Fall into line and ready your musket with the release of the Linebattle 2.0 major update for Holdfast: Nations At War. Featuring player progression and customisation, the sergeant class, a rework of the game’s classes, new animations for all firearms, improved audio and much more.
Celebrating this anticipated release, we’re slashing the price of the game to 65% and all its respective cosmetic DLCs to 15-20%. Now’s a better time than ever to join the beloved Holdfast community! We hope to see you soon on the battlefield with us.
Before taking a read below of all that will come with this major update to the game, why not first check out the update’s cinematic release trailer?
Grenadier Regiments DLC
Releasing alongside this update is the Grenadier Regiments DLC. Stand side by side with your fellow elites in dashing new uniforms available now.
Content present in Holdfast’s DLCs is purely cosmetic. It doesn’t and never will impact gameplay. Your kind generosity will be put to good use and bring this genre of roleplay warfare games which all of us are fond of into the limelight.
Battle-hardened soldiers will now be able to cosmetically display their skill through Holdfast’s new player progression and customisation mechanics.
Customisation is per faction and per class while also being tied into your class level. After reaching certain class levels players will be able to select from 17 new unlockable heads in the game, equip other nations' muskets, and melee weaponry and specify the pitch of their character's voice for shouts and calls.
Cavalry classes will also be able to unlock and select different horses to ride on.
Sergeants & Rocketeers
The sergeant arrives! This fearsome new class on the battlefield has the ability to order similar commands with buffs as the officer class to the rank and file and comes equipped with a long spontoon to face off any brave fellows who should dare challenge them.
Previously something only specific to the British Empire, the rocketeer class is now playable across all factions in Holdfast: Nations At War. Previous to this update this class served little to no gameplay purpose but it has been now redesigned to specifically excel at the use of rocket launchers.
Squads & Class Redesign
A variety of classes featured in Holdfast: Nations At War throughout this update have undergone a considerable rework to ensure classes not only have a place but also a purpose on the battlefield. This is the first version in a series of redesigns towards this effort.
Significantly reducing the amount of downtime and running spent on the game’s Napoleonic front, the flag forward position mechanic accessible to the officer class has now been redesigned to feature a squad system. Everyone apart of the squad including the officer himself will be able to spawn on this forward position making it easier to play the game in groups where the most fun is to be had. Additionally to this, more classes can now spawn on these forward positions.
Sappers now also have the ability to build ammo depots that can be strategically moved and placed around the battlefield to ensure everyone remains well equipped. Ammunition has been reduced across all weapons in balance with this.
Carpenters looking to deal some real up close and personal damage with their two-handed axe can now enter a berserk mode by pressing their ability button (default ‘Q‘) allowing them to swing their axe in additional directions while having a slight run speed increase.
There’s plenty more to this first version of the class redesign! The full extent of the class rework changes can be found within the class selection UI under the abilities and traits section and within the changelog of this blog post.
Animations & Audio
As part of our ongoing efforts to improve Holdfast, this update brings with it brand new animations for all firearms across the game’s Napoleonic front (excluding melee weapons). Featuring new reload and firing animations for both the muskets and pistols, new bayonet attaching and detaching animations and new healing animations for the surgeons amongst other animation tweaks and improvements.
As a result of these new animations, surgeons healing and soldiers attaching or detaching their bayonets can now perform these actions while crouching.
Reloading and firing sounds for muskets and pistols have been completely reworked. A small collection of maps now also feature unique in-world ambience sounds to further develop the atmosphere of Holdfast’s battlefields.
In-world audio across all maps is an ongoing process, those wishing to get a taste of what is to come on the audio front of the game should head down to the docks on Port Nile or sit with a picnic under the great oak tree on Ravenstone.
5 New Battlefields
In this release, we’re introducing 5 new linebattle-themed battle maps. Engage in heated volleys or glorious bayonet charges on Al Kimar Pyramids, Avignon, Pillerone Pass, Vanoise Heights or Hudree Marsh. Hop in, stand shoulder to shoulder and make your stand on these new battlefields!
Game Optimisations
Efforts to optimise the game for low to high-end PCs have continued throughout the development of the Linebattle 2.0 update. Bringing Holdfast to a wider audience by making the game increasingly accessible will continue to be at the forefront of development to further aid in bringing this leading title in the roleplay shooter genre into the limelight.
Experiment with different graphic preset settings in the game to gather the performance to graphical fidelity balance that you desire. This will not be the last time you’ll be hearing from us working on optimisation-oriented updates.
Map loading is now also significantly faster.
Community Discord
Whether you’re interested in modding, participating in community events or just wanting to get involved deeper within our great community, the Holdfast Discord is the place to be. It is your central hub for all things Holdfast and houses a plethora of channels dedicated to event and game announcements, regiment (clan) recruitment, game support, suggestions, history discussion and more.
Due to the unfortunate event of the team catching a touch of that COVID that’s been going around, we had to delay the release of the Napoleonic howitzer to the next update - Don’t you worry, however, there’s still plenty to enjoy in this update!
Big thanks to Ed, Charles E. Jesus, Mattrobes, Skyold, Nitropunch and all those good fellows who joined us in the testing prior to this update’s release.
Stay tuned for more Holdfast soon. As always, may good health be yours. ːrheartrː
- Anvil Game Studios
Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Wrexial, Walki, Jackson, Rejenorst, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan & Winston (The Cat).
Coming November 22 to Steam, the game fires you up in 12 exhilarating minutes of gameplay and cutscenes, fully showcasing an early level in Evil West’s narrative-driven campaign and an additional boss fight. Watch this new extended gameplay video:
The evil plot thickens
Today’s preview shows extended gameplay sequences and gives plenty of new narrative detail, introducing more plot and characters through the showcased level’s cutscenes.
Discover a cowboys-meet-historical-figures-meet-gothic-horror world of corrupted politics and covered-up vampire situations within which young gunslinger Jesse Rentier and his father’s vampire-hunting organization, the Rentier Institute, play a central part.
Then plunge into the heat of the action as the Rentier Institute experiences a major crisis! Fight virulent hordes of bloodthirsty monsters in a burning building, unleashing your old-school rifle and cutting-edge Rentier Institute technology in an explosive mix of shooting and melee combat. The vampire menace hit hard and it will be up to you to eradicate it, starting November 22!
We’ve got fantastic news you’ve been waiting for a while:
Nova Lands: Emilia’s Mission prologue will get a full release on 17th of October!
Emilia’s Mission is a prologue of the main game and will take you through the game’s mechanics at a slower pace, so that you can get a good feel of what Nova Lands is all about.
The prologue is completely free, so please wishlist both the Prologue and the main game to get immediate updates at the moment of release!
Another cool news is that our publisher, HypeTrain Digital, is running a Publisher Sale with discounts up to 90%, with tons of new reveals and free demos.
Be sure to check it out — if you like Nova Lands, chances are you might like something else there too!
After a few days of bench testing across several different machines a few obscure bugs popped up. These cover race conditions for threading and possible driver leak mitigations for intel Gpu's.
Intel drivers seem to have an issue with reporting out of memory when there is clearly plenty left. Reducing down the draw distance and maybe switching thread mode to serene under the config options can help.
No issues with other driver manufacturers have been discovered.
We’ve got fantastic news you’ve been waiting for a while:
Nova Lands: Emilia’s Mission prologue will get a full release on 17th of October!
Emilia’s Mission is a prologue of the main game and will take you through the game’s mechanics at a slower pace, so that you can get a good feel of what Nova Lands is all about.
The prologue is completely free, so please wishlist both the Prologue and the main game to get immediate updates at the moment of release!
Another cool news is that our publisher, HypeTrain Digital, is running a Publisher Sale with discounts up to 90%, with tons of new reveals and free demos.
Be sure to check it out — if you like Nova Lands, chances are you might like something else there too!
This is an exclusive skin for the Hero’s companion – it will not be available for purchase ever again.
Please note that its look has no impact on gameplay.
HypeTrain Digital Publisher Sale
Autumn is a season of harvest, and games are no exception! Our publisher HypeTrain Digital decided to join the festivities and arrange a mega sale to be held from 8 to 12 September. Apart from the biggest discounts of up to 90%, HypeTrain Digital Publisher Sale features new game reveals, free demos, and even 3 brand new releases, also on sale – definitely worth checking out!
Your Settler's Camp has to be minimum of Level 4 in order to participate in the Events
Critter Craze
How does Critter Craze work?
Collect Critters to earn rewards. They can be found hidden around the Settler's Camp and in different biomes. Look around the edges of the map
Event Rewards
What rewards can I earn by playing this event?
This Event contains a bunch of rewards that you can earn. From Trinkets, Event Land Blocks, and much more! Upon earning Event Blocks, you can consume them to unlock even more rewards on the Event Land!
Event Tracks
There are two tracks available for this event. The Free track and the Boosted track. The Boosted track can be unlocked by using Runic.
Critter Craze Trinket
After completing all 10 tiers, you will unlock a very unique Seasonal Trinket. Those can be equipped on your tools to increase power and transform your tool into unique appearances.
Community
Thank you for playing MergeCrafter!
We take our feedback and suggestions from our community very seriously and we, Fiveamp, want to make MergeCrafter the best game possible 😊
Please join our welcoming Discord Community server and share all of your feedback and suggestions!
In our last post we met Granny Malone and talked a little bit about the side quests that you’ll be undertaking for the many and varied characters you’ll be encountering along the Irish Coast throughout your adventure in Curse of the Sea Rats.
We touched on how some of these characters will unlock new areas of the map, give you key items needed to progress, and provide rewards for fulfilling their (sometimes outlandish) requests!
A Monkey’s Island
Certain characters even have unique mechanics associated with their questlines, and today we’ll be looking at Marcos & Amelio, a curious pair who seem to have gotten themselves into a spot of bother thanks to Amelio’s sticky fingers…
Like the other prisoners on board the HMS Barfleur, treasure-hunter Marcos and his loyal monkey companion, Amelio, were captured by the British while they were exploring the Caribbean in search of a mysterious figure…
In the chaos and confusion caused by Flora’s curse, Marcos and Amelio managed to escape their captors! Unfortunately, Amelio seems to have taken to the pirate lifestyle a bit too readily and has begun stealing and burying just about anything he can lay his paws on. At first, Amelio stole from strangers but has now started hiding Marcos’ belongings as well.
Marcos requests that you find and recover all the trinkets that Amelio has buried across the map. In exchange for your aid, Marcos will let you keep anything you dig up that doesn’t belong to him.
A Ground-breaking Discovery
To help unearth the missing belongings, Marcos supplies you with a handy shovel. Thankfully, Amelio isn’t quite as skilled at burying treasure as he is at stealing it, and as you traverse the Irish coast you’ll occasionally notice small mounds of dirt with half-buried objects just about visible.
By using your shovel, you’ll be able to dig up the hidden treasure, collecting as many as objects as you can find before returning to Marcos and turning in the goods. Found treasure will show up as Unearthed Chests in your inventory until you exchange them with Marcos who will reveal their contents.
Help Marcos retrieve all his goods from the mischievous monkey Amelio and reap the rewards!
That’s all for today but stay tuned as we’ll be back soon with another update soon!
It took us a while… but we’re back with a big patch with a lot of exciting stuff inside! A lot of new additions, changes, improvements, and fixes! Are you ready? Let’s start ;)
First of all, we would like to thank everyone who supports the game. We read the feedback you leave us. It helped us a lot, and we appreciate it! The development of the game is ongoing, and this is just the beginning of our journey. There is much more to come!
There are 5 main things that today's patch brings alongside others:
New main and side missions
We’ve added completely new main missions and malfunctions. We don’t want to spoil anything, just to make it more exciting for you ;) We hope you’ll like it!
All-new ping system
We created an entirely new ping system to improve communication between players. You will be able to tag elements in the game and quickly send pre-written messages to other crew members.
Unique traits for each character
From now on every character has a different set of two unique traits - one passive and one active. Active ones need to be initiated by pressing a dedicated button (“R” by default), while passive ones are always in effect.
Active traits will either consume Enzymes upon activation or require a cooldown period between uses.
Enzymes required for Active traits:
In the previous version of the game, they were called “loot”, and you could find epic or legendary loot. With this patch, it has changed, and instead of loot, we have Enzymes that are turned into Experience at the end of the game or can be used to activate the character trait. Each type of Enzyme costs a different amount of points.
Completely new weapons and items
- Decoy Gun
With its help you can create a movable distraction to draw the attention of the Intruders away from you and the rest of the crew.
- Plasma Gun
A powerful weapon, sending out a plasma beam that wreaks havoc. This weapon can become very useful.
- Glowstick
One of the new items is a glowstick. It will illuminate dark corners while keeping you at a safe distance.
- Medical boosters
They will give your characters various boosts for a short time. Remember that any medical booster can cause side effects, sometimes even serious ones, so use them carefully.
Some of the new items are much rarer than others. They’re not guaranteed to appear in every play session.
New secret room on the ship
To help you with your missions, we’ve created a secret room called “The Armory”. It’s a special room that can’t be hacked or unlocked through a Workstation. To open it you will need to find a special, hidden access card or solve a number of malfunctions.
Will you be able to get in there and see what's inside? ;)
That’s it! We hope you all will be happy and excited about the new additions to the game, and good luck out there!
And here are the rest of the patch notes:
new training/tutorial room
created a Compendium with information on all aspects of the game
new music and SFX
added a special way to kill the Adult Intruder
ship lights can now go out completely if the ship’s condition drops below a certain threshold
many improvements and fixes to the functionality of the game's lobby
difficulty selection by the host
increased visibility of ledges and vents
additional hiding spots were created across the ship
added ragdoll animations to dead players and enemies
added burning effects to Adult Intruders and Creepers
recolored items
new models for some quest items
toned down electric mine effect
added the ability to throw barrels in the "Destroy Nest" quest into the nest instead of needing to walk into it
finalized Plant Lab "tree" model
level art and lighting reworking and polish
better hand animations in the FPP view
tweaks to item spawn points
dead Creepers will now disappear after 60 seconds
improved Chat and Voice visibility at the Character Selection screen
optimization tweaks
mark "Play with Others" mode as Beta
fixed many other small bugs and issues
We have also prepared a video for you in which we have gathered all the information regarding the new patch so that you can familiarize yourself with it :)
That’s all for today, we want to thank you again, and we hope that you will stay with us in the game’s development process.
Stay tuned for more to come! And join our Discord to chat with us and the community, ask us anything, and give us your thoughts. We want to hear from you and we highly appreciate your feedback! Let's keep improving Nemesis: Distress together.
If you like the game and all the changes - don't hesitate to leave a positive review. It means a lot to us!
We're proud to announce that Outbreak: Shades of Horror is now 88%+ funded on Kickstarter in 7 days! We are so appreciative of everyone's support! If you haven't pledged yet, please get your pledge in now to help us get it funded today! If you already pledged, consider adding some of our add-ons into your pledge to help us get there faster!
As a reminder, once the game is funded on Kickstarter, we are committing to bring it to Steam on Windows and Linux natively!
We've just revealed that our first stretch goal in the campaign will be AI SURVIVOR TEAMMATES for online and offline play modes!
Whether you're playing alone, or in a partial group of friends online, you'll be able to add in some fellow ai survivors to assist you with battling the undead and surviving the nightmare. This is one of the most fan requested features in the series, and we hope you'll help us achieve it!