Game Night: Explore a Cheerful Hand-Made Dystopia in ‘Harold Halibut’

Posted on by Thomas Wilde

The problem with Harold Halibut is that it’s a startlingly vivid artistic accomplishment, but in the traditional sense of the term, it’s not much of a video game. It’d be more accurate to call it an interactive stop-motion cartoon.

Just looking at Harold Halibut is fascinating. Its developer/publisher, the German indie studio Slow Bros, has been working on Harold for a decade. Every in-game asset was hand-made, then scanned and animated via Unity. I lost a lot of time walking around in-game to check out all the little details, like the background vistas out the window, the main character’s floppy walking animation, or the aged, boxy 20th-century tech that’s in use everywhere. You can see the developers’ effort and imagination in every frame of every location.

As a game, Harold Halibut is a dialogue-heavy adventure in the spirit of something like Syberia, where all it demands of the player is to explore and pay attention. (Some people will try to tell you that Harold is a walking simulator. Those people need to learn more words.) Your only goal in any given scene is to figure out how to reach the next step of its narrative, which usually means you have to find the one interactive object in the current room. This is rarely difficult.

All the while, Harold Halibut actively resists any attempt you might make to speed things up. You can’t skip scenes, frequently can’t skip dialogue, and can’t move at a pace above a determined stroll. Harold wants you to take it in at its own pace. Unfortunately, that pace is best described as “glacial.”

Harold Halibut is a well-meaning but slightly dim maintenance worker aboard the Fedora, a colony ship that launched from Earth in the worst days of the Cold War. Now, 250 years later, it’s stranded at the bottom of an alien ocean.

Harold’s daily routine consists of menial labor, repair work, and petty feuds with the corporate bureaucracy that runs the ship. Then, through sheer dumb luck, Harold ends up at the center of a series of events that will change life on the Fedora forever.

The opening hours of Harold Halibut are its roughest part, as its actual story takes a while to show up. The game begins with a long look at life aboard the Fedora through Harold’s eyes, in all its mundane detail. Its dramatic opening moment involves Harold being dragged off to what’s essentially traffic court.

That does give the Fedora a distinct sense of place. It’s a derelict spaceship in an environment it wasn’t built for, full of eccentrics who’ve never known anything else. Their society’s decisions are all guided by a decaying corporate administration that’s trying to play its incompetence off as an endearing quirk. Despite all that, everyone is just trying to live, and be happy, as best they can.

Harold, at the center of this, is an easy protagonist to like. He’s a decent guy who spends too much time in his own head, but he’s surrounded by a quiet, ordinary madness. Harold’s establishing character moment is being charged with a crime for what amounts to no reason, and the thing that consistently gets him in the most trouble is his inability to finish a sentence. There’s a certain Walter Mitty quality to Harold that I found equal parts appealing and frustrating.

In a roundabout way, that leads me to my primary issue with Harold Halibut. It’s a well-written, engaging story with beautiful hand-made art that sets it apart from almost every other video game on the market, and certainly from every other game released in 2024 to date. On visuals alone, it’s an incredible production, and its script is never less than decent.

The problem is that all of Harold Halibut’s strengths are in its story and presentation, and none are in its interactivity. It’s paced like a slow season of TV and gives you as the player about as much to do. You can occasionally pick up a side mission, find hidden scenes between Harold and some eccentric weirdo on the Fedora, or go play arcade games (both of which are unpleasantly reminiscent of Superman 64), but that’s about it.

Other adventure games have handled this by allowing your decisions to change the story’s outcome (Until Dawn, The Quarry), emphasizing environmental storytelling so you have to figure out much of what’s happening on your own (Gone Home, Tacoma) or splitting up the chapters with increasingly abstract puzzles (Lifeless Moon, The Tartarus Key), but little of that’s available in Harold Halibut. For most of its runtime, it’s essentially a passive experience.

What’s annoying is that I’ve been on the other side of a lot of arguments about this over the last decade or so. Some forum warriors will argue at great and terrible length that games like Harold Halibut shouldn’t be considered games at all. These people, to be clear, are idiots (why would you gatekeep a concept?), but every once in a while I play something that works as a point in their favor. That’s where I’m at right now.

That being said, Harold Halibut is absolutely worth checking out, primarily for its best-in-class visual presentation. The ideal way to play it might be in a group, where you trade off controller duty while everyone else chills out and watches its story unfold. It’s a calm, cozy all-ages sci-fi story, with satire gentle enough to surprise you when it bites. The only sticking point is that in many of the ways that matter, Harold Halibut isn’t really something you play.

Unturned Update Patch Notes June 14

Posted on by Michelle Pereira

 

UPDATED June 15

 

 

3.24.3.3 Patch Notes June 14

BattlEye needed this client update released as soon as possible, so it’s the only change in this tiny patch.

 

 

3.24.3.1 Patch Notes June 5

 

Changelog

 

Added

  • Add_Default_Actions item property. Defaults to true when no actions are specified.
  • Buildable_Placement_Rule vehicle property. Replaces vehicle Supports_Mobile_Buildables property.

 

Fixed

  • Russia keycard door progress for players who follow a friend into the room. [Thanks SkeJ!]
  • Replacing vehicle battery using the wrong guid. [Thanks NSTM!]
  • Headlamp not overriding Priority_Over_Cosmetic. [Thanks Zombs-R-Cute!]
  • Duplicate automatic repair/salvage blueprint actions. [Thanks TeemoCell!]
  • Default new terrain tiles to Fallback_Green material. [Thanks Jdance!]
  • Map credits list cut off in some cases without enough height. [Thanks WWTC!]
  • Push forward rendering decal out from surface 2 mm.
  • Exception when logging out inside ambiance volume.
  • Potential cause of out-of-sync NPC date/time counter.

 

 

3.24.2.0 Update Notes May 9

 

Changelog

 

Added

  • Server bookmarks as an alternative to Steam's Favorites list.
  • Option for whether group member name tags fade out near crosshair.
  • "-ScrollViewSensitivity" command-line value.
  • Rewards_List_Asset reward type which can reference a RewardsList asset or spawn table.
  • NPC Rewards Volume which grants a RewardsList asset.
  • Zombie kills condition LevelTableOverride option to spawn specific zombies.
  • NPC "cutscene mode" reward type which hides viewmodel and prevents shooting weapons.
  • NPC player stamina condition and reward types.
  • Spread_Swimming and Recoil_Swimming multipliers for guns.
  • Support for plugins to verify players on custom backends using Steam web API.

 

Changed

  • Firerate offset can be applied to all attachment types and supports negative values.
  • Show a tiny dot on map when player avatar images are turned off.
  • Default Allow_Per_Character_Saves to off in multiplayer.
  • Separated experience loss on death from skill loss. Default to retaining skill levels but losing 50% of XP.

 

Fixed

  • Bad positioning of Frying Pan kill counter. [Thanks Arturbraun1408!]
  • Russia militia spawns containing Viper rather than Viper Magazine. [Thanks RadicalBeetle and babybillygaming!]
  • Anastasia door symbol stuck in place. [Thanks analizin!]
  • Problems related to deleting group while in exit queue. [Thanks sunnamed434!]
  • Equipment stuck in busy state after attempting to fire gun with invalid magazine. [Thanks DerpyHoowes!]
  • Progress Pride Pin too far to the side. [Thanks Unkn0wn_Gh0st!]
  • Previous fix to -SkipAssets doing the opposite of intended. Oof. [Thanks rube200!]
  • Buildable transform out of sync if edit was cancelled on client. [Thanks StilauGamer!]
  • Setting invalid render mode in config file to make terrain invisible. [Thanks FORTI!]
  • Missing default text formatting for base NPC reward. [Thanks LocoCZ!]
  • Quest screen scrollbar not taking UI scale into consideration. [Thanks Spebby!]
  • Ammo per shot, bullet damage multiplier, and spread multiplier sentry gun inconsistencies. [Thanks MoltonMontro!]
  • Explosive bullets not detonating in sentry guns. [Thanks Renaxon!]
  • Default Priority_Over_Cosmetic behavior was backwards. [Thanks Waryth!]
  • Vehicle turret keeping previously equipped item's quality. [Thanks Renaxon!]
  • Out-of-bounds exception with chat text repeat. [Thanks Lion4K!]
  • Misplaced lamp on Russia. [Thanks WilliamB0rum!]
  • Catch exceptions when formatting NPC condition/reward text. [Thanks sunnamed434!]
  • Names of a few locations on Russia. [Thanks DerpyHoowes!]
  • Positive oxygen modifier incorrectly listed as stamina in item descriptions. [Thanks Toothy Deerryte!]
  • Dango headband circle z-fighting when far from origin. [Thanks Jdance!]
  • NPC dialogue animated text when first character is '<'. [Thanks CPL!]
  • Changing weapons before rechambering animation finishes. [Thanks Spebby!]
  • Rain barrel item collider oriented along wrong axis. [Thanks WWTC!]
  • Sneaky bug of doors stuck with colliders off if destroyed while animating. [Thanks Gamingtoday093!]
  • Some dumb mistakes on the preview branch. [Thanks DiFFoZ!]
  • Compression artifacts on Kuwait pajama tops and detective top. [Thanks Animatic!]

 

Server Bookmarks

One downside of the favorites server list is that if the host address or port changes, there can be a long delay before Steam internally updates the listing. This update adds a new "BookmarkHost" property to the server's Config.json file to help work around this issue (among others).
If the server has a GSLT and BookmarkHost is set to a DNS record (e.g., "myunturnedserver.example.com"), a Bookmark button will appear on the server info screen and in-game pause menu. The bookmark saves a few details about the server, such as the name, description, and thumbnail. It can then be quickly rejoined from the Bookmarks menu without refreshing the server list.
For more advanced usage, the BookmarkHost property can be set to a web API URL starting with https://. In this case, the client will initiate a GET request. The response can include an address or DNS name, along with an optional query port override. This allows the address and port to change without affecting bookmarks. Servers using Fake IPs can then keep the randomly assigned address and port in sync with a custom backend. Pandahut has already implemented this on their servers and has graciously offered to share their implementation. We will update this post with a link to it when it's ready.

 

Those are the patch notes up through June 14 for Unturned.

We Went Undercover at Microsoft but Got Laid Off Before We Could Learn Anything

Posted on by Traye Holland

REDMOND, Wash. — Video game studios are dying left and right and Microsoft is the Grim Reaper, wielding closure announcements and layoffs like the two blades of a jagged scythe. We went undercover at Microsoft to find out how they came to these decisions but things worked out a little differently.

Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog Games; these names should be etched on tombstones and erected in a field alongside Lionhead Studios, Ensemble Studios, Press Play, and all the other fallen studios that couldn’t survive being owned by Microsoft. With multiple studio closures, 1900 employees laid off, and more of both looming on the horizon, many gamers and game studio employees have been left in fear of the future, and rightfully so.

You don’t need Batman Arkham detective vision to see that something is clearly amiss at Microsoft. However, as journalists, it is our sworn duty to uncover the real dirt beneath the turf of lies, no matter how dirty our hands get. So we decided to get to the bottom of it. With our sacred objective in our minds and Baja Blast in our bellies, we hashed out a plan to infiltrate Microsoft posing as employees to get a firsthand look at their nefarious business practices. 

We couldn’t expect to just waltz into Microsoft and have them hand us their secrets on a silver platter. As gaming journalists, we would have been accosted by executives giving us the same corpo-speak tidbits we already got from Geoff Keighley. True investigative work would have been impossible. So we took inspiration from the classic film The Master of Disguise, which has played in a loop in the break room at our office ever since the DVD got stuck in the player.

Getting into the Microsoft office was surprisingly easy. The security must have also been laid off. There were plenty of parking spaces to choose from. Someone just let us in and then we took some empty cubicles, of which there was an abundance of, and acted like we worked there.

Our plan was cut short, however. Just as soon as we sat down in our cubicles there was a cacophony of groans and sobbing echoing throughout the building. All the employees began making their way out of the office. Another mass email had been sent announcing more layoffs, and our entire division was on the chopping block. A heavy chain and padlock were placed on the door behind us.

Unfortunately,  all we gained from our investigation was grief and empty pockets. In that way, we can relate to the laid-off Microsoft employees, who have been cast out into the cold, dark world all for the sake of Microsoft’s bottom line. The gaming industry is full of talented and passionate people. It is our misfortune as premium gaming journalists to witness these talented and passionate people ground under the wheels of big business. 

Also, if anyone is in the market for an eyepatch and some dollar store fake mustaches, I am looking to sell mine. I spent way more on my disguise than I should and I’m worried about rent.

Mac Gamer Excited for Whatever Game Comes Out This Year

Posted on by Brett McCabe

Duluth, Minn. — Mac gamer Juno Perry, one of the few Apple loyalist gamers in the world is looking forward to the game that will be released this year, whatever it may be.

Perry discussed her hype in a recent IRL Twitch stream from her local Apple Store.

“Whatever it’s going to be, I’ll pre-order it. Ha. I don’t even care. It’s like, give me that game, you know,” laughed Perry, nervously. “Like, I got to have it. The puzzles in Myst aren’t as exciting after the fifth time around.”

Perry only plays games on Mac, giving her a ton of free time to argue with strangers online while waiting for the next release. She has so far refused attempts to get her to game on other systems.

“She only plays on Mac so most of the time she’s just arguing with people online about games she hasn’t played,” said Perry’s boyfriend Gary Flint. “I offered to get her a Nintendo but she says consoles are not real gaming. I even offered to build her a PC but that ended up being the worst fight we ever had. I still have the scar from the LED Live Laugh Game sign she threw at me.”

Perry spent the latter half of her stream reading through a list of upcoming games hoping to find the one coming to Mac. This segment consisted of an hour and a half of Perry half-heartedly reading game titles before finally perking up with excitement at a potential game.

“Whoa! Hold the phone!” Perry announced, upon discovery. “Bungie announced a reboot of Marathon for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC…. and that’s it, huh? Well, hey, I see Control might be coming out this year. That will be cool!”

At press time, Perry has not yet realized that her computer is used for working with Google Workspace, and doesn’t reach the specs required by the upcoming game.

ANIMAL WELL Update Patch Notes June 13

Posted on by Michelle Pereira

 

UPDATED June 14

 

 

More minor fixes June 13

  • Improved Korean localization, along with other small adjustments to others languages
  • Fixed softlock where player could get trapped behind fallen stalactite without the ability to reach there disc

 

 

More small fixes and adjustments June 5

  • improved Korean localization
  • fixed bug where walking through a certain door at a certain time would result in player exiting in the wrong place
  • Sack now sparkles

 

 

Some small fixes and adjustments June 3

  • Fixed bug where player could reach zero heath and not die in a specific situation
  • Added another fix for save files that experienced missing mock disc bug in past and never got fixed
  • Added tiny hint that a certain situation is dangerous
  • A certain creature can now walk on water

 

 

Lowered SSE4.1 requirement for CPU to SSE3 May 28

Previously the game required SSE4.1 to run. I've now made some slight modifications so as to only require SSE3. This will improve compatibility with some older CPUs.

 

 

Added Controller Speaker Toggle May 27

  • You no longer need to put tape over the speaker.

 

 

Small Fixes May 27

  • Added better error message to let players know their video card or driver doesn't support dx12
  • Fixed issue where player could clip through a wall while climbing ladders in a couple spots
  • Fixed a certain entity sometimes appearing in a space it was not supposed to
  • Fixed exploit involving the flute, and a very specific secret area

 

 

Some more small fixes May 23

  • fixed potential soft lock when breaking large stalactite in bat cave
  • fixed potential flickering in very very very late game area
  • adjusted a few vines to remove some misleading single pixels gaps in map visibility
  • fixed issue where kangaroo would on one occasion spawn one tile above the ground
  • fixed black screen when exiting from a certain area and starting a new game

 

 

Fixed startup crash May 20

This should hopefully fix a startup crash that some people were seeing! If you are still having issues let me know.
Thank you for your patience!

 

 

More fixes!!! May 20

  • In rare situations where you missed out on a certain late game event, in previous builds, you now have another chance to access it.
  • Added an additional point where the speedrun timer flashes on screen
  • adjusted collider width of fish head by one pixel
  • added more detailed error messages for when the game fails to start
  • fixed missing glyphs in credits in some other languages

 

This patch, does not fix the startup crash some people have been experiencing, but I am now setup to more easily debug it. If you are one of the people experiencing it, I would greatly appreciate if you could go into the Windows Event Viewer, and share the error details with me! Once again, I'm sorry this has been taking a while and really appreciate everyone's patience!

 

 

More Fixes!! May 14

  • Large stalactites no longer block visibility or cause gaps in map
  • Fixed bug where frisbee would sometimes spin in place, when being interacted with in a certain way on the same frame it bounces off a wall.
  • Fixed an exploit with a very secret area
  • Changed timing on multi item puzzle in final area, to be slightly less demanding
  • Improved French localization for unlit candle
  • Made it impossible to trigger fireworks more than once in rare situation where it would block access to another part of the game
  • Reduce flashing option now addresses another part that was reported as uncomfortable

 

 

More Fixes! May 13

  • Added numpad key-bindings
  • Fixed softlock if crow manages to carry you offscreen
  • improved Ukrainian and German localization
  • Fixed bug where map tiles would sometimes, in very rare and specific situations, get marked as visited
  • removed stray geyser

 

 

More fixes May 12

Fixed bug where a certain spawnable item would sometimes spawn in an unintended place.
Fixed misleading empty pixel on map
Minor translation improvements

 

Fix for the startup crash is still in progress! I have to order the associated PC hardware so I can attempt to reproduce the issue. I'm very sorry, and again, I really appreciate everyone's patience! In the mean time I will keep seeing if I can figure out what's going on.

 

 

A few small fixes May 10

Improved Korean translation for a certain item name
Adjusted death animation when 'reduced flashing' is enabled
Certain tiles are no longer respawned on

 

Thank you for your patience everyone! Fixes for some other reported issues are still coming.

 

 

Fixed potential softlock May 9

When entering ghost switch block room near dogs, via turtle hole, with bubble, but without disc

 

Those are the patch notes through June 13 for ANIMAL WELL.

Killer Klowns From Outer Space Update Patch Notes June 13

Posted on by Michelle Pereira

 

UPDATED June 21

 

 

Patch 1.1.4 June 13

To clear up any confusion that may occur from the patch version number; we are skipping 1.1.3 and releasing it as 1.1.4 instead.
This was done in order to implement several necessary fixes into this build. We will remember how to count properly in the future.

 

General

  • Various Crash Fixes
  • Various fixes and improvements to address cheating and exploiting
  • Various fixes, improvements, and optimizations to the matchmaking, crossplay, and party systems
  • Various fixes and improvements to several map locations and escapes
  • Fixed an issue where players were able to interact with objects while stunned
  • Made adjustments to the timing of several animations to be more aligned with the gameplay

 

Humans

  • Addressed an issue that was causing certain items to be unable to be picked up
  • Reduced the duration of the Energy Drink
  • Fixed an issue where the Ice Cream Truck Escapes would sometimes allow the player to be killed even after they have already escaped
  • Fixed an issue where the Ice Cream Truck Escapes objective markers would not appear for players that have resurrected recently
  • Fixed an issue where vaulting would not drain stamina
  • Fixed an issue where players could enter the Bunker without escaping
  • Fixed an issue where players could continue to interact with an escape objective even after taking damage or failing the QTE
  • Fixed an issue that was allowing too many players to enter the Boat Escape

 

Klowns

  • Downed Humans will now get cocooned faster when being cottonized by non-raygun based weapons
  • Klowns can now push lackeys out of the way
  • Increased amount of Cotton Candy Cocoons that spawn on the map
  • Made improvements to the Boxing Gloves and Mallet’s hit detection
  • Added collision to Cotton Candy Cocoons to prevent them from being placed at certain escape locations
  • Addressed several issues that were causing escape objectives to not be cottonized with certain weapons
  • Fixed an issue where Klowns were able to cocoon Humans while the Human is being Klowntalitied
  • Fixed an issue where Klowns were able to cocoon Humans while the Human has already escaped
  • Fixed an issue where Klowns were sometimes unable to break certain windows

 

 

Patch 1.1.2 (Hotfix) June 10

 

General

  • Various Crash Fixes
  • Various fixes and improvements to the matchmaking and party systems
  • Various fixes to several containers that were not interactable
  • Various fixes to several locations that were causing players to become stuck
  • Fixed an issue where the one of the Ice Cream Truck Escapes on the Downtown Crescent Cove Map was blocking players from escaping
  • Fixed an issue where players may sometimes not return to the Main Menu after the host closes the party
  • Fixed an issue where the “Leave Match” button would sometimes not return the player to the Main Menu
  • Fixed an issue where the match timer in Private Matches would begin during the opening cinematic
  • Fixed an issue where all party members would return to the Main Menu from the Customization Menu if the host exits the Customization Menu

 

Humans

  • Adjusted damage across to all Human melee weapons, ranged weapons, and thrown items
  • Addressed several issues that were being caused by multiple players using the same interaction at the same time
  • Fixed an issue where throwing an item may cause the player to become interaction locked under certain conditions
  • Fixed an issue where the objective icons may disappear at the beginning of the match
  • Fixed an issue where the Item Cards may persist on the screen after gifting an Item Card to a dead player
  • Fixed an issue where a thrown Compass could kill a downed Klown

 

Klowns

  • Addressed several issues that were being caused by Humans leaving while being cocooned or Klowntalitied
  • Fixed an issue where VoIP would sometimes not work properly for Klowns that have died in the match
  • Fixed an issue where the Klown’s health bar would be inaccurate when using the Pizza Box ability
  • Fixed an issue where the Pentashot was unable to hit players when in point blank range
  • Fixed an issue where several weapons were unable to cottonize objectives under certain conditions
  • Fixed an issue where the Lackey spawn timer was becoming desynced

 

 

DAY 1 PATCH NOTES June 4

 

General

  • General crash fixes
  • General improvements to game optimization
  • General fixes and improvements to bot behavior
  • Crossplay account linking and Crossplay party invites are now available
  • Various fixes and improvements to matchmaking and premade lobbies
  • Added blocking volumes at escape locations to prevent body blocking escapes
  • Addressed several issues to prevent exploits related to items and EXP
  • Addressed several issues that were causing players and cocoons to fall under the map
  • Fixed an issue where the language options were not appearing on the Steam client
  • Fixed an issue where the intro cinematic when loading into a match would sometimes be missing assets
  • Fixed an issue where bots would not be replaced by players who are joining in progress
  • Various fixes to address collision issues and stuck spots on every map
  • Various fixes to EXP not being granted properly during certain events
  • Various fixes to SFX timing issues

 

Human

  • Loot spawns have been adjusted to prevent repair items from spawning too close to their related escape
  • Reduced the duration that the escape location icons remain on the HUD after reaching the meeting point
  • Made adjustments to the distance attenuation curve for Human proximity VoIP
  • Fixed an issue where the crosshair may remain on the HUD after dropping a weapon
  • Fixed an issue where certain outfits were missing flashlights
  • Fixed an issue where empty loot containers would appear as closed and non-interactable for players that have joined in progress
  • Fixed an issue where the player would sometimes regenerate stamina while sprinting even without any item buffs
  • Fixed an issue where the Cocoon VFX would sometimes remain on the player after they have broken out of a Cocoon
  • Fixed an issue where the throwing prediction line would sometimes not show up when throwing an item
  • Fixed an issue where using the Compass in certain locations would cause the escape indicators to remain on the HUD permanently
  • Fixed an issue where using items and interactions in quick succession could cause the player to become interaction locked
  • Fixed an issue where players could not uncrouch in certain locations
  • Fixed an issue where blunt weapons were sometimes able kill a downed Klown
  • Fixed an issue where the bots were causing cocoon outlines to behave incorrectly
  • Increased fear reduction while hiding in a hiding spot
  • Reduced the damage that axes deal to gated exit barriers

 

Klowns

  • Adjusted the camera position while using the Balloon Dog trick
  • Made improvements to the Klown VoIP when transitioning from team chat to proximity chat
  • Fixed an issue where the Klown's loadout 3 was not available even after reaching the level requirement
  • Fixed an issue where the UI prompt that appears to notify players that there is not enough space to use the "Invisible Car" ability was missing
  • Fixed an issue where certain quality settings would cause the Klown Jump to have visual issues
  • Fixed an issue where Klowns may sometimes become interaction locked after performing a Klowntality
  • Fixed an issue where Klowns may sometimes not be able to use any of their Tricks after performing a Klowntality
  • Fixed an issue where Klowns could perform a Klowntality while in the middle of an interaction
  • Fixed an issue where the Cotton Candy Raygun's beam would sometimes not connect properly to player models
  • Made improvements to the Cotton Candy Raygun's hit detection during close quarters engagements
  • Fixed an issue where the firing animation was sometimes not appearing for the Pentashot and Laser Beamer
  • Increased Cocoon damage when thrown at Humans
  • Increased Klown movement speed when sprinting backwards
  • Fixed an issue that was causing the Popcorn Bazooka to deal double damage
  • Reduced range of the Popcorn Bazooka to be more in line with the popcorn VFX
  • Reduced environmental damage of the Popcorn Bazooka
  • Reduced tracking time of the Popcorn Bazooka
  • Increased Pentashot cottonization damage
  • Improved Pentashot projectile hit detection
  • Reduced Bouncecaster cottonization damage
  • Increased Mallet charge speed
  • Reduced the Hypnotic Lure escape threshold

 

Those are the patch notes up through June 13 for Killer Klowns from Outer Space: The Game.

Man Who Vowed to Finish Current Game Spots a Pretty New Game Looking at Him Across the Room

Posted on by Matt Fresh

TORONTO — Local gamer Frank Meadows has found himself in quite a predicament as despite his vow to finish the game he’s currently playing, temptation is having its way with him as he’s spotted a pretty new game looking at him from across the room.

Meadows took to social media to discuss his current internal struggle.

“I’m so conflicted here because I’m in the middle of this big open-world game that I’m really loving,” Meadows said to his dozens of followers. “I have a real problem with not finishing games before moving on to another game but I vowed that I would finish this since I’m enjoying it so much. But my Baldur’s Gate 3 physical edition got delivered the other day and it’s so beautiful and it’s just looking at me, begging to be played and I don’t know if I’m strong enough to resist giving it what it wants.”

Meadows, who has been single since high school, doesn’t often have something so beautiful staring at him in temptation, which is why this is so difficult for him.

“This just never happens to me. Even all the other times I’ve abandoned games to play something else it was because I felt like it. The problem here is that I don’t want to abandon this game, I really love it but every time I glance across the room Baldur’s Gate 3 is there looking at me and it’s so beautiful. It’s probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen and definitely the most beautiful thing that’s ever wanted me to touch it. I just don’t know what to do.”

Meadows’ struggle ended up going slightly viral and renowned gaming relationship counselor Bradley MacDougall weighed in with professional advice.

“One of the main reasons that gamers and their games even come to me is due to issues stemming from the desire to move on to a different game before the relationship has reached its natural conclusion. I’ll tell Mr. Meadows what I tell all my patients. While the primal desire to play something else can be tempting, not finishing your current game relationship will only cause a repressed backlog that will eventually lead to having so many games to play that your brain just shuts down and you don’t play anything.”

Amid his crisis, Meadows contacted his parents for advice on what to do. His mother took to Facebook to address the situation.

“I just want my boy to get help. He’s about to turn 30 and has never been on a date,” His mother Dina said through tears in a heartbreaking Facebook Live.

At press time, Meadows has begun his playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3 but the unopened copy of Metal Gear Solid 5 that he bought three Black Fridays ago is calling to him.

Roboquest Update Patch Notes June 13

Posted on by Michelle Pereira

 

UPDATED June 13

 

 

Roboquest – 1.3.1 Hotfix June 13

Hey Guardians!
We just pushed a small hotfix for the Super Update. Nothing too major, mainly bug fixes and a few balance adjustments for Superbot.
Happy robot smashing!

 

Roboquest 1.3.1 Changelist

  • Passing through enemies while riding a spline will no longer fail to destroy them
  • Superbot's stealth no longer makes boss unable to react
  • Fixed a crash occuring when Superbot eats a weapon in multiplayer
  • Fixed an issue where a player would be stuck in "fall" animation state after dying
  • Deleted a debug in-editor icon that would appear during the Iris Pt 2 fight
  • You will no longer crash when joining a game at the same time a player uses Superbot's Overdrive ability
  • Weapon Alt-Fires now always properly display their icons
  • You can no longer loot weapon and enemy cards you haven't come across in the game yet
  • You can no longer obtain 100% museum completion rate without having actually unlocked everything
  • The collision of the bomb you have to defuse at the end of certain corrupted levels will no longer lock you forever under certain circumstances
  • Superbot can no longer eat the Shovel or Buddybot after they've been transformed in Fantastic rarity or spawned by the weapon vending machine in the Basecamp
  • Captain Mc Slice damage increased from 70 to 75
  • Captain Mc Slice debuff reduced from 50% to 35%
  • Super-Blaster affix "Bullshot" replaced by "Buckshot"
  • Super-Blaster damage increased from 20 to 23
  • Superbot's perk Hammer Pants bonus damage increased from 50% to 75%
  • Superbot's Supershot bonus damage increased to 300%
  • Increased Super-Cannon non-explosive damage from 140 to 160
  • Reduced Quarry S-Rank time requirements slightly
  • Increased Harmony Square S-rank time requirements slightly

 

 

Roboquest – Super Patch-Notes June 6

This time around, the patch-notes is quite light as most of our changes are the additions you've already (probably) read through in our highlights section.
Find the release announcement and highlights section here.
Watch the highlights video:
Here's the patch-note:

Patch-Notes Super Update (v1.3)

 

General

  • Added a new quest to unlock Superbot
  • Added a new cutscene available once you've completed the new quest
  • Added 3 new data-logs
  • Added 5 new achievements related to Superbot

 

Class

  • Added Superbot as a playable class
Developers' Notes: It will only be available once you completed the new quest.

 

Weapon

  • Added a new weapon called 'Captain Mc Slice', it is a powerful heavy blade that can be picked up at run start once you've discovered it in a certain level (pretty much like the Shovel)

 

Level

  • Added a new level called 'Harmony Square', it can be accessed through 'Haven City' under certain conditions
  • Diversified the enemy pool in 'Aqua Station' in difficulty levels Guardian 2, 3 and 4
  • Added a 'Goliath Slug' in the path from 'Aqua Station' to 'Fusion Core'

 

Settings

  • Added a new quality of life settings called 'Infinite Music', this is unchecked by default and you may check it to make sure the music never turns off, even when you haven't fought enemies for a while
  • Added the possibility to toggle Sprint Mode with a keyboard/mouse input when playing with hybrid controls

 

Bug Fixes

  • The Transformer-Toy summon now properly appears for the other player when you pick it
Developers' Notes: This is the second time we're fixing this, but it is for real this time.
  • Dropping a weapon in multiplayer no longer has a chance to make it disappear forever
  • The final door in front of IRIS is now properly interactable by both players in all cases
  • Spending a Crystal Powder in a level will no longer prompt the Crystal Powder end screen when completing it
  • Fixed a texture streaming issue causing the 'Crystal Claimed' texture to display a white square when completing a corrupted level
  • Credits will properly scroll to the end again
  • Enemies have their proper texture when watching them in the Museum

Join the community on Discord!

 

 

Roboquest – 1.2.1 Hotfix April 30

Hello Guardians!

 

We've just released a hotfix for the Arsenal update, v1.2.1.
Here are the list of changes for this hotfix:
  • Removed instances of situations where you'd spawn within the ground in the basecamp
  • Fixed a crash occurring when the client player would unlock the Sunglasses and get back to the basecamp
  • Fixed a crash occurring when the host player starts the game right after their brobot has joined
  • Fixed a crash occurring when a brobot would join while the host is generating fury points in the practice range as the Commando
  • The Gorilla Bolter can no longer roll the Buckshot affix twice
  • Not finishing Doom Gardens before the timer expires will no longer result in a end-screen showcasing a Crystal Powder gain
  • Deactivated the difficulty selection while searching for a quickplay
  • You can no longer be stuck with the pause menu open when combining several inputs in a row with the gamepad
  • Fixed a bug with the Yoyo item not properly working
  • The Transformer-Toy summon now properly appears for the other player when you pick it
  • Fixed a bug with the Mini-Cricket not shooting exactly on your crosshair
  • Fixed an issue with the Mini-Cricket not shooting at the usual maximum range for all weapons (50m) - its fall-off range is still at 12m
  • If you added a perfumed affix to your unique weapon (Handgun, The Shovel or Buddy Bot), Smithing Ted will no longer remove it when upgrading it to Fantastic in the Oasis

 

That's it for the hotfix, happy robot smashing everyone!

 

 

Roboquest – Arsenal Update Patch-Notes April 15

Here are the patch-notes for the 1.2 version of Roboquest: the Arsenal Update.
Find the release announcement here.

Patch-Notes 1.2

 

Gameplay

  • New resource: Crystal Powder
    • Crystal Powder can be acquired at the end of levels containing a Corrupted Crystal you've already claimed
    • Crystal Powder is used to increase a weapon's rarity from Epic to Fantastic in the new friendly robot Willy Wonder (view in the Friendly Robots section later)
  • New keyword: Summon
    • Summoning is the action of deploying allies like drones, decoy, sentry turrets and everything else that is tagged as Summon in its description
    • Several ingame elements such as Perks and Items grants bonus effects to your Summons
    • Reworked several parts of the code to make sure your summons apply your additional effect like "marking burns"

Classes

  • Several perks have been reworked to now include the Summon keyword

Weapons

General
  • New weapons:
    • Missile Battery - We had a minigun but we didn't have a ROCKET minigun.
    • Rapier - En garde!
    • Sling Gun - And the stone goes boom!
    • Minion Box - Raise my minions!
    • Mini Cricket - We liked that gun from a famous movie with aliens. Such boomer times.
    • Gauss Rifle - Pro Quake player, anyone?
    • Bee Cannon - A mysterious vacuum that shoots bees.
    • Boomerang - Whoosh in and whoosh out.
    • Shuriken - For all the robot-ninja mains out there (you know who I'm talking about).
  • The damage of summons deployed by alt-fires has been increased by 15% per weapon level to 20% per weapon level
  • Overall increase of the explosion radius for all weapons (detailed below)

 

Alt-Fire
  • Increased Bayonet base damage from 60 to 72 and healing cell bonus drops from 2 to 3

 

Affixes
  • Updated the number of shots required to trigger Volatile
  • Increased Buckshot trigger chance from 15% to 20%
  • Increased Puncture damage bonus from 50% to 75%
  • Decreased Cadence firerate bonus from 15% to 10%
  • Fragmentation reworked, now works as Buckshot but sends a volley of explosive projectiles
    • Developers' Note: Fragmentation always felt awkward and a bit misplaced due to its graphical implementation and its projectile speed. Replacing it with something that propels several projectiles similar to its origin weapon will probably feel better overall and works best for us in terms of balancing and implementation. Beware Kaboom Buckshot!
  • New affixes:
    • Echo - Additional Ricochet and Ricochet damage
    • Interceptor - Bonus damage against flying enemies
    • Big-Game - Bonus damage against elites, goliaths and bosses
    • Uproot - Bonus damage against turrets
    • Eraser - Bonus damage against marked enemies
    • Haste - Bonus movespeed while in hand
    • Leader - Bonus summon damage
    • Piñata - Chance to drop several healing-cells on takedown

 

Balance Changes
  • Junk Rifle
    • Alternative Fire
      • Projectile speed increased from 4000 to 4250
  • Thumper
    • Primary Fire
      • Damage decreased from 57.0 to 56.0
      • Firerate decreased from 2.22/s to 2.08/s
      • Explosion radius decreased from 1.9m to 1.6m
  • Flare Gun
    • Primary Fire
      • Explosion radius increased from 2.3m to 2.4m
  • Elephant Gun
    • Primary Fire
      • Explosion radius increased from 0.9m to 1.0m
  • Dragoon Mortar
    • Primary Fire
      • Explosion radius increased from 2.3m to 2.4m
  • Torpedo Rifle
    • Primary Fire
      • Explosion radius increased from 0.7m to 1.0m
  • Comet Cannon
    • Primary Fire
      • Damage increased from 50.0 to 53.0
      • Impact force decreased from 62.0 to 56.0
      • Explosion radius increased from 1.0m to 1.4m
      • Energy cost increased from 8.0 to 10.0
  • Beluga Cannon
    • Primary Fire
      • Damage decreased from 53.0 to 50.0
      • Explosion radius increased from 1.8m to 2.2m
  • Volcano Rifle
    • Can no longer roll the Bounce affix
      • Developers' Note: This felt more like a nerf to the weapon to roll this affix than anything else, so hey, we're removing it cause affix gotta be fun.
    • Primary Fire
      • Explosion radius increased from 1.0m to 1.2m
  • Junk Beam
    • Primary Fire
      • Damage decreased from 18.0 to 8.5
      • Firerate increased from 7.69/s to 15.38/s
      • Energy cost decreased from 2.5 to 1.25
  • Hurricane Rifle
    • Primary Fire
      • Damage increased from 10.5 to 11.0
  • Mammoth Minigun
    • Primary Fire
      • Damage decreased from 11.0 to 10.5
  • Ram Shotgun
    • Primary Fire
      • Damage decreased from 10.5 to 8.0
      • Firerate increased from 2.5/s to 2.77/s
  • Gorilla Bolter
    • Primary Fire
      • Damage decreased from 46.0 to 44.0
      • Critical ratio increased from 1.25 to 1.5
  • Buffalo Cannon
    • Primary Fire
      • Explosion radius increased from 2.1m to 2.2m
  • Pulsar Rifle
    • Primary Fire
      • Explosion radius decreased from 1.1m to 0.8m
      • Projectile speed increased from 4500 to 6000
  • Shark Sniper
    • Primary Fire
      • Damage increased from 96.0 to 98.0
  • Kangaroo Sentry
    • Alternative Fire
      • Increased summon sentry base damage from 4 to 7
      • Action duration decreased from 0.55 to 0.25

Gadgets

  • Increased Grappling Hook cooldown from 4s to 5s
  • Increased Hero Cape maximum bonus damage from distance traveled from 200% to 300%

Items

  • All multiplayer-only items now also trigger off being nearby a friendly summon and can now be looted in single player
  • Hourglass damage bonus increased from 25% to 30%
  • Magnet now marks nearby enemies instead of shocking them
    • Developers' Note: And we changed its icon color, because you know, it no longer shocks.
  • Cheese jetpack bonus duration increased from 1.5s to 2s
  • Phone Charger now also increases your summon health
  • Heart Necklace now also increases your armor if a summon is nearby
  • Candle now only increases burn damage (moved the explosion part on a new item)
    • Developers' Note: The "burn or explosion" part of the description was always confusing for players so we're splitting that into two items.
  • Removed Walkie Talkie from the game
    • Developers' Note: This was the last "multiplayer-only" effect remaining and we didn't find an interesting enough alternative to it work.
  • New items:
    • Chestnut - Your bonus armor increases Hero Cape damage
    • Ocarina - Increases summon damage and reduces your damage
    • Onion - Increases summons firerate
    • Transformer Toy - Summons a drone to fight alongside you permanently
    • Potato - Increases explosion damage
    • Ball and Chain - Increases Grappling Hook damage and its cooldown

Basecamp

  • Added a Training Range to the Basecamp
  • Training Range: Punching-Bot - To try out your DPS
  • Training Range: Weapon Vending Machine - To spawn any weapon you have the card of
  • Training Range: Weapon Upgrader - To upgrade weapons from the Vending Machine
  • Training Range: Shooting Range - To have fun while waiting for your brobot
  • Training Range: Some of these elements are unlocked once you completed Burger Bill's quest
  • Added an interface breaking down all the stats of a weapon in the Museum
  • Added a hit animation for Bosses in the Museum
  • Added an idle animation for Bosses in the Museum
  • Updated the Elite Punk picture in the Museum

 

Workshop
  • Removed Rolling Foot from the upgrades, added its 5% bonus movespeed to character's base movespeed
  • Chronosphere moved to previous Rolling Foot slot
  • Loot Hoarder moved to previous Chronosphere slot
  • Added a new upgrade to unlock Willy Wonder to the previous Loot Hoarder slot

Friendly Robots

  • New friendly robot: Willy Wonder
    • Willy Wonder is unlocked with a basecamp upgrade
    • Willy Wonder is a friendly bot that belongs to Max's Crew and can appear in safe areas of the levels
    • Willy Wonder can increase your weapons rarity and grant them additional affixes
  • New friendly robot: Burger Bill
    • A quest has been added in relation to Burger Bill, completing it will unlock the full Training Range at the Basecamp
    • Lottery Luke will now appear in multiplayer for both players if at least one of them has unlocked it

Enemies

  • Increased base health of Goliath Cruiser from 660 to 720

Levels

  • Replaced the Goliath Destroyer by a Goliath Cruiser in Fields
    • Developers' Note: While it is fun to have some kind of "bouncer" to mark the beginning of the second act, this one was taking its job a tad too seriously.
  • Reworked many safe areas to be able to include Willy Wonder
  • Reduced the number of Security Pods in Haven City by approximately 33.3%
  • Added more random chunks (variations) to Haven-City and the Moon

Quality of Life

Added several quality of life settings:
  • Show Items - To show or hide the icon list of all the items you've equipped
  • Show Gadgets - Same than above for Gadget icon list
  • Show Perks - Same than above for Perk icon list
  • Show Compass - To show or hide the compass locator indicating enemy presence around you
  • Show Damage Counter - Displays a counter below the minimap displaying how many damage you've dealt this run
  • Reverse X Axis - For those of you weird unique enough to play with reverted X axis
  • Hybrid Control - Playing with both a gamepad and mouse/keyboard should now work properly
  • You can now use Colon, Comma, Exclamation and Period in the keybinds settings

Interface

  • Entirely reworked the localization for German, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese
  • Added Dutch and Farsi to the game's languages
  • Added Starbreeze to the game's bumpers
    • Developers' Note: Don't worry, nothing has changed internally ;)

Optimization

  • Optimized UI rendering
  • Optimized loading of VFXs and SFXs

Bug Fixes

  • Speculative Fix: Players failing to play with each other should now be able to, regardless of their platforms.
    • Developers' Note: We're sorry for the time it takes us to fix those issues. We're trying our best and we hope this round of fixes will do the trick. If not, we'll be on the hunt again.
  • You will no longer be stuck in Haven City after unlocking the door while your brobot disconnects
  • Fixed an issue where Rover enemies wouldn't disappear for the client player
  • Vsync no longer reactivates itself automatically upon game restart
  • Fixed an issue displaying the remaining stack of alt-fire despite having the setting to show them disabled
  • Status effects UI will no longer remain permanently on screen after activating screenshot mode while being under their effects
  • Aim Assist now works properly even with very high or low field of view values
  • The Gotta Catch Them All achievement will unlock the next time you open the Museum if you have everything unlocked but the game previously failed to detect it

 

Those are the patch notes up through June 13 for Roboquest.

Top 10 Grasses to Go Touch

Posted on by Matt Ringler

We’re all guilty of spending too much time online, but some of you definitely spend too much time online. You’ve probably had someone tell you to “touch grass”, but don’t know where to start. Luckily for you, we’ve compiled a list of the Top 10 Grasses you can go out and touch. 

 

10. Kentucky Bluegrass

Kentucky Bluegrass is one of the most common grasses you can find in North America. It is thought to have come over with European settlers in the 17th and 18th centuries as they established roots in the Kentucky region.

Chances are you can walk outside your house, apartment, or basement and easily find some Kentucky Bluegrass to run your hands though. It’s so easy to find you can probably find some within range of a Wi-Fi signal, but that would kind of defeat the purpose of this article. 

9. St. Augustine Grass

If you live in the Southern United States, the Mediterranean, Caribbean, or other tropical climates, St. Augustine Grass is your cultivar of choice. An interesting characteristic of St. Augustine Grass is that it is vegetatively propagated and there is no such thing as St. Augustine Grass seed you can purchase.

Once you find a patch, run your hands through its characteristically coarse blades and soak up some vitamin D that you are most likely deficient in after spending all your time arguing about the inclusion of a minority in the latest AAA game.   

8. Common Reed

Depending on how badly you need to get out and touch grass, Kentucky and St. Augustine might not cut. You’ll have to venture into the wetlands where you can find the Common Reed. Growing up to 20 feet (6 meters) tall, you can envelop your whole self in a thicket of reeds and forget all of your stresses.

Or if you run into someone else, you can argue whether or not the Common Reed is an invasive species in North America and fulfill your need to argue with strangers about topics of little consequence.  

7. Bermuda Grass

Despite its name, Bermuda Grass isn’t from Bermuda and is considered an invasive species there. With a soft feel, you can let the blade brush against your skin and help you remember the world outside social media.  

It is most commonly found on lawns and on the sports fields of professional teams you swear you could manage better with your one-year experience on a junior varsity soccer team.

6. Bamboo

​​Though it may not look like what you think of when you hear the word “grass”, Bamboo is in fact part of the Poaceae family of grasses. There are over 1500 species of Bamboo across the world and if you live in a warm climate, you can probably find some to touch.

Bamboo also has tons of uses, cultural significance, and environmental benefits. However, we aren’t going to list them here so that you have to go look them up and hopefully take you away from that 1500-word Twitter essay about the current state of Star Wars that you’re writing.    

5. AstroTurf

If you can’t easily find real grass nearby (which is concerning), some good AstroTurf can get the job done. Invented in 1964 and originally patented as ChemGrass, it was renamed to AstroTurf after being installed in the Houston Astrodome in 1966.

Don’t worry that it’s fake grass, touching AstroTurf still counts as real. The same way that your dating sim relationships are real and that no one else should ship them differently without your permission.    

4. Lemon Grass

Not all grasses you have to go out and touch. Some you can go out and eat. There is a high likelihood that you’ve consumed Lemon Grass in some way, shape, or form in the past. 

One of its many medicinal properties is as a headache reliever, which you probably need after staring unblinkingly at your phone all day while trying to think of the perfect comeback to the Gen Z TikToker who made fun of your side part.

3. Pampas Grass

Pampas Grass, specifically the Cortaderia selloana, species is another tall grass you can lose yourself in. It also sports lush and fluffy (looking) leafs that would be irresistible to even the most terminally online person.

If you’re in the UK, and a little more adventurous, a patch of Pampas Grass in front of someone’s home may indicate that the couple living there are swingers. This may or may not be factual, so take caution before you go knocking on doors.  

2. Fine Fescue Grass

Fine Fescue grass can be easily identified by its long, wavy grass blades that may resemble the hair of your romantic partner you canceled plans with to make sure you won an argument about politics in 1980s South America in the comments of a Facebook post about local trash pickups.

However, this is the only grass on this list that we’ll give you a pass on touching. Fescue pollen is a significant irritant for those with hay fever. Though there are nine other options to choose from on this list, so you’re not off the hook.    

1. Zoysia Grass

Named after Karl von Zois by German botanist Carl Ludwig Willdenow, Zoysiagrass makes the top of our list due to its thick, carpet-like feel that can be inviting to any barefoot adventurer. It is commonly found on golf courses where you are sure to find people who have no idea what the current Twitter drama is. Or that Twitter is now called X. Or what Twitter really is.

Seriously, we all spend too much time online and could benefit from less of it. Go out and touch grass.

V Rising Update Patch Notes June 13

Posted on by Michelle Pereira

 

UPDATED June 13

 

 

V Rising 1.0 Hot Fix #7 June 13

The following improvements will be added to V Rising with this patch

Hello Vampires.
We will start patching V Rising shortly.
This hotfix brings the following fixes and updates:

 

General

  • Added support for loading a specific auto-save using the “Load Game” option. This allows players to load previous saves in case the latest auto-save becomes corrupt. However, this won’t recover lost saved data or progress from auto-saving issues.
  • The “Leave Game” button in the System Menu now displays “Save & Exit” if you are the game’s host. This is to clarify that the game always saves when you leave it.

 

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an exploit where players could clip through doors using the Sword Shockwave ability.
  • Fixed a bug where players sometimes could not select a waypoint to teleport or a coffin to respawn in.
  • Fixed a potential crash when navigating the Build Menu.
  • Fixed a potential crash triggered by a player destroying a Refinement station while another player looked at recipes.
  • Fixed a potential crash that could occur when interacting with Servants.
  • Fixed a potential crash caused by renaming stations or containers.
  • Fixed a crash related to castle relocation that could occur if a player left the territory during the relocation process while building.
  • Fixed a potential crash when interacting with the Devourer.

 

If you're having issues with the game, make sure to take a look at our known bugs and fixes to see if there's a potential solution to get you back into Vardoran as quickly as possible!
We're always grateful for your help in translating the game at https://crowdin.com/project/v-rising-game
IMPORTANT NOTE! Please report any issues you encounter after this patch here.
ADDITIONAL REMINDER! Regularly back up your server saves! Here's how to do it.
Enjoy your weekend in Vardoran!

 

Eternally yours,
/Stunlock Studios

 

 

V Rising 1.0 Hot Fix #6 June 4

The following improvements will be added to V Rising with this patch

Hello Vampires.
We aim to patch V Rising today at 8:00 UTC / 10:00 CEST.
This hotfix brings the following fixes and updates:

 

General

  • Merged the current “Accessibility” Options Menu tab settings into the “Graphics/Controller” setting tabs to reduce the total number of tabs, making it easier to navigate the Options menu.
  • The Spellbook menu ability bar can now be navigated with the left analog stick when replacing abilities using a gamepad.

 

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where replacing a window castle wall with a normal castle wall would cause attached objects such as curtains, castle window growth, or spider webs to yield their dismantle cost twice.
  • Fixed a server crash that could occur when attempting to dismantle floors in very big castles (castles beyond standard limitation settings).
  • The camera should now default to the lowest pitch setting when playing with a gamepad.
  • Fixed a bug where ability animations would not show correctly when having high attack speed.

 

Balance Changes

General balance tweaks to the offensive power of defensive spells and boosts to select offensive projectile and area spells. In general, physical damage, along with defensive spells, have proved to be too strong in comparison to offensive spell damage builds. These changes aim to even out the playing field slightly.
Additionally, some changes aim to reduce the power of stacking movement speed and movement-enhancing spells.

 

General

Whip Primary Attack
  • Damage changed to have the whip Primary Attack deal more damage on the tip and less on the line. Line damage changed from 50/50/55% to 45/45/50%, and tip damage changed from 20% to 25%.

 

Warrior Blood
  • Parry damage absorption was reduced from 50% to 40%.

 

Critical Strike Power Set Bonus Reduction
  • Reduced the Critical Strike Power set bonus on “Rogue” Armor Sets Tier 6 / Tier 8 / Tier 9. Reduced from 20/25/30 to 15/20/25%

 

Spells

 

Movement Speed Spell Changes

Power Surge
  • Movement Speed bonus reduced from 20% to 15%
  • Duration increased from 3.5s to 4s
  • Jewel increasing movement speed reduced from 3-8% to 3-6%
  • Jewel increasing lifetime reduced from 15-30% to 12-25%

 

Blood Rage
  • Movement Speed bonus reduced from 15% to 10%
  • Healing increased to 65% from 60%
  • Jewel increasing movement speed reduced from 3-8% to 3-6%
  • Jewel increasing lifetime reduced from 15-30% to 12-25%

 

Lightning Curtain
  • Movement speed bonus reduced from 30% to 20%
  • Movement speed bonus from jewel reduced from 10-20% to 10-15%

 

Offensive Spell Power Changes

Shadowbolt
  • Shadowbolt damage increased from 170% to 185%

 

Sanguine Coil
  • Damage increased from 75% to 80%

 

Chaos Volley
  • Projectile damage increased from 110% to 115%

 

Spectral Wolf
  • Damage increased from 125% to 140%

 

Wraith Spear
  • Damage increased from 160% to 170%

 

Frost Bat
  • Damage increased from 100% to 110%

 

Aftershock
  • Damage increased to 130% from 125%

 

Bone Explosion
  • Damage increased from 140% to 150%

 

Ice Nova
  • Damage increased from 140% to 150%

 

Defensive Spell Power Changes

Blood Rite
  • Damage reduced from 100% to 80%
  • Jewel Increasing damage reduced to 10-20% from 15-30%
  • Jewel spawning blood daggers, reduced damage from 25-50% to 20-40% per dagger

 

Cold Snap
  • Shield Duration reduced from 6s to 5s
  • Freeze Duration reduced from 3s to 2.5s
  • Jewel boosting movement speed reduced from 10-25% to 10-15%

 

Discharge
  • Stun duration reduced to 0.6s from 0.8s.
  • Jewel that allows you to recast, damage reduced from 25-50% to 15-30% and knockback effect power reduced by ~25%.
  • Jewel increasing stun duration reduced from 0.2-0.4s to 0.1-0.3s.
  • Jewel granting immaterial, duration reduced from 0.8-1.6s to 0.8-1.2s.

 

Storm School Effects

  • Jewel effect charging next primary attack damage reduced from 15-30% to 15-25% per stack.
  • Jewel effect that consumes static into stun, duration reduced from 0.3-0.7s to 0.3-0.5s.

 

If you're having issues with the game, make sure to take a look at our known bugs and fixes to see if there's a potential solution to get you back into Vardoran as quickly as possible!
We're always grateful for your help in translating the game at https://crowdin.com/project/v-rising-game
IMPORTANT NOTE! Please report any issues you encounter after this patch here.
ADDITIONAL REMINDER! Regularly back up your server saves! Here's how to do it.
Stay vigilant in the shadows of Vardoran, our fellow Vampires!

 

Eternally yours,
/Stunlock Studios

 

 

V Rising 1.0 Hot Fix #5.1 May 30

The following improvements will be added to V Rising with this patch

Vampires.
A small fix today to get rid of a bug that snuck in on the last Hotfix.
This hotfix will feature the following changes:

 

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a bug which prevented the player from adjusting their camera while holding down the button for Spell Slot 2.

 

If you're having issues with the game, make sure to take a look at our known bugs and fixes to see if there's a potential solution to get you back into Vardoran as quickly as possible!
We're always grateful for your help in translating the game at https://crowdin.com/project/v-rising-game
IMPORTANT NOTE! Please report any issues you encounter after this patch here.
ADDITIONAL REMINDER! Regularly back up your server saves! Here's how to do it.
Stay vigilant in the shadows of Vardoran, our fellow Vampires!

 

Eternally yours,
/Stunlock Studios

 

 

V Rising 1.0 Hot Fix #5 May 29

The following improvements will be added to V Rising with this patch

Greetings Vampires!
Today we bring you a series of quality of life and usability fixes, a new optional gamepad layout, a whole host of bug fixes, and a ton of V Blood changes to make the visuals on fights more clear, as well as adjust the difficulty just a bit to be better in line with our expectations.
This hotfix will be going live shortly and feature the following changes:

 

General

  • A number of FX have been updated with new visuals to improve performance.
  • Soul Shards will now automatically be destroyed if not picked up from the ground after 60 minutes.
  • Server Details window now displays castle pvp times.
  • Soul Shards can no longer be spawned using the console command unless the shard has already dropped (to avoid admin mistakes by spawning shards that are not bound to the shard bearer).
  • Players in Siege Golem form are now immune to Witch's “Hex” spell (the spell that turns players into pigs). It previously removed the Siege Golem buff if players were hit by this spell (the spell is used by the Blood Witch, so this could create some awkward siege interactions).
  • Increased the configurable range of the brightness calibration option.
  • A particular leaf bush in Farbane Woods and Cursed Forest now has the correct visual representation after a player has cut it.
  • General optimizations to improve performance.
  • Vietnamese Localization has been added.

 

Gamepad

  • A new control layout has been implemented. The new layout favors a more convenient camera control that better mimics the right mouse button on the PC. Both Weapon Skill 1 and 2 are on double inputs in order to make this control layout work.
  • L2 is the Camera Modifier, and the Right Stick controls the camera.
  • Players may rotate the camera while using the primary attack at the same time (R2).
  • L2 + R1 to trigger Weapon Skill 1.
  • R2 + L1 to trigger Weapon Skill 2.
  • North Face Button (Triangle / Y) as shortcut to Build Menu.
  • Players may now select control layout in the Option Menu and can choose between the new control layout and the old control layout.
  • Some ability slots have been moved to new slots on shapeshifts such as Toad and Siege Golem to make sure both control layouts work properly.

 

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where you could transfer all Blood Essence from an enemy Castle Heart by using the Take All key bind.
  • Fixed an issue where you could input items into an invisible servant coffin inventory.
  • Fixed an issue where server times did not take Daylight savings time into account.
  • Fixed an issue where server details did not display Mortium Rift Incursion Event settings correctly.
  • Fixed an issue where castle objects that require multiple levels of space could be placed on top of other objects taller than a single level. For instance, this allowed a castle throne to be placed on top of trees.
  • Fixed an issue where the name horse prompt could activate when browsing the inventory while using gamepad.
  • Fixed an issue on Cyril the Cursed Smith where his Spear summon would not attack properly on Normal Difficulty.
  • Fixed an issue on Cyril the Cursed Smith where he would summon Axes on Normal Difficulty (Brutal Difficulty only Summon).
  • Fixed some overlapping text issues in tooltips on some languages.
  • Fixed an issue where you could dupe unique structures in relocation if you were outside of the networking range.
  • Fixed an issue where the “Every Corner of the World” achievement was unlocked without visiting every world region.
  • Fixed an issue where default castle music could sometimes play for a while after logging in even if a music box was playing tracks in the castle.
  • General stability fixes for AI movement logic, should fix various cases where units could lag, especially when aggroed.
  • Fixed an issue where certain abilities could interrupt other, already casting, abilities.

 

V Blood Balance Changes

Balance tweaks and updates on the following V Bloods.

 

Dracula the Immortal King (Primarily Co-op changes.)

  • Reduced damage on Vampiric Curse.
  • Blood Crystals no longer fire burst of projectiles.
  • Slightly reduced the number of extra projectiles spawned for each player in projectile-based spells during phase 2.
  • Tweaks to hitboxes on Circle of Blood to better match the visuals.
  • Slight increase in air-time on shockwave projectile knock up effect.

 

Solarus the Immaculate (Brutal difficulty changes only).

  • Cooldown and timing tweaks on select Divine Angel attacks on Slight damage reduction and hitbox size tweaks on melee projectiles on Brutal Difficulty.

 

Adam the Firstborn

  • Reduced maximum health by 5% and phase 2 health by 10%.
  • Damage, cast and velocity reduction on a few attacks.
  • Fixes to visual effects and hit-colliders that were mismatching (not properly feedbacking danger areas / hitboxes).

 

Gorecrusher the Behemoth

  • Minor adjustments to his max health to scale better in solo vs co-op.

 

Lord Styx the Night Champion (Brutal difficulty changes only)

  • Slight tweaks to timing in leap/dash attacks.

 

Tristan the Vampire Hunter (Brutal difficulty changes only)

  • Aim prediction on his crossbow attack has been tweaked.

 

Maja the Dark Savant (Brutal difficulty changes only)

  • Minor adjustment to health on her minions.
  • Minor adjustments to the velocity of books circling the arena.

 

General Valencia the Depraved

  • Damage reduction on iron maiden attack.

 

Simon Belmont the Vampire Hunter

  • Minor damage adjustment on cross boomerangs.

 

If you're having issues with the game, make sure to take a look at our known bugs and fixes to see if there's a potential solution to get you back into Vardoran as quickly as possible!
We're always grateful for your help in translating the game at https://crowdin.com/project/v-rising-game
IMPORTANT NOTE! Please report any issues you encounter after this patch here.
ADDITIONAL REMINDER! Regularly back up your server saves! Here's how to do it.
Stay vigilant in the shadows of Vardoran, our fellow Vampires!

 

Eternally yours,
/Stunlock Studios

 

 

V Rising 1.0 Hot Fix #4 May 22

The following improvements will be added to V Rising with this patch

Greetings Vampires!
Another week of our covert war against sinister forces wages on (because the only sinister forces should be us), and with that, we bring you another list of fixes and adjustments to better perfect your experience of those lovely, blood-soaked Vardoran nights.
This hotfix will feature the following changes:

 

General

  • A number of visual effects have been updated to improve performance in combat.
  • Optimizations for doors in castles to improve performance in big castles with lots of doors.
  • Made doors fade out in front of the player.
  • Optimizations have been done to a number of UI elements to improve performance.
  • Added a 2 second immaterial buff to players when exiting Dracula’s Throne Room.
  • Some objects in Cursed Forest have been optimized to improve performance.
  • Fading added to some archways in Iron Cave (Dunley Farmlands) and Spider Cave (Cursed Forest).
  • The behavior of the music being played from the Music Box has been recalibrated to more accurately replicate the behavior of the default castle music.
  • Various optimisations and bug fixes on sound effects.
  • Improved precision and performance of occlusion culling.

 

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an exploit where it was possible to escape Dracula's throne room with Blood of the Immortal.
  • Blood of the Immortal is now removed when a player is downed, preventing an exploit where players could use Blood of the Immortal during the first phases of the Dracula fight.
  • Fixed an issue where Blood potions icons got stretched with misaligned texts.
  • Fixed an issue where Blood potions didn't have their blood % displayed when in the action bar.
  • Fixed visual feedback on physics for some objects in Mortium.
  • Fixed shapes on some rugs in the player castle, to make them more circular.
  • Fixed a spot next to a build area in Gloomrot South where players could get trapped.
  • Fixed player collision on player castle fireplaces, making the collision not stand out too much from the object.
  • Fixed a bug where the yield when harvesting multiple plant types would merge instead of displaying a separate yield number for each type of plant harvested.
  • Fixed a localization issue for the “Close” button in the Servant menu where the wrong text was used.
  • Fixed an issue where players with shards would get locked out from using waygates outside of raid hours.
  • Fixed issue where boss music often restarted on top of the already playing instance when disengaging a boss.
  • Fixed an issue where killing a boss on brutal after it had already been defeated on a lower difficulty on the same server did not trigger the brutal achievement.
  • Fixed an exploit where players could get free resources by dismantling workstations during relocation.
  • Fixed an issue where an old setting could cause erroneous behavior during building.
  • Fixed an issue where the “wallpaper fill” feature could cause server lag.
  • Fixed an issue where the /r (reply) command in Chat did not work in some cases.
  • Fixed an issue with overdrawing UI.
  • Fixed a material issue on the Spear Summons by Cyril the Cursed Smith.
  • Fixed an issue where Recipe Tracking did not work in the Player Crafting menu.
  • Fixed a material issue in some of Adam the Firstborn’s spells.
  • Fixed an issue with Rowdain Steed that caused it to face the wrong direction while not mounted.
  • Fixed an issue where the Blood Soul version of Domina the Blade Dancer would get an off-setted return position when encountered during an incursion event in the North Fortress Ruins. This caused her to sometimes exit combat if the player walked a short distance away from her.
  • Fixed an issue where Dracula could at rare occasions teleport outside of the arena and reset during phase 1.

 

Dracula Balance Changes

These changes primarily target brutal mode, we are looking into a few changes to address difficulty and scaling in co:op vs solo for a future patch. Our intention is to make the fight more balanced for solo players as well as co:op players. Right now the fight is a bit over-tuned for co:op and we are looking at some additional changes to address this.
The changes done to Brutal mode are made to ensure that Dracula can be defeated with more types of weapons and spells. Additionally, swapping spells between phases should not feel like a necessity. These changes aim to make Phase 3 less punishing if players don’t manage to kill all ads while making Phase 4 less stressful and all in all reduce the overall amount of RNG and requirement on defensive builds and/or top DPS builds.

 

Phase 1

  • Wolfs spawned in co-op health reduced by 20%.

 

Phase 2

  • Damage done by his long dash, where he summons an additional shadow, reduced to 180% from 250%.

 

Phase 3 (Brutal Only)

  • Blood Souls movement reduced to 0.75 from 0.9.
  • Blood Souls healing reduced to 3.5% from 5%.

 

Phase 4 (Brutal Only)

  • Curse of Dracula now increases damage taken by 1% per stack instead of 3% per stack.
  • Waves of Projectiles now spawn every 3.0 seconds instead of every 2.5 seconds.
  • Projectile velocity reduced to 10 from 13.
  • Increased the duration of the shrinking blood storm effect to shrink over 80s instead of 60s.
  • Slightly reduced the knockback on the pushback blood novas.
  • Increased the impact duration for ethereal sword aoe’s to 1.4s from 1.2s.

 

If you're having issues with the game, make sure to take a look at our known bugs and fixes to see if there's a potential solution to get you back into Vardoran as quickly as possible!
We're always grateful for your help in translating the game at https://crowdin.com/project/v-rising-game
IMPORTANT NOTE! Please report any issues you encounter after this patch here.
ADDITIONAL REMINDER! Regularly back up your server saves! Here's how to do it.
Stay vigilant in the shadows of Vardoran, our fellow Vampires!

 

Eternally yours,
/Stunlock Studios

 

 

V Rising 1.0 Hot Fix #3 May 15

The following improvements will be added to V Rising with this patch

Greetings Vampires!
Here are a few quick fixes to try and help out those Vampires who might be at risk of unraveling.
This hotfix will feature the following changes:
  • A fix that will “repair” journal quests that were not progressing the “Leave Crypt” quests.
  • Several crash fixes to various uncommon but significant events.

 

If you're having issues with the game, make sure to take a look at our known bugs and fixes to see if there's a potential solution to get you back into Vardoran as quickly as possible!
We're always grateful for your help in translating the game at https://crowdin.com/project/v-rising-game
IMPORTANT NOTE! Please report any issues you encounter after this patch here.
ADDITIONAL REMINDER! Regularly back up your server saves! Here's how to do it.
Stay vigilant in the shadows of Vardoran, our fellow Vampires!

 

Eternally yours,
/Stunlock Studios

 

 

V Rising 1.0 Hot Fix #2 May 14

The following improvements will be added to V Rising with this patch

Greetings Vampires!
The war on bug-kind continues unabated as our elder Vampires set to massacring those who would disrupt our mission to conquer Vardoran! We are doing our utmost to ensure you, or kin, can build your legend uninterrupted. Consider this one more step towards the most perfect Vampire experience we can offer.
This hotfix will feature the following changes:
  • Fixed a rare bug where players could get stuck in combat once they leave a fight.
  • Fixed a rare issue where players could get stuck outside of the map with a “blue screen” on login, as their character was not synced properly to their client.
  • Fixed a potential server crash issue.
  • Fixed an issue where players would technically still have a weapon equipped after dragging and dropping it into the upgrade slot of the Ancestral Forge.
  • Fixed an issue where the Soul Shard map icon would not update correctly to follow the player carrying it if the Soul Shard was equipped directly from a Soul Shard pedestal.
  • Fixed a rare issue where not all unlocked progressions were correctly synced to a player upon login.
  • Fixed an issue where the maximum user cap would not work correctly, allowing more players to join a server than intended.
  • Fixed an issue where pillars could be destroyed in wide entrances if the wide entrance did not have support by an additional wall. This meant that a golem could destroy an entrance in one hit if they hit the pillar.
  • The server setting for displaying siege golems on the map is now toggled as “disabled” as the default setting. This will retroactively go into affect on Official Servers, and on those servers siege golems will no longer show on the map when placed.
  • Enemy players may now interact with prison cells, but they are not able to kill or subdue prisoners this way. This fixes an issue where players stored loot in Prison cells to secure it from enemy raids.
  • Players may now insert subdued units into empty enemy cells to allow for prisoner trades.
  • When purchasing books from a trader you can now see what books you have already unlocked.
  • Fixed a few assets that were not fading correctly when the player was standing behind them.
  • Lanterns in Farbane Woods Cemeteries now emit light correctly.
  • The illusion spawned when using Veil of Illusion will no longer attack other players in PvE.
  • The support mail in the main menu has been updated.

 

If you're having issues with the game, make sure to take a look at our known bugs and fixes to see if there's a potential solution to get you back into Vardoran as quickly as possible!
We're always grateful for your help in translating the game at https://crowdin.com/project/v-rising-game
IMPORTANT NOTE! Please report any issues you encounter after this patch here.
ADDITIONAL REMINDER! Regularly back up your server saves! Here's how to do it.
Stay vigilant in the shadows of Vardoran, our fellow Vampires!

 

Eternally yours,
/Stunlock Studios

 

 

V Rising 1.0 Hot Fix #1 May 10

The following improvements will be added to V Rising with this patch

Greetings Vampires!
We give the dust no time to settle on our coffins! We’re hard at work slaying the first round of bugs following our full launch. We’re doing everything to make your bloody massacre across Vardoran as dignified and bug free as it should be, and in the spirit of that we offer the following bug fixes.
The hotfix, which will begin at 7 UTC and will be rolled out over Official Servers over the next 30-60 minutes, will have the following changes:
  • Fixed an issue where players were unable to mount horses when using a gamepad.
  • Fixed an issue where the Incursion Events would not run correctly on select PvP servers, causing all events to stop running for an additional 24 hours+.
  • Fixed an issue where cosmetic items could be salvaged into high tier materials than intended.
  • Fixed an issue where the client could crash when using the “Fill Wallpaper” feature in large castles.
  • Fixed an issue where the Castle Heart blood essence drain modifier server setting would not work correctly when modified.
  • Fixed a few issues related to castle relocation that could cause flying roofs to stay in place as well as blocking the possibility to build new castles in the affected territory.
  • Fixed an issue where saplings/trees planted in growing plots in the castle got stuck in an invisible state blocking them from growing as well as blocking dismantle.
  • Fixed a rendering issue where terrain did not render correctly if viewed through the walls of a castle that was in the “disabled defenses” state (PvP).
  • Fixed an issue where rulesets in the advanced settings menu did not update the “save” button correctly, causing ruleset changes to not apply unless the player manually altered a setting before exiting the menu.
  • Fixed an issue where players were unable to save settings after loading a preset.
  • Fixed a rendering issue with the rim light effect causing it to not work on all types of units.
  • Fixed a rendering issue on clouds while in bat form.

 

If you're having issues with the game, make sure to take a look at our known bugs and fixes to see if there's a potential solution to get you back into Vardoran as quickly as possible!
We're always grateful for your help in translating the game at https://crowdin.com/project/v-rising-game
IMPORTANT NOTE! Please report any issues you encounter after this patch here.
ADDITIONAL REMINDER! Regularly back up your server saves! Here's how to do it.

 

Eternally yours,
/Stunlock Studios

 

Those are the patch notes up through June 13 for V Rising.