Rocket Arena - Update Notes [ Edited ]

[EA_Leeloo]

ROCKET ARENA SEASON 1 UPDATE – BALANCE AND TUNING CHANGES!

Our first big update gets us ready for Season 1 with Balance and Tuning Changes.

Our goal on Rocket Arena is to be prompt with gameplay balance and feature changes, taking into account feedback from both our community and internal testing.  We’ve gathered plenty of your feedback from the Pre-Season and have made some balance changes we believe address several issues. 

Competitors

Overall, we’re extremely excited to see how well all of the Competitors are competing across the game, with data and observation showing that each Competitor can legitimately hold their own against the rest of the roster. That said, interactions between Competitors will continue to naturally shift as players dive deeper into each Competitor’s mechanics. Thanks to our inventive community, we’re seeing these kinds of awesome shifts happening almost daily right now. Competitors that were thought to be dominant one day, suddenly find themselves countered by other Competitors in previously unheard of ways. As such, we feel we need to give the game’s meta a little more time to settle before we can make confident, responsible decisions on any particular hero’s balance. Rest assured though, we’re as passionate as you are about the balance of Rocket Arena and we’re actively listening.

- Amphora 

We love how Amphora is playing, but the current tuning on her Hydro Form makes escaping from danger too easy at times. The goal of this change is to leave Amphora feeling great, but give other players a clear opening to counter Amphora when she’s exiting from Hydro Form.

• Blast Meter regeneration is now blocked for 2.5 sec after exiting Hydro Form

- Boone 

These small tuning changes to Boone are more proactive than reactive. Internal tests with some of our most competitive players have exposed some fairly strong Boone tactics that shift him from the lovable spot he’s in now to something quite scary. So, let’s preemptively fix that! The changes made to his Sniper ricochet logic are minor and are only intended to reduce accidental ricochet hits that don’t align with Boone’s precision-based gameplay. Finally, the tweak to Zik’s Vortex still allows for amazing cross-map Vortex Rocketball scores, but we wanted to crank up the skill required to do so from more extreme ranges. 

• Reduced Sniper bounce enemy redirect check radius by 10%
• Reduced Sniper bounce enemy redirect check distance by 10%
• Zik’s Vortex now has a maximum distance that it can carry game mode objects (i.e. Rocketball and Treasure Chest)

- Izelle 

Izell receives a minor bug fix targeted at improving combat readability. Previously, Izell could perform a Dodge during her brief invulnerability window after her Jaaqua Charge finished dashing. This would result in her Jaaqua Charge resolve animation getting unintentionally cancelled, hurting the feedback for herself and opponents on whether or not she successfully dealt damage. Blocking Dodge allows the Jaaqua Charge resolve animation to correctly trigger. Importantly though, this is not a nerf to Izell since she is already immune to damage during this extremely short window of time. 

• Dodge is blocked during Izell’s brief invulnerable window after Jaaqua Charge end

- Kayi 

These Kayi changes are focused on fixing several gameplay and quality of life issues concerning her Grapple ability. Payers should now experience more consistent Grapple interactions.  

• Dodging no longer ends the Grapple ability
• Fixed a bug where Kayi could Dodge to end her Grapple early and avoid putting the ability on cooldown
• Fixed a bug that caused Kayi's Grapple to end early after taking damage less than the required damage threshold

- Topnotch

Both of the changes to Topnotch revolve around his Jetpack. For the rest of the roster, being in Hit Stun means you cannot use your air jumps or air control to cancel out an attack’s impulse. By blocking the Jetpack and preventing fuel regeneration while in Hit Stun, we’re bringing Topnotch more into alignment with the Hit Stun ruleset the rest of the roster follows. This will also benefit Topnotch players who currently burn their Jetpack fuel accidentally during Hit Stun, despite being unable to move. 

Lastly, while Topnotch’s attacks do have incredible range, his ability to efficiently execute those moves depends on him being airborne to see as much of the arena as possible. This makes the Jetpack the key to Topnotch truly accessing the power of his kit. Overall, we’re happy with the current tuning on Topnotch’s Jetpack. However, because the Jetpack could previously regenerate fuel during Hit Stun, getting shot and impulsed upwards by enemies sometimes allowed Topnotch to stay airborne significantly longer than if he never got in a fight. These changes are intended to remove this contradiction in our combat, so that players fighting against a dominating Topnotch player no longer feel punished by successfully landing shots on him in the air.  

• Jetpack is now deactivated and blocked during Hit Stun (prevents accidental fuel usage while movement is blocked)
• Jetpack fuel can no longer regenerate during Hit Stun

Game Modes

• Rocketball 
  We believe Rocketball is a very competitive game mode, however we are currently seeing issues with players getting the Rocketball and scoring relatively quickly.  Our goal is to give teams a better opportunity to deal with players who rush the Rocketball by giving them more time to set up offensive and defensive plays and to engage enemies before it spawns
  
  
  • Increased the incoming time for the first Rocketball of every new round to 10 seconds, up from 5
  • Increased the time limit to 6 minutes, up from 5

Tutorial

• Added a Replay Tutorial button to the Play tab

Artifacts

• Digsite Magnifier, Prospero's Sail
  • Will now only grant Speed Boosts, Bombs, Trip Mines, and Magnets in Ranked playlists

• Digsite Magnifier
  • Chance increased to 100% in Ranked playlists, up from 50%

• Powder Keg
  
  • Will now stay active for an additional 0.5 sec after leaving the ground

Items

• Item spawn points in Ranked playlists will now display the Item itself instead of a Random Item Box
• Item spawn points in Ranked playlists will now spawn the same item every time

UI

• Player ranks appear during versus sequence
• Fixed clipping on rank icon nameplate

We value your feedback and if you’d like to leave us some now, or in the future, hit us up on the Rocket Arena Discords, Reddit, Twitter, Twitch Streams, DMs, etc. - we read as much as we can!

Thanks for being part of our community and we’ll see you in Crater! #LETSROCKET

The team at FSG

Source: ea.com

[EA_Leeloo]

ROCKET ARENA UPDATE 1.1 NOTES

Check out what’s coming with Update 1.1 and our Blast in Paradise event!

Our first season event is ready to get underway – BLAST IN PARADISE! And with it, we’ve got a new update to address some bugs, add some features, modes, and playlists, and improve the quality of life of our Rocket Arena community.

After reading A LOT of comments from you, our awesome fans, we wanted to dive into some of the things that we’ve worked on since our first update, so let’s check under the hood:

Game Modes

• Added limited time game mode variants, including Beach Ball and 2v2 Knockout

General

• Added a Cross-Play activation message box
• Added several rotating event playlists
• Adjusted the idle boot time from 45 seconds to 60 seconds

Heroes

• Reduced Kayi's buffed Primary damage while inside Snow Globe from 50.0 to 40.0

Accessibility

• Text to Speech is now available outside of the Settings menu

Maps

• New map! - Lagoon of Doom permanently added to the game

• New map! - Grand Harbor permanently added to the game

• Megadon Junction - Increased the impulse strength of the Rocket Rail Express

Regular Playlists Updates

• Added Lagoon of Doom and Grand Harbor to the Social, Ranked, and Private Match playlists

Blast in Paradise Limited Time Events

NOTE: The following updates are limited time events scheduled for the release of the Blast in Paradise update. Playlists will be updated over the course of the event!

• Added Beach Ball to Social Arena
• Added Beach Ball to Private Match
• Replaced Social Knockout with Social 2v2 Knockout

 

BUG FIXES

User Interface

• Fixed a couple profile settings not saving on consoles
• Fixed the scoreboard being accessible during pregame with a gamepad

As always, we value your feedback and if you’d like to leave us some now, or in the future, hit us up on the Rocket Arena Discord, Reddit, Twitter, Twitch Streams, DMs, etc. - we read as much as we can!

Thanks for being part of our community and we’ll see you in Crater! #LETSROCKET

    -        The FSG Team

Source: ea.com

[EA_Leeloo]

ROCKET ARENA UPDATE 1.2 NOTES

Update 1.2 brings with it some Competitor and combat updates and more! 

These notes have been updated to include some more items that were added.

Global Combat

For this update, it was important for us to address a sentiment expressed by players of feeling too “floaty” at times while playing Rocket Arena. This feedback is often tied to scenarios where players are being shot at mid-air and feel like they can’t get back to the ground quick enough. While we’ll still need to spend more time thinking of the best ways to fully address this sentiment in future updates, we saw an immediate opportunity to tackle part of this feedback with a couple tweaks to the Dodge Ability. First, we slightly decreased the duration of Dodge’s low gravity effect so that you spend less time hanging mid-air. Think of this as a general quality of life improvement. To better understand the second change made to Dodge, we can first offer a quick explanation of one of Rocket Arena’s core combat mechanics, Hit Stun.

When a player is impulsed up into the air by an opponent’s attack, they are temporarily placed in Hit Stun. While in Hit Stun, the player cannot move or jump. The duration of Hit Stun depends on the strength of the attack, and how damaged the player was when they got hit. When Hit Stun ends, the player is given full movement control back and is placed in a reduced gravity state. This post-Hit Stun reduced gravity state gives the player enough hang time to drift back towards safe ground, follow up with a shot of their own, etc. The reduced gravity state ends whenever the player lands on the ground, or when they perform what we call a “recovery action”. Up until now, recovery actions included jumping and using any movement ability (typically a Special Ability). Performing a recovery action instantly puts the player back into their normal gravity state and allows them to fall quickly to the ground. With this new update, we’ve made Dodge a recovery action. Dodging out of Hit Stun will now allow players to get to the ground faster, giving them one more tool in their combat arsenal.

• Decreased Dodge low gravity duration from 0.65 to 0.6 seconds

• Dodging out of Hit Stun now resets your gravity to normal, allowing you to fall quicker to the ground after Dodge ends

Competitors

The balance changes for this update are focused on enhancing the gameplay viability of three of the least picked Competitors in the game (Flux, Jayto, and Mysteen). The ultimate goal is to provide our community with a roster full of options. So whenever possible, we prefer to raise less played Competitors up, rather than simply nerfing the popular ones into oblivion. While Flux’s changes are relatively small improvements this time around, the updates to Jayto and Mysteen are intended to bring them into more prominence in the current meta.

 

• Flux

The Flux tweaks this time around are all quality of life improvements (for her and her team). Expect even more Flux tuning updates in Season 2 now that we’ve had more of a chance to see her out in the wild.

• Increased Rockats rocket jump radius from 400.0 to 500.0

• Black Hole Cat is no longer affected by Rocket Magnets

• Black Hole Cat no longer affects a friendly Plink's Skedaddle Ball

• Jayto

Mathematically speaking, Jayto’s damage output and KO potential are already amongst the best in the game. However, Jayto still finds himself lagging behind the rest of the roster in terms of pick rate. So why is this? In the current meta, Jayto must compete for a slot in any team composition with some of the most agile Competitors in the game. His lack of a true movement ability can make him seem like a more risky pick than others. The good news is, Jayto already has several fantastic movement options at his disposal. The changes for this update are focused specifically on improving the accessibility of these mobility tools.

Jayto is Mr. Rocket. Everything about him is rocket-based and this includes his best mobility tool, his powerful rocket jumps. When used correctly by experienced players, Jayto is already capable of pretty spectacular directional rocket jumping and rocket climbing. However, the previous tuning required high-level knowledge of Rocket Arena’s mobility mechanics to maximize Jayto’s potential. To make Jayto’s mobility options more obvious and obtainable, we started by significantly increasing the rocket jump strength of his Primary rocket (default and triple shot). The increased rocket jump strength per rocket also means he’ll have to spend less of his ammo on average to navigate around the map. We also increased the max rocket jump velocity threshold to allow Jayto to more easily use rocket jumps to cover ground quickly. Lastly, we’ve gotten feedback that the utility of Jayto’s Special Ability (Thruster Suit) is underwhelming to some players when compared to other Competitors in the roster. Part of this feedback comes from players’ expectations that Thruster Suit should increase Jayto’s mobility more than it does. Great idea, community! Jayto now gets a noticeable speed increase while Thruster Suit is active.

• Increased default Skypiercer Rockets' rocket jump strength from 1200.0 to 1500.0

• Increased triple shot Skypiercer Rockets' rocket jump strength from 1500.0 to 1875.0

• Increased Jayto's max rocket jump velocity threshold from 3000.0 to 3375.0

• Increased Thruster Suit movement speed buff from 250.0 to 600.0

• Mysteen

While internally considered one of the strongest in the game, Mysteen continues to be one of the least played Competitors. We know that her popularity is currently taking a hit simply because one of her best abilities, Levitation, is not messaged anywhere in the game’s UI - leaving it to be discovered organically by players (sorry about that, we’re working to improve this soon). Levitation, for those who don’t know, is Mysteen’s powerful movement ability that she activates by holding the Jump input. Doing so allows her to HOVER STRAFE IN THE AIR, and she can do so after each of her three jumps! What?!?! Spread the word, people! When Mysteen utilizes Levitation regularly, she can be one of the most mobile and graceful Competitors in the game. Ok, I digress, back to actual balance updates!

Outside of spreading awareness of Mysteen’s hidden potential, we saw a few other opportunities to improve Mysteen’s overall standing in the current meta. First, her projectile collision radius was increased to boost her overall consistency in combat. We also wanted to improve her ability to finish off weakened opponents, so her projectile AoE damage was increased to give her more options to KO an opponent in Megablast Danger. Mysteen’s Phantasm also got a bit of a damage buff to increase its effectiveness in a fight. Activating Mysteen’s Special Ability (Phantasm) now gives her a brief invulnerability window while she and the Phantasm split apart. This change is intended to enhance the viability of spawning the Phantasm in the middle of a fight. Finally, activating the Special Ability now refreshes Mysteen’s Levitation (Jump Ability) count along with her air jump count. Prior to this change, Mysteen’s air jumps were reset but not her ability to Levitate (she instead had to land first). Now Mysteen will be even more nimble mid-air when using Levitation. Just imagine jumping three times, Levitating after each jump, then activating your Special Ability mid-air to reset your air jumps and give yourself two more chances to Levitate mid-air before having to land. Crazy right? It’s awesome. So, moral of the story - use Levitation!

• Increased Card Rocket projectile collision radius from 120.0 to 125.0

• Increased default Card Rocket AoE damage from 15.0 to 20.0

• Increased triple burst Card Rocket AoE damage from 11.0 to 15.0

• Increased Phantasm's default Card Rocket AoE damage from 6.0 to 8.0

• Increased Phantasm's triple burst Card Rocket direct hit damage from 6.0 to 8.0

• Increased Phantasm's triple burst Card Rocket AoE damage from 4.0 to 8.0

• Activating Mysteen's Special Ability (Phantasm) now resets her Levitation (Jump Ability) count along with her air jump count

• Mysteen is now briefly invulnerable to damage during the initial activation of her Special Ability (Phantasm)

Competitor Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused Topnotch's Primary to fail to fire on some players' controllers

• Fixed issue where Jayto's Guardian Phoenix wings made aiming difficult for players by adjusting animations

• Fixed a bug that caused Mysteen's Levitation (Jump Ability) to occasionally fail to activate with high ping

• Some competitors have had their run animations tweaked slightly

Game Modes

Rocketball

The round transition after goals is very important to the balance of Rocketball. However, the current transition is a little long, jarring, and not the most interesting. So, we decided to overhaul the current round transition to be less abrupt, faster, and to showcase the player who scored.

• New post-goal round transition sequence, which includes displaying the scoring player and removing the 3-2-1 countdown at the start of a new round

Rocketbot Attack

• Rocketbot Attack may now progress Wins and other Trophy/Achievement related stats

Items

• Increased Speed Boost duration from 5.0 to 6.0 seconds

UI

• Added loading screen gameplay tips

• Added daily challenges into the Home and Pre-Game Menus

• Changed console FOV to 91 and added FOV Slider

• Added UI prompt to turn on Crossplay

Misc

• Added new Right Stick Jumper controller layout

COMING SEPTEMBER 9 - SEPTEMBER 22, 2020!

• Runaway Megadon Limited Time Event Modes

The following modes will be available during the Runaway Megadon event

• New Map! Kayo Kanyon permanently added to the game and to existing playlists

 

Thanks for being part of our community and we’ll see you in Crater!

#LETSROCKET

- The team at FSG

Source: reddit.com

[EA_Leeloo]

Rocket Arena Feature Update

Hi Everyone,

We hope you are doing very well !We wanted to take a few minutes to let you know about some of the things that the FSG team are hard at work on!

Matchmaking Focus

We’ve heard from many fans that you’d like to see matchmaking improved, to do this we are going to temporarily remove the Social Knockout playlist. We will bring back more social playlists with the Runaway Megadon Event as we have Duel, Splat, and MegaMuzzle game modes coming. We’re doing this to get a stronger balance of low matchmaking times and stronger skill balance in matches.

Overall matchmaking performance, consistency, and quality remains the highest priority - please feel free to reach out to PrestonFSG on Discord if you have any feedback on the experience.

The removal of Social Knockout will being to rollout at 9pm (PDT)

Matchmaking Region Tuning for Ping

We know that Rocket Arena is best played on servers with a lower ping. To this end, we’ve started to do region-specific matchmaking tuning. We know a lot of players have requested a server selection option, fortunately, it’s on our list of features to build.

If you are playing in a party, please note that the matchmaker uses the ping of the party leader so if you party with someone in another region, it will use their ping to data-centers to connect to servers closest to them.

Friendly Crossplay Reminder

We see that only about 17% of players have turned on crossplay, please note that it’s a great way to find matches faster!

Match Rejoin [Live!]

Another feature we added in 1.2 is Match Rejoin - if you get disconnected from a match, you can rejoin it!

Runaway Megadon Free Login Rewards [Coming Soon]

There’s a full set of Login rewards for Runaway Megadon coming. Keep an eye out for them and the details coming soon. Another note is that this event and the disappearance of Boomer the Megadon is the start of a Rocket Arena Storyline, we hope to add to this storyline in future updates!

Play vs. AI Mode [Coming in 2.0.0]

This is a very common community request and something we are building for the next patch [2.0.0]. This mode will allow you to play several game modes against AI characters. For the initial release you can play against AI Jayto, AI Blastbeard, AI Izell, and AI Amphora. We’re also making sure you can play this mode Solo if you like, with AI joining your team as well.

Free For All Mode [In Development]

Free For All has been a much requested feature from the community, and we want to let you know we're working on it! We've had an internal playtest of the mode and think you guys will really enjoy it. The mode is still a few months away, but stay tuned!

Stats and Leaderboards [In Development]

Keep an eye out here for updates on Stats and Leaderboards: https://tracker.gg/rocket-arena

Social Features [Coming in 2.0.0]

We know that Rocket Arena is really fun to play with friends and as a squad. To make this easier we’re adding a post-game squad assist feature to the game with the Season 2 patch to make it easier to get into parties after each game.

Meta Changes [Coming in 2.0.0]

Also, keep an eye out for details on the new character and 3 new artifacts coming in Season 2!

1.2 Patch Notes

The 1.2 build is live now, If you have not checked it out yet, please take a look at the 1.2 Patch Notes.

Source: reddit.com

[EA_Leeloo]

UPDATE NOTES FOR 2.0

Welcome to Season 2! This Season brings with it some major updates. There’s Competitor and combat updates, a new map, several event game modes, and more!

GLOBAL COMBAT

Ever since Rocket Arena launched, the Combat Team has tried to absorb as much of our Community’s feedback as possible. Feedback on individual Competitors is something we can typically act on quickly, however we try to take a bit more of a calculated approach to significant global combat adjustments. Before making any such change, we want to ensure we’re actually going to improve and/or deepen the gameplay experience for our players. With that said, over the last few months two key pieces of consistent feedback emerged that we wanted to tackle head on for the start of Season 2:

1. Players want a way to get back to the ground quicker. The lack of an “on command” option to do so contributes greatly to the feeling of being too “floaty” at times.
2. First time impressions of the Dodge ability are mixed. Many new users struggle to understand its utility, and the movement behavior fails to match their expectations of how a dodge mechanic should feel. Other players (even experienced ones), express a desire for Dodge to have more varied applications and opportunities for skillful execution.

After first considering numerous separate solutions for these two points, we eventually realized there was a promising shared solution that could help address both simultaneously. The answer? Revamp the Dodge ability to support omnidirectional movement.

Old Dodge (Movement Input)

The previous version of Dodge was already useful at avoiding damage, and could even be used in specific situations to safely reach an objective or recover back to solid ground. However, its movement capabilities were restricted to a single horizontal plane. The player could only go left, right, forward, or back. It also barely displaced the player from their previous position, which often left players in the same precarious situation they were in before they Dodged. 

New Dodge (Movement Input + Aim Direction)

The new version of Dodge is in many ways a natural evolution of the previous implementation, building off everything it already did well. All elements of Dodge remain the same as before, except for the way the Dodge launch direction and launch strength are handled. Now, instead of simply launching the player in the direction of their movement input (Old Dodge), we also factor in the player’s aim direction! This change introduces a new layer of verticality to the Dodge movement, allowing players to Dodge upwards or downwards in addition to the standard cardinal directions of the Old Dodge. We tried to design this to feel as intuitive as possible, so the way you interact with the new mechanic is fairly straightforward:

• The more forwards or backwards you’re moving, the more the Dodge launch direction is influenced by your aim direction.
• The more left or right you’re moving, the less the Dodge launch direction is influenced by your aim direction.

General movement input examples:

• Moving forwards, you Dodge in the direction you're aiming. 
• Moving backwards, you Dodge in the opposite direction you’re aiming.
• Moving left or right, you simply Dodge left or right (nearly identical to the Old Dodge).
• No movement input still allows you to Dodge in-place.

To go along with this new directionality, we’ve also increased the base launch strength of Dodge so you’ll be able to travel more distance than before. The goal is to give players more opportunities to use Dodge in the clutch as an additional movement option. The New Dodge has one more trick up its sleeve too - the more downwards your launch direction is, the stronger your launch strength becomes. In other words, you can now utilize this New Dodge to fast fall back to the ground. Simply look towards the ground, hold forwards, and Dodge!

The possible applications of the New Dodge are immense, and we’re sure our Community will soon discover even more than we’ve thought of already. Here are a few examples though to get your imaginations a head start:

• Floating high in the air above an enemy Mega Rocket zone that’s about to be captured. Dodge downwards to propel yourself out of the sky and into the zone to prevent the score!
• A teammate passes you the Rocketball from across the map, but the ball’s going to fly right over your head. Dodge upwards at an angle to catch the ball mid-air!
• Trying to recover back onto the map, but you’re out of jumps and already below the nearest platform. Dodge upwards to fling yourself above the platform and land safely.

Lastly, we understand that this new mechanic may take some getting used to for those who were proficient with the previous Dodge. We’re hopeful though that all of you will ultimately love the new gameplay opportunities this mechanic presents you in Rocket Arena. As always, please keep sending us your feedback. It’s greatly appreciated, and we’re absolutely listening.

TLDR: Dodge now has omnidirectional control that lets you Dodge towards (or away from) your aim direction when moving forwards (or backwards). The base Dodge launch strength is also increased, and the strength is amplified the more downwards your launch direction is.

COMPETITORS

Leef Joins the Tour!

A mysterious competitor from the far reaches of Crater (we think). Leef gleefully flings spiraling Arcane Rockets from his ancient wooden staff. Hitting opponents with these projectiles powers up Leef’s Charged Beam -- a devastating attack that can pass through multiple enemies at once, repeatedly damaging anyone caught in its trail. The Charged Beam is especially effective on opponents snared mid-air by Flitt, Leef’s energetic insect-like companion. Leef is also one of the more elusive competitors in the arena thanks to his omnidirectional Warp Dash that lets him bend around cover or zip through enemies, damaging them along the way. Leef’s frenetic, glass cannon playstyle is ideal for players who like combo-centric gameplay, with an emphasis on cleverly outmaneuvering their opponents.

Flux

The current state of Flux is somewhat of a paradox. Statistically, we know that Flux is both underperforming and underpicked compared to other Competitors. However, elements of her kit can also often cause significant frustration for opposing players due to a perceived power imbalance and lack of counterplay opportunities. So with all this in mind, we need to simultaneously buff Flux to make her more competitive, and also make adjustments to her kit to reduce opposing player frustrations. For this update, the Black Hole Cat got a majority of the focus. 

The Black Hole Cat perfectly embodies both sides of the Flux paradox. It’s an incredibly hard-hitting attack that can feel overpowered when it connects, but it does so too inconsistently for Flux players to truly rely on it in direct combat. To address the former, we’ve implemented damage falloff on the Black Hole Cat’s explosion. Previously, getting hit by any part of the Black Hole Cat’s explosion would result in the maximum damage being dealt. Now, the damage output decreases the farther from the Black Hole Cat’s center the opposing player gets. At the outermost edge of the Black Hole Cat’s AoE, the damage output is only 40% of what it is at the center. The goal is to promote counterplay by rewarding players for taking action to escape the attack.

Next, we addressed how inconsistent this attack was for our Flux players. To do this, we made several improvements to the Black Hole Cat’s auto-homing logic to make it more reliable and better align with the Flux player’s intent. First, we significantly increased the homing acceleration the Black Hole Cat has towards its enemy target. Instead of the sluggish, meandering turns it previously took, the Black Hole Cat will now aggressively pursue its target. We’ve also completely overhauled the target acquisition and tracking logic of the Black Hole Cat to make its homing behavior more consistent and reliable. While scanning for homing targets, the Black Hole Cat’s logic now scores all potential targets based on their distance (closer targets getting a higher score), and prioritizes targets closer to the path of its current direction. This change means that the Black Hole Cat will more frequently target the player Flux intended. Additionally, the Black Hole Cat’s homing target detection radius now scales proportionally as the Black Hole Cat’s size increases. Before now, the detection radius was a fixed size, which made predicting its movement and homing capabilities very challenging for Flux players. This also led to the perception that the Black Hole Cat became more oblivious to enemies the larger it got. To ensure all of these improvements to the auto-homing lead to balanced interactions with opposing players, the Black Hole Cat now has a maximum turn threshold it can deviate from its original course (i.e. the direction it was moving before it acquired a homing target). If the Black Hole Cat turns beyond this threshold, the auto-homing immediately ends. So in other words - the Black Hole Cat’s homing is now reliable enough to make it a consistent threat, and opposing players who take action to avoid it can be rewarded for their efforts by making it miss them.

Finally, as Flux players well know, her Primary ammo count is much lower than your average Rocket Arena Competitor. This is actually crucial to her balance (trust me, an entire map filled with bouncing Rockats is the stuff of rainbow-fueled nightmares), but it can absolutely make navigating the arena with rocket jumps a frustrating and laborious task for Flux. To reduce the necessity of rocket jumping for even the smallest of obstacles, we’ve increased Flux’s ground and air jump strengths. We’ve also reduced her reload time slightly to make her more frequent reloads less tedious, and to help her in scenarios that require multiple consecutive rocket jumps.

• Black Hole Cat explosion now has damage falloff
• Black Hole Cat now has a maximum homing turn threshold
• Increased Black Hole Cat homing acceleration from 2000.0 to 5500.0
• Improved Black Hole Cat homing targeting logic (combined target distance and angle weighting score)
• Black Hole Cat homing target detection radius scales with the projectile’s increasing size
• Leef's Charge Beam can detonate the Black Hole Cat if shot through the center
• Increased ground jump strength from 1700.0 to 1900.0
• Increased air jump strength from 1600.0 to 1800.0
• Reduced reload duration from 1.1 to 0.9 sec

Jayto

For Season 2, Jayto gets a couple small buffs to help improve his consistency in combat. Specifically, we’ve slightly increased the collision radiuses of his single Skypiercer Rocket (Tri-Rockets remain unchanged) and his Rocket Swarm projectiles. The first of these tweaks brings the overall accuracy of his Skypiercer Rocket up to a more competitive level with the rest of the roster, and better aligns the collision of the rocket to its visuals. The adjustment made to the Rocket Swarm projectile collision makes this a more reliable attack, and improves the viability of fanning the Rocket Swarm across a larger area to keep damage on opponents. In truth, both of these changes almost went live in the last update, but we needed just a bit more playtesting time with them to be sure we were on the right path. So thanks for your patience, Jayto players! With these improvements, combined with the larger buffs he received in the previous update, Jayto should hopefully be in a great position for the foreseeable future.

• Increased Skypiercer Rocket projectile collision radius from 130.0 to 140.0
• Increased Rocket Swarm projectile collision radius from 100.0 to 110.0

Mysteen

The previous buffs to Mysteen greatly increased her viability and pick rate. This was awesome to see, and exactly what we hoped for! Unfortunately though, with more eyes on Mysteen than ever, we quickly discovered a pretty gnarly bug with her Mirror Shield that was giving her an unfair, unintended advantage in several gameplay scenarios. Basically, due to an underlying collision issue, we found that the Shield was capable of blocking projectiles from hitting Mysteen’s back (i.e. the vulnerable spot it’s not intended to protect). Even worse, the bug wasn’t consistent! Some projectiles could never damage her, others were more of a roll of the dice. This was obviously a balance issue since the entire counterplay against the Shield revolves around being able to damage Mysteen from her unprotected backside. With this bug, Mysteen and her Phantasm could effectively get 360° of protection while their Shields were active. So, suffice it to say, we’ve fixed this issue entirely. Shooting Mysteen in the back while her Shield is active will now reliably damage and impulse her.

The other change worth noting is that Mysteen’s Phantasm now receives all of the Artifact modifiers that Mysteen has currently equipped. One of the main purposes of the Phantasm is to serve as a convincing enough double to the real Mysteen. The Phantasm is tuned precisely for this goal. For example, with zero Artifacts equipped, the Phantasm matches Mysteen’s core movement traits perfectly. However, with movement modifying Artifacts equipped, players could start seeing unintended differences emerge between Mysteen and her Phantasm in areas like their movement speed or jump heights. This change to grant the Phantasm Mysteen’s current Artifact modifiers keeps the desired consistency between Mysteen and her Phantasm, and also better aligns the gameplay with player expectations. In practice, this is a relatively minor change. The real benefits of Artifacts come from how players cleverly utilize the modifiers to gain gameplay advantages. Rest assured, this level of creativity lies far outside the Phantasm’s personal skill set!

• Fixed a bug that prevented enemy projectiles from reliably damaging Mysteen from the back while she was Shielding
• Phantasm now gets all of the gameplay modifiers from Mysteen's currently equipped Artifacts
• Mysteen can no longer accidentally launch herself out of the arena when jump-Levitating onto air lifts

Miscellaneous Competitor Fixes

• Blastbeard: Fixed Blastbeard's Shockwave not being visible when activated far away
• Boone: Fixed issue causing Vortex spawn effects to be rotated incorrectly on other clients
• Plink: Fixed Boomerang exploding instead of bouncing or rocket jumping when shooting at certain downwards angles
• Topnotch: Fixed issue causing Primary grenade explosion effects to be incorrect in certain scenarios

Play vs AI 

Players can now matchmake solo in the new Play vs AI playlist! This unblocks low population regions for all progression tracks; achievements, challenges, character progression, and just being able to play the game with no wait times. Players in the Play vs AI playlist can now select the same character as teammates as well, allowing for duplicates. The Play vs AI playlist has new bot types like Jayto, Blastbeard, Amphora, and Izell that backfill solo players. They are dynamically buffed or debuffed as human allies drop out or rejoin a match so that its resistant to quitting and a solo player where all teammates quits can still win their match.

• New Bot Types!        
  • Bot versions of Jayto, Blastbeard, Amphora, and Izell have been added to the game
• New PvE Mode! Bot Knockout
  • Battle the new Competitor bots in the Knockout game mode
• New Playlist! Play vs AI
  • Consists of Rocketbot Attack and the new Bot Knockout mode, and replaces the current Rocketbot Attack playlist
• Play vs. AI Playlist
  • Players can now choose the same Competitor in this playlist
    • We know there are times when players just want to play a certain Competitor, be it for achievements, challenges, or even just because they love them.  With this change, players will have a playlist where they can do any or all of those things.
  • Bots will now be debuffed (deal less and take more damage, etc.) if a player leaves the match.  The debuff increases for each player who leaves.  If a player rejoins the match, the debuff will decrease.
    • We're always trying to find ways to give players a better experience when another player leaves a match.  Debuffing the bots will give the remaining players a better chance of winning and hopefully reduce some of the frustrations when a teammate leaves.
  • Competitor bots will now be added as teammates if players fail to matchmake with other players
    • No more going it alone!

Artifacts

With each new season, our goal is to continue to evolve Rocket Arena's combat and give players new ways to express themselves. For Season 2, in addition to regular balance tweaks, we're introducing 3 new artifacts!

Boost Capacitor

Fixed an issue where the Social level 3 was giving more of an increase than intended

NEW ARTIFACTS!

Desolation Rounds

Deal (8/9/10)% increased damage while Dodge is not on cooldown; Dodge cooldown is increased by 2 sec

Bottomless Box

KOs have a (50/75/100)% chance to award a random Item

Spare Fuel Tank

Take Stun Breaks grant (20/25/30)% damage resistance for 3 sec

GAME MODES

Treasure Hunt

Players will now gain a 30% speed boost for 1.5 sec after collecting a coin

• Gotta Go... you know the rest!  Everyone knows collecting coins is better when moving faster.  It's science.  We feel this gives the Coin Round a fun chase feeling as you try to keep your speed up, while also helping players pickup spaced out coins faster, especially on the ground.

General Mode Changes

Replaced the Recoveries stat with Assists in the post game report for all modes

• You like Assists more than Recoveries?  We do, too.  

FRONT END UI

• Post Game Squad Assist: New UI in the Play menu shows teammates from the last match and enables players to easily party up and make new friends
• More challenges and XP per day: Rocket Arena has now increased from 2 to 3 daily challenges and has moved up from 1 to 2 weekly challenges
• Post Game Friend/Party drop-down: When in the Post Game Stats menu, players can now select the drop down tab on a player's name and send a friend request or a party request for ease of access

ITEMS

• Trip Mines can no longer be used to let other trip mine lasers clip through geo
• Fixed Mega Gift sometimes not working when fired at moving shutters in Apogee Acres
• Fixed Rocket Magnet not being visible when activated far away

 

NEW OUTFITS IN THE LOCKER

These new outfits are now available ongoing in the character locker, purchasable for both Rocket Parts and Rocket Fuel.

Epic

• Tangerine Princess Kayi
• Forest Protector Leef

Rare

• Bubbling Brook Leef

Uncommon

• Avocado Leef
• Plum Leef
• Blue Hokkaido Leef
• Blue Daisy Leef
• Honeynut Leef
• Vitis Leef
• Yellowjacket Rev
• Jocular Rev
• Sahara Rev

As always, we value your feedback and if you’d like to leave us some now, or in the future, hit us up on the Rocket Arena Discord, Reddit, Twitter, Twitch Streams, DMs, etc. - we read as much as we can!

Thanks for being part of our community and we’ll see you in Crater! #LETSROCKET

The team at FSG

Source: ea.com

[EA_Leeloo]

UPDATE NOTES FOR 2.1

The 2.1.0 patch brings with it some new limited time modes and items, a player profile with stats, and some quality of life updates as well.

INTRODUCING: RUINED CITY!

Battle across the Ruined City, a long-lost ancient temple that provides plenty of fast paced action. Keep your eye in the sky for great views of a few familiar Crater locales.

During the All Crater’s Eve event, limited time items will be making an appearance as well; the Pumpkin Bomb and the Spiderweb Magnet. Be sure to drop in and enjoy the festivities and new content taking place in the Rocket Championship Tour!

NEW FEATURE: PROFILE & STATS

Players can now view their gameplay stats in the Front End UI by selecting their player portrait or tabbing to the Profile menu in the Friends/Party screen. There are a lot of interesting stats added including; Total Games Completed, Total Damage Dealt, Highest KO Streak, Total Knockouts, and more. Share high scores for the top Rocket Championship Tour bragging rights!

Competitor Edits and Bug Fixes

• Leef: Flitt now bounces off (or around) Mysteen's Mirror Shield
• Leef: Flitt is no longer affected by the Rocket Magnet
• Fixed Flitt remaining visible for simulated clients after Leef's secondary ability activated
• Fixed Topnotch's primary ability playing cook release SFX when firing uncooked shots
• Fixed Flux & Plink item fetching temporarily breaking if actively fetching while knocked out
• Fixed Rev secondary mine glitching out if stuck to Megarocket and then Megarocket goes away
• Fixed Kayi double secondary ability FX when playing at higher net latency
• Fixed some Leef and Plink getting stuck in geometry issues
• Fix characters returning to arena blocking Topnotch's Zephyr Strike rocket

LIMITED TIME MODES

Mega Rocket Mayhem

Battle your opponents over Mega Rockets, but with a twist...everyone deals increased impulse and takes reduced damage! You can stay in the Arena much longer in this mode, so get ready for an epic tug-of-war! IT’S MAYHEM!

Blast Ball

In Blast Ball, the Rocketball literally explodes! Keep your eyes and ears on the timer, because once it fills up, an explosion will damage friends and foes alike, and Megablast whoever is unlucky enough to be holding the Blas…

GAME MODE CHANGES

• Rocketbot Attack
  • Removed AoE attack from Rocketbots
  • Reduced Rocketbot fire rate

• 2v2 Knockout
  • Reduced the score limit from 20 to 12
  • Reduced time limit from 7 min to 5 min

 

ITEMS

Limited Time event items added!

Spider Magnet

Use the Spider Magnet to deploy a sticky web wall that will severely slow down any opponent or their rockets that get caught in it. Beware, opponent rockets can still punch through the web if they make it through!

Pumpkin Bomb

Throw the Pumpkin Bomb for an explosion that’s larger than life! With its increased size, it’s easier than ever to hit with rockets and change its direction. Watch out, this goes for allies and opponents!

UI

• Crossplay can now be set to PC-Only or Console-Only
• Onboarding videos now work on Xbox

Misc

• Performance improvements to increase console gameplay quality
• Adjusting camera shake to be less aggressive when taking damage from certain abilities

As always, we value your feedback and if you’d like to leave us some now, or in the future, hit us up on the Rocket Arena Discord, Reddit, Twitter, Twitch Streams, DMs, etc. - we read as much as we can!

Thanks for being part of our community and we’ll see you in Crater!

#LETSROCKET

-The team at FSG

Source: ea.com

[EA_Leeloo]

UPDATE NOTES FOR 2.3

MEGA UPDATE NOTES

November 25th 2020

The 2.3.0 patch brings with it controller optimization tuning, competitor and combat updates, AI improvements, and lots of new quality of life features such as Region/Server Select and new performance based XP rewards in the Post Game sequence!

Major Controller Update

One of the main goals of this patch was to improve the controller experience of Rocket Arena. We wanted to make sure the game not only plays and feels awesome, but to help close the gap between controller and mouse and keyboard users. To do so, we’ve completely overhauled aim assist systems, added several more features under the hood, and updated our tuning values to improve overall responsiveness. Players may choose between Normal (new default) and Legacy (previous tuning) in the Controller Settings Menu.

Aim Assist Rework

We’ve reworked our entire Aim Assist system to be more intelligent and consistent. Rocket Arena is a high skill floor projectile shooter that can be difficult to play at times, especially with your thumbs. So, we’ve updated Aim Assist (and our overall balance, as you’ll see below) to really help players track and hit their targets much easier than ever before.  

Region Select

Players can now switch regions if they’d like to matchmake using servers in a different location. Access the Region Select in the Settings Menu in the Front End UI.

Performance Based XP Progression

We heard your feedback about XP, so we added more! We also reworked the system to focus on rewarding players for participating and taking part of the action. Now after completing a match, players get additional XP for their personal damage, assists, and KO’s. Player’s also get combined teamwork XP for match objectives such as Mega Rockets captured. The more you and your team play, the more XP you receive. You also get match complete XP and a match win bonus.

Competitor Balance and Tuning Changes

Amphora

• Charge Torpedo (Primary)
  • Uncharged
    • Projectile collision radius is now a constant 120
      • Previously scaled between 75 - 180 based on charge percentage
    • Reduced impulse from 1500 to 1100
    • Increased fire rate 0.5s to 0.425s
  • Fully Charged
    • Reduced impact damage from 40 to 35
    • Reduced impulse from 2800 to 2000
    • Increased projectile visual scale
  • Uncharged and Fully Charged
    • Increased projectile speed from 17000 to 17500
    • Increased Rocket Jump radius from 500 to 700
    • Improved controller force feedback
• Hydro Form (Special)
  • Hydro Form now cancels when picking up the Rocketball or Treasure Chest instead of activating the water cyclone

Blastbeard

• Rocket Cannonball (Primary)
  • Increased speed from 11000 to 12000
  • Increased arc distance from 4000 to 5000
• Charged Anchor (Secondary)
  • Reworked functionality
    • Removed automatically firing after charge completed
    • Secondary input must now be held down until fully charged and then released to fire  
  • Ability now cancels if:
    • Secondary input is released before max charge
    • The player uses Rocket Cannonball (Primary) or Shockwave (Special)
  • Ability will now start charging again after being canceled if the input is still held after 0.35s
  • Updated crosshair UI to make it easier to understand how the ability functions

Boone

• Blunderblast (Primary)
  • Increased Rocket Jump radius from 500 to 700
  • Improved controller force feedback
• Megadon Scope (Secondary)
  • Reduced controller sensitivity modifier from 0.6x to 0.5x (ie. input will not be slowed as much)
  • Improved controller force feedback
  • Using Zik's Vortex (Special) now also resets Boone's ability to hover during his next mid-air Megadon Scope use

Izell

• Spear Rockets (Primary)
  • Increased speed from 15000 to 16500
  • Increased collision radius from 120 to 130
  • Increased Rocket Jump radius from 400 to 600
  • Improved camera animation and controller force feedback
  • Reduced scale of primary projectile trail
• Jaaqua Charge (Special)
  • Reduced the distance Izell travels when Jaaqua Charge is used to pick up the Rocketball or Treasure Chest

Flux

• Rockats (Primary)
  • Increased Rocket Jump radius from 500 to 650
  • Removed Flux gamepad look sensitivity modifier
  • Improved camera animation
• Black Hold Cat (Secondary)
  • Reduced Black Hole Cat's maximum scale by 25%
  • Using Fluxverse now cancels Black Hole Cat's cast and will block it from firing again immediately. If the Secondary input is still held down after 1 sec, the Black Hole Cat will try to cast again.

Jayto

• Skypiercer Rockets (Primary)
  • Increased collision radius from 140 to 145
  • Reduced impulse from 1500 to 1300
  • Improved controller force feedback
  • Reduced scale and emissive strength of the default skinned projectile VFX
• Rocket Swarm (Secondary)
  • Removed controller sensitivity modifier
• Thruster Suit (Special)
  • Increased Triple Skypiercer Rockets speed from 16500 to 17000
    • This matches the normal Skypiercer Rockets speed
  • Reduced Triple Skypiercer Rockets impulse from 2750 to 1750

Kayi

• Charged Bolt (Primary)
  • Uncharged
    • Projectile speed is now a constant 16000
      • Previously scaled between 12000 - 20000 based on charge percentage
    • Projectile gravity is now a constant 1.5
      • Previously scaled between was 2.5 and 0.2 based on charged percentage
    • Increased collision radius from 130 to 140
    • Fixed fully charged VFX playing on uncharged shots
  • Fully Charged
  • Both
    • Improved Charged Bolt camera animation and force feedback

Leef

• Charged Beam (Primary laser after hitting four shots)
  • Fixed issues where the damage would be blocked inconsistently by Mysteen’s Mirror Shield

Mysteen

• Rocket Cards (Primary)
  • Decreased speed reduced from 22500 to 20000
  • Increased Rocket Jump radius from 400 to 700
  • Improved camera animation
  • Increased visual scale from 13.5 to 14.0 (does not affect gameplay)
• Mirror Shield (Secondary)
  • Fixed issues where Leef’s Charged Beam (Primary laser) would be blocked inconsistently, letting damage through
• Levitate (Jump)
  • Improved functionality while underwater on Shimmering Depths and Star of Crater

Plink

• Scrap Rockets (Primary)
  • Increased homing distance from 3500 to 4000
  • Improved camera animation and controller force feedback
• Boomerang (Secondary)
  • Increased Boomerang Rocket Jump radius from 256 to 650

Rev

• Double Whammy (Primary)
  • Increased collision radius from 100 to 120
  • Reduced horizontal spread from 0.65 to 0.2
    • This reduces the space between her left and right barrel projectiles, making the projectiles not have as much variance and fire closer to the reticle
  • Reduced reticle scale by 10% to account for Double Whammy spread reduction
  • Improved camera animation and controller force feedback
  • Fixed reload animation not matching the duration
  • Fixed VFX from disappearing early or being delay
  • Added logic to help prevent Double Whammy from not firing after being attacked or using an Ability if the player is still holding the Primary input
• Mag Mines (Secondary)
  • Hiding Mag Mines in world UI if it attaches to a player, which was the intended design
  • Attempt at a fix to stop players from getting knocked back really hard when a Mag Mine attaches to them
    • DEV REQUEST! - If you are still seeing this happen, please get a video if you can and let us know!

Topnotch

• Bouncing Beauty (Primary)
  • Increased speed from 15000 to 16000
  • Increased minimum hold time required for manual detonation from 0.19s to 0.225s on controller
    • This helps instances of players accidentally triggering manual detonation when they didn’t mean to
  • Increased Rocket Jump radius from 500 to 700
  • Improved camera animation
  • Tuned visual scale curve for better visibility
  • Reduced conditions that could block or cancel reloading
• Zephyr Strike (Secondary)
  • Reduced AoE explosion radius from 2750 to 2400
• Artillery Salute (Special)
  • Now refills Topnotch’s Jetpack fuel
• Jetpack (Jump)
  • Overview - Jetpack ground launch strength decreased, fuel drain rate increased, Artillery Salute now refills fuel
    • Increased fuel consumption by ~5.7%
      • This reduces the time it takes to consume a full fuel tank from 2s to 1.88s
    • Decreased Jetpack gravity multiplier from -0.4x to -0.35x
      • This makes gravity affect Topnotch more
  • Add blinking flare VFX feedback when near the KO ceiling Jetpack shutoff

Game Modes

• AI
  • Bots can now play Mega Rocket, Rocketball, and Treasure Hunt game modes
• Mega Rocket
  • Reduced the strength of the impulse when the zone spawns by 25%
  • Fixed issues where players could capture a Mega Rocket while underneath the zone
• Misc.
  • Mysteen's Phantasm will no longer display the game mode overhead UI (Treasure Chest, Rocketball Variants, etc.)

Playlists and Matchmaking

• Bots in Matchmaking
  • Bots will now fill in for players in all standard playlists if not enough players are found during matchmaking (both PvE and PvP)
  • New Scaling Bot Difficulties
    • Bot difficulties are Easy, Normal, Hard, and Extreme
    • Difficulty in PvP (Competitive Arena, Knockout, etc.)
      • In Matchmaking, bots will scale in difficulty based on the average skill of the players
    • Difficulty in PvE (Co-op Arena, etc.)
      • In Co-op, unlike PvP, each player will have a Bot Difficulty Level independent of their skill
      • Players increase their Bot Difficulty Level by winning 5 games in a row
      • If a player loses 3 games in a row, their Bot Difficulty Level will decrease
      • In Matchmaking, a bot will be added for each player’s Bot Difficulty Level
        • For example, if Player A has Extreme difficulty, B has Hard, and C has Easy, then there will be an Extreme, Hard, and Easy bot added to the game
        • If less than 3 players match into the game, the remaining bot’s difficulties will be that of the player with the lowest Bot Difficulty Level (for both the friendly and enemy team)
• Play vs AI
  • Playlist renamed Co-op Arena
  • Contains Rocketbot Attack and Bot versions of Knockout, Mega Rocket, Rocketball, and Treasure Hunt
• Social Arena
  • Playlist renamed Competitive Arena
• Knockout
  • The Knockout playlist returns to the Tour!

Items

• Trip Mine
  • Impulse decreased

Maps

• Shimmering Depths
  • Reduced the strength of the geyser
  • Reduced the movement penalties while in the water outside of the dome
  • Removed the yellow submarines
• Star of Crater
  • Reduced the movement penalties while in the water outside of the dome
  • Removed the yellow submarines
• Megadon Junction
  • The train will now impulse the Rocketball and Treasure Chest

Misc

• Totems can now be rotated in the Totem Menu
• Fixed issues where some controllers would not register maximum joystick input even if the user were fully pushing it in a direction, thus causing players to not move at full speed

As always, we value your feedback and if you’d like to leave us some now, or in the future, hit us up on the Rocket Arena Discord, Reddit, Twitter, Twitch Streams, DMs, etc. - we read as much as we can!

Thanks for being part of our community and we’ll see you in Crater! #LETSROCKET

The team at FSG

Source: ea.com

[EA_Leeloo]

ROCKET ARENA 3.0 UPDATE NOTES

Check out what’s coming with update 3.0!

January 20th 2021

The 3.0.0 update brings with it a new Rocket Championship Tour Competitor in Gant, tuning/balance updates, AI improvements, and lots of new features such as Emotes and Totem Companions!

New Competitor

Gant joins the Rocket Championship Tour!

As Crater’s resident superhero, the Golden Gryphon, Gant is a unique Competitor in Rocket Arena who has two unique Forms with completely different abilities and attributes. Over the course of the battle, Gant transforms between his Normal and Hero Forms automatically based upon his unique resource, the Hero Gauge.

In his Normal form, Gant rapidly fires Talon Rockets at opponents, filling his Hero Gauge with each hit. When the fighting gets too intense, he can use his Guard ability to shield himself and gain the advantage on his opponents, reducing his damage taken and gaining Hero Gauge when hit. Gant’s powerful Leap helps him close the distance, helping him to finish off opponents by reloading his weapon and granting him a damage boost, or allowing him to gain Hero Gauge by jumping into the fray with his Guard ability. Additionally, Gant gains Hero Gauge passively over time while in Normal Form.

When Gant’s Hero Gauge is filled, he automatically transforms into his Hero Form, the legendary Golden Gryphon! While in Hero Form, Gant trades his Talon Rockets for Gryphon Gauntlets, allowing him to hurl mighty gusts of wind at his opponents and all evil doers alike. As a proper superhero, Gant can use his Flying Charge to bolt across the sky faster than a speeding rocket. He can also use Flying Charge to get up close and personal with his opponents in order to use his Whirlwind ability, turning Gant into a powerful spinning vortex, pulling opponents in and constantly damaging them. Additionally, Gant takes reduced damage while in Hero Form, gains increased mobility, and players can make him descend slowly by holding the Jump input while in air. Finally, while in Hero Form, the Hero Gauge depletes over time, and when it runs out, Gant will automatically transform back into Normal Form.

Gant’s Abilities

• Form Switching and Hero Gauge
  • Gant has two unique forms: Normal Form and Hero Form.
  • Over the course of the battle, Gant will automatically transform between his Normal and Hero Form based on his unique resource, the Hero Gauge.
  • While in Normal Form:
    • Hero Gauge is passively generated over time, and Gant’s Primary and Secondary both grant Hero Gauge when dealing or receiving damage, respectively.
    • When the Hero Gauge is filled, Gant automatically transforms into Hero Form, resetting his Ability and Dodge cooldowns and removing Megablast Danger.
  • While in Hero Form:
    • The Hero Gauge depletes over time.
    • When the Hero Gauge is empty, Gant automatically transforms into Normal Form, resetting his Ability cooldowns.
• Normal Form
  • Talon Rockets (Primary)
    • Accurate, fast-moving, rapid fire rockets. Hits fill Hero Gauge.
  • Guard (Secondary)
    • Brace for attacks and take reduced damage. Being hit fills Hero Gauge.
  • Leap (Special)
    • Leap forward with a brief speed and damage boost. Reloads Primary when activated.
• Hero Form (Golden Gryphon)
  • Normal to Hero Transformation
    • Gant’s Ability and Dodge cooldowns are reset and Megablast Danger is removed.
  • Gryphon Gauntlets (Primary)
    • Punch the air creating powerful blasts of wind.
  • Whirlwind (Secondary)
    • Become a spinning vortex, damaging nearby opponents.
  • Flying Charge (Special)
    • Blast through the sky with tremendous speed. Hold to fly farther.
  • Hero’s Cape (Jump)
    • Gant jumps higher in Hero Form. Hold the jump input to descend slowly.
  • Passive
    • Gant takes reduced damage and has increased mobility while in Hero Form.

 

Emotes

Chat Emotes

Express your thoughts or highlight a great play using the in-game Chat Emotes to make your hero play an animation, even while moving!

• Press the chat button in the lower-left of the screen at any time to make the hero animate right in the middle of the action.
• To start, all characters have four default animations that are automatically equipped.
• In-Game Emotes never get in the way of making an epic play! Players can emote at any point without worry, as it can be interrupted by their actions or by getting hit by an opponent.

Ready Emotes

After players select their Hero in the Pre-Game menu, they will be able to use the chat buttons in the bottom left of the screen to perform Ready Emote animations and show off their style to their teammates.

• There are four Ready Emote slots available for players to customize.
• Players will have a default Ready Emote equipped to start for all heroes.
• Mix and match Ready Emotes to create fun combinations.

Victory Poses

Players can show off their own style of celebration during the Post-Game Victory sequence. All heroes have a default Victory Pose to start for when they’re on the winning team.

• When the winning team is shown after a match, the heroes will strike a Victory Pose automatically.
• Player’s can equip new Victory poses to show their style.
• Each hero has one Victory Pose customization slot that can be modified.

How to Equip Expressions

To equip available expressions; enter the Competitor’s tab in the Front End UI and select a hero to customize. Located next to the Outfits, Artifacts, and Progress buttons, there is a new button that says ‘Expressions’. Each Rocket Championship Tour Competitor has three different Expression categories that can be customized.

• Chat Emotes have four slots available. There are four Chat Emote animations equipped to each hero by default and all of them can be rearranged or replaced with new emotes as they’re acquired.
• Ready Emote has four slots available. As Ready emotes are unlocked they can be equipped into any slot, rearranged, or replaced as new Ready emotes are acquired.
• Victory Pose has one slot available. There is a default animation equipped in each Expression category to start.

 

Totem Companions

Totem Companions have been added as a new Totem customization option! Players can equip Totem Companions to their Totems and show them off in the Pre-Game and Post-Game screens! Companions each have a unique intro animation and come to a rest atop your Totem! Additional Companions can be acquired through the Blast Pass or through direct purchase.

Competitor Balance and Tuning

We’ve got a few balance changes to a couple of Competitors that we felt needed some immediate attention after our 2.3 update, as well as a pretty large bug fix that was pointed out by our community. In truth, we did a fairly large rebalance last update, and we wanted to see how things played out with our changes before making any knee jerk reactions. Plus, with the holiday season, our time to get larger changes into 3.0 was limited. The good news is that we have several Competitor changes lined up for our next update (3.1) that we hope will shake up the meta and shift the ol’ tier lists around, so please try to sit tight for a bit. As an aside, thank you to everyone who participated in the Rocket Arena Tournament last month, it was great to see some really high level play and definitely helped us figure out the direction we want to go in for 3.1 (congrats to team Child’s Play!).

General

• Fixed issues where several Competitor’s Primary enemy AoE radius was much larger than intended
• Item use is now disabled while Dodging

Amphora

Our resident deep sea diver was hit a little too hard in the last update, so we bumped up her Torpedoes a bit.

• Charge Torpedo (Primary)
  • Uncharged
    • Increased projectile collision radius from 120 to 130
  • Fully Charged
    • Increased damage from 35 to 40

Leef

The input blocking on Leef’s Primary was causing some frustration, so we’ve reduced it.

• Charged Beam (Fully Charged Primary)
  • Reduced input blocking after reaching maximum charge from 0.65s to 0.475s

Mysteen

Mysteen can soak up a lot of damage in several ways, which can make her a pretty tough KO. So, we gave players a little more time to be able to do damage to her. Skilled players could also keep her in the air for a very long time, which we aren’t getting rid of, but we are bringing her slightly more down to earth.

• Mirror Shield (Secondary)
  • Increased cooldown from 4s to 5s
• Phantasm (Special)
  • Reduced damage immunity upon initial activation from 0.7s to 0.55s
• Levitation (Jump)
  • Reduced maximum duration from 2.5s to 2s

 

Bots and AI

Bots can now Dodge, Leef and Mysteen have joined the bot ranks, Extreme Bot nerfs, and improved navigation headline the AI improvements for this update.

New Competitor Bots!

• Leef and Mysteen Bots can now appear as teammates or opponents

General

• All Bots now have the ability to Dodge incoming projectiles
• Bots will now equip cosmetic skins, megablast trails, and return trails

Extreme Bots

• Increased Blast Meter regen delay from 2.25s to 4s
• Passive damage reduction will now be removed while in Megablast Danger

Navigation Improvements

• We’ve performed passes on several maps to improve bot navigation and movement

 

Artifacts

We’ve added three new Artifacts this Season and adjusted a few to change up the meta (looking at you Coldsnap Locket).

New Artifacts!

Forever Snowman (Slot 1)

• Briefly become Invulnerable for (1 / 1.25 / 1.5)s when entering Megablast Danger; Blast Meter regen delay increased by 1.5s

Championship Trophy (Slot 2)

• Rocket Jumps have more directional control and increase movement speed by (15 / 17.5 / 20)% for 2s

Dark Matter (Slot 3)

• Using an Item increases your damage and impulse dealt by 5%, reduces damage and impulse taken by 5%, and increases your speed by 20% for (4 / 4.5 / 5)s

Current Artifact Tuning

• Frozen Bubble (Slot 1)
  • Increased from (1 / 1.25 / 1.5)s to (1.5 / 1.75 / 2)s
• Jaaqua Amulet (Slot 1)
  • Increased from (15 / 17.5 / 20)% to (20 / 22.5 / 25)%
• Coldsnap Locket (Slot 2)
  • Reduced from (50 / 75 / 100)% to (30 / 40 / 50)%
• Crystal Crown (Slot 3)
  • Reduced from (30 / 35 / 40)% to (20 / 25 / 30)%

 

Game Modes and Maps

Map and Mode Selection

• We’ve improved our mode selection logic to better allow us to increase or decrease a mode’s probability in a playlist
• We’ve added more modes to several maps they weren’t on previously for more variety in the playlist

 

Bug Fixes

Competitors

• Flux
  • Black Hole Cat (Secondary)
    • Fixed an issue that could cause the projectile absorption effect to remain active if two Black Hole Cats merged together
    • Explosion AoE now properly impulses the Rocketball
    • Charging SFX will now end if Flux’s Secondary Ability is cancelled

• Fluxverse (Special)
  • Fixed an exploit that allowed Flux to fire Rockats from Fluxverse without cancelling her Special Ability
• Leef
  • Flitt Snare (Secondary)
    • Fixed an issue that could cause competitors to drift after being affected by this ability
• Rev
  • Mag Mines (Secondary)
    • Fixed an issue causing Mag Mines to clip through some walls if thrown while very close to the surface

Items

• Speed Boost
  • Fixed an issue where the item’s field of view increase would stack when using multiple Speed Boost items.

Maps

• General
  • Fixed multiple areas where competitors could get stuck inside of geometry while using movement abilities

As always, we value your feedback and if you’d like to leave us some now, or in the future, hit us up on the Rocket Arena Discord, Reddit, Twitter, Twitch Streams, DMs, etc. - we read as much as we can!

Thanks for being part of our community and we’ll see you in Crater! #LETSROCKET

The team at FSG

Source: ea.com