Howdy, everybody! It turns out, I'm still around and so is WaveCrash!!! That's right, it's the I'm Still Alive Update!

And we have a very special guest for this update! Dropping into Crash City all the way from Detroit, it's Wally, star of Aerial_Knight's Never Yield!

That's right, it's a dang crossover episode! If you haven't played Aerial_Knight's Never Yield, you can correct that here: https://www.aerialknight.com/

This dimension hopping free runner comes with a unique bag of tricks. First up is his trait, "Slow Mo". It causes everything in the game--waves, blocks, other characters--to slow down whenever he activates Hype Mode.

This can be used to avoid oncoming waves, set up your counter attack or just take a moment for yourself. You deserve it.

Wally's special attack is "Reflect". For the reasonable price of 6 purple blocks, he launches a super wave that is a mirror image of the last normal wave your opponent sent.

This is the epitome of a counter-attack! Set up 6 purples and then keep an eye on your opponent's moves to maximize its impact!

But this update doesn't only include a brand new crasher! It also contains some long overdue bug fixes and balance updates.

Additions

Since Wally comes with his own set of unlockable palettes, all of the other characters on the roster have an additional unlockable palette as well!

Character Updates

Phoebe -

• Phoebe's charge up ability is a lot of fun, but also allows her to play very safely without doing much movement. So I've made a few changes to address that.
  
• Added a time limit for how long Phoebe can hold her attack charge.
  
• Slowed down the block attraction effect of her charge

Ji-Yoon - Ji-Yoon's teleport was a little tricky to manage since it often happened on accident when players were at the edges of the playfield and her special attack was underwhelming to use so I've made some changes to fix that.

• Teleport no longer activates when direction is held at a boundary/barrier. Instead, you must release the direction and then press it again. No more accidental teleports!
  
• Ji-Yoon's special attack, Echo Burn, now has a minimum block length of 6. This means it will create a wave that covers the distance you've traveled in the past few seconds or the last 6 blocks you've touched, whichever is greater.

Hana - Hana's strength level was a little underwhelming after all her nerfs so her blocks now fall a bit faster when they start falling and accelerate quicker as she moves around.

Darlene - Darlene was always intended to be a "high power with a drawback" character but it turns out her drawback (needing to take time to charge up her attack to avoid throwing weak waves) made her not very fun to play. So now she no longer has that weakness! Her attacks now start at normal strength and can be charged up to super waves.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed bug causing waves to stop moving in doubles mode and rendering it unplayable.
  
• Fixed being able to input directions during Hawk Justice's attacks and breaking his animations in all sorts of ways.

...and by "friendship" I mean "feedback"!

Hey, everybody. It's been a bit since the last update but thanks to some detailed feedback from a dedicated group of players on our discord server, I'm here with a fresh patch straight out of the oven! If you want to join in on the discussion, you can hop in at https://discord.gg/flyovergames. And now! Patch notes gooooooo!

Character Changes

Phoebe - Phoebe has been an interesting character to balance. Since part of her core identity is lacking hype mode, it's always been difficult to find a suitable way to make her seem appealing and unique. I tried adding the ability to charge up her attacks to increase her wave speed, but it turned out to not be a big enough benefit and also wasn't particularly fun. So here's another twist on her trait, Nega-Hype Drive:

That's right! She can still charge up her attacks, but now rather than affecting the wave speed, it allows her to gravitate blocks to herself! Phoebe was always meant to be a crasher that's all about standing her ground with the use of her shield special attack, so now she has a way to really make that payoff.

Hawk Justice - I like what Hawk Justice does (jumping over waves, getting in the opponent's face, etc.) but he wasn't quite good enough at it, so I've made a few adjustments. First up! His trait, Close Quarters, now also confers invincibility for a brief duration when attacking on the line.

As long he's blinking, he's safe! The dropkick animation has also been speed up a little. The purpose of the trait was always to encourage very aggressive play, and now it should be a little safer to actually use.

Second! I've added some functionality to his special attack.

You can now hold the attack button to extend his air time! I wanted to make the ability more useful as a tricky counter tool and less obviously telegraphed.

Darlene - Added an indicator effect to show when she has reached enough charge for a regular attack. Tried out a meter that filled up over time at first, but it was too visually busy and the meter fills in less than a second at higher speed levels anyway so I went with a more emote like route.

Also slightly reduced the time for a medium strength charge to 45% from 50%. Enjoy!

Other Things

• Added an infinite round time option to the game options. Just keep on going past 300 seconds and you can't miss it!

Bug Fixes

• Fixed various problems with Hawk Justice's special attack persisting after round end and doing various other things it wasn't supposed to.