RCTW – Early Access – Dev Blog #8 – Update #5 Now Live!

Dear Tycoons,

It’s Update Day! – Today, we’ve got a number of items that are now at the point where we can push them live to you. Many different parts of the game have gotten an update including Paths, AI, Audio, New Content, Graphics, and even Performance!

PATHS

While this is by no means our final update to our path system (in fact work is continuing during this sprint) we did make a number of improvements and bug fixes that should improve the path-building experience. It should now be much smoother and easier to place some of your paths – this is only the start; a lot more improvements are still to come! Additionally, we are launching a new feature with our path system – the ability to change the texture after it’s placed! It’s a small but heavily requested feature that we think will make the whole system much more flexible. Let us know what you think and remember that this is only our “First Pass” on Paths – we have a ton more ideas, features, and updates we still plan on implementing!

NEW CENTERPIECE

Today we are also launching a brand new Scenery Centerpiece! Check out the awesome futuristic Sci-Fi Centerpiece, now available for under the centerpieces menu in your game.

AI

The work we did on AI in our Previous Update has been continued and further refined. You will notice great improvements to the Peep and Staff AI in this update, including improvements in Food/Drinks/Souvenir behavior, Nausea/Bathroom Behavior, Trash Can Use, Injuries/Sickness, and Ride-seeking and pathfinding. All of these updates come together to create a much more responsive and immersive experience. Full details on what was done can be found below. Note – there is still more we are working on as we now shift our focus to expansion of behaviors and further balancing of the different systems.

AUDIO

This update contains a number of audio SFX improvements! This new audio is in an “Alpha Phase” as it’s very much still in-progress, but you will notice some awesome new coaster sounds as well as new environmental ambiance SFX. Our audio team is doing a top–to-bottom review and scrub of every single sound in the game. We have a renewed focus on the audio in the game and you should stay tuned for further improvements as we go through the SFX.

UGC

Another area of the game that was improved is our UGC Hub. You will notice a refreshed layout that should let you see all of your content much easier.

GRAPHICS

Graphics are much improved in this update as well. We had two key areas of focus: The first was to finish rolling out our Screen Space Reflections feature to all objects in game. We think it looks beautiful and hope you agree too! Here’s a a peak at what it looks like and how its improved water and other objects in the scene:

Additionally, our team took a look at all of our Terrain Shaders and improved the system to support much higher quality terrain and better mixing of different terrains. This improvement should further add depth and immersion as you play.

On top of this we added a nifty Depth-of-Field effect to the main park view. Objects further away will be blurry and those closer will be crystal clear. This effect is DISABLED by default. To turn it on simply go to Options > Graphics and disable the Depth–of-Field effect.

Work was also done on a number of flatrides to optimize them and also to up-res their textures (In Progress Work). We won’t be highlighting them in this update blog as they’re not fully rolled out, but the results are already showing an increase in overall performance while at the same time allowing us to have gorgeous hi-res textures and smoother animations! This is available today on some of your rides and will be rolled out to the remaining rides in future updates.

PERFORMANCE

Last, but certainly not least, in general you should notice that your game will run a bit smoother due to the above optimizations but also due a number of other “under-the-hood” changes. More work is of course continuing on performance and we have some longer term tasks we hope to wrap up in the coming weeks to continue making the game perform better.

It’s been an insanely busy few weeks here at Team RCTW as we work to improve the game, launch new content and features, and fix bugs. Your feedback is driving all of our decisions and we hope you like the direction the game is taking. Be sure to continue to share your thoughts, bug reports, and more with us on our forums.

From our Community Team, here’s a sneak peek at this week’s Community Spotlight – a park called "Timeless Isle" by user "Maulite":

For more screenshots from his park check out our Facebook Album.

Thank you again for all the support, incredible feedback, and most importantly – the amazing and inspiring creations and parks you all are making!

Until the next post, see you on the forums! In the meantime, see below for the full list of what’s contained in this update and to get a preview at what we are working on next!

Team RCTW

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Here is the full list of today’s updates, and a preview of what we are working on next:

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT

• CONTENT: New Sci-Fi Centerpiece added to scenery Centerpieces. This new scenery item is a giant moon rock floating in space, with room to run your coasters through it!
• GRAPHICS: New Terrain Shaders to improve terrain quality! Check out the new terrain shaders in our Forest and other maps! Different textures blend better and the terrain looks smoother when zooming in and out.
• GRAPHICS: Screen Space Reflections Added to All Objects in Game! This vastly improves the look and feel of all the objects in the game. Everything has a reflection of its environment now and looks more realistic and tangible.
• GRAPHICS: Depth-of-Field Effect Added to Park Cam. We added a new Depth-of-Field Effect to the park cam. Now things further away will look blurrier than those close up, giving you a better sense of depth. It is Disabled by default BUT You can ENABLE this feature at any time by going into Options > Graphics > Disable Depth of Field. The choice is yours!

IMPROVEMENTS

• GRAPHICS: All Sci-Fi Coaster Loading Stations have new textures
• GRAPHICS: Improved the seats of all coaster cars to better fit peeps
• GRPAHICS: Improved Depth-of-Field and Field of View effects when in Ride/Coaster cam
• PATHS: Path nodes are deleted when a path is cleared
• PATHS: Paths now have more realistic incline slopes
• PEEPS: AI IMPROVEMNTS LIST BY SYSTEM
  • Food, Drinks, & Souvenirs
    • Peeps now have a higher chance to address their nausea, bathroom, hunger, or thirst when these stats are high.
    • Peeps should no longer buy drinks, hoping to soothe their hunger. We have informed them that food will be much more effective for this purpose.
    • Peeps will no longer randomize between the top five food / drink / souvenir stands, instead giving higher priority to those they like more. As a consequence, peeps should generally be happier when buying food, drinks, and souvenirs.

  • Injury
    • Injured peeps should once again engage in their proper behaviors of sitting on benches to be addressed by Medics, or (in rare cases) leaving the park.

  • Nausea and Bathroom
    • Peeps' minimum possible Nausea Tolerance is now 1 - no Peeps will have a 0 nausea tolerance.
    • Peeps' Nausea Tolerance will be increased if they like riding more intense rides.
    • Peeps should now more reliably choose a nearby bathroom if they need to either vomit or pee.
    • Peeps should now think the thought "The paths here are disgusting" an appropriate amount.
    • Peeps will no longer select a random bathroom.
    • Peeps with moderately high nausea will now prefer to sit on benches to reduce it.
    • Peeps with very high nausea will now prefer to sit on benches to reduce it, if a bathroom is far away. Some of them might try to hold it, though...

  • Rides
    • Fixed an issue that was preventing rides from increasing riders' Energy and decreasing riders' Boredom
    • Peeps should now more reliably ride low intensity rides. As a consequence, peeps should now distribute themselves among your park attractions more evenly.

  • Trash
    • Peeps should now properly throw their trash out in trashcans. Trashcans have a capacity- peeps will not throw trash into full trashcans. Peeps will throw trash on the path only if they're unable to find a nearby trashcan.

• PEEPS: Improved Emotes and Peep Thoughts to be more descriptive and trigger more often
• PEEPS: Improved Transition of Janitor animation from Cleaning and Walking
• PEEPS: Peeps now have an "ill" animation when their nausea, bathroom, thirst, or hunger get too high for too long
• PERFORMANCE: Improved Performance when using the path tool
• PERFORMANCE: Screen Space Reflections now disabled when zoomed out for performance
• UGC: UGC content manager now displays many more items and has a new table layout allowing easier management of UGC for players
• UI/UX: General notification improvements to better inform player of what is going on in their park
• UI/UX: Improved cameras while in coaster editing tool
• UI/UX: Terrain brush size tweaked

BUG FIXES
The Bugs below have all been addressed in this latest update. Note that this is not a complete list but does give you an idea of most of the fixes that were made.

• BUILDINGS: The gap appears between the base of park services building and its supports after elevating it.
• BUILDINGS: The sci-fi recycling bin is missing material when full
• COASTERS: Ride cam does not follow the flying coaster car’s animation
• COASTERS: Crash when using the Coaster Builder when deleting and adding a segment in a specific order
• COASTERS: The grid size during the Coaster Builder is not displaying the proper size
• COASTERS: The intensity level of some of the premade coasters is incorrect
• GRAPHICS: Janitor Peeps and Brooms LODs are not consistent
• GRPAHICS: Some of the “flower beds” have LOD issues with respect to camera position
• PATHS: Path connection snaps to the grid when grid is turned off
• PEEPS: Fixed a Peep AI crash in the Campaign mode
• PEEPS: Injured peeps aren't always playing their injured animation
• PEEPS: Peep Boredom isn't decreasing properly when riding rides
• PEEPS: Peep Happiness always decreases after making a purchase.
• PEEPS: Peep thought on broken coaster "Drat! has stopped!" does not trigger.
• PEEPS: Peep thoughts not generating for Clean/Dirty paths.
• PEEPS: Peeps are peeing on the path far too much
• PEEPS: Peeps have the jiggles when they sit in the Wild Tycoon Wings
• PEEPS: Peeps score all stands/stores when scoring for food AND drink
• PEEPS: Scenery messiness is not updated in context
• PEEPS: The peep clips with the asset 'Galactic Plaza'.
• SCENARIOS: All scenario boot with unrealistic Finances numbers and months
• UI/UX: Debug text is displayed in the name of the third specialty track piece for the “Spinning Coaster”
• UI/UX: Font size is inconsistent in the info window of “Circus” ride
• UI/UX: Key to delete a node is not mentioned in the fourth objective of the 'The basics of building a new Coaster' tutorial
• UI/UX: Name of all pre-made coaster in Basic Ride Options tab
• UI/UX: Starting a new game starts at the fastest speed but UI shows that it is normal speed
• UI/UX: The theme icon on the Sci-Fi Trash can is represented with the Adventure theme symbol.
• UI/UX: The theme icon the sci-fi trash can is represented with the adventure theme symbol
• UI/UX: When viewing the description for the arch art asset for Exit Signs these display Adventure Theme

ALPHA FEATURES – IN PROGRESS – FEEDBACK NEEDED
This list contains features that are in progress, have had a first pass at improvements, or are at an Alpha stage. Occasionally, we will develop features or improve on things that we need more feedback on from you. These are items that we have just released but are still considered “work in progress”.

• AUDIO: IN PROGRESS
  For this update we focused on Ambient Environmental Sounds and also Coaster SFX as we continue our top to bottom review of all sound in the game.
  • IMPROVEMENT: Expanded and improved on-ride coaster sounds to be more realistic and detailed
  • IMPROVEMENT: Improved peep on-coaster ride sound effects
  • ALPHA FEATURE: Added new ambient sounds to all the environments

• COASTERS: IN PROGRESS: The ride cam on all coasters has been raised to avoid clipping issues, except in the first row of the first car. We are still looking at how to further improve our coaster and seat cams so this is an “In Progress” feature.
• GRAPHICS: IN PROGRESS: We are doing an optimization and hi-res texture pass on almost everything in the game. For this update we focused on a few of our flatrides. They should now have smoother animations, better performance, and hi-res textures! It’s only a small subset of all the rides but the work is in progress and we hope to roll it out to everything in the game in coming updates.
• PATHS: ALPHA FEATURE: You can now recolor your paths after placing them! Simply click the new “Modify” button in the path system, select the paths you want to change, and choose a new texture. We are working on enabling this for path intersections next.
• PATHS: IN PROGRESS: Work on our path system is in progress but we already have improved a number of the systems behind laying and placing paths, removing some of the biggest frustrations players were facing.
• PEEPS: IN PROGRESS: We are testing out some new peep animations on our hypercoasters that are a bit more realistic and detailed. Let us know what you think!

KNOWN ISSUES
We are still working on a number of bugs, tweaks, and other fixes. With each update we address a number of bugs and make a ton of improvements, but sometimes this may cause new things to break in the process. Our focus during Early Access is on releasing updates faster to you so we can get feedback earlier in the process. If you see a bug please report it in our Bug Tracker. Feedback on what you see implemented should go in our Improvement Tracker.

For a general guide on fixes and troubleshooting steps for common issues (include the 57% bug) please visit THIS USER GENERATED GUIDE. Note that we have been seeing a number of users reporting issues with computers that are below the game’s minimum specs, so please check the main steam page before playing to ensure you meet the requirements. Additionally, we have seen a number of problems are solved when users update their graphics drivers.

Lastly, downloads via Steam may sometimes get corrupted or updates don’t fully install leading to odd behaviors in game and starting the game. Try these steps to Verify the game cache:

1. Right click RollerCoaster Tycoon World in Steam
2. Click Properties
3. Then Open the Local Files tab
4. Click Verify integrity of game cache

NOTE: In general – it is a good idea to Verify the Integrity of the Game Cache after any update just to be sure.

WHAT’S NEXT
This was an important update, but that doesn’t mean we’re slowing down! For our next update we are looking at additional AI improvements (focused more on the marketing and rating systems), additional flatride optimizations, a variety of peep animation improvements, further path improvements, more performance improvements, and additional audio improvements. Of course a new update wouldn’t be complete without a few surprises as well but we want to do a little more on them before we announce them as part of an update to be sure they make it in – we are looking at you Drag Delete Functionality!