BNL State of the Nation

SO WHAT HAVE WE DONE SINCE BETA STARTED?

Our initial focus was on optimising the game client and since we did our first optimisation pass, we’ve seen a huge improvement and far fewer reports of crashing or hanging. We have more to do, especially around AMD processors, so this will be an ongoing focus for us.



We also were keen that players no longer got stuck in loading screens because that sucks a lot and we think that’s been sorted.



Once players get into a match for the most part they load much, much faster.



We’ve done a ton of hero balancing – looking at data, watching Twitch and YouTube streams, and listened to players. We’ve made some good progress, still more to do and I’ll talk about that a little bit later.



We’ve also made a load of changes to block behaviour specifically relating to respawns, radars and bombs as well as improvements to building costs and times. All really important to a balanced play experience.



We’ve fixed a lot of bugs. Chat bugs, keybinding bugs (I am so happy my weapons change on the mouse wheel), audio bugs, UI bugs, you name it… Since the beta began, we squished more than 400 bugs, small, large and some you would never have noticed.

TODAYS UPDATE HIGHLIGHTS

WHAT ARE THE MAJOR THINGS WE NEED TO GET IN AND FIX BEFORE LAUNCH?

OTHER STUFF

[www.blocknload.com]

THE BLOCK DOWN

Yo BlockheadsWe’ve been in Beta almost 2 months now and we have had a ton of really useful and actionable feedback from you guys through Steam forums, Reddit, social media, surveys and playing and talking to you guys in game.I’d like to say a big thank you to all of you as your participation has been invaluable in trying to make the game better and in setting direction.We have added in-match hero swapping to friendly and custom game modes; it’s quite a big change and we will be looking at the usage data and asking for your feedback. To clarify: this won’t be added to Ranked.Ranked Mode will open for play on Friday. We are just going to run it for this weekend as we want to be able to deal with any issues that come up. Ranked will likely get reset before launch, but your testing of this mode is really important to the game and we’re really keen on your thoughts. Also, when we launch we’ll go into a pre-season, and probably into the full season after 2-3 months. Don’t worry - someone can be pre-season champion, and we’d like to do some kind of reward for that.Ranked has its own short FAQ, you can read more about it HERE We’ve added VOIP in this update! As a first iteration, there is a lot more to do. We might alter and change it – but as always your thoughts are incredibly helpful. We think Block pushes the boundaries of team co-ordinated play and we believe this could really help people enjoy the game more. It is an option you can turn on or off in settings and you will be able to mute individuals in session (but not yet – no bug reports please!). We’re hopeful that everyone will play nice and it can be a useful tool.A key priority for us is to keep as many matches as possible ending with all 10 players. The “confirm match” feature has improved this according to our data, and while there is a long way to go here, you will see further steps in the coming weeks with other features, iterations and messaging targeted at this problem.So always a hot topic. Just know that we are listening to you guys – so keep the debates going!You can read a really good blog on the approach by our Design Director CAN8DNBEN here Trolls are an unavoidable reality of online games. We have our reporting system and the graveyard queue. If you want the quality of games to be good and the vibe amongst the community to be positive, please report people if they are a genuine problem. If the person is just passionate, frustrated, confused or new to the game, try and be positive and supportive of them. The nature of this community is for all of us to work towards. We are going to publish a code of conduct soon to help guide behaviour in the near future.We are working on a set of pages which will give you visibility on stats for your account and across the player base. The plan would be to develop this over time based on your feedback.We’ve got VAC as you know, but we’re also going to implement more of our own anti-cheat solutions. Our first target is speed hackers. They will be dealt with in a suitably firm manner.We’ve done a lot of research into ping for different regions, and while we’re looking good with around 80% of you hitting a sub-50 ping we’re keen to keep optimising. We have alternative data centres with available equipment, so we are going to experiment with moving the service to those datacentres to see if it improves the situation.Improving matchmaking in Beta can be tricky depending on player volume, so queue times are usually pretty good - but can be long at quiet times. We put a server into Oceania as the community had requested it, but unfortunately it’s very quiet even though we see hundreds of Oceania region players playing on the US servers.There are things you can help us with here. The beta is free and keys can still be got from http://www.blocknload.com so get your friends in game, teach them your advanced tips and tricks and add more to the Block N Load community. Also, if you’re playing in a quiet region, get your buddies in and get some games going. We’ll be working locally to increase the player volumes as well, but your enthusiasm is very appreciated.We’re keen to add more progression, not just on heroes but also on personal account levels, and you can expect to see more on that in the future.We will be at the i54 event in Coventry, UK on the April 3-6th so if you’re nearby, come along and hang out, say hi and give some feedback in person!We’ve got some cool desktop wallpapers for you, you can grab them here We’re really making strides in the game development, and you have all been instrumental in assisting with that. So, we’ve taken the decision to move the game launch to the start of May this year. We’re really confident that we can get what we want done in that time and be in a great place.You guys have been critical to getting us this far. We really appreciate your support, keep playing, get your friends in-game and help us make this game the best it can be.Venger