An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.
Franz Lohner's Chronicle - What do we have here
Hello Franz, darling, it’s Sienna. If you’re reading this, then you already know I’ve found your little diary.
I have to say, I’m very impressed. Quite apart from the content – which is simply chock full of interesting bric-a-brac, if oddly miss-spelled in places – I adore those loving little doodles in the margins. Especially the ones of Saltzpyre. You’ve really captured his scowl – or rather, one of his many scowls. They do say that goblins have a hundred different words for ‘mushroom’. Our dear, gallant Victor is a bit like that, but with bleak facial expressions, don’t you find? Perhaps it’s only having the one eye that does it? Or having a shard of flint where his heart should be.
And speaking of hearts … Don’t think I didn’t spot where you’ve scrubbed out all those bits of conjecture about Kerillian and Markus. Never mind how I know what you’ve been writing – one is a wizard, darling, and you are a dull fellow at times. Such imagery! And all in rhyme, but honestly I don’t know where you got the idea in the first place. It’s best we draw a veil over the matter, don’t you think? At least, unless you’d rather I accidentally let the odd detail slip? I’d have to explain some of the longer words to dear Markus, bless him, but I’ve a feeling Kerillian would be rather faster on the uptake. And if Bardin finds out, he’ll only put it to music, and I shudder to think of the consequences.
And all because of your little diary. Hang on … there’s not something about me in here, is there?
Oh. Apparently not.
So … I’m not worth writing about, is that it? You can’t stop chattering on about the others, but poor little Sienna’s too boring, is she? Well, the things I could tell you!
I’ll have you know I’ve led a fascinating life, full of wisdom, excitement … and not one or two moments of indiscretion. Anecdotes that would make your toes curl. Tales of romance and daring from across the Old World. Intrigue. Danger. Excitement. Explosions!
Oh, the stories I could tell. And you’re never going to hear them. Not now. You’ve hurt my feelings.
How does it feel to be left out?
Being back at the Bright College, that’s what it feels like.
Vermintide 2 - Patch 4.2.2.3
Hotfix 4.2.2.1
Okri's Challenges have been temporarily disabled in Modded Realm to prevent a crash while we work on a more robust solution.
Fixed a crash that could occur if a player that had left the game was votekicked.
Hotfix 4.2.2.2
Nothing player facing changed here.
Hotfix 4.2.2.3
Made changes to reduce cases where DLC seemingly gets unlinked from the players account, causing DLC weapons/illusions/frames (etc) to disappear
Fixed some cases where the Minotaur could charge and cause a crash.
[H1]Heroes!
We just put live patch 4.2.2 which fixes a few crashes as well as some additional changes to bots and a few other fixes and tweaks.
Fixed a crash when a player joined a game at the defeat screen.
Fixed a crash when opening the player list (tab) menu while a player was joining. The player list should no longer show 5 players in this case.
Added more conditions to bot healing now. They heal when they are have less than 40% current HP (including Temp HP) or they are on last life and have less than 40% permanent HP - unless they are under heavy curse (usually 2 grims with no resistance) resulting in having less than 50 max hp, then they also heal if they are on last life regardless of their current HP.
Bots now try to revive players around bosses.
Made bots attempt to revive player around ratling gunners if they have not been hit for 1 second.
Improved bot target obstruction behind static objects logic, made it so they would no longer try to disengage into ranged combat if they don't have line of sight to the special they are trying to escape from.
Fixed bots getting stuck in place refusing to move if they lose sight of priority target that is marked to keep distance from (such as Warpfire Throwers).
Fixed an issue where Okri's Challenge 'Unfriendly Fire' couldn't be completed.
Fixed a rare bug that allowed blocking while being downed (special thanks to the community for the detailed reproduction steps).
Fixed clients not seeing player join/left system messages.
Steam achievements can no longer be progressed accidentally in modded realm.
Changed a flag to try to prevent Maulers phasing in/out of existence. Please do let us know if you see it still happening.
Once more allowing players to interact with the change hero interactable during matchmaking.
Bounty Hunter's 'Blessed Combat' talent no longer considers his ultimate as a melee hit.
Bounty Hunter's 'Indiscriminate Blast' now has the same cleave modifiers as other shotgun-type attacks.
Fix "It's Bloody Teamwork" not working as described in the tooltip. Tooltip says it increases the damage resistance provided by the Protective Presence aura. However what it does is provide another separate buff that stacks multiplicatively. This fix makes it so it works as described.
Patch 4.2.1 - Bot Improvements & General Fixes
Hotfix 4.2.1 just went live:
Fixed the ‘drumming’ sound heard whilst “Impenetrable” is active on Ironbreaker whilst venting overcharge/THP decays.
Fixed Grail Knight not receiving THP when killing an enemy with Blessed Blade.
Fixed an issue where Hagbane could doubleshoot, causing unecessary ammo use.
Heroes,
Welcome to patch 4.2 on PC. This patch brings the bot improvements that Gameplay Programmer Ričardas spoke about in the lastest Dev Blog. If you have not read it yet you can find it here!
Patch 4.2 also brings more fixes and tweaks.
Misc.
Fixed various crashes.
Fixed various localisation issues.
Deactivating DLCs in the Steam client should now deactivate them In-Game.
Made alterations to the telemetry tracking the networking issues being reported (increased pings between players, and more frequent lobby breakdowns).
Bot Improvements
Bots are now more willing to give their healing items to players.
Bots now use healing potion if they are at 40% health rather than 50%.
Bots are now more accurate with Drakefire Pistols.
Bots now have sturdier legs if they decide to take fast way down the ladder (they no longer take fall damage).
Removed ping cooldown on bot commands to make pickup and drop grim commands more responsive, they are still bound by social wheel event count limit.
Bots now stick closer when under high threat (many aggroed enemies).
Bots no longer take ammo pouches if any player is missing any ammo.
Bots no longer heal if they have natural bonds unless they have been already been downed once and are about to die again.
Fixed Sienna bot not using heavy attacks on armored units while wielding a dagger.
Reduced damage importance for infantry class enemies, causing bots to prefer faster wide sweep attacks on them.
Added ranged weapon type classification, so bots should only use ranged weapon against targets that match weapon type eg. they won't fire handguns at infantry.
Bots now fire faster with rapid fire weapons like Bolt Staff.
Bots now try a bit harder to leave poison clouds if they land on them.
Bots should no longer run off cliffs if they are in ratling gunners fire cone or other long sticky AOE threat.
Bots should now be more aware of pinged targets.
Bots should now consider shooting at specials from a bit further away.
Fixed bots getting stuck in Hagbane charge attack.
Ratling Gunners now update bot threat box when they switch direction of fire, so bots have better chance of escaping direct fire.
Made bots stay away from Ratling Gunners and Warpfire Throwers if they engage in ranged combat with them.
Bot Engineers should be less inclined to use his activated ability against every stray rat.
Levels
Empire in Flames: Fixed an issue where early placing of the barrels to the cart could cause further barrels to not spawn.
Empire in Flames: Fixed some spots where bots could get stuck when trying to retrieve a Tome, and a couple of other locations where bots had trouble traversing, including a ladder or two.
Garden of Morr: Fixed a particularly troublesome spot where bots could and often would cliff-dive.
Screaming Bell: Added some blockers to prevent dashing into places where you shouldn't.
Screaming Bell: Bots should find grabbing the second Grimoire considerably easier now.
The Blightreaper: Fixed a spot where Sienna's could Firewalk and find themselves beneath the map.
Social Wheel
It should no longer be possible to Tag/Ping players.
Pings while the 'social wheel is opening' should now work better (We have 3 different ping states: Direct ping (single keydown), when the social wheel's opening animation is running, and when the social wheel's animation is finished).
Units should no longer be pinged if you try to tell a bot with a tome to pickup another tome (crossed out) through the social wheel.
An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.
Franz Lohner's Chronicle - The Eternal Flame
Would you believe it, I managed to get Saltzpyre talking about Ulric? The God of Wolves and Winter’s always a touchy subject with Sigmarites, what with there being bad blood between the two churches.
You see, Sigmar is commonly held to have been a worshipper of Ulric, back when he was just a mortal man with a hammer and not the godly cornerstone of civilisation, bless his name. That being the case, there are plenty of Ulricans who claim that this jolly little Empire of ours actually belongs to Ulric, and not Sigmar, but Sigmar belonged to Ulric.
All stuff and nonsense as far as I’m concerned. The Empire’s literally on fire, and folk are squabbling over which holy rune gets scratched into the ashes? That’s what comes of the devout being promised a paradisical afterlife. They tend to forget about the perils of the here and now.
Our Saltzpyre, being the learned fellow he is, was musing aloud about the Flame of Ulric, which burns merrily away in the city of Middenheim. Supposedly, it was called into being when Ulric stuck his axe on the Fauschlag – yon mountain Middenheim was built upon. But then again, supposedly Middenheim’s never been successfully invaded, and I don’t reckon that’s one hundred percent truthful.
Anyway, this Eternal Flame’s been burning for millennia, and no one seems to know why. Not been put to much in the way of pertinent use either, unless you want to count crowd-pleasing ceremonies of making supposed heretics take the trial of walking through the flames. Saltzpyre’s got to wondering if the Eternal Flame might maybe, somehow, give us an edge in our never-ending labours. I mean, Ulric’s black-armoured bod hasn’t been see stalking the mortal world for time out of mind, but maybe he’s left us a bit of power we can wield in his name?
I suppose it’s possible, but I don’t see the Ar-Ulric letting us anywhere near the bloody thing. Emil Valgeir’s a stubborn old sod, even by Middenheimer standards, and if he gets wind that it was Saltzpyre’s idea, he’ll be even more resistant, what with church rivalry being a thing. On the other hand, No one seems to know quite where Valgeir is right now, so maybe we can take a bit of a look.
On the other, other hand, finding the Eternal Flame’s source likely means braving the depths of the Fauschlag, and there’s all manner of terrible things down there. I’ve even seen some legends claim that when the end of the world finally comes, it’ll start with the Fauschlag. Not sure I believe it. When the world ends, it’ll end everywhere, right? Stands to reason.
Maybe I should send one of the lads up to Middenheim? I’ll have a ponder.
Devblog: Bots in 4.2
Heroes!
We hope you are all well in this new year!
We are cracking on with work on Vermintide 2, which includes the upcoming Chaos Wastes and, of course, continuing filling those hourglasses on the character select screen with new careers for the heroes! But this dev blog is not about either of those things. We want to take a few paragraphs to talk about bots - specifically upcoming improvements to bot behaviors coming to PC in patch 4.2.
Gameplay Programmer Ričardas will talk a bit about the improvements that he and the team have been working on in relation to some of the feedback you have given.
NEW RANGED COMBAT BEHAVIOR AND TWEAKS:
One of the tools bots did not utilize very well that players do is ranged combat. Whilst ranged combat is not the focus of the Vermintide 2, it is still a very useful tool that helps to ensure the party survives against the bad guys - specials in particular.
Sure they know how to pull the trigger but ranged weapons, unlike their melee counterparts, are a lot more specialized and have a limited ammo supply. Wasting shots on poorly chosen targets is extra painful. So in Patch 4.2, we have added some ‘target categorizations’, which should make bots better at dealing with specials if they are equipped with snipe type weapons (eg. handguns, crossbows), select more fitting attack type if they have such available (eg. fireball staff, bolt staff). So for example they shouldn’t fire handguns at infantry, and won't try to kill special units with weapons like the Drakegun.
BOT POSITIONING:
Good positioning is a hard thing to achieve since you need to take in a lot of information and make some predictions, too. For players we have a bunch of visual cues that help them identify danger like toxic clouds or streams of bullets, however, bots don't see the way we do. So the way we try to keep our bots out of trouble is split into two parts.
Navigation Mesh Cost Weights are used to help bots navigate around fixed static dangers, such as globe gas or lamp oil fires.
Emergency Threat Areas are employed by bots to move them out of more dynamic threats. They tell bots that something bad is about to happen in an area and should get out as fast as they can, such as a Chaos Warriors hulking great axe bearing down towards their face.
We have made some changes here, as well as added and updated a bunch of those areas to help our fellow bots avoid and react more quickly to imminent threats. Also, we have tweaked the emergency threat response behavior to be less "panicky" which resulted in them sometimes slipping off cliffs. ;)
BOT MELEE COMBAT TWEAKS:
Staying together is key to survival in Vermintide, making sure that bots stay close when a horde (or a patrol that someone just pulled) is approaching makes them more reliable at covering your flanks and saving you from a special. With that in mind, the higher the apparent threat on the battlefield, the more likely bots are to stand at your side, whilst favoring faster, sweepier attacks against infantry class enemies.
As a bonus, it also reduces the amount of times bots charging forward into hordes and incidentally running into your crosshair, but that will still happen especially when there are less enemies around.
BOTS BEING TOO COMPETITIVE ON RESOURCES:
Bots are supposed to fill more of a support role and make sure the player gets to be the star of the show, so when a bot claims a resource, whether that’s ammo or a potion, it indirectly steals fun away from the player.
For a while now, bots have been quite hungry for resources. We’ve made some tweaks to that in 4.2, such as restricting them from picking up ammo bags if the player is missing any ammunition, and made some adjustments to their dependence and willingness to picking up and chugging potions.
Patch 4.2 will be coming in the next few weeks, and with it are also some general bug fixes for bot behaviours, and with it we’ll compile patch notes that break down in a bit more detail the commentary above.
Franz Lohner's Chronicle - A Walk in the Woods
An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.
Franz Lohner's Chronicle - A Walk in the Woods
Well, I finally did it: I got Kerillian to open up a bit about her past. I mean, not all the way, and she had a funny look in her eye, but it’s a start, right? And it’s not as though her eyes don’t look funny all the time.
Seems Athel Loren’s a bit of a melting pot. Most bloodlines stretch back to the times before the Sundering. You know, before there was dark elves and high elves, and there was just, well, elves. Or as Kerillian puts it, ‘pure’ elves, untainted by that big old civil war the rest of the pointy-ears are always embroiled in. But over the years, the forest’s also become a refuge for outcasts from Ulthuan and Naggaroth, and though they’re sworn to leave old ties behind, for some it ain’t that easy. Leads to some … well, let’s call them ‘suspect’ choices.
Turns out, our merry lass stumbled on one of these suspect choices right as it was being made. A mage walking parts of Athel Loren no mage should be walking, if you take my meaning. And it wasn’t just him alone. Whole bunch of them there were, midway through a ritual dedicated to Hekarti.
Now, elf gods are a mixed bunch, but Hekarti definitely sits on the bleaker side of the ledger. She’s the mistress of all that’s corrupting and terrible in the Winds of Magic, so it follows that those who worship her ain’t exactly looking for the wherewithal to bring peace and solace to this world of ours.
I’ll spare you some of the details I wish Kerillian had spared me, but let’s just say this was not a nice ritual. Seems this mage – Etrian Dunderhead, though I suspect Kerillian may have editorialised his surname – was petitioning Hekarti for sorcerous mastery, and offering forest spirits as collateral. Sadly for him, it all goes to a dog’s breakfast when Kerillian makes her entrance.
To hear our lass tell it, Etrian’s accomplices scarper at first sight of her. The thing about waywatchers is you can never be sure that the one you see is the only one what can see you, and with this lot being involved in some very mucky business, they weren’t planning on waiting to discover the truth. Etrian’s made of sterner stuff, or maybe he’s more afraid of Hekarti than Kerillian’s arrows? More fool him, as it turns out. Kerillian leaves him dead among the moss and goes about her business, job done and a righteous fire burning within.
Only problem is, Etrian’s a popular chap, and his mates raise hell at the next council of kings. Accusations of murder are levelled, and our Kerillian has no witnesses to prove her side, and plenty arranged in opposition. She’s cast out, and hasn’t been home since.
So that’s her tale … but I don’t know that it’s the truth. Not sure why I doubt her. I mean, apart from the fact that it’s Kerillian, and Kerillian’s an elf. Maybe it’s the way she was watching me all the time I was speaking, as if she was using my expression for a guide as to what she should say next? Could be.
Still, I reckon there’s some truth there. Or at least a little bit.
Maybe.
I hate elves.
Patch Notes - Version 4.1.1
Hotfix 4.1.1
Fixed a crash that happened when a peer started a mission vote while a shop popup was open.
Reverted experience refactoring for prestige levels
It's once again possible to cancel host migration.
Heroes!
Welcome to Patch 4.1! This updates comes with a slew of fixes and a couple of tweaks.
Critically it also includes additional telemetry capture so we can identify where and how lobbies are being affected by the networking changes that came with the last major update.
For some players, there will have been no notable effect as a result of those networking changes.
However, we do appreciate that for some players, often from more isolated regions (in terms of distance to Steam servers), as well as players who play together from within the same household, there have been some notable degredations in networking quality, and our hope is to learn more from the telemetry included in this update so we can look to negate it where possible, or at least minimise the impact of the changes.
Fixed the Grail Knight talent "Virtue of Knightly Temper" not giving temporary health when using "Lady's Wrath" when triggering an insta kill.
Fixed the Piston Power buff sticking around after swapping out the talent in the Keep.
Fixed a visual bug where it didn't look like player got all experience they should.
Fixed a visual bug where it looks like you gain extra levels quicker than you actually do.
Fixed the "Have at thee Varlet!" challenge not being able to be progressed without owning the Grail Knight DLC.
Fixed a glitch on the first frame of the Crossbow 'on-wield reload' animation.
Fixed an animation bug for the Repeating Handgun when reloading while firing the first quick shot.
Fixed an interaction between Bardin's Ale and Speed Potion's that could cause attack speed to be increased indefinitely.
Fixed crash on first startup for some players.
Fixed crash when client gets disconnected while being affected by a buff that grants invisibility.
Fixed Outcast Engineer's 'cranking talents' not being removed while swapping talents of the same row.
Fixed Grail Knight bots sometimes getting stuck in an ability stance when he tries to use it while players are disengaging from enemies.
Fixed some situations where the bullet trails from Outcast Engineer would originate from a fixed position in an environment and not from the player.
Fixed the fire rate of the Crank Gun ramping up if you quickly released the fire button on first shot and hold again.
Fixed the Masterwork Pistol triggering reload animations when picking up ammo.
Fixed the reload animation not playing if a ranged weapon is wielded with an empty clip.
Fixed the required number of headshots needed for Outcast Engineer's "Targeting Array" challenge. Previously this was 5 but is now 20 as intended.
Made Sienna's Abandon talent not be affected by damage reduction.
Fixed various miscellaneous crashes.
Dark Omens: Fixed a spot where Bardin could space programme his way out of the map.
Dark Omens: Fixed an issue where players could spawn behind a point of no return.
Dark Omens: We've added a failsafe so additional standard bearers will spawn if existing ones are killed before planting their banners, until the requisite number of banners has been destroyed.
Garden of Morr: Fixed a placement issue with a few enemy spawners.
Garden of Morr: Fixed a spot where bots had a tendency to yeet themselves off the map.
Garden of Morr: Fixed an out of bounds exploit.
Garden of Morr: Fixed so that Grandmother Zingler's Bones is interactable in situations where it wasn't previously.
Old Haunts: Fixed a softlock if you killed the Chaos Warrior prior to him opening the gate in the Gargoyle room. If this happens, the gates will open automatically after a short time.
Old Haunts: Fixed a spot at the church where enemy pathing was squiffy.
Old Haunts: Fixed a spot where bots could get stuck.
War Camp: Added more spawners for hordes to spawn from.
War Camp: Fixed a spot that bots would not traverse.
War Camp: Fixed a spot that enemies would not navigate correctly.
War Camp: Fixed a spot where players could get stuck.
War Camp: Fixed a tent with no collision.
War Camp: Fixed an out of bounds exploit.
War Camp: Fixed some AI pathing issues.
Franz Lohner's Chronicle - The Fate of Grungni’s Whisper
An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.
FRANZ LOHNER'S CHRONICLE - THE FATE OF GRUNGNI'S WHISPER
Still no luck finding Bardin’s daughter, sad to say. It’s depressing, really. Time was, a goblin couldn’t sneeze within the bounds of the Old World without me hearing about it – if I were interested in greenskin nasal discharges, leastways – but nowadays it’s getting harder and harder to lay my hands on solid information. Getting old, that’s the problem. Spying’s a young man’s game.
Recent events don’t exactly help. World’s gone mad, and that’s trouble for those of us who pride ourselves on having a bit of sanity left.
So what do I actually know? Well, I’ve had word from Barak Varr that a Hedda Bardinsdottir took ship – as captain, no less – on the nautilus Grungni’s Whisper about a year back. Nothing since, not about the Whisper, nor anyone aboard. Mind you, that’s about standard for a nautilus. Sneaky little submersibles. I like ‘em. I tell you, if we had even one patrolling the waters of the Reik, this Rotblood bother of ours would be much less of a bother. Nothing says ‘get off my land’ better than a torpedo right in the supply barge.
But I digress. Might be that this disappearance is where the tale ends, but my twitching nose says otherwise. This don’t feel like an accidental disappearance, but something deliberate. The Whisper doesn’t want to be found, and likely neither does young Hedda.
I suppose I’m left with no other choice but to see if her mother has any ideas. Not something I do lightly. ‘Overprotective’ doesn’t begin to do dwarf lasses justice. You know how you never see their womenfolk in the battle line? That ain’t because they can’t fight. It’s because every dwarf knows that when you march to war, you leave your sharpest axes behind to defend your home, like Valaya tells you. If you’ve not heard that before, happen you’ll want to think on why that might be.
If the thought of charging a dwarf shield wall chills the blood, spare a thought for those who sneak into what they think is an abandoned hold when the menfolk are away. I’d sooner corner a dragon in its lair than chance the fury of a dwarf maid defending her clan’s beardlings and her ancestor’s tombs, so you can see why I’m wary of troubling Grelda Thrangsdottir about private family matters.
Still, I owe it to Bardin to try. Let’s hope I don’t regret it.
Franz Lohner's Chronicle - The Wolves of Winter
An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.
FRANZ LOHNER’S CHRONICLE – THE WOLVES OF WINTER
Well, if the icy wind and brooding skies weren’t enough of a clue, Mondstille’s upon us, and the end of the year close behind. Of course, some say the end of the world’s looming as well, but they always do around this time. Something about being forced to spend more time with their families, I reckon. Never understood it myself.
We’ve had a sizeable pack of wolves take up residence on the mountainside south of the keep. I tell you, I’ve heard a lot and seen more, but their howls still send a shiver along my spine. Right nasty bunch these wolves are too, with a scar-faced leader who looks like he’s got a nasty bit of cleverness hiding in his noggin. One of Ulric’s own, I shouldn’t imagine. If ever there was a god who liked reminding everyone that he’s the big cheese, it’s Ulric, and he probably reckons we’ve been getting a bit uppity of late.
After the lurking lupines (as distinct to lupins, which are no bother to anyone, really) ate that messenger boy … poor lad … our old Kruber decided to resurrect an old Mondstille tradition. He’s been hunting ‘em down, skinning ‘em and nailing their pelts to fence, beam and signpost to warn off the survivors, and to let old Ulric know that we’re not about to let his furry children take liberties around Taal’s Horn Keep, thank you very much.
Never seen Kruber so happy, if I’m honest. I think it’s something to do with the fact that, for once, he’s not engaged in a life or death struggle with something unbelievably ghastly. It’s just man versus nature, and man’s bloody to the elbows. Then again, I’d be a bit cheerier myself if Kruber hadn’t taken to wearing the spare pelts and living out in the wilds. Worse, he keeps giving the wolf meat to Bardin, and we all remember ‘Stewed Fox Surprise’ well enough to know how that’s going to play out.
Still, I think the end’s in sight. Scar-Face is about the only wolf left now, and Kerillian’s insisted on joining the hunt to – and I quote – ‘put the lumbering brute out of his misery once and for all’.
I don’t think she means Kruber, but I’ve learned it’s best not to make assumptions where our elf is concerned. I might ask Sienna to tag along, just for safety.
Devblog - VFX for the Outcast Engineer
Hello,
My name is Alina, and I am a Visual Special Effects (VFX) artist at Fatshark.
I have been working at Fatshark for just over a year, and I help create the VFX for Warhammer: Vermintide 2.
What is VFX? It is all of the explosions, sparks, fire, gas clouds... I could go on forever.
When I am not working, I like to cuddle with my dog 'Buffy' and play DnD and video games. Some of my current favorite games are Hollow Knight, Hades, and Psychonauts.
Today I want to talk about the VFX I created for our newest career: the Outcast Engineer. If you don't know about the new career for Bardin Goreksson, I suggest you read more about it here.
The Idea.
Before my job started with the VFX, we began talking about the idea that it could be interesting to have a ranged only career, and the new weapons and gameplay mechanics we might use for this career. Now we know that the Outcast Engineer is not a fully ranged career, but that is where we started.
The concept was an Engineer who essentially made his own weapons. One of the challenges for me was in differentiating the engineer weapons from the Skaven ones. The key was having just enough sparks to hint at a weapon built with cogs and machinations without confusing the player with the haphazardly constructed Skaven weapons.
The Search for the Perfect Effect.
To create the perfect effects, I have researched how bullets travel through the air by watching videos, gifs, and any interesting bullet trail images I could find. Some of my favorite resources for this were slow-motion videos of bullets shot from various weapons. Another element I was interested in for this career were sparks, mainly from the friction of gears and metal on metal.
One of the effects I was focusing on was the bullet trail for the Steam-Assisted Crank Gun (Mk II), as it is the star of Bardin's new career. Something I found particularly challenging about making this effect come to life was the fact that while it has the physics or the general idea of a bullet-weapon, the weapon itself is steam-operated rather than dependent on gunpowder. In other words, the bullet trail needed to show that air is pushing the bullet as it is fired and leaves the barrel. This was important because it is not a gunpowder weapon or an electrical weapon that e.g. could create a beam. This took a lot of experimentation and continuously looking back to the reference material of how air moves around a fired bullet. If the trail was too shiny there was a risk of it looking far too sci-fi for Vermintide 2.
Teapots, Irons, Steam cleaners & Humidifiers
Another fun effect I got to work on was the Steam-Assisted Crank Gun (Mk II)'s venting mechanism that happens when the ability bar is fully charged. We had to create a way of telling players that it was time to stop cranking. Here we thought more in-depth about the functionality of the weapon and how it would work in battle. It had to clearly show that the weapon was ready to be used again, fit with the Outcast Engineer's theme, and ensure that it helps with the pacing of using, recharging, and resting the MK II. There were several options we considered: would it overheat? A cog stuck in the mechanism? Pressure building?
We agreed that the steam-operated weapons’ pressure builds up and will need to be released in some way.
I looked into different items that produce steam in daily life. Some things I studied were teapots, irons, steam cleaners, and humidifiers. Sadly, those items are not steam-operated, but they helped me to better grasp how the effect would look when the steam vents more aggressively, how fast it would be, how far it reaches, and at what point it would dissipate into the air.
We eventually went for the concept of the pressure from the steam being too great and requiring venting. The overheating/venting mechanism also appears when a player has cranked for too long. Build up too much pressure in a machine, and it will eventually not be able to build any more pressure. This helped us create a mechanism where we force a break and limit how much a player can crank and, ultimately, for how long Bardin can use the gun.
Working on this career was so exciting and engaging, I hope you all have a lot of fun playing it as it was for me taking part in creating it.
