Hotfix 5.5.6 - 4th of June

Versus

• Fixed a couple of crashes related to unspawned or unselected characters
  
• Fixed server crash that'd occur when players leave during hero select before being put on a specific side
  
• Versus Voip Clients won't be in voip chat anymore when they have voice chat disabled
  
• Bestigors won't crash dedicated servers while charging through Chaos Warriors anymore.
  
• Fixed server crash in character select related to a player friend joining a game after another player leaves.
  
• Fixed frame perfect server crash when player hot-joins at the same time as a Pactsworn character die-die
  
• Fixed two crashes for Gamepad users caused by UI shenanigans.
  
• Fixed server crash when a player hot joins during a small window when a match finishes
  
• Defrosted the Globadiers' frozen hands and instead will do the reload animation at the end of the cooldown.

Hotfix 5.5.4 - 31th of May

Versus

• Disabled Crafting and Spoils of War for Legacy UI
  
• Lowered base movement speed of Bile Troll slightly.
  
  General
  
  
• Fixed crash related to gaining the boon "Ranald's Mighty Gamble" and swapping from a higher power level weapon to a lower power level weapon.
  
• Fixed a crash occuring when bot loadouts and clients are not in agreement on which loadout the host should use.
  
• Fixed a bug where Outcast Engineer skips the first two shots when shooting. Also, tap shooting works again.
  
• Fixed the temporary mod fix. It should really be fixed now.
  
• Fixed a crash that would occur if you salvaged an item equipped on a different loadout
  

Hotfix 5.5.3 - 30th of May

Features & Tweaks

• Limited loadout manager mod error logs to one unique log per level.
  

Fixes

• Fixed a Crash when a player activates an ability during the end of a game.
  
• (Versus) Fixed so Ratling gunner can't shoot through a monster.
  
• Fixed various crashes in Versus.
  
• Temporary mod fix for UI Tweaks in Versus when attempting to render an ammo counter in team portraits as Pactsworn.

Make sure to tune in to our twitch channel[www.twitch.tv] tomorrow at 16:00 CEST to catch a stream with our developers! Join our Host Tom as he talks with Product Owner Erik and Design Director Joakim about the current Versus Alpha, the new changes and additions made since then, answer questions from the community and they play a round or two of Versus!
Welcome to the Returning Alpha Test, or RAT for short! Starting today until June 9th, you’ll be able to hop on Versus straight from the main Vermintide 2 game! Simply make sure to pick ‘Versus’ from the main menu to enter the Versus lobby and access its matchmaking. This test is open to all owners of Vermintide 2 on PC, so tell your friends, tell your family, tell your pets, get everyone in here!

Last test was our first time opening Versus to our entire player base and it was overall a great success! We saw great reception and got invaluable feedback from all of you, and we’re really hyped to see you guys try out the changes and the newest additions!

In case you missed it, here’s a link to the latest Versus Dev Blog, where we go over our thoughts and takeaways from the previous Alpha Test:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/552500/view/4139441932569145653

As said in our previous announcement, this test shall see the first iteration of one of our most highly requested features: Playable monsters! For this test, we’ll be starting with the Bile Troll.

When it’s time for a Monster to spawn, one lucky member of the Pactsworn team will get to spawn as the Bile Troll and wreak havoc on the Hero team!

The Bile Troll is controlled in a manner similar to Heroes. Tapping Attack (Default: Left Mouse Click) will result in sweeping light attacks. Holding Attack will result in heavy unblockable attacks with the Bile Troll’s axe. Pressing the Career Skill button (Default: F) will let you puke acid bile on your tiny foes (The Bile Troll’s puke ability has a cooldown!). You can also crouch with the usual crouch button (Default: Left Control).

We have a new map for you guys to test out during this Alpha: Against the Grain! This classic map has been adapted from its Adventure version, similar to how the previous two maps were adapted, changing parts of the level, adding more objectives and overall tweaking it to make it more fitting for Versus.

We’re very curious about how you guys feel about this map in the context of Versus! The team wants to really nail not just this map specifically, but also in general what works and what doesn’t work for Versus maps, so please give us all your feedback!

We’ll have this as our only map at first but we’ll be adding the previously tested maps (Righteous Stand and Screaming Bell) to the map rotation later on during the test.

Whether you played the last Alpha Test or you’re just curious, here are the highlights of the main changes done to the game mode since the last test, including the Balance Changes done to both Heroes and Pactsworns alike. Please note that the balance changes mentioned here will ONLY affect Versus! As we’ve said before, we will never affect the balance of the PvE game modes of Vermintide solely for the sake of Versus’ balance.

Loadouts
The recently added Loadouts feature will also be available in Versus, with its own separate slots! We’ve also included two pre-made loadouts for each career, designed by our developers, to serve as a starting point for new players or those who just don’t want to bother making brand new loadouts for Versus and just want to jump right in!

Temporary Health will now decay faster
As healing items are limited in Versus, we don't want THP to be the only way to stay alive, nor do we want it to invalidate the efforts of the Pactsworn team. We will evaluate these changes during this test, but please let us know how you feel about them.

• Increased the rate at which Temporary HP decays by 20%
  
• Increased the amount of Temporary HP lost per tick by 50%

Pactsworn Choices Tweaks
We’ve added a weighted system to the RNG choices offered to Pactsworn players when they’re about to spawn to reduce the chances of multiples of the same special being present at the same time.

Warrior Priest

• Nerfed the duration of Shield of Faith (Career Skill) from 5 seconds to 2 seconds
  
  • We are working on getting the correct tooltip in.
• Unyielding Blessing talent now makes the shield last for 5 seconds instead of 10 seconds.
  
• Damage of Shield of Faith explosion is lowered against all enemy types except Monster.

Ironbreaker

• Nerfed the Gromril Curse talent: now also makes the cooldown of Gromril Armour longer (from 20 seconds to 30 seconds).
  • We are working on getting the correct tooltip in.

Sister of the Thorn

• The Deepwood Staff has received an internal cooldown of 40 seconds specifically affecting lifting Pactsworn players. The rest of the staff functions normally, but you can’t lift up an enemy player until the cooldown has expired.

Reduced damage of all crossbows.


Warpfire Thrower

• HP has been increased from 25 to 50
  
• Damage has been increased from 2.5 per tick to 3.0 per tick.
  
• Knockback has been increased.

And that’s about it for now! We’ll be monitoring your feedback on the new changes and additions, alongside everyone’s thoughts and feedback on Versus as a whole! Hope you guys have fun this week!

• Voip is currently not functioning as intended in Versus. We are investigating
  
• The mod 'UI Tweaks' is currently causing crashes. Please disable until resolved to avoid issues.

• Added 3 more loadout slots to all careers.
  
• Increased the duration of the Skulls event buff by 50%. Get crazy for longer! Suffer from withdrawal less often!
  
• Added an option to quit the game directly without going to the main menu.
  
• Added an option to rebind the Chaos Wastes miracle keybind (Default: i)
  
• Implemented a way to patch sanctioned mods until they are updated by the owner. This should increase the lifespan of sanctioned mods, most importantly abandoned ones.
  
  • Loadout Manager mod no longer gives bots adventure items in Chaos Wastes.
    
  • Loadout Manager mod can also no longer overwrite the player's versus loadout with adventure items.
  (Chaos Wastes) 'Taal's Roar' boon: Increased radius by 67%. Increased stagger power against armored enemies by 67%.
  (Chaos Wastes Skulls Event) Event boon rarity reduced from 60% chance to 37.5%.

• Fixed an issue with unreachable respawn spots in the Citadel of Eternity.
  
• Fixed the host crown icon failing to display on the Holseher's Map in the Chaos Waste.
  
• Fixed a bug where using the Hide HUD option while posing did not hide Grail Knight quests.
  
• Fixed the Twitch mode "More Info" description text going out of bounds and overlapping with search Tab.
  
• Fixed the "Curse of tainted blood" effect on the player's health UI going out of bounds until the player stayed idle for the curse recovery.
  
• Fixed a localization issue in all languages.
  
• Fixed the Bloodthirster Frame in Lohner's Emporium of Wonders having an outfit icon instead of a frame icon in its thumbnail.
  
• Fixed the icons for the equippable careers for the Bloodthirster Frame going out of bounds.
  
• Fixed a placeholder icon being shown for the Bloodthirster Frame when accessing it from the Featured tab.
  
• Fixed inconsistencies with Outcast Engineer's career skill attack charge sound sometimes not triggering
  
• Fixed "Piston Power" Engineer talent sound effect being heard by the non-engineer Host if their engineer bot had the talent.
  
• Fixed Be'lakor homing skulls curse not playing related sounds when outside of a Be'lakor node (due to weekly event, for example).
  
• Fixed Huntsman longbow not displaying an arrow when weave skin is applied.
  
• Fixed a bug where players were not able to apply weave skins to Bretonnian Sword and Shield and Bretonnian Longsword if they didn't own the Grail Knight cosmetic dlc upgrade.
  
• Fixed a Ranger Veteran infinite stealth exploit from using ability again before first one runs out. Huh, I'm getting Deja Vu...
  
• Fixed a bug where oil barrel challenge was completable in levels than other A Parting of the Waves.
  
• Fixed the Inventory Details screen failing to close while pressing the I/Esc on the Holseher's Map in the Chaos Wastes.
  
• Fixed a bug where Taal's Roar boon did not receive lower cooldown depending on missing health. Now cooldown is halved at 30% health.
  
• Fixed a bug where Anath Raema's Cruel Volley boon does not increase cost on moonfire bow
  
• Fixed a bug where subtitles were not displayed when enemy lords hold dialogues.
  
• Fixed occasional crash when switching loadout to a loadout with different weapons, and swapping a weapon.
  
• Fixed a crash when the game tried to remove a buff that no longer existed.
  
• Fixed crash related to being affected by multiple support or aura boons at once.
  
• Fixed crash for voip when getting broken connection to the host
  
• Fixed crash when throwing javelins or throwing axes and swapping weapons before it lands.
  

Versus is a free new Game mode for Warhammer: Vermintide 2! It’s an asymmetrical PvP+E pitting up to 4 Heroes against our AI enemies and up to 4 special players, what we call Pactsworn. A match will take place over several rounds, with each team swapping places between playing the Heroes and the Pactsworn each round. To simplify, each round the Hero team must play a regular game akin to Adventure mode, while the Pactsworn players have to stop them.

And for those who haven’t tried out Versus yet or want to know more, have a look at our Versus FAQ[forums.fatsharkgames.com]

We’ll be running a new Alpha soon, the Returning Alpha Test, or RAT for short! Thanks for all your naming suggestions from the last dev blog.

The RAT will be open to all owners of Vermintide 2, and it’ll run between May 30 - June 9 on PC.

[Event is LIVE! Check out the patch notes here:]
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/552500/view/4148457371248323324

The loadouts system will see its own set of loadouts for Versus since we expect that you’ll need very different builds compared to Adventure Mode! The Versus version of the loadouts will also see each career having 2 base loadouts made by our developers. For new players unfamiliar with the game, or those who don’t want to bother making new builds for Versus, these premade loadouts can make things simpler and let you jump into Versus without having to bother with all that!

We’ve prepared another map for you guys to try out in this new round of testing: Against the Grain! As with previous maps, it has seen modifications to its layout and objectives compared to Adventure mode to fit better with the Versus Game mode. Please give us all the feedback you can on how you find this map for playability, especially compared to the previous maps we’ve had in tests (if you’ve played them!)

One of the most popular requests from our previous tests is finally here: Getting to play as a Monster when it spawns! For this round of testing, we’ll have the Bile Troll available. When it’s time for a monster to spawn during the match, one lucky Pactsworn player will get to pick to spawn as him and take the reins!
Acid puke NOT optional!

Based on the results from the last Alpha Test and your feedback, there have been some adjustments to the balancing of Versus. These changes ONLY affect Versus and do not impact Adventure mode.
We’ve increased the speed at which temporary health decays, as the strength of THP from kill talents and career skills resulted in Heroes being able to easily ignore health attrition.

We’ve tweaked the RNG behind the Pactsworn special choices. Before it was purely random, there is now a weighted system to reduce the chances of multiple of the same Special at the same time.

We’ve lowered the damage dealt by ALL crossbows, as they were a bit too efficient at sniping specials, acting practically like handguns.

Sister of the Thorn’s Deepwood staff has received an internal cooldown specifically affecting lifting Pactsworn players. The rest of the staff functions normally, but you can’t lift up an enemy player until the cooldown has expired.

Warrior Priest’s Career Skill, Shield of Faith, has received an increased cooldown, reduced duration of the effect, and lowered the damage of the explosion against all enemy types except Monsters.

Ironbreaker’s Gromril Curse has been nerfed to increase the cooldown of Gromril Armour to 30 seconds when equipped.

And finally, the charming lil Warpfire Thrower has been buffed to deal more damage, spew fire for longer before having to reload, and move faster while firing!


That’s all the info we have for now! See you all on Versus, Heroes and Pactsworn alike, on the 30th!