May 11, 2016

Patchnotes V0.04 & Community hub website!

The Black Death - [SIG]Pete

V0.04 and The community hub have arrived!

For all things TBD we have:
COMMUNITY HUB SITE
Keep visiting back as the site grows and updates!

This includes a ROADMAP! :)
https://trello.com/b/N13pOYn3/the-black-death

Patch V0.04

*expect server restarts & character wipes*

Guards

• The king’s guards have recruited archers to bolster their ranks and protect key trading areas from underhanded criminals that are currently running rampant in Mercia.

Animals

• Wolves have begun to return to Mercia, beware!

Infection

• Virus mutation – The plague virus has become slightly less aggressive, the amount of infection contracted from other players has decreased and the infection radius has decreased. Maybe it’s the warm summer months? (NOTE: This is part of on going ballancing to this syetm).

Items, lootables & resources

• Durability on items now displays correctly.
• Added the ability to store gold in lootable items.
• Players can now wear heavy plate armour.
• All wine can now be consumed/used.
• Lootables now repopulate items/loot.
• Dead horse bodies found around the world are now lootable.
• More resources added to the world, (this is a continual).
• Resources and growable items now have chance of secondary item e.g. seeds or more of the same item.
• Berries resource are more balanced.
• Clothes now have better rebalance weight and value.

• Weapons now have icons to make it easier to read which slot they belong to.
• Drop gold button is now only visible when you have gold to drop.
• Esc button can be used to close inventory, skill menu and map if they are open, if no other window is open it will bring up/close the main menu options.
• Added co-ords to exit menu in-game to help with locating bugs.
• Class specific items e.g. seeds for the peasant, now highlight in the inventory menu list.
• Quicker visual refreshing of the items in the lootables.
• Added a loot all button to the lootables.
• When items break they now are removed from inventory.
• Profession items such as seeds and traps now show on HUD, including an icon and counter.

Progression

• You now get XP from Deer and Wolves.
• Players now get XP from killing bandits and plagued A.I.

SFX

• Footstep SFX re-added to game.
• Various audio volume adjustments.

Weapons

• Adjusted weapon damage traces for all melee weapons.
• Spear stamina/health damage has been rebalanced.

Peasant Profession[/h1]
• Peasants can now switch between different types of seeds.

Blacksmith professions

• Blacksmith repairing items fixed.

Character Art

• You can no longer see through the mouths of characters.

Animation

• Simple Drop animation is now played when a character presses the drop button on an item in the inventory.

World

• Started replacing spiked defences (barricades) with spikes that hurt you if you run into them.

Bug fixes

• Hunter, blacksmith and monk having problems unlocking in between the skill tree and the class selection screen fixed.
• Skill tree save system fixes.
• Merchant trading window fixes.
• Plagued A.I. now have the correct appearance rather than just looking like bandits.
• Fixed crafting multiple of the same weapon/tool would cause equipping errors.
• Stopped auto equipping of seeds bug.
• Xp Exploit fixed, leveling up would sometimes give you 1 skill point plus all the others you have had before.
• Silver Ore no longer becomes gold ore when dropped.
• Blacksmith striker skill now costs skill points before it was 0.
• Stone pickups are now correct size.
• You can no longer plant crops everywhere, only on farmable land.
• Seeds and Woodaxe no longer cause equipping errors.
• Deer tail mesh error removed.
• Carcass/Animal Lootbags no longer have physics improving stability.
• Area Volumes no longer block some A.I's vision.
• Stick Weapon now has correct amount of stamina cost.
• Crude wood axe no longer drops and becomes a standard wood axe.
• Raw fish removed from traders to prevent exploits and all fish types have had their costs balanced.
• Some consumable items can no longer be equipped as armour, weapons, tools.
• Fixed misc visual bugs, floating foliage and assets (this is a continual thing).
• Collision errors fixed around caves.
• Fixed a small pause when you enter the skill screen, where none of your skill info would be loaded.
• XP bar now scales correctly with the exponential xp increase per level.
• Jumping has been fixed to use stamina
• When item is used or dropped from stack that stack should now remain highlighted.

Optimization

• Optimizations to player character code.
• Adjusted the render distance of the main player characters to be better optimised.
• Misc optimizing to the foliage and landscape (this is a continual thing).

Thank you!

Once again the team wanted to shout out to a few of the players who’ve submitted particularly useful information. We’ve had loads of bug reports, tweets and forum posts. This is only a handful of the player who we’ve spoken to.

Thanks to EVERYONE who’s who’s messaged or sent us stuff. We’ll be continuing to talk to you all and keep the game updated, fixing as we go.

Miastopisarzy, John Cena, VORTEX, Goonion, GOLDENROX, Royco Roy, FaceTaco, Cyrno, Vent3r, caza2008, MrTrikZzZz, VDG, romandav1, gukk78, phantomstormchicken, Darkanian, DarkSun, MikeySpence, Hollgs, realvinsanity, Araskaro, mandemkildem, storlunkan, fredrikkkkk, Bárbaro, Selwood, John 316, armsay, Ethix00, nuve0616, Sarvak, Lews Therin Telamon, DigitalSignalX, Royco Roy, ubre, [KK]Mancom37, Arthur Cunningham, storlunkan, xjonboy11x, Edrein, Vesnia Amor, Fucrum, Erawen, Kekeker, Valteira, Obelisk Starwind, cycheah25, Miffy, Sabertooth, gerLooser, Treylo20, DigitalSignalX, Roox, MitoG, tinesionnach, trippah69, Cirke, KRI3G, Artlai, Grinse, Wasted, PINE, vindicatethis, booty-, Twinkdiner, espen798, Mordrull, vindicatethis, echplays, Dashrulz, izzyskint, Darkhorse, Scodemare!!!, torschan, JDekekek, cheeseboii22, Dezhar, wereid_1978, romandav1, Via Von Bapho, Khronus10, STreeTz, varan01, ollidollidoffi, Bobdike, PAKETEMAN, W4yl4n, neng_vila, _Slipps_, BlameSteroid5, Doofershzdant, Tostozaur, Lui Sin, mistcal, Stainless001, deadpegasus5, Caligo, Bunny, Engou, cheezwiz, bagg77, chipster2k, Noob4Life123, Airtent, JTB2396, George Trump, Valteira, torschan, h3x1e, Mr. Magiks, slwhnd, Static, Urponaattori, Gumball253, Gooch, NoMercy, storlunkan, LogikGaming100, Fucrum, Wasted, Valteira, larsmikki, Urponaattori, der tuerke, Wasted, sir-peter, Grimes, saohc, deadlyron, DinklebergZ, Mordrull, george.dzhan, Cirke, insanesoulja, Puncster, Danigo107, REV James, {OV} VapeNation, Cedryll, silvany2013, TheLawDawgGamer, Skydudleyace11, jockevanhelgen, Full Grizzly, O.J.oreo, switham3, domo2550, Selwood, Mr. Magiks, ninjaknight, jjtomax

Top Resent Issues:

Key Summary
TBD-368 A - Chat - chat occasionally breaks when player spawns
TBD-366 A - Servers - servers randomly not displaying on selection menu and being unreachable
TBD-342 A -Code- Locked learned skills after dying
TBD-315 A - exploit / saves - deleting save before server loads allows player to fly around map (free cam mode)
TBD-306 A - Exploit - Jumping when attacked makes you take no damage
TBD-293 A - servers / saving - possible to save a character on one server and then play as that character on another server
TBD-287 A - Exploit - you can cancel attack animations by sheathing/unsheating your weapon to attack faster
TBD-241 A - servers - Toronto & Hong kong servers are suffering an above average ammount of crashes
TBD-307 B- Code - Repaired furniture and chests do not work. Cant be interacted with
TBD-305 B - AI - Guards to the south, just across the river from crutchely hill by tents remain idle whilst being attacked
TBD-335 B - env art - stuck in misplaced rocks following the road to dunstead fort from hangman hollow
TBD-352 B - BETA BRANCH - Test servers need names or numbers to differentiate
TBD-336 B - ai - animal pathing ontop of props/structures/other animals
TBD-338 B - balance - 150+ poppy fields
TBD-314 B - Weapons / replication - sometimes weapon pickup replication can break stopping players from picking up that weapon
TBD-309 B - Post processing - infection volume causes frame rate drop
TBD-301 B - Env - It is possible to climp up to the the outside of Crutchley hill
TBD-276 B- Code - You can sprint backwards
TBD-264 B - Code - Unable to learn skill when enough skill points are obtained.

May 11, 2016

Patchnotes V0.04 & Community hub website!

The Black Death - [SIG]Pete

Patch V0.04

*expect server restarts & character wipes*

Guards

• The king’s guards have recruited archers to bolster their ranks and protect key trading areas from underhanded criminals that are currently running rampant in Mercia.

Animals

• Wolves have begun to return to Mercia, beware!

Infection

Items, lootables & resources

Progression

• You now get XP from Deer and Wolves.
• Players now get XP from killing bandits and plagued A.I.

SFX

• Footstep SFX re-added to game.
• Various audio volume adjustments.

Weapons

• Adjusted weapon damage traces for all melee weapons.
• Spear stamina/health damage has been rebalanced.

Peasant Profession[/h1]
• Peasants can now switch between different types of seeds.

Blacksmith professions

• Blacksmith repairing items fixed.

Character Art

• You can no longer see through the mouths of characters.

Animation

• Simple Drop animation is now played when a character presses the drop button on an item in the inventory.

World

• Started replacing spiked defences (barricades) with spikes that hurt you if you run into them.

Bug fixes

Optimization

Thank you!

Top Resent Issues:

May 10, 2016

A survival game set in the Dark Ages pits you against the plague

The Black Death

The Black Death is a survival horror MMO, but Unlike Day Z and its ilk, it s set squarely in the Middle Ages. Day Z s zombies have been replaced with the omnipresent fear of bubonic plague infection, and Instead of patching together guns and medpacks, you ll be working with crude swords and fresh beef.

Not unlike the Terminator, I arrive in this new world alone and (mostly) naked. It's night and I can just make out the vague outlines of others on the horizon. They must be NPCs, or at least someone who could tell me what's going on and what I should be doing, so I track them. On approach, they unsheathe crude weapons of stone and sinew and shred me.

"Alright," I think, "that was a bad idea." When I come back to life, I'm told that I've lost my gold, my loot and any skill points I may have had.

This time, I make it a point to avoid any shadow-cloaked figures in the distance. I scavenge through ruins, abandoned houses and broken, shore-bound ships. I pick cotton, gather onions, and manage to kill a few cows for meat. Hunger mounting from a long day of hunting, I find some fires to cook the beef and turn out some basic meals. This is going well.

Right as I feel as if I'm starting to get the hang of this survival game, I round the edge of cliff and find a darkened copse. From it, two bandits emerge. Knives drawn and plague-ridden, once again they start tearing me to pieces. And, once again, I respawn with nothing to show for my previous hour of work.

If you've played any DayZ-style multiplayer game, this should sound familiar. You do what you can until the world brutally stomps you into ground. But, after a bit, I started noticing something different in The Black Death. Other players started helping me out.

I started noticing something different in The Black Death. Other players started helping me out.

When I complained about getting slaughtered twice in succession, one suggested that I take his axe. It wasn't much, he said, but it'd help if I stumbled into another fight by accident. Others helped me figure out some good locations for farming the literal kind with seeds and plants. That gave me a simple resource I could come back to and collect from time to time.

Cotton, they said, was also a great way to level-up and build-up skill points. You can find it growing in huge swaths in some areas, and you can quickly turn it around to make bandages, which you can use to heal yourself in a pinch.

Isn't that nice.

This was a far cry from my experiences in other survival games. Here "survival" doesn't mean struggling to stave off master-class trolls who have every piece of the map and every mechanic memorized. Instead, The Black Death's built on something of a community. In my five or so hours with the game, I never once fought another player, only encountering a few hostile NPCs. PvP exists, or so I'm told, and it's a draw for some, but the real foe is the environment. Everything is dead or dying in this grimdark facsimile of 15th century Western Europe.

Uncooked or rancid meat, as well as disease-carrying people and animals can infect and kill you if you're not careful. Crazed beasts can also be a challenge to outpace, and while you can sprint for some time, doing so causes your character to work up an appetite. Hunger is a persistent threat, and food, even in the best conditions, isn't always easy to come by. The map is large and filled with traps, ambushes, and terrors. I saw more than a few men who, overwhelmed by the moribund state of their village, had given themselves the noose.

When you do come to combat, it s a challenge, but not for the right reasons. You re meant to have three different different stances which affect how and where you swing or thrust your weapon. But, for now, they don t work. Or if they do, it s spotty and unpredictable. Fights devolve into frantic clicking and jockeying for position while you wait and hope that yours are the serendipitous cuts that land.

It was a nice surprise then, to find that a nascent community was growing not around frustrating and harassing one another, but banding together to help live through The Black Death and carry on in spite of it. Perhaps this is a temporary thing, though. As more flood in, I wouldn't be surprised to see tricksters and trolls overtake the compassionate. It s possible that with an emphasis on cooperative play and trading goods and services between players of markedly different classes The Black Death will manage to avoid that fate, but I could see it falling apart regardless.

And other than that positive experience with the community, the Black Death doesn t have much to set it apart. Your explorable area is about 8 km by 8 km, and while that sounds like a decent-sized chunk of land, after five hours or so, it can start wearing thin. The country sides are sparse and locations repetitious. Crafting doesn t have the depth of other games in its genre, either, with few resources and only simple recipes

I'd love to come back, dreary as the Middle Ages may be.

That said, The Black Death is in its earliest stages. Many features are buggy or don't work at all. I found one house with a hanging man surrounded by bear traps. In an adjacent room was a chest filled with invaluable loot: ale, cooked meat, and some honey. But none of the bear traps triggered. I also spent a good chunk of time with only my head peaking above ground level. And I distinctly recall fall damage only applying at random intervals.

It's in Early Access, so some of that is to be expected, but it's hard to overstate just how rough The Black Death is right now. Even so, there's a kernel of something special here, and if it keeps building, I'd love to come back, dreary as the Middle Ages may be.

Apr 26, 2016

Patchnotes - V0.03

The Black Death - [SIG]Pete

V0.03 rolled out last night.

PLEASE NOTE WE ARE STILL SUFFERING FROM INTERMITENT SERVER CRASHES.

Deleting your previous save data or starting a new character (rather than continuing your old character) should help avoid this. Please note that if anyone else logs in and has this problem it is possible the whole server will crash.

We're working on a fix for this now.

Fixes:
• Skills should now save within current character; however, skills are still known to sometimes not carry across when starting a new character/after death that’s that same class/profession as we are still trying to improve saving functionality.
• Multiple names of the same character should no longer appear floating in the air above their heads.
• Esc key and tab now both bring up the in-game menu.
• added extra text to the death screen to help clarify what happens when you die.
• Improved helmet alignment on player.
• Stopped stacking cloth in a lootable from causing a server crash.
• Animals now drop loot again in their gore bag.
• Players shouldn’t get stuck in beds anymore.
Made adjustments to the UI to cater for people who have 1280x1024 resolutions.
• Added in local sounds for when you get hit as a temp fix until we get bigger audio problems fixed.
• Added local sound for locking and unlocking doors.
• Made the game launch in fullscreen windowed as launching in full screen seemed to be causing problems.
• Sticks & stones should be easier to pick up and never fall out of synch with server.
• Fixed various UI screens becoming permanently open, when you die with them open.
• Item Duplication exploit using the “V” key has now been fixed.
• Merchant Exploit fix - Buy Crude sword for 20g < sell for 160g
• Resources now take longer to respawn.
• Crafting blue dye fixed.
• Adjusted pitch Aim offset so character doesn’t have his head looking down at his feet all the time while running around.
• Stopped the exit timer from being able to go down into negative numbers when exiting the game.
• Swimming noise being audible across the entire map is now fixed.
• Cloth should now craft properly.
• Removed corrupt assets, spline walls and interactables from the world that were causing crashes.
• Added Green Man Gaming logo to splash video.
• Fixed Greater helmet not spawning when dropped.
• Correct details now shown in the continue screen.
• Fixed misc item problems that were causing crashes.
• Server listing has numbers again.
• Various landscape and foliage optimization.
• Various landscape bugs fixed.
• Various floating assets fixed.
• More resources added to world.
• General UI tweaking, anchor points, extra descriptions.
• Fixed NPCs disappearing on attack.
• Ai respawns less quickly.
• Bread rolls no longer give 25% infection, reduced to 1% like other rotten food.
• Various sound volumes adjusted.
• Leather stacking error fixed.
• All houses have had their prices increased.
• Stopped sprinting on spot animation playing while standing still.
• Housing now saves per server.
• Utility’s now have a larger area around them in which they will allow you to craft.
• Players can no longer emote whilst using interactable objects (chairs, beds, stocks etc) as it was causing problems. – This will be re-introduced with specific emotes for interactable objects.
• Added character limit to character name field.
• Added names to lootables e.g. sack, barrel, covered body instead of "None" that was there previously.
• Added names to HUD UI for Fixables e.g. Crude chair, Standard bed, Greater Tapestry, so you know what you are about to make.
• Added an extra menu layer to the create new character/continue screen. To make sure that you wanted to create a new character as you will lose progress on your previous one.
• Switching between menu screens will no longer leave you with no cursor visible to click on things.
• Heavy chest plate now has skeletal mesh instead of equipping an invisible torso section.
• Crafting a fishing rod now requires a work bench, not a grinding wheel.
• Removed exploit where you could die quit, restart the game and continue previous character.
• Name overhead of other players says correct details after you continue a character.
• Fish exploit removed.
• You will now come out of combat mode when your weapon breaks, instead of being stuck in combat animations with no weapon.

The team wanted to shout out to a few of the players who've submitted particularly useful information. We've had loads of bug reports, tweets and forum posts. This is only a handful of the player who we've spoken to.

Thanks to EVERYONE who's who’s messaged or sent us stuff. We'll be continuing to talk to you all and keep the game updated, fixing as we go.

Eldubb, DamoTheMedic, William Crowe, Mizar70, ordinaryducky, mj5862, StyrmanKarlsson, Dr.Unknown, storlunkan, Saohc, Jason Irish, DMV_TV, skocsh, Barianer, Bottomfrag Benito, leeparkerlfc, Harp, id/itakniezdasz/, armsay, cheeseboii22, Halfbrood, olegka_89, Venalis, Bratwurst, zydian, astzan, The Dutch Pear, Space – Monkeh, MehBawlz, Eldubb, Fandasuba, [PDΔ] Refrigerator, [METT]ALLICA, Twinkdiner, peps_place, BigGreenMarine, Yuno, Bolusdia, BewareImSniper, Wyntergem, Fucrum, Hebrew Magician, teo78ita, DinklebergZ, Thards, [DG] Floris VH, lockemere1, Ablazes4203, =247= Jarl Brelor, TokiTeeHD, Iron, _Wolf_, Larko6, lockemere1, MicroUnit, yoreel75, L8knightz, StinkySeedling, rambo tron, AugustusBlack, corrosive365, RamboTron, sginga, Mr. Magiks, Hollowpoint, George Trump, merolaalba, TheHouseHoldGeek, Yuno, StyrmanKarlsson, tinesionnach, LeanoAimo, don_hugo2, Overlord_Touk, theReal_McCoy, Skysgar1, Skydudleyace11, kayoslucas (Kayos), Callous, Darude stardude89, Ron_dN, DaChamberGamer, FROZ3NBLAZE, Dablis, Combatmatt20, tinesionnach, ghost200234, lews376, The Dredd Curtain, luciddreamvs, Callous, Rowdy Roddy Piper, HMKREW, Bernie Scrivener, Tenchi0, Ion Junkie, MrSkinner, Khilliani2, muskus, VonWeasel, dee.jay.double.u, tenminusx, tommysticks, tinesionnach, Dude with a kabuki mask, kayoslucas, corygump, george.dzhan, Daelderia, thinghole, masdag, gammers, Sharkkill, Ethix00, rapshody, MicroUnit, Vanguarded32, Mishster192, Nobal, Puncster, blackout0770, Prophet KordoX, Baddie McBadBad, sash3y, pim-vos, apolon5557, Khronus10, Treylo20, Lazy bear the second, Ethanaieie, ricomotosan, Ramy, XximabearxX, Bacon Overlord®, XximabearxX, Darkanian, Jecht133, thepopsinator, Light Lord Channel, Mar325, Snipermaennchen, Karma Lightwing, deak_marcsi, Apieceoftoastt, thunaymg, mungo1972, Shrek, Relgeto, thepopsinator, Full Grizzly, TheZackdaddy, Crerind, R1ppN_NA, VORTEX, JonnySniper, Olegka_89, Licky, stillnotmark, tinesionnach, [LOST] Trav, Barianer, Skydudleyace11, Vent3r, TacoMaster37x, Ethix00, M4YHEM, Komodomo1, Sour Boy, CJCHUNK, Kamakze, The Thinker, DJNATENASTE, Dallas, Cheezwiz, Awsum_Sauce, Barianer

Apr 26, 2016

Patchnotes - V0.03

The Black Death - [SIG]Pete