Hi All!
Well that took a minute...
We have finally reached a point we are confident enough to share with everyone on the master branch. Since the last message, there have been many update to the beta branch. One of the big issues we kept battling is the connectivity between users. Now we finally reached a state where everyone should be able to play multiplayer with everyone else without any issues.
As before, if you see a bug, or have a question, or want to say hi, or want to schedule a match with a fellow player, please join us on our discord:(https://discord.gg/s8EbXWG)
I'll try to include all of the updates compared to the master version, along with any issues still outstanding.
Updates:
1. As of this release, the default branches of the Oculus Home and Steam versions of this game will be on the same code body and same multiplayer system. That is, users from one can play against users from another.
2. In order to play someone, either get challenged and accept, or find someone in the lobby and challenge them. People can set themselves to appear offline or set themselves to auto accept challenges. When you get a challenge, you will see a spinning notification, along with a notification panel. Point and press the buttons to either accept or reject the invitation.
3. While in a room with a user, the game starts in practice mode. During this mode, anyone in the room, including spectators (see below), are able to grab and hit the ball around .To the side of the table will be ranked and unranked buttons. Both users need to make a selection to start the match. If there is disagreement, the match type defaults to unranked.
4. Spectators! A new button has appeared. "Active Rooms". Clicking it, will bring you into a view where you can see the matches that are active, who is playing them, and even, if applicable to the type of match, and to the preferences of the main 2 players, spectate.
That's right SPECTATE.
Not only can you look around and watch a game, but while the two main players haven't selected the mode to start the game in, everyone has the ability to grab the ball and hit around - so you can have informal 2 on 2, or 4 on 4..or really whatever you want to do.
While in the room, there is a new button "ROOM" which lets you see who are the people in the room. Each person has their own row, and anyone can hide or control the volume of any other person. The main two players (host and challenger) additionally have the ability to kick out a spectator. Once the actual game starts, spectators lose the ability to hit or grab the ball. (eventually we'll have legit doubles)
There is also a new area which tells you and everyone else in the room what the score is. MP games are now all best of 3.
If the match is unranked, spectator requests should still go through - but if the match is ranked, and started, spectator requests will not be allowed. So if you want to spectate on a ranked match, you need to arrive before the match starts. This will be updated in the future.
5. Another update is that when you play MP now, you will see the head paddle and controller models exactly as your opponent is using - and default headset models are the actual headset models (thanks HTC for providing one for the Vive). Gradually we'll add a headset model for every headset to everyone can be represented :)
6. Speaking of headsets, you can now set the headset of the AI.
7. Mini games have a leaderboard and save score, and finally after the long wait, we now have ranked matches!
8. Currently it is basic ELO with everyone starting at 0, but we'll probably tweak as time goes by and we tune the rates.
9. There is a new button on the main menu. It's just a question mark, but reveals a view that has buttons that opens up links to an FAQ, or contact info, or a discord invite.
10. The match history button now works, and shows you your last 100 matches.
11. The rank profile button now works, and shows you the top 100 players sorted by ELO ranking. To see your own ranking, when you press on multiplayer, look to the left to see user information.
12. Apparently the ball freezing bug is still happening sometimes. For now, there will be a new button while you are playing a match. "Request Ball Reset". If both users press on the button, the point will be reset - and whoever is supposed to be able to grab the ball should be able to grab the ball. If this still doesn't fix it, the issue is with the underlying multiplayer messaging channels, and please let me know on the discord.
13. By default we are turning off logging and spectator view to save performance.
14. Levels should be loading much faster now.
15. If you are looking to play against an AI that doesn't make any mistakes once it hits the ball, let me know on the discord. If enough people ask for it, we'll add a UI element for it.
16. Paddle surface changes: the max spin setting in this new build is higher than the max was before. This was done to match modern paddles' tackiness. Unless you are an advanced player, the suggested spin value is around 50%.
17. The physics are 100% deterministic - which means there will never be a disagreement as to where the ball is or what the ball hit. That being said, the receiver of every shot might appear to hit the ball after a second bounce only due to latency. What matters is what each person sees in their own view when they are returning a hit.
18. All preferences are now stored in the JSON file "preferences.json" near the EXE of the game.
19. Localization. We are adding other languages to the game. You can select a language through the settings view:
Known Issues:
1. replays are a hit/miss right now.
2. There is a bug with the paddle collision physics that prevents you from letting the ball roll on the paddle correctly, and or causes issues if you have a very push-y stroke and low paddle speed setting.
3. The table/ball custom color doesn't work perfectly at the moment, but the saved colors should work fine.
4. The audio is a bit sensitive. If your opponent doesn't hear you, check that your mic icon is moving. If it isn't, check that when you start the game, the mic you are using is the only mic that is active.
5. Occasionally spectator requests might stop appearing and appear to expire. If this keeps happening, please restart the game.
6. The AI hasn't been revamped yet.
Future:
We are far from done working on this game, and have very big updates in the works. Especially interesting to anyone who is looking for the utmost highest level of realism, we have acquired a slow motion camera and will making the game match reality 1 to 1.
As always, come join the discord. We are always there ːsteamhappyː