Ring Select

Ring Select is the hub: the place players join first. It shows your Worlds and Areas, how far through each the player is and what is locked, and sends them in with Play. It has no towers, HUD or timer. Return to Hub brings players back here.

Everything it shows comes from Config > Worlds and Config > Towers.

Setting Up The Hub

1. Make the hub a place in the same experience as your tower places, and make it the start place in the Creator Hub. A place in another experience cannot read the player's save.

2. Put its Place ID in hubPlaceId in Config > Worlds.

3. Start it from Ascent Hub.rbxlx. Its Server and Client hold only what the hub runs. Its Shared is the same as every tower place's, so one Shared, or a package made from it, fits them all.

4. Set three things:

   • StarterGui > RingSelect > ResetOnSpawn to false.
   • Players > CharacterAutoLoads to false.
   • The place's server size to 1, on the Creator Dashboard.

   The Output says so on startup if either of the last two is wrong.

Hub and tower places are different files

Start the hub from Ascent Hub.rbxlx and every tower place from Ascent Area.rbxlx. Their Server and Client are not interchangeable, and copying one into the other breaks both. Shared is the same in both files.

Config > RingSelect

Field	Default	Purpose
keys	Q E, arrows, WASD	Key names per action, as Enum.KeyCode spells them. An empty list unbinds the action.
detailedProgress	false	Whether a new player starts on the Detailed Progress Meter.
progressMeter	"Choice"	"Choice" lets each player pick their progress view. "Simple" always shows the single bar and "Detailed" one bar per tower; both hide the switch.
saveSettings	true	Whether the screen's Settings are saved. Off, the view starts on detailedProgress every visit, Music Volume starts where the tower places left it, and nothing picked here is saved.
beatenColor	green	A beaten tower's strip, and a met requirement. A tower beaten only in All Jumps uses Config > Visuals.completions.allJumpsBeaten, the Completions menu's yellow.
notBeatenColor	red	An unbeaten tower's strip.
hoverColor	white	The outline on a tower in the ring while its bar is hovered.
selectedTransparency, unselectedTransparency	0, 0.5	How see-through the picked Area card is, and the rest.
unavailableDarken	0.5	How far a server list button darkens while it can't be used, 0 to 1.
cameraFolder	"Rings"	The Workspace folder holding each Area's set.
cameraPartName	"Camera"	The part in an Area's folder the camera flies to.
cameraTween	0.7s Quint Out	How the camera and lighting move between rings.
worldFade, worldHold	0.25, 0.15	The fade a World change hides behind. Both 0 for a hard cut.
scrollTween	0.35s Quad Out	How the Area list scrolls.
loadingScreen.minimumTime	1.5	Least seconds the loading screen stays up.
loadingScreen.tipInterval	5	Seconds between tips. 0 keeps one.

The screen's words are under ringSelect in Config > Messages, and its loading lines under loading. The loading dots' speed is Config > Visuals.timing.loadingDots, shared with the tower places.

Controls

Input	Effect
Q / E, LeftButton / RightButton	Previous / next World
← / →, A / D	Previous / next Area
↑ / ↓, W / S	The Area / its subrealm
Clicking MainButton or SubButton	Picks it
Enter, PlayButton	Teleports, if unlocked

The Camera

Each Area gets a folder in Workspace, named after its id, with a part the camera flies to:

Workspace
  Rings                     <- cameraFolder
    Ring1                   <- the Area id
      Camera                <- cameraPartName, any BasePart
      Lighting              <- optional, see below
      ToNI                  <- optional: a tower's frame, named after its acronym
      ...your scenery
    Ring1Sub
      Camera

The player's camera takes the part's exact position and the way its front faces, at the default field of view. To call the folder something else, rename it and set cameraFolder to match. Without the folder, the camera stays where it is and the screen still works. The Output names any Area missing its camera part.

Aiming a camera

With the Tower Setup plugin installed, every camera part shows an arrow, the edges of its shot and its Area's id, in edit mode only. Its toolbar in the hub has:

• Look Through: moves Studio's camera to the selected camera, so the viewport shows the shot. With none selected it starts at the first; press it again for the next Area's.
• Aim Here: moves the selected camera to where Studio's camera is. Look through, fly until the shot is right, then press it. Ctrl+Z undoes it.
• Cameras: turns the arrows off and on.

The frame drawn in front of each camera is what a 16:9 screen shows. The plugin's Check window lists any Area without a camera.

Lighting Per Ring

Put a folder called Lighting in an Area's folder and give it attributes named after Lighting properties:

Rings > Ring3 > Lighting
  ClockTime    2.5
  Ambient      Color3 30, 30, 50
  FogEnd       400

Anything an Area leaves out goes back to the place's own lighting. The change moves with the camera. The Output names an attribute that is not a Lighting property.

The Screen

StarterGui > RingSelect is yours to lay out. The kit only looks for these names:

RingSelect                       ScreenGui
  LeftBar                        Frame
    AreaList                     ScrollingFrame
      AreaFrame                  Frame       <- the row template
        MainButton               ImageButton <- its Image is the place picture
          AreaName               TextLabel
          AreaEmblem             ImageLabel
        SubButton                ImageButton
          AreaName               TextLabel
          AreaEmblem             ImageLabel
    WorldLabel                   TextLabel
    LeftButton                   GuiButton   <- previous World
    RightButton                  GuiButton   <- next World
    PlayButton                   GuiButton
  TopRightBar                    Frame
    AreaProgress                 Frame
      Fill                       Frame
      CurrentProgress            TextLabel
    DetailedProgress             Frame       <- horizontal UIListLayout
      DifficultyBar              Frame       <- the bar template
        Status                   Frame
        HoverTower               TextLabel
    FriendButton                 GuiButton   <- optional, with the two below
    ServerButton                 GuiButton
    Lists                        GuiObject
      FriendList                 ScrollingFrame
        FriendFrame              GuiObject   <- the row template
          PlayerImage            ImageLabel
          PlayerDisplayName      TextLabel
          JoinButton             GuiButton
        Warning                  TextLabel
      RefreshButton              GuiButton
      ServerList                 Frame
        CreateServer             TextButton
        EnterServerCode          GuiButton
        JoinLast                 GuiButton
      JoinServerFrame            Frame
        CodeBox                  TextBox
          Join                   GuiButton
          Cancel                 GuiButton
        Warning                  TextLabel
  Requirements                   Frame
    RequirementsList             GuiObject   <- a UIListLayout inside
      AreaReqLabel               TextLabel   <- the line template
  TotalBeaten                    TextLabel
  SettingsButton                 GuiButton
  Settings                       Frame
    OptionList                   ScrollingFrame
      MusicVolume                Frame       <- optional
        SliderFrame              Frame
          Thumb                  TextButton
          Fill                   Frame
        ValueLabel               TextLabel
      DetailedProgress           Frame
        ToggleButton             TextButton
          Circle                 Frame
  LoadingScreen                  Frame       <- optional
    LoadingLabel                 TextLabel
    TipLabel                     TextLabel

Templates (AreaFrame, DifficultyBar, FriendFrame, AreaReqLabel) stay visible in Studio so you can style them. The screen hides them and clones one per entry.

A button's Image is the Area's image from Config > Worlds, or the place's own thumbnail. AreaEmblem is the Area's emblem, hidden when it has none. SubButton hides on an Area with no subrealm after it.

Progress

One of the two shows, by the player's Detailed Progress Meter setting, or always the same one if progressMeter is "Simple" or "Detailed":

• AreaProgress: one bar reading 7/12. Hover it for the percentage, to one decimal place: 7/12 (58.3%).
• DetailedProgress: one bar per tower, easiest first, in its difficulty colour, with Status green when beaten, yellow when beaten only in All Jumps, and red otherwise. Hovering a bar shows HoverTower and outlines the tower's frame in white: the Model or part named after its acronym in the Area's folder under Rings.

A crowded ring narrows its bars to fit. Only normal wins count, as in the Completions menu and the Area locks: an All Jumps win shows yellow but adds nothing. Tower rushes and extended towers don't count. TotalBeaten counts every Area except extended ones; an extended Area's own card still counts its towers.

SettingsButton opens Settings. Its rows can sit anywhere inside it; the shipped screen keeps them in OptionList. The panel, its button and each row are optional: delete what you don't want, and a panel left with nothing to change hides its button.

• DetailedProgress: the Detailed Progress Meter switch.
• MusicVolume: the same Music Volume setting as the tower places' Audio settings, from 0% to 200%, so a player who turns the music down in one place hears it down in all of them.

Both choices are saved, unless saveSettings is off.

Sounds

The screen's sounds are Sound instances in SoundService > RingSelect, set up in Studio rather than in Config, so change the SoundId or Volume on the Sound itself:

Sound	Plays
Button	When any button on the screen is pressed, or the play key.
Hover	When the pointer moves onto a button. Optional: the shipped hub has none, so hovering is silent.
Switch	When the camera moves to another ring or subrealm, or the World changes.
Music	On loop. Set it to Looped and Playing in Studio: nothing else starts it. Its Volume is multiplied by each player's Music Volume.

Any of them can be deleted for silence. Clicking a ring's row plays both Button and Switch. The Tower Setup plugin's Check window says if the folder is missing or the music won't play.

Loading Screen

LoadingScreen covers the screen until the player's data has loaded, for at least minimumTime. LoadingLabel reads loading.playerData ("Loading data") with animated dots (leave the dots off your own wording). TipLabel shows a random tip from ringSelect.tips every tipInterval seconds.

It comes back for every teleport out of the hub, saying where to: loading.teleportingTo with the Area's name, or loading.teleporting when the server cannot tell which Area a place is. A copy of it stays on screen during the teleport itself. If the teleport fails, it goes away and the reason is shown.

Without a LoadingScreen, the hub shows the screen straight away. Tower places do the same with the loading screen in TowerGUI.

Locked Areas

When the picked Area is locked, Requirements lists each of its rules as a line cloned from AreaReqLabel:

Beat ToDNE (1/1)
Beat 12 Towers (3/12)
Beat 2 Extreme+ Towers (1/2)

Met rules are drawn in beatenColor, and a difficulty in its own colour. A difficulty rule counts that difficulty or harder. The wording is locks in Config > Messages.

RequirementsList and AreaReqLabel are sized as a share of Requirements rather than in pixels, so the lines are the same size against the panel on every device. The line's height sets how big its text is: make AreaReqLabel taller for bigger lines. A line too long for its width shrinks to fit. Avoid a UITextSizeConstraint here: its limit is in pixels, so it only takes effect on big screens and the lines stop matching across devices.

Messages from the server, such as a refusal or a cooldown, replace the lines for a few seconds. While a list is open, they go to that list's Warning instead.

Friends And Servers

FriendButton and ServerButton open Lists on one list or the other. Pressing the same button again closes it. All of it is optional.

Friend list. One row per friend playing your game, cloned from FriendFrame: headshot, display name, and a JoinButton named after their Area. Clicking it joins their server. A friend in a locked Area is listed, and joining says what is missing. RefreshButton reads the list again, at most every five seconds.

Warning shows when there are no friends playing (friends.nonePlaying), the list could not load, or a join went wrong. Its LayoutOrder places it among the rows; 0 puts it on top.

Server list. Personal servers for the Area on screen:

• CreateServer makes one and sends the player there. Without the Personal Servers pass it reads (Requires Gamepass), draws darker, and opens the purchase prompt. It is hidden while the pass has id = 0.
• EnterServerCode opens JoinServerFrame. Type a code into CodeBox and press Join or Enter. Cancel goes back.
• JoinLast returns an owner to the personal server they left, while it is still open (ownerLeaveGracePeriod, ten minutes by default).

Warning under the code box says why a code did not work.

The server checks every requirement again before any teleport, codes included.

Troubleshooting

The Output says there is no StarterGui > RingSelect. The hub needs its own RingSelect ScreenGui.

The screen is empty and the Output says there is no playable World. Every Area in Config > Worlds is disabled or has placeId = 0.

Tower menus appear in the hub, or the ring screen in a tower place. The place was started from the wrong file. See Setting Up The Hub.

Rings past the bottom of the list are missing. Set AreaList's AutomaticCanvasSize to Y.

The client never finishes starting. Server > HubServer is missing from the hub.