Absolver Update from Sloclap + Upcoming 1.06 Notes

Special abilities

Absorb successful

Avoid successful

Parry successful

Stagger style

Attacks

1v1

Shockwave

Others

Maps / Raslan

Maps / 1v1

Hi everyone,The Sloclap team wanted to take a moment to assure the community that we've been reading a lot of threads on the forums in the past two weeks, but because we're a small team that's focused on improving the experience, we haven't really had the time to respond directly on the forums as much as we'd like. We figured it was high time for a fresh update on production, coming straight from the studio!First of all, we were pretty amazed that so many people decided to buy the game, so many thanks to all of you who supported us. We know that lots of players have been having great fun with the game, but also that many others have had real issues, often due to online/network, sometimes making the game unplayable (really bad lag, or impossible to connect to servers). There were even corrupted saves issues which is probably the worst thing that can happen to a player... We'd been testing the game with a test team for over a year, and had run two closed betas, so we thought we were ready to have a quality release, but when the game launched two weeks ago there were still problems that we hadn't seen before and which created really bad issues. We're really sorry about this, and have been working tirelessly to fix as many issues as possible (we certainly haven't gone on holidays !)Update 1.05 last Friday made things much better for a lot of players, but it actually made things worse for some others (issues such as trouble joining/staying in Combat Trials). We're actively investigating this, and will communicate regularly on our progression. It's really frustrating when you've been working like crazy on a game for almost three years, only to see that some players who like the game are having a bad experience because of technical issues, so we firmly intend to keep working hard at making the Absolver experience better and better - for everyone.The next update is currently being tested, and will be deployed in a few days. List of gameplay updates is below - there is also going to be a pretty cool surprise given to all players who care to go through the Guidance Bridge again ! We've mentionned that in other updates to come very soon there will be a prestige system, stat reallocation, a better inventory with gear color edition, new equipment, an anticheat system, and other minor improvements. Beyond that, our short term priorities are getting more PvP content in (3v3 game mode, private 1v1 games, spectator cam...). New attacks and a new combat style are also planned, we'll give more precise ETA on all this asap.To all players who were expecting tons of PvE content and/or a long narrative experience, sorry that you were disappointed; we tried to be clear on this when we communicated about the game, saying that even though the core of the game was PvP combat, we wanted to make a game that was about more then just fighting, but also about learning and sharing and encounters between players. The purpose of the main map (Raslan city) is to be a place where players can meet, train, learn from each other, and have original stories emerging from these encounters, not to provide a story-driven adventure: we actually developped the backstory and lore more than the actual storyline of the game, which is admittedly pretty basic ! We do have plans for additional PvE content though, and will give more information on this further down the line when the current issues and priorities have been tackled - we are a small team and can't do everything at once unfortunately !There is is a lot more coming, and we will certainly keep reading forums and analyzing player feedback to keep improving the game, so please keep letting us know if you encounter issues or have suggestions !Thanks again for your support,Sloclap team----PATCH 1.06 SPOILERS BELOW(The patch is currently being tested and will be released in a couple of days; more details on bugfixes will follow very soon)· add +20 protection during 5s (can be stacked)· increase ghost damage refill speed (x2)· decrease stamina bonus (50 -> 20)> Absorb was not so easy to use and required to have very fast attacks to regain quickly the damage taken. With the increase of ghost damage refill speed and the protection bonus we think that this style will be easier to use without fast attacks and corresponds more to the original fantasy of the style. Also it'll be less frustrating when you get hit after several successfull absorbs. Because of these buffs we had to lower its stamina bonus.· Decrease stamina bonus (40 -> 35) increase stamina cost 5 -> 10· Character avoided : Decrease stamina refill (x0.3) during 1.5s· Character avoided : Stamina malus (-10)> Avoid was considered below the parry : 4 inputs to choose instead of 2, and a worst reward (0.4s of slowdown instead of 0.6s of freeze). The fact is that for a lot of attacks there are 3 valid choices (high thrust attacks can be avoided left, right or down for instance), it also has a small recovery compared to the parry, and it stops the tracking of the opponent's attack.But it's true that against attacks with very small recovery the Avoid doesn't give enough time to counter-attack. So we decided to give another kind of reward : it inflicts a stamina malus on the avoided character, and also has a great stamina bonus.In short, Windfall is now the best style for stamina management, and to exhaust your opponent.· Decrease stamina bonus (30 -> 15)> Parry has a high risk / high reward. We think that the reward to connect a medium to strong attack is enough so we decided to decrease its stamina bonus.· decrease range of side special attacks (190 -> 145)> Stagger side attacks was "spammable", by decreasing their range these attacks become more defensive than offensive.· Decrease range and impact on guard of fastest attacks· Increase impact on guard of Breaking attacks> We've seen a lot of comments about the spam goldlink. The overall idea was always to make the guard stronger than the fast attacks, we want someone who use only fast attacks to exhaust himself against the guard of his opponent.On the other side, we don't want the players to stay in guard against breaking attacks.· Health refill on kill now take in account the health ratio of both players at the beginning of the round> We feel that it's more fair like that. If you start a round with small amount of health and your opponent is full life he will not have a good health refill if he kills you, but if you manage to kill him you'll get back a lot of your health.· costs 2 shards· decrease range· add stamina bonus + boost stamina refill during 5s> What we want with these modifications : less shockwave spam, less offensive shockwave to push you out of ring, but keep the defensive shockwave and add a tactical use of the following boost of stamina.· Increase weight/mobility impact on stamina· Increase dodge iFrames (2 -> 4)· Keep shards after death>The heavy characters had not enough drawbacks.The dodge was too much punished by horizontal attacks. With better invincible frames it's now easier to dodge attacks (but the dodge has still a very high cost in stamina).You'll be able to keep shards after death, it gives more strategic options in 1v1 and allows you to use high cost powers/weapons more often.· Decreased maximum number of enemy AIs per zone· Improved some enemy AIs detection range· Fixed navigation issue in Oratian Quarter zone· Fixed out of bounds issue in Adalian Columbary arena· Modification on the cross arena (no more central ledge)