Hey!
Its been another month and time for an update from the developer - aka me :)
In case you missed it, Public Multiplayer Beta is open!
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1079260/view/6242613536165636826
1 year of monthly Developer News posts
In January 2023 I started with these monthly Developer News posts. Already the calendar says January 2024, meaning its been a full year of monthly updates - yay!
I hope this format of monthly updates gives you something, because it have turned out to be the format that works the best for me at the moment.
It seems to be a good balance between informing you guys, without spending too much time on it, because writing this for me is time I could have spend working on the game :)
Earlier in the development (and recently in some newer formats) I tried doing Dev Logs on YouTube. I really like making them, however, it simply takes too much time to do compared to how few watch it.
Therefore, to do some stuff on YouTube, I am live streaming "fairly often" and also do small videos/shorts when I have time and it make sense.
Anyway, enough about the post it self - I hope you enjoy it :D
Geforce Now Support
Over the years I have been contacted by a few players asking for Fireworks Mania be on Geforce Now.
Recently I looked a bit into it and according to one player, it should now be possible to play on Geforce Now, if you own the game on Steam and somehow log into Steam on the Geforce Now.
I haven't tried it myself, but I'm told it works. So for the few of you who wanted this can give it a try.
The reason I added this, was because I found out that I needed to check a checkbox and push a botton on Steam - so was easy.
When that said, for supporting stuff like this perfectly I need to save various stuff in the game in Cloud data on Steam. The game is not doing that now, meaning you start from an "fresh" game each time you play on Geforce Now as I understand it.
Tips for hosting a game in current version
As the game is still early and things are not well documented or described, I have made this little video to try and give some tips for when you are the host of a game.
[previewyoutube=VdzLmgUO3SQ;full][/previewyoutube]
Change log
Here is the change log for the multiplayer-beta version since last Developer News.
## [v2024.1.4] (2024-1-16)
### Changed
- Changed the logic around "pickup" and "use" feature. Before you could pickup and use objects by looking at it and press 'E', no matter what tool you had in your hand. However, often you don't want to pick up stuff when you have a tool in your hand, so it was annoying to see that tooltip UI popup all the time. Therefore its not changed, SO YOU CAN ONLY PICKUP AND USE OBJECTS WHEN YOU HAVE NO TOOLS IN YOUR HAND. Test it out and let me know what you think
- Some minor improvements to mod loading speeds due to an UMod update
- Changed some logic around the "bad word" filtering to catch more cases
- Changed menu background video to not be Christmas themed anymore
### Fixed
- Fixed issue where rockets, firecrackers etc. items might stick froze in the air after explosion on clients
## [v2024.1.3] (2024-1-11)
### Added
- In Inventory->Server I have added a button that takes players to the video I did recently where I give various tips and tricks for hosting games
- Added an initial version of a "Bad Word" filtering system. This is in effect on the server name and description and in chat messages. In server name and description, bad words are replaced with **** were as in chat I am testing out another approach that replace the entire chat message to something silly
- Added various popup message various places to explain some errors, like when you try and kick/ban the host itself
### Changed
- Improved the sync of player count on host and whats shown in the server list
- Improved player list in Inventory->Server to be more correct
- Server list fields are now better aligned so its not all over the place
- Changed the way networked items position are synced. This is currently a test as it should perform a bit better and use less bandwidth but be a little less pricise. Lets see how this experiment turns out
### Fixed
- Fixed gray graphics artifact on title font when used in smaller scale
- Fixed issue where UI (like player names) could be seen through walls and other objects. This was done as it make the playernames sharper, however, they should not be visible through walls. So have changed it back so it might be a bit more blurry now (only a little) but is not blocked properly
## [v2023.12.9] (2023-12-29)
### Added
- Added some notification messages in case you have a lot of mods to inform players about it will take longer the more mods. It seems not all are aware that the amount of mods have an impact on the loading times
### Changed
- Removed the notification about background video changing to static image
- The player count in the server overview should now be even more update to date
- Server list is now ordered by player count on server. So biggest servers are at the top
### Fixed
- Fixed some issue where BaseFireworkBehavior.Ignite would log a huge amount of errors. If it still happens now it should also write what gameobject is the problem to help troubleshoot
- Fixed issue where you couldn't join a server if it took you more than 5 min. to load the map and mods
- Fixed issue with errors around removing inactive players from lobby
## [v2023.12.8] (2023-12-27)
### Added
- Added initial version of some UI popup. Currently there are two types. One for a fullscreen popup with an OK button, used for various error messages for now. Secondly a notification popup in the top right corner, used right now to show when clients reach the spawn limit as a test of the notification UI system. This is a first draft of this system so it will change overtime for sure, however, for now it should at least help a bit to make you aware of some common error messages
- Added a "Useful shortcuts" infobox to the ingame menu as that's often where you really need it when in a game. At least until we have some rebindable keys settings where you can see and change the same
- Added some info about useful host commands to the Inventory->Server tab to help hosts manage their game a bit better with console commands until I get to make some UI for the same
### Changed
- Added Cake 2024! Happy New Year :D
- Upgraded to Unity 2022.3.16
- Changed render lenght of UI camera to avoid PlayerNames being cut off too early
- Removed the "Known Issues" infobox from the News page, as eventhough there are a lot of known issues, there are no major ones like the low FPS bug as such
- Changed 1st person camera's Near Clipping to a minimum to avoid players looking through things when being close to them, like walls etc. as it looks odd
- Changed the logic to the host itself is no longer limited by the "max allowed spawned items per player" setting. Host can spawn as much as the host wants, but players are still limited by the setting
- Increased default footstep sounds a bit as it was hardly audiable before
- Made some changed to the sound so that sounds are more occluded when behind other objects
### Fixed
- Fixed issue were all particle effects based on mesh (ex. the numbers in the New Years cakes) were not working. They work now as Unity fixed the issue in latest Unity version
### Dedicated Server
- Fixed issue where host.json were not updated with changes while running
This is all for now - need to get back to work on the next update :)
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- Enjoy!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1079260/Fireworks_Mania__An_Explosive_Simulator/
