Bring back the Legacy Mode for Text Hats (with support for hiding via F5)

Suggestions
1

Introduction

A feature used to express oneself getting removed kinda freaking sucks. What sucks more than that is only alternative being something that only appears half the time on the client-side and the change being only made silently and its reason for removal confirmed only in private.

The Text Hat is by far one of the easiest cosmetics you can use to express yourself, show your pronouns, and help show a bit more of your identity without ever having to even talk to someone at all. It’s the literal closest thing we have to having the equivalent of an in-game bio rather than making our Steam profile viewable to others.

As of Update 0.18.1.1, the Text Hat removed the ability to use Legacy Mode, which functions exactly as all the rolling pets do—having a bit of some text above the player/pet much like the Floating Text condo item. With enough information

Example of Legacy Mode via Rolling Pets

image
image1920×1080 163 KB

The major flaw that existed with the Legacy Mode of the Text Hat is that it bypassed hiding with F5—the exact same problem that both Rolling Pets. While in some cases it can be abused because of that, I don’t believe a full removal from the game was necessary even if it was to create some kind of uniformity when this essentially still exists in the form of preset text via rolling pets.

Context

The reason why I’m complaining about it from the get-go is the fact that the text hat, at least on the client-side, doesn’t even work half the time. Personally, I used the legacy text hat for that exact reason and have been doing so since January 2023.

Example of the Dysfunctional Text Hat

image
image1920×1080 129 KB

There are plenty of people who use their text hat to display their pronouns, and I think the most frustrating moment I’ve had is misgendering another queer person back in 2022 because I couldn’t see their text hat. Once I found out Legacy Mode doesn’t have any of the faults of the modern text hat, I haven’t looked back since.

Personally, I’m less upset at my recent situation that blew out of proportion and more upset at the silent patching of this feature as it seems to be the laziest solution to the biggest non-issue I’ve ever seen on Tower Unite in my near 3-year tenure. If it’s an artistic choice and the rolling pets had this same change applied to them, then sure whatever. However, this was just not the case, and it was a silent decision made specifically after the aforementioned situation that makes it just a frustrating change to see overall.

The Suggestion / Solution

Honestly, I have three solutions that I’d be happy with and one request at the , but I definitely have a clear preference more than the other.

  1. Bring back Legacy Mode to the Text Hat. Allow it and the text from Rolling Pets to be hidden as well when pressing F5.
  2. Apply the same change to Rolling Pets. If it’s an artistic choice, then make it universal. Otherwise, it looks to me like this was a personal decision that was made.
  3. Fix Text Hats so they actually can appear on the client-side at the very minimum.
  4. At least add it to the changelogs. There’s zero reason for such a change to not be in the changelogs.

TL;DR / Wow that’s a lot of words. Too bad I’m not reading them

  • Legacy Mode was silently removed from the game and it’s NOT a bug.
  • Legacy Mode should either be brought back with support for hiding when pressing F5, or they should be removed on the rolling pets
  • If it’s removed on the rolling pets, text hats should be at least more than semi-functioning at best.

The circumstances that accelerated this change freaking suck, and I hope that there can be a healthy middle ground for this silent feature removal.

2

Agree with everything said here, Legacy Text is not an insignificant removal and while there may be some minor issues, I do not think it warrants an undocumented removal and I feel it should be reverted.

If there is 1 thing I can suggest to perhaps help with the issues that may be presented, it would be nice to have a feature where players can turn “off” legacy text. It would fall back to a default text hat, like how it currently is.

It would help solve part of the issue and more control about what people see is always appreciated.

2 Likes
3

Yes, I removed it because it is an eye sore. I was at the event and I took note of it. No one mentioned it at the event, not sure why, I was only visiting. I always write notes while I’m playing Tower to improve the game whether it’s a bug or something out of place.

I considered a few things before deciding on its removal.

Legacy text hat was largely removed because I am reworking a lot of the UI in the game in parts. I have been actively removing any default Unreal floating text elements I find, such as removing the ones from the Game Ports and mini games. The default text is something to be used only for debug. To me, it is an eye sore, and people can abuse it by making it massive, and you can’t hide it.

I am also working on VR and having two different text hat features is not ideal as I’d have to make both of them compatible. The legacy text hat also does not render properly in VR.

The legacy text hat is very out of date and not uniform with the everything else in the game. It should all be in one place in the user bar. This change was long overdue.

Pets will also get their text feature replaced as well, I just haven’t gotten to it just yet. There was a suggestion thread I liked awhile back that had great other UI pet improvements as well.

I have currently been reworking other UI such as the item sell menu and appearance menu. As for why it’s not on the changelog, I simply forgot to add it, I’ve been tackling a lot of SDK issues.

The non-legacy text hat should be viewable to yourself after you set it. Sometimes I use toggling F5 off and on to reinitialize it. I was not aware it has an issue where some cases you cannot see it yourself. It’s something I will look into.

I’m not against improving the current text hat.

11 Likes
4

You’re right, in all honesty; I think no one said anything because we were focused on having fun and doesn’t want drama/trouble but I did think it was incredibly obnoxious and I’m sure some others felt the same way. I was frustrated seeing that and couldn’t hide it when I was taking screenshots of the event.

With that said, I look forward seeing Pets having their text feature replaced as well. I wasn’t a fan of that, hehe

It’s like you said- text hat is really great way of expressing yourself and you’re right!! Text hat is very customizable; I’ve seen a lot of people use it to display their nicknames and pronouns!! I don’t think we need the giant text option, we’ll be okay.

I personally am not a fan of legacy mode of the text hat ^^;

5 Likes
5

Wow Mac. What an sucky excuse to remove an item. You guys are great but you also did a LOT of things wrong and horrible both in the past and currently. Saying Yes, I removed it because it is an eye sore is the most lame excuse/justification you can make I have heard, same for the removal of reload animation from the crossbow during minigames (In particular because an loud minority of the players were complaining about it). Sometimes I don’t know if it’s good that I have been supporting you guys for so many years, especially now with me purchasing the Supporter Pack on Steam as well. Developers shouldn’t remove something because it upsets them or a tiny minority of the players - Player demand >> Always above developers choice in multiple circumstances, but only for minor things like this, not major changes.

6

You’re right, in all honesty; I think no one said anything because we were focused on having fun and doesn’t want drama/trouble but I did think it was incredibly obnoxious and I’m sure some others felt the same way. I was frustrated seeing that and couldn’t hide it when I was taking screenshots of the event.

The new Text Hat looks even more horrendous than the old one and the improved visibility of the large text was much, much better. Maybe an customizable font size and font itself for the text hat would have had been a better choice instead of leaving everyone with an choice forced on them, regardless of their preference? Doesn’t sound hard to implement - And would solve A LOT of problems people are having - Both for the fans of the new and the legacy text hat.

  1. Apply the same change to Rolling Pets. If it’s an artistic choice, then make it universal. Otherwise, it looks to me like this was a personal decision that was made.

Also, Kirbyrocket, this is another pretty darn bad justification for the change as well - It just doesn’t really work. Why would we want a change for the much, much *worse choice/aesthetic on the pets as well?

I will personally not be using Text Hat anymore and might also stop using the pets completely as well after this update. They are now pointless.

7

I think I have a healthy compromise to this entire thing. Perhaps maybe, there could be a desktop-exclusive toggle named something along the lines of Modernize All Text Hats which would enable the client to see people’s Text Hats with legacy mode if turned off (by default it should be turned on). The reason why I’d suggest for it to be a desktop-exclusive toggle is because as the name implies, it’s a legacy feature, meaning it has been replaced and may not be supported in every way going forwards.

By having a toggle, I feel you’ll get the best of both worlds, and that’s why I think that might honestly be better! What do you think? Even if it is an eyesore (which I don’t disagree with since it can get really ugly on some models), people can opt-out to seeing said eyesore on their own client-side—giving everyone their own client-side experience where possible—and I think that’s a pretty neat alternative to the matter.

Small things turn into big things because people don’t know how to talk to each other. The part that irks me the absolute most is the fact that there were multiple opportunities where someone could have told me, “Hey, I didn’t like that. Can you not do it again,” and I would have complied. If I didn’t comply, then I can totally see any MEITU staff member would go and publicly shame someone for being scummy.|
The last time I spoke to a MEITU staff member before the linked post was quite literally 3 hours—just before I went to bed. If someone had said something then, I would have apologized a lot sooner instead of having to find out the hard way. I felt not only exploited but disrespected as well because I took so much time out of the month to delay the calendar and help y’all advertise it on your OWN terms only to feel like I got spat in the face after the event blew up—like the staff never even knew me in the first place.

In the future, if you have a problem with me or something that I’m doing, say something directly to me either when it comes up or afterwards. If someone wants to prove themselves as being an unhinged lunatic by crashing out over something so small, then anything afterwards is on the table.

3 Likes
8

Personally I’d call the option something like “Enable Legacy Text Hats” but it’s still a good compromise. Even if it is ugly and even if it doesn’t work in VR I still think having more options for the player is always a good thing.

4 Likes
9

Exactly this Recky. People should have a choice of how they wish their game to appear - And even besides that, personally at least, I like the look of the legacy font so much better than the “modern” one - It feels more cartoony and nice - More in tune with how the overall game feels and the vibe it gives off. It might not match rest of the assets graphically or stylistically but it’s waay better than what was done now.

10

For me, toggling hud with f5 or similar removes people’s texts hats, including my own, until that person either respawns, re equips the hat, or uses an item like a vehicle or monster potion to “refresh” their character.

5 Likes
11

Please don’t lash out at the devs for this. They are trying to do the best they can for the whole of the Tower Unite community, not just you.

I understand that the legacy text hat had it’s fans, but a few people here are making it’s removal sound like a much bigger problem than it actually is. It was an antiquated game element that stood out in terms of how the game and it’s design decisions have developed over time. It is entirely in their right to remove it if they think it should be removed; I personally agree and think it looked very scuffed compared to the newer text hat.
From my experience very few people wearing text hats actually used the legacy option, and when I did see someone using it, the huge default unreal engine text object over their head stood out and felt obtrusive for hopefully obvious reasons. Nothing about the legacy option being removed prevents you from using the text hat how you want to, unless your use case involves subjecting your peers to huge floating text.

6 Likes
12

I feel like I need to comment on a few things so here we go:

The Text Hat is by far one of the easiest cosmetics you can use to express yourself, show your pronouns, and help show a bit more of your identity without ever having to even talk to someone at all. It’s the literal closest thing we have to having the equivalent of an in-game bio rather than making our Steam profile viewable to others.

I agree that the text hat is a valuable tool as a cosmetic item for players to express themselves. Even though the modern variant of the text hat serves the same purpose (other than the bug with it that should definitely be fixed), it is obvious from this forum thread that a lot of players liked the look and functionality of the old text hat. Since Mac mentioned that it was planned to remove the default Unreal engine text assets from the game eventually, I think it would be a great idea to change the current text hat to include more features that players liked about the legacy one. Such as more font choices, or different coloring / glow styles.

Personally, I’m less upset at my recent situation that blew out of proportion and more upset at the silent patching…

Considering you linked this situation it seems like you think that MEITU asked for this change. I would like to clarify that the edited version of the screenshot was suggested to us by others, and we decided to have both the edited and unedited versions available for everyone that wanted it. We did not approach Mac about the text hat, nor did we submit a bug report, or ask anyone to do so. We were a little annoyed by the advertising, but decided to not call anyone out about it because, to be fair, a lot of people use text hats to advertise. It just stood out to a lot of people in the screenshot, and I thought that an edit would be a good compromise for those who felt it took away from the image.

I felt not only exploited but disrespected as well because I took so much time out of the month to delay the calendar and help y’all advertise it on your OWN terms only to feel like I got spat in the face after the event blew up—like the staff never even knew me in the first place.

I would like to address this comment. We did NOT reach out to you about advertising the event. Our original plan was to post the poster up on a few friends’ condos and see what happened. We were perfectly fine with a small turnout, and were incredibly honored so many people found out about the event in such a short amount of time. YOU were the one to approach ME about the event on the day you found out about it, and you made it clear that you found out late, and it would cause issues with your scheduling. We decided to go along with adding the ad to your server since you said that we could still add it, and we figured why not. The discord event was setup that same day you reached out, and we didn’t talk about it again about it after that, so I have no idea where this “exploitation” comment is coming from. We didn’t ask for you to hold up your calendar for us, and I was able to get it set up with you the same day you asked us to. If this is because I set it up that night and not in the morning when you messaged me, I’m sorry, but I was at work. I’m sorry our event caused you so many organizational issues, but to be fair, we didn’t plan on advertising in your server at all, so please don’t make it sound like we betrayed you or something.

If someone wants to prove themselves as being an unhinged lunatic by crashing out over something so small, then anything afterwards is on the table.

Again, MEITU didn’t report the text hat. All of this finger-pointing feels pretty unwarranted for something like this. I agree the current hat should change if players don’t like it. But we don’t have to start making accusations just because you didn’t like Mac’s decision.

Anyways, apologies for any distress we have caused you over this change. I agree with you that if a lot of players have problems with the non-legacy hat, we should update it. And I do find it strange that it was omitted from the original changelog.

5 Likes
13

In my honest defense, when venting about this subject towards someone, I had received a screenshot from a support ticket from an unknown user that did report it when venting about the whole thing to a mutual. Realizing now that it was a clear red herring designed seemingly to only fuel the already lit flames (since I was clearly upset when venting about the issue), I’d like to apologize on that forefront. Had I not been lead to believe that it was MEITU staff, I wouldn’t have gone up in arms like I did.

The sense of betrayal came from both the aforementioned thought of MEITU being the ones that did report this issue, and the phrasing that indicated a more frustrated tone in the post than as described here. The combination of those two essentially spiraled into a level of frustration I have trouble putting into coherent words. Whether if fuel was added to the fire maliciously or not, that’s not important. Again, sorry that this blew even further out of proportion than anticipated. Again, I sincerely apologize for the confusion. I wish I wasn’t led to believe that it was more out of malice than anything else.

This. Very much so with this tbh. I think that’s also another one of the many healthy middle grounds that could exist in the wake of removing the Legacy Text Hat. :handshake:

3 Likes
14

This is pretty aggressive for the subject at hand. I think there are better ways you can express your displeasure of the removal of a couple of things instead of saying -
“I don’t know if it’s good that I have been supporting you guys for so many years”

You don’t have to come out guns blazing to make yourself heard. More often than not this kind of aggression overshadows the point being made, no matter how worthwhile it is to hear.

I think if people want the text hat back then Pixeltail could probably find a good compromise, but composure is ultimately the road to issues being resolved.

10 Likes
15

biden blast

4 Likes
16

What this sounds like to me is actively avoiding the issue multiple people have presented as well as being ignorant of compromises people have offered in this thread so far - I also fail to see what you mean by the several things you mention such as an antiquated game element that stood out in terms of how the game and it's design decisions have developed over time. or the felt obtrusive for hopefully obvious reasons. - I see neither of the things you mentioned as being an problem big enough to make an great item so much worse. Once again, I would like to remind that the larger text served well for improved visibility and the default font offered an good match for what the game is - As it is, the current text hat has basically gotten rid nearly 90% of it’s usefulness and appeal - The people that say we shouldn’t have an option for choosing different fonts or font sizes fail to see the problem with the changes that were made and also want to limit player’s freedom when it comes to choice - Nothing about the current changes is positive.

17

Since Mac mentioned that it was planned to remove the default Unreal engine text assets from the game eventually, I think it would be a great idea to change the current text hat to include more features that players liked about the legacy one. Such as more font choices, or different coloring / glow styles

Thrash, I think you got this pretty well. This is what should be done for an good enough compromise if no other offered solution that would satisfy both sides were to be accepted by the developers. That being said I still believe we should be allowed to also change the font size - Maybe not have it be as large as the legacy text hat, since that seems to have had been bothering quite a few people, but an option for slightly smaller as the largest available size than that size could prove useful.

18

Developers will often remove or revamp older parts of their games that they think could be done better, don’t meet player’s expectations or the current quality standards of the project. It happens everywhere and pretty much every game goes through it. You may disagree or think that’s a lame excuse, but it is the reality we live in.

big glowy text more distracting and harder to see through than small text, especially when you can’t hide it by pressing F5.

You are making it sound like removing the legacy setting completely destroyed the text hat from a functional standpoint. Nothing about this change strips the item of its intended functionality of putting text on your head. You just cannot make yourself a walking billboard anymore.

Nobody is arguing against this. I think it would be great if text hats allowed further customization and more room for self expression. We don’t want to suppress your freedoms.

7 Likes
19

I will make this an quick response without quoting each specific part but I think talking about this in detail is well past the point of having sense anymore, so I will only address your main points: The large text was way, waay easier to read and see from an large distance which is where it’s usefulness came from - Now you need to get right up to someone’s face to read it (If you didn’t get it, that’s an joke made to illustrate the ridiculousness of the change) than the tiny text with large, ugly black border around it that we have now (which further serves to reduce the visibility of the text) - Not only does the new font not fit the game stylistically in any way, shape or form, it actually hurts to look at as well too. The current text had should definitely be improved with more options, but if it doesn’t get the options specifically for choosing different fonts and font sizes, it is literally not as useful as it has been before and the F5 functionality was long overdue (and yet still never implemented) either way, so that’s not exactly an valid argument. I’m not seeing how people are this supportive of an nearly objectively worse option but this post is the last one I’m making on this particular thread - Feel free to counter any points you desire or add anything you want - I’m just not really interested in further participation unless and only in the scenario in which someone would have working arguments in support of an compromise or return of the old item as both of these options can work for everyone that much better instead of forcing the new, limited and not too particularly functional item onto literally everyone no matter what - The fact that people should get an actual choice in the matter is unquestionable and isn’t really open for debate (I have presented two options for this from which you are able to choose).

20

The black border is possible to be changed in the current state.

Step-by-Step Instructions
  1. Go to Settings
    image
    image1091×885 76.6 KB
  2. Go to Game/HUD
    image
    image1655×884 121 KB
  3. Switch to the Colors Tab
    image
    image1646×1005 66.4 KB
  4. Change the Name Tag Outline Color to whatever color you want!
    image
    image1317×811 46.1 KB

It’s the same font that has been used in text chat for years. I’m not sure what specifically makes it hurt to read, but I think a different font option couldn’t hurt.

Tacking on to what Lich said earlier, I genuinely think that this kind of aggressive tone does not help express your displeasure in a constructive way. Using definitive words such as objective- when referring to a purely subjective matters comes off as far more pretentious than I think you plan on sounding.

Seriously reconsider how you’re approaching the feedback you’re leaving as that level of aggression may overshadow the true point you’re trying to make—even if it is a really good idea that’s worthwhile to hear.

1 Like