VALHALL: Harbinger News

[h2]Vikings![/h2]

After introducing the new combat systems in the last update, we have made many improvements to them and addressed feedback. The stability, smoothness, and control difficulty have become better. Survival also received important adjustments, with more fights, resulting in an overall smoother experience.

Also, we have been working on a significant Survival map update, which will be showcased in the next update.

Let's take a look at what today's patch brings!


[h2]Survival Spawn Area Adjustment[/h2]



Near the cliff where you spawn, there is now an easy way to go down.

Additionally, roaming enemies have been added nearby, and more animals can be found along the road.


[h2]Battle Stance System Improvements[/h2]



Now the stance changing is smoother, and the animations have been adjusted, along with angle readjustments to cover a wider radius.

The controls have been changed in a certain way, now, it's not necessary to drag the mouse as far as before. You can release the attack button to execute the attack even at the beginning, or you can continue holding it for more control during the flight.


[h2]Camera Shakes Changed[/h2]

We have heard a lot about camera shakes, so we reworked them to retain the weight effect but minimize motion sickness. They will be further improved in the future, but we hope they feel better for you now. Of course, you can still adjust their intensity slider in the settings.


[h2]Attacks Inertia Adjustments[/h2]

The camera inertia and dynamic turn caps during attacks have been tweaked to make the combat more controllable.


[h2]AI Keeping Distance[/h2]

AI can now attack from a larger distance and tries to maintain that distance instead of getting too close.


[h2]Combat Tuning[/h2]

Less frequent, excessive battle cries.

Shield block collision adjusted.

Stamina balance adjusted.

Special attacks and foot kicks now deal more damage.


[h2]Arena Adjustments[/h2]

Added a small delay between the waves changing.

Reduced the possibility of flying out of the map.

Enemies don't start running to you too early.


[h2]Various Survival Improvements[/h2]

Landscape adjustments with water level and weird holes fixes.

Shorter nights, longer days.

Reduced arrow crafting time.

Chopping trees gives more wood, and mining yields more ore.

Fixed replaced objects description.

Added more flax, easier to find it.

Added more animals.

Cheaper building costs for certain objects, such as beams, to facilitate easier creative building.


[h2]Active Raiders[/h2]

There are raiders that come in waves to attack your settlement, but in this patch, we have added more of those who are looking for you. They will still attack the settlement if you try to hide.

Let us know if you feel there are too many attackers now or vice versa, if there are still not enough fights.


[h2]Ragdoll Jittering Fix[/h2]

The bug that was making the character fly to the moon after the latest new combat features addition has been fixed.


[h2]Falling Improvements[/h2]

Falling damage dealing is now more organic. Instead of becoming a ragdoll instantly upon falling, your character will go through an animation first, depending on the velocity and time of the fall. This means falling from, for example, small hills will not be as problematic. Additionally, getting up after a fall happens faster.


Thank you for your feedback, guys! We hope you enjoy these changes!


Skål!
Blackrose Arts

[h2]Vikings![/h2]

Today, we are excited to announce a major update.

VALHALL is entering Beta. The combat experience has been taken to a whole new level. We have implemented new diverse features for interactivity, improved procedural animations, changed, and tuned how certain systems work. There is room for improvement, and we are working on it further. However, we hope you already find it pretty cool. You can now control the interactive battle stance with your mouse. Additionally, there is a directional block available now.

We have also introduced a new arena map with a focus on performance, along with numerous significant gameplay improvements.

Take a look!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Here is a roadmap reflecting the main points of our current plans.

We will continue to make constant patches with new content, gameplay improvements, community requests, and bug fixes.

In the next updates, we will share more details about the Enherjar Challenge we are preparing. Overall, it is a unique combination of Survival, Extraction, and Battle Royale. Its first appearance will be as a new world event system in Survival.



In today's patch:

[h2]Interactive Battle Stance[/h2]

Your mouse movement changes the battle stance. There are not just 3 stances, but many more.

Currently, it only works for one-handed weapons. This feature has multiple goals, some of which are yet to be developed. It provides a foundation for a much deeper feint play.


[h2]Controllable Inverse Kinematics[/h2]

This allows you to move your weapon by moving your mouse. It has different phases for varying levels of control, such as the default phase, battle stance or during an attack.

However, it's not just about hand-weapon movement, it affects different body parts differently. So head now has controllable moves too.


[h2]Combat Sounds Update[/h2]

Almost all combat sounds have been updated. They now have more cinematic accents.


[h2]Realistic Hit Reactions Update[/h2]

Different body parts make the character react to hits more realistically. As you can see in the video, they now shake, bend, and touch wounds.


[h2]Directional Block[/h2]

Now you can control the block direction, choosing which side to cover more.


[h2]New Optimized Arena Map[/h2]

This new mountain peak map is focused on performance and is available in Deathmatch and Battle Arena modes. It comes with new music.


[h2]Warrior Combat AI Update[/h2]

They block and dodge more often now.

They walk unpredictably during fights.

Fixed their stopping attacks and getting stuck mid-combat.

Adjusted wave types.


[h2]Warrior Hiring Update[/h2]

Added to Survival. You can find a hiring point by a marker on the compass and hire your warriors.


[h2]Various Survival Improvements[/h2]

Fixed a foundation building quest bug.

Stone ore gives more stone.

Lowered animals' maximum health.

Brighter light on medium and low settings.

UI improvements.

More frequent settlement raid attacks.

Added a shield as a building object.


[h2]Main Arena Improvements[/h2]

Bears no longer get stuck in the hole in the middle.

Less bright post effects.

Earlier lighting change to sunset.


[h2]Raiders Attack Buildings Fixed[/h2]

They attack your buildings again.


Hope you enjoy this update!


Skål!
Blackrose Arts

[h2]Vikings![/h2]

Today we have a significant update. Here is what the Pre-Beta 0.9.9 patch brings!



[h2]Building Freedom[/h2]



We are introducing a building system upgrade that brings freedom to your expression. Previously, the way you could build was too limited, and there wasn't anything special about it.

This update allows you to be more creative by changing the way you place elements. Now, there are no strict snapping and limitations on where certain build types can be placed. Instead, if an object touches something, it can be placed. This approach is more casual in a certain way, but it provides huge possibilities.

There are new options for object movement during placement. You can rotate the building element along different axes, and you can also move it higher and lower. The user interface will show when these options are available during placement.

There is no height limit anymore, and the problems with fence placement have been solved. We have also updated the building visual effects for more satisfying. Objects that couldn't be placed on the ground before can now be placed.


[h2]New Building Elements[/h2]



First of all, the new building objects are using Nanites, and the previous ones have been converted as well. This means that you can place a lot of them without experiencing significant performance impact. Of course, we will continue to monitor and improve overall optimization in other aspects.

We have added the first essential objects, such as logs and beams, in different sizes. You can rotate them to your desired angles. Additionally, some of the previous objects have received updated looks.



We will be adding more elements for you to build with in the upcoming updates. Some of them will be also essential, while others will be more unique and even weird. Feel free to share your feedback on which objects you would like to see added the most.


[h2]Raid Bots Fixes[/h2]

Issues that were preventing raid bots from tracking you through the map have been fixed.


[h2]Settlement Attack Wave Fixes[/h2]

Enemies will now target your settlement again (they had stopped doing so after the map transition). They will come in waves over the course of the game days and attempt to break your buildings, and kill you if you are there. To make it less easy for them, we have reduced the damage caused by burning arrows.

If you feel that there are too many waves or if vice versa, please let us know.


[h2]Death Animations[/h2]



There is now a chance that your last hit will trigger a death animation that depends on the body part hit. However, most of the time, it will still transition into a ragdoll immediately.


[h2]AI Improvements[/h2]

AI enemies now block more frequently, and their approach to the player has been updated in terms of both the way and the distances at which they engage.

They move more during fights and retreat. Archers now retreat at a greater distance, so it no longer feels like they are simply waiting to be killed by melee weapons.

Following these changes, the Arena waves and enemy HP have been slightly adjusted.


[h2]Updated Archers Reactions[/h2]

Updated hit reactions have been implemented for archers, providing a better feeling when you defeat them.


[h2]Swimming Full Fix[/h2]

All previous issues related to player swimming have now been resolved. Getting out of the water should happen smoothly, just like butter.


[h2]Unstuck Feature Fix[/h2]

This functionality broke after transitioning to UE5 but now works again.


[h2]Survival Improvements[/h2]

The lighting has been improved, resulting in less dark shadows and warmer colors. However, there is still room for further improvement in future updates.

Animals now have a higher chance of providing both meat and fat when harvested.

The visual effects for burning buildings, specifically when archers fire them with burning arrows, have been updated.

Changes have been made to the cooking UI to make it more user-friendly and easier to understand.

Issues with water opacity holes have been fixed.

Night time have been reduced.

The amount of wood obtained from different trees has been adjusted.

A new crafting recipe for a two-handed axe has been added.


We hope that these improvements enhance your experience and that you enjoy this update!


Skål!
Blackrose Arts

[h2]Vikings![/h2]

We've been working on some very special features, but unfortunately we haven't been able to solve all the issues that come with them for this patch. They will arrive in future updates. We won't hype them up too much now with the details, but here's a hint.



* The GIF above shows work in progress. It's not included in the current patch yet but will be available in future updates and will have a more polished look.

In addition to combat improvements, we have building upgrades on the way. You will be able to build freely even crazy structures without the current limitations and with new elements. That will most likely be available in the next patch.

Thank you for sharing your feedback with us. As usual, we have made tweaks based on it in this patch. If you find it difficult to reach the 10th wave in the Arena to reach Mjolnir and would like to play with it more, let us know.

Let's take a look at what today's Pre-Beta 0.9.8 patch brings!


[h2]Combat Improvements[/h2]

Procedural animations have been stabilized. This means that attacks have slightly more weight, are more controllable, and for those who thought the wrist movement was weird, it has become less shaky. We're still planning to make the swings a bit longer with other changes.

Equip-unequip animations are now much faster, which brings more dynamics to the field. You can now switch weapons more easily during a fight.

We fixed some dodge distance mismatches. The foot kick wound decalss have also been fixed.

Dead body ragdolls are now interactable with weapons.

In Deathmatch, health has been adjusted, so you kill and die faster now.


[h2]Parry Upgrade[/h2]



When you successfully parry an attack, your enemy cannot attack for a short time, but you can attack immediately.

We improved the block animation to cover a larger area. We are also considering shortening the time needed to activate the block after pressing the button.

We made some tweaks to the stamina balance so that block stamina doesn't drain as quickly.


[h2]More Wave Diversity[/h2]

Battle Arena now has more diverse enemy wave combinations.

Enemies now have slightly more health than before, which allows for more reactions from them but they are not too difficult to kill as there is not only one opponent. It may be a bit harder to kill them, but there are fewer opponents at the same time in most waves.


[h2]Map Improvements[/h2]

The Survival map has received visual updates. The mountains have been adjusted slightly, foliage materials have been improved to be more organic in the whole picture, the fog has been improved, and floating trees have been fixed.

The Arena now has updated collision, hits and ragdolls will make contact with objects more naturally.

The time before dead bodies disappear has been reduced per game mode, which positively impacts performance in certain cases.

Sharp shadow glitches that were mostly visible on foliage have been fixed.

The tree regrow time has been adjusted and now takes much more time.


[h2]Addressing the Shore Problem[/h2]

We know that getting out of the water is still problematic. Getting out of the lake should be much easier now. Shore has got little improvement, we will introduce a full solution in the next patch.


[h2]Building Object View Distance Fix[/h2]

Some building objects had issues with the view distance, but now they are fixed and won't disappear in a strange way.


We hope these improvements feel better and you enjoy it.


Skål!
Blackrose Arts

[h2]Vikings![/h2]

Just a hotfix for Pre-Beta 0.9.7 that addresses the issue of the days and seasons cycle not working properly.

Additionally, it fixes some glitches such as flickering fog and optimizes game disk space.

Skål!
Blackrose Arts