April Bonus Update

We just meant to update the game with some bug fixes, but we kept adding things and now it's accidentally a bit more like a proper update! These changes are only on PC at the time of uploading, but will be updated on Mac very soon (we're going to delay by about a day to make sure we didn't miss any major bugs with new features).

Parts of this update build on new features we added in our patch last week, which you can read about here.

[h2]New Features![/h2]

• Bigmoon Bash Scoring Changes! Our goal with this update is to make Bigmoon Bashes a more fun experience for players of all skill levels. We'll be assessing how players receive these changes during the next event and will make adjustments as necessary based on feedback! (Look for corresponding changes in the "Fixes and Changes" section).
  • Bash Score (our skill rating value) is now split between Bash Score, which stops updating at Rank 5, and Live Score, which continue to update throughout the event. Going forward, any event results we share will use the Bash Score, with Live Score being available to players only for their own information.
    We're enacting this change to avoid rewarding players for playing an excessive number of matches. This change means that we WILL be able to share individual player results from the upcoming Bigmoon Bash, despite previous comments to the contrary.
  • Players now gain a small amount of Ranking when they lose a match
    
  • Currently, players with a higher skill rating get bonus Ranking when they win, allowing them to advance through ranks more quickly. I adjusted the target skill values to be a bit higher, so that it takes high-skill players longer to get the maximum advantage of this. (This change would only realistically impact the top 10-20 players)
    In combination, these changes will help to normalize how many matches are required to reach Rank 5 across different skill levels, so that players have a less divergent experience. This also makes the Bash Score a little more fair as a scoring value.
  • Added a new display option to hide Bash Wins and Bash Score after reaching Rank 5.
    
• Extended Match Replay Controls! You can now scrub forward and backward through saved Match replays. You can also pause the match at any time and inspect the stats, plays, and damage calculations of any Beastie at any time. This just became a great resource for players who want to analyze matches in depth!
  
• After clearing the story, stars are added to the Coach and Beastiepedia menu to indicate accomplishments that add a star to the player's save file
  
• Adjusted playbooks on single-player encounter throughout the game, including a few boss fights and ranked opponents in the Tower Challenge
  
• Added new sounds for larger Beastie footstep sounds. Also added a special sound for Crabaret when they are moving.

[h2]Fixes and Changes[/h2]

• Draft Challenge Updates! These changes are here to help finalize the new implementation of the post-game Draft Challenge.
  • Fixed a crash when resuming a paused challenge
    
  • Increased Sports Points reward for each floor cleared
    
  • Reduced the Star requirement to 15 consecutive wins from 30
    
  • Adjusted team generation values to make certain multi-type offense Beastie builds a little less common
    
  • Changed team generation so that Beasties with Tornadoball and Cyclone can't appear during the Draft Challenge (with only 3 Beasties per team, these plays can be extremely volatile and exploitable)
    
  • Previous Draft records have been reset since the difficulty level has changed so much from the previous iteration
    
• Fixed issue preventing players from getting extra money from the Gym sponsorship
  
• Fixed an issue with occasional random triangles sticking out of overworld geometry
  
• Fixed an obscure crash when training a Beastie at the Gym
  
• Removed extra % symbol that was added to some Coached% displays
  
• Removed some floating pixels from one of the optional player idle poses
  
• Fixed issues with Sy's character art
  
• Fixed an issue with Beasties reacting to a non-existent character in an area near Rutile
  
• Simplified logic for updating the player's ranking during events, to prevent the ranking display from endlessly "Updating..."
  
• Slightly reduced the amount of Sports Points received for Bigmoon Bash ranks above 5
  (This change partially accounts for the fact that player ranks will generally be higher with the new ranking changes. By our calculations, on average, players will earn more Sports Points per event going forward)
• Fixed issue with the log not being openable at the end of a match replay
  
• Adjusted a few issues related to certain player Vibe poses
  
• Added extra collision to prevent floating Seakits from going out of bounds in the first area of Garcinia Meadow

*Added in an addional patch on April 16.