Bellator patch released

Community feedback has been at the forefront of 345 Games' development since the launch of Bellator: MMA Onslaught on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in July. Well, players have spoken and 345 Games has listened and answered with a new game patch for XBLA and PSN users that is now available. The patch incorporates the suggestions and comments 345 Games has received through their social media networks over the past month.

PATCH DETAILS

Gameplay
• Throws: we have found that players are not using throws versus other attacks, and that they are underpowered. So, we are increasing damage in order to make a wrestler a viable build. In addition, the stamina cost of some throws will be adjusted to create a more balanced set of options.
• Submissions: are currently overpowered resulting in the dominance of submission fighter builds. We are raising the stamina costs to perform submissions across the board.
• Clinch Strikes: damage from clinch strikes will be raised to be on par with other types of strikes.
• Bellator Moment: we are decreasing stamina cost for Bellator moments as we noticed that too often fighters don't have enough stamina left to finish their opponent. Stunning the opposing fighter will still be required to execute a Bellator moment.
• Parries: we discovered that parries are not effective when attacks happen from certain angles, so parries have been improved to work on attacks from all angles, this should make the whole system feel more responsive.
• Camera: there is a slow down on the camera when going from standing position to the ground after a take down, so the camera speed has been improved.

New Gameplay Improvements
• Stamina Changes: we have reduced Stamina cost across the board for strikes and have eliminated stamina costs to transitions in the clinch and the ground. Stamina will still need to be managed carefully, but this change should minimize any exploits in fighting strategy around stamina drain with submissions and flash KO's, while allowing players to maintain a fast pace in their matches for a longer period of time.
• Flash KO's: we are limiting Flash KO's to happen only with stronger strikes. Currently they are too easy to pull off and are happening too often. The changes we are doing to Stamina should also give players a better shot of attacking several times before they have to worry about being susceptible to a Flash KO.
• Block Breaks: the collision algorithm has been adjusted so it is easier to hit an opponent after a block break.
• Online Play: we found that although our matching algorithm works great to match 2 fighters with similar ranks, it is limiting the number of possible matches that can be found. We have tweaked the algorithm and now it will be much easier to find matches online. The way we are calculating rank points has also been improved to make things more competitive.

User Interface
• Main Menu: adding an initial welcome screen explaining each option in the main menu to clarify available options for first time players.
• Training Challenges: we heard from players that some challenges are not clear enough, so we will add descriptions. Additionally we are working on implementing a clean way to help the player to assign the proper moves for challenges that require specific moves assigned to complete them.
• Create a Fighter: we are updating the labels for standing strike attacks, to make it clearer that the player is assigning attacks for each corresponding hand and leg, not just combos. We are also going to be adding a pop up screen to give some guidance through the different options available after the initial character creation is complete.

Bug Fixes
• Throw stats that were not properly being counted will be now recorded properly
• Skills for the second CAF not being reset will be fixed
• Intro movies will now have appropriate audio
• We will correct issues with some tattoos being clipped
• Fixing issue where starting skills for Brazilian Jujitsu sometimes do not have the appropriate skills selected.
• Correcting a bug that makes basic submission moves as powerful as master level submission moves. This will be balanced with the stamina cost adjustment listed above.
• Correcting an issue that allowed an exploit for an infinite combo.