Gone Viral News

CLOSED BETA UPDATE 0.2.19.1

It’s only been a few days since our last patch but we just can’t stop ourselves!

The main reason we’re updating is to add a potential fix for an odd, subtle issue with Twitch logins seen by several streamers.

Good news - if you see an issue yourself (either being stuck at “Connecting…” or just otherwise having oddness with your new Oauth key) rebooting the game cures it. But Real Devs Don’t Let Users Just Reboot Through Their Bugs - so here’s a patch to fix it for real (er, or log the crap out of it if not).

Even though this is a nigh-hotfix, for the low, low price of nothing you ALSO get a mildly bonkers new Fan Event, the ability to blacklist your bot(s) to keep ‘em from spamming your in-world chat, and polish goodness for issues we’ve seen reported or in streams.

Enjoy!


Content:
-- Added new Room Content: Magnetic Occluder
-- Added new Fan Event Magnetic Storm that rains magnets into the next combat room, causing mass chaos
-- Adjusted Fan Event Nuked so that it will show up either when Fans like it OR if they are unhappy (was previously just in the standard rotation)
-- Tweaked size/shape of Recycler Pits (in development)

Twitch:
-- Added a simple blacklist for Twitch Chat (thanks @StandardDamage and others)
- enter the names of any bots (or jerks like @Doug I suppose) if you'd like their spammy little butts to not show up in the game chat window or in NPC chat
-- Potential bugfix and extra logging added around an Oauth issue discovered by @Baron_Fortesque and @ExtraCredits (thanks for the logs!)
-- Set up the settings pages for localization (new localizable font, etc)

Polish:
-- Fixed a room that had weirdly rotated tiles
-- Fix for a potential rare issue where you lose the ability to control yourself in air while jumping into pits - thanks @Helixplays1!
-- Shields and bae blades that rotate around you now space themselves evenly (thanks me, struggling to film a gif and probably getting WAY too distracted by wanting to have a cool looking pattern of bae blades)
-- Fixed issue where item nameplates would disappear on loading from a save or in certain test rooms
-- Magnet Occluders now properly clean up when destroyed
-- Magnet and Magnet Base asset for Magnetic Occluder
-- Magnetic Occluders can now be shattered
-- Hooked up new magnet asset to Magnetic Storm
-- Used magnet asset variant for Magnetic Lure gadget in-world and in-hand
-- Magnet component now defaults to "on" - recent changes made Singularity Shots/Magnetic Lure not very lure-id
-- Broke spike roller wheel into smaller single asset for re-use in different areas of the game.
-- Set up Champ fight spike roller to use instanced duplicates of the smaller wheel.
-- Re-enabled hyperlinks when in demo mode
-- Disabled local beta sign-up when in demo mode
-- Implemented main menu right info box swapping when in demo mode
-- Polish around pit jumping/bouncing
-- It is now 5x harder for the game to fail to generate a valid floor
-- If the game does fail to generate a valid floor, it takes you to the main menu
-- The transition UI when starting a new run now scales correctly no matter what container you put it in

Developer Notes
-- Cleaning up and moving around our PAX demo code to be more general demo code
-- Cleanup of rain items spell
-- Initial work on Magnetic Storm Fan Event
-- [DEV] Added simple accessors to Audience to find happiness or unhappiness quickly
-- [DEV] Refactored RainItems spells to be cleaner/more consistent
-- Interim checkin of Recycler Pit
-- [DEV] Pit behavior made modular for inheritance purposes
-- [DEV] Initial backend for rerolling items
-- [DEV] Character FlyUp behavior now exposed to C++
-- [DEV] Cleanup of PitBounce Buff removing dependency on CH_NPC
-- [DEV] Additional clean-ups to demo mode
-- [DEV] Added a new counter to game instance so we can tell how many times level generation has failed

CLOSED BETA UPDATE 0.2.19

IT’S EMOTES BETA UPDATE TIME!

Well, we’ve been beating on the beta the last few weeks, laying in a bunch of groundwork stuff that is Big, Mostly Invisible, and Totes Necessary. It’s like a combination of a duck and an iceberg: with big stuff under the hood, churning away making it happen.

So what’s the scoop?

Localization! Now our game (including chat) can handle localizable fonts, preparing us for our future World Takeover.

Emotes and Twitch overhaul! We completely retooled our Twitch integration - the immediate benefit of this is that you can now see Twitch emotes, username colors, etc. both in in-world chat and the chat boxes… but we’re also now hooked up so in the future we can add stuff in the game for things like knowing who subscribers are, when donations happen - all that. It’ll open the door to some Neat Stuff in the future - letting us share some of our Devs Screwing With Streamer™ powers with mods and viewers in interesting ways that won’t ever Go Horribly Wrong.

MOAR PRETTY! The last few untextured or Doug-hacked-it-in assets are all getting polished up - so the Juggernaut is fully textured and modeled, signals his attacks better, and more. The health gambler (aka WTF WHY DID I JUST TAKE DAMAGE machine) now looks like a… thing that lets you gamble health. The giant spike-shredder doesn’t look like Doug jammed a bunch of cones into a giant cylinder he found lying around. Yay!

And, of course, a batch of polish and fixes we couldn’t do without y’all beating on the game - some nice finds there @botchiball, @Geef, @Vinc3ntvega, and the recent streams from @StandardDamge, @Baron_Fortesque, @Helixplays1, and @Skäggfobi.

Enjoy! Next up - MOAR CONTENT!

-Ze Skullbottians


Features:
-- Full UTF-8 (i.e. non-English character support, like say Cyrillic) added to Twitch chat - thanks for the stream @GoldenSire
-- New fonts in use with more language support

Content:
-- Added yet more icons from @LeoFonseca!
-- Juggernaut visual overhaul:
-- New Boss Model for the Juggernaut
-- New Mace Asset for Juggernaut
-- Added textures for Juggernaut Bolas
-- Added Lighting effect to Juggernaut Bolas to make them look more dangerous.
-- Unified VFX color of dangerous attacks for Juggernaut

Twitch:
-- Dev Game Master commands now work properly through the plugin interface
-- Twitch login status now properly reported
-- Cleaned up UI for TwitchWatcher widget when not connected (was partially offscreen previously)
-- Twitch system now properly parses messages/whispers
-- Twitch system now properly handles whispers
-- Twitch system now properly handles authentication
-- Twitch system now properly handles channel joining, Oauth formatting, and nicknames for login
-- Twitch bulletproofing overhaul
-- Status messages are properly updated during the connection process
-- Twitch settings menu and TwitchWatcher widgets are much more informative about any connection/settings issues
-- Twitch properly handles multiple attempts to reconnect
-- "Connect To Twitch Now" button clearer about what it does and providing status along the way
-- Productized TwitchWatcher widget
-- Created a new Twitch status message widget on a different layer than main Twitch watcher so that it sorts properly with mutations/etc.
-- Marked for Localization all text associated with TwitchWatcher/Twitch connection status/Twitch Chatbox
-- Initial Twitch Emoji functionality - emotes are dynamically downloaded from the Twitch servers, stored in images, and displayed in Rich Text in the chat box.
-- Twitch Settings window properly sets the desired Twitch connection status as you leave (if you tested out new settings and did/didn't save)
-- Tweaked God Text location
-- Twitch Watcher and Twitch Status messages scale/relocate properly
-- Emojis!
-- In-world chat and chat window now supports rich text (bolding, coloring, etc) and emojis
-- Rich Text decorators support caching of emojis for re-use (much more efficient)
-- Individual emotes are downloaded as-needed if the initial emoji downloads have an issue or if folks use emojis to which the streamer doesn't have access
-- Much log reduction now that things are functional
-- Chat work galore -
-- Emotes now word wrap (thanks @[AG] Moosey and chatters in his stream!)
-- Full support for inline Rich Text
-- Twitch colors supported for usernames in chat
-- Chat now waits for all emotes to be loaded before displaying a chat line to work around Twitch server issues delivering emotes - no more "missing emote" question marks when emotes need to be delivered from the Twitch servers (thanks again @[AG] Moosey and chatters)
-- GodText now supports localized fonts, set up to support rich text and emojis
-- GodText now displays more quickly

Polish:
-- Fixed an issue with the character info on the character select screen being unknown
-- Added new Announcer image and Announcer frame
-- Moved Announcer swoop to localizable font
-- Adjusted transparency of announcer frame
-- Adjusted spacing/sizing of Announcer
-- Added temp icons for the various chests
-- Added very slight variation on the Nukerock ignition sound to prevent ugly stacked sounds (thanks @Geef)
-- Bulletproofed a crash from @Geef's stream.
-- The issue - when going to the Big Show level, if you have the Game Master mutation AND you have the Rain Of Bombs as yer carnage item, it triggers a crash; that particular level is built in a special way and isn't fully built while combat is beginning to start, confusing the item.
-- Fixed RainItems spell to no longer risk odd cases that might cause an infinite loop (further bulletproofing @Geef's earlier find)
-- NPC Mutation Tougher no longer shows up in list with a blank icon (thanks @botchiball)
-- Character summaries on level change now list the character's equipment to make it easier to track issues like @Geef's in the future
-- NPC Mutations are now listed in the Murderpedia (some tweaks to come)
-- Added descriptions for all NPC mutations to game/Murderpedia
-- Level Greeter object now marks displayed buffs as visible so you can find them in the Murderpedia immediately
-- Adjusted the widgets so long stat names like "Max Innate Armor" are displayed well in the Murderpedia without clipping
-- Tweaked wording on Terminal Velocity mutation to be more clear (good call @botchiball)
-- Mutation Headhunter now applies its effects to any living bosses even if it is picked up mid-boss-combat (nice subtle find @botchiball)
-- Fixed an issue where minimap icons were never going away
-- Juggernaut now telegraphs the locations of where his bolas shall spawn
-- New asset and texture for Gambling Machine (needs gameplay hook up for wheel spin)
-- Fixed an issue where walloping enemies with melee attacks and orbit was not changing the orbit direction (thanks @Vinc3ntvega)
-- First pass on implementing the brand new health gambler machine
--Added destroyed gambling machine stump
--Added machine gear and spring gib assets
--Added Textures for spike door
--Adjusted Bomb and Heart multi-pickup assets to be more clear
--Replaced Bomb pickups with something more bomb-like.
--Added Murderpedia Portrait for Abacus
-- Added an extra safety net to detect when enemies escape an active combat room and bring them back
-- Fixed a bunch of unnecessary collision changes on the tile turret
-- Removed a performance optimization that was causing picking the closest safe to rarely pick the closest safe tile
-- Fixed a typo in the Headhunter mutation
-- Added another layer of auto-fill to the Twitch settings as users often miss the Username field which breaks their connection
-- Replaced temporary art (Sorry @Doug ) with new assets for Champ fight SpikeRoller
-- Updated the collision on the new spike roller asset
-- Added grinding sparks asset for Champ roller wheel
-- Added initial spark positions for the spike roller
-- Adjusted size, life and velocity of grinder wheel sparks for champ fight.
-- Spike roller sparks now activate and deactivate at the correct times
-- Fixed several bugs in how medlab machines were being saved
-- Polished the interactions with the health gambler

Developer Notes
-- [DEV] Adding the new Twitch plugin to 4.24
-- [DEV] Removing a bunch of intermediate files for the Twitch plugin
-- [DEV] Enabled TwitchWorks plugin
-- Dice from Gambler Carnage Item have debug info display
-- [DEV] Updating a bunch of game end engine settings to prepare Gone Viral for localization
-- [DEV] Additional setup work to prepare for the first four localized languages
-- [DEV] Adding fonts for several more languages to the project
-- [DEV] Twitch Plugin shifted from Engine to Game plugin
-- [DEV] Fixed a spelling error in the IDDisplayMap table
-- [DEV] More preparatory localization work
-- [DEV] Removed an unused column that had old, localized text in it
-- [DEV] Minimap rooms no longer depend on DisplayType for icons
-- [DEV] Added iMinimapRoomContent interface and MinimapIcon enum to C++ - implemented for Pickupables and Chests (no more forgetting to tag new mutations/weapons etc)
-- [DEV] Cleaned up some Murderpedia DisplayType references
-- [DEV] Removed DisplayType entirely from IDDisplaymap and all related items
-- [DEV] Flagged a number of literal strings as non-localizable
-- [DEV] Removed some more (disconnected) references to Display Type
-- [DEV] Significant clean up to prepare for localization
-- [DEV] Refreshed the IDDisplayMap table to force it to realize that it now has 500 less words to be localized
-- [DEV] Moved much of C++/blueprint to use new TwitchMessage format
-- [DEV] Long names added to TwitchWorks plugin
-- [DEV] TwitchWorks plugin now supports whispers fully
-- [DEV] Significant clean up of the data in the IDDisplayMap table
-- [DEV] Finished cleaning up localized text in /Content/UI
-- [DEV] Additional localized text clean up
-- [DEV] Switched some dev columns in the IDDisplayMap table to strings so they aren't automatically localized
-- [DEV] Exposed color as a parameter on M_EnergyShield so it can be edited on instances
-- [DEV] Adding shifted versions of the announcer poses and his frame so that they can just be stacked on each other without repositioning them
-- [DEV] Fixing a build error in GVEdController
-- [DEV] Rejiggered Twitch UI hierarchy/cleaned up redirectors
-- [DEV] Prisoners no longer spam the logs when registering themselves to rebroadcast Twitch comments
-- [DEV] Twitch plugin has all constructors initialized/C++ scrubbed for memory issues
-- [DEV] Emotes are loaded using Ctrl-Shift-I while in dev mode
-- [DEV] Some initial thread-safety for the Twitch plugin
-- [DEV] Possible workaround for memory stomp
-- [DEV] Continuing the localization pass through the Blueprints folder
-- [DEV] Adding Jeff's test VO to the project
-- [DEV] Updated the stylish moves to use the test Jeff voices
-- [DEV] Possible end to the descent into madness with full slate TSharedPtr memory management implemented
-- [DEV] Significant additional localization text cleanup
-- Avoiding potential memory issues in GetEmoteSet and GetTwitchUser
-- Fixed issue with caching emotes
-- Adjusted demo dev mode cheats
-- [DEV] Finished cleaning up the blueprints folder for localization
-- [DEV] Added test suite for cooked build
-- [DEV] Potential fix for issue in test case 1
-- [DEV] Test case 2 bulletproofing
-- [DEV] Good lord these are the most boring checkin notes I've ever had I want to stop debugging asynchronous memory management and code some 'splosions
-- [DEV] Removed a ton of old and unused assets
-- [DEV] Pulling test carnage move voices back out
-- Eliminating more possible issues from threads
-- [DEV] Removed 600 words from our localized text list by changing a single text box
-- Emojis loaded sequentially
-- Various memory cleanups
-- [DEV] Updated default starting position of Gambling Wheel
-- [DEV] Some additional localization work
-- [DEV] Emoji system rewritten from scratch in GV code; passes phase 1 testing
-- [DEV] Room Editor automatically checks out SavedRooms file if needed
-- [DEV] Adjusted texture size of existing Decimus Murderpedia Portrait to be a multiple of two
-- [DEV] Documentation added in various places for emoji code

CLOSED BETA UPDATE 0.2.18

Another week, another patch - just cause we love ya!

Main focus this week was on Quality of Life - falling into pits feels a lot better (well, it still hurts - but you have more control by a bunch), bosses got properly tougher when hit by really spammy explosions, the Murderpedia has benefited from a slew of icons, and more. Part of that “more”: in-world Twitch chat got a lot cooler, with various prisoners/monitors/cameras still chatting on the walls even if you AREN’T in combat (you know, when you actually have time to READ chat while streaming?)

But that’s not all - we’re moving into content-addition mode, so there are a few new mutations and Fan Events out there to be found. More to come!

Enjoy!

Content:
-- Approximately a Brazilian icons from @LeoFonseca added
-- Added Egg Baby mutation prototype
-- Bosses now have a very short window of explosive invulnerability after getting exploded - this prevents them from being instagibbed by things like Bomber/multiply or Bombadier/Spin Doctor combos.
-- There’s a new, sexy, higher-personality Announcer in the Tutorial and Start Room to welcome you to your impending demise
-- Added mutation Dumpster Diver - gain immunity to pit damage; while jumping in or hovering over pits, will lure nearby pickupable items to the player (thanks @Jayy, @DoubleNeg, @Rehab Submarine, @ThisIsQiQi, and many others for the suggestions)
-- Added new Fan Event, Ball Pit - fight in a room full of beach balls. And rubber ducks.
-- Happy fans will send a Fan Chest afterwards
-- Unhappy fans toss some bombs in with the ballies and duckies.
-- Initial Prototype of Carnage Item Gambler - roll dice for various outcomes

Twitch:
-- Many additions to in-world chat
-- Added more in-world chatters to echo twitch chat:
-- First, the game looks for current combatants to chat
-- If there are no combatants, it looks for any monitors/security cameras/etc. in the active room
-- If there are no monitors, it lets any buddies you have (including the default cambuddy) handle the chat
-- In-world chat works on the Start Menu
-- NPC prisoners in the stands/on arena walls are now valid chatters
-- Crane cameras and Oompa cameramen are now valid chatters
-- Fixed potential in-world chat crasher
-- [DEV] Individual actors can custom-set their in-world chat widget and "mouth" locations
-- Improved some Game Master commands (our abilities to mess with streamers)

Polish:
-- Updated the NPC life to health curves to be a smoother progression
-- Changed it so that NPC's can have a greater variety of max health levels from life stats
-- Level bosses now get 5x the health from the same life stat
-- Adjusted all level boss life stats to account for the new increase in boss health
-- Updated Nuke visuals to match the Bombrock
-- Updated several icons
-- Began prototyping the Juggernaut's new flying charge attack
-- Fixed an issue with the minimap not being able to recognize one of the new mutations
-- Added assets for new Announcer NPC (Skeletal Mesh, Materials, Textures)
-- Created Microphone Asset for Announcer
-- Flaming tire stacks now do both Fire and Trap damage types (i..e Arena Armor will work on it, etc.) - thanks @Leadin
-- Teleporters now prevent you from insta-porting you away after activation, preventing abrupt teleports away during the end of Arena or Boss fights (thanks @StandardDamage, @DoubleNeg, PAX players, and probably @Seebo since I always ignore him)
-- Improved base air control for all PC classes - TL;DR: steering oneself while falling/pit diving is much easier, especially at low velocity (thanks @DoubleNeg/ @Rehab Submarine /@ThisIsQiQi/others on #feedback-beta)
-- Note - because this is a physics change, please keep an eye out for oddnesses in other forms of movement after next patch - being walloped, jump-slamming, yadda - have tested, but edge cases may exist. Feedback as always welcome - the intent here is purely to tweak pits, so yell if you "feel" not-pit-changes elsewhere in PC movement. Should be none. But always cautious when it comes to feel. Thanks.
-- Switched the two in-game announcers over to the new asset
-- Moved around some of the start room stage decorations to stop the crane camera from clipping through the announcer
-- Fixed the announcer saying you need 30 fans when you actually only need 25 (thanks LizardSeagull)
-- Added harmless beachball asset for tutorial physics example and rubber ducky for @Gaffer
-- Added a big variant of the rubber duck
-- Added Beach Ball and Giant Ducky occluders to the game. Because.
-- Replaced old rusted metal beach balls in the tutorial with new sexy bouncies.
-- Bosses and normal enemies now have a hierarchy of AI avoidance, meaning bosses only get out of the way of other bosses, but enemies move to get out of the way of everyone else
-- Cleaned up the Juggernauts rocket charge attack to not get stomped on by other attacks
-- Fixed an issue where the AI was ignoring its own radius when looking for valid LoS spots
-- Fixed an error being thrown by exploded rocks trying to explode again
-- Added a second door laser gate to the back of locked-down doors so it is visible from below
-- Added a new Rocket Charge attack to the Juggernaut
-- Added "New Fan" icons back into the game using proper @LeoFonseca icon
-- Changed how pickupables save/load to fix a bug where any Carnage Item on the ground would gain the charge of the PC's equipped active item if the level was reloaded.
-- That wasn't a super common bug to see (saving the run mid-game and then remembering what the thing on the ground you didn't want had for a charge is rarely game-impacting, TBH.
-- However the save system being updated a) makes stuff more bulletproof and b) may or may not have other small bugs popping up, so please keep an eye out for anything behaving oddly when saving/loading (or more commonly changing levels).
-- Don't bother reporting @Klimas, he's always behaving oddly.
-- Reverted the sexy new Fan Favorite icon on the Carnage Item interface until we get some other sexy icons to go with it for the other Carnage Items.
-- Moved to new @Klimas Dice model for Gambler and tweaked physics to behave properly when dice are spawned intersecting with each other.

Developer Notes
-- [DEV] Cleaned up the calls of most enemies that charge to be a little easier to read
-- [DEV] Significant cleanup of the Juggernaut
-- [DEV] Fixed an issue with the LoS AI helper function
-- [DEV] Fixed an issue with the find safe time instance function
-- [DEV] Killing bosses in test levels no longer completes your achievements
-- [DEV] Added Buff_CA for DumpsterDiver mutation
-- [DEV] Added Delegate for when a character hits the bottom of a pit to CPP_BaseCharacter
-- [DEV] Added ability to chain dev commands into a single command via ";"
-- [DEV] Returning the Juggernaut to its default attacks because I accidently checked it in with its test attack
-- [DEV] Tiles now properly call callbacks on destruction/replacement
-- [DEV] Rooms now properly track their tiles
-- [DEV] Added data to flag localized text not currently in Murderpedia
-- [DEV] Added support for NPC Mutations and Levels to be included in Murderpedia
-- [DEV] Added and cleaned up Murderpedia setting for a bunch of stuff
-- [DEV] Quick productization of the materials involved in the Genetic Surgery bot to eventually allow the face cam to play on his cute lil screen
-- [DEV] Experimental work on new way of displaying Carnage Items

CLOSED BETA UPDATE 0.2.17

We are slowly regaining functionality after going to PAX and interacting with like a billion of y’all, and then recovering from the various diseases you were kind enough to share. This isn’t what we meant by Gone Viral, dammit! We’re all hunkered down (as are many of y’all - stay safe!) - coding away, making the magic happen, and keeping a concerned eye on our toilet paper sitch. Our steam price will likely have an option to pay with those precious, precious rolls. Huh, dibs on the term “Buttcoin”.

Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah - big stuff:

Abacus got sexy and speedy! He’s much prettier with like, colors and a snazzy mohawk. And we’re iterating the crap out of his gameplay - he’s gotten a stat and physics overhaul to make him fast but fragile, filling his role as the agile assassin. High level goal: he should require a skilled player to handle his uniquely zippy gameplay. Deets below…

Feedback fest! PAX rocked - hundreds of y’all got to play for the first time. Of those hundreds, ten of y’all even beat level 3 and signed “The Poster Of Awesomeness” (respect). And we wrote down about a million notes between talking with y’all, sitting over shoulders, hanging out on dozens of streams, and keeping up with #beta-feedback. You will find a ton of polish based on all that - be it room tweaks, UI polish, quality of life issues, or straight bug fixes. Yes, we occasionally do have an actual bug. And by “we”, I mean @da_gaffer. Jerk.

Twitch, take the wheel! Streamers from the get-go have requested control over how important twitch votes are compared to the NPC Fans. Two camps formed: purists who want Twitch to have SOME impact but either want the run variance that comes with Fan Mood (Twitch is always Sadistic) or to have achievements/completion be under similar conditions to non-streamed play. Camp two is formed of folks who say “Screw purity, LET TWITCH F ME UP!” and then usually descend into gibbering madness.


So, you can now control the weighting with a handy slider. Set it based on your level of faith in the compassionate humanity of your Twitch viewers, however ill-placed that faith might be.

A @Gaffer side note - as I added/tested the slider, I dug into a lot of the base math and found some cases where Twitch votes could get overrun by the NPCs in unintended ways. Over the last few months, we’ve tuned Twitch votes to have more weight a few times - but it felt to us (and you in general I think) that sometimes Twitch votes were indeed counted but they felt less impactful than we wanted. That’s all cleaned up in this patch (knock on wood) - now the math works more as intended. But DO let us know if it “feels” right by default. We’d love folks to test the crap out of polling in the next week in general in streams whether tiny or big.

I’ll keep an eye on the feel of the Polls when I’m on stream, and let us know in #beta-feedback if it’s over/under reactive - I’m primed to do quick updates to tune the feel to be solid. We appreciate the streaming - it’s tough to test in all cases of stream size/participation. Especially since when I am streaming, it’s mostly just to my cats. Should be good. If not, we’re on it like a bonnet.

Anyways enough yapping, enjoy!

Content: Abacus: Speed Demon!
Abacus has been tuned to be much faster/more agile. Why? Well, he was originally designed as a "hard mode" character, but by playing and watching streams, we felt like he was feeling like Decimus-but-missing-health-and-range-and-projectile-synergies. Yeah, harder. Nailed that. But not generally more FUN. Why? We think it was because he was tougher to play than Decimus (slower, short range, no health, can punch fast but for less damage) without anything that really made him better enough or more interesting - and he didn’t FEEL like the assassin he is supposed to be. He was good for playing for pride, but did we WANT to play him? Not clearly enough.
So now, we’re changing his focus a bit - playing more as a "skill” character. He’s much better than Decimus in some ways (he’s agile and totally zooms!) but trickier in others - he remains more fragile because he’s lacking hearts. And both of those vectors means it takes a really skilled player to use him well - even with his increased speed a first time noob would probably slam their face into a lot of pits getting used to his zippy ways. But you’re better than that, right?

Anyways, our early thoughts: we dig it from playing it here. His basic claw attacks are more interesting with the extra speed, and the Slashing Pounce he does fits his vibe. He feels less like a kinda-punishing-weaker-Decimus, but rather like he’s heading towards a very different playstyle with its own challenges. More to come - thoughts welcome as y’all beat on the beta with us. We enjoy both batting around general strategery of the goals of his class design or hearing details of other ways we can tweak his shiny metal butt to meet those goals/improve feel.

Checkin notes:
-- Multiple adjustments to make Abacus funner/faster with starting stats, physics settings, movement settings
-- New Abacus model and textures including a sexy mohawk.

Room cleanup pass:
-- Bouncy spikeball death room moved to levels 2-3 from levels 1-2 and lowered odds of spawning (from PAX observation & @ExtraCredits stream)
-- Fixed always-on spikeballs in Spike_Stacks_Std (from @ExtraCredits (Will) stream)
-- Removed blockers from around teleporter in Vault_Blockers (thanks @loginerror and @ExtraCredits (Will) )
-- Added another unlikely-to-be-consumable item to some common shops
-- Removed possible doors that might cause one to accidentally buy items in shops
-- Reduced probability of tiny shops spawning vs. medium or larger shops
-- Re-added Mutation shop to pool (comment on @ExtraCredits (Will)'s stream reminded me of this, too many consumable shops vs. persistent item shops)
-- Removed potential doors too near creatures in several rooms (from PAX observation)
-- Moved the camera oompa in the dash tutorial to not block the dash decal
-- Changed door locations to prevent you from dashing into spikes in Spike_Waves_Std room (thanks for the find on-stream @FederalGhosts)
-- Added a teleporter to the spikeball vault room
-- Cleaned up door positions for several vault rooms

Pool/spawn tweakin’
-- Removed Genetic Tinkering from pool of mutations applied by Genetic Surgeries (just not worth a heart container in 99% of cases) - from a Doug note from stream by https://www.twitch.tv/nubbinsinc. Note there is a tiny chance for the "Any Mutation" pool to appear in Genetic Surgeries, meaning they could still be in there from that pool, but it's much less likely now.
-- Added Painiac, Envy to standard Genetic Surgery mutation pool at low odds.

Twitch:
-- NPC/Stream voting improvements:
-- Settings slider allows streamer to set the relative weights of NPC vs. Twitch votes
-- Major math adjustments around the weighting of stream voting vs. NPC voting (in general letting Twitch be more impactful by default)
-- Edge cases of small/large streams better handled
-- Initial testing complete around Streaming Fan Slider
-- Slider settings named appropriately
-- Testing/feedback by like real streamers who aren’t us direly wanted. Slap the sherbert to us, Herbert!

Polish:
-- Removed crane camera from Tutorial Dash room that first time players at PAX kept dashing into for no obvious reason to us but so many of them did it that we're just going to remove it rather than judging. I blame @Doug, I guess.
-- Bulletproofed Main Menu HUD a bit while exploring crasher from @IrvineRando (thanks for logs!)
-- Carnage Item widget hides self when no carnage item is held
-- Added more cameras/propping to tutorial rooms
-- Fixed oddly indestructible tiles in Barrel_Stacks_Std
-- Fixed issue where occasionally some Poll options could display spurious alternate IDs (BOMB, BUFF, etc)
-- Cleaned up Dashmeter visuals
-- Tweaked text for Circling Death mutation
-- Monitors blow up more cleanly
-- Monitors are clearer/less alpha-y
-- Main screen can be blown up if visible
-- Invulnerable creatures can not become stuck at bottom of pits
-- Added materials for gambling machine in the MedBay
-- Adjusted placement of temp large webcam monitor to not clip with stage geo.
-- Fixed ability for spikeballs to occasionally spam too much damage in interpenetrating collisions with heavy creatures (from VOD from @ExtraCredits (Will))
-- Tweak to projectile spam prevention timing
-- Increased the harpoon range in the tutorial so that it can't fail to hit the enemies in the harpoon testing room sometimes
-- The tutorial pits now choose a consistent safe spot to teleport you to that won't get stuck on top of geo
-- Updated all of the options menus to warn you if you try to leave without accepting your changes
-- Hitting the menu button again if you are in an open menu does a "back" operation instead of fully closing the entire menu tree
-- Removed log spam around spawn redirectors affected by NPC mood
-- Firewalker dash trails now play a little cleaner with room teleporters (thanks @Marko420)
-- FTL dashes no longer double teleport when you hit a room teleporter (thanks @Outlaw)
-- Tanks are now affected by Small World Fan Event (from stream by https://www.twitch.tv/liisn - @Liisn)
-- Fixed an issue where flatscreens could destroyed before they are actually visible
-- Added a number of icons from IconMeister @Leo
-- Changed color of Mortar Enemy lob shot to yellow from blue in order to unify enemy bullet colors.
-- Removed SimpleBot spawning too early in Cycle_Arena
-- Removed null tiles from Tutorial Start Room
-- Slightly lowered the volume on the main explosion sound to help reduce an ugly "blatting" effect when multiple bombs go off at the same time

Developer Notes
-- [DEV] Cleaned up the bouncy tile prototype a bit
-- [DEV] Renamed Barrel_Stacks_Std to Spin_Stacks_Std
-- [DEV] Holding down Shift key while clicking new run button in PAX build will allow you to create a new run normally/skip the tutorial
-- [DEV] Changing the keybinding for entering dev mode
-- [DEV] Cheating devs are no longer immune to Biggest Fan movement (damn cheaters)
-- [DEV] Teleporter cooldown moved into the buff system
-- [DEV] Set up morph target test for armor on Abacus and future heroes.
-- [DEV] Set MM_HeroTest material to be compatible with morph targets.

CLOSED BETA UPDATE 0.2.16

As many of you already know, Gone Viral is going to be in the IndieMEGABOOTH at PAX East next week and we couldn’t be more excited! If you happen to be going, you 100% should come say hi! There are a ton of bug fixes and endless polish that has gone into this patch with two things specifically I would like to call out.

First, have you ever been irritated when you discovered you couldn’t knock around certain items with your sword or that your Magnetic Lure refused to even try to pull that chest you wanted out of the pit? Well be irritated no more! Gaffer did a big pass on physics and pickupables and we should be much more consistent when it comes to knocking around crap with your crap!

Secondly, we added a bunch of PAX demo specific work. This included a ton of stuff to tighten up the polish in the main game like UI work, better support of 4k resolutions, and a bunch of tiny bug fixes. It also included a bunch of PAX demo only changes you should never see. If you do see anything demo-ish, let us know! You probably shouldn’t!

Features:
-- All pickupable items can now be affected by physics/knocked around with your sword/etc. Some notes:
- You might be all like "yay, now I can knock stupid swords/armors that are fan gifted away from me when I don't want 'em!" - you're right, but if they are in a hallway they're still annoying (we block pickupables from leaving a room to avoid knocking-a-heart 7-rooms-away-to-open-up-a-spikedoor-type-"optimal"-but-boring-play so the thang can't leave the corridor)
- This means Magnetic Lure now works on other gadgets (and of course armor/weapons/yadda) meaning that gadget play events are even more chaotic
- Items on pedestals (boss rewards, vault rewards, and shop items for instance) can't be moved unless they are picked up/dropped first. The starting room free fan gift can (since it's airdropped on a pedestal by a fan crate)
- (Noted by @S5 Flare in the bug report, but I know this was commented on by several others as well.)
-- PAX Mode has been added… but you shouldn’t see any of this! Let us know if you do because that would be a bug!
- Each run now goes to The Big Show on the 3rd floor and then ends if you set the game to PAX mode
- Disabled all hyperlinks when the build is in PAX mode
- "New Game" button from main menu, while in PAX/show floor mode, will reset the account file and start a new run in the tutorial.
- The "you win" screen now hides it's unnecessary buttons when in PAX mode
- Decimus starts with an extra heart if in PAX mode
- Implemented taking beta sign ups from our winning or losing run screens in PAX mode
- The streak counter and Discord button on the main menu are now always hidden when in PAX mode

Updates:
-- Medbots now inform you of the % chance they have to heal you to save confusing folks who think it errored out (thanks @Starcore6 @IrvineRando @Justice @Seebo)
-- Enlarged area around SpikeDoors where hearts can trigger the blood lock
-- New weapon icons added
-- Added rare mutation Painiac - get bigger and stronger for the rest of the level every time you take heart damage (up to 10 times)
-- Fixed scaling issues with main options page in 4K
-- Fixed text clipping issue with Mutations bar
-- Updated Emperor's Boon icon
-- Fan Gift widgets animate their entry and departure properly
-- Loot Boxes/Badboxes have proper descriptions set up
-- Fan Challenge widget animates in/out/pulses correctly
-- Fan Challenge has proper font gradients set
-- New coin/key icons for UI
-- Fan Challenge animation work
-- Wall monitors no longer show your face on the tutorial level
-- Fan Gift widgets no longer occasionally will not translate fully on screen in 4K
-- Both the tutorial start room and 1st floor start rooms now appear with their exit doors open
-- Magnetic Lure no longer works against creatures immune to movement (including turrets) (thanks @Seebo)
-- Added ability to mark certain items as always visible in VisibilityData such as Shock Sword
-- Chests are now affected by wallops/magnets
-- "You Win" screen now properly scales to fill odd aspect ratio monitors
-- Removed warning about visibility data with Decimus
-- Movement invulnerability no longer blocks self-imposed movement (like dashing)
-- First Death achievement now unlocks Painiac
-- First Juggernaut kill now unlocks Telekinetic Weapon
-- Added support for level-duration persistent buffs
-- Pickupable celebration in new format/scales to 4K
-- Murderpedia buttons can be marked as non-interactable
-- There is now a transition UI screen between the tutorial and the first floor
-- Fan counter properly changes custom fan name if twitch settings are edited mid level
-- Tweaked tutorial complete text
-- Level end summary now supports custom fan names (noted on @Skullstream's stream)
-- Fixed an issue where you couldn't navigate between murderpedia icon buttons (thanks @Klimas)
-- Fixed an issue where mutations in your mutations bar could still steal focus
-- Fixed an issue where Da Champ's spike roller would keep going after you died (thanks @Klimas)
-- Fix for crash issue with Dismembering a creature when killing itself on Retribution Armor mid-animation (thanks @Klimas)
-- Fix for crash issue when logging Audience opinions for fans with no special traits (thanks @Klimas)
-- The wall stripe decal is now properly set in PAX mode
-- Bomb spiders that died in a certain fashion offscreen could leave their overhead pointers up permanently (Good find @Klimas)
-- Fixed an issue where several major aspects of the Big Show boss floor would break in the PAX build
-- Significantly increased the distance the spike roller throws you when it hits you to try and prevent you getting hit over and over again (thanks @Klimas)
-- Updated Textures for Gladiator Armor
-- Main HUD twitch chat window has the scrollbar hidden rather than hanging out in the middle of your view (noted on @Skullstream's stream - thanks!)
-- Slightly increased size of twitch chat messages
-- Twitch Chat Window defaults to "off" in new settings files (since in-world chat defaults to "on")
-- Level End Summary now shows a goal of "1" in Tutorial
-- Updated Claw Weapon textures
-- Fixed Claw Weapon model scale
-- Added a new UI screen when you lose a run
-- Disabled the beta sign up button for a second after clicking it
-- Made sure the UI screens at the end of the run work well with the keyboard and gamepads
-- Added a game pause while the end of run UI screens are up
-- Removed automatically returning to the main menu after a run and instead put two buttons, one for restarting and one for returning to the main menu
-- Slightly adjusted the sizes of the intro logos to better match each other
-- Changed the "any key" trigger to be on key up instead of down to prevent clearing one screen with the down and accidentally selecting something with the up right after
-- Switched PAX mode off by default
-- Added "off" versions of the coin and key icons for possible UI use
-- The "One! More! Run!" button on the end UI screen is now hidden when in PAX mode (thanks @Klimas)
-- Fixed potential error thrown by Shock Attack if creatures were destroyed in certain timings
-- Tutorial MC makes the Shock Sword info visible so that you are at 0% known at the start of the run/main menu
-- Removed AccountManager flagging certain items as always visible in Murderpedia
-- Chests are now a bit heavier for knocking around/etc.
-- Adjusted scaling of UI right side widgets to properly accommodate very crowded setups of lots of polls/gifts/etc. simultaneously
-- Polls are slightly larger on average
-- Flames animated textures no longer load with mipmaps/in blurry fashion in Carnage Tutorial
-- Monitors can be shattered off the walls with bombs while still displaying your pretty face
-- Adjusted how the "One! More! Run!" button on the end of run UI collapse so that you can't see their border hanging around all ugly-like
-- Slightly lowered the beta text on the menu to game loading screen so it is more readable
-- The announcer voice now says victory instead of game over when you win
-- Fixed blinking issue with fire flipbook in Carnage Tutorial
-- Added big stream monitor/logo to boss room
-- Fixed scaling issues with stream monitors (still can uniform scale only)
-- Cleaned up how we decide what screens to show at the end of the tutorial, which fixed a weird flickering UI bug that only happened if you managed to die in the tutorial
-- The text block on the right of the main menu screen now has a slightly darker background, making it easier to read the text
-- We now hide the "bonus fans" UI element at the end of the tutorial because you never have any
-- Twitch Chat box no longer eats any mouse/keyboard input in main HUD (good catch @Skullstream)
-- Announcer Swoop marked as invisible to mouse/keyboard input in main HUD
-- Removed all sand from pits and occluders in the tutorial level
-- Initial pass on adding a check to catch enemies leaving a room during lockdown
-- Keys/Coins icon updates
-- Bombs/Rocket bombs use new icons
-- Adjusted spacing in PlayerManager UI
-- Trying out VSync and dash cooldown UI options defaulting to on
-- Updated Armor Forge Model.

Developer Notes
-- [DEV] Added raw assets for new icons
-- [DEV] Fixed an issue with a private blueprint function that needed to be public
-- [DEV] Added the IsPAXBuild? function to game instance
-- [DEV] Removed the old hacky way we were forcing the tutorial start room door open
-- [DEV] Fixed an issue where the Champ dev cheat was going to the incorrect floor in the PAX build
-- [DEV] Initialized variables properly in DungeonRoom
-- [DEV] Updated many calls that were checking if you were on the 4th floor, to check if you are on the Big Show
-- [DEV] Moved ability to find current level manifest ID into CPP_GameInstance
-- [DEV] Removed deprecated Murderpedia widgets
-- [DEV] Moved several internal checks from looking at the current depth to checking the current level tag
-- [DEV] Updated all referenced assets associated with asset WS_Claw
-- [DEV] Fixed a bug in column flat screens that were returning null arrays
-- [DEV] Removed debug spam around LeafIDs without preset public names
-- [DEV] Completely BS bouncy floor prototype for @Gaffer
-- [DEV] Removed some testing prototype work in tile that got accidently left in
-- [DEV] Added Simple Vertex Materials for cheaper assets.