23 SEPTEMBER, 2015
The 0.2.6 build released with this post is a content release with three new stages (‘billboard’, ‘blimp’, and ‘girders’) and four modified stages (‘buoy’, ‘fans’, ‘ring’, and ’subway’), the build also includes expanded AI behaviours that give AI enemies lifting and throwing abilities.
The modifications and fixes made in this build are:
- fixed an issue that could stop characters entering the climbing state when colliding with walls
- added the ‘billboard’ stage
- added the ‘blimp’ stage
- added the ‘girders’ stage
- modified the water shader on the ‘buoy’ stage
- modified the geometry for the ‘vents’ stage (now called ‘fans’)
- modified the geometry for the ‘ring’ stage
- modified the geometry for the ’subway’ stage
- modified climbing implementation to support climbing on grabbed surfaces (including other enemy and player characters)
- modified climbing implementation to limit / minimise stabilise the accumulation of forces when multiple characters are climbing / lifting each other
- modified grip limitations (grip will abruptly fail when hanging from the same surface / object for a protracted length of time)
- modified the force characters have on the wave simulation in the ’buoys’ stage (to limit / minimise the frequency of sudden or erratic high waves)
- modified the potential delay between AI enemy punches (to increase punch frequency)
- modified spawn points on some stages to work better with the current game camera
- modified XInput support to be disabled by default to support 5-8 players with Xbox 360 controllers and variants (XInput limits the number of concurrent Xbox 360 controllers to four, see the 'XInput Support' section of this post for more information)
- added centripetal forces to subway trains on ‘subway’ stage (trains can pull characters and objects in close proximity towards them)
- added throwing behaviour for AI enemies (specific throw actions need calibrating to be effective on complex stages)
- added grabbing behaviour for AI enemies (enemies will attempt to grab surfaces, objects, and other characters when falling)
- modified (rebuilt) AI enemy nav meshes for all stages (excluding the ‘break’ and ’race’ prototypes)
- added throw triggers to stages to support the AI enemy throwing behaviour (excluding ‘blimp’, ‘break’, ’buoy’, and ’race’)
Stages
The new and modified stages are work in progress and will continue to be polished and improved in subsequent builds. There are now 16 default stages in the current ‘unstable’ build (‘billboard’, ’blimp’, ’buoy’, ’chute’, ’containers’, ’elevators’, ’fans’, ‘girders’, ’gondola’, ‘grind’, ’incinerator’, ’ring’, ’subway’, ‘towers’, ’trucks’, and ’wheel’), we are still working to remake the ‘incinerator’ stage (the colliders are finished but the scene has not been fully assembled in editor).
We currently plan to add the modified ‘incinerator’ stage and the prototype ‘gymnasium’ and ‘TV studio’ stages to the fork that the customisation system is being merged with but if we identify that this work will delay the release of the next build we plan to move these stages to the same project that the 0.2.6 build was built with (to minimise the length of time before the next build can be published).
For reference the only fencing, railings and similar structures that are breakable are in the 0.2.6 build are in the ‘elevators’ stage, we are working to make the similar structures in the ’billboard’, ’chute’, ’fans’, ‘grind’, ’incinerator’, ’subway’, ‘towers’, and ’wheel’ stages breakable.
Customisations
We are working with SuperGenius to merge the work on the character customisation system with the current project fork, it wasn’t practical to merge this work with the 0.2.6 fork as the modified game management system (that adds support for the coming “King of the Hill” and “Capture the Flag” game modes) was implemented in a separate fork.
When this work is complete we can publish a build with the character system (with a selection of old and new characters), and the other work from this fork (including support for deincrementing menu selections, a front slide move, modifications to the in-game player information, and the playable prototypes of the “King of the Hill” and “Capture the Flag” game modes).
XInput Support
Disabling XInput forces Xbox 360 XInput controllers and variants to use Direct or Raw input (bypassing the XInput four player limitation and restoring support for 5-8 concurrent Xbox 360 controllers), for reference disabling XInput prevents both Xbox 360 controller triggers from registering concurrently on Windows systems (we are working on implementing an option to support manually enabling / disabling XInput on Windows for a coming build).
Information on switching to / from "stable" and “unstable” branches
To download 'unstable' alpha build of Gang Beasts right-click on the game name on the Steam library page and select 'Properties' from the dialogue window that opens, from this window select the 'BETAS' tab 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 can force the selected build to download to the Steam client.
Gang Beasts is an Early Access game that is currently in uninterrupted development, the 0.1.x and 0.2.x builds have bugs, partially implemented gameplay content and mechanics (please see the Steam Early Access FAQ for more information).