The Black Death News

WARNING THIS UPDATE INCLUDES A FULL WIPE TO PLAYER SAVES AND PLAYER BUILT STRUCTURES



Good day Mercians!


We have now released a content update that provides a new armour system (that allows players to build parts and allow for underneath clothing) and a new raid map named "the crusade".

Server Migration

We have also changed server providers after we received the following statement from multiplay: "we have made the difficult decision to close our community hosting services including both game and voice comms servers". We have transferred our servers over to citadel servers, so please feel free to join us with your community servers. We will try and keep this change disruption to a minimum although some alterations may happen to server name,capacity and location. PVE and PVP megaservers will be unaffected.

Here are the patch notes in full:

New:

• Crusade raid map - explore cave systems in the far east where riches and heavy infection lies.
  
• Armour part system - craft individual parts of armour and equip underlying clothes
  
• Full Server and Player wipe
  
• Heavily infected - new A.I. enemies in their last hours of life
  
• Leather armour set
  
• Procedural item quality set by crafting level to all weapons and amour. - This affects item name, durability and gold value.
  
• Studded club weapon
  

enjoy endless combinations of armour and clothing

Updated:

• Iron Helmet recipe
  
• Leather Helmet recipe
  
• Silver Helmet recipe
  
• Royal heavy helmet recipe
  
• Khopesh weapon loot
  

Experience the heaviest infection yet but also untold riches

Balancing:

• Daily XP bonuses increased by 200%
  
• Stick club recipe
  
• Armour values reduced (since you can equip more parts in new system)
  

Journey far and travel deep into the mines of the middle east

Fixes

• fixed an issue that can cause triple durability damage
  
• fixed an issue that would shields to parry rather than holding block
  
• fixed an issue that would cause crashes when trying to stream item icons
  
• removed old armour recipes
  

Thanks for playing everyone and we look forward to seeing you in Mercia!

The S.I.G. Team

Good Day Everyone!

We regret to announce that our stream will be delayed until further notice, the upcoming update for the black death (The Blacksmith V0.37) has some issues we would like to address before we show you what we have in store. On the bright side it shouldn't be too long before we release the update (hopefully looking at next week!) and we will make sure to celebrate it with a live stream alongside it.

Thanks everyone for playing and we will see you soon!

The S.I.G Team

Good Mercians!

We have a little sneak peek into what's coming to the next black death update for you and a general update on what's happening in the near future.

Armour Overhaul

The next update includes a large updated armour system that allows players to build separate parts (braces, greaves, chest and pauldrons) that can be placed on top of any clothing item, for example, you will be able to wear a padded tunic (gambeson) underneath a iron chest plate. This overhaul includes 36 armour parts including a new hard leather set.

Localised Damage

This new armour system allows clothing to be relevant in the end game but more importantly includes a new damage system where protection (armour value) is localised to the area/armour part affected which enables a more balanced experience (rather than armour value stacking up) , this also has exciting gameplay connotations, such as aiming for the shoulder that has a lighter armour value piece equipped.

Item Levels and Rarity

Included in the next update will be levels of quality being applied to all items in the black death, with up to level 25. This means you can find a level 6 stick (which is also affected by your crafting level) will lead to you producing a level 6 stick club. This has exciting effects to players wanting to create the perfect level 25 royal armour, weapons and clothing, the higher the level ingredients the higher durability, gold value and damage a item may have.



Q&A

We will be streaming soon to answer any of your burning questions and to show what's in the works with the black death. This will be on 20/04/2019 7:00 P.M. G.M.T. we hope to see you there, an announcement with the details on how to join in will be posted closer to the date.

WIPE!

Unfortunately due to more changes in our base code we will have to wipe characters and player built structures although there will be a re-balance to leveling to hopefully make it more enjoyable to mastering your professions once again!

Thanks everyone for playing and we can't wait to get this update to you!

See you in Mercia!

The S.I.G Team

A good day to you all Mercians! This update brings a multitude of fixes, optimisations and quality of life improvements! Also with this update we are releasing the first steps in opening up the steam workshop allowing you all to vote on and upload your own item skins that you would like to see in the actual game. Starting with Helmets.

• Better Performance
  
• Better Stability
  
• Make your own items
  

Here are the patch notes in full:

New:
Steam workshop integrated, main menu now has a new workshop tab for voting and uploading. Starting with Helmets
New blocking system. Blocking with shield is the same whereas blocking with a weapon is now a parry (lasting a small period of time) this makes the combat more tactical
Crude brazier now craftable unlocked at level 3 artisan
Taking a land claim will take ownership of all objects in area
Destroying a house will destroy items inside

Fixes:
Fix added for crash when doctor uses infected corpses
Fixed a bug with celtic warriors health not updating
Fix added for blocking exploit
Safety measures added so you shouldnt be able to get stuck in inventory screen without a mouse
First person Minning/woodchop/dig anims now play at the correct speed and have sound
Fixes for main menu character not refreshing after you modify
Fixes added to club bandits so they now move around and use their weapons
Fixes added for the celtic ai so they have the correct armour to match their visuals
Fixes added to the loot all button so it is no longer useable when it shouldn't be
Fixes added for log spam when crouching
Fix added to main menu play level name (it should now scale and position correctly)
Fixed a bug where punching ai would play the wrong block hit react anim
Fixed a bug which caused the health bar of ai animals and punching beggar bandit to be hidden when it should be visible



Updated:
Updated the ai animation back end: head hit reacts when swinging, been parried animations, changed head look at system, head look at is blended out when attacks and other upper body motions happen, new walking up and down hill lean system
Daytime now last longer and increased the contrast between day and night lighting
Updated the homestead with ambient sounds
Screen based reflections added
Hud crosshair now shows you when you are blocking
Sped up anvil repair list refresh to make it feel more snappy
Updated hud crosshair to show text if you need a tool for a specific resource
Cleaned up the hud by moving the player profession under health bar at top instead of in the middle of the screen blocking your view

Balancing:
Moved ai spawners away from freemansport so new players don’t get spammed
Adjusted the speed effects of going up hill (it is now more of a gradual effect)

Optimisations:
Optimised hitches related to combat
Optimised master ai blueprint
Optimised the inventory/loot/shop UI refreshing
Optimised ai animation backend

Hello everyone, we have another hotfix for you mainly addressing issues with player's saves not loading/causing crashes, player placed NPCs not saving and some overall balancing.

Here is the list in full:

Fixes:

• Fixed crash on main menu when the player would load their equipped helmet
  
• Fixed garbage collection crash on Homestead & Attack on the north
  
• Fixed Server crash on dangaling object reference
  
• Player placed NPCs now save and load correctly
  
• Optimised listen and dedicated servers replication graph
  
• Fixed collision on pyro bombs so players don't get stuck on them
  
• Fixed an issue where daggers had the wrong orientation
  
• Fixed an issue where event lootables would re-spawn items
  

Updated:

• Travel book (accessed through the ferryman) now has improved logic and presentation
  
• Peasant bag is now available through the peasant profession (level 5)
  
• Bandit Miners have been placed in caves and have a chance of dropping pickaxes and iron ore
  

Balancing:

• Ore weight has been re-balanced
  
• Ore resource spawn rate has been increased
  
• Ore resource break chance has been decreased (provide more ore)
  
• Player placed NPCs now have a better selection of available items and increased item spawn rate
  
• All ingot recipes have had their required coal ore decreased
  
• All items have had their durability increased by 25%
  
• Medium bag is now available at level 2 through the artisan profession
  
• Increased the amount of mid-tier enemies A.I. in the world
  

Thanks for playing everyone and helping us find these issues.

See you in Mercia

The S.I.G team