2016 has come close to an end, and we hope everyone has been enjoying the holiday season. With upcoming features such as the tutorial, a training mode, finishing up the story mode, and game mechanics tweaks, 2017 is going to be a big year for us as we target getting Spaera to full release.

This patch is going to be the first of a series of game mechanics changes to address some issues and concerns we have to the current pacing and overall feel of the game. Please be patient with us during the process, as the game will often be a bit broken in terms of character balance. The main feedback we are looking for right now is your thoughts on whether the new mechanics look and feel fun.


Chain Multipliers
Previously, while clearing and making fancy chains feel good, they have not been very rewarding. In particular, they don't do anything more than doing multiple small, separate clears, yet take more time and thinking to set up.

At the moment, a line is sent to the opponent for every 12 blocks you clear. Chain Multipliers increase the number of blocks counted by 0.5x for every additional chain.

For example, a 3-clear cascaded into a 8-clear, and then into an 11-clear would count as:

1 * 3 = 3
1.5 * 8 = 12
2 * 11 = 22

For a total of 37 blocks being counted, resulting in 3 lines for attacking. Compared to the previous patch, this would've been counted as 22 blocks and only added 1 line to the opponent.

Row Tweaks
One of the concerns we have is that matches are lasting too long when a player is at the top. Even though we like having comeback potential in matches, we'd like to make them less frequent. In order to do this, we are planning to tweak the patterns of lines added to opponents, and for this patch, we are making the patterns a bit more random as a start.

UI Polishing and Minor Changes
We've brushed up some of the UIs and changed the wording on the text of XX blocks cleared to XX hits to represent how much damage the player is actually doing after multipliers.

We are looking to further tune our UI to make it more clear as to how many more blocks are needed to send a line, and what the exact multiplier is for a certain clear.

• Fixed bug where the game crashes after playing a certain number of matches.
  
• Fixed bug where using a Rafael spell would sometimes make deck pieces disappear.
  
• Fixed clearing animation bugs involving Rafael's Skyward Cadenza.
  
• Fixed bug where acquiring an Orb via the Orb meter did not trigger an orb acquired sound effect.
  
• Fixed a bug where sending to a Private Match invite to a player on the Title Screen would put the inviter's game in a weird state that prevents the player from playing online.
  
• Misc. bug fixes.

• Non-English Steam Names are not showing up since international font isn't supported yet
  There is currently a temporary fix to strip the foreign characters away from the name, but we do intend to support the display of foreign characters.
  
  
• The Spaera Client still needs some performance tweaks.
  While we've made improvements on performance, performance improvement is always something we feel we can do better. If you are seeing performance issues and/or sluggishness, please let us know.
  
  
• Panic text sometimes goes behind the board if it shows up during a magic spell.
  
  
• There are still some unexpected graphical glitches here and there.
  We fixed even more of them this patch, but if you still see any glitches, please report them. We'd like to make sure we don't miss any of them!

As always, if new bugs are found, Please report them to the Steam Spaera Discussion Page!

Keep an eye out for your orbs! Rumor has it that a certain someone has begun to show up and snatch orbs from players!

Thanks to @MrSmileAlot for the Tsubaki art!

2016 has come close to an end, and we hope everyone has been enjoying the holiday season. With upcoming features such as the tutorial, a training mode, finishing up the story mode, and game mechanics tweaks, 2017 is going to be a big year for us as we target getting Spaera to full release.

This patch is going to be the first of a series of game mechanics changes to address some issues and concerns we have to the current pacing and overall feel of the game. Please be patient with us during the process, as the game will often be a bit broken in terms of character balance. The main feedback we are looking for right now is your thoughts on whether the new mechanics look and feel fun.


Chain Multipliers
Previously, while clearing and making fancy chains feel good, they have not been very rewarding. In particular, they don't do anything more than doing multiple small, separate clears, yet take more time and thinking to set up.

At the moment, a line is sent to the opponent for every 12 blocks you clear. Chain Multipliers increase the number of blocks counted by 0.5x for every additional chain.

For example, a 3-clear cascaded into a 8-clear, and then into an 11-clear would count as:

1 * 3 = 3
1.5 * 8 = 12
2 * 11 = 22

For a total of 37 blocks being counted, resulting in 3 lines for attacking. Compared to the previous patch, this would've been counted as 22 blocks and only added 1 line to the opponent.

Row Tweaks
One of the concerns we have is that matches are lasting too long when a player is at the top. Even though we like having comeback potential in matches, we'd like to make them less frequent. In order to do this, we are planning to tweak the patterns of lines added to opponents, and for this patch, we are making the patterns a bit more random as a start.

UI Polishing and Minor Changes
We've brushed up some of the UIs and changed the wording on the text of XX blocks cleared to XX hits to represent how much damage the player is actually doing after multipliers.

We are looking to further tune our UI to make it more clear as to how many more blocks are needed to send a line, and what the exact multiplier is for a certain clear.

• Fixed bug where the game crashes after playing a certain number of matches.
  
• Fixed bug where using a Rafael spell would sometimes make deck pieces disappear.
  
• Fixed clearing animation bugs involving Rafael's Skyward Cadenza.
  
• Fixed bug where acquiring an Orb via the Orb meter did not trigger an orb acquired sound effect.
  
• Fixed a bug where sending to a Private Match invite to a player on the Title Screen would put the inviter's game in a weird state that prevents the player from playing online.
  
• Misc. bug fixes.

• Non-English Steam Names are not showing up since international font isn't supported yet
  There is currently a temporary fix to strip the foreign characters away from the name, but we do intend to support the display of foreign characters.
  
  
• The Spaera Client still needs some performance tweaks.
  While we've made improvements on performance, performance improvement is always something we feel we can do better. If you are seeing performance issues and/or sluggishness, please let us know.
  
  
• Panic text sometimes goes behind the board if it shows up during a magic spell.
  
  
• There are still some unexpected graphical glitches here and there.
  We fixed even more of them this patch, but if you still see any glitches, please report them. We'd like to make sure we don't miss any of them!

As always, if new bugs are found, Please report them to the Steam Spaera Discussion Page!

Keep an eye out for your orbs! Rumor has it that a certain someone has begun to show up and snatch orbs from players!

Thanks to @MrSmileAlot for the Tsubaki art!

Greetings!

For this patch, our focus has been on bug fixes, tuning the clear animation, and laying down the foundation for a tutorial mode and possibly a training mode in the future. We are aiming to get a simple tutorial mode up in the next few weeks to help welcome new players to the game.

Single Player and Versus P1 controls have been merged. The original scheme has become cumbersome, and especially with the conflict checking between Single Player and Versus P1 controls.

The original intent was to try to address the scenario where a player has a keyboard setup that uses the whole keyboard, but would likely use only a portion of the keyboard if it were to be shared in Versus play. Having separate settings would allow the player to play the two different modes without adjusting controls.

However, the implementation shouldn't have checked for conflicts between controls as mentioned above, and the player shouldn't need to rebind joysticks like what niconico said. So we are going to merge Single Player and Versus P1 controls back into just a Player 1 mapping.

• Fixed bug where the music can momentarily stop in the middle of the game.
  
• Fixed bug where the music stops when two Rafaels both use Lingering Intermezzo.
  
• Fixed bug where the indicators for duration-based spells do not disappear if they were ended via an activation of another spell.
  
• Fixed animation bug where blocks drop incorrectly when a horizontal explosion clears bricks.
  
• Fixed a bug where the client fails to connect to the server if the username contains the '|' character.
  
• Partially fixed bug where move descriptions on the Character Select Scene fail to appear if you're playing on the right side in an Online Match.
  
• Fixed misc. server-related bugs.

• Non-English Steam Names are not showing up since international font isn't supported yet
  If an opponent leaves an Online Match due to being invited to a Private Match, you may get stuck. Please restart the client if this happens
  
  
• The Spaera Client still needs some performance tweaks and can get sluggish over time.
  If this becomes an issue, please restart the client to fix it for now.
  
  
• Panic text sometimes goes behind the board if it shows up during a magic spell.
  
  
• There are still some unexpected graphical glitches here and there.
  We fixed a few of them in this patch, but if you still see glitches old or new, please report them. We'd like to make sure we don't miss any of them!

As always, if new bugs are found, Please report them to the Steam Spaera Discussion Page!

Greetings!

For this patch, our focus has been on bug fixes, tuning the clear animation, and laying down the foundation for a tutorial mode and possibly a training mode in the future. We are aiming to get a simple tutorial mode up in the next few weeks to help welcome new players to the game.

Single Player and Versus P1 controls have been merged. The original scheme has become cumbersome, and especially with the conflict checking between Single Player and Versus P1 controls.

The original intent was to try to address the scenario where a player has a keyboard setup that uses the whole keyboard, but would likely use only a portion of the keyboard if it were to be shared in Versus play. Having separate settings would allow the player to play the two different modes without adjusting controls.

However, the implementation shouldn't have checked for conflicts between controls as mentioned above, and the player shouldn't need to rebind joysticks like what niconico said. So we are going to merge Single Player and Versus P1 controls back into just a Player 1 mapping.

• Fixed bug where the music can momentarily stop in the middle of the game.
  
• Fixed bug where the music stops when two Rafaels both use Lingering Intermezzo.
  
• Fixed bug where the indicators for duration-based spells do not disappear if they were ended via an activation of another spell.
  
• Fixed animation bug where blocks drop incorrectly when a horizontal explosion clears bricks.
  
• Fixed a bug where the client fails to connect to the server if the username contains the '|' character.
  
• Partially fixed bug where move descriptions on the Character Select Scene fail to appear if you're playing on the right side in an Online Match.
  
• Fixed misc. server-related bugs.

• Non-English Steam Names are not showing up since international font isn't supported yet
  If an opponent leaves an Online Match due to being invited to a Private Match, you may get stuck. Please restart the client if this happens
  
  
• The Spaera Client still needs some performance tweaks and can get sluggish over time.
  If this becomes an issue, please restart the client to fix it for now.
  
  
• Panic text sometimes goes behind the board if it shows up during a magic spell.
  
  
• There are still some unexpected graphical glitches here and there.
  We fixed a few of them in this patch, but if you still see glitches old or new, please report them. We'd like to make sure we don't miss any of them!

As always, if new bugs are found, Please report them to the Steam Spaera Discussion Page!

As part of the incoming patch update, we will be taking down the server for about an hour on Tuesday 11/8 at 11:00 PM PST.

The new patch will include various bug fixes, increased server stability, and animation tweaks. Full patch notes to come later!

As part of the incoming patch update, we will be taking down the server for about an hour on Tuesday 11/8 at 11:00 PM PST.

The new patch will include various bug fixes, increased server stability, and animation tweaks. Full patch notes to come later!

The large influx of users from Humble has helped us surface some bugs that require hotfixing. Keep them coming to Help@blazingorb.com!

• Improved Resolution Handling
  The current system isn't 100% ideal yet, as we learn to wrestle with our new Engine. For now, the system should be able to pick up supported resolutions and handle them appropriately. If you are noticing blurry graphics in full screen mode, try setting a higher resolution in the options before changing to full screen.
  
  
• Minor Network Tweaks
  We've found some network socket related bugs both on the client and server side that we've ironed out. More Network Stability... Yay!
  
  
• Added Graphics
  As early testers and early early access folks know, some of the game's assets are still placeholders. We continue to add the assets back in every patch.

• Previously saved options will be reverted to the default settings
  Apologies for the inconvenience, but this is a side-effect from the changing of the format for controls and options.
  
  
• Non-English Steam Names are not showing up since international font isn't supported yet
  If an opponent leaves an Online Match due to being invited to a Private Match, you may get stuck. Please restart the client if this happens
  
  
• The Spaera Client still needs some performance tweaks and can get sluggish over time.
  If this becomes an issue, please restart the client to fix it for now.
  
  
• There are still some unexpected graphical glitches here and there.

If new bugs are found, Please report them to the Steam Spaera Discussion Page!

The large influx of users from Humble has helped us surface some bugs that require hotfixing. Keep them coming to Help@blazingorb.com!

• Improved Resolution Handling
  The current system isn't 100% ideal yet, as we learn to wrestle with our new Engine. For now, the system should be able to pick up supported resolutions and handle them appropriately. If you are noticing blurry graphics in full screen mode, try setting a higher resolution in the options before changing to full screen.
  
  
• Minor Network Tweaks
  We've found some network socket related bugs both on the client and server side that we've ironed out. More Network Stability... Yay!
  
  
• Added Graphics
  As early testers and early early access folks know, some of the game's assets are still placeholders. We continue to add the assets back in every patch.

• Previously saved options will be reverted to the default settings
  Apologies for the inconvenience, but this is a side-effect from the changing of the format for controls and options.
  
  
• Non-English Steam Names are not showing up since international font isn't supported yet
  If an opponent leaves an Online Match due to being invited to a Private Match, you may get stuck. Please restart the client if this happens
  
  
• The Spaera Client still needs some performance tweaks and can get sluggish over time.
  If this becomes an issue, please restart the client to fix it for now.
  
  
• There are still some unexpected graphical glitches here and there.

If new bugs are found, Please report them to the Steam Spaera Discussion Page!

We are on our 4th patch cycle since the Early Access Release! Thank you all for being patient with us as we continue to improve Spaera!

• Setter's "Setter Cannon" is Now a Level 2 Spell and"Blast Hurricane" is Now a Level 3 Spell
  We wanted Setter Z to have more attacking options so we decided to try moving his offensives spells into the lower tier.
  
  
• Setter's "Setter Cannon" duration is reduced from 3 turns to 2
  As part of the change above, Setter Cannon's duration has been reduced to fit in terms of power as a Level 2 Spell.
  
  
• Setter Z's "Blast Knuckle" slow effect reduced from previous patch
  Last patch we changed the way Blast Knuckle worked by having it also reduce the base drop speed. It was a bit overpowered so we reduced the slow effect.
  
  
• Harland's "Gas To Solid" Spell buffed to fill the whole bottom row
  This is a change we've wanted to do for a while as a slight buff to Harland. It's not a game changer but the bonus attack blocks from the clear is welcomed.

• Character Specific Confirm Drop Particle Effects
  Those who were part of Spaera's Beta1 probably remembers this little subtle spell effect. Each character has their own special particle effects when using Confirm Drop!
  
  
• New UI Assets Updated
  As we get closer and closer to a final release, placeholder UI elements are getting properly populated and replaced!

• Resolution Change Bug Fixes
  
• Screen Transition Bug Fixes

• Previously saved options will be reverted to the default settings
  Apologies for the inconvenience, but this is a side-effect from the changing of the format for controls and options.
  
  
• Non-English Steam Names are not showing up since international font isn't supported yet
  If an opponent leaves an Online Match due to being invited to a Private Match, you may get stuck. Please restart the client if this happens
  
  
• The Spaera Client still needs some performance tweaks and can get sluggish over time.
  If this becomes an issue, please restart the client to fix it for now.
  
  
• There are still some unexpected graphical glitches here and there.

If new bugs are found, Please report them to the Steam Spaera Discussion Page!

We are on our 4th patch cycle since the Early Access Release! Thank you all for being patient with us as we continue to improve Spaera!

• Setter's "Setter Cannon" is Now a Level 2 Spell and"Blast Hurricane" is Now a Level 3 Spell
  We wanted Setter Z to have more attacking options so we decided to try moving his offensives spells into the lower tier.
  
  
• Setter's "Setter Cannon" duration is reduced from 3 turns to 2
  As part of the change above, Setter Cannon's duration has been reduced to fit in terms of power as a Level 2 Spell.
  
  
• Setter Z's "Blast Knuckle" slow effect reduced from previous patch
  Last patch we changed the way Blast Knuckle worked by having it also reduce the base drop speed. It was a bit overpowered so we reduced the slow effect.
  
  
• Harland's "Gas To Solid" Spell buffed to fill the whole bottom row
  This is a change we've wanted to do for a while as a slight buff to Harland. It's not a game changer but the bonus attack blocks from the clear is welcomed.

• Character Specific Confirm Drop Particle Effects
  Those who were part of Spaera's Beta1 probably remembers this little subtle spell effect. Each character has their own special particle effects when using Confirm Drop!
  
  
• New UI Assets Updated
  As we get closer and closer to a final release, placeholder UI elements are getting properly populated and replaced!

• Resolution Change Bug Fixes
  
• Screen Transition Bug Fixes

• Previously saved options will be reverted to the default settings
  Apologies for the inconvenience, but this is a side-effect from the changing of the format for controls and options.
  
  
• Non-English Steam Names are not showing up since international font isn't supported yet
  If an opponent leaves an Online Match due to being invited to a Private Match, you may get stuck. Please restart the client if this happens
  
  
• The Spaera Client still needs some performance tweaks and can get sluggish over time.
  If this becomes an issue, please restart the client to fix it for now.
  
  
• There are still some unexpected graphical glitches here and there.

If new bugs are found, Please report them to the Steam Spaera Discussion Page!