Rivals of Aether - Official Thread

[Big Papi]

Based on the new treetop stage and the silhouette of the character in Dan's after effects trailer pic, my guess is the new character is a tree frog or chameleon

 

[CaptainCrisb]

Simply curious, but with the upgrades sprite-wise on the character portraits and stages, will we be seeing the same treatment with the fighter sprites?
Also, Rivals of Tether gamemode sounds legit. I'd love to see it actually happen!

 

[GatorFace]

Simply curious, but with the upgrades sprite-wise on the character portraits and stages, will we be seeing the same treatment with the fighter sprites?

I should hope so. Zetter looks so small, and basic compared to Forsburn.

 

[sWiTcHeRoO [疾~斬]]

Also, Rivals of Tether gamemode sounds legit. I'd love to see it actually happen!

Tether special mode pls.

Needs to be like Turbo mode in PM and actually happen.

 

[oksas]

things are looking really great. I can definitely echo the comments about some slight visual upgrades to the first four character sprites, though. Forsburn does look quite a bit more detailed than the others imo, and I think the latest stage really highlights how basic the original character sprites are compared to the other assets right now. I'm really excited for this game though, can't wait :D

edit: also I'd like to mention that I 100% agree with what was said on the previous page regarding joystick bindings. getting joysticks to work properly on PC games is often enough of a headache for me, so anything to make it more straightforward to bind buttons would be fantastic

 

[4nace]

There are a few different reasons why I think this is important, especially for a tourney game.

1) A controller config screen that works by scrolling the controller options in a menu is confusing to people who don't know controllers well ( non-gamer players won't intuitively understand where the 'y' button is, for example... it's an extra level of abstraction for new players that serves no purpose).

2) Worse yet, your players could be using non-standard joysticks where the button names don't match up. Now the player has to figure out what button on his controller is mapped to 'x' in order to set his controls properly bearing in mind his controller might have buttons labelled '1', '2', '3', and '4'

3) it takes longer to administrate for players which can really matter in a tourney setting where most players may be setting their custom controls on 8, 9, or 10 different systems in a night and having to restart matches because of mismatches.

4) To illustrate the previous point; To configure five buttons using the Jamestown system of control config takes 5 button presses that are completely straightforward and intuitive. To configure five buttons using the SFIV system might take upwards of twenty button presses as I scroll through each of the button menus looking for the proper selection for each one and when I am finally done... there's a good chance I have made a mistake without noticing. Big headache for tourneys.

Watch tournament matches of GGXX and SFIV back to back to see how big a difference it can make to set up time to have SFIV style control configs. I

This is a nightmare to deal with in many fighting games scenes and really made running old SFIV tournaments a chore (don't know if they've fixed it in the new version.) Now, since you guys will have profiles and most players won't be using different joysticks with different layouts it isn't as big an issue here as it could be but, if only for the sanity of TO's, it's still worth addressing... I don't think there's really any reason, in any game, to have selector box style control config.

Controls Feedback.

We actually designed / programmed tap controls first but ran into issues with the design. There is a reason why Brawl and 4 are set up the way they are.

1.) This setup is for XInput only. Therefore the controls should map to an Xbox Controller and most players will be playing with either an Xbox 360 or Xbox One controller and should know where A, B, Y and X are.

2.) Non-standard controllers will either have their own menus or a way to emulate as XInput. That means DInput would either have button numbers (as that is all the information I get) or RoA will come with an external program to remap and wrap your controls to match an Xbox 360 controller's. (Haven't been able to get this to work yet but that would be my goal). This layout is not for Xinput. Preferably I would like to let players emulate their controllers as Xinput outside of the game so they can control their own sensitivities / deadzones etc without me having to script in those options.

3.) It may take a bit longer but hopefully players will probably not be changing much from the default. Therefore we have it so they will only need to change the ones that they want to. Also since its a cursor UI, they can just hover to the ones they want without having to "skip" over ones they don't.

4.) As I said, this was our previous setup. The main issue with this compared to other fighting games is that in a Smash style game, many people like having multiple buttons for the same function. For example, you might have dodge be all the triggers or you might have jump be a face button and a trigger. This is not easy with the tap setup because you would have to implement either holds (which we did) or a finished button (Start for example). This was not intuitive to users and people who don't play many games complained that setting controls was too difficult - and even went as far to say they would not change controls just because of the difficulty. Also because we have a cursor UI, this menu went against that. It felt weird that X/B was always back except when setting controls, then B sets the action instead.
Finally it also restricts us on how many buttons we can store for a single action due to UI space. We managed to get 4 to display well but what if you wanted triggers, bumpers AND a face button to be dodge? Well then you would be out of luck with that setup.

Finally, the way I had it programmed was not ideal as I was saving each action as an un-ordered list. The size of the list was how many buttons you assigned as the action. I would then need to loop through each list of unknown size to find the correct controls for each action. After rescripting it to have the button remember its action, the calls were much easier. I could now do this for the old setup, but I would have to re-instate the un-ordered lists to control setting them up.

Here was our setup btw:

Now all that being said, we don't have a solution currently for DInput controls or Keyboard Controls. We might have to go back to our tap system simply to keep things consistent. However, it is not ideal for us. If this game only supported XInput than I would prefer our selector boxes to tap controls. If we cannot emulate DInput to act as XInput than I will probably be looking to re-instate our old control setup.

I understand tap controls are faster, but for us, it's not clearly better like it is for traditional fighters.

-Dan

 

[sWiTcHeRoO [疾~斬]]

Where can we go to apply for playtesting? Just sending an email to you guys with the email in the OP? Or do we have to pitch in here as well?

 

[CaptainCrisb]

Where can we go to apply for playtesting? Just sending an email to you guys with the email in the OP? Or do we have to pitch in here as well?

It's super easy: Just make sure you have an account here (which you do, obviously), and then to quote the official post:

"If you think you have what it takes to assist the development, we are looking for passionate playtesters. Apply by emailing us here. In the subject line, put your 'Playtester Application - Your Smash Tag' then in the body explain in 200 words or less why you are the perfect fit to be a playtester. If you already applied through our frontpage post then you are still on our list as we increase our numbers but feel free to re-apply and explain why you are the perfect fit."

 

[LeeYawshee]

Where can we go to apply for playtesting? Just sending an email to you guys with the email in the OP? Or do we have to pitch in here as well?

Glad to see that you're applying. If anyone deserves this it's Yuchi. He's a lot like GatorFace but with more free time and very passionate. If I get dropped off, I would love for the person to replace me be him.

BUT THIS NEW RIVAL THO

 

[CaptainCrisb]

Heyo everyone! I've come across a recent discovery after messing around with the RoA Executable. So with the recent discovery of being able to add custom palette swaps, I'd like to introduce... CUSTOM MUSIC!
In this latest build of RoA (particularly the March one) I noticed that the music wasn't compiled into the software which I believe it had normally been in previous builds. Now it is inside the build's executable itself as .ogg files (most likely to free up space for future builds). Now here's a basic tutorial on how to change the game's music.
Requirements: March Build of RoA, Winrar or any software that can extract executable files, and a favorite song in the format of a .ogg (you can find free converters to ogg online)
Steps:
1. Right click the build and select "Extract Here"

2. The following files should result from the extraction

3. Then look up the file/song you want to replace (ie Merchant Port=water, Air=air armada, etc.) and right click, rename, copy the name, then delete that file, and take your new custom file and paste in the original filename for that file we just downloaded

4. Now open up the file "RivalsofAether" (NOT the March Playtest build) and watch the results!

If you want to do it on stages with actual intros like the Fire Capital, what I did is just delete the loop altogether and replaced it with the opening. But I'm pretty sure it'd be a better idea to do the opposite (delete opening and only do the process on the loop)
I'm currently looking into a way to inject the custom files back into one exe file, and I'm considering making a software for it once I do figure it out. I hope this brings in new ways for you guys to enjoy the game if you have any questions on how any of this works or if you're still curious about anything, feel free to ask! (inb4 this was already discovered and I look like an idiot)

 

[GatorFace]

Heyo everyone! I've come across a recent discovery after messing around with the RoA Executable. So with the recent discovery of being able to add custom palette swaps, I'd like to introduce... CUSTOM MUSIC!

Awesome find, Captain! Your mention of custom palettes really reminds me that someone needs to update that tutorial. It still works, of course, but just for Zetterburn; as the inclusion of Forsburn messed up the first tutorial. I dunno if you were the one to write it up, but whoever did, should lend a hand cuz I really wanna play some Definitely-Not-Falco Wrastor.

 

[PabloTheDinamic]

I don't know what will the devs think about the custom music thing.
But I'm looking forward to the character sprites revamps as many people here.
I hope we get news for a new build soon.

 

[Chuck Tatum]

Controls Feedback.

We actually designed / programmed tap controls first but ran into issues with the design. There is a reason why Brawl and 4 are set up the way they are.

1.) This setup is for XInput only. Therefore the controls should map to an Xbox Controller and most players will be playing with either an Xbox 360 or Xbox One controller and should know where A, B, Y and X are.

2.) Non-standard controllers will either have their own menus or a way to emulate as XInput. That means DInput would either have button numbers (as that is all the information I get) or RoA will come with an external program to remap and wrap your controls to match an Xbox 360 controller's. (Haven't been able to get this to work yet but that would be my goal). This layout is not for Xinput. Preferably I would like to let players emulate their controllers as Xinput outside of the game so they can control their own sensitivities / deadzones etc without me having to script in those options.

3.) It may take a bit longer but hopefully players will probably not be changing much from the default. Therefore we have it so they will only need to change the ones that they want to. Also since its a cursor UI, they can just hover to the ones they want without having to "skip" over ones they don't.

4.) As I said, this was our previous setup. The main issue with this compared to other fighting games is that in a Smash style game, many people like having multiple buttons for the same function. For example, you might have dodge be all the triggers or you might have jump be a face button and a trigger. This is not easy with the tap setup because you would have to implement either holds (which we did) or a finished button (Start for example). This was not intuitive to users and people who don't play many games complained that setting controls was too difficult - and even went as far to say they would not change controls just because of the difficulty. Also because we have a cursor UI, this menu went against that. It felt weird that X/B was always back except when setting controls, then B sets the action instead.
Finally it also restricts us on how many buttons we can store for a single action due to UI space. We managed to get 4 to display well but what if you wanted triggers, bumpers AND a face button to be dodge? Well then you would be out of luck with that setup.

Finally, the way I had it programmed was not ideal as I was saving each action as an un-ordered list. The size of the list was how many buttons you assigned as the action. I would then need to loop through each list of unknown size to find the correct controls for each action. After rescripting it to have the button remember its action, the calls were much easier. I could now do this for the old setup, but I would have to re-instate the un-ordered lists to control setting them up.

Here was our setup btw:

Now all that being said, we don't have a solution currently for DInput controls or Keyboard Controls. We might have to go back to our tap system simply to keep things consistent. However, it is not ideal for us. If this game only supported XInput than I would prefer our selector boxes to tap controls. If we cannot emulate DInput to act as XInput than I will probably be looking to re-instate our old control setup.

I understand tap controls are faster, but for us, it's not clearly better like it is for traditional fighters.

-Dan

Wow 4Nace that was a monster of a post. I much appreciate you taking the time to make that very well thought out and explained reply. I almost feel bad you spent so much time writing that. It's clear you have your reasons to do it the way you are, very interesting to see that you already tried that too.
​

 

[Miko]

Hey, Miko here!

Just got sent the email for the March playtesting build a few days ago, exams and the like have prevented me from posting anything until now but I just wanted to give some feedback early on from my first times playing it (havn't played it before receiving the build so only played vs cpus so far) - I havn't had a chance to read through everything here for the same reasons, so if I repeat anything then I apologise

--General impressions--:
the game feels great, hit detection for platforms seems spot on and coming from a Melee background hand no problem with platform movement or dash-dancing; dd doesn't seem too long for any of the characters (so no dd-camping falcon style) but definitely long enough to space with. All the stages in Basic and Aether forms are new and a lot of fun to play on. The character designs are all great and bring in new ideas I haven't seen before in any fighting game.
By way of recovery, I think not having ledges but being able to walljump out of (what i guess is) special fall is a great idea, and makes off-stage gameplay feel different from smash but also similar (both in good ways). I'm glad you can only walljump once as well, which prevents off-stage camping and ridiculous recoveries which is good, only downside is you can't do the Young Link wall climb you do in target test on The Rock Wall (Aether), but that's pretty trivial.

--Possible glitches, maybe just quirks--:
before I start talking about the characters, I just want to mention some things I've noticed so that I don't forget! Again if these have been mentioned before, then sorry for repeating them!
-99 stocks: very minor glitch I think, but playing a 99 stock match brings up [press MENU to begin], on the bottom of the screen, and if you press menu it resets the game to character select and un-does any settings (like activating gamecube controllers) - obviously not a big issue, but means you can't pause in 99 stock matches. Does not happen in 98 stock matches, but persists even if both players lose a stock from 99. In case it's relevant, I'm using a gamecube controller always for this game (via Mayflash adapter)
-jumpdodge: normally I can only airdodge once before touching the ground, which makes sense because this prevents one from spamming it; however, if I'm on the ground and jump/parry simultaneously, I jump whilst airdodging, but can then both double jump and airdodge again. Not sure if this is intentional, I think it's actually very cool and opens up options (but isn't broken at all because you can still only do it as you're leaving the ground), but wanted to mention it in case it isn't there by design.
-dash-attack cancel: couldn't think of a better name for it, essentially during slow turn-around, if you press A(ttack) exactly when you press dash in the opposite direction (so dashleft > dashright+A) no attack comes out - normally i'd guess this is by design, but as far as I can tell the window for this is very short, so I can still long-turn-around and then dash attack in a small window, as long as I press A slightly after I dash the opposite way. Don't know if this is at all relevant, but felt it was worth mentioning.
-Wrastor smash: can't seem to recreate this one right now, but when I was playing yesterday as Wrastor, doing strong attacks (specifically StrongForward) just above the ground would put me into that black crouching animation you get after up-special when I landed... not really sure what that was about, but I can't recreate it atm (but it certainly was happening)
-Merchant Port is a weird and wonderful stage: playing as Kragg, if you throw a rock from the left platform onto one of the moving platforms as it rises on the right of the stage, players near the platform as it rises sometimes flicker between the platform and the ground, it's quite difficult to describe but not too hard to recreate with two players (I have recreated it by myself anyway).

--Thoughts on characters--:
-Forsburn: A very interesting character, I like the theme of smoke and general misdirection with the clone move and his other specials; his aerials and tilts feel nice to use and it's great to have a character whose strong attacks are double-hit. Feels great to play but his specials don't suit my playstyle so I haven't gotten so good with him yet in the few days I've been playing.
-Kragg: A really well designed character, really innovative with his specials and probably my second favourite in this build. Not too fast but compensates for that with strength, nice aerials/tilts/strong attacks, very much a fun character. Not a massive fan of his side-special, but I can imagine being able to move while immune to knockback coming in very handy.
-Orcane: An obscure but fun character, kinda reminds me of Yoshi - doesn't really recover in the same way as the other characters, but has a really good recovery if used right. Love the puddle idea being like a marker when you can warp to or activate a trap at, side-special is great as well to move while not using-up any water you have out. Also the momentum you can gain from forward-aerial I think is great, lots of fun to play about with! I don't think I'm very good with this character either yet, but hopefully I think I'll be able to improve.
-Wrastor: A unique and fun design, very much prefers the air which I think is great. Lots of great movement options in the air, and his side-special can improve his movement on the ground, I think Wrastor is a very well built character. I personally use the c-stick for most aerials when I play so I have found him quite difficult to get used to (though I have suggested a potential fix to this below), but despite that is still very much fun to play! Also great combo potential in the air.
-Zetterburn: probably my favourite character in this build, very easy to pick up but I feel has a lot of potential that is not so easy to discover/use. Probably the most similar to a character from smash, but his fire adds a great depth to him and he is a lot of fun to combo with. Probably the character I am best with after these few days of playing, and at this point probably the character I would main alongside Kragg. Lots and lots of fun :D

An idea for future updates:
This might seem a little trivial but I feel it could be important, specifically for Wrastor: I think at some point, if possible, we should introduce the option to set the right stick as 'tilt' instead of 'strong' - firstly, this is an option available in later smash games which could help some players with the transition if they wanted to start playing, but I think more importantly with the right stick set to strong, Wrastor cannot retreating aerial (yet is supposed to be the best character in the air, and as it stands is), whereas having strong button on and the right stick set to 'tilt' or some equivalent, Wrastor could retreating aerial but still be able to place strong attacks just as well (since he stops moving during the charge anyway, and then has the option to input his movement for when the strong charge ends).

I hope this is helpful, and that I'm not just repeating things which have already been said; if anyone has any questions about what I've written please feel free to ask ^^

-Miko

 

[Death By Hugs]

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?

 

[CaptainCrisb]

I don't know what will the devs think about the custom music thing.
But I'm looking forward to the character sprites revamps as many people here.
I hope we get news for a new build soon.

As someone who's makes games (although, not big ones like this) I'd say there's no problem with this. I like to think of it like Brawl and its mods. People like having different music sometimes during tourneys, but if the devs feel that it shouldn't be exploited in that way, I'm completely fine with them removing it.

Awesome find, Captain! Your mention of custom palettes really reminds me that someone needs to update that tutorial. It still works, of course, but just for Zetterburn; as the inclusion of Forsburn messed up the first tutorial. I dunno if you were the one to write it up, but whoever did, should lend a hand cuz I really wanna play some Definitely-Not-Falco Wrastor.

I wasn't the one who found the palette swap thingy out, but there's a great tutorial by Zetterburn on page 24! I'm pretty sure it details on how to do all of the characters and deciding the colors

Oh, and Dan, I'd like to see a button that gets rid of the hud and players like in earlier builds. I think it'd be helpful for videos and simply admiring those stages!

EDIT:

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 just checked, the game runs in 60 fps with occasional 3 frames dropping. The only time it went down dramatically is when the opponent's last stock was knocked off and the game slows down for effect

 

[GatorFace]

I wasn't the one who found the palette swap thingy out, but there's a great tutorial by Zetterburn on page 24! I'm pretty sure it details on how to do all of the characters and deciding the colors

Ah, thanks for clarifying! However, I knew of the existence of that tutorial, its just that it doesn't work in the current March build! The color values must've gotten mixed up when Forsburn was added to the game; causing all the custom palettes (besides Zetterburn's) to be mixed up.

So hey @ RoA_Zam how about an update to the custom palette tutorial? Pretty please? :V

 

[Death By Hugs]

I was playing with my friend on the air stage and he started doing jabs as wrastor. On every second jab, it was making the same noise as it does when you select a character. We played another match and it stopped. Was this due to a debug button on the Xbox controller? Thanks.

 

[RoA_Zam]

Ah, thanks for clarifying! However, I knew of the existence of that tutorial, its just that it doesn't work in the current March build! The color values must've gotten mixed up when Forsburn was added to the game; causing all the custom palettes (besides Zetterburn's) to be mixed up.

So hey @ RoA_Zam how about an update to the custom palette tutorial? Pretty please? :V

I already posted the updated ini file a few pages back.

 

[RoA_Zam]

Hey, Miko here!

Just got sent the email for the March playtesting build a few days ago, exams and the like have prevented me from posting anything until now but I just wanted to give some feedback early on from my first times playing it (havn't played it before receiving the build so only played vs cpus so far) - I havn't had a chance to read through everything here for the same reasons, so if I repeat anything then I apologise

--General impressions--:
the game feels great, hit detection for platforms seems spot on and coming from a Melee background hand no problem with platform movement or dash-dancing; dd doesn't seem too long for any of the characters (so no dd-camping falcon style) but definitely long enough to space with. All the stages in Basic and Aether forms are new and a lot of fun to play on. The character designs are all great and bring in new ideas I haven't seen before in any fighting game.
By way of recovery, I think not having ledges but being able to walljump out of (what i guess is) special fall is a great idea, and makes off-stage gameplay feel different from smash but also similar (both in good ways). I'm glad you can only walljump once as well, which prevents off-stage camping and ridiculous recoveries which is good, only downside is you can't do the Young Link wall climb you do in target test on The Rock Wall (Aether), but that's pretty trivial.

--Possible glitches, maybe just quirks--:
before I start talking about the characters, I just want to mention some things I've noticed so that I don't forget! Again if these have been mentioned before, then sorry for repeating them!
-99 stocks: very minor glitch I think, but playing a 99 stock match brings up [press MENU to begin], on the bottom of the screen, and if you press menu it resets the game to character select and un-does any settings (like activating gamecube controllers) - obviously not a big issue, but means you can't pause in 99 stock matches. Does not happen in 98 stock matches, but persists even if both players lose a stock from 99. In case it's relevant, I'm using a gamecube controller always for this game (via Mayflash adapter)
-jumpdodge: normally I can only airdodge once before touching the ground, which makes sense because this prevents one from spamming it; however, if I'm on the ground and jump/parry simultaneously, I jump whilst airdodging, but can then both double jump and airdodge again. Not sure if this is intentional, I think it's actually very cool and opens up options (but isn't broken at all because you can still only do it as you're leaving the ground), but wanted to mention it in case it isn't there by design.
-dash-attack cancel: couldn't think of a better name for it, essentially during slow turn-around, if you press A(ttack) exactly when you press dash in the opposite direction (so dashleft > dashright+A) no attack comes out - normally i'd guess this is by design, but as far as I can tell the window for this is very short, so I can still long-turn-around and then dash attack in a small window, as long as I press A slightly after I dash the opposite way. Don't know if this is at all relevant, but felt it was worth mentioning.
-Wrastor smash: can't seem to recreate this one right now, but when I was playing yesterday as Wrastor, doing strong attacks (specifically StrongForward) just above the ground would put me into that black crouching animation you get after up-special when I landed... not really sure what that was about, but I can't recreate it atm (but it certainly was happening)
-Merchant Port is a weird and wonderful stage: playing as Kragg, if you throw a rock from the left platform onto one of the moving platforms as it rises on the right of the stage, players near the platform as it rises sometimes flicker between the platform and the ground, it's quite difficult to describe but not too hard to recreate with two players (I have recreated it by myself anyway).

--Thoughts on characters--:
-Forsburn: A very interesting character, I like the theme of smoke and general misdirection with the clone move and his other specials; his aerials and tilts feel nice to use and it's great to have a character whose strong attacks are double-hit. Feels great to play but his specials don't suit my playstyle so I haven't gotten so good with him yet in the few days I've been playing.
-Kragg: A really well designed character, really innovative with his specials and probably my second favourite in this build. Not too fast but compensates for that with strength, nice aerials/tilts/strong attacks, very much a fun character. Not a massive fan of his side-special, but I can imagine being able to move while immune to knockback coming in very handy.
-Orcane: An obscure but fun character, kinda reminds me of Yoshi - doesn't really recover in the same way as the other characters, but has a really good recovery if used right. Love the puddle idea being like a marker when you can warp to or activate a trap at, side-special is great as well to move while not using-up any water you have out. Also the momentum you can gain from forward-aerial I think is great, lots of fun to play about with! I don't think I'm very good with this character either yet, but hopefully I think I'll be able to improve.
-Wrastor: A unique and fun design, very much prefers the air which I think is great. Lots of great movement options in the air, and his side-special can improve his movement on the ground, I think Wrastor is a very well built character. I personally use the c-stick for most aerials when I play so I have found him quite difficult to get used to (though I have suggested a potential fix to this below), but despite that is still very much fun to play! Also great combo potential in the air.
-Zetterburn: probably my favourite character in this build, very easy to pick up but I feel has a lot of potential that is not so easy to discover/use. Probably the most similar to a character from smash, but his fire adds a great depth to him and he is a lot of fun to combo with. Probably the character I am best with after these few days of playing, and at this point probably the character I would main alongside Kragg. Lots and lots of fun :D

An idea for future updates:
This might seem a little trivial but I feel it could be important, specifically for Wrastor: I think at some point, if possible, we should introduce the option to set the right stick as 'tilt' instead of 'strong' - firstly, this is an option available in later smash games which could help some players with the transition if they wanted to start playing, but I think more importantly with the right stick set to strong, Wrastor cannot retreating aerial (yet is supposed to be the best character in the air, and as it stands is), whereas having strong button on and the right stick set to 'tilt' or some equivalent, Wrastor could retreating aerial but still be able to place strong attacks just as well (since he stops moving during the charge anyway, and then has the option to input his movement for when the strong charge ends).

I hope this is helpful, and that I'm not just repeating things which have already been said; if anyone has any questions about what I've written please feel free to ask ^^

-Miko

I'll respond to this after I get some graphic design work done. I can give input on everything you've written down and clarify things for you.

 

[Death By Hugs]

As someone who's makes games (although, not big ones like this) I'd say there's no problem with this. I like to think of it like Brawl and its mods. People like having different music sometimes during tourneys, but if the devs feel that it shouldn't be exploited in that way, I'm completely fine with them removing it.

I wasn't the one who found the palette swap thingy out, but there's a great tutorial by Zetterburn on page 24! I'm pretty sure it details on how to do all of the characters and deciding the colors

Oh, and Dan, I'd like to see a button that gets rid of the hud and players like in earlier builds. I think it'd be helpful for videos and simply admiring those stages!

EDIT:
I just checked, the game runs in 60 fps with occasional 3 frames dropping. The only time it went down dramatically is when the opponent's last stock was knocked off and the game slows down for effect

for me it slows down to like 40

 

[Death By Hugs]

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

 

[GatorFace]

I already posted the updated ini file a few pages back.

Ah, thank you for clarifying! I could swear I would've noticed it, my bad.

 

[Kasado-Bit]

Just saw the update. That new stage looks absolutely amazing! I can't wait to see which character is associated with it. I also can't wait to play online with others. I'd really like to play with other people more often than whenever I'm able to bring my rig to the local Smash tournaments, which rarely happens. >_<

 

[sWiTcHeRoO [疾~斬]]

It's super easy: Just make sure you have an account here (which you do, obviously), and then to quote the official post:

"If you think you have what it takes to assist the development, we are looking for passionate playtesters. Apply by emailing us here. In the subject line, put your 'Playtester Application - Your Smash Tag' then in the body explain in 200 words or less why you are the perfect fit to be a playtester. If you already applied through our frontpage post then you are still on our list as we increase our numbers but feel free to re-apply and explain why you are the perfect fit."

Yeah I already sent them an email. I haven't gotten any kind of response, though, so I don't even know if they got it, if there's a lot more people sending these as well, or what else.

I'm just confused is all, I'd rather not pester them with tons of emails so I wanna see if there's some other way to know if they've at least noticed my application rather than ignoring me just so they avoid having to turn me down.

 

[RoA_Zam]

Heyo everyone! I've come across a recent discovery after messing around with the RoA Executable. So with the recent discovery of being able to add custom palette swaps, I'd like to introduce... CUSTOM MUSIC!
In this latest build of RoA (particularly the March one) I noticed that the music wasn't compiled into the software which I believe it had normally been in previous builds. Now it is inside the build's executable itself as .ogg files (most likely to free up space for future builds). Now here's a basic tutorial on how to change the game's music.
Requirements: March Build of RoA, Winrar or any software that can extract executable files, and a favorite song in the format of a .ogg (you can find free converters to ogg online)
Steps:
1. Right click the build and select "Extract Here"

2. The following files should result from the extraction

3. Then look up the file/song you want to replace (ie Merchant Port=water, Air=air armada, etc.) and right click, rename, copy the name, then delete that file, and take your new custom file and paste in the original filename for that file we just downloaded

4. Now open up the file "RivalsofAether" (NOT the March Playtest build) and watch the results!

If you want to do it on stages with actual intros like the Fire Capital, what I did is just delete the loop altogether and replaced it with the opening. But I'm pretty sure it'd be a better idea to do the opposite (delete opening and only do the process on the loop)
I'm currently looking into a way to inject the custom files back into one exe file, and I'm considering making a software for it once I do figure it out. I hope this brings in new ways for you guys to enjoy the game if you have any questions on how any of this works or if you're still curious about anything, feel free to ask! (inb4 this was already discovered and I look like an idiot)

my preferred Air Armada Music (with a perfect loop) :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fis0ldnc1mfnp8h/music_air_loop.ogg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/eg337i1o4qvgs3d/music_air_open.ogg?dl=0

Song = Bossfight - Pirate Manners

For those who are wondering about this, the open parts of each stage audio file (ex: music_air_open) have to be specific lengths, and air armada's happens to be about 12.748 seconds long to get a perfect opening into the loop. The _loop file can be any length, but be aware that too high quality or length may cause performance issues when the game is trying to read files.

Enjoy! I'll be showing this off during my next stream once im done with all the college crap i have for the next 2 weeks

 

[CaptainCrisb]

for me it slows down to like 40

I think that's your PC performance (maybe), as I've never had that happen to me at all

 

[Death By Hugs]

Just saw the update. That new stage looks absolutely amazing! I can't wait to see which character is associated with it. I also can't wait to play online with others. I'd really like to play with other people more often than whenever I'm able to bring my rig to the local Smash tournaments, which rarely happens. >_<

What update?!?

 

[Death By Hugs]

I think that's your PC performance (maybe), as I've never had that happen to me at all

huh i dunno

 

[Death By Hugs]

Wrastor's side and up smash have too much end lag.

 

[CaptainCrisb]

Wrastor's side and up smash have too much end lag.

I agree, I was actually going to post that myself.

 

[GatorFace]

Hey, gang! I got a heap of feedback and glitches for all of ya. Unfortunately, most of it might become useless, if they're fixed in the May build (which I should hope will come soon no pressure Dan). I had a good pal of mine play with me. I taught him the ropes, and he really enjoys Kragg meaning most of the glitches involve him; however, he does not have an account here, so I will be reporting all of this info. If I am not clear enough in my explanation, please state so and I will provide pictures or video to further clarify. Anyways, let's get on to it!

GLITCHES:

• This was known prior, but I took it upon myself to mention it anyways. When a Kragg is above another Kragg and they both summon a pillar, they will overlap instead of one overruling the over and breaking it. Not a big issue, but still potentially notable.
• And the other prior known, yet persisting glitch. On the Aether version of the stage Rock Wall, if you throw a Kragg rock towards a Kragg during his side special and they are in the wall, the rock will become stuck floating in the air where the destructible wall is.
• An example would make the most sense with this glitch. Say you were playing against a CPU by yourself. You're switching his character after each game to test match ups. A friend then wants to play with you. He moves his cursor to overwrite the CPU slot and make it a HMN (or human player), but you still have his chip from selecting your CPU's character! P1 is now in custody of P2's player chip, so P2 cannot select his character. tldr; overwriting a CPU with a human, whilst another player was holding the CPU chip makes the human unable to select his character without putting the chip down first and that's annoying and awkward to deal with. Make it so the chip snaps to its human player when they enter.
• CODENAME: STEAMY PILLAR ON PILLAR ACTION. If a Kragg pillar is spawned at the maximum altitude and another Kragg pillar is spawned from the same location, the second Kragg pillar does not rise and leaves both players unable to create another pillar from atop the first one. Full control of the pillar is given to the player who created the first one, meaning their rocks bounce off of it, and their rock shrapnel doesn't break it.
• Wrastor's down special (personally referred to as "The (Literal) Falcon Kick") has a strange hitbox. Not in that it's a semi-grab, but in that it goes through the stage; which gives it an odd interaction with Kragg's pillar. Kragg's pillar is normally indestructible from above; nothing can break it from above: not rocks, dairs, nothin'. However, since Wrastor's Falcon Kick goes THROUGH the stage, it also goes THROUGH the pillar. This causes Wrastor to pause on impact, break the pillar, gaining freefall state from being atop the pillar when it broke, and retaining his Falcon Kick momentum. Basically, he shoots down to the ground in freefall and it looks silly af.
• CODENAME: ****ING ROCK ALCHEMY. Pretty simple. If Kragg is standing atop of two rocks at the same time (one his, one not his) and he goes to pick one up, they fuse into one rock that he picks up.

ISSUES/SUGGESTIONS:

• My friend was using tap jump, rather used to and confident in not using buttons to jump. However, in doing so, it created a bad interaction with wall jumping; in that you couldn't. Could be wrong, but if I'm not, it'd be neat if either: wall jumping was automatic if tap jump were on, or if wall jumping was performed by just jumping when tap jump is on.
• I've had too many times where I pull off some bull**** amazing combo and win the match. Unfortunately, I can't record all the time, so as much as I'm aware that this won't happen anytime soon, it'd be way cool to see a replay saving/sharing system in the final release.
• Two more things, regarding team battles, that don't particularly need to come soon, but would be rad in the final release: share stock (duh) and a larger "Team" version of stages. Share stock is obvious on it's need for inclusion, so I won't bother going on about that. Big versions on stages, however, have much more to talk about. And by that, I mean one thing: it's hard as hell in a 2v2 with team attack on to hit the enemy and not your teammates when the stage is so small. It could just be Merchant Port, but huge mode stages wouldn't be hard to make.
• Custom palettes are way cool. Probably my favorite thing about the game, that isn't advertised. My question is: are there any plans to make it simpler and more intuitive in the final release? Possibly creating a GUI for it, and maybe a way to share them would be cool; especially on the Xbox One where you can't exactly tap into the color coding.
• If you hit Forsburn and his clone at the same time, the clone doesn't always disappear. Is this a feature, or is this being fixed because it's so hard to deal with.
• I'm unsure if this works with less or more people, but if you're 1v2 (or 2v2) and you create a Kragg pillar off the ledge, the enemy CPU's will bug out. Instead of chasing or trying to gimp you, they'll practice their circus act and jump around like idiots. The funniest part is that they're TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY STUCK until Kragg leaves the pillar, which means your teammate can sneak into the enemy team, gain their trust, and smack 'em around without response or change of pattern.
• Last thing, and, this is more of a neat thing I noticed: if you use Orcane's up special without a puddle on the stage, it makes you do that animation and go into freefall. However, it has similar properties to Dr. Mario and Luigi's tornado. If you jump then do the up special immediately afterwards, you're propelled slightly upwards thanks to the momentum of the jump. It's not the most useful thing in the world, but it's neat! Try it out!

That's all from me. Thanks for the read and hurry up with that trailer, @ 4nace !

 

[GatorFace]

Wrastor's side and up smash have too much end lag.

tlwr; balancing, but
Do you mean in general, or when you hit the ground immediately afterwards? Because:

If close to the ground: This was specifically implemented to REALLY cement that Wrastor's strong attacks are meant to be used in the air. Using them so close to the ground just kinda nullifies this uniqueness, and makes him a big overbearing.

And if in general: Having those huge hitboxes with damage higher than normal aerials fly all over the stage isn't exactly fun. At least not for your opponent.

 

[likiji123]

Heyo everyone! I've come across a recent discovery after messing around with the RoA Executable. So with the recent discovery of being able to add custom palette swaps, I'd like to introduce... CUSTOM MUSIC!
In this latest build of RoA (particularly the March one) I noticed that the music wasn't compiled into the software which I believe it had normally been in previous builds. Now it is inside the build's executable itself as .ogg files (most likely to free up space for future builds). Now here's a basic tutorial on how to change the game's music.
Requirements: March Build of RoA, Winrar or any software that can extract executable files, and a favorite song in the format of a .ogg (you can find free converters to ogg online)
Steps:
1. Right click the build and select "Extract Here"

2. The following files should result from the extraction

3. Then look up the file/song you want to replace (ie Merchant Port=water, Air=air armada, etc.) and right click, rename, copy the name, then delete that file, and take your new custom file and paste in the original filename for that file we just downloaded

4. Now open up the file "RivalsofAether" (NOT the March Playtest build) and watch the results!

If you want to do it on stages with actual intros like the Fire Capital, what I did is just delete the loop altogether and replaced it with the opening. But I'm pretty sure it'd be a better idea to do the opposite (delete opening and only do the process on the loop)
I'm currently looking into a way to inject the custom files back into one exe file, and I'm considering making a software for it once I do figure it out. I hope this brings in new ways for you guys to enjoy the game if you have any questions on how any of this works or if you're still curious about anything, feel free to ask! (inb4 this was already discovered and I look like an idiot)

Kinda Late to this but i love this and ill probably try it out

 

[RoA_Zam]

Hey, Miko here!

--Possible glitches, maybe just quirks--:
before I start talking about the characters, I just want to mention some things I've noticed so that I don't forget! Again if these have been mentioned before, then sorry for repeating them!
-99 stocks: very minor glitch I think, but playing a 99 stock match brings up [press MENU to begin], on the bottom of the screen, and if you press menu it resets the game to character select and un-does any settings (like activating gamecube controllers) - obviously not a big issue, but means you can't pause in 99 stock matches. Does not happen in 98 stock matches, but persists even if both players lose a stock from 99. In case it's relevant, I'm using a gamecube controller always for this game (via Mayflash adapter)
-jumpdodge: normally I can only airdodge once before touching the ground, which makes sense because this prevents one from spamming it; however, if I'm on the ground and jump/parry simultaneously, I jump whilst airdodging, but can then both double jump and airdodge again. Not sure if this is intentional, I think it's actually very cool and opens up options (but isn't broken at all because you can still only do it as you're leaving the ground), but wanted to mention it in case it isn't there by design.
-dash-attack cancel: couldn't think of a better name for it, essentially during slow turn-around, if you press A(ttack) exactly when you press dash in the opposite direction (so dashleft > dashright+A) no attack comes out - normally i'd guess this is by design, but as far as I can tell the window for this is very short, so I can still long-turn-around and then dash attack in a small window, as long as I press A slightly after I dash the opposite way. Don't know if this is at all relevant, but felt it was worth mentioning.
-Wrastor smash: can't seem to recreate this one right now, but when I was playing yesterday as Wrastor, doing strong attacks (specifically StrongForward) just above the ground would put me into that black crouching animation you get after up-special when I landed... not really sure what that was about, but I can't recreate it atm (but it certainly was happening)
-Merchant Port is a weird and wonderful stage: playing as Kragg, if you throw a rock from the left platform onto one of the moving platforms as it rises on the right of the stage, players near the platform as it rises sometimes flicker between the platform and the ground, it's quite difficult to describe but not too hard to recreate with two players (I have recreated it by myself anyway).

An idea for future updates:
This might seem a little trivial but I feel it could be important, specifically for Wrastor: I think at some point, if possible, we should introduce the option to set the right stick as 'tilt' instead of 'strong' - firstly, this is an option available in later smash games which could help some players with the transition if they wanted to start playing, but I think more importantly with the right stick set to strong, Wrastor cannot retreating aerial (yet is supposed to be the best character in the air, and as it stands is), whereas having strong button on and the right stick set to 'tilt' or some equivalent, Wrastor could retreating aerial but still be able to place strong attacks just as well (since he stops moving during the charge anyway, and then has the option to input his movement for when the strong charge ends).

First off, thanks for your feedback so far, man.

99 stocks - I'll test the 99 stock problem and get back to you. I can test on both x-input xbox controllers and d-input GC controllers.
jump + air-dodge - That's a result of the way Dan set up the logic for the game. It's functionally useless except for potentially avoiding a Strong attack if you time it perfectly. Jump + jump + air-dodge gives you more height than air-dodge + jump + air-dodge anyways.
dash-attack cancel - The only inputs that inturrupt the turn-around animation are directional changes, jumps, and rolls as far as I remember. Attacks have to wait for the turn-around animation to finish. If you dash ->, <- + A, then hold -> again and press A you do something along the lines of a ftilt out of a weird dash if I recall haha.
Wrastor - All of his smashes have heavy endlag. If they didn't he'd be a much more broken character to play as.
Merchant Port flickering - Tested this and it seems pretty easy to recreate. I'll note it down for Dan.

Ideas - Dan has custom control inputs in the works for the next release version of RoA, if he can get d-input controls to work. X-input xbox controllers work, though. You'll be able to save name tags with custom control setups.

GLITCHES:

• An example would make the most sense with this glitch. Say you were playing against a CPU by yourself. You're switching his character after each game to test match ups. A friend then wants to play with you. He moves his cursor to overwrite the CPU slot and make it a HMN (or human player), but you still have his chip from selecting your CPU's character! P1 is now in custody of P2's player chip, so P2 cannot select his character. tldr; overwriting a CPU with a human, whilst another player was holding the CPU chip makes the human unable to select his character without putting the chip down first and that's annoying and awkward to deal with. Make it so the chip snaps to its human player when they enter.
• CODENAME: STEAMY PILLAR ON PILLAR ACTION. If a Kragg pillar is spawned at the maximum altitude and another Kragg pillar is spawned from the same location, the second Kragg pillar does not rise and leaves both players unable to create another pillar from atop the first one. Full control of the pillar is given to the player who created the first one, meaning their rocks bounce off of it, and their rock shrapnel doesn't break it.
• Wrastor's down special (personally referred to as "The (Literal) Falcon Kick") has a strange hitbox. Not in that it's a semi-grab, but in that it goes through the stage; which gives it an odd interaction with Kragg's pillar. Kragg's pillar is normally indestructible from above; nothing can break it from above: not rocks, dairs, nothin'. However, since Wrastor's Falcon Kick goes THROUGH the stage, it also goes THROUGH the pillar. This causes Wrastor to pause on impact, break the pillar, gaining freefall state from being atop the pillar when it broke, and retaining his Falcon Kick momentum. Basically, he shoots down to the ground in freefall and it looks silly af.
• CODENAME: ****ING ROCK ALCHEMY. Pretty simple. If Kragg is standing atop of two rocks at the same time (one his, one not his) and he goes to pick one up, they fuse into one rock that he picks up.

ISSUES/SUGGESTIONS:

• My friend was using tap jump, rather used to and confident in not using buttons to jump. However, in doing so, it created a bad interaction with wall jumping; in that you couldn't. Could be wrong, but if I'm not, it'd be neat if either: wall jumping was automatic if tap jump were on, or if wall jumping was performed by just jumping when tap jump is on.
• I've had too many times where I pull off some bull**** amazing combo and win the match. Unfortunately, I can't record all the time, so as much as I'm aware that this won't happen anytime soon, it'd be way cool to see a replay saving/sharing system in the final release.
• Two more things, regarding team battles, that don't particularly need to come soon, but would be rad in the final release: share stock (duh) and a larger "Team" version of stages. Share stock is obvious on it's need for inclusion, so I won't bother going on about that. Big versions on stages, however, have much more to talk about. And by that, I mean one thing: it's hard as hell in a 2v2 with team attack on to hit the enemy and not your teammates when the stage is so small. It could just be Merchant Port, but huge mode stages wouldn't be hard to make.
• Custom palettes are way cool. Probably my favorite thing about the game, that isn't advertised. My question is: are there any plans to make it simpler and more intuitive in the final release? Possibly creating a GUI for it, and maybe a way to share them would be cool; especially on the Xbox One where you can't exactly tap into the color coding.
• If you hit Forsburn and his clone at the same time, the clone doesn't always disappear. Is this a feature, or is this being fixed because it's so hard to deal with.
• I'm unsure if this works with less or more people, but if you're 1v2 (or 2v2) and you create a Kragg pillar off the ledge, the enemy CPU's will bug out. Instead of chasing or trying to gimp you, they'll practice their circus act and jump around like idiots. The funniest part is that they're TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY STUCK until Kragg leaves the pillar, which means your teammate can sneak into the enemy team, gain their trust, and smack 'em around without response or change of pattern.
• Last thing, and, this is more of a neat thing I noticed: if you use Orcane's up special without a puddle on the stage, it makes you do that animation and go into freefall. However, it has similar properties to Dr. Mario and Luigi's tornado. If you jump then do the up special immediately afterwards, you're propelled slightly upwards thanks to the momentum of the jump. It's not the most useful thing in the world, but it's neat! Try it out!

That's all from me.

Glitches:

• Tested last night and I can confirm the stock coin problem. Dan just needs to set it so that when a stock is turned off, the coin returns to the last character it was placed over.
• Pillar thing - Doesn't mean the second kragg can't make a pillar. Just jump off and do it. The second kragg was still in control of the second pillar when I tested it.
• Wrastor-pillar - Lolz. I'll write this down haha.
• Not sure if Dan has already changed the logic for rocks yet. I'll note it down though.

Issues/Suggestions:

• Tap jump doesn't work for walljumps. My roommate has complained about this also.
• Neat idea, but I don't think that's in the general scope of the game yet. I'll suggest it to him though.
• I personally hate the share-stock feature because of how abuseable it can be, but having larger versions of stages would be nice, even though that just takes up more of Johan Vinet's time haha.
• I've pitched ideas to dan for GUI for color swap stuff before. He only put the feature to load custom ones in the game since I complained to him about wanting to fix textures for him. If he does this, it won't be until he has the other game modes all said and done.
• Fors clone problem is something I've already written down and He's read.
• CPU's go into a defensive mode when off-ledge game comes into play. They don't want to attack. Someone else has complained about this also.
• Yeah, orcane's upB without a puddle is more useful than people realize. Especially while hugging a wall when you jump+upB > walljump > airdodge > jump+upB again. You gain so much vertical height that way.

@ 4nace

 

[TonyMcConkey]

Hi guys, Dan,

My wife and I hosted a coop couch party this weekend in our basement bar and thought I'd share some feedback.

First off, the group really, really enjoyed playing this game. There was some 20 odd people at the event and just about everyone got in at least a couple of rounds. Aside from myself and a handful of other players, just about everyone was new to Smash style gaming.

Some general observations:

+ Controls were very easy to pickup for Smash gamers, and those new to the genre didn't have much trouble after being told about double jumping, up special, and smash sticks. Turning hold on for smashing was a must for all.
+ Graphics were commented on often, lot of love for the pixel style and the smoothness of the game play in general. The ladies in particular really liked the ability to change their characters colors!
+ Favorites were Z-burn, Kragg, Wrastor. Orcane and Forsburn, being a bit more complicated to master weren't played as much as the others. Seemed to die off first unless in the hands of a Smash gamer. With that said, one Smash gamer really took to Orcane's puddle abilities and absolutely destroyed with him.
- 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.

 

[Chuck Tatum]

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.

 

[Galaxy Ace]

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.

 

[RoA_Zam]

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.

This is actually a pretty DAN good idea @ 4nace dont kill me dan

 

[GatorFace]

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