Heroes,
In our upcoming Quality of Life update, you’ll experience some new features and changes to some old ones. Join our Stream on Friday, 11th of March, where Markus, Game Designer on Vermintide 2, will join our CM Aqshy to show you the goods.
When planning this QoL update, implementing features inspired by some of the most used mods was high up on the list. We’ve seen what mods you use the most and recommend to each other, which informed the design process.
Designing these features could not have been possible without the amazing creators behind the original mods. Thank you for your contribution to Warhammer: Vermintide 2 during these four years and years to come! To show our gratitude, we will immortalize all mod creators whose mods have had their essence mainlined in the game’s credits, as well as all mod authors and contributors who have had their mods sanctioned for use on the official realm.
In this Developer Blog, we are going to take a look at some of the new features*, explain how they will work in Vermintide 2, and of course, give credit where credit is due; to the original creators.
*Screenshots may not be representative of the final release.
Unified UI & New Features
UNIFIED UI
To provide the best user experience and allow for more streamlined interface updates, we’ve decided to merge into a single unified menu system for all players and platforms. Moving to a Unified UI is beneficial for implementing new features to the interface, such as the freshly implemented features below, as well as any and all future additions and changes to the interface.
The old legacy interface remains available in the options menu on PC, and at this time can still see changes via mods like before, however, the legacy menu won’t receive any newly implemented features or future updates from us.
MELEE CAMERA MOVEMENT
Original Mod & Creator: No Wobble by SkacikPL
The Melee Camera Movement options allow you to reduce or remove a great deal of the sways and movements that the camera makes during combat and general gameplay. Whether you just want a static camera or find some of the default camera movements nauseating, these options should help you out!
DETAILED UI
Original Mod & Creator: Numeric UI by Necrossin and -Milbor-
Taking influences from the Numeric UI mod, this new option gives you the choice to add more details for health and ammunition values in the in-game HUD.
KILL CONFIRM CROSSHAIR
Original Mod & Creator: Kill Confirm Crosshair by pixaal
Similar to pixaal’s mod, the Kill Confirm Crosshair indicates when a killing blow is delivered, so when you’re in the thick of it, you can get a better understanding of when you’ve killed something or what enemy class it was.
FRIENDLY FIRE CROSSHAIR / HIT MARKER
Original mod & creator: Friendly Fire Indicator by NonzeroGeoduck7
This feature shows you a hit marker when damaging an ally, or if you get damaged by an ally or an elf…
The Social Wheel Emotes are character poses that can be triggered from a 2nd wheel that’s adjacent to the Social Wheel. These can also be cast directly from a shortcut key (default “U” key - but can be rebound). Upon casting an emote, characters are set in a 3rd person camera. We’re looking forward to seeing some of the screenshots you can come up with when posing the heroes in various locations in and around Helmgart!
MANAGE CAREER INVENTORY
Original mod & Creator: UI Improvements by grasmann
You’ll soon be able to manage other careers (than the one you’re currently on) without having to switch careers. This option will be available in the top right corner of the inventory. In addition to this functionality, everything that is present in the inventory tab will be accessible (e.g. talents, crafting). Changes made here do affect the bots' “loadouts” as well.
EQUIPPED ITEMS ON OTHER CAREERS
Original mod & Creator: Careers on Equipped Items by Triptych
Not a great deal to say here! You can see which items are equipped on careers other than the one you’re currently playing by checking the item’s ‘on hover’ tooltips!
PERSISTENT AMMO COUNTER
Original mod & Creator: Persistent Ammo Counter by prop joe
Much like prop joe’s mod, this feature allows you to see your ammo stash irrespective of having your ranged weapon equipped.
BOT PRIORITIZATION
Want to have the perfect careers to join your party for solo runs, or missing a player or two? After the Quality of Life update you can! The Bot Prioritizations allow you to select which careers should fill up your party in what order.
BOT SAFETY TRAINING
Bots have now been trained in minding their step and should find themselves hanging from ledges far less frequently than before when navigating through the levels.
PLAYER RESPAWN IMPROVEMENTS
In order to avoid situations where a captured player can be left behind, captured players should now move forward in a given level when the rest of the party has moved beyond the point in which they can rescue the captured player.
CLEAR DEEDS
Whilst player inventories are large, veteran players can find themselves running frustratingly low on space, whilst having an ever-increasing stockpile of Deeds. If you’ve got too many deeds in your inventory you now have the option to delete them after this update. We know some of you prefer Twitch Mode and hopefully, this solves a thorn in your side!
SPECIAL ATTACK TOOLTIPS AND BINDING
Weapons with a special attack (such as Saltzpyre’s Rapier) will now have their attacks noted in item tooltips (as well as mentioned in loading screens and when inspecting such an item) and come with a new more accessible default (yet rebindable) keybind (V).
STREAMLINED WEAPON UPGRADES
This is an entirely new window in the UI. It gives an overview of your currently equipped weapon.
- Overview: Here you can see what weapon you currently have equipped, its rarity, and if it is a melee or ranged weapon.
- Properties: Displays the properties of your weapon. More properties can be unlocked by upgrading the weapon.
- Trait: The trait of your weapon. Is unlocked by upgrading the weapon.
- Upgrade: If you wish to upgrade your weapon, you can do so here without having to go into the crafting menu.
- Information: Overview of the stats, strengths, and weaknesses of your weapon.
Okri’s Challenges
It’s now possible to claim challenge rewards in bulk, as opposed to one by one, for those who complete multiple in a run, or just aren’t interested in picking through the challenge book -- fair is fair and time is precious. There have also been additional improvements to challenge filtering with the introduction of toggleable filters.
Another great advantage of baking in the spirit or essence of some keenly used mods, we’re able to bring most of these additions to players on Xbox and PlayStation as well in April.
There are even more improvements in Patch 4.6 which we’ll publish in the Patch Notes, but for now, happy rat bashing and we look forward to seeing you in the Stream on Friday!