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.