Knockout City | Season 2: Fight at the Movies! (2024)

Fight at the Movies!

Hope everyone is enjoying the late night vibes goin’ on in Midnight Madness! It feels appropriate to be heading into Season 2 with this kind of last-minute energy surging through the streets. Today is your last chance to complete those final few Contracts, or help a friend finish up theirs! Brawlers don’t leave Crew Mates behind.

In an epic journey... on a quest to achieve greatness... a team of brawlers stumble upon a brand new challenge that will push them in ways they can’t begin to imagine. Travel with us to Season 2, where this Crew of warriors must face their greatest test yet: FIGHT AT THE MOVIES! Our heroes must stake everything against overwhelming odds. Will they stand tall? Or will they—wait. This says “fall in love?” That can’t be right. Who’s in charge of the lineup here? Someone get my agent!

Fight at the Movies!

Coming tomorrow, Tuesday, July 27 at 12 p.m. (noon) UTC, Knockout City’s new Drive-in (hover-in?) Holographic Theater has the entire city experiencing a little movie madness, with brawlers throwing down within their favorite scenes from the hottest blockbusters out in the streets. It’s a whole new world out there, so let’s check out everything this season has to offer! But first, a word from Magpie Films:

Making Movies

The Holowood Drive-In is the only theater in Knockout City designed to provide a brand new and revolutionary way to immerse yourself in this summer’s hottest blockbusters! With its unique Theater-in-the-Round style holo-projection, you are guaranteed a movie going experience like never before!

The backbone of this technology is the Holo-Film recording process, originally developed in a partnership between Perennial Labs and Magpie Industries for the purpose of REDACTED and REDACTED, it has found a new home at the movies! The proprietary Holo-Film recording process allows for the capture of full-motion three dimensional scenes with few visual artifacts. Unlike past prototypes of this technology, the Holo-Film process allows for a higher visual fidelity and doesn’t break down when scaled up to the epic scope that modern movies demand!

The crisp image and immersive feeling of being literally inside the movie as the terrifying Armazillo stomps its way across the Holo-Stage is something your customer will love! The fact that the true three-dimensional experience means you can’t possibly see all of the movie at once so you must come back again and again to view it from all angles is something your shareholders will love! We guarantee* that ticket sales will soar into a new dimension... The 3rd Dimension!

*Neither Magpie Industries, Magpie FIlms nor any of its subsidiaries warrants or guarantees this statement

Holowood Drive-In

Cruise right on into the Holowood Drive-In, and get ready for the brawl of your life in Knockout City’s first ever drive-in Holo-Theater! Upon arrival, you’ll find yourself conveniently located in either the soda or popcorn stand, but there’s no time to load up on snacks, because the movie’s already starting! This ain’t no ordinary theater, either. It’s a Knockout City state-of-the-art Holo-Theater, using the latest in Holo-Film technology to project your film experience onto the Holo-Stage. It’s so realistic, you’ll swear you’re there.

What should we watch? An “Armazillo” rising from the unknown oceanic depths and towering over skyscrapers? “The Siege of Castle Ballthazar,” where a ragtag group of untrained villagers defend the castle gates against relentless attacks? How about the heartwarming tale of “Mary Morris and Her Magical Mice,” a touching tale where everything feels a little larger than life? Or shall we face danger head on in the “Return of the Mummy’s Curse,” and scale the pyramid in a harrowing adventure! Will you be “Caught by Love” on the Bridge of Love, an emotional scene that’s sure to get you misty-eyed? Will you brave the “Cathedral of Horror,” visit specters and chilling visions, and find out for whom does the bell toll? Heck, let’s watch ‘em all and brawl our way through! Movie scenes swap out regularly, so each round you’ll get to see a few flicks. Watch out—because that dodge around the edge of a building in Armazillo might disappear a moment later, giving your opponent a clean line of sight to whack you!

Soda Ball

All that brawlin’ has got me thirsty, pass me a Boba Cola will ‘ya? But be careful, because this one got a little shook up with all that brawlin’ goin on. Handle this one with care, or you’re going to find yourself a little… well, sticky. And you know how those movie theater napkins are at soaking things up: just useless. When you see a ball-shaped soda bottle laying on the ground just about bursting with Boba Cola, run over to pick it up like a normal ball. To start shaking it up, simply start charging a throw or pass. Once you start shaking, though, there's no going back, and a meter will appear onscreen as the pressure starts to build inside and cola starts spurting out the edges of the cap. Once the pressure gauge reaches max, the ball will BURST, covering all nearby players in soda. This won't damage you, but it will temporarily block your vision, making you a much easier target without teammates nearby to help you out. Actually throwing the Soda Ball at an opponent and HITTING them with it BEFORE it bursts will do damage though, so there are a lot of different strategies to learn.

New Energy Drink: Orange Overcharge

Not in the mood for a soda? How about a little energy boost? This little can packs a real punch, giving you +500% XP for KO finishes with Overcharged shots—those super satisfying KOs you land after receiving a pass. The effects of this beverage last for an entire hour, so bottoms up before you pass the ball!

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Brawl Bundle Shop

Still feeling a little sticky from that Soda Ball? Let’s head on over to the Brawl Shop and talk about new season cosmetics—maybe get you into a new outfit. This season we’re trying a little something new: introducing the Bundle Shop, a new tab in the Brawl Shop that features groups of individual items bundled together for a great value, so you can stretch your Holobux a little further.

We’ve got three bundles available when Season 2 lands tomorrow: Energy Boost, Gumbrawler, and—smashing its way through a city near you: Armazillo. Get the Kaiju Terror: Armazillo! outfit, Armazillo Mask, Kaiju Claws, City Crusher Defeat Pose, Armazillo Player Icon and Nuclear Fallout Crew Logo. Snag it for just 2400 Holobux, a massive discount over buying the items individually!

We’ve also got a ton of new gear rotating into the shop daily, however, if you purchase a bundle item before its individual items rotate into the store, you won’t see a new item in the shop that day because you already own it. Also, if you own any individual items within a bundle, you’ll pay an even further reduced price when buying everything together!

Weekly & Daily Playlists

For the first week of Season 2, we're super excited to introduce Big Team Elimination. You'll need to pay attention and play a bit more strategically in this new 4 vs 4 playlist, because once you're KOed, you don’t respawn! Instead, you'll spectate the rest of your teammates as they try to completely eliminate the rest of the opposing team before they're eliminated themselves. Wipe out ALL the opponents to earn your team a Point. And don't even think of running away to hide, because the Danger Zone is present in this mode, slowly closing in around you as the player count dwindles, forcing a final showdown in a random location on the map. After each team wipe, the Danger Zone resets and all KOed players respawn by their teammates to regroup and head into battle again. The first team to 3 Points wins the Round, and the first to win 2 Rounds wins the Match.

Variety is the spice of life, and you’ve got spicy dodgeballs to throw, so your second option is a brand new Daily Playlist rotation. Now that we’ve got so many Playlists to choose from, why keep them in a vault? Season 2 gives you the ability to try out a new Playlist every day of the week! Check out what’s available below in our first week. Then, in slot 3, you’ve got good ‘ole reliable: Team KO—your comfy brawlin’ spot that you can count on, rounding out your options.

That means each week you’ll be able to brawl your way through nine playlists in Street Play! Here’s a handy little guide of what’s happening for week 1 of Season 2:

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Season 2 League Play

Ah yes, the end of a season approaches, where all the Brawlers look forward to opening their end of Season presents! The moment you log into the Hideout, you’ll receive your Season 1 League Play rewards based on the highest rank you achieved in either playlist in Season 1.

It’s been a great first Season, climbing the ranks, brawling with all of you and listening to your feedback. Throughout the season, we heard many of our League Players ask for more challenging resets at the end of League Play. Based on that community feedback, we made some changes to the reset structure starting in Season 2:

At the start of a new season, each player’s Rank, (from Bronze through Platinum) will be reset to the beginning of the previous tier that they are on. This disregards whatever Division they are in, or how many League Points they have. For example:

A player at Gold 2 with 2 League Points in Season 1 will be Silver 1 with 1 League Point at the start of Season 2.
A Gold 3 player with 3 League Points in Season 1 will be Silver 1 with 1 League Point at the start of Season 2.
A Gold 1 player with 1 League Point in Season 1 will be Silver 1 with 1 League Point at the start of Season 2.
A Bronze 2 player with 2 League Points in Season 1 will be Unranked with 1 League Point at the start of Season 2.

Players that are Unranked with any amount of League Points will be simply reset to Unranked with no League Points. Players who are ranked above Platinum will be reset to Platinum 1 with 1 League Point.

Knockout City | Season 2: Fight at the Movies! (3)

This Season’s rewards include brand new cosmetics so hot they’ll melt your face off! Make your way up to that Diamond Tier to unlock items like the Chrome versions of the Rare Crossbow Glider, Epic Taunt: Psycho Skull, Legendary KO Effect: Thumbs Down and more!

League Leaderboards

We’re thrilled to announce that you’ll get your first look at League Leaderboards in Season 2! This feature won’t be available for launch, but we wanted to give you a sneak peak today! We’re thrilled to announce that you’ll get your first look at League Leaderboards starting tomorrow! This feature has been a highly requested item from the community, so we’ve prioritized getting it into Season 2! At launch, you’ll be able to keep an eye on the top 10 players per playlist. Coming soon will be the ability to scroll to see up to 100 players!

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Here’s how it works: Players are first sorted by League Tier, then by Tier Division, followed by League Points, and finally Skill Rank. The exceptions to this are in Diamond Rank, where you’ll just be sorted by your Skill Rank, and Unranked, where there’s no soup rank for you. Here’s where it gets interesting: If you and another player are tied according to the rules above, then the rank is awarded to the last player to receive it. Also, if you’re planning on grinding your way to the top and looking out from your lofty perch for the rest of the season, you’ll have to fight to defend it—your Skill Rank will start to decay after 2 weeks of inactivity.

At the end of the Season, you’ll receive additional rewards based on your standing, to give you a little extra along with your bragging rights. Making it to the top now means you’ll score a season-specific Player Icon with a number indicating how high you climbed, along with bonus Holobux! Making it into the top 1000 rewards you the Top 1000 Diamond Player Icon and 200 Bonus Holobux on top of your regular League Play rewards. Making it into the top 500 rewards the Top 500 Player Icon and 400 Bonus Holobux. This continues like this for the Top 100, Top 50, Top 10, and even specifically 5th Place, 4th Place, 3rd Place, 2nd Place, and 1st Place. Imagine sporting that Diamond 1 Player Icon going into a match… 💭💎 #Season2Goals

Contracts

Season 2 brings a whole slew of new Contracts to complete, with new rewards to unlock! You’ll see some familiar faces, some that have been rebalanced, and a whole lot of brand new ones (which Merc lovingly referred to as “the new hotness”).This includes over 30 new Daily Contracts, new Season 2 Contracts and Weekly Crew Contracts, and a brand new feature altogether, Daily Login Bonuses! That’s right—you’ll receive a free reward every day you visit your Hideout: a random daily bonus that could be a bit of XP sprinkled on your popcorn, a few Style Chips or Holobux, a single energy drink, or even a pack of them! Just another little way of saying thanks for playing!

KO City Fanart

Someone call Betty White—we’ve got a brand new brawlin’ opportunity! Thanks to Superb_barber9 in our Discord for sharing!

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Be sure to share your Knockout City fanart, cosplays and creations with #kocityfanart on Twitter, or post them in our #fanart channel in our Discord!

Patch 2.0 Notes

For this round of patch notes, our Live Ops producer Kevin included a little more insight about our approach and journey to solve this round of issues. As always, we appreciate hearing from players with information that helps us improve the game. If you encounter an issue, please submit a bug report on our Discord!

Fixed the problem where Contracts were sometimes not progressing when players joined an in-progress game.

Dev note: Whew, this was a tough one that took us a long time to track down. The breakthrough came from a comment we found from ScatteringSky in our discord, who said contracts always seemed to progress if they were joining from the Hideout, and only failed when they were joining directly from a previous match. This gave us the hint to compare those two different flows. We were looking for a problem where the match progress data was not being created properly, and it always seemed to be. But it turns out that in the specific flow of finishing a match and then joining another match that was in-progress actually deleted the progress data after it was created. So it wasn’t a failure to create the data, but a specific situation that deleted it at the last second.
It always helps to get reports from players that include exact steps we can copy to reproduce the bug. So, thanks, ScatteringSky!

Fixed another bunch of issues that could cause players to get stuck in the Match Lobby or Next Match screen while a match started and could be heard in the background.

Dev note: You might ask why this one keeps coming up and why it’s so hard to fix. Well, multiplayer games are really complicated, and this specific situation is the confluence of events that is the most complicated of all. Up to eight players are all trying to connect to the same server and loading the match content (the level, the ball types, etc) into memory, while finding out information about other players in the match so they can load those players' equipment, while also telling the server what equipment they have. If at any point one of those players fails to load something, we need to figure out why. Did they disconnect, and we need to find a replacement? If so, can we do it in time before the match starts, or should we start looking for a backfill? How long do we wait until we the determine the player has disconnected? Maybe they are just taking a long time to load, and if we wait long enough they will eventually join. Should we tell the other players to start playing the introduction sequence while we wait? Furthermore, what if one of those players lost a message from the server they’re trying to connect to, and are stuck waiting for something that will never come? Or what if they get some of the messages but not all of them, so they can get stuck in an in-between state?
For each of these fixes, we simulate different kinds of failures to discover new ways that the process could break. This takes time and effort and creativity, but ultimately when we correct them, it makes the system more reliable. However, due to the number of items in play with this particular issue, we wouldn’t be surprised if there were more we haven’t anticipated yet, so keep those reports coming!

Fixed an issue where Crew Contracts could change after the player left a group with Crew Members.

Dev note: Our Crew Contracts system has had some bugs, but we’re making progress! It’s a complicated system that combines issues with Contracts, Crews, and time (in that we select different Crew Contracts every week for each Crew), and these situations can be tricky to replicate in a testing environment, which is why we’re again so grateful to players who have provided information that helps us replicate them. Thanks for your patience as we continue to track these down and fix them!

Just checking to see who reads the Patch Notes: Starting immediately, you’ll be able to enjoy Happy Hours from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. UTC every weekday this week, Monday through Friday. During Happy Hours, you’ll earn Bonus XP for every KO you make in Street Play and League Play!
Fixed an issue where players could pass through or become stuck in thin parts of the environment if they were thrown in Ballform, but jump out of Ballform before hitting the underside of a bus stop, a bridge, or a low ceiling.

Dev note: We’re sure you’ve seen bugs like this in other games, but Knockout City is special in that when you turn into a ball, we treat you like a ball, and the physics engine simulates you as if you were a ball, which is different than simulating a Brawler. Switching between those two modes on the fly can cause all kinds of fun surprises!

Fixed an issue where the Matchmaking popup could be stuck on screen saying “Waiting for Players” after the player joined a match in progress.

Dev note: This little popup is on the hook for telling you what’s going on with what we call the “match flow,” which is all the things that could be happening to you when you’re looking for a match, finding one, being told to join a server, telling the server you’re joining a server, being told that the server has heard that you’re joining a server… you get the idea. You wouldn’t believe how many meetings we’ve had about this one little popup, but we’re hoping that’s all in the past now!

Fixed an issue where a player joining a Private Match while the group is still in the team selection screen can end up in the match on a team that would not score points, and another issue where if one player failed to join a Private Match, other players could not select a team.

Dev note: Remember all that stuff I said about how complicated it was to get everybody to join a match? Eventually we need to get them to pick a team, too! It adds an extra step that requires its own synchronization of all players involved.

Prevented players from performing a fake throw that looked like a real throw when done simultaneously while jumping.

Dev note: Another player report led to this fix. We want to be sure that players with sharp eyes can figure out if their opponent is trying to fake them out, but we don’t want to make it impossible!

That’s a Wrap!

Thanks for reading! Just a reminder, if you're close to the next rank in league play, today's your last day to grind out those last wins, Crew Contracts and Season Contracts! You can do it, I believe in you!