Vikings!
Today we are bringing new content and many gameplay improvements. As said in the previous update, we are starting to focus heavily on actual playability of the game, rather than just adding new features as we prepared them separately before.
In this patch a new map with more gameplay suitable landscape and better optimization arrives. Here, after certain amount of polishing, many previously prepared mechanics will make sense and start playing together in a really enjoyable gameplay loop.
Clear old saves, fresh game start is required
If you have old saves, please press Restart button in the pause menu.
Alternately you can clear your save folder here C:|Users|*YourName*|AppData|Local|VALHALL if there are any issues.
Survival mode is available in Singleplayer, while the servers are offline for now.. We have finished the previously mentioned preparations, but have rethought some points and decided to bring them back at a later stage after adding certain upcoming content. In this way, we will be able to optimize the development and reduce the frustration of the players due to possible problems.
Loki's deathmatch servers are online.
Also, this patch fixes some significant issues and improves the overall smoothness of the game.
Patch Pre-Beta 0.8.5 is out, hope you enjoy it!
New map
The new map is an island. Its terrain has appropriate curves for animals and warrior bots navigation. It is also being prepared for various game events and quests. The landscape is still a work in progress, if you find an unfinished part somewhere on the map, we are preparing it for future content.
There are different aspens, firs, red pines on the map. And you can cut them all!
Breathing life into the environment step by step.
Iron ore can now be found mostly in swamps.
There is a new enemy camp that you can raid.
The island you start on is the main place where you survive and will be the main battleground with future game events.
However, we are preparing other smaller islands that you will be able to reach by ship!
Water
It's here in Survival. As well as buildable ships! You can find it in the Build menu.
Swimmable lakes
Previous lakes were weird, mostly because you couldn't swim in them, you could just walk through the water. Now it's fixed. You can swim and drink from slightly more beautiful lakes on the new map. A marker has also been added for it to make it easier to find.
Weather
Atmosphere and lighting have been improved for different weather. The nights are much clearer, but still dark enough that good vision requires a light source. The night sky now rotates not horizontally, but naturally.
According to players feedback, the day and night have become longer.
Also, now there is an eye adaption effect.
Seasons
Adjusted the weather for different seasons. Some aspects are still work in progress. Snow covers the foliage in Winter.
Mushrooms
Ready to eat, hold E to pick up.
Performance improvements
The game improved not only visually, but became more performant too. It's still pretty heavy and we're still working on it. Weather settings and graphics configs were adjusted. The graphics settings configs have also been changed, the game looks better at lower settings than before.
Directional aim
Based on player feedback, we've added an aim UI. It shows the direction of your mouse, which can help you navigate through directional attacks. The bow remains unsighted.
Smooth camera movement
The camera has been adjusted to make movement more enjoyable, and some actions, such as the construction process, have become smoother.
Survival mode player characters
Changed the set of characters in Survival mode.
Running and acceleration adjustments
The running speed has become mostly higher to feel more agile and reach destinations faster. The important point is that it has a speed acceleration curve that greatly affects its actual feel and various nuances such as being able to run away from attackers.
Main menu bugs fix
Fixed various main menu bugs such as overlapping different UI tabs in some cases when after entering the Armory. Also disabled the current background animations, the appearance and functionality of the main menu will be updated in future patches.
Faster game loading
Now the game starts faster, game modes load faster.
Game process not shutting down fix
Fixed an issue where the process not stop after closing the game. It also affected in-game performance and could cause minor freezes every few seconds before fix.
Skål!
Blackrose Arts