Last Train Outta' Wormtown News

[h3]Changes for the Beta Branch:[/h3]

Added the Adrenaline status effect:
Adrenaline grants 50% damage reduction and 100% stamina reduction. Lasts 10 seconds. Whenever a Pardner escapes a Worm mouth, they gain Adrenaline.

Design insight: This should fix two problems, One being Pardners with very low health (and thus low stamina) not being able to reach a safe spot before the Worm heals, and the damage reduction nerfs some Worm ability combos like placing a Bilebomb right when a Pardner escapes their mouth. The Bilebomb combo does take some guess work and prediction, and it’s an intended strategy, but Adrenaline should make it feel less punishing and cheap for the Pardners.

New Pickup Information Display: Instead of the panel that pops up above the object you’re looking at, the information will instead display on the right side of the screen. This will also indicate if an item is an Equipment or Objective item (aka, the Train Key).

[h3]Misc Changes:[/h3]
- Added custom death event messages to the Worm abilities.
- Removed all status effects and their particles when a Pardner dies.
- Made the Church hill smaller.
- Previously, Pardners that climbed too high would lose all of their grip immediately. As an unintended side effect, this also was happening when climbing the top of the church. This “grip loss” has been completely removed, and new colliders have been added to the red rock walls to handle it now.
- Backpacks and Equipment items have a dithering effect when playing as Worm, so they will no longer block your vision when gobbling a Pardner with them equipped.

[h3]Bug Fixes:[/h3]
- Fixed multiple control prompts shown when holding a usable item and having usable equipment (Items take priority in these situations).
- You can no longer take items out of your inventory while in a mini game (Worm mouth or Sand Trap).
- Fixed building destruction getting de-synced (for real this time!)
- Fixed the Worm being able to grab objects and Pardners through walls.


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

[h2]Changes to the Beta Branch:[/h2]


[h3]Pardner Status Effects:[/h3] Added a new status effect system for Pardners to help balance and add fun new interactions. These status effects are visible by particle effects directly on your Pardner character. This opens up a whole lot of creative options for various effects in the future!
Status Effects:
- Tar Wall Slow: Touching a Tar Wall will slow your Pardner by 50% for 5 seconds.
- Scorching Sands Burn: Scorching Sands now adds a “burn” status effect to the Pardner touching the sand. This effect deals 2 damage per second, and lasts for 1.5 seconds. The status effect gets reset when touching the sand. (The previous damage was 5 per second, and jump spamming would essentially mitigate nearly all of the damage. This new status effect version will guarantee at least 3 damage every time you touch the sand, but overall the damage has been nerfed.)


[h3]Sandstorm + Scorching Sands combo ability balancing:[/h3]
Sandstorm Changes:
- Reduced wind push force while airborne. This should make it much easier to get off of the sand during the storm.
Scorching Sands Changes:
- Time between the Worm using the ability and the sands starting to heat has been increased to 3 seconds. (was 2 seconds)
- The sand must be fully red before damaging Pardners.

[h3]Camera Fixes:[/h3]
There’s been annoying quirks and issues with the camera (especially the over-the-shoulder Pardner view) for a while now. Multiple camera changes are included in this patch to hopefully resolve the lingering issues.

[h3]Bug fixes:[/h3]
- Fixed not resetting additional zipline momentum when grabbing a wall.
- Fixed issue where Pardners would occasionally stay holding onto a ladder that was moved.

[h3]Misc changes:[/h3]
- Reduced the intensity of the “taking damage” screen effects.
- Added event feed messages for Pardners dying to Bile bomb, Scorching Sands, and Body Slam.
- Lantern material is now bright and fancy
- Added the new Tar Wall and Scorching Sands changes to the Guidebook

Thanks for all the great feedback on the new beta updates! It's been vital in getting the new content ready for the main branch soon!

- 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

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.)