The Collar Release Notes - v2.0.0

Update 1

I am very excited to bring you Update 1 or v2.0.0 of The Collar. I have worked hard to make sure I deliver a quality game that keeps pushing this experience further each time. I hope everyone enjoys all the additions, new areas to find surprises, new ways to eliminate other players, and some bug fixes sprinkled in. My roadmap is big and long and this is the start of a long journey. I will keep bringing even more laughter and fun to you and your foes! Hope to see you in an experiment!

~The Collar is bigger and better.

New Features

Players

• Allow free look when long interacting, healing bleeds, and being trapped

• Players can now randomly fall on slippery surfaces like ice and polished floors

  • Added a squeaky floor sound when running on the freshly polished floors that are slippery

  • Updated slippery surfaces friction to feel more real

  • Fixed squeaky floor sound effect to be more realistic

• Players can now be knocked down when being hit hard enough in the head, in the body with certain weapons, and weapon sweeps to the legs

• Players who perform a knock down hit use more stamina and as a player is getting up they will take less damage

• Players have red blood and Bots have black blood

  • Characters handle different color blood on player splatter

  • Weapons handle different color blood on weapon splatter

  • Fixed an issue with the blood color not changing for characters and their blood splatters across all players

Weapons

• New Weapon: Energy Drink and a Drink Machine for vending The energy drink machines will allow players to vend an energy drink. Each energy drink machine can dispense a limited number of energy drinks. This energy drink is a useful weapon that hits very hard. The energy drink has a limited number of hits before it will explode so be careful throwing and swinging it around. The energy drink machines can be found on The Parking Garage and The Train Station.

• Added new achievements for the new weapons

• Added new stats for the the new weapons

• Branches and energy drinks are both breakable weapons and are limited use

Environment Weapons

Each environment weapon has different properties and cause damage in different ways. The damage is very hurtful to any player who gets caught in the damage wake from low stamina, the inability to run, slow limping, and even bleeding. These can be very immobilizing so be careful or be very clever in their use as some are one time use and others can be used multiple times. When close, these will glow white so players know they are able to interact with them.

• The Bear Trap The bear trap has multiple states, unset, set, trapped, and back to unset. Setting a trap is as easy as finding one, and setting it. Once any player, that includes the player who set the trap, hits a set trap, they will be trapped until they release themselves. They will be bleeding and the players body will have difficulty moving. Both of which will need to be remedied. Once a trap is released, after a random amount of time, it can be reset for the next the victim. Set bear traps can be sprung with any weapon thrown at it. The bear traps are randomly scattered on The Winter Forest.

• The Fire Extinguisher Fire extinguishers can be hit with a axe, baseball bat, or crowbar causing the tank to rupture. This will cause a dangerously cold gas to be released very rapidly into the surrounding air causing frost bite on players skin and in their lungs. It will take time for the players lungs to recover. The fire extinguishers can be found on The Parking Garage and The Warehouse.

• The Gas Tank & The Radioactive Oxygen Tank These tanks have a loose release valve and hitting them or throwing something hard at them will cause the valve to break. Once broken the tank will release a noxious gas into the air around them for a time. It is very difficult to breath causing coughing and damage to the lungs. It will take time for the players lungs to recover. The gas tanks can be found on The Abandoned Factory. The radioactive oxygen tanks can be found on The Waste Pit.

• The Generator and Electrified Metal The generators have a sensitive safety fuse which can be tripped very easily with something thrown at them. Once they are tripped, all the lights turn off and most metal gets an electric arc that causes it to be electrified. The hum of electric current will be heard whilst it is dangerous and will cause a nasty electric shock and burn if touched. If electrocuted it takes time for the players body to recover. After the safety fuse resets, it will take time for the lights to come back on and for the safety fuse to be able to be disrupted again. The generators can be found on The Industrial Park.

• Added white glow on environment weapons within a radius so players know they can interact with them

• Added stamina and movement disabilities when hurt by environment weapons

World

• CFT will now be randomly positioned on the level at the start of each level

• Fixed an issue with the CFT not be positioned correctly for all players after random placing it at the start of a level

Updates

Players

• Updated collar lighting brightness down by 120% to not have over-glow and bloom blowout across all levels

• Updated weapon swing speed to be 25% faster when stamina is above 25%

• Updated vocal sound when you slip and fall

• Updated crouching to happen much quicker

• Updated long interaction to happen more quickly now

• Updated to make player face interactable item before using it

• Updated weapon throwing to make it more accurate

World

• Updated destructible system for performance and future expansions

• Updated destruction system to give player damage, but also allow different types of damage inflicted upon the destructible item

• Updated environment triggers to be able to move after playing

• Updated the metal gates to be consistent across each level

• Updated the CFT to have more options for future expansions

• Updated skies for more natural star shine when sun is setting or rising

Audio

• Updated the number of audio channels from 32 to 64

UI

• Updated message after clicking the "Back to waiting room" button so it is not just hanging there before the load starts

• Updated Overall stats layout and look

• Updated How To Play overall

• Updated How To Play on environment weapons to be more clear

• Updated map images with the new map light builds

• Updated translations

• Updated credits including the timing on the initial scroll

• Updated default input to be set to mouse and keyboard

• Updated Beta games so the stats do overwrite the release stats

• Updated Beta games so no achievements get calculated

Bug Fixes

Players

• Fixed an issue that played animation when player could not move

• Fixed an issue that allowed players to crouch, jump, or attack whilst doing other actions

• Fixed an issue with the turn animation making it smoother and less stuttery

• Fixed an issue with long interaction from getting stuck with a quick on/off action

• Fixed an issue causing the last attacker to not get the kill if player dies from falling or bleeding

• Fixed an issue when everyone dies, regardless of how, stats are given and reported correctly

• Fixed an issue with collisions not being consistent across all players

• Fixed an issue where players would keep taking damage after the round was over

Weapons

• Fixed an issue with the weapon highlight colors if highlighted when collar changes

• Fixed an issue with the broken branch 3 not having physics on

• Fixed an issue with the color variation on the weapons for moss as it had blue set to 1 instead of 0

• Fixed an issue that was destroying the projectiles early

• Fixed an issue when a breakable weapon breaks that would not drop broken weapon

Environment Weapons

• Fixed energy drink texture

• Fixed drink machine size

• Fixed an issue with the electric collisions

• Fixed an issue with the textures on the fire extinguisher

World

• Fixed an issue with the environment trigger not being consistent for all players

• Fixed an issue with the environment trigger not playing audio for all players

• Fixed an issue with the environment trigger audio and particles not looping correctly

• Fixed an issue that right after a player activates the CFT, if you kill the player that activated it, the CFT fails to fire

• Fixed an issue with the CFT panels not activating

• Fixed an issue with the CFT causing the tips to show for everyone

• Fixed an issue with the CFT playing audio on the wrong channel

• Fixed an issue with the destruction system spawning particle debris and playing sounds correctly for all players

• Fixed an issue with non-blocking destructible items stopping sliding

UI

• Fixed an issue not allowing ESC to work on the lobby menu

• Fixed an issue with the Pirate translations

• Fixed an issue causing the interaction text from showing the correct key or keypad prompt

• Fixed an issue with the name for branch was still Stick after it was switched to Branch

• Fixed an issue that was not counting the top kills correctly

• Fixed an issue where players dying from falling or escaping would cause status to be recorded as a survival

• Fixed an issue causing the round stats to report death by melee even when still alive

• Fixed an issue with overall results UI and made it more clear

• Fixed an issue with the Round stats UI

• Fixed an issue with padding on the UI stats

• Fixed an issue with the save game file

Bots

New Features

• Bots now evade attacks better which includes dodging and crouching (self-learned skilled)

• Bots now climb on any climbable (self-learned skilled)

Updates

• Updated melee attack range

• Updated bots when running away so they are not quite so dumb

• Removed bots climbing links as they are no longer needed

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that would cause bots to not run away if hit too many times and thus failing to protect themselves

• Fixed an issue with bots causing errors with no post processing materials

Maps

New Maps

• The Cemetery The cold rain floods a somber place with its cool water and heart crackling thunder. The world around you is soaked with fear and loss. Each tomb represents one or more loses, standing above the ground for all to see. The cool breeze riddles through your wetness and sends a shiver up your spine…or perhaps it is just the dead. Find yourself weaving in and out of those lost before you in a maze of hide-n-seek. Careful though as you run and hide, there may be someone or something waiting for you. Do you find your way out? Or did you find your own tomb?

• The Parking Garage The sun glimpses the edge of that moment of calm and serenity before the hustle and bustle fills the air of sound and smell of the city, the birds, and the people, starting to wake from their slumber. Protected by the solid walls of drab concrete and steel, sits the cars as the vessels for destinations from the journeys to come. As the cars sit waiting, you are not as lucky, as waiting may end your journey and there are levels of opportunity all around you. As you go up and down, each level provides a new opportunity. Does it end with you on top? Or do these walls park you in your final destination.

• The Train Station The evening has descended onto the world. As the need to be able to take more of you to those far off places grows, a new station blossoms. Other operational stations rumble all around, as the darkness overtakes this one for the last time with the glow of its awaiting maiden voyage breaking through. Three trains prepared for the new adventures await in this uneasy calm. Three sleeping giants ready to burst into the world. Adventure is just the beginning for you, however, who have found this calm. And if not careful, you shall find a calm that lasts for eternity.

New Features

• Added random locations for the CFT

Updates

• Updated audio triggers

• Updated metal gates

• Updated weapons

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue causing the particle systems to be included in localizations

Performance

• Optimized memory usage on all maps

• Optimized fps on all maps

• Adjusted scene lighting to match across all maps

• Adjusted bloom and cleaned up warnings

• Simplified all shaders

• Regenerated all shaders

• Rebuilt all lighting

• Regenerated navigation

The Abandoned Factory

New Features

• Added environment weapon gas tanks

The Cemetery

Updates

• Updated the volume for the environmental triggers

• Updated rain particles

• Updated materials with puddles

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with bad physics material on translucent material

• Fixed an issue allowing players to climb onto the small fountain and get stuck

• Fixed an issue causing the level to crash

The Industrial Park

New Features

• Added environment weapon generators

Updates

• Updated bat audio volume

• Updated unused items, materials, and updated lights to be dynamically controlled

• Updated destructible cardboard boxes

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with floating grass patches

• Fixed an issue with missing fence posts

• Fixed an issue with the fluorescent lighting glow material

Performance

• Made foliage dynamic to improve lighting on instance static meshes

• Improved overall performance on foliage

The Lost Ruins

Updates

• Added more rock ruins to give more places to hide and fill out some empty areas

Bug Fixes

• Fixed some incorrect placed trees

Performance

• Optimized the waterfall

The Parking Garage

Updates

• Updated car alarms to stay on if a player is close enough to it

• Updated car alarms audio to be balanced

• Updated the car alarms to only work when you hit or slide or climb on them

• Updated cars to not be able to climb on cars except for truck beds

• Updated car alarms to only go off for 15 seconds instead of 30

• Updated parking barriers to have collision on the arm while moving down so it automatically goes back up

• Updated bots to avoid the cars as much as possible

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with the car alarm attenuation

• Fixed an issue with the truck bed car alarm trigger

• Fixed an issue with the CFT clipping through the floors

• Fixed an issue with the car alarms being consistent with all players

• Fixed an issue with visible collisions on some meshes

• Fixed an issue with mesh collisions

The Train Station

Updates

• Updated squeaky floor audio

• Updated collision on benches

• Updated wet reflective shader

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with the lighting in the tunnel

• Fixed an issue with bots getting stuck by the passenger gates

The Tropical Forest

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with the howler monkey audio and particles

• Fixed an issue with a floating vine

Performance

• Optimized the river

• Optimized the waterfall

The Warehouse

New Features

• Added environment weapon fire extinguishers

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with the plastic bottle shaders

• Fixed an issue with the pushcarts

• Fixed an issue with the fire extinguishers not being consistent for all players

• Fixed an issue with bot navigation

Performance

• Optimized the interactable physics objects on floor

The Waste Pit

New Features

• Added environment weapon oxygen tanks

Performance

• Optimized the puddles

The Winter Forest

New Features

• Added environment weapon bear traps

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with the lighting on metal gate

• Fixed an issue with the cabin windows not having the correct shader applied to them

• Fixed an issue with the cabin door becoming desync'd when opening and closing

• Fixed an issue with the cabin door showing interaction text even though players cannot interact with it

Performance

• Optimized cabin windows

• Optimized northern lights

Performance

• Changed all metal gates to be static instead of movable

• Fixed wrapping UVs on branch variation 2

• Performance update on the collar color logic

• Optimized weapons and projectiles

• Optimized item physics when at rest

• Optimized weapon icons

• Optimized stats

• Optimized all required plugins and removed more unused plugins reducing package size

• Removed unused resources

• Fixed all warnings including non-authoritive warnings

• Optimizations to the C++ solution