Grab the Scary Monster Skin pack for 50% off in the Steam Halloween Sale!

[ 2020-10-29 17:23:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone, hope you all had a good weekend! It's time to announce the winner of the map contest, congratulations to uncle jora for the winning map with the most votes, Contest: Eco City https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1710421342 I will add the prizes to all the entries that were submitted here later today https://steamcommunity.com/app/299360/discussions/0/3726075043722688020/ which will be: Winner - Exclusive crate skin, Diamond block and Toadman crate The 6 Finalists - Diamond block and Toadman crate All participants - Diamond block Thank you to everyone that took part!

[ 2019-07-15 11:46:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

We have taken the decision to release this patch while waiting for Unity to address an issue with the 2019 version they have, which is causing some unexpected behaviour in places where toggle groups are used. Ie, when a window is closed, the selected item is the latest in the list, and not the one selected, things like not always showing hero's/skins/perks etc, anywhere that uses tabbing/toggling, so we're in their hands while they address that. We don't know what the timescale is atm for them to pull that over into a public build as it's still being tested by them in an Alpha state. It could be tomorrow, it could be in a few months, we just don't know. So, although there may be some things that are a bit irritating, we decided rather than hold up the release any further, we'd release with this as they are not critical game breaking issues.

Optimization

We have focused a lot on optimization for this patch, this has included upgrading to a newer version of Unity (2019.1), and optimizing raycasts on the client.

Heroes

Increased Genie Jinx radius 5->7 Reinstated Tonys Caulk gun being able to heal world blocks Rebalanced the block repartition among classes Put the same starting blocks for each class Increased Yetis SnowThrower damage by 40%

Blocks

Reduced Cannonball life time 2 -> 1 Changed Cannonball progression Increased Cloud Brick Cost 20 -> 200 Increased Radar radius by 1 Reduced Bear trap damage 50 -> 30

New Perks system

All heroes have now 9 unique perks divided into three categories, heroes can equip up to one perk of each category at the same time. New perks all cost 5000 gold and cant be shared anymore among heroes Previous perks have been deleted, and all gold for them has been reimbursed.

Skins

New Trondsons Hardly Davids Son skin New Sweet Sciences Sweet Devil skin New Genies Fever, by Genie Lee skin New block skin for reaching level 200

Bug Fixes

Rectified certain heroes F abilities cancelling ninja bleed Rectified if a turret only shoots once or twice, the turret will show the shooting animation when it is stationary Rectified the surrender UI still showing 5 vote places Rectified When hovering your cursor over a blank perk, it displayed broken stats. Rectified that it was Impossible to get kicked from a game for AFK when a spawn you were using is destroyed and you dont select a new one. Rectified when the host of a custom game leaves, the custom game is no longer joinable even if there are still people in the game. Rectified the cannon block reducing fps Fixed kiras normals on faces Rectified in Map Editor - if you click play and enter the map once you quit and try to play again you get the message already_in_different_zone Rectified the daily bomb challenge count Rectified Tony's spaced out gun effect being much too bright Rectified that you take damage on both ends of Vanders cage. Rectified Vanders static gloves randomly do more than 24 world damage Rectified Tony's spaced out gun effect is much too bright Rectified Profile > Summary, the xp bar always shows as full Rectified Workshop Maps show as white images on UI Rectified if you throw your ability into several bushes or force gates, it duplicates it many times Rectified being able to shoot people through the barrier Rectified when unlocking level 7 dynamite it comes up as level 8

Other

Added Piggy, Cloud and Cannon blocks to map editor. Removed rewards for surrendering Added additional message to the EAC pop up window to verify game cache files in the event of incorrect detection Free hero rotation will change on the 1st of every month automatically Output logs are now located in c:\Users\$USER$\AppData\LocalLow\Artplant\Block N Load\

Map Contest Finalists

The 6 finalist maps from the map contest have been added to all modes. These will be available from right now, until Monday 24th June at 13:00 CEST. You can ONLY vote via the official Discord here https://discord.gg/bnlofficial in the #map-comp-voting room. Your votes will decide the winner. Playability, visual appeal, fun, and ease of navigation should all be taken into consideration when voting. The map with the most votes will be the final winner and be added into the game. After the contest has ended, all prizes will be awarded. * Winner - Exclusive crate skin, Diamond block and Toadman crate * The 6 Finalists - Diamond block and Toadman crate * All participants - Diamond block The finalists are as follows: 1. The Pump - Haghehog - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1699476164 2. Contest: Eco City - uncle jora - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1710421342 3. Sunshine - [LP]Dodo Sandvich - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=738148073 4. Catching Fire - MrCyberdragon442 - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1707582552 5. Castellus - Torvalus - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1712356105 6. Stilt House Cove V 3.5.2 - Youtube.com/Uppishgryphon - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=845287063

[ 2019-06-10 13:14:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

The exclusive block for the winner of the map contest! Any guesses as to what it will be?

[ 2019-04-11 13:49:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

What's this? Stay tuned for the next update coming soon to reveal all!

[ 2019-04-10 13:49:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

About this patch

We are very happy that we came to an agreement with Jagex so we now have control over the game. We look forward to working with the games awesome community to ensure that the servers are up, and matches can be found. One of the things we want to do, is to try out things (sometimes quite radical stuff). Some of these you will hate, and sometimes for good reason. We will be listening to you, and looking at the data, and when it turns out that some things do not work we will try to be quick remove or resolve it. Our key focus for this update was trying to reduce the time needed to search for matches. We have also added some new blocks that we hope will shake up how the matches are played. We have also done a much needed balancing pass, and some tweaks and fixes that we know you have been waiting for. We look forward to hearing what you guys think. Building is awesome.

Toadman Crate

A little welcome from us for all existing players. The crate will either contain a random new character, or if you have all characters, a random new skin. If you have all characters and skins, your crate will contain 3000g (This crate does not include special exclusive skins)

New Blocks

Cloud: The Cloud block has to be built next to another block, but will remain up in the air if the blocks around it are destroyed, giving a new perspective for the sky bridges Cannon: Fire a bullet at a fixed time, which does damage on explosion Piggy Bank: The Piggy Bank device block gathers bricks over time. When destroyed, the contents of the piggy bank are shared among the team.

Characters max level

The character max level has been increased to 200. At level 125 and 150, you will receive 1500 Gold. At level 150 and 200, you will received bounty crates (Gold at 150 and Diamond at 200)

Character Balancing

Reduced Sweet Sciences Gravity Well duration by 30% Reduced Sweet Sciences active ability cooldown from 60 to 55 seconds Reduced Sweet Sciences Gravity Block lifetime from 10 to 8 Reduced Sweet Sciences build range from 4 to 3 Reduced Sweet Sciences Gravitron Stance Arc by 33% Increased OP Juan Shinobis teleport cooldown by 50% Reduced OP Juan Shinobis teleport pool by 15% Increased Vanders Static Gloves damage by 20% Reduced Vanders Ball Lightning attack time by 20% Removed Astarellas Rocket Boots knockback effect Reduced Astarellas Saucer Launcher clip from 5 to 4 Reduced Astarellas Saucer Launcher world damage by 20% Increased Astarellas Saucer ammo pool from 36 to 40 Reduced Trondsons active ability cooldown from 60 to 50 seconds Increased Trondsons active ability duration from 10 to 12 seconds Increased Trondsons Kobold Lamp ammo pool by one Increased Cogwheels speed by 10% Increased Cogwheels Cannon ammo pool by 25% Increased Yuris snowball critical damage by 15% Reduced Dream Genies build time by 20% Reduced Dream Genies active ability cooldown from 60 to 50 seconds Reduced Dream Genies Ifrit Grudge reload time by 25% Increased Roly Poly Booster Rocket distance from 4.5 to 5

Blocks

Reduced Cost Build of Forcegate Reduced Cost Time of Forcegate Reduced Durability of Forcegate

Perks

Scaled all negative effects with tier levels Buffed some positive effects (Toe, Ball, Heel, Knee; Breadwinner; Dig That Ammo; Health Scavenger; Quick Fingers, Fatmobile, Fire Lamps...) Toe, Ball, Heel, Knee negative effect switched from Movement Speed Reduction to Health Pool Reduction Removed movement speed reduction from Roly Polys Fatmobile

Economy

Increased general Gold rewards by 300%, including challenges, daily connections and matches Increased Dust rewards by 300%, including bounty crates and challenges Increased the free bounty crate rate from 1 per day to 1 every 5 hours Increased probability for bounty crate drop after a match Remove Foam block, Bush Thorn block and Nuke block from the Bounty Crates Increased block skins drop rate in Bounty Crates

Match

Reduced the build time to 90 seconds Changed the matchmaking from 5v5 to 4v4. Primarily to make sure that the matchmaker works better for lower playerbase, but also to mix things up to give a new take on the game. Custom matches will still support 5v5. 4 new maps. Smaller maps with only one objective. The maps will be easier to navigate and get an overview of. Only maps with 1 cube will be the available maps for matchmaking. Custom games will still be able to select from any map Squad size has been increased to 4 from three Reduced the AFK timer to 2 minutes warning, and 3 minutes to remove from the match Reduced the lobby timer to 60 seconds from 120 seconds

Mode

Removed Time Assault

UI and HUD

In the shop, unified how the button acts for Heros, Skins and Blocks

Bug Fixes

Thorn bush, if a player is inside they can still shoot out, BUT, now if you shoot back, you will deal damage to both block and player inside. This fix also applies to Mud and Forcegate blocks. Re-added the missing buy Hero button in the shop In the shop menu each block of the selected hero didnt have stat icons. Also, those stats are now shown correctly. While browsing a heros profile from the Heroes tab, tab becomes unselected while viewing Fixed daily Challenges for Spawn block and Large Bomb quantity OP Juan Shinobi Katana reload time back to 1s.

Other

To comply with GDPR regulations there will be an information box for you to accept for us to be able to collect and save your data. This will show only once on your first login after this patch.

[ 2019-03-21 15:53:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! So, we know you are itching to know what we're up to and what we have planned, and with that in mind, we are going to do a live Dev stream tomorrow, 6th March at 18.00 CET. Our Producer Jack Wulff and our Lead designer Oliver Castle will sit down with you for a live chat on our Twitch channel where we will talk about what we want to do with the game, talk about the next update, and also try and answer some of your questions https://www.twitch.tv/toadmaninteractive We look forward to seeing you there!

[ 2019-03-05 16:01:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi Everyone! We know youve been waiting for any news on Block n Load, and we can now share with you what you have been hoping for :) We are incredibly excited here at Toadman Interactive to be able to take over this exciting title! After many discussions, it was very clear that Jagex wanted the best for Block n Load, and we are extremely happy they have given us this chance to improve the game for the community. As you may or may not know, Toadman Interactive acquired Artplant last year who previously worked on the game, so we are fortunate to have people who know and love Block n Load already. We have seen how passionate you, the community, are about Block n Load, and thats very inspiring to us. To start a conversation with you guys, and to give you an idea of who Toadman Interactive is, we are having a livestream next Wednesday. Robin Flodin, the CEO of Toadman Interactive will be sitting down with you at 19:00 CEST on Wednesday 27th of February on twitch to talk to you about Toadman Interactive and the future of Block N Load. Bear in mind that, in this session, Robin is not going to go into the details of balancing and fixes. Instead, our hope is to give you a face of the company and to give you an idea of how we can try to grow both Block N Load as a game, and as a community. The stream will be held at https://www.twitch.tv/toadmaninteractive Our aim is to make sure Block n Load stays alive, so we are very much looking forward to giving the game a much needed update and building a great relationship together! We have opened an official Block n Load Discord where you are very welcome to join. We look forward to your feedback and to seeing you there! https://discord.gg/pqHDgqj Best Toadman Team!

[ 2019-02-20 19:05:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey Blockheads, Its been a while since we last posted and promised wed let you know whats happening to Block N Load apologies for staying silent for so long and thanks for being patient. However, the long wait is now over and heres the great news: We're happy to announce that the future development of Block N Load has been taken on by its co-developer, Artplant, now a part of Toadman Interactive! The team at Toadman is super passionate about the game so its very fitting that they will take full control of Block N Load. This means theyll control everything from the day-to-day management of the servers right through to exciting new content updates, as well as look after you all. We have no doubt that Artplant and its parent company Toadman are best placed to drive Block N Load into a brand new and successful future, after all, their experience and knowledge of the game is second to none! Toadman Interactive and Jagex both wanted to focus on ensuring Block N Load fans of today and tomorrow continue to see the investment and evolution of this great game, so were thrilled to reach an agreement that means we can bring the game in house, said Robin Flodin, CEO of Toadman Interactive. The original development team at Artplant are cooking up some great new updates for the game, which they will reveal soon. Phil Mansell, CEO, Jagex said, This deal is great news for the Block N Load community and fans of team-based shooters, as it bolsters this innovative game with further investment and creative ambition. We saw in Toadman Interactive a kindred spirit who share our passion for live games and community-driven development. Its a real positive for Block N Load players that Toadman and Artplant are taking the games production and operations forward, and were confident they have the vision and share the communitys appetite to give Block N Load a great future. But why the radio silence since our previous post? Well, we wanted to ensure we did everything possible to secure the long-term future of the game for all of you, which meant during the discussions with Toadman, anything stated publicly could have affected the outcome of the negotiation and we just couldnt risk that from happening. We hope youre as happy as we are with todays news - see you on the battlefield, Blockheads! - The Block N Load Team

[ 2019-02-18 14:45:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

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!

New Items

Block Skins

• 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.

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.

Block Progression

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:

• 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.

Block Progression level-up Table [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]

Bounty Blocks

New Bounty Block screen 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. Bounty Block Awards 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:

• 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.

Shop

Gold Boosters 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. Price Adjustments 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. Heroes [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] Skins [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] Perks 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]

Menus and Messaging

In addition to the changes to the Bounty Block and Block Levelling screens, we've also make a few tweaks elsewhere as well:

• 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.

Bug Fixes and Improvements

Menus

• 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.

Hero Selection

• Block Skin selections should now be correctly saved for the next match.
• The levels of other player's Blocks should now be displayed.

Ranked Mode

• 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.

In-Match

• 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.

Custom Games

• 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.

Severe Bug

• A bug causing all players in-game to be send back to the lobby has been fixed.

Bounty Blocks

• 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.

Heroes Trondson

• 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.

Nigel Purdey-Longshott

• 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.

Kreepy the Klown

• A status icon should be displayed on the HUD to indicate the speed boost when his Active Ability is in use.

We Want Your Feedback

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 Feedback section of the Steam Discussion Forums.

[ 2018-02-26 12:22:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

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!

New Items

Block Skins

• 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.

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.

Block Progression

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:

• 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.

Block Progression level-up Table [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]

Bounty Blocks

New Bounty Block screen 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. Bounty Block Awards 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:

• 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.

Shop

Gold Boosters 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. Price Adjustments 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. Heroes [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] Skins [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] Perks 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]

Menus and Messaging

In addition to the changes to the Bounty Block and Block Levelling screens, we've also make a few tweaks elsewhere as well:

• 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.

Bug Fixes and Improvements

Menus

• 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.

Hero Selection

• Block Skin selections should now be correctly saved for the next match.
• The levels of other player's Blocks should now be displayed.

Ranked Mode

• 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.

In-Match

• 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.

Custom Games

• 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.

Severe Bug

• A bug causing all players in-game to be send back to the lobby has been fixed.

Bounty Blocks

• 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.

Heroes Trondson

• 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.

Nigel Purdey-Longshott

• 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.

Kreepy the Klown

• A status icon should be displayed on the HUD to indicate the speed boost when his Active Ability is in use.

We Want Your Feedback

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 Feedback section of the Steam Discussion Forums.

[ 2018-02-26 12:22:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Steam Lunar New Year Sale has started! Block N Load DLC packs are discounted between 66% and 33% until 10:05 AM Pacific Time on the 19th of February. If you’ve been considering grabbing one, now is the time to do so. Head on over to the Block N Load Steam store page now!

[ 2018-02-15 20:08:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Steam Lunar New Year Sale has started! Block N Load DLC packs are discounted between 66% and 33% until 10:05 AM Pacific Time on the 19th of February. If youve been considering grabbing one, now is the time to do so. Head on over to the Block N Load Steam store page now!

[ 2018-02-15 20:08:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, We’re bringing a small update to Block N Load to fix a handful of the issues that you have reported to us. We’re still hard at work on a whole host of other improvements and other fixes that you’ve asked for since our December update, some of which we’re hoping to get out in another update in February. Fixes Based on the reports that you’ve made since our last update went live we have been able to fix a number of issues, we’re still hard at work to get some of the more complex ones resolved. However, as of today you should find that the following issues are now resolved. Perks

• Yury the Yeti’s Perk “Chill, Dude” should now work correctly with Ice as well as Snow.
• Vander Graaf’s “Ball to the Wall” Perk should now alter the Ball Lightning weapon.
• Kira-chan’s “Thrills for Days” Perk no longer incorrectly alters the damage mechanics for the Katty Launcher.
• Trondson’s “Fire Lamps” Perk has been updated to make it clearer this adds the “Burning” effect.
• Doc Eliza’s “It’s Alive! Alive!” Perk has been updated to make it clearer how this affects her healing.

Blocks and Block Skins

• Poison Bush now correctly counts as a Building Blocks for the Daily Challenges.
• Gift Wrapped Large Bomb Block Skin no longer has its name in all upper case.
• The following Blocks should now use their correct names when awarding Dust from Bounty Blocks:
  • Tunnelling Torpedo
  • Orbital Strike Beacon
  • Bounce Pad
  • Bricks
  • Speed Block
  • Marid's Boon
  • Miasma Mine
  • Lil' Buddy
  • Ninja Shrine
  • Tiki Head
  • Popstar Portal
  • Kreepy in the Box
  • Ammo Crate
• Large Bomb description has been updated, as there’s now a more powerful bomb than it.

Hero Tips

• Vander Graaf’s Hero tips have had a typographical error corrected.
• Trondson has had a small number of initial Hero tips added. Got more tips you think would be good for players new to Trondson? Leave us a suggestion!

Balancing Block Buster

• Only tools will do damage to the Block Buster.
• Tools now do the same amount of damage to the Block Buster as they do to objectives.
• Block Buster hit points have been reduced to off-set the lower rate at which damage is dealt to it.

Effectively, the Block Buster is now treated like an objective for dealing damage to it and releasing the Boost. This one’s a pretty significant change. We’ve had this on the Player Test Realm for a little while, and based on the feedback there this change is at least an interesting one which seems to have some support to see what it does in the wider game. This does now mean that the abilities of Heroes will no longer have an effect on how quickly you can break in to the Block Buster, but neither will weapons or Devices. This helps address one issue which has been raised to us; that Trondson in particular was able to break in to the Block Buster far too quickly, but it may also help to make fights over who gets the Block Buster more of a key endeavour as well. Heroes

• Trondson Sonic Staff ammunition regeneration rate has been reduced from 20 to 15.
• Vander Graaf Lightning Cage Active Ability damage per second has been reduced from 2 every 0.1 seconds, to 2 every 0.15 seconds.
• Astarella Saucer Launcher clip size reduced from 6 to 5.
• Yury the Yeti Snowball clip size increased from 5 to 6.
• Tony Turetto Glue Gun slow against enemy Heroes doubled from 1 second to 2 seconds.
• Sweet Science Graviton Stance reload time slightly increased from 1.5 to 1.75 seconds.

Recall Duration

• Time taken to return to your own spawn point after pushing the “B” key has been reduced from 15 to 10 seconds.

Have any feedback? Post it in the Feedback section of the Steam Discussion forums here.

[ 2018-02-01 14:17:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi all, Were bringing a small update to Block N Load to fix a handful of the issues that you have reported to us. Were still hard at work on a whole host of other improvements and other fixes that youve asked for since our December update, some of which were hoping to get out in another update in February. Fixes Based on the reports that youve made since our last update went live we have been able to fix a number of issues, were still hard at work to get some of the more complex ones resolved. However, as of today you should find that the following issues are now resolved. Perks

• Yury the Yetis Perk Chill, Dude should now work correctly with Ice as well as Snow.
• Vander Graafs Ball to the Wall Perk should now alter the Ball Lightning weapon.
• Kira-chans Thrills for Days Perk no longer incorrectly alters the damage mechanics for the Katty Launcher.
• Trondsons Fire Lamps Perk has been updated to make it clearer this adds the Burning effect.
• Doc Elizas Its Alive! Alive! Perk has been updated to make it clearer how this affects her healing.

Blocks and Block Skins

• Poison Bush now correctly counts as a Building Blocks for the Daily Challenges.
• Gift Wrapped Large Bomb Block Skin no longer has its name in all upper case.
• The following Blocks should now use their correct names when awarding Dust from Bounty Blocks:
  • Tunnelling Torpedo
  • Orbital Strike Beacon
  • Bounce Pad
  • Bricks
  • Speed Block
  • Marid's Boon
  • Miasma Mine
  • Lil' Buddy
  • Ninja Shrine
  • Tiki Head
  • Popstar Portal
  • Kreepy in the Box
  • Ammo Crate
• Large Bomb description has been updated, as theres now a more powerful bomb than it.

Hero Tips

• Vander Graafs Hero tips have had a typographical error corrected.
• Trondson has had a small number of initial Hero tips added. Got more tips you think would be good for players new to Trondson? Leave us a suggestion!

Balancing Block Buster

• Only tools will do damage to the Block Buster.
• Tools now do the same amount of damage to the Block Buster as they do to objectives.
• Block Buster hit points have been reduced to off-set the lower rate at which damage is dealt to it.

Effectively, the Block Buster is now treated like an objective for dealing damage to it and releasing the Boost. This ones a pretty significant change. Weve had this on the Player Test Realm for a little while, and based on the feedback there this change is at least an interesting one which seems to have some support to see what it does in the wider game. This does now mean that the abilities of Heroes will no longer have an effect on how quickly you can break in to the Block Buster, but neither will weapons or Devices. This helps address one issue which has been raised to us; that Trondson in particular was able to break in to the Block Buster far too quickly, but it may also help to make fights over who gets the Block Buster more of a key endeavour as well. Heroes

• Trondson Sonic Staff ammunition regeneration rate has been reduced from 20 to 15.
• Vander Graaf Lightning Cage Active Ability damage per second has been reduced from 2 every 0.1 seconds, to 2 every 0.15 seconds.
• Astarella Saucer Launcher clip size reduced from 6 to 5.
• Yury the Yeti Snowball clip size increased from 5 to 6.
• Tony Turetto Glue Gun slow against enemy Heroes doubled from 1 second to 2 seconds.
• Sweet Science Graviton Stance reload time slightly increased from 1.5 to 1.75 seconds.

Recall Duration

• Time taken to return to your own spawn point after pushing the B key has been reduced from 15 to 10 seconds.

Have any feedback? Post it in the Feedback section of the Steam Discussion forums here.

[ 2018-02-01 14:17:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Its a bumper Block N Load update today, with a new hero, new blocks, an overhauled reward and progression system and a whole heck of a lot more. Read on! ________________________________________

Bounty Blocks

First up, Bounty Blocks. These beauties are a new way to obtain the following Block N Load goodies:

• Heroes
• Hero Skins
• Blocks
• Block Skins
• Block Dust, which allows you to upgrade blocks (more on that below).

Bounty Blocks come in three tiers of rarity (Silver, Gold and Diamond), each giving you a better chance at rewards than the last. You can get Silver Bounty Blocks simply by logging into the game. Open it up, enjoy, then check back once four hours have passed for another. Youll also get a chance at earning Bounty Blocks for each match you play to completion, with a chance to get a rarer Bounty Block if you win. Play hard for the best rewards! Finally, all three tiers of Bounty Block are available in the Shop. ________________________________________

Block Progression

The refurbishment of Block N Loads core systems continues, and this week were bringing you Block Progression. Every block in the game now has a level, and can be made more powerful by levelling them up with Block Dust. Check out the Block section your Profile in-game, where you can browse all blocks available in the game, and find out how theyll improve as you upgrade them. ________________________________________

New Hero: Trondson

The Block N Load roster just got one bigger with the arrival of Trondson: biker dwarf and blue-collar hero. His tireless work ethic, no-nonsense (but effective) combat style and deft hand with all manner of digging gear make him a versatile choice for Blockheads everywhere. Digging Tool: Vibro-Shovel. This complex device cuts through rocks like butter, and is also perfect for building and deconstructing objectives. Primary Weapon: Sonic Staff. This trusty tool is useful in a number of situations, but Trondson mostly uses it for taking out enemies with ear-bursting blasts of sonic energy. He also uses its alternate function to briefly detect all enemies in the vicinity. Secondary Weapon: Kobold Lamps. These enchanted light sources were meant to guide miners, but Trondson has a more direct application for them. When thrown, theyre pretty effective grenades. Alternatively, Trondson can use the alternate function to unleash the earth spirits in the lamps, and convert all blocks in the target area to stone. Active Ability: Heigh-Ho!. For a time, Trondson and nearby teammates deal more damage when digging through blocks. Passive Ability: Tunnel Rat. Trondson moves more quickly when crouched compared to other heroes. Trondson is available now in the Shop. ________________________________________

New Blocks

There are three new blocks in game, just waiting to be incorporated into your devious strategies. Each of these can be used by any hero, but must first be unlocked from a Bounty Block. Nuke Bomb This Device Block does what it says on the tin. After a countdown, it explodes, causing devastation unmatched by any other bomb in the game. It can be destroyed with a tool while counting down. Foam Block This Building Block is tough, durable, and particularly resistant to splash damage. Poison Bush This Building Block poisons enemies, while friendly players may pass through unharmed. ________________________________________

New Skins

Complete 10 Block N Load matches between 19 December 2017 - 02 January 2018 and earn a free holiday skin: Lazy Vacation Nigel. While the Big Game Hunters putting his feet up and sipping on a glass of port, look out for these beauties too:

• The Santa's Kreepy Helper skin for Kreepy the Clown is available in the Shop.
• The Fashion Collier skin for Trondson is available in the Shop.
• A skin for the Nuke Bomb Block can be found in Bounty Blocks.
• A skin for the Large Bomb Block can be found in Bounty Blocks

________________________________________

Perk Removal

As part of the new progression system designed to improve the games balance, we have removed 13 Perks from the game, replacing them with 13 new ones. The following Perks have had to be removed:

• Yury N Ice
• Multi-Tasker
• Deep Grav Wells
• Djinns Bounty
• Wasnt Me
• Lil Buddy Boost
• Tiki Terror
• Portal Party
• Whats in the Box
• Tesla Tough Guy
• Sneaky Trapper
• The Runs
• C4 You Know It

These Perks have now been added to the in-game Shop:

• Wider Increases the radius of Tonys Better, Faster, Stronger Active Ability to allow it a better chance of affecting team mates.
• Hunters Sense Increases the area affected by Nigels Spot Prey Active Ability, allowing it to detect more objects or Heroes.
• Idoru Increases the area affected by Kiras J-Pop Star Active Ability, making it more likely to help out teammates.
• Ball to the Wall Increases Vanders Ball Lighting ammunition pool.
• Shadow Lizard Increase the speed at which O.P. can climb walls.
• No One Lives Forever Increases the clip size and ammunition pool for Astarellas P.P.P.
• Static Disruption Increases the time that devices are disabled by Sweet Sciences Active Ability.
• Djinns Jinx Increases the length of time that Dream Genies Active Ability lasts for.
• Its Alive! Alive! Increases the healing provided by Doc Elizas Miracle Cure Active Ability.
• Rolling Wild Allows Roly Poly Fat Fat to move while her Active Ability is in use, but at a reduced rate.
• Psycho Circus Increases the duration of Kreepys Killer Klown Active Ability.
• Yury N Ice Increases the radius of Yurys Avalanche Active Ability to allow the snow to cover a wider area.

If you owned any of the Perks that have been removed, you will be reimbursed with the number of Gold Bars spent on those perks. ________________________________________

In Other News

A matchmaking bug that could allow more than 10 players into a match, or matches with unbalanced team numbers, has been fixed. ________________________________________ Enjoy! As always, we need every ounce of feedback you can chuck our way, so head on over to the forums and let us know what you think. Have a great holiday, all. Well see you Blockin around the Christmas Tree. The Block N Load Team

[ 2017-12-19 15:53:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

It’s a bumper Block N Load update today, with a new hero, new blocks, an overhauled reward and progression system and a whole heck of a lot more. Read on! ________________________________________

Bounty Blocks

First up, Bounty Blocks. These beauties are a new way to obtain the following Block N Load goodies:

• Heroes
• Hero Skins
• Blocks
• Block Skins
• Block Dust, which allows you to upgrade blocks (more on that below).

Bounty Blocks come in three tiers of rarity (Silver, Gold and Diamond), each giving you a better chance at rewards than the last. You can get Silver Bounty Blocks simply by logging into the game. Open it up, enjoy, then check back once four hours have passed for another. You’ll also get a chance at earning Bounty Blocks for each match you play to completion, with a chance to get a rarer Bounty Block if you win. Play hard for the best rewards! Finally, all three tiers of Bounty Block are available in the Shop. ________________________________________

Block Progression

The refurbishment of Block N Load’s core systems continues, and this week we’re bringing you Block Progression. Every block in the game now has a level, and can be made more powerful by levelling them up with Block Dust. Check out the Block section your Profile in-game, where you can browse all blocks available in the game, and find out how they’ll improve as you upgrade them. ________________________________________

New Hero: Trondson

The Block N Load roster just got one bigger with the arrival of Trondson: biker dwarf and blue-collar hero. His tireless work ethic, no-nonsense (but effective) combat style and deft hand with all manner of digging gear make him a versatile choice for Blockheads everywhere. Digging Tool: ‘Vibro-Shovel’. This complex device cuts through rocks like butter, and is also perfect for building and deconstructing objectives. Primary Weapon: ‘Sonic Staff’. This trusty tool is useful in a number of situations, but Trondson mostly uses it for taking out enemies with ear-bursting blasts of sonic energy. He also uses its alternate function to briefly detect all enemies in the vicinity. Secondary Weapon: ‘Kobold Lamps’. These enchanted light sources were meant to guide miners, but Trondson has a more direct application for them. When thrown, they’re pretty effective grenades. Alternatively, Trondson can use the alternate function to unleash the earth spirits in the lamps, and convert all blocks in the target area to stone. Active Ability: ‘Heigh-Ho!’. For a time, Trondson and nearby teammates deal more damage when digging through blocks. Passive Ability: ‘Tunnel Rat’. Trondson moves more quickly when crouched compared to other heroes. Trondson is available now in the Shop. ________________________________________

New Blocks

There are three new blocks in game, just waiting to be incorporated into your devious strategies. Each of these can be used by any hero, but must first be unlocked from a Bounty Block. Nuke Bomb This Device Block does what it says on the tin. After a countdown, it explodes, causing devastation unmatched by any other bomb in the game. It can be destroyed with a tool while counting down. Foam Block This Building Block is tough, durable, and particularly resistant to splash damage. Poison Bush This Building Block poisons enemies, while friendly players may pass through unharmed. ________________________________________

New Skins

Complete 10 Block N Load matches between 19 December 2017 - 02 January 2018 and earn a free holiday skin: Lazy Vacation Nigel. While the Big Game Hunter’s putting his feet up and sipping on a glass of port, look out for these beauties too:

• The Santa's Kreepy Helper skin for Kreepy the Clown is available in the Shop.
• The Fashion Collier skin for Trondson is available in the Shop.
• A skin for the Nuke Bomb Block can be found in Bounty Blocks.
• A skin for the Large Bomb Block can be found in Bounty Blocks

________________________________________

Perk Removal

As part of the new progression system designed to improve the game’s balance, we have removed 13 Perks from the game, replacing them with 13 new ones. The following Perks have had to be removed:

• Yury N Ice
• Multi-Tasker
• Deep Grav Wells
• Djinn’s Bounty
• Wasn’t Me
• Lil’ Buddy Boost
• Tiki Terror
• Portal Party
• What’s in the Box
• Tesla Tough Guy
• Sneaky Trapper
• The Runs
• C4 You Know It

These Perks have now been added to the in-game Shop:

• Wider – Increases the radius of Tony’s “Better, Faster, Stronger” Active Ability to allow it a better chance of affecting team mates.
• Hunter’s Sense – Increases the area affected by Nigel’s “Spot Prey” Active Ability, allowing it to detect more objects or Heroes.
• Idoru – Increases the area affected by Kira’s J-Pop Star Active Ability, making it more likely to help out teammates.
• Ball to the Wall – Increases Vander’s Ball Lighting ammunition pool.
• Shadow Lizard – Increase the speed at which O.P. can climb walls.
• No One Lives Forever – Increases the clip size and ammunition pool for Astarella’s P.P.P.
• Static Disruption – Increases the time that devices are disabled by Sweet Science’s Active Ability.
• Djinn’s Jinx – Increases the length of time that Dream Genie’s Active Ability lasts for.
• It’s Alive! Alive! – Increases the healing provided by Doc Eliza’s Miracle Cure Active Ability.
• Rolling Wild – Allows Roly Poly Fat Fat to move while her Active Ability is in use, but at a reduced rate.
• Psycho Circus – Increases the duration of Kreepy’s Killer Klown Active Ability.
• Yury ‘N Ice – Increases the radius of Yury’s Avalanche Active Ability to allow the snow to cover a wider area.

If you owned any of the Perks that have been removed, you will be reimbursed with the number of Gold Bars spent on those perks. ________________________________________

In Other News

A matchmaking bug that could allow more than 10 players into a match, or matches with unbalanced team numbers, has been fixed. ________________________________________ Enjoy! As always, we need every ounce of feedback you can chuck our way, so head on over to the forums and let us know what you think. Have a great holiday, all. We’ll see you Blockin’ around the Christmas Tree. The Block N Load Team

[ 2017-12-19 15:53:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

The world-leading game security solution has arrived in Block N Load, helping make the game fair for all players. We’ve got a big batch of bug fixes too, for a smoother BnL experience than ever. Block N Load is a fun place to build forts and blast your friends, but it also needs to be fair. Cheating is an issue that we take very seriously, and today’s update takes a huge step towards addressing it. We’ve integrated EasyAntiCheat (EAC) into today’s Block N Load build: a proven, safe technology that’s formed part of many successful, competitive online games. It analyses both client- and server-side techniques, and smartly adds suspicious behaviour patterns to its database, preventing them from being used again. Everyone will now be prompted to update to the latest version of Block N Load, which will install EAC. Please note that Block N Load will no longer run without EAC installed. Bug Fixes Here are the latest fixes to the game, also included in today’s update:

• Aiming at the Block Buster Boost should no longer show the “do not attack” warning crosshair.
• Block Buster Boost should no longer be layered behind the skybox.
• Devices should now only show their health as changing when they are actively taking damage, instead of the next time you look at them after they’ve taken damage while you’re elsewhere on the map.
• Switching between Heroes on the ‘Your Heroes’ screen in the Profile section of the menus no longer causes RAM usage to continually increase.
• Vander Graaf’s Tesla Coils can only be charged one at a time, instead of multiple with a single shot.
• Objective (Base and Cube) hitboxes have been improved to better match the visuals of them.
• Vander Graaf’s Tesla Coils no longer infinitely charge themselves when placed in specific arrangements.
• Audio for Kira-chan’s Active Ability correctly stops when the final objective is destroyed.
• Buffs granted by Heal Stations and Ammo Crates at the maximum map height are no longer retained after leaving the area of the Blocks.
• The Hero you last played will now correctly be saved as the default for the next match.
• Falling Blocks should no longer cancel building.
• An exploit--where players could use perks and blocks from a different hero via a glitch on the profile page--has been fixed.
• A non-functional stat section of the menus has been disabled.

Enjoy! There’s more on the way very soon, so keep your eyes on the Block N Load news. Enjoy the game! The Block N Load Team

[ 2017-11-30 17:22:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

The world-leading game security solution has arrived in Block N Load, helping make the game fair for all players. Weve got a big batch of bug fixes too, for a smoother BnL experience than ever. Block N Load is a fun place to build forts and blast your friends, but it also needs to be fair. Cheating is an issue that we take very seriously, and todays update takes a huge step towards addressing it. Weve integrated EasyAntiCheat (EAC) into todays Block N Load build: a proven, safe technology thats formed part of many successful, competitive online games. It analyses both client- and server-side techniques, and smartly adds suspicious behaviour patterns to its database, preventing them from being used again. Everyone will now be prompted to update to the latest version of Block N Load, which will install EAC. Please note that Block N Load will no longer run without EAC installed. Bug Fixes Here are the latest fixes to the game, also included in todays update:

• Aiming at the Block Buster Boost should no longer show the do not attack warning crosshair.
• Block Buster Boost should no longer be layered behind the skybox.
• Devices should now only show their health as changing when they are actively taking damage, instead of the next time you look at them after theyve taken damage while youre elsewhere on the map.
• Switching between Heroes on the Your Heroes screen in the Profile section of the menus no longer causes RAM usage to continually increase.
• Vander Graafs Tesla Coils can only be charged one at a time, instead of multiple with a single shot.
• Objective (Base and Cube) hitboxes have been improved to better match the visuals of them.
• Vander Graafs Tesla Coils no longer infinitely charge themselves when placed in specific arrangements.
• Audio for Kira-chans Active Ability correctly stops when the final objective is destroyed.
• Buffs granted by Heal Stations and Ammo Crates at the maximum map height are no longer retained after leaving the area of the Blocks.
• The Hero you last played will now correctly be saved as the default for the next match.
• Falling Blocks should no longer cancel building.
• An exploit--where players could use perks and blocks from a different hero via a glitch on the profile page--has been fixed.
• A non-functional stat section of the menus has been disabled.

Enjoy! Theres more on the way very soon, so keep your eyes on the Block N Load news. Enjoy the game! The Block N Load Team

[ 2017-11-30 17:22:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Dear Block N Load players, Block N Load has been free to play for two years, and that means it’s time to celebrate! We’re excited to announce that Block N Load will be receiving some much-needed development work, aiming to address some of the core issues that you have highlighted with the game.

What does this mean?

First up, we’re improving hack detection, and focusing on many of the more prominent issues that you’ve brought to our attention. We’re making these updates our top priority. We’ll get them to you as soon as possible, but it’s important that we take the time needed to get them right. As always, keep an eye on the Block N Load site for updates on our progress. Throughout this process, we will communicate with you as frequently as possible, and will need every bit of support and feedback that you can give us. We are in this boat together, and with your help, we will succeed.

Community driven approach

Two years ago, we promised player-led development for Block N Load. We weren’t able to fulfil that—for which we apologise. This time, though, we’re doing it right. Here at Jagex, we’re redoubling our efforts on this new approach – driven by your feedback and suggestions. Not only do we want to hear your thought on all things Block, but we’ll be right in there with you, playing matches with you, and appearing on streams. We want to shape Block N Load into the game we know it can be, but we can only do that with your help - in game, together with us.

Let’s get started!

To kick this off we have prepared a short video, where we address questions you might have and talk about what to expect in the near future. Watch the video now! If you can’t wait to share your ideas, please head on over to the forums! Enjoy! The Block N Load Team

[ 2017-10-19 16:46:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Dear Block N Load players, Block N Load has been free to play for two years, and that means its time to celebrate! Were excited to announce that Block N Load will be receiving some much-needed development work, aiming to address some of the core issues that you have highlighted with the game.

What does this mean?

First up, were improving hack detection, and focusing on many of the more prominent issues that youve brought to our attention. Were making these updates our top priority. Well get them to you as soon as possible, but its important that we take the time needed to get them right. As always, keep an eye on the Block N Load site for updates on our progress. Throughout this process, we will communicate with you as frequently as possible, and will need every bit of support and feedback that you can give us. We are in this boat together, and with your help, we will succeed.

Community driven approach

Two years ago, we promised player-led development for Block N Load. We werent able to fulfil thatfor which we apologise. This time, though, were doing it right. Here at Jagex, were redoubling our efforts on this new approach driven by your feedback and suggestions. Not only do we want to hear your thought on all things Block, but well be right in there with you, playing matches with you, and appearing on streams. We want to shape Block N Load into the game we know it can be, but we can only do that with your help - in game, together with us.

Lets get started!

To kick this off we have prepared a short video, where we address questions you might have and talk about what to expect in the near future. Watch the video now! If you cant wait to share your ideas, please head on over to the forums! Enjoy! The Block N Load Team

[ 2017-10-19 14:59:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

The winning arenas from the "Midsummer Madness" map competition have been added as options in Custom matches. The arenas "Blocky Resort", "Beach Bash", and "Cruise Boat" were all originally created by members of the Block N Load community. Additionally, a small number of balancing changes have been made at the same time. For the full details of these please click to read more.

Arenas

Beach Bash Originally created by community member Alpha, Beach Bash is a three objective arena that scored highly in the Midsummer Madness map competition for the varied types of terrain in the map. Now that it is being rolled out in to Custom matches you can try scaling the mountains as Astarella, climbing buildings as O.P., or making use of the cover to advance through the middle as Sarge. Blocky Resport Created by △Triangle△ for the competition Blocky Resort seems to be a relatively simple two objective arena. However, don't let that dissuade you from trying it out as there are quite a number of options for alternative routes to be dug or built to get from one end of the arena to the other. Cruise Boat Cruise Boat was one of the more strikingly unique arenas that was submitted to the Midsummer Madness competition and scored very highly for the originality shown. Originally created by sanojLeOne, this three objective arena has a unique design to it which centers around the massive Cruise Ship.

Balancing

After undergoing a period of testing on the Player Test Realm several changes have been made to a number of Blocks and Heroes. Heroes Sweet Science -Primary Weapon (Blitz Stance)- There have been a number of comments made that Blitz Stance's alternate "dash" type attach can be used much more effectively to quickly deal higher damage by using two short uncharged attacks than by charging the attack up. This meant that there was little reason to attempt to use the charged attack against a player. We've now made a few tweaks to the alternate attack to try and change this.

• Uncharged dash attack damage against Heroes reduced from 20 to 15.
• Charged dash attack damage against Heroes increased from 20 to 30.
• Uncharged dash attack damage against Blocks reduced from 30 to 25.
• Charged dash attack area of effect damage against Blocks reduced from 60 to 45.
• Charged dash attack now has 10 direct damage to the Block that it in the centre of the area hit.

-Secondary Weapon (Graviton Stance)- Sweet Science's Graviton Stance pull has become much more effective with the new reticules showing the area it will affect. One of the reasons that arc for the alternate "pull" type attack was so wide was to make it easier to catch people. With the reticule now making that easier the arc can be reduced a little.

• Width of arc reduced from 132 to 120 degrees.

Vander Graaf -Hero Block (Tesla Coils)- Massed Tesla Coils have been proving a little bit too effective, and we've made a few slight tweaks to them as a result.

• Damage to Heroes reduced from 19 to 17.
• Self damage when firing increased from 9 to 10.

O.P. 'Juan' Shinobi -Secondary Weapon (Ninja Stars)- It was previously highlighted to us that Ninja Stars were behaving slightly differently depending on whether you have Bloody Bleeding equipped or not. We have now adjusted the timing so that throwing the Ninja Stars with Bloody Bleeding equipped results in the same timings as throwing them without the perk equipped. This should hopefully mean slightly less of a ‘pause’ after clicking to attack with the Ninja Stars, but doesn't alter the amount of damage that can be done with them. Blocks Towards the end of last year it was noted that some of the Blocks that can be placed instantly were in some cases out-performing similar Blocks and Devices which take time to construct. Of particular note amongst these were the wooden Crates, and the Caltrops. Crates

• Cost of placing a Crate increased from 2 to 3.

Caltrops

• Hit points reduced from 25 to 20.
• Toughness (damage resistance) reduced from 4 to 3.

[ 2017-02-28 13:51:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Steam Sale - Huge Discount of up to 66%

The Steam Winter Sale is now on! Content packs for Block N Load are now discounted by up to 66% in the Steam store – get in there!

Winter Skin Event

As a festive treat from the Block N Load team, complete at least 10 casual matches between 17:50 GMT on the 22nd of December 2016 and 23:59 GMT on the 8th of January 2017 you will earn you the new “Ghillie” skin for Yury the Yeti! Jump into game, complete the matches, and try out the new skin just in time for the holidays.

[ 2016-12-22 18:02:07 CET ] [ Original post ]

The latest update to Block N Load brings with it some new changes to the way leaving matches works, added the option to equip more than one badge on to your player card, as well as a new way of setting which Perks and Blocks you would like to use on a Hero before you enter into the queue for a match.

Change Hero Loadout Before a Match 

You can now set the Block, Skin, and Perk loadouts for your Heroes from the Profile menu instead of only being able to do so in the Hero selection screen when you are joining a match. To change the loadout of a Hero:

• Go to the “Your Heroes” section of the “Profile” page in the menus.
• Select the Hero you would like to alter.
• Select the Skin you would like to use.
• Click on the “Edit” button below the Perks section and set the Perks you would like to use.
• Click on the “Edit” button below the Blocks and set the Blocks you would like to use when playing this Hero.

You can still override these settings in the lobby, as usual, to adapt to different scenarios, but these will then become the settings you take into subsequent matches unless you once again edit them in profile prior to your next match.  

Match Quitting System

One comment we have seen a lot is that people are abandoning matches early and that this then encourages more members of the team to also quit out of the match.  We have now added a new system to hopefully discourage people from abandoning as many Casual matches. The first time anyone abandons a Casual match they will receive a warning about this new system. If anyone abandons too many Casual matches they will receive a second warning and an icon will be displayed in the lower-left of their main home screen.  This warning lets anyone receiving it know that they have abandoned a lot of matches compared to the number that has been completed.   If anyone continues to abandon further Casual matches after this point they will receive another message, and the icon on the home screen will change.  At this point, they will start earning less Gold and XP for each match until they successfully complete enough matches without quitting.  

Player Card

We know that some players have unlocked a lot of different badges, but can only pick one to display at a time.  We’ve now made it possible to set up to 3 Badges on your Player Card for other players to see.

• Go to the “Emblems” section of the “Profile” page in the game menus.
• Click on the first badge you would like to equip and display on your Player Card
• Click on the second badge you would like to equip
• Click on the third badge you would like to equip
• Clicking on a fourth badge will remove the first badge you equipped before adding the new one to the Player Card.

We have also added a special badge to represent Jagex Staff & Players that are part of the Community Team (Community Representatives):
Community Representative
Jagex Staff Click here to read the full patch notes.

[ 2016-11-02 12:17:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Brand New Hero Skins

This Halloween we are releasing two brand new skins available for purchase in the in-game shop, to make sure you can add a little trick & treat to your inventory: Kreepy the Jester finds our favourite freaky clown rediscovering his roots in an outfit that’s based on an ancient maker of mischief. Gothi-chan is a slightly darker and more sombre skin for the effervescent Kira-chan. She’s always interested in different fashions even if this one is a little bit of a departure from her usual bubbly self.

Steam Halloween Sale

The Scary Monsters skin pack is now 66% off as part of the Steam Halloween sale. Pick it up from the Steam store to get Halloween-themed skins for Doc Eliza, Dream Genie, O.P. ‘Juan’ Shinobi, Nigel Purdey-Longshott, Cogwheel, and Vander Graaf- all in one devious pack! Pick them up individually in-game at a special discounted price or snatch the full spooky set for the best deal via the Steam Store.

Pumpkin Arena

Our Halloween Arena “Pumpkin” is back, freshly carved and ready for rotation during the Halloween period. Watch out for it when playing Casual matches, or select it in the Custom Game mode for one hell of a time! Enjoy the spooky spirit of late October with Block N Load!

[ 2016-10-28 17:22:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Block N Load version 3.2 introduces improvements to the Hero Selection screen including an icon that indicates which Heroes are on free rotation, hover-tips for all weapons and abilities and a team composition warning. This is along with a number of balancing changes, fixes to bugs and tweaks to improve other areas of the game.

HERO SELECTION

The Hero Selection screen before you enter into a match has had a number of changes made to it to try and make it more obvious if your team may be fielding too many or too few Heroes that fill a particular role, how the different Heroes weapons and abilities function, as well as more information about the setup of your team-mates Heroes.

• Any Heroes that are on free rotation now have an icon displayed to indicate this.
• Small icons for the Perks equipped on each Hero are now displayed below the Block loadout for that Hero (along with hover-tips if you move your mouse over them).
• Hover-tips have been added when you move your mouse cursor over the images of the Blocks another Hero has equipped.
• Hover-tips have also been added to your own Heroes weapons and ability icons displayed when you are selecting the Hero.
• A message appears at the top of the screen if the team composition seems to be completely missing a Role, or if there are significantly more Heroes of one Role selected than either of the others.
• In Casual Mode the “thumbs up” voting icon on has been moved next to the number of votes to allow more of the arena’s preview image to be seen.
• Icons to display which players are in squads have been added to Hero selection in a similar way to the in-game scoreboard.

BALANCING

A number of Heroes have had their weapons, abilities, and even some Perks tweaked and adjusted to set the Heroes more apart from each other. Some Blocks have also been altered to try and make different loadouts more attractive. Tony Turretto's Rivet Gun has been altered to try and make this shotgun-type weapon more vicious at close range, and less effective at very longer ranges. Eliza's Miracle Cure is now more effective at healing and supporting her team, Kreepy the Klown's Bananas now explode quicker, Force Gates are now tougher, plus a range of other changes. Click here to read the full patch notes.

[ 2016-10-04 11:28:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been a busy & exciting summer featuring lots of tasty new content, but alas our summer event Midsummer Madness has come to an end. But in an epic fashion with the results of the 'vacation-themed' map contest:

1ST PRIZE

Beach Bash by Alpha
COOLER MASTER CM STORM QUICK FIRE ULTIMATE – CHERRY MX BROWN SWITCH [SGK-4011-GKCM1 (Brown switch/Red backlight) ]
COOLER MASTER ALCOR – GAMING MOUSE [SGM-2005-KLOW1] Judges Comments [quote=Jagex Team Judges]Overall a well-designed map with a great variety of terrain, open areas and enclosed spaces. The creator has provided the player with multiple routes to choose from with the possibility of creating, even more, using the destructible environment, creating a varied experience each time the Arena is played. Blocks, devices, and decor items have been used well in this Arena to create some interesting elements. The trees are particularly well designed. The first playthroughs we witnessed were very positive and enjoyed by all. Playing the Arena we enjoyed what seemed like increasing difficulty for attack (1st base open, 2nd more enclosed but multiple obvious ways in, 3rd a Fortress. Alpha stuck to the brief creating his interpretation of the theme 'Summer Vacation' we love that the progression through the Arena tells a story and this is reflected in the description provided for the submission. It was a great bonus to see Alpha approaching v0x to provide some of their now celebrated BNL art to add to the Arena thumbnail, which was a very nice touch. Playtesting was noted from an early stage and feedback was taken on board to fine tune elements of the Arena and has resulted in great gameplay experience. The design rules & guidelines were well observed to create what we feel was overall a deserving winner of the contest. There are a few areas of improvement required but nothing major and the Arena performs well. Beach Bash is certainly a strong candidate to be added to the game.[/quote]

2ND PRIZE

Cruise Boat by sanojLeOne
COOLER MASTER CM STORM QUICK FIRE ULTIMATE – CHERRY MX BROWN SWITCH [SGK-4011-GKCM1 (Brown switch/Red backlight) ] Judges Comments [quote=Jagex Team Judges]An absolutely stunning looking Arena that turned every judge's head! We all agreed it was a very ambitious and creative interpretation of the theme and if the judging criteria were on looks alone, Cruise Boat would have surely won. Judes noted that the creator must have previous experience and of course we enlightened them of Sano's previous submissions, which have been getting stronger and stronger. The Spawn exits are well thought out and naturally lead you to where you need to go to locate the objectives. An interesting and thematic way of getting back out of the water should you fall off has been thought about with the combination of lifeboats and anchor to the rear of the boat. Sculpting has been used to a very high standard creating some lovely pieces that could have easily used the pre-made decor items, but Sano's skill has allowed him to make a large Arena that performs very well. So why did Cruise Boat not come 1st? Well, we felt that based on gameplay we couldn't award first. As mentioned it's an ambitious build and keeping to the boat footprint was a massive challenge to allow the objectives to be placed in a manner that really worked for the Arena. We didn't necessarily think it was a matter of simply dropping a cube but how to pull the attackers off a straight line dash (this was what largely happened in the observed playtesting). This is no easy task and we can tell that Sano has attempted to do what he could with the current setup to slow attackers down and break up the critical path. After discussing the alternatives at some rather significant lengths we believe that it may best to add an extra element to the Arena such as an island, sea creature or dock to each side of the boat to allow you to move one of the objectives out to the side and break up the straight line critical path. We looked at other ideas keeping to the boat alone, but we felt it would compromise the aesthetics too much. ​ Other than the above there are only a few areas that we feel would require a tweak such as leading attackers away from the enemy spawn stairs (feels like the way to go from 1st to 2nd) and generally the route down to the 2nd that doesn't encourage fall damage. Cruise Boat is certainly a strong candidate to be added to the game.[/quote]

3RD PRIZE

Blocky Resort by △TRIANGLE△
SWAG! BNL Merchandise Bundle – Military Style Laptop Bag, Katana Style Umbrella, Beanie Hat, Medium T-Shirt, Wrist Band, Sweat Band, Window Sticker + Poster (not shown) Judges Comments [quote=Jagex Team Judges]Blocky Resort was a much smaller Arena than the other submissions, but it really packed a punch! ​​​Triangle really delivered what is becoming his trademark style with this Vacation themed mini beauty. The simple clean lines crafted a slick look that was very eye pleasing to the judges. A lot of strong playable spaces were created despite the smaller scale and absolutely none of it was wasted. Despite some judges wanting to see that 3rd objective, it was agreed that it was indeed a better decision to use 2 rather than cramming a 3rd in artificially where it may have in reality nothing more to add. The Arena is very easy to read, which was a strong point, we only had one small bit of feedback about some of the paths leading to what seemed to be a 'secret door', which was in fact just a wall. this was just before you enter the Cube building from no man's land. Easily rectified by ending these paths earlier pointing out to sea, which leads players to the sides where the side playable area would then also be visible. We noted that the various gameplay gathered for this Arena showed a pretty diverse number of ways to play the Arena, but largely played pretty fast. Gameplay very much seems to depend on strength of defence. We did have the largest amount of conflict revolving around whether or not there should be some natural way of getting back up to the higher level on the Cube. It is easy to build a secure way up & some believe it was in order to slow attack and help defence as larger staircases/ramps are harder to defend naturally, but others found it confusing. Again there was a ​debate about the objectives being arranged in a straight line (despite the path being broken up) as it did mean that it was a quick dash for the attackers to take the Base very quickly in many games. We are unsure how much this will impact things and could require further testing and potential experiments with layouts. Other than the above the spawn was really the only other main area we had feedback for as we felt that the spawn could be further improved by opening another door that faces towards the Cube/enemy side of the map so: It would spawn players facing immediately in the direction that they are going to need to move to build defences / discover the Cube for new players It would allow you to discover the other exits from spawn to your side Gives a better angle to survey your Cube and natural defences Blocky Resort while missing out on 1st/2nd due to the others having slightly stronger aesthetics or gameplay it is still very much a strong candidate to be added to the game.[/quote]

OTHER SHORTLISTED ENTRIES

> Castle Ruins > Sandcastle Wars > Cloudy With a Chance of Summer 1.0 All entries are available on the Steam Workshop, so you can check them out for yourself ahead of them being added to the game.

The above 3 Arenas will be given a quick once over to catch any snags & added to the game for all to play. Initially as a permanent​ Custom game Arena & then added to the Casual rotation. A massive congratulations to all that entered, you definitely gave us a tough job making our final decision & we hope that we continue to see great Arenas built with the Block N Load Map Editor & posted on Steam Workshop. If you are new to the Map Editor, then start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Km0ZkeKqGTk

[ 2016-09-16 12:28:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update to comes with several improvements that are designed to make it easier to understand what is going on during a match as well as two new skins, a few bug fixes, and a slew of balancing changes to round out the new version.

Skins

Steam Science
Sweet Science is a not-so-gentle gentleman inventor as well as a boxer. Using arcane secrets of invention makes steam power the go-to force for taking down his enemies. Roly Poly Dive Dive
A pressurised hamster ball for exploring the depths of the ocean which also works remarkably well on land as well. Cannons for fending off the mightiest beasts of the sea are equally as effective against Heroes. It’s probably best not to ask what powers the boosters.

Scoreboards – Viewing Squads

You will now be able to see which players are playing together in a squad. When you bring up the scoreboard by pressing the “Tab” key during a match, or when you finish a game, you may find that there are small icons “I” or “II” in a circle next to some of the players. These little icons display which players were in the first or the second squad on each team. So, for example, if you were to see “I” next to three players on Team A, “I” next to two players on Team 1, and “II” next to another two players on Team 1 this would show that there was a squad of three people on Team A, and two squads of two people on Team 1.

Viewing Enemy Perks

If your Hero should be taken out by an enemy Hero then you will now see the Perks that Hero had equipped displayed whilst the kill cam is active. This should hopefully start to give people a better idea of why the Hero that got them was moving quicker than expected or seemed to be shooting more accurately. These will be displayed as icons at the bottom of the screen along with a short bit of information about the player and Hero. Moving the mouse cursor over any of the Perk icons will display more information about the effects of that Perk.

New Reticules

Several Heroes have got some new reticules for their weapons.

• O.P. ‘Juan’ Shinobi has a new reticule for his Katana which shows the approximate area of the swing.
• Sweet Science has new reticules for his Blitz Stance showing the area of the punches, and for his Graviton Stance showing where its punch and pull will affect.
• Kreepy the Klown’s Extendo Gloves now have a reticule which shows the area of his melee attack.

For the full patch notes click here.

[ 2016-09-01 11:19:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update introduces significant changes to Vander Graaf's Tesla Coil Hero Block, plus and improved way of communicating with your teammates during a match. Additionally, there have been plenty of balancing changes, which aim to make Heroes and Blocks more useful.

Tesla Coil Rework

Instead of using his Static Gloves to attack via the Tesla Coils, Vander Graaf now uses his Static Gloves to charge the Teslas. Tesla Coils can still form a network and pass the electrical charge from one to the next (as long as they’re in range of each other). This means if you have four Tesla Coils built in a line, and the first one attacks (using its charge up to do so) the others can their pass their charge forwards to allow it to continue to attack. This should give Vander a few more opportunities to move around the arena a little more whilst his Tesla Coils can at least launch some attacks whilst he’s not nearby. However, he will need to return to them to recharge them once they’ve fired.

Messaging and Communications

By pressing the Left Alt key you can bring up a list of different messages you can send to your team. When you send one of these messages it will display a short line of text to let your team know you 'need a Heal Station', or to 'defend your objective'. If you feel that there’s a message missing that would be useful for communicating with your team, then submit it here and we’ll see which ones we can get added to the game! For the full patch notes click here.

[ 2016-07-28 10:52:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

The latest version of Block N Load brings changes to the matchmaking system which should help improve the quality of matches plus additional options for Custom Games. Of course, there are also a number of other improvements and fixes to go along with it as well. Some of the key changes in this version include:

Custom Games

Custom Games have received some new functions to make them more interesting and easier to find players to join matches on player made maps from the Steam Workshop. It is now possible to allow players to join a Custom Game even after it has been started, once a Custom Game has finished the host of the custom game can choose to take the game from the scoreboard back to the match setup screen, and new options to adjust the size of the Brick Wallet Cap along with the number of Bricks that each Hero starts the match with have been added.

Matchmaking

A number of changes have been made to the matchmaking systems to make them more flexible. We’ve used existing data about the people currently playing Block N Load to set the starting points for these, and hopefully you should see some better matches formed as a result.

XP Boosters

It is now possible to purchase boosters that increase the amount of XP you gain from completing matches in the in-game Shop. Each booster will run for the amount of time specified and during the time it is active will let you earn XP for your Heroes and Player Level faster.

4th of July Arena

Additionally, as this update is coming out on the 4th of July the arena "E Pluribus Unum" is making a return to Casual Mode rotation and Custom Games. It's time to party like it's 1776! For the full patch notes click here.

[ 2016-07-04 10:19:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

In preparation for our next update, we've updated our Player Test Realm where you can try out some of the changes we'll be releasing soon. Among the features you'll be able to test are:

• New Custom Games options such as "Allow Backfilling" and Brick wallet cap and initial Bricks settings
• XP Boosters
• Fixes to Line of Sight and the way splash damage works

There's plenty more, so head on over to the PTR forum for more information and instructions on how you can help us test out new features.

Ranked Beta Survey

We're still testing out various scenarios for Ranked play and we really want your feedback, so if you have played our Ranked beta weekends and want to provide feedback, please head over to the survey and tell us what you think.

Sarge, Eliza, and Astarella in Rotation

Our Yeti hero leaves the free rotation this week and Sarge Stone comes in to take his place.

Eliza's Lab Rat Run Time Assault

Our Time Assault map has rotated out as well, so get in there and earn that Gold! Can you get to the top of the leaderboard?

Midsummer Madness

Finally, don't forget our Midsummer Madness event runs all summer long. Keep your eyes on our website for schedule updates!

[ 2016-06-28 16:36:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

THIS SUMMER IS GOING TO BE BLOCKING AWESOME!

Midsummer Madness will run from June to August and incorporates multiple different activities, promotions, contests, and content releases to keep you busy throughout those hot summer days. Things will be kicking off from this Friday with ALL HEROES FREE TO TRY and DISCOUNTS ON HERO PRICES. There’s also going to be a chance to dress to impress with the release of 2 new skins in the shop! There's no time to lose, head on over to our EVENT PAGE to get the full details. Be sure to keep checking back for further event reveals. There will be plenty of chances for you to get involved, and with the amount going on there's sure to be something for both new and veteran players alike.

EVENT PAGE LAST UPDATED

9th August

[ 2016-06-22 19:39:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

The latest balancing update has been made to Block N Load. Based on a range of feedback including the results of our most recent Hero balancing survey, a number of changes have been made to some of the Heroes in Block N Load. This balancing update includes changes to Sweet Science, Nigel Purdey-Longshott, O.P. 'Juan' Shinobi, Kreepy the Klown, Kira-chan, Astarella, and the "Slow" effect used by several Heroes and Blocks after testing on the Player Test Realm (PTR). If you want to see the latest planned changes before they're released make sure to check out the Player Test Realm section of the Block N Load Steam forums. For the full patch notes click here. _________________________________________________

Current Free Hero Rotation:

Yury the Yeti, Astarella & Vander Graaf

Current Time Assault Arena:

Metal Monstrosity (Cogwheel)

[ 2016-06-16 14:53:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Free Rotation Yury the Yeti replaces Cogwheel to join Vander Graaf and Nigel Purdey-Longshott in free rotation. If you’ve not tried Yury this is your chance to find out how he plays. Ranked Beta The 6th week of the Ranked Beta allowed for any squad size and the requirements to have at least 3 level 10 Heroes available to select. Week 7 will feature squads of 5 only, however, with the new Squad Finder that was introduced in our latest update it should be far easier to find people to join your squads. Don’t forget to set your Squad Finder preferences in the settings menu if you’re looking to join a squad! We’ll also be creating a survey about how you found the different settings for the Ranked Beta. However, you can always post your thoughts on the different Ranked Beta weekends in the “Feedback” section of the Steam discussion forum. Dev Progress Let’s recap this year’s roadmap as it looks this week:

• Separating Casual and Ranked - Done
• Block Rebalance Pass 1 - Done
• Progression Overhaul - Done
• Squad Finder - Done
• More arena voting options in Casual - Done (with some improvements to be made)
• Hero Balance Passes – On-going alongside development work
• Performance, Bug and Quality of Life fixes - This is always on-going
• Improvements to the Tutorial - On-going
• More cosmetic content - In Progress
• More sales and short term events -Bundle Support - In Progress -Double XP weekends - Scheduled -Free Hero weekends - Scheduled -Flash sales - Scheduled
• Custom game improvements - In Design
• Reticule tweaks and improvements - In Design
• In-game communication system improvements - In Design

We’re also working on some improvements to the Squad Finder based on player feedback, some changes to the way matchmaking works, plus some new ways to spend Platinum and help support the game! We have previously made mention of a few other features in past roadmaps, and while the following are still very much elements that are on our radar and we would like to improve on, we may find other features that could take precedence:

• Seasonal (and other criteria) Ranked leaderboards
• Ranked promotion/demotion systems
• Clan System - Persistent clans or clan identification

The order of individual items on the roadmap can end up changing for a number of reasons, including the feedback that we have received.

[ 2016-06-07 17:47:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update to Block N Load brings with it several new features and improvements to make it easier to find people to play with. Some of the most notable changes that you will find in this version include:

SQUAD FINDER

Squad finder is available on the “Home” and “Play” Menus. Clicking on the checkbox will set you as looking for a squad. Anyone else who is online can then invite you to their squad from this menu. Preferences to specify the type of match you are looking for, the languages you can understand, and your preferred Heroes can be set in the options menu. Finding & Adding Squad Members (Video) Making Yourself Available on Squad Finder(video)

FORT ARGENT

New two objective arena “Fort Argent” has been added to Custom Games and the Casual Mode rotation.

• Chat Improvements.
• Daily log in Gold bonus.
• The Causeway arena has been moved from the standard rotation and will now be a new player only arena.
• The 'Practice Grounds' Tutorial now has sections that cover Supply Drops and the BlockBuster Boost.
• Casual Mode should provide 3 arenas to vote on instead of 2.
• Advanced warning for BlockBuster Boosts in the HUD and minimap has been set to 60 seconds for all modes.
• Hero & Block balancing changes
• Various other Bug Fixes & Improvements

For full patch notes click here.

[ 2016-05-26 11:28:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Survey Results

The results of our most recent balancing survey, and particularly some of the comments that accompanied them, were extremely interesting and enlightening to read. Some of the comments related to things that we were already working on – indeed, a number of the issues highlighted with Roly Poly Fat Fat were addressed by an update that occurred whilst the survey was taking place. Other responses highlighted additional areas of balancing which were not receiving attention on the forums, but seem to affect a fair number of players. Heroes, Skill, and Power One of the things that the survey results highlighted was that some Heroes scale far more with skill than others. The Hero may seem on the surface to be about the same power as other Heroes but can feel underpowered the first time someone selects it, while feeling overpowered when used by someone who has had a lot of experience with that same Hero. It’s always going to be the case that spending more time playing as a particular Hero (or Heroes) is going to give you an edge - for example by providing you with better ideas of advanced tactics to use. This does highlight that there is more we could do with some Heroes to make them a little easier to pick up. Reticules One area that we’ve identified is the reticules used for various weapons and weapon types, particularly where the main and alternate attack are very different from each other. As an example, Sweet Science’s Blitz Stance primary has a normal attack which delivers punches in a horizontal arc, but his alternate attack is a dash straight towards the centre of the reticule. At the moment the reticule indicates the alt fire well, but doesn’t do a good job of showing the range or width of the normal attack. Going through every weapon in Block N Load to identify which reticules need improvements and how they could be changed to make them better isn’t a small task, nor are the code changes to support this, however, this is something that we’re going to start looking at. We’ll also be looking at other things that might make a learning a new Hero easier, so it would be very useful to hear from you what elements of which Heroes you found hard to understand or get to grips with when you first played. Tony and his Lil’ Buddy Turrets The power of turrets has been an ongoing talking point, particularly when they are used in large numbers. Over the last few updates we’ve made various changes to address some of these, notably increasing the escalating costs, reducing their accuracy, and reducing the damage that each shot does to Heroes. With Tony having only one weapon that can damage enemies he is far more reliant on his Hero Block. This makes adjusting the turrets a far more delicate and complicated process than making changes to most other Hero Blocks. We’ve heard a lot of great suggestions regarding the turrets, and we hope to be able to get some of them implemented as soon as code changes can be made. O.P. ‘Juan’ Shinobi. Katanas, smoke bombs, and defensive Ninjas This has been another area which has been talked about at length outside of the survey. However, the survey results did bring out some additional information and points of view on what makes O.P. feel OP. O.P. is definitely a Hero where some element heavily increase his ability to not just escape, but to allow him to leap straight back in to the fight at maximum effectiveness. Foremost amongst these is O.P.’s “Vanish” Active Ability and there are already some changes to this that are due to go live (indeed, some of them have already been out for testing and feedback on the Player Test Realm). Still, additional changes may be needed (particularly to the bomb that O.P. leaves behind when Vanishing which is currently very difficult to defuse). The second of these is O.P.’s ability to close very rapidly with enemy Heroes using his teleport. One of the issues seems to be that when you are attacked by him it can be difficult to understand how he got so close so quickly. There are a number of elements to the Katana’s smoke bomb teleport that we can start to tweak, including the time that it takes to reload, the range at which it can be thrown, and the length that the smoke from it lasts. Some of these are easier values to tweak and test, whilst others require code changes, but they are all things we can look at adjusting to make O.P. slightly easier to see coming and understand how he is moving around the arena. As for the main normal attack of the Katana itself, many have commented that it can be difficult for people to understand the range and area that the Katana will hit. This applies to both playing as and against O.P. Although not as simple a change to make as some other elements, we can investigate whether it would be possible to add a “trail” to the Katana to allow the path the attack takes to be visible. Vander Graaf and Tesla Coils The single most commented feature of Vander were his Hero Block – the Tesla Coils. We’ve been kicking around ideas for a number of ways of solving this, and whilst none of them are simple, one idea is to allow the Tesla Coils to be charged up ahead of time. Vander would still need to return to his Tesla Coils to recharge them after they’ve fired, but they wouldn’t have to be watched over all the time. What do you think? Is this a direction we should be going, or is there a better option for the Tesla Coils? Kreepy the Klown Kreepy is another Hero that, whilst seemingly pretty balanced overall, had a lot of feedback about individual elements of his kit being over or underpowered. Kreepy’s Extendo-Gloves take some of the blame when it comes to being overpowered, particularly for players who have had more experience with the Klown, as when they are used correctly the knockback can be used to “juggle” someone and keep them in the air. This certainly seems to fit with the theme of our diabolical clown, but is seen as somewhat overpowered by those on the receiving end. We don’t want to remove what is at its core a tactic which fits so well with Kreepy’s theme, but there are a number of things we can do to make it less impactful. We can reduce the accuracy on the Gloves (making it more likely that the Hero will be dropped), we can reduce the number of shots in the clip (so it is not possible to juggle for as long), or we can reduce the damage that each hit does. All of these would help to address this, although reducing the number of gloves in his ‘clip’ seems to be the best solution at present.

Asia-Pacific Server

The relatively low number of players on the Asia and Oceania servers makes it harder to find matches, and this can cause some confusion as to why a match hasn’t quickly formed. Rather than shut both servers down we are going to “merge” them to bring the player bases from both servers together to try and reduce the time spent waiting for matches, and increase the quality of the matches that are found. There are no regional datacentres geographically located that are good for both Asia and Oceania, but by calling the region server “Asia-Pacific” we hope to encourage players from that side of the globe to play together. With many players already choosing the North American region as an alternative, we believe the experience won't be any worse at least. From 19:00 BST (21:00 MSK / 04:00 AEST) on the 24th of May only the Asia-Pacific server will be available in the eastern hemisphere.

Hero Rotation

Nigel Purdy-Longshott replaces Kreepy the Klown in our weekly hero rotation. Get in there and get shootin’!

[ 2016-05-24 14:53:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

[img=https://www.blocknload.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Cogtonykreepy610x252.jpg] Cogwheel joins the free rotation this week, playing alongside Tony and Kreepy. With Cogwheel top of the balance charts, he’s a great hero to get to grips with.

Balance Survey Results

Many thanks to everyone who replied to our Balance Survey. Besides some great data to hold up next to our in-game statistics, there were also lots of really good ideas submitted. As we act on what we’ve learned from the survey, we’ll be paying close attention to your thoughts. You can see the results of the survey here and we’ll keep you updated as to what our conclusions and actions will be.

Ranked Beta Weekend 3

It’s fair to say that there were strong opinions about Solo Ranked play. We are always gratified to see how passionate our players are! However, we’d like to point out that posting multiple identical threads emphasising the point doesn’t help us. To make it easier for us, it would be great to see one thread in Feedback with discussions for and against a feature, rather than spread it out amongst several threads that can drift off-topic. Our hope is that you give each experiment a fair chance and try not to let your preconceptions colour your opinions. Approach it with curiosity and an open mind, try to enjoy the experience and we’ll all have a better game in the end. Considering the strong feelings, however, we’re going to bring 5 Man Squads in Ranked up a week and see how people get on with it. This doesn’t mean we won’t revisit Solo - we might. Or we might not. Join us this weekend for Week 4 of Ranked Beta! Now with added Draft Pick!

Cheaty Cheating Cheaters and Anti-Cheat

Reports and discussions about cheating in Block N Load has jumped a notch this last week and we wanted to let you know that we are reading your reports and posts and taking action when appropriate. We also note your questions about our Anti-Cheat solutions and what we are doing to improve them. We want to avoid giving cheaters information that they can use to circumvent our systems, so we really can’t go into any detail, but please be aware that all anti-cheat solutions have to change over time to address new cheats that pop up and our anti-cheat is no different. We’ve also seen calls for Player moderators and while we appreciate that this is used by some games, there is a great deal of infrastructure that would be needed for something like this to work for Block. New software tools, network and security integration, testing and new processes all would have to be put in place, and of course, the moderators themselves need to be managed which is time-consuming in itself. Player moderation is not something we’d be able to implement at this point, but we deeply appreciate all the offers of help. For those of you who do want to make a difference, you can do so by being vigilant and reporting any bad behaviour in game. If you have evidence you can share, please do so via private links to videos or screenshots and send them to us using our contact form: http://www.blocknload.com/contact We are dedicated to getting rid of as many cheaters as we can and put a lot of our time into our tools and in reviewing individual cases to ensure that our bans are fair. We won’t get them all, but we’re aggressively pursuing them!

[ 2016-05-17 13:14:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

[img=https://www.blocknload.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/KreepySargeTony610x252.jpg] First things first - we’re moving Eliza out of rotation so she can restock her supply of noxious gases and bringing in Tony to take her place on the back line. Tony joins Kreepy and Sarge this week in the free to play rotation slots.

Dev progress report

May is full of national holidays around Block N Load land, so the team is in and out this month working on a variety of things for our next updates. If you have visited the Player Test Realm subforum here on Steam, you’ll see that we’re working through some more balance changes for some of our heroes. Get on over there if you want a peek or just want your opinions heard. As you will have read in our update last week, we want to get some more content in the shop for you to buy. Skins and heroes have the highest development impact since there are more team members involved in this, so producing these takes a little longer than some other features. Currently we’ve got a number of ideas waiting for a concept artist to work through them. Once we’ve got concepts to work from, we’ll get the artists, animators and modellers working. Another item on our roadmap is more events like last weekend’s Double XP weekend. Did you play and earn your double XP? Is it enough to get you back playing more often? Let us know as we’ll be experimenting with various ways to get players back in the game. Let’s recap this year’s roadmap as it looks this week:

• Separating Casual and Ranked - Done
• Block Rebalance Pass 1 - Done
• Progression Overhaul - Done
• Hero Balance Passes – On-going alongside development work
• New Tutorial/Hero Tutorials - In progress
• More sales and short term events - Bundle Support - In Progress - Double XP weekends - One down, more to plan! - Free Hero weekends - Scheduled (but it’s a secret) - Flash sales - Scheduled
• More cosmetic content - In Progress
• Performance, Bug and Quality of Life fixes (including matchmaking improvements) - this is always on-going

As for our feature development work, we’ve got a general order of attack (which could change as a result of other dependencies):

• Squad finder – A way to find other players looking to join a squad before entering the queue to help find people to group up with before starting the match.
• Improved Map Voting
• Seasonal (and other criteria) Ranked leaderboards
• Ranked promotion/demotion systems
• Custom game improvements - Late joining, additional custom game options, etc
• In-game communication improvements - Map ping system
• Clan System - Persistent clans or clan identification

Asia and Oceania server merge

Sadly, neither the Oceania nor the Asia regions are proving particularly viable from a userbase point of view and leaving both open simply causes confusion for new players who are unable to find matches on either. Rather than shut both down, we plan to “merge” them. In real terms, there are no regional datacentres geographically located that are good for both Asia and Oceania, but by calling the region server “Asia-Pacific” we hope to encourage players from that side of the globe to play together. Since many players already choose the North American region as an alternative, we believe the experience won't be any worse at least. On the 24th of May, only one server - Asia-Pacific - will be available in the eastern hemisphere.

Ranked beta

This coming weekend (13 to 15 May), ranked mode moves to solo queue only with the level requirement raised to 30. We’ll be looking for your experiences with ranked matchmaking as solo players as we work on getting the settings for Ranked to be the best possible.

[ 2016-05-10 16:53:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Earn Double XP for every Ranked or Casual match you play between Friday 6 May 16:00 GMT to Sunday 8 May 23:59 GMT. Week 2 of Ranked Beta is also this weekend, so if you are ready for ranked check out the following: Ranked Beta - Schedule of Testing and Opening Times

[ 2016-05-06 16:10:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

[img=https://www.blocknload.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/KreepySargeElizaRotation_small2.jpg] We hope you’re enjoying the new progression, the new match awards and had a weekend full of ranked goodness with your friends! We’re not stopping there, of course, and today we’re bringing you an update on our Roadmap progress and what’s in the pipeline next. But first, let’s get a couple of announcements out of the way.

Hero Rotation and Time Assault

We’re changing to a Tuesday Rotation day so today we’re bringing Kreepy the Klown to our Free Rotation, joining Sarge and Eliza. This Dream Team gives you some extra oomph in your mid-field attacks where Kreepy can keep ‘em laughing with banana mayhem while Eliza makes those laughs their last. Meanwhile get Sarge pushing forward and take that base! You'll also find the Time Assault is reset and Nigel’s “Raiders of the Lost Block” arena is ready to go.

Roadmap Update

Since the beginning of the year, we’ve been learning more and more about how players are playing the game both long and short term. We’ve also learned a lot about our workload capacity and we’re getting into a release pattern we can sustain. Over the last 3 months, we’ve done the following (along with numerous bug and quality of life fixes):

• Separating Casual and Ranked - Done
• Block Rebalance Pass 1 - Done
• Progression Overhaul - Done
• Hero Balance Passes – on-going (Hero Balance is something that we keep a constant eye on. We’re watching the balance of power as it shifts from hero to hero in response to new players and veteran players learning new tactics or changing up old ones.)
• Performance fixes - On-going (We’ve made some small improvements and are continuing to investigate other ways to improve performance on various systems.)
• New Tutorial/Hero Tutorials - In progress (We’ve added functionality to teach about the build phase barrier. Supply and Blockbuster drops are on the way as we continue to refine the tutorial and we will be looking to add hero tutorials over time.)

Now we look forward to the summer and we’ve got a few other things on our immediate radar:

• More sales and short term events - we’re looking at Bundles, Double XP weekends, Free Hero weekends and Flash sales as ways to get new and old players playing for longer and buying more.
• More cosmetic content - we want to add more to buy and more rewards (yes, level 100 Block skins!). Again, we believe that having things to work towards really keeps people coming back, and of course, more things to sell helps our bottom line!
• Bug and Quality of Life fixes - this is always on-going

As for our feature development work, we want to focus on key areas:

• Encourage friendly and competitive team play and communication
• Do as much as we can to help new players understand the depth and strategic elements of the game
• Keep working towards better matchmaking at all levels

As a result, we’ve identified the following big features we’ll be working on. The order will depend on the full scope of the designs and other dependencies and we’ll update you on the particulars soon:

Squad finder – A way to find other players looking to join a squad before entering the queue to help find people to group up with before starting the match.

Matchmaking Improvements to include better squad matching

In-game communication improvements - Map ping system

Seasonal (and other criteria) Ranked leaderboards

Ranked promotion/demotion systems

Clan System - Persistent clans or clan identification

Custom game improvements - Late joining, additional custom game options, etc What do you think of these bigger features and which do you think are most important? We’d love to hear your feedback!

[ 2016-05-03 16:18:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

[img=https://www.blocknload.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/2.7UpdateApril2016_616x353.jpg] Version 2.7 brings the eagerly anticipated Block skins to the Block N Load Arenas along with an overhauled progression system to go with it. Other highlights include: • Separate Ranked Beta mode. • New Hero progression rewards. • Changes to Roly and Tony's weapons.

Casual and Ranked Beta

Previously all players in Block N Load were entered in to one mode “Classic” which mixed together players who wanted a heavily competitive experience, and those who wanted to play without quite so much pressure. We’ve split Classic into two modes, both of which have their own set of rules, which we'll experiment with over the course of the Beta. We'll keep you posted as to any changes as we go. Ranked will only be available at weekends initially. Check out the Play Screen Game Mode selector for dates and times in your region.

Gold Bar Rewards

Gold Bars awards now take in to account the length of the match, up to a cap.

Progression

[img=https://www.blocknload.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/2.7Updateapril2016_680X284.png] We’ve made some quite significant changes to the Hero progression systems. Block Skins are back and you can get them by leveling up your heroes to 10 and 50 where you'll unlock block skins that can be used by any Hero that can take that Block into battle. We've also added more badges and titles for you to earn.

Heroes

Roly Poly Fat Fat Roly’s Booster system (her secondary weapon) and Hero Block have both had some significant changes made to them. Booster Vent Roly's secondary weapon's alt-fire now creates puddles of bubbling Toxic Goo trailing behind her. Use it to deny enemy access or help an escape. Toxic Waste When Roly’s Hero Block is detonated it too will coat the area around it with splodges of seething Toxic Goo. Toxic Goo Friendly goo is blue, while pink enemy Goo poisons and slows foes. Toxic Goo doesn’t hang around forever though - as enemy Heroes pass through it the Toxic Goo will be slowly used up, and eventually destroyed. Tony Turretto The way the shots from the Rivet Gun scatter has been changed. Previously the pellets from the Rivet Gun would form tight clusters. This often meant that you would either hit with all the pellets or you would miss all of them. The pellets from the Rivet Gun now scatter more randomly within its cone of fire. Additional Improvements and Fixes We’ve also been fixing some bugs and improving other areas of the game. Check out the Full Patch Notes for every little detail! P.S., if you managed to qualify for Bronze league in our previous league system, you'll have a sweet Sweet Science Promo skin waiting for you. And because clothes really do maketh the man, Sweet Science, the man himself, is on sale for 50% off the Platinum price until Monday, 5pm BST.

[ 2016-04-28 16:36:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

The debate rages on - who's OP? Who's UP? Who's balanced and who's not? We can look at data, but we do like to understand player perception as it paints the full picture for us. To that end, we've created a new Balancing Survey for you. Please give us your thoughts! We'll run it for about a week, then share the results. It will be really interesting to see if your opinions have changed since we last ran this survey back in September. Click here - tell us what you think!

[ 2016-04-25 00:57:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Our latest balancing update is now live and includes a number of changes to Challenges, making some of them easier to achieve and other perhaps a bit more... challenging! We've also made a few changes to Nigel Purdy-Longshott and Roly Poly Fat Fat. Our most significant changes, however are to Respawn timers, Objective health and BlockBusters! For the full patch notes click here.

[ 2016-04-21 13:58:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

As we’ve mentioned in our Roadmap, we are working on separating Classic into two modes: Casual and Ranked. The reason for this is simple. Combining competitive players who want to fight for a spot on the leaderboard and casual players who just want to have fun was causing conflict. We want to ensure that new players have a fair chance to learn and enjoy the game while veteran and experienced players are able to compete with other players in a fair fight. To do this we have created a new Ranked mode that will be released initially as a Beta so that we can experiment with squad sizes and rulesets. As always, we think this will spark some questions we've tried to anticipate.

When will the Ranked Beta go live?

We’re currently teasing out some bugs with the new mode (and we have an exciting new progression system to release as well!), so we don’t want to put an exact date on it, but we hope to go live within the next couple of weeks.

Is the playerbase big enough to support two modes?

Not yet, but we’re hoping to grow it! Initially, Ranked will be available at limited times in North America and EU regions only.

What times and in which regions will the Ranked Beta be available?

In the EU and NA regions, Ranked will be available at weekends only and exact times are still to be decided.

Will the queue times for Ranked be really long?

They might be! This is why we're running a Beta pre-season. We’re going to experiment with various squad size and queuing options to see what works best, but it’s possible that players in the Ranked queue might need to wait a bit to get a match.

What are the new rules for Ranked?

We’re still working through those and we’d like you to help! Hop on over to our Ranked Rules survey and tell us what you think the rules should be!

What about Leaderboards?

These will work largely as they do now, with some tweaks as we go.

What about my current league rank? Will I get to keep it?

Everyone playing Ranked will be starting fresh. Matchmaking ratings and your tiers will all be reset. As a special bonus, however, we’ll be giving all players who have achieved any rank in our current league system an exclusive Sweet Science Hero skin. You have until the 21st of April to get to Bronze if you haven’t yet, so get playing now! Your hero skin will be delivered when we launch our Ranked mode!

Where can we give you feedback on these plans?

Glad you asked! We're running a poll with a few questions we'd like your input on. Head on over and fill in our Ranked survey now!

[ 2016-04-08 17:44:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

The next series of balancing changes has just arrived in Block N Load after feedback from players. In addition to this, we’re also introducing a number of changes to arenas & refreshing the rotation! The changes to the World Blocks, which make up the majority of most of our arenas, are some of the most wide-reaching that we’ve made in a balancing pass to date. With these Blocks making up such a large part of the areas that the matches take place in even a small change can have a large impact. With these changes you should find that it’s now easier to tunnel through some materials than others, and that damage from weapons affects the Blocks that we’ve changed in different ways depending on the power of the weapon. We’ve also tried to address some of the more common comments about balancing that we’ve seen – such as the timer on Astarella’s Orbital Strike Beacon Hero Block being too short to be able to reach it and defuse it – whilst making other changes around this to keep the blocks as balanced as possible when compared against each other. For the full patch notes click here. _________________________________________________

Current Free Hero Rotation:

Yury, Nigel & Dream Genie

Current Time Assault Arena:

Metal Monstrosity [Cogwheel]

[ 2016-04-06 16:47:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

The next series of balancing changes has just arrived in Block N Load after feedback from players. In addition to this, we’re also introducing a number of changes to arenas & refreshing the rotation! The changes to the World Blocks, which make up the majority of most of our arenas, are some of the most wide-reaching that we’ve made in a balancing pass to date. With these Blocks making up such a large part of the areas that the matches take place in even a small change can have a large impact. With these changes you should find that it’s now easier to tunnel through some materials than others, and that damage from weapons affects the Blocks that we’ve changed in different ways depending on the power of the weapon. We’ve also tried to address some of the more common comments about balancing that we’ve seen – such as the timer on Astarella’s Orbital Strike Beacon Hero Block being too short to be able to reach it and defuse it – whilst making other changes around this to keep the blocks as balanced as possible when compared against each other. For the full patch notes click here. _________________________________________________

Current Free Hero Rotation:

Yury, Nigel & Dream Genie

Current Time Assault Arena:

Metal Monstrosity [Cogwheel]

[ 2016-04-06 16:47:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Attention all Block n Load lovers! Following the awesome community hosted Winter Invitational, get ready for the GS Invitational! Genesis will be hosting a tournament starting April 1 and ending April 30. Come and watch your favorite BnL players from North America and Oceania team up and compete for bragging rights.

April 1st - Registration Deadline

All teams must register; Brackets & Schedules will be posted April 3

April 9th - Week One

The "Big 4" teams meet for the first time; Challenger Brackets

April 16th - Week Two

Last week of Challenger; surviving "Big 3" face off

April 23rd - Week 3: Semi-Finals

Challenger Bracket winner faces second-ranked "Big 2;" Top on bye

April 30th - Week 4: Finals

For all the bragging rights; Semi-Finals winner against the "Big 1" Prize Pool The two teams in the FINALS will SPLIT a crowdfunded prize pool provided by the Block n Load fans! For full details, to register a team, where to watch each game and to keep up to date with tournament progress, via this link. ________________________________________

In other News

Free Rotation Today Dream Genie has stepped out of the lamp to join Sarge & Nigel in free rotation Dream Genie Dream Genie's Conjuration allows her to build from long range, support your allies from afar or rain down bombs on your enemies. Sprint into your enemy's base and use your active ability, Jinx to confuse any nearby enemy blocks turning it against them for a few seconds. Click here for full details Time Assault This week has seen the return of Sweet Science's Luftschloss Time Assault Arena!
Set your best time, compete on the leaderboard, and win yourself bonus Gold.

[ 2016-03-24 19:00:00 CET ] [ Original post ]