New Minigolf Map: Island!
Minigolf: Waterhole Updated
Lots of Optimizations, Net Code Improvements, and Engine Update!
With this update, Tower Unite has upgraded from Unreal Engine 4.18 to 4.20. There were a bunch of optimizations, improvements, and fixes included in this update, which we can take advantage of for Tower Unite. The biggest improvements come from how Unreal Engine handles networking, enabling us to once again have 64 players in the Plaza with minimal lag, and making experiences in Game Worlds much better.
In addition, there were several graphical optimizations made, not only through the engine upgrade, but on our end as well, and during our public beta test, we received many reports from players of FPS increases.
This update just scratches the surface of the improvements from the Engine Upgrade. There’s many more new features and optimizations ready to be used in Unreal Engine to help make Tower Unite run even better, and throughout the next several updates, we hope to take advantage of them.
64 Player Plaza Servers!
Due to lots of optimizations done and improvements to net code, we now can have 64 players in Plaza servers! We’ll be rolling out new servers with better hardware across the globe that support this new player count.
New Player Tags & Floating Chat
In this update, we’ve made several changes to the player tags. Player tags can now be seen at a larger distance so you can locate players easily in the Plaza. Your friends’ player tags have their own unique color as well!
Chat messages now display above player’s name tags, a much desired feature.
There’s plenty of settings to adjust as well, such as changing what colors your friends will display and adjusting name tag display.
Changes
- New Minigolf map: Island
- Upgraded Unreal engine from 4.18 to 4.20, with lots of fixes!
- Tons of optimizations, netcode improvements across the board. See optimizations list below.
- Minigolf: Waterhole lighting and artwork improved
- New player name tags for Plaza (easier to find players with these). You can toggle them off in the settings
- New text chat & AFK symbols
- Swimming movement was improved, players are no longer buoyant always (when submerged the buoyancy effects are removed)
- Minigolf: Added a new UI during customization state (before the first hole starts) that shows which players are currently customizing and which are done customizing
- Condo inventory improvements: Items can now be aligned onto objects in a more deterministic fashion. Before, the item previews would jitter and change orientation when dragging across differently oriented surfaces. Now, the item orientation is determined from the surface angle directly, so no more sporadic/slight differences in orientation when you drag an item across different surfaces
- Camera item now properly hides HUD elements and player name tags completely when equipped. Also the flash only happens for other players, not the player who is taking the shot (which prevents the flash from getting in the screenshot)
- Added achievements for Knightsend-by-sea
- Added new items for Valentine’s Day to Celebrations and appearance (these were delayed due to the engine update, sorry)
- Added items for St. Patrick’s Day to Celebrations and appearance (enjoy the discounts!)
- UI: Gameplay settings were split up into tabs for easier discovery
- UI: Updated hot bar look by adding icons for each category (also added vehicle tab)
- Graphics settings now automatically apply (if there’s pending changes) when the pause menu is closed (or by escape key)
- UI: Added the ability to change color of use key prompts
- UI: New text hat style (with option to revert to old text hat)
- UI: Weapon reload circle is now displayed as a ring instead of a full circle (so it doesn’t block vision as much)
Bug Fixes
- Improved Minigolf, Ball Race, and Bowling physics
- Condo: Fixed canvas surface crash
- Condo: Fixed canvas surface colors not saving properly
- Condo: Fixed canvas surface tiling not saving properly
- Laser Tag: Fixed a bug where sometimes players could enter the Laser Tag arena even if they aren’t playing Laser Tag
- Fixed soft lock when pressing escape while having the chat open
- Fixed an issue where chat would remain open when entering a piano (with high ping)
- Fixed an issue where the flying dragon pet would roar while using a piano
- Fixed various typos
- Bowling: Adjusting spin no longer increases faster if you have a higher framerate
- Bowling: Recoded Bowling player animation system to resolve issues with workshop models being respawned, player colors not being set properly, and player hats floating on the lanes or in the seats, and various other major bugs. Recode also fixes name tags and stutters when a player goes to roll
- Bowling: Improved Bowling physics/netcode
- Condo: Fixed door in Theater condo
- Minigolf: Fixed Kingdom Mastered achievement being an incorrect par value
- Minigolf: Reduced delays in network related events which improve delays when hitting the ball and pocketing the ball
- Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Hole 11 curved section after the first cannon is now done with splines, which fixes major issues with the hole
- Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Hole 2 rocks now have collision
- Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Hole 8 cannon now has collision
- Minigolf - Treasure Cove: Hole 13 HIO is more reliable
- Minigolf: Fixed players who late join a game during customization not able to see customization menu or the overview camera
- Virus: You can now see when other players are charging the Plasma Auto Rifle
- Fixed key UI prompts visually colliding with chat. Now when chat is opened, all key prompts are hidden
- Improved collision reliability on throwable weapons in Plaza
Optimizations
- Many network optimizations - improved network stability across the board
- Plaza: Optimized toy store pet/planes
- Plaza: Optimized game screens
- Plaza: Optimized seats
- Plaza: Optimized ferris wheel
- Plaza: Optimized expensive character ticks and player rotations
- Plaza: Optimized flashlights
- Plaza: Optimized theater media player
- Plaza: Optimized animal life (dolphins, whales, birds, etc.)
- Plaza: Optimized store NPCs
- Plaza: Optimized exterior Plaza signage (bowling ball that rotates)
- Plaza: Optimized event teleporters
- Plaza: Optimized plaza fountains
- Plaza: Optimized many particle effects
- Plaza: Optimized moving meshes such as the fishing store wheel and boats
- Plaza: Optimized firework particles
- Plaza: Optimized slot machines
- Plaza: Optimized various UI elements for Plaza
- Plaza: Optimized weapons
- Plaza: Optimized wearables
- Optimized wearable display logic
Upcoming Updates
Join our Discord for development updates and community fun!
https://discord.gg/pixeltail
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We’re also active on Twitter!
https://twitter.com/PixelTailGames
Follow our developments on our Trello in near real-time:
https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap
Take a peek at what’s being worked on every week in our weekly dev logs! There’s bound to be something interesting every week!
http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs
Please report bugs & submit suggestions on our forums. We’re active everyday & here to help.
For bug reports: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report/18
For suggestions: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/suggestions/7
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