Patch notes for the Gang Beasts 0.5.0 beta

Since the last Steam Early Access post was published at the start of December we’ve been working with Coatsink to test significant modifications and fixes to the character, costume, game mode and networking systems (the 0.5.0 build replaces the 0.3.4 and 0.4.4 Steam Early Access builds). 

Servers will be intermittently unavailable for the next hour as servers are modified (the 0.5.0 build is needed to play online as pre-0.5.0 builds are not supported by the modified server scheme)

Online / Servers

Online multiplayer support in Gang Beasts has had numerous iterations since the online beta started in May and is now sufficiently stable and scalable to release in the default Early Access builds on Steam. 

Currently the Gang Beasts online multiplayer supports the following server geographies: 

  • US East (N.Virginia) 
  • US West (N. California) 
  • EU (Ireland) 
  • Asia Pacific (Sydney) 
  • EU (Frankfurt) 
  • South America (São Paulo) 
  • Asia Pacific (Tokyo) 
  • Asia Pacific (Singapore) 
  • Asia Pacific (Seoul) 
  • India (Mumbai)

following the publishing of the 0.5.0 beta build we plan to add support for servers in US East (Ohio), and will then assess supporting server geographies in Canada (Montreal), China (Ningxia), China (Beijing), UK (London), and France (Paris) as and when Amazon Web Services, the server hosting solution we lease server capacity from, make these server geographies available. 

For reference latency will be lower if you are can connect to servers close to your location (you can use the server filter to show proximate servers), if there are no servers in close proximity to your location please email support@boneloaf.co with information on your location. If you are playing from a location that is not close to the currently supported servers please test the dedicated server tool (published with this post) as a temporary solution until the server infrastructure is expanded to support your locality (the server tool should be available through the Steam tools section and support Windows and Linux currently, please read the readme.txt file distributed with the build for more information on the server tool). 

The list of modifications and fixes made to the online and server implementation in the 0.5.0 beta build are: 

  • added support for modifying the camera Y axis with the single player camera (mapped to left and right D-pad and left and right cursors keys by default) 
  • added an lobby to invite friends to before connecting to a server 
  • added support for playing with multiple local players online 
  • added online support for the blimp, billboard, buoy, and container stages 
  • added PTT VoIP (Push-to-talk Voice over Internet Protocol) support * 
  • fixed an issue that could make input mappings fail online 
  • fixed an issue that made servers ignore input held at round start (held inputs now trigger on round start) 
  • fixed an input issue with servers 
  • modified the scheme for storing and retrieving servers in the central server and refactored some backend server systems 
  • overhauled the master server scheme (to improve stability and implement support for polyinstancing)

* the default mapping for PTT VoIP is right trigger on game controllers and the “C” key on keyboards

Please note the 0.5.0 build will replace the current builds on both the default and unstable branches

Please note the 0.1.0 Dedicated Server Tool will only have support for Windows and Linux operating systems initially (please read the readme.txt file distributed with the tool for more information

Local


Local multiplayer support in Gang Beasts has seen a number of improvements and fixes including, an provisional support for in game camera modification (single player only), support for playing online with multiple local players, provisional support for debug spawning (we plan to expand debug spawning support to form the template for sandbox modes in later builds), and a basic version of the revised waves game mode (currently limited to the grind stage). 

The list of modifications and fixes made to the local game in the 0.5.0 beta build are: 

  • added modified scenes and geometry for blimp, billboard, buoy, subway, vents**, and containers 
  • added provisional support for single player camera adjustments (with D-pad or cursor keys) 
  • added support for playing with multiple local players online 
  • exposed the debug spawning system in local (currently does not have support player-controlled characters and some nav meshes are missing) *** 
  • fixed an issue in local game modes (with more than 4 players) giving false server disconnection errors 
  • fixed an issue that could make playing a local game with more than 4 players fail 
  • setup the waves game mode for local games (currently only the grind stage with default grey AI is available for the waves game mode)

** the name of the fans stage has been modified to vents (the original name for the fans stage) 
*** debug spawning is disabled for online for official servers

Stages


We are still working to finish modified geometry for stages but are close to having final geometry on most stages (excluding colour grading and post effects), the list of stages modified for the 0.5.0 build are: 

  • blimp (optimisations, blimp geometry and colouring, beef city geometry, fog sphere) 
  • billboard (optimisations, billboard and scene geometry, beef city geometry, fog sphere) 
  • buoy (optimisations, water implementation, beef city geometry, fog sphere) 
  • chutes (optimisations, scene geometry, escalation geometry) 
  • containers (optimisations, container geometry, beef city geometry, fog sphere) 
  • elevators (optimisations, provisional glass break particle system) 
  • incinerator (optimisations, scene geometry, fire particles) 
  • subway (optimisations, scene geometry) 
  • vents (optimisations, scene geometry)

Menu / UI / messaging


We’re still working to standardise the game menus, UI, and messaging to remove annoyances and make key content more accessible, the 0.5.0 beta build fixes a number of issues with game menus and a modified score screen (with star shaped balloons for points), the key modification to menus, UI, and messaging: 

  • added support for saving menu and character costume settings 
  • added support for storing some settings (last character selection and other game settings) 
  • fixed an issue with the Steam overlay triggering the in-game pause menu 
  • fixed an issues that stoped local game modes from pausing when the pause menu is invoked 
  • modified input mapping screen to show keyboard and game controller mappings concurrently 
  • modified online menu UI to work with the new lobby system 
  • modified server browser to show more server entries per screen 
  • modified the score screen shown at the end of each round to prioritise score information (we are working on solutions to show other key information and metrics contextually in game) 
  • modified the temporary main menu background to improve legibility 
  • modified the loading and interstitial screens to only show a new stage is loading 
  • modified when loading and interstitial screens show should now only appear when a new level is loaded

Character


Character movement, force parameters, concussion system, and targeting hierarchies have been modified to improve game play and the character customisation system has been exposed for testing, the full list of modifications to the character and character costume systems are: 

  • added a grab delay to the jump implementation to stop characters from targeting posterior objects and enemies when jumping 
  • added the costume customisation system **** 
  • fixed a field of view issue that stopped elbows from triggering 
  • fixed a targeting issue to make characters prioritise anterior grab targets (over posterior grab targets) 
  • fixed an issue in the character hierarchy that triggered inconsistent leg behaviour 
  • fixed an issue that made characters slide vertically on walls when grip fails 
  • fixed an issue that made kicking forces and movement inconsistent 
  • fixed an issue where melee attacks would apply forces incorrectly (should be less prone to physics explosions) 
  • fixed an issue that limited grip parameters when climbing from a jump state 
  • modified and optimised character movement forces and timings 
  • modified colliders on character feet for stability 
  • modified concussion parameters (to reduce length for long concussions) 
  • modified damage parameters for body parts to make them take more damage to the chest, waist, hips, arms, and legs on collisions (head, stomach, crotch, hands and feet parameters have not been modified) 
  • modified drag forces on characters (to make lifting and throwing characters less difficult) 
  • modified force parameters for climbing to make climbing less difficult (some surfaces will still be difficult to climb until grab targets are fully populated to all stages) 
  • modified force scaling in damage calculations (to inflict more violence than other collisions) 
  • modified force parameters for punches, head-butts, and kicks to standardise character movement 
  • modified front and rear sliding to make characters elevate their legs immediately before sliding 
  • modified kick parameters to limit spamming 
  • modified targeting hierarchies to contextually prioritise anterior targets when jumping or falling 
  • modified the character breathing simulation to improve character stability 
  • modified the character’s vertical field of view (to reduce the frequency that characters target objects below their feet) 
  • modified the climbing implementation to contextually offset targeting per arm 
  • optimised the object targeting system for stability and performance 
  • restored contextual elbowing (for contexts where enemies are immediately behind the character) 

**** saved costume customisations could be lost or corrupted on subsequent updates while the system is in development

Information on switching to / from "stable" and “unstable” branches

To download the "unstable" branch on Steam right-click on the "Gang Beasts" game name on the Steam library page and select "Properties" from the window that opens, from this window select the "BETAS" tab and then the "unstable" option from the dropdown menu (the menu labelled "Select the beta you would like to opt into:". To revert back to the last 'stable' branch select "NONE- Opt out of all beta programs" from the same menu. 

For reference switching between unstable and stable branches of the game forces the selected build to download to the Steam client (replacing the previously selected build). 

Please note the 0.5.0 build replaces the 0.3.4 and 0.4.4 Steam Early Access builds, moving between the default and “unstable” builds on Steam will both download the 0.5.0 build until the “unstable” build is updated to 0.5.1

PS4 Release 

We have been working hard to make a PlayStation 4 build of Gang Beasts for submission to Sony (for a potential 2016 release), unfortunately there are still some modifications and fixes to make before we can make a submission and it is now too late in the year to certify the game for a 2016 release, we understand that this is disappointing for PS4 owners wanting to play the game and are pushing to make the submission as soon as we can to make a Q1 2017 release date feasible.

James Brown

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