Alpha 65 - The Road to 1.0 Continues!

This week’s update sees a number of new fixes for long-standing bugs, particularly on the multiplayer side. Pretty much everything I said last update still applies, I’m just grinding through bugs, balance and performance issues to get the game to a healthy 1.0 status. Remember to report any bad stuff you see in the in-game feedback form or on the Steam forums!

I’m going to leave last week’s Fortnight Discussion on game balance open for another fortnight, since there seems to be a lot of good insight there, and it also happens to be one of the areas that I’m currently working in.

Alpha 65

Graphics

• Fix for weapon sprites appearing too large in online multiplayer games
• Fix for “None” lighting setting not working properly in coop modes
• Fix for NPCs sometimes appearing at the wrong angle directly after being tased or otherwise incapacitated
• Fix for player sometimes appearing at the wrong angle when initially entering Home Base
• Fix for issue where if the player was using an item to highlight other objects (such as the Laptop), then walked near one of those objects and walked away, the object would remain highlighted
• Fix for issue where if the player was using an item to highlight other objects (such as the Laptop), those objects would not always appear highlighted when moused over
• Fix for Wrestler appearing nude on missions screen
• Fix for NPCs’ hands appearing when outside vision range in Rogue Vision mode after they put away their gun
• Fix for Killer Plant head not always appearing at correct angle, and animating at incorrect speed
• Fix for dizzy stars sometimes appearing at the bottom-left corner of the map
• Fix for NPCs’ hands and guns sometimes being visible when they fell down holes on multiplayer client
• Fix for fireproof objects flashing on multiplayer client when shot with fire weapons by non-local players and NPCs
• Fix for Ghost Gibber stream sometimes not appearing on multiplayer client
• Fix for blood spurts not appearing when multiplayer client threw objects at people
• Fix for Killer Robot’s red light not going out when they die on multiplayer client
• Fix for lights appearing in incorrect vertical position for dead NPCs when entering the game as a multiplayer client
• Fix for wall wreckage sometimes appearing to be clustered in one spot on multiplayer client
• Fix for shirtless players in online multiplayer sometimes initially appearing to have a white chest
• Potential fix for larger hairstyles sometimes appearing incorrectly under other players’ hats in online multiplayer
• Fix for Dizzy Stars sometimes not appearing
• Fix for players’ hats not always appearing in online multiplayer
• Fix for multiplayer host and client hair colors sometimes differing
• Fix for Shapeshifter having the wrong hand graphic after possessing Thief, Doctor and Firefighter

UI / Controls

• Big Quest now appears at the top-right of the Missions screen
• Version text at the lower-left of the screen no longer includes the game’s title
• Fix for scrollbar sometimes appearing for a split second on the end-level stats screen
• Fix for controls in level 1-1 appearing for both players when two gamepads are being used
• Fix for cases where Chatlog would not disappear if the game window lost focus and then regained it
• Fix for cases where tooltip could remain after right-clicking to use an inventory item
• Fix for empty chests sometimes being shown on multiplayer client’s map
• Fix for word bubbles appearing over multiplayer players who had not spawned yet
• Interaction range is more lenient for multiplayer clients to account for NPCs who move quickly while the player is attempting to interact with them
• Fix for main menu not always displaying proper messaging or returning player to correct sub-menu
• Potential fix for players sometimes being able to regain control of their character during the ending sequence
• Fix for selection box for items appearing an incorrect color when viewing items in a chest

Playfield Objects

• Different art for holes that appear during War Zone
• Fix for multiplayer client sometimes not being able to open doors after closing them
• Fix for door text on multiplayer client not always correctly stating if the door was locked or made of steel

Items

• Silencer functions properly when gun is shot from multiplayer client

Status Effects / Traits / Special Abilities

• Fix for Lunge ability being able to pass through walls without breaking them
• Fix for Hacker always turning to the right when hacking
• Fix for NPCs in Home Base turning to face the player when they have the Loud trait
• Fix for Sneaky Fingers not working with laptop hacking
• Fix for G-P-Yesss not working immediately after joining a multiplayer game with a character who has this trait
• Fix for Werewolf and Gorilla not having correct Lunge animations when viewing other players in multiplayer mode
• Fix for NPCs cloned from multiplayer client not having correct attribute stats

Sound

• Ambient Casino audio removed due to popular demand
• Changes to a few sound effects
• Fix for sound effects not playing on main menu if the player quits the game with the gamepad while on character select
• Fix for “Fire hydrant break” sound effect playing multiple times on multiplayer client
• Fix for Ghost Gibber sound not working on multiplayer client when used by a non-local player
• Fix for Wall Destroy sound effect not always playing on multiplayer client when walls were knocked down by people’s bodies
• Fix for Bear Trap, Banana Peel and Paralyzer sound effects not always playing on host and client
• Fix for Shuriken and Rock impact sound effect not playing on multiplayer client
• Fix for Boombox playing two songs at once on multiplayer client
• Fix for Jock’s Charge sound effects not always playing on multiplayer client
• Fix for Equip Weapon sound effect playing at inappropriate times on multiplayer client
• Fix for Laughter sound effect not playing on multiplayer client
• Fix for “burned by fire” sound effect not playing on multiplayer client
• Fix for “fall in hole” sound effect not playing on multiplayer client
• Fix for spawn sound effect not playing on host when clients return after falling in a hole
• Splash sound effect does not play when wreckage such as bush leaves are knocked into water

Big Quests

• Fix for Big Quest not always loading properly when a multiplayer client loads their saved game
• Big Quest slot will no longer say “coming soon” if quest data cannot be found

Mutators

• Fix for character stats not loading properly when loading a multiplayer saved game with “New Character Every Level”
• Fix for Continue removing client players’ traits upon continuing

Level Generation

• Added a number of checks to help ensure random generation doesn’t get screwed up while multiplayer client is loading a level
• Fix for a certain door being locked from the wrong side during police lockdown

Artificial Intelligence

• Fix for NPCs continuing to attack multiplayer clients who had turned Invisible
• Fix for Gorilla not talking in Home Base
• NPCs are better at knowing when to answer knocks on their doors
• NPCs are a bit more responsive under certain circumstances
• Fix for NPCs not hearing multiplayer client when they knock down walls as a Giant, or when knocked through them
• Fix for NPCs not responding to multiplayer clients with “annoyed” text
• Fix for NPC issues pathing around Scientist’s Big Quest crates
• Fix for Resistance Leader in Zoo not saying anything when spoken to

Text

• Fixed a typo in one of the Protips
• Changed a reference to “D-Pad” in the tutorial, because apparently that’s only supposed to be used in reference to Xbox gamepads
• Clerk in Fire Station has different dialog

Tutorial

Fix for player being able to get stuck in tutorial if they killed the Shopkeeper and picked up the Hacking Tool very quickly

Performance

• Fix for wreckage on online multiplayer clients not being handled properly, causing lag when lots of it existed
• Performance fix for shooting non-normal-sized bullets
• Performance fix for Ghost Gibber
• Very slight load time improvement

Multiplayer

• Followers that multiplayer client brings to the next level will not spawn until the player does
• Fix for players not facing south at the start of multiplayer games
• Fix for game freezing when leaving multiplayer games when not connected to Steam
• Fixed internal errors regarding removal of objects in client-side Home Base
• Fix for cases where players could appear to be walking on water
• NPC Dialogue that previously only appeared for the client now appears for the host and other players
• Fix for game sometimes not restarting after game over even if all players have selected their characters, typically after a client has loaded a saved character
• Fix for “x has left the game” messages not always appearing