This update is the "Quality of life" update mentioned in the last announcement. This update brings improvements, changes, and bug fixes to non-gameplay related things like a new server browser, in game chat, better keyboard controls and UI, and optimizations all over.
New Server Browser!
http://i.imgur.com/NCCBgPG.gif
This is the biggest change to come with 0.9.9, the server browser has been rebuilt from the ground up so that it is easier to use, easier to see what's going on in all the open (or closed) rooms. The idea is that I want to show players the most info I can regarding games, so that they can either create a game themselves or see that a game might be ending soon and wait to join a game.
At the top is the "region selector". Your region is determined automatically when you enter the online menu by pinging the four regions (Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia), and whichever responds fastest is set as your region. You can change your region manually if you want to see if there are open games in other regions for you to join. When you join a game a direct connection is attempted first, but if it fails you will connect through a relay server in the region you're looking for games in and may result in higher pings.
Next is the server list, which shows 10 games at a time, split into pages where it shows the number of players in the game, how long the game has been going, if it's public or password protected and whether or not it's waiting for more players. Select a server by pressing A and then press the "Join Game" button, remember to enter a password if you're trying to join a private game!
Bottom middle is the "Find game" button, pressing this will look through ALL of the games in the list and try and place you in an open game (if there are any available), so you don't have to sort through the list if there's lots of games.
Bottom right is the "Create Game" button, click this to create a new game and go into the waiting room where you can set up the game, and your character while waiting for other players. If you enter a password in the box below before creating a game the game will be password protected, and only those with the password will be able to join!
Controls UI Improvements
http://i.imgur.com/7mDYJGt.gif
One of the big issues while playing with the keyboard was that you couldn't see what buttons you are supposed to use, and you were forced to remember what keyboard button you mapped to each action. When you start the game it autodetects all the connected input devices and sets the best guess of what labels to use (which you can manually override in the Options menu). In the example above XBOX & Keyboard is set, so every 5 seconds it swaps which button labels to show. Hopefully this will make it easier for playing with a keyboard and a controller. I actually prefer using a keyboard now! The default keyboard controls were modified again, so any saved mappings have been reset (sorry!) Keyboard labels begin to break down while having multiple players use the same keyboard, so that setup isn't really recommended, or supported unless you're good at remembering your controls.
In game chat!
http://i.imgur.com/B4dgtSh.gif
This is pretty straightforward. When playing online the chat box will be enabled. Press and start typing, or press to hide the chat and all messages. With great power comes great responsibility. Be excellent to eachother, and have fun!
Optimizations for everyone!
Every single minigame has been optimized anywhere from 10%-50% faster. The quality presets have also been modified to run a bit better on lower end systems and the changes between presets is more linear now.
Other stuff
There's a bunch of other small miscellaneous things all over the place. Here's the full list of changes
- New server browser
- In-game chat
- Button labels UI change depending on inputs devices being used
- Default keyboard controls changed
- Graphics presets modified to scale linearly better
- Framerate optimizations everywhere
- Default graphics preset changed to 'high'
- Picking up objects is now locally predicted, which means more responsive when under lag.
- Some minigames were missing AA and other camera effects
- Screenshake was toned down in some minigames
- Screenshake now scales properly with window resolution
- Fingerguns minigame has new ghost sfx, and vfx
- Fixed missing UI buttons
- Fixed a bug where goobers would stare straight up when no look at target was found
- Fixed a bug where goobers expressions were not synced over the network properly
- Network bandwidth optimizations
For more info and previous patch notes see the forum thread here
//Dylan
