Warhammer: Vermintide 2 News

An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.

[h2]Franz Lohner's Chronicle - The Eternal Flame[/h2]
Would you believe it, I managed to get Saltzpyre talking about Ulric? The God of Wolves and Winter’s always a touchy subject with Sigmarites, what with there being bad blood between the two churches.

You see, Sigmar is commonly held to have been a worshipper of Ulric, back when he was just a mortal man with a hammer and not the godly cornerstone of civilisation, bless his name. That being the case, there are plenty of Ulricans who claim that this jolly little Empire of ours actually belongs to Ulric, and not Sigmar, but Sigmar belonged to Ulric.

All stuff and nonsense as far as I’m concerned. The Empire’s literally on fire, and folk are squabbling over which holy rune gets scratched into the ashes? That’s what comes of the devout being promised a paradisical afterlife. They tend to forget about the perils of the here and now.

Our Saltzpyre, being the learned fellow he is, was musing aloud about the Flame of Ulric, which burns merrily away in the city of Middenheim. Supposedly, it was called into being when Ulric stuck his axe on the Fauschlag – yon mountain Middenheim was built upon. But then again, supposedly Middenheim’s never been successfully invaded, and I don’t reckon that’s one hundred percent truthful.

Anyway, this Eternal Flame’s been burning for millennia, and no one seems to know why. Not been put to much in the way of pertinent use either, unless you want to count crowd-pleasing ceremonies of making supposed heretics take the trial of walking through the flames. Saltzpyre’s got to wondering if the Eternal Flame might maybe, somehow, give us an edge in our never-ending labours. I mean, Ulric’s black-armoured bod hasn’t been see stalking the mortal world for time out of mind, but maybe he’s left us a bit of power we can wield in his name?

I suppose it’s possible, but I don’t see the Ar-Ulric letting us anywhere near the bloody thing. Emil Valgeir’s a stubborn old sod, even by Middenheimer standards, and if he gets wind that it was Saltzpyre’s idea, he’ll be even more resistant, what with church rivalry being a thing. On the other hand, No one seems to know quite where Valgeir is right now, so maybe we can take a bit of a look.

On the other, other hand, finding the Eternal Flame’s source likely means braving the depths of the Fauschlag, and there’s all manner of terrible things down there. I’ve even seen some legends claim that when the end of the world finally comes, it’ll start with the Fauschlag. Not sure I believe it. When the world ends, it’ll end everywhere, right? Stands to reason.

Maybe I should send one of the lads up to Middenheim? I’ll have a ponder.

We hope you are all well in this new year! 

We are cracking on with work on Vermintide 2, which includes the upcoming Chaos Wastes and, of course, continuing filling those hourglasses on the character select screen with new careers for the heroes! But this dev blog is not about either of those things. We want to take a few paragraphs to talk about bots - specifically upcoming improvements to bot behaviors coming to PC in patch 4.2. 

Gameplay Programmer Ričardas will talk a bit about the improvements that he and the team have been working on in relation to some of the feedback you have given. 



[h2]NEW RANGED COMBAT BEHAVIOR AND TWEAKS:[/h2]

One of the tools bots did not utilize very well that players do is ranged combat. Whilst ranged combat is not the focus of the Vermintide 2, it is still a very useful tool that helps to ensure the party survives against the bad guys - specials in particular.

Sure they know how to pull the trigger but ranged weapons, unlike their melee counterparts, are a lot more specialized and have a limited ammo supply. Wasting shots on poorly chosen targets is extra painful. So in Patch 4.2, we have added some ‘target categorizations’, which should make bots better at dealing with specials if they are equipped with snipe type weapons (eg. handguns, crossbows), select more fitting attack type if they have such available (eg. fireball staff, bolt staff). So for example they shouldn’t fire handguns at infantry, and won't try to kill special units with weapons like the Drakegun. 

[h2]BOT POSITIONING:[/h2]

Good positioning is a hard thing to achieve since you need to take in a lot of information and make some predictions, too. For players we have a bunch of visual cues that help them identify danger like toxic clouds or streams of bullets, however, bots don't see the way we do. So the way we try to keep our bots out of trouble is split into two parts. 

Navigation Mesh Cost Weights are used to help bots navigate around fixed static dangers, such as globe gas or lamp oil fires. 

Emergency Threat Areas are employed by bots to move them out of more dynamic threats. They tell bots that something bad is about to happen in an area and should get out as fast as they can, such as a Chaos Warriors hulking great axe bearing down towards their face. 

We have made some changes here, as well as added and updated a bunch of those areas to help our fellow bots avoid and react more quickly to imminent threats. Also, we have tweaked the emergency threat response behavior to be less "panicky" which resulted in them sometimes slipping off cliffs. ;) 

[h2]BOT MELEE COMBAT TWEAKS:[/h2]

Staying together is key to survival in Vermintide, making sure that bots stay close when a horde (or a patrol that someone just pulled) is approaching makes them more reliable at covering your flanks and saving you from a special. With that in mind, the higher the apparent threat on the battlefield, the more likely bots are to stand at your side, whilst favoring faster, sweepier attacks against infantry class enemies. 

As a bonus, it also reduces the amount of times bots charging forward into hordes and incidentally running into your crosshair, but that will still happen especially when there are less enemies around.

[h2]BOTS BEING TOO COMPETITIVE ON RESOURCES:[/h2]

Bots are supposed to fill more of a support role and make sure the player gets to be the star of the show, so when a bot claims a resource, whether that’s ammo or a potion, it indirectly steals fun away from the player.

For a while now, bots have been quite hungry for resources. We’ve made some tweaks to that in 4.2, such as restricting them from picking up ammo bags if the player is missing any ammunition, and made some adjustments to their dependence and willingness to picking up and chugging potions. 



Patch 4.2 will be coming in the next few weeks, and with it are also some general bug fixes for bot behaviours, and with it we’ll compile patch notes that break down in a bit more detail the commentary above. 

An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.



Well, I finally did it: I got Kerillian to open up a bit about her past. I mean, not all the way, and she had a funny look in her eye, but it’s a start, right? And it’s not as though her eyes don’t look funny all the time.

Seems Athel Loren’s a bit of a melting pot. Most bloodlines stretch back to the times before the Sundering. You know, before there was dark elves and high elves, and there was just, well, elves. Or as Kerillian puts it, ‘pure’ elves, untainted by that big old civil war the rest of the pointy-ears are always embroiled in. But over the years, the forest’s also become a refuge for outcasts from Ulthuan and Naggaroth, and though they’re sworn to leave old ties behind, for some it ain’t that easy. Leads to some … well, let’s call them ‘suspect’ choices.

Turns out, our merry lass stumbled on one of these suspect choices right as it was being made. A mage walking parts of Athel Loren no mage should be walking, if you take my meaning. And it wasn’t just him alone. Whole bunch of them there were, midway through a ritual dedicated to Hekarti.

Now, elf gods are a mixed bunch, but Hekarti definitely sits on the bleaker side of the ledger. She’s the mistress of all that’s corrupting and terrible in the Winds of Magic, so it follows that those who worship her ain’t exactly looking for the wherewithal to bring peace and solace to this world of ours.

I’ll spare you some of the details I wish Kerillian had spared me, but let’s just say this was not a nice ritual. Seems this mage – Etrian Dunderhead, though I suspect Kerillian may have editorialised his surname – was petitioning Hekarti for sorcerous mastery, and offering forest spirits as collateral. Sadly for him, it all goes to a dog’s breakfast when Kerillian makes her entrance.

To hear our lass tell it, Etrian’s accomplices scarper at first sight of her. The thing about waywatchers is you can never be sure that the one you see is the only one what can see you, and with this lot being involved in some very mucky business, they weren’t planning on waiting to discover the truth. Etrian’s made of sterner stuff, or maybe he’s more afraid of Hekarti than Kerillian’s arrows? More fool him, as it turns out. Kerillian leaves him dead among the moss and goes about her business, job done and a righteous fire burning within.

Only problem is, Etrian’s a popular chap, and his mates raise hell at the next council of kings. Accusations of murder are levelled, and our Kerillian has no witnesses to prove her side, and plenty arranged in opposition. She’s cast out, and hasn’t been home since.

So that’s her tale … but I don’t know that it’s the truth. Not sure why I doubt her. I mean, apart from the fact that it’s Kerillian, and Kerillian’s an elf. Maybe it’s the way she was watching me all the time I was speaking, as if she was using my expression for a guide as to what she should say next? Could be.

Still, I reckon there’s some truth there. Or at least a little bit.

Maybe.

I hate elves.

• Fixed a crash that happened when a peer started a mission vote while a shop popup was open.
  
• Reverted experience refactoring for prestige levels
  
• It's once again possible to cancel host migration.

Welcome to Patch 4.1! This updates comes with a slew of fixes and a couple of tweaks.

Critically it also includes additional telemetry capture so we can identify where and how lobbies are being affected by the networking changes that came with the last major update.

For some players, there will have been no notable effect as a result of those networking changes.

However, we do appreciate that for some players, often from more isolated regions (in terms of distance to Steam servers), as well as players who play together from within the same household, there have been some notable degredations in networking quality, and our hope is to learn more from the telemetry included in this update so we can look to negate it where possible, or at least minimise the impact of the changes.

• Fixed the Grail Knight talent "Virtue of Knightly Temper" not giving temporary health when using "Lady's Wrath" when triggering an insta kill.
  
• Fixed the Piston Power buff sticking around after swapping out the talent in the Keep.
  
• Fixed a visual bug where it didn't look like player got all experience they should.
  
• Fixed a visual bug where it looks like you gain extra levels quicker than you actually do.
  
• Fixed the "Have at thee Varlet!" challenge not being able to be progressed without owning the Grail Knight DLC.
  
• Fixed a glitch on the first frame of the Crossbow 'on-wield reload' animation.
  
• Fixed an animation bug for the Repeating Handgun when reloading while firing the first quick shot.
  
• Fixed an interaction between Bardin's Ale and Speed Potion's that could cause attack speed to be increased indefinitely.
  
• Fixed crash on first startup for some players.
  
• Fixed crash when client gets disconnected while being affected by a buff that grants invisibility.
  
• Fixed Outcast Engineer's 'cranking talents' not being removed while swapping talents of the same row.
  
• Fixed Grail Knight bots sometimes getting stuck in an ability stance when he tries to use it while players are disengaging from enemies.
  
• Fixed some situations where the bullet trails from Outcast Engineer would originate from a fixed position in an environment and not from the player.
  
• Fixed the fire rate of the Crank Gun ramping up if you quickly released the fire button on first shot and hold again.
  
• Fixed the Masterwork Pistol triggering reload animations when picking up ammo.
  
• Fixed the reload animation not playing if a ranged weapon is wielded with an empty clip.
  
• Fixed the required number of headshots needed for Outcast Engineer's "Targeting Array" challenge. Previously this was 5 but is now 20 as intended.
  
• Made Sienna's Abandon talent not be affected by damage reduction.
  
• Fixed various miscellaneous crashes.
  
• Dark Omens: Fixed a spot where Bardin could space programme his way out of the map.
  
• Dark Omens: Fixed an issue where players could spawn behind a point of no return.
  
• Dark Omens: We've added a failsafe so additional standard bearers will spawn if existing ones are killed before planting their banners, until the requisite number of banners has been destroyed.
  
• Garden of Morr: Fixed a placement issue with a few enemy spawners.
  
• Garden of Morr: Fixed a spot where bots had a tendency to yeet themselves off the map.
  
• Garden of Morr: Fixed an out of bounds exploit.
  
• Garden of Morr: Fixed so that Grandmother Zingler's Bones is interactable in situations where it wasn't previously.
  
• Old Haunts: Fixed a softlock if you killed the Chaos Warrior prior to him opening the gate in the Gargoyle room. If this happens, the gates will open automatically after a short time.
  
• Old Haunts: Fixed a spot at the church where enemy pathing was squiffy.
  
• Old Haunts: Fixed a spot where bots could get stuck.
  
• War Camp: Added more spawners for hordes to spawn from.
  
• War Camp: Fixed a spot that bots would not traverse.
  
• War Camp: Fixed a spot that enemies would not navigate correctly.
  
• War Camp: Fixed a spot where players could get stuck.
  
• War Camp: Fixed a tent with no collision.
  
• War Camp: Fixed an out of bounds exploit.
  
• War Camp: Fixed some AI pathing issues.

An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.

[h2]FRANZ LOHNER'S CHRONICLE - THE FATE OF GRUNGNI'S WHISPER[/h2]

Still no luck finding Bardin’s daughter, sad to say. It’s depressing, really. Time was, a goblin couldn’t sneeze within the bounds of the Old World without me hearing about it – if I were interested in greenskin nasal discharges, leastways – but nowadays it’s getting harder and harder to lay my hands on solid information. Getting old, that’s the problem. Spying’s a young man’s game.

Recent events don’t exactly help. World’s gone mad, and that’s trouble for those of us who pride ourselves on having a bit of sanity left.

So what do I actually know? Well, I’ve had word from Barak Varr that a Hedda Bardinsdottir took ship – as captain, no less – on the nautilus Grungni’s Whisper about a year back. Nothing since, not about the Whisper, nor anyone aboard. Mind you, that’s about standard for a nautilus. Sneaky little submersibles. I like ‘em. I tell you, if we had even one patrolling the waters of the Reik, this Rotblood bother of ours would be much less of a bother. Nothing says ‘get off my land’ better than a torpedo right in the supply barge.

But I digress. Might be that this disappearance is where the tale ends, but my twitching nose says otherwise. This don’t feel like an accidental disappearance, but something deliberate. The Whisper doesn’t want to be found, and likely neither does young Hedda.

I suppose I’m left with no other choice but to see if her mother has any ideas. Not something I do lightly. ‘Overprotective’ doesn’t begin to do dwarf lasses justice. You know how you never see their womenfolk in the battle line? That ain’t because they can’t fight. It’s because every dwarf knows that when you march to war, you leave your sharpest axes behind to defend your home, like Valaya tells you. If you’ve not heard that before, happen you’ll want to think on why that might be.

If the thought of charging a dwarf shield wall chills the blood, spare a thought for those who sneak into what they think is an abandoned hold when the menfolk are away. I’d sooner corner a dragon in its lair than chance the fury of a dwarf maid defending her clan’s beardlings and her ancestor’s tombs, so you can see why I’m wary of troubling Grelda Thrangsdottir about private family matters.

Still, I owe it to Bardin to try. Let’s hope I don’t regret it.