Valheim Development Blog – Hold On To Your Hats

Following a recent early access patch for Valheim that revamped the game’s fishing system and introduced a new ballista targeting system, Iron Gate brings us this here development blog that teases some stuff coming our way in the big upcoming Ashlands update and the smaller Hildir’s Quest that will be preceding it.

The main long-term goal right now seems to be adding various accessibility features along the lines of togglable hints and a setting for disabling flashing lights. But beyond just that, we’re treated to a heap of concept art, including a piece depicting a new serpent that will be patrolling the waters around the Ashlands biome.

And as for Hildir’s Quest, that update will allow you to see your character’s hair even when wearing a helmet. It will also be introducing new server-specific difficulty settings ranging from hard to casual where you won’t lose any gear upon dying.

Here are some additional details:

Greetings vikings!

It’s been another month and it’s time for another look into how the development of Valheim is going!

In case you missed it, we released quite a large patch last week, which contained a lot of bug fixing and improvements. It also added a new hexagonal door, which a lot of you had been asking for ever since first encountering the dvergr in the Mistlands! We were also able to start adding some accessibility features, such as a setting for disabling flashing lights, and the option to toggle the Hugin hints. It’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to accessibility, and we hope to eventually be able to accommodate a lot of the suggestions you all sent in after the last development blog!

Last time we promised to be a lot more open with the development of the Ashlands than we were with the Mistlands, and if you follow us on social media you’ve been able to see some concept art of weapons and fortresses, as well as some terrain tests! You might even have caught a glimpse of some early 3D models! On the sites where it’s possible to blur the images before viewing, we make sure to do so, so that you can avoid spoilers if you want to.

It’s really fun to be able to read your comments about the design ideas this early in the process, and we hope you’re enjoying it as much as we are! Right now we would like to show you another piece of enemy concept art. What if the waters around the Ashlands were inhabited by something that made it a little bit harder to reach the shore…?

While the pre-production of the Ashlands is in full swing with concept art and terrain tests, we’re also working away on the Hildir’s Quest update! It will for example (finally!) feature a way to wear helmets while still having your hair visible. We’ve already teased a bit about it on social media, but it’ll look something like this[…]

Another thing we’re looking at for Hildir’s Quest is playtesting some new server settings. We’re trying out a hard mode and an easy mode, but also a casual mode where you won’t lose gear upon death. The normal mode will still always be the best balanced version of the game, but we hope adding more ways to play the game can both provide a challenge to experienced players and open the game up to players who would rather take a calm and relaxed approach.

Finally, we’d just like to leave you with one more little teaser about this whole update. We have already mentioned that Hildir will be a new NPC, and so we thought we’d offer you a small glimpse of the place where you’ll be able to find her…

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Skål!

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