Mar 17, 2019

Tower Unite - MacDGuy

This update addresses several issues that were reported. All unit transactions have been moved to the new backend which should make everything a lot more stable now.

New Payout System

We've reworked the payout system to use the new backend, ensuring you'll be getting payouts for all games properly from now on.

This change also should see faster connections to the new backend.

New Store Buy and Sell System

With this change we also reduced store transaction errors and made the store transactions better by using the new backend.

You can also sell multiple of an item thanks to this new backend from your inventory directly in the game. A feature many of you have requested for a long time now!

Changes

New payout system
New store buy and sell system
Added the ability to sell up to 10 of an item at a time
Optimized start up load time
Updated client system to handle backend downtime better (queuing up achievements and exp so you'll never lose track of them when the backend goes down)
Ball Race: Added golden melon HUD element so you can better track which ones you've gotten
Updated Housewarming achievement description to be more descriptive
Updated Human Blur achievement description to be more descriptive
Updated "I Can See My House From Here" achievement description
Added RC controller icon for remote controller items (such as RC orb) to avoid icon confusion
Added display types for achievements that have seconds or meters
Increased EXP earn rate for Typing Derby and Trivia
Added ability to jump with RC orb milestone
Added new effects for Gold and Diamond jetpacks

Bug Fixes

Fixed lag related to displaying server lists
Fixed first person legs breaking when holding a weapon
Fixed Minigolf par achievements (like actually this time)
Fixed achievement: Around The World
Fixed achievement: Socialite
Fixed achievement: It's a Party
Fixed achievement: Get Together
Fixed achievement: Movie Night
Fixed achievement: Count of Amphitheatre
Fixed achievement: Amphitheatre Beast
Fixed achievement: Long Putt
Fixed achievement: Long Drive
Fixed achievement: Trivia Brainiac
Fixed achievement: Long Shot
Fixed achievement: Fields of Green
Fixed achievement: Weird Science
Fixed achievement: Homerun
Fixed achievement: Ribs Grow Back You Know
Fixed achievement: Wheel of Nothing
Fixed achievement: Drop And Roll
Fixed achievement: Kingpin
Fixed achievement: Smarty Pants being the incorrect amount
Fixed achievement: Trivia Show Off
Fixed being able to sell Sonic Shotgun milestone
Fixed TNT milestone issues
Fixed Ball Race orb milestone jump not working in Plaza
Fixed Galaxy Orb textures missing when broken
Fixed Galaxy Orb missing icon on Steam
Fixed laser tag symbol milestone taking input away from reload
Fixed Zombie Massacre trophies missing collision
Fixed Plasma Autorifle milestone ammo issues
Fixed Typing Derby HUD "ending typing derby" element colliding with EXP HUD element
Fixed Bowling Ball Rack duplicating itself when moving it

You can follow our current developments on our Trello:
https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

You can follow our weekly developer logs here:
http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

You can report bugs on our forums:
http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report

Or you may also report bugs on our Steam community, but please expect slow response time.

Mar 12, 2019

Hot Fix 0.7.0.2

Tower Unite - MacDGuy

This update addresses several issues that were reported, including many of the crashes people have been reporting.

In this patch we focused on fixing several of the crashes related to achievements.

Changes

Plaza: Adjusted trees' leaf color to be a bit more green and less yellow, and slightly more colorful
Plaza: Subtly warmed the lighting in the outdoor areas of the plaza (less "blue tint")
Plaza: Added night lighting around the plaza
Plaza: Converted the event-Tower Lobby doorway to an open-air design
Plaza: Changed the plaza roads on either side of the gameports building to follow the buildings more elegantly

Bug Fixes

Fixed additional crashes related to achievements/EXP
Fixed Trivia join issues when joining from a game invite
Fixed player ghosts displaying in Bowling
Added a spawn point for Birb milestone and also fixed the Birb not removing when you remove the item
Fixed coming soon leaderboards not being that great looking UI wise
Updated gold melon collect description text to be more informative
Fixed 9MM milestone not having a world model and also running out of ammo
Fixed RC plane remote model issues
Fixed gold melons for Khromidro being out of order
Fixed achievement: Stuffed Discovery
Fixed achievement: Explorer
Fixed achievement: Photographer
Fixed achievement: Housewarming
Fixed achievement: Natural Jackpot
Fixed achievement: Pianist
Fixed achievement: Drumm
Fixed achievement: You Are Dead
Fixed achievement: Drunken Afterlife
Fixed achievement: Socialite
Fixed achievement: Float Denier
Fixed achievement: Wordsmith
Fixed achievement: Gone In 60 Seconds
Fixed achievement: Derby Winner
Fixed Survived [insert Virus map] achievements being the incorrect amount
Fixed achievement: Taunting Death
Fixed achievement: Casino Addict
Fixed achievement: Overdose
Fixed achievement: Druggie
Fixed Master of [insert Ball Race map] achievements
Fixed achievement: Count of Amphitheatre
Fixed achievement: Amphitheatre Beast
Fixed finished achievements showing the wrong percent sometimes
Fixed achievement: Ultimate Devourer
Fixed achievement: Quick Draw
Fixed achievement: Dodge This
Fixed achievement: Long Putt
Fixed achievement: Long Drive
Fixed achievement: Speedster
Fixed achievement: Home Away From Home
Fixed achievement: Coaster Addict
Fixed Minigolf par achievements
Fixed Ball Race leaderboards being off by one level (once again)
Plaza: Fixed several holes and collision issues
Plaza: Fixed a viewfinder on the monorail bridge facing the wrong way

Mar 10, 2019

Hot Fix 0.7.0.1

Tower Unite - MacDGuy

This update addresses several issues that were reported and brings achievements and EXP back online.

Please keep in mind that the servers are currently being hammered and we're still working on the backend to make it an enjoyable experience. As such, we'd like to let you know a couple things when this patch is out:

Please wait until you see a green dot in the top right of the pause menu before attempting to collect achievements or EXP. The green dot is right next to the build number.
When the update first releases, it could take about 10-20 minutes for the systems to be fully functional due to the initial traffic. So please be patient. Again, if you see the green dot, you're connected.
If you unlock an achievement in-game and it's not unlocked on Steam, please wait about 10-20 seconds until it unlocks. During this time, try not to close your game as it it'll sync your status with Steam automatically. We are working on making this better in the backend.
We're constantly monitoring the backend and making adjustments to improve stability, but we can only do this while it's live.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. We love you all.

Changes

Re-enabled achievements and EXP systems

Bug Fixes

Backend only: Solve achievement connection issues
Fixed crashes related to achievements
Fixed player ghosts showing up in Trivia
Fixed player ghosts showing up in Theater
Fixed player ghosts showing up in Minigames
Fixed theater media player bounds
Fixed being able to walk through a wall in trivia
Fixed being able to walk through a wall in bowling (shoe rack)
Fixed achievement: "Ultimate Cape Crusader"
Fixed achievement: "Eat All the Knights" achievements
Fixed achievement: "Ultimate Devourer"
Fixed achievement: "Behind The Scenes"
Fixed EXP in Little Crusaders
Fixed "Gold Golf Ball" not being on the milestone list
Fixed player names colliding with badges in Minigolf scoreboard
Little Crusaders: Fixed camping spot in Market
Fixed leaderboards in collection book only listing 5 entries (now lists 50) and also shows your current ranking
Fixed Ball Race leaderboards being off by one level
Fixed being able to enter games while in a remote-controlled vehicle from game invites

Mar 8, 2019

Lobby 3 and Achievement/Milestones/EXP/Stats/Leaderboard Update (0.7.0.0)

Tower Unite - MacDGuy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6tgL1te1PU

Lobby 3 is here!

That's right, Lobby 3 is finally here! This is the first phase of Lobby 3. That’s right, while we’re ready to release this phase of Lobby 3, there is much more detail and optimizations in the pipeline for future phases. This is by no means the final version of Lobby 3.

Faster Load Times
The Plaza has been created completely from scratch, which let us spend lots more time optimizing the models and materials, something that was difficult to do with the old Plaza.

Complete Redesigns
Including optimizations, the Plaza has been completely redesigned with a brand new layout, which helps brings all of our plaza activities to the forefront, while cutting down on wasted space.

New Pool Area
Lobby 3 introduces a brand new pool area, complete with a lazy river and the waterslides back from the GMT days.

Achievements & Milestones are here!

Achievements
No longer will your accomplishments in Tower Unite be ignored, with achievements, you’ll get a shiny new badge when you perform amazing tasks. There are a total of 348 achievements so far!

Collection Book
The collection book allows you to see all your achievement, badge, milestone, and stat progress all in one convenient place. We'll be using this book more in the future!

EXP & Badges
Level up per game by earning EXP from playing the games or getting achievements. As you level up, you'll earn badges which will display next to your name on the scoreboard for all to see. Each game has dozens of badges to unlock.

Milestones
Once you level up, you'll also be rewarded with milestone items. Milestones are items that are unique to each game and are highly interactive items such as an RC dragon from Little Crusaders or a drivable helicopter from Zombie Massacre. There's over 70 unique milestones to earn.

Leaderboards
In this update we've also added leaderboards. You can view the leaderboards in the Plaza, but also in the collection book. There's quite a few for each game.

Stats
And if that's not enough, we also track tons of various stats in the game now. You can see how many catsacks you've opened, how many steps you've taken, and tons more!

RC Cars and Boats!

Remote-controlled cars and boats are now available at the Toy Shop. We've also added an RC plane and an RC UFO. You can drive all the remote-controlled vehicles in both Plaza and Condos!

This is a Massive Update!

This is one of our largest updates to the game yet! Many of our backend services had to change to make this update possible. As such, please be aware there could be some bugs and some issues. So please report any issues and we'll fix them as soon as possible! Thank you all!

Changes

New plaza - Lobby 3!
Completely redesigned all of the plaza
Optimized the plaza
Added achievements
Added milestones
Added EXP & badges
Added stats
Added leaderboards
Added an option to draw your legs in first person (experimental and still has some issues, but working for the most part)
Pool tubes now have unique poses while swimming in water
Added a new store, D.I.Y. which now has all the canvas and building blocks items
Added Camera item to Electronics store
Added upgrades menu to appearance, for when upgrades is available. Some milestones use this menu already
Implemented the internal upgrades system, stores are coming soon as we are still making upgrades

Feb 19, 2019

Hot Fix 0.6.6.4

Tower Unite - MacDGuy

This update addresses several issues that were reported. This update was primarily to prepare for the achievement update as it has several backend changes.

Vote Kick

You can now vote kick players out of Game World servers. Vote kick requires a 2/3 majority to confirm the kick. You can start a vote kick by clicking on a player's name in the scoreboard and clicking on Request Vote Kick. After that, other players can vote yes or no with F1 and F2 keys.

Changes

Snow has melted in the Plaza
Added the ability to vote kick in Game Worlds
You can now see the name of the player who is hosting a game server from the server browser
Condo chat now defaults to local chat
You can now toggle which global chat Plaza regions you'd like to see (default all on)
Reworked official server list so we can easily add/remove official servers without needing to push out an update
Updated Minigolf customize UI, now more widescreen than tall
You can now use the appearance editor in games, but it disables all the tabs except for the upgrades tab
Added current players / max players to the active server information UI (shows player count on waiting for players and scoreboards)
Reworked Game World voice system to always work regardless of game states (fixes waiting for players or post game voice not working)
Reversed wording for disable chat filter and disable chat
Appearance editor was updated to show more upgrades for each game, in preparation for the upgrades update
You can now zoom with the crossbow in the Balloon Shoot minigame
Typing Derby: Pressing space on a incomplete word will no longer wipe all word progress.

Bug Fixes

Fixed not being able to right click on items that are in your hot bar
Fixed active server information not actually being accurate (server title should always display now)
Fixed change log buttons for hotfixes not disabling when switching between each
Virus: Fixed an exploit
Virus: Fixed not being able to respawn if you died by your own TNT
Little Crusaders: Fixed bug with chat not opening if you had it bound to T
ZM: Fixed helicopter damage particles

Feb 1, 2019

Update 0.6.6.2

Tower Unite - MacDGuy

This update addresses several issues that were reported.

Little Crusaders: Dragon Bite and Knight Button Press is now predicted!

Using advanced methods, we've finally predicted the dragon bit and button presses. This change will make Little Crusaders more tolerable for those who have higher pings. On top of that, the bite radius and button press radius have all been tweaked to be more reliable.

Changes

Improved player animations a bit, head movement now moves properly when rotating around in place
Added horizontal head movement while in a seat, so now you can stare at people while in your comfy seat
Updated look of action menu buttons a bit (the C button menu)
Updated look of tower express button on the pause menu to make it more clear what it is
You can now rotate your character while in the appearance editor in Plaza/Condo
If you are finished in Ball Race/Minigolf, payout will occur even if you are AFK
Added a toggle third person keybind that allows you to quickly toggle back and forth between thirdperson and first person in Plaza/Condo
When viewing yourself in Plaza/Condo, your head no longer moves
Plaza event treasure count now shows how many are left for you, instead of just the entire server
Updated teleporter visuals a bit

Little Crusaders Changes

Dragon bite is now predicted
Increased dragon bite radius
Reduced dragon bite recovery duration
Knight button press is now predicted
Dragon once again pushes Knights off when it jumps
Dragon can now tail swipe when moving/biting/roaring
Made it slightly easier to pancake knights as dragon
Reduced dragon bhopping acceleration
Reduced knight bhopping acceleration
Dragon rotation animations no longer are active when biting or roaring (prevents weird rotation issues)
Knights who are stunned by tail swipe can no longer just stop themselves in mid air
Toy Room - Removed the invisible wall of the cup (as it was not clear it was there) and added a pencil pathway to solve the cup camping spot
Taunt button is now bound to reload (default R) instead of right click to fatal avoid misclicks
Updated the HUD text for ranks a bit
Adjusted eye height offsets for first person cameras for knights and ghosts (you're shorter now and match the size of the knights)
Slays/deaths now show up for dragon and ghosts on scoreboard

Virus Changes

Sonic Shotgun alt fire blast is now predicted
Plasma Autorifle primary fire cannot be fired if you are charging alt fire
Sonic Shotgun can no longer charge while reloading
Reduced infected slash hit sound volume
Reduced infected slash trace distance
If the infected win, the round no longer freezes all player movements
Infected players no longer block damage traces by other infected players
Survivors no longer block weapon traces, so you can shoot through your friends again
Optimized spawn effects

Ball Race Changes

Optimized pickup effects

Bug Fixes

Investigated the workshop crashes, hopefully resolved some issues
Fixed a bug with the audio system stopping all sound if there are more than 32 players in a single area together
Fixed a bug with the voice audio system preventing new voice IP streams if there are more than 3-4 players talking at once
Little Crusaders: Fixed dragon being able to crouch (just effected the camera, not gameplay)
Little Crusaders: Fixed a camping spot in Ampitheatre
Little Crusaders: Fixed a bug with player rotations for ghosts and knights
Little Crusaders: Fixed a bug where ghost music would play over top of the round/spawn music
Virus: Fixed last round ending weirdly
Virus: Fixed head collision (for headshots) not matching infected animation
ZM: Fixed helicopter being damagable
ZM: Fixed bug where player zombies could be sucked up by the black hole forever
Minigolf: Fixed wearables not hiding completely when getting a HIO
Typing Derby: Fixed issue that prevented the game from ending properly
Fixed magic trampoline condo permission not working
Fixed instrument condo permission not working
Fixed pistol shoot animations reverting legs to center
Fixed square teleporter material visual bug
Fixed a bug where you could enter viewing self while in the pause menu

Jan 22, 2019

A Quality of Life Update (0.6.6.0)

Tower Unite - MacDGuy

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!

----

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
Fixed Project 12 bar media players

UPCOMING UPDATES