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
-Fixed typo: "Error in Get mappnigs for axis"