More features and bug fixes are coming in on Friday, September 27 at 2:00 PM CEST / 08:00 AM EDT / 05:00 AM PDT. Estimated downtime is: 2-4 hours
In this week after listening to your feedback we have focused on balancing characters. Also, following your request, we have added an option to add AI Bots to your custom matches! But wait, there's more!
This weekend Sat, September 28 to Mon, September 30 we will be DOUBLING all experience you gain by playing your matches (Double Exp Weekend)! We hope to meet you at our arenas!
Features:
• Tutorial Re-work
• New onboarding flow for new players
• Surrender option
• Custom matches now support AI Bots
• New community Tutorial
Balancing:
• Lochlan - Slam AOE range and push pushback reduced, Warsong slow increase
• Shani - Lightning strike no longer deals damage, AOE reduced
• Acrid - Rampage slight movement speed increase and slight collider decrease, Putrid Discharge pushback increase for direct hits
• Cap-x02 - Barrier duration and length of the barrier increase, Artillery strike aiming speed increase, AOE slight decrease, time to transition in an out of turret mode reduced
• Schröder - Virtual Strike initial movement speed increased
• General: 2 and 3-star ball throw champs had their max throw distance reduced
• Decision: ball throw charge reset after dodge stays for the foreseeable future
Roadmap:
• See our high-level roadmap here: https://www.reddit.com/r/SteelCircus/comments/cpdvl5/early_access_roadmap/
Details
New Onboarding
The tutorial has been reworked completely and happens in two major steps called Basic Tutorial and Advanced Tutorial. The Basic Tutorial now focuses on teaching new players the basics like it used to and additionally explains and teaches special skills and pickups.
The second step, Advanced Tutorial is a 2 versus 2 match against a rather weak tutorial AI.
The player needs to complete both steps in order to unlock Quick Match, Custom Match, and Free Training.
Free training is essentially the “old” playground without any tutorial. Here players can test out each champion, even the ones which are not unlocked.
After a new player has completed their first Quick Match they will be rewarded with 3000 Steel and the unlocking of Daily Challenges. The 3k Steel reward replaces the initial Steel amount each new player account starts with.
These changes will only affect new players who log into the first time after the release of update 0.7.2
Surrender
Players can start a surrender vote for their team to end the match early. The surrender option becomes available after half of the regular match time has passed, currently at 2:30. For the surrender vote to pass the whole team needs to vote in favor of surrender. A match that ends via surrender is counted as “lost” for the team that surrendered no matter the score. Both teams receive their XP aliquot to the passed match time.
Surrender does not trigger the leaver penalty.
Custom Match Bots
Players can now play with bots both as team members and opponents in custom matches. Like real players bots can be assigned to each team. This new feature also makes it possible to play with uneven player groups.
Champion Balance Changes
- Lochlan
- Slam had it’s AOE range reduced by roughly 20% and it’s pushback reduced from 8 to 5.5 meters. Additionally, the pushback direction has been adjusted slightly so that opponents get pushed back away from Lochlan rather than to the side.
- Warsong had its slow to opponents increased from previously 30% to now 45%.
- Shani
- Lightning strike no longer deals damage and it’s AOE range was reduced by 50%. FYI expect more Lightning Strike changes in the future.
- Acrid
- Rampage movement speed increased from 10 m/s up to 11m/s. For comparison sprinting speed is 12 m/s. Additionally, Rampage had it’s collider radius slightly reduced from 2 meters to 1.8 meters.
- Putrid discharge had its pushback increased from 1.5 meters to 3.5 meters. FYI there is a high chance that we make some changes to this skill in the near future as we are not happy with the fact that a direct hit rarely results in a successful ball steal which feels kinda “meh”.
- Cap-x02
- Barrier duration increased from 2 seconds up to 2.5 seconds and the length of the barrier was increased from 4 to 4.5 meters
- Artillery strike aiming speed increased by roughly 15% additionally it’s radius was decreased from 5 meters to 4.75 meters. The time to transition in an out of turret mode reduced by roughly 15%
- Schröder
- Virtual Strike initial movement speed increased to roughly 90% of virtual strike top speed which should fix the initial drop off in speed when transitioning into the virtual state.
- General
- Ball throw power decrease by 2.3% for 2-star ball throw champs and a 6.3% power decrease for 3-star ball throw champions
Steel Circus Team
