Hello, hello! This update addresses bugs, optimizes, and improves on many aspects of the game. Ain't that neat. Since achievements/milestones are just around the corner, we thought you'd like some quality of life updates. Let's get right into it.
Virus: New Gameplay
First up on the major changes, Virus got a massive gameplay change that addresses ping related problems.
Slash To Spread The Infection Instead of touching players to spread the infected, the infected must slash players. The slash will instantly infect other players and you can slash automatically by holding down left mouse. Also, you can roar at the survivors just for added fun.
This change was made to eliminate ping related issues in Virus. The slash attack is predicted, making for a much better Virus experience while still maintaining the fast paced action.
Improved Weapons We've also tuned most of the weapons, including adding more feedback for charging weapons such as the Sonic Shotgun and Plasma Autorifle.
Improved First Infected Selection The first infected selection system now picks players who have no yet had the chance to be the first infected - instead of picking the same person over and over.
Little Crusaders: Gameplay Improvements!
Several changes to Little Crusaders have been made in this update, including overall balancing in the game.
Instant Bite The Dragon's bite no longer freezes players for 0.4 seconds and now is instant. The animations for the bite have also been made quicker. Gameplay wise, this change is cosmetic only (as in those .4 seconds the knight would have been killed anyways), but it does really help eliminate that feeling of lag from a bite. The Dragon's bite recovery is also now faster.
Birb Less Scared The Birb is now working again, but also no longer gets scared away if it's being held by a Knight when a dragon roars. This change was made to put more emphasis on getting to the birb faster and also giving the Knights a better chance to use the Birb against the Dragon. Be careful, the Dragon can still scare about the Birb once it's flying through the air!
Movement Changes Movement was tweaked to be more similar to Source movement, which means Little Crusaders now feels just as it did in GMod Tower.
Improved Dragon Selection We've also reworked the random Dragon selection system to pick players who have not yet had the chance to be a Dragon - instead of picking the same person over and over.
Ball Race Networking Clean Up: No More Ping Lag!
Goodbye Slow Starts We've completely eliminated the host advantage bug when you first spawn in a level. What that means entirely is that everyone will be able to move at the same time as everyone else, regardless of who is the host.
Instant Pickups We also fixed the lag in picking up melons, so those who have high pings will notice that picking up melons are now instant, instead of delayed. This fix was also applied to finishing, so you'll finish the moment you hit the finish line instead of falling through it.
New Typing Derby
Typing Derby received a massive update, which brings it to near completion. We now use paragraphs sourced from Project Gutenberg instead of just random words for Typing Derby. This allows for a more natural typing experience. However, keep in mind that punctuation and capitalization matter this time around!
New UI and Feedback We also polished up the UI for it and added text effects above horses so other players can spectate and see how quickly people finish their words as they move in the race. There's also player animations and additional feedback.
This will be the last major update for Typing Derby.
Drunk Vomiting
In this update we've updated the drunk system to include vomiting once you have gotten too drunk. We also updated the drunk effects to be more realistic than in previous versions of the game.
You can disable the vomit effect if you do not like seeing it in the gameplay settings.
We'll soon be rolling out the popular drunk text from GMod Tower in the near fuTUre.
Note: We do not promote drinking outside of Tower Unite. Don't try this at home. It's not good for your kidneys or your l i v e r.
Bowling Improved
There is a new HUD element that shows which pins are still standing.
There's also new rainbow light effects on lanes for when a player gets a strike or a spare.
On top of that, the bowling pin physics had a bit of improvement.
Laser Tag Patched Up!
Small, but largely needed changes were made to Laser Tag that bring back hit indicators, fix recharging stations not always highlighting, improve team indicators, and move the gun down when you are sprinting or tagged out.
End of Holiday Events
Winter is still in the Plaza, until the achievement update is out. However, we'll be ending the holiday events (presents and character visits) next Monday. So grab those exclusive items while you can!
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Changes
Improved player animations a bit, players no longer just rotate in place when they rotate their character. Now it smoothly rotates only when absolutely needed to
Added Square Teleporter and Canvas Dome items
New footstep sounds
Added quick hotbar UI element. Now when you switch weapons in Lobby, it'll briefly show the weapon hot bar so you know which weapon you just switched to
Workshop browser now remembers where you last left off (saves your tabs, filters, search text) per item type (saves different search states for player model and item states)
You now throw up when you drink too much (you can disable the effect in settings)
Updated drunk visuals, also made it a little harder to get extra drunk
Added sound effects to potatoes and pumpkins for the potato gun and pumpkin weapons
First person camera in RC sleigh is now smoothed
Viewself now disables if you are holding a weapon that has a secondary fire
Optimizations
Optimized media player rendering. The media player will only render the browser frames when in view and only when a video is playing. The idle screen was also turned into a pre-rendered texture to help ease FPS when the media player is completely idle (no video playing)
Optimized and decreased the amount of time it takes to open the pause menu by a TON
Optimized and decreased the amount of time it takes to open the settings menu
Minigolf Changes/Bug Fixes
Fixed spectator camera clipping through the world
Waterhole: Fixed some grass materials clipping with the course
Ball Race Changes/Bug Fixes
Fixed host advantage when starting levels (host would always be able to move faster than everyone else)
Fixed finish effects always being delayed if you had bad ping
Fixed melon pickups having a delay when you picked them up due to ping
Little Crusaders Changes/Bug Fixes
Movement is now more like Source movement, allowing for bhopping and better air control
When a Knight is scared they no longer drop Birb
Updated the random dragon selection system to pick a random player who has yet to become the dragon (until everyone has had a go at being the dragon)
It's now easier to hop over the dragon
Removed 0.4 delay once a knight is bitten
Sped up dragon bite anims and bite delays a bit
Adjusted button radius a bit
Your rank name now is displayed on the HUD
Added message when you rank up or lost rank
You can now third person as a ghost
Fixed bite, tail swipe, and roar animations sometimes being off sync
Fixed spawn music not playing
Fixed Birb physics not working properly
Virus Changes/Bug Fixes
Completely reworked the infection gameplay to help with ping issues. Infected no longer infect other players by touch. Infected now have to slash at players to infect them (you can also hold the button down and it'll keep slashing). The slash is network predicted, unlike the touch method, which will ensure there is no ping related issues. The infected have new animations and a crosshair
Reduced time it takes to engage Adrenaline (1.25 seconds to 0.5 seconds)
Improved effects for Sonic Shotgun, Flak Hand Cannon, and Adrenaline
Reduced view punch on Sonic Shotgun and Tommy Gun and Sci-fi Handgun
Improved the charging visuals for Plasma Autorifle and added sound feedback when the weapon is fully charged
Plasma Autorifle alt fire is more powerful
Added an announcement HUD message that tells you who is the first infected
Round HUD now shows up during intermission
Added total infected number on HUD near the timer
Updated the random first infected selection system to pick a random player who has yet to become first infected (until everyone has had a go at being the first infected)
Added spawn in animations that also telegraph when the infected can attack
You can now roar at other players with right click
Fixed glow effect becoming blue when someone else becomes infected
Fixed a bug where TNT would linger from players who disconnected
Fixed Plasma Autorifle muzzle flash bug
Fixed Plasma Autorifle secondary fire not playing its sound
Laser Tag Changes/Bug Fixes
Gun now moves downwards if you are out of power to make it more obvious you can't shoot in this state
Improved the team mate indicator so its more clear
Fixed laser tag gun not moving downwards when sprinting
Fixed third person aim offsets for laser tag when moving (players were rotated wrongly to the right)
Fixed recharge station not always highlighting properly
Fixed damage indicators not working
Bowling Changes/Bug Fixes
Media player in the party room now works
Added bowling pin display that shows which pins are still standing
Pin physics have been improved
Fixed location volume not being large enough
Fixed scores not showing up instantly (used to take a bit to display on the screen)
Fixed workshop player models being larger than they should be
Typing Derby Changes/Bug Fixes
Text is now actual sentences instead of random words
Added a new UI
Text submitted now displays above player horses so people can spectate
Your position now shows on the HUD
Added HUD messages when a player finishes
Added position you got on the HUD for the finish element
Added some lights for more feedback
If you are finished, the camera will show the entire track so you can watch other players
Added player typing animations
Bug Fixes
Reworked player model system to ensure player models will no longer reset back to female (non workshop mode)
Fixed equippable items not applying when you first load into a server
Fixed workshop character models not scaling properly in seats
Fixed workshop player models flickering sometimes
Fixed tool weapon shadows drawing while holstered
Fixed bug where players in sleighs would cause issues with the teleporters
Fixed bug with RC cars not reversing properly
Fixed duplicate backpack model when using the catpack
Fixed footstep sound effects not playing on landscapes (such as sand in Plaza/Condo)
Fixed melon rendering individual slices
Ferris Wheel: Fixed a bug where sometimes you just can't get off the Ferris Wheel
Fixed spectating resetting the camera when trying to switch to another spectator if there is only one spectator
Fixed media player dynamic lights being the wrong direction
This update addresses several issues that were reported and added some new features.
Changes
Updated changelog UI to have more character and show hotfixes more easily
Updated remote-controlled sleigh: now you can change passenger modes such as sitting next to the catsack, or allowing for two player passengers to hop on
Added new emote
Redeemable items now can be locked from being used
Improved sleigh controls
Improved sleigh networking (smoothed out the movement for other clients)
Bug Fixes
Improved Workshop item code, now handles duplicate workshop models much better
Workshop item crash fixes
Fixed Workshop physics items not working properly (or networking properly)
Fixed movement stutter with remote-controlled sleighs that occurs when you start and stop
Fixed a server side crash that occurs during minigames such as balloon shoot
Ball Race - Oasis: Fixed palm tree materials due to latest updates
Fixed a bug with the sleigh ghost appearing in the center of the map when there's an invalid sleigh spawn
Fixed a bug with sleigh when using the ferris wheel, rollercoaster, or laser tag
Fixed sleigh in underwater condo always floating up
This year we've added new holiday themed events such as characters (Santa Claws, Marshy, Tree, Cookie King, and Duke of Ettington), 9 new holiday items such as a remote-controlled sleigh, and improved Snowball Battle with a new Blizzard Blaster weapon (and higher payouts).
In this update we also addressed several issues and optimized the game further.
Achievements/Milestones/Badges/EXP/Leaderboards
We've been working hard on our next update, which is due to come out after the XMas holidays. All the new unlockables will be held in the upcoming collection book. Check out our latest weekly log to see exactly what it will entail here: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/t/weekly-dev-log-for-december-10th-2018/30240.
Changes
Plaza has been updated for the holidays!
New and improved Snowball Battle. Hit enemies with snowballs with the Blizzard Blaster
New holiday items: Cookies and Milk, Snowflake, Stocking, Ice Rink, Hockey Net, Hockey Puck, Canvas Present, Gingerbread Man, Remote-Controlled Sleigh
Presents now arrive on the beach
New holiday themed event characters
Optimized various internal resources to help with load times
Reorganized and added more item tags
Colorable editing now has tabs for each color instead of just a long horizontal list
Day/night condo settings now properly replicate and save per snapshot
Reduced treasure pickup delay time from 10 seconds to 2 seconds
Improved item award UI effects
Disabled jetpack start and stop sounds
Bug Fixes
Fixed canvas wall, glass wall, and frames not having proper rotations internally which caused issues with gizmos and rotation networking
Fixed canvas trust level approval not saving or updating properly
Fixed workshop player models not always assigning to other players (including yourself) when you first join a server
Increased precision with item rotation networking
Fixed physics items not syncing properly when players first join
Fixed another crash due to canvas disk cache
Fixed bucket collision
Fixed picnic table not being a seat
Fixed Pergola model not being aligned properly
Fixed Football Net not scaling properly
Fixed Sliding Door not scaling properly
Suite: Fixed a lighting error with the shelves
Resort: Fixed teleporter causing resetting player scales when used
Resort: Fixed teleporter pillar not being centered properly
Resort: Fixed some suite walls (the upper roof corner ones) not being editable
Resort: Fixed a duplicate light switch in one of the suites
Resort: Fixed some suite lights being mislabeled
Resort: Fixed some roof geometry poking through the casino ceiling
Resort: Fixed missing collision for the atrium maintenance ceiling
Resort: Fixed FPS issues around pool at night time
Resort: Fixed some storefronts not being editable
Resort: Fixed handrails being offset (including the glass) in the shopping area
Resort: Fixed a missing skylight frame
Resort: Fixed a collision issue around the pool area
Resort: Fixed a collision issue with the maintenance walkways
0.6.5.0 Patch (build 3395893)
Changes/Bug Fixes
Added santa hats to the stray and the RC sleigh
Fixed character spawns sometimes colliding with map boards
Fixed damage indicators happening sometimes even when you are not playing a minigame
Fixed ice rink z fighting issue
Fixed additional reported fatal errors
Fixed an issue with canvas walls
Fixed player ghosts showing up in the snowball battle arena
Fans of GMod Tower, we're very proud to finally release the HD remake of the original GMod Tower lobby 1 map. This new condo map will be very useful in the upcoming Community Condo update!
Everything from the original map was faithfully recreated and updated for Tower Unite. You can customize a lot of the condo, including materials, lighting, day/night, and weather. It's a massive condo that features a pool with diving boards, a cozy cabin with a small pond, 12 individual suites, a shopping center, a bar, and more!
VenTUre out and grab yourself that nostalgia at the Condo Realtor store in Sweet Suites.
New item: Customizable NPCs!
Want to create your own characters? Well, now you can! In this update we've added a new item called NPC which allows you to write dialogue for characters in your Condo.
These characters can be customized in various ways and have Workshop support!
Changes
Added new Condo: Resort, a recreation of GMod Tower's original lobby.
Added new item: NPC, a customizable non-playable character that you can write dialogue for
Bug Fixes
Fixed Projector light intensity affecting FPS due to recent changes
Fixed Neon Bar materials due to recent colorable changes
Fixed several materials on items due to recent colorable changes
Reduced texture memory size on several items
Fixed game queue UI element colliding with chat box
We've updated the Plaza to fit with the autumn/fall feel. We've also switched up the events a bit. Now Plaza has Target Practice, Balloon Shoot, and Food Frenzy minigames active. We've also turned back on the Metal Detector events which are now clientside so you don't have to worry about other player stealing your treasure.
More Colorable Options
We've made a lot of the current items colorable in this update. Somewhere around 300+ items now can be colored to your heart's content.
Bowling Media Players
Bowling now has media players per lane. This means you can queue up videos or music while you're enjoying a round of Bowling with your friends. The media players do support vote skipping as well and only players who are playing Bowling with you can interact with your lane's media player.
Condo Weather Saving
Weather in Condos now save, allowing you to customize your weather for each Condo snapshot without having to constantly update the settings each time.
Changes
Autumn has come to the Plaza
Weather settings now save in Condos (including snapshots)
Bowling: Added media players per lane
New Autumn minigame in Plaza: Food Frenzy
Lots and lots of items are now colorable
Ferris Wheel now has a few light cycles that animate
Ferris Wheel carriages now can swing with player input
New character dialogue UI
Store pedestal items rotates on mouse move now instead of just automatic rotation
Zombie Massacre: Removed some overpowered camping spots from Trainyard
Bug Fixes
Fixed a crash related to Haunted TV and Crystal Ball
Fixed a crash with canvas disk cache
Fixed a crash with workshop models
Fixed manual inputs not working for rotation gizmos
Fixed a bug where sometimes MFMedia plugin would try to load
Fixed long standing inventory bug where highlighting or tooltips would just not activate sometimes (also improved highlighting logic to avoid issues like these in the future)
Fixed some typos in items and settings
Fixed being able to move theater screens in the theater condo with gizmos
Fixed canvas trusting not always working when you first join a condo
Fixed not being able to sell Splat drink item
Fixed theater media player issues in the theater condo, plaza (beach houses, roof top, and hq)
Fixed long standing bug with colorable items, resulting in parts going white after reloading among other things
Fixed players not showing up sometimes in Zombie Massacre
Fixed players not showing up sometimes in Ball Race
House: Fixed the UVs on the basement stair wall being offset. It is now aligned with the rest of the walls
House: Fixed the ceiling UVs in the basement stair room being warped and distorted. It is now in agreement with the other ceilings
Zombie Massacre: Reduced the chance of Zombies getting into areas they shouldn't on Compound
Zombie Massacre: Fixed collision issue with bridge support in Trainyard
This update addresses several issues that were reported.
We've also reworked the Plaza Minigames to make them a better experience for everyone, improving networking and lag.
We also fixed up some Halloween Plaza issues and optimized more.
Changes
Plaza minigames networking has been drastically reduced (will solve many of the lag issues with them)
Plaza minigame targets and actions are now clientside (other players cannot shoot your targets before you have a chance). Now it's all about getting the highest score
Optimized Halloween Plaza
Bug Fixes
Fixed player models reverting to default feminine model
Fixed appearance body tabs not showing outfits properly
Fixed sound emitters not loading their sounds on condo load sometimes and not saving volume min/max
Fixed sound emitters playing a random sound when you first place it
Fixed teleporter effects not being colored properly
Fixed fog in Plaza theater
Fixed some reported Plaza bugs
Fixed FX and sound emitter icons displaying on for condo guests (should only be for the owner)
This year we've added new Halloween items designed for haunted house creation. Placeable lights, placeable particle FX (more to be added in later updates), and placeable sounds. With these new FX items, you can change the mood of your condo.
Improved Halloween Events
In the 2017 Halloween events, everyone had to fight over the remains that spawned. This year we reworked the system so that everyone has a fair chance. When the events begin, the remains will be pre-assigned and hidden for everyone but you. That way no one can just sneak by and take your ghastly remains.
We're also including the 2017 items in this event, so you get another chance at them.
With that said - we hope you have a spook-filled Halloween!
Hey Custom Indiegogo Backers!
Your statues are ready to view in the Art Gallery! We're still working on the remaining furniture backer items, but we are very close to being done with them.
Changes
Added new exclusive Halloween event items for 2018: Crystal Ball, Ethereal Pumpkin, Haunted TV, and Hell Portal
Added Spooky Sound Emitter, Flies FX, Moths FX, Floor Fog FX to Celebrations (also available in Halloween events)
Added Placeable Light, Placeable Spot Light, Emergency Light to Electronics (also available in Halloween events)
Added Whiskey, Port, Tall Wine Bottle, Moonshine, Sake Bottle, Sake Cup, Vodka, Water Bottle, Mason Jar, Shot Glass, and Splat Soda to the Bar and Vending machines
Improved stability for minigames
Backer statues are now available in the Art Gallery
Tool weapons no longer can interact with locked items
Added feedback for when you are out of items to duplicate with Copycat
Created a new item type for placing down FX particles in the Condo
Added light function support to all lamp items
Added tiling support to condo surfaces
Added placeable lights and spot lights
Added placeable sound emitters
Copycat now works on Condo lights
Treasure events (metal detector, forgotten remains, etc.) are now pre-assigned to each player that is connected to the server when the event begins. This change means no other player can see your treasures or take them from you. Since treasures are now pre-assigned, the amount of treasure has been increased. This gives players a fair chance at collecting treasures equally
Bug Fixes
Fixed living lobby players not showing up
Fixed/optimized light editing in Condos
Fixed tool weapon prompts displaying when you cannot use them (scale tool and stasher)
Fixed copycat creating a duplication ghost when you are out of items to duplicate
Fixed chat rules typo
Fixed condo surface coloring not working if you have a canvas set
Another quick hot fix, but we've also added a couple new features.
0.6.1.1 Addendum Fixes 10/15/2018
Locked items no longer can be edited, stashed, or sold until they are unlocked
Added a lock icon on item tool tip next to items that are locked
Gizmo input: uniform scale button is easier to click on
Gizmo input: spin and stretch buttons were switched
Increased lighting in Suite
Disabled dynamic shadows in Studio
Added chat rules/agreement popup
Fixed laser pointer not working Lobby
Fixed a bug with Minigolf
Fixed parental control warning not always applying properly
Fixed player metadata applying too late when a player respawns (caused respawn issues in Ball Race)
Canvas Disk Cache System
This system will automatically download trusted canvases (by default only your friends) and store them on the disk.
You can disable this, but we recommend it for Condos you enter often as it speeds up load times dramatically. In our tests, Condos with canvases went from 80 seconds load times to half a second.
Any blocked canvas players will automatically be cleared out from your disk cache, as well.
We've also added options to clear out your canvas cache. The canvas cache data is stored in a Cache folder in your Tower Unite folder.
Changes
Added translation planes to gizmos which allow you to move items on set xyz planes
Added uniform scaler to scale gizmo
Workshop Editor: Added ability to use emissive value on translucent materials
Workshop Editor: Added ability to inverse shoulder width
Added canvas disk cache which dramatically improves load-ins for condos you have visited already. This can be turned off and blocked players/URLs will automatically be removed from the disk cache. There will also be a mode to enable it only for Condos that you are friends with
Added descriptions to parental control settings
Bug Fixes
Fixed workshop player models being larger than they should
Fixed piano and typing animations making players lift up in their seats
Fixed crouch animations clipping through floor in Lobby
Fixed workshop favorites icons being stretched
Workshop Editor: Fixed shoulder width not being previewable with animations
Workshop Editor: Fixed My Uploads not showing all your uploads if you had more than 50 uploads
Fixed Ball Race and Bowling not using shoulder width/placement for workshop models properly
Fixed parental controls warning that you haven't done anything due to global chat bug (server steam id lookup failure)
Fixed canvas parental control settings not working when you join a server through global chat (server steam id lookup failure)