Information on the Gang Beasts Beta

This is the latest preview version of the next Gang Beasts update, which we would like to do a lot of testing with the community. This was a significant update to the engine as it is a transition from Unity 2017 to Unity 2019. Although we’ve managed to catch and fix most bugs so far, it is likely that there will still be some more bugs to fix as this beta is a work in progress and does not represent the final update yet. Additionally, Unity 2019 no longer supports 32-bit Linux distributions, therefore Gang Beasts now only supports 64-bit Linux distributions. This does not affect Windows or Mac users.

To access and download the beta branch, go to your Steam Library and right click on 'Gang Beasts' to select 'Properties'. From there, navigate to the 'BETAS' tab, then select 'public_testing'. You may need to restart steam before 'public_testing' will show up for you.

The patch notes can be found below.

General:

• Updated the game engine to Unity 2019 (from Unity 2017). This was a significant upgrade and although we’ve fixed a massive amount of bugs, there may be a left.
• Unity 2019 dropped support for 32-bit Linux operating systems, as such Gang Beasts can now only support 64-bit Linux operating systems.
• Several fixes and improvements to our internal tools. This will be an ongoing process, but should help us speed up development time and hopefully reduce chances for bugs to creep into the game.

Stages:

• Updated Wheel to work online.
• The lights on Wheel now sync to the music
• Wheel now has better escalations
• Fixed a bug on Trucks that would make the horns trigger incorrectly
• Fixed the TV antenna on Roof not being connected correctly
• Lowered the lip of Roof slightly to make the stage slightly riskier when fighting on the edge.
• Added assistive geometry to help characters navigate on Roof.
• Updated the visuals of water on Buoy, Containers, and Wheel but there’s still more improvements to be made.
• Fixed a significant stability issue on Elevators that appeared in Unity 2019, and if this proves successful we may apply it to other dynamic stages that involve ropes.
• Fixed a significant stability issue on Vents causing the bridges to instantly collapse.
• Fixed a bug on Vents where, as soon as the main fan activated, the stage would explode and characters would find themselves embedded in the walls or ceiling.

Character Movement & Combat:

• Fixed a bug that was causing arms to no longer reach when holding grab.
• Slightly reduced character drag.
• Increased punch velocity for close targets.
• Adjusted how grab and punch resolve target vectors for the physics animation, this should significantly improve how often they reach the intended target.
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes make a character float when grabbing something above them with both hands after their stamina has fully drained.
• Fixed a bug with kicking that would generate incorrect target vectors for the physics animation.
• Adjusted force and attraction distances when grabbing, this is to help reaching close targets and reduce weird behaviors under certain situations, where targets are just out of range.
• Added slightly more force to the arms in the pose, just before a punch or a grab, in order to help reaching a better start position. This should make punch and grab more consistent.
• Adjusted targeting to be slightly more weighted to the players input direction.
• Slightly increased the strength of throws.
• Slightly increased grip break threshold.
• Added a slight alignment force to the body when climbing, the character should be more likely to face the direction of input while climbing.
• Slightly increased self lift strength on characters when climbing. This should make it easier to climb.
• Stamina now always drains when grabbing, even if the player's feet are touching the floor. Most players will not notice any change with this. This is to try to prevent people from getting into exploitable positions, where they can hang on forever. Additionally this should help reduce stalemates where someone can hang on to another player indefinitely.
• Fixed a long standing issue with the character system that made it difficult to go up slopes greater than 30 degrees. Players should find it significantly easier to go up slopes and stairs now.
• Fixed a bug that was making the characters hands often get stuck in geometry since the transition to Unity 2019.

Audio:

• Added a new way we manage audio to improve the consistency of sounds across the game.
• Changed all audio to use the new system and did a pass on every sound in the game to be better balanced and more pleasing to the ear.
• Swapped a menu sound to be less intrusive.
• Added engine noises to Train.
• Added engine noises to Trucks.
• Added better audio cues to indicate oncoming road signs on Trucks.
• Fixed a bug where road signs would trigger impact audio incorrectly.
• Added an audio cue to indicate an oncoming train on Subway.

Online:

• Updated the ping readout to be more consistent and always show.
• Fixed a bug that would mean some scripts would not reset correctly on the second round in an online match.
• Fixed a few bugs with PhysicAudioEmitter not emitting online.
• Fixed a long standing bug where knockouts were not working as intended online. Locally, it would increment by 1 second each time you're KO’d to a potential maximum of 20. When playing Online this would always be incorrectly set to 4. This should significantly improve the feel of combat online.
• Fixed an issue where some physics objects were moved using an incorrect method. This should help improve some stability issues, such as when characters are pushed into strange positions or somehow move faster than usual (such as getting hit by a moving vehicle).
• Fixed a long standing issue preventing boxes on Incinerator from rendering online.
• Fixed a long standing issue preventing the vehicles on Trucks from moving correctly online.
• Several optimisations and fixes to the character system to improve online performance.
• Several optimisations and changes to the way we sync objects online, which should improve online performance and stability.
• Fixed an issue with the join screen that meant player names wouldn’t show up.
• Fixed an issue on Elevators that made the hatches start in the wrong position when the level loaded.
• Fixed an issue that prevented Containers mechanics that move the containers from triggering correctly online.

Known Issues:

• We’ve found that in the upgrade to Unity 2019 the strength of breakable joints are seemingly weak. We have fixed most breakable joints, such as the bridges in Vents collapsing on stage load, but there will likely be some we missed.
• There was an issue that was causing people to disconnect when a stage became too processor intensive (lots of physics). We should hopefully have fixed this, but will be keeping an eye on the server logs. Please inform us if you see a pattern to any disconnects, e.g. do they usually happen on the same stage?
• The guide wheels on Elevators stage will often desync and move independently of the elevator cars online.
• Occasionally there seems to be an occasional desync on level load that can have some strange effects, such as grey or invisible players, camera tracking the wrong player, or some physics objects in the wrong position.
• There may be some occasional visual sync issues online, especially when hats detach. This is entirely visual and is something we’re working on.
• There’s some unintended side effects to the combat changes that may occasionally manifest itself on waves with larger characters. Good luck! ;)
• The costume editor has a slight issue where the chest doesn’t rotate with the body.
• Lower buns of the burgers, on the Wheel stage, have a bit of jitter when interacting with them online. This is entirely visual and doesn't affect gameplay.
• The sound on the Subway stage plays louder than intended.
• Joints on Vents are somewhat unstable, this will be fixed in a later update.
• Name tags are sometimes occluded by geometry.
• Some objects don't interpolate online.
• There are some occasional issues with players not being updated in parties after a disconnect.
• There’s some odd camera behavior on waves.
• The Wheel stage motor sound doesn’t play correctly.
• The ping indicator always shows. This is intentional to help with testing during beta.
• Some parts of the Gondola stage break off on load.

The next beta builds

Because the idea for this beta is to get as much testing as possible, we wanted to get this build out as soon as it was stable enough. We've had to hold back on a few fixes and features and we want to add them to the next build. For clarity, below is a list of changes of things we’re currently working on but couldn't include yet due to them possibly holding back this build.

After we’ve done some more internal testing on them and confirming the build is stable enough to get valid feedback, we will push another beta build. This is by no means a definitive list and some things will be added and removed accordingly.

General:

• Update loading screens and game splash.

Stages:

• Standardise all breakable glass in the game to use our new fracture system.
• Standardise all buoyancy in the game to use our new buoyancy system.
• Re-bake all stages and make several small graphical improvements that should hopefully fix lighting issues some players have reported.
• Adjust Elevators escalation to trigger more consistently.
• Update Buoy’s visuals slightly.
• Update Buoy’s mechanics to escalate.
• Update Chutes mechanics to escalate.

Character Movement & Combat:

• Add the ability to swim for a short time to the character system.

Online:

• Fix a long standing issue with ropes that make their movements look strange online.
• Fix an issue on Elevators where the rollers would start in the wrong position on level load.
• Fix an issue on Elevators where the background would not move online when the stage escalates.
• Fix an issue that makes some things fail to sync correctly on load.