Block Progression Rework

Block N Load

Five of you. Five of them. Face off in a battle where everything you build, destroy, construct or shoot has a devastating impact on the entire game. Build defences using a crazy range of block types and work together in this FPS where no game is EVER the same. NOW FREE TO PLAY.

[img]http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steamcommunity/public/images/clans/7219617/d7b57892ee83d99dc51f1904bccf11d64a942931.jpg[/img] Welcome to the latest update to Block N Load! We've got a new selection of additional Block Skins for you to add to your loadout, along with sweeping changes to the Block Levelling system and Bounty Blocks. Read on for the full notes on this update! [h1]New Items[/h1] [b]Block Skins[/b] [list][*]Alien Glue skin for the Glue Block. [*]First Aid skin for the Heal Station. [*]Golden Gear skin for the Land Mine. [*]Brass Radar skin for the Radar. [*]Baroque skin for the Bounce Pad. [*]Doc Eliza's Heal Station skin for the Heal Station.[/list] For most players you'll be able to find these Block Skins in Bounty Blocks, and you'll be able to use them once you've unlocked them. However, if you have been playing Block N Load since before it went free to play you should find that the Golden Gear, Brass Radar, Baroque Bounce Pad, and Doc Eliza's Heal Station have already been added to your inventory as these were available before the free-to-play transition. [h1]Block Progression[/h1] We've been listening to your feedback since Block Progression went live in December as well as looking at the data for how it is being used. As a result we're making some significant changes to the system. Due to the scale of these changes, you'll all be refunded Dust and Gold for any Blocks that you had previously levelled to let you re-invest in the new upgrade system as you see fit. You should be able to see the following changes to the Blocks screen in your Profile: [list][*]All Blocks now have a maximum cap of 10 levels instead of a varying amount depending on the block type. [*]To go with this, the amount of Gold and Dust required to level up a Block has also been adjusted. [*]All Blocks have been changed to level up more than one attribute, and to make the amount these change more noticeable. [*]To help display this we have updated the stats window for Blocks to display what each level of a block will do, and which upgrades you have already unlocked. [*]Dust text and icon has been added to the progress bar. [*]Additional information on how to obtain Dust has been added. [*]Increased the size and resolution of the Block level on the Blocks screen, along with updating art assets to help make the screen feel more crisp. [*]Improved the information displayed on the Blocks screen to show which Blocks and Block Skins you do not own, and how they can be obtained. [*]Improved the display of which Blocks are ready to level up to make it more visible when you have one ready to increase in level with new art and effects. [*]Poison Bush should now correctly display as locked if you have not obtained it from a Bounty Block.[/list] [b]Block Progression level-up Table[/b] [table] [tr] [th][/th] [th]Gold[/th] [th]Dust[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Level 2[/td] [td]40[/td] [td]40[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Level 3[/td] [td]117[/td] [td]123[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Level 4[/td] [td]253[/td] [td]287[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Level 5[/td] [td]489[/td] [td]594[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Level 6[/td] [td]885[/td] [td]1152[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Level 7[/td] [td]1538[/td] [td]2144[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Level 8[/td] [td]2598[/td] [td]3879[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Level 9[/td] [td]4298[/td] [td]6877[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Level 10[/td] [td]7000[/td] [td]12000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Total[/td] [td]17218[/td] [td]27096[/td] [/tr] [/table] [h1]Bounty Blocks[/h1] [b]New Bounty Block screen[/b] First off, we've completely redesigned the screen for opening Bounty Blocks. We've changed this to try and make it easier for you to claim your free Bounty Block, to select which type of Bounty Block you want to open, to make it easier to check and see what rewards you got, and to give us more flexibility if we want to add future types of Bounty Blocks. [b]Bounty Block Awards[/b] Much as with Block Progression we've also been taking in your feedback and looking at the data for Bounty Block usage and rewards, and we're making changes here as well. In combination, these changes mean you should see it as being possible to level up your Blocks quicker: [list][*]Rates at which Bounty Blocks award different items, and the amount of Gold and Dust they award, have been reviewed and adjusted. [*]More Bounty Block packages in the Shop, and the prices for them have been reviewed and adjusted. [*]Free Bounty Block timer has been changed to one crate every 24 hours. [*]The Bounty Block drop rates after a match have been reviewed and adjusted. [*]Daily login reward system has been overhauled to give better and more interesting rewards over time, and the rewards themselves have been reviewed and adjusted. [*]Text added to Gold Bar rewards to make it clearer what you have received.[/list] [h1]Shop[/h1] [b] Gold Boosters [/b] 6 gold boosters have been added to the shop. They match the already ingame XP boosters in length. You can find them under the "doublers" tab in the shop. [b]Price Adjustments[/b] We've reviewed and adjusted a lot of the prices of items in the in-game shop to go alongside the sweeping changes that we've made to the other systems above. This includes the prices of Heroes, some Hero Skins, Perks, and more. [u]Heroes[/u] [table] [tr] [th][/th] [th]Platinum Old[/th] [th]Platinum New[/th] [th]Gold Old[/th] [th]Gold New[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Sarge[/td] [td]600[/td] [td]600[/td] [td]2970[/td] [td]3000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Tony[/td] [td]600[/td] [td]600[/td] [td]4000[/td] [td]3000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Nigel[/td] [td]600[/td] [td]600[/td] [td]4000[/td] [td]3000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]OP Juan[/td] [td]800[/td] [td]800[/td] [td]4000[/td] [td]6000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Cogwheel[/td] [td]600[/td] [td]800[/td] [td]7500[/td] [td]6000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Eliza[/td] [td]800[/td] [td]800[/td] [td]7500[/td] [td]6000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Sweet Science[/td] [td]800[/td] [td]1000[/td] [td]15000[/td] [td]10000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Astarella[/td] [td]1300[/td] [td]1000[/td] [td]15000[/td] [td]10000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Dream Genie[/td] [td]1300[/td] [td]1000[/td] [td]15000[/td] [td]10000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Vander Graaf[/td] [td]1500[/td] [td]1200[/td] [td]20000[/td] [td]15000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Yuri[/td] [td]1500[/td] [td]1200[/td] [td]20000[/td] [td]15000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Kira[/td] [td]1500[/td] [td]1200[/td] [td]20000[/td] [td]15000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Roly Poly[/td] [td]1500[/td] [td]1600[/td] [td]20000[/td] [td]24000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Kreepy[/td] [td]1500[/td] [td]1600[/td] [td]20000[/td] [td]24000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Trondson[/td] [td]1500[/td] [td]1600[/td] [td]20000[/td] [td]24000[/td] [/tr] [/table] [u]Skins[/u] [table] [tr] [th][/th] [th]Platinum Old[/th] [th]Platinum New[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Tier 1 Skin[/td] [td]150[/td] [td]150[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Tier 2 Skin[/td] [td]300[/td] [td]300[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Tier 3 Skin[/td] [td]420[/td] [td]400[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Tier 4 Skin[/td] [td]600[/td] [td]500[/td] [/tr] [/table] [u]Perks[/u] We wanted to make it slightly easier for players to buy new perks and try them out ingame. Because of this we've made it slightly cheaper to buy the first tier perks and the other tiers slightly more expensive. In the end you will be spending around the same amount of gold to level up a perk to the third tier. Offensive and Defensive Perks: [table] [tr] [th][/th] [th]Gold Old[/th] [th]Gold New[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Tier 1[/td] [td]760[/td] [td]500[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Tier 2[/td] [td]3030[/td] [td]2500[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Tier 3[/td] [td]4550[/td] [td]5000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Total[/td] [td]8340[/td] [td]8000[/td] [/tr] [/table] Hero Perks: [table] [tr] [th][/th] [th]Gold Old[/th] [th]Gold New[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Tier 1[/td] [td]1900[/td] [td]1500[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Tier 2[/td] [td]6820[/td] [td]5000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Tier 3[/td] [td]8330[/td] [td]11000[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Total[/td] [td]17050[/td] [td]17500[/td] [/tr] [/table] [h1]Menus and Messaging[/h1] In addition to the changes to the Bounty Block and Block Levelling screens, we've also make a few tweaks elsewhere as well: [list][*]Added icons to menus showing you where to go to view anything new that has been added to your account. [*]Added messaging to explain free rotation the first time that you lose access to your last played Hero due to the rotation changing. [*]Added messaging to take you to the Blocks screen the first time you have a Block available to level up.[/list] [h1]Bug Fixes and Improvements[/h1] [b]Menus[/b] [list][*]Message about "first win of the day" no longer displays after you have already claimed it. [*]When viewing a Hero in the shop, Blocks which can be used by that Hero but are not currently owned are now highlighted as such. [*]Going to the "Select Your Perks" part of the Profile with a chat window open will no longer cause you to become stuck on this screen.[/list] [b]Hero Selection[/b] [list][*]Block Skin selections should now be correctly saved for the next match. [*]The levels of other player's Blocks should now be displayed.[/list] [b]Ranked Mode[/b] [list][*]Heroes that are selected from being played in the previous match, but have not been locked it, no longer count towards the maximum number of that role.[/list] [b]In-Match[/b] [list][*]Using quick-chat messages will now display the correct Hero in the world space indicator. Previously these would display Eliza regardless of which hero you were playing. [*]Health bars of objectives no longer disappear when standing close to the objective. [*]"Dot" crosshair type that was accidentally added to all weapons has been removed and should now only appear for weapons that explicitly have this crosshair. [*]A method of forcing yourself under the map under the map using Heal Stations and Ammo Boxes has been fixed. [*]Poison Bush now has its own icon in the kill feed. [*]Nuke now has its own icon in the kill feed. [*]Re-balanced the rewards for digging Blocks. [*]Added particle effects when damaging some decoration Blocks.[/list] [b]Custom Games[/b] [list][*]You can now re-join custom games after leaving them. [*]Joining a custom game lobby for a match in progress then returning to the menus should no longer cause a message regarding being removed from the lobby for inactivity to be displayed. [*]Fixed further issues preventing some Workshop maps being unable to be used in Custom Games.[/list] [b]Severe Bug[/b] [list][*] A bug causing all players in-game to be send back to the lobby has been fixed.[/list] [b]Bounty Blocks[/b] [list][*]Block Skins no longer display as "Devices" when awarded, they should now display as a Block Skin to make it clearer what you have received. [*]Names of items that have been awarded should no longer overlap with each other. [*]Hero and Hero Skin drops have had a new effect added to them to make it clearer when you have received one.[/list] [b]Heroes[/b] [u]Trondson[/u] [list][*]Added to Heroes that can be used to test arenas in the Map Editor. [*]Sonic Staff crosshair colours should better reflect whether the weapon will do full or partial damage based on distance. [*]Visual effects for being hit in the face with the Sonic Staff attack have been reduced to make them less overwhelming. [*]Heigh Ho Active Ability now only affects the digging tool. [*]Heigh Ho Active Ability duration increased from 7 seconds to 10. [*]Kobold Lamps should now display the crosshair for charging them to throw them further.[/list] [u]Nigel Purdey-Longshott[/u] [list][*]Fixed an issue where the Revolver's centre point did not match the centre point of the crosshair, resulting in it scattering in the lower corner of the crosshair instead of the middle.[/list] [u]Kreepy the Klown[/u] [list][*]A status icon should be displayed on the HUD to indicate the speed boost when his Active Ability is in use.[/list] [h1]We Want Your Feedback[/h1] We want to hear your thoughts on the updates we're making. Get in game, play some matches, then if you have feedback to give us, make sure to head over to the [url=http://steamcommunity.com/app/299360/discussions/2/]Feedback section of the Steam Discussion Forums[/url].