Tower Unite News

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for April 20th, 2020, detailing all the changes that have happened since April 13th, 2020. 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.


Last week, we released two more hotfixes to add some optimizations, fix some bugs, improve / change Arcade gameplay, and other miscellaneous changes. You can click these two links to see what changed in both Hotfix 0.9.0.2 and Hotfix 0.9.0.3.


Now that most of the issues have been resolved with the Arcade update, it's full steam ahead on Accelerate.

Johanna continued working on the art for the various maps, creating custom tree assets and adjusting lighting.

JJosh continued working on the Taxi.

Lifeless continued working on the map, "Bedzoom".

macdguy worked on getting the kart physics and handling down, while also creating systems to handle Kart Drifting, Boost Pads, and working on the overall game loop.

Wheezwer worked on a carpet asset for "Bedzoom", while creating a texture for the tree assets.

[h3]Accelerate Early Gameplay Test WIP[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Accelerate Kart Physics WIP[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Accelerate Kart Drifting WIP[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Accelerate Kart Drifting w/ Boost WIP[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]Accelerate Boost Pads WIP[/h3]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Johanna continued working on the new item previews that are themed for each store inside of the plaza.

[h3]Themed Item Previews for Plaza WIP[/h3]


Sketchman worked on improving some of the old achievement icons.

[h3]New Waterhole Achievements (Waterhole Completed & Waterhole Mastered) WIP[/h3]


Caboose700 finished setting up the code and infrastructure for the new Server Browser, getting it ready for it to be integrated into the game.

Johanna continued working on the condo item improvements.

JJosh fixed some bugs with various items.

Madmijk worked on bugs with Planetary Piano, and fixed an issue where Laser Projector beams would go invisible.

ThisIsntNath worked on an update trailer for Tower Unite which includes footage of the Arcade.

Sketchman worked on optimizations for Planetary Piano, fixed some internal bugs, and continued looking into lighting issues with Workshop Static Meshes.

Wheezwer continued working on the Steam Trading Cards.

Will continued working on music and sounds.


That about covers everything that happened since April 13th, 2020 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

This update addresses several issues that were recently reported.

Changes

• Achievements now show when you unlocked them
  
• To avoid confusion, all available upgrade items now display in the upgrade list. If you do not own an upgrade, it'll display as "not unlocked". Upgrades that are currently not available will display as "no upgrades available of this type at this time"
  
• Location now updates properly for Ball Race Orb milestone, Minigolf milestone RC cars, and vehicles
  
• New wood material for condo furniture now has a much wider range of color availability
  
• Ball Race: Started rework of moving platforms to help with clients desyncing

Bug Fixes

• Fixed crash in menu
  
• Fixed pluck-a-pal plushy stat displaying internal name on collection book
  
• Fixed typo in Arcade milestones
  
• Finished Arcade milestone icons
  
• Fixed location on HUD displaying after ragdolling/dying
  
• Fixed additional incorrect hat offsets
  
• Fixed additional underwater condo water issues
  
• Admin player name tag no longer overrides backer tag (separated the two tags)
  
• Arcade: Fixed a known exploit
  
• Arcade: Fixed Lonely Gun ammo issues (ammo was being reset every round, which broke Total Efficiency achievement)
  
• Fixed Stealth Box dequip not removing hidden state
  
• Fixed Midway Mania achievement description being the wrong value
  
• Fixed issues with Cat Protector achievement
  
• Fixed smooth rotation not always occurring on local client
  
• Fixed first person legs not appearing (even if setting was on)
  
• Fixed the colors not being properly editable on the Dining Table, Coffee Table, Office Table Short, Office Table, Office Table Long, OfficeShelfWithDoor, Modern Entertainment Cabinet, LongModernCoffeeTable, Large Fluorescent Table
  
• Fixed the color editable being maladjusted for the Computer Desk, Small Walnut Table, Room Table, Office Shelf, Short Table, Modern Reception Desk, Wood Glass Table, Victorian Table, waiting room chair, and Wooden Stool
  
• Fixed the TV Stand item having the wrong wood texture applied to it
  
• Adjusted Dizzy jackpot increase rate

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

This update addresses several issues that were recently reported.

Changes

• Arcade: Audio volume changes for Arcade. If you are a spectator, or playing the game, or hovered over it, it'll play sounds at full volume - otherwise it'll play at less volume to avoid overlapping audio experiences
  
• Arcade: Planetary Piano audio now only plays if you are looking at the cabinet you are spectating or if you are playing it so that you can hear each player individually
  
• Arcade: Meteoroid Mania now has 3 meteoroids
  
• Plaza: Implemented loading/unloading system for east and west plaza stores (Songbirds, Toy Stop, Central Circuit, Rob's Imports, and Sweet Suite). Improves frame rates when in main plaza
  
• Plaza: Created more LODs for plaza to improve frame rate
  
• Plaza: Improved planters behind tower to fix empty spots
  
• Plaza: Some minor plaza additions (new potted plants and benches)
  
• Plaza: Improved look of the sky in Plaza
  
• First chunk of updated "standardized" condo furniture
  
• You can now color the tricycle (and jump!)
  
• Improved LED tie
  
• Improved Jet Engine jetpack
  
• Improved first person view in vehicles
  
• Work in progress Arcade milestones set up (items don't have icons just yet and some items do not work, releasing these in full in the next hotfix)
  

Bug Fixes

• Improved Whirl-a-Fish, Meteoroid Mania netlag
  
• Optimized networking of Plaza games
  
• Meteoroid Mania: Fixed bug where the ball would not drop if the droppers were opened after the ball is rotating around
  
• Fixed underwater condo being filled with water
  
• Lonely Gun exploit fix
  
• Pluck-a-pal: Fixed an issue where sometimes a plushy farther away from the center of the crane would be grabbed, swapping with a plushy that is right at the center of the crane
  
• Pluck-a-pal: Fixed an exploit
  
• Pluck-a-pal: Crane grabbing is more reliable
  
• Pluck-a-pal: Made it a little more difficult to grab plushies, you need to be lined up a lot more now
  
• Pluck-a-pal: Fixed VIP achievement
  
• Pluck-a-pal: Fixed Friendship achievement
  
• Pluck-a-pal: Stabilized physics of pals just a bit
  
• Fixed Total Efficiency achievement
  
• Fixed Island achievements
  
• Fixed ram plush issues
  
• Fixed various hat offsets
  
• Fixed Pluck-a-pal leaderboard
  
• Fixed Dizzy leaderboard
  
• Fixed Wearable Units Sign not appearing
  
• Fixed throwable fuzzy die texture being corrupted
  
• Fixed LC dragon plushy colorable materials not working properly
  
• Fixed propeller hat icons being switched
  
• Reduced instances of grass clipping into the lazy river in Plaza
  
• Fixed ragdoll being invisible if you die while in first person
  
• Fixed jellybean cat plushy colorable being broken
  
• Fixed easter egg event eggs not spawning if you are in the arcade when the event begins
  
• Fixed Lonely Gun "nice shot" sound not adhering to SFX volume settings
  
• Optimized Planetary Piano networking, which should help with players disconnecting due to packet overflows
  
• Fixed dizzy not landing on the same spot for spectators as the player who is playing
  
• Fixed an issue with achievements and unit payouts
  

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 April 13th, 2020, detailing all the changes that have happened since April 6th, 2020. 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.


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Last week, we released the long awaited Arcade update, which brought 22 brand new games and 180+ unlockable items to the Tower Unite Plaza. You can read about all features of the update here.

Since we released, we've experienced a great boom in player count, almost 4 times as many players as we are used to seeing. The launch was complicated by one of our server providers dropping out from underneath us when the load got to high, so we had to scramble to search for a solution. Luckily, this only affected serving up the Server Browser, but did impact players for the first few days.

In addition, we noted an issue affecting some plaza servers where the server process would hang and stop processing, effectively making the server useless for players to join. We believe we have found the cause of this issue, and we believe the situation should be resolved now, but we'll be putting more fixes in the upcoming hotfix to help prevent this from occurring again. We also deployed 3 new additional servers, each of those machines can host 4 individual 64 player Plazas, for a total of 12 new Plaza servers to meet the demand. We'll continue to monitor and add more servers if needed.

Finally, our Global Chat system has been disabled due to the high load, as the process was causing issues on the server and preventing other applications from running properly.



Just recently we launched additional ways to help support the game and its development. Please take a moment to read over these new platforms: https://forums.pixeltailgames.com/t/ways-to-support-pixeltail-games/36910

We appreciate all the help we can get!


We're working on a hotfix to fix some bugs that were identified during the initial release of the Arcade. We're hoping to release the hotfix within the next couple of days. You can read more about the hotfix here.

Johanna worked on several improvements to the Plaza over the last week. She's been working on a system to remove the stores from the overall plaza level when the player is not around them, and by creating a cubemap effect that makes this entire process invisible to the player. She's also been working on adding more LODs to items and objects in the game, and been working on themed item previews for each of the stores in the plaza (instead of the weird grid void we have now).

[h3]Unique Store Previews WIP[/h3]


Lifeless and Johanna have been working on their various tracks for Accelerate. Lifeless has been working on "Bedzoom" while Johanna has been working on "NightCity".

[h3]EARLY WIP PROOF OF CONCEPT for Bedzoom[/h3]



@Wheezwer has been working on Tower Unite Steam Trading Cards.

[h3]WIP Steam Trading Cards[/h3]


Caboose700 worked on adding more Plaza Servers, and administering the various servers that keep Tower Unite operating.

Johanna has been going through older furniture items, updating them models to bring them up to our standard of quality and make the textures and materials more consistent.

macdguy worked on various fixes for the Arcade.

Madmijk worked on some fixes for the Disco Ball item and various fixes in the Arcade.

Sketchman created an tick rate limiter for player model animations to help improve performance, fixed the lighting issue with the workshop player models, looked into crash issues and other bugs with the Arcade, helped look into server issues, and continued working on the SDNL prototype.

Will continued working on music for Accelerate.


That about covers everything that happened since April 6th, 2020 at PixelTail Games. See you all next week!

This update addresses several issues that were recently reported. Thank you all for your support and patience while we get more servers up and running!


We have moved to a new host to provide better server listing! We have set up 4 more US servers and 4 more France servers. We are in the process of getting 4 more US servers.

To get real time updates, hop on our Discord: https://discord.gg/pixeltail and check out the #status channel.

Changes

• Adjustment to some arcade machine token cost
  
• Token machine is now more reliable and gives 25 tokens at a time instead of 5
  

Bug Fixes

• Fixed workshop player models having weird lighting / shader issues!
  
• Migrated server listing to new host
  
• Migrated patch notes to new host
  
• Fixed the missing hole in hole #3 of Altitude
  
• Fixed honeycomb shelf not having its colors be editable
  
• Fixed chrome trashcan not having proper collision
  
• Fixed disco balls resetting their light function materials upon condo reload
  

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