Jun 9, 2021

PogoChamp - ilikeshiny

This week I continued to work on the new game modes. They're really starting to come together, and I've fixed a ton of bugs that adding them introduced. The biggest tasks remaining are finalizing the Leaderboard support, and doing a little bit of extra validation for Daily Challenge level selection and leaderboard uploads.

Changelog [preview: not in the Steam build yet]

==== WARNING: Mild spoilers beyond this point ====

FEATURE: Update Pause menu to support Daily Challenge mode.
FEATURE: Running out of lives now ends Survival Mode & Daily Challenge runs.
BUG FIX: Fix bug where times were doubled when you crashed in Survival mode.
FEATURE: Add end screen to Survival Mode.
IMPROVEMENT: Better handling of Pause menu edge cases during Survival mode.
IMPROVEMENT: Adjust level select geometry to be less cumbersome on later levels.
FEATURE: Survival Mode uploads scores to the leaderboard.
FEATURE: Proof of concept Daily Challenge scores uploaded to leaderboard.
BUG FIX: Fix bug in Bullet Hell where animations would continue to play on destroyed objects.
BUG FIX: Fix bug where you could unlock stars while playing Survival mode.
BUG FIX - REGRESSION: Fix regression where achievement notifications would not disappear if you changed scenes.
BUG FIX: Fix controller / KB navigation in game mode selection menu.
FEATURE: Implement "Reset Progress" buttons inn game mode selection menu.
IMPROVEMENT: Resetting progress in the profile menu no longer resets achievements.
FEATURE: Add confirmation message when resetting progress in game mode selection menu.
IMPROVEMENT: Game Mode selection menu buttons now properly update after progress is reset.
BUG FIX: Game Mode selection button text would display with the wrong color when it was selected after you reset your progress.
BUG FIX: Survival mode stats would record in other mode, meaning your level and time would update even while playing Standard mode.
BUG FIX: Time text on Survival Mode button was using incorrect number formatter.
IMPROVEMENT: Survival mode leaderboard entries now include additional information, like level you got to, lives remaining, etc.
IMPROVEMENT: Updated Salmon level so that each pool of water is about twice as large. The level is now a lot less cumbersome/frustrating now.
IMPROVEMENT: The new Salmon level and the old Salmon level have separate leaderboard entries, to prevent scores from old versions of the game from conflicting.
IMPROVEMENT: Added a warning sign to the legs on Jailbreak to make it clear that the legs can break.
IMPROVEMENT: Added solid walls to Target Practice so that ragdolls don't clip through the "reset" zone.
BUG FIX: The gain points SFX would trigger in Target Practice and Skee-Ball when your position reset even if you gained 0 points.
BUG FIX - REGRESSION: Fix regression where the camera wasn't properly resetting in Skee-Ball.
BUG FIX - REGRESSION: Revert other camera changes that resulted in the camera not moving properly in certain situations.
BUG FIX - REGRESSION: Options Menu tooltip text was displaying with the wrong color.

Jun 9, 2021

June 2021 Update is live

Garry's Mod - Rubat

Artwork showcased: "Monitors"

Update highlights

This update adds many small improvements and fixes to stability or other parts of the game, among which is a new feature for constraint tools in Sandbox - colorable ropes:

Colorable ropes are available to all rope based constraints in Sandbox, but only certain materials are supported.

We have also added the ability to scale player voice chat on a per player basis clientside. This will allow players to adjust voice chat volume of every individual player in a server. This feature will need to be implemented manually by gamemode and server developers and is already available in the default Sandbox scoreboard, by using the mouse scroll wheel on the mute button.

As per usual, you can find the full change list for this update below.

You will find the full change list for this update in our blog post:
https://gmod.facepunch.com/blog/june-2021-update

This update requires servers to update before you can join them.

This means that for a certain amount of time after the update releases you may be unable to join servers and get a message saying "The server is running an older version of the game" instead. You will have to wait for servers to update before you can join them again.

You cannot downgrade to a previous version of the game. Please be patient and let server owners update their servers.

Jun 9, 2021

Workshop announcement and streaming event

House Flipper - Roumyan

Hey Flippers,

I'm here to share some important announcements with you.

Some of our players are experiencing lags caused by all those amazing custom items - and yeah, I'm well aware it's hard to resist temptation but hear me out:

We do not take responsibility for the Steam Workshop submissions - the creators are free to upload their projects as long as they do not violate Steam ToS.
Some of them may cause prolonged loading times and even crashes, so please consider unsubscribing to your workshop items in case of issues.

Also, I'm happy to share some news about our upcoming stream event that starts on Friday, the 11th of June. Some of our beloved creators will be streaming The Tenants and hosting numerous giveaways of House Flipper and The Tenants.
We'll be posting all about it on TT's twitter and facebook tomorrow.

All the best,
Roumyan - Social Media Manager @ Frozen District

Jun 9, 2021

Shield Generators

The Riftbreaker - voidreaver

Hello Riftbreakers!

Last Wednesday we told you about an entirely new kind of defensive tower, that is not only bigger and more powerful, but that also requires liquid resources in the form of plasma. This is a part of our effort to ensure that liquid storage and transportation is not just a niche requirement of one tech branch, but a full mechanic on its own. Today, let’s take a look at another building that utilizes liquids and for a good reason - the Shield Generator.

As the name suggests, this building is a defensive structure that will try to help keep your base alive. It envelops all buildings within its area of effect with a layer of supercharged plasma, protecting them from any outside interference. It needs to get that fancy, enriched plasma some way - that stuff does not grow on trees, and that’s where the pipes (among other things) come in.

Laying down pipes can be an interesting puzzle, make sure to leave some space between your buildings - you may need it in the future!

You must first get your hands on regular plasma. That is quite easy to come by - it is produced by the Fusion Power Plant, for example. Then you can turn it into the supercharged state using a specialized Plasma Converter. The supercharged plasma can be stored in regular Liquid Resource Deposits, or transported directly to your Shield Generators.

You can check how much of the shield is left on any building in the radius of the Shield Generator. By the way, they stack!

Once you supply the Generator with everything it needs, it starts doing its magic. All Riftbreaker structures within range now have a protective layer over them. However, they all draw their extra hitpoints from one common ‘shield pool’ of the generator. If one building takes enough damage then the shield is broken, all others lose protection as well. After that, the Generator will take some time to build up a new charge and start working again, similar to the Energy Shield on the Mecha-Suit.

Shield generators can soak up a lot of damage from environmental hazards, such as a meteor shower.

The Shield Generator can be used to give your walls a degree of extra protection, but that is not where it shines. Instead, you can use it to protect the key components of your base or buildings that are critical for some process you are trying to complete. For example - if you need your Uranium Centrifuges to keep working no matter what because you REALLY HAVE TO get your new Mini-Nuke Launcher (for science!), the shield Generator will ensure that they do.

Shield Generators and Heavy artillery are best buddies, since they both use supercharged plasma. 2 for 1!

Naturally, there are a lot more buildings like this to come and we hope that you are looking forward to the logistic puzzle of distributing liquid resources around the base. As always, you are welcome to join our Discord if you’d like to find out more about The Riftbreaker - www.discord.gg/exorstudios. We also stream twice a week - follow our Twitch channel to get notified when we go live - www.twitch.tv/exorstudios. More exciting things to come!