridiculous movement and quick attacks. She kind of reminds me of RoA's Cap Falcon. (but more extreme?) Soooooo fun to play! and that f-air! its beautiful!

 

[lecceo]

Nope, not yet. 6PM PDT is still 3 hours away!
http://www.twitch.tv/azprojectmelee

Thanks,
Dan

Lol, now I actually did miss it. Oh time zones

 

[ObsoletePixel]

Just to comment briefly on your post.

I think the slower run speeds fine personally, it makes dash dancing feel great without having to give everyone a really high run speed. It personally doesnt bother me at all. I think several characters from smash games have similarly faster dashes than their run speeds. And for forsburn at least you can get a bit more speed by using wavedashing. As for wrastor, he is meant to be a aerial character, so he doesnt need a great run speed. But he does have the slipstream and he is really fast in that, so I really dont think he needs a speed boost.

You know about wall jumping right (Just incase you, or anyone else newer to RoA dont knowwww... I'll explain it a bit.)? With maypul especially, if you up-b by the wall you can then cling to the wall by holding twoards it and jumping, then when you release you jump vertically and get your second jump and up b back. All characters can wall jump once per airtime, even out of the helpless state. So with that She can get alot of height when by the wall Her recovery is real bad though, but I think thats an important part of balancing her ridiculous movement and quick attacks. She kind of reminds me of RoA's Cap Falcon. (but more extreme?) Soooooo fun to play! and that f-air! its beautiful!

I do know about wall jumping, but without ledges that walljump doesn't give you too much, so being able to angle juuuuuuuust a bit lets you get into a position where you can recover properly onto the stage but you're still not doing too well. She's AMAZINGLY fun, but even Falcon can change his recovery angle a bit, and without ledges in this game it makes a lot of sense mechanically to give her the ability to get that slight angle. Just my $0.02 though~

Also, in regards to Wrastor, I'm not saying he needs to be 10000x faster, but he does need just a touch more groundspeed to be able to cover a few options. Look at PM Pit as an example, definitely an example of an aerial based character that can fend for himself on the ground, and I think Wrastor needs that

 

[ObsoletePixel]

Lol, now I actually did miss it. Oh time zones

It's live now!

 

[Chuck Tatum]

The stream is over? That was like a crazy fast tournament... is it a technical thing or is it actually over?

 

[RoA_Zam]

The stream is over? That was like a crazy fast tournament... is it a technical thing or is it actually over?

Only 8 people. It was an invitational.

 

[someonetookjacob]

The stream is over? That was like a crazy fast tournament... is it a technical thing or is it actually over?

Also... a technical thing. stream cut out like half way through. I think their internet gave out?

 

[Chuck Tatum]

Oh man I missed the finals...

 

[steak4prez]

So I bought a XBone mostly out of RoA hype, but then Destiny happened so I've been away for a while...

Next week I'm going to find out if I can make the pilgrimage to VA for SuperSmashCon, mostly to play RoA with people :-)

Anybody else going?

 

[Samus Harang]

So after checking out the game in action I have a few comments about the aesthetics, which I hope will be taken as constructive criticism:

1. Zetterburn's character art doesn't match his sprite art. This might have something to do with being one of the first characters designed, but he is the only one in the game where there is a noticeable disconnect between their character select portrait and their battle and hud sprites. He has a very noticeable snout in the sprite art which is very lion-like while he has a very squished human-like face in the other art. He also looks the weirdest to me of any of the characters in the character select so redrawing him might be a good thing to consider.

2. The water level has too much background movement. The clouds go by so fast and the water splashes so choppily that it doesn't feel like a very relaxed setting that it could be. Slower, more realistic moving clouds and more tranquil water would make the stage perfect in my opinion.

3. The fire level at nighttime would be more visually interesting. City lights, the glow of the fire and a background of stars would make this a beautiful stage while currently it is sort of bland honestly. I know readability is a major concern but a nighttime variation would be great.

 

[RoA_Zam]

So after checking out the game in action I have a few comments about the aesthetics, which I hope will be taken as constructive criticism:

1. Zetterburn's character art doesn't match his sprite art. This might have something to do with being one of the first characters designed, but he is the only one in the game where there is a noticeable disconnect between their character select portrait and their battle and hud sprites. He has a very noticeable snout in the sprite art which is very lion-like while he has a very squished human-like face in the other art. He also looks the weirdest to me of any of the characters in the character select so redrawing him might be a good thing to consider.

2. The water level has too much background movement. The clouds go by so fast and the water splashes so choppily that it doesn't feel like a very relaxed setting that it could be. Slower, more realistic moving clouds and more tranquil water would make the stage perfect in my opinion.

3. The fire level at nighttime would be more visually interesting. City lights, the glow of the fire and a background of stars would make this a beautiful stage while currently it is sort of bland honestly. I know readability is a major concern but a nighttime variation would be great.

I think the idea of having day and night versions of stages based on what time of day it is would be awesome

 

[CaptainCrisb]

I think the idea of having day and night versions of stages based on what time of day it is would be awesome

Oh man... that sounds like an awesome idea! I've always loved pixel-art stars/night

 

[lecceo]

It's live now!

lol :/

 

[theopenlink22]

Are you going to send the playtesters the most updated versions?
Glitch found: When you have all three smoke for down special and you are not allowed to make anymore, your side special clone can still do smoke via forward tilt and such.

 

[steak4prez]

Glitch found: When you have all three smoke for down special and you are not allowed to make anymore, your side special clone can still do smoke via forward tilt and such.

That's a feature, not a bug.

 

[lecceo]

so I have been very excited for this game(especially online mode), and was wondering if gimmicks are rewarded/hard to deal with. I am woried, that online mode might become the for glory of roa. Is this the case?

 

[Gene]

I'm watching the EVO stream right now and I'm so hyped to play this game in August.

 

[jam1garner]

so I have been very excited for this game(especially online mode), and was wondering if gimmicks are rewarded/hard to deal with. I am woried, that online mode might become the for glory of roa. Is this the case?

A rating system like anthers would be nice. How fun they are to play, connection, skill level would be good. Maybe even a Tinder styled placement system where you can pass up on playing someone because their connection/play style/skill level is not what your looking for. Both people are put together to fight. And with the whole name tag problem, hiding name tags would be nice especially if they can see that I hid their tag.

 

[CaptainCrisb]

Meant to upload this FOREVER ago but I never got the time to doing it till now. And it looks like it didn't render in 60fps, must've accidentally reverted it back to 30fps before rendering :/ Eh, oh well.

 

[steak4prez]

Oh boy, looks I'm making the drive to SuperSmashCon!

Dan! Do you have any more information about SmashCon? Which days you'll be set up there, when you'll be divulging "insider information on Rivals development"? Side tournament? More paraphernalia like those slick keychains (GIVE WRASTOR ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ)?? Cannot contain hype.

 

[YardyHardy]

Hey guys, haven't been on this thread in awhile. Love all the support the game's getting! The new characters and stages are amazing, continue doing a great job 4nace .

 

[Gene]

Oh boy, looks I'm making the drive to SuperSmashCon!

Dan! Do you have any more information about SmashCon? Which days you'll be set up there, when you'll be divulging "insider information on Rivals development"? Side tournament? More paraphernalia like those slick keychains (GIVE WRASTOR ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ)?? Cannot contain hype.

When and where can I buy a Kragg keychain?

 

[Death By Hugs]

In teams, I'm pretty sure you can hit the water gauge and the water will hurt your opponenet (Merchant Port). Is this on purpose?

 

[Slyzir]

I heard there was going to be a public trial of RoA coming soon. Is that true? I heard it was coming at the end of this month or so? I'm super hyped to play.

 

[RoA_Zam]

I heard there was going to be a public trial of RoA coming soon. Is that true? I heard it was coming at the end of this month or so? I'm super hyped to play.

set for late August on Steam as an early Access version.