May 29, 2019

Tower Unite - MacDGuy

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

IT'S TIME TO FISH!

After tons of time and work, Fishing is finally here!

Fish With Your Friends
Fishing is a fun and relaxing Plaza activity that you can play with other players. Catch fish together and show off what you caught with your friends.

Catch Over 100 Different Fish and Weird Items
The aquatic ecosystem of the Plaza has been greatly expanded, and with over 100 different species of fish and a bunch of exclusive fishing items to be found, there’s sure to be some hidden treasure waiting just for you.

Use Various Bait
Different types of fish are attracted to different types of bait. We've added tons of variations of bait to help your fishing needs at the Gone Fishin' Bait Shop, right near the rollercoaster dock and the fishing docks behind the games building.

Adopt Sea Friends
Sometimes you'll catch a Sea Dollar. They're the currency of the sea. Once you have enough sea dollars, you can adopt aquatic friends such as dolphins, whales, and sea TUrtles.

Build Aquariums
After you've got a fish, you can place the fish in aquariums in your Condo. Just drag the fish into the aquarium and it'll be happy to call it home.

Become a Dolphin
That's right, become a dolphin. Fishing comes with several milestones and one of the coolest milestone is actually being able to become a dolphin.

New Inventory

Search
No more spending countless hours searching your inventory for that one soda can, the new inventory features a convenient search bar so you can get back to customizing that sick condo.

Easy Filters
Just looking for all your couches? There’s now a button for that too. With the easy filters, all of your couches, chairs, and other item categories can be filtered in just a few clicks.

Improved Tooltips
Tooltips now tell you more useful information, such as the store the item can be found in and in which Tower Unite update the item was added.

Sorting
You can also now sort items by their name, price, and version added.

Color
The new inventory is also colorable, so you can customize what color you want your inventory to be. Obtain that perfect nostalgic blue or the cute hot pink look.

Lock
A new lock feature was added which lets you lock the inventory in place. This keeps the inventory from automatically closing after you release the Q key.

New Store UI

New Logos and Themes (and some sounds)
The store UI has been completely redone with unique theming and logos, adding charm and character to each store.

Landing Page
The store UI now also splits the items sold into categories. Looking for just bait? Click that bait button. Looking for lures? Well, you get the idea.

Sorting
You can now sort items in the store by their name, price, and the version of the game they were added.

Shared Jackpot

Wheel of Money was updated to now have a shared jackpot across all machines. This change makes it so no machine has a unique jackpot, keeping things a bit more civil amongst players. Also, we've increased the chance of winning the jackpot by just a tiny little hair.

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Changes

Added Fishing!
- Collection book now has a sea encyclopedia to track caught fish
- Bait shop and fishing rod now functional
- Over 100 fish species and dozens of weird items
Summer event characters are back
Metal detector events are back
Casino: Added shared jackpot for Wheel of Money - each WOM machine will now contribute to a cumulative jackpot instead of per-machine
Added audio effects for diving underwater
Added new Bowling Ball upgrades: Gumball Bowling Ball, Catball Bowling Ball, Dogball Bowling Ball
Minigolf: Garden - Polishing Update
- Art & lighting improvements
- Updated tubes to use the new tube system, ensuring they no longer break
- Several misc bug fixes
Minigolf: Cove - Polishing Update
- Art & lighting improvements
- Updated tubes to use the new tube system, ensuring they no longer break
- Several misc bug fixes
Minigolf: Alpine - Polishing Update
- Art & lighting improvements (including the caves)
- Added new course signage
- Added gondola track
- Updated tubes to use the new tube system, ensuring they no longer break
- Fixed hole 18 sometimes throwing you off course
- Several misc bug fixes
Inventory UI Rework
- Separated furniture inventory from the hot bar - furniture inventory is now at the bottom of the screen and is much larger
- Created a better filter system - now you can filter quicker and find items faster
- Added search bar - you can search through names and item tags
- Added tabs and subtabs by item types
- Added sorting (sort by A-Z, cost, etc)
- Added lock inventory feature, which allows you to lock the inventory and not have to continue holding down Q while using it
- Hot bar will now automatically hide away when dragging an item for better visibility (unless you have locked the inventory)
- Added hot bar tabs - for easier organization of different hot bar item types
- Added favorite item support - now you can favorite items that you reused a lot
- Added color setting - recolor the inventory to that perfect blue (or pink) or anything you want really
Store UI Rework
- Added new logos and unique colors for each store
- Added a landing page for each store that shows the top categories that you'd care about in that store
- Added sorting (sort by name, price, and version added)
- Added newly added items page (so you can see which new items were recently added to the store)
- Added friend grouping system for Plaza - create a group and add your friends! More functionality will be added in coming updates
Lobby 3 Phase 3
- New fishing areas added
- Dueling Arena entrance added
- Bumper Car entrance added
- You can now sit in every chair/couch/bench in the plaza
- Updated foliage in various areas around the map
- Added fencing and details around the beach-side fishing hole
- Fixed the concrete appearing metallic
- You can now use the RC boats in the main Plaza fountains
- Added more location volumes throughout Plaza
- New Toy Stop advertisement
- Changed from the Volumetric Indirect Lighting System to the VLM Sparse Volume Lighting System - improving lighting overall
- There is now only one lobby elevator that goes to Project 12
- Reduced the size of the cartoonishly large stair steps at the theater exterior entrance
- Replaced "GAMES" sign with higher quality model
- Updated materials on boardwalk
- Added additional pathways to the beach side fishing hole
Underwater condo improvements
- Removed blue tint from interior of Underwater condo
- Adjusted outdoor lighting in Underwater condo to look better
- Removed caustic "milky" effect from inside the underwater condo
- Improved indoor lighting in underwater condo
Added bowling and trivia scoreboards to the scoreboard menu
Added option to invert plane vertical controls
Your player name now shows at the top of the scoreboard at all times in Plaza/Condo
Added new aquarium items to the Gone Fishin' Bait Shop
Added thumbnail support to Old Theater Projector
Reorganized stores:
- Moved Beer item from Fresh to Project 12 bar
- Moved Theater items from Rob's Imports to the Theater store
- Moved Old TV and Old Computer from Rob's Imports to to Central Circuit
- Moved Buttons from Rob's Imports to DIY store
- Moved Beach Volleyball Net and Boxing Ring from Sweet Suite to Toy Stop
- Moved Body Pillow from Sweet Suite to DIY store
- Moved Standing Picture Frame from Sweet Suite to DIY store
- Moved all lamps from Sweet Suite to Central Circuit
- Moved Fountain and Pergola from Sweet Suite to Seasons
- Moved some outdoor items from Sweet Suite to Seasons
- Moved Plastic Tent from Rob's imports to Seasons
- Moved Fish Bowl from Toy Stop to the Gone Fishin' Bait Shop
Improved look of inventory tool tips
Inventory tool tips now show what store the items are from and what version the item was added

Bug Fixes

Fixed not always being able to click on leave for the Golf Ball milestone
Fixed poker UI bug that prevented you from using any of the buttons after the EXP UI popped up
Fixed underwater effects not occuring (and for vehicles as well)
Plaza Fixes
- Fixed incorrect collision wall on top of the large peninsula in the Plaza
- Fixed missing material on some Tower struts
- Fixed the collision on the Gameworld Port building windows
- Reduced the chance of falling down an invisible gap between the lazy river and landscape
- Fixed being able to get under the Arcade building near the rollercoaster
- Fixed lights from the subway station sticking up into the upper subway area
- Fixed boat dock location volume being incorrectly placed
- Fixed some missing collisions in the Casino
- Fixed some areas of the Ocean being un-swimmable
Fixed Trivia screen cutting off player names or answers if the question is more than 2 lines
Fixed Stasher tool lagging when you stash items
Fixed inventory bug where item icons would change to a different item icon unrelated to the item
Fixed items still having a new tag even if they aren't new
Fixed Jetpack, Football, Basketball, and Beachball clipping through the store pedestals
Fixed game activity names on scoreboard not always displaying the activities due to networking distances
Fixed Old Theater Projector drawing shadows over the projection
Fixed RC plane trails
Fixed a typo on the Pizza box
Removed headband from Bunny Ears

UPCOMING UPDATES

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.

Apr 16, 2019

Easter Event 2019 (0.7.2.0)

Tower Unite - MacDGuy

Easter events are here!

This is our first Easter themed event, so we hope you enjoy these little games. This update also includes a Plane War minigame which will run in normal non-event rotation from now on.

Tower Unite, now with PAK

We have more news with the release of this update. We've conducted some research into the PAK format which Unreal Engine allows us to package our game in. In conducting this research, we've found that PAK files can significantly reduce the loading times of the game, with some drawbacks we’ll detail below.

We tested how long it takes to load into the Plaza from the Main Menu. The test was conducted on a Intel Core i7-5820K, with a Intel 750 Series 400GB PCI-E SSD and a Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 7200 RPM HDD. Of course, keep in mind that your results may vary from our tests.

Hard Drive with PAK File: 24 seconds to load into the plaza.
Hard Drive without PAK File: 2 minutes 45 seconds to load into the plaza.
SSD with PAK File: 7 seconds to load into the plaza.
SSD without PAK File: 43 seconds to load into the plaza.

There are some drawbacks to using the PAK file however, which is why this will be available via an opt-in process.

Due to how the PAK file is generated, any change to the game will require a full re-download of Tower Unite.So for example, if we push out a small patch that only changes 25MB, the non-PAK users will only have to download the 25 MB that changed, while the PAK file users will have to download 9.8 GB.
The PAK file is compressed, which helps reduce the amount of data that is required to be loaded, but comes with a small CPU overhead, which we weren't able to measure, but it could be an issue if the computer is lower powered.
As the build times are slightly longer, when an update is released, there might be a small delay in when the PAK version of the game will be pushed out.

If this sounds fine to you, here's how you can participate. In your library, right click Tower Unite, and click Properties. Then, click the BETAS tab and select defaultpak. This will start downloading the PAK version of Tower Unite.

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Changes

Added new Easter themed items (available in the easter egg hunt event): Bunny Ears, Catsack Bunny, Plush Rabbit, Basket, Throwable Eggs
New Easter Egg Hunt event
New minigame: Easter Egg Fall
New minigame: Plane War
Improved Fruit Frenzy minigame
Removed trampoline from Fruit Frenzy and instead added increased jump height for all players in the minigame
Fruit Frenzy now gives all players an air dash item that allows players to dash through the air
Minigame HUD now shows who killed you last
Minigame HUD now has kill feed

Bug Fixes

Fixed workshop player models sometimes not loading in!!!
Fixed Adrenaline milestone not working after first use

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

UPCOMING UPDATES

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.

Apr 5, 2019

Event Horizon (0.7.1.0)

Tower Unite - MacDGuy

Event Horizon - a new Ball Race map!

Major Changes

Added new Ball Race map - Event Horizon!
Plaza: New Bait Shop & Boat Rental (for the upcoming fishing update)
Plaza: Added detail to Fresh store (part 1)
Plaza: Added new upgrades store window displays
Plaza: Added private theater entrance area (for upcoming private theater feature)

Changes

Plaza: Moved the boat launch building over to give the new bait shop & boat rental building more space
Plaza: Cleaned up the railings around the boardwalk
Plaza: Added more night lighting around boardwalk
Updated the targets in Target Practice to be visible during night time better (they no longer appear dark at all). Also updated the effects for the special targets
Added target lifetime indicators to Target Practice so you can tell when a target is about to remove itself
Updated the lighting in Minigolf - Forest to look much better
Updated leaderboard scoreboards screens in Plaza to show top 10 instead of just top 5
NPC item no longer shows prompt for talking to them if they have no dialogue lines at all
NPC item no longer shows leave dialogue if there is no dialogue lines
NPC item no longer shows talk button if there is no dialogue lines
Collection book now remembers the last scroll bar position after you've closed it and reopened it
Improved the look of the diamond golf ball
Updated engine sounds for RC golf cart
Added a setting to enable dynamic weapon scopes (like the crossbow) for better performance
Added a gameplay reset option to reset all plaza trackers (plushies, info markers, and camera spots)
Updated diamond jetpack trail
Reduced the scale of the RC car

Bug Fixes

Plaza: Added collision to the plaza road's trim so players can no longer fall through it when using the tiny potion
Plaza: Reduced texture data from ~760MB to ~740MB which will very slightly improve load times (ongoing process)
Plaza: Added collision to a metal wall behind the tower that did not have collision
Plaza: Fixed a gap in the escalators
Fixed a bug leading to plaza minigame payouts not always working
Minigolf - Sweet Tooth: Fixed the tubes getting players stuck by redoing them entirely
Minigolf - Altitude: Fixed Hole 18 being the absolute worst
Ball Race - Khromidro: Reduced the chance of falling through the finish circles without actually finishing
Ball Race - Summit: Fixed various different areas where you could get stuck
Virus - Hospital: Fixed an issue where you couldn't infect players in certain areas
Virus: Fixed workshop models sometimes loading in after the virus player model is set, causing infected players sometimes not being the infected model
Fixed a couple exploits with vote kicking
Fixed a couple exploits regarding upgrade items
Fixed Throwable Popcorn and Camera weapon shadows drawing when they shouldn't be
Fixed Casino anti-macro check breaking equipables when it failed to verify
Fixed first person legs causing players to be headless while using RC vehicles
Fixed monster potion creating lag and preventing switching monsters after doing the attack animation
Fixed achievement: Ribs Grow Back You Know
Fixed achievement: Big Bucks
Fixed achievement: Casino Addict
ZM: Optimized boss intros
ZM: Optimized monster materials and textures

Mar 17, 2019

Hot Fix 0.7.0.3

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

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