Update 26 (Fairly minor movement system changes/improvements)
Fairly minor update this time. I've been working on the character model a bit, but there's no change to the version in the main game yet (other than I think I've made the old character model more shiny by accident, and it's too late to correct now...). I've also taken a break from the art to do some actual programming for the first time in several weeks, so I've done some more work on the revised movement system.
Also, there's now a reset controls button in the edit controls menu, which I suggest you use if you've owned the game for a while and seem to be missing any of the new controls (such as the melee kick, which should be bound to shift).
ADDITIONS:
Art overhaul progress:
These are the things I've added to or changed in Factory this week:
Wires glow. This is just a quick experiment to make them more prominent. Let me know what you think.
The floor lights are now green-blue (or a kind of sky blue), rather than the deep blue they were before. I've been thinking about and investigating colour theory more, and I think this change might produce a more pleasing colour scheme. That is pure red, green-blue and yellow-green. I personally think this is an improvement, do let me know what you think though.
I've added a button to reset your controls to default, available in the edit controls menu. I've discovered that newly added controls won't show up if there was an old control that had been set to the same keybinding as the new one. You may find therefore that you have to reset your controls to access a new control, such as the melee kick from several months ago. A few people already had something set to use SHIFT when it was added, so it did not show up in the menu, and wasn't triggered with SHIFT either.
CHANGES:
I've been working on making the floor movement system more robust. I particular, it should work better with stairs now, such as on Ex3mx's "Elevators". Also, it should work better with slopes in some respects.
Replaced the slopes on Temple with steps, to test the above.
The magnetic force now affects the character's pelvis (or center or mass), as well as the feet. This will result in a substantial change to the "feel" of being pulled to the floor by the magnets. Previously, since it just affected the feet, the avatar's feet would swing under them before any significant motion of the center of mass occurred, which could feel quite unresponsive. It should feel more like conventional gravity now. Do please let me know what you think of this change, since I'm considering incorporating it into the avatar's design (a magnet belt), if it's well liked.
Increased Jump velocity to 800 from 600, to compensate for the increased speed of return to the floor. Possibly it's too fast for dodge jumps now, this will need testing.
Changed the button colors in the main menu again, to reflect the new color scheme.
BUGFIXES:
I've eliminated one cause of falling out the map on Factory. I suspect there are several separate issues causing this. The one that's gone is the the one that was triggered by pressing against the wall in certain places.
Update 25 (Continuation of visual overhaul)
The visual overhaul is still in progress and I'm hoping you'll be able to see some fairly major improvements in Factory this week (which I'm using to test the new art style). I would love to hear what anyone thinks, it really does help home in on a good look. Thanks to everyone who's been providing feedback so far, by the way.
From my testing so far, it looks like there shouldn't be much, if any, FPS loss from last week on low end systems. This can vary per system though, so again, do please let me know if Factory is performing badly for you after this update. I'm still hoping to mitigate the slight FPS drop that was incurred with last weeks update to Factory. For various reasons, it makes more sense to optimize once I've settled on the look though, so I may leave this until towards the end of the process.
Anyway, I think I might begin work on the character model shortly, since it's arguably the most important element of the visuals, and could help dictate the direction for much of the remaining level art. If you have any thoughts on how the current character model could be improved, it would help a lot.
Lastly, on an relatively unimportant note, I'm thinking about having a couple of days off this week, so I may be less responsive than usual for part of the week.
COMMUNITY MADE MAPS:
Another new map from Max Graw (Ex3mx): "Elevators". He's using more and more of his own 3d models (which I can now confirm is an option for map makers), although he made highly inventive use of the stock geometry in previous maps. You can see the benefits of this on this latest map, which is recognisable as being in Ex3mx's emerging visual style, but is also inspired by a certain visually striking game. I wonder if anyone will be able to guess what it is?
Max Graw (Ex3mx) has also used some of his new 3d models to art up the visuals on his first map, Labor. It always played great, but until now was the only one of Ex3mx's maps not to have a strong visual style. Now the walls are broken up by colourful pipes, which just looks great, and I particularly like the huge lights, protected by a kind of perforated metal grill.
ADDITIONS:
Art overhaul progress:
These are the things I've added to or changed in Factory this week:
I've interspersed the small wall panels with larger ones of various sizes. So far I think this looks way better than the sea of 1x1m panels, and I know several people agree. As a convenient side effect, it also uses fewer polygons.
I've made a completely new short cover model. I'm yet to make versions for the other shapes of cover, but the short version is the only one used in Factory. Do let me know if you think there should be any improvements to the design, so I can make them before I do the other versions, since I'll be adapting the same design for all the other shapes.
There are now edge panels for the walls, so you can no longer see behind them.
I've also added green wires throughout the map, which trail from gaps in the wall edge panels. The idea is to add some detail, and also I personally think the yellow green colour complements the general colour scheme. Would love to hear what anyone else thinks though. I'm not 100% pleased with the wires yet, I think possibly they don't look enough like wires.
CHANGES:
Changed run acceleration to 3000cms^-2 from 4000cms^-2, just as an experiment. I think the movement definitely feels smoother with it lower, and it will also place more emphasis on jumping and floating for dodging, but let me know if you preferred it before and I can always change it back.
I've moved many of the weapon pickups on most of the maps. This is due to a change in design philosophy that I want to try out. Ages ago, I think I looked up weapon placement for general map design and saw somewhere that someone thought you should place each weapon in an area of the map that it's strong. On reflection, I really can't see the reasoning behind this, so I've changed the locations of many of the weapons to areas of the map that they're weak. The advantages of this that I can think are:
This will discourage camping. If the sniper, for instance, was placed in a good sniping spot, surely it's in someone's interest to just camp there and be constantly supplied with ammo? With the sniper in an enclosed area where it's weak, you'll have to go too and from that area to restock on ammo (and if someone's OP with the sniper, the other players will more easily be able to prevent them from getting it, which will make for a more interesting game for all).
This will also encourage movement around the map in general, since you'll generally want to be picking up weapons then moving on quickly.
Mac users should now have the same default avatar colour as windows users. Previously I was unable to set a default for mac users, so it was black on black.
You now cannot use health pickups if you have full health already. Previously the pickup would be consumed but wouldn't do anything.
BUGFIXES:
Fixed a hole in the floor in the tutorial level. Well spotted by DarkGuy
Update 24 (more antialiasing options)
I'm still looking for more feedback on the new visuals in Factory. Just whether you think it adds something to the game over the old style would be good to know.
Another thing I'd love to hear from more people about is the performance difference between Factory and the other maps. Particularly if you have a very low end system, with integrated graphics. So far I've had one report of severe performance loss, but from my own testing on low end systems, there seems to be a difference of about 5fps, which isn't too bad (and I hope I'll be able to remove even that, with more data).
Anyway, if you want to be more involved in the art overhaul, I'll be spamming my progress on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Zero_G_Arena
So if you're a twitter user, that would be a great way to let me know what you think of assets as I'm working on them, which will be more effective than waiting for them to make it into the full game, and ultimately steer the game towards looking how you'd like it to.
I was spamming my progress in the art section of the community hub, but I thought that was bad form, since it pushes other peoples actual art down in visibility.
ADDITIONS:
You can now change the antialiasing type from the graphics options menu. It previously used TemporalAA by default. You can now choose between:
FXAA: This seems to produce a gritty shimmering effect when moving the camera.
TemporalAA: This appears smoother overall, but seems to produce smudgy, blurry artifacts when moving the camera.
Let me know which one you prefer! I don't imagine it will make a big difference to most people though. I think possibly FXAA might be faster, which could be a deciding factor.
On request, I've added back the old "GrappleReel_Hold" control as an alternative to the mouse wheel for the advanced grapple controls. It's bound to Q now, since the kick is using shift these days, but you can rebind it back to shift yourself if you want.
There's now a "news" tab in the main menu. It occurred to me that probably relatively few people read the release notes, so I'm planning to use this to explain elements of the game's current state that warrant explanation (currently the art test in Factory).
CHANGES:
UE4's built in FPS monitor is clearly vastly superior to mine, so the H key now uses that instead.
Your ping and speed can now be shown with the V key, independently of the framerate.
The other performance profiling tools that were on number keys since the last update are now bound to different keys:
J to show breakdown of frame time between CPU, GPU and draw calls
K to use the GPU profiler, which, as mentioned in the last update I still haven't figured out how to use in the shipped game.
BUGFIXES:
The new map name display on joining a match didn't update when switching maps. This is fixed now.
Update 23 (start of visual overhaul, test assets in "Factory")
Ok, I think the next major step in ZGA's development will be the long overdue visual overhaul. This is quite likely what I'll be working on for the next month or so. I've made a start on this by making a new floor model, and also some wall panels. I've added these to the map "Factory" with this update, for feedback, but it's by no means finished, so keep in mind: not all the art assets are redone yet, so there may be some clashing between the old and new assets; and the wall panels won't bear very close examination, since you can see behind them in certain places, and also they need something to cover up the joins on the edges and corners. I'd really like to hear what you think of the progress so far though, since I think this in particular is something I'm going to need player feedback on.
Something that's going to be of critical importance during the art overhaul is keeping performance in mind. Game performance is a hugely complicated topic, so it's very hard to predict the changes for various hardware. Another reason in testing out the new assets in Factory is to see what impact it has on performance on various systems. I can't imagine the game will run faster for anyone, since I am using more objects and polygons than before, but I don't think it will necessarily run any slower on every system. Do let me know whether you see any change in performance on Factory. You may find you have to turn down effects, if you had them on high, since there are a lot more reflections now.
I've exposed some of UE4's performance monitoring tools, which will help with this.
User made maps:
There two completely new maps from Ex3mx (Max Graw) this week. Both of them look fantastic, which is an emerging theme for Max's maps, as well as a very high standard overall:
Space: This is another great looking map. It's inspired by a certain sci-fi franchise (I think you'll be able to tell which, since he's captured the basic essence of it's look perfectly).
Photograph: I think you'll notice a semblance between this and Max's last map, Museum. It's got an art-gallery vibe to it once again, but rather than a modern art gallery, it features some lovely photographs hanging on the walls (or ceilings?). It's also very aesthetically pleasing as a whole.
ADDITIONS:
The new art assets in Factory.
There's now a brief HUD pop up which displays the map name, current game mode and the map's creator whenever you join a match, or when the map changes. The main reason for my adding this is because previously the map makers were only credited in the map select screen, therefore only server hosts saw who made a map. I think it's very important to credit map creators clearly.
Another bonus is that people will become more familiar with the map names, and also be aware what the current game mode is on arrival.
I've made some of UE4's performance monitoring tools available to use in game. Be aware, I'll probably change these key bindings in future.
The 8 key brings up a superior framerate monitor.
The 9 key shows the amount of time spent by the CPU and GPU per frame, which will help determine where the bottleneck is.
The 0 key should be showing a breakdown of the time spent by the GPU on various tasks per frame. This doesn't immediately seem to be working as it did in editor though, and instead, bizarrely, just seems to take a screenshot. Probably it's writing to a log or something, I'm sure I'll find out.
CHANGES:
I think I've been using UE4's networking system completely wrong until now (I think I fell victim to a misleading description). Anyway, I'll spare you the details here but I'm hoping this will have finally fixed the majority of disconnection problems. Also, I'm hoping it will reduce bandwidth use and generally improve the quality of the netcode. I think this is actually pretty interesting, so if you'd like to hear my attempt at an explanation of this as I understand it, just ask in the comments, and I'll happily share one.
Weaponized grapple changes:
Some people thought the weaponized grapple was OP. I think they may well have been right, although it's easy to get a distorted impression of weapon balance. In any case, I've nerfed the weaponized grapple a fair bit to be on the safe side, since there's not really a risk of making it under powered in the same way as other weapons, as it's always used in combination with other weapons, rather than instead of. I'll test it out online some more anyway.
Damage per hit to 40 from 60
Impact impulse to 75000 from 100000. This is just enough to knock you briefly off the floor, but won't send you sprawling like before, which was a bit of a death sentence if the attacker was quick enough with follow up shots.
Cooldown per target to 1.5 from 1 second (although it was accidentally 60 seconds between the last update and this one [see bugfixes]).
Avatars now spawn facing the direction determined by the spawn point. Previously, I think they just spawned facing the same direction, even if there was a wall there. Keep in mind, I haven't set sensible spawn directions for all the spawn points in my old maps yet, so they might still seem a little random.
The in game menu is no longer open by default. It only used to because the previous menu had some kind of problem when I tried to close it by default (I can't remember the specifics).
A few minor changes to Factory, as well as the new art assets.
Health bar is green-yellow, from pure green. My new knowledge of colour theory leads me to believe that this will go better with the pure red and blue bars.
BUGFIXES:
I've eliminated one cause of the host's volume cutting out every time a client joins. If there were multiple causes though, it wouldn't be the first time, so let me know if this issue is still around. I'm pretty sure it's fixed though. This kind of thing is obviously difficult to test until the change is live.
This isn't technically a bug by the strictest definition, but I set the weaponized grapple to have a cooldown of 60 seconds per target while trying to reproduce a crash and forgot to reset it back to 1 second afterwards. It's back to 1.5 seconds now.
I have no idea if this is really fixed, but someone seemed to spawn outside of the Factory map, somehow. I'd already moved the spawn points around in my local project by the time this happened, so I can't remember where they were before, but it sounds like the problem may have been due to a spawn point too close to a wall. In any case, they're clear from the walls now, so we'll just have to see if this happens again.
I've finally fixed the thing with the camera clipping into the walls, when it's pressed against a wall on the right side, so no more using this to "wall hack".
Development files update 1
If you've made maps before and plan to make more, or are in the process of making a map, you'll probably want to read the development files update notes, since they may result in changes to the map making process.
Also, keep in mind dev-file updates will encompass any changes to the full game that have been made since the last dev-file release. For example, this time you'll have the new menu inside your unreal project, which is already live in the main game (Actually you previously wouldn't have been able to use any menu in the unreal project, since I had to remove it for legal reasons). For that reason you may want to keep track of updates to the main game, since I won't list all the changes here.
These dev-files patch notes will instead include changes to the use of assets and blueprints that wouldn't otherwise be evident in the main game as well as new map making features. I'll also try to mention anything that may require a change in map-making procedure.
Anyway, there are no fun new map making features this time, I'm afraid. It's just best to stay in sync. Luckily it's much easier for me to release dev-file updates now I've removed the old menu, so I'll try and do so more regularly.
Changes:
The avatars will now spawn facing the direction of the playerstart, and also vertically oriented with it. Previously I think they would just face positive X or something, which wasn't ideal if there was a wall in that direction. Anyway, you can now decide what direction you want the player to face in when they spawn at each playerstart. It's also probably best to align each playerstart vertically with the vertical direction of the floor it's above, which will prevent the camera having to flip around when the player lands.
I've made some changes to the roof cover model, since it seemed to have major lighting issues under some conditions. Thanks to mcman0123 for bringing this to my attention. Anyway, it lights pretty well now.
Changes to sphere model:
You no longer have to assign a collision component to the magfloor sphere mesh! It now has one by default. I was completely wrong when I said I didn't think it was possible to assign simple sphere collision to a mesh. Probably nothing bad will happen if you've already got magfloor spheres with an extra collision component though. This means my spheres video is now out of date, so I'll have to try and redo it when I get time.
There was something dodgy about the magfloor sphere's lighting before, when statically lit. It's much better now, so your magfloor spheres will now look fine when statically lit. I previously switched them to dynamic lighting before to get around the problem, but this had a performance cost.
Update 22 (Fixes)
Well, this was suppose to be just a hotfix for the various UI issues I introduced with the last update, but I've done a few other things too, and there's also a new user-made map, so I think I'm probably justified in calling this Update 22.
I've tried a bit of an experiment in my attempts to fix some of the disconnection issues. This might result in dodgy ground movement from remote players, so watch out for that. Otherwise, I'm hopeful that this will reduce or fix the issue.
Oh, and just make sure I haven't overwritten your new save settings this update, of which there's a slight risk.
User made maps:
There's a brand new map from Tyler Gallagher (BlueIsTrue) called "Orientation". It looks like the inside of a disco ball, which is pretty trippy. He's also got the weapon pickups to rotate, which was very clever! Also, the maps's absolutely massive. Anyway, overall this is a map that I think you'll agree adds something completely new to ZGA, which is marvellous.
Additions:
Can now press escape in the main menu to return to the opening screen, which was previously inaccessible once you opened another menu.
You can now set a custom zoomed field of view. Previously, it was just set to 40
BUGFIXES:
The camera zoom function works again. It's also improved (see additions)
I'm hoping that awful audio pop when you join a game with your volume down should be gone now
The master volume defaults to 0.8. It was 0 after the last update, which would have been confusing, as though the sound wasn't working. If you've already saved a new master volume, this shouldn't affect you though.
The character customization menu now loads the correct graphics settings. After the latest update, I forgot to switch it over to the new settings. Thanks to RakuraiSenshi for bringing this to my attention, as well as probably several of the other issues (he's always particularly vigilant in reporting issues!).
I've become aware of another disconnection issue that I and at least one other user have run into. I think I've reduced the chances of this happening, but I'm still looking into the underlying problem. Thanks to DarkGuy1001 for helping me investigate this.
OK, and with regard to the same disconnection issue, I've tried a bit of an experiment. I need you to tell me if you start seeing some really dodgy movement from other players on the ground (teleporting about e.t.c). I think the the disconnection issue is triggered by overloading the connection. I've now let the engine decide to reduce the rate that it send ground movement information, to try and avoid this problem, but if it results in issues I'll have to change it back and try something else.
There was a particularly nasty crash that I believe only occurred on the server (the worst thing to crash) that I'm hoping is fixed now. It's always really hard to tell with this kind of thing, since it was highly intermittent anyway. Thanks to Ex3mx for helping me track this down (since unfortunately it was on his server that the crash occurred at least twice!). I believe it was to do with the weaponized grapple, if you're interested.
Update 21 (New menu [see below] and more user made maps)
Update 21 (New menu [see below] and more user made maps)
There are a whole bunch of new user-made maps this week (5, no less!), which is absolutely incredible, I never would have guessed we'd get this many so soon. See below for a list of the maps and their creators.
Also, thanks very much once again to Deika, who's made a couple of new sounds for ZGA.
JUST SO EVERYONE'S AWARE: I'm afraid your save settings are going to become obsolete this week, due to the new menu (see below), which uses different save files. You'll just have to re-enter your settings, and then it probably won't change again. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Anyway, my additions are starting to pale in comparison to the amount of user-generated content, but the main thing I've been working on this week is the new menu. I think this is going to warrant some explanation, since at first glance, you'll probably just think I've taken the existing menu and made it look worse. I'm planning to get some UI art done for it sooner or later, but here's why I decided to replace the menu now anyway:
The previous menu was actually a third party generic menu that I brought from the unreal marketplace, as I've said before in various places. It saved a lot of time in getting the game functional enough to release the first demo. The main reason I've decided to replace it is that now I'm distributing my project files for the purpose of map making. I'm not allowed to redistribute unreal marketplace content in it's uncooked form like that though, so I had to remove the menu from the project every time I wanted to update the development files used by map makers. This was actually a very time consuming process, so I no longer have to do that now I've made a custom menu. Anyway, I was always planning to replace it eventually, which will afford more flexibility in future.
Also, I imagine the new menu will need some ironing out, so let me know any issues you have.
User-made maps:
-There are actually two completely new maps from Ex3mx (Max Graw) this week, which is incredible. It's even more impressive when you see the standard of the maps. The first one's called "Inspiration" and is a team-only king of the hill map. The second is called "Museum" and is a more "traditional" deathmatch map. It's themed around an art gallery, and I think you'll agree it's nothing short of a work of art itself. If you ask me, it's easily better looking than any of my maps so far, and it's incredible what Max has done just using BSP, due to the lack of map-making assets. Anyway, Max has also made some significant improvements to his "Labor" map from last week.
-There's another new map "BattleGrounds", made by mcman0123. I think this map is going to be very interesting to play on, since it's quite different from any ZGA map so far. It's arranged a lot like a map you might expect in a cover-based shooter (although it's mirrored on the ceiling, which is unusual for most cover-based shooters). It's designed only for team deathmatch, so each team spawns at one end of the map, and I imagine it'll encourage a lot of cover-based flanky type tactics, using the ceiling.
-Another highly inventive new map, is "InverseMoon" made by RakuraiSenshi. This makes use of the new "Inverted spherical magfields", which don't feature in any other map so far (not least because there's no proper floor model for them yet, but also I haven't officially announced these anywhere yet, or explained how to use them, so impressive detective work Rakurai!). Anyway, what this means is you can walk on the inside of a sphere. In this case, the inside of the moon, which will no doubt please a certain category of conspiracy theorist. Anyway, this is another map that's obviously very different to any other map so far, so I look forward to seeing how this one plays online.
-Last but not least is "Prota" by DarkGuy. This is another team king of the hill map, although it also supports standard team deathmatch. All of a sudden, we've got several maps for the previously less-supported game mode, which is very nice indeed! Anyway, this map has a team spawn at each end, and the KOTH zone in the middle, which, unlike Chamber is actually on the floor, so no doubt this will lead to some intense melee combat!
Huge congratulations to all the map makers, who've really proven the process, and also taken incredibly well to UE4, which I was concerned might be too complicated to expect players to learn.
ADDITIONS:
-New menu: It's functionally pretty similar to the old menu. I think the sections are better organized now though, which is something that wouldn't have been easier to change with the old menu. Another thing I've been able to change is that now the resolution scale goes down to 25%. If you don't mind it looking like a PS1 game, then that will probably be an effective way to get some more FPS for users with low end PCs.
-Oh, and another thing about the new menu is that there are now 6 levels of antialiasing, from the previous "Low" to "Epic". At the risk of sounding incompetent, I'm not altogether sure what they do. I think possibly even numbers are one kind of antialiasing and odd numbers are another. That's definitely not how the old menu worked though, which is a little confusing. I'm hoping to work out what's going on here, so I can label it more clearly in future, but for now, you can set antialiasing from 0 to 6. If you can discern the difference, I'd love to know.
-There's a new weaponized grapple beam sound, very kindly made by Deika, who, if you remember, also made the new rail gun sound, which was very well received. Anyway, this new beam sound is equally smashing!
-And a new Homergun sound, also by Deika
CHANGES:
-Changed the recommended minimum player count on Core from 2 to 3, since, having done a dual on it, I thought it was a bit too big.
-The Early Access blah blah blah message on the opening screen now has an extra bit trying to goad people into making bug reports.
-Minor changes to the roof cover model (don't forget to include this in the dev file patch notes)
BUGFIXES:
-I think you might have been unable to switch teams in between rounds for team KOTH. I don't remember actually encountering this, but then I've barely played team KOTH so far. It shouldn't happen now, in any case.
-You couldn't previously change maps to a user made one in game. There was only one user made map last week, so you may not have noticed, but it's fixed now anyway.
Update 20 (First user-created map!)
Well, very well done to Ex3mx (Max Graw) who actually managed to finish a map within 24 hours of my launching the workshop (I didn't imagine anyone would be finishing any maps for at least a week!). The map's called "Labor" and it's a much needed "Capture The Sphere" map. You can find it in the map browser under the new "User created" section. We also now know that the process of producing a map and getting it in the game works, so that's excellent news! I'm very excited to see what else people come up with.
On a slightly less positive note, it seems like I can't actually download items from the workshop. I'm still looking into this, but I imagine it's for the same reason the items aren't publicly visible (Steam not supporting free curated workshops). I've just edited my guide to instruct people to just email me their maps for the time being. As you've probably realised, this process now doesn't actually use the Steam workshop at any step now, which I find quite amusing. Well, I suppose there's still the workshop forum...
If map making for ZGA becomes particularly popular, and people think that we need a "ready-to-use" style workshop, then I'll get back on that if I can. Had I know free-curated workshops weren't supported when I started, I'd have spent more time on it back then. As it stands, I think it would still take a long time to get in place, so that's not something I want work on unless people really think we need it.
ADDITIONS (User created):
-New map, "Labor". Created by Max Graw (Ex3mx on Steam). It's a CTS map, fairly small in size, but also quite open. In that respect, and others, it's quite unlike any of my maps, which is excellent, as I expect we can hope to see more and more variety with user made maps. Another thing to note is that Max somehow managed to work out how to make a CTS map, despite the fact that I'm yet to release any tutorials on supporting different game modes, so once again, an incredible achievement.
ADDITIONS:
-A fancy new splash screen. You might have noticed it's accompanied by fancy new branding images on Steam too. Let me know if you think they are in fact more or less fancy than the old ones.
CHANGES:
-The map browser now displays the creator (due to the introduction of user-made maps), and a recommend number of players for each map (to better support more varied map sizes). It also has a user-created section now.
-I've hidden the workshop upload menu, since it's no longer used, as explained in the wordy bit at the top.
BUGFIXES:
-You should no longer be able to "phase into" the spheres on Core. I can only assume this had been in the game since the introduction of the spheres months ago, so it's a miracle no one noticed before, since it was quite easy to do once you'd worked out how. Thanks to Islander for spotting this.
Update 19 (Workshop)
Ok, well workshop support is finally here, albeit in a somewhat ramshackle form. If you remember, my plan was to use a "curated" workshop (like TF2, for instance) but just adding all the items to the full game for free. Turns out that Steam doesn't properly support free curated workshops, but rather assumes that the items will be sold in game (and the money split between Valve, the developer and the item creator). The main problem is that when you upload an item, it'll ask for your payment info, and won't make the item publicly visible otherwise. What I'm hoping is that I'll be able to download the items anyway, since I'm not going to ask people to go entering payment info for no reason. This does mean that other users won't be able to vote on items, which is unfortunate, but honestly I don't think that would have been necessary anyway.
Ultimately though, whatever happens, I should still be able to add your items to the game, where you'll be credited for them. Even if it turns out I can't download them unless you enter payment details, you could always email me the content, since I'm adding it directly to the game.
Trying to add support for ready-to-use items is still an option for later. If time wasn't an issue, I'm sure that would be the best option. Unfortunately, it's increasingly apparent I'm going to have to start prioritizing things that are most important to get done before launch. I'll decide later about ready-to-use items, depending on how popular the workshop gets, and how the current system is working.
Anyway, if you want to get started making maps in the near future, you can probably consider yourself a beta tester, so do stay in touch on the workshop sub-forum: http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/discussions/?appid=467820
let me know what you're planning to do, how it's going and if you have any problems, and I'll definitely try to be as responsive as possible. I'll also be more than happy to discuss map design, since I haven't made any support material on the design side yet.
Here's the guide to getting started making maps: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=853552883
Best of luck, and I very much look forward to seeing the maps people come up with!
ADDITIONS:
-Workshop upload menu. Accessible via pink button in main menu.
-"Zero G Arena development files" available in the "Tools" section of your Steam library.
-The actual workshop should now be visible to game owners on steam. There's also a bunch of support material.
CHANGES:
-Cityscape now has magfloor models on the previously unwalkable sections of the building with the ramps inside. It became walkable after the changes to the movement system, but the lack of magfloor models was somewhat inconsistent.
BUGFIXES:
-Made the new movement system better able to cope with steep slopes, such as on Temple. Legs will probably still freak out sometimes (particularly when crouching), but the avatar should no longer get stuck when moving up a slope. No doubt future improvements to the new movement system will be necessary as it becomes more tested.
Update 18 (Grapple Weaponizer)
First of all, you might be wondering what's happening about workshop support. It was pretty much ready last weekend, as I think I told a few of you, but unfortunately I'm having a bit of trouble actually launching the workshop on Steam. I'm currently waiting for a response from Valve on this, and hopefully it'll be out in the next week or so.
In the meantime, it's been far, far longer than I usually like to leave between updates, so there are a few things that I've been working on as part of workshop support, and also a few things I've been working on while waiting for a response from Valve about the workshop that I think will be worth releasing.
BE AWARE, there's a somewhat higher probability of bugs being introduced with this update than usual, due to some major changes to the way the movement system works. Please do let me know if you see anything odd.
ADDITIONS:
-"Grapple Weaponizer". Not sure whether to call this a powerup or a weapon. The pickup model is a little capsule thing with a lightning bolt inside, which is now available on all maps. What it does is makes your grapple beam damage any player that it intersects. This is an instantaneous shock that knocks the target back, rather than having to keep it intersecting at length (since that would discourage fast movement). Note that it does not damage a player who you actually grapple, since they technically don't intersect the beam (being at the end of it). I couldn't even guess at what it'll be like from a balance point of view, but I have very high hopes for it after a little tweaking. Some of it's qualities include:
It doesn't add to the interface at all. Doesn't even require another slot for weapon switching.
It should be quite different to use to any of the existing weapons.
It should promote interesting movement on the part of the user, in order to get it to intersect, and also on the part of the target, to dodge it. Specifically, it's going to encourage swinging, which is definitely something I want people to do with the grapple.
-A reticle edit sub-menu, which can be found under mouse settings. You can now set the colour, opacity and size of the reticle (which will be saved to a file). Also, the default colour is now neon pink, for no good reason. I know a few people have been waiting for this for several months now, so sorry for the wait.
-New map select menu. It features all the maps listed with a thumbnail and list of supported game modes. I'm also planning to add a field for the map's creator for the next update, to credit creators of maps for the workshop.
-I've completely redone the walking system. Previously, it relied on flat surfaces specifically designated as being magnetic. This has been replaced with magnetic fields. Now, anything within a magnetic field can be walked on, which allows for much more freedom in map creation, such as slopes, steps cluttered floors, or anything, in theory. The characters legs will now move to step on objects rather than clipping though them, to support the new system. This won't have much change on existing maps, other than you'll now be able to walk on some things that you couldn't before, such as cover elements. I'm afraid this means I've removed another popular screenshoting activity...
-You can now crouch under objects. Previously the avatar's collision box was unchanged when crouching. I've also prevented the avatar from entering walking mode while floating under a space that provides insufficient head room.
CHANGES:
-Moved light from centre of Chamber. Within minutes of releasing the king of the hill game mode, people had figured out they could just latch onto this light with the grapple beam and be all but irremovable from the target zone.
-The "return to main menu" button has been removed. The quit button now returns to main menu, rather than quitting completely. Quitting from the main menu is so quick that it's just a waste of space having both buttons.
-When quitting as the host, you no longer have to wait for the countdown if no other players are present.
-The standard "fullscreen" option has returned to the menu. Those of you who've owned ZGA for a long time now may remember that there used to be separate "fullscreen" and "fullscreen borderless" options. Someone's recently pointed out to me that there is a difference between these and apparently some potential performance difference between one or the other. Now, I've got a feeling there were some problems caused by the "fullscreen borderless" option, which I imagine is why I removed it. I can't for the life of me remember what those problems were though, or find any reference in the forums, so just do be watchful for issues with the new "fullscreen borderless" setting.
-Added proper slopes on CTS_One, facilitated by the new magfield system. This should make it a bit less of an obstacle course, which I think is absolutely needless when the other team's trying to stop you capturing the sphere anyway...
-Removed some of the spawn points from the circular room in "Inception", to reduce the probability of spawning there (which was resulting in endless fights in this room).
-Blue team suit colour is now light grey, with the blue armour still serving to identify them. It was suggested to me that this was a more tasteful colour scheme, to which I agree.
-Updated the tutorial to account for the fact that you can now stand on objects.
-I've buffed most of the weapons, to reduce the time to kill a little. Quite likely I'll do this a little every update until it seems right. Let me know when you think that happens. Changes are as follows:
SMG damage to 20 from 15
Shotgun damage per pellet to 8 from 6 (pellets per shot: 15, as before)
Charge laser damage per second to 175 from 100
Megarail rate of fire to 1.0 from 0.8
Megarail starting and max ammo from 10 and 20 to 15 and 30 respectively
Homergun damage to 40 from 30
Rocket ammo to 20 from 25 (I know, not a buff!)
-Made the "Zero G Arena" text in the main menu glow slightly, since apparently it's visibility can vary between machines.
-In "Factory": I've changed the section in front of the furnace, since I was never particularly happy with it. The walkway is now walkable on both sides.
BUGFIXES:
-Fixed a bug where arrow key input would not register in the rebind keys menu
