Absorb and Balance
Timed landings, weight-reactive grinds and manual balance. Realistic (0.8–4.5 m), Medium (1.5–6 m) and Fun (2–8 m) presets, adjustable HUD, ASCII cat and directional vibration.Absorb & Balance
By Ninel - version 1.3.17
Time your landings, balance grinds and manuals, and let the board react to the skater's weight. Choose between three presets, from demanding timing to more forgiving gameplay.
Presets
| Preset | Absorb height range | Timing window | Clean zone | Grind / manual difficulty | Stick balance | Absorb on vert |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Realistic | 0.8-4.5 m | 180-30 ms | 35% | 7 / 10 | Circle | On |
| Medium | 1.5-6 m | 220-35 ms | 50% | 5 / 10 | Single axis | On |
| Fun | 2-8 m | 360-80 ms | 70% | 2 / 10 | Single axis | Off |
The minimum height determines when absorbing becomes necessary. The maximum height is the plugin's allowed drop limit. The timing window gets smaller as the drop approaches that limit. These are gameplay settings, not a guarantee that every landing can be saved.
Preset buttons are at the top of the menu. Each balance category supports LB/RB or the left stick. Circular balance uses the stick; Medium and Fun select single-axis balance. Changing a preset value marks the profile Custom. Saved named presets are updated with this release; Custom profiles retain their settings until another preset is selected.
Landings
Press RB, LB or F before touchdown:
- Clean: press within the final clean portion of the timing window.
- Sketchy: press within the rest of the valid window, triggering a recovery.
- Too Early, No Absorb or Too High: invalid landing, requesting a native wipeout.
The final verdict uses the actual touchdown and replaces the HUD prediction. Native recovery outputs follow that verdict. Blending with the game's own landing animation still needs in-game verification.
Open Absorb > Timing zones to adjust the minimum and maximum timing windows and the clean-zone percentage. Height settings support tenths and can be displayed in metres or feet.
Grinds and manuals
- Independent category switches and control choices.
- Native ReSkate board tweaks with adjustable strength and smoothing.
- Progressive grind friction near the front/back edges, with a separate on/off switch. Added friction releases below 1.2 m/s.
- Soft manual exits based on the direction and speed of the lean.
- Directional controller vibration through the included local XInput relay.
Menu and HUD
Open Insert > Plugins > Absorb & Balance. Separate tabs contain Tweak, Absorb, Grinds, Manuals and Display settings.
The menu uses the original large ASCII cat background. The in-game HUD keeps its blue/purple palette, landing verdicts and optional reactive ASCII cat. The balance circle has adjustable position and background opacity, and replaces the balance bar while active. Ctrl + H toggles the HUD.
The plugin cannot selectively hide the game's Flick-It visualizer, which may remain visible beneath a transparent circle. The retired custom menu and 3D preview are not included.
Installation and updates
Use the existing Thunderstore package Ninel / Absorb_and_Balance. Its internal name is unchanged so this archive updates the existing package. Package files are directly at the ZIP root.
For manual installation, extract the package into ReSkate/Mods/Ninel-Absorb_and_Balance, then reload the plugin. Custom preferences remain saved.
88 simulated scenarios passed. Physical tail contact, slowdown strength and animation appearance still require in-game testing.
Startup is spread across scheduled callbacks to respect ReSkate’s execution limit. Native footplant/board-interaction phases are excluded from absorb tracking; the exit flight starts a fresh height measurement.