It's been a really cool and tight week and we managed to go through a TON of cool new stuff. One of the new upcoming feature is a new game mode: Viking Vs Viking!
Bossgard's always been about PVP and Co-op combined but we just couldn't help ourselves, especially since Viking combat has been getting cool new mechanics through our more recent updates.
The new mode will probably be ready sometime next week BUT you can see us testing it out in about an hour, during our Play with the Devs Friday!
Tune in here at 20:00 UTC+3 to see the new game mode :)
We'll be back next week with more detailed details.
Bossgard awaits!
Friday: Play with the Devs
The Sand Sailors are up and about with their regular Friday stream. Live gameplay, stupid comments and random what-nots about the game, our week, the weekend and life.
Tune in!
New Update is Live!
Another week, another update!
Today's hero is Mr Balance, who has been getting extensive care and attention. After maaaaaany hours spent in Bossgard's various formats (2v1, 5v1 etc) we tweaked, bashed and adjusted our heroes' and villains' stats to provide friendlier matches.
The first thing you'll notice is that several older game values are now dynamic, one of which is the number of lives the Viking team shares. This used to be a fixed value of 10 lives, but now the number fluctuates according to the number of players.
Fewer players will have fewer lives, more players, more lives - simple!
But the Vikings are not the only ones to get some love. After our many QA matches we figured that the way Bosses heal can be a bit much, so now the amount of HP the Boss can heal is directly proportional to the number of Vikings. So much dynamism, it's astonishing really.
Stuff like Rage gain and Rage cost for the Bosses has been adjusted more than once. Some bosses like Plunger proved to be way too punishing, so we put their stats to the ax (read: nerfing).
We have also undergone several multiplayer and matchmaking patches so you should be able to find more players now, so let us know how that works for you peeps.
That's about it, hopefully all the patching will provide a much smoother experience.
Remember - we're streaming tomorrow so if you want to drop in for a game, stick around :D
As always feedback is paramount!
Enjoy the game! Bossgard awaits!
Snail, on behalf of the Sand Sailors
UPDATE: Balancing, A.I. and Icons!
Hi there!
We’re back with a new update, we’re continuing along the lines of our recent set of community feedback. The star of this update is AI, which got a fair share of love.
Bots are now smarter and have learned to focus on the Boss’ healing outlets (Jack’s MULEs, Olaf’s Ice-Cream Cones etc) and have also learned to play a better support role. Bots will now come to your aid when they have Ressurect equipped and will also abstain from using lives from the Viking Life Pool if a Human Player is downed. This and various other tweaks promise to make Bots much more helpful. We’re still working on making them use their Shield properly.
Balancing has been and is constantly in our focus. Various Boss and Viking tweaks have been implemented (see them listed below). and Bosses should be slightly less punishing now, even more so now that Viking Bots do a much better job of keeping Boss healing in check.
Oh, and we have over 150 new icons for all the various customization items!
That being said, we hope you are enjoying your time in Bossgard and remember to keep the feedback coming, it’s our Early Access lifeblood.
See you in-game! Bossgard awaits!
Snail, on behalf of the Sand Sailors
Ice-cold patchnotes here:
AI: - Bots can now resurrect fallen teammates;
- Viking bots will now attack healing devices/minions of the bosses;
- Fixed the viking bots to use correct range values when activating Shield and Berserk rage abilities near teammates;
- Bots will not trigger hero abilities anymore while their rage abilities are active;
- Ranged bots shouldn't get stuck anymore, while performing their heavy attacks;
- Dead bots wait longer for dead non-AI players to repawn, before triggering their own respawn;
- Jackhammer bot will now attempt to heal himself by chasing the heal barrels spawned by his heal minions;
Balancing -Fixed Jackhammer's heal barrels getting stuck on the edge of the arena
-Fixed Shield aura not working unless first hit
-Fixed D-pad not working in Lobby for some controllers
-Fixed multiple cosmetic items of the same category being overlapped
-Fixed Asha's turret attacking dead targets
-Fixed Custom Game Mode allowing players to disable all owned characters
-Improved cosmetic item preview when opening a Loot chest
-Healing minions and totems are now customizable
UI: 150+ new items icons for the Customization menus
Update & Post Free Weekend Impressions
On Monday our first ever Free Weekend ended. It has been an intense, rewarding and extremely constructive experience. Eventhough there were several shortcomings, we enjoyed all the feedback and suggestions.
We spent our Monday going through all the feedback from the Steam Discussion, Discord and Email. The biggest issues were the mandatory (and difficult) tutorial and the lack of cursor for the Vikings, which we addressed immediately. The tutorial is now skippable and the cursor has been added on Sunday.
Balancing issues and bugs were present, no surprise there, we did our best to keep them in check. The most jarring issues were related to the progression system which received extra special attention over the course of the last 2 days.
We’d like to thank each and every one of our players and we want to assure all of you that we went through every bit of feedback, both positive and negative. Your playtime made a huge difference and that difference will be deeply felt in all of our future builds.
Without further ado, here’s what’s new (ding):
The Tutorial is now skippable, automatically giving the player all the post-Tutorial loot;
Updated UI and UX for the Progression system; updated several Inventory tabs to better display the player’s Items and standing with the Gods;
Updated the whole rewards system so it better explains how Shards are spent and what you get after spending them (in God scenes);
Rearranged the Main Menu buttons for a cleaner design;
Enhanced feedback for Vikings taking damage;
Balanced Bosses for better damage output and health pools;
We updated to the latest Photon Bolt (networking) which should fix several “could not connect” errors people have been getting. Please let us know if things are better.
Tweaked Shard income.
Known issues: AI needs improvement as it doesn’t cooperate too well with the players
The game rewards players with Viking Items for Viking Characters that are still WIP
The “Tutorial”/”Story” mode is named “Play”. This will change.
The online playerbase is small
Upcoming focus points include: Adding the remaining 5 Vikings
UI/UX
A.I.
A full singleplayer experience, but this is still in a heavy design and debate phase
Long ways await us and we’ll definitely keep you posted regarding future updates. Also…
...We’re headed to Gamescom 2019 in Cologne, Germany! If you’re attending Gamescom drop by and say hi! Bossgard awaits!
-The Sand Sailors
P.S. remember the quickest way to get in touch with us is on our Discord server!
https://discordapp.com/invite/vgez3YH
Bossgard is better than ever - and free this weekend!
It’s been three months since we launched Bossgard, here’s our biggest update yet!.
The Valhalla Update is bringing in a butt-load of features to the game and revamps fundamental aspects of Bossgard. The tl;dr version is this:
We added a singleplayer Story Mode
We added a whole Progression system
We did a deep overhaul of the combat system
...and we made it free over the weekend!
So if you’re in for a read, sit down and check this out…
COMBAT
Twin Stick Shooter
We made a big decision and turned Bossgard into a twin-stick shooter. While our previous default auto-aim made the game really easy to play, we realized it was very limiting and prohibited mid to high skill level play. To put it plain it prevented the possiblity of developing advanced techniques. It was also incredibly punishing for the Boss to have Vikings that hardly miss. Moreover it neutralized differences in play between Ranged and Melee Vikings.
So what you’re getting now is a classic twin stick shooter setup that makes hitting targets a whole lot more rewarding. Aim true, Vikings.
Heavy Attack
Vikings now have a new move - the Heavy Attack. This is an attack that is character-dependant, meaning that each character performs it differently.
Unique Characters
We posted about this in the past, but we’re going to go through the new characters again. Characters used to be pretty same-y, the major difference being whether they were Melee or Ranged, on top of which they had their Viking Ability plus the Rage they chose in the pre-match lobby.
Now Vikings have different stats and different moves, so picking a character means picking a particular playstyle, we redesigned them with roles in mind. For instance Asha is the tankiest of the Vikings, which makes her especially handy as a healer. Vikings go like this:
Asha - Melee, Tank
Leap. Asha can hold down RT/Right-Click to perform a leap with her hammer, dealing AOE damage upon landing.
Buff. Asha is the “healthiest” of the Melee Vikings and can withstand the most punishment. She’s extremely effective as a healer.
Turret. Asha deploys a turret that fires automatically at all nearby enemies.
Innes - Ranged, Sniper
Piercing Shot. By holding down RT/Right-Click Innes loads up a special arrow that cuts through multiple enemies
Fifi. Innes releases her trusty Fifi, a sabertooth tiger that hunts enemies.
Miko - Ranged, Soldier
Scatter Shot. By holding down RT/Right-Click, Miko starts loading rounds in her Repeating Crossbow. Upon release she fires all the arrows (max 5) in a cone in front of her.
Gatling. Miko brings out a Gatling Gun that fires continuously.
Edith - Melee, Assassin
Burrowing. Edith has the ability to dodge attacks by burrowing underground. When she emerges she can deal a Heavy Attack.
Backstab! Edith land automatic Critical Hits if attacking from behind her target. Applies to both Bosses and Minions.
Backstep. When performing a Heavy Attack, Edith also dodges backwards.
Squishy. Edith is the frailest of the Melee Vikings.
Skellies. Edith raises her relatives from the dead, which keep coming back to life as long as the ability is active.
Magnus - Melee, Bruiser
Charging Attack. Magnus’ Heavy Attack causes him to lunge forward over a short distance, cutting through several enemies at the same time.
All-rounder. Magnus is the most balanced of the Melee Vikings. Both his Health and Damage are above average.
Whirlwind. Magnus’ ability allows him to zig-zag around the battlefield dealing damage to any Minion or Boss that he touches.
We’re not discriminating anybody so the Bosses are getting special love as well!
BOSS RAGE COST
Boss Utility Powers (Dispel, Trap and Heal) as well as the Bossrage now cost Rage and also have a cooldown. This now makes it an important choice of what Powers you use during a match and when you use them.
BOSS HEALING
We completely reworked the way Bosses heal themselves. We wanted to provide players with secondary objectives other than just bashing at the Boss. Bosses will have the following new powers:
Olaf’s Ice-cream Towers Olaf drops an Ice-cream tower that deals damage from time to time, constantly healing the Boss.
Jackhammer’s MULEs Jackhammer spawns a MULE bot that wanders around digging up barrels of Health for the Boss.
Fortress’ Harvesters Fortress spawns a flying Harvester minion that wanders the board, consuming Minions and converting them into Health for the Boss.
Plunger’s Giant Flies Plunger spawns a Giant Fly that zips across the board, healing the Boss from time to time. It’s hard to catch and a proper nuisance.
Bhaar-Boot’s Mini Dice Bhaar-Boot spawns miniature dice that spin randomly across the board. When they stop, they heal the Boss and destroy themselves.
Story Mode
For the first time ever we put together a full singleplayer experience. It’s a linear episode that portrays the origin of Magnus and Innes and how they came to do battle with odd monsters such as Olaf. It’s not a massive branching roleplaying experience, it’s relatively short and its purpose is that of introducing the players to the game.
Moreover it is a platform, it’s a structure we managed to nail down and on which we can build further. Story and lore is something we wish to develop much further and will do so as soon as we stabilize the functional aspects of the game. As you can see, we’re still working on combat and other fundamental aspects. It’s only the third month of our Early Access, long ways to go yet, hobbits :)
Progression
The Story Mode concludes with one of the biggest features Bossgard now has - the progression system. The ability to earn rewards after each game played, unlockable armors, characters, weapons, maps and so on.
We also introduced an ingame currency, Runestone Shards, to keep track of player performance and allow them to unlock the game’s content step by step.
Character Menu
The Customization Menu has been reworked into the Inventory, a 3 tab menu (Character, Outfits and Abilities) where all your unlocked items are displayed, including Characters and Abilities.
Match-based level up system for Vikings
Vikings can now increase their Damage, Rage gain and Speed during a match by landing successful blows, deploying successful Rages and by successfully dodging attacks.
This system ensures that proficient Viking players are rewarded per match depending on their performance.
Bonus: Boss-themed
This is by far the biggest update so far. The systems we managed to lay into place now will allow us to extend the game far beyond its initial scope. Singleplayer systems, item systems, loot systems, currency systems, combat systems, all of these are huge building blocks which will keep on bringing value to our players.
In conclusion
This is the best time to join Bossgard and the Free Weekend has just begun.We invite you to step inside Bossgard and have a good time. Don’t forget to bring a friend :)
Lovingly,
The Sand Sailors
The Beta is Live!
Hi! Welcome to the Combat Update Beta!
After 3 months of Early Access we came to the conclusion that combat needed some extra love. The gamble we made by going for stuff like Viking auto-aim and one-shot Boss utility powers for the sake of accessibility, made us realize that a simpler game isn’t necessarily a more enjoyable one.
So here’s what’s new!
We reworked both Viking and Boss gameplay
Twin-stick Shooter. Vikings now aim manually, we decided to go for a twin-stick shooter setup. This affects everything from the Light Attack to Rage Attacks.
Heavy Attacks. Vikings now have a “heavy attack”, which is basically a secondary fire mode that is different from Viking to Viking
Roles. Vikings are now different in the way they play! Characters are now deeper and have been redesigned to fit certain “roles”. We picked 5 Vikings for this first test and they are as follows:
Edith - Assassin Burrowing. Edith has the ability to dodge attacks by burrowing underground. When she emerges she can deal a Heavy Attack.
Backstab! Edith land automatic Critical Hits if attacking from behind her target. Applies to both Bosses and Minions.
Backstep. When performing a Heavy Attack, Edith also dodges backwards.
Squishy. Edith is the frailest of the Melee Vikings.
Skellies. Edith raises her relatives from the dead, which keep coming back to life as long as the ability is active.
Magnus - Bruiser Charging Attack. Magnus’ Heavy Attack causes him to lunge forward over a short distance, cutting through several enemies at the same time.
All-rounder. Magnus is the most balanced of the Melee Vikings. Both his Health and Damage are above average.
Whirlwind. Magnus’ ability allows him to zig-zag around the battlefield dealing damage to any Minion or Boss that he touches.
Asha - Tank
Leap. Asha can hold down RT/Right-Click to perform a leap with her hammer, dealing AOE damage upon landing.
Buff. Asha is the “healthiest” of the Melee Vikings and can withstand the most punishment. She’s extremely effective as a healer.
Turret. Asha deploys a turret that fires automatically at all nearby enemies.
Innes - Sniper
Piercing Shot. By holding down RT/Right-Click Innes loads up a special arrow that cuts through multiple enemies
Fifi. Innes releases her trusty Fifi, a sabertooth tiger that hunts enemies.
Miko - Soldier Scatter Shot. By holding down RT/Right-Click, Miko starts loading rounds in her Repeating Crossbow. Upon release she fires all the arrows (max 5) in a cone in front of her.
Gatling. Miko brings out a Gatling Gun that fires continuously.
Fit. Miko has more HP than other Ranged Vikings.
BOSS RAGE COST Boss Utility Powers (Dispel, Trap and Heal) as well as the Bossrage now cost Rage and also have a cooldown. This now makes it an important choice of what Powers you use during a match and when you use them.
BOSS HEALING We completely reworked the way Bosses heal themselves. We wanted to provide players with secondary objectives other than just bashing at the Boss.
To that end, Healing powers now spawn Healing proxies, a totem for Olaf and a healing minion for Jackhammer (We’re sticking to 2 Bosses for starters, Olaf and Jack).
Olaf’s Ice Cream Cones When hitting (B) or Q, Olaf drops a Healing Ice Cream Cone on his Boss Cursor. The Cone has health and constantly gives Olaf HP.
The Cone also pulsates regularly, dealing damage to all Vikings caught in its range, siphoning HP from them and giving extra HP to Olaf
The Cones have HP and can be destroyed by the Vikings.
Olaf can have up to 3 Cones. Cones also deal damage when dropping in the scene.
Jackhammer’s MULEs Upon hitting (B) or Q, instead of the usual Heal, Jack will spawn a MULE bot, a small robot that starts wandering and digging. MULEs dig out health drops for Jack. Jack can pick them up by running through them.
MULEs and their Health drops both have HP and can be destroyed by the Vikings.
Vikings fighting back We took these decisions in order to give Vikings the possibility of countering the Boss’ healing efforts by destroying their minions and towers.
We hope you will enjoy these new design choices we made, let us know how combat feels, what strategies you come up with and if it’s better than what we have before.
Remember you need to “opt-in” for the beta. You can do this by doing the following:
Steam Game Library>Bossgard>Right Click>Properties>Betas>closed_beta from the dropdown menu.
Update: Damage Numbers!
Ew, math.
But math feels good. Numbers feel good. Big number feel good.
We've been talking about this for a while and our quest to provide our players with better, more accurate feedback has led us to the conclusion that numbers are, well, important.
So now every time your little Viking or giant plunger smashes another living thing, damage will be shown in big bold numbers. Take note that only successful hits yield the much sought-after numbers.
But wait there's more!
Introducing CRITICAL HITS
This was mandatory since merely adding numbers with no variety in values felt stale. Now every few hits, based on a frequency of our choosing, your blows have a chance of being critical hits.
(Needless to say this works extremely nice in combination with the Berzerk Rage)
We did it! A high level bug we've been doing battle against for the last weeks has finally been defeated.
A lot of our players have been having issues with the in-game cursor. It should be ok now, do test it out and let us know if it's ok now.
Besides the stuff above there have been valiant balancing efforts.
Up next on Bossgard
Sure, damage numbers and critical hits are cool, but have you ever found yourself working on a massive overhaul of Bossgard's combat system to make it more deep and exciting?
Because we're upgrading the combat system, alongside a host of immensely awesome stuff (*cough* content *cough*) the next major update will arrive somewhere in the next 3 weeks.
This has been it, hope you'll enjoy the numbers, the crits and the now-working mouse cursor!
Till next time, a teaser:
June Update 1
What's hot:
Late Join - you can join an in-progress game
Balancing
New way to choose the next map
No more couch menu - just use your keyboard/controller in the lobby to join as a viking/boss
Updates:
-Joining on-going matches is now possible (you will be able to replace a viking bot with your chosen character)
-Setting your desired party size is no longer required before joining an online match (this removes the possibility to reserve slots but clears many inconveniences)
-Servers list update is now faster
-Map voting screen now has 4 vote options
-New soundtrack for maps Temple and Jotunheim
-Tweaked the projectile trails and bossrage fx
-Removed customization from BOT boss minions
-Many performance optimizations
Balancing:
-All bosses now upgrade at 50% of their total health
-Boss Plunge D: increased stun on melee attacks, reduced stun on ranged attack and increased damage
-Boss Bread: Increased slap damage and tweaked animation. Increased range attack radius
-Boss Jack: Increased damage on ranged and melee attack
-Boss Regeneration: Reduced amount and duration
-Vikings: Resurrection has increased cost and reduced range
-Vikings: Reduced evade speed and distance
-Vikings: Increased arrows velocity
PIMP YOUR BOSS - First Content Update!
Check out the tl;dr video-version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owPOnzDzh2s
A month ago we released Bossgard. Today we’re dropping our first CONTENT UPDATE and by far the star of the show is the new BOSS CUSTOMIZATION feature! This is our very first milestone since the initial release and hopefully the first of many.
Without further ado here’s the feature list and changelog:
New Features!
Boss Customization
Players can now customize their Bosses by going to the Boss Menu via the Main Menu (lower-right corner of the screen). Bosses, like Vikings, have various God-themed color schemes, which can be unlocked in Jotunheim, a smaller equivalent of Valhalla.
Bosses unlock skins by leveling up against the Gods. They earn points by defeating Followers of the Gods, based on what Rages the Vikings are using. For instance by defeating a lot of players using Mighty Blow, the Boss will level up against Thor.
Bosses have separate skins for Stage 1 and Stage 2! For instance Olaf of Bread can be yellow in stage 1 and green in stage 2!
Minions share their Boss’ color scheme! White Olaf - white Dumplings!
New Maps!
Lost Temple
The ruins of an ancient temple become the next battlefield in the Viking - Boss conflict! Beware, the Boss can summon a nasty Ruin Creeper, a large insect-like creature with the ability to engage Vikings in melee AND deploy a powerful flame-throwing special attack.
Jotunheim
Home to an ancient and relentless evil, this new ice-themed arena gives the Boss the ability to rain down giant Ice Shards on the Vikings.
Tweaks
Multiplayer
We updated the Multiplayer menu to provide a more straightforward experience. Host, Join, Kustom Game and the Server List are now all on the same screen, accessible via the Online button
New Region Selection Menu
We are now allowing our players to choose their preferred multiplayer region to ensure that you and your friends have the lowest latency possible!
Balancing
Vikings no longer build Rage when casting Berzerk or Ressurect.
Olaf of Bread - Increased Ranged damage area.
The Jackhammer - Incresed Ranged damage.
Plunge D. - Overall increased damage output, but reduced the chance to stun-lock.
Fortress - Lowered Minion health
Viking Village - Incresed Rotating Fire Trap damage.
Fixes
Fixed an issue where some awards wouldn’t be given out correctly.
Fixed an issue where disabling XInput would break input.
Fixed an issue where clicking “Reveal” on new unlocked items using the mouse would not unlock them.
Fixed an issue where starting a game in Ultra Wide resolutions would disable resolution selection.
Fixed an issue where the Boss would not properly reset the game when leaving the match.
Fixed a bug where Maksim would show up fully white when his Morp Ability expired.
Tech-y stuff
Added support for ultrawide monitors/resolutions.
We updated to Unity 2018.4.25f
We updated our Bolt version to 1.2.8
We updated to Rewired Version 1.1.25.1
Misc.
Viking Bots are no longer customized like the Player.
We hope you enjoy this first major update! Bossgard awaits!
