Tower Unite News

Weekly Dev Log for July 12th, 2021

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for July 12th, 2021, detailing all the changes that have happened since July 6th, 2021. Note: Devs that don't appear in the weekly log are not necessarily away or not doing work, but may be working on things currently not announced or backend work that doesn't need to be detailed.

[h2]Summer Characters are Back![/h2]
Summer is here and the summer characters are back and visiting the Plaza once again! Talk with them to get free items and units.

[h2]Update 0.14.3.0 - Arcade: Phase 2[/h2]
Work continues on Arcade: Phase 2, introducing new games to the Arcade, and more.

Read more about this update here.

[h2]June/July 2021 Condo Contest IN PROGRESS![/h2]
July's contest has a beach theme! Basically, decorate and build on the beach however you like for this contest, making sure the sand and the ocean are visible.

The contest ends July 30th, 2021 at 11:59 PM CST!

1st Place will win 2,000,000 units, 2nd place will win 1,000,000 units, 3rd place will win 500,000 units, and all participants may be awarded 100,000 units!

Read more about the contest here.

[h2]Accessibility Suggestions[/h2]
We've created a forum post asking the community for suggestions on how we can improve gameplay for players with certain conditions such as colorblindness, dyslexia, or anything else that might affect a players ability to use the standard presentation and controls of the game.

If you have any ideas or suggestions, and possible solutions on how to solve a particular issue, please check out the forum post here.

[h2]Arcade - Phase 2[/h2]
Johanna continued working on various models for Arcade - Phase 2.

macdguy continued working on "Ultimate Cow Wheel", finishing the physics and making adjustments to the gameplay. He also finished the "Dragon's Treasure" gameplay, and worked on "Coloracle 2: Whose Hue?".

madmijk worked on "Gears of Coin".

wheezwer worked on art for "Super Hoopers" and "Ultimate Cow Wheel".

Will finished the music for "Gears of Coin", working on finishing the sounds, while also working on music and sounds for "Ultimate Cow Wheel".

[h3]Arcade: Dragon's Treasure Normal Gameplay WIP[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Arcade: Dragon's Treasure Gems Gameplay WIP[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Arcade: Dragon's Treasure Special Gameplay WIP[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Arcade: Gears of Coin Gameplay WIP[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Arcade: Ultimate Cow Wheel Cabinet[/h3]

[h2]Accelerate: Moon City[/h2]
Johanna continued working on the Accelerate map, "Moon City".

[h3]Accelerate - Moon City: Side Street Early WIP[/h3]

[h3]Accelerate - Moon City: First Boostway WIP[/h3]

[h3]Accelerate - Moon City: Boostway Tunnel Sections WIP[/h3]

[h3]Accelerate - Moon City: Checkpoint Archway WIP[/h3]

[h3]Accelerate - Moon City: Artificial Tree and Magical Floating Lamp WIP[/h3]

[h2]Miscellany[/h2]
Lifeless continued working on the Ball Race map, "Midori" art pass as well as working on the courses for the Minigolf map, "Dark".

Sketchman continued working on improvements and optimizations, looking into issues with voice chat, working on implementing the server browser backend, fixes and tweaks to condo saving, and more.

Wheezwer worked on posters for the Plaza.

[h2]Wrap It Up[/h2]
That about covers everything that happened since July 6th, 2021 at PixelTail Games. We'll see you all next week!

---

Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail
We love awesome people like you!

We're also active on Twitter! https://twitter.com/PixelTailGames

Follow our developments on our Trello in near real-time: https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

Take a peek at what's being worked on every week in our weekly dev logs! There's bound to be something interesting every week! https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

Please report bugs & submit suggestions on our forums. We're active everyday & here to help.
For bug reports: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report/18
For suggestions: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/suggestions/7

Weekly Dev Log for July 6th, 2021

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for July 6th, 2021, detailing all the changes that have happened since June 14th, 2021. Note: Devs that don't appear in the weekly log are not necessarily away or not doing work, but may be working on things currently not announced or backend work that doesn't need to be detailed.

[h2]Tower Unite is on sale for only a couple more days for the Steam Summer Sales![/h2]
Grab a copy for a friend today!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/394690/Tower_Unite/

[h2]Summer Characters are Back![/h2]
Summer is here, and starting today, the summer characters are back and visiting the Plaza once again! Talk with them to get free items and units.

[h2]Update 0.14.3.0 - Arcade: Phase 2[/h2]
Work continues on Arcade: Phase 2, introducing new games to the Arcade, and more.

Read more about this update here.

[h2]June/July 2021 Condo Contest IN PROGRESS![/h2]
July's contest has a beach theme! Basically, decorate and build on the beach however you like for this contest, making sure the sand and the ocean are visible.

The contest ends July 30th, 2021 at 11:59 PM CST!

1st Place will win 2,000,000 units, 2nd place will win 1,000,000 units, 3rd place will win 500,000 units, and all participants may be awarded 100,000 units!

Read more about the contest here.

[h2]Accessibility Suggestions[/h2]
We've created a forum post asking the community for suggestions on how we can improve gameplay for players with certain conditions such as colorblindness, dyslexia, or anything else that might affect a players ability to use the standard presentation and controls of the game.

If you have any ideas or suggestions, and possible solutions on how to solve a particular issue, please check out the forum post here.

[h2]Arcade - Phase 2[/h2]
Johanna worked on the redesigned "Super Hoopers" cabinet model, along with working on finishing the cabinet model for "Ultimate Cow Wheel".

JJosh continued working on the Arcade NPCs.

macdguy worked on finishing "Coloracle 2: Whose Hue?", as well as working on "Dragon's Treasure", "Ultimate Cow Wheel", and "Mas Fuerte 2K".

madmijk worked on fixes for "Captain Calypso's Planetary Piano", worked on the lights and UI for "Mas Fuerte 2K", and overhauled the wheel spinning code for "Wheel of Fire" to prevent it from landing incorrectly.

Will worked on music and sounds for "Gears of Coin" and "Ultimate Cow Wheel".

[h3]Arcade - Phase 2: Ultimate Cow Wheel Gameplay Demo WIP[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Arcade - Phase 2: Mas Fuerte 2K Gameplay Demo WIP[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Arcade - Phase 2: Super Hoopers Cabinet Redesign WIP[/h3]

[h3]Arcade - Phase 2: Dragon's Treasure "Treasure"[/h3]

[h2]Slaughterday Night Live[/h2]

macdguy worked a little bit on combat improvements for Slaughterday Night Live, such as Headshot gibbing feedback and Hit Indication feedback.

[h3]Slaughterday Night Live: Ragdoll Improvements[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Slaughterday Night Live: Improved Headshot Gibbing Feedback[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Slaughterday Night Live: Indicator / Damage Notes (Old / New)[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Ball Race[/h2]

macdguy worked on implementing custom pickup icons.

Lifeless created a potential concept for a visual overhaul for "Midori".

[h3]Ball Race: Midori Visual Overhaul Concept Not Final Nor Confirmed[/h3]

[h3]Ball Race: Custom Pickup Icons[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Minigolf[/h2]

Johanna worked on adding course walls to "Treasure Cove" and "Garden".

Lifeless continued working on the new courses for "Dark".

[h3]Minigolf: Treasure Cove Course Walls WIP[/h3]

[h3]Minigolf: Garden Course Walls WIP[/h3]

[h2]Condo[/h2]

macdguy improved fish placement in Condo Pools and Ponds, and implemented new light switch sounds. These features were shipped in a previous hotfix.

[h3]Condo: Improved Fish Placement in Pools and Ponds[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Condo: Improved Light Switch Sounds (Old / New)[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Plaza[/h2]

macdguy added reflections to the Bowling Alley (A graphics option exists to turn this off), along with some lighting optimizations.

JJosh continued working on the new Oasis NPC.

[h3]Plaza: New Oasis NPC[/h3]

[h3]Plaza: Bowling Alley (Before / After)[/h3]

[h2]Miscellany[/h2]
macdguy worked on improving physics for Bowling and Billiards.

Sketchman continued working on improvements and optimizations, looking into issues with voice chat, working on implementing the server browser backend, fixes and tweaks to condo saving, and more.

Wheezwer worked on concept art and props for the Accelerate map, "Moon City".

[h2]Wrap It Up[/h2]
That about covers everything that happened since June 14th, 2021 at PixelTail Games. We'll see you all next week!

---

Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail
We love awesome people like you!

We're also active on Twitter! https://twitter.com/PixelTailGames

Follow our developments on our Trello in near real-time: https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

Take a peek at what's being worked on every week in our weekly dev logs! There's bound to be something interesting every week! https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

Please report bugs & submit suggestions on our forums. We're active everyday & here to help.
For bug reports: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report/18
For suggestions: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/suggestions/7

Hot Fix 0.14.2.2

This update addresses a small about of bugs.

Changes

Internal moderation API update.

Bug Fixes

Billiards: Fixed an exploit where pets/balloons/glow sticks could collide with billiards balls

Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail
We love awesome people like you!

We're also active on Twitter! https://twitter.com/PixelTailGames

Follow our developments on our Trello in near real-time:
https://trello.com/b/6BwRMiPw/tower-unite-roadmap

Take a peek at what's being worked on every week in our weekly dev logs! There's bound to be something interesting every week! http://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/devupdates/weekly-dev-logs

Please report bugs & submit suggestions on our forums. We're active everyday & here to help.
For bug reports: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/bug-report/18
For suggestions: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/c/suggestions/7

Hot Fix 0.14.2.1

This update addresses several bugs from the new update.

Changes

Courtyard Villa: Moved a window so it wasn't awkwardly at the end of a handrail
You can now toggle off the mirrors (using the new map static toggle feature) in House and Suite condos
Added sounds for toggling lights on/off and fireplaces
Billiards: Improved physics responses
Billiards: Improved desyncs
Billiards: Improved networking (and reduced bandwidth for tables that are far away from you)

Bug Fixes

Fixed a common crash relating to workshop player models loading in
Fixed mirrors still rendering even if they are disabled with the new map toggle option
Fixed the double glass doors item not applying color
Fixed placing fish in pools and the pond for Courtyard Villa being weird and not reliable
Fixed teleporter target rotation UI not allowing you to enter in proper angles
Fixed and improved room tone soundscapes in Condo, House, and Highrise
Courtyard Villa: Fixed fish not swimming properly and not being placeable in the pond
Courtyard Villa: Fixed emissive materials being overly bright
Courtyard Villa: Fixed canvas walls rotating after saving
Courtyard Villa: Fixed placement issues in entryway arches
Courtyard Villa: Fixed hole in baseboard in upstairs hallway
Courtyard Villa: Fixed getting stuck on trims while walking up stairs
Courtyard Villa: Fixed collision on dock
Courtyard Villa: Fixed some missing glass planes
Courtyard Villa: Added more reflection captures
Courtyard Villa: Fixed ferns being weirdly bright at a distance
Courtyard Villa: Fixed collision with small window
Courtyard Villa: Fixed collision with shower base
Courtyard Villa: Fixed ocean looking very different between quality settings
Courtyard Villa: Fixed downstairs bathroom light switch not actually doing anything
Courtyard Villa: Fixed door frames not being editable
Courtyard Villa: Fixed issue where some automatic strips didn't update use prompts
Courtyard Villa: Added missing automatic strip and buttons for bedroom balcony
Courtyard Villa: Fixed roof going through the inside of the outdoor fireplace
Courtyard Villa: Improved light bleeding between rooms
Courtyard Villa: Added missing AI nav mesh
Courtyard Villa: Fire will no longer continue to make a sound when turned off
Courtyard Villa: Fixed missing wind and rain sounds, but will be overhauled at a later point
Courtyard Villa: Optimized foliage
Courtyard Villa: Optimized lighting
Courtyard Villa: Reduced brightness of night time
Courtyard Villa: Fixed missing soundscapes
Courtyard Villa: Fixed various missing collisions (Sink, Extractor, Shower Head etc)
Highrise: Removed the second elevator door (that isn't usable anyways) at the bottom of the basement
Optimized Portal and Transdimensial Painting items (no longer render if a wall blocks them, less rendering advanced overall)

Courtyard Villa & Arcade Phase 1.5 (0.14.2.0)

New Condo: Courtyard Villa

Own your own tropical island, complete with a pool, basketball court, and private runway.

Head to Jeff at the Condo Realtor store located inside of Sweet Suites Furnishings. Don't keep Jeff waiting.

Arcade: Phase 1.5

During development of Arcade Phase 2, we have touched on our existing arcade games and improved several of them. Instead of having you wait, we decided to get these changes out to you now!

Super Hoopers

Basketballs about to be thrown are now transparent, allowing for easier aiming!
It's now a lot easier to grab basketballs. You no longer need to aim exactly at a ball to pick it up, you can just grab from the return area.

Offering

Completely reworked gameplay. Cups were replaced with grid score holes.
Added a bonus mode when the offering meters are full.
You now have 25 balls to throw instead of just 12.
There's also now a UFO that hovers back and forth that will fire at the balls.

Ring God

Vastly improved ring scoring detection. Before, oftentimes rings around bottles were not counted. Now they are.

Ice Cave

There is no longer a limit of balls you can throw.
The glass screen was lifted up.

Tornado:

There are now bonus zones that are randomly picked over time. Pocket the ball in the bonus zone for an extra 150 tickets!

Avalanche:

Added a new bonus mode after you reach 500 points.

Other Arcade games have had tweaks, visual improvements, and payout changes. We plan to keep updating the existing games towards the upcoming Phase 2 release.

Sprummer Plaza Update

Including all this, the Plaza has had a few changes such as a new Fresh Store interior, improved palm trees, and optimizations.

New Teleporter Targeter System

For Condo builders, various improvements to the teleporters have been made. You now can set rotations for teleporters!

You can also set your own custom use prompts and there's a new target editor which will allow you to quickly and easily adjust teleporter positions without the need of the target tool.

Highrise Cleanup

The Highrise condo has several improvements and bug fixes included in this update.

Be sure to read the changes at the bottom of this change log for more information!

Changes:

New Condo: Courtyard Villa
Plaza: Fresh Store Art Pass
Sprummer Plaza Update
Condo - Highrise Trim/Detail Cleanup
Added title bars to options in condo edit UIs to make it easier to tell apart and organize
Moved the old soda can into the vending machine and updated its graphics
Casino: Free spin in Wheel of Money now gives you two free spins instead of just one
Condo: New targeting editor. For items that use targets (teleporters, strings, etc.) you can now more easily set their target. By clicking on "Set Target" within the item editor, you'll enter a target mode where you can select the target based on where you are looking or based on where your current camera/position is. You no longer need to use the targeting tool!
Condo: You can now adjust the rotation of teleporter destinations
Condo: Added an option to set a custom label for the teleporter use prompts
Condo: Added an option to set a custom label for the NPC use prompt
Condo: Added an option to set NPCs to stare at players (by default NPCs will no longer stare at players)
Improved the Plaza map teleport screen to be more easy to use and more visible to find locations
Added a graphics setting to adjust the mirror quality
Arcade - Little Birde Feeders: Sped up the basket movement
Arcade - Little Birde Feeders: Updated the colors of the score rings to be based on how much they are worth instead of all being purple
Arcade - Offering: Improved physics and fixed balls getting marked as invalid before they have settled
Arcade - Offering: Completely reworked the gameplay. Small cups were replaced with a grid with score holes, making it much more easier to get the balls into the scores
Arcade - Offering: Added bonus mode. When the offering meters are full (1,500 points reached), every cup will be worth extra tickets
Arcade - Offering: You now have 25 balls to throw instead of 12
Arcade - Offering: Reduced the timer from 40 seconds to 30 seconds
Arcade - Offering: You can only hold one ball at a time now, instead of 5
Arcade - Offering: Reduced point amounts on the score zones a bit
Arcade - Offering: Added a UFO that hovers back and forth over the holes that will fire at balls that intersect with its searchlight beam
Arcade - Ring God: Vastly improved ring score detection
Arcade - Ring God: Scaled up the rings just a tad
Arcade - Ice Cave: There is no longer a limit of balls you can throw
Arcade - Ice Cave: Increased payouts. 50 points are now worth 5 tickets (instead of 1) and reaching 6500 points will give you 500 tickets (instead of 50)
Arcade - Ice Cave: Lifted up the glass screen so you can easily throw without hitting it
Arcade - Super Hoopers: Basketballs in hand now are translucent, allowing you to aim better
Arcade - Super Hoopers: Made it easier to grab balls (you no longer need to aim exactly at the ball to pickup, just the area)
Arcade - Tornado: Added bonus zones that are now randomized
Arcade - Tornado: Reduced token cost (from 10 to 5)
Arcade - Avalanche: Updated visuals a bit, making the blue targets more noticeable
Arcade - Avalanche: Once you reach the bonus 500 points, you can now make additional tickets for each target hit after passing it (no longer maxes out at 500 tickets)
Arcade - Avalanche: After reaching bonus, all catsacks will become double points
Arcade: Renamed and rethemed a few games. The alley roller is now called Starfield Lanes and Wheely Rigged is now called Sunlight Roller.
Arcade: When you are about to throw one ball/ring (instead of all at once), it'll now display just the one ball/ring instead of all of them, allowing you to better aim
Friends who are hosting a game will now have a "hosting" tag on your friend list
Added clean variations to a Chain-link Fence items
Condo: You can now toggle off certain static models in Condos
Added new items to Sweet Suites: Modern Toilet, Modern Bathtub, Modern Bath Shelf, Modern Bathroom Sink, Modern Showerhead, Upper Cabinet Shelf, Upper Cabinet Shelf End
Added new items to DIY: Glass Double Doors, Bedroom Double Doors

Bug Fixes:

Fixed startup crash relating to 10th and 11th gen Intel CPUs
Fixed not being able to join other players if they aren't the host of the server
Fixed the wheel stopping/stuttering/desyncing for Wheel of Money, Wheel of Fire, Spin To Win, and Meteoroid Mania
Fixed Ball Race orbs flickering when going fast
Fixed Ball Race timer reporting incorrect times under certain circumstances
Fixed a bug where Co-Op Inventory would show up at all times even without the permission
Fixed workshop items not casting shadows even with the setting on
Fixed the mirror in condo rendering while upstairs
Fixed a bug where preview wearables in workshop editor fade out when zooming in close
Fixed a bug with copycat where you could select certain objects in House condo that you shouldn't be able to (such as the foliage)
Fixed RC dragon turning being completely broken
Fixed placeable balloon spawning fully extended
Fixed water missing in Ball Race: Woodland tubes
Fixed tiny potion sometimes spawning at the origin of condo maps
Fixed canvas pile collisions when scaled
Fixed first person camera clipping when jumping while using tiny potion
Fixed third person zoom/in out being off while using tiny potion
Fixed not being able to color Monitor, Modern Coffee Table, and Drumset
Fixed surfaces not resetting when clearing your condo
Fixed snowball battle power up weapon pickup not drawing
Fixed various condo surfaces not having the correct footstep sounds
House condo: Fixed indirect lighting causing lighting seams between coplanar surfaces, commonly seen on canvas primitives
Fixed workshop items that have collision disabled having their collision get toggled back on
Arcade - Offering: Fixed "Worthy Offering to the Gods" achievement
Arcade: Fixed score light effects not playing sometimes
Arcade - Little Birde Feeders: Fixed score rings not resetting their light status after scoring
Arcade - Ring God: Fixed the incorrect rows lighting up when getting a score

Highrise Changes:

Flattened ceiling on hallway stairwell to open up the space
Replaced individual metal girding pieces with modeled bands to remove gaps in geometry
Made a cutout in the metal girding for the rooftop staircase
Centered the rooftop staircase
Made the exterior wall under the rooftop staircase customizable
Centered and equalized the size of the rooftop windows near the staircase
Centered and made all pieces in each string of guard rail match its neighbor's size
Removed the weird angled guard rail piece outside of the hexagonal tower
Remodeled the tower so that it is no longer skewed
Made the interior wall of the tower customizable
Made a custom collider for the tower glass so the collision is no longer bugged
Made the UVs match for the inside walls of the large room and the inside tower wall
Replaced the floor molding in most of the condo with pieces that wrap corners and follow staircases
Equalized and re-spaced the wall panels for the rooms that have them
Separated wall panels into a separate column and panel model so when the ceiling height changes the column can match it without squishing the wall panel
Adjusted several changes in ceiling height so that the ceiling terminates on a column instead of in the middle of ceiling trim
Removed a lot of superfluous purple floor trim used as decoration
Removed the purple monstrosity hiding the hole in geometry between the living room and the 2F hallway
Removed some hidden geometry that served no purpose inside the living room supports
In both hallways, removed the large supports and raised the beams to make the space more open, less cluttered, and more customizable
Removed the 2F hallway wall blocking the skylight to open it up to more natural light
Added a rail where the above mentioned wall was
Added a screw for hiding the rail in case users want to replace the wall with a canvas cube
Remodeled the skylight wall space to fix some geometry issues and open up the skylight a bit more
Added a retractable window pane to the skylight
Fixed UVs on many outside walls so that they line up with their neighbors
Fixed the partial turret so that the angled walls are symmetrical
Replaced the outside ramp with a curved staircase (can replace with the original ramp by using the screw similar to the 2F rail)
Fixed Z-fighting/overlap issues with the window panes on the outside of the building
Added a platform for the bottom of the building so it doesn't end in the middle of a window pane
Added a low res door to the bottom with stairs for aesthetics
Fixed a ground floor path z-clipping with the ground
Fixed a distant city sticking up at an angle
Fixed the black pillars in the pool room to be symmetrical with the opposite wall and spaced more evenly
Slightly expanded the entrance room so that a wall panel didn't wrap around an inside corners
Fixed one of the rooftop guard walls terminating at an angle near the living room entrance
Split several instanced actors into multiple instanced actors to prevent overdraw
Fixed an area of the living room's black ceiling extending into the hallway in a weird way
Fixed some gaps in the wall geometry in the basement
Fixed some gaps in the window geometry