Fireworks Mania News

Hey!

Its been another month and time for an update from the developer - aka me :)

In case you missed it, Public Multiplayer Beta is open!
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1079260/view/6242613536165636826

Overall the main focus is still multiplayer obviously, however, there are a lot of things that indirectly needed for multiplayer to be a success.
Shells and Mortars is one of them as the current mod from Panini is not going to work in multiplayer at this point due to some technical challenges.

[h2]Shells & Mortars[/h2]

If you are subbed to my YouTube channel or follow me on Twitch you have seen lately that I have done a few livestream. Not the biggest success livestream-wise, as it's pretty complex to figure out how to solve all the challenges Shells and Mortars are giving and make it somewhat entertaining at the same time - however some of you are there every time, even if it's boring - thank you for that! :)



Closed beta modders like Amnestey and Guanaco have recent gotten access to these new bits and bytes to try it out and give feedback.
The feedback so far is pretty clear, its too complicated from a modders point of view, so I will try and see how I can hopefully make it simpler.

Lets hope it won't be too long until I can push this to multiplayer public beta so you guys can all try it out. (Fingers crossed).


[h2]Community Shout-out[/h2]

[h3]Fireworks Mania Photographer by Guanaco0403[/h3]
The always sus Guanaco0403 did something amazing once again (even more amazing when you think how limited the multiplayer Mod Tools still are).

This is only available on the multiplayer-beta branch on Steam for now.

He made a mod where you can take photos in the game and have them auto posted to a channel on the Discord.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Check it out on Discord

[h3]Mod reorganize and optimization by Amnestey[/h3]
If you have just looked 2 seconds in the Workshop inside the game, you have for sure come across some of Amnesteys work.
Amnestey have made 50+ mods and is by far the mod creator with the most mods in the Workshop.
Not only have he made a lot of mods, his mods are also super popular due to the quality and realism.

Due to the popularity of his mods, his latest big updates have been very welcomed by the community. Amnestey have been through almost all, if not all, of his mods and reduced the file size a lot, meaning its a lot faster to download and load for players, which is a huge win for all.

This might sound like a little thing, but just know that it's a huge task and he have spend a lot of hours/days/weeks on this.

[h3]Managing the community by Keltusar[/h3]
If you spend just a little while on my Discord, asked a question in the Community section or in the chat on my livestream, you for sure have seen the name Keltusar.
Keltusar have been part of the community since the game came out and have been a moderator on my Discord and YouTube channel for years by now.
He also made a few mods, even though he is not really a programmer, he have managed to create an awesome Firecracker mod.

However, in this shout-out I basically wanted to thank him for being part of (and running) the community and helping keep the community a nice place to be.


[h2]Change log[/h2]
Here is the change log for the multiplayer-beta version since last Developer News.

No updates have been pushed since last Developer News sadly, as Shells and Mortars is dragging out a bit. However, as mentioned, stuff have been pushed to closed beta testers, so things are moving forward.

This is all for now - need to get back to work on the next update :)

YouTube | Twitter | Discord | Twitch

- Enjoy!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/

Hey!

Its been another month and time for an update from the developer - aka me :)

In case you missed it, Public Multiplayer Beta is open!
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1079260/view/6242613536165636826

[h2]Recharge of batteries & vacation[/h2]
The active members in the community might have noticed I have been kind of quiet for most of February.
November, December and January are pretty busy months me with Fireworks Mania as I always try and have something new ready for the Christmas/New Years as its the high season for this game obviously.
So after this, I needed kind of a break from the game to recharge the batteries.

However, I got "help" with taking a break, as I have been freaking sick like 3 times during the last two months. It was like a new flu every week for some members in the family.
So that "helped" me do nothing - because I couldn't.

Anyway, knock on wood and without jinxing it, I feel good now - lets hope for no more sickness :)

Oh yeah, and I also recently was on vacation - that helped too.

However, I'm back now! 💪


[h2]Shells & Mortars[/h2]
Even though the main focus for 2024 is still multiplayer, there are a lot of things and features around multiplayer that I also need to figure out and implement.

One of these things are Shells and Mortars as a build-in feature. As you might know, Panini (mod creator) have been so awesome to create some scripts to enable shells and mortars via mods in the current version of the game. On top of that Amnestey (mod creator) and others have been building a lot of shells for that system for all players to enjoy. Pure awesomeness!

However, this script from Panini is not working in the multiplayer version and as it is right now its not even possible to make it work due to lack of some features in Netcode For GameObjects (a Unity package the multiplayer is build on top of).

As Shells & Mortars have been on my own todo for a long time to add as a build-in feature in the game and Mod Tools, it made sense to look into this now (also because Amnestey and Keltusar keeps bugging me about the lack of Shells and Mortars in multiplayer :D).

Therefore, for the last week I have mainly been focusing on implementing that. Its not working yet, but I'm making progress and I even live streamed like 3+ times this week working on it.

These are not necessarily live streams I encourage you to watch as it's mainly me being confused about how to approach this in the best way - however I have done a lot of progress and made it simpler and simpler which is good.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Latest live streams

When Shells and Mortars will be ready so I can push the first version to the multiplayer-beta I don't know yet, but I'm doing what I can.

[h2]Change log[/h2]
Here is the change log for the multiplayer-beta version since last Developer News.

No updates have been pushed since last Developer News due to the mentioned above.

This is all for now - need to get back to work on the next update :)

YouTube | Twitter | Discord

- Enjoy!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/

[h3]Added[/h3]
- Added 1 new translator to the credits UI

[h3]Changed[/h3]
- Updated translations for various languages
- Internal changes in relation to mod.io integration


Keep in mind that you only see few updates to this (default) version of the game. The reason is that the majority of my time is spend on the a huge update where I among other things, are adding multiplayer functionality to the game.

You can switch back and forth between "normal" and "multiplayer-beta" version as much as you want:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1079260/view/6242613536165636826

YouTube | Twitter | Discord

- Enjoy!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/

### Added
- Added new "Max Player Spawned Props" setting. It have been requested to seperate props from fireworks when it comes to the limits set by the host. This is now done. It can be changed before starting the host or during game play via console commands. Still, as all other host related stuff, there are no UI for it yet
- Added an first draft of jump animation

### Changed
- Changed the workshop backend. So far I have been using test.mod.io as the backend for the workshop in the game in the multiplayer-beta, so avoid confusing players playing the regular version of the game with character mods etc. That have worked fine, however, mod.io have decided to shut this test.mod.io down here in the beginning of 2024, so I had to change to another. I have done this in this version, which is why the workshop might miss some content right now. This is because modders need to move their stuff manually to the new backend. It's very annoying but can't really do anything about it sadly. A lot of you will most likely see a lot of fireworks from Amnestey missing. This is because he is also working some optimizations of mods in the same go, before he submit them to the new workshop. Wow, that was a long one, in short, mods will be back in the workshok, just wait it out
- Various minor UI improvements
- Upgraded to Unity 2022.3.18
- Changed the pickUp/use logic again a bit a "some" found it annoying to have to switch to hand to pick up. I'll get back to it later as that pickup UI popping up all the time is annoying
- I have received feedback about the bad word system where the whole sentence was replaced. It confused people, so it's changed now so only the bad words are changed to *****
- Hide the "login" button in the Workshop as it wasn't really working properly anyway. For now at least

### Fixed
- Fixed Audio bug! The big bug in Unity that I found a work around for, have now officially been fixed by Unity. I have therefore removed my work around. However, due to we use to have this work around you most likely won't feel an immediate difference, however I'm curious if the issue we have had with low FPS over longer game sessions might have been fixed by this too. I don't know if this was the bug causing it, it could be a million other things. Time will tell
- Fixed an issue where sometimes server list couldn't be loaded because players was too fast or sign in to Auth service failed. Now there are some UI popup with info, some logs and the game should retry automatically

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1079260/view/6242613536165636826

YouTube | Twitter | Discord

- Enjoy!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/

Hey!

Its been another month and time for an update from the developer - aka me :)

In case you missed it, Public Multiplayer Beta is open!
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1079260/view/6242613536165636826


[h2]1 year of monthly Developer News posts[/h2]
In January 2023 I started with these monthly Developer News posts. Already the calendar says January 2024, meaning its been a full year of monthly updates - yay!

I hope this format of monthly updates gives you something, because it have turned out to be the format that works the best for me at the moment.

It seems to be a good balance between informing you guys, without spending too much time on it, because writing this for me is time I could have spend working on the game :)

Earlier in the development (and recently in some newer formats) I tried doing Dev Logs on YouTube. I really like making them, however, it simply takes too much time to do compared to how few watch it.
Therefore, to do some stuff on YouTube, I am live streaming "fairly often" and also do small videos/shorts when I have time and it make sense.

Anyway, enough about the post it self - I hope you enjoy it :D

[h2]Geforce Now Support[/h2]
Over the years I have been contacted by a few players asking for Fireworks Mania be on Geforce Now.
Recently I looked a bit into it and according to one player, it should now be possible to play on Geforce Now, if you own the game on Steam and somehow log into Steam on the Geforce Now.
I haven't tried it myself, but I'm told it works. So for the few of you who wanted this can give it a try.

The reason I added this, was because I found out that I needed to check a checkbox and push a botton on Steam - so was easy.

When that said, for supporting stuff like this perfectly I need to save various stuff in the game in Cloud data on Steam. The game is not doing that now, meaning you start from an "fresh" game each time you play on Geforce Now as I understand it.


[h2]Tips for hosting a game in current version[/h2]
As the game is still early and things are not well documented or described, I have made this little video to try and give some tips for when you are the host of a game.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]Change log[/h2]
Here is the change log for the multiplayer-beta version since last Developer News.

## [v2024.1.4] (2024-1-16)

### Changed
- Changed the logic around "pickup" and "use" feature. Before you could pickup and use objects by looking at it and press 'E', no matter what tool you had in your hand. However, often you don't want to pick up stuff when you have a tool in your hand, so it was annoying to see that tooltip UI popup all the time. Therefore its not changed, SO YOU CAN ONLY PICKUP AND USE OBJECTS WHEN YOU HAVE NO TOOLS IN YOUR HAND. Test it out and let me know what you think
- Some minor improvements to mod loading speeds due to an UMod update
- Changed some logic around the "bad word" filtering to catch more cases
- Changed menu background video to not be Christmas themed anymore

### Fixed
- Fixed issue where rockets, firecrackers etc. items might stick froze in the air after explosion on clients

## [v2024.1.3] (2024-1-11)

### Added
- In Inventory->Server I have added a button that takes players to the video I did recently where I give various tips and tricks for hosting games
- Added an initial version of a "Bad Word" filtering system. This is in effect on the server name and description and in chat messages. In server name and description, bad words are replaced with **** were as in chat I am testing out another approach that replace the entire chat message to something silly
- Added various popup message various places to explain some errors, like when you try and kick/ban the host itself

### Changed
- Improved the sync of player count on host and whats shown in the server list
- Improved player list in Inventory->Server to be more correct
- Server list fields are now better aligned so its not all over the place
- Changed the way networked items position are synced. This is currently a test as it should perform a bit better and use less bandwidth but be a little less pricise. Lets see how this experiment turns out

### Fixed
- Fixed gray graphics artifact on title font when used in smaller scale
- Fixed issue where UI (like player names) could be seen through walls and other objects. This was done as it make the playernames sharper, however, they should not be visible through walls. So have changed it back so it might be a bit more blurry now (only a little) but is not blocked properly


## [v2023.12.9] (2023-12-29)

### Added
- Added some notification messages in case you have a lot of mods to inform players about it will take longer the more mods. It seems not all are aware that the amount of mods have an impact on the loading times

### Changed
- Removed the notification about background video changing to static image
- The player count in the server overview should now be even more update to date
- Server list is now ordered by player count on server. So biggest servers are at the top

### Fixed
- Fixed some issue where BaseFireworkBehavior.Ignite would log a huge amount of errors. If it still happens now it should also write what gameobject is the problem to help troubleshoot
- Fixed issue where you couldn't join a server if it took you more than 5 min. to load the map and mods
- Fixed issue with errors around removing inactive players from lobby

## [v2023.12.8] (2023-12-27)

### Added
- Added initial version of some UI popup. Currently there are two types. One for a fullscreen popup with an OK button, used for various error messages for now. Secondly a notification popup in the top right corner, used right now to show when clients reach the spawn limit as a test of the notification UI system. This is a first draft of this system so it will change overtime for sure, however, for now it should at least help a bit to make you aware of some common error messages
- Added a "Useful shortcuts" infobox to the ingame menu as that's often where you really need it when in a game. At least until we have some rebindable keys settings where you can see and change the same
- Added some info about useful host commands to the Inventory->Server tab to help hosts manage their game a bit better with console commands until I get to make some UI for the same

### Changed
- Added Cake 2024! Happy New Year :D
- Upgraded to Unity 2022.3.16
- Changed render lenght of UI camera to avoid PlayerNames being cut off too early
- Removed the "Known Issues" infobox from the News page, as eventhough there are a lot of known issues, there are no major ones like the low FPS bug as such
- Changed 1st person camera's Near Clipping to a minimum to avoid players looking through things when being close to them, like walls etc. as it looks odd
- Changed the logic to the host itself is no longer limited by the "max allowed spawned items per player" setting. Host can spawn as much as the host wants, but players are still limited by the setting
- Increased default footstep sounds a bit as it was hardly audiable before
- Made some changed to the sound so that sounds are more occluded when behind other objects

### Fixed
- Fixed issue were all particle effects based on mesh (ex. the numbers in the New Years cakes) were not working. They work now as Unity fixed the issue in latest Unity version


### Dedicated Server
- Fixed issue where host.json were not updated with changes while running


This is all for now - need to get back to work on the next update :)

YouTube | Twitter | Discord

- Enjoy!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/