Valheim News

Well met, travellers!

Summer has reached its end, but the Ashlands remain hot as ever. As you might have seen on social media a couple of weeks ago, we shared another piece of concept art – this time a light armour design. That brings us up to three separate armour sets for the Ashlands, which means there should hopefully be something you’ll like regardless of your playstyle!

Last time we focused a lot on the landscape and terrain – and we’ve shown off another landscape image on social media since then too – so this time we figured we’d take another look at the Ashlands’ inhabitants instead. Like we have said many times already, game development is an iterative process and things often change over time. For example, we have ended up giving a new look to the Bonemaw Serpent, which lives in the seas surrounding the biome. Keep an eye out for those sharp spikes when you’re sailing!



We also felt that there was a type of enemy lacking. Oftentimes when we need inspiration we look back at the Black Forest, and this time was no different. By borrowing some aspects from the greydwarfs we have added this subcategory of Charred, which currently make up for quite a large portion of the Ashlands population:



We’re also of course filling out the landscape with various kinds of structures. You know by now that Valheim carries plenty of traces of old civilisations, and the Ashlands will be no exception. And even while most of the biome will be a fiery wasteland, the old ruins will still have kept a thing or two intact. We’ll let you discover for yourselves what can be found there, so for now we’ll just show you the Blender version of what they can look like:



With the submissions for our Trial of Tyr closing last week, we would like to thank and commend everyone who managed to complete the game on hard mode! We’re all very impressed with how fast some of you really managed to get through the game, and we will reveal the winners shortly!

[h3]Build of the Month[/h3]

For this month we want to show off the sea base built by CapCrumbsGaming, well done! If you want your creation to be featured in this section, use the hashtag #ValheimBotM on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Due to changes in the tagging system on Facebook and Instagram, please also send us a DM with a link to your entry as well as using the hashtag if you post there! You can view previous builds in this thread on Steam.



Skål!

/The Iron Gate team

If you’d like to discuss the content of this post, please visit our Discord, or our forums on Reddit and Steam, or make a comment on social media!

Some adjustments to the previous patch! Most notable, we fixed the issue where your keybinds wouldn't save correctly, but a handful of other fixes are in this patch as well!

[h3]Patch notes:[/h3]
Fixes and improvements:
* Fixed a bug that caused keyboard and mouse keybinds to not load/save properly
* Blue standing brazier point light is now blue
* Fixed bold tombstone text
* Connection panel (f2 menu) can now be read easier
* Map text input field will now exit when players click/drag on the map
* Fixed input focus loss when filtering server list
* “Hide UI” function is now working again for controller “console layout 2”
* Cross platform user profile pictures fixed
* Fixed compendium navigation with fast interaction
* Fixed server filter when virtual keyboard is closed
* Fix crafting station only updating its extensions for the first time after the update interval has passed
* Fixed a bug where the item tooltip overlay could show up over compendium menu

Welcome to the first bug fixer patch since Hildir's Request was released! As you can see it's quite a list, with various fixes to things such as the snapping system and the enemies. One of the more notable fixes is of course the added functionality which lets you use the world modifiers on dedicated servers as well – check out the dedicated server manual for the full instructions for that!

[h3]Abbreviated Patch Notes:[/h3]
* New build piece: Blue standing brazier
* Server modifiers can be set to dedicated servers directly
* Extended Haldor music
* Added player list to pause menu
* Balance improvements
* Lots of bug fixes and world modifier fixes

[h3]Detailed Patch notes:[/h3]
Fixes & improvements:
* New build piece: blue standing brazier
* World modifiers and presets can now be set to dedicated servers using parameters in the startup batfile (see manual) or using the console as an admin
* Updated dedicated server manual to include information on setting world modifiers
* Fixed modifier summary being displayed incorrectly after choosing the casual preset
* Added player list to pause menu
* Several more console commands are now available for admins: setworldpreset, resetworldkeys, setworldmodifier, players, setkey, removekey, resetkeys, listkeys (displays list on dedicated server), sleep, skiptime, restartparty and genloc (takes time - may cause disconnects).
* Updated Haldor music to a new extended track
* Resource scaling fixes for dragon egg, fishing pole and skeleton chest
* Disabled a hugin hint spreading disinformation about Hildir
* Haldor and Hildir dialogue lines will be displayed a bit longer to make them easier to read
* You will no longer switch between snapping points while having the console or chat open
* Building mode won’t be visible while dying when playing with the modifier that keeps equipped items
* Fixed snap points naming for hot tub, oven and removed one excess snap point for barberstation
* Changing alternative snapping mode, zooming in or pressing some gamepad buttons will cancel build piece removal to prevent unintentional behaviour
* Darkwood beam snap point naming matched with other beams
* Changed some snap points on wood gate and darkwood gate
* Black marble bench and table no longer take rain damage
* You can now activate the guardian power again when using the hammer, hoe & cultivator
* Starred fenring cultist can no longer drop multiple trophies
* Fenring cultist in events can no longer spawn multiple trophies
* Increased crafting station radius should now block spawn area and stop items from despawning correctly
* Stopped some pickables from scaling above max stack with resource rate modifiers
* Mobs spawned by bosses will now aggro the player even when playing with the passive mobs modifier since the boss already was aggroed
* Reduced HP on mini-bosses spawned during Hildir events by 50%
* Brenna is now more resistant against knockbacks
* Ballista updated to accept trophies from the Hildir’s Request bosses
* Fixed rare crash while respawning in an area at the same time as monster dies in multiplayer
* Fixed issue with the Elder and Moder triggering incorrectly when using player based events
* Item tooltip will be displayed when hovering while dragging another item
* Replaced all texts fields to be clearer and more optimised
* Replaced all text input fields with new component to work on all platforms
* World modifier tooltip has background now
* Fixes to vegetation shader
* Added click sounds for ingame UI
* Fixed keyhint for adding a server
* Added some missing keyhints
* Player position is saved on manual save
* Clicking outside map pin input closes input field now


Xbox:
* Added auto-run toggle to accessibility settings on Xbox
* Opening cheat console no longer hides UI
* Changing snapping doesn’t make you fly down anymore
* Chat no longer opens when opening info panel
* Opening settings for the first time no longer freezes the game
* Camera is now locked when placing a map pin
* Using a vegvisir with a controller no longer pings

Hello again vikings!

As you may have noticed, we took a small break from these monthly updates while the Hildir’s Request update was on the Public Test Branch. Much like with the Mistlands, we felt that it wouldn’t make for too much interesting reading while we were mostly looking at bug fixing and the like. But now Hildir has properly arrived in Valheim and we shall go back to the monthly blog posts!

In case you’ve managed to miss it though, Hildir’s Request features a new merchant who will sell you some new and fancy clothing to wear around your house – after you have helped her with her requests, which entails going after some mini bosses who have laid their claim on some dungeons around the world. The update also features world modifiers to make your game easier or harder, or somewhere in between, so customise away!

While the bugs were dealt with in Hildir’s Request, we have also been continuing to work away at the Ashlands. For example, we’ve been experimenting with the terrain generation to make it so that the Ashlands never border any other biomes other than Ocean. The journey there will be perilous, so you’d better be ready for it before you set sail!



The terrain generation has also been focused on the various levels of elevation in the biome itself. We want it to feel exactly right – not like the large flats of the Plains nor the craggy hills and valleys of the Mistlands – and that requires a lot of iterations. We do believe we’re getting close to the kind of terrain we want now, especially when we get to come upon places like this:



But you’d better be careful around that lava, because it’s going to hurt an awful lot to step in! At least for those who haven’t adapted to the infernal landscape, that is.

It’s not all going to be fire and lava, though – the area is called the Ashlands for a reason! We have been working on getting different areas of the biome to feel distinct as well, with more trees and deep layers of ash closer to the coastline and more lava the further inland you go. Once upon a time the Ashlands was a lush forest full of life, before devastation happened…



And last, we also hope you haven’t missed that we have a speedrun competition going! Set the game to hard mode, kill all the bosses as fast as you can, and record the whole thing for a chance to lay claim to your very own unique viking tankard to celebrate your victory! You can read more about the competition and how to enter here.

[h3]Build of the Month[/h3]

Since we’ve had the blog posts paused for a little bit, we’ll highlight several builds this time around! Take a look at this quaint cabin that HelloHellie made, this intricate tavern by therabbitramen and this twilit inn built by masshun_jp! If you want your creation to be featured, use the hashtag #ValheimBotM on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. You can view previous builds in this thread on Steam.



Until next time, vikings!

/The Iron Gate team

If you’d like to discuss the content of this post, please visit our Discord, or our forums on Reddit and Steam, or make a comment on social media!