Monthly development update - more of what’s cookin’ in Hearth & Home
Vikings!
We can’t believe it’s been over a month since we shared more details on Hearth & Home, and it’s time to share more! We have begun wrapping up our summer break, and wanted to share some new content we’ve been working on.
We’re still on track to deliver the update this very quarter, and as always, thank you for your kindness and patience. Your response to our roadmap post in June was super supportive, and the questions that came through in the reddit AMA gave us lots of inspiration for future updates.
Here’s a small haul of loot related Hearth & Home content: Coin stack and Coin pile - so you can build a dragon worthy hoard with all your excess wealth (sorry trolls)
Treasure chest - to keep your additional excess wealth and supplies safe
Iron grate - to lock up your treasures, or maybe a captured greydwarf or two
We’re also happy to share that we have three new vikings joining the Iron Gate team next month, a programmer, an animator, and a QA Manager, who we’ll introduce you to soon.
May Frey bless you with a bountiful summer harvest!
The Iron Gate Team
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Patch 0.156.2
Tiny AI tweak patch. We hear you!! =) , some tweaks to the monster AI to make them behave better when attacking structures etc.
0.156.2 * AI tweaks (Monsters should always target creatures [including players] first if they have a clear path to them & monsters should only attack low priority structures [walls etc.] if they are trying to get to a player)
Patch 0.155.7
Fun with AI patch. Gameplay wise this patch mostly fixes AI issues, as we tried to make monsters slightly more aggressive and attack your buildings etc. When they are not able to attack you. It’s fun for the whole family! Also it's midsummer here in Sweden, so we celebrate by temporarily making the Maypole buildable.
0.155.7 * Random save bug-fix (Solves a very unusual case of world corruption caused when shutting down) * Monster AI tweaks (More aggressively attacking structures when unable to attack the player among other things) * Open container fix (Fixes issue where you had to click a container multiple times to open it in multiplayer) * Taught Greydwarfs to throw better * Event trigger tweaks (Wolf event only triggers after Bonemass has been killed, Moder army can trigger in mountains etc.) * Long forgotten Blob event enabled * SFX volume setting fix (Used wrong DB conversion) * Maypole enabled (Happy midsummer!) * AI flee behaviour tweaks (Bosses don’t run from you anymore)
Roadmap changes, Hearth & Home content, & reddit AMA
Hi Everyone,
We want to start by thanking you all for the patience and kindness you’ve shown us since we launched in February. We launched into Early Access because we want to build the game with you, but never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined how many of you want to join us on this journey!
As we’re sure lots of you suspected, we won’t be able to deliver four updates this year. Instead, we’re now planning to launch Hearth & Home in Q3 2021, and we’re temporarily taking down the roadmap whilst we make some changes. We are sorry it’s taken us so long to update you.
We weren’t prepared for such a large influx of players, and this highlighted a thousand new problems and bugs that needed to be fixed urgently. Our priority has been to make the current experience as stable as possible and this has meant new content has taken a backseat. To put it clearly; we haven’t been able to focus all of our resources on Hearth & Home until May.
We hope that one of the reasons Valheim has resonated with so many of you is down to attention to detail. We don’t want to launch an update that we’re not confident in, and that isn’t deserving of your time. With that in mind, the new roadmap will be much smaller, but we’ve made the decision to focus on the big Mistlands update directly after we’re done with Hearth & Home, putting aside the smaller updates for now...
That being said, we would like to share some of the upcoming Hearth & Home content here. This is by no means a complete list but a taste of what’s cooking.
New build pieces – Darkwood roofs and window hatches.
New cooking station extensions – spice rack, butcher table, pots & pans... In addition to this we've also implemented a new food system that places more importance between boosting health and stamina, making food choices more interesting based on your playstyle. To this end, we've also made some changes to how stamina/health affects your poise in combat. If you want to play a tanky, defensive viking you should now stock up on health, since this will boost your ability to deflect incoming hits and mitigate damage.
New foods to take advantage of the new system and cooking station extensions– more than 10 new recipes including Eyescream, Shocklate smoothie, various wolf meats, and more.
Plantable onions with pretty onion flowers.
We’re pretty flexible when it comes to what we want to add to the game, and we’re often inspired by a meeting or an awesome comment from the community, which means our roadmap is always going to be fluid. Valheim is also a game about exploration, and we don't want to spoil that feeling of discovery for our players. That said, we do want to be more open with what we’re currently working on, even if it is just our artist Robin working on a piece of content that he's enjoying, but that might never make it into the game. Striking a balance between being transparent about what we are working on, while at the same time not spoiling it for those of you who want to discover it yourselves is tough, but we think it's important to be more informal and open as an Early Access game.
Tomorrow June 11th, at 2PM CEST, we will also be heading to the r/valheim subreddit for an AMA. We’d love for you all to join so we have an opportunity to try and answer as many questions as we can on Hearth & Home and the new roadmap.
We’ll also of course keep posting our monthly development updates and hotfixes as always. Thank you again for continuing to support us, and for your feedback and creativity.
The Iron Gate team
Patch note 0.154.1
Hello everybody! Another one of our beloved fixer upper patches. Besides fixing some bugs and minor issues we found that some of our main random events never triggered as expected. So please welcome two new events: “You are being hunted…” and “The horde is attacking”. I'm sure they will brighten up your day.
0.154.1 * Fixed issue where capes sometimes formed strange bumps on the back after jumping * Close build gui with ESC selection fix * Fuling army event trigger fixed * Wolf hunt event trigger fixed * Troll ground slam can now be blocked * Longship repair & build sound fixes * Wolfcape durability fix * Respawning resources timer fix (Berries and flint should now correctly respawn) * Serpents no longer flee when low on health * Fixed issue with ship containers not closing properly in some situations * Raise terrain is more smooth & less pointy * Fixed water particles & water-surface clipping issues inside boats * Better fermenter feedback when it’s exposed * Tweaked some sound assets to use less RAM * Covered rocks should no longer look wet during rain
Development news 28/05/21
Time flies and summer is just around the corner. Here at Iron Gate, we’re still working from home, and we’re still looking for the perfect office. While those two things remain unchanged, exciting things are still happening within the company. The last couple of weeks we’ve been having interviews with several potential future coworkers, and we’re really excited to grow with more talent! While it may take a couple of weeks before the time comes, we’re really looking forward to introducing our new colleagues to you!
We have in a way already received a new team member, say hello to Valheim the horse! We collaborated with our friends at Skövde ryttarförening (Sköve riding club) to get them a new horse (technically pony) for their riding school. Isn’t she a beauty? You will definitely see more of her in the future. (This does not mean that we’ll introduce horses to the game, but it does mean that Iron Gate will take field trips to the stables to meet our four legged colleague)
Since last time we have as usual made some updates and fixes for the game. We, for example, overhauled the harpoon mechanics, added a pre saving message and updated the looks of the troll and two bosses!
Our work on Hearth and Home is still going well. The update is starting to take shape and the past month has been very productive, with many new items and mechanics being finalized. There are of course many more things we want to make before the update is released, as we don’t want to rush it. In our last devblog we explained how we work, wanting to let things take the time they need, and not setting a release date before we know for certain that the game is in a state that we can proudly present, and the response we got was fantastic! We are eternally grateful for having such a kind and understanding community! We are very proud to get to be on this journey with all of you.
In our last two updates we gave you some sneak peeks, and this time is no different! We all have a great time reading your theories on what the items could be, some are more correct than others, but they are all equally creative. This month we present to you these pictures, what do you think they could be?
We are looking into hosting some sort of Q&A, hopefully in June, where we can answer your questions about the game, development and the team! If this is something you’d be interested in, comment below!
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Good day, today we have a fine selection of fixes and tweaks for you guys to enjoy, including some much needed sparkling visual updates on a few of our older creatures. We also made some changes to the harpoon mechanics to make it less rubberband-y and more rope-y. Enjoy!
* Fixed smelter issue when a very long time has passed since visiting (10000 days) * 30s Pre world save warning added * Stone stair physics fix * Inventory screen gamepad focus fix * Large-creature visual overhaul (troll, boss-2 & boss-3) * Troll ragdoll material fix * Harpoon mechanics overhauled * Engine updated (some stability improvements) * Draugr archer visual fixes (1 & 2 star draugrs sometimes got the wrong material) * Fixed issues when crafting station is destroyed while in use * Creature group spawning adjusted to avoid spawning over total limit (in some cases) * Credits updated * Localization updates
Development news 23/04/21
Greetings! We are once again here to give you a little insight to how the development of Valheim is going!
The Valheim community is still steadily growing, and reading the reviews, feedback and messages you send us warms our hearts. When we're not working, we’re sending each other pictures of amazing things that you’ve built, art you’ve painted and videos you’ve made. Knowing that Valheim has gathered such a wonderful and creative community feels amazing, and words can’t describe how grateful we are.
We are still working from home which is going well, but we would be lying if we said we didn’t miss each other’s company. As we expect Iron Gate to grow, we’re looking for a bigger office. Dreamy office spaces sadly don’t grow on trees, but it’s something that we’re really looking forward to so it is definitely worth the wait. Maybe we’ll even make an office tour when we’ve finally found the right place?
Tweaks and fixes to improve your gaming experiences are still being made. For example, this week we released a patch that included a new terrain modification system, and a bugfix that hinders draugrs from spawning inside stones (draugrs shouldn’t be smart enough to use camouflage). Please up-vote or report new bugs that you find here: https://valheimbugs.featureupvote.com/.
Some other things that we have worked on are graphical updates to the troll, the second boss, and the third boss to give their old models some new fresh looks, and have their designs better fall in line with how we envision the enemies of Valheim. We won’t spoil the bosses, but here’s the updated troll! More hair, nails and more defined muscles, what do you think of its updated look? These enemy updates will be available in the next patch!
This does of course not mean that we’ve forgotten about our next big update, Hearth and Home. The Hearth and Home development is moving forward, and we are working on new mechanics and new items that we can’t wait to show off! Below are two little sneak peeks of what we’re currently working on for Hearth and Home: Can you see what’s new in this picture, and what could it be part of? This last picture will be a pretty big part of the update, with many new items relating to it, can you guess what it is?
Valheim was a labor of love and we didn’t decide on a release date before we knew it would be in a state we were happy to release it in, and we are doing the same for this update. Instead of rushing it, we want to let it take the time it needs to get in a state that we’re happy with. We know that you’re all very eager for the update to release (as are we) so we thank you so much for the patience you’re showing! We’re on an exciting journey, and we’re happy to be on it with you.
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This was a long one! This patch has been taking extra long time to develop due to the new terrain-modification system. The new terrain modification system is made to reduce the number of network instances and make loading faster and smoother. Technically it’s a pretty big change but hopefully you should not notice that much of a difference except some minor behaviour changes to the hoe and pickaxe and of course much smoother loading of areas with a lot of terrain modifications. All terrain modifications after this patch (using the hoe, pickaxe or cultivator) will automatically use the new modification system. For existing areas where heavy terrain modifications have been made before this patch we have added a special console command “optterrain” that basically converts all the old terrain modifications in the nearby area to the new system. To use the “optterrain” console command, you first need to enable the ingame console by adding “-console” as a launch argument for the game.
0.150.3 * Swamp draugr spawner location fix to prevent draugrs from spawning inside stones * Lox pet-sfx fix * Torches in locations should no longer support constructions * Dolmen location stone size fix * New terrain modification system * Terrain-modification priority changed (Terrain modifications in an area should load before buildings, only applies to the new terrain modification system) * World loading tweaks (to fix issues with ships and buildings getting damaged while loading) * Stop server list download when leaving the start menu (to decrease network bandwidth usage) * Lowered the amount of stone required to Raise ground using the hoe
0.148.7
Cute mini-tweak patch =)
* Localization updates * Added separate walk-sneak snow footstep sfx * Music update ( fixed some sound glitches ) * Credits updated ( Changed the look of the credits screen & added missing names ) * Hammer,Hoe & Cultivator timing & input tweaks ( Slightly lower use delay & queued button presses for a smoother experience...just for you )
