🏡 Bounties, multiple region select and tons of fixes! | Neighbors Patch #2

It's a beefy post for you today, with a lot of good info, so strap in! 😀

If you'd rather get the full overview in video form, check out our community manager Artjom's video right here. Otherwise, dig into the text version below.

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Besides the launch of the ResourceRework beta we are also releasing our second patch today. With this patch we are addressing some of the biggest issues.

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[h2]Features[/h2]

• Bounties: A new comeback mechanic to combat snowballing and nearly impossible comebacks after losing the initial fight at the construction yard. Players who are on a KO spree without getting knocked out will have a bounty on them, which the enemy team can claim by knocking them out. Players, who have been knocked out multiple times in a row now reward less money until they knocked someone out.
  
• Chat filter: A filter for angry people has been added to block some of the bad words they use.
  
• Multiple region selection: You can now select multiple regions for matchmaking.
  
• Post Game Voice Chat: Players now have the possibility to congratulate each other after the game has ended using the in-game voice chat.
  
• Crime Syndicate Skins: Grampsfather Gramps & Undercover Doreen have been added to the cosmetics shop
  

[h2]Tweaks [/h2]

• General adjustment of every melee item to feel better if you are playing with a wider range of pings - the game should now feel more smooth if you have less than a perfect connection :)
  
• Improved the hit registration of Chads Vacuum Cleaner shots.
  
• We have allowed the players to faster switch between items, independent of animation playback, which hopefully should be perceived less laggy; before the animation had to be finished before you could switch to another weapon/item.
  
• Changed some weapons to behave with line tracing rather than physicalized projectiles, which should lead to better hit registration.
  
• Players should now be able to rejoin dedicated servers more reliably allowing for a longer period of time where we allow for rejoining the server if you happen to crash/lose connection.
  
• Continually adjusting the back-end matchmaking parameters and adjusting where needed.
  
• Went through all of the houses to make sure that they have the same amount of starting items – under evaluation for game balance adjustments.
  
• Kim’s wrench now has an updated model & rare skins.
  
• Oil Wells are no longer able to be placed inside.
  
• Removed hammers from all houses.
  
• Made it possible to open the main menu on the end screen.
  
• Reduced the damage on Louie's Rocket Barrage slightly
  
• - Max-range damage: 25→20
  
• - Mid-range damage: 20→15
  
• - Min-range damage 15→10
  
• - Medium Radius: 350→300
  
• - Close Radius: 200→150
  
• Speed up the level progression time on the scoring screen.
  
• The fireplace now lights up with just a single log.
  
• Reduced respawn rates slightly.
  

[h2]Bugfixes[/h2]

• Fixed cases where egg decals were stuck on your screen even after respawning. They are now properly removed.
  
• Fixed the Trickshot Steam achievement so it should now trigger as intended.
  
• Fixed a bug where you were unable to switch server pages in the browser without selecting a top category.
  
• Fixed a bug so the server browser now correctly shows available server
  
• Fixed an issue where the shop would not show the “SOLD OUT” sign on items with 0 quantity.
  
• Fixed some missing collision elements for the Log Cabin.
  
• Fixed a floating construction yard sign.
  
• Fixed a prevalent crash at the end of the game where the characters are transferred to their victory/defeast poses - hopefully should no longer crash, but please report back if it does.
  
• Fixed a server crash (segmentation 11).
  
• Fixed a crash that occurred upon cancelling a microtransaction and getting stuck on the “Transaction Finished” screen.
  
• Fixed more crashes related to the economy system being affected by various instances.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented rebinding the key for "Dash/Sprint".
  
• Fixed a crash caused by changing character/item skins in the main menu and then in the lobby.
  
• Fixed an issue where a player leaving a self hosted game before they started would cause the game to never start in the first place
  
• Fixed an issue where Chad’s Maid skin would make him bulletproof - perhaps the opposite of intended :D
  
• Fixed a bug, where some of the neighbors were still displayed as “coming soon” or locked.
  
• Fixed a visual bug, where the match endscreen displayed a different result (win instead of lose and vice versa).
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur on player death.
  
• Fixed a bug, where the game ends before the end of the warmup period even starts.
  
• Fixed various crashes related to the party invitation system.
  
• Fixed an issue that made it so you would not receive party invites correctly.
  
• Fixed an issue that would cause items to hang in mid air when swiftly switching between items.
  

[h2]Known issues[/h2]
We are aware of prolonged match times especially for more skilled players - We are currently working on solutions to alleviate these issues.,

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Exactly three weeks ago, we released Neighbors: Suburban Warfare into Early Access and it has honestly been overwhelming to see players brawl it out in Heartsville. First of all we want to say thank you. 💓

Thank you for playing. Thank you for streaming, reviewing, giving feedback (be it on our Discord or in the Steam forum) - and yes, even refunding. Every signal you’ve sent us has helped to clarify where the game shines and where we need to do better.

And today, we want to share how we’re in the process of fixing it and what we aim to do. But let’s take a step back first and look at what happened since the release.
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Upon release it became apparent that Neighbors has some flaws. And naturally we want to fix these flaws as fast as possible. We’ve heard your feedback clearly and if we sum up the three most important issues it would be:
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Lag and Hit registration
Crashes
Snowballing & Balancing

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The first two issues are technical issues, which are uncovered by having so many players and we take them very seriously. We are however confident that with a little bit of time we will fix these. More on that later.

Snowballing & balancing however is a big problem, and we feel the way the game is set up now encourages it with having the deciding fight right at the beginning of the game. In some instances, players left the game immediately after losing the first resource fight at the construction yard, since the enemy team had upgraded tools and the bigger fence and from that point on…it became incredibly hard to come back. The game is focused around winning and naturally players left the game.

For us this development was surprising, since here at Invisible Walls we play the game in a totally different way. Besides being colleagues we are also friends and like friends we play the game for the fun and chaos and dumb moments like getting hit by the truck in the middle of a fight and laughing our asses off. And we wanted the players to experience something similar.

We want Neighbors to be a game where players have fun no matter if they lose or win!

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In order to achieve this we are taking a drastic change to our base game mode. We’ve tried to alleviate it with changes to the economy, changing the costs for certain items like the crowbar and other minor changes. They were sometimes more and sometimes less effective, but the general “sweatiness” of the game was still there.

Today we are putting out another solution, which hopefully has a big impact on how the game is played: [h3]We are getting rid of resources. [/h3]

Or to be more precise we are removing the necessity of resources to upgrade your house level and thus the shop. The crates will still be in the game, but they will give you money instead. The shop will now upgrade after every day enabling you to buy the next tier of items after every day.

So, a Day 1 battle will only have the Tier 1 items, and so on. Ultimately the Super Jackhammer will spawn, if after a certain amount of time a winner has not been decided. Also the fences upgrade every night - so one less thing to worry about.

With this change we want to reduce the importance of the early game skirmish and reduce the tilt factor, which leads to early match surrenders and leaving the game and also make it more even throughout the entire match and forgiving for new players.

This is a drastic change, but we think that this allows for a more even game if players have access to the same items every day. Since these changes are significant we don’t want to just put them out there without proper testing: This is why we are releasing the new game mode on a Steam Test branch!

To join the and test the new mode you need to go over to Steam, click properties and select the beta branch called ResourceRework.



We are leaving it open until next week to see how the players like the changes and collect feedback.

We firmly believe these changes lead to a more enjoyable player experience, where it is more fun for established and also new players coming in.

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Please sign up for the new beta branch if you are curious and keep giving us your thoughts on the game!

We’ll see you in the neighborhood - The NSW dev team. 🏡