Modbox News

Even though we just released our multiplayer update a few days ago we decided to update again with Wiring system updates and a new 'Entity Modifiers' system. Both are for advanced creation building.

If you haven't tried multiplayer yet - Harley made a highlights video of the first day of the multiplayer beta:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNVJ1wEN8EI

New Wiring Entities:
- Boolean Gate: Works as a logic gate - connect multiple boolean inputs and get a boolean output. Can set gate by editing to AND / OR / NAND / NOR / XOR / XNOR. Replaces 'Bool Box'
- Number Compare: Edit it to set the number to compare to, then set how to compare (equal / greater / less than) - then it will compare input number to that, and output true/false. An example of this would be to stop a wave spawner on wave 10, or open a door once 10 objects are broken.
- Call Functions Entity - Outputs an Action to any number of functions. Can be set to output all at once, in order, or randomly. Replaces 'Function Box'
- Action Loop: Outputs a action every X seconds.
- Number Variable: Starts with a number and can input/output that number
- Number Operation: Has a Function that does a math operation (add/subtract/multiply) on all of it's input numbers and outputs the result

We removed the old 'Bool Box' and 'Function Box'. We put a lot of effort into back compatibility with our changes - but if you have old creations with advanced wiring using those entities things might have been broken and could use updating.

Entity Modifiers:
When editing any entity you can now add a 'Modifer'. This adds additional editing options to the entity, along with wiring options. Current modifiers are:
- Physics Options: Set gravity, physics material
- Grab Settings: Turn off grabbing of the entity, run action on grab
- On Collision Options: Do damage on collision, run actions on collision
- Custom Tag: Set a custom tag text onto the entity. You can then use this tag in other entity settings. Like you could add a custom 'Ball' tag to a object, then create a goal by adding a Collision Detector that only detects entities with a 'Ball' tag.

Other 3.2.2 Changes:
- Added messages when you kill another player, and who killed you when you die.
- Fixed error with not being able to rejoin a server if there was a error that caused disconnect
- Fixed Muting individual players not working

Grab Based Locomotion / Panning / Rotation
Makes editing while sitting down easier - along with quickly getting around large creations


Surface Snap
This is useful for placing objects when they should snap right to the surface of another one / the ground.


thanks!
- Lee

Multiplayer! Along with a large amount of other new changes. This is our first multiplayer release, so multiplayer is still very much in development. If you try it now let us know your thoughts!

Multiplayer
- Use the Online option in the menu to join/start a online game. You'll start in the Lobby - and anyone can join your game at any time. You can then select which creation to play.
- You can play any creation in multiplayer - including drone waves
- As the Server you have complete control over reseting the game, loading another creation, or kicking any players. You can also set a password if you want a private game.
- Voice chat with avatar lip sync already added. You can change the voice volume, or mute specific players
- Player limit right now is 5, mainly since most of the creations would not be fun with more than that

Our plan for multiplayer is to keep developing it over the next month, then when it's ready we are planning to launch a free Modbox demo version. The demo version will let players play online but not edit their own creations. Hopefully this will keep the active player count higher.

Workshop Browsing
Another large focus of this update is trying to get more players checking out Workshop content. There are already a lot of awesome workshop creations but in our last update it wasn't easy to find/subscribe. You can now browse the entire workshop ingame - searching by popularity, featured, release date, or creation tags - and then download and play them.
You can also rate them ingame using the main menu button.

Major Changes / Additions:
- 'Grab Locomotion' for editor: Similar to UnrealVR or the new Tiltbrush update - you can hold the grip buttons to pull yourself around, and to rotate and scale. This is turned on in the Editor settings of the UI cube.
- 'Restart on Death' - Now with the addition of multiplayer the default thing to do on death is to respawn the player. So for wave defense levels (where the amount of guys keep increasing), you probably dont want players to keep respawning. So use this option to not respawn but restart on death. For multiplayer that means once all players are dead it will let the host restart (so it's basically elimination mode)
- New Surface Snap editing option: turn this on to have the entity snap to the surface of the other entity it's colliding with. Makes placing entities ontop of one another (or directly on the ground) a lot easier.
- New Sci fi weapons: 4 grenades (each with a different way to activate), 4 turrets that can be mounted in levels, and a bolt action railgun with scope
- New bow and arrow aiming - now more like The Lab's Longbow
- Large optimizations for loading large mods (like the Dungeon assets)
- Large optimizations for levels with a large amount of dynamic rigidbodies
- More new Entities: Sci fi door and two force fields in sci fi mod, fireworks, katana sword
- Physics improvements: Better football throwing, higher friction all around.
- Race track entities added to RC car mod (we are working on a multiplayer RC race track creation, still coming though)
- New 'Gizmo' editing option: turns on gizmo axis that you easily grab to move a entity in a single direction
- 'Lock' option on the radial menu. Lock a entity in place, so you can more easily edit it's mesh or scale it (and also move it with the new gizmo options)

Some of the best new workshop creations for online play:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=770157852&searchtext=
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=770267633&searchtext=

Voice Command System
- This is still in development! And is currently Windows 10 only. Off by default but can be turned on in Options menu
- You can see a test of this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-ZhotqLcZ4
- We are working on making the voice commands more obvious - like putting a list of them in the menu to the side.
Commands are:
- Open *Tool name*
- Go To *Menu Option*
- Spawn *Enity Name*
- Then for a variety of actions it's: Modbox *Action*. Such as toggling play mode on/off, open the load creation menu, selecting mods, etc

Custom Audio files
- Creations can now have their own custom audio - that is uploaded to the Steam workshop along with the creation
- Place files (.wav or .mp3) in the CustomAudio folder where their .exe is, then it'll show up in the sound effects list for the Sound Effect / Sound Loop entities

Other changes / fixes
- New options for wave controller: can set it to start a new wave in X seconds, rather than have to wait for the last one to finish
- Snap settings now saved in player preferences, rather than with creation
- Group tool now always selects the spawner rather than the thing inside spawner
- HighScore and CurrentScore both display on death screen. Highscore displays on creation confirm screen if there is one
- Fixed entities getting caught in floor in the Void level
- More Wire controls for Doors: locking, opening
- RC Car Color can now be selected, along with controller, so different RC cars can be controlled by rc controllers
- Increased level area of moon level
- Fixed problem with Restart button and restarting in wrong location
- Collision Detector entity can now detect players, and cause damage to players or entities on entering
- Fixed Timers countdown / count up not working when above 1 minute

Whats Next
- I updated the Roadmap post here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/414120/discussions/0/355043117521260717/ - Main focus now is on expanding the wiring system

Multiplayer additions we are still working on
- Team options
- More locomotion options for creations.

Known Issues
- Effects volume currently also sets voice volume

Part of the reason for the giant amount of new additions is since our last update we have expanded our team. We were a team of 2 (Harley and myself), and now have 3 more developers helping us
- Regan Russell
- Joe Chatfield
- Roby Atadero

If your a Unity developer interested in joining the team - email me at jobs(at)alientrap.org . We are still looking for more Unity developers to help us remotely part time.

thanks!
- Lee

Coming next update - voice commands!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-ZhotqLcZ4
Commands are:
- Open *Tool name*
- Go To *Menu Option*
- Spawn *Enity Name*
- Then for a variety of actions it's: Modbox *Action*. Such as toggling play mode on/off, open the load creation menu, selecting mods, etc

We've also added 6 material mods for more material options:
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse/?appid=414120&searchtext=&childpublishedfileid=0&browsesort=mostrecent§ion=readytouseitems&admin_view=1&requiredtags%5B%5D=Materials

In the next update we will be revamping the workshop browse screen - at the moment it just highlights the 'featured' creations/mods. In our next update it should be the full workshop browser like you have online

thanks,
- Lee

Hotfix for our last update now live - fixing some performance issues

We've also updated the Moon Defense level to be a little bit more insane - I uploaded a gameplay video going up to wave 7:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm3pmLHtoBI&feature=youtu.be