This patch adds to following:
- Throwables: Firebombs and grenades. Both are created at an upgrade herbalist station after researched, or by looting human attackers whom sometimes have them.
- Units with throwables can be ordered to attack ground, in case you want to burn down a forest or such.
- A new enemy: Ghouls. Similar to those in the first game, but with a unique attack ability.
- New weapons and gear: tower shields, in metal and wood, flintlock pistols and blunderbusses. All have relevant research related to them.
- Three new research options, all increasing storage capacity. Also, barrels have one additional upgrade step.
- New tactical options, like giving units positions to go to when the village is attacked and set their behaviors when encountering enemies.

This patch changes/fixes following:
- Pathfinding has been greatly improved and villagers will no longer take work which they cannot access or try to reach storages which they can't.
- Work order priorities have been improved and balanced, having units making better decisions on whom to do what, etc.
- Attackers AI have been improved, both undead and human. Humans will now also attack drawbridges with ranged weapons.
- Several menus have been fixed and improved, especially the research menu.
- Several bugs and crashes have been fixed/removed as well as several lags fixed.
- Durability on ranged weapons will now slowly decrease each use. Weapons with low quality will decrease much faster.
- Blocking and dodging now takes in to consideration if the attack is coming from behind or not.
- Animations have been added to units crafting medicine.
- Several balanced to gear being damaged, like wooden shields will no longer break so easily.
- Brawls will last longer.

Those are at least the main things, but as always there have been much more which I'm blanking on/can't read my own scribbled notes. It may not seem like that much but I believe these changes and additions will really improve the game.

As always: I stand very ready to throw in a hot-fix should this patch cause something unforseen (which is very likely since it makes many fundamental changes), so please let me know!

Next big patch will most likely include world travel, so stay tuned!
A billion thanks for all feedback, support and kind words - It means the world to me! Please keep it coming so I can make this game as good as possible!

Best wishes and all the love!
//Mattias

You know, for a story-line called ‘Lost in Transit’ we sure seem to find a lot of great stuff… While the finalé and heist are still a little way out, we still have a lot of goodies to deliver for you weapon enthusiasts out there, and for all the Lost in Transit bundle owners.

Gemma McShay, our new weapons contact in Texas, delivers another package brimming with weapons and options. Three new weapons each with their own unique flavor to bring to the table. The package also contains a total of 15 mods and each weapon gets its own Exclusive Set, we must’ve been really good in a previous life to earn this because we certainly haven’t been in this life.

First off we have the Kahn .357 revolver, the first ever revolver in PAYDAY 2 that lets you pick between 6 or 8 rounds with the click of a mod, for a full 16 rounds in akimbo. It also offers quite a fast rate of fire. Then we have the VD-12 shotgun, available either as a powerful single weapon or still powerful albeit slightly smaller version of itself in akimbo. Gemma is also bringing out a very special treat with the Hailstorm Mk 5 prototype, a small caliber weapon with the ability to fire all 15 barrels at once to bring the hailstorm to, well, Hailstorm.’

As an extra treat, we get an Exclusive Set for each of the new weapons, giving you a unique and exciting style for each of the weapons in this set.




As is tradition when we add new content, we like to add a little bit of spice that is available to anyone owning the base game of PAYDAY 2 as well. This time we decided to deliver on a popular request after we previously introduced Viper grenades; Tombstone slugs. This new ammo type for shotguns will allow you to really make your opponents get down with the sickness, with the ability of poison. This will cause them as much nausea as the police chief will face when he receives the medical bills after each heist.

There are also two new weapon charms available, allowing you to further customize the visual appearance of your weapons. Show your support for your local sports team with the Home Team charm, or send subliminal messaging to your fellow heisters about what your plans are for the after-heist party at the Safe House with the Drink Up charm.



Keep those helmets flying.
OVERKILL_Tobias
OVERKILL - a Starbreeze Studio.

Find the Changelog Here!

Over the Moon, Coatsink and Thunderful are extremely excited to announce that you’ll be able to take a trip to the pixelated world of video games in The Last Hero of Nostalgaia from October 19, 2022!

With full online co-op from beginning to end, five distinct classes to choose from, as well as a whole host of strange realms to explore with Easter Eggs and well-kept secrets to uncover, you may never want to leave.


The Last Hero of Nostalgaia has been a labor of love for Over the Moon and this is their tribute to the Dark Souls series, with a heavy focus on well-polished mechanics, fully developed characters, and an over-arching humorous narrative filled with wicked twists and turns.

In Nostalgaia, everything has collapsed backward into a mysterious pixelation with every particle of fidelity bleeding away. As the lighting dims and the frames diminish, one final hope emerges as the world itself seems on the very brink of extinction.

As the most hideous pixelated hero to ever spawn in Nostalgaia, you must fight through an army of mindless inhabitants, all while being jeered by a cynical narrator who despises your very existence.

With a plethora of reference filled suits of armor and familiar weapons, each with their own unique lore and attributes you must ‘remember’ in order to unlock their true potential, you are all that stands in the way of the land of Nostalgaia disintegrating into nothingness.



The best part is you don’t need to wait until October 19 to visit. We’re also very excited to announce that we’ve just released a demo for The Last Hero of Nostalgaia which you can download for free on Steam right now! This explores the opening portion of the game and lets you get a feel for this rich and complex world.

You can even come visit the Thunderful booth at EGX in the ExCel Center, London this weekend and play it with us!

And don’t worry, we didn’t forget our friends on Xbox. If you’re looking to play there, pre-orders will open from October 3!

Let us know if you’re up to the challenge and how you get on! If you dare…

Update size: 587.6MB

• Fixed a graphical issue that occurred when the Ladrón de Pollos charm was equipped on a weapon.
  
• Fixed a graphical issue that occurred when Ethan equipped the Pistolero gloves and charged the Electrical Brass Knuckles
  
• Dragons Breath rounds effective range has been reduced from 30 to 14 meters. Enemies further than +14 meters from target won't ignite.
  
• Cross-save between Linux/Windows has been disabled to ensure stability of Linux saves

Updates may be incompatible with the mods you may have installed. Even seemingly unrelated mods may cause unexpected issues. If you are experiencing any issues with the game; try removing any mods you may have installed and try again.

If you are having issues with an unmodded game you can try to verify the integrity of the game files. In the steam library; right click on PAYDAY 2. Select ""Properties"" from the menu. Under the tab ""LOCAL FILES"" select ""VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME FILES..."".
The process may take some time to finish.

Keep those helmets flying!
OVERKILL_Tobias
OVERKILL - a Starbreeze Studio.

• Fixed shield ability effect won’t scale by the size of the ball.
  
• Fixed force applied to the ball when its size is set to < 1.
  
• Fixed shield ability’s chest consumed prematurely, causing the ability’s pickup to never spawn, thus not possible to get the actual ability.

Skye and her Handy Pals are looking for a new pal to help them out on her lovely lil' garden! Think you're up for the job?




Explore the garden and meet new friends!



Dig up some holes, plant some seeds and make those flowers bloom!



Have fun with your fellow Handy Pals!

Hello, and welcome to this week's Dev Diary!
I am HOI’s 2D artist and am the one who makes the little buttons, icons, and whatever gets thrown in my way for you to look at and push on, and today I have gotten the opportunity to talk about my work!
So let’s start at the beginning, how does a project start, and how and when do artists get involved?

Being an artist on a project such as Hearts of Iron is not an easy piece of work. You need to be on your toes and ready to adapt to whatever task your colleagues want help to solve. It usually involves a bit of text and a ton of reference material. And to gather all of these things we use a tool called Miro.


It’s essentially an online whiteboard that can be used however fits you and your team best. On our Miro, we separate the features into columns that give you a quick overview of what we need to complete for the upcoming update.
The columns are usually divided into Focus trees and Features that are expected to get art during the project.
As the project starts it’s not uncommon for the Miro to be a bit empty. A lot of the research for what can be used, artwise, is a pretty heavy task to bite into with all copyrighted photos out there. Our amazing content designers spend quite a lot of time on valuable research, sorting out what is necessary for the game to make sense as well as adding flavour to your gameplay. And yes, this takes a fair amount of development time to gather all this valuable information as well as imagery that will communicate the right thing for you when you play HOI.

As time goes on, more art tasks will fill up the Miro board. So, for an artist at the beginning of a project, it can range from doing some cleanup work on older icons or portraits, starting to work on loading screens, continuing setting up the Miro board for the DLC to their taste or helping with another project that needs some extra art-hands.

But back to BBA and our work there!
We already know what kind of art we want to have for each focus tree, it's more the quantity that is a fluctuating number at this point and it's still uncertain how much we can make in-house. I always try to convince my CDs to ask for art to their heart's content because we always prioritise what needs to be done so the things that matter the most get the art it deserves first.
When all High Prio art is done, if time allows we continue with Medium and last of course the Low. We also have, for whenever we manage to wrap up art in a timely manner, a special section that is called a “wish-list” or Corner of Shame. It's essentially Low Prio art but stuff that maybe was more of an afterthought or just forgotten for a Feature or a Tree that would be extra sweet if it got some new shiny textures.

Without giving too much away, here's a heavily zoomed-out version of how a Miro board can look like that I as an artist work with. And yes, I was in charge of all the Focus trees and the Plane Designer for this DLC (granted I did not make all the art, we also outsource).


We use a colour code to communicate what's going on on the board! All of them also have a little stamp on them to mark what Prio it has as well as a text section where CDs write what they want to communicate with the icon they request. As you probably can see, there's quite a lot of information that needs to be shared between the departments before art can be worked on.
It’s our transparent way to communicate with each other, CD’s can see how much I have done and how much I have left. They can also see my schedule on what I’ll be working with each day. This means that CDs can also ask to get prioritisation over each other if their Focus tree or Feature requires art sooner rather than later and this is constantly brought up and talked about on our syncs together.
Communication 👏 is 👏 key!

Here is an example of how a request turns into an icon (that you may or may not already have seen):
This is a typical request.
It has an in-game name displayed, reference images provided as well as a description of what my CD wants out of the icon. It is also prioritised!


And this is how it ends up looking!
Since we have quite the large art-library by now I can quickly iterate on what type of background works the best as well as reuse different layer styles to make the icon feel cohesive and on-style with the rest.
I also made sure to hit all the marks from the requests such as;

• At least one donkey
  
• The donkey should carry (at least) a supply
  
• Add wheat bundles without overcrowding the icon.

When the icon is in either a conceptual phase (putting the requested items together without rendering it further) or simply put together from our art library, I of course share the progress with the CDs so they can have to say their yay or nay. If I hit or missed the mark with the request if we need to re-think the icon in itself or just a 10/10 beautiful icon, ship it! 🚢
Also, one thing to keep in mind when doing these types of icons is remembering their size. All the things that a CD may want in an icon may not fit in the end or make it more or less unreadable because all the things together will just create noise.
That's when we artists step in and “take over” so to say with simplifying without losing the information that the icon should communicate.

This is also a typical request when a CD isn’t 100% sure on what would or could look the best and leaves that up for me to figure out:

Icons are requested the same throughout the art process, so name, description, and prio are all there.
It's just that this time I didn’t get any reference material and that's perfectly normal!

And this is the result!

• I have the silhouette of Africa
  
• Railroad
  
• And industry
  
• And of course, a background to frame it all on

Had I added coins to show off investment I would have crowded the icon. We usually have a rule of max three things in one icon to communicate what's necessary. After three it can start to become muddy.
Example of adding coins to this icon to communicate investment:

• Immediately crowded
  
• Silhouette of Africa is no longer a focus and is hidden
  
• The coins stealing the show

Use good Tools for communication, whatever that may be for you and your team.
Be honest and transparent with what's going on, what you need to do your part, and when you need it to estimate the time left on the project.
CDs do research, CDs request art, Artist look at the requests/ask questions, Artist make art, Artist share art with CDs and so the circle is complete.

Now when you kind of know how artists, or at least I, do work with content and for the project I would also like to share how the loading screen got worked on for BBA!

Ahh shit, here we go again.
Yes, I was thinking that we could get a little re-cap on how it is to not just make icons and portraits, but also be flexible and knowledgeable enough to pull off a loading screen. We artists are a jack of many trades so to speak and we do need to be able to adapt to a lot of different types of art tasks that need to be done for a project.

So, how is a loading screen created? It usually always starts with a prompt or a vision from one of either designers or content designers that are heavily involved in the upcoming DLC.
Essentially we want the loading screen/splash screen to communicate something in relation to the DLC, this time we want to focus on Italy and planes. Mostly because Italy has been heavily requested and we want to shine a spotlight on the country as well as showcase the plane designer!

The prompt is “Italian and American fighters incoming in a dogfight over Italian landscape”

Cool. Let's go ahead and make some thumbnails then!


Once again several thumbnails are presented for the others to choose from. Typical hierarchy methods are used here, black = most visually interesting, grey = further away and white/light grey = low focus.

The last one, A3+5 was chosen and started to get some more details in a simple greyscale set-up. This time I quickly wanted to take it into colour and started to experiment with what kind of setting looked best.


After going with a more sunset/evening vibe, because it looks more epic, I started to experiment with the range of those colour schemes as well as trying out some different styles.

Here you also can see that I had no idea I was painting the wrong plane but that doesn't matter because we are still very early in the process and just trying to find a good mood.

I also noticed that the balancing of the image was off since we need to take into consideration the different kinds of resolutions it's gonna sit on. So to solve this I pushed the whole image down and (thankfully) it was just drawing more sky this time!

(still, the wrong plane, don't worry about it)

The render phase is coming up and I’m not gonna lie, I’m not too excited to draw hard surfaces.
But luckily we have a fantastic 3D artist on the team that needs to model some planes for the DLC anyway! He was generous enough to pose the plane for me on top of my background and now it's just painting over them a bit to make them blend into the image and look cohesive.

(3D render of the planes)


(3D render on top of WIP background)

What's needed now for the next step is to make the planes work together with the background as well as paint more details in the clouds.
I also need to add details such as motion blur to make the planes go woosh, which is a dilemma. How much do you paint before the details you put in get lost from said motion blur? Let's find out… the hard way 😌


Along the way, I also realised… what if we tilt the plane some more to have the wing cut through the cloud better.
Needless to say, I asked our 3D artist to tilt his model and render a new one which he so kindly did.

Looks nice 👌

But back to figure out the BG again.
After some back and forth with rendering in and out clouds as well as doing some touchup to the landscape I think I finally landed on something that I was happy with.

Adding motion blur, air trails, and a propeller as well as bounce-light and painting in the sky in the plane's window I think I made it work nicely together.
And the loading screen is done ✨


And now for something completely different! I was thinking that you guys might be tired of reading about the art process now so I’m just gonna drop a bunch of art stuff for you at this point.
Please, enjoy the small selection of what's to come for BBA!

Cute misc icons:


Focus icons:


Portraits:
Italy:













Switzerland:







Ethiopia:








Why yes, we can’t forget about the achievements for BBA now can we?
We always think about what type of achievement can be done for each DLC. This time around I hope you guys will have a few laughs and also maybe think “well that's easy” or “oh no… how?”

…and you get a canton, everybody gets a canton!
As Switzerland, have 24 states.


I’m not locked in here with you…
As Switzerland, declare war on Germany and win.


Swiss Cheese
As Switzerland annex 5 states that are not contiguous with each other or Switzerland.


You Shall Not Pass
As Switzerland, win a defensive war without ever losing Western Swiss Alps, Eastern Swiss Alps or Ticino.


The Lion that Roared
As Ethiopia, without being in a faction, force the Italians to make peace. Again.


The Lion King
As Haile Selassie, declare yourself “King of Kings” and control Kenya and Tanzania.


This time for Africa
As Ethiopia, found the African Union and have it encompass at least 13 different countries with capitals in Africa.


Crusader Kings IV
Take Jerusalem as Ethiopia and move the capital there.


The Red Sea
As Ethiopia, go communist and take all the states that border the Red Sea.


Holy, Roman, and an Empire
As the Pope, restore Rome.


Pizza Time!
As Italy, occupy New York, Chicago and Hawaii.


Collect all the Romes
As Italy, continue holding onto the First Rome, and gain the second and third Rome.


Nothing personal, Adolf
As Italy, take Austria before the Anschluss and never enter a faction with a fascist Germany (before 1945).


Not today
As communist Italy, save Gramsci from the brink of death, make him the leader of Italy and form the Italian National Union.


This time it will stick
As any Allied Nation (in faction with a democratic Britain), enforce a peace deal on Germany that disarms the Rhineland and makes it a demilitarized zone.


By Beer Alone
As Germany, control Budweis, Tsingtao, and Guinness directly or through a faction member.


By merit alone
Promote a Unit Commander to a general, and reach max level.


Snakes on a plane
As Brazil, capture Rome with paratroopers.



Of course, we need to show, last but definitely not least, the 3D art that was made for BBA \o/
(some are still WIP 🤫)


T-posing soldiers o7


Cute tanks ❤️



Adorable planes 🛩️




And with that, I’ll wrap up this week's, and last DD for By Blood Alone!
Thank you for hanging around for this long, I truly hope you enjoyed getting a peek behind the curtain of a HOI4 production!

/CreamGene

Play the role of an electrician and learn the basics of electricity. Just like in real life, fix broken stuff, assemble sockets, repair gamepads, remote controls, speakers, plugs, chandeliers, change light bulbs, and lay wires. Be sure to check everything twice, there is no room for mistakes!






Join our chat during Livestream and write with us! Gaming Factory's Discord




Prepare for us a design of the lamp, which we will be able to introduce into the game, it can be a model, drawing, or graphics. Visualize the appearance of this lamp and you can describe to us how it should work.

The rules are simple:

• Please publish your submissions on artwork section from your Steam account or on our contest-dedicated Discord channel
  
• You have time until October, 3rd
  
• The results of the competition will be announced by October, 10th
  
• The winning design will be selected by the developers and added to the game after the results are announced

See you!
Take IT Studio!

Mark Thy Calendars: Medieval RTS The Valiant Releasing October 19th 2022

Budapest, Hungary / Vienna, Austria, September 21st, 2022: Sharpen your sword, saddle your horse, and don your armor: medieval RTS The Valiant will be out on PC on October 19th, 2022. The game's focus is on intense tactical battles, fought by a small number of specialized troops, instead of massive armies clashing together. The Valiant offers a 16-mission-long story campaign, a new game+ mode, a cooperative "Last Man Standing" game mode, and - last but not least - PVP mayhem with up to 4 players.

In the latest trailer, The Valiant shows off the different biomes that players will visit in the campaign: from the burning deserts of the Holy Land to the icy mountain peaks of the Alps,
and from the green and lavish Southern-German grasslands to the massive fortifications of Italy, the heroes will embark on an epic adventure across Europe.

Check out the Environment-Trailer on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yywz0jt5ZRI

Wishlist now:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/959860/The_Valiant/

Follow The Valiant on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thqnordic
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thqnordic
Join our Discord: https://discord.com/invite/thevaliant

Enjoy & stay tuned!

You’ve wanted it, you’ve been waiting for it and it’s finally here: the Cataclysm is upon us!



This special event will change the face of Fortuna III for the remainder of Season 1. The surface is more dangerous than ever but also strangely rewarding, in its own catastrophic ways. The ecosystem’s balance is shaken to its very core as the weather gets even rougher.

Days are shorter as storms and spikes become ever more frequent. This constant change of atmosphere is throwing pilots of balance... but at the same time, they’re feeling just that much bolder. Evac will only be possible during a storm, so prepare for some bumpy rides!

In a weird twist of fate, the biologic and geologic impact turns out to be quite a boon for intrepid Prospectors. Creature parts are much easier to collect, and the natural aggressions allow the pelted rocks and soil to unearth their rarest materials.

Finally, meteors are falling at an increased frequency, and they’re not exactly what one would expect. They look different. They have a different glow. One would say they almost feel... alien. Who knows what those new celestial bodies might contain in their very core?

One thing’s for sure: all Hell’s about to break lose, and Prospectors are more than ready to jump on this opportunity.

For easier reference, here’s a quick list of what you can expect during the event:

• Increased spawn rate and speed of meteor showers.
  
• New Alien Meteor Shards found in meteor cores. Those are used to craft Legendary weapons.
  
• Better loot for monsters, including an increased drop rate for heads.
  
• Largely increased spawn rate of rare mineral nodes.
  
• Storms are not constant, but they are much more frequent and the days are shorter.
  
• The K-Mark cost of all weapons has been dramatically reduced.
  
• Evac is only available during a storm. Plan your escape accordingly.

This event will help you fill your pockets with loot and riches while allowing you to try out some of the most high-grade weapons in the game. Don’t forget that Season 2 will start with a progression wipe, so don’t hold back and enjoy these few days of lavish abundance!