Version 2.1.0

**Version 2.1.0** was a major update to Mega Man Arena that added Splash Woman, Replays and Sound Options, but focused primarily on balance changes to existing characters. The update was released on April 16th, 2021 to the official Discord server, and was then released to the public on April 23rd, 2021.

## Changelog

### **Enhancements**

* Splash Woman splashes onto the scene!  Enjoy playing as the first Mega Man 9 character to land in Mega Man Arena, not to mention the only official female robot master!
* Introducing Slide Buffering!  You can now hold down the slide button or down+jump (depending on your setting) to slide at the earlier possible moment.  This will especially be useful for landing into a slide, as a player can buffer in midair and land into a frame-perfect slide.
* Replays have been added! Rewatch your most epic matches anytime.  Replays will automatically record if the match is under 10 minutes, and they can be disabled in the main menu.  Note that replays will only work on the version of the game in which they were recorded, and replays do not work in Score Mode or Boss Rush
* Game music has been converted to NSF!  This drastically shrinks the game size, improves music looping, and allows for custom music swaps.
* Volume control has been added to the main menu options - adjust game volume and relative BGM/SFX levels.
* Random BGM option has been added - with this option selected, the game will randomly choose between stage and battle music.
* 3 seconds have been shaved off the end of a match - the victory music starts sooner, and players freeze/warp out faster. Get to that next match all the quicker! (But remember that salty runbacks still work by holding S1 + S2)
* Character/stage select music updated to include MM9 in the random choice, thanks to Splash Woman’s arrival!
* Match-end victory jingles have been added for stages other than MM2 and MM3

### **Online Changes**

* A handicap option has been added.  Reduce your stocks or health to give your opponent a chance, or use the stock option to facilitate a crew battle!
* Handicaps can be enabled by the online host.  Handicaps are disabled by default.
* If an online player readies up with a handicap, their box will turn blue instead of green
* Players who forfeit can no longer steal a teammate’s stock
* Mashing the button to join an online server should no longer crash the game
* Random server list crashes should no longer occur (this was mostly noticeable with many servers at once, e.g. during a tournament… oops)
* Several desync issues have been resolve

### **Boss Mode Changes**

* Characters now use the same mask as Mega Man for damage collisions.  This is to be fair to larger characters when fighting against bosses that were designed for Mega Man, plus it reflects how it worked prior to MMA 2.0.  Note that physics collisions are still larger for certain characters.
* Players can now pause the match after a boss is defeated up until the character is frozen, allowing for fast restarts when you didn’t quite get that fast time
* The camera has been smoothed out when scrolling
* WM3 canon can no longer be hurt when offscreen, which prevents softlocking the game

### **Mods/Changes**

* After images are now a standard feature of any character who moves faster than 3x speed.  This mostly affects speed gear mode, but it also prevents after images from appearing when a character isn’t moving. (Yes, this means that Spark Man, Hard Man, and Hot Man do not get after images even in speed gear mode)
* Tips have been tweaked to read easier by adding a pixel to the spacing between lines
* Tips deemed as important are more likely to appear
* Analog deadzone has been decreased slightly in an attempt to better detect diagonals on certain controllers
* Change Controls has been bumped up in the main menu options
* Practice Mode now has access to game options while in character select
* Pausing during practice mode now instantly restores HP/EP for all players
* New alt palettes (+team palettes) added for many characters
* Characters can now slide (and shield bash) while standing on a Jet that is owned by a different player
* Summons have been pushed out a bit more from their summoner
* Mega Man no longer uses custom audio clips (Cut, Cool, Magnet) when stealing that power from another Mega Man
* Mega Man’s stolen Hard Knuckle is now intangible until the attack fully forms (can’t be deflected, can’t deal damage)
* Quick Man slow-walk animation is now only used when he’s in slow mode.  His fast animation is used in normal 2x speed, but without the after images.  Fast animation + after images will be used for 3x speed
* Top Man now performs a short grounded top spin if using the attack lowers his EP to 0
* Charge Stage 2 has been lowered by one tile to improve balance
* Doc Robot’s NS transform order has been optimized to allow for quickly snapping back to Doc Drain.  The transform order is now Doc -> Metal -> Quick.
* Doc Robot can once again use forward as a directional input for changing NS.  This is for players who have slide mapped to a face button, but also for grabbing a specific NS power.  Up = Quick, Forward = Metal, Down = Doc. Directional inputs are disabled if a button is pressed to transform.
* New Katyusha mugshot has been added, courtesy of Katyusha’s creator - NE0MARU!
* Victory screen music is now based on the character, rather than always being MM2
* Several weapons now reflect their owner’s color scheme
* Several alt colors have been updated
* The slide setting has been moved into the controls options menu
* Balanced/Tournament stage lists have been updated based on the latest tournament rules

### **Bugs Fixed**

* Behavior around getting items while in timestopper has been improved. Health increases properly and sound effect now properly plays.
* If a player dies while regaining health or ammo, it will no longer continue refilling after their demise (not that it helped them)
* Sliding into a spike now kills the player, rather than stopping the slide
* SuBee can no longer hit high-jumping players before it spawns (above screen)
* Rush/Proto Jet no longer returns EP to its owner when crashing into a wall
* Mega Man’s Spark Shock now plays the correct sound effect
* Cut wall jump now works out of a wavedash jump
* Metal Man no longer gets stuck when mashing S2 for homing shots
* Metal Homing Blade is no longer conditionally disabled by 8-way Shot
* Flash Man no longer gets softlocked if Mega Man freezes time on the same frame he does
* Leaf shield should no longer be vulnerable from above (most noticeable with Flash gatling)
* Top Man can no longer pick up tops while respawning
* Shadow wall cling now works out of a wavedash jump
* Pharaoh homing shot no longer releases when he is timestopped
* Tark no longer sometimes stays green if he gets hit between charge attacks
* Katyusha can no longer spawn Gallop while jumping in motorcycle mode (she’s supposed to be unable to summon while transformed)
* Gallop no longer falls through Light’s Lab (Proto Stage 1).  Gallop spawn behavior has generally been stabilized.

### **Balance Changes**

* Super Armor is now granted +20 frames of invulnerability to make up for the lack of hitstun. This especially affects Hard Man, Spark Man, Tomahawk Man, Hot Man, etc who were only receiving 30 frames of invulnerability while in super armor states.
* Proto Man’s charge shot timer has been increased by 20%
* Proto Jet can now be stolen, meaning it will shield for the player who last stood on it
* Proto Jet now leaves after 5 seconds without a rider (up from 4 seconds), but the timer is reduced by 1 second for each ping it does
* Tango now begins attacking after 90 frames (reduced from 120)
* Mega Man can now summon Eddie for 4 EP using Down+S1 to deliver a power drop!  This can only be used while without a power
* Certain Mega Man powers have been balanced:
	+ Spark Shock EP 3 -> 5
	+ Charge Kick now makes Mega Man invulnerable
	+ Charge Kick EP increased 2 -> 3
	+ Hard Knuckle breaks super armor
* Rush Coil lasts longer before warping out
* Small Weapon Energy has been removed from Eddie's item summon pool, increasing the chance of other items. Odds are now 1/9 for large health, 1/9 for large energy, and 7/9 for small health
* Cut Man’s Rolling Cutter will no longer go as far offstage if aimed away from opponents.  This prevents having to wait as long for it to come back.
* Cut Man’s up-slash now hits too high for normal sized characters who are overlapping him
* Metal Man Normal Shot max count reduced 3 -> 2
* Metal Man can now buffer his aerial homing attack.  S2 must be pressed after the homing blade has been thrown, during the move’s endlag.  This allows for easier use of triple shots.
* Air Man Normal Shot count reduced 3 -> 2
* Air Tornado initial hold time reduced 30 -> 15 frames
* Air Man now can hold Up to ~halve the horizontal speed of his Rising Tornado
* Air Man’s special tornadoes now have increased knockback, and rising tornadoes lift opponents in the air. This also affects Mega Man’s and Doc’s rising tornadoes
* Bubble Man can now drop Bouncing Bubbles in place with down+S2
* Bouncing Bubbles now stick to themselves. A bubble attaching to another bubble will extend the life of the original bubble to match, so both pop simultaneously.
* Bouncing Bubbles have been changed from living for 3 seconds after “sticking” to 4 seconds from the moment it’s shot, which both helps the use of dropped bubbles and reduces the amount of time you are locked out of a bubble that traverses the whole screen before attaching
* Bubble Lead now combos (but not into itself)
* Bubble Man can now float underwater by pressing and holding jump while in midair (similar to Kat float)
* Quick Man now moves at 2x speed by default and can increase to 3x speed with S2, or can slow down to 1x speed with down+S2
* Quick Man now automatically deflects projectiles while standing/walking in slow mode (not while shooting)
* Quick Man armor increased from 80% -> 90%
* Quick Homing Boomerang EP decreased 5 -> 3
* Quick S2 EP drain for both fast and slow speeds increased 1.5 -> 2 EP/second
* Crash explosions have been shortened (65 -> 55 frames).  This means that a player who jump-cancels an explosion cannot be hit by the same explosion again, since 60 total frames of invuln are awarded the player.  A player who does not jump cancel can still get hit twice.
* Crash Homing Bomber detonation has been sped up and the initial hit deals fewer invulnerability frames to improve likelihood of linking into the explosion (note that it’s still possible to time a jump cancel to escape the explosion, but it’s much harder to do so)
* Crash self-stick EP increased 1 -> 3
* Crash Remote Bomb EP cost reduced 6 -> 5
* Crash Homing Bomb EP cost increased 5 -> 6
* Flash Man must now use S1 to double-jump, which prevents accidental double-jumps when attempting to jump cancel
* Flash Time Normal/Long Stopper times have been reduced, they are now 4/6 seconds (down from 5/7.5)
* Heat Atomic Fire charge shot damage decreased 6 -> 5
* Heat Barrage Startup Maximum reduced to 70 frames (from 90), meaning he can’t hold it as long (but the barrage distance remains the same)
* Heat barrage hitbox has been slightly stretched vertically
* Heat pillar EP increased 3 -> 4
* Wood Man's Normal Shot damage increased 2 -> 3
* Wood Man’s maximum Leaf Shot range reduced by 25%
* Wood Man Leaf Shower attack damage increased 2 -> 3
* Wood Man Leaf Shower Pose now has no knockback
* Wood Man's Leaf Shield lifespan has been reduced by roughly 50%
* Leaf Shield damage reduced 3 -> 2
* Note that leaf shield changes also affect Mega Man and Doc Robot
* Wood Man has received a very small movement speed nerf
* Needle Dive damage reduced 6 -> 5
* Needle Homing Shot EP increased 2 -> 3
* Needle Noggin is now deactivated while Needle Man is getting hit
* Opponent must now be at or above Needle Noggin in order to get hurt by it
* Magnet Man normal shot damage increased 2 -> 3
* A Magnet normal shot without a target now continues to accelerate toward the edge of the screen; before it would just progress slowly across
* Magnet Magnetize now uses a minimum of 3 EP with every use. EP consumption speed does not change overall. If it is released prior to the use of 3 EP, it will consume the remaining amount. Magnetize cannot be started with < 3 EP.
* Magnetize now consumes EP at an accelerated pace the longer it is held
* Magnet Man can now cancel out of Magnetize with the jump button for a free high jump
* Gemini Man clone health increased 16 -> 19
* Hard Man now has 50 full frames of invulnerability, matching other characters
* Hard Man’s NS punch can now deflect projectiles
* Hard Man’s Long Jump EP has been reduced 4 -> 3
* Hard Knuckle damage has been lowered 3 -> 2
* Hard Uppercut damage has been lowered to 5 -> 4
* Hard Uppercut launch distance has been reduced.  This gives opponents better options to avoid getting trapped against the wall
* Tops can now be retrieved by holding up, not just pressing up.  Tops can also be retrieved just before they stop moving, as opposed to only when they are fully stopped
* Tops can no longer be retrieved midair, and they can only be retrieved after 45 frames (this prevents accidental pickups immediately after dropping a top)
* Snake Man’s normal shot now drops straight down when holding down
* Snake Man’s normal shot now has some improved directionality on horizontal throws as well as a new Up directional throw
* Search Mamba now jumps out when shot normally
* Search Mambas now only turn one time in pursuit of a target
* Search Python now falls straight down off ledges
* Snake Man's Special Snake EP Cost has been reduced 4 -> 3
* Snake Man Special Snake life timers have been reduced by approximately 33%
* Snake Debuff timers have been reduced by approximately 33%
* Snake slide invulnerability has been increased by 50%
* Snake Man's Glider damage has been reduced 3 -> 2
* Snake Man's Glider EP has been reduced 3 -> 1
* Spark Man's Giant Spark is now a piercing shot - it cannot be deflected
* Spark Man can now wavedash out of his EP Charge with simple left/right presses (only backwards still) and has no knockback during wavedashes out of this move
* Spark Man wavedash speed increased to 1.5X (from standard 1.2X)
* Shadow Man Giant Shuriken damage increased 3 -> 4
* Shadow Man Giant Shuriken (and Assassinate) EP increased 5 -> 6
* Shadow Man no longer gains EP while wall clinging (prevents camping)
* Shadow Man can now cancel his slide into an assassinate
* Shadow Man now has 1.5x speed while in high jump.  He still has 2x speed when high jumping off a wall cling
* Shadow Man can slide buffer his fast slide out of a fast fall by holding S2
* Pharaoh Punch startup has been reduced by ~40%
* Pharaoh Wave max duration has been reduced 3sec -> 2sec
* Charge Man’s normal shot damage has been reduced  4 -> 3
* Charge Charge EP reduced 6 -> 5
* Charge Mega Meteor RNG ranges have been reduced, and now start slow and grow in speed (a la gravity), which allows for more time to react to them visually
* Charge Mega Meteor Initiation Puff damage has been reduced 4 -> 3
* Charge Man Damage Reduction increased 5% -> 15%
* Silver Tomahawk EP reduced 4 -> 3
* Silver Tomahawk, Feathers, and Uptilt Feathers come out a few frames faster
* Tomahawk Feathers are now 1 Damage each, 4 EP (the feathers still combo)
* Tomahawk tilted feathers now do 2/3/4 damage, reduced from 2/4/6
* Tomahawk Smash attack can now reverse direction on startup (not on release)
* Tomahawk Smash now has a hitbox on his body
* Tomahawk Smash Wave hitbox has been widened
* Doc Robot now has 10% extra armor
* Doc Robot now has 25% damage reduction while in a transforming state
* Doc Robot Normal Shot max shot count increased 2 -> 3
* Cool Man can hold down to fire a freezing normal shot, which freezes opponents (costs 3 EP)
* Cool Man Icicles begin falling ~30% faster on average, and they are less likely to appear at the edges of a stage (where there are often walls anyway)
* Cool Man Cold Block now becomes a combo move after it is kicked
* Cool Man Cold Block now shatters after hitting a player 3 times
* Met Man normal shot now operates on a cooldown rather than an onscreen check
* Met Man taunt now takes less EP (1/8 -> 1/10 frames)
* Tark Cross EP reduced 5 -> 4
* Tark Dash Damage reduced 4 -> 3
* Tark Dash EP reduced 6 -> 4
* Katyusha now creates a 3 damage tornado on her first aerial slash
* Katyusha’s ending motorcycle animation has been sped up, enabling her to more quickly start a combo from the motorcycle state
* Katyusha’s hitbox during motorcycle now better fits her form, making her harder to hit
* Katyusha can now fit into sliding paths while in motorcycle form.  If she transforms back while in a sliding path, she will begin a slide
* Katyusha can no longer use her aerial slash inside a combo.  It will only work as a combo starter
* Katyusha can no longer turn around for the rapid jab (but she can still turn around at the second slash)
* Katyusha rapid jab hitbox size has been reduced.  Landing full combos is still just as easy, but she can no longer gate opponents as easily.  Opponents can also better jump over her rapid jab without unfairly getting pulled into it
* Katyusha rapid jab now grants the victim +15 frames of invulnerability, which matches Tomahawk Man’s triple jab. This is also to allow opponents to better escape corner traps.