The Secret Reason for Patch 11.0.1

Last Tuesday, Nintendo released patch 11.0.1 for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and stated that it was intended to fix an issue with Wii Fit Trainer’s Header landing lag. This was correct: the landing lag has been updated, and its new frame data is now in line with pre-11.0.0 frame data.

However, the competitive amiibo scene immediately grew suspicious. Nintendo has developed a tendency to update amiibo AI before new amiibo release, and March 26th is the release date of the Banjo, Terry and Byleth amiibo. 11.0.0 had already updated amiibo AI, but the scene as a whole questioned the necessity of such an update: why would Nintendo feel the need to issue such a tiny patch to millions of Smash Ultimate games, costing them thousands of dollars of bandwidth?

Amiibo trainers “RAPJM” and “Nozomu” set to work testing some of the known flaws in specific amiibo. Thus far, they’ve found a noteworthy change - the R.O.B. amiibo, who is often considered the worst amiibo in the game, has a crippling AI flaw revolving around his use of Down Tilt attacks. If the R.O.B. amiibo begins the “Down Tilt Spam” subroutine and the opponent is knocked out of range, the amiibo will freeze in place for several seconds leaving it very vulnerable.

While 11.0.1 hasn’t fixed the flaw, it has reduced its harmful nature, limiting the time that R.O.B. will freeze. At first glance, this doesn’t seem like a major change. It’s only a single amiibo, so why is this of note?

Keep in mind that this is only what has been discovered up to this point - it takes a long time to confirm a change to amiibo AI, especially when that change has only been partially fixed. It’s likely that other changes have also been made, possibly even to the AI of the upcoming amiibo, and that Nintendo hasn’t told anyone about these changes.

Author’s Note: What other changes might patch 11.0.1 have brought? Have you noticed anything weird with your amiibo since the change? Let us know in the comments below!

Credits:
Editing: @Zerp
Thumbnail: @Zerp

 

Interesting. I guess amiibo AI is something that's often overlooked.

Fingers crossed there will be enough of the new releases to go around tomorrow.

 

I would think this patch would straighten the kinks of Pyra and Mythra as there the new fighter so it would be logical to fix any kinks

 

Interesting. I guess amiibo AI is something that's often overlooked.

Fingers crossed there will be enough of the new releases to go around tomorrow.

Amiibo training is one of those things where like, you wouldn't think of it as anything more than a gimmick. But there's so much effort put into it by both the devs and the competitive amiibo scene that it's become something larger than itself.
I see it like speedrunning - game creators rarely intend for their game to have speedrun potential. But the speedrunners see it, and they put lots of effort to getting even a slightly better run.
Amiibo training is like that - we've had one guy who trained 400 Wario amiibo before he decided that he nailed it and moved on. Wario went from D+ tier on the amiibo tier list to like B tier because of this dude. He knows every subroutine, every pattern, every matchup, everything. And there's 80+ amiibo like that in the game that can all be trained with 2^180 different permutations of data to make a slightly more or less optimal amiibo.

Amiibo training is competitive Smash for computer nerds.

 

When the update got downloaded and installed, I noticed it was way too big for just one balance change. Now I know why lol.

Anyone know if the Pyra & Mythra Century Smash softlock got removed?

 

I cannot confirm anything, but I've heard from some of my Discord friends that online matches are laggier now.

 

I cannot confirm anything, but I've heard from some of my Discord friends that online matches are laggier now.

I've played 5 or 6 hours of Quickplay / Elite and hadn't noticed any decline in connection quality. If anything, the opposite, but I've always found certain opponents a bit better than others.

 

I cannot confirm anything, but I've heard from some of my Discord friends that online matches are laggier now.

No issues from the Arena front (I play exclusively in player Arenas and don't even consider quick play/elite smash at all for online matches). Everything still working as normal.

 

Online seems buggier. I had a match with no music and various problems connecting. One of my friends had a quickplay match where neither gained or lost gsp...ever.

 

Online seems buggier. I had a match with no music and various problems connecting. One of my friends had a quickplay match where neither gained or lost gsp...ever.

it's entirely possible the opponent disconnected, and your friend fought a bot at some point... if that happens, that TYPICALLY results in no change to GSP, win or lose.

Amiibo training is one of those things where like, you wouldn't think of it as anything more than a gimmick. But there's so much effort put into it by both the devs and the competitive amiibo scene that it's become something larger than itself.
I see it like speedrunning - game creators rarely intend for their game to have speedrun potential. But the speedrunners see it, and they put lots of effort to getting even a slightly better run.
[. . .]
Amiibo training is competitive Smash for computer nerds.

unlike speedrunning,, though, the community for Amiibo VS hasn't yet grown enough to warrant something like GDQ, where there's an event taking place once every summer that brings the best of them together to show their stuff to a crowd. it would be nice if Nintendo were to host an official Amiibo Tourney, but I can settle for the ones on the discords for now...

 

it's entirely possible the opponent disconnected, and your friend fought a bot at some point... if that happens, that TYPICALLY results in no change to GSP, win or lose.




unlike speedrunning,, though, the community for Amiibo VS hasn't yet grown enough to warrant something like GDQ, where there's an event taking place once every summer that brings the best of them together to show their stuff to a crowd. it would be nice if Nintendo were to host an official Amiibo Tourney, but I can settle for the ones on the discords for now...

It definitely was not a bot