Hey Everybody,

We’re just about ready for the next Character Refresh! Willow’s Refresh will be coming May 7th.

I am going to share some of the details of her changes. Of course, this is still subject to change and will likely see some adjusting before and after release.

• Willow no longer gets cold from low sanity.
  
• Willow takes more damage and loses sanity from freezing.
  
• Willow takes less damage from overheating.
  
• Willow gets fire immunity for the first several seconds and then reduced damage thereafter.
  
• Willow takes no burn damage while extinguishing fires and does it faster than others.
  
• Adding fuel to fires is more effective for Willow.
  
• Bernie can now be equipped by Willow for sanity and warmth at the cost of durability.
  
• Bernie grows big and will taunt and fight most hostile creatures when Willow is nearby and insane.
  
• Bernie will still taunt Shadow Creatures when any other player is nearby and insane.
  
• In addition, Willow still gains sanity near fire and can still cook with her Lighter.

After going through the first few rounds of character refreshes and introducing a brand new character, we have had the chance to regroup to see how our scheduling is working out and have decided to make a few small changes. The scheduling we initially set for ourselves was too aggressive and we’ll be pulling back a bit so that the dev cycle for new content isn’t as hard on our team.

We found that our schedule was just too demanding and we want to be able to make things interesting and not just pump out stuff as fast as we can.

As of this writing our schedule looks like this:

Willow Refresh: May 7th
Content Update (beta): Mid May
Unannounced New Character: Early June
Content Update (live): Mid/Late June
Next Refresh: Mid July

NOTE: As long time fans are aware, we do not prioritize dates above content or the team, so dates are always subject to change.

We have dates set for each of these, but at this point I think it may be best to not get too ambitious with setting a date publicly. Assuming that the dust is now settled, we hope that this will be our cadence for quite some time. We’ll review again after the content update hits beta next month.

As always, we look forward to your thoughts and feedback. Thanks everybody!

Nanite Systems is finally ready to unveil its line of remote-infantry combat units, called Nanite Systems Operatives, which are now available for use by each faction on a contractual basis. These combat units are manned by qualified Nanite Systems staff members who have gone through rigorous training and vetting. Staff members operate these units remotely out of the numerous Nanite Systems facilities located throughout and in-orbit over Auraxis. The robotic proxies are operated in shifts, and all Nanite Systems personnel work humane schedules.





Each time an Operative enters a new zone or continent, they will be put on assignment for the faction with the lowest population - these contracts always go out to the empire that has lost the most soldiers, helping to ensure that their populations will be more balanced in battle.

Due to their distinct training regimen and proprietary alignment with Nanite Systems, Operatives are only capable of using NS (common pool) weapons and vehicles. Any empire-specific weapons and vehicles will be off limits to unlock and equip. However, Operatives will be able to jump into empire-specific gunner vehicles that are pulled by soldiers of the faction that they are working for.

Operatives do have the ability to create and exist in an outfit with other soldiers, but remember - NS contracts come first for these units, so other members of the outfit could end up being on opposite sides of the war.

Please keep in mind that an All Access Membership is required to create a new Operative unit, and to continue employment under Nanite Systems. If membership lapses, a Nanite Systems Operative will be inaccessible until the membership is renewed.

 https://youtu.be/Y0ZlJX7n3cA

We hope you enjoy your new partnership with Nanite Systems!

Following the release of the New Soldier game update, we're giving back to our soldiers in the battlefields.

PC players, step up your gear game with a shiny new weapon to fight for or fend off the new Nanite Systems Operatives that have breached the battlefield.

Redeem the promo code NSOPS2019 to unlock the NSX Tengu for all of your characters, no matter what faction (Nanite Systems Operatives included, of course) they fight for. This code can be redeemed here by logging into your Daybreak account.

The rewards don't stop there - this weekend, from 12:01AM PT on Sunday, April 28th, 2019 to 11:59PM PT on Sunday, May 5th, 2019, ALL players on ALL platforms can enjoy Double XP! And don't forget - this Friday through Sunday, is the All Access Members' monthly double XP weekend... which means that on Sunday, April 28th, members will have a special day to earn the coveted Quadruple XP!

Hustle out and take advantage of the exciting weekend ahead! 


 

*Promo code only available for PlanetSide 2 on PC. These items will be made available on PS4 in the future. 

In celebration of this massive update, we've constructed some valuable new Re-enlistment Bundles and sales for returning soldiers. These bundles will be available at one per week over the next 4 weeks. Sales will also occur over the next 4 weeks, so if you've had your eye on something in the Depot this will be the perfect time to get a deal on it! Read on for all of the Depot details:

 

Week 1 - April 29th through May 5th



Re-enlistment Bundle Alpha - 499 DBC

• MGR-S1 Gladius (NC SMG)
• MG-S1 Jackal (TR SMG)
• VE-S Canis (VS SMG)
• Angular Camo (NC/TR/VS Camo)
• Squad Experience Boost 7-Day

 40% off Camo

 

Week 2 - May 6th through May 12th



Re-enlistment Bundle Bravo - 999 DBC

• Pillager (TR Flash Weapon)
• Starfall (VS Flash Weapon)
• Buzzard (NC Flash Weapon)
• NS-50 Gorgon (Left and Right hand MAX machine guns, for VS/NC/TR)
• M202 Wyrm (Wing-mounted Heavy Machine Gun for Reaver, Mosquito, and Scythe)
• Interference Profile Banner (VS/NC/TR/NSO)
• Squad Experience Boost 7-Day

40% off Vehicle Cosmetics

 

Week 3 - May 13th through May 19th



Re-enlistment Bundle Charlie - 1999 DBC

• MGR-L1 Promise (NC LMG)
• MG-L1 Watchman (TR LMG)
• VE-H Maw (VS LMG)
• Saron HRB (VS Magrider/Harasser)
• Enforcer (NC Vanguard/Harasser)
• Vulcan (TR Prowler/Harasser)
• Darkstar MAX Armor (VS)
• Havoc MAX Armor (TR)
• Sigma MAX Armor (NC)
• Scanline Ambush Camo
• Gridsmoke Profile Banner
• Squad Experience Boost 7-Day

40% off Infantry Cosmetics

 

Week 4 - May 20th through May 26th



Re-enlistment Bundle Delta - 3999 DBC

• Centuri Armor Set (VS infantry armor, all classes)
• Crimson Armor Set (TR infantry armor, all classes)
• Lambda Armor Set (NC infantry armor, all classes)
• Halberd-G (MBT/Harasser)
• Hornet-G (Scythe/Mosquito/Reaver)
• Astral Camo
• Anomaly Background
• 9x Deluxe Implant Packs
• 1x One-Month Heroic Boost

 40% off Vehicle Weapons

 

We hope these deals help you gear up for the battles ahead. See you on Auraxis!

The SteamVR Beta has been updated with the following changes.

If you encounter issues with this update, please post in the SteamVR Bug Report forum. If possible, please include a system report to aid in tracking down your issue.

SteamVR:

• Fixed crash when loading chaperone data with very tall walls.
  
• Safe mode now avoids loading the gamepad driver in case of issues with third party gamepad drivers. This only affects using gamepads for SteamVR menu navigation.
  
• Display a special error when the HMD display cannot be detected on a laptop. This should help people get laptop-specific assistance more quickly.

SteamVR Input:

• Index Controllers - Grab mode - Release is recognized one tick closer to actual release, should improve throwing.

SteamVR Home:

• Added new five-finger hands that smoothly move between hand poses based on what inputs you’re touching or pressing.
  
• Changing maps when in a multiplayer room offers to wait until other players have finished downloading, so they don’t get kicked.
  
• Improved scrolling in overlay panels (desktop, SteamVR Dashboard).
  
• Fixed controller poses lagging behind one frame.
  
• Fixed issue with motion smoothing engaging too aggressively on cpu bound system.
  
• Fixed props sometimes going translucent when close to you and glowing extra bright when highlighting.
  
• Polished Summit Pavilion.
  
• Fixed picking up frozen props causing them to pop to a new location.
  
• Fixed quick inventory getting stuck open when dropping an in-world tool.
  
• Networking and voice improvements.
  
• Misc crash fixes.

- several types of weapons;
- bug fixes;
- work with sounds;
- work with graphics;
- new enemies and dangers;
- new game level.

Now we are all planning and getting down to work in the coming days.

Updates:

New graphics for level 1 of Zone 3

Replaced flower objects in level 1 of Zone 3 with horizontal vines to climb on

Redesigned level 1 of Zone 3 to make use of new vines

If you have ideas and suggestions for the development of the game - leave them in a special section for discussion, or send us an email at supp.12hours@gmail.com. We will consider all the options and make the game better. Thank you!

Greetings warriors of Calradia!

Conducting trade runs between towns as a merchant has always been one of the most fun and profitable activities for players in our games. Bannerlord’s trade system improved on this aspect of the game in many ways, by displaying trade rumours on the inventory screen, tracking player profits, awarding trade XP accordingly to characters, etc. which makes playing as a merchant much more fun and rewarding. However, we still had the feeling that something was missing, so we decided to dedicate more care and attention into the economy and trade system.

We like making everything in the game connected to each other, however, trade and item prices felt like it was only there to make the game playable as a merchant (and to be honest, it kind of was). We had implemented a rather thorough production system where everything in the game, from food to weapons to cows and horses, were produced in villages or town workshops. This created an uneven distribution of different trade goods in the world, and consequently, there was sufficient price variation across the map. However, we had a rather simplistic system for the consumption of goods where each town consumed a certain percentage of all available items, regardless of scarcity. This, of course, was quite unrealistic. (When faced with a shortage, people don’t tend to politely reduce their consumption to a lower level, they rush to hunt for and grab the last item on the shelf, prying it from the hands of a nice old lady if needs be!). So, while the system was suitably connected to other mechanics, it was grossly unrealistic. We needed a new system!

For our new system, we started by creating a table outlining how much a typical town would spend on different categories of trade goods and items. For example, a town with a prosperity of 5000 will allocate, say, 500 denars to spend on grain, 400 denars to spend on meat and 200 denars to spend on butter each day. The town then uses the budget allocated to each category to purchase items of that category from the market and consume them. Moreover, every time an item is consumed, it will give a bonus to one of the town stats. Consuming food items, for example, will increase towns food stores, consuming tools will increase productivity, consuming cheaper weapons and armour will increase the number of militia, while more expensive arms will improve the garrison. This mechanism means that low prices are quite beneficial to the town’s development and consequently its lord since towns with cheaper goods can obtain much higher bonuses with their budgets.

This system nicely ties town stats and management to the price of goods, but it is also great for merchant gameplay as it allows us to gauge prices in a realistic way. Instead of the rather simplistic price model we used to have, we now have a rather detailed model that determines prices based on supply and demand for each category in a given town. Higher demand from town consumption, workshops requiring raw materials, etc., will increase demand and push prices up, whereas the availability of higher quantities of items will increase supply and deflate prices. As a trader, you will hopefully feel that prices behave realistically during peacetime, as well as, in response to actions such as wars, village raids and sieges.

During the development of the new trade system, an interesting point came up. As you probably know, in Warband, as in many other trading games, the price point changes every time you purchase an item from or sell an item to the market. This sometimes feels counter-intuitive since as soon as you purchase a desert horse for 100 denars, you see that the price jumps to 106 denars. And once you pay that for the second horse, the price now becomes 113 denars. You were perhaps expecting a discount for buying multiple items in one go, but instead, you got a price hike.

We considered whether we should keep using the same mechanic for Bannerlord, and in the end, we decided that this was actually entirely realistic and therefore opted to keep it. Think of this not as how the price of goods change in a single shop (with a particularly annoying shopkeeper!), but rather as prices of the same type of good in different shops across the town. One horse merchant may have a pack horse for sale for 106 denars, another could offer one for 113 denars, and yet another who perhaps needs cash urgently will let you buy his pack horse for a mere 100. Being a wise shopper, you, of course, choose the cheapest offer. However, if you want to purchase a second horse, you will now need to take the next best offer, and so on.

And that concludes this week’s blog. Thanks for reading and hope to see you next week!



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Hello! Today's 20XX 1.31.3 patch fixes a few more bugs and lets Nina's primary weapons fire a bit more often.

This patch will be followed up by another much quicker test/live push changing Nina's "inactive" shot timer to 0.75s (from 0.5s), but I'd like to give that patch a few days to breathe on test before pushing it live.

Additionally - we're currently looking for a bit of feedback on the game's future going forward as Batterystaple focuses on new projects full-time - please see that thread here.

Thanks for reading!

--

CHANGES:

• Zookeeper's Burden no longer grants a Skittery Smuggler in Challenge runs, or when the Bankrupt Skull is active (since it'll have nothing to eat).
  
• Nina's shots now count as "inactive" for purposes of her shot limit shortly after they spawn, instead of once they disappear. (This helps prevent the feeling that she's shot-locked without altering the the attack's speed or lifetime.)

FIXES:

• Fixed an online multiplayer issue causing weapon/power pickups to behave strangely in some setups.
  
• Fixed an issue causing Force Resonator, Armatort's Pound (Arm Core), and Scatterbeam to fail to work together properly.
  
• Fixed an issue causing The Volunteer to fail to convert Shops into Very Safe Labs.
  
• Fixed an issue causing the Back button to fail to back out of the WHC/DHC Skull lists.