Patch 0.11.2.0 will arrive tomorrow, Thursday, March 23rd, at 15:00 CET (7 AM PDT / 10 AM EDT). During the patching process the servers will be down, and the whole process will take up to 1 hour.
Champion Changes & Fixes
This patch is very all-encompassing. With every champion getting increased movement speed and tweaks to keep up with the new pace, as well as a few champions getting major changes both to their primary attacks and Battlerite trees, the complete effects of this patch are unknown even to us. We hope that you find as much joy as we do in exploring this new patch and figuring out the new meta! Read more »
Well as you know, there’s been a lot of fiddling and tweaking for Patch 0.11.2.0, which we’re all pretty excited about (but also, admittedly, a teeny bit anxious for). The game designers and co have been busy on the core gameplay changes, playing it with testers, getting feedback etc. The patch date was already announced last Friday and I can confirm it will go live this Thursday.
I took part in testing the new patch and it’s been quite an experience so far. Initially, the purpose of the patch was to create more interesting and dynamic play via movement speed changes and changes to M1 ranged abilities. The goal was to get more dodging and interesting plays in neutral situations, allowing for more outplays via skill.
We know you are very curious about the M1 changes; as it stands, the patch won’t arrive this week, but we should be able to announce a date for the patch before the week is over. Stay tuned! Meanwhile, please enjoy a behind the scenes blog from Tau Petersson, our PR & Events Manager.
Hej!
Here you’ll get to see the one part of my life where I go to a lot of events to show off Battlerite or Stunlock. This time around we got the chance to go to IEM Katowice to hang out with Razer and play Battlerite in their booth. With me I had two of our brilliant event workers: Levox (Jens Bak) and Silfver (Christoffer Silfverswärd: that last name means Silver Sword with fancy old Swedish spelling).
Welcome welcome, step in. Today I will be your guide through the magical world of esports. My name is Alexander and I work as Esports Manager for Stunlock Studios, but some of you may also know me by the name GrimGoon.
During this tour please remain seated at all times. To the left we have overblown drama and on your right hand side we have huge egos. Read more »
It’s me again! In case you didn’t catch the first blog, I shall introduce myself once again. My name is Katey and I am UI Designer and Brand Manager here at Stunlock Studios. My blogs revolve around what people have been up to the previous week.
Due to the Enter the Arena tournament over the weekend, we originally planned to have an esports blog written by our one and only GrimGoon (Esports Manager), but since organising a tournament is a very time consuming business, he wasn’t able to post this week. Hopefully we will get a blog from him fairly soon. Read more »
To kick off the 2017 competitive season in style, Battlerite is pulling out the big guns as it partners with Beyond the Summit and Twitch to bring you “Enter the Arena”.
The event starts at approx 18:00 CET / 09:00 PST this Saturday and Sunday over at Beyond the Summit on Twitch.tv.
This weekend sixteen of the best teams from North America and Europe will collide in an epic showdown with lots at stake. Not just the record setting purse of 10,000 USD hangs in the balance, but also honor and regional bragging rights. Who will make it through? Who will collapse under pressure? And will the top seeds from the invitational process in TelroskMi and Onslaught live up to the billing?
You can view a teaser and an explanation of the upcoming M1 changes here.
Patch 0.11.1.0 is scheduled for the 28th February and will include bug fixes and champion updates. Servers will have a planned downtime on 15:00 CET (6:00 AM PST / 9:00 AM EST), and the process is expected to take up to 1 hour.
The M1 gameplay changes originally planned for this patch have been delayed by a minimum of two weeks due to a critical team member being out of commission for nearly a month.
As a highly-valued Battlerite player, we wanted to make sure you were notified as soon as possible. We realise these are very anticipated changes, so we have decided to showcase a small teaser of the changes in Monday’s dev blog.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. These gameplay changes are our highest priority right now and our dedicated team is working hard on improving your Battlerite experience.
Features & Content
New Mounts – Emperor Scorpion & Deathstalker Scorpion
The Emperor Scorpion (left) will be available to winners of various tournaments. The Deathstalker Scorpion (right) can be obtained via giveaways.
Champion Changes & Fixes
General
Fixed a bug causing the impact location of Healing Potion (Lucie), Healing Wave (Pearl) and Rejuvenating Sands (Oldur) to be slightly incorrect
“Air time” added to the tooltips of several mobility abilities.
Pestilus – Brain Bug damage limit tooltip changed from Panic Damage Limit to Brain Bug Damage Limit
Using a Counter-type ability at the end of Iva’s Zap buff no longer renders the player model invisible
My name is Konrad Petersson (IGN: Krab) and I’m a Technical Game Designer. I started working here at Stunlock Studios (SLS for short) November 2016, and to be honest, I have loved every minute of it. My main focus has been designing and implementing new champions for Battlerite together with the rest of the Champion team. I also do stuff like fixing bugs, analyze and balance the game together with the rest of the Design team.
This is my very first dev blog post and as many of you might have figured out already, it’s about the making of our latest champion, “Raigon, the Exiled prince”. I will go through our initial goals, how we have iterated upon the concept, bumps along the road and decisions on the way to final product (if you could ever call a champion in a multiplayer game final!) from the perspective of a designer. Hopefully it will provide you with some juicy insight on how the champion creation process works!
How we decide on a direction
With each champion we make, we want to improve the Battlerite roster as a whole. We have a lot of potential champion designs and art concepts lying around, which sometimes makes it hard to pick what to go with next. Creating design concepts and abilities is in many ways a creative outlet, but first and foremost, we try to identify what our current roster would benefit the most from. At the same time, we see great value in introducing new and unique abilities to the game as a whole, and try to not limit ourselves idea-wise. Ultimately, if it works in the game, it can potentially make the cut.
Initial direction / goals
We wanted our next Champion to be:
A Melee Champion
A Beginner Friendly Champion
A Champion with broad appeal
Coupled with the general design directions of Battlerite, such as making every champion unique in the way they play, fill their own role and fit into the game, this is usually how defined a champion is from the start.
The Champion team
The Stunlock Studios Champion Team consists of Game Designers, Artists (Sound, 2D/3D art, Animators, VFX) and programmers. The team works closely together based on the original concept. We communicate regularly through messaging apps and Champion Meetings where we meet, goof around, go through the champion’s current state both visually and mechanically, discuss what to improve, introduce new ideas and plan ahead.
Early concept
We decided we wanted to make a two-handed sword fighter. We had none of those and it would fit in well with the “Broad Appeal” direction we wanted to take. Fans of BLC might notice the similarities between “Raigon” and fellow two-handed sword fighter “Reaver” from Bloodline Champions. We took some inspiration from “Reaver”, but ultimately, we wanted to find something new and unique that would fit our directions. Our 2D artists presented us with some awesome concept art and prototyping began from there.
Early Art Concept – Raigon
Ability design & prototyping
One of the first design decisions on Raigon’s abilities was to include a core mechanic that would grant him life back, allowing him to stay on and pressure his targets and sustain himself.
Our definition of “Beginner friendly” meant conveying a clear goal to players, rather than just making him a “simple” or “easy” champion to play.
Croak, for example, requires a bit more decision-making (as in jumping in and out to be effective) and is thus harder to learn to the point where the player is comfortable bringing him into competitive play. That being said, we are always working with skill ceilings and viability in mind, so the goal for Raigon would be easy to learn – difficult to master.
We also wanted new players, who might be starting out with Raigon, to learn some more of the common mechanics found in Battlerite. This would allow these newer players to carry on some knowledge from Raigon to their next champion of choice. Read more »
We have decided to postpone Patch 0.11 due to technical issues. It will instead arrive on Wednesday, February 15th. The servers will go down for patching at 15:00 CET (9:00 AM EST / 6:00 AM PST). The patching process will take approximately 2 hours.
Upcoming changes in Patch 0.11.1.0
As we have the Enter the Arena event coming up we have decided to split the mid February patch in two. This first patch brings the new champion along with the next season and some additional changes and fixes; you can view details below. The second patch, Patch 0.11.1, is planned to arrive February 28th. We are experimenting with some bigger changes for it, with the primary goal to make M1’s more exciting to use while also allowing for M1 exchanges to be more interesting and thrilling. This involves changes to both movement speed, damage, cast times and cooldowns/charges. We have concentrated on looking at the M1s of our ranged Champions first, but are also trying a few things out with our melee Champions. We are still experimenting with this and at the time of writing do not have definite details to share, so you will have to wait for more detailed information in the patch notes for Patch 0.11.1.0.
Patch 0.11.1.0 will also bring other gameplay changes, along with some new mounts and additional changes and fixes.
Features & Content
Raigon, The Exiled Prince – New Melee Champion
Raigon is the former crown prince of Quna. He was a well-respected figure among the kingdom’s warriors, until he was exiled due to the manipulations of Pestilus. For now, the arena serves as a decent place to find work and set the wheels in motion for his retaliation.
Welcome welcome, step in. Today I will be your guide through the magical world of esports. My name is Alexander and I work as Esports Manager for Stunlock Studios, but some of you may also know me by the name GrimGoon.
