Black Ice News

Let's not get too corporate here: you know what Steam Trading Cards are, you know they unlock emoticons and profile backgrounds. What you don't know his how freaking sweet James' artwork is, so here it is below!

Also! Here are all six collectible emoticons: ːwebcrawlerːːscorporationːːgitsfishːːcybersharkːːaimbotːːKappaː

My favorite is the webcrawler, but I know a lot of people are excited about the GITSfish and the Kappa.

You can also earn these badges to show off your leet hacking skills on your profile.
- Level 1 - Script Kiddie
- Level 2 - N00b Hacker
- Level 3 - Freelance Decker
- Level 4 - Digital Infiltrator
- Level 5 - Console Cowboy
- Foil - 1337

Below: All the gorgeous trading card and background art ːscorporationː



And now for backgrounds!

Alleyway:


Guardian:


Jumper's Overview:


Mirrorservers:


Server Sea:


Jetpacker's View:


Shadow of Finality:


Utter Chaos:


SHARK Stalking:

Biggest. Patch. Ever. I've been working really hard on this patch since March, and even though I've been releasing patches almost every week on the Indev version, I wanted to make sure it was great before sending it out to everyone. With all these improvements, I feel the game is now worth $15, so I've raised the price.

NOTE: YOU MUST START A NEW CHARACTER FOR THIS PATCH. This was a necessary evil, but with the new save and perk systems (details below!) it shouldn't ever happen again.

• PERK SYSTEM starting with unique 8 perks to change how you play (details below)
  
• Leveling/Difficulty Overhaul - The game still starts pretty easy, but will get much harder, especially after level 100.
  
• - Talents cap at 100 (to increase end-game difficulty and reduce treadmill effect)
  
• - Percentage Talents are now multiplicative with item stats, which keeps them valuable even as you level
  
• - It's now faster XP to always try to hack higher level servers, although multihacking is still good too.
  
• Engine updated to Unity 5, meaning a major physics update, so character movement feels great, the graphics are AMAZING with a new bloom plugin and DX11
  
• Save/Load Update - Cloud Saves, Hackable Saves (for you modders) and:
  
• You can now drop items for other players in multiplayer
  
• Full Controller Support with Key Rebinding
  
• Drastic Multiplayer Performance Improvements - play with 10 players at once with no issues
  
• Four new amazing music tracks from V-Axys (These will not be added to the soundtrack, as V-Axys is planning a second album)
  
• Aim Assist - This is subtle, but it really helps. You can turn it on for controller and mouse separately
  

• Currently, you get one perk point at level 10, and one at 20, although I will be adding more points as I add more perks. These are intended to make each character play differently, so you will need to create multiple characters to try them all.
  
• Perk damage bonuses stack multiplicatively with items and talents
  
• Aimhax - Adds +30 Homing to all Sniper weapons
  
• Emergency Overclocking - Adds a 25% Damage and Movement Speed bonus when you're below 25% health
  
• Bomb Voyage - Dropping a mine grants you a movement speed bonus - which stacks with Sprint.
  
• I Expect You To Die - Lasguns pierce through everything, allowing them to deal damage to multiple targets at once
  
• Discipline - Launch up to 5 Discs at once, from each Disc item
  
• Drunken Master - All projectiles gain +100% Chance to Ricochet, but also 25 Drunk. It's hilarious
  
• Stopping Power - Standing still grants you a 15% damage bonus
  
• Hard Drive - Moving forward grants you a 10% damage bonus, but moving backwards reduces your damage by 10%
  

• Scorchporation - A Scorporation minion with the power to set your enemies aflame
  
• Oersted's Mallet - Hammers circle around you, piercing and damaging everything
  
• Ice-a-Kill - Icebolts circle around you, piercing, slowing and damaging everything
  
• Disco Deathball - Saved the best for last. This ultimate item has a long (30s) cooldown, and only fires one disco ball - which then fires HUNDREDS of lasers in all directions, which ricochet. (shown below)
  

• All projectile particles react to explosions and
  
• Jetpack and Charge Jump items overhaul - much more fun!
  
• Added rocket jumping
  
• Infinite city size performs much better on every computer
  
• Aimbots can now fly
  
• Unique items are now more rare, and only truly unique items will drop (Loot Find is still OP)
  
• The Options Menu has several new options and is organized better
  
• Minion overhaul - Minions now do much more damage and are improved by your damage and health stats, but have less health overall.
  
• The Homing and Drunk item affixes now work much better
  

• Main Menu Lag eliminated
  
• Private Multiplayer games now properly require passwords
  
• Your Highest level server hacked is now saved, this affects which items stores sell
  
• Innumerable additional fixes. Chances are if you noticed a bug in the live version before, it's gone now.
  

• Achievements work, but aren't pushing to Steam. This is due to either Steam or the plugin I'm using, and I will be fixing this as soon as I can
  

Stay tuned, everyone. I've got much more up my sleeves!

Hi everyone! This is a culmination of several indev patches over the past few weeks, mostly aimed at fixing bugs in multiplayer but also adding two new unique items, a bunch of small balancing changes that add up for better quality of life. I think you'll be quite happy with the results!

WARNING: This patch will break previous characters. They'll still load, but they won't be able to regenerate RAM. Please just create a new character. I tried really hard to avoid this, but was unable to.

• BIG CHANGE: TL;DR: 10-Player multiplayer works with no problems now! I did a huge networking code update and you can
• see* it in multiplayer games - all the projectiles move much more smoothly
  
• Added a new unique item: The Disco Dodgeball. Must be picked up after fired, but can be retrieved by activating again
  
• Added another new unique item: The Spicy Meatball, which is a bouncy fireball (with 100% ricochet but no innate piercing)
  
• Added Gisborne Industries as a reference to Mike Bithell's new game, Volume. He's a really nice guy
  
• Players in multiplayer now get a +15% XP bonus for each player past the first
  
• If you cheat, you will be marked as such
  
• April Fool's day joke :) Wait and see!
  

• Shotguns + high accuracy should feel more like shotguns now (more spread)
  
• Nerfed bouncyball damage to be more in line with other weapons
  
• Mine damage has been reduced (including spider mines). I doubt anyone will notice
  
• RAM Regen from leveling has been decreased
  
• RAM and RAM Regen from items has been decreased
  
• Icebreakers cost more RAM per hack now
  
• Lasbreakers do more damage now
  
• Health per Second items now cost more RAM and heal less per level
  

• You can now see the highest level server you've hacked, which is important because:
  
• Shops now sell loot only up to the level of the highest level server you've hacked
  
• GITSfish health has been lowered, but their damage has increased
  
• Bitcred drops have been quadrupled
  
• Multiplayer city size is now set to max at all times - not infinite, but large.
  
• Hacked buildings are much more transparent now, this should let people see the loot better (Known issue: They don't show up on Macs now)
  
• The select button now closes the inventory menu on a controller
  
• Player and enemy movement in multiplayer is much more accurate now
  

• Invert controller toggle works now
  
• Punchthrough achievement works now
  
• The Main Menu should lag less for lower-power machines. I expect this to improve next major patch when I upgrade to Unity 5
  
• Overlapping buildings no longer spawn near the starting area
  
• Nemesized servers now show up properly in multiplayer
  
• Mines are colored appropriately in PVP now
  
• Loot (including dropped credits) from every server is now always the appropriate level
  
• Shared XP in MP now has a minimum of 1, not 0
  

Proof that 10-player multiplayer works :)

Hi everyone! This is what I've been working so hard on, I hope you like it :) This, and showing the game off at PAX South, East, and GDC!

• Controller Support! This should "just work" for any controller. Try it out!
  
• UI Overhaul - many menus are updated, prettier and easier to use
  
• Gorgeous new server/building paint jobs.
  
• Added Scorporation minion. All minions are now shiny!
  
• Added Antialiasing as an option in the options menu
  
• Drastic performance improvements, especially on large cities
  
• Added a Colorblind mode for item rarity colors
  
• Loot Cubes are a lot more descriptive and easy to see
  
• Added new modular projectile type: Bouncy Ball! Reflects off all walls/floors but pierces through enemies. Can hit the same target multiple times!
  
• Mysterious new Dark Servers
  

• Enemy blood particles are now the opposite color of enemies. Rainbow sometimes!
  
• 1990 Mode looks better (bloom takes affect afterwards, causing a glowing pixel effect)
  
• Scorporation damage has been reduced by 50%, and other balancing tweaks
  
• Removed "Simple Reflections" mode. Reflections are now on or off.
  
• Buildings drop bitcreds instead of items sometimes now :)
  
• Added a big floating $ hologram above shops
  
• F7 is now Quick Save
  

• Too many to count, but the game is going to run a lot smoother, faster, and better, especially on lower-end machines.
  

• PVP - Shoot your friends!
  
• LAN Mode - Play offline with reduced latency! Great for LAN parties!
  
• Nemesystem - Dying has consequences, but revenge has its reward!
  
• Two New Enemies - The Ghost in the Shellfish and the Scorporation
  
• Minions - Summon your own combat AI!
  
• Reflections - Oooh, Shiny!
  

Would you like to know more? Keep scrolling! I've got more details on the major features below.

• Cloaking Enemies affix - The Predator comes to mind
  
• Rebalanced Server Difficulty - Now just look at your player level to figure out what level server to hack!
  
• Retooled Level Generation - Easier to find servers of your level!
  
• New Unique Item - The Porta Device - A Unique Mod which has a chance to teleport your attackers away
  
• H or Q to hack - No matter which slot your Icebreaker is equipped in!
  
• Halloween Surprise 2014 - Find your own #HackOLantern, or make one IRL and win a Black Ice T-Shirt!. Don't like the Black & Orange servers? Select "I Hate Halloween" in the top left of the main menu.
  

Not to mention Bug Fixes and System Enhancements all over the place!


Just select PVP from the Advanced Options when creating a multiplayer match to jump into PVP. You'll be automatically assigned to the Red or Blue team, although you can switch teams at any time by holding Tab and pressing the Switch Team button. Note that all servers and enemies are still active - and not friendly to you - so it's a race for each team to try to outlevel each other via hacking. Damage numbers are enabled for all players, which makes it much harder to hide from your enemies if you're hacking.


This takes a little extra work (instructions here!) but the benefit is that you can play multiplayer with no internet connection and with drastically reduced latency. And if you also own Disco Dodgeball, it's the same LAN setup :)


Dying to a server near or below your level will cause it to level up, but also will increase the odds of getting good loot from that server. And of course, the server will taunt you by displaying a large red skull hologram on the roof.


The megacorps have been busy upgrading their security. First, the Ghost in the Shellfish is a big beefy crab-like enemy who can really knock your socks off (or your ass out of the hacking radius). The other new enemy is called the Scorporation. This high-tech scorpion AI packs a highly-damaging lasgun and can be very accurate, so keep moving!


Ever wanted your own pet AI? Now you can have one! Or eight! Minions are great for distracting enemies and can put out some damage to boot. Grabbing a health powerup will also heal your minions.


The world of Black Ice just got a bit brighter with the addition of high-fidelity raytracing reflections. This does affect performance, but you can turn it down to Simple Reflections mode in the options, or turn reflections completely off. One side effect of the Fancy Reflections mode: enemy death particles look super cool now.

Still want more info? Find me on Twitter! @BlackIceTheGame