Greetings plagued ones, and welcome to Dev Blog #65 - Kings and Queens BETA!
We hope you enjoyed our Kings And Queens content reveal post, if you missed it you can find it here: Kings And Queens
For this Dev Blog we will be taking a further look at what we covered in the teaser post. We will be showing off the Town Hall and Barracks with their respective recipes, changes to our UI with the addition of the nobility system (now renamed to renown), new animations and more!
Currently we are updating the beta version of this update throughout the week and we will be looking to roll it out to everyone on Friday!
Due to the sheer amount of content this update will require a wipe of all characters and buildings.
At the end of this Dev Blog there will also be a Community Extras section. This will cover details of our recent Build A Base event, community translations and also a look at our upcoming official Steam Guides as an overhaul on our Steam Hub.
Please note that some of the media in this Dev Blog, including our screenshots, images and GIFs may not be the final versions. This includes elements of our UI/HUD as these are placeholders for testing systems.
Town Hall & Barracks Teasers
Here is a closer look at our two new buildings, the Barracks and Town Hall. These are large structures, so make sure that you have plenty of room on your plot for these grand additions!
Town Hall No Decoration
Town Hall Exterior Decorated
Town Hall Interior Decorated
As an additional feature of these structures, you will be able to add decorations and other housing items to both the exterior and interior. Check out the gallery above and below to see the Town Hall and Barracks decorated in all their splendour for some inspiration! You could use animal trophies to mark buildings for ranks, carpets and tapestries for a fancy feeling and lighting for a cosy touch!
Barracks No Decoration
Barracks Exterior Decorated
Barracks Interior Decorated
Moving on to the Desks within these two structures. Each building has it’s own Recruitment Desk, this is where you will find the recipes for each respective NPC Contract to help build up your Kingdom, Castle or Village.
See the gallery below here for a few examples of some of the new NPC contract types! Notice that the Wheat Farmer has Manure in their recipe, this will be a new resource found from animals in the wild! These screenshots also show a close up of the new stained glass windows that feature on these new buildings.
Town Hall Recruitment Desk
Town Hall Wheat Farmer
Town Hall Chicken Farmer
Town Hall Baker
Royalty Profession Teaser, Changing Professions & Sources Of Renown
We would like to introduce our new Profession named, Royalty!
Here are a couple of screenshots from our Beta showing the environments to give you a feel for the new Profession. Note: These screenshots are from our Beta.
Changing Profession & UI Additions
Please note: As mentioned in our introduction, these screenshots are from our Beta, and as such are subject to change as some elements may be placeholders.
Here are the new changes to our UI and HUD for the addition of our Renown system. Your overall Renown tally will be displayed just above your Gold on the centre Quick Slot Bar.
Your Renown will also be displayed in your Character Journal at the very top. The icon next to your Profession name functions as the “change Profession” option. Clicking on this will bring up a new UI window.
This window will be displayed when selecting the icon next to your current Profession name in your character journal. Below are all of the Professions with their respective names, icons and Renown cost. To change Profession simply select a Profession of your choosing when you have enough Renown. If you do become Royalty, their are perks but if your character dies, you will lose your nobility.
Sources Of Renown In The World
There are different ways to obtain Renown in The Black Death. Here are some of these that we will be introducing with the new update. Cleansing plague sources, which could be infected enemies such as Rats and Bandits and burning plague carts. Noble deeds such as rescuing trapped prisoners around Mercia will also reward you with Renown. Be careful though, upon death you will now incur a 5% loss of Renown.
Renown is spent on becoming any Profession that you have unlocked. You can now also switch Profession at anytime, keeping your XP/Skill Point progression as well as any items you had on you. Becoming the Beggar requires 0 nobility but all others have a cost, the most expensive and most desirable being the new Royalty Profession.
NPC Groups
We have a new feature coming in our next update in the form of NPC Groups. This is separate to our normal NPC Bandits and other enemy types that spawn in the world. The new Groups system allows us to procedurally spawn NPCs in groups together, these NPCs also interact with one another in the world.
To introduce this new Groups system, Noble Couriers now wander the paths of Mercia clutching a chest of goods. These couriers are accompanied by a Noble Bodyguard to protect them as they carry out their mission.
Noble Courier
Noble Bodyguard
Noble Courier Chest Loot
These brave souls can be found across Mercia near towns and on route on pathways. Once slain, these couriers will drop their chest of goods. Chase them down and slay them for some tasty loot!
Check out a GIF of one of these Noble Couriers in action over on our official blog version of this Dev Blog here:
They will flee from you once spotted, and will even turn their heads when running away to see if you are still pursuing them! Once they have been running for a while, they will stop and catch their breath, this is a good opportunity to land a few hits on them before they are back on the run from your blade. Beware as their bodyguard, equipped with a heavy sword and shield they will do anything to protect their courier, don’t get on their bad side!
NPC Weapons & Animation
More weapons are coming to The Black Death, these weapons will be available through looting NPCs and raiding locations around the world. Why not create a peasant revolt with your very own pitchfork! Some of these weapons will be craftable through the blacksmith profession very soon so keep your eyes peeled.
Combat animations continue to improve giving the player more feedback and variation, spears are currently going getting an overhaul for NPCs and players, keep your range and stab your way to the top.
He’s a man on a mission, here are a couple of animation GIFs of our new Noble Couriers. The first is their run animation and the second is their hit reaction animation!
Here is a GIF of our new captured prisoner animation. Save them and they will be forever in your debt!
Here is a little development bonus for you all! From the desk of SIG_James, here is a new loading screen GIF! This will be replacing the rotating plague skull icon on our loading screens.
How To Download Our Beta Branch & Send Bug Reports
As always, if you do find any bugs or issues when playing on our Beta Test Server please fill in a Bug Report over on our The Black Death: Google Bug Form , every bug counts! When submitting bugs make sure to always select the Beta option in the drop down when playing on the Beta branch that looks like this “Version V0.33 (Beta)”.
To download our Beta branch follow these steps:
1. Make sure The Black Death is closed and not running.
2. Go to your Steam Client and navigate to your Steam Games Library.
3. Right click on “The Black Death” and select “Properties”.
4. Navigate to the far right tab that reads “Betas” and select it.
5. Using the drop down menu, select “Beta – Beta test branch” and select Close.
6. In a few moments Steam should start to download the Beta branch of The Black Death.
7. To ensure that The Black Death is kept up-to-date before other games, select the “Updates” tab. Then click on the drop down menu and select “High Priority – Always auto-update this game before others”.
8. To switch back to The Black Death “Live” build. Simply follow steps 1 through 5 and then select “None – Opt out of all beta programs”
Take a look at the image below. If the title is missing the [beta] you have the “Live” branch installed.
Beta Playthrough Survey
If you have been playing on our Beta branch, when you have finished your play session and have closed The Black Death, a Google Form should open in your default web browser. This is designed to help us gather feedback from your play session on the Beta, and to help us get a clear impression of your thoughts after playing. We greatly appreciate your feedback and suggestions. Thank you in advance for your submissions.
If for some reason the Google Form does not load in your web browser, or if you accidentally close it, here is a link to the form. The Black Death Beta Playthrough Survey
Community Extras
Community Translations
A big thank you to our community for all of their contributions to help translate The Black Death into many different languages! Thank you for your time and effort in volunteering to help out within the community. We have recently had a Hungarian translation submission from Discord user Hadnagy/Error202#1159, a Greek translation is also in the pipeline from Discord user Jim#9141!
A big thank you also goes out to those who have sent in alterations for our existing translations, we are always looking at improving elements of The Black Death and we want to make sure that our translations are polished as much as possible.
We have started to implement the Hungarian translation provided by Hadnagy/Error202#1159 into our Beta build. At the time of writing this Dev Blog, it is still being worked on and isn’t fully functional yet, but the flag is now included in our Language settings in our Beta.
Build-A-Base Contest Closes
Our “SIG Presents Build-A-Base Contest” has now concluded! A big thank you to everyone to sent us submissions. We will be selecting the top three and dishing out the prizes as well as showcasing the winners over on our next Community Showcase issue, so keep a look out for that. We will be contacting the winners within the next month to sort out their prizes. Thank you to everyone who participated. We will be running another event in the future!
Official Steam Guides Update
We have some new Steam Guides coming soon to The Black Death Steam Community Hub! A Mega Player Housing Guide is being worked on, it’s quite a meaty guide with loads of screenshots and information for both new and current players! We will be posting this all over our social channels and on the forums when it is ready. This guide is based from the current V0.33 version of the game, and will be updated as new additions are made to the game.
Also in the works are the following guides:
– Player Mega Housing Guide
– Tech Tips Guide
– Mini Language Settings Guide
– Mini Controller Setup Guide
– Mini Guild Guide
– Mercian Cookbook Guide
– Armour Sets & Clothing Guide
– World Events & Plague World Event Guide
Alongside these, the Quick Start Guide and Advanced Guide will also be getting revamped when our new update is released!
We hope you enjoyed reading this weeks Dev Blog, that’s all for this week and we will see you next time!
// The SIG Team
——————————————
To keep in the loop, follow The Black Death on our social and news sites!
The Black Death on Steam
The Black Death Official Discord
The Black Death Steam Community Hub