Good day Mercians!

We apologize for the radio silence on steam however we have been busy getting our new content stable including a large engine update, we also wanted to let everyone know the current progress being made on the beta which is being updated frequently and is free for everyone to try out in the “the black death” properties setting.

Here is a quick breakdown of current beta and upcoming features in the next update for the black death:

Engine Upgrade

Utilizing the new unreal engine version has aided in stability for the black death and increased performance greatly. Some of our lower tier machines are reporting a solid 60 FPS (45 FPS previously) This has also addressed some crashes that were occurring in various siege maps. If you are curious about the unreal engine version we have implemented you can read information HERE

Master Professions & Profession Redux

In an attempt to make professions more essential to the games core mechanics we are altering attributes to be hard bound to professions (rather than being leveled up separately) and including new professions that provide a larger variation of gameplay. We will also be removing renown and having profession purchased using skill points, we found renown was lost on some players and added an unnecessary wall/block to obtaining professions. We are especially excited to announce master professions which is designed to be mid to late game content. Here is a breakdown of how some of them work:

• Master Peasant (higher attribute levels and triple item forage passive ability) Unlocked after level 20 peasant. 5 Skill Points to select
• Master Blacksmith (higher attribute levels including cheap item repair and faster building passive abilities) Unlocked after level 15 blacksmith and level 15 Mason. 6 Skill Points to select
• Master Outlaw (higher attribute levels including bandits are friendly, guards are enemies AND double loot from hunting passive abilities) Unlocked after Level 10 Bandit and Level 10 Hunter. 4 Skill Points to select

New Siege Map

A lower difficulty/cost map set in celtic territory, fight your way through barbaric defenses and cleanse the area of unlawful clansman.

Integrated Custom Server Hosting

You will be able to host custom servers of Mercia (PVP or PVE) from within the game for you and your friends to enjoy the black death in full publicly or privately including seamless travel between our own servers.

Blast destruction technology

All player built structures will now fall apart accurately using Nvidia’s blast plugin. You can learn more about it HERE

Here are some GIFs taken of it in action with various structures:

We greatly appreciate the patience the community has shown and we are understanding of the frustration the lack of recent updates has caused however we will continue to strive to build the black death to a full release and look forward to getting it to the standard you expect. This next update will also include large amounts of bug squashing, one step closer to the visceral medieval survival experience we envisioned.

Thanks for reading.

The S.I.G Team