Mechanic changes: Zealot Hockey / VHL
As there have been many versions of Zealot Hockey mechanics dating from 2014 to the latest update in 2020, which was made by Coftea upon community request, we have decided to make some modifications.
We are players who have experienced many metas in the game, some of which we created ourselves, and we have also used some of the mechanics that existed in various versions of Zealot Hockey to our advantage. But enough talking, let's dive into what's coming in the first version of VHL.
The first major update that will come with standalone version of Zealot Hockey (VHL - Virtual Hockey League) will be skating. The current skating speed for puckholder is -5%, and we plan to keep skating speeds the same for everyone on the ice field except goalies. There are more things that limit skaters in Zealot Hockey, and we have decided to remove all movement limitations.
For the second update, we have decided to rework the goalie position. We are cooperating with multiple goalie players to make this position more engaging in the game, but for the beta release, the goalie will remain the same except for some movement alterations since we are not completely able to rework current goalie movement. The Force Field ability size, shape, and trigger delay may also differ from the current Zealot Hockey state.
For the last major update in the Alpha version there will be an One-timer ability rework. The current status of One-timer in Zealot Hockey is way too powerful. We had a small peak into the Zealot Hockey map code, and what we saw was just shocking. The changes made by Coftea fixed the issue that the community asked for, but also created a lot of other issues and mechanics, which made the whole ability unrealistic and way too overpowered.
How the current one-timer ability works
Cooldown: 3s
Mechanic: The one timer has an increased range of an pickup in the latest version of Zealot Hockey. Also, Coftea tried to fix bug of an instant pick-up when your teammate performed pass from close distance.
So the current puck release actually does not come from top of the stick, but way far ahead of stick hitbox. Lastly, player who has activated the one timer and recieves puck,
he never gains posession of puck which makes that player unstealable and almost unblockable.
Rework: Cooldown now will be 5 seconds. Player will gain posession of the puck at the point of time and space where he actually has to perform the shot release. The puck will now come from the top of the stick.
Additional aspects when the ability gets activated:
1. Character will be able to turn with right click command, but the speed will be slowed by 70%
2. Turn speed of the character will be slowed by 50%
3. Ability has no expiration time, but has to be manually cancelled
Additional changes:
Skater boost cooldown increase: 6s -> 10s
Goalie cooldown between double boost added and set to 0.7s
Goalie boost steal removed
The changes that have been mentioned earlier are all subject to further modifications in the future. If any of the current or future changes have a negative impact on gameplay or if we receive a significant amount of negative feedback from players, we will carefully evaluate the situation.