Tower Unite News

This hot fix addresses several issues that have been reported, along with a lot of gameplay changes to Sweet Tooth.

Minigolf - Sweet Tooth Changes

• Sweet Tooth: Reduced contrast of Sweet Tooth's boost tracks to be less visually intense
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 3: Made the back area less punishing by adding a small area behind it, rather than players going out of bounds. This area will be connected to pipes that travel to the other areas
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 5: Failing the jump with the swinging candy cane at the end will no longer lead to an out-of-bounds. Instead, you drop down into another area
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 6: Made the moving wall less punishing by adding a small area behind it, rather than players going out of bounds.
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 6: Added a fade wall to the pit so players will be able to see properly
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 7: Made the "roulette wheel" fail holes less punishing by sending players back to the starting area instead of dumping them in the chocolate
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 9: Adjusted the zig-zag section so it's easier for people who go down that path to get a birdie
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 9: The curve right after the moving wall has been moved back a little bit so that players will no longer stop halfway when they hit the block sticking out
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 13: Improved the pipe cameras
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 13: In the large circular area, the side routes are easier and less frustrating to cross by moving them backwards slightly. This ensures that even players who are traveling "with" the wall will no longer fall out-of-bounds at the gap
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 13: For the back area, an extra barrier was added to add an additional way of getting into the hole
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 18: Removed the new spline at the end and brought back the original booster movement

Changes

• Improved condo load in (large condos load in duration from 40 seconds to about 5-10 seconds)
  
• Improved canvas image download & load in
  
• Added daily server restart countdown notices (30 minutes before, 15 minutes before, 5 minutes before, and 1 minute before)
  
• Increased FPS smoothing cap from 120 to unlimited
  
• Updated main menu backgrounds
  
• Little Crusaders - Knightsend-by-Sea: Optimized CPU usage
  
• Little Crusaders - Knightsend-by-Sea: Removed lightmass AO to make the map visually consistent with other LC maps
  
• Zombie Massacre - Gasoline: The truck now can be blown up
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed vote map random select not working Plaza or Game World Ports
  
• Fixed fireplace scaling wrong
  
• Fixed condo scoreboard not hiding automatically when taking screenshots for workshop condo uploading
  
• Ball Race: Fixed the ball phasing through kill volumes and finish volumes
  
• Ball Race - Woodlands: Fixed a spot in level 1 where players could get stuck
  
• Ball Race - Woodlands: Fixed a missing polygon on the back of the course start chute
  
• Little Crusaders - Knightsend-by-Sea: Fixed a broken AO map on the docks
  
• Little Crusaders - Knightsend-by-Sea: Plugged some holes in the buildings
  
• Zombie Massacre - Nightyard: Fixed zombies getting stuck behind trains
  
• Zombie Massacre - Gasoline: Fixed a map exploit
  
• Zombie Massacre - Gasoline: Fixed a spot where a zombie could get stuck between the truck and the gas pump
  
• Zombie Massacre - Gasoline: Fixed cars that are blown up being invisible
  
• Accelerate: Fixed spectator camera clipping for clients
  
• Sweet Tooth: Fixed some lollipops turning white at a distance
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 1: Fixed an out-of-bounds issue
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 3: Made the end boosters more stable
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 13: Fixed ball bouncy behavior when going across the boost area
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 14: Fixed an issue where a moving platform blocked the entrance to one of the pipes, causing players to get stuck
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 17: Fixed a bug where players could phase through the ramp at the beginning of the hole
  
• Sweet Tooth - Hole 18: Fixed ending ramp launching players into the sky

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

Fish and earn double EXP during this weekend event starting this Friday and ending on this Sunday. There's also a bunch of more rare fish swimming around for you to catch this weekend as well!

From now on, Tower Unite will occasionally feature events that multiply your rewards for playing the game! Have fun fishing and stay tuned for further events!

This hot fix addresses several issues you've reported, along with various improvements to physics stability. We got more fixes in the works as well.

Changes

• Increased the stability of the physics simulation to improve physics behavior in Minigolf, Billiards, Ball Race, Arcade and other areas of the game
  
• Adjusted physics substepping fidelity, which will help improve physics simulations
  
• Enabled framerate smoothing with range of 22 FPS to 120 FPS
  
• Minigolf: Adjusted camera lerping a bit more
  
• Inventory: The name of the item you are right clicking on now displays

Bug Fixes

• Fixed pets being visible in first person
  
• Fixed random vote map option sometimes not going to any map
  
• Fixed random vote map option not working for Little Crusaders
  
• Fixed random vote map option selecting the same map that was just played
  
• Fixed weird lighting in Smooth Dirt
  
• Fixed sometimes not being able to join other players from the menu if they are in certain Plazas
  
• Fixed ocean water being in the carpet section
  
• Accelerate: Fixed spectating camera clipping
  
• Fixed greek column not being colorable
  
• Optimized dynamic weapon scopes
  
• Inventory: Fixed right side of the screen not letting you grab items
  
• Fixed chat typing animations not playing
  
• Fixed item tag tooltips getting stuck on screen
  
• Fixed co-op inventory being incorrectly titled as "condo inventory"
  
• Fixed being able to select the sell option in co-op inventory (which would result in selling your own items)
  
• Fixed underwater distortion effects causing tool traces to appear to be offset (when they really aren't)
  
• Fixed translation plane gizmos not shift copying

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

Sweet Tooth has gotten a makeover for this update, with new visuals and improved gameplay! With new lighting, updated art assets, adjustments to courses and quality of life changes, the map is more exciting and enjoyable than ever before!





New features have been added to the condo such as shift-and-drag copying! Now you can quickly copy items by holding shift while dragging them with the translate gizmo!

Gizmos now have hotkeys for easier switching and editing. While you have an item selected in gizmo mode (left click by default), you can switch between gizmos using the Q, E, and R keys (these are rebindable).



You can now also quickly exit out of gizmo mode with the space key (also rebindable).

These are just a few of the changes made! There have been numerous improvements to the building system, along with several bug fixes that should make building a lot more user friendly and enjoyable. Read the full list of changes in the Condo Editing Changes section below.


You can now see what game and map your friends are playing, including what Plaza server they are on straight from the friends list in-game. We've also added a join button to quickly connect you with your friends.


In this update, we've fixed wearables resizing while in seats, and wearables not displaying after using seats (such as when you toggle between first and third person), we've also addressed several other long standing issues such as weapons being de-equipped (until you respawn) while going into minigames. Check out the full list of bug fixes at the bottom of this update log.



Changes

• Minigolf: Sweet Tooth Remastered
  
• You can now see what game and map your friends are playing, including what Plaza server they are on within the friends list
  
• Added a "Join" button next to your friends on the friends list
  
• Added "Random" and "Return To Game Ports" vote map options
  
• If you are in a Game World and the Game World disconnects you or closes, the disconnect popup will have an option to take you back to the Game World ports
  
• Added placeable aquarium volume to D.I.Y store. This volume will allow you to create areas for fish to swim without the need of an aquarium (fish stay within the bounds of the volume)
  
• Laser Tag: Laser gun sound now can be heard a lot better from a distance, allowing you to better know where your enemy is shooting you from
  
• Arcade: Whirl-a-fish now shows how many drops it has left
  
• Added a pool tube at the top of the slides to help visually show you can ride down the slides
  
• Fishing: Higher difficulty of fish caught will now result in a fish (instead of trash) and better chances of rare ones
  
• Increased inventory UI icon sizes
  
• Increased contrast of settings headers, key bind settings, and sliders for better visibility
  
• Reorganized key bind settings, separating condo inventory editing into its own header section
  
• Resized item tooltip icon to be larger so you can see items better
  
• Performance Optimization: Reduced lightmap data inside the arcade by 50% (from 320MB to 160MB).
  
• Performance Optimization: Reduced shader complexity inside the arcade
  
• Reduced waiting for players timer for Typing Derby from 30 seconds to 20 seconds
  
• Reduced waiting for players timer for Trivia from 30 seconds to 20 seconds

Sweet Tooth Changes

• Added extra cameras to hole 3 to provide a smoother camera view when traveling down pipes underneath the course
  
• Added extra pipe cameras to hole 4, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17
  
• Added extra backboard to end of hole 15 to make it less likely that players will bounce out the back
  
• Added spline to the loop-de-loop at the beginning of hole 18 to make it more reliable
  
• Fixed some instances of golf balls phasing through the half pipes in hole 12
  
• Fixed some instances of golf balls phasing through the 270 degree boost curve in hole 16
  
• Fixed players incorrectly bouncing backwards off of the half pipe/ramp at the end of hole 17

Condo Changes

• Condo - Condo: You can now edit the pools wall/floor, trim, and stairs
  
• Condo - Condo: You can now edit the roof grass
  
• Condo - Condo: Removed bushes, allowing you to redecorate with your own foliage
  
• Condo - Condo: Removed the grime/dirt from the pool stairs
  
• Condo - Highrise: You can now edit the pool stairs
  
• Condo: You can now apply any surface or canvas on the Stairs item
  
• Condo: Added Water Clean and Water Ocean materials
  
• Condo: NPCs by default no longer have "My Character" as their name tag. Name tag will only display once a name has been assigned

Condo Editing Changes

• Condo: Added shift drag copying. You can now hold shift and drag items and duplicate them with the translate gizmo
  
• Condo: Space/jump now ends gizmo edit mode
  
• Condo: While in Gizmo mode you can switch between position, rotation, and scale using Q, E, and R respectively (these are rebindable)
  
• Condo: Tilde key (~) now toggles advanced edit mode (this is rebindable)
  
• Condo: You can now right click and edit items while in gizmo mode
  
• Condo: When right click editing on an item, you no longer need to keep Q held to keep the right click edit menu open. It'll auto close after you are done right clicking
  
• Condo: Added arrows for easier variation changing for nature items
  
• Condo: Inventory UI - Moved Nature category out of the Furniture category and into its own large category
  
• Condo: Inventory UI - Removed the Arcade category from Toys and just added the items to the main Toys category
  
• Condo: Inventory UI - You can now drag resize the condo inventory to be taller by double clicking the shadow above the condo inventory title

Bug Fixes

• Minigolf: Fixed being unable to putt up hills or certain crazy angles (would display a no putt cursor). You'll now always be able to putt any angle without having to readjust the camera
  
• Fixed sitting in seats resizing wearables!!
  
• Fixed cosmetic items (wearables) being invisible when sitting in seats and switching between third person and first person
  
• Fixed jitter if you have a tiny potion active during a minigame
  
• Fixed equippables/weapons not working after participating in a minigame
  
• Fixed players visually holding weapons in their hands that are holstered for themselves
  
• Plaza: Fixed missing collision on Game Ports platform
  
• Plaza: Fixed duplicate teleporter in Game Ports
  
• Plaza: Fixed missing collision on trees near Seasons
  
• Plaza: Fixed Dev HQ media player not working
  
• Condo: Fixed stair step width resetting when changing number of steps
  
• Condo: Fixed advanced edit mode reopening item properties of the exact same item
  
• Condo: Fixed advanced edit mode camera mode (right click) not engaging when right clicking/hovering over an item
  
• Co-op Condo: Fixed wrong scale of items when clients drag/move items. For example, if a canvas cube was scaled by 5, a client would always have it scaled at 1 instead of 5
  
• Condo: Fixed the scale gizmo not scaling the workshop models properly at all due to scale metadata not being calculated with the gizmo
  
• Condo: Fixed physics items not floating in water properly and hitting an invisible wall
  
• Condo: Fixed trust prompt coming up for condos you've already trusted
  
• Condo: Fixed canvas images not loading on surfaces even if you have already trusted the player
  
• Condo - Condo: Fixed a rock cutting into a floor underground
  
• Minigolf: Preview camera no longer stutters due to networking desyncs
  
• Laser Tag: Fixed several Laser Tag exploits
  
• Fixed third person camera being really low while in seats, now it'll be tied to your head a lot better and adjusts with potions
  
• Fixed leaving seats resetting your camera to the wrong direction, now it'll reset your camera back to what it was before you entered the seat
  
• Fixed blocking a player model while in a condo causing all workshop models in the condo unloading (becoming boxes)
  
• Fixed pause menu inventory clearing the current search after selling an item
  
• Fixed Pilot Hat model
  
• Fixed not being able to color the bedside table lamp
  
• Resolved some issues where tutorial prompts (game splash screens) don't get saved upon game restart
  
• Optimized and improved inventory pause menu list (now loads results instantly)
  

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

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for March 1st, 2021, detailing all the changes that have happened since February 22nd, 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]Update 0.13.5.0[/h2]
We're finishing work on Update 0.13.5.0, which includes tons of numerous fixes and improvements for Condo Building, as well as the Sweet Tooth art pass. You can view all the details of this update here.

Highlights:
* The bug where wearables would resize when a player sits in a seat has been fixed.

* The bug where cosmetic items would become invisible when sitting in a seat and switching between first and third person was fixed.

* A bug where blocking a player model in a condo would cause all workshop models in the condo to unload was fixed.

* Leaving a seat will now reset the player's camera to its view before sitting in the seat.

* The third person camera is now better placed with the player's head while in a seat, and adjusts with potions/small models.

* The player will now be prompted if they wish to return to the Game Worlds Ports if a Game World closes unexpectedly.

[h2]February 2021 Condo Contest Winners[/h2]
The February 2021 condo contest has finished! Congratulations to "twitch.tv_caat96" and "Snuffles" in 1st place, along with "No4Delirious" and "Mementomori_Mohalovi" for their 2nd and 3rd place wins. You can view all the condo submissions 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]Condo Improvements[/h2]

macdguy worked on various fixes and improvements for condo building.

Highlights:
* Players can now use Shift + Drag to quickly spawn duplicate items using the Gizmo.

* Players can add areas in their condo for fish to swim with the new placeable Aquarium Volume.

* The Inventory UI can now be resized.

* The Nature category was moved out of the Furniture category into its own category.

* The bug where the trust canvas prompt would appear in condos the player already has trusted has been fixed.

* The bug where canvas images would not load even if the player had trusted the host has been fixed.

[h3]Shift + Drag Item Spawning[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Placeable Aquarium Volume[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Resizable Condo Inventory UI[/h3]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Miscellany[/h2]

Johanna finished working on the Sweet Tooth polishing pass. She also optimized various places in the Plaza and Arcade.

JJosh continued working on items for the Arcade. He also worked on redoing the elephant plush.

Lifeless continued working the new condo map.

macdguy fixed an issue where wearables would resize if a player sat down in a seat. He also helped optimize wearables, and worked on upgrades. He added "Random" and "Return to Game Ports" buttons to the map vote screen, and added Join functionality to the friend's list on the main menu.

Madmijk continued working on Planetary Piano, along with working on Upgrades.

Wheezwer continued working on the concept art design for Fresh, along with the concept art and dialogue for the new Upgrades NPC.

Will continued working on various pieces of music.

[h3]Fresh Store Redesign Concept Art WIP[/h3]



[h3]Upgrades NPC Redesign Concept Art WIP[/h3]



[h3]New Condo Landscape WIP[/h3]



[h3]Random & Game Ports Options on Vote Map[/h3]



[h3]Join Button on Friends List in Main Menu[/h3]



[h3]Old / New Elephant Plush[/h3]



[h2]Wrap It Up[/h2]
That about covers everything that happened since February 22nd, 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