Build 673 - 27/01/2015

Hello Community!

This week we are bringing you a massive update. In addition to Old School Nigel completing the Skins for the Win DLC line-up, we've got two fresh arenas for you to cause mayhem in and numerous fixes and balancing tweaks.

Old School Nigel

Ever wondered where Nigel was when we launched our Skins for the Win DLC Pack? So did we, until we got a call from his school principle, where he’s spent the last few weeks writing lines in detention.

He’s finally out, he’s really not sorry, and he’s headed in-game. Donning his finest old boys school uniform, it’s time to continue his destructive tendencies in an arena that won’t get him into all kinds of school trouble.

Don’t have Skins for the Win yet? Pre-order the Block N Load: Fully Loaded Edition on Steam for a ludicrously low price and get the entire Skins for the Win pack, Block N Load BETA access and a copy of Ace of Spades: Battle Builder.

If you haven’t played Block N Load yet, then there’s still time. Head over to our sign-up page now and try it out for yourself!

Arenas

The Last Bastion

Two massive fortresses face off against each other with only a muddy pool and a single bridge to link them… Sniping from on high, charging over the bridge, or tunneling underground to cause panic amongst the enemy, how you wreak havoc is entirely up to you! This is a large battlefield for larger than life characters, at this scale setting up small forward bases is crucial.

Shuko Style

O.P. ‘Juan’ Shinobi isn’t the only character that’s right at home on this brand new arena! Building bridges or jumping from platform to platform provide just some of the alternative routes for you to utilize as you take out the enemy’s cube. Clever placement of radars will also warn your team of flanking attacks whilst well placed, hidden turrets can mow down enemy attackers before they get to your cube.

Balancing

Sarge Stone

We've all been feeling that Sarge's Machine Gun was a little underpowered so we've made the following change in an attempt to fix this:

• Sarge's Machine Gun damage has been increased by 25% (now 5 damage per bullet rather than 4 damage).

O.P. Juan Shinobi

We felt that O.P. was a little too strong so in an effort to remedy this we have made the following changes:

• OP’s Vanish Bomb ‘world damage’ reduced to 50 from 100. Damage to heroes, however, remains the same.
• OP’s Katana damage per hit has been reduced by 25%. However his overall DPS remains the same as we have increased his katana attack speed to compensate.

General

• Cutting (collapsing blocks) resource income cap lowered to 1,500 from 2,000.

New Feature

We have added a new confirmation screen when you are queuing and a match is found. This addition is designed to help avoid people who have had to step away from their keyboard whilst in the queue but are being pulled into the match. It works as follows:

• Once a full match has been found a new confirmation interface will pop up in the middle of the screen stating 'Match Found'.
• The interface will display the options 'Accept' and 'Decline'. Once all players have clicked accept you will move onto the 'Hero select screen'.
• If any of the players click 'Decline' or fail to click either option within the time limit they will be removed from the queue. NOTE: If you either select 'decline' or fail to respond several times, you will receive a demerit. So, ready up when you're ready to play.
• If this occurs, the remaining players will receive a message to inform them, and they will be placed back at the top of the queue.

Crashes & Freezes

• Fixed a crash that occurred when certain elements in the map were collapsed

Visual

• Sarge’s Al Castone DLC skin player portrait now displays correctly rather than showing the default skin.
• Sarge’s Rocket Launcher model is now always correctly positioned when using the Al Castone DLC skin.
• Sarge’s jump animation has now been improved when using the Al Castone DLC skin.
• O.P. ‘Juan’ Shinobi’s arm no longer disappears when using Ninja Stars whilst using the 2080 Juan DLC skin (only occurred on rare occasions).
• The position of muzzle flash and smoke when Nigel fires his rifle has been improved.
• The brightness of Eliza’s digging tool has been reduced.
• Cube & Cube Core icons on the mini map have been updated to reflect the models in game.

Chat