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Skullgirls PC Beta Updates Discussion

Number 13

Number 13

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Here we go this update just happened recently for the Endless Beta.

September 17th,2013

Skullgirls Beta - Patch Notes: San Andreas

Sure, some other highly-anticipated game just came out, but for those who would rather play Skullgirls...
The update everyone has been waiting for is here!

Lobbies
- Add SPECTATOR MODE! Anyone who doesn't play in a lobby will be automatically assigned a match to spectate. There may be problems, but that's why this is the beta! :^)

General
- Fix USB headset crash. (It was crashing because those expensive "gaming headsets" only have monaural output on lots of computers. Heh.)
- Fix Lobby crash in Spanish. Lo siento.

Gameplay
- Real vulnerable boxes on Fortune's new s.HK. I completely missed putting these in before, oops.

Other
- Did a lot of console work, which doesn't matter for you all yet. (^.^)

And no, that series is very much not for me.

This thread is for posting and discussing the recent updates for the Beta. I didn't boot up the build yet, but how is the Spectator Mode handling?
 
NY_Jailhouse said:
wait so can we have a 24/7 lobby stream now? someone get on it.
Hah, dat idea. "Theater", where you can enter any time and just watch random on-line fights with auto-switching, recoding ability, bookmarks, favorite players. Hell, sounds so cool.
 
there are 24/7 lobbies for injustice/marvel/sf4 so yeah it definitely would be a good thing to draw a little more attention to the game
 
Well it certainly is possible now since the main PC version has this + more now.
 
I guess this is off topic but its about the updates:

The lag seems to be getting worse and worse. It has been super terrible for the last week or so. I'm talking warp fighter to the extreme and with serious input delay as well.

My playing buddy said that it was pretty fine on his end though. I thought it was just my shit connection, but when i heard duck mention the exact same thing and with the exact same observation that i had

(That neutral warps everywhere, but once in combo it evens out a bit) i thought that was a bit to much of a coincidence. So i just want to go on record as saying that my opponents and my lag are uneven, which is probably a desync and that the patch seems to be getting laggier and laggier.

Not that i want to be the bearer of bad news... I just want to play some nice, near lag free games like before.
 
Just bumping this thread to remind people that it exists. Once the Big Test starts I'm not sure if we should move discussion over here or not. Technically the beta patch will be more relevant in the beta sub-forum, but that is up to the community to decide.
 
Moves that are 'Watched' by IPS cause twice the normal amount of stun.

IE - If you used a move previously in the combo during stages 3, 4 or 5, using it again in the same combo causes it to do double stun.

Let the games begin.

Squigly - ~8.6K for 1 meter, used to get about 9.2. Had to cut off the last chain.

Bella - Typical flowchart bella combo still works. Does about 8K for 1 meter.
Horns loop is possibly toast? I can't test it cause I suck.

Parasoul - My stupid unoptimized Parasoul combo still works. I can get about 6.9K for 1 meter. I'm sure somebody can do better then that though.
 
My new painwheel combo no longer works, but its no biggie, i just have to go back to doing the hard link in order to get the extra chain that i used to, or i can do a simplified one chain less bnb that does about 400 less.

So my damage in sde was 8.1-8.6k with this universal bnb.

Then in mde it became about 7.8k but very easy to do, only one semi tough link

Now it has a semi tough link and a tough link for 7.4k
Or an easier version for about 7k


So all in all ive lost around 1600 total damage from sde (about 1100-700 when not speaking in universal optimized aspects)

I dont mind the damage nerf but the tough link IS annoying, if only because all my experience is online.

Also, this is gaining less meter on the whole... So id want meter gains pumped up a bit if this were to stay.
 
Merged Threads.
October 26th, 2013

Mad Scientist's Ramblings...

Awoke to an awful headache.
During the restless night my mind had filled to bursting with ideas. Filthy, tortured things. I can feel them rustling around, jostling for position to be the first to escape the twisting maze of my cranium. TO THE LAB!

First, breakfast. Some nice toast. YEAH, TOAST!

Stepped in leftover fluids from yesterday's horrible failure on threshold of lab.
Must remember to leave HazMat suits for the cleaning staff, don't want a repeat of last time - legal fees too high, out of organs to sell. My own, anyway.

While waiting for today's vic...guin...subject, some vile ideas managed to wriggle their slimy way past the blood-brain barrier to these treacherous fingertips of mine.
I shall tinker with my most recent foray into the entertainment industry, the Skullgirls Endless Beta! After all, one needs to validate one's existence somehow...


Gameplay
- Same as the regular game now, super meter carries over between rounds in 1v1, and kara-meter for attacks below Lv 1 now follows combo meter-scaling rules.

Possibly Unethical Gameplay EXPERIMENTS
- Starting with an assist hit scales combo damage to 50%.
- A counterhit grants an extra 50% bonus damage for that hit only.
- Solo vs team, the solo's life 210% -> 205%, and damage 160% -> 150%. This helps balance out those first two experiments, which make teams a bit weaker against solos.
- Peacock no longer has a meter penalty while holding a Shadow of Impending Doom.
- After a combo Drama now returns to zero from maximum in 40f instead of 90f. Yay!
BUT...
- Any IPS-limited attack in a combo now adds 2x Drama. (You can chain into moves that would have triggered IPS by themselves. If you do that, those moves now add 2x their normal Drama.)

- Despite how rare solo matches are, its neat meter carries over rounds now to promote more careful meter management.

- Counter Hit Damage Bonus is welcome, makes the matches that much quicker to finish.

- Assist Damage combo starter scaling is a welcome sight with the amount of assist hit confirm fishing in the neutral game.

- Slight Solo Ratio Health/Damage nerf, but I say its an acceptable trade-off for the assist damage scaling.

- Glad Peacock doesn't have that unnecessary penalty now.

- Now Undizzy count resets to zero faster after combo, but now more options of double drama accumulation.
 
I like the assist scaling a lot. Discouraging players from spamming easy-convert assists until it works is a great thing. I haven't been personally affected by the undizzy changes, so I can't find much to object to there. I'm indifferent!

Hopefully more people will chip in and give their opinion. That's what betas are for, after all.
 
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The undizzy change is for aesthetics, to make optimized combos looks slightly less boring. It will randomly and arbitrarily jiggle balance around based on how a character's specials and normals interact with it. It will have basically zero direct gameplay impact beyond balance because I don't expect optimized damage to change seriously (i.e. it will be 500 damage differences for the most highly affected characters, not enough to change the basic dynamics). Indirectly it messes up a lot of combo practice and old setups I guess. That should be the context for discussion about it.

The assist scaling is a really big change to go straight to live I guess? Very new age of fighting game patching.
 
obregon said:
The undizzy change is for aesthetics, to make optimized combos looks slightly less boring. It will randomly and arbitrarily jiggle balance around based on how a character's specials and normals interact with it. It will have basically zero direct gameplay impact beyond balance because I don't expect optimized damage to change seriously (i.e. it will be 500 damage differences for the most highly affected characters, not enough to change the basic dynamics). Indirectly it messes up a lot of combo practice and old setups I guess. That should be the context for discussion about it.

The assist scaling is a really big change to go straight to live I guess? Very new age of fighting game patching.

Have you noticed it affecting some characters more than others? For example, I worry it will hit PW hard, and it seems like it will hit Double hard while barely touching say Filia or Squigs.
 
Gotta ask a better combo wizard than me, I just copy. The ~500 damage thing is a guess based on me going back to an old filia corner combo I had that happened to work with the new system.
 
After playing around with it for a bit, I feel like the 50% scaling from an assist starter is a little too drastic. Really nerfs assist resets. I'd like to test it with 75% or 66%.

The IPS change didn't really seem to change much of anything, at least with my characters. I found a work around for most cases and still got about as much damage as I was getting.

I'd like to try that first experimental IPS change where it tracks your starter and ender for chains.

Digging that counterhit actually does something now. If undizzy stays, I think it would be nice to reset the stun if you land a counterhit too.
 
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Boot Vol.1 (7396 Damage) after L.Nail (scaling to 50% since always) assist deals 5367. 27% Damage Loss.
I don't see why completely safe unseeable resets SHOULDN'T get nerfed.
 
RemiKz said:
After playing around with it for a bit, I feel like the 50% scaling from an assist starter is a little too drastic. Really nerfs assist resets. I'd like to it with 75% or 66%.

The IPS change didn't really seem to change much of anything, at least with my characters. I found a work around for most cases and still got about as much damage as I was getting.

I'd like to try that first experimental IPS change where it tracks your starter and ender for chains.

Digging that counterhit actually does something now. If undizzy stays, I think it would be nice to reset the stun if you land a counterhit too.

IMO, assists needed nerfed. Pro games look largely like a passive dance until the first updo (or what have you) hits. It is super boring. Some of these assists are incredibly strong defensive tools. It makes little sense to also get 8k damage out of it.

What about something like assists with invincible frames are affected by 50% scaling, other assists are affected by much less scaling?
 
I'm liking the feel of solos now in the beta... This feels like the strongest solos yet. I like all of the patch changes up to now. This game is now perfect in my eyes... Just need those characters
 
Dime_x said:
I'm liking the feel of solos now in the beta... This feels like the strongest solos yet. I like all of the patch changes up to now. This game is now perfect in my eyes... Just need those characters

Hopefully strong solos without minimizing duos or trios?
 
Spencer said:
Hopefully strong solos without minimizing duos or trios?


Well, in the beta solos got a damage nerf, but a hp buff. And teams got a damage nerf via assist scaling.

Putting 2 and 2 together means that its taking a lot more hits to kill solos, and that the primary strength of teams versus solos (assists) has been nerfed... So thats kinda a triple nerf in favor of solos. Whether its to drastic is anyone's guess but... Im having fun with solos and teams so... Thats a first cause solos kinda sucked before.
 
The halloween ips change I am not. A lot of characters BnBs are still on par with current combos for damage but with the lack of undizzy you get silly DHC combos back which make touch of deaths easy even against 2 man teams
 
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CrownAxe said:
The halloween ips change I am not. A lot of characters BnBs are still on par with current combos for damage but with the lack of undizzy you get silly DHC combos back which make touch of deaths easy even against 2 man teams

I like the IPS change itself, it prevents loops and enforces a bit more variety in combos. I think that undizzy should make a return alongside new IPS.
 
I'm fine with less boring loops showing up and if combo length is decreased not too drastically as a by-product.

Here is copy of Patch Notes

October 31st, 2013
Halloween Skullgirls Patch Notes

"My combo doesn't work! THE HORROR!"

Same updates from the regular game, including Art Gallery.

New IPS Test - Link Tracking
- Can't start a chain with a move you previously hit with in Stage 5. (Same as regular IPS.)
- No more undizzy.
- Can't link off the same move multiple times in Stage 5. Airdashing, jump-cancelling, and landing are all links.

Assist-combo-start scaling and counterhit bonus damage are still there.

Boo, or something.

Liking the art gallery that was added in the Extras tab as it contains varied art styles from many people with different backgrounds. I'm guessing more pictures on the way since apparently 500+ is planned and roughly 60+ was added so far.
 
Another Beta patch now


November 3rd, 2013
Skullgirls Endless Beta Experiment Notes
Same fixes as the Real Game, plus the next Experiment!
For those of you who thought it was a "different game" in previous Experiments,
WELCO
METOT
HENEX
TLEVEL
This one is pretty heavy-handed. I know the reactions I expect.

Standard Stuff
- Assist combo-start 50% scaling / CH bonus damage, this stuff is probably staying since there haven't been many (if any) negative reactions to it.
- IPS same as normal.
- Undizzy 350, 350->0 in 35f instead of 90f, does NOT return to 350 if you were above it at the end of your combo, instead will count down from whatever it was at. Undizzy bursts work as normal.

The Draconian Experiment
- You are only allowed 5 chains, starting at Stage 2. Starting a 6th chain will trigger IPS.
- A counterhit grants you 2 additional chains for that combo; an assist counterhit grants you 1 additional chain. These do not stack since only one of those can be a counterhit.
- DHCing gives you at least 2 chains after the super, even if you have used all the allowed ones before it.
- Valentine's green poison grants 1/2/3 additional chains for the followup combo depending on poison level. You must combo off the poison hit for this to apply.
- Elegance has been dispensed with in favor of seeing how this is received.

Counter Hit Damage bonus and assist combo starter 50% damage scaling sounds like it will be staying so great. More experimental tweaks like counter hits playing a bigger role now by granting additional chains. Haven't tested yet but curious how this will turn out.

Edit: The overall pace seems to have improved with less time being spent in combos. It does seem less elegant taking out some creative paths, but the game feels more neutral friendly overall now.
 
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I've played quite a few non-beta online matches, but is the beta online always this barren? I have a meet where can usually test the changes in actual matches on Fridays but I kinda wanted to test todays update....well today. Training mode can only get me so far -_-

Is there some designated playinging time or something?

Anyway, so far It doesnt feel too different since I prefer to do shorter combos anyway and I enjoy non-standard/creative/goofy combos. None of the guys I play with have super extended combos so I guess I'll have to learn a few even if it's just for this experiment. To the Cerebella and Parasoul Threads!

Also... HE WHO IS CAT IS BACK WITH A HAT! except I dont have a hat...
 
The new beta is pretty good in my opinion. I like that undizzy carries between Downs.
 
Darkstalkers downs is just what 1v1s needed to prevent another way-too-long tournament set. It's also insanely fun to play!
 
Covenant said:
I've played quite a few non-beta online matches, but is the beta online always this barren? I have a meet where can usually test the changes in actual matches on Fridays but I kinda wanted to test todays update....well today. Training mode can only get me so far -_-

Is there some designated playinging time or something?

Anyway, so far It doesnt feel too different since I prefer to do shorter combos anyway and I enjoy non-standard/creative/goofy combos. None of the guys I play with have super extended combos so I guess I'll have to learn a few even if it's just for this experiment. To the Cerebella and Parasoul Threads!

Also... HE WHO IS CAT IS BACK WITH A HAT! except I dont have a hat...

Most recent changes to the beta only deal with undizzy and IPS, which can be tested privately in a training room. However, since this change had 1v1 downs I was able to find a 6/8 lobby to join.

As for how functional downs are at the moment...
 
Yeah, it's a bit buggy at the moment. http://www.twitch.tv/kiyobi/b/476550043

I hypothesize that there was a bug somewhere that forgot to reset the round counts and sync it across all machines so we get some inconsistencies everywhere.
 
Another Beta patch dropped.
Novermber 4th, 2013
Skullgirls BETA Patch Notes 11-4
General
- Marie 300% now accepts the infinite time setting of the 1v1 time option, if you really MUST try to completely beat her. The fight is set to 99 seconds otherwise.
- Title bar now says Skullgirls Beta, in case you are confused which one you ran like I sometimes am. (^.^)

Gameplay
- 1v1 rounds are now Downs, as in Vampire Savior! HHHHYEEEEEESSSSSSsssss... After you hit the floor when you are KO'd, your life will come back and you can hold forward or backward to tech on wakeup. The opponent can move freely the entire time, though...
- Teams rounds (if you change the number of rounds for Teams) are now Downs also. I probably won't keep this, but it's pretty hilarious. :^P
- Extended the Counterhit visual effect for an additional 10 frames. Hopefully it's more noticeable now.

Experiment #5 - yesterday's chain-limit combo length but using Undizzy
- Assist combo start, CH bonus, IPS all the same.
- No more chain limit.
- Undizzy limit is now 200; starts adding undizzy at Stage 3; can go above the limit.
- A counterhit will subtract 100 undizzy from whatever they currently have, and an assist counterhit will subtract 50; yes, if they have 0 you can start a combo with negative undizzy (shown with little +'s around it in Training Mode because the - in that font is invisible); it will reset to 0 if it is negative when they recover.
- Val's Lv2 green poison will subtract 50 undizzy when the syringe hits, and Lv3 will subtract 100. Remember, the syringe itself adds 20. :^P Lv1 poison does nothing.

Wow this is surprising did not expect downs to be a thing for Skullgirls. IPS change now uses the undizzy variant Mike talked briefly about in other thread.
 
Flotilla said:
Most recent changes to the beta only deal with undizzy and IPS, which can be tested privately in a training room. However, since this change had 1v1 downs I was able to find a 6/8 lobby to join.

As for how functional downs are at the moment...
Well I did say the training room can only do so much. Yeah I can test how it effects combos (I said so in that post), but I cant really test how it truly effects the pace and feel of a match without having actual matches. I can only do so much with theory fighter. That's what I was getting at.

EDIT: wow. I'm definitely gonna feel this update...
Gotta wait till work is done to test it though -_-
 
MikeZ said:
Experiment 5-B
- Increase Undizzy to 250. Otherwise, same as yesterday.

I really like this change. 250 undizzy keeps combos at a manageable length while not being super unforgiving either. I wouldn't mind if this stayed at all.
 
Another daily patch. Even came with a quick Q&A to address some common concerns ever since the Beta experiments been happening.
November 7th, 2013
Skullgirls BETA patch notes 11-6
General
- When a new build is put up, the game will ask if you'd like to view the patch notes and open them RIGHT THERE if you say yes. Wowie, it's almost like living in the future! And the text for the message is only in English too, even more exciting! :^P
- Fix wrong vertical camera movement on DHCs, now 100% less vomit-inducing.

Downs
- Perfect is not awarded if you have lost a lifebar and win with 100% in your 2nd lifebar.
- Now uses the Ladies and Gentlemen match intro unless there is a draw, in which case for the following rounds it will use Take 2 and on.
- Fix issues with Time Up.

Experiment
- Assist combo start now scales to 66% instead of 50%.
- Counterhits now give undizzy bonus relative to what level of stun the move would have done: L -25 / M -50 / H -100 / specials -50 / supers 0. Assist hits and projectiles give half the regular bonus.
- Undizzy resets to zero more slowly - still more than twice as fast as in the Real Game.

Some Q&A
(Questions and Accusations)
Play this in the backgorund.

Why do you keep changing things?
Because without testing changes in front of real players, I can only guess what people want. This is a game developer's dream! The alternative is "ivory tower" game development, where I tell you what you want and you deal with it. That can never have the results that please the players as much, or are as balanced, as open testing.
If you don't like helping to shaping the future of the game, play the Real Game ("Skullgirls") which is not going to have any experimental changes, only Real Updates.

Okay then, why do you change things so often?
I get enough information in the first few hours of an experiment - if it is not going the right direction, it doesn't need to stay the same for more than a day. This is the Beta, that's WHAT IT'S FOR! it will be experimented with in all sorts of ways that won't stay, to see what players like and don't like. It already has been.

I hate [some change]!
Tough cookies. In general I am always attempting to move the game toward being less single-player. Combos will still be relevant, but they aren't going to be AS long or AS damaging without meter. 10,500 or 7,500, both kill in two touches but the 7,500 version means there is likely to be a lot more neutral game in between.

[Some change] hurts my character!
That's probably true, but remember the changes affect EVERYONE. If you're having trouble getting the damage you used to, so is everyone else. Now, if the reason you thought your character was good or fun is because they can kill you off a light hit with no meter, I have news for you - that's not what designers want. Players always enjoy overpowered tactics, and designers do too, but if the tactics exist to the detriment of everyone else they will be fixed.

These changes unbalance the game!
Nope.
Some might, yes...but those don't stay. That's why I experiment!
The removal of your favorite tactic or combo does not unbalance the game, as hard as you'd like to think so. Neither does requiring players to be better at defense, spacing, or approaching. Remember to look at the game as a whole, not just the bits you like.

You suck at game design.
Quite possibly! But I'm also the one making the changes.
I know I can't please everyone, but chances are if the changes upset you horribly then you and I don't agree on what makes a fighting game fun in the first place.

Impressions

- Glad some miscellaneous announcer fixes were made towards Downs because it didn't really make sense under the new 1 vs 1 system.

- Assist combo starter scaling moved from 50% to 66%. Prefer 50%, but that is being a little biased since I currently play solo ratio. 66% scaling is a fair compromise which I still say is a fine tradeoff for Solo Ratio Health/Damage being reduced 210%-205%/160%-150% although maybe another compromise for health being 207
% and damage 155%? :3

- CH now influence undizzy to provide a bonus depending on what type of move was the CH. Think that is fine so CH plays a bigger role now.

- Undizzy reset to zero is now slower, but by how frames slower does it makes it a valid change? In any case I'm fine with it since the reset is still much faster then the real game counterpart.

The Q&A was an amusing read yet informative read (That music lol) that addresses the common questions/doubts that recently sprung up since the Beta been releasing these experimental builds.
 
i actually listened/read it with music and i think that was a good call :D
 
More Beta specific changes for 12/5/13
Gameplay
Haven't had one of these sections in a while, eh?

- Meter gain for victim now starts at 25% for a standalone hit and goes up to a maximum of 150% as the combo continues; previously started at 100% for a standalone hit and went up to 150%.
- Undizzy now drains 240->0 in ~45f instead of ~35f. You still get up to Stage 5 free even if undizzy is full.

In this build, opponent receiving the hits now nets less meter overall as a result (Think some people here recently wanted this) and Undizzy total resets to zero roughly 10 frames longer now.
 
Filia
NEW - Airball on block -5 -> -9

Parasoul
NEW - Silent Scope active time 4f->7f, no longer possible to just-frame dodge it with certain moves.

Peacock
NEW - Argus Agony startup invincibility reduced.

Squigly
NEW - H Draugen Punch immediately does the attack, can't hold or cancel the stance; Seria version is invincible from 1f (during the 'stance' startup part); L/M versions can hold/cancel the stance but are not invincible during the stance startup.

Not going to comment to much on these myself. I like the Squigly buff. Parasoul buff is... eh whatever. Filia and Peacock nerfs seem reasonable.
 
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The Squigly DP change opens up the possibility for things like PBGC xx reversal (one-off though) and lets her keep the old versions with L/M. I think it adds some good options and versatility to her game.

Airball change makes everyone's life easier.
 
Jason said:
Filia
NEW - Airball on block -5 -> -9

Squigly
NEW - H Draugen Punch immediately does the attack, can't hold or cancel the stance; Seria version is invincible from 1f (during the 'stance' startup part); L/M versions can hold/cancel the stance but are not invincible during the stance startup.
I think these two are the most interesting to me. Can't wait to see how they turn out.
 
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