Warhammer: Vermintide 2 News

Few things are constant among the Skaven, but their scheming and plotting is one of them. While our Heroes may have foiled Rasknitt, there’s plenty other vermin are eager to hatch their own devious plans. The farsqueaker, a verminous piece of Skryre engineering, allows some of these would-be masterminds to instantly communicate across vast distances with their networks of agents and spies.





I am much pleased with your timely report, Skratch, and heartened by the news of your many successes. The minions I placed in your unworthy paws are clearly moderately capable. Use them well, Skratch. Do not think-think you are my only proxy in the Grey Mountains. Just because I plucked you from your runtish litter as a whelp, it will not displease me too greatly to have to devour you should you fail. I will start at the tail end, yes-yes, and work my way up from there.

The situation in Karak Gnol is more chaotic even than that which you left behind. My predecessor (may he lay forever in the boiling stomach juices of the Great Horned Rat) was too stupid to do away with his more competent and ambitious underlings while he still lived. He thought his cronies in Clan Pestilens would shield him, and they did, but more fool-fool them because now he is dead and a dozen rival chieftains scheme to replace him. None yet recognize my rightful claim, so you see the risk I take sending away so many clanrat warriors, even under the leadership of an expendable deputy like you, and why I demand results.

Not in seven months, Skratch, but now.

I had taken to displaying the heads of my would-be assassins before the entrance to my burrow, but I eventually ran out of spikes. There is a lair-wide shortage of them, I am told. So I have begun adding them to the skavenbrew with the rest of the bodies. The slavemasters inform me that the extra meat is gratefully received in the under-warrens, and perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. The skavenslaves could do with some fattening up. The way things are smelling around here, I may soon need the wretches to fight as well as die-die in the mines.

Given the glowing reports of your progress under Helmgart-place, I have decided that you obviously do not need the reinforcements or the extra funds you requested. My warp tokens are not infinite and I have instead spent your overly generous stipend for this moon-cycle on a Rat Ogre bodyguard for my protection. A far wiser allocation of limited resources, I think-think you will agree.
Now stop chasing after low-hanging tails and give me something I can actually show to my enemies! Bring me a head from the so-called ‘Ubersreik Five’ for starters. Their legend is, I am sure, greatly flattered by the gross incompetence of the skaven they have faced so far, but their deaths by my paw will undoubtedly impress the ignorant masses of Karak Gnol.

Oh, and one more thing, Skratch.

This is important, so listen-hear very closely.

The Pestilent Brotherhood may have done more harm to Clan Fester than the Bloodblight or Rasknitt’s vacuous promises, but I need their warriors and their warpstone if I am to become Warlord. They have their own reasons to loathe the Furless Five, so however you choose to be rid of them – make certain-sure that it is suitably dramatic…

Few things are constant among the Skaven, but their scheming and plotting is one of them. While our Heroes may have foiled Rasknitt, there’s plenty other vermin are eager to hatch their own devious plans. The farsqueaker, a verminous piece of Skryre engineering, allows some of these would-be masterminds to instantly communicate across vast distances with their networks of agents and spies.




Is this thing on?

Do you hear me, master?

The cretinous cog-brained tinker-fool who claims to be master of this farsqueaker contraption insists you can hear me even if I cannot hear you. Something to do with power still bleeding from the failed Skittergate and the great-great mass of this mountain above our heads. For myself, I think-think he must squeak less and work harder. Maybe then his farsqueaker machine will have the power he claims it should.

Excuse me one moment, most patient of potentates. I must supply one quick-quick zap of warplightning to the minions…

…

…

There, that is better.

I swear on the honour of all skaven that Clan Skryre sends only the stupidest and laziest of Warlock Engineers in exchange for your warp-tokens. Their whiskers do not tremble at the first sniff of Clan Fester as once they did. No. But they will learn fast-quick. Yes-yes, master! You can count on Skratch Dirtnose to get the best from your hirelings.

Which brings me to my first, most eagerly expected report…

As you have no doubt already guessed, we have arrived in what remains of the man-thing fortress of Helmgart-place. Even now, we dig out fresh burrows for your warriors and the work so far has been an unmitigated success. Re-opening the collapsed tunnels took slightly longer than promised, it is true, but only because Clan Skryre provided so many defective warp-grinders, forcing us to rely on skavenslaves. Alas, their overseers were too sparing with the warp-prod. But we are here now. Yes-yes! An ALMOST ENTIRELY unmitigated success.

Much of the lair itself remains buried. It will take lots-much work to excavate the most valuable of Rasknitt’s trinkets and to know for sure if any of his misguided lackeys yet live. To sniff this place is to wonder how the Helmgart-place did not sink into the earth when it fell. They say that one should not speak ill of the chosen of the Horned Rat, but to me this seems typical of the Grey Seer’s performance since conniving his way into our great clan’s favour. He could not even fail in a manner befitting of a true skaven!

Despite these minor delays, I assure you that your designs (thanks in no small part to my most humble leadership) remain firmly on track. Give me just three more months. No-no. Better make it seven. Yes-yes. Seven. In seven months, this warren will teem with fearless skaven warriors once again. We shall rebuild all that Rasknitt managed to destroy. We shall win back the pestilential favour that Spinemanglr so recklessly squandered. We shall earn the praise of all skavendom by ridding it of meddlesome heroes.

And then Clan Fester will be ours!

I mean yours, of course.

Yes-yes.

Yours.

I fear I must end my report here, most puissant one. The farsqueaker loses power, and the Warlock Engineer has had to… er… lie down. I wait eagerly for your further instruction and remain, until then, your humblest, unworthiest, and most subservient of servants…

My party is pushing along the walls of Helmgart, when suddenly a hail of bullets rattles the stones around us and forces us to flee for cover. I peek around the side of the pile of lumber where I'm sheltering and spot a Ratling Gunner perched in a precarious spot on top of a nearby hill. "How did he even get up there?" I moan, as the barrage of bullets continues...
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Starting now, the Versus Beta August Test (or BAT!) is live! If you haven't already, make sure to sign up by heading to Vermintide 2's Steam Store page and hitting 'Request Access' on the Playtest!



As mentioned before, this Beta is open to ANYONE, even non-owners of Vermintide 2! Make sure to spread the word to anyone who might be interested! Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your pets, tell strangers!




Versus is an upcoming free new Game mode for Warhammer: Vermintide 2! It’s an asymmetrical PvP+E experience pitting up to 4 Heroes against our AI enemies and up to 4 special players, what we call Pactsworn. A match will take place over several rounds, with each team swapping places between playing the Heroes and the Pactsworn each round. To simplify, each round consists of the Hero team playing a regular game akin to Adventure mode, while the Pactsworn players have to stop them.

Learn more about playing as the Heroes Learn more about playing as the Pactsworn (yes-yes!)


Plenty! We have two big features to highlight: Matchmaking changes and The Horde ability. Alongside that we've also done various balance adjustments and quality of life changes based on previous tests' feedback!

[h2]The Horde Ability[/h2]
One of the bigger features in the Beta is the Pactsworns’ new Horde Ability, available to each of the Pactsworn players on their own individual cooldown. When fully charged and ready, Pactsworn players are able to rally a small horde, spawning a group of AI enemies fighting for them onto the battlefield. This means that Packmasters can summon cover-kin to blend in for sneaky charges, Ratling Gunners can distract Heroes with melee fodder before laying down fire, or the team can sync up and trigger all Hordes at the same time and overwhelm the opposition.

• Cooldown Reduction: While the ability re-charges slowly over time, it is possible to quicken the progress by damaging the enemy team. Play well, and you’ll be able to send barrage after barrage.
  
• Carry over: Ability bar progress is carried over between deaths.

[h2]Matchmaking[/h2]
In the Alphas there were no guardrails preventing (for instance) solo queuing new players to meet an experienced four-stack, meaning that the experience could vary wildly from session to session. This, along with other reported issues, led to us reworking our matchmaking systems.

The new system should, on average, result in lower queue times, finding servers closer to you (resulting in lower latency), and more even games (for example, by trying to pair together premade groups). It will also allow us to more easily monitor the matchmaking in real-time and act quicker if we notice that something isn't working as intended.

It won’t stop variously skilled players from meeting up occasionally, but at least the system should be able to favour other match setups. We hope that this will lead to more balanced and fun games, as well as lay a better foundation for future feedback.

[h2]Features and Gameplay Changes[/h2]
[h3]Gamepad Support[/h3]
Controllers/Gamepads are now properly supported for Versus! Now that we are rounding up the core set of features we can finalize button assignments and focus on input tweaking to bring the controller experience up to par. For gamepad gamers out there, please let us know any feedback you have about the new implementation in this Beta!

[h3]Pactsworn HUD and UI[/h3]
We have re-done a lot of the Pactsworns’ heads-up-display in terms of art, gameplay and general quality of life.

• New Horde Ability progress bar.
• Updated Health bars.
• Ability Bar: Each Pactsworn has all of their available moves and abilities listed in the HUD, with cooldowns and input clearly shown in an effort to make the characters easier to pick play.
  
• Updated enemy health bars: Wounds, Streak Damage, Regular– and Temporary HP are now displayed directly above the Heroes’ heads.
  
• Ally information: Your fellow Pactsworns’ respawn timers are now displayed above their heads along with their names, hopefully making teamwork easier to pull off.

[h3]Ping adjustments[/h3]
The ping/tagging system has been adjusted to be more responsive, particularly noticeable for the Hero side. As in Adventure mode, pings should now be instantaneous and prioritize marking enemies better. This should make the system more responsive, intuitive and fluid, while still retaining the ability to place world markers and use the Social Wheel for more detailed callouts.

[h3]Health Draughts and Medical Supplies[/h3]
We are reconsidering how we should view health pick-ups in Versus. We want healing to have intent and consequences, and to be something that Pactsworn are able to make use of as well.

• Level placement: We have moved all healing supplies to be more prominent on each level’s main path. By becoming easy to see “hot spots”, we should be able to create even more interesting and intense scenarios, inviting the Pactsworn to use them for ambushes.

[h3]Other Changes[/h3]

• Updated the visual effects on the Warpfire Thrower and the Poison Wind Globadier. On top of looking better, these new VFX should better reflect the effective Area of Effect of their abilities when active.
  
• Adjusted objectives in Against the Grain to deter speedrunning and running ahead of the team.

[h2]Balance Changes[/h2]
[h3]Poison Wind Globadier[/h3]
The Globadier has remained an undisputed menace throughout the Alpha period, and we still want to keep him that way, but things will be a little different for the Beta. We've lowered the base damage of a globe's gas, but also added a ramping damage curve to Poison Wind tick damage, meaning damage increases exponentially over time.
Mindlessly throwing globes won’t be as effective anymore, but catching unfortunate Heroes in a bad spot will create just as much chaos as before.
[h3]Ratling Gunner[/h3]
The Ratling Gunner has received a healthy check-up on some basic values that should make him a bit more dexterous and effective at range (where he should be shining best).

• Decreased start up and reload duration.
  
• Increased effective range and bullet speed.
  
• Decreased bullet spread.

[h3]Packmaster[/h3]
When a Packmaster hooks a Hero and walks off an edge, the Hero will now hang from the ledge instead of falling to their doom. Was fun while it lasted, hehehe.

[h3]Bile Troll[/h3]
Introduced in our last test, the Bile Troll is a rare, playable boss that one random player will get to play as each round. He is large, in charge, and full of gross green stuff. For the Beta, we have focused on getting in a bit more polish and making him more fun to use.

• Adjusted movement acceleration to give a more sluggish and weighty feel to the character, as well as to limit twitchy movement.
  
• Reworked the Bile Vomit attack on a few different points:
  
  • The ability now has the option to be charged and held, letting players aim more accurately and prepare their attack. Hold the F key to start charging and let go to puke.
    
  • Added an aim indicator to better display where the vomit will land and the rough ground area that gets covered.

As always, we hope you have tons of fun playing Versus! Enjoy the Beta, invite your friends, and give us ALL of your feedback! We rely on you, your experiences and your opinions to perfect this exciting new game mode!

If you have any more doubts or questions, check out our FAQ.

Hi my name is Joakim Setterberg and I’m the Design Director on Vermintide 2. In this devblog I want to talk about Versus’ upcoming Beta August Test - or BAT - coming August 21st. With the BAT we’re wrapping up most of the larger systems and features of the core game mode. With a few exceptions, our main focus up to release will be to work with surrounding systems and refining the content, to polish the Versus experience and, to quote the team, “fix the jank”.

First, a note on feedback. For every test we do we collect as much of your feedback as possible to find out what we can improve and fix. We sort it, rank it, and talk about what we want to accomplish for the next test. Sometimes there’s a straight-forward way to solve a problem or to implement a suggestion, but other times we’ll go in a slightly different direction, if we believe a problem lies elsewhere. That takes us to our two big features we’re introducing for the BAT: the Pactsworn Horde ability and matchmaking.

Feedback from the last test, the RAT, showed that you wanted something more for the Pactsworn gameplay - like abilities or talents. We also saw requests for notifications when director controlled Hordes were about to spawn, or calls to introduce a Pactsworn special with horde summoning as a singular purpose. These were good requests, but we felt that the Pactsworn side would play even stronger if Hordes were more integrated in active player combat, rather than being played reactive. In the finest Clan Moulder tradition we stitched everything together.

The Horde ability gives all Pactsworn specials a way to summon a small Horde on their own, introducing a tactical element to the gameplay loop. This means that Packmasters can summon cover-kin to blend in for sneaky charges, Ratling Gunners can distract Heroes with melee fodder before laying down fire, or the team can sync up and trigger all Hordes at the same time and overwhelm the opposition. The Horde ability is on a timed cooldown, which decreases faster with successful attacks with your current Pactsworn special and carries over between deaths.
We are excited to see how you interact with this new feature and hear what you think about it, looking forward to your feedback on this one.

A bit trickier were various feedback regarding Pactsworn or Hero balancing, speed running, match quitters and a general feeling of unfairness: all valid points, which we’ll be tackling moving forwards, but this also highlighted one big underlying issue: the lack of matchmaking. In the Alphas there were no guardrails preventing (for instance) solo queuing new players to meet an experienced four-stack, meaning that the experience could vary wildly from session to session. We believe that some of the “unbalanced experience” feedback may originate from this.

For the Beta, we’ve opted to rework our current matchmaking system. It's always been in our mind to improve it as much as possible, and after hearing your feedback from the Alphas we decided to go with a new solution for Versus. The new system should, on average, result in lower queue times, finding servers closer to you (resulting in lower latency), and more even games (for example, by trying to pair together premade groups). It will also allow us to more easily monitor the matchmaking in real-time and act quicker if we notice that something isn't working as we intended.

It won’t stop variously skilled players from meeting up occasionally, but at least the system should be able to favour other match setups. We hope that this will lead to more balanced and fun games, as well as lay a better foundation for future feedback.

On the usability side we are adding gamepad support for those who enjoy button mashing over keyboard smashing. Now that we are rounding up the core feature set we can finalize button assignments and focus on input tweaking to bring the controller experience up to par.

On the quality of life, balancing and bug fixes side there’s a number of things that are changed since the RAT. Some highlights include:

• We’ve updated the Pactsworn UI to display more useful information.
  
  • Enemy healthbars now also display stuff like remaining Wounds and shows regular and temporary HP as separate.
    
  • Your Pactsworn’s abilities and moves are all displayed in the HUD and it also shows their cooldowns.
  • Allies now have their names and respawn timers shown above their heads, hopefully making teamwork easier.
• We have moved all healing supplies to be more prominent on each level’s main path. By becoming easy to see “hot spots”, we should be able to create even more interesting and intense scenarios, inviting the Pactsworn to use them for ambushes.
  
• Based on prior test feedback we’ve made the Bile Troll a bit slower and less twitchy, but also gave him the ability to hold his vomit attack to aim it better before launching it.
  
• Buffed the Ratling Gunner by speeding up his ramp up and reload times as well as improving his effective range.
  
• Nerfed the Globadier slightly by making the initial damage of a globe lower but making that damage ramp up dramatically over time.
  
  • Mindlessly throwing globes won’t be as effective anymore, but catching unfortunate Heroes in a bad spot will create just as much chaos as before.
• Tweaked some objectives on Against the Grain to deter speedrunning and running ahead.
  
• Tweaked the VFX for the Warpfire Thrower and Globadier. On top of looking better, these should be easier to read in first person and more accurately show the actual area of effect.
  

For all of these features we are of course looking for further testing and feedback.

After the BAT ends, we aim to do at least one more Beta test focusing on some final systems and whatever adjustments come from the feedback we receive during this test. We unfortunately can’t give any details on what it’ll contain at this time, but we’ll tell you guys more when we get there.

On behalf of the entire Vermintide team, thank you for helping shape Versus into something great. See you in a BAT!