Project Soul Livestream (Dec.26th) Summary - The devs talk about the upcoming patch and the CaS DLC.
Yesterday, Project Soul held a live stream with Dengeki Online talking about, amongst other things, the changes made in the last patch (1.1.0) and upcoming changes in the patch due to drop mid-January (1.1.1).
VOD is here (patch/balance part starts 48 minutes in):
[https://youtu.be/l4uCY8DqHZ0](https://youtu.be/l4uCY8DqHZ0)
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It's all in Japanese so I've written up a summary of key/interesting things mentioned.
Disclaimer: My Japanese is decent but not perfect, the audio isn't always crystal clear, and the devs are just super vague a lot of the time and assume a ton of contextual knowledge (which I don't have for every character), so there's some risk of error/misinterpretation in these summaries.
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First off, 2B was the reason for the balance patches getting split into two releases. Working on her had development priority, so to meet deadlines whilst still pushing out some improvements, they semi-delayed the patch.
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**Ranked Matchmaking:**
\- They've heard the complaints about the matchmaking (e.g. all the 400RP vs. 20,000RP matchups) and are working on adjustments.
\- Selecting 'All' in ranked match search settings doesn't actually mean 'All', it means 'other players who have also selected "All" '. So if you are in the US and set your region to 'All', you will never match with a US player whose region is set to 'NA only'. They will clarify this point in 1.1.1 (e.g. change the text, add an explanation, etc.) as well as make adjustments.
\- In summary, they want players to match similar-level players in less time.
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**General changes/fixes:**
\- On certain stages, it's apparently very easy for certain combos to ring opponents out (no specifics given, but someone in the chat said 'the Queen of the Desert'). They will adjust this and are reviewing ringouts in general.
\- They are looking at fixing the various hitbox issues and specifically mentioned Astaroth and Cervantes up front.
\- They said something harmonising the way attacks work online/offline to avoid large disparities in a player's on/offline capabilities (Sieg/NM's flapjack appears to be an example of this).
\- Changes made to characters are both for the purpose of balance but also to emphasise the design philosophies behind each character, guiding players towards the originally intended playstyles (e.g. Azwel isn't supposed to be 'Axewel' at all).
\- Overall intent of the changes is also to make all characters look strong, viable and fun to play.
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**CaS DLC**
\- The two packs will have over 100 pieces in total.
\- The first set will be a mix of new parts, parts from previous games and parts from past characters.
\- The release of the first pack will be the a primary focus after the 1.1.1 patch drops. No firm release date given, but should be 'soon' after the Jan. patch.
\- The first CaS pack will also include additional BGM tracks from the older games.
\- They will also release some extra CaS parts for free. They haven't figured out the details for this yet, but it is on the cards.
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**Character specific stuff:**
(Here, they went through each character one-by-one, explaining a little about the design philosophies, reasons for the 1.1.0 buffs/nerfs and hinting at upcoming 1.1.1 changes)
Azwel
\- Is meant to be a strong, but technical character with a reliance on mode switching for effective play.
\- Past and upcoming balance changes are intended to encourage more use of all modes (unspoken implication being 'don't just use axe') and more thoughtful play (Okubo literally said he wants players to use thier heads more).
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Groh
\- Intended to be the 'standard', introductory character.
\- (If I understood correctly) They are happy with his SC state, but will buff some of his regular moves.
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Tira
\- Will actually get a balance update in the next patch. Both jolly and gloomy should become 'easier to fight with'.
\- They want players to also enjoy using jolly, not just wanting to maintain gloomy for as long as possible. Frequent switching is the goal.
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2B
\- Will be balanced in the upcoming patch, especially around her ring-out ability and 'hit-on' (not sure what that means).
\- They're aware other changes may be necessary, but are working (were working) to a tight deadline, so there's a limit to what will be changed in this patch.
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Siegfried
\- Flapjack was nerfed for being too strong as a reverse ringout, especially considering it's a low throw that holds FC throughout (other low throws are not like that). This is the kind of thing they meant when talking about harmonising the online/offline experience. Seems this move was too strong in online play and granted 'lucky' rather than 'strategic' victories.
\- They pointed out he has another reverse ringout (that standing attack throw) and also that flapjack will still wallhit.
\- No mention of 1.1.1 changes.