Kept you waiting, huh?
This is our biggest patch yet and we’re very excited to finally share it with you! This patch is also releasing just before the KFT community’s upcoming tournament so be sure to check it out! This patch includes the introduction of Spectate mode, several performance improvements, numerous AI improvements, many many balance changes, 8 new abilities, a new status effect, aaand…
New Kinfolk
Salamurder
Salamurder is a Water Type ambush specialist. This bulky unassuming Kinfolk lumbers around the battlefield, absorbing damage with its large health pool and high Special Defense stat, patiently waiting for the right moment to strike.
The moment an opponent strays just a little too close, lets their guard slip just long enough, or fails to see the seemingly bashful amphibian as a threat is when Salamurder excels.
With powerful crowd control abilities like Hook, Riptide, and Howl, Salamurder can turn the tide of battle in an instant, inflicting Fear and ravaging its opponents with brutally powerful attack sequences.
Stats
Health - 400
Attack - 84
Special Attack - 71
Defense - 98
Special Defense - 122
New Abilities
Riptide
Water Type - Self Spawn. Base Power 40 per-tick, Special.
The user roots themselves in place, creating a whirling vortex of water around their body. This powerful vortex damages and pulls in all entities within its radius.
Usable by Salamurder.
Hook
Mecha Type - Skill Shot. Base Power 30, Physical.
The user throws out a long iron hook on a chain. Entities hit by this attack are stunned and pulled directly to the user.
Usable by Salamurder.
Howl
Dark Type - Self Spawn. Base Power 40, Special.
The user unleashes a bloodcurdling howl, emitting a wave of dark energy in a sphere around the user. Enemies struck by this attack are damaged and gain the Fear status effect.
Kinfolk affected by Fear are forced to run directly away from the source that inflicted them, and are unable to use abilities.
Usable by Salamurder.
Fear Feed (Passive)
The user feeds on the fear of those around it, doubling its movement speed and damage dealt by abilities while a Feared Kinfolk is nearby.
Used by Salamurder.
Crescent Strike
Dark Type - Melee. Base Power 40, Physical.
The user strikes with 3 large crescent-shaped slashes, dealing damage and slightly knocking back Kinfolk who are struck by it.
Usable by Salamurder, Skulken, and Slyphur.
Slash
Null Type - Melee. Base Power 20, Physical.
The user unleashes a barrage of up to 5 melee attacks, damaging and slightly knocking back Kinfolk who are struck by it.
Usable by Skulken.
Dark Pulse
Dark Type - Self Spawn. Base Power 65, Special.
The user emits a pulse of dark energy in an area around them. All entities hit by this attack have their special defense lowered by 1 stage.
Usable by Skulken.
Rock Wall
Earth Type - Summon. 15 charges. Base Power 10, Physical.
The user summons an impassible pillar of rock from the earth at a target location. Each pillar lasts 15 seconds and has 80 health. Clicking and dragging with this ability allows the user to spawn multiple pillars at once. Kinfolk standing above a pillar as it is summoned will be launched into the air.
Charges refresh every 20 seconds.
Usable by Shovlet.
GAMEPLAY CHANGES
Spectator mode
To access spectator mode, simply click from the main menu on the 'spectate option' and pick the match you would like to watch.
While spectating, you can move around with a free camera. WASD: Forward, Backward, Left, Right; Q and E: Up and Down. Alternatively, you can press numbers 1 through 5 to access specific 'spectate spots' in each arena.
While spectating you'll also see the status of both teams on either side of your screen.
General Improvements
Any ability can now be equipped in any ability slot. You are no longer restricted to a basic attack in the first ability slot.
It is now possible to dodge while aiming an attack.
Better handling of the Stunned status effect while trying to start an attack (should reduce the number of “ghost” attacks).
Improved how cooldowns interact with being stunned. This should further solve edge cases.
Adjusted camera movement to be smoother.
Updated VFX for the Slowed status effect.
Performance Improvements
Reduced garbage accumulation throughout the project. We expect this should come with decent performance improvements, especially during longer play sessions.
Improved netcode to make logs much more readable. This will help us track down bugs much more easily, and should come with small performance benefits while playing.
Other Improvements
Added an aim rig, lean rig, spine rig, and tail rig as applicable to various characters. This helps counter problems like Lumala “ice skating,” and several Kinfolk should now be able to turn their torso while continuing to walk with their feet. Still a work in progress -- and some characters look a little bit too noodly.
Added the possibility for abilities to damage the user. Currently applies to wither only.
Helped some attacks hit the ground less and hit Kinfolk more.
Upgraded Unity to the newest stable LTS version. This lets us leverage several new and upgraded packages, which have greatly improved the look of the single player and should help lighting performance in the CAA.
Made necessary changes to let the game support having fewer than five abilities. We experimented with this a little bit during the April Fools toybox mode, and there may be more cases in the future where we have fewer than five.
Added the functionality for fall damage, though it is currently disabled. We may choose to enable this in the future.
Balance Changes
General
Poison and Burn now have a set duration of 30 seconds.
Kinfolk can no longer dodge more than once in midair. It's possible multiple air dodges could return as an active or passive ability used by certain Kinfolk.
Increased all Kinfolk dodge stamina cost to 45.
Shield health decay rate while shielding decreased from 0.75 to 0.4 (results in Shield now lasting roughly twice as long).
All Ranged Basic Attacks: Reduced max range from 100 to 50.
All Ranged Basic Attacks: Reduced velocity from 4 to 3.
All Burst Attacks: Reduced Damage from 30 to 20.
All Volley Attacks: Reduced Damage from 20 to 10.
Armor Up: Charging time reduced from 2.25 seconds to 2.2 seconds.
Meditate: Charging time reduced from 2.25 seconds to 2.2 seconds.
Ruminate: Charging time reduced from 2.25 seconds to 2.2 seconds.
Fortify: Charging time reduced from 2.25 seconds to 2.2 seconds.
Sharpen: Charging time reduced from 2.25 seconds to 2.2 seconds.
Growth: Charging time reduced from 2.25 seconds to 2.2 seconds.
Startle: Cooldown increased from 3 seconds to 8 seconds.
Roar: Cooldown increased from 3 seconds to 8 seconds. Extended range to match Startle (area of effect size increased by roughly 300%).
Rush: Disabled the user’s camera rotation while the ability is active.
Embear
Fireball: Now deals splash damage in a sphere around the point of impact. Special Attack Damage reduced from 80 to 50. Shield Damage increased from 30 to 60. Cooldown increased from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.
Scorch: Special Attack Damage reduced from 10 to 6. Cooldown increased from 16 seconds to 18 seconds. Increased minimum launch distance from 0 to 5.
Fire Spin: Cooldown increased from 3 seconds to 8 seconds
Explosion: Cooldown increased from 10 seconds to 15 seconds. Increased minimum launch distance from 0 to 10.
Shovlet
Earth Swipes: Staggers the enemy for 25% longer. Hit pause for the user has been removed.
Dig: You are no longer able to swap Kinfolk while using Dig.
Slyphur
Swipes: Staggers the enemy for 25% longer. Hit pause for the user has been removed.
Fling: Hitbox size increased by 50%.
Bounce: Physical Damage increased from 20 to 30.
Counter: Additional initial vulnerability time removed. Kinfolk using Counter will still be vulnerable during the attack’s start up animation, but once Counter is active the user will be invulnerable.
Skulken
Dark Volley: Adjusted hitbox to be more accurate to VFX (hitbox size increased by roughly 75%).
Wither: Hitbox size increased by 50%. Special Attack damage reduced from 30 to 25. Is now capable of damaging the user.
Lumala
Angelic Ray: Cool down increased from 12 seconds to 23 seconds.
Kodoki
Twister: Physical Damage increased from 40 to 60.
Stunner Flies: Minion health reduced from 105 to 80.
Spore Dance: Sleep duration reduced from 10 seconds to 5 seconds. Start up time increased from 3 frames to 6 frames.
Germinate (Passive): Time between healing ticks increased from every 0.25 seconds to every 0.5 seconds.
ai improvements
Improved NPCs’ aiming. They should be generally better at hitting you and predicting where you are going to be.
Helped Lumalas everywhere aim Righteous Light better.
NPC obstacle avoidance has been improved in the Practice Arena.
Improved how NPCs look and signal their state as they become suspicious and aggressive toward you. The question mark in particular should get stuck less.
Helped NPC projectiles keep going if they would have hit you but then you moved backwards.
Made NPC targeting toward characters faster, which should slightly increase performance in the Practice Arena.
NPCs in the Practice Arena should now move away from dangerous attacks like Scorch and Caustic Cloud.
NPCs in the Practice Arena should become aggressive more easily when shooting them from far away.
BUG FIXES
Fixed many bugs related to new abilities and Kinfolk.
Fixed some camera shake issues that could come up with having multiple different shake sources at once. This should stop your camera from becoming "tilted."
Made NPCs respect the max firing distance for abilities. This means the Embear in the Practice Arena is no longer able to fire Scorches across the entire arena.
Known Issues
Several abilities have outdated in-game descriptions.
Currently, there is no visualization to display how much a Kinfolk’s stats have been raised or lowered during combat. We plan to add visualizations to address this in a future patch.
When your party is revived after they all die in the Practice Room, the Kinfolk in your first slot is not revived.
Some of the visual effects for Crush are not properly displayed in the Practice Room.
The damage descriptions for several abilities that do not have Tick Damage, show a total Tick Damage amount.
Occasionally, players with low ping do not return to the current starting position between rounds.
Large AoE attacks currently only damage one minion at a time.
On rare occasions, one team member begins the second round with abilities locked.
Occasionally, attempting to cancel searching for a game results in the matchmaker locking up.
Often times teams can not be edited while searching for a game.
