With massive improvements to optimization, lots of new fixes, and the very first Block N Load tutorial in this weekend's BETA test make sure you get in game from 4pm UTC+1 Friday 10th April and help us perfect the game ready for launch! Check out the full update notes below.
Optimization
We've made loads of really great optimization and bug fixes in the hopes of getting more players in game. We would love to hear if people are still experiencing FPS drops or latency. We would also like people who were unable to play our last release to give it another go. Even better, we’d love to hear how the graphics settings are helping or hindering you getting the best performance, so please do get in touch with us!
Tutorial
The first iteration of a playable tutorial level for Block N Load has been added to the game! For many players you may find that the first time you click on the “Play” button after launching this update you are automatically placed in to the tutorial. For those who aren’t automatically given the chance to test this out you can access it from the “How to Play” section of the “Learn” tab on the menus.
We would love to hear your feedback on this tutorial as it's the first version we've put out live. However, if you are in the tutorial and you really want to skip it and get in to matches with your friends you can skip the tutorial after pressing the escape key.
Balancing
Nigel Purdey-Longshott:
- Active Ability “Spot Prey” radius has been lowered.
- Active Ability “Spot Prey” has a shorter cooldown.
- Active Ability “Spot Prey” gets upgraded when Nigel reaches level 4 to have two charges, at level 7 to have 3 charges, and at level 10 to have 4 charges.
- Active Ability “Spot Prey” no longer instantly reloads Nigel’s weapons.
- Passive Ability has been changed to “Bounty” giving Nigel & his team bonus resources when he kills another Hero.
O.P. 'Juan' Shinobi
- Active Ability “Vanish” now always heals some health and restocks some ammunition.
- Active Ability “Vanish” effect on health and ammunition is increased to 50% at level 4, 75% at level 7, and 100% at level 10.
Anthony 'Tony' Turretto
- Active Ability “Better, Faster, Stronger” now always applies the buff to the damage of Lil’ Buddy turrets within the radius of the ability.
- Passive Ability has been changed to “Hard Hat” which reduces the damage taken by Tony whilst he is building.
- The secondary weapon “Caulk Gun” has gained the effect of buffing the damage of Lil’ Buddy turrets whilst they are under repair.
- The duration of the Active Ability “Better, Faster, Stronger” increases to 13 seconds at level 4, 15 seconds at level 7, and 20 seconds at level 10.
Dream Genie
- Active Ability “Jinx” effect now continues to exist for 15 seconds (unless the eye is destroyed).
- Active Ability “Jinx”’s eye is upgraded to 130 HP at level 4, 160 HP at level 7, and 200 HP at level 10.
Fixes and Improvements
Gameplay
- The respawn timers for Custom Games have been fixed! No more need to set the timer to +100% to have it match the times in Friendly games
- An issue which could cause Heroes to stop moving forwards when attempting to strafe at the same time as moving over a sloped block has been removed.
- Attempting to wedge your Hero into the barrier during the build phase should no longer result in catapulting yourself up in to the sky.
- A method of forcing a Respawn Pad through the build barrier has been prevented.
- O.P.’s active ability should now always replenish the correct number of smoke bombs for his katana.
- Sweet Science’s active ability now correctly disables enemy Radars.
- Sweet Science’s secondary weapon alternate fire ( has been improved to try and make the effect on other Heroes more consistent as they are pulled towards Sweet Science.
- Collision when moving over the edges of blocks has been improved. This should prevent the heads of characters clipping in to the roof when in tunnels that have little drops or climbs in them.
- Crouching in mud no longer prevents you from standing back up again.
- Dream Genie’s progression skin for her Heal Station can now be destroyed with tools.
- Dream Genie’s unique Lamp block now drops instead of being destroyed if the blocks under it are removed.
- The laser strike from Astarella’s Orbital Strike Beacon unique block now correctly damages Respawn Pads.
- The saucers from Astarella’s Saucer Launcher secondary weapon are now correctly placed when firing them very close to a wall.
- Using a Heroes Active Ability whilst firing will now interrupt firing a weapon so that the ability is used. However, you will need to start firing again afterwards.
- Improvements to collision with some blocks to make it easier to move over them, for example Mines and Respawn Pads.
- Heroes who kill Cogwheel are no longer tagged as if they were on Radar.
- Bombs which are placed sideways or upside down on blocks which are then destroyed no longer fall through terrain.
- An issue which prevented Speed Pads from being placed next to each other has been fixed.
- Pressing the switch weapon key with the tool selected now returns you to the last weapon you had been using instead of the Hero’s primary weapon.
Visual:
- Cogwheel now has a new model for the beacon he throws when using his active ability to fire his Mortars.
- The icons in the kill-feed for Tony’s Rivet Gun and Cogwheel’s Mortars have been improved to make them more representative of the weapon.
- Turning off the “Show Grass” option in the settings menu removes some of the long grass seen on the dirt blocks with grass on top.
- Turning on “Advanced Water” in the settings menu now adds a new reflective water effect.
- The backgrounds for the tabs on the right hand side of the Hero selection page are now correctly displayed when the skin selection tab is active.
- The cancel button on the “Exit Game” prompt is now visually consistent with other cancel buttons across Block N Load.
- Improvements to the way that Heroes and Blocks at the edge of a players draw distance are displayed.
- The silhouette of Nigel’s Tiki Head which is displayed when building will now correctly indicate the direction the device will face when it has been placed.
- When a Cube is destroyed it should no longer have a visible beam of light pointing up in to the sky.
- Heroes should no longer appear to be shooting weapons from their foreheads when you are watching them firing.
- Supply Drops and Blockbuster now have their own visual effect when they are descending to the battlefield.
- Astarella’s Sonic Drill tool should now always display correctly when first viewed after loading in to a match.
- Astarella has a new secondary skin which is unlocked when she reaches her maximum level.
- Dream Genie’s hands have been improved by changing their shape and moving them slightly further away from the center of the screen when playing as this Hero.
- The colors used on the end of match scene where the Base is exploding have been improved. Additionally, the Base exploding now does damage to the world around it!
- Improvements to the Tiki Head effect to make it begin to fade out a little quicker.
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See you in game at the weekend!