Hey mighty gladiators, just a small update today - my attention right now is fully focused on Gorgon Shield but I hope to return to the world of Swords and Sandals in 2024!

Patch notes for today

V 1.1.3.D (Dec 19 2023):
• Removed version compatibility check on multiplayer ( experimental )
• Fixed flipped alignment on enemy panel

The Winter Wonderland Weekly Challenge is here once again! Get a fresh new does of Lifeslide gameplay and unlock special Christmas skins that will be yours to keep FOREVER!

To celebrate Lifeslide's first Christmas on Nintendo Switch, our team has prepared a special competition with real prizes! Participate in the Winter Wonderland event between December 18th and 31st, for a chance to win one of 10 Lifelside hoodies!

To learn how to win one of the hoodies, go to our official challenge rules page HERE.

Happy holidays from the Dreamteck Team!

Dev Bites - Issue Two

Welcome to our second issue of dev bites! While our last update focused heavily on improving performance and updating the appearance of the police station, this next upcoming update aims to improve elements of the User Experience (UX) as well as the inclusion of various new features thanks to an update to our game engine.

Overview

• User Experience and Quality of Life Updates
  
• Grunt vampire visual update
  
• Unreal Engine 5.3 update
  
• Performance Features
  
• Sound Updates
  
• Anti-Aliasing & DLSS 3.5
  
• Lighting Improvements

This upcoming update contains a significant User Interface (UI) overhaul aiming to improve the overall user experience with changes to management of the players interaction within the game world.



We are currently testing the updated inventory and journal system. These UI systems have been replaced with a much slicker digital tablet which players can use to access their items and information gathered.



The journal specifically will be receiving some improvements including general reorganization to help players access the information they need faster.



The vampire grunts have also had a visual pass, with male and female versions of the vamps. We have given them more of a terrifying look with more expression and presence in the world.



We are also concepting different behavior for them to give them more of a threatening feeling. We will see what the outcome is in the next update.

With this latest update comes the opportunity to incorporate additional performance improvements. Top of our list is the inclusion of Nanite Landscapes, a rendering technique which we were unable to implement until now. The landscape (the ground outside) can be fairly expensive to render. We use nanite to minimize the GPU cost of rendering assets in the game, so being able to apply this technique to the landscape is expected to help with GPU rendering times.

In a similar vein, we have improved the performance of our corpse models whilst also improving their appearance close up. The old bodies were a little low quality when searching them, so we felt it appropriate to improve their overall appearance. The new bodies have more Levels Of Details (LODs) which help to reduce the cost of rendering bodies at distance. Additionally, the new bodies have improved materials which are also faster to render without sacrificing visual quality.


One aspect of the engine upgrade which has required some additional attention is the sound system. The under-the-hood audio system has been reworked to be compatible with the latest engine version.

Thankfully, after a few days of wrangling the system, these issues have now been resolved. The game's audio is now mostly identical to how it was in the last patch with some additional improvements along the way. For example, some of the sounds The Noble would make could be fairly confusing if he was on a floor above or below the player. Now, his sounds travel differently so that players can better understand The Noble’s location.

More sounds are now binaural. These sounds replicate sound as a real person hears them, making them sounds more immersive and easier to track.

Furthermore, we are currently experimenting with several new sounds. New heavier footstep sounds for The Noble are being trialed which are more befitting a gentleman of his size, as well as new screaming sound effects for the other adversaries.

We can now allow players to change their anti-aliasing method. Players are now welcome to mix and match their anti-aliasing settings with other settings to find a healthy balance of visual quality and performance. Please check your game options to find the setting best for you.

The latest engine upgrade also gives us access to the latest version of DLSS. DLSS 3.5 offers NVIDIA card users additional performance gains. Notably, DLSS was only available for 30-series and 40-series GPUs, but is now available on older cards too.

We have had some success in reducing some of the visual rendering artifacts happening on screen. For players able to run the game with ray-tracing enabled, new shadow ray-tracing helps provide a significantly clearer image in darker areas.

We have also taken measures to reduce the blotchy effects that the Lumen lighting system can cause in some circumstances.

We were pleased to see that optimisation had improved from the last patch. However, we are still hearing many reports of performance related issues which we are keen to address quickly. We will be continuing to improve performance as much as we can in the coming weeks.

We’re also excited to start implementing our plans for challenges and difficulty sliders. These changes are going to let players have a great deal of customizability of their games.

We just wanted to let everybody know that the Blood Eater team is going to be taking a short break over the holiday period from the 23rd December to the 2nd January. Rest assured, development will be continuing with full steam ahead from the start of the New Year.

We are currently testing the latest build internally. There is a chance we may have a new patch ready before the end of the week. Keep your eyes peeled for an update this Friday or shortly after the winter break depending on our progress. We’ll keep you up to date as the week goes on.

Ring in the holidays with the Winter Wonderland event! Check out our heroes celebrating in style with all-new Holiday skins. Play games, earn tickets, and unlock one free legendary skin of your choice – choose from Formalwear Cassidy or Baptise, or Winter Jammies Illari. Dive into the action with returning fan-favorite event modes like Mei’s Snowball Offensive and Yeti Hunt, with new challenges and rewards.

- Fix Ref. Image placement
- Time of day can now be advanced by pressing F4
- New block models
- Freecam function added (F7 Key)
- Teleporting function added (F6 Key while freecam is enabled, then F6 again)
- Ability to show build images in grid while loading them in Main menu
- Discord integration
- Z key tries to stabilize build
- Added new PAINT settings (Reflective, Emissive, Additive, Toon)
- Ability to change pivot point for blocks
- Misc. Bugfixes

USS Mississippi is a New Mexico-class Battleship built at the end of WWI to continue the American ‘standard battleship’ design philosophy. You’ll soon be able to obtain this unique ship by taking part in the Winter Extreme event!


Features:

• Numerous 14’’ primary guns.
  
• Excellent protection.
  
• Powerful anti-air arsenal.
  
• Mediocre mobility.

USS Mississippi will soon be joining the top ranks of the American naval tree as one of its newest and most capable battleships which you’ll be able to obtain by taking part in the Winter Extreme event. Keen to find out more about this powerful new ironclad? Then join us as we explore the details below!




Being a New Mexico-class battleship, which in itself largely represents a repeat of the Pennsylvania-class already familiar to the game, the USS Mississippi nevertheless brings in some handy improvements over its predecessor which, if you’re a seasoned battleship player, are sure to appreciate! For instance, while USS Mississippi retains the same primary gun battery of 12 x 14’’ cannons and an almost identical armor layout as the USS Arizona, the former foes feature a bolstered secondary battery with up to 16 x 5’’ cannons in single turrets.

Furthermore, the anti-aircraft armament found on USS Mississippi corresponds to a late war refit which saw a substantial upgrade in this aspect. As a result, this ship has access to a total of 48 x 40mm and 34 x 20mm autocannons in quadruple and twin mounts, respectively. While this translates into a formidable AA shield, you’ll have a significantly more difficult time performing successful bombing and torpedo runs on the USS Mississippi.

Interesting: After the end of WWII, USS Mississippi took on different roles including gunnery training and being used as a weapons test platform. As such, her arsenal also varied over time, ranging from semi-automatic 6’’ turrets to even surface-to-air missiles!

While the USS Mississippi features superior firepower and protection, like most of her heavyweight relatives in the U.S. naval tree, this warship cannot boast about its mobility. Despite the fact that USS Mississippi features an improved turbo-electric propulsion system, generating slightly more power output compared to USS Arizona, both warships maintain the same level of mobility with a top speed of 21 kts (39 km/h).



As a result, quickly evading incoming enemy fire or torpedoes may present itself as a challenge while using the USS Mississippi. Equally, it may be difficult to change positions with USS Mississippi, resulting in a need for careful planning of combat maneuvers right at the start of a match. Either way, USS Mississippi will form the core of a team’s striking force, being capable of delivering a high destructive potential to the enemy ranks while also managing to hold its own in an intense firefight!

All in all, USS Mississippi represents an excellent reinforcement to the American top rank battleship lineup and is a worthy prize for those of you who are going the full nine yards in this year’s winter event, Winter Extreme. Happy hunting and calm seas!

-bug fix
-added menu for static and animated

• Added slow move input to build mode
  
• Added FastMove / SlowMove to keybindings
  
• Added build move speed to control settings
  
• Added speed input to build ghost camera
  
• Added build mode setting for adjusting placement when scaling
  
• Added "Remove all waypoints" to server tab
  
• Added "Stop all activities" to server tab
  
• Added unwrap mode for materials
  
• Added part destruction indicator to hull integrity
  
• Added reset zoom keyboard options
  
• Added fuel cable visualization during placement
  
• Added transfer warning dialog to inform the player if the runway or drydock already has a vessel when attempting to transfer
  
• Added "Long fuel connector"
  
• Added "BoatTunnel" part
  
• Activities can now be accessed from the map
  
• Transfering vessels now removes the original
  
• In progress vessels that have no been saved will no longer be deleted when exiting the build area
  
• Made part filter button tooltips faster
  
• Fixed some sync issues with crates
  
• Fixed bug where picking up crates from the bottom of a stack would not cause the stack to fall
  
• Fixed a PhysX bug with ropes and mirrored parts
  
• Fixed bug with amount dialog
  
• Fixed bug where waypoints on the map can display over UI / buttons
  
• Fixed a warning in main menu
  
• Fixed a multiplayer bug where Nautikins revived on vessels could float slightly until they move
  
• Fixed timing issues with complex boats with many seats that could cause problems with Nautikins
  
• Fixed multiplayer bug that caused control to be released when destroying someone elses seat
  
• Fixed a bug with aircraft audio when joining sessions
  
• Fixed multiplayer bug related to rejoining / respawning client vessels after disconnecting during spawn
  
• Fixed a spawn order problem related to sub vessels
  
• Fixed some problems with immortal async threads
  
• Fixed some map bugs where icons would move around on clients while being launched / recovered
  
• Fixed a bug with store inventory calculations and amount dialog
  
• Fixed a bug with fuel transfer rate when engine is running and both tanks are full
  
• Fixed some timing issues with dropping items and players joining in multiplayer
  
• Fixed a bug with collision event tracking related to items
  
• Fixed Ramp part config
  
• Fixed some problems with material groups related to lights
  
• Fixed some weird behavior with undoing mirror parts
  
• Fixed a bug with Unity logging
  
• Fixed a bug with ballast tanks being controlled in aircraft mode
  
• Fixed a bug with fog lights
  
• Fixed a bug with platforms related to spontaneous levitation
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented using crew disembark button as observer
  
• Fixed a bug with platform movement and rotated parts
  
• Fixed a bug with platform movement in first person
  
• Fixed a multiplayer bug with Server cleanup all options
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed exiting the build area while a vessel was still being loaded
  
• Fixed a bug that allowed loading in build area while a vessel was still being loaded
  
• Fixed a bug where server tab could become enabled on client
  
• Fixed a bug with cleaning up items
  
• Blind fix for some spatial audio issues
  
• Center of mass will now reset to default position when re-entering an empty build area
  
• Center of mass will now reset when creating a new vessel prior to placing the first part
  
• Improved jet engine placement for normal align
  
• Nautikins now adjust for sea level changes in multiplayer
  
• Anchor chains will now change max length with sea level changes to prevent pulling small boats underwater
  
• Changed the way physics works when attaching boats to docks with ropes to better match harpoons
  
• Changed behavior for adjustments for parts with placement triggers
  
• Changed default chat enable state in multiplayer for server
  
• Improved physics behavior when Nautikins are tied to objects
  
• Improved position sync when launching vessels as clients
  
• Can no longer attach ropes to climbing Nautikins
  
• Activities will now populate while the UI is open when new activities are available
  
• Activities will now update in multiplayer on clients when the server changes activities while the UI is open
  
• "Paint mode" now displays as "Paint" to save space
  
• Updated configs for fixed weapon normal align
  
• Updated welder LODs
  
• Stores no longer attempt to calculate cost in sandbox mode
  
• Airport buy shack now sells fuel cables
  
• Improved buy shacks ability to refill multiple stacks
  
• Improved dropping items at feet when obstructed
  
• Store inventories are now cleared when full of sold items
  
• Store inventory UI will now refresh if you happen to have it open when it refills
  
• Buy shacks now have more slots
  
• Fuel cable setup will now cancel when you change Nautikins and other obvious cases
  
• No longer prevented from using ropes while on ladders
  
• Fuel connection will now cancel if connector is destroyed
  
• Fuel cables will no longer be destroyed when they lose line of sight
  
• Fuel cables will now be destroyed when they impact something with significant force
  
• Fuel connection setup can now be canceled with right click the same as ropes
  
• Fuel cables can now be destroyed by projectiles
  
• Fuel cable setup is now started with right click to accommodate other options
  
• Items dropped on parts that have been destroyed will now be destroyed
  
• Dropped items will now move with moving parts
  
• Updates to debug info
  
• Steam client send buffer failure will now trigger an auto disconnect
  
• Build mode undo stack is now more robust
  
• Mirror mode is now tracked by undo stack
  
• Logging now prints game version
  
• Audio sources are no longer pooled
  
• Flares can no longer damage vessels
  
• Current activity details are now cleared when ending activity on server
  
• Mod manager now checks to see if mod is already loaded when attempting to load a mod after rejoining a session
  
• Improved vessel angle synchronization in multiplayer

This build mostly contains things that were pushed out of the last build for one reason or another, including some user requests.

Vessels that have not been saved or vessels with unsaved changes will no longer disappear when clicking the "Exit" button in the drydock. Instead the in progress vessel will sit there until the next time you activate that build area. This is useful when exiting the drydock to check on other things rather than launching. Additionally launching a vessel does not remove the in progress vessel from memory so the behavior of "Exit" and "Launch" will now be consistent. The only way to clear it out now will be a deliberate action such as creating a new vessel or loading a different one.

The goal of the rope changes is to make boats more maneuverable while tied to docks and prevent boats being pulled underwater with tide changes. It is still possible to get pulled under with ropes if you do not tie them off above the water.

Slow move is activated with the space bar. Slow move can be used in combination with Fast move to produce a sort of medium movement speed relative to the normal movement.

The unwrap mode is similar to the paint mode for materials in that it changes the appearance of the material, mainly to make smaller shapes look better / less tiled when scaled larger. Tiling is the default mode. Some meshes work well with unwrap, mostly uncomplicated parts like cubes and simple shapes, other things like complex hulls need to be reworked maybe in the future to better support unwrapping. Not everything will look good unwrapped.

The part destruction indicator will become active if a part is destroyed meaning the boat is beyond repair and that the hull integrity may not represent the status of the entire boat being fully repaired but rather that every remaining part has been repaired.

You can use ropes while climbing on ladders but ropes cannot be attached to climbing Nautikins.

Leaving default Player.log enabled until the next build because crashes have not reoccurred. It's possible the engine crashes because Player.log is not enabled. That would be ironic. Then I will probably disable it if and see if crashes return.

Long fuel connectors are sold at Portus.

Fuel cables will still use line of sight to prevent self collision with the vessel, meaning that if the cable starts wrapping around the vessel it will break, but it will no longer break from other objects lightly touching it such as Nautikins.

Saved dropped items will be lost because the save structure has changed to accommodate moving parts.

Guides have been updated.

Uploaded this cool boat used during testing:

https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=3117333857

Key features in this update:

• Updated game engine and plugins
  
• New vehicle system (land vehicles)
  
• Added death cam for singleplayer mode
  
• Added Audio Volumes inside buildings (Conquest maps) for a more realistic audio environment
  
• Added rain in Industrial Area map
  
• Added widget arrows for some interactive objects
  
• New firing animations for reflex and holographic sights (in ADS)
  
• Improved server browser
  
• + other minor fixes

With update 1.0.2.0 we are introducing a new backup system that will create an additional backup copy of your current selected save one time each day and a skill stack counter so that multiple of the same skills not clutter up the skills section on the stats window (or build viewer) and directly shows how much stacks of a skill you have aquired.

As a short recap, a hotfix yesturday which was live for a few hours messed with the save files resulting in lost progress. If you have lost any progress due to this bug please contact us and we will restore your progress, more information on this at our yesturdays post:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2286450/view/3901870244741122367?l=english

• New Backup System: Errors that can happen will happen sooner or later, so we took this as a lessons learned and implemented a backup system that backs up your current selected save file one time each day on game start. This will also make it possible for players that messed with the save file on mistake to restore their progress. As this error caused quite some inconvenience it also contributed to improving the game.
  
• Skill Stack Count on Stats: In the stats window and on the build viewer in the skills section you will now only see one instance of each skill with the amount of skill stacks for each skill. This will make it possible to see how much of each skill you have active whithout having to count. You can also hover over the skill in the skill section and highlight all instances in the skill tree to faster locate them.
  
  

• Changed vsync mode to fix micro stutters that have been reported. Please keep us updated on this if the change improved it or made it worse as this will depend on the operating system / PC setup/ graphic driver settings etc.
  
• Improved basement map lightning (v.1.0.2.0b)
  
• Increased skill stack number size in stats window and build viewer (v.1.0.2.0b)
  
• Enemy spawns created by other enemies are now as well indicated by red spawn circles (v.1.0.2.0c)

• Language is now properly saved and not reset after a few game restarts
  
• Fixed farmer and rogue unlocks missing in the achievement lists
  
• The random skills on a new run when not re-selecting new skills are now shuffled again (v.1.0.2.0b)
  
• Fixed crash on beach endless mode whan awakened tidal titan should spawn additional enemies (v.1.0.2.0c)
  
• Fixed achievement unlock conditions for burning projectiles and burning cast (v.1.0.2.0d)

Want to report a bug or talk with fellow players about the game? You are invited to join our official disccord.