Last Train Outta' Wormtown News

Changes/Tweaks/Fixes for the Beta Branch:

Changes:

Tar Wall Rework:
- Now spawns a ring of tar around the Worm, instead of in a line in front of them.
- Drastically increased size of tar spikes.
- Added dithering effect on the tar spikes for the Worm only, so you can see through them at close range. (Also means you can hide inside of a tar spike and leap out onto an unsuspecting Pardner.)

- Sandtraps will now be destroyed if any part of their radius is in a Dynamite explosion. (Before it had to be the center of the trap)
- Added the Sandtrap/Dynamite interaction to the Guidebook.


Fixes:
- Fixed ragdolls having equipment items still on their body.
- You’ll now fall off of ziplines if the zipline post has moved since grabbing it. (No more flying through the air on an invisible zipline!)
- Fixed issues when grabbing a wall and climbing a ladder at the same time.
- Can now jump from a ladder to another ladder (previously, you wouldn’t grab the second ladder).
- Fixed issues when “burrowing” while using the Body Slam ability. You now burrow and cause the Slam effect when passing through the ground.


Have a great weekend, Pardner!
- Vyv


To Access the Beta Branch:
Right-click Wormtown in your Steam library -> Properties -> Betas, and select "public beta" from the dropdown list.
Discord.gg/Wormtown

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!