Darktide 101: Level Design and Cinematics - Dev Blog
Heyo Everyone,
Welcome to a series of dev blogs called Darktide 101. We’re interviewing different devs working on Darktide to share what it’s like to create the game. These dev blogs will include topics like level design and cinematics, voice acting and audio, and more (based on your suggestions)!
For today’s blog, we’re starting with level design and cinematics for Darktide. This is currently an introduction to these topics, because there is truly so much to talk about. If players are interested, we’d love to talk more about taking a mission to functional, adding in the art and audio cues, lighting and iteration, etc. Let us know!
Level Design
While creating a level in Darktide always follows a well established production process - a production blueprint if you will - each new level brings its own set of challenges and creative opportunities. We think of ways to innovate and improve within the experience players have come to expect, for the sake of consistency. You may also have noticed we sometimes make changes to previously released levels after looking at how players interact with them.
Before we begin laying the foundation for a level, we take a step back and define the backstory and narrative for a mission. We ask questions like: What kind of location was it before current-day events? Is there a specific reason for Chaos forces to be there now? What is the Warbands’ (or other parties..) interest in it? One typical question we always try to justify is: why couldn't Masozi simply fly us to the end of the level from the get-go? After answering these questions, we begin with a paper design of the mission, known as the Mission Design Document (MDD). The MDD becomes the blueprint for the mission, outlining how we envision it playing out. It includes detailed descriptions of every part of the mission, ensuring everyone on the team has a clear idea of the mission's flow.
The MDD details:
The Plot: A short summary of the plot of the mission.
The Setting: A detailed description of which part of the Hive the mission takes place and the different areas we intend the players to go through.
Game Mechanics: The types of game mechanics we intend to use during the mission. Particularly how we envision the event in the mission to play and how we intend to challenge the players during the events.
Mission Areas: Descriptions of different areas within the mission, which we call “chunks.”
We use the term “chunks” to refer to different sections of a mission. Each chunk varies in gameplay to keep the experience fresh and engaging. A mission in Darktide is typically split into several chunks with distinct topologies that blend seamlessly together. (Note: Comparing each chunk to a battlefield in the tabletop form of Warhammer 40,000 is not a stretch.)
When thinking of a chunk, envision a maze, street, or open plaza within a level. Designing in chunks allows us to offer variety, opportunities, and challenges tailored to different player archetypes. What makes a level fun depends on your playstyle, so we try to vary the gameplay spaces in a mission to give each playstyle its moment to shine and to provide interesting challenges. Since Darktide is primarily a co-op game, if you find yourself in a chunk that doesn't suit your playstyle, you’ll ideally have a teammate with a build that's better suited for that environment.
Once we're happy with the MDD and everyone on the team has signed off on the ideas based on their expertise, we start building the mission in the editor. It takes a group effort to create a mission, involving not just level designers but also environment artists, level artists, sound designers, gameplay coders, lighting artists, writers, and more. This is where the fun really begins!
Note: Below you’ll find some early design notes for different chunks within missions. As these are from initial planning, they may not represent the final versions of the levels you play today! But we thought they’d be interesting for players to see.
Chasm Logistratum - Chunk 2
Chasm Logistratum - Chunk 3
Chunk 1 - Relay Station TRS-150
Chunk 4 - Relay Station TRS-150
When we start building a level in our engine, we use very simple geometry, a phase commonly known as gray box, white box, or blockout. This approach allows for quick design iteration until we're satisfied with the experience. Building the base of a level is similar to traditional painting or sculpting – we begin with broad strokes and large shapes to get the scale right and do Warhammer 40,000 justice.
Once the blockout of the mission is in place and everything works as intended, we start playtesting. Initially, team members who are working on the mission test it. This helps us understand how the mission plays out and how the enemies behave. We often iterate a lot during this step, refining areas that don't play as intended. It's much easier and faster to make changes during the blockout phase than after adding the final art.
When we're happy with the basic layout, we add all the logic and smaller details to the mission. This includes pickup spawners, enemy spawners, and climb edges for enemy traversal. We also set up the logic for player characters, such as hang ledges, respawn locations, and health stations. Covers are added for both players and enemies to create engaging combat spaces. At this point, the mission should be fully playable from start to finish with all the necessary elements in place. We then playtest it with a larger group from the team, gather feedback, and iterate as much as possible.
The events in missions typically require the most time and iteration to perfect. These segments are complex because they must deliver both engaging combat encounters and clear narrative progression. Ensuring that players grasp the storyline amid intense combat is a significant challenge that demands the collective expertise of the entire team.
Moreover, these events are particularly challenging to block out successfully. They heavily rely on integrating various mission elements—such as art, lighting, effects, and voiceover—to effectively convey the unfolding narrative.
Chasm Logistratum Blockout
Chasm Logistratum Final
Relay Station TRS-150 Blockout
Relay Station TRS-150 Final
Excise Vault Spireside-13 Blockout
Excise Vault Spireside-13 Final
We take the events as far as we can during block out and pray to the game developer gods that it will all work out in the end, worst case we will have to go back to the drawing board and come up with some other solution, and sometimes this might force us into rethinking the narrative of the mission completely which is something we try to avoid as much as possible but it did happen a few times during the development of Darktide.
This is the end of Part 1 to Level Design for Darktide. We’d like to discuss it in more detail in another 101 dev blog! Let us know if you’re interested.
Cinematics
Hi everyone, I’m Tim. I worked with cinematics during the development of Darktide. I’m here to write a small rundown of how we make cinematics in Darktide! Of course, every cutscene starts with a bunch of planning, but I’ll skip that part for the sake of brevity.
After planning, the first step we do in-engine is prototyping; we make a really ugly prototype to test out how things flow and if the script fits our planned shots. Once we have a prototype we feel okay with, we iterate on it. We add VFX, animations, character art, finetune the cameras and add audio (though not necessarily in that order).
Here’s an early prototype we made for the first cutscene in the Prologue (it’s very WIP to show you what the first iteration looks like for cinematics):
https://youtu.be/TOQM-bxNE_c
Since Darktide was still in the middle of being developed when creating this prototype, some things were gradually added as they were finished for other parts of the game. For example, we didn’t have the unit for the Poxburster until a bit further into production, so we used a WIP Poxwalker as a stand-in for this first prototype.
We use a visual programming system, called Flow, for most of the VFX and audio triggers. Essentially, we set up a sequence of animations and position keys, with some pretty simple scripting to trigger VFX and audio throughout a cutscene.
Here’s a quick example of what a part of the first cutscene in the prologue looks like within our editor (see the screenshot) as well as outside the editor (see the video). (Note: This prototype is without the VFX we added later).
First Cutscene in Prologue in our Flow Editor
https://youtu.be/CCuCTf6p4CY
This is the end of Part 1 to Cinematics for Darktide. We’d like to discuss more details about the planning that goes into cinematics, and / or to share more examples.
OK! That’s the end of our first Darktide 101 dev blog. Let us know what you think and if you’d like to see more behind the scenes stuff like this. We’d be happy to share other similar topics with everyone. If you have any further questions for the teams working on level design and cinematics regarding what it’s like to develop, let us know in the comments.
Until next time!
Summer Announcement
Hey there Devoted Rejects,
It’s that time of year again. During the month of July, a lot of people in Sweden take time off to enjoy the peak summer weather before it disappears. A lot of employees at Fatshark take this time, too.
While not everyone is going to be away, there will be less hotfixes during this time. The next hotfix is expected in the first full week of August.
We know communication from us has been a sore point for the community and we’re working on it. This isn’t going to be a period of silence. We are working through pages and pages of feedback from the Introduction to Itemization Rework dev blog. After talking more with the team, we hope to begin dropping at least a couple updates and responses to those questions in the form of additional news posts throughout July, with longer posts coming in August.
We are also working on a couple of dev blogs about creating Darktide and what it looks like from a game development perspective (think cinematics, voice overs and audio, etc.). These will be coming in July, as well.
Thank you again for the feedback recently and the opportunity to change the momentum. We’ll be talking soon.
Hotfix #43 (aka 1.4.3) is now live on Steam and it will shortly be live on our other platforms.
(Note: It takes a little bit of time after the release of the hotfix before the old servers are disconnected and players are migrated over to the new one.) 🙏
Reverted an issue that caused some players to experience crashes when entering the game.
Hotfix #42 (1.4.2) Patch Notes
Hey there Devoted Rejects,
Hotfix #42 (1.4.2) is out now on Steam and it will shortly be out on our other platforms.
(Note: It takes a little bit of time after the release of the hotfix before the old servers are disconnected and players are migrated over to the new one.) :pray:
Combat
Shooters
Reverting the following Shooter Changes from the 1.4.0 Patch:
Scab Shooters now have a tighter shot spread, making them more threatening at range. While they still have ranged damage falloff, they will be more consistent in how they hit players at range.
Additionally, Scab/Dreg shooters will now stay in cover longer (and remain exposed longer) with a reduced cooldown between sprays, making cover-taking enemies more of a threat but also enhancing the viability of player weapons that apply suppression.
Dev Note:We are pulling back a few of the Enemy changes from the Previous Patch, as they were a bit too oppressive.
General
Increased the range of what would be considered Close Range: 8m to 12.5m.
Dev Note:In Patch #13 (Class Rework), we changed Close Range from 15m to 8m, and in return increased the power of Blessings triggered only in Close Range e.g. Fire Frenzy and Deathspitter. We did this because we wanted to differentiate the Close Range Gunplay a bit more from the Far Range one. This was considered by many as a bug, though it was an intended change. However, we have re-evaluated that change, and while we after some extensive testing still believe 15m is a little too far, we think 12.5m is a justified increase. This will also increase the power of specific Talents tied to Close Damage such as Veteran’s ‘Close Quarters Killzone’ and Zealot’s ‘Anoint in Blood’ which we will monitor closely.
Weapons
Tigrus Mk XV Heavy Eviscerator
Bumped the speed for windup timings of Heavy 1 and Heavy 2 attacks:
Heavy 1 chained from base start or Light 4: 0.4 (unchanged)
Heavy 1 chained from Light 2 / Heavy 2 from 0.76 to 0.65
Heavy 2 chained from Light 1 / Heavy 1 from 0.85 to 0.65
Heavy 2 chained from Light 3 / push follow-up from 0.6 to 0.4.
Dev Note: The windup timing for Heavy attacks varied significantly depending on which attack they were chained from. The windup timings should now be more aligned with each other, and in general shorter to reward players accessing attacks further down the chain instead of resetting the combo.
Artemia Mk III Purgation Flamer
Bumped power distribution for primary and secondary direct fire:
Primary burst attack from (10,20) to (15,30)
Secondary continuous attack from (30,50) to (60,100)
Dev Note:Damage scales with distance and time inside the cloud. Burn damage and max stacks are unaffected by the change.
Ogryn Pickaxes
Normalised the attack ranges for all marks.
Slightly tuned the damage window timing for specific attacks to be more accurate with the attack animation.
Detailed Changes*
*Dev Note:You can view the exact number value changes at the bottom of these patch notes.
Branx Pickaxe
Slightly reduced reach for the Light 1 attack.
Improved reach for the Light 2, Light 3, Heavy 1 attacks.
Greatly improved reach for the Push follow-up attack.
Borovian Pickaxe
Improved reach of the Light 1, Light 2, Light 3 attacks.
Greatly improved reach for the Heavy 1, Heavy 2 attacks.
Karsolas Pickaxe
Improved reach of the Light 1, Light 2, Light 3, Light 4, Light special follow-up, Heavy special follow-up attacks.
Greatly improved reach for the Heavy 1, Heavy 2 attacks
Dev Note:The reach of the attacks for Ogryn Pickaxes differed significantly between marks or even different attacks in the same mark, and in several cases it was shorter than the attack range of other Ogryn weapons.
We performed a pass on all attacks, normalising the ranges and in general bumping up the values to make sure that these two-handed weapons always have the reach appropriate to their size.
We also fine-tuned the time windows where some specific attacks are active, to be more aligned to their attack animations.
Missions
Clandestium Gloriana
Fixed an issue with the valkyrie in the outro cutscene.
Did some various optimisations to assets.
Fixed an issue where players were unable to interact with pickups under a pile of snow.
Fixed some visual bugs during the horizontal shuttle ride.
Fixed an issue where deploying a med kit or ammo box would have it go through the floor of the horizontal shuttle.
Dev Note:However, there is still a known issue where it lands a bit further back than where you deployed it, so for now be careful to not deploy it too far back in the transport.
Fixed an issue with a small corner before the middle event where players would get instantly killed when standing there.
Side missions like grimoires and tomes should now count correctly.
Fixed a location where bots would often fall off the side of the map.
Fixed so enemies can now reach you inside the elevator.
Excise Vault Spireside-13
Fixed wall unit lacking collision allowing players to leave gameplay space.
Dev Note:We are aware that in bulk-lifter-32 some pick-ups cannot be collected, and one is floating. We will be addressing these in the next hotfix.
Enclavum Baross
Fixed an issue where some VO lines at the end of Enclavum Baross did not trigger at all.
Additional Fixes
Fixed an issue related to memory that caused stalls and crashes or disconnects for players (especially those playing with mods).
Fixed issue which caused penances tracking mission types not to progress.
Dev Note:Any missions that were completed during this time will not be added after this fix. We apologise for not catching this sooner.
Fixed an issue where the Torment blessing did not work on the Branx Pickaxe special poke attack.
Fixed an issue where “Crosshair Type” user settings didn’t revert when using the “Reset to Default Settings” button.
Fixed an issue where Force Staves incorrectly had their crosshairs overridden when using anything but the “Weapon Specific” option of “Crosshair Type”.
Fixed issue with candle flame blocking line of sight with the Magistratum Bolt Pistol (Blessed) skin. Candle flame effect disabled until we move the candle slightly, it will be reenabled in a later patch.
Fixed crash when trying to equip a trinket with the Magistratum Bolt Pistol (Blessed) skin equipped.
Fixed an issue which caused some players to need to reassign keybinds, or being unable to assign some keybinds at all.
Fixed an issue where heavy melee attacks would be cancelled to light attacks if an Ability was used during the windup of the attack.
Dev Note:This fix does reintroduce an issue where players cannot activate the Zealots ‘Chorus of Spiritual Fortitude’ or the Psykers Telekine Field/Dome’ Abilities while charging a heavy attack. We decided this was better than leaving this issue unaddressed. We will investigate potential solutions that address these issues without affecting other abilities.
Fixed the text for Psyker’s “Malefic Momentum” where it wasn’t localised.
Fixed missing pipes on Zealot’s headgear, Magistratum Scrivener’s helmet.
Fixed an issue where part of the mannequin was missing when viewing Magistratum Mk II Patrol Uniform.
Fixed an issue where the pipes on Scrutiniser’s Parade Dress were deformed for female characters.
Fixed additional clipping issues on the pipes for the Scrutiniser’s Parade Dress.
Fixed some visual issues with the Magistratum Mk II Patrol Uniform knee pad stretching when emoting.
Removed the glass material in the slit of the Magistratum Riot Shield skin.
Dev note:This is to fix an issue where several visual effects were not correctly rendered through the shield slit due to conflicting transparency with the glass material.
Fixed clipping issues with the glove on Scrutiniser’s Parade Dress.
Fixed clipping issues for the Baross Patrol Armour (XXXXL).
Fixed clipping issues for the Enforcer Patrol Helmet (XXXXL).
Fixed an issue where the Tome Xenos accessory did not properly align with the Magistratum Mk V Patrol Armour cosmetic.
Detailed Changes for Pickaxes (Numbers)
Branx Pickaxe
Light 1 range mod from 1.25 to 1.2
Light 1 damage window start from 12/30 to 10/30
Light 2 range mod from 1.25 to 1.55
Light 3 range mod from 1.25 to 1.35
Light 3 damage window end from 22/30 to 24/30
Heavy 1 range mod from 1.5 to 1.6
Push follow-up range mod from 2 to 2.5.
Borovian Pickaxe
Light 1 range mod from 1.25 to 1.45
Light 1 damage window start from 9/30 to 12/30
Light 1 damage window end from 15/30 to 16/30
Light 2 range mod from 1.25 to 1.45
Light 3 range mod from 1.25 to 1.5
Heavy 1 range mod from 1.25 to 1.6
Heavy 2 range mod from 1.25 to 1.4.
Karsolas Pickaxe
Light 1 range mod from 1.25 to 1.45
Light 1 damage window end from 15/30 to 16/30
Light 2 range mod from 1.25 to 1.4
Light 3 range mod from 1.25 to 1.38
Light 4 range mod from 1.25 to 1.45
Heavy 1 range mod from 1.25 to 1.6
Heavy 2 range mod from 1.25 to 1.67
Light special follow-up range mod from 1.25 to 1.35
Heavy special follow-up range mod from 1.3 to 1.5.
Short Story: "Need to Know"
The Rejects didn’t have a motto, but if they did, thought Naibert, it would be “nothing is ever as simple as it looks.” That, or “trust nothing.”
Naibert wasn’t in the business of trust. The Universe had bitten his arse too many times for him to let his guard down. He was ex-Militarum, infantry, marksman speciality. He’d always had a sharp temper, which is why he’d smacked that officer, and landed in the stockade, and thus wound up in the Rejects.
When Naibert had pulled the mission that morning, Rannick had taken him to one side. Iven Rannick himself, the toxic old interrogator. Naibert didn’t trust Rannick, but he knew the man had real clout. That Inquisitorial rosette, for start. But more than that, Naibert felt that Rannick was the real power on the Mourningstar. Everyone, high and low, deferred to the great Inquisitor Grendyl; Atoma Prime was Grendyl’s operation. But no one had ever seen Grendyl, not seen seen, not in the flesh. At best, he was a servitor chassis projecting an inconsistent hololith. Naibert didn’t trust Grendyl, or the idea of Grendyl. Maybe there was no Grendyl at all, or maybe the lack of presence was part of the act. The Inquisition never told anybody everything, especially not the dog-soldier Rejects, and if they did tell you something, it was always a small fragment of the truth. They liked to keep people in the dark, uninformed, data-rationed, information starved. “Need to know”, that’s what they said.
But Rannick… Naibert understood Rannick. He was a flesh and blood man. He was present. He was the man in charge. He was also a bastard, but you couldn’t have everything, Naibert had known worse. He had smacked worse.
Rannick had seldom spoken to Naibert directly. When he’d finished explaining to Naibert what he required, he’d smiled, that creepy smile, and said, “It’s a matter of trust, you see?”
“You can trust me,” Naibert had told him.
The drop was a hard one. A new area - Inter-Zone Void Sector Omega-12 or something. Unknown territory, that’s what mattered, barely mapped. They were going in blind. Plus, it was one of Hadron’s ops. Hadron Omega-Seven. She was in charge, and coming with them. Naibert didn’t like the Mechanicus tech-priest at all. Snide, mean, nit-picking, and arrogantly intelligent. It seemed she always had an agenda of her own, and she wouldn’t share it, because obviously no one in the warband was smart enough to comprehend, but then she’d still get pissy when you didn’t understand what was needed.
Borovitch was behind the stick of their Valk. That made Naibert uneasy too. Borovitch was all right, but Masozi was the best. Every Reject knew that. However, it seemed Masozi had another drop to attend to. That either meant Masozi knew there was something nasty about the Inter-Zone drop, and had chosen to avoid it, or Rannick knew, and had assigned a more expendable pilot.
Dropping, the something nasty became obvious. The Inter-Zone was a voidspace between hive levels, a sub-zero voidspace, biting cold and long abandoned. It was a cluster of ancient complexes - maybe research or maintenance - pretty much suspended in a deep, dark circulation gulf between occupied hive zones. A long drop, if you lost your footing, and there was more than enough ice-cake to make that happen. A long drop, and way too much time to review the series of bad choices you called your life before you hit the bottom.
If there was a bottom at all.
They exited the Valk’s ramp, the engines screaming above in ‘settle’ mode. Hadron led the way, eager. Naibert took up the rear, lugging his longlas and pulling off the weatherproof sleeve. His job was hazard watch. Spot for trouble, and pick it off with his rifle before it got too close.
It was treacherous finding a way in. The metal decks gleamed with ice, and there was a gale blowing up the void from below. You could feel the cold in your bones, despite the heated undersuits they’d been issued. Someone, maybe Veedra, speculated that the whole space was a coolant sink designed to bleed excess heat off… whatever the complex was, but Hadron told her to shut up, so that was the end of that. The old need to know.
Most of the power was off. They had to hand-crank hatches open, or reconnect voltaic trunking, or simply cut with torches. Where there was power, Hadron punched in archaic codes and opened hatchways as easily as if she was back home on the Mourningstar.
“How come she knows the codes?” Veedra asked him, a whisper.
“She knows what she needs to know, I guess,” he replied. He didn’t like it either. Hadron had never been here before. He could tell that from the eagerness and fascination with which the tech-priest greeted each new chamber. But it also felt like she knew her way around. Naibert saw some old Adeptus Mechanicus icons las-etched into the bulkhead plating. Maybe that explained it. Hadron’s people had made the place, or at least the template it had been built from. The tech-priest had been here before, just not this here. They lost Dronica crossing a walkway bridge. A pane of ice just went out from under him and away he went, limbs flailing as he dropped into the blue gloom below. Naibert could see the tiny light of the lamp clamped to Dronica’s bodyrig still spinning long after his body became invisible. His scream, fading, lingered longer than the speck of light.
They reached what Hadron evidently had decided was the goal, a central part of the complex clinging to the void’s artificial cliff face. She entered first, and powered the place up. It was warm in there. Warmer, anyway. Warm and lit.
Naibert benefitted from neither. He’d taken up a position outside, on one of the icy service gantries. It afforded him a good, long look back over the walkways and platforms they’d used on their approach. He huddled up, tweaked up the heating of his suit liner, settled his longlas, and adjusted the scope. If anything was following them, anything down here in the dark they didn’t want to meet, he’d see it coming from a distance and put a hotshot through it. Two, if it was persistent.
He fiddled with the little clamp-on unit he’d fitted to the side of his scope before the drop, and made sure it was running. A little pict unit, to record everything he saw through his high-gain scope. The unit had been a gift. Naibert played his aim across the frost-caked facility below, studying the silence, the cold, the abandoned, dead chambers and silos. The chasm wind stirred flakes of ice, and blew little flurries of powder into the air, making Naibert flinch, mistaking them for movement.
Nothing. Not a sign of those murdering traitors, nor any sign of the other things, the uglier things, the things that were harder to put a name to. He watched his breath smoke. He listened to the upwind howl, which still seemed to have Dronica’s scream in it.
Once he was confident it was quiet, he wriggled around and looked back at the complex where Hadron was working. He could see the lit window ports looking out over the gulf. He dragged his longlas round, and took up a fresh position, as though he was lining up a shot on his own team.
He could see them, once he got the scope settled in. The pict unit was whirring away. He could make out the other Rejects who’d dropped with him, waiting in the outer chambers of the facility, nervous, weapons ready. Veedra was pacing. He panned around, adjusting focus. There was Hadron. He could see her through the windows of the inner chamber. The tech-priest was working alone. She’d left the rest of the team waiting outside so they couldn’t watch her.
But he could. He could see her quite clearly and close up through his sniper scope. He could see her working at ancient consoles that hadn’t been used in decades, waking up systems that hadn’t been awake in centuries, accessing cold, dormant data and loading it onto her dataslates.
Naibert had no idea what she was doing, or why. He didn’t understand or recognise the machines the tech-priest was working on. He was a marksman. He didn’t have that kind of technical knowledge. But he knew one thing. No, two things. The first was that, whatever she was doing, it was secret. It was either too sensitive and classified for others to be allowed to observe, or so forbidden that even she shouldn’t be doing it. It was a secret she didn’t want anyone to know about.
The second thing was he was recording it all.
Naibert watched her work through the scope. The tech-priest had no idea he could see her. She was such a strange individual, cranky and obsessive, not really human at all in his opinion, her organic life subsumed into the way of the machine. What did that do to a person’s mind? What kind of obsessions and agendas did it breed? He—
Naibert recoiled. Hadron was looking right at him. She had turned from her work and stared straight out of the window, straight down his scope as though they were eye to eye. She knew. She’d somehow seen him or sensed him or—
No. Not him. Something else. Naibert turned fast, in time to see the figures on the lower walkways behind him. Six of them, heavy set, armed and armoured, hurrying towards him. Moebian Sixth. Traitor Guard. They hadn’t seen him yet.
He cued his vox.
“Incoming,” he whispered.
Then he lined up his first shot. Lead target, centre mass. He wondered how many of them he could pick off before they returned fire.
Breathing rate slow, centre mass lined up, nice and easy, on the exhale…
His first shot cracked.
“Come in,” said Rannick. “Close the door. An eventful day, I hear?”
Naibert nodded.
“We lost three,” he said. “But we took five of them down, plus another four from the squad that moved in when we were going for extraction. Close call, but Borovitch got us out.”
Rannick listened, and took a seat behind his desk. His private office was a strange, gloomy sanctum. Naibert had never been in there before. He felt more vulnerable than he’d been on that iced gantry under fire. Rannick held out his hand.
Naibert reached into his coat pocket and took out the pict unit. He’d detached it from his scope during the flight home. He handed it back to its owner.
“Everything’s there, just like you asked,” he said. “Everything I saw. She was doing something, and she didn’t want anybody seeing it.”
“That’s good, Naibert,” said Rannick, turning the pict unit over in his hands. “That’s good work. Hadron had no idea she was being recorded?”
“No,” said Naibert.
“That’s for the best. I picked the right man for the job then. Someone trained to observe, and trained to be discrete about it.”
“Do you know what she was up to, Interrogator?” Naibert asked.
Rannick looked at him, one quizzical eyebrow raised.
“I might, Naibert,” he replied, “especially after I review this. Do you?”
“No,” said Naibert.
“Good,” said Rannick. “You don’t need to.”
Test Your Metal
Clandestium Gloriana's awakening brings greater resources to the war effort. New weapons have been added to the armoury. Take up these arms and smite the enemies of the Imperium and gather ordo dockets, plasteel and diamantine!
Use the Bolt Pistol, Double-Barrelled Shotgun, Shock Maul or Pickaxe to kill Elite and Specialist enemies. Qualifying kills from all party members count.
Introduction to the Itemization Rework - Dev Blog
Hello again Devoted Rejects,
It’s time to talk more about itemization (a.k.a. crafting) and what players can expect.
We’ve been reading your comments, your posts, your threads and your topics.
One of the challenges for tackling Itemization was to propose a new experience to the players which felt authentic and natural within the actual live system. We did not want to rush this, as it was important to consider all the progress and time put in by current players of the game, too.
Our goal is to improve player agency. We are putting the focus on giving players a clear path to get the weapons and gameplay they want.
Part of this agency will be achieved by removing the locks on Blessings and Perks.
The rest of the player agency will be achieved through the introduction of two new major systems for itemization: Mastery and Expertise (final names pending). These systems will make the players journey in the game more rewarding and customizable.
Mastery
This is the core progression system that is tied to the weapon type / weapon family itself. As players use a specific weapon, they’ll gain more experience. This unlocks new blessings, perks, marks and a special weapon cosmetic along the way via the reward tracks. As players progress, the potential quality and stats of the weapon also increases.
This system will merge all weapon types/families, meaning players will be able to freely switch between different marks of the same weapon type. For example, once you own an Infantry Lasgun, you have the potential to unlock all the possible marks for this weapon and switch from one mark to another.
When viewing any weapon, it will show the weapon’s maximum potential stats. These stats will be randomly determined. It’s up to the players to decide if the weapon profile is interesting enough for them to commit and increase the stats until reaching this potential (which are then applied to the weapon through the Expertise system).
Expertise
While the Mastery system is where a player unlocks the potential for a weapon, the Expertise system is where the players apply those changes via crafting. This is when the players create an actual relationship with the weapon. Players will be able to configure the weapon, change the Blessings or Perks, and increase the stats. Players will no longer be locked after making two changes on Perks or Blessings.
This is also when the player uses resources to make these changes happen.
What About Resources?
While we were planning this itemization rework, there were a lot of discussions around this topic. Creating an entirely new resource is a bit easier for balancing, but we don’t want to start a new grind for players. We wanted to have a system which respects players’ time. As such, we decided to keep plasteel and diamantine steel as the resources for changing weapons, but we worked on balancing.
We wanted to give a new life to diamantine. As diamantine is a resource introduced at a higher level of game play, it is also the required resource for achieving higher levels of Expertise on a weapon.
What Happens to My Existing Inventory?
When designing itemization, we wanted to commit to ensuring fairness for all players, new and old. As such, we’re implementing a migration system to convert players' current weapons and blessings into the new system.
Here’s how it works: The blessing library of the weapon family will be converted into mastery progression. This means players will start the new systems with a head start in mastery, giving them the chance to unlock previously owned blessings (as well as the chance to unlock some blessings players never had before the update).
Our aim is to preserve players hard-earned progress and make this shift as smooth as possible.
What about Curios? Curios will have their locks removed but they will remain unaffected beyond this change.
We are continuing to optimize this system in the coming weeks and we look forward to reading your feedback on the process outlined. We’ll collect any questions below so that we can release further communications on the topic as we make progress.
Thank you!
Hotfix #41 (1.4.1)
Devoted Rejects,
Hotfix #41 (1.4.1) is now live on Steam and it will shortly be live on our other platforms.
Fixed a server crash which could happen when updating player stats if any stat reached a very high value.
Fixed a server crash which could happen if an Ogryn with the “Feel No Pain” talent equipped was hit by a projectile which was about to be destroyed.
Fixed an issue where the Branx Pickaxe attack startup animations would be incorrect if starting an attack immediately after interrupting a Special attack by sprinting.
Fixed an issue where the Antax Mk V Combat Axe was playable but showed incorrect stats.
Fixed the following in the new mission Clandestium Gloriana:
Fixed an issue where the backdrop would be incorrect when setting the volumetric quality settings to Low in the new mission.
Fixed an issue where players could get stuck in the doors of the horizontal elevator as they were closing.
Fixed an issue where players could walk behind the horizontal elevator gantry and fall through the map.
Fixed an issue related to triggering VO which caused banter to happen less frequently than intended.
Fixed an issue where subtitles in the Mourningstar could overlap during the Path of Trust cinematics.
Fixed inconsistencies for spelling for Ogryns Pickaxes.
Fixed an issue where the description of the “Torment” Pickaxe blessing would appear in undefined text in languages other than English.
Fixed an issue where the wrong inspect animations played for Ogryn Pickaxe in third person.
Fixed an issue where the second line of Zola’s intro for The Orthus Offensive special assignment was not playing.
Fixed an issue where Zola’s VO lines are over the radio in The Orthus Offensive special assignment menu.
Added a smoother transition screen when loading into a video or cutscene, instead of just showing the operative.
Secrets of the Machine God - OUT NOW - Pt. 2
Devoted Rejects,
You are now reading pt. 2 of the patch notes for Secrets of the Machine Gods.
Additional Weapon Changes
Atrox Mk VII Tactical Axe
Increased the range of the Light 2 and Light 3 attacks to be more in line with the Light 1 range, to avoid missing on the following attacks when chaining light attacks at the very edge of the weapon range.
Tweaked the hitbox of the Light 2 attack to be more aligned with the crosshair position.
Duelling Sword Mk II
Aligned chain timing for the Heavy 2 attack to be equal when chained from every attack.
Devil's Claw Mk IV
Fixed the icon in the Inspect screen for the Light 3 attack to display the correct attack type (changed from Strikedown to Vanguard).
Cadia Mk XIIIg Assault Chainsword
Changed the Heavy 3 attack to chain into Light 3 instead of Light 1 to allow for a Vanguard attack loop.
Deimos Mk IV Blaze Force Sword
Fixed an issue where an incorrect push direction was used if an enemy survived the Heavy 2 attack. It will now correctly push enemies away from you, instead of sending them to the right.
Autoguns
Lowered the amount of hits that do increased damage on a critical hit string:
Columbus Mk V Autoguns from 4 to 3
Braced Autoguns from 3 to 2.
Locke Mk IIb Spearhead Boltgun
Increased ammo reserve from 80 to 100.
Obscurus Mk II Blaze Force Sword
Added a new Heavy Strikedown damage profile for the Heavy 1 attack that suits the actual attack better, including slightly better Weakspot / Critical Hit values.
First Target:
Damage increased from 100-200 to 150-350
Stagger increased from 4-8 to 7-15.
Second Target:
Damage reduced from 80-160 to 60-130.
Maccabian Mk II Duelling Sword
Fixed a bug where the Heavy 1 attack dealt less damage than it was supposed to do.
Fixed an issue causing melee weapons to get blood spatters when hitting inanimate damageable objects such as explosive barrels.
Talent and Blessing Tweaks
'Brutal Momentum' weapon blessing: Removed Ogryns as possible enemies whose Hit Mass can be ignored.
Dev Note:The 'Brutal Momentum' blessing paired with powerful Strikedown attacks (like the special activated attack on Ogryn folding shovels) led to possible one-hit kills on multiple stacked Ogryn-type enemies, like Crushers. This expanded too much out of the single target nature of those Strikedown attacks, and also made Strikedown weapons which did not have access to the blessing to feel comparatively less useful in situations where they should have excelled. Dev Note: This is part of ongoing prep work we are carrying out for itemization. We are curious to collect player thoughts and feedback as we continue optimizing.
‘Run 'n' Gun’
Close Damage while sprinting: 10% -> 12%.
'Perfect Strike'
Now also grants 7.5% Crit Chance.
'Surge'
Now also grants 5% Crit Chance.
‘Focused Channelling’
Now also removes 30% of Charging Movement Speed Penalties.
'Blazing Spirit'
Tier 3:
Stacks Per Crit: 2 -> 3
Max Stacks: 10 -> 9.
‘Sunder’
Now also grants 20% Heavy Melee Damage.
‘Man-Stopper’
Now also grants 15% Bonus Impact.
‘Adhesive Charge’
Now also grants 15% Damage vs Ogryns and Monstrosities.
‘Infernus’
Tier 3:
Stacks per crit: 4 -> 3
Max Stacks: 10 -> 9.
‘Ceaseless Barrage’
Suppression Bonus: 20% -> 10%
Damage vs Suppressed: 6% -> 4%.
‘Blaze Away’
Power Level: 8% -> 7%.
'Point Blank' weapon blessing: Fixed an issue where the blessing failed to trigger from kills with the primary weapon.
'Take a Swing' weapon blessing: Fixed an issue where the bonus weakspot damage failed to be added upon triggering the blessing.
Psyker
Changed 'Perfect Timing' to trigger once per hit, instead of once per attack.
Ogryn
Fixed an issue where the talent 'Bullet Bravado' failed to replenish toughness when shooting projectile-type weapons (e.g. Rumbler, Grenadier Gauntlet).
Fixed an issue where the Close Range Damage bonus from the Ogryn 'Thick of the Fray' talent was applied also to damage from the primary melee weapon.
Fixed an issue where stacks of the keystone talent 'Feel No Pain' would be removed incorrectly also when successfully blocking an attack, or when hit by friendly fire.
Fixed an issue where the talent 'Pacemaker' could fail to be triggered.
Fixed an issue where the talent 'Crunch' failed to be triggered if the talent 'No Pushover' was also selected.
Fixed an issue where the Blitzes 'Big Box of Hurt'/'Bombs Away' and 'Big Friendly Rock' would fail to instakill Poxbursters and special Mutants spawned from the related Maelstrom mutator.
Increased the interval in between explosions of 'Big Box of Hurt' from (0.3 - 0.5) To (0.4 - 0.8).
Dev Note: This will reduce the overlap of the staggers, to allow for a slightly longer total Stagger Duration for those hit by the explosions.
Zealot
‘Punishment’
Impact per Stack: 30% -> 5%. The ‘Uninterruptible’ bonus still remains the same.
Dev Note:A total of 150% Stagger left very little room for other bonuses such as ‘Hammer of Faith’ and various Weapon Blessings.
‘Chastise the Wicked’ and ‘Fury of the Faithful’
100% Rending -> 100% Melee Rending
Dev Note:This talent was always intended to emphasize the melee prowess of Zealots allowing them to charge up to enemies and devastating them with their melee attacks. This change is made to bring this talent back to its intended purpose.
Combat
Bolt-type Explosions
Bolt-type explosions are now always the same size, no matter if they hit or kill.
Added additional damage to the explosion when killing an enemy.
Removed the VFX explosion effect on close range hits where the bolt does not have time to prime the explosive package.
Fixed an issue where the visual targeting effect of the secondary attack of Trauma Force Staves was mismatched to the actual explosion radius.
Fixed an issue where it was not possible to cancel into a block while starting an heavy attack with Force Swords.
Updated reflector pattern and colour of weapon flashlights. There are now specific styles of flashlights used for Infantry Lasguns, Recon Lasguns, Infantry Autoguns, and the Shredder Autopistol, instead of all sharing the same.
Fixed issue that could cause some players to be left behind when hogtied players were moved further ahead.
Made improvements to placement of rescued hang ledged players to avoid them being placed on the wrong floor.
Fixed an issue where players grabbed by a disabler enemy could fall through elevator floors once released.
Fixed a multitude of hang ledges issues.
Changed so that all player shots ignore body mass from other players.
Dev note:Before, only attacks from specific weapons were able to go through players, but now shots from every weapon should be able to.
Enemies
Fixed a crash that could occur when dodging into enemies while performing a chain-weapon sawing attack.
Fixed a case where enemies could appear burned also from non-burning effects.
Fixed a case where the Pox Hound leap could fail if staggered during approach.
Fixed Martyr's skull doors being already opened by enemies.
Missions
Smelter Complex HL17-36:
In the mid event enemies can now path to the platform above the elevator and can shoot from there.
The end event now has a new stage where players turn valves to restart the smelter.
Minor tweaks and adjustments to the end event area, added guardrails and covers for enemies.
Tweaked the difficulty of the event spawning to provide a better challenge.
Reduced camping scenarios by the extract door at the end event.
Fixed enemies that could spawn inside the Martyr's skull room.
Re-worked the area after the airlock in The 'Fab to have a more organic game flow and in-world purpose.
Dev Note: With this change we wanted to show a bit more of the ongoing battle for Tertium and how it's affecting pre-existing areas and structures.
All corruptors in The Foundry will now be active from the start, allowing players to choose their approach. Additionally, we've made some performance improvements and art updates to the area.
Dev Note: We wanted to try adding some more agency to events, please let us know what you think of this more open approach. Enclavum Baross:
The mid event now has more spawn locations for enemies.
The mid event now has power core spawners more spread out.
The end event now has the lower part of the landing pad as an enterable area.
The location for the batteries in the "Lower the Skylink" event section have been moved around, and additional variety to the enemy spawn locations has been added to the side spaces next to the control room.
Mercantile HL-70-04:
Tweaks and adjustments to the end event layout.
Added a drop leading into the end event area.
Dev note: The corridor leading to the end event funnelled enemies into a too easily defended chokepoint, and therefore was the de facto best area for players to fight in, ultimately turning most of the huge play space to be unused. This change will force players to enter the arena proper and engage straight on with enemies.
Fixed an issue where enemies could spawn inside an unintended area of the penance puzzle.
Fixed indestructible heretical icon.
Fixed issues with the pickup spawning.
Consignment Yard HL17-36:
Added more spawn locations and teleporters for enemies.
Removed a hacking point on the balcony in the mid event and expanded the open space to add another hacking point there. Increased the amount of enemies spawned on the balcony and intensified the event.
Increased the number of AA-guns that are needed to be destroyed in the end event and decreased the fortification time afterwards to compensate. Increased the overall intensity of the event.
Magistrati Oubliette TM8-707:
Added more covers to allow more ranged combat to happen over the chasm before the mid event.
Added more spawners and teleporters for enemies.
Made it possible for enemies to shoot from above in mid event and increased the amount of places where they could drop down to make it harder for players to camp the spawns. Increased overall intensity of the event.
Increased the amount of spawners and intensity of the end event.
Added a lever in the Martyr's skull puzzle area to prevent players to get softlocked.
Silo Cluster 18-66/a:
Added more enemy spawners.
Changed spawners and enemy pathing in the end event.
Tweaks and adjustments to the geometry in the end event.
Minor general tweaks to covers and hang ledges.
Ascension Riser 31:
Minor tweaks to event enemy spawning and smoother level collisions to provide better player navigation.
Fixed location where enemies could spawn and clip through a wall.
Fixed an issue where players could land on top of an elevator and get stuck.
Excise Vault Spireside-13:
Minor art and layout changes.
Added an additional decode location in the mid event.
Chasm Logistratum:
Moved the end event respawn beacon location.
Tweaked geometry and covers, especially in the broken tunnel section for smoother player navigation.
Removed a ladder at the end event and replaced it with crates.
Chasm Station HL-16-11:
The end event traitor captain now spawns inside one of the two trains.
Power Matrix HL-17-36:
Minor layout changes.
Added a side walkway above the steel conveyors in The 'Fab to broaden the traversal options.
Dev Note:This area would often become a very tight and unforgiving corridor, the new side path connects it up in a way that should alleviate it and give a new one-way backtracking drop.
Fixed a spot where players could end up floating mid air.
Refinery Delta-17:
Fixed players not respawning at the mid event respawn beacon before its activation and completion.
Hab Dreyko:
Minor tweaks and adjustments to level for smoother collisions and layout.
Fixed an issue where Ogryn characters could pick up the Martyr skull without solving the puzzle.
Comms-Plex 154/2f:
Tweaked the difficulty of the event spawning to provide a better challenge.
Vigil Station Oblivium:
Added line of sight blockers to prevent snipers from shooting through walls in a specific location.
Added more spawners and variety of enemy compositions in mid event.
Reworked parts of the end event to make the gameplay space less filled with chokepoints. Increased the overall intensity.
Warren 6-19:
Fixed an issue where enemies could potentially open the gate to the penance puzzle.
Relay Station TRS-150:
Fixed places where players could find a way to get out of gameplay space.
Archivum Sycorax:
Fixed walls that would not break when monstrosities broke through it.
VO and Audio
Fixed an issue that caused "out of ammo" sounds to play every frame when trying to shoot automatic fire weapons without any ammo in reserve nor magazine.
Added custom VO lines for Zealot Chorus of Spiritual Fortitude.
Added more banter responses for female Veteran Cutthroat.
Hestia may now be a mission handler for Enclavum Baross.
Implemented male Zealot Fanatic killstreak responses.
Added some new Mourningstar announcement VO.
HUD/UI
Using the Tactical Overlay now blocks interactions in the Mourningstar.
Dev note:This was done to avoid triggering other actions in the Mourningstar while browsing the tactical overlay.
The Change Tactical Overlay Tab key can now be rebound.
Fixed issues where the auspex would not aim directly towards some scan targets.
Fixed an issue where the "Title Colour in The Mourningstar" and "Title Colour in Missions" options didn't reset when selecting "Reset to default settings".
The locked emotes now show on all emote slots when looking at equipping them in the inventory.
Fixed an issue where a player could sell the wrong weapon because a new weapon got selected after the confirmation timer started.
Cosmetics
Voice modulation effects granted from a large amount of cosmetic headgears are now more noticeable than before.
Added opacity dithering to hair, which will improve the overall quality of hair rendering.
Fixed an issue where boots could clip with pants on multiple Zealot lower body cosmetics rewarded from Penances.
Fixed an issue where the Veteran “Veteran’s Sentry Uniform” cosmetic upper body right hand was clipping through the glove.
Fixed an issue where the arms would clip with the vest on the sides of the Ogryn “Hired Muscle Leathers (Sub-level 101)” upper body cosmetic.
Fixed the Psyker “Scryer's Mantle With Psykhana Collar” headgear cosmetic removing hair completely.
Fixed an issue where ponytails would clip on the Psyker “Witchshroud” headgear cosmetic reward.
Fixed instances of the “Mortis Rag Mask” headgear cosmetic clipping with the ears.
Fixed clipping issues on the Zealot “Cowl of the Avenger” headgear cosmetic reward.
Fixed some minor visual issues on the Veteran "Atoman Pattern Combat Helm with Rebreather" headgear cosmetic.
Fixed an issue where the Zealot “Krieg Greatcoat (Marked by Faith)” upper body cosmetic’s shoulder candle light did not show up as intended.
Fix for an issue related to clipping on the Zealot “Ecclesiarchy-Approved Diadem (Words Of Faith Pattern)” headgear cosmetic while viewing it in your loadout.
Fixed an issue where the Zealot “Phaeton Pattern Rebreather” cosmetic headgear failed to modify the operative’s voice.
Miscellaneous
Fixed an issue where button mapping could be reset or incorrect on controllers when booting up the game if a non-default layout was selected.
Fixed a text issue in the descriptions of the Veteran Executioner’s Stance talent and other talents referencing it.
"Completed" in the penance menu is now translated into other languages.
Addressed a uniform infringement on an NPC Guard stationed by the Psykhanium on the Mourningstar.
Secrets of the Machine God - OUT NOW! - Pt. 1
Devoted Rejects,
Here are the patch notes for our latest update, Secrets of the Machine God, which just went live on Steam and it will shortly be available on our other platforms.
NOTE: Because the patch notes are so long, we are posting in two parts.
New Mission: Clandestium Gloriana
The new mission, Clandestium Gloriana (previously mentioned as Atelium Foundryplex Omega V), sees our brave strike teams venture deep into the forgotten heart of Tertium for a rendezvous with a mysterious new character. The players are tasked with reawakening a long-dormant Adeptus Mechanicus Foundryplex, one of the fabled, lost Machinaria Gloriana. This level presents a new, frozen environment, sees a mission-giver accompany the strike team within the gameplay space and supports greater replayability with a new, variable end event. We're delighted with how it's turned out and we hope you'll enjoy playing it as much as we did making it!
New In-Game Event: Test Your Metal
Clandestium Gloriana’s awakening brings greater resources to the war effort. New weapons have been added to the armoury. Take up these arms and smite the enemies of the Imperium.
Use the Bolt Pistol, Double-Barrelled Shotgun, Shock Maul or Pickaxe to kill Elite and Specialist enemies. Qualifying kills from all party members count.
This event will start on Thursday, 27 June. The rewards will be Ordo Dockets, Plasteel and Diamantine.
New Weapons
Message from Hadron: Listen up, Varlets. The awakening of the Clandestium Gloriana has opened new supply lines, increasing the arsenal available to the Rejects. All praise the Omnissiah. With these sacred tools, available to requisition from Brunt’s Armoury, the Heretics will find no respite from our blessed fury. Take up these arms and deliver unto our foe a fate deserving of such base treachery.
Availability The Pickaxes will be available for Ogryns, while the Shock Mauls, the Double Barreled Shotgun and the Bolt Pistol will be available for the Veteran, Zealot and Psyker classes.
Pickaxes
Ogryns’ first two-handed weapon! Taking brutality and force to a new level.
Branx Pickaxe - Heavy
Borovian Pickaxe - Medium
Karsolas Pickaxe - Light
For these weapons, we really wanted to lean into the differences in the Heavy, Medium and Light between marks in terms of speed, handling and purpose.
Heavy is Strikedown focus, using the pickaxe as it was meant to be used on heretics skulls and with a powerful bash attack as weapon special.
Medium is somewhere in between both in terms of handling and damage, with a mix of Strikedown and vanguard attacks and a hook pull as a weapon special that sets up enemies for big damage.
Light is horde control focus with wide sweeps and more cleave, and a pull weapon special like the medium pickaxe.
These weapons have big damage and impact.
Shock Mauls
The perfect Warhammer 40,000 riot gear, an electric weapon that stuns and adds a shocked status to enemies.
Agni Mk Ia Shock Maul
Indignatus Mk III Shock Maul
Two words: stun and impact. They are versatile weapons with rich movesets; the mark difference relates to the moveset variance, with the Agni MK la having more immediate access to Strikedown attacks and the Indignatus Mk III having delayed access to a looping heavy Strikedown chain.
The weapon special is a “cattle prod poke” that adds damage over time and keeps enemies stunned.
Double Barreled Shotgun
A very close range and nervous shotgun that inflicts brutal damage and impact.
Ironhelm "Hacker" Mk IV Assault Shotgun
With fast handling and movement speed, this shotgun supports Assault-style game play. Access the bracing stance with the secondary action to shoot both barrels at the same time (for maximum carnage). The weapon special is a weapon bash combo.
Bolt Pistol
An iconic Warhammer 40,000 weapon, mobile and perfect to lead an assault.
Godwyn-Branx Pattern Bolt Pistol
Better handling and faster reload, but more difficult to control than the Boltgun version. The weapon special is a bash, which can be combo’ed into a hipfire shot.
Features and QoL
Mission Updates from Community Feedback
We’ve made a number of changes to existing missions in this update based on player feedback. The detailed changes are listed further down.
Updated Crosshairs
Crosshairs have had a two-fold issue:
They were in general larger than what the spread system (which handles how much a shot will deviate from where the barrel is pointing) was using.
They were affected by the Field of View and HUD Scale user settings.
The combined effect of this was that at default settings shots would hit approximately within the centre 50-75% areas of the extents of any given crosshair, meaning that the crosshair itself was not a reliable way to gauge the extent of the weapon spread.
Additionally, increasing the Field of View would make the crosshair appear larger, while decreasing the FoV, especially when combined with lowering the HUD Scale, would make the crosshair appear smaller.
Fixing the first issue meant that several crosshairs now started to overlap with hit markers, which led to redesigning most of the crosshairs, as well as the hit markers themselves.
Hit markers are now slightly smaller and have an outline to be easier to see against light backgrounds. The major changes are that we now use a different hit marker for weakspot hits, to differentiate them from critical strike hits.
Weakspot hit markers are now doubled up, and like non-weakspot hits colour coded according to the type of hit (white = standard, blue = no or reduced damage, orange = critical strike, red = kill). Dev Note: Previously both weakspot hits and critical strike hits were coloured orange.
Standard Kill
Weakspot Kill
Standard No Damage
Weakspot No Damage
The major reason for this change is primarily due to several Blessings and Talents being triggered by either weakspot hits or critical strikes, and this change should hopefully make it easier to understand which hits should (or shouldn't) trigger a specific bonus. Plus it's satisfying knowing that the heretic killed died from a masterful blow to the head.
Crosshairs have been categorised in several categories, each with their own style of crosshair that always leaves an empty space for hit markers no matter how high or low the weapon’s spread is.
All weapons have been categorised into one of these categories and by extension hit markers:
"Rapid Fire" for accurate single-shot or burst weapons, such as Infantry Lasguns or Headhunter Autoguns.
"Assault" for mid-range high rate of fire weapons, such as Infantry Autoguns or Shredder Autopistols.
"Heavy" for slow-firing high-damage weapons, such as Quickdraw Stubrevolvers or Plasma Guns.
"Spreadshot" for pellet weapons, such as Combat Shotguns or Ripper Guns.
"Torrent" for inaccurate high-volume fire weapons, such as Twin-Linked Heavy Stubbers or alternate fire for Braced Autoguns.
"Flamer" for, well, Flamers.
"Dot" for melee weapons and Force Staves.
Old Assault Crosshair
New Assault Crosshair
Old Heavy Crosshair
New Heavy Crosshair
In addition, there are a few new user settings to tweak and change the look and behaviour of crosshairs and hit markers:
Turn on/off crosshairs, aim trajectories, and/or hit markers.
Increase the time for which hit markers are shown.
Override all crosshairs with a specific style.
The “Flamer” type is not available for the override.
Known Issues for Crosshairs
"Crosshair Type" user settings don't revert when using the "Reset to default settings" button.
Force Staves incorrectly have their crosshairs overridden when using anything but the "Weapon Specific" option of "Crosshair Type".
Cosmetic Headgear Voice Preview Option
Players can now preview the voice of any headgear which their operative can equip, including ones that modulate their voice. This preview is currently available by going into the Inspect to Show on Operative menu.
Sound Changes to Footsteps for Prosthetic Leg Cosmetics
The footsteps of your character while wearing a lower body cosmetic item that has a prosthetic will now sound different, to better match the visual and be closer paired with your actual gait. These items have a small icon on the item preview tiles, as well as a clarifying text in the item details.
Dev note:This is more noticeable in active gameplay/first person view, while footsteps in general are more subdued in the Mourningstar/third person view.
Bug Fixes and Changes
Weapon Changes
Recon Lasguns
The Recon Lasguns, while having a really iconic and fun playstyle, failed to perform adequately due to a mix of low punching power and struggling ammo economy, especially when rising up in difficulties.
We performed a balance pass on every mark, strengthening their identity as assault, almost recoilless full-auto rifles while also inserting some peculiarities on each mark, while keeping some of their weaknesses (such as difficulty to pierce Carapace armoured enemies).
The MkII version received a significant base power bump, remaining a good all-rounder for the category.
The MkVId mostly maintained its previous base power profile, but received hefty buffs in fire speed and magazine size to lay down suppressing fire and reward keeping the aim on the targets.
Finally, the MkVIIa place as the heavy variant was confirmed by a further increase in its base attack and impact power values. To help with its increased ammo consumption per shot compared to the other two marks, we significantly increased the total ammo in reserve.
We will monitor the performance of the weapons and your feedback after the changes to evaluate possible additional adjustments!
Detailed changes:
All Marks
Slightly increased the hipfire spread.
Upgraded the Dodge, Sprint and Aimed Movement templates to the Assault and bespoke Recon Lasgun profiles.
Dev Note:This will make the weapons more suited for agile engagements compared to other rifles like the Infantry Lasguns.
Accatran Mk II Recon Lasgun
Attack power distribution {40,70} to {78,108}
Armor Damage Modifier against Maniac 0.75 to 0.8 (near), 0.65 to 0.7 (far)
Armor Damage Modifier against Infested and Unarmoured 1.25 to 1.0 (near)
Armor Damage Modifier against Flak down to 0.75 (near), 0.5 (far)
Armor Damage Modifier against Unyielding down to 0.75 (near)
Impact modifier against Unyielding upped to 1.0 (near), down to 0.5 (far).
Accatran Mk VId Recon Lasgun
Set bespoke power distribution values:
Attack = {40,70} (unchanged)
Impact = {1.0,2.0} (unchanged).
Armor Damage Modifier against Unarmoured 0.9 to 1.0 (near).
Armor Damage Modifier against Maniac 0.6 to 0.8 (near).
Fire rate from 16.77 to 20.00.
Magazine size from 60-120 to 100-200.
Removed one magazine in reserve (60x5-120x6 to 100x4-200x5).
Reload and Wield speed time slowed by 20%.
Accatran Mk VIIa Recon Lasgun
Set bespoke power distribution values:
Attack = {95,165} (around 33% buff)
Impact = {1.5,3.0} (around 10% buff).
Armor Damage Modifier against Flak 1 to 0.75 (near).
Armor Damage Modifier against Unyielding from 1 to 0.75 (near).
Added two magazines in reserve (60x5-120x6 to 60x7-120x8).
Achlys Mk I Power Maul The power budget of the Ogryn Power Maul (aka “Paul”) was very unbalanced towards its Special activated attacks, while the rest of the moveset remained anaemic. This made spamming Light activated attacks often the optimal attack rotation for the weapon, leading to a very monotonous (and still underwhelming) experience.
We rebalanced the whole moveset, significantly increasing the usability of both standard Light and Heavy attacks while leaving the stagger and power of activated attacks mostly unchanged.
We also added a new Vanguard Light attack performed during a Slide, and new attack chains which will reward mastering the weapon by performing the correct attack strings in different situations.
For example, players could lead with an activated Heavy 1 into a flurry of Light Strikedowns (Special activate > H1 > LFollow-up > L1 > L2 > repeat) to quickly pile on damage on priority targets while keeping players safe due to the initial staggering explosion; or clear crowds by reaching the Light 3 > Light 4 attack loop through Heavy attacks or the brand new Light slide attack (H1 > H2 > L3 > L4 > L3 > L4 > ... / LSlide > L4 > L3 > L4 > ...).
We will monitor the performance of the weapon and player feedback after the changes to evaluate possible additional adjustments!
Detailed changes:
Light follow-up attack from Heavy 1 changed from Vanguard to Strikedown damage profile
Heavy 2 now chains into Light 3 / Heavy 1 (instead of Light 1 / Heavy 1)
Added an attack start from Slide, chaining into Heavy 1 and a new Light slide attack with Vanguard profile (same as Light 3 / Light 4):
The new Light slide attack chains into Light 4 / Heavy 2.
Lowered the total action time of the Special activate action from 2.6 to 1.2 seconds.
Dev Note:Activation time will remain unaffected at 0.8 seconds, but it will be easier to chain into the new Light slide attack.
Aligned windup time for all Heavy attacks to 0.6 seconds
Dev note:"Windup time" is the minimum amount of time an Heavy attack needs to be charged before being released
Light 1 / Light 2 Strikedown profile:
Changed stagger duration from {0.1, 0.5} to {0.1, 2.5}
Changed inherent finesse boost multiplier from 0.25 to 1
Armor Damage Modifier against Maniac from 0.5 to 0.75
Armor Damage Modifier against Carapace armour from 0.25 to 0.5
Armor Damage Modifier against Flak armour from 1 to 0.9
Equalised finesse boost to 0.5 against all armour types.
Light 3 / Light 4 Vanguard profile:
Armor Damage Modifier against Flak from 0.75 to 0.9
Armor Damage Modifier against Unyielding from 0.75 to 0.8
Armor Damage Modifier against Maniac from 0.5 to 0.7
Armor Damage Modifier against Carapace from 0.25 to 0.65
Cleave from medium to big
Added a 4th target damage profile
Power distribution from 1st (target) {60,120} / 2nd {35,70} / 3rd {25,50} / 4th n/a / Default {10,20} to 1st {80,150} / 2nd {60,110} / 3rd {40,80} / 4th {25,60} / Default {10,30}.
Dev Note: These changes will be also applied to the Ogryn Slab Shield L3 and L4 attacks.
Light 3 / Light 4 Vanguard Special activated profile:
Power distribution override from {90,165} to {120,200}.
Heavy 1 / Heavy 2 Relentless profile:
Armor Damage Modifier against Flak from 0.75 to 0.9
Armor Damage Modifier against Unyielding from 1 to 0.8
Armor Damage Modifier against Maniac from 0.5 to 0.8
Armor Damage Modifier against Carapace from 0.25 to 0.75
Power distribution from 1st (target) {120,220} / 2nd {80,110} / 3rd {20,30} / 4th {10,25} / Default {5,10} to 1st {175,350} / 2nd {80,160} / 3rd {60,120} / 4th {50,100} / Default {40,80}.
Heavy 1 / Heavy 2 Relentless Special activated profile:
Power distribution override from {220,440} to {250,475}.
Chasm Logistratum - Chunk 3
Chunk 1 - Relay Station TRS-150
Chunk 4 - Relay Station TRS-150
Chasm Logistratum Blockout
Chasm Logistratum Final 
Relay Station TRS-150 Blockout
Relay Station TRS-150 Final
Excise Vault Spireside-13 Blockout
Excise Vault Spireside-13 Final
First Cutscene in Prologue in our Flow Editor
