Paint the Town Red News

[h2]Update Info[/h2]


In this update we've added the first version of the new Western Saloon scenario level. It features a variety of new weapons, props and character textures which will make there way into the Level Editor shortly. As with all the scenarios this is still a work in progress and will continue to change and improve before final release.

We've also cleaned up and fixed some of the new Level Editor content added previously and now added some of the Beneath character textures to the Level Editor. Once they're all working correctly in Multiplayer, we'll add the ability to let you set what character class the player can be in your levels as well as adding the enemies from Beneath.



We've also been continuing to make a lot of changes to core back-end elements of the game to continue reducing memory usage and improving performance. We'll be making more significant changes in this direction over the coming weeks.

Loading into some Beneath levels should be faster now and we're rewriting elements of that process to have more of the loading process be asynchronous with less stalls on the main game thread. Reducing the memory usage should reduce crashes and performance issues on machines with a low amount of ram particularly in areas like the Beneath Ruins that use higher than average amount of memory.

[h2]Upcoming[/h2]
Our priority now is the Beneath multiplayer and that will be the next major update, but as we make progress on that we'll try to incrementally update the game with Beneath enemies added to the Level Editor as they become multiplayer ready.

[h2]Changelist[/h2]
Version 0.10.0

• Added Western Saloon scenario
  
• Added some Beneath character textures to Level Editor
  
• Significant memory optimisations
  
• Added some Saloon textures for Paint materials in the Level Editor
  
• Changed some Ruins rooms slightly
  
• Fixed issues with animated weapons in the Level Editor
  
• Fixed Beneath weapons category not showing for characters in Level Editor
  
• Fixed bug in decal job system causing missing decals
  
• Fixed a bug causing some graphics settings to not be applied on new level load
  
• Fixes and optimisations to blood decal system
  
• Fixed some issues with level fade in timing on Beneath
  

[h2]Update Info[/h2]
In this update we've added over 200 new props to the Level Editor from Beneath as well as 47 weapons. This nearly triples the number of props available in the Level Editor and should open up a new range of possibilities for these props to be used and combined in unconventional ways.



Work continues on preparing the Beneath enemies for the Level Editor and multiplayer and we'll be making those available and some more Beneath props over the next month.

[h2]Upcoming[/h2]
We're currently finishing work on the next scenario and that will be the next significant update.

A lot of work is also being put into the multiplayer synchronisation of Beneath enemies both for the cooperative multiplayer mode for Beneath and to allow them to be added to the Level Editor. Next month following the release of the new scenario most of the Beneath enemies will be added to the Level Editor in batches over a few updates. Following that we will be releasing the Beneath multiplayer as soon as it's ready.

[h2]Changelist[/h2]
Version 0.9.16

• Added most Beneath props (over 200) and weapons (47) to the Level Editor
  
• Reduced damage variation in a number of weapons
  
• Fixed Tentacle Mutant impact response animation
  
• Fixed Charger impact response animation
  
• Fixed Crystal Entity having red blood when exploding
  
• Fixed a bug with look direction of other players in multiplayer
  
• Fixed issue with Beneath prop door
  
• Fixed a bug with some fast shooting weapons when running out of ammo
  

Version 0.9.15

• Fixed some bugs causing incorrect level loads
  
• Fixed some bugs on player death and level ends
  
• Fixed some sync bugs in multiplayer
  
• Fixed a bug loading some Workshop levels with errors in waypoint paths
  
• Fixed various miscellaneous reported exceptions bugs
  

[h2]Update Info[/h2]
With version 0.9.14 we've made more changes to keep improving and refining Beneath.

[h3]Pursuer Changes[/h3]
Based on feedback we've made some changes to the Pursuer. Now the Pursuer will only appear on a smaller percentage of levels and you'll be told at the start of the level if there will be one.

You can also summon a Pursuer on any level and have it arrive early from a Pursuer Summoning Station in the shop. Why would you want to do this? Well the Pursuer can now benefit you in a couple of ways. If you are close to it when it destroys enemies you will get a small amount of health. This adds a free, but risky way of gaining health if you're desperate. The other thing that will happen when you're close to the Pursuer is it will generate a Guiding Light.



We'll continue to make changes as necessary to elements of Beneath based on feedback while making sure not to negatively impact the desired difficulty.

[h3]Guiding Light[/h3]
The Guiding Light is a mystic orb that will zoom away from you and towards the level exit. Besides appearing when close the Pursuer, you can purchase a Guiding Light from any shop if you need help finding your way out.



[h3]Balance Updates[/h3]
There is still further work to go on getting the difficulty balance right, but we've made a few changes in this update. An issue with weapon spawn rates is now fixed so that unlocked weapons spawn with the correct chance. Ranged weapons have also had their damage variability reduced. The Islands and the Aberration boss fight will be a bit more difficult now with more frequent and damaging ranged attacks in the boss fight and now falling off the Islands will kill you as was originally intended. You can also no longer jump in or out of the boss room.

[h3]Player movement on weapons[/h3]
One aspect of player movement that has been poor since launch is when walking into and on top of weapons with complex geometry like chairs and stools. In this update the player collision with weapon has been changed so that you no longer walk on top of them, but you will still knock them around when walking into them. Weapons that are stuck into walls can still be stood on. This change could have some unforeseen consequences, particularly on some Workshop levels so we'll monitor that and make changes as necessary.

[h2]Upcoming[/h2]
There are still a number of Beneath bugs we'll continue to fix as well as other improvements and additions. Besides this single player Beneath work we're continuing development of the next scenario and on the co-op for Beneath.

Getting the enemies and assets working in co-op is also a prerequisite for many of them being able to be added to the Level Editor. We'll begin adding Beneath props into the Level Editor shortly as well as all enemies that can work in Workshop levels once they're multiplayer ready.

Throughout the last several minor updates we've also been working on reducing system and GPU memory usage in a number of ways and there is still more work being done on that front. This is to allow the game to run better on lower spec machines.

[h2]Changelist[/h2]
Below is the changes for 0.9.14 as well as changes since the previously posted about version 0.9.0. The changelist for each update are also posted on the Steam forum and the community Discord when they are released.

Version 0.9.14

• Fixed/Improved weapon spawn rates for better balancing
  
• Changed the Pursuer to only appear on a lower percentage of levels
  
• Enemies killed by the Pursuer will slightly heal the player if close
  
• Added the ability to purchase a Guiding Light in the Shop to guide you to the exit
  
• When you are near a Pursuer a Guiding Light to the exit will appear
  
• Added a Pursuer Summoning Station to the Shop
  
• Completely changed the way the player collides with weapons to reduce erratic movement
  
• Modified the damage of some weapons to improve balance
  
• Enemies will not attack player until a few seconds have passed at the start of Beneath levels
  
• Enemies will now not necessarily crowd the shop door
  
• Falling from the Islands will now kill you
  
• Falling in the abyss in the Construct will now hurt and can kill you
  
• You can no longer jump into the boss room on the Islands
  
• All other islands and paths go away during Islands boss fight so you can't jump out
  
• Added some additional death method messages
  
• Fixed the projectiles from the Aberration tentacles not properly damaging player
  
• Fixed collision on punching bag in Biker Bar basement
  
• Fixed timing and damage of attacks from ranged tentacles
  
• Fixed animation bug on The Deceiver
  

Version 0.9.13

• Fixed a Level Editor bug causing enemy triggers to not fully trigger if connected enemies were deleted
  
• Fixed a Level Editor bug related to enemies spawning with ranged weapons
  
• Fixed a Level Editor bug with traps deactivating that don't play sounds
  
• Fixed some bugs related to Hydra voxel elements regenerating when a level ends
  
• Fixed a bug with some Whiskey Bottles causing incorrect enemy hand positioning
  
• Fixed a bug causing double up of footstep sounds in some cases
  
• Sound effects tweaks
  

Version 0.9.12

• Fixed a Steam Cloud issue preventing some users from uploading new Workshop content
  
• Fixed bug causing Crystal Entity to not hit player
  
• Fixed bug allowing Plant Bomb to be triggered multiple times on an enemy
  
• Fixed possible freeze from Plant Bomb explosion
  
• Fixed bug causing break in sequence involving turret in the facility
  
• Fixed potential overrun in decal job system
  
• Fixed excessive memory usage from FFT spectrum read for Disco lights
  
• Fixed error when clearing pathfinding path during navmesh regeneration
  
• Additional sound effects
  
• Ambient audio volume reduced in Scenarios and nearby combat sounds increased
  

Version 0.9.11

• Improved performance hitches with blood collisions in some Beneath areas
  
• Fixed Level Editor UI on low resolutions and narrow aspect ratios
  
• Fixed body chunk blood decals forming on some invisible collision
  

Version 0.9.10

• Fixed music volume not affecting custom music in Workshop levels
  
• Minor memory optimisations
  
• Stopped the 'shortcut created' message appearing multiple times
  
• Fixed the incorrect Beneath upgrade total in the menu
  

Version 0.9.9

• Fixed level exit not showing for clients in multiplayer
  
• Fixed bug causing enemy position bugs for client in multiplayer
  
• Fixed using Chaos causing the level exit to trigger from a distance
  
• Fixed Level Editor UI on ultrawide monitors
  
• Fixed missing collision on turret prop in Beneath
  

Version 0.9.8

• Fixed not being able to take level preview screenshot in Level Editor
  
• Some improvements to Ruins loading time
  
• New sound effects added
  

Version 0.9.7

• Prevented the Acolyte from being counted towards Pirate Cove completion
  

Version 0.9.6

• Fixed Pursuer moving too fast after it arrives. Speed now builds up over 5 minutes
  
• Fixed incorrect ambient sound on Workshop levels
  

Version 0.9.5

• Fixed incorrect character materials in the Level Editor and Workshop levels
  
• Fixed Workshop level characters making idle grunts
  
• Fixed transition area after using the Ruins shortcut being incorrect
  

Version 0.9.4

• Fixed a bug causing freezing on some Beneath level loads
  

Version 0.9.3

• Reduced memory usage
  
• Fixed incorrect transition area after using Ruins shortcut portal
  
• Prevented moving into some out of bounds areas in the Facility
  
• Prevented falling off bridges in Ruins room
  

Version 0.9.2

• Added info text when performing a sequence in Beneath
  
• Fixed missing effect in Beneath facility
  
• Added additional text in the facility to make a sequence more clear
  
• Fixed incorrect image for one of the Beneath death methods
  
• Reduced damage from Minion staff beam
  

Version 0.9.1

• Fixed overuse of memory in Beneath
  
• Added more sounds to Beneath
  
• Tweaked Pursuer timings
  
• Fixed positioning of some facility whiteboard text
  
• Fixed playback of built in music in the Level Editor and Workshop levels
  

The build has been updated to include the single player portion of the rogue-lite mode: Beneath.



The changes between the last build and this one are too extensive to list. Besides the addition of Beneath there are changes to existing areas of the game including many new sound effects. Much of this is still a work in progress and will continue to evolve over the coming weeks.

Because there has been such a massive amount of changes in this update it is very likely there will be new bugs where there weren't before. Similarly there will no doubt be issues encountered in Beneath that haven't been picked up on prior small scale testing, but we'll try to resolve all identified significant issues over the coming days.

This version of Beneath contains all intended content in terms of gameplay and features, but there will be further additions and improvements to come throughout Early Access. These include additional sound effects and music and improvements to the UI as well as further graphical and mechanical improvements over time.

We'll be focused on fixing bugs and ensuring Beneath is stable and playable from beginning to end over the next couple of weeks and then will transition to preparing to roll out the next Scenario and Arena Challenges as well as fixing outstanding issues with the Level Editor.

Over the coming months as we get the last of the planned content into Paint the Town Red you'll see big improvements to performance and the overall polish applied to all areas of the game.

Thanks for you patience and support as we worked hard behind the scenes to get Beneath to this stage.

The earliest commits of Beneath work in our source control software spans all the way back to July 2016. It became our primary development focus about 2.5 years ago and due to that we've not had many significant updates to the early access experience of Paint the Town Red in that time. It has taken longer than we expected, but we are now (almost) done. On November 26th (27th here in Australia) we will release the first Beneath update.



Paint the Town Red is still in Early Access and this Beneath update will be no different, but it will be more complete than any other aspect of the game has been. We'll continue to polish and improve it over the remainder of the Early Access development period, but this update will contain the whole mode playable from start to finish. For now it will only be single player, but we will be adding 2-4 player co-op multiplayer for Beneath early next year. We'll also be continuing to add to and improve music, sound effects and more following this initial release.



We've had test builds of an early WIP slice of Beneath available for a few months and have now removed that. We were very happy with the response to those builds and the feedback was invaluable so thanks to everyone that helped us out by playing those builds.


Beneath is a rogue-lite mode that is for all intents and purposes the 'story mode' of Paint the Town Red. It features procedurally generated levels that take you deeper underground as you fight hordes of monstrous new enemy types, gain new abilities and powers, and attempt to destroy the ancient gods that control the world below and have decimated the world above.



You can play as and upgrade 5 different classes that have different powers and attributes and unlock permanent upgrades that will make it easier to get further in Beneath every time you play. You'll need to explore and use your wits to uncover the secrets of how to advance to new areas as well as discover the clues behind the nature of the Paint the Town Red scenarios themselves.


Beneath development completely destroyed our ability to keep any regular cadence to the release of updates, but we will be targeting weekly updates following the Beneath update through to version 1.0. We've also been pretty radio silent for the most part which is not what we wanted, but it's because we've just been working to get this done and without knowing when it would be there was no definitive information we could give.

Beneath isn't all we've been working on though, we have the majority of the next Scenario level already completed which will be the next major update after Beneath. We will also be rolling out new Arena Challenges regularly as well as adding more Level Editor features and props and characters including most of the Beneath content.