The Spooky Scary Halloween Update (0.3.7.0)

##HALLOWEEN 2017 LIMITED TIME EVENTS!
Halloween is here, so put on your cosTUmes and trick-or-treat in the Plaza! This Plaza only celebration contains 2 minigames, 4 trick-or-treat characters, a treasure finding event, and 15+ new Halloween 2017 only items!

##NATURE STORE IS NOW OPEN
On top of that, the Nature store is now open with 46 nature related items. It’s got trees, bushes, and rocks to help fulfill your gardening needs. We plan to update the nature store with potted plants at a later date.

##STORES HAVE DIALOGUE AND PERSONALITIES
Each store owner now talks to you (text only) while you’re shopping! We’ve given each their own unique personalities. We hope you enjoy them.

##CANVAS PARENTAL CONTROLS
Finally, we’ve added finer control over canvas viewability. There’s three canvas parental control modes (the default setting is “blacklist”): Blacklist, Trusted Players Only, and whitelist.

  • Blacklist mode allows you to block individual URLS or domains
  • Trusted Players Only mode will block all canvases from players you do not approve (canvases will remain pending until you make a decision)
  • Whitelist mode will block all URLs except for those on the whitelist

Regardless of modes, you can always completely Trust or completely Block a player’s canvases from loading.

Don’t worry, by default the canvas will act just like they have always worked.
You must opt-in to these parental control features.

This completes our canvas parental control feature set. We’re interested in feedback on it.

##Major Changes

  • Halloween is here! Take part of Halloween minigames and events in the Plaza!
  • Shared Plaza Players. Now players from other Plazas will show up across all Plaza servers. Because it’s Halloween, we’ve made them look like ghosts for now!
  • Parental Controls for Canvas. We’ve add blacklists, whitelists, and trust/block features for canvases in other players Condos
  • Nature Store is now open with 46 items such as trees, bushes, and rocks for your gardening needs
  • Stores now have dialogue and personalities!

Plaza Changes

  • The Plaza has been transformed and decorated for Halloween!
  • Transit Station: Maglev Trains now arrive when a new player joins the plaza
  • Transit Station: The screens have been replaced with dynamically loaded screens that have the latest news
  • Transit Station: Ticket barriers now make noises when a player walks through them
  • The Stray has a new character model

Changes

  • When hosting a condo, the condo owner can now name the condo a custom name
  • When hosting a condo, the condo owner can now set the max players allowed in the condo (up to 64 players)
  • Graphics Settings Menu has been reorganized to make more sense
  • Anti-Aliasing quality will now only display if the player has a anti-aliasing mode selected
  • Condo light switches can now only be toggled by the condo owner
  • The main menu was slightly updated
  • Certain weapons for Virus and Lobby have had another pass of viewmodel animations (Note: Scifi Handgun, Plasma Autorifle, Sonic Shotgun, Autorifle are still unfinished)
  • Player heads now move left and right (based on control aim) while in seats

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed rollercoaster safety guards not being properly replicated
  • Fixed launcher sign not having collision
  • Minigolf: Fixed the start of Hole 13 on Waterhole from facing the wrong direction
  • Improved voice chat reliability. Solved an internal issue related to voice chat that prevented certain players from broadcasting their voice properly
  • Fixed bowling customization store not opening on the first use
  • Fixed canvas failed to load state not ever invoking (it would always show the loading canvas symbol, even if the URL was invalid)

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

You can follow our daily logs here:
http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/daily-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.

12 Likes

yEET

Could items not be limited time stuff? (Especially anything decor based)

No feature in a game is more frustrating than having to see something you can’t get for another year. This is especially true when you have 20 games all running limited time item events. It gets to be more stressful than fun. IMO, it makes no sense to limit content access, at least until a lot more is in the game.

Being able to keep purchasing said items in one of the stores for a bit higher than average price would be a good compromise.

8 Likes

WOH

Body seems unclear, is it a complete sentence?

Has been said when the event will end? I won’t be able to play the game for 4 days and I fear I’d miss out on it.

Halloween itself is on the 31st, so I doubt it’ll end sooner.

ALSO HOLY CRAP GREAT UPDATE GUYS

1 Like

Can’t wait to try this out!

Honestly I’d be fine waiting. I just hope these items are limited specifically to 2017. Now THAT would really suck if you can’t get on during the event time.

I like time-limited items. It makes them feel special, kinda like souvenirs.

5 Likes

It rewards the players that were here supporting the game and playing the game prior to a full release in this case which is why I support limited time items. It wouldn’t be the first time TU had limited time items anyway.

2 Likes

^this. It makes the items really feel special. Rocket League does a similar thing with holiday themed items.

4 Likes

I really agree with this. Not only because there’s like 5 games that are running special collectible items right now, but sometimes I don’t want something until it’s no longer available.

Plus, I don’t have a lot of time to sit down and play TU without killing my sleeping schedule. Tough luck?

afterthought here, aren’t the spooky halloween eyes from last year available year round?

2 Likes

This is where they should implement trading, limited items + trading = awwhhh yeeees

Frankly, that’s your loss then. I agree with @Br0chure. I have no problem with time-limited items, as it gives you some incentive to play. If you really do want the item, then you’ll put the time in to get it. It’s not like it takes that long. I played for about an hour last night and already got 5 of the Halloween items. One extra hour is gonna kill your sleep schedule? And if so, just start an hour earlier. As for multiple games running events, if there’s 5 games running events now that you want to participate in, then either choose your priorities or just put a little time into each. At 1 hour a day each, that’s 5 hours. I, personally, play way more than 5 hours of games a day.

1 Like

To put a bit more of a point on limited items not being limited:

In terms of Tower Unite, as a player, I see TU being a game meant to be enjoyed by all, regardless of time constraints, when people can log-in, and do what they like, when they like, and removing the traditional feel of “grinding”. Limited items negate that feeling in a sense, and create an exclusives club, as well as require you to suddenly feel obligated to grind. From a business standpoint, I believe that a buyers 15$ tomorrow is as good as our 15$ X months ago, and there are better ways to reward long-term players. Our rewards are getting to help with ideas and shaping the game through feedback. Some may prefer limited items for it to feel more special, but that comes at the cost of everyone being able to enjoy it.

Costumes/skins - Sure, skins are pretty typical for limited time items. This is a typical feature in the gaming world, this is what the public sees directly and would have the least impact for players that missed them.

The emphasis here is on decorative items specifically though, which was the original emphasizing point. In the end, it comes down to those items being for you, and just you, to place in your condos. You might get a visitor here and there, but 98% of the condo time is your own personal enjoyment and for your eyes & close friends perhaps… I myself love Halloween, all year round. The more and permanent decor access we have, the better it is. This is where the compromise of making them expensive could fit in, so people have to work for them still.

In some games, limited stuff fits, or certain components fit. Decorative items for your own condos don’t so much, and are make it feel grindy, like every other event. That, and I have seen how some build, I am sure there are some who would like to obtain 100+ of certain items.

It would be nice to get some sort of event duration date as well, so people can plan where/when to allocate time :3
Not sure if the devs actually read this, or it should be under suggestions rather

3 Likes

Normally I would agree with you, but like what @Wolf_Angelus said, I just don’t feel like limited edition items really fit into Tower Unite’s model. The relaxing and freeflowing nature of TU is what makes it special in my opinion since it makes me feel like I can choose not to play for a while and not be penalized for it. Now while it isn’t a huge deal if I miss out on some spooky items, I imagine the issue would stack up similarly to the whole backer deal. Newer players will naturally feel like they missed out on good content, and after a few years, the difference might become much more noticeable. In addition, when it comes to backer items, the devs have stated that they don’t intend to add more exclusive items so having limited edition loot could go against that promise.

Personally, I wouldn’t be too upset if I didn’t get the chance to collect the Halloween items due to school/work/whatever, but I would definitely understand why people could get upset.

1 Like

If those items can be obtained next year, I don’t really see a problem with that tbh

6 Likes

Limited-time doesn’t equal exclusive, though. Everybody has the ability to get them. They aren’t exclusive to anyone.

3 Likes

I’m fine with the idea of items only obtainable during Halloween as long as they are brought back every year. Having limited items would seem a little bit silly to me in a game that features condo decorating. I’ve accepted that the backer items won’t be available again (though I would still throw money at the Devs if they gave me a fun way of doing it) but decorative items are such a large part of the game. The more objects builders have access to the better and making ones unobtainable after a certain time is effectively removing objects from the build pool for many players (we are still in early access and we want this game to grow!).

1 Like

So why are we complaining about these limited items when all the backers already have limited items? you gonna want them aswell?

2 Likes