Upgrades (over 136!) are now available for Ball Race, Minigolf, and Little Crusaders!
With upgrades you can get:
Tons of new ball designs for Minigolf and Ball Race!
Minigolf HIO effects and unique sound effects for each golf ball!
New pickups for Ball Race!
Dragon skins, roar effects, and items for Little Crusaders!
Many upgrades can be unlocked at the upgrades stores after first earning EXP or achievements!
Head to the Game Worlds Port building in the Plaza to find the upgrades store for each game!
Here’s a list of all the changes, additions, and bug fixes in this update:
General Changes:
New popup dialogue system for NPCs
Optimized store UI (now displays all items much faster and uses less resources, so it'll take less of an FPS hit when showing a ton of items)
New Minigolf customization menu
Minigolf: Your selected color now saves for each game
Minigolf: Added trail color customization option
Little Crusaders: Added new customization menu when pressing C
Ball Race: You can now change your color
Added key binds for weapon slots 6, 7, and 8
You can now eat popcorn in the theater
Tagged Canvas Wall as a wall so it shows up in the walls section in D.I.Y.
Ball Race: Name tags of other players now hide when they are near your camera, allowing you to better see as the name tag is no longer blocking your view
Bug Fixes:
Plaza: Fixed various holes and collision issues
Little Crusaders: Fixed bird not flying when scared
Arcade: Fixed Whirl-a-Fish physics being too bouncy
Plaza: Fixed media player at Project 12 stopping even if you are still on the roof, now it'll play everywhere while on the roof
Bowling: Fixed the throwing ball direction line being invisible
Bowling: Fixed player animations not playing
Minigolf: Improved rotation replication so it doesn't stutter while the ball rotates
Fixed servers with 0 players showing up
Fixed being able to walk on the fountain water in the center plaza fountain
Fixed being able to sell milestones
Fixed not being able to hit all NPCs with projectile items for some stores (no effects would show up)
Fixed not being able to use the viewfinders when looking at the view finder's binoculars
Fixed not being able to bunnyhop/air strafe after using the jetpack
Hole 8 Rework: Made the shot to get out of the two side pits less punishing
Hole 16 Rework: Made the first shot easier
Re-enabled unintended trick shot on hole 4: increased the speed back to its original to re-enable the trick shot, but made the moving platform longer (on the right side) so that less skilled players will have an easier time
Minigolf: Kingdom Art Updates:
Hole #1 course walls update
Hole #2 course walls update
Hole #3 course walls update
Hole #4 course walls update
Hole #5 course walls update
Hole #6 course walls update
Hole #7 course walls update
Hole #8 course walls update
Hole #9 course walls update
Hole #10 course walls update
Hole #11 course walls update
Hole #12 course walls update
Hole #13 course walls update
Hole #14 course walls update
Hole #15 course walls update
Hole #16 course walls update
Hole #17 course walls update
Hole #18 course walls update
Fixed odd blown-out lighting outdoors and broken lightmaps
Update lighting quality in throne room
Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail We love awesome people like you!
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for March 29th, 2021, detailing all the changes that have happened since March 22nd, 2021. Note: Devs that don't appear in the weekly log are not necessarily away or not doing work, but may be working on things currently not announced or backend work that doesn't need to be detailed.
Update 0.14.0.0 (Upgrades)
We're working hard to release Update 0.14.0.0 early this week.
This update will include the introduction of Upgrades, customizable gameplay elements such as different Minigolf balls and trails, different Ball Race balls, and more. You can read about our progress on this update here.
Caboose700 added all of the upgrade item descriptions to the main item manifest.
Johanna worked on making icons for various upgrades, along with setting up the Achievement and EXP requirements.
macdguy worked on implementing various upgrades, along with hooking up their sound and particle effects. He also finished the upgrades previewer.
Madmijk continued working on various upgrades.
Wheezwer created the upgrade item descriptions.
Will cleaned up and mixed the upgrade sounds.
Upcoming Events
Friday, April 2nd, 2021 marks the return of the yearly Easter event, which will run until Thursday, April 8th, 2021.
Thursday, April 8th, 2021 will start the celebrations of the 5th Anniversary of Tower Unite's release, which will run throughout the month of April.
This month's contest is about architecture, more specifically building a house. This contest will end on March 31st, 2021. First place winner will take home at least 1,000,000 units, and all participants may be rewarded 75,000 units! You can read the details here.
Accessibility Suggestions
We've created a forum post asking the community for suggestions on how we can improve gameplay for players with certain conditions such as colorblindness, dyslexia, or anything else that might affect a players ability to use the standard presentation and controls of the game.
If you have any ideas or suggestions, and possible solutions on how to solve a particular issue, please check out the forum post here.
New Condo
Lifeless continued working on the new condo.
New Condo Preview (EARLY WIP)
Miscellany
Caboose700 updated Tower Express to use the latest item manifest.
Johanna worked on implementing the fading system into Ball Race, along with polishing and touching up various Minigolf and Ball Race materials.
Sketchman continued working on backend improvements.
Wheezwer started working on concept art for pillars in the Ball Race map, "Nimbus", as well as finishing the character dialogue icons. She also started working on murals for the new Laser Tag arena, and worked on more animations for the Arcade machine, "Galaxy Time".
Wrap It Up
That about covers everything that happened since March 22nd, 2021 at PixelTail Games. We'll see you all next week!
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Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail We love awesome people like you!
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for March 22nd, 2021, detailing all the changes that have happened since March 15th, 2021. Note: Devs that don't appear in the weekly log are not necessarily away or not doing work, but may be working on things currently not announced or backend work that doesn't need to be detailed.
Update 0.14.0.0 (Upgrades)
Work continues on getting Update 0.14.0.0 released. This update will include the introduction of Upgrades, customizable gameplay elements such as different Minigolf balls and trails, different Ball Race balls, and more. You can read about our progress on this update here.
March 2021 Condo Contest
This month's contest is about architecture, more specifically building a house. This contest will end on March 31st, 2021. First place winner will take home at least 1,000,000 units, and all participants may be rewarded 75,000 units! You can read the details here.
Accessibility Suggestions
We've created a forum post asking the community for suggestions on how we can improve gameplay for players with certain conditions such as colorblindness, dyslexia, or anything else that might affect a players ability to use the standard presentation and controls of the game.
If you have any ideas or suggestions, and possible solutions on how to solve a particular issue, please check out the forum post here.
Upgrades
Johanna worked on adding various new Minigolf balls.
macdguy worked on finishing the Upgrades store previewer. He also worked on hooking up a few upgrades such as the dragon roars for Little Crusaders, along with finishing the new Minigolf customization screen.
Madmijk worked on various Minigolf upgrades.
Will worked on various sounds for Minigolf upgrades.
Celebrate St. Patrick's Day this weekend, starting this Friday and ending on this Sunday. This Casino-based event features better rewards, less "nothings", and slightly increased jackpot odds. This event applies to all slot based machines (sorry Double or Nothing fans).
To celebrate St. Patrick's Day today, don't forget to decorate with a bunch of St. Patrick Day themed items in the Celebrations store!
Keep your eye out for future events that multiply your rewards for playing the game! Have fun at the slots!
Weekly Dev Log for March 15th, 2021
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for March 15th, 2021, detailing all the changes that have happened since March 1st, 2021. Note: Devs that don't appear in the weekly log are not necessarily away or not doing work, but may be working on things currently not announced or backend work that doesn't need to be detailed.
Update 0.13.5.0 & Hotfixes 0.13.5.1/0.13.5.2
On March 5th, we released Update 0.13.5.0, which contained the new remastered Sweet Tooth art pass, as well as tons of fixes and improvements for Condo Building.
Last week, we released two hotfixes to fix issues that came up during the initial 0.13.5.0 release.
Hotfix 0.13.5.1 fixed various issues. This hotfix contained improvements to the physics simulation to make it more stable and to reduce the amount of erroneous physics simulation. It also introduced Frame Rate Smoothing, an engine feature which analyzes average frame rate to determine the best frame rate to target for smooth gameplay.
Hotfix 0.13.5.2 contained a bunch of fixes and improvements to Sweet Tooth, as well as optimizations to condo loading, helping to reduce load time in larger condos.
This month's contest is about architecture, more specifically building a house. This contest will end on March 31st, 2021. First place winner will take home at least 1,000,000 units, and all participants may be rewarded 75,000 units! You can read the details here.
Accessibility Suggestions
We've created a forum post asking the community for suggestions on how we can improve gameplay for players with certain conditions such as colorblindness, dyslexia, or anything else that might affect a players ability to use the standard presentation and controls of the game.
If you have any ideas or suggestions, and possible solutions on how to solve a particular issue, please check out the forum post here.
Laser Tag Arena Overhaul
Johanna started working on a overhauled Laser Tag arena. This new arena contains a brand new layout, designed to replicate the feeling of a real world Laser Tag arena, along with being more visually appealing.
Wheezwer worked on the flags for the new arena.
Disclaimer: The following images show the Laser Tag arena currently under construction. Note that obstacles, walls, and other obstructions have not yet been added.
Laser Tag Arena Overhaul WIP
Upgrades
Our next major feature is the Upgrades Store and Items.
Johanna optimized some of the Ball Race item materials, as well updating the color masks on some of the unique balls, such as the soccer ball. She also created Ice and Fire flames for the Little Crusaders dragon skins.
macdguy worked on several systems required for Upgrades.
Madmijk worked on the Tennis Ball, Cosmic Ball, and Spooky Trail upgrades for Minigolf.
will worked on sounds for the Minigolf Upgrades.
Upgrades: Little Crusaders Fire and Ice Dragon
Miscellany
JJosh continued working on the new Virus infected model.
Lifeless continued working the new condo map.
macdguy worked on the two hotfixes, improving condo load in times and optimizing canvas code. He also worked on gameplay tweaks and bug fixes for Minigolf.
This hot fix addresses several issues that have been reported, along with a lot of gameplay changes to Sweet Tooth.
Minigolf - Sweet Tooth Changes
Sweet Tooth: Reduced contrast of Sweet Tooth's boost tracks to be less visually intense
Sweet Tooth - Hole 3: Made the back area less punishing by adding a small area behind it, rather than players going out of bounds. This area will be connected to pipes that travel to the other areas
Sweet Tooth - Hole 5: Failing the jump with the swinging candy cane at the end will no longer lead to an out-of-bounds. Instead, you drop down into another area
Sweet Tooth - Hole 6: Made the moving wall less punishing by adding a small area behind it, rather than players going out of bounds.
Sweet Tooth - Hole 6: Added a fade wall to the pit so players will be able to see properly
Sweet Tooth - Hole 7: Made the "roulette wheel" fail holes less punishing by sending players back to the starting area instead of dumping them in the chocolate
Sweet Tooth - Hole 9: Adjusted the zig-zag section so it's easier for people who go down that path to get a birdie
Sweet Tooth - Hole 9: The curve right after the moving wall has been moved back a little bit so that players will no longer stop halfway when they hit the block sticking out
Sweet Tooth - Hole 13: Improved the pipe cameras
Sweet Tooth - Hole 13: In the large circular area, the side routes are easier and less frustrating to cross by moving them backwards slightly. This ensures that even players who are traveling "with" the wall will no longer fall out-of-bounds at the gap
Sweet Tooth - Hole 13: For the back area, an extra barrier was added to add an additional way of getting into the hole
Sweet Tooth - Hole 18: Removed the new spline at the end and brought back the original booster movement
Changes
Improved condo load in (large condos load in duration from 40 seconds to about 5-10 seconds)
Improved canvas image download & load in
Added daily server restart countdown notices (30 minutes before, 15 minutes before, 5 minutes before, and 1 minute before)
Increased FPS smoothing cap from 120 to unlimited
Updated main menu backgrounds
Little Crusaders - Knightsend-by-Sea: Optimized CPU usage
Little Crusaders - Knightsend-by-Sea: Removed lightmass AO to make the map visually consistent with other LC maps
Zombie Massacre - Gasoline: The truck now can be blown up
Bug Fixes
Fixed vote map random select not working Plaza or Game World Ports
Fixed fireplace scaling wrong
Fixed condo scoreboard not hiding automatically when taking screenshots for workshop condo uploading
Ball Race: Fixed the ball phasing through kill volumes and finish volumes
Ball Race - Woodlands: Fixed a spot in level 1 where players could get stuck
Ball Race - Woodlands: Fixed a missing polygon on the back of the course start chute
Little Crusaders - Knightsend-by-Sea: Fixed a broken AO map on the docks
Little Crusaders - Knightsend-by-Sea: Plugged some holes in the buildings
Fish and earn double EXP during this weekend event starting this Friday and ending on this Sunday. There's also a bunch of more rare fish swimming around for you to catch this weekend as well!
From now on, Tower Unite will occasionally feature events that multiply your rewards for playing the game! Have fun fishing and stay tuned for further events!
Hot Fix 0.13.5.1
This hot fix addresses several issues you've reported, along with various improvements to physics stability. We got more fixes in the works as well.
Changes
Increased the stability of the physics simulation to improve physics behavior in Minigolf, Billiards, Ball Race, Arcade and other areas of the game
Adjusted physics substepping fidelity, which will help improve physics simulations
Enabled framerate smoothing with range of 22 FPS to 120 FPS
Minigolf: Adjusted camera lerping a bit more
Inventory: The name of the item you are right clicking on now displays
Bug Fixes
Fixed pets being visible in first person
Fixed random vote map option sometimes not going to any map
Fixed random vote map option not working for Little Crusaders
Fixed random vote map option selecting the same map that was just played
Fixed weird lighting in Smooth Dirt
Fixed sometimes not being able to join other players from the menu if they are in certain Plazas
Fixed ocean water being in the carpet section
Accelerate: Fixed spectating camera clipping
Fixed greek column not being colorable
Optimized dynamic weapon scopes
Inventory: Fixed right side of the screen not letting you grab items
Fixed chat typing animations not playing
Fixed item tag tooltips getting stuck on screen
Fixed co-op inventory being incorrectly titled as "condo inventory"
Fixed being able to select the sell option in co-op inventory (which would result in selling your own items)
Fixed underwater distortion effects causing tool traces to appear to be offset (when they really aren't)
Fixed translation plane gizmos not shift copying
Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail We love awesome people like you!
Sweet Tooth has gotten a makeover for this update, with new visuals and improved gameplay! With new lighting, updated art assets, adjustments to courses and quality of life changes, the map is more exciting and enjoyable than ever before!
Improved Condo Building
New features have been added to the condo such as shift-and-drag copying! Now you can quickly copy items by holding shift while dragging them with the translate gizmo!
Gizmos now have hotkeys for easier switching and editing. While you have an item selected in gizmo mode (left click by default), you can switch between gizmos using the Q, E, and R keys (these are rebindable).
You can now also quickly exit out of gizmo mode with the space key (also rebindable).
These are just a few of the changes made! There have been numerous improvements to the building system, along with several bug fixes that should make building a lot more user friendly and enjoyable. Read the full list of changes in the Condo Editing Changes section below.
New Ways To Connect
You can now see what game and map your friends are playing, including what Plaza server they are on straight from the friends list in-game. We've also added a join button to quickly connect you with your friends.
Several Long Standing Wearable Bugs Resolved
In this update, we've fixed wearables resizing while in seats, and wearables not displaying after using seats (such as when you toggle between first and third person), we've also addressed several other long standing issues such as weapons being de-equipped (until you respawn) while going into minigames. Check out the full list of bug fixes at the bottom of this update log.
Changes
Minigolf: Sweet Tooth Remastered
You can now see what game and map your friends are playing, including what Plaza server they are on within the friends list
Added a "Join" button next to your friends on the friends list
Added "Random" and "Return To Game Ports" vote map options
If you are in a Game World and the Game World disconnects you or closes, the disconnect popup will have an option to take you back to the Game World ports
Added placeable aquarium volume to D.I.Y store. This volume will allow you to create areas for fish to swim without the need of an aquarium (fish stay within the bounds of the volume)
Laser Tag: Laser gun sound now can be heard a lot better from a distance, allowing you to better know where your enemy is shooting you from
Arcade: Whirl-a-fish now shows how many drops it has left
Added a pool tube at the top of the slides to help visually show you can ride down the slides
Fishing: Higher difficulty of fish caught will now result in a fish (instead of trash) and better chances of rare ones
Increased inventory UI icon sizes
Increased contrast of settings headers, key bind settings, and sliders for better visibility
Reorganized key bind settings, separating condo inventory editing into its own header section
Resized item tooltip icon to be larger so you can see items better
Performance Optimization: Reduced lightmap data inside the arcade by 50% (from 320MB to 160MB).
Performance Optimization: Reduced shader complexity inside the arcade
Reduced waiting for players timer for Typing Derby from 30 seconds to 20 seconds
Reduced waiting for players timer for Trivia from 30 seconds to 20 seconds
Sweet Tooth Changes
Added extra cameras to hole 3 to provide a smoother camera view when traveling down pipes underneath the course
Added extra pipe cameras to hole 4, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17
Added extra backboard to end of hole 15 to make it less likely that players will bounce out the back
Added spline to the loop-de-loop at the beginning of hole 18 to make it more reliable
Fixed some instances of golf balls phasing through the half pipes in hole 12
Fixed some instances of golf balls phasing through the 270 degree boost curve in hole 16
Fixed players incorrectly bouncing backwards off of the half pipe/ramp at the end of hole 17
Condo Changes
Condo - Condo: You can now edit the pools wall/floor, trim, and stairs
Condo - Condo: You can now edit the roof grass
Condo - Condo: Removed bushes, allowing you to redecorate with your own foliage
Condo - Condo: Removed the grime/dirt from the pool stairs
Condo - Highrise: You can now edit the pool stairs
Condo: You can now apply any surface or canvas on the Stairs item
Condo: Added Water Clean and Water Ocean materials
Condo: NPCs by default no longer have "My Character" as their name tag. Name tag will only display once a name has been assigned
Condo Editing Changes
Condo: Added shift drag copying. You can now hold shift and drag items and duplicate them with the translate gizmo
Condo: Space/jump now ends gizmo edit mode
Condo: While in Gizmo mode you can switch between position, rotation, and scale using Q, E, and R respectively (these are rebindable)
Condo: Tilde key (~) now toggles advanced edit mode (this is rebindable)
Condo: You can now right click and edit items while in gizmo mode
Condo: When right click editing on an item, you no longer need to keep Q held to keep the right click edit menu open. It'll auto close after you are done right clicking
Condo: Added arrows for easier variation changing for nature items
Condo: Inventory UI - Moved Nature category out of the Furniture category and into its own large category
Condo: Inventory UI - Removed the Arcade category from Toys and just added the items to the main Toys category
Condo: Inventory UI - You can now drag resize the condo inventory to be taller by double clicking the shadow above the condo inventory title
Bug Fixes
Minigolf: Fixed being unable to putt up hills or certain crazy angles (would display a no putt cursor). You'll now always be able to putt any angle without having to readjust the camera
Fixed sitting in seats resizing wearables!!
Fixed cosmetic items (wearables) being invisible when sitting in seats and switching between third person and first person
Fixed jitter if you have a tiny potion active during a minigame
Fixed equippables/weapons not working after participating in a minigame
Fixed players visually holding weapons in their hands that are holstered for themselves
Plaza: Fixed missing collision on Game Ports platform
Plaza: Fixed duplicate teleporter in Game Ports
Plaza: Fixed missing collision on trees near Seasons
Plaza: Fixed Dev HQ media player not working
Condo: Fixed stair step width resetting when changing number of steps
Condo: Fixed advanced edit mode reopening item properties of the exact same item
Condo: Fixed advanced edit mode camera mode (right click) not engaging when right clicking/hovering over an item
Co-op Condo: Fixed wrong scale of items when clients drag/move items. For example, if a canvas cube was scaled by 5, a client would always have it scaled at 1 instead of 5
Condo: Fixed the scale gizmo not scaling the workshop models properly at all due to scale metadata not being calculated with the gizmo
Condo: Fixed physics items not floating in water properly and hitting an invisible wall
Condo: Fixed trust prompt coming up for condos you've already trusted
Condo: Fixed canvas images not loading on surfaces even if you have already trusted the player
Condo - Condo: Fixed a rock cutting into a floor underground
Minigolf: Preview camera no longer stutters due to networking desyncs
Laser Tag: Fixed several Laser Tag exploits
Fixed third person camera being really low while in seats, now it'll be tied to your head a lot better and adjusts with potions
Fixed leaving seats resetting your camera to the wrong direction, now it'll reset your camera back to what it was before you entered the seat
Fixed blocking a player model while in a condo causing all workshop models in the condo unloading (becoming boxes)
Fixed pause menu inventory clearing the current search after selling an item
Fixed Pilot Hat model
Fixed not being able to color the bedside table lamp
Resolved some issues where tutorial prompts (game splash screens) don't get saved upon game restart
Optimized and improved inventory pause menu list (now loads results instantly)
Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail We love awesome people like you!
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Weekly Dev Log for March 1st, 2021, detailing all the changes that have happened since February 22nd, 2021. Note: Devs that don't appear in the weekly log are not necessarily away or not doing work, but may be working on things currently not announced or backend work that doesn't need to be detailed.
Update 0.13.5.0
We're finishing work on Update 0.13.5.0, which includes tons of numerous fixes and improvements for Condo Building, as well as the Sweet Tooth art pass. You can view all the details of this update here.
Highlights: * The bug where wearables would resize when a player sits in a seat has been fixed.
* The bug where cosmetic items would become invisible when sitting in a seat and switching between first and third person was fixed.
* A bug where blocking a player model in a condo would cause all workshop models in the condo to unload was fixed.
* Leaving a seat will now reset the player's camera to its view before sitting in the seat.
* The third person camera is now better placed with the player's head while in a seat, and adjusts with potions/small models.
* The player will now be prompted if they wish to return to the Game Worlds Ports if a Game World closes unexpectedly.
February 2021 Condo Contest Winners
The February 2021 condo contest has finished! Congratulations to "twitch.tv_caat96" and "Snuffles" in 1st place, along with "No4Delirious" and "Mementomori_Mohalovi" for their 2nd and 3rd place wins. You can view all the condo submissions here.
Accessibility Suggestions
We've created a forum post asking the community for suggestions on how we can improve gameplay for players with certain conditions such as colorblindness, dyslexia, or anything else that might affect a players ability to use the standard presentation and controls of the game.
If you have any ideas or suggestions, and possible solutions on how to solve a particular issue, please check out the forum post here.
Condo Improvements
macdguy worked on various fixes and improvements for condo building.
Highlights: * Players can now use Shift + Drag to quickly spawn duplicate items using the Gizmo.
* Players can add areas in their condo for fish to swim with the new placeable Aquarium Volume.
* The Inventory UI can now be resized.
* The Nature category was moved out of the Furniture category into its own category.
* The bug where the trust canvas prompt would appear in condos the player already has trusted has been fixed.
* The bug where canvas images would not load even if the player had trusted the host has been fixed.
Shift + Drag Item Spawning
[previewyoutube="BQRr-X6Ym0E;full"]
Placeable Aquarium Volume
[previewyoutube="R9TU4WxcJTc;full"]
Resizable Condo Inventory UI
[previewyoutube="IPFPlTyPMcw;full"]
Miscellany
Johanna finished working on the Sweet Tooth polishing pass. She also optimized various places in the Plaza and Arcade.
JJosh continued working on items for the Arcade. He also worked on redoing the elephant plush.
Lifeless continued working the new condo map.
macdguy fixed an issue where wearables would resize if a player sat down in a seat. He also helped optimize wearables, and worked on upgrades. He added "Random" and "Return to Game Ports" buttons to the map vote screen, and added Join functionality to the friend's list on the main menu.
Madmijk continued working on Planetary Piano, along with working on Upgrades.
Wheezwer continued working on the concept art design for Fresh, along with the concept art and dialogue for the new Upgrades NPC.
Will continued working on various pieces of music.
Fresh Store Redesign Concept Art WIP
Upgrades NPC Redesign Concept Art WIP
New Condo Landscape WIP
Random & Game Ports Options on Vote Map
Join Button on Friends List in Main Menu
Old / New Elephant Plush
Wrap It Up
That about covers everything that happened since February 22nd, 2021 at PixelTail Games. We'll see you all next week!
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Join our Discord for development updates and community fun! https://discord.gg/pixeltail We love awesome people like you!
