Dev Blog: Kickoff Season - Patch notes

Champions, it has been a long wait and we are more than ecstatic to be back. We have been working hard and looking into all your feedback from the previous test phases to bring you this new Kickoff Season.

With your help, we have managed to bring many new changes and improvements to our existing features. In this first patch notes, we will highlight the most important changes that the Kickoff Season will bring.

UI/menus

Once you get back in the rink, you will probably first notice that we have had a wardrobe change! A new user interface (UI) and new menus have been introduced. This new UI and reskinned menus bring us closer to the art direction we had in mind for Roller Champions.

Beta – End Screen

Kickoff Season – End Screen

A few other UI elements changed such as items’ rarity presentation. Functional changes for the UI introduce a new component to the start menu: players will now have access to the full Roller Champions moves list including videos to help visually differentiate all the moves and combos you can perform in the game. You will also find the rules list in there for reference.

Kickoff Season – Moves & Rules Menu Setting

Game Design

In addition to the visual elements added to the UI, there are a few Game Design changes!

First, it was highlighted through community feedback from the Beta that Roller Champions needed a more dynamic onboarding experience. In creating a newer onboarding flow, the goal was to assist new players so they can have a more comfortable and enjoyable experience with the game at the start of their journey.

To support this need, we have improved our tutorial so that new players familiarize themselves with the game’s controls and rules. We’ve also added in a few ‘’Welcome Rewards’’. Completing the tutorial will now unlock customization slots as well as the New Challenger in-game title and the Amped Up goal effect.

To anyone new to Roller Champions, sponsor contracts are weekly quests set by sponsors that will help you progress on your journey to compete in bigger arenas and gain more fans (XP). We’ve not only added new quests, but you can now progress simultaneously on 3 contracts from sponsors at a time.

Game Play

Movement mechanics have received a few changes and some fixes to allow a smoother playing experience.

Tackle moves have been refactored to allow an alternative outcome; clashing now causes both players to fall.

The Uppercut move is no longer tied to the Tackle move and can be perform at the press of a button.

Passing the ball is a very important, often forgotten, function. To encourage more players to pass the ball, we redesigned the function including some upgrades.

Passing the ball will now have a magnetic nature making it a little more accurate. When you have a clear line of sight and you're at the right distance from your teammate, the Magnetic effect will make passes more likely to be successful. The new icon for passing the ball is also more visible to teammates when the ball is called. During previous live phases when calling the ball, a Y button icon would appear above the player, in the Kickoff Season players should expect to see the following icon:

Bounce ball was not seen as a generally useful move both for new and experienced players, so it was decided to be removed from the game. Meanwhile the Roll Ball move got an update addressing some of the difficulties highlighted by the community.

Previously, Champions were able to perform this move by aiming down and shooting the ball on the ground causing it to roll on the floor. Through the feedback, it was highlighted that this combo has caused experienced players to be unable to use the standard Charge Throw action when they were high on walls and looking downward – for example to score a goal – as the Roll Ball action would then override the Charge Throw they intended to use. Players have also reported having difficulties performing the action effectively in general as it was not very intuitive to find the right angle needed to initiate the action.

Roll Ball has been redesigned to have a dedicated input during the Charge Throw action. This will now allow experienced players to not be impacted by the action override, as well as making the action more innate to be used in general.

Reverting to a style similar to the one seen in the Alpha, the Dodge animation has received a visual update. Champions will now waltz around their opponent and can alternate direction to roll left or right depending on the direction the player is on.

The Skatepark has received a new Goal Showcase . The goal will be located in the middle of the Skatepark where you can show off your currently equipped goal effects for all to see!

Since it has received a few edits and new features, the Spectator mode also deserves a spot in the Kickoff Season Patch Notes. Some of those changes include: an updated control layout, new actions for zooming, as well as allowing mouse and keyboard controls support. Viewpoints now also now jump to the ball carrier automatically.

The ranked system will function similarly to the structure shared in the Beta. However, following the community feedback, some of the ranks’ icons and names have been reimagined. Here is the new ranking system for the Kickoff Season:

Roller Pass

The Roller Pass is a reward system divided into two tracks: the premium and the free track. It features rewards for both premium Roller Pass purchasers and non-purchasers. Progression in the Roller Pass is dictated by players’ fan progression. You can earn fans by completing matches, claiming your daily bonuses, and completing sponsor quests which will all contribute to your Roller Pass progression. Play, progress, and unlock rewards, it’s that easy!

Rewards in the pass are as diversified as there are multiple customization categories in Roller Champions. You’ll be able to get helmets, haircuts, body gear, gloves, skates, titles, emotes and air poses. Better yet, we even put a cool Goal Effect and a legendary Superstar in there for the Kickoff Season.

Customization items in the Roller Pass are all exclusive to the season and will never come back, so make sure you unlock them before the season ends!

Kickoff Season is a shorter season, as you guessed it, we kick things off this season with a total of 30 days. Hence, this first Roller Pass is available at the lower price of 500 Wheels (approximately 5$ USD), featuring 30 tiers (instead of 100 tiers for regular seasons) which amount to a total of 41 potential rewards.

Last but not least, we put some in-game currency in the Roller Pass! For Premium pass purchasers, there’s going to be enough in there to give you back as many wheels as you spent to purchase it, if you play enough! Tune in on social media during launch days to see some of these rewards in action!

Online & Matchmaking

Roller Champions offer crossplay across PC and consoles. Players will have the option to disable crossplay in settings if that's their preference.

Matchmaking has been improved for both Ranked and unranked matches. In the Ranked play, a higher skill rating will still pit you against more challenging opponents. Wait time in Quick play has also been reduced. We're still actively working on having crossplay for custom matches and for team creation, so stay tuned for when we introduce it in a future season!

Dropouts and Disconnections

The game's stability has been improved to minimize disconnections. Now, if a player is disconnected from a match, the game automatically tries to reconnect the player. There has to be enough time left in the match for the code to do its magic, but this will reduce the number of times we see a disconnection result in a quit penalty.

Player Reporting

Our banning system now works from a combination of system-detected and player activity.

• Frequent disconnections will have consequences both in Ranked and Unranked matches.

• The game now also detects AFK players

• Players will now be able to report offensive behaviors such as bad sportsmanship, abusive communications, or suspicions that another player is cheating or smurfing.

We need to work together to create the atmosphere we all want to experience, to stamp out toxicity, and foster a respectful and tolerant community.

Bug Fixes and Other Updates

We’ve also managed to fix many bugs from the Beta. Team-move spam and uppercut spam issues were addressed as a part of various bug fixes and exploits. To fix team-moves spam, the interaction between the team will not always be successful. Uppercut spams on the walls have now received the ability to diminish over time.

A new language setting have now been added to allow players to change the language in the settings menu for both audio and subtitles. Camera settings have also been introduced to include functions such as zooming and camera-shake option. Inverse options for movement has been added to work for both Y and X inversions.

A few minor visual updates were also added. A new color outline feature has been introduced to help players differentiate teammates and opponents more easily. Other updates include changes to some smaller visual elements, animation fixes and movement fixes.

A few groups may experience an issue where the party leader cannot select a game mode. If this happens, the party leader can change any customization item they own or change the party leader to work around the issue and choose a game mode.

Roller Champions has received many updates and changes and we are looking forward to further improving and introducing new features. We hope to keep implementing changes based on community feedback season by season.

That’s all for this first Patch Notes, we invite you to join in the conversation on our Discord. By joining, you will have visibility on all future updates, tournaments, and changes as soon as they happen and will be able to connect with the wider Roller Community.

We hope you’ll enjoy this Kickoff Season and we can’t wait to see you in the rink!

Make sure to keep a close eye on Twitter for more updates!

The Roller Champions Dev Team