VALHALL: Harbinger News

This is a part of Indiegogo update which we are posting here for our Steam community to make sure you don't miss it. You can read full update in the updates section.

Сheck development progress

First of all, we are pleased to announce that you have now become apart of the recipients for the most extensive set of awards in VALHALL's development. As such, we would like to congratulate you on your perseverance and dedication to this community and its development.

A full list of awards can be found below:
And that's not all! As we move forward with development and approach the release of the Beta, we are very frequently urged to launch any build of VALHALL, regardless of its flaws of playable state.

We fully understand your wishes to make sure that VALHALL exists beyond the pages of Steam and Indiegogo and comes to working fruition, as accessible on your own computers.

Below is just a fraction of the sorts of comments we have received on this topic:



We only want to publicly release VALHALL when it is ready, and we have always envisaged this to be when the game is in a well rounded and well polished state. Not rushed one.

However, we found a way to satisfy the desire of the backers to touch the game as soon as possible, while maintaining our position.

So, heeding to the requests of a part of the community who really wants to make sure in the reality of VALHALL we would like to present a gift that is more valuable for them than anything we have presented to date.

We are launching Alpha under NDA!



After 15 days, the exact date of Alpha will be announced, which won't be started farther than 3 weeks from that announcement. No bets this time, only the date.

The launch of the Alpha will help you to understand how VALHALL looks. As we have seen from the comments and the questions that frequently arise, many people don't have a complete picture about the game. We want to fix that.

"Which combat system - Chivalry or For Honor" has been perhaps the most frequently asked question on this topic. Rest assured that all the uncertainty regarding this will be dispelled in the very near future.

The current Beta delay is all about the combat system we want VALHALL to have in a right state for a public release. In the old blogs, we have already told it is Chivalry type and showed the combat 1.0 we had with bugs. We want to launch Beta only with the combat system 2.0.

Combat system teaser video

Can it be longer? - Yes, this is a teaser and we will show a gameplay video about 10 minutes long!

It will give you an understanding of why we decided to delay the Beta, and why it’s worth to wait. In this video we will show the new combat system in depth.

It will be published 1 day before the Alpha launch.

As for the Alpha, everyone who has a key for the Beta will gain access to the Alpha absolutely free, despite it never being included in any Perk.

To gain access, all you will need to do is enter an additional password in the Steam game properties and the download will start. We will send it 1 day before launch.

And a very important moment, friends, please take this into account seriously. If you would prefer to experience the game as it is intended, and have a much better first impression, then we would encourage you to wait for the Beta. We didn't plan to run the public Alpha test because its build contains certain flaws which can influence on your experience of the game, uses the old combat system of build from previous Summer, all of which is being worked on and overhauled at the moment. This build also doesn't contain some elements, which will be listed with the Alpha launch.

As we mentioned, above we would like to introduce VALHALL to the world in a state which we are proud of, and the shortcomings of the Alpha lead us to restrict the use of game content online during on the network, namely the presence of NDA for Alpha.

And once again, NDA applies only to the Alpha.

For Beta, without any change - no restrictions and no NDA!

In order to ensure proper matchmaking, Alpha will be launched according to a certain schedule. It will be published along in the next update with the date announcement.

Besides, the launch of Alpha will probably have a positive effect on the growth in the number of bakers, which means more server hours for playing Beta already on the start.


There are things we prefer to keep for Wow-effect, but also it is important for us to keep you informed about the progress, so here is some of it.

Do you remember these guys from the trailer?



Also remember what we said in the last updates about the game course.Here is one you will meet in the game.



Also, the bow you voted in the short poll has been finished.




We have recently received a number of questions concerning to the future price of the game at the time of its Early Access release on Steam.

The price will be set at $29.99 USD in Early Access. This will be the base price on Steam (for the US). As you know, there is a system of regional coefficients for international prices, and therefore the cost of VALHALL will be adjusted per region.

The development of the game is almost entirely funded by the money raised from the crowdfunding campaign. Accordingly, the more funds we receive, the more human resources we are able to attract which directly affects the rate of development.

Rewarding our backers with in-game items as a bonuses is a way to thank you and create boost that help us increase the number of supporters as well.

That's why you currently have the best deal available, but also to receive a huge number of bonuses and even 1 extra key.

There will different categories of Early backers depending on the period of purchase for the future postrelease bonuses.

For us this is an opportunity to develop and release the game in a better state, and for you it is an opportunity to make very profitable acquisitions.

It is time to summarize the results of the latest community poll regarding arrow camera tracking. The overwhelming majority, precisely 81% voted for removal of this feature due to reasons which were published with the last update.

Many thanks to all who voted for your opinion! Arrow camera tracking was removed.

Many thanks once again to the help of our amazing community, the VALHALL Steam page has already been almost completely translated into 6 languages and more are in process. You can meet our amazing translators through this link: https://discord.gg/MC4VX3b
Thank you. Your support and words of encouragement mean the world to us at Blackrose Arts.

Your involvement, dedication and support of this development has been truly sensational, and we cherish our close, family like connection with all of you.

This will not be lost after the release. The future of VALHALL is largely built from your dedication and commitment to our community and the amazing nature of the friendships and relationships developed are precisely thanks to “You”, all those who support us right now.

We would like to foster the unique interactions that arise daily. From time to time we will be hosting special offers and events that we will not forget to include you in.

Without all of you, VALHALL would be impossible.

Blackrose Arts

This is a part of Indiegogo update which we are posting here for our Steam community to make sure you don't miss it. You can read full update in the updates section.

Сheck development progress

Since the last update we've archived some really impressive results in achieving our main goals and different additional tasks.

We are going to name the exact date of the Beta launch with the next update as the implementation of our new combat system and it's netcode improvements are still not quite at the level we need for the Beta launch.

Therefore, we are ready to make a bet with you to somehow atone our blame.

If we don't announce the Beta Test date on 16th March then all Early backers (anyone who has backed the game before the release of the Beta) will receive the next extra rewards for long-suffering:

On the other hand, if we will finish the implementing of the new combat system and publish the exact Beta date with the next update - these additional bonuses will be replaced by the Beta launch. Its a win-win right?



Moreover, we've hired 2 new technical artists and 1 new programmer to our team. They have already produced some outstanding work. Our small team is one of the key factors affecting the rate of progress on issues related to the launch of Beta, and we hope the increase in manpower helps speed up the development process.

After the final map lighting rebuild we uncovered a lot of issues relating to meshes, however, at this time we have managed to solve all of them.

In regards to optimization issues, initial processing time on the 7th of February was 45-70ms. A later test on the 21st showed a steady 16.6ms on high settings. It's a good result - 60-70 fps on high settings on a medium strength computer.

PC specifications requirements will be published with the launch of the Beta and then tweaked slightly for Early Access as we will continue the work in this direction. Meanwhile we have also managed to minimize the game file's size while overall adding more content.


As for other news, the implementation of the new combat system is underway. While this process is in full swing, our other work doesn't stand still. We're currently working on developing a new environment for warm-up mode. It is going to be something new.

Here are some examples of the new buildings:






Let's summarize the results of the community poll surrounding horns on the helmets, which was published with the last update. The overwhelming majority, precisely 71% - voted against having horns.

As a consequence, during both Beta and early access, the number of helmets with horns will be minimized.

However, as we said before exclusive items will still have designs which incorporate horns, we wanted to clarify this issue for the most helmets available in game.

During the Early Access period, we plan to implement the option to customize your weapons and armor including the toggling of horns on helmets. This solution will allow everyone to tailor their experience to their preferences, and determine the appearance of their own helmet. However, from this period in time, VALHALL will be centred around having very few if any horned helmets.

This is just one example of how a single post on our Steam discussions (kudos to Venset) has turned into something which we have considered and are now in the process of implementing. To add your suggestions to the development of VALHALL, please take a look at our Discord Server!

While we are still working on the combat system there is one something that we would like your help in deciding.

In the first combat version we had an arrow camera tracking feature for test. It was looking good, but we are worried that it might produce a way to gain an unfair advantage by essentially having a remote camera. At the same time it leaves you vulnerable to attack while your focus is on an arrow instead of your surroundings.

Should we remove arrow cam?

#quick-voting channel

https://discord.gg/ugJjpcp




We are very grateful to our community for help with translation. Here are the languages which are already in process.

French translators: @Hell_Frank, @Iceman, @Solved

Norwegian translators: @Demonshiver, @Sjugur

Dutch translators: @Shadix, @The Balbarian

Portuguese translator: @LapantinoPT

German translators: @bigbadbatz, @Kormakr, @LarsDerEisbär

To the end of this week you will be able to see our Steam page translated to some of these languages.
Also, the more languages are coming. Check our Discord #announcements for more details.

As you know, purchased as part of your Indiegogo package will be delivered with the start of Early Access.

That means that we still can make some changes to the "chest system" at this stage.

Therefore we want to make sure that we are on the right path and hear your thoughts and concerns surrounding an area which we are well aware can be devastating if gotten wrong.

Please fill this form

https://goo.gl/forms/56YQrapdscqeMAYI3



Today we have made the first change and we are sure that you'll like it. As you remember it was written on the campaign page that you will only receive 1 item from every chest.

From now on, 1 single chest will yield not one, but TWO items!

For example, you will receive both a piece of armor and a helmet from a Silver Chest instead of one or the other which was previously stated.

This decision is based not on desire to buy your patience, but rather for the sake of the game's success, in connection with the further perks price and for your overall enjoyment. We want you all to have the opportunity to customize your character and look unique when the time comes, as such, we have decided to increase the amount of items available for you to use in this process.

Once again, you will never be given items that you already posses from a
chest.





Stay awesome!

Blackrose Arts

This is a part of Indiegogo update which we are posting here for our Steam community to make sure you don't miss it. You can read full update in the updates section.

Сheck Beta development progress

We hope you liked our ideas in regards to our method of community interaction.

As you may have already noticed, many of your ideas have already been accepted into the ideas incubator.

What is more:



VIEW VIDEO

Recently, we began to receive several questions about the separation of servers into 2 types (FPP & TPP), depending on the type of camera perspectives available.

Being a team of diehard gamers, just like you, we are well aware of the advantages and disadvantages of both types of perspectives. Being well aware of the undeniable unfair advantages of a third person camera (namely the ability to look around obstacles, corners, buildings, and so on), we have come up with a unique feature to make sure all your battlefield encounters are fair and the result is determined by skill, not camera angles.

As you can see in this video, a player with a third-person view has no opportunity to peek around both the corner of the building and the door frame.



In addition, We have received numerous questions and proposals concerning the implementation of the Steam Workshop.



The world of the Scandinavian myth is huge, incredibly rich, and overall extremely diverse. Therefore, we are happy to accept only the highest quality workshop submissions for their implementation as in-game items. The implementation of this function will significantly broaden the breadth of content in the world of VALHALL for the entire community.

However, we ask all future participants of this program to take into account that we aim to bring the mythology of VALHALL to life, not in a fantasy or cartoonic style, but in the most realistic graphics that are able to convey the severity of the Viking world.

We are well aware of how hard it is to understand our plans for VALHALL at times. Especially considering the bigger picture is still very much confidential, but as more and more information becomes public, and more of our development process is understood, we hope it becomes clear that we work for quality, not quantity. Although there's still going to be heaps of content!

* * *

The important thing is to understand is that the atmosphere of our Battle Royale map is so colorful because of the lore surrounding it. It is a place of eternal battle where great warriors have fun and then feast.

Everything we are preparing for you in the near future is very different. Please remember these words when you see what we are talking about. Our team aims to establish the true atmosphere of viking warfare:

Brutal, powerful, deep in its essence.



We would like to remind you how method of interaction works:

- To vote for features already present on the board, you can take a survey using this link:

https://realtimeboard.com/app/board/o9J_kyAnuMk=/

- To take part in our one-click instant voting (as well as participate in numerous other community discussions, events and fun) take a look at our discord server:

discord.gg/z5pwABS

- Switching to # voting-channel

- If you have a suggestion thats just bubbling away inside of you, something that you think would make a great addition to the game, feel free to leave it in the #suggestions channel on discord! Your friends and peers will be able to vote on and discuss all the suggestions, planned features, and other aspects of the game. However, the only the most interesting, unique, ad popular ideas will be placed into our ideas incubator process. This is exclusively available to suggestions made on the Google forms and the #suggestions channel of the discord, due to these tools having already proven their effectiveness and ease of use.

- The next stage is a more detailed assessment from both the community and from our own interpretations, on the ideas that have already been selected and placed into the idea incubator. Selected ideas are placed on our interactive community board, with their subsequent implementation to follow in development.

- As the development of each idea progresses, its status will move along and appear on the roadmap.



Quick Votes:​

We hope you liked our latest method of quickly resolving certain choices that have to be made in the process of VALHALL's development. Last week we gave our discord community the opportunity to vote on a weapon design, which will later be implemented in the game.



For those who did not take part: from time to time we plan to make posts on a particular topic that allow for an easy to use multiple choice voting system on a specific design or any other questions or decisions that need to be made. The opportunity to vote in these polls only lasts for a short period of time, and is exclusive to our discord members in the #quick-voting channel. Social networks do not have such functionality and therefore this event will be held only in Discord

From time to time we plan to place posts on the subject of a consolidated choice of a particular design of the future weapon or any other question which has to be quickly defined in the voting channel of our Discord.



According to the latest community poll, the design of a future bow was chosen (the first option), which we will add with one of the patches during the Beta testing stage.





Of course we are aware that this fashion is merely the product of myth.

What is seemingly a silly issue for someone however, is exactly the sort of thing we listen to, and don't worry we aren't taking our focus away from getting the beta out as quickly as possible, but we want your thoughts!

Do horns belong on helmets?

#quick-voting channel

https://discord.gg/ugJjpcp

Let us know your thoughts, so we can settle this great debate and experience an atmosphere that we will all love.

(Exclusive items will still have horns, we just want to clarify this issue for the most common helmets available in game).

All Early backers get + 1 new Weapons Chest.



https://goo.gl/forms/lBTEJCHm6PfTLi903

We ask all other owners of squad packages who missed the previous update to use this link to select their reward.


Thank you once more for keeping your fingers crossed for VALHALL!

Skål!

Blackrose Arts

This is a part of Indiegogo update which we are posting here for our Steam community to make sure you don't miss it. You can read full update in the updates section.

Сheck Beta development progress

As we promised in the previous update, and based upon the requests we have received from many of you, we have prepared a video of how Odin's Helmet is transformed from a concept art to one of the game's rarest items.

VIEW VIDEO



Like with all of our custom assets, we take a lot of time giving each piece of armor, weapons, and the environment the fine detail and level of respect it deserves.



Let us know in the comments if you would like to see such creation videos of other significant in game items.



It's about time we transitioned to a more enjoyable and effective approach in the manner in which we interact with you.

We hope this space not only provides us all with a lot of fun as a place to foster new relationships, but also allows us to shape the future of the VALHALL franchise effectively together.

With the previous update we announced the first stage of our community interaction process - The community development board.

Now we are launching the second phase of this tool, which incorporates the ability to vote for the features which you would like to see developed with the single press of a button. Through this process, we hope to offer our shared vision of certain ideas and see your reactions to it.

At this stage our new official Discord server will play a key role in this process.

Join us

We are aware of the existence of several fan-made servers, some of which we recognized, but due to a number of reasons we have decided to make a single official server.

Our team of moderators and community manager have put together a well polished and engaging space for our continued interaction.



We sincerely hope that you like it!

In the process of evaluating new features, interacting with the development process and presenting your ideas, we have established a channel where your feedback and input will directly affect the interactive board discussions.

It should be noted that at the moment, due to the fact that all our resources are directed to the development of the game, we are forced to use third-party software to implement an interactive whiteboard. We don't see this as an issue for the time being, however, we hope to develop our own tool for this process on our website later.

With regards to the Discord server, verification of this server as official by the administration of Discord (which gives official servers the little tick in their name) will be carried out immediately after the start of Beta testing - this is due to Discord's rules, as the game needs to have been released before the server can be verified. We're just as eager as you are.

On the new official server you will find both moderators, who many of you are already familiar with, as well as some members of the development team.

We ask you to keep in mind that we try to answer all the questions we receive on various social networking platforms as soon as possible, but at the same time each and every member of our team has a certain set of duties, the fulfillment of which affects both the quality and development time.

Therefore, we ask you to understand that there will be cases where one of our developers is online in the Discord, but does not have the opportunity to give an answer to a question or to take part in conversation. Please be respectful of this, we work long hours to develop the game which you are patiently awaiting. If you need anything please contact one of our moderators.



We have received some concerns regarding the amount of players.

You can read how we plan to overcome this issue with the matchmaking during the Beta in the Christmas update.

Furthermore, in order to make the transition to 24/7 servers smoother we plan to implement a new mode as a "warm-up" of sorts. There will be updates regarding this process during the Beta period.

Cheer on your Viking Squad

Good news for owners of the Viking Squads and Armored Viking Squads perks. We have had a few questions regarding additional Early backers gifts for these players. As such, we are pleased to announce that we have decided to equate the number of rewards to the number of your Beta keys.

If you are the owner of the Viking Squad or Armored Viking Squad bundles, then you will receive the number of extra keys/chests (x3 / x5) in your emails, depending on the choice you made. In case you wish to change your preference, please refill the the form and select the option you would like in the newly added section.

Form

We cannot stress this enough, the game will need a good online presence and a healthy number of players for our launch into Early Access, and bringing along as many of your friends as possible is a great way we can all ensure that we can all get the most out of VALHALL.

There still is another cool gift prepared for Early backers, it will be announced during the tests.


The good news however, is that as of this update VALHALL has been added to the wishlist of more than 21,500 Steam users.

This undoubtedly indicates a potential jump in the number of players who will join the battle eventually. Of course, we understand that not all of these players who added the game to their wishlist will play it on the very first day after Early Access release, and therefore we take this into account in our player projections.

Furthermore, during the past week, the number of players who added VALHALL to their wishlist has increased by 392% compared to the week before. Members of the press, bloggers, streamers, and content creators are increasingly contacting us to hear about VALHALL.

We are pleased with the level of exposure the game has received recently, however, we are more eager to see how much attention the game will receive at the start of the Beta period.

You are an awesome community, guys!

Many thanks for your ongoing support,

Blackrose Arts

This is a part of Indiegogo update which we are posting here for our Steam community to make sure you don't miss it. You can read full update in the updates section and check Beta development status.

With great pleasure we present to you the first and main part of the interactive tool mentioned in the before last Indiegogo update.

This will allow us to communicate with you in more detail and most importantly, to jointly determine the direction in which VALHALL will develop.



Why is this board interactive? - Your opinion will be taken into account and the board will be modified according to your suggestions.

As already mentioned, this is only the first part. As part of the next Indiegogo update, we will add communication functionality, which will also allow for a one-click assessment to a particular idea and to make detailed suggestions that will be visible not only to us but to other members of the community

It's not a space for empty words and unanswered pleas. This space will have a meaningful and significant effect on the development of the game. Board is dynamic and will be updating, give it some time, and we hope to see it flourish with your input.

We ask you to save your ideas and share with us using the second tool part in the next update.

All of this will help us to develop a game which is truly a work of art.

It is time for us to showcase the helmet of Odin, which we have not presented thus far.

This piece of armor, exactly like the other pieces of armor and weapons, is crafted and created with maximum detail and passion.



In one of the following updates, we will post a video of how this concept art turns into the 3D model that you see directly in the game.

As well the corresponding perks which are available from Early Access.




In addition, we have repeatedly noted that we are an indie team, which first of all means that we are highly independent and flexible.

We know that you can appreciate how some development companies are pressured and influenced by their sources of funding, especially when these sources of income have little to do with the project's development.

This means that in our case there are very few limiting factors to make the game come together in the way in which we have envisaged it.

It also means that we are directly dependent on our community for support, both financially and emotionally, therefore, the rate at which we are able to continue developing the game is heavily dependent upon community involvement. The greater the extent of the support, the sooner you will be able to see new things on the development board and eventually, in game.


Best regards,

Blackrose Arts

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