Warhammer: Vermintide 2 News

Versus! The Returning Alpha Test is now live! Hotfix 5.5.6

[h2] Hotfix 5.5.6 - 4th of June[/h2]
[h3] Versus[/h3]

Fixed a couple of crashes related to unspawned or unselected characters

Fixed server crash that'd occur when players leave during hero select before being put on a specific side

Versus Voip Clients won't be in voip chat anymore when they have voice chat disabled

Bestigors won't crash dedicated servers while charging through Chaos Warriors anymore.

Fixed server crash in character select related to a player friend joining a game after another player leaves.

Fixed frame perfect server crash when player hot-joins at the same time as a Pactsworn character die-die

Fixed two crashes for Gamepad users caused by UI shenanigans.

Fixed server crash when a player hot joins during a small window when a match finishes

Defrosted the Globadiers' frozen hands and instead will do the reload animation at the end of the cooldown.

[h2] Hotfix 5.5.4 - 31th of May[/h2]
[h3] Versus[/h3]

Disabled Crafting and Spoils of War for Legacy UI

Lowered base movement speed of Bile Troll slightly.
[h3] General [/h3]

Fixed crash related to gaining the boon "Ranald's Mighty Gamble" and swapping from a higher power level weapon to a lower power level weapon.

Fixed a crash occuring when bot loadouts and clients are not in agreement on which loadout the host should use.

Fixed a bug where Outcast Engineer skips the first two shots when shooting. Also, tap shooting works again.

Fixed the temporary mod fix. It should really be fixed now.

Fixed a crash that would occur if you salvaged an item equipped on a different loadout

[h2] Hotfix 5.5.3 - 30th of May [/h2]
[h3] Features & Tweaks [/h3]

Limited loadout manager mod error logs to one unique log per level.

[h3] Fixes [/h3]

Fixed a Crash when a player activates an ability during the end of a game.

(Versus) Fixed so Ratling gunner can't shoot through a monster.

Fixed various crashes in Versus.

Temporary mod fix for UI Tweaks in Versus when attempting to render an ammo counter in team portraits as Pactsworn.

[h2]Developer Stream - Friday 16:00 CEST[/h2]
Make sure to tune in to our twitch channel tomorrow at 16:00 CEST to catch a stream with our developers! Join our Host Tom as he talks with Product Owner Erik and Design Director Joakim about the current Versus Alpha, the new changes and additions made since then, answer questions from the community and they play a round or two of Versus!

Heroes and Pactsworn!

Welcome to the Returning Alpha Test, or RAT for short! Starting today until June 9th, you’ll be able to hop on Versus straight from the main Vermintide 2 game! Simply make sure to pick ‘Versus’ from the main menu to enter the Versus lobby and access its matchmaking. This test is open to all owners of Vermintide 2 on PC, so tell your friends, tell your family, tell your pets, get everyone in here!

Last test was our first time opening Versus to our entire player base and it was overall a great success! We saw great reception and got invaluable feedback from all of you, and we’re really hyped to see you guys try out the changes and the newest additions!

In case you missed it, here’s a link to the latest Versus Dev Blog, where we go over our thoughts and takeaways from the previous Alpha Test:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/552500/view/4139441932569145653

[h2]New addition: Playable Bile Troll![/h2]
As said in our previous announcement, this test shall see the first iteration of one of our most highly requested features: Playable monsters! For this test, we’ll be starting with the Bile Troll.

When it’s time for a Monster to spawn, one lucky member of the Pactsworn team will get to spawn as the Bile Troll and wreak havoc on the Hero team!

The Bile Troll is controlled in a manner similar to Heroes. Tapping Attack (Default: Left Mouse Click) will result in sweeping light attacks. Holding Attack will result in heavy unblockable attacks with the Bile Troll’s axe. Pressing the Career Skill button (Default: F) will let you puke acid bile on your tiny foes (The Bile Troll’s puke ability has a cooldown!). You can also crouch with the usual crouch button (Default: Left Control).

[h2]New Map: Against the Grain[/h2]
We have a new map for you guys to test out during this Alpha: Against the Grain! This classic map has been adapted from its Adventure version, similar to how the previous two maps were adapted, changing parts of the level, adding more objectives and overall tweaking it to make it more fitting for Versus.

We’re very curious about how you guys feel about this map in the context of Versus! The team wants to really nail not just this map specifically, but also in general what works and what doesn’t work for Versus maps, so please give us all your feedback!

We’ll have this as our only map at first but we’ll be adding the previously tested maps (Righteous Stand and Screaming Bell) to the map rotation later on during the test.

[h2]Gameplay Changes[/h2]
Whether you played the last Alpha Test or you’re just curious, here are the highlights of the main changes done to the game mode since the last test, including the Balance Changes done to both Heroes and Pactsworns alike. Please note that the balance changes mentioned here will ONLY affect Versus! As we’ve said before, we will never affect the balance of the PvE game modes of Vermintide solely for the sake of Versus’ balance.

Loadouts
The recently added Loadouts feature will also be available in Versus, with its own separate slots! We’ve also included two pre-made loadouts for each career, designed by our developers, to serve as a starting point for new players or those who just don’t want to bother making brand new loadouts for Versus and just want to jump right in!

Temporary Health will now decay faster
As healing items are limited in Versus, we don't want THP to be the only way to stay alive, nor do we want it to invalidate the efforts of the Pactsworn team. We will evaluate these changes during this test, but please let us know how you feel about them.

Increased the rate at which Temporary HP decays by 20%
Increased the amount of Temporary HP lost per tick by 50%

Pactsworn Choices Tweaks
We’ve added a weighted system to the RNG choices offered to Pactsworn players when they’re about to spawn to reduce the chances of multiples of the same special being present at the same time.

Warrior Priest

Nerfed the duration of Shield of Faith (Career Skill) from 5 seconds to 2 seconds
- We are working on getting the correct tooltip in.
Unyielding Blessing talent now makes the shield last for 5 seconds instead of 10 seconds.
Damage of Shield of Faith explosion is lowered against all enemy types except Monster.

Ironbreaker

Nerfed the Gromril Curse talent: now also makes the cooldown of Gromril Armour longer (from 20 seconds to 30 seconds).
- We are working on getting the correct tooltip in.

Sister of the Thorn

The Deepwood Staff has received an internal cooldown of 40 seconds specifically affecting lifting Pactsworn players. The rest of the staff functions normally, but you can’t lift up an enemy player until the cooldown has expired.

Reduced damage of all crossbows.

Warpfire Thrower

HP has been increased from 25 to 50
Damage has been increased from 2.5 per tick to 3.0 per tick.
Knockback has been increased.

And that’s about it for now! We’ll be monitoring your feedback on the new changes and additions, alongside everyone’s thoughts and feedback on Versus as a whole! Hope you guys have fun this week!

Hotfix 5.5.2 - 30th of May - Patchnotes

[h3]Known Issues[/h3]

Voip is currently not functioning as intended in Versus. We are investigating
The mod 'UI Tweaks' is currently causing crashes. Please disable until resolved to avoid issues.

[h3] Features & Tweaks [/h3]

Added 3 more loadout slots to all careers.
Increased the duration of the Skulls event buff by 50%. Get crazy for longer! Suffer from withdrawal less often!
Added an option to quit the game directly without going to the main menu.
Added an option to rebind the Chaos Wastes miracle keybind (Default: i)
Implemented a way to patch sanctioned mods until they are updated by the owner. This should increase the lifespan of sanctioned mods, most importantly abandoned ones.
- Loadout Manager mod no longer gives bots adventure items in Chaos Wastes.
- Loadout Manager mod can also no longer overwrite the player's versus loadout with adventure items.
(Chaos Wastes) 'Taal's Roar' boon: Increased radius by 67%. Increased stagger power against armored enemies by 67%.
(Chaos Wastes Skulls Event) Event boon rarity reduced from 60% chance to 37.5%.

[h3] Fixes [/h3]

Fixed an issue with unreachable respawn spots in the Citadel of Eternity.
Fixed the host crown icon failing to display on the Holseher's Map in the Chaos Waste.
Fixed a bug where using the Hide HUD option while posing did not hide Grail Knight quests.
Fixed the Twitch mode "More Info" description text going out of bounds and overlapping with search Tab.
Fixed the "Curse of tainted blood" effect on the player's health UI going out of bounds until the player stayed idle for the curse recovery.
Fixed a localization issue in all languages.
Fixed the Bloodthirster Frame in Lohner's Emporium of Wonders having an outfit icon instead of a frame icon in its thumbnail.
Fixed the icons for the equippable careers for the Bloodthirster Frame going out of bounds.
Fixed a placeholder icon being shown for the Bloodthirster Frame when accessing it from the Featured tab.
Fixed inconsistencies with Outcast Engineer's career skill attack charge sound sometimes not triggering
Fixed "Piston Power" Engineer talent sound effect being heard by the non-engineer Host if their engineer bot had the talent.
Fixed Be'lakor homing skulls curse not playing related sounds when outside of a Be'lakor node (due to weekly event, for example).
Fixed Huntsman longbow not displaying an arrow when weave skin is applied.
Fixed a bug where players were not able to apply weave skins to Bretonnian Sword and Shield and Bretonnian Longsword if they didn't own the Grail Knight cosmetic dlc upgrade.
Fixed a Ranger Veteran infinite stealth exploit from using ability again before first one runs out. Huh, I'm getting Deja Vu...
Fixed a bug where oil barrel challenge was completable in levels than other A Parting of the Waves.
Fixed the Inventory Details screen failing to close while pressing the I/Esc on the Holseher's Map in the Chaos Wastes.
Fixed a bug where Taal's Roar boon did not receive lower cooldown depending on missing health. Now cooldown is halved at 30% health.
Fixed a bug where Anath Raema's Cruel Volley boon does not increase cost on moonfire bow
Fixed a bug where subtitles were not displayed when enemy lords hold dialogues.
Fixed occasional crash when switching loadout to a loadout with different weapons, and swapping a weapon.
Fixed a crash when the game tried to remove a buff that no longer existed.
Fixed crash related to being affected by multiple support or aura boons at once.
Fixed crash for voip when getting broken connection to the host
Fixed crash when throwing javelins or throwing axes and swapping weapons before it lands.

[h2]What is Versus?[/h2]
Versus is a free new Game mode for Warhammer: Vermintide 2! It’s an asymmetrical PvP+E 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 the Hero team must play a regular game akin to Adventure mode, while the Pactsworn players have to stop them.

And for those who haven’t tried out Versus yet or want to know more, have a look at our Versus FAQ

New Vermintide 2 update brings back Versus, but not for long

Warhammer Vermintide 2 is now six years old, with a passionate fanbase that could rival games twice its size. In the wake of Warhammer Skulls 2024, fans and newcomers alike will have ample reason to jump in and see what Fatshark has to offer, with a huge new patch, and exciting news about Versus.

Read the rest of the story...

Versus! The Returning Alpha Test, coming May 30!

[h2]Watch our latest trailer here![/h2]

Heroes!

We’ll be running a new Alpha soon, the Returning Alpha Test, or RAT for short! Thanks for all your naming suggestions from the last dev blog.

The RAT will be open to all owners of Vermintide 2, and it’ll run between May 30 - June 9 on PC.

[Event is LIVE! Check out the patch notes here:]
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/552500/view/4148457371248323324

[h2]Loadout system for Versus[/h2]
The loadouts system will see its own set of loadouts for Versus since we expect that you’ll need very different builds compared to Adventure Mode! The Versus version of the loadouts will also see each career having 2 base loadouts made by our developers. For new players unfamiliar with the game, or those who don’t want to bother making new builds for Versus, these premade loadouts can make things simpler and let you jump into Versus without having to bother with all that!

[h2]New map for Versus: Against the Grain![/h2]
We’ve prepared another map for you guys to try out in this new round of testing: Against the Grain! As with previous maps, it has seen modifications to its layout and objectives compared to Adventure mode to fit better with the Versus Game mode. Please give us all the feedback you can on how you find this map for playability, especially compared to the previous maps we’ve had in tests (if you’ve played them!)

[h2]Playable Monster: Bile Troll![/h2]
One of the most popular requests from our previous tests is finally here: Getting to play as a Monster when it spawns! For this round of testing, we’ll have the Bile Troll available. When it’s time for a monster to spawn during the match, one lucky Pactsworn player will get to pick to spawn as him and take the reins!

Acid puke NOT optional!

[h2]Balance changes[/h2]
Based on the results from the last Alpha Test and your feedback, there have been some adjustments to the balancing of Versus. These changes ONLY affect Versus and do not impact Adventure mode.

We’ve increased the speed at which temporary health decays, as the strength of THP from kill talents and career skills resulted in Heroes being able to easily ignore health attrition.

We’ve tweaked the RNG behind the Pactsworn special choices. Before it was purely random, there is now a weighted system to reduce the chances of multiple of the same Special at the same time.

We’ve lowered the damage dealt by ALL crossbows, as they were a bit too efficient at sniping specials, acting practically like handguns.

Sister of the Thorn’s Deepwood staff has received an internal cooldown specifically affecting lifting Pactsworn players. The rest of the staff functions normally, but you can’t lift up an enemy player until the cooldown has expired.

Warrior Priest’s Career Skill, Shield of Faith, has received an increased cooldown, reduced duration of the effect, and lowered the damage of the explosion against all enemy types except Monsters.

Ironbreaker’s Gromril Curse has been nerfed to increase the cooldown of Gromril Armour to 30 seconds when equipped.

And finally, the charming lil Warpfire Thrower has been buffed to deal more damage, spew fire for longer before having to reload, and move faster while firing!

That’s all the info we have for now! See you all on Versus, Heroes and Pactsworn alike, on the 30th!

Patch 5.5.0 LIVE NOW + Hotfix 5.5.1! Quality of Life Update, Skulls 2024

[h2] Hotfix 5.5.1 - 24th of May[/h2]
[h3] Fixes[/h3]

Fixed a network crash related to loadouts.

(Chaos Wastes) Fixed crash if gaining "Ranald's Mighty Gamble" boon while wielding a level object.

(Chaos Wastes) Fixed a crash on Slaughter Bay related to pathfinding.

(Chaos Wastes) Fixed a host crash when Necromancer's skeletons walked into healing zones spawned by bombs with certain boons.

Fixed the Tri-skull Crown missing its store icon on Lohner's Emporium.

Fixed the pop ups for unseen rewards never showing up.

Heroes!

The time has come again to celebrate Warhammer through the Skulls event!
Between May 23 - June 9 you can rampage through the Vermintide in the Skulls for the Skull Throne in-game event. Earn new rewards by collecting skulls, or just participate in the carnage.

Together with the in-game event we also released Patch 5.5.0 - Quality of Life update. It contains a mix of improvements, fixes, and additions that should improve the experience across all game modes. See below for more information on the update and the in-game event.

Skulls for the Skull Throne, Blood for the Blood God!

Patch 5.5.0 - Quality of Life Update

[h2]Loadout system for Adventure mode[/h2]

[h3]Personal Loadouts[/h3]
Loadouts are finally officially coming to Vermintide 2! This feature allows you save different combinations of gear & talents as loadouts that you can quickly swap between while in the Keep. Any changes done to your talents or gear while being ‘on’ a loadout will automatically save to that loadout.

[h3]Bot Loadouts[/h3]
You can also mark one of your loadouts per character as a ‘Bot’ loadout, in which case whenever you are the host, the bots can use specific loadouts that you’ve tailor-made for that bot.

We want to give a shoutout to Squatting Bear for his sanctioned Loadout Manager mod, which covered these features until we could implement it ourselves. Thank you, Squatting Bear!

[h2]Chaos Wastes[/h2]
[h3]New boons[/h3]
We’ve added over 25 new boons to Chaos Wastes. We’ve got some exciting boons to add a lot of juice to your expeditions! New auras, new effects for your bombs, new actions triggered by your career skill, new effects triggered based on your choices during the expedition, new event boons, and more!

[h3]Boon Sets[/h3]
This is a new mechanic that we’re introducing with this update. Certain boons are part of a ‘set’ of specific boons. Gaining all of the boons within a set in the same expedition unlocks a powerful effect for the rest of the expedition.

New boons introduced with patch 5.5.0:

Boon name

Description

Grungni's Bombardment

Bombs have reduced range, but have more explosion radius and Damage.

Bomb of Alchemical Concentration

Your Bombs consecrate the ground for a few seconds on impact. Players within the consecrated ground gain increased Career Skill Cooldown Speed.

Bomb of Alchemical Lethality

Your Bombs consecrate the ground for a few seconds on impact. Players within the consecrated ground gain increased Critical Strike Chance.

Bomb of Alchemical Rejuvenation

Your Bombs consecrate the ground for a few seconds on impact. Players within the consecrated ground will rejuvenate health.

Bomb of Alchemical Alacrity

Your Bombs consecrate the ground for a few seconds on impact. Players within the consecrated ground gain increased Attack Speed.

Bomb of Alchemical Strength

Your Bombs consecrate the ground for a few seconds on impact. Players within the consecrated ground gain increased Power.

Ranald's Spiteful Plunder

When a Chest of Trials is activated, it creates consecrated ground that grants you increased Damage for a few seconds.

Ranald's Hearty Plunder

When a Chest of Trials is activated, it creates consecrated ground that grants you increased Cooldown reduction for a few seconds.

Harrying Boon of Hoeth's Precision

Headshots spawn multiple projectiles that seek out enemies.

Harrying Boon of Hoeth's Deflection

Parries spawn multiple projectiles that seek out enemies.

Harrying Boon of Hoeth's Perfection

Critical Hits spawn multiple projectiles that seek out enemies.

Myrmidia's Wildfire

An enemy that dies while Burning inflicts a Burning to nearby enemies, causing Damage over time.

Myrmidia's Cleansing Flame

Your Career Skill also Burns nearby enemies for damage over time.

Lileath's Prophetic Bolt

Your Career Skill also spawns a projectile that seeks out enemies.

Drakira's Flensing

Your Career Skill also inflicts Bleed on nearby enemies.

Mathlann's Storm-Strike

Your Career Skill also calls down lightning strikes on nearby enemies.

Atharti's Venomous Affection

Your Career Skill also inflicts Poison on nearby enemies for Damage over time.

Lileath's Blessed Destiny

Increases your Career Skill maximum charges.

Taal's Roar

Periodically send out a shockwave that staggers nearby enemies. Cooldown decreases with missing health.

Valaya's Boozy Grant

Enemies close to you take increased Stagger from teammates.

Ulric's Valour

Enemies close to you take increased Damage from teammates.

Lileath's Favour

Gain increased Damage and Attack Speed per active Boon.

Lileath's Avenger

You again increased Damage against enemies near to allies.

Lileath's Disruptor

You gain increased Stagger against enemies near to allies.

Ranald's Mighty Gamble

You gain massively increased Critical Hit Chance, decreased by the Rarity Level of your Currently Equipped Weapon.

Ranald's Hasty Gamble

You gain increased Cooldown reduction, decreased by the Rarity Level of your Highest Rarity Weapon.

Anath Raema's Cruel Volley

Ranged attacks inflict increased Damage, but use more ammo.

Taal’s Crippling Shot

Enemies hit with your Ranged Weapon take increased Damage from you for a few seconds.

These don’t include the effects found in boon sets, or some event-specific boons that might be popping up!

[h3]Weekly Expedition[/h3]
Similar to the Weekly Event game mode for Adventure, we’re adding a ‘Weekly Expedition’ mode in Chaos Wastes. These are Chaos Wastes expeditions with a specific Boon and a specific Curse that will affect every level of that expedition. Be warned, things get real bloody, real fast, in proper Vermintide 2 tradition. The specific Boon and Curse combination will depend on what we set each week, good luck!

Each week, the first completion of the Weekly Event game mode will grant you a new reward based on difficulty, including shillings, chests, red dust, and one of a new set of runed weapon illusions: the weapons of Bitter Dreams, blessed by Lileath herself.

Also, similar to the Weekly Event game-mode, participating in some in-game events might involve completing a special event version of the Weekly Expedition. Did you know it’s Skulls for the Skull Throne this week? Foreshadowing…
[h3]Stability Pass[/h3]
We’ve also taken a stability pass at the overall Chaos Wastes game-mode:
- Fixing several bugs
- Chaos Wastes-specific levels to plug some holes, fix some issues, improve pathfinding (both of Bots and enemies)
- Improve player Navigation, hang ledges, etc.
You can read the full patch notes below!

This was done mostly based on information from Community bug reports, so we want to thank you all for all the bug reporting you do! Your information and participation is invaluable.

[h2]Weaves of Magic[/h2]
[h3]Winds of Magic Illusions in Adventure[/h3]
We haven’t forgotten about this! Owners of the Winds of Magic expansion can now use the illusions from the Athanor weapons of the Weaves of Magic game mode in Adventure Mode. Simply unlock the weapon in the Athanor and you will have the new illusion unlocked for that weapon!

[h3]Weaves Game Mode improvements[/h3]
We’ve made some changes to the game mode to tackle some of the issues with the mode itself. For starters, bots can now accompany you in public Ranked Weaves, which should help with the biggest blocker for those lacking a dedicated 4-man group for Weaves.

The second thing is that running out of time no longer ends the match prematurely. This is the second biggest issue we’ve seen that prevents players from properly engaging with the game mode. Running out of time still disqualifies your team from scoring for the leaderboards, but at least you can still complete the match!

On the subject of leaderboards, the leaderboard will now default to showing friends’ scores only (you can still manually check the global leaderboards, though!).

Skulls for the Skull Throne!

And Blood for the Blood God! It’s that time of the year again when we celebrate Warhammer as a whole together! From May 23 to June 9, join your fellow Heroes in glorious carnage, slaughtering as many foes as possible!

[h2]Blood-Red Weapon Illusionsred weapon illusions - The Kill Counter[/h2]
We’ll be counting each and every kill from all of you, and if the community as a whole reaches 1,000,000,000 kills across all platforms and game modes before the event ends, you will all earn five new Khorne-inspired Weapon Illusions!

You can check out the community’s progress by going in here: https://www.vermintide.com/counter
New Khorne-y Portrait Frame
Collect 100 skulls, scattered across Helmgart and beyond, to earn this year’s event frame! Progress in this event challenge can be earned across Adventure mode and Chaos Wastes!

[h2]Lohner’s Emporium of Old Wonders[/h2]
Did you miss last year’s event rewards? Fret not! For the duration of the event, you can visit Lohner’s Emporium to spend your hard-earned shillings on unlocking any rewards from last year’s Skulls event that you might’ve missed the first time around.

Without further ado…

Patch 5.5.0 patch notes

Note: We’re still investigating the issue of patch sizes being abnormally large on our Vermintide Steam releases. We’re getting closer to a solution, but for now there might still be patches and hotfixes that have an abnormally large download and install size. We apologize for the inconvenience in the meantime.
[h3] Features & Tweaks [/h3]

Added a Loadouts system, letting you save and quickly switch to and from presets of gear & talents that you've made.
Chaos Wastes boon update: Added over 25 new boons and introduced the concept of Boon Sets.
Chaos Wastes Weekly Expedition: Similar to Adventure mode's Weekly Event, embark on a Weekly Expedition with unique modifiers! Earn the weapon illusions of Bitter Dreams.
Chaos Wastes Chest of Trials: Added a chest of trials for the Chaos Warrior with Mace & Shield.
Chaos Wastes Chest of Trials: Did a balance pass on the infamous Ungor Warherd chest of trials. Should be a bit more reasonable now!
Athanor Illusions: Made illusions from the Winds of Magic Athanor available in Adventure mode.
Weaves no longer end on timeout.
Bots are now useable in non-private Ranked Weaves.
Changed the Weaves leaderboards to default to friends only.
Temporarily enabled the Skulls for the Skull throne Keep decorations. You'll be seeing red for a while...
Re-implemented the feature to re-connect to host on temporary disconnection. This was originally disabled because it could cause crashes.
Added new voicelines for pinging monsters near you.
Added new voicelines for pinging warpfire throwers.

[h3] Fixes [/h3]

Fixed hotjoining client crash if the joining client replaces a Necromancer bot just as it uses its ability.
Fixed a really obtuse crash in Chaos Wastes relating to the Coruscation staff and weapon shrines.
Fixed players crashing in chaos wastes when completing a level after the previous host left during last map session.
Fixed a small time window during loading screen where players in the game swapping weapons may cause the joining client to crash.
Fixed the issue that caused voicelines to not trigger when picking up or dropping Grimoires.
Fixed several issues with erroneous subtitles and mistargeted dialogue events that affected all characters.
Fixed a bug where Handmaiden's 2-2 talent "Oak Stance" didn't grant non-host players the increased critical strike chance.
Fixed an issue with the inspect animation on the repeater handguns that made the cocking hammers act all wonky.
Chaos Wastes level fixes:
- The Foetid Gorge: Fixed a misplaced killzone that players could walk into and instantly die.
- The Foetid Gorge: Fixed an upgrade shrine and a boon altar that could spawn inside the terrain.
- The Foetid Gorge: Fixed several spots where Heroes could get stuck in.
- The Foetid Gorge: Fixed an issue where the event barrel could spawn in an unreachable location.
- Count Mordrek's Fortress: Fixed some issues with Heroes respawning behind events when they shouldn't.
- Count Mordrek's Fortress: Fixed the geometry around some stone steps to be smoother to navigate.
- Bel'sha'ziir's Mine: Fixed several spots where heroes could get stuck due to geometry or invisible collision.
- Bel'sha'ziir's Mine: Moved some decorations around in the Slaanesh version that could block movement.
- Cinder Peak: Adjusted a couple of pillars that could make movement difficult.
- Cinder Peak: Fixed an issue where enemies could not spawn in a certain spot due to a boon shrine.
- Cinder Peak: Fixed several spots where heroes could get stuck.
- Cinder Peak: Fixed a spot where players could hang from a ledge inside the terrain.
- Cinder Peak: Fixed a rare issue where players joining half way would see a wrong, lower detail version of the level, making progression through certain parts impossible.
- Cinder Peak: Fixed a rare issue where players joining half way would not see the gate open and thus couldn't go through it.
- Slaughter Bay: Fixed an issue where the first respawn point available was too far from the level start.
- Slaughter Bay: Fixed a spot where enemies would just fall over, dead.
- Slaughter Bay: Fixed several spots where heroes could get stuck.
- Citadel of Eternity: Fixed an issue where players joining mid-way would be missing some moving floors and stairs, making progression impossible for these clients.
- Citadel of Eternity: Fixed an issue where specials could spawn on invisible stairs.
- Arena of Determination: Fixed a spot where enemies would spawn dead. Enough pranking the Nurglites, Tzeentch!
- Arena of Determination: Fixed an issue where the purifying torch from the Nurgle curse would spawn in an unreachable spot.

Dev Blog: Sound Design

My name is Anton and I’ve been working as a sound designer at Fatshark and Vermintide 2 for the past two and a half years. I have been working as a sound designer for the past ten years and have been working with and around music and sound for as long as I can remember.

Trivia about me:

I have the best dog named Håkan
I can tie my shoes really fast (worked part-time in a shoe store for a couple of years)
I’ll turn off a movie or show if they have bad-sounding doors.

In this developer blog, I’d like to highlight what it takes to add to and administer an already great sound landscape (soundscape) present in Vermintide 2. Mostly, I want to highlight some details in the sound design of Vermintide 2.

On Vermintide 2 we currently have two sound designers: myself and David. I create and implement most of the sound effects while our audio lead, David, handles the VO. Both of us started working at Fatshark post-launch of Vermintide 2, so we’ve worked a lot with managing the already great soundscape while still evolving and exploring new ideas.

How do we do that? Well - I try to incorporate my voice in as many assets as I can, literally. As of now, I’ve been a rat in a hat, Sienna's skeletons, a giant pig in the Tower of Treachery, dying seagulls in Karak Azgaraz, Belakor’s flying skulls, poxwalker D (in Darktide), and now a lighthouse. Because I had a planned vacation, David got the honor of voicing our Nurglings - and I’m very jealous.

[h2]How I created the sounds for The Lighthouse[/h2]

The lighthouse would be the centerpiece of the level, and it is possessed by Nurgle. Then and there I knew it needed some cool sounds. Obviously. When I started working on the first sound concepts, the gameplay implications were wild. I wanted to muffle all other sounds when you’re hit by the light beam emitting from the lighthouse. When you're hit by the beam, voices would start whispering to you. All of these ideas were fun but from a gameplay standpoint, they were not feasible. However, the ideas were not in vain.

While working on this, our writer Matt Ward recorded some voice lines that we could use for testing and prototyping. Matt did a great job, but I wanted to test with a more guttural approach to the Grandfather of Sickness. And how did I achieve that? You guessed it - I recorded myself.

Sidenote - I tend to record myself because it's very easy to iterate, press record, press export, start the game, listen, and do it again until you get the feeling right. I’m very easy to direct when I’m the director.

To make my voice sound like an ancient God of Chaos I used a lot of effects. I recorded myself at a very high sample rate, that’s a trick used when you want to change the pitch of the voice more freely without quality loss. Then I added my usual effects, compression, eq, delays, and reverbs. But something was still missing. It sounded a bit generic. Then I remembered an effect that could modify and blend multiple sounds in a very interesting way. I found this recording of stirring macaroni that sounded perfectly mushy, gross, wet, and sticky. That worked out great to get an even more guttural sound to my voice.

However, I was still not happy, it still sounded a bit human. Then I remembered Matt’s recordings. What would happen if I blended his voice lines with mine and added the macaroni? Success! It sounds so strange, so big, so gross in a cool way.

And this was only one layer. We still thought it would be too intrusive to have this played for the entire duration of the level. We also wanted to save the big guns for the big end event. I designed some drones with some synthesizers and rumbles, whispers, and gore. This would become what you hear when you're far away. In the level, I added some zones where it’s not as audible, so you get natural dynamics in the soundscape.

I would love to talk even more about the process, but hopefully, this gives a small insight into the sound design workflow. It was a lot of trial and error, implementations, attenuation curves, balancing, playtesting, playtesting, and playtesting. In the end when we added the wonderful music from our composer Two Feathers it all came together.

With all this said, was this the most fun sound design task? No, I like designing rain the most, but that could be an entire blog post by itself.

Thank you for your time, and the next time you hear a random whuaaaargh remember - it’s probably me.