A New Visual Language#
A lot of assets are remade in a distinct BadLads visual flavor. Interactive objects now look different depending on where they are, adding visual flair to otherwise repeating gameplay objects.
The game’s internal rendering elements were completely redone from scratch to allow for a single uniform “uber” shader. This is a leap forward in both framerate and artistic capability, giving the game a needed visual boost and laying the groundwork for the ambitious feature below.
New Characters#
The game has received a complete player character overhaul, introducing some sweet new features. Say hello to “Georgie”, I mean Mr. BadLad.
Every single player will have a unique hair variant, ranging from bald to full-on mullet.
The best thing about the new hair is its compatibility with any head wearable in the game.
The hair uses a special plane-based mask to hide away the clipping while wearing hats, meaning the game won’t swap out your hair for a dingy bald cap when you want to show off your flowing hair to the frightened civilians of BadLads. Also not everyone has a mustache.
Clothing You Can Show Off#
Every single player has two new inventory slots called wearable slots. Just like your head wearable, you can now wear a wide variety of chest and leg wearables.
One of my favorite things about the clothing is that you can show it off on a new buildable called the Mannequin Showcase.
You can create your own clothing store with these.
Things not planned for this update:
- I plan to add the ability to paint clothing on these mannequins, but as of right now that’s on the todo list.
- While the new clothing wearables allow for character customization to a new degree in BadLads, players still want to customize their character even more, like changing the body’s proportions, hair type, or skin color. I hear you, and I plan to scrap the procedural SteamID characters and add a full character customizer to the game.
New Character Animations#
With the character overhaul, the game features brand new reworked animations in third-person and in first-person.
Third-Person#
I prefer games in first-person, that’s just me. Some players really don’t like first-person, especially for roleplay. So I added third-person to the game; the game by default is still first-person. Server owners can come in and flick a switch to make it third-person just on their server.
We’ve (shoutout to Ninjarod!) been testing the game out with third-person for a few months and I have to say it’s grown on me. I might switch over to the third-person camp personally. Don’t worry though, first-person is not going anywhere!
Sit Anywhere#
This is a feature I’ve wanted to add for a long time, so I did. You can sit on every single seat in the game, environmental or buildable, including park benches and buildable toilets. These changes come along with completely new character sitting animations.
Revised Building#
The building experience in the game needed some work, so I revised it. The Build Tool is now an all-in-one; you don’t need Workers to buy you any more buildables. All you really need is the Build Tool and some cash.
Building has a new look, and I’ve changed the way alignment and snap turning work to allow for finer placement.
New Job: Hobo#
Say hello to the Hobo! He’s a new neutral-type job that can search the garbage cans around the city for trashy treasure.
Other Features#
- Steam Audio has been implemented; binaural HRTF audio is default for all players, be it VR or Desktop.
- New single-player testing mode called “Ladmode” has been added.
- New interactive object selection outline.
- Microphone gain options.
- The visuals UI has been overhauled with animations.
- All apartment interiors now have alarms.
- Steam Rich Presence support.
- Network dormancy optimizations.
- Droppable items no longer get stuck in mid-air.
- Game messages like “You have been paid” have a special notification now.
- Added HDR support. The HDR option will only show up if you have an HDR-compatible display and your OS is in HDR mode.
Bug Fixes#
- Fixed players being leftover after leaving.
- Fixed players not being able to spawn after a server has been up for n days.
- Fixed crash that occurred sometimes after leaving a server.
- Fixed UI dropping out of focus for seemingly no reason.
- Fixed chat scroll.
- Fixed money falling through containers.
- Fixed invisible item shadows after switching between first-person and third-person.
- Fixed text to speech causing the character’s mouth to stay open.
- Fixed misaligned meshes in the new bay area.
- Fixed cosmetic holes in the new bay area.
- Fixed vehicle cameras breaking in singleplayer ladmode.
- Fixed hair randomly disappearing when crouching or sitting.
- Fixed Drivers not getting paid when a player exits.
- Fixed bay area traffic lights not changing correctly.
- Fixed timed actions being offset when picking up items.
- Fixed first-person item shadows being visible from third-person.
- Fixed wearables disappearing for a small fraction of time when changing items.
- Fixed wearable duplicates on Contractor/Job Giver NPCs.
- Fixed previously fulfilled contracts not disappearing from Available Contract list.
- Fixed passenger UI showing the “Eject” button.
- Fixed text to speech leaving the mouth open indefinitely.
- Fixed Item Gate not working.
- Fixed Buildable Thumbnails not showing up correctly.
- Fixed hitching when opening the build menu for the first time.
- Fixed crash that happened when you swapped the Build Tool too quickly.