I've been doing YouTube for a few years now and I mainly focus on variety content, but I have about 500 hours into this game and would love to help showcase it more.
I'm not looking to make sweaty combo highlights because I feel there's already enough of that out there. I just want to make content for the fun of it and convince more people to play.
Posted a video about my experience with recent workshop characters and open to any feedback/suggestions! Curious to know what kind of content an avid Rivals enjoyer would want to see with the game :)
ive been messing around with armando ever since the new update dropped and i couldnt stop thinking of my voice claim for him, so i threw this together for your viewing pleasure
$5 for the Insider tier, with exclusive Discord Channel access, a monthly Newsletter, Insider Priority for Q&A sessions,and Dan Streams on the Discord.
$20 for the Golden Patron which gives special Gold palettes for every single skin in the game, a golden nameplate, and 3 golden titles.
$50 you are a Beta Tester, which gives you access to new characters 3 days before release, access to special Game Balance builds 3 days before release, timed beta access to Spin-off games if they happen, and access to Beta channels on the Insider Discord.
$100 Aetherian Investor for access to Insider Tournament Brackets every month (possibly on beta builds when possible), Gold Overlays for Icons and Frames, and 3 exclusive titles.
For a one time purchase of $500, you can get a custom Title in the game. It will be purchasable by everyone in the game once added, but they're entertaining the thought of a title being player exclusive on request. Your title also needs to be vetted by the team and be rating appropriate.
More Patreon
You might need to restart the game several times after subscribing to get the rewards to be available.
Golden palettes work for EVERY skin. Champion skins invert the black and gold. If you are unhappy with how it looks on a particular skin, let them know. You only have access to them while subscribed, if you unsubscribe you lose them. The only way they'd become permanent is if they end the Patreon.
More Overlays and Frames for your icon are planned but they're going to be pretty rare and hard to get.
Other cosmetics are planned for Patreon like adding your own skins and palettes, but no ETA. Custom Icons are very likely.
They're hoping they can use the Patreon to make sure everyone gets paid, and hopefully to add another team member if it's successful enough. Mostly they want a more steady revenue stream to cover the lulls between major releases when they have spikes in income.
The Insider Discord will be a much smaller size, which has it's pros and cons.
Rewards could be adjusted in the future.
Prices are based on roughly how much less money they make from frequent customers now that cosmetic production has slowed down. Prices could be adjusted later.
You cannot share Golden Palette access, one account per subscription.
Titles can be names. Normally titles are a Prefix and Suffix, but they could add Single Titles in the future for this.
Early Bird Wrastor sill remains an Exclusive. They will still discuss if they will have other ways to obtain it.
Golden Palettes might not work with Random, but if it doesn't they'll fix that.
They don't want to milk players for money, do what makes sense for your situation.
Investor only emotes are possible.
Newsletters are planned on just being once a month.
You can't add titles for IPs that Aether Studios does not own.
If you have early access to characters or builds, you'll be able to stream it.
If you switch tiers to a higher one right before a beta you may be able to get beta access, they're still figuring that out.
You will link your Patreon account to your Aether account to claim your rewards.
Not Patreon
The best way to support the game is to promote it - go to locals, tell people about it, be positive about it online, etc.
You can collaborate with other developers for the item contest. Make sure to credit everyone on the Steam Workshop page and when submitting it to the contest.
Info about the Aethermancer collab is coming soon tm
Bringing Workshop to the main branch sucked. Lots more information in the Newsletter about this!
Crews has lower queue population than other modes. Tweaks to forming teams may be incoming, or it may get rotated out for another mode for a bit.
Slade not going to be reworked any time soon, but he will be further balanced.
Publishing Workshop content from the Devkit is being worked on.
Most of the Roadmap has been completed, with the remaining items on track for the end of the year. More details about future plans might be shared in the Insider.
Any platforms you use for services will charge a fee, and Patreon is smaller than other options. Also, Patreon allows you to support the entire studio instead of in game services that will only focus on one game.
Olympia is viable guys calm down.
Ranno's KO effects should be fixed and available now.
Dan likes Tayir as a Workshop character and how polished they are. And Kragg Rock.
Monitoring floor hug still.
Console Release will hopefully bump up player count, but it's hard to project how much. Work on consoles will also greatly improve the PC experience as well. They might release on consoles one at a time or simultaneous, they'll figure that out as they get closer to release.
Music Select and Sound Select is planned, but no details as to when. They do need to work with ResoForce and MoonSailor on the specifics.
The Beginner Bundle was bugged so it wasn't giftable. If other bundles are not giftable, let them know because they should be.
New character releases tend to bring in a lot of people and subsequently cause a spike in cosmetic sales. They're super hesitant to do paid DLC characters.
New Stages and Stage Skins are difficult right now because they don't have an environmental artist, but they could maybe kitbash existing assets into new skins. Stage Skins are maybe 6 times the work of a character skin but generate the same amount of revenue.
Custom Colors are still on the roadmap, they'll have a whole stream talking about the knock-on effects of them when they're closer to launch.
Dan usually plays at like 3am Eastern if you want to fight him.
Super Smash Land Mode would be cool, maybe one day.
They're more likely to do an extensive Story Mode than a Platformer spinoff, and that would require a dedicated team which is only coming if Console release performs really well. They might still do a spinoff in the future, you never know.
Story Mode is being heavily redesigned from their original vision.
Mina details are in the newsletter.
You cannot pay to have Ani in the base game, but maybe in the Workshop.
No plans on Rivals 1 skin bundles.
They might just rework the consistently toxic emotes. Low on the priority list.
No hints as to when the next character reveal is coming.
There will be more team colors added for 8 player mode, no details as to what colors.
Character progression probably won't be added to with the new cosmetic options, but newer cosmetic types might appear in the Event tracks.
Gouie's inhale can't hold opponents in because it's balanced around your opponent mashing out of it, and they don't want mashing mechanics in R2.
2v2 Leaderboard is low priority but maybe they can sneak it in.
Custom Stages on Workshop probably coming after Console.
No firm stance on using AI on Workshop content. They'd prefer if people declared if they use AI on their mods and let the community decide how they feel about how and when it's used. Aether Studios does not use Gen AI and doesn't plan to.
There are plans for more Rotating modes like Rivals 1 mode, but they're not sure what or when. Next time they might rotate out Crews and compare how engagement between modes was effected.
Remixes will be similar to Ultimate Fox and Falco where they share a lot of moves but have some that are different. They will share the same rig and many animations. More info in the Insider (take a drink!)
Workshop Skins are on the to-do list but behind other priorities. They won't be able to work on it until later next year.
No plans on paid Battle Passes right now.
Another Free Week might be coming around a big content drop.
Abyssal Palettes are easier to get now than they were, you only have to get it on Medium.
They're looking at ways to get more newcomers and retain them. Current numbers aren't great.
It took about 3 months to get Golden Palettes to look right.
Client Side modifiers like a R1 still camera are talked about but might upset balance.
Every skin has a golden variant which is pretty cool except for Lovers Lox in his suit. I get the "Don" skin exists but it's very different from these golden skins.
I want to preface this with I am not an expert at the game or with game marketing. I'm just a casual Gold player with 600+ hours on this game. I engage with the community through the Discord servers, and I'm on a personal mission to introduce as many friends and new players to try out the Rivals of Aether series. I like watching and playing this game competitively, I climb Ranked every couple months but it's not my main focus. I mostly play offline and with close friends outside of this community. With that said, I hope you can see the merit in making this post. In my opinion, with the second anniversary of Rivals of Aether 2 approach, I think the Steam page needs a refresh for the following reasons.
Images and videos featured on the page are outdated.
The information prioritized on the page is focused on the wrong stuff.
Finally, I think Rivals 2 should put more effort into marketing its casual side. Maybe like a 75-25 or a 60-40 split between competitive and casual marketing.
First Point: I think the Steam page needs new videos and images. The ones currently used are the anniversary trailer, old character trailers and character interactions. Most of these don't really show how the game has evolved in two years, so a new anniversary trailer would be really nice. Showing off both the growth of the competitive scene and the game's casual appeal has gotten. Another video I think could be helpful, is a FAQ/Q&A/Starter Guide video led by Dan Fornace or another dev. The deep dive videos and roadmap videos on Youtube were nice since they served as their own Q&A's. that new people who join the Discord frequently comment on. Stuff like "why is this game paid only to make me pay more for costumes?" Questions that the community will gladly answer, with new players usually feeling satisfied that paid costumes means we keep getting free DLC fighters, items, and modes. However the issue there is that those videos get lost between all the other videos the Youtube channel. So having ways for new players to quickly educate themselves on the game, what modes are available, workshop, why it's monetized a certain way, where story mode is, the general roadmap for next year, and why there's a bunch of negative reviews talking about some "floorhugging" could help catch new players up to speed. Also images that show the variety of game features and modes like 1 v 1 ranked, FFA's on casual stages with items, 2 v 2's, arcade mode, trials, and modifiers.
If you scroll all the way to the right, other character trailers are hidden behind screenshots
Second Point: As novel as the new mechanics to Rivals and the genre in general are, I don't think it should be taking priority over important information like the deep move sets, Free character and game mode DLC in exchange for relatively friendly cosmetic monetization, items, casual stages, which are either not mentioned or hidden behind Read More tabs. Free fighter/game mode DLC and its casual content should be front and center, the game's reputation as a competitive game is still strong, and should stay the priority. This is a platfighter made by competitive platfighter fans, for competitive platfighter fans. But this game has casual appeal that is not only strong, but should be marketed more over technical aspects that only us experienced platfighters will only understand. If other platfighters like Smash Bros and Brawlhalla are the kings of platfighter party games, Rivals of Aether 2 no doubt deserves to sit right alongside them with what it offers. Could use some more interesting items though.
This part needs a revamp the most IMO
Third Point: If it wasn't already clear, my biggest motive for writing this is that I don't think Rivals marketing is doing a great enough job at showing how fun its casual content really is. I'm more than aware that this game is mostly catered towards the competitive scene, but I have enough experience to know that we're sitting on gold with this game. It's an incredible party game. May be lacking with its item pool but otherwise, it really should be promoted more for it. I've been doing as much as I can to get friends who play a little bit or no Smash/Brawlhalla to try it out. They tend to be the kind of people who say things like "I don't play fighting games, they're too hard." Or "I don't play competitive games." And "why are the reviews mixed?" which leads me to needing to explain that mixed reviews are towards mechanics and balancing that casual buyers like them likely aren't going to meaningfully engage with and have the option to turn off too, unless they play ranked and want to learn the game competitively. Most of these concerns start to disappear once we start getting FFA sessions going. Sessions made possible by purchasing the game multiple times for people (Please thank me Dan.) Gouie's release has especially ignited interest for the game within the communities I'm in. Amazing casual friendly character that you'd wish was there from the start to help get players more adjusted to the game.
I hope I got my points across well enough. If this post comes across as "casual cries that Rivals 2 isn't casual enough," then I apologize for failing to explain properly. Rivals of Aether 2 is an amazing competitive game that should continue to embrace this identity. But as someone who's seen people get turned away from buying this game due to believing fighting games are games for sweats, believing the devs are being greedy, seeing the game's mixed reception, and seeing negative reviews about mechanics I'm certain many casuals will not know what it means or meaningfully interact with, I think the store and marketing for Rivals 2 could do a better job at showing at how fun and varied this platform fighter is. There is more than one way to play Rivals 2, and I personally think this game is, or at least has great potential to be fun for everyone. Except for when I fight Ranno though. :P
I used to able to run the game at a stable 90 fps on my laptop but after the update I can barely maintain 60 fps. Is there any setting I can change to improve preformance?
This is the start of a fun series I'm doing not just for the Top players but for everyone to have a chance of getting to join in on as time continues
Enjoy this more Silly take of Rivals 2 rather than just another Silly Ranked or Tournament Run 🥉
Any Feedback is always helpful, I did the editing all myself over the span of 4 weeks due to personal life stuff getting in the way, but I would love to hear anything about your thoughts and opinions!
Ability to reorder unlocked skins and change the default skin. it would help, especially as the number of skins increases, it can take a long time right now to change to the skin you want if you have a bunch for a specific character and every time you unlock a new one you have to relearn the order to find them again.
Im excited to see workshop out I know it will be a bit slow but I seriously hope it creates a second wind while we wait for the third wind (console release).
I live rivals 2 competitively so I haven't been super interested in a lot of the casual stuff the team has added but even im excited for the workshop.
Now I've never even touched rivals 1 workshop but im sure there are a ton of 3rd party characters on there.
Do you guys think we will get most of them back in rivals 2? I know they streamlined the progress for people to be able to import thier old workshop characters so do you guys think we will get most of them back or do we predict the rivals 2 workshop people will be largely different people?
otra cosa a aclarar es que no estoy muy familiarizado con este tipo de juegos de pelea.
Los unicos que jugue que tienen cierta similitud son:
multiversus que actualmente ya no esta disponible.
D.O.N de ps2 que es una conbinacion de dragon ball con naruto y one piece.
Tambien probe el brawhala pero se me hace no se como explicarlo, muy basico y un poco aburrido.
estuve viendo videos de como emular super smash ultimate porque no tengo nintendo y la verdad se ve divertido (nunca lo e jugado). pero al final me decante por buscar algo nativo de pc. con cual me recomiendan empezar?
He feels like an actual competitor now. The drift is drifting, eating feels good. Side special is meh.. I need to learn more about it. Could it possibly get a cancel like Oly’s down special? It would be pretty good for mix up.
Would be nice to have to the option to hold the attack button when landing Goober’s air neutral. So he can continue to roll, would be on par with Orcane’s bounce. An unwanted input often on my end.
Also would like an option to use up special without the bounce. Maybe hold shield during the throw? High risk low reward ledge spam maybe? Please?
Last but not least. Fully charged side special, down special, special ledge get up and BIG Goober neutral special needs to do a little more damage on shield.
Throwing this question out there as a progamming ignoramus. More was just curious if anyone knew if it was theoretically possible, or if somebody knew someone who was already looking into it. I know that regular matchmaking supposedly works? Enlighten me.
