Patch notes for the planned update

Patch notes 3.11.15:

Hello again, killer! Today’s update only contains a few gameplay tuning changes as the team is very happy with the new game balance. We have made some adjustments Shadow Lords To make it more rewarding, we’ve made a few other highly requested changes, including making Ranked Crossplay permanent! As a thank you to the community and to continue the celebration of the historic 10th anniversary of Killer Instinct (2013), we also have a colorful surprise gift for you. Read on to find out more!

Due to a reorganization of some game files, players on all platforms will see a download of approximately 6GB for this patch. The total size of the game file is approximately the same as the previous version.

Generally

• Ranked Crossplay is fully live! You can now enjoy ranked play between Steam and the Xbox/Windows ecosystems. Please note that both versions still have their own ranked leaderboards.
• We want Killer Instinct to remain a safe place for all players. To this end, we have implemented a new blocking system to limit interaction with other players you select. Blocking works differently depending on the mode.
  • Blocking a player in Exhibition means that you cannot find a player that you have blocked or that you have blocked.
  • In Ranked Mode, blocking only limits communication between players by muting voice chat.
  • In the lobby, you will not join a lobby hosted by someone you have blocked, nor will you add someone you have blocked to the lobby. However, you may find yourself in a lobby with someone you have blocked if they are not the host.
  • For more information on our Community Guidelines, keep an eye out for a new Code of Conduct that we will be releasing soon.
• We have unlocked access to previously exclusive content Ultimate Source™ figures Colors for all players on all platforms! We wanted to unlock these all at the same time, but due to an issue they only unlocked early on Steam, forcing us to fix this issue so we could roll it out properly.
• We’ve increased the character level cap from 50 to 65!
  • We’ve added 3 additional unlockable remix colors per character to celebrate KI’s anniversary. That makes 87 additional color options! You can unlock these at character levels 55, 60 and 65!
• We’ve increased the player level cap from 50 to 65!
  • We’ve added two level unlocks tied to your player level. At level 60 you unlock the training room. At level 65 you unlock the Debug Void.
    • These stages do not appear in the random stage selection.
    • Debug Void cannot be used in ranked mode due to accessibility reasons.
    • Debug Void is called Debug for a reason… Sometimes you can see things in it that you normally shouldn’t see. Have fun with it!
• The Steam Hot Mic issue is fixed! We’ve added a voice chat option in the audio settings that allows you to disable all voice chat, including your own microphone.
• We’ve added an option to adjust the amount of camera shake during combat. This option does not affect camera shake during cinematics, but does affect all other types of camera shake used during impacts in normal combat.
• Improved overall game stability.
• Fixed some very rare cases where players lost save data.

Shadow Lords

• We’ve made a number of adjustments to Shadow Lords to reduce friction and make it more rewarding.
  • Boss Gargos Resurrection has been adjusted to fill more slowly and reduce health regeneration on Normal and Challenging difficulties.
  • Boss Gargos’ modifiers have been adjusted to have less damage, less potential damage, slower health regeneration, and less Instinct and Shadow meter drain.
  • Shadowlord artifacts have been adjusted and given new names to highlight the tiers:
    • Shadow Lord Heart (Normal): Significant increase in health and defense to improve survivability.
    • Bloody Lungs of the Shadowlord (Sophisticated): Increased Shadow Meter drain on hit and during a Shadow Move, as well as Instinct Meter drain during a Shadow Move.
    • Shadowlord’s Fang Wings (Divine): Huge damage boost and minor increase in potential damage.
• Increased rewards for completing Shadow Lords.
• Points and rewards for Shadow Lords have been reworked to make speeding through them much more rewarding in later playthroughs. This should also make it easier to unlock Mimic skins.

Play style

• The failsafe we ​​tried last time to prevent characters from being mirrored incorrectly caused much bigger problems than simply leaving it as it was. Therefore, we have unfortunately reverted this change. Thanks to everyone who tested this and reported the new issues.

thunder

• Landing from a Sammamish that hit the opponent now allows you to move or take actions 5 frames earlier. This prevents an issue where Thunder could be negative on hit after using his Surprise Knee. If your Sammamish doesn’t land a hit, you’ll still take the full recovery time even if the Surprise Knee or Dropkick lands a hit.

Maya

• Fixed an issue that caused her Crouching Heavy Punch to apply less hitstun on a counterstrike than on a normal hit.

Hisako

• Hisako has been on our radar for a while now and is considered a potential candidate for the title of Strongest Player in the game. With many of her other challenging encounters becoming a little easier, we wanted to make a small adjustment to one of Hisako’s scariest moves in the hopes of keeping things nice and balanced for years to come.
• Reduced damage on influence special moves.
  • Light now deals 27 damage (was 40)
  • Medium now deals 33 damage (was 48).
  • Heavy now deals 39 damage (was 60).
  • Shadow now deals 50 damage (was 60).
• Added additional recovery time when performing an influence special move.
  • Light now recovers in 40 frames (was 34)
  • The medium now recovers in 44 frames (was 38).
  • Heavy now recovers in 48 frames (was 42)
  • Shadow now recovers in 52 frames (was 45)
• These two changes mean that the risk is greater when influence is missing and the reward is less when it is gained. Since he can start combos with full rage, which is often the case, we think the lower upfront reward for this move makes a lot of sense.

Gargos

• Fixed an issue that caused his Standing Heavy Kick to deal less damage on counter hits than on a normal hit