Hot Fix 0.8.4.2

This update addresses several issues that were recently reported.

The largest change in this hot fix is to Virus. You can now infect by touch as well as the slash!

Changes

  • Virus: You can now infect survivors by touch as well as slash
  • Optimized treasure/remains system (reducing ping lag issues)
  • Optimized casino machines
  • Optimized event character interactions (reducing ping lag issues)
  • Optimized store NPCs (reducing ping lag issues)
  • Optimized loading doors (reducing ping lag issues)
  • Added setting to disable decals (helps with FPS issues in Zombie Massacre)
  • Added setting to disable gun flash effects in Zombie Massacre
  • Temporarily removed Planet Panic join board in the Game World Ports

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed devil horns not being aligned correctly on Minigolf balls
  • Fixed Plaza tree material issues
  • Fixed hold type animation issues for Laser Tag milestone and Ghost Hunt minigame
  • Fixed minigame activities not clearing off scoreboard properly
  • ZM: Fixed zombies staying alive but not being anywhere in the map
  • ZM: Fixed visible hole in Trainyard in the Boss arena
  • ZM: Fixed navigation issue in Trainyard
  • Ball Race: players should no longer occasionally fall forever when falling off a level
  • Fixed Virus, Casino and Bowling Trophy Collisions
  • Fixed a hole in the ceiling of Condo
  • Fixed the eyes on some of the event characters
  • Minigolf: Reduced Alpine wind sound volume

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.

19 Likes

Virus is saved!

6 Likes

Doesn’t matter. I will find another way to play this mode.

You can’t stop me from breaking your game!

4 Likes

Hello Mac and devs,
This recent Virus update seemed to have imbalanced the game a bit. I was playing virus for quite a long time yesterday with a group, and everything seemed to be balanced. If I had kept track of the statistics, I would likely see that the games were always 50 50, survivors winning or infected winning. We held off for the hot fix for a bit to continue playing, and after we updated, things were much different. On no matter what map we played, even on previously balanced maps, the infected kept winning. In one of the games the infected won around 9/10 times on the desertion map.

I know that the community is a bit divided in their opinion about what to do about this, and personally it seems like the “touch to infect” aspect has imbalanced it more. A friend I met had a suggestion to have the host of a Virus game enable or disable “touch to infect” to tailor to whoever is joining their games. This would be a good on between until it is found out how to balance the game

Let me know what you think, and also let me know if I should post this elsewhere rather than a comment here

7 Likes

Yes this please. I don’t understand why you guys didn’t just add the touch mechanic as a mutator for upgrades. The game is friggin almost unplayable now because someone with high latency has to just be near you to infect. It also removes the point of the slash too, which really better balanced the game, even if a lot of people disagreed.

5 Likes

Yeah, we stopped playing Virus last night because it was not fun for us, after hours of playing pre update

3 Likes

For me I never had fun playing as infected until the recent hotfix. It gives the infected a better chance, at least patient zero. Maybe make it so that only patient zero gets the “touch infect” until they infect someone (maybe during enrage)
Either way I like this addition

13 Likes

Hm, this Virus issue is an interesting one. I’ll try not to drag on, but after playing a bit to get a feel for it, I’m quite divided, so here’s my take:

  • Infecting by touch definitely feels better than slashing

  • Infecting by touch either has a slightly over-large hit box, or is simply very vulnerable to connection issues

  • Personally, I’ve actually had a lot of fun playing Virus now, even if it’s a little imbalanced for infected, it’s far from impossible for survivors to win, and it feels pretty fun playing as either

  • I think Virus needs some fundamental changes (TNT shouldn’t work at all like it does now, some guns are borderline OP, some are near useless), and honestly it might be interesting to just try buffing survivor in some way instead of nerfing infected

The change to slash infection was done simply to mitigate ping issues, and it seems those issues still persist a bit. The Mutator system won’t be implemented for a while, so putting the option there will just delay it for a year or two.

In the end, the objective has just changed, now having an infected near you is a death sentence (In my mind, like it should be). The goal isn’t just “don’t get hit by the slash”, it’s “don’t let them get near you”, and I think the latter feels like a way better objective, even if it’s harder to achieve right now.

In LC for example, I don’t feel like ping has much effect on the game, because if you’re around the dragons mouth at all, you’ve messed up, it doesn’t really matter if hit boxes/connectivity are occasionally janky.

Virus is really hard to balance, because the game’s core design means it will start off way in favour of survivors, and can end way in favour of infected. That’s just the way the game is regardless of how it’s balanced. It also depends a lot on how many people are playing (Perhaps something should be implemented in this regard too).

Virus needs some kind of rework; although I think the new infection system doesn’t need many changes, everything around it probably does.

10 Likes

that’s my take away too. our group has always had issues with slash mechanics so this update was a blessing (standing right on someone slashing to no avail was what I frequently experienced even as host). I do understand the radius is big but yeah the “keep away” mentality is what I thought. Don’t wait to run away, get a head start and keep moving. I feel this is a good counter to stop people from camping one spot on a map.

3 Likes

This is a great idea. Perhaps patient 0 can have extra perks from the beginning and throughout the game

1 Like

I’m pretty happy with where Virus is at, but, as an asymmetrical multiplayer versus mode, I also believe that infected should be winning most games, which is an opinion most people seem to not share. I think everyone just needs some time to adjust.

This is a really nice idea, especially since enraged already has a great visual indicator, but I will also say that there comes a point where adding a bunch of subtle, specific balance mechanics can get confusing and hard to teach players, and stuff like this is skirting that line.

Man this update has been a good one for virus
It’s actually fair and more balanced again

I was getting really fed up and bored by how 99% of virus games would go,
survivor - everyone camps in one area and just looks and the entrances of the area and just clicks when they see movement, really shit way of playing and so fucking boring,
then as infected - I just had no chance so I just run into the camping area spamming click and dying over and over and just hoping a slight lag spike would allow me to get closer to get a single infect
the fact that with that, even the worst of survivors ended up winning most games just by the fact they were all camping in a big group just ruined virus
but the touch allows you to punish group camping in one spot since if people do that they will just all get infected infected since touch infect hits multiple people cramped in that small area, meaning they all get infected and punished for doing that.
Now for survivor the superior tactic of running, dodging and actual aimed shots rather than just just looking at the same entrance to an area constantly makes you have a different game each time since you are running different routes and such each time, the old tactics is more ideal again which makes people who know how to play able to win, and people who need to learn be able to get good, rather than camping, and not putting much effort in to stay alive almost most rounds.

Just so much more fun, now, I never understood why touch infect was removed and replaced with slash, but I’m glad touch is back, and I have no problem with slash also being there.

Also saying touch infect should be removed and put as a mutator, I understand that someone with bad ping may make the game ”ruined”, you can always just votekick them or join a different game, stuff like that happened with slash as well when I played, I just think in general the touch infect has made virus a better game and more fun, and having to turn on a mutator for touch infect to be able to play a fun game of virus than the boring repetitive slash infect is just a bit lame in my opinion, it just makes the base virus game awful to play without mutators, maybe have a mutator to disable the touch infect instead.

12 Likes

Damn right. This right here. Gonna be bringing this up if this topic comes up in discussions.

I’m not for or against the touch to infect mechanic, though I will say that before the change, I saw the infected winning far more often than survivors in most games that I played. While having an easier way to infect is nice, it’s not like the infected needed a buff.

So with that said, I believe that having a mutator to enable/disable slashing as well as a mutator for touch-to-infect is the best case scenario. In my opinion, having both enabled by default is fine as long as mutators exist to rebalance the game for those who dislike the changes. I don’t want Pixeltail to have to spend extra time reverting changes but it’s at least something to think about for when mutators are inevitably released.

1 Like

Interesting take that I have not heard of before. A problem is that, even when you are in first through third place, the infected wins seem to get much less payout than survivor wins. Perhaps this is the way it is meant to be, but perhaps it could be altered as well

1 Like

This is how I’ve always played. I think with time, people will start to understand and adjust, but everyone seems to be sticking with the camping strat.

Now, most games start like before where patient zero will get utterly curb stomped for a couple lives, then suddenly, in a span of a few seconds, the infected count explodes and I’m the last survivor on the other side of the map, as far away from the designated camping spot as possible, with ample time to throw down my tnt, take my adrenaline, ready weapons and anticipate which way they’re coming, then followed by accusations of host advantage or lag. It rules. :muscle:

Meanwhile, the rounds where players fanned out a bit tended to have some survivors at the end of the clock. It’s almost like close proximity helps a virus spread. :thinking:

They did recently adjust the Virus payouts so that infected get more across the board, so I’m pretty content with it, especially when you compare it to Little Crusaders, which can be abysmal.

2 Likes

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