EDIT (9/23): Our latest (and hopefully final) version of the PTB for the Katana Update is now available:
Duelist: Very slightly reduced Rapier melee damage
Samurai:
Shifted Katana grip position further up the handle
Slightly lengthened Katana blade and increased melee attack distance
Increased Katana rotational speed
Increased rotational speed bonus when gripping Katana with two hands
Various minor physics tweaks
Increased energy cost of Katana ranged attack
Enabled "hazy rain" weather stage in multiplayer matches
Changed boundary system to take body position (not just head position) into account when determining if a player is out-of-bounds
Changed boundary system to be slightly more lenient to one-time boundary violations but more punishing to players that go out of bounds frequently
Adjusted Injury system so that injuries become visible more quickly
Added a dynamic cap on the skill points you can lose in a single multiplayer match
Made tutorial opponents start with slightly less health
Adjusted crowd lighting in dark stages
Fixed performance issue in exhibition matches by switching to sunnier stages
Fixed bug causing reversed shoulder IK when left-handed mode is turned on
Fixed bug causing stadium lights to never turn on in certain replays
Fixed bug that prevented the left shoulder of the Spiked Armor from taking Injuries
Fixed outfits for training opponents
Enhanced the smoothing algorithm for the handheld replay camera
Improved replay auto-intro timing
Fixed bug that allowed the GIF display to stay up during gameplay
Updated playlist of community GIFs
EDIT (9/22): v103 is now live for Quest users only. This is a minor update that attempts to fix the audio issues that have been observed on Quest. It is still multiplayer-compatible with the previous version (v102), so folks on PC do not need to update.
We've also released an updated spectator client, which now allows up to 14 spectators to connect to the same match! It also improves the music / UI toggle options and allows you to hide the private tag (so streamers can keep their tags secret).
EDIT (9/19): We've just pushed the next version for all platforms, v102! Here's what's changed:
Drastically scaled down the effect of the Injury system
It now takes more than twice as many hits (>10) to reach a fully injured state
Reduced extra damage caused by injuries to 40% of the previous level
Fixed a major bug that caused injuries to accumulate across matches instead of getting reset
Slightly increased rotation speed of the Katana when held in two hands
Made the Katana less likely to accidentally break out of a two-handed grip
Adjusted the self-hit collision volume for the Samurai to discourage spin attacks
Adjusted audio settings to (hopefully) solve corrupted audio bug
Fixed minor Samurai campaign menu bug
Fixed minor graphical issue preventing fog from affecting jumbotron sprites
Fixed bug that caused the Scythe to frequently lose two-handed grip
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The Katana Update is coming soon, and it's available to play right now in the Preview Test Build channel! As always, check out #ptb-announcements on the Discord for instructions on how to join in. Here's the complete changelog for our first PTB, v101. We'll keep updating this post as new versions come out.
FEATURES
New Class: Samurai
Wields the Katana, a huge yet swift sword that can be used one-handed or two-handed
The base of the Katana is reinforced, acting like a shield on defense
Swing across your opponent to line up ranged attacks, which then fire in quick succession
New Game Mechanic: Injuries
Each time you hit an opponent, the area that you hit becomes more "injured"
Injured areas take more damage, up to 2x damage (after ~5 hits in the same spot)
Armor will deform and change color to reflect its injured state
New Cosmetics in the Armory
1 new Armor (Mountain Armor)
4 new Helms (Samurai Helm, Guard Helm, Bladed Helm, Viper Mask)
4 new Metals (Platinum, Ruby, Sapphire, Topaz)
1 new Accent (Charcoal)
New Replay/GIF Features
Auto Intro option: start your GIF with a stylish intro shot of each opponent
Handheld camera mode: shrink the battle and guide the camera using your controller
And More:
New "hazy rain" weather stage
New menu music track ("Victory")
Updated billboards and improved graphics on the stadium
Improved IK and limb positioning for all players and AIs (shoulder roll, waist bend, etc)
Improved shaders on hands to allow for smoother lighting
Rearranged and enhanced class selection menus
Added camera flash effects to the stadium crowd in dark stages
AI opponents now react physically when hit
BALANCE
Knight
No change
Duelist
Very slightly reduced Rapier melee damage
Monk
No change
Ninja
No change
Crusader
No change
Reaper
Slightly reduced Scythe melee damage
Very slightly reduced max shield health
Samurai
First appearance
NOTE: We also fixed a subtle bug that caused weapons to briefly get "stuck" trying to reach a waypoint on a curved input path (the path drawn by the player's controller). To fix this, we changed all weapons so that they don't have to follow the input path quite so closely. This will result in slightly looser, more natural positional motion for all weapons.
Due to this change, as well as the introduction of the Injury system detailed above, we're starting with a light touch on balance adjustments. But because these changes could have major, hard-to-predict effects, the balance situation may have changed much more than it appears! We'll need your help figuring out what further adjustments need to be made. Please post feedback in the #class-balance channel on the Discord. And thank you!
BUG FIXES
The Training stadium will now change color to properly reflect the player's Accent color
Fixed replay bug that caused a slight pause on death in replays of single-player matches
Fixed minor Tutorial bug that caused some controller diagrams not to highlight properly
Improved animation of death shatter particles, especially in replays.