Greetings Mercians, and welcome to Dev Blog #68!

In this Dev Blog we would like to take a look at some more features and additions that we have been cooking up at SIG HQ!

The coffee is flowing and we are hard at work on making V0.35 Expedition an amazing update, packed with loads of new features and additions to The Black Death. We can't wait for you all to get stuck into our new update and enjoy the content!

Towards the end of this Dev Blog are the dates for the Beta and Live Build dates for our new V0.35 Expedition update.

With every update we craft for The Black Death, we appreciate the communities feedback, comments and of course Bug Reports. When the new Beta is pushed out, our Google Bug Report form will be updated to reflect the new version. We appreciate every bug report we are sent, these help us to find crucial issues as soon as they arise so we can get to fixing them as soon as possible for a smoother gameplay experience when our updates are pushed to the Live Build.

On with the Dev Blog! Here’s some more features that are coming to the black death in the next update: V.035 Expedition!


The XP system has been ‘remastered’ into a level system, taking a more traditional RPG approach. Now when you hit a certain level of XP you gain a level which is fully persistent with your character. Each level provides a group of points to spend anyway you see fit (varying on level). This allows new players to have more points to spend per level but also provides season veterans with bragging rights.






Ranged weapons have now been polished for a new visceral first person experience. It’s never been more satisfying to land a headshot in the black death. They including camera movement for aiming (zooming in) and equipping animations. 2-handed heavy weapons have also had their animations created for a unique first person experience.








Lighting, the sky and fog effects have had further improvements to provide a more dramatic effect/difference between day and night to give the feeling that venturing out at night isn’t such a good idea. This also provides for more interesting lighting scenarios in towns and caves.




One of the maps the player can play privately with friends is our new arena map which comes with some unique features. One being a bell that can be rung to summon a randomised bandit. This is perfect for training, however be careful, they can kill.






Just a few words here from SIG_Emily on the community side of things.

"Hello plagued ones! I do hope you have all been enjoying our Dev Blogs and teasers for our latest update, I myself am very excited to explore the new regions, especially the Outlaw Town! I do have a sticky post on the Steam Forums about where I have been. The short of it is that, I am studying at University full time, and sadly I haven't been able to dedicate as much time to the Community as I would like. To make up for this, I want to give back to the Community by finishing the Player Housing Guide and create some Seasonal Treats for you all! Those of you who have been following us for the past two years know what these are!

The Steam Player Guide is currently on hold for the moment, but it will be making a return in the future. It is an ambitious project and I want to do the community justice in making it the best it can be, with quality content with attention to details and quality screenshots and GIFs. The Server Setup Guide (both our Steam and Blog one) will be updated after our new update V0.35 goes Live!

A special "Seasonal Showcase Issue" is also being drafting up at the moment! So "watch this space" for that post in a couple of weeks!

- [SIG] Emily"




We plan to get the update out on the 21st November in the public beta so everyone can try out all these juicy new features, we will do another announcement so everyone is notified when exactly this beta is out. Depending on beta performance the latest for a full release will be the 28th of November. Thanks everyone for your patience, we can’t wait for everyone to try out the new content!


See you in Mercia!

// The SIG Team

We would like to announce the next major update of the black death named EXPEDITION will be released on or around the 21st of November 2018! Here’s what to expect in this massive incoming update:

Private and Public multiplayer

We have built a new infrastructure allowing players to seamlessly create their own sessions so their friends can join without sacrificing the ease of joining a public/multiplayer server. This has opened the horizon and provided maximum flexibility to how we provide content and how you can enjoy it! Which is in relation to…


Eventually you will be able to take one character across all servers with you, which will be viewable from the new main menu

New Maps

When players will be able to create their own private sessions they will also be able to choose which location they wish to play in, within this update we will be including new maps the player can try out including a new arena that includes unique game mechanics.


Want to test your might? Then siege the templar headqaurters and see what riches await you

Quests

Players will be able to obtain ‘quest note’ items which are consumed to provide mission instructions displayed on your HUD, these quests vary in terms of requirements including who to answer to for completion, for example; collect the head of the outlaw captain of Bywick and return it to the town sergeant of freeman’s port. These ‘quest notes’ can be found on job boards in the main cities or from NPCs. These quests will mainly follow the theme of the professions to further push immersion. Renown, gold and XP will be rewarded for completing these quests.


Live the life of a bounty hunter or a simple peasant, choose the right quest for you!

First person/Third person Gameplay

Experience the black death like never before, immerse yourself with a remastered first person feature including unique animations and gameplay but don’t fret you will be able to jump back into third person at anytime to make larger tasks easier such as building your empire.

Updated Combat

Enjoy a new iteration of combat that supports our first person camera, the new combat system utilises directional movement for variation of attacks and brings a whole new level of fidelity for ranged weapons. Camera animations for first person camera combat will also be included to make strikes even more immersive.



Horses

It’s now time to experience medieval life to its fullest. Rare mountable horses will be found roaming all parts of Mercia, once obtained is up to you to make sure they are not taken from you so make sure they are locked up safe and sound in your kingdom.



Bigger World (15%)

3 brand new regions are being added to Mercia which adds over a square kilometer of new gameplay area to explore. The new regions include a kingdom region added to freeman’s port, a outlaw only town and a murky swamp.



Inventory improvements

To help players manage their character more effectively and support new first person camera mechanic you will be able to view your character from inside your inventory this also includes tweaks and improvements to equipping and crafting items that feels more natural.



NPCs

New NPCs are being added to Mercia but to support the core mechanics of the A.I. new behaviours are being created such as shopping, mining and fishing. This will help bring another layer of immersion to the game.



Forestry

Vegetation within the game is going through a large overhaul, we found that once the first person camera was in the game started to lack detail, especially in terms of forestry. The update will include a large revamp of grass, bushes and trees in the main forest areas of Mercia.




Thanks everyone for your patience on waiting for this update and we can't wait for you to try it! See you around Mercia.

The S.I.G. Team

Will you answer to the flagellants for your sins? Stand your ground or run and hide!

Good day mercians!

Today we would like to reassure everyone work on update 35 is still full 'steam' ahead, we wished to release last week but more shortcomings to system changes have arose during internal testing that have become a must fix before we can release the new patch. These problems are including item replication and private session invites (steam infrastructure), that being said whilst we are dealing with pesky bugs we felt part of the team that is available could further push another must needed changes for the new update such as:



First person camera

We felt that the game's navigation, camera and combat brought "arcady" and uninspiring feel/tone to the gameplay where it was not welcome, we want the player to be fully immersed as if they were the ones curing the plague, battling bandits and shopping in town. The third person camera also brought a lot of negatives, constant tweaking to position and animation never felt it improved upon it but instead made it feel different, this change to inject a first person camera has shown the game in a new light and has provided lots of new opportunities such as an improved combat system, accurate looting and deeper exploration.

Directional combat

The new improved combat system now gives accurate first person cursor hit detection (swings passing through where you aim) and lots of attack variation based on the initial direction of movement, if you strafe you will horizontal strike, if you reverse you will do an overhand and on top of that we now have charge up strikes which allows you to hold a strike for longer to deal additional damage or delay the strike itself for extra tactical attacks. The first person camera has also allowed us to polish range weapons further (throwing weapons included) to be more responsive and authentic rather than cumbersome, all weapon types including will be receiving new animations with over 100 in total!



New NPCs

Flagellants and Celtics are new melee enemies which have reached completion internally, they deal high damage but suffer from low armour. These new enemies are to replace the monks we currently have in game (which will return as new neutral NPCs) and provide exclusive attire such as the charming kilts or the scary flagellant masks you see above.


Celtic barbarians roaming the highlands will gladly kill you to eat the flesh off your bones


IK solving and A.I. navigation

In an attempt to further improve the A.I.'s believability we decided to address the sudden turning and strange angles they adopt when travelling around Mercia (especially animals) the new changes include physics based feet placement solutions for any angle and more realistic turn rates, the result is definitely on the right path but we will be looking to add further animation variation to them to really sell it in the future.

Currently we are looking to get this mammoth update out to everyone by the end of the month so we appreciate everyone hanging on and bearing with us whilst we build up the black death to a bigger and stronger experience....... until next time, see you in Mercia!

The S.I.G. Team.

Good day Mercians!

In today's blog post we thought it would be best to discuss some of the content in development for the next update (to be released very soon) including some hints towards future developments for the game, so gather around and witness whats coming to........ the black death:



Private sessions

We recently decided before adding lots of new content it would be best to make sure the game can be played in anyway the player likes. So it's my pleasure to announce we had developed a new client-run listen server system (private sessions) for the black death.

What does this mean? Well essentially players will be able to create their own "private" worlds (without the need of server hosting) and invite their friends to join, enabling single-player or co-op experiences, however we are also working on functionality to allow players to list their “sessions” publicly. Currently this is going through heavy testing and has reveal some exciting possibilities you will be able to discover soon. This system is additional and does not affect the current online server infrastructure we have in place.

This will be an extra step towards the black death becoming the experience everyone expects it to be, for those who are curious to how this may “detract” from the online experience we are working on systems to compliment both infrastructures that will hopefully increase online activity whilst keeping client-run listen servers relevant with a whole new “meta” mechanic, as we truly believe the black death is better experience when played together. So keep your eyes peeled for future announcements, great times are ahead.



Bigger world (15%)

Mercia is always being improved by the world artists and designers but today we finally get to show progress that has been made to increase whole world play area by 15%. As you can see in the screenshot above 3 new regions are being added that is just over a square kilometer in size! The new regions are named freeman’s castle (overlooking freemans port) Murkridge and Freelaw. These locations are currently planned to be raid areas including a town for bandits and outlaws named Freelaw fort (if you are of the outlaw profession you can freely explore and shop there).



Freeman’s castle will seem like the nation’s capital at first sight but once you’ve entered you’ll have difficulty leaving alive, experience a town within castle walls void of law and order.



Murkridge will be a resourceful bridge between the other two new regions filled with travelling citizens, events and ambushes so tread carefully and carry a big sword. This area will also include more stable ground for all your building needs.




Flagellants

In an attempt to re-work the current monk NPCs we felt it was best to remove them as hostile npcs and return them to their former neutral state towards the player and have them try to heal the world instead of burn it, so they take their place we have been building a new NPC type that better fits the role of a dangerous religious fanatic, these are flagellants.



Flagellants were rampant during the black death and a great depiction of the time, an exciting opportunity to further improve immersion and lore throughout the world. These new enemies will drop exclusive item types such as weapons and clothes.

Item refactor

We are currently addressing issues with disappearing items and in whilst doing so we discovered a few ways we could improve and increase performance within our inventory system, in the next update for the black death will include not only fixes for the current issues within game but a new faster more stable system that should be more responsive across the board.

We will be looking to get this update out as soon as possible however we will be testing on our beta server this week so stay tuned for a update announcement.

Hope you enjoyed catching up with us and as always thanks for playing everyone and we will see you in Mercia!

The S.I.G. Team

Gather round Mercians, a new patch awaits you! This week we bring you new admin controls as well as fixes and optimisations galore!

Here are the patch notes in full:

New:

• Added the ability to ban/unban players from servers if you are the Admin

Updated:

• Updated char create start button to give more info e.g. Locked, Renown required
  
• Updated player dagger animations with the new ai ones for now (will be tweaked in the future)
  
• Updated player spear attacks with the new ai ones for now (will be tweaked in the future)
  
• Updated the heavy attack of the stick clubs to be a new ai swing (will be tweaked in the future)
  
• Updated crosshair icon on the hud, it now hides when looking at angry ai, and the icon changes depending on what you are looking at doing, talking, picking up, using
  
• Updated successfully repairing a building with a sound to make it more obvious it has been repaired

Fixes:

• Fixed a bug where you couldn't repair anvils
  
• Fixed a movement issue that was causing movement lag
  
• Fixes added to stop chat from breaking on first entry into the game
  
• Fixed a large amount of level bugs
  
• Fixed a bug where if you try repair a building object but didn’t have enough money, it wouldn't run the can’t do that popup
  
• Fixed misc spelling mistakes
  
• Fixed a bunch of log spam across the game
  
• Fixed bug which caused main menu music not to transition in and out when going into and out of the menu
  
• Fixed a bug where eating rotten meat had no negative effects
  Reduced the size and volume of the ambient stream sounds
  
• Fixed a bug where a wood material was missing its phys material, now hit sounds/vfx and triggers footstep sounds
  
• Turned down the volume of rat footsteps
  
• Fixed a bug where you could go into minus renown in the character create and the profession switch screen by pressing the switch button multiple times
  
• Fixed a bug, where when drawing your bow you couldn't see your crosshair as it would be blocked by health bar/interact crosshair icons
  
• Fixed multiple objects missing from the world
  
• Fixed issues preventing A.I. spawning inside churches or in bandit camps

Balancing

• All spears and daggers now have a block move
  
• Adjusted cooldown timers of spears to make combat smoother

Optimised

• Optimised tick rates across the game
  
• Optimised main menu
  
• Optimised skeletal meshes of shop ai and purchasable ai
  
• Optimised the compass system
  
• Large amount of optimisation for the world level
  
• Optimised greedy blueprints

As always, thanks for all of your bug reports and thanks for playing!

// The SIG Team

Citizens of Mercia we bring you a new update for the weekend! This patch contains a whole host of fixes as well as new prisoner animations and the King/Queen of the server feature!

Here are the patch notes in full:

New:

• The most powerful player who is of the “Royalty” profession will be named King/Queen of the server (shown at the top of the map screen)
  
• In the map you can now see which direction you are facing (a small arrow at your player location)
  
• New prisoner animations (for kneeling prisoner): 1x extra idle extra (struggling) 1x released thank you anim
  
• New prisoner animations (tied to stake): 1x idle anim and 4x idle extra anims
  
• Ambient water/river sound tests added around a few streams near Freemans Port
  
• Speed hacking detection

Have the most renown as the royalty profession and enjoy being king/queen of the server, we are currently working to extend this feature to give the player additional benefits,hopefully coming within the next few updates.

Updated:

• Added sounds/voice to prisoners
  
• Polished and updated paths in the environment

Fixes:

• Fixes added for blocking sometimes failing to function properly
  
• Fixed cure sickness by exiting to main menu exploit
  
• Fixes added for combat attacks sometimes swinging through enemies and causing no damage
  
• Fix added for a vender refresh issue
  
• Fixes for attribute points costing less than the shown amount
  
• Fixes/tweaks added to misc spanish translations
  
• Fix for storehouse access through roof exploit
  
• Fixes added for misc resource spawning issues
  
• Knockback now scales correctly with the amount of damage taken
  
• Wolves no longer resort to passive behaviour randomly
  
• Fixes to primitive wells and animal waste to remove delays on pickup
  
• Chamomile mesh reduced in size to prevent problems spawning
  
• Fixes to make wooden doors easier to place in the palisade gatehouse

We are continuing to improve the fidelity of the prisoners in the black death such as this new release animations

Balancing:

• Wolves are now more aggressive
  
• Stone weapons have had their durability increased by 50%
  
• Stone mace durability is increased by 125%

Navigate Mercia with ease and use the new player direction icon on the map to get your bearings.

Optimised:

• Optimised resource management
  
• Optimised prisoner skeletal meshes
  
• Optimised misc animations

Known Bugs

• Chat log can sometimes not appear, relogging should fix it though

As always, thanks for all of your bug reports and thanks for playing!

// The SIG Team

Behold citizens of Mercia, Kings and Queens has arrived! New content awaits and can be found all across the land!

First up a new profession in Mercia, that of Royalty. To ascend to Royalty you will need to be proficient (level 10) in all skills as well as saving up enough renown (by purging the land of sickness and infection). Becoming Royalty is tough but it is well worth it. Royalty have access to craft exclusive high tier items that other professions can’t access such as royal helmet and the royal polearm. They also have a passive bonus, a x2 bonus when earning renown. With great power comes great danger, you will want to make sure you have allies and a strong guild in place when you become a King/Queen.



We have also been working on a lot of new and exciting content from new weapons and animations to new ai types and ways to create a more plague like experience.

Here are the patch notes in full:

New:

• New royalty profession, play as a King or Queen to earn double renown with your profession ability and craft exclusive items at your kingdom table utility
  
• New renown mechanic implemented (Renown can be earned by killing the infected and purging infection carts. Renown can be spent on switching profession at any time)
  
• You can now switch profession at any time if you have the required renown (The switch button is located at the top center of the inventory)
  
• New building Town Hall (Here you can hire bakers, wheat farmers etc)
  
• New building Barracks (Here you can hire a range of guards)
  
• New Kingdom table (A royalty exclusive utility which contains high-tier recipes)
  
• New Courier Ai type (holds valuable items and can be found with a personal guards)
  
• New note system, messages are strewn across mercia
  
• 3 New ai light spear attacks
  
• 2 New weapons (royal polearm and wooden pitchfork)
  
• 4 New prisoner animations (idle and three idle extras)
  
• New royal helmet recipe
  
• New royal guard to hire
  
• New gray wolf enemy NPC
  
• New bodyguard enemy NPCs (for couriers)
  
• New peasant rebel enemy NPCs
  
• Player spawn locations have been themed to add more context to the world
  
• Added search for recipe functionality to the inventory
  
• Now more levels of attribute points with an exponential cost
  
• Renown and up to three random attribute points will be lost on death
  
• New infected animal versions (deer, boar, wolf and rat) can be found in infection zones
  
• nfected peasants, guards and wandering merchants can now be found in infected zones
  
• Infected resources now spawn in infection zones (that provide infected mush)
  
• Infection material visual effects have been added to objects within the infection zone
  
• Ai can now spawn in groups
  
• Animal manure can now be found around the world
  
• Procedural resources now have the chance to spawn on forest floor
  
• New rotten food procedural resource
  
• New loading screen animated rat icon
  
• Temporal AA is now on by default however this can be changed back by adjusting your graphics settings (anti aliasing) in your launcher

You can now switch profession at anytime by clicking the profession badge inside your inventory, however profession will cost you renown

Updated:

• Animals animation backend has been upgraded to the new system which will allow for better full body/upper body blending when switching between being still and moving
  
• Ai will no longer play hit react animations when they are mid attack swing, instead they will follow through with the swing
  
• Updated interaction menu so when you repair an item it doesn't automatically close the ui, allowing you to repair multiple things in a row more easily now
  
• Item icons updated
  
• Updated the rivers across the land of mercia to be less deep to stop clipping issues
  
• Updated the head look at of Ai to be more accurate
  
• Updated the admin menu so you can give yourself renown
  
• Updated the UI to incorporate renown changes
  
• Updated version number
  
• Visual tweaks made to the fog
  
• Procedural grass and mud improved with more detail meshes
  
• Static beggars removed from the character create menu and replaces with animated ones that sick up
  
• Destroying plague carts now has a more unique destruction sound
  
• Rats make footstep sounds and squeak more so you can hear them approach you
  
• Updated the death animations with further sounds
  
• Updated the boar and wolf sounds
  
• Updated the HUD interaction UI, so the hand is over the look at spot
  
• Updated the tutorials quests shown on the HUD so only one shows at a time to keep the hud cleaner
  
• Gold ore is now 50% the size

once you've become royalty you can use the kindgom table to craft exclusive items, more and more royal items will be added in the coming weeks

Fixes:

• Fixed a server to do with Steam packets
  
• Fixed a client crash while dead but still trying to show the outliner
  
• Fixed a rare server crash
  
• Fixes added for resource replication
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented ranged NPCs from patrol at certain distances from the player
  
• Infected carts now display health correctly and no longer destroy in a single hit
  
• Fixed a bug where pressing “E” when setting a new message of the day would close the guild menu
  
• Fixed some misc spelling mistakes in the UI
  
• Increased fade out to server black screen time to hide transitions and stop fading back in too early
  
• Increased char create loading screen fade duration to stop you sometimes being able to see the character loading in
  
• Fixed a bug that stopped some recipes showing up in the inventory recipe list
  
• Fix to the map infection area so that it now more accurately matches the actual plagued area
  
• Debris loot piles no longer block building
  
• Fixes added to stop prisoners being able to be grabbed through cages without smashing the door down
  
• Bandit profession now has exponential XP cost like the other professions

access all your recipes quickly with our new search feature directly inside your inventory

Balancing

• Prisoners now give out basic contracts (for use at the Barracks and Town Hall)
  
• Placeable npcs are now only available through the Barracks and Town Hall
  You can no longer stack contracts
  
• Custom shop merchant is now found in the artisan tree
  
• Farmland now requires manure
  
• Resource amounts balanced so the pool doesn't spam rare NPCs

As always, thanks for all of your bug reports and thanks for playing!

// The SIG Team

Greetings plagued ones, and welcome to Dev Blog #65 - Kings and Queens BETA!

We hope you enjoyed our Kings And Queens content reveal post, if you missed it you can find it here: Kings And Queens

For this Dev Blog we will be taking a further look at what we covered in the teaser post. We will be showing off the Town Hall and Barracks with their respective recipes, changes to our UI with the addition of the nobility system (now renamed to renown), new animations and more!

Currently we are updating the beta version of this update throughout the week and we will be looking to roll it out to everyone on Friday!


At the end of this Dev Blog there will also be a Community Extras section. This will cover details of our recent Build A Base event, community translations and also a look at our upcoming official Steam Guides as an overhaul on our Steam Hub.

Please note that some of the media in this Dev Blog, including our screenshots, images and GIFs may not be the final versions. This includes elements of our UI/HUD as these are placeholders for testing systems.


Here is a closer look at our two new buildings, the Barracks and Town Hall. These are large structures, so make sure that you have plenty of room on your plot for these grand additions!


Town Hall No Decoration


Town Hall Exterior Decorated


Town Hall Interior Decorated

As an additional feature of these structures, you will be able to add decorations and other housing items to both the exterior and interior. Check out the gallery above and below to see the Town Hall and Barracks decorated in all their splendour for some inspiration! You could use animal trophies to mark buildings for ranks, carpets and tapestries for a fancy feeling and lighting for a cosy touch!


Barracks No Decoration


Barracks Exterior Decorated


Barracks Interior Decorated

Moving on to the Desks within these two structures. Each building has it’s own Recruitment Desk, this is where you will find the recipes for each respective NPC Contract to help build up your Kingdom, Castle or Village.

See the gallery below here for a few examples of some of the new NPC contract types! Notice that the Wheat Farmer has Manure in their recipe, this will be a new resource found from animals in the wild! These screenshots also show a close up of the new stained glass windows that feature on these new buildings.


Town Hall Recruitment Desk


Town Hall Wheat Farmer


Town Hall Chicken Farmer


Town Hall Baker


We would like to introduce our new Profession named, Royalty!



Here are a couple of screenshots from our Beta showing the environments to give you a feel for the new Profession. Note: These screenshots are from our Beta.





Changing Profession & UI Additions

Please note: As mentioned in our introduction, these screenshots are from our Beta, and as such are subject to change as some elements may be placeholders.

Here are the new changes to our UI and HUD for the addition of our Renown system. Your overall Renown tally will be displayed just above your Gold on the centre Quick Slot Bar.



Your Renown will also be displayed in your Character Journal at the very top. The icon next to your Profession name functions as the “change Profession” option. Clicking on this will bring up a new UI window.



This window will be displayed when selecting the icon next to your current Profession name in your character journal. Below are all of the Professions with their respective names, icons and Renown cost. To change Profession simply select a Profession of your choosing when you have enough Renown. If you do become Royalty, their are perks but if your character dies, you will lose your nobility.



Sources Of Renown In The World

There are different ways to obtain Renown in The Black Death. Here are some of these that we will be introducing with the new update. Cleansing plague sources, which could be infected enemies such as Rats and Bandits and burning plague carts. Noble deeds such as rescuing trapped prisoners around Mercia will also reward you with Renown. Be careful though, upon death you will now incur a 5% loss of Renown.





Renown is spent on becoming any Profession that you have unlocked. You can now also switch Profession at anytime, keeping your XP/Skill Point progression as well as any items you had on you. Becoming the Beggar requires 0 nobility but all others have a cost, the most expensive and most desirable being the new Royalty Profession.


We have a new feature coming in our next update in the form of NPC Groups. This is separate to our normal NPC Bandits and other enemy types that spawn in the world. The new Groups system allows us to procedurally spawn NPCs in groups together, these NPCs also interact with one another in the world.

To introduce this new Groups system, Noble Couriers now wander the paths of Mercia clutching a chest of goods. These couriers are accompanied by a Noble Bodyguard to protect them as they carry out their mission.


Noble Courier


Noble Bodyguard


Noble Courier Chest Loot

These brave souls can be found across Mercia near towns and on route on pathways. Once slain, these couriers will drop their chest of goods. Chase them down and slay them for some tasty loot!

Check out a GIF of one of these Noble Couriers in action over on our official blog version of this Dev Blog here:

Courier Chase GIF

They will flee from you once spotted, and will even turn their heads when running away to see if you are still pursuing them! Once they have been running for a while, they will stop and catch their breath, this is a good opportunity to land a few hits on them before they are back on the run from your blade. Beware as their bodyguard, equipped with a heavy sword and shield they will do anything to protect their courier, don’t get on their bad side!


More weapons are coming to The Black Death, these weapons will be available through looting NPCs and raiding locations around the world. Why not create a peasant revolt with your very own pitchfork! Some of these weapons will be craftable through the blacksmith profession very soon so keep your eyes peeled.



Combat animations continue to improve giving the player more feedback and variation, spears are currently going getting an overhaul for NPCs and players, keep your range and stab your way to the top.



He’s a man on a mission, here are a couple of animation GIFs of our new Noble Couriers. The first is their run animation and the second is their hit reaction animation!





Here is a GIF of our new captured prisoner animation. Save them and they will be forever in your debt!



Here is a little development bonus for you all! From the desk of SIG_James, here is a new loading screen GIF! This will be replacing the rotating plague skull icon on our loading screens.




As always, if you do find any bugs or issues when playing on our Beta Test Server please fill in a Bug Report over on our The Black Death: Google Bug Form , every bug counts! When submitting bugs make sure to always select the Beta option in the drop down when playing on the Beta branch that looks like this “Version V0.33 (Beta)”.



To download our Beta branch follow these steps:
1. Make sure The Black Death is closed and not running.
2. Go to your Steam Client and navigate to your Steam Games Library.
3. Right click on “The Black Death” and select “Properties”.
4. Navigate to the far right tab that reads “Betas” and select it.
5. Using the drop down menu, select “Beta – Beta test branch” and select Close.
6. In a few moments Steam should start to download the Beta branch of The Black Death.
7. To ensure that The Black Death is kept up-to-date before other games, select the “Updates” tab. Then click on the drop down menu and select “High Priority – Always auto-update this game before others”.
8. To switch back to The Black Death “Live” build. Simply follow steps 1 through 5 and then select “None – Opt out of all beta programs”

Take a look at the image below. If the title is missing the [beta] you have the “Live” branch installed.






If you have been playing on our Beta branch, when you have finished your play session and have closed The Black Death, a Google Form should open in your default web browser. This is designed to help us gather feedback from your play session on the Beta, and to help us get a clear impression of your thoughts after playing. We greatly appreciate your feedback and suggestions. Thank you in advance for your submissions.

If for some reason the Google Form does not load in your web browser, or if you accidentally close it, here is a link to the form. The Black Death Beta Playthrough Survey


Community Translations

A big thank you to our community for all of their contributions to help translate The Black Death into many different languages! Thank you for your time and effort in volunteering to help out within the community. We have recently had a Hungarian translation submission from Discord user Hadnagy/Error202#1159, a Greek translation is also in the pipeline from Discord user Jim#9141!

A big thank you also goes out to those who have sent in alterations for our existing translations, we are always looking at improving elements of The Black Death and we want to make sure that our translations are polished as much as possible.

We have started to implement the Hungarian translation provided by Hadnagy/Error202#1159 into our Beta build. At the time of writing this Dev Blog, it is still being worked on and isn’t fully functional yet, but the flag is now included in our Language settings in our Beta.



Build-A-Base Contest Closes




Our “SIG Presents Build-A-Base Contest” has now concluded! A big thank you to everyone to sent us submissions. We will be selecting the top three and dishing out the prizes as well as showcasing the winners over on our next Community Showcase issue, so keep a look out for that. We will be contacting the winners within the next month to sort out their prizes. Thank you to everyone who participated. We will be running another event in the future!

Official Steam Guides Update



We have some new Steam Guides coming soon to The Black Death Steam Community Hub! A Mega Player Housing Guide is being worked on, it’s quite a meaty guide with loads of screenshots and information for both new and current players! We will be posting this all over our social channels and on the forums when it is ready. This guide is based from the current V0.33 version of the game, and will be updated as new additions are made to the game.

Also in the works are the following guides:
– Player Mega Housing Guide
– Tech Tips Guide
– Mini Language Settings Guide
– Mini Controller Setup Guide
– Mini Guild Guide
– Mercian Cookbook Guide
– Armour Sets & Clothing Guide
– World Events & Plague World Event Guide

Alongside these, the Quick Start Guide and Advanced Guide will also be getting revamped when our new update is released!


We hope you enjoyed reading this weeks Dev Blog, that’s all for this week and we will see you next time!

// The SIG Team

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The Black Death on Green Man Gaming

Gather round citizens of Mercia, today we have a special reveal for you:

“KINGS AND QUEENS”

A massive content update is heading for Mercia and should be arriving in the next few weeks. Ready yourselves for a large variety of new content, including new enemies, weapons, buildings, items as well as new features and most importantly a new profession (Royalty).

Here's a full breakdown of what to expect in the coming weeks:


There has always been something off about having to die to switch to another profession. Originally we wanted players to be able to switch profession whenever they wanted however this caused big issues with balancing the game...until now with our new nobility system.

Nobility points are gained by cleansing plague sources, ending the lives of infected people, rescuing prisoners and surviving the day in Mercia. Beware on your travels as death now carries a price as you will now incur a 5% loss of nobility.

Nobility can be used to purchase sought-after items from Town Earls, however it is more importantly spent on becoming any profession that you have unlocked. You can now also switch profession at anytime, keeping your XP/Skill Point progression as well as any items you had on you. Becoming the beggar requires 0 nobility but all others have a cost, the most expensive and most desirable being the new “King/Queen” profession.

Here's a more detailed example of nobility cost for professions.


Kings/Queens are unlocked once the player has reach level 10 in all professions and is willing to part with 1000 nobility points. As a King/Queen you can earn double nobility points and gain access to an exclusive utility that has a wide range of royal craftable items, giving a distinct advantage to your guilds Kingdom. The high nobility point cost for this profession makes for a tense experience and in turn brings a whole new dynamic to The Black Death. Killing royalty means a great deal, you will want to protect your King/Queen for the good of your guild! Use your time wisely as King/Queen to earn as much nobility as possible to ensure your royal lineage continues.



We will be adding new attributes to the game such as “Nobility” (the ability to gain more nobility from certain actions) but more importantly we will be making the attribute points system more persistent.

Now when you die you will only lose 3 attribute points from randomly chose attributes instead of a complete wipe. With this we keep death fairly punishing whilst prevent high level players slaying the weak risk free. We are also re-balancing the cost and amount of levels that you will be able to reach (looking at around 25 levels per attribute).


We are continuing to expand the variation of NPCs that can be rescued, with plans to include some found in the infection zone. We also want to give the player the ability to customise them before placing them within their kingdom. The new town hall and barracks will act as a training grounds to upgrade NPCs to something more catered to your needs. Want a baker? No problem, build a town hall and speak to your newly recruited mayor, supply him with a peasant (contract) and turn them into something more useful. Want a bigger more deadlier guard? Why not visit your barracks and speak to the captain about improving your soldiers ability to defend. These utility buildings will provide a new range of NPCs unseen before such as crossbowman, plague doctors and carpenters.



Here at SIG, we realise that keeping The Black Death alive and kicking requires new content for players to encounter but also allows us to get closer to our goal of making the world a more filling/long lasting experience. So over the next few weeks we will continue to expand the A.I. system with new variations, implement weapons to loot and craft and of course expand Mercia with new areas to explore. Soon The Black Death will feel even bigger and more enjoyable than before so thank you everyone for your time with us and we look forward to bringing you this revolutionary new update.

Hello everyone,

We have a small update to address some issues that sneaked into update V0.33 here are the hotfix patch notes in full:

Fixes

• Fixed an issue that would set population of servers to zero on the server browser list
  
• Fixed an issue that wouldn't update health of barricades on the player's HUD
  
• Fixed an issue that made it impossible to use the context menu on full health structures resulting in them not being able to be destroyed

If you are interested in the full patch notes of update V0.33 you can find them HERE

Thanks everyone for playing and we will see you in Mercia

The S.I.G. Team.