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Golfing In Aether News

Golfing In Aether Update Released [1.6.4]

This update adds some seasonal christmas items you can unlock as well as various bug-fixes and quality of life improvements.

Christmas Unlocks

Until the 14th of January you will be able to unlock some seasonal items just by logging into the game.


Firstly a repeat of last years reward which is the Candy ball which can be color customized.


Also new for this year in addition to the candy ball are two themed hats, an elf hat, and a festive bobble hat. These can also be picked in all typical pickable color options as-well.

These are just some fun customizations to add to your seasonal game sessions.

New Social Menu

Also as part of this update is a new menu system that will expand upon the previous invite menu by letting you inspect recent players and managing a block list.

When blocking a player you won't see any messages for them, their sessions won't show up, and they won't be able to join your session. This block list is independent to the Steam block list as it will support blocking players that are playing the game through potentially other networks (currently the game isn't available for sale anywhere else besides steam but crossplay with consoles is being looked at and the game was designed around it being a thing someday).

As part of this new social menu it will now always be visible even during sessions where you lack invite permissions. Essentially when you go to select the invite button it will tell you that session doesn't allow you to invite, but you'll be still able to check out recent players and other menus.

Various bug fixes

Check the full notes below for all the changes made, if you are aware of any issues then please let me know so they may be hotfixed. I've been doing some extended testing of levels so have caught a bunch of minor things that you'll find fixed.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1914980/Golfing_In_Aether/
Patch Notes

[h2]General[/h2]
  • Added improved handling of invite menu in relation to game or waiting for players menu.
  • Added improved friends list loading behaviour when visiting new social menu (will load much faster).
  • Added Christmas event. This is a return of last years unlock event with the addition of two extra reward items, the Elf hat, and the festive bobble hat. Simply log in to obtain this reward.
  • Added multiplayer server versioning so only servers that match your game version number will show up.
  • Added support for player blocking. When blocked (via social menu / online service) the player will not be able to join your session. The blocked player’s hosted sessions will not show up to you either. If you join someone else’s session and they also join, you will not see their messages.

[h2]Customization[/h2]
  • Added Elf hat as reward item for Christmas login event.
  • Added Festive bobble hat as reward item for Christmas login event.

[h2]Engine[/h2]
  • Added various refactoring of network plugins.
  • Added various refactoring of some internal networking references.

[h2]Environment[/h2]
  • Fixed a mover using the wrong type on Speed Bump.
  • Fixed vertical 2-blade windmill using an incorrect material in dustbowl theme.
  • Fixed one side of an inverted vertical mover using an incorrect material in dustbowl theme.
  • Fixed the flag raising detection area for “Drop to the Left”, “Zig Zag”, and “Turn Ahead”.
  • Fixed a physical material on the hole in one path for “Sink Hole”.
  • Added a change to the hole-in-one pipe entrance area in “Fork in the road” to swap it to the more sloped kind to reduce ball coming to a stop there.
  • Fixed an issue with the snow on walls in low settings on the level “shortcut”.
  • Fixed the appearance of snow on the level “Rebound”.

[h2]Interface[/h2]
  • Fixed the theme select menu sometimes not cancelling highlight when hovering over a new button with the mouse following recent update.
  • Fixed level up text description in Japanese doesn’t fit the space.
  • Fixed description for text entry (e.g. player names) not disappearing after recent engine update.
  • Added new social menu which will be hub for the sending invites, friend requests or blocking players without having to leave the in-game interface.
  • Added new recent players menus for sending a friend request or blocking.
  • Fixed the ‘Waiting for players menu’ not being removed immediately during returning to main menu.
  • Fixed formatting of invite code entry when pressing buttons rather than typing.
  • Added new blocked players menu where you can choose to unblock any players you previously blocked.
  • Added a size increase to the waiting for players menu so you can see more players without scrolling. This also makes it consistent for size with the game and social menus.
  • Added filter to restrict cross-network sessions. Enabling this setting would filter out sessions that would allow players from other networks to join.
  • Added custom session setting to restrict session to players from the same network (Steam) only.
  • Added change to ‘invite’ menu displays, now the social menu will appear in its place and always be visible even when you cannot invite players. On this menu will the context specific options.
  • Fixed various very small alignment issues with the game / pause menus (there was about one pixel of extra padding causing a visual inconsistency).
  • Fixed invite menu not inheriting the custom UI scale setting.
  • Fixed some localized level names.
  • Fixed a scoreboard countdown issue where if playing multiplayer, one player skips the xp screen then triggers a skip, the other player would briefly see an out of sync countdown.
  • Fixed an issue where “skip” wasn’t always visible on the XP screen.
  • Added improved contextual appearance for the bottom glyph buttons on scoreboard (e.g. details button will only be visible on the scoreboard page, not podium).
Discord Server

Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.

Golfing In Aether Update Released [1.6.3]

This update contains a handful of fixes to the recent major update in which the fourth free expansion was released, which you can read about via the link below.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/1914980/announcements/detail/3794906412775124389

Various bug fixes

Check the full notes below for all the changes made, if you are aware of any issues then please let me know so they may be hotfixed.

A couple of noteworthy things fixed that showed up since last update was a small wall gap in one of the new expansion levels, also some wierd physics behavior on a couple of the large ramp levels such as "See you on the other side" and "Go for it".

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1914980/Golfing_In_Aether/
Patch Notes

[h2]Environment[/h2]
  • Fixed a minor wall gap on “Fork in the road”.
  • Fixed a issue with physical materials notably for level “See you on the other side” and "Go for it".

[h2]Interface[/h2]
  • Fixed an issue where the scroll bar on the new level theme select menu wasn’t inheriting the dark theme when enabled.
  • Fixed a text string not correctly localized in the custom levels menu.
  • Fixed a text string not correctly localized as part of the XP breakdown.
Discord Server

Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.

Golfing In Aether Update Released [1.6.2]

The fourth free expansion to Golfing in Aether is here, bringing ten new levels for all modes and themes as well as introducing the new "Dustbowl" level theme.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2577930/Golfing_In_Aether__Dustbowl

Free DLC - "Dustbowl" theme + 10 new levels

Above is a link to the free DLC (it should be downloaded automatically). The levels will work with all previous themes and in all game modes.


The level breakdown is as follows, one large late game level, one mid-game, and eight early. This brings the total number of levels to 70, with 10 being late, 30 mid-game, and 30 early, overall balancing out the random level selection more evenly.

Remember via custom sessions you can individually pick levels you want to play, as well as preset playlists such as 'early only' or 'mid and late' only depending on how you wish the play the game. All levels work with all existing themes so if you wanted to check out all these new levels in the winter level theme instead (with the seasonal holidays soon approaching) then its perfectly possible to do so!

As an additional note the new level theme will be made available to the demo version of the game but the same demo limitations such as only 18 levels and only able to reach XP level 3 are in place.

Unreal Engine 5 updated

With this expansion release the game engine has also been move forwards to the latest version of Unreal Engine 5 so please let me know if you encounter any issues as I'll be doing hotfixes to any issues over the coming weeks. The primary reason for this engine version change is to keep overall support with newer devices and latest versions of SDK's. This includes the latest DLSS3, and FSR2 versions made available.

Enjoy playing the fourth free expansion and I welcome any feedback you may have.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1914980/Golfing_In_Aether/
Patch Notes

[h2]Engine[/h2]
  • Added migration to game engine from Unreal Engine 5.1.1 to 5.3.2.
  • Added latest plugin versions for DLSS3 and FSR2.

[h2]Environment[/h2]
  • Added dustbowl expansion assets and content.
  • Added flipper obsticule as part of new levels.

[h2]Interface[/h2]
  • Added improved theme select menu which will add support for additional themes. Scrolling to the right is where you will find the new Dustbowl theme and others in the future.
Discord Server

Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.

Golfing In Aether - FREE Dustbowl Expansion Coming Soon

Today I want to show off the upcoming free expansion coming this November which you can find listed below as coming soon. It will include a new theme that works with all existing levels as well as introducing 10 new additional levels.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2577930/Golfing_In_Aether__Dustbowl/
Please note that this is work in progress and not due to release till November 14th so some visual elements could well change in between now and then.

Dustbowl theme

For this theme it introduces a desert-like environment, with as the title suggests a lot of sand and dust has been thrown up, covering the otherwise grassy levels. You will also find the water areas dried up and lots of things normally found in the levels worn down compared to usual.

Beyond the reskinning you'll find a few new art assets such as animal skulls in some of the dried up water areas, and music specific to the theme. There is also a new obstacle type / mechanic which I will discuss later in this post.


The above screenshots are from existing levels 'Leapfrog' and 'You feeling lucky?'. All existing levels will be able to work with this new theme.

Levels 'Through the gap' and 'Go for a putt'

For this expansion I wanted to add some more earlier levels to help improve the balance when it comes to how levels are chosen as part of the random courses. Following feedback these levels also have more of an emphasis purely putting rather multiple holes.

While these levels are small they still do offer an element of challenge if aiming for a hole in one.

Levels 'Fore fun' and 'Mini jump'

These next two levels I'm showing how they look with existing 'Spring' and 'Winter' themes, all new levels will work with previous themes adding to the overall diversity when it comes to playing a random course whichever theme you wish to play with.

The levels shown above also feature a new obstacle type know as the 'Flipper'. This behaves similar to vertical movers (barricades that go up and down) except in this case offers a ramp, which can be to your or advantage or not depending on the level. A few of the levels will feature this new mechanic in different ways.

Level 'Fork in the road'

Of course not all levels are small in this expansion and this is a late level included which includes a similar theme of maze-like behavior as found in some of the existing late game levels. There is about a half dozen or more possible ways to complete this one, so you'll have to find the best path to a hole in one.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2577930/Golfing_In_Aether__Dustbowl/
Coming this November

Just a reminder that this expansion is entirely free and will be available November 14th. If you wish to keep track of when this will be released then add it to your wishlist.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1914980/Golfing_In_Aether/
Golfing in Aether is currently on sale for 70% off till the 8th November along with a currently running halloween event ending on the 14th. Dustbowl will be the fourth free expansion released bringing the games included level count to a total of 70. More content is planned.

Discord Server

Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.

Golfing In Aether Update Released [1.6.1]

This is a small update that implements the Halloween Event content which you can read about in the event post below.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1914980/view/3701455448016933705

There are no other changes in this update besides enabling the event content but if you are aware of any issues then please let me know so they may be hotfixed.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1914980/Golfing_In_Aether/
Patch Notes

[h2]Environment[/h2]
  • Added pumpkins to the Autumn level theme for the duration of halloween event.
  • Added pumpkins to all newer levels added to the game since previous Halloween event.

[h2]Interface[/h2]
  • Added pumpkin hunt tracker to main menu for duration of event.
Discord Server

Be sure to check out the official discord server with channels for Golfing In Aether and my other various projects.