Hi everyone,

We promised you more details on how production is going when we announced the 1.16 patch. It took a little more time than expected, but here is some info on the upcoming content for Absolver. We hope you like it, and please let us know if you have any questions!

All the best,
Sloclap team



PvE
First of all, most of the team here is busy working on the new coop PvE content. PvE has been one of the most popular request since launch, and we certainly intend to deliver some cool content in which players will be able to fight new enemies with improved AI, explore new environments, and even discover some of the Guides’ best-hidden secrets. This new PvE game mode will be playable in solo and co-op, and has been designed to provide great replay value to players. We will be sharing all the details of this PvE expansion in July, so stay tuned!



Schools
As we stated when rolling the 1.16 update, the School System is scheduled for an in-depth rework. The designs are mostly finalized and we have started work to adapt the network architecture to the new design before we can move on to the most exciting part of the Schools update: the School Challenges! These will be launched at the same time as the PvE expansion; we’ll give more information on the new School features in a future post.

Combat
On the purely gameplay side, we have made great progress on the next Combat Style. Most of the animations of the style are now done, along with plenty of new attacks. We are currently testing the special abilities of the style and the balance of the attacks; careful iteration is needed to add another combat style without unbalancing all the game!

We have also implemented new Powers which are also being tested currently to make sure they bring interesting tactical opportunities to the game without being overpowered (note that the existing powers are being rebalanced too). You can expect the new style, attacks, and powers to be released later this year at the same time as the PvE expansion.

On a more technical side, we have done a lot of debugging and made improvements to the core combat; some issues on lag have been fixed, as well as input tracking and other improvements (see below).

Technical: online architecture, engine upgrade…
These past few months, we have also spent a lot of time improving our online architecture, from gameplay replication to matchmaking, in order to improve stability and performance and fix various remaining issues. The upcoming 1.18 patch will deliver some of these tentative changes on our online architecture and we’ll be monitoring the playerbase feedback in the coming weeks to make sure the fixes work as expected and to identify other remaining issues. You can expect the 1.18 patch in a couple of days.

Besides this, the programming team is constantly on the look-out for crashes to fix and possible performance improvements. For instance, we have invested time in updating Unreal Engine to the 4.18 version. Since we use a custom version of the engine, updating versions takes some time, as we need to make sure all our existing systems are compatible, especially the ones that required some core changes to the code. Switching to UE 4.18 will bring a number of improvements and optimizations, needed both for the PvE game mode and for the upcoming Xbox One version (see below).

All this is “behind the scenes” work, so although it’s not directly visible, we hope these efforts will make the overall Absolver experience as fluid and polished as possible.

Xbox One version
Finally, to all Xbox One players expecting the game, we are happy to report that the Xbox One version of the game is making good progress and entered the first rounds of QA testing last week, so we should be able to announce a release date soon™. :)

Hi everyone,

Patch 1.17 is up for PC and PS4! This is a small debug patch that will improve overall stability, and address some recent bugs.

We’re working on more bug fixes that will be in upcoming updates, please see below:

• Issues on start up on specific PC rigs: we are working to fix those crashes
  
• The 1.18 patch will also fix an issue where some equipments from the Ripa Warrior and Forest Dancer sets are not obtainable.

If you encounter any issue in-game, please reach out to us by email at support_pc@sloclap.com or support_ps4@sloclap.com

All the best,
Sloclap team

• You can now add gold weapon to your School rewards
  
• Fixed a bug where Weapons looted in Rift Disks were deleted in inventory
  
• Fixed a bug in the Remapping feature where players couldn’t rebind their special ability with a binding other than mouse.
  
• Fixed a bug in the Remapping feature where the “Invalid key” prompt was displayed when it shouldn’t be
  
• Fixed a bug where the player could sheath a sword without spending tension shard(s)
  
• Fixed a recurrent crash on PS4
  
• Fixed a desync issue generating lag
  
• Fixed an issue in the Birdhouse map where the players could escape from the 1v1 area
  
• Fixed an issue where the character’s origin (skin tone) could be changed without validation from the player
  
• Fixed forced stance in top right after locking an enemy with an attack
  
• Fixed an issue on Shaman Tunic Overtop where the cloth animation would not be played in specific conditions

Hi everyone,

The 1.16 Update is now available for Steam! Please find below the Patch Notes with all the details on the new content and a link to the complete list of balance and debug changes.



If you encounter any issue with the game, please mail us with all the details at support_pc@sloclap.com , support_ps4@sloclap.com or support_online@sloclap.com


Prestige System Update

The Prestige System Update will expand your possibilities after you hit level 60. You’ll be able to show your Absolver way with new tools:

• Change your Character’s appearance (sex, skin, hair type and hair color) by spending Crystals
  
• New haircuts are available
  
• Change your 1v1 introduction cinematic with new ones to buy in the Essence Shop
  
• Create equipment presets, with copy/paste feature, to tweak your Fabsolver
  
• Preview Equipment in the Essence Shop before buying
  
• Dye your masks (not available with all masks)
  
• Players can open up to 100 Rift Coins/Disks in a single button press
  
• Reset attributes now cost 1 crystal
  
• Other quality of life improvements are featured in this update, such as the ability to copy/paste decks in your deck selection menu, making it easier to refine and iterate on your favorite decks.

Schools Update

The 1.16 update features the first steps in the updates we want to make to the School system (there will be more school-related features in the next updates.

• Players can now leave a School directly, without having to join a new one
  
• Mentors can now update their School content by spending 1 Crystal
  
• Hayen now has a “Find School by ID” feature
  
• Players can learn attacks from their school decks by using them against enemies
  
• School’s leaderboard is accessible from the School menu

New Gear and 3v3 Maps

• Two new 3v3 maps are now available, as well as plenty of new gear, both in the shop and in Rift Coins/Disks.

Misc

• New remapping options have been added. We also fixed the bugs linked to the older remapping version.
  
• You can now skip Rift Disks/Coins opening animation
  
• 3v3 Resource FX have been updated: Polish and optimization of the effects
  
• The movements of the player now have sounds feedbacking more accurately their gear’s material

Find the full balance changes and debug info here.

Hi everyone,

The 1.16 Update is now available for Steam! Please find below the Patch Notes with all the details on the new content and a link to the complete list of balance and debug changes.



If you encounter any issue with the game, please mail us with all the details at support_pc@sloclap.com , support_ps4@sloclap.com or support_online@sloclap.com


Prestige System Update

The Prestige System Update will expand your possibilities after you hit level 60. You’ll be able to show your Absolver way with new tools:

• Change your Character’s appearance (sex, skin, hair type and hair color) by spending Crystals
  
• New haircuts are available
  
• Change your 1v1 introduction cinematic with new ones to buy in the Essence Shop
  
• Create equipment presets, with copy/paste feature, to tweak your Fabsolver
  
• Preview Equipment in the Essence Shop before buying
  
• Dye your masks (not available with all masks)
  
• Players can open up to 100 Rift Coins/Disks in a single button press
  
• Reset attributes now cost 1 crystal
  
• Other quality of life improvements are featured in this update, such as the ability to copy/paste decks in your deck selection menu, making it easier to refine and iterate on your favorite decks.

Schools Update

The 1.16 update features the first steps in the updates we want to make to the School system (there will be more school-related features in the next updates.

• Players can now leave a School directly, without having to join a new one
  
• Mentors can now update their School content by spending 1 Crystal
  
• Hayen now has a “Find School by ID” feature
  
• Players can learn attacks from their school decks by using them against enemies
  
• School’s leaderboard is accessible from the School menu

New Gear and 3v3 Maps

• Two new 3v3 maps are now available, as well as plenty of new gear, both in the shop and in Rift Coins/Disks.

Misc

• New remapping options have been added. We also fixed the bugs linked to the older remapping version.
  
• You can now skip Rift Disks/Coins opening animation
  
• 3v3 Resource FX have been updated: Polish and optimization of the effects
  
• The movements of the player now have sounds feedbacking more accurately their gear’s material

Find the full balance changes and debug info here.

Hi everyone,

Thanks a lot for participating in the Gameplay Beta weekend on Steam! We’ve been caught up reading all the quality feedback we got on all the Absolver boards, and we apologize for not getting back to the community earlier!

We’re running a new test session this weekend, again focused on Gameplay iterations to prepare for the 1.16 patch. Please bear in mind that the 1.16 patch will have new content, we’re just not revealing it yet :).

You’ll find below all the information needed to enter the Beta: dates, hours, how to get in and saves recommendations! The Full Patch Note is at the bottom of this post.


How to get in and general information

We are going to run an open beta for all Absolver Steam players, it will be accessible via the “Beta” tab, in the “Properties” of Absolver in Steam. No code is required to access the Beta. You can already enter the branch on Steam, but please note that the new build will only be available in a few hours.

The objective of this beta is to test some changes to the combat gameplay, gather feedback and data, and finally validate or not these changes for the next official patch.


The beta servers will be opened at the following times:

Saturday March 3rd, Sunday March 4th:

• Europe: 5pm > 9pm UTC
  
• US: 6pm > 10pm EST
  
• Singapore: 6pm > 10pm UTC+8
  
• Sydney: 6pm > 10pm UTC+11

About your saves

You can copy and paste your main save folder content in the newly created “Beta” folder, once you have launched the Beta game at least once (so the branch folder and its corresponding save folders are created).

Please note that we do not recommend using your Beta save in the actual game, during Beta or once it is over: compatibility issues can occur.

In any case, we recommend backing up your save folder if you want to use it in the gameplay Beta.

You’ll find below a link to all details regarding this weekend’s testing session! All comparisons are made with the Patch 1.14 values.

Full announcement and detailed Patch Notes.