Another patch today, bringing you a couple of player-requested features and a few bug fixes.
Budget Auto-save
Many have asked for it, so here it is! Every time you complete a successful simulation run and the "Level Complete" dialog is displayed, the game will automatically save the bridge design to a new "Budget Autosave" slot available in the Load panel, only saving when the budget is lower than the already existing save, making it easy to keep track of your lowest-budget bridge for a specific level without having to manually save it.
Extra-wide aspect ratios and multi-monitor setups
We've fixed the bug that was preventing all the available resolutions from showing correctly in the Video Settings in-game.
If you're on a multi-monitor setup and the game is using the wrong display by default, you can change that by pressing and holding the 'Alt' key (or 'Shift') as soon as you launch the game, a dialog will appear where you can change the 'Display' drop-down to a different display.
Changes in 1.0.3
New: Budget Autosave
New: Custom shapes in Sandbox are colored according to the selected Theme
Bugfix: Sandbox was preventing Workshop submissions with over 99 pieces used in the solution of an unlimited resource
Bugfix: When flipping horizontally and pasting a split-joint, the attachment-side indicator would not flip correctly
Bugfix: Extra-wide aspect ratios not showing all available resolutions in Settings
Bugfix: Zero-thickness selection area causing selection of wrong items
As always, a big thank you to our dedicated players who take the time to let us know about bugs and provide input into improving the game and suggesting useful features.
Here's some fun sheep having lots of fun in Funland!
1.0.2 Patch
Another small patch today, primarily to address some crashing that users were experiencing on specific AMD CPUs, and also adding a feature that a few players requested: automatically load 'Autosave' when loading a level.
Changes
Player Request: Automatically load 'Autosave' when loading a level (off by default, toggle in the Load panel)
AMD CPUs fix
Small User Interface fixes
VSync should be correctly enabled on first boot
And another making-of image, finding the style for Zen Gardens
1.0.1 Patch
After a very busy and successful final release day, here's the first patch to address a few issues that some of our players were experiencing.
Fixed a bug what was preventing players from editing their existing Workshop Items
'Esc' key now will always ask for confirmation before exiting a level or the game
Very wide aspect ratios (such as 21:9) now show the correct zoom-level when transitioning to simulation mode
High resolution monitors (2k and above) will now scale the UI automatically to avoid the elements and text from being dis-proportionally small compared to the physical screen size
Added the missing Steam Achievements for Tropical Paradise world
Fixed wrong theme settings on level 'The Two Towers'
It is now possible to select a different monitor when launching the game, as soon as you launch keep Alt (or Shift) pressed to bring up the display dialog selection
And here's a cool picture showing the process behind making some of the game's vehicles, by our talented artist Javier Villalba.
We're always here to listen to your feedback, suggestions and bug-reports, please don't hesitate to get in touch through the discussion boards.
Thanks!
1.0 - Crossing the bridge out of Early Access!
After a wildly successful year of community-driven development during our Early Access period, Poly Bridge launches today in its final version, bigger and better than ever, with more levels, new artwork, improved game modes, leaderboards, a greater variety of bridge-building functions, and even a revolutionary take on Twitch-streaming integration.
We would like to extend a huge warm thank you to the players that have supported us along the journey, giving us feedback, suggestions, and bug reports to allow us to make the game into what it is today, so much more than the little bridge-building game it was when it released into Early Access a year ago.
If you’ve been with us for a while, below you can find a list of the changes and additions that are part of final release.
Tropical Paradise
The final world of the Campaign has been added, 15 new levels await you in Tropical Paradise, but don’t be fooled by the name, they are hellishly hard!
Featured Items in Workshop
We’ve added a convenient ‘Featured’ tabs to the in-game Workshop browser, every week or so we will be rotating these featured levels, making it easier for you to find cherry-picked Workshop content.
Sandbox Themes
You may now set a theme (Alpine Meadows, Deserts Winds, etc) when designing a Sandbox level.
The terrain outline will now show while in Blueprint mode, and selecting the start or end terrain will allow you to change its shape by choosing from one of six available options.
Twitch Integration
We’re pleased to announce the public release of the Twitch Integration we’ve been working on for the last few months. This allows Twitch streamers to interact with the audience in a new and unique way, giving viewers the ability to build their own bridge and submit it to the streamer as a suggestion, creating an exciting and entertaining collaborative experience.
Find out more at http://twitch.drycactus.com
Improvements & Bug Fixes
<*>Replay Editor improvements to make it clearer how to edit down your replay’s length
<*>When hovering over a split joint selector, the affected bridge strut is now highlighted
<*>Static Joints are now represented with a red square
<*>Split Static Joints no longer attempt to invert the numbering
<*>Clipboard contents can now be rotated by 1° increments
<*>Fixed a startup hang on certain hardware
<*>Fixed crackling background music issues some players were experiencing
<*>Many other small improvements and fixes
Build 0.77b-p3
Hello again fellow engineers!
A small patch today, mainly to correct a small issue introduced in yesterday's patch, and also an improvement with the colliders for the environment.
Collidable Environment
The environment is now fully collidable, so you will no longer see vehicles mysteriously disappearing and popping out the other side.
Instead, you can do fun stuff like smash vehicles into this pretty mountain:
Bug Fixes
Fixed issue with checkpoints not triggering correctly when transitioning from a previous level
Binding key actions to modifers (Ctrl,Alt,etc) is no longer allowed
As always if you find any bugs or have any suggestions please let us know!
Thanks!
Build 0.77b-p2
New Road Changes
As you may be aware we made some fundamental changes last week to how the roads are simulated, which resulted in introducing a new mechanic: reinforced roads. We've spent the last week tweaking values and improving the reliability of road simulations.
Leaderboard Reset
As we iterate over new road changes we need to ensure leaderboard entries stay relevant; because of this we have reset the leaderboards. Please keep in mind we will likely be resetting leaderboards at least once more before Final Release, thanks for your patience!
Leaderboard Rankings
Many of you requested a way to get an overview of your Leaderboard rankings, we tried a few different things and eventually settled on a 'Ranking View' that displays the percentile you're in for each Campaign Level, giving you a clear indication as to how you're placed within each Leaderboard compared to the total number of players. Access via Leaderboard>My Ranks on the World Map.
Leaderboard Banlist
We're actively monitoring the leaderboards and banning players that hack or cheat their entries. If you see any values that look suspicious, please let us know. We want to ensure the leaderboards stay challenging and valuable for everyone to compete in.
In-Game Gallery
This patch also introduces a new in-game Gallery browser accessible from the Main Menu, and is also used to display the replays associated with a Workshop item, which you can open with the 'Community Replays' button in the Workshop browser.
You can now easily filter by level, show only your own replays, the replays of your Steam friends, and any replays associated with a specific user. If you want to share a replay that you find in the in-game Gallery a convenient 'Copy Link to Clipboard' button is available.
New Features
Leaderboard rankings view
In-game gallery
New level in Zen Gardens
Bug Fixes
Line Tracer no longer causes the mouse-drag lock-up issue
Arc Tracer Shape pop-up now closes correctly
Road placement exploit fixed
Flipping a vehicle during simulation no longer makes it weightless
Hydraulic Controller should display correctly when appropriate
Ships correctly break road again
A number of other minor bug-fixes
Improvements
Social media authorization window now supports pasting (useful if you use a password manager)
Leaderboards size increased (Top 20 and ±5 around your rank)
Show time-stamp for save-files when hovering over 'Info' button in the Load/Save panels
Split-joint Index Choosers no longer overlap
Suggestions
Please help us improve the game by reporting bugs and relating your feedback and suggestions. You can do so here on the forums, on our subreddit, or by email.
Every bridge needs support, thank you for supporting us during Early Access!
Build 0.77b-p1 (Reinforced Roads)
Hello again Engineers,
another quick update today as a follow-up to yesterday's changes about how roads are simulated.
After more testing and receiving very useful feedback from the community, we're introducing a way to allow road reinforcement.
This should greatly minimize the current issue of roads being over-loaded while keeping the game's balance mostly unchanged.
Before
Notice how the left piece of road is the first to break off, and the rest follows
Reinforcing road with a wooden strut
You can now place another strut on top of an existing road strut to reinforce it
After
With the load minimized on the road strut, it's smooth sailing for this van
We'll still be adjusting values in the coming days to find the best balance possible, but wanted to get this change out there to hear your feedback and ideas.
Stress Indicator
We've also added a useful stress indicator at the bottom of the screen, visible during Simulation, which shows the current highest stress value across the bridge
Thanks for your support
We highly appreciate the feedback we've been receiving, in particular we would like to thank 'I_am_a_great_magician' for his input and ideas in strengthening the new road system.
Please let us know what you think of these changes and thanks for your ongoing support during the development of the game!
Early Access Update #9 - Build 0.77b
We have a quick update for you Engineers. We’re releasing this update a little earlier than usual because we want to test out a new method of calculating the physics of roads, further details below. But first, a couple new features!
Δ Achievements
Each level has a new goal 'Under Budget and Under 100% Stress'. The mark of a true engineer is building structures that can stand up to repeated use. Each level completed this way will be marked with a Δ in its tooltip and the level tile will turn blue. As before your completion stats for the Campaign are shown at the top of the World Map.
Your Achievements are now viewable from the World Map and there are also new Unbreakable achievements for each World. You may have to run the last level of each World again for the achievements to register. A few budgets have been adjusted on existing levels to make them more achievable.
Steam Leaderboards
Leaderboards have been added for each Campaign level, viewable from the World Map also. When you successfully complete a Campaign level the Leaderboards will display alongside the histograms. Your own score and place will display as well as the top five. Click the ‘Friends Only’ button to see how you compare to your Steam Friends! Try to get the lowest budget and claim the #1 spot or challenge your Steam Friends and prove your engineering skill.
New Roads
The big change of this patch is a new way of simulating roads. Previously we were using some reinforcement logic but have never been happy with it, and it also opened up a few exploits to ‘cheat’ the game.
The new road simulation is now more reliable and accurate, however it also offers less compressive resistance and will tend to ‘tear apart’ a bit more easily than before, which means you might find a number of your existing bridge designs won’t work anymore.
Generally it’s easy enough to tweak your existing designs to work again, and often requires thinking a bit more about re-directing tensile forces away from the road and into the surrounding structure.
Please let us know what you think of this change!
New Features
Two Campaign levels replaced in Snow Drift: 3-6 Up & Away and 3-14 Stop & Go
Steam Leaderboards Added
New Δ achievement for each level and World
Bug Fixes
Quick Access Wheel correctly shows available materials now
Restart events now labelled correctly in Level Info
Missing Level Names have been restored in English
Pasting and Undo/Redo will no longer generate a sound for each piece generated
Various minor bug fixes
Improvements
An ‘Are you sure?’ dialogue will come up when attempting to exit the game from within a level
When moving a joint red highlights will display when a strut is unable to move in the direction pulled
Steam Achievements and Leaderboards now visible from World Map
Various exploits removed
Next Update
The new manual and campaign world Tropical Paradise are coming along nicely but won’t be ready until next patch as scheduled. Look forward to those!
Suggestions
Please help us improve the game by reporting bugs and relating your feedback and suggestions. You can do so via the in-game Feedback tool, on our Steam Forums, on our subreddit, or by email.
Every bridge needs support, thank you for supporting us during Early Access!
Early Access Update #8 - Build 0.76b
It's time for a new update Engineers!
Art Overhaul
The artwork has had a major update and features a brand new fresh look, with unified colour palettes and levels of detail, which includes all the Worlds and also all the Vehicles. We’ve also included a great looking Ambient Occlusion pass which really brings out the detail and depth of the environment. The lighting and background colours have also been adjusted to better suit the colour palette of each World.
The Sandbox theme has been updated too, replacing the old theme for both new and old Sandbox/Steam Workshop levels.
New Levels
We've added 23 new levels to the Campaign with a few levels replaced in Alpine Meadows and Desert Winds. At least three new levels were added to each World, bringing the total per World up to 15. These Campaign levels make use of the new hydraulic controller and checkpoints that were introduced in the previous update to Sandbox. When loading these new levels for the first time a pop-up will display, explaining how these features work.
Quick Access Wheel
The much loved Tool Wheel, which was removed with the UI overhaul a few months ago, has now found its way back into the game as the Quick Access Wheel to the joy of many! Use Middle Click (or keyboard ‘A’) to bring it up and select your building material without going all the way over to the bottom bar.
Social Media
The Replay editor has been updated to include more options to share your ingenious solutions and spectacular failures to your social media accounts, and of course the Poly Bridge Gallery. Authorize your Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, and Twitter accounts and share replays to the platforms of your choice easily! A new tab has been added to Settings letting you authorize, change, or deauthorize your accounts. Note: Reddit posts will be made to r/polybridge.
New Features
New levels added throughout the Campaign (now 90 levels in total)
Social Media integration (Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter, Gallery)
Ambient Occlusion Visual Setting: Darkens areas of the environment, giving more visual depth
New Sandbox Vehicles: Chopper, Penny Farthing, and SUV
Bug Fixes
Implemented a new text renderer which should resolve the blocky unreadable text some players experienced
Level Info and Event Labels (vehicles and boats) now match each other as expected
Various typo fixes
Various minor bug fixes
Improvements
New object icons in Sandbox (Static Joints, Ramps, Custom Shapes, etc…)
Option to restore hidden hints in Settings
Added secondary method to move joints by clicking-and-holding on the joint until the cursor changes to the move icon
May search by tag with in-game Workshop Browser
The 'I' key now opens/closes Level Info
Tool Wheel reintroduced as the Quick Access Wheel (Middle Click or ‘A’ key to bring up)
Next Update
Next update we’ll be adding the final World to the campaign, Tropical Paradise. With new expert levels it’s sure to live up to its name. We’ll also be including finalized translations for Brazilian-Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Simplified-Chinese, and Spanish. Partial translations for some of these languages are available now, they are incomplete though.
Suggestions
Please help us improve the game by reporting bugs and relating your feedback and suggestions. You can do so via the Steam Forums, on our subreddit, or by email.
Every bridge needs support, thank you for supporting us during Early Access!
0.75b Hotfixes
Due to the increased complexity of interactions in the recently released Sandbox, we've found the need to push out regular bug fixes over the past week.
Below you'll find a list of the contents for these updates.
Thank you for your patience and support in providing bug reports!
0.75b-p3
Fixed issue with save panel interface in Sandbox for new players
Added 'snap to grid' modifier when moving custom shape points in Sandbox
Added a preview of your bridge when loading a savefile
Added ability to move/zoom the hydraulic controller window
Increased 'speed change' range to 10%-500% on checkpoints
Fixed issue with 'reverse' checkpoint flag resetting the vehicle's speed to default
0.75b-p2
Fixed issue with Hydraulic Controller not saving/loading correctly in Workshop
Improved behavior of Hydraulics to minimize pushing and breaking after a split joint merge happens
Fixed 'Change Speed' behavior on Checkpoints, it now sets the absolute speed rather than adding/subtracting to the current speed
Fixed up/down key stroke issue with Workshop Browser
Added a 'Ordered Checkpoints' toggle on a vehicle's checkpoints list
Hitting a vehicle's target flag no longer triggers a fail if all checkpoints haven't been collected yet
0.75b-p1
Fixed issue with Event Re-triggers not loading correctly in Workshop
Fixed issue with Custom Shapes showing vertices in Workshop
Fixed issue with Checkpoint Reverse modifier on a flipped vehicle
