Last Train Outta' Wormtown News

More tweaks, fixes, and changes for the Beta branch:

Changes:
- The escape mini game now has “checkpoints” when you reach certain points filling the escape meter. A failed input will revert the escape meter progress back to the last checkpoint you crossed. On normal difficulty, you get a “checkpoint” after 3 correct inputs. This means you still lose progress for failed inputs but multiple quick failed inputs in a row won’t set you back all the way.

- Lowered the grip loss when jumping while climbing from 22% to 8%.

- The Armored Carapace ability is inadvertently blocking all damage sources, not just external ones. (i.e. it’s blocking damage when you eat a dynamite, too!) I’m going to keep this in for now and see how it affects balance, as Armored Carapace felt like one of the weaker abilities as it was. To counter some of it’s new strength, I’ve lowered the duration of the armor to 16 seconds (was 20).

- Lookout Tower chests no longer contain normal loot drops (coal, fruits etc.) - They will only drop one guaranteed equipment.

- Dynamite explosions will now destroy sandtraps in their blast zone

- Added a dithering effect for hats when in over-the-shoulder cam view, as they were blocking vision while aiming equipment. Big hat gang rejoice!


Bug Fixes:
- Added “spam protection” to dropping objects.

- Fixed issue where Pardners were sliding around longer than intended from push-back effects (Rifle recoil, body slam etc.)

- Fixed being able to enter the over-the-shoulder camera view while in a Worm mouth, and thus allowing you to shoot rifles/crossbows.



If you haven't already, hop in the Discord! Discord.gg/Wormtown
Thanks for all the great feedback on the beta updates!
- Vyv

This is a small balancing/fix patch for the public beta branch.
As a reminder, you can access the test build by Right-Clicking on Wormtown in your Steam library --> Properties --> Betas, and selecting "Public Beta" from the drop down menu.

Changes:
- Fixed "super throw" exploit, which allowed Pardners to absolutely YEEEET objects. (this *should* also fix Heart Jars not always disappearing when their Pardner is revived.)
- Pardners are unable to trigger a sandtrap for 5 seconds after escaping a Worm mouth OR escaping a sandtrap.
- Ghosts no longer can get stuck in sandtraps.
- Fixed furnace explosions and explosions from other Worms eating dynamite ignoring the Worms armor ability.
- You now lose a little "grip" when jumping while climbing/clinging to a wall.
- Renamed the "Ghost Board" to "Luigi Board".
- Worm no longer sees unintended parts of Pardner equipment. (Label on the snake oil, letters on the Luigi Board, etc.)

Howdy!

I'm excited to announce that Last Train Outta' Wormtown is featured in this years Tiny Teams Festival, right here on Steam!

You can checkout great games made by small and solo developers, many of which are discounted for the event. Wormtown will be 15% off for the duration of the festival, which runs from August 3rd - 9th.

Go check it out and find some hidden indie gems!

Shoutout to Yogscast Games for putting this wonderful event together! :D

Howdy!

QuickChat:
Replacing the old "ping" system, Pressing the QuickChat (default "T" or clicking "Right Stick") will open up a radial menu where you can easily send common and useful message pop ups. This works in lobby as well as in-game as a Pardner. Currently, there is no QuickChat for the Worm players, but this will be added in the future.

While playing as Pardner, the QuickChat is context sensitive based on your camera mode. For example, if you select the "Healing" chat bubble while aiming, it will ping where you're looking and display "Cactus Fruit over here!" to all Pardners. Alternatively, if you're not aiming, it will display "I need Cactus Fruit!" and display your current health to all Pardners.

New Lobby Features:
* New Custom Match Settings: For Fuel Required, Train Blockers, Number of Cactus Fruit, Pardner Max Health, and Worm Ability Cooldowns - there's now an additional < Custom > match setting. You can find this by clicking the > until Custom shows up. A slider will appear and you can set these values to your liking.
* Saving Match Settings: When selecting "Play Again" at the end of a match, the settings for the previous match will be saved and applied to the new lobby. Note: match settings will be reset when you go back to the main menu.
* Added more event feed pop ups for players connecting, disconnecting, and more.
* Clients can now "suggest" rule changes by clicking the < or > arrows in the match settings panel. This will inform players in the pop up feed.
* Host can now force start the game, ignoring if players are readied up or not.

Escape Mini Game Changes:
* Cleaned up the effects when successfully entering an input, so there should be much less visual noise and clutter.
* Can no longer get duplicate inputs in a row
* The Mini game now accepts arrow key inputs as well as WASD
* Lowered how much progress you lose with a failed input on the Hard mini game setting. You now lose 6 inputs of progress, where previously you'd lose all progress.

Sundown Changes:
* New music added for when nighttime begins.
* Worm Scream now deals 10 damage to Pardners in the close AOE. Just to be clear: This only happens at nighttime and when a Pardner is in the normal AOE of the scream - not the global detection range. Design insight: Night time is supposed to be an extremely Worm-sided end game scenario to stop long stalemate games. Even with the previous changes to buff Worms at night, there were still instances of Pardners camping inside the train with dynamite traps on all of the doors, allowing for more stalemates. Note: This change is most likely a temporary fix for this issue until the new Worm abilities are added in the near future.
* The Worm healing rate of the second and third rings has now been significantly boosted at night. The center ring has been unchanged. Design insight: Dynamite should be very punishing for the Worm, but I felt healing back to full took too long at night. This also is a nerf to the above mentioned stalemate strategy.

Gameplay Changes:
* Dynamite explosions will now light the fuse of other dynamites, but at half their normal fuse time
* Ghosts now push objects slightly further and their push cooldown has been reduced to 25 seconds (was 40)
* Heart Jars now have a permanent ping indicator when in inspection mode (right click/left trigger camera mode), so Pardners no longer need to intentionally ping it's location. Note: Only applies when they are lying around the map, not when inside of an inventory.
* You now see other Pardners health over their head in inspection mode.

Misc Fixes:
* Fixed 9 players being able to join a lobby (again lol). Note: I'm still planning on raising the player cap in the future, but this bug was causing other issues so it needed to be fixed in the short term

I'm still working on the big content update with new Worm abilities and Pardner equipment items! (Sorry it's taking long than expected!)

Stay safe out there, Pardner!

Howdy!

Patch Notes:

Reworked Worm Mouth Escape Mini-Game:
- The old spinning/timing escape mini game was a big friction point for some players (and it wasn't very fun, I'll admit). So I'm excited to announce a complete rework! The new mini game requires you to hit a series of directional and jump inputs in a row, slowly filling the escape meter. Missing an input will lose progress on the escape meter, so both accuracy and speed are important.
Design insight: The new mini game is *MUCH* more fun and feels more like you're frantically trying to escape, instead of the slower pace of the previous game.

Changes to Damage and Healing:
- Pardners now take 10% of their current health when they get grabbed by the Worm. **The health loss per second during the mini game has been reduced to counteract this.** It can be frustrating for the Worm to grab an experienced Pardner, and have them escape super quick, so this should guarantee a small amount of damage, while still incentivizing quick escapes.
Note: This is 10% current health. At 100 health, you'll take 10 damage. At 10 health, you'll take 1 damage etc. I still want there to be dramatic last second escapes, so it made sense to do it this way.

- The rate at which the Worm auto heals underground has been slightly reduced, but you now gain a burst of health when entering a new healing ring. This hopefully will further incentivize not focusing the Pardner that escaped your mouth. (or at least give them a few more seconds to recover)

- The underground Worm healing rings have been increased in size. Again, to incentivize Worms moving further away after a Pardner escapes.

Changes to Worm Visibility and Physics:
- The Worm can now push and move physics objects. This was always the case for host Worm, but due to how the physics are handled, it wasn't affecting client Worms. This should stop Pardners barricading themselves inside train or trapping the Worm behind a mass of physics objects.
Note: You can move objects by simply pushing up against them, or you can move them further by pouncing into them.

- The Worm now reveals props that are *very* close to them (basically touching them). This DOES NOT affect Pardners, only props - so standing still on the sand is still a vital strategy. This also means any prop you pounce and hit will instantly be revealed, instead of having to wait for it to hit the sand again. Note: any prop revealed this way will hide itself after a few seconds.

- Large props (crates, beds, tables, ladders - anything you hold above your head) that are on the sand will now always be visible to the Worm. Again, this is only for when they're touching the sand, and will be hidden if on a rock or train etc.
Design insight: There's been frustrations with Worms pouncing and being redirected by a invisible objects they can't see. This gets especially frustrating when lots of large objects are piled next to each other. This change should help with a handful of frustration points as Worm, while still keeping the "guessing game" of where Pardners are intact. Note: For anyone wanting a "lore" reason for this, anything heavy enough presses into the sand and the Worm is able to *sense* it. It's the same reason they can see houses, trains, rocks, etc. See! It makes sense, I promise!

Misc Changes:
- Added 5 minute intervals to the Sundown Timer match settings. It goes from 5 minutes - 40 minutes, with the additional "Never", if you don't want to play with it at all. Note: Sundown Timer is now 25 minutes by default (was 20).

As always, thanks for playing Wormtown! Feel free to leave any feedback here or in the Discord.

*tips novelty-sized cowboy hat*