vampire survival game ascending V is the latest multiplayer title to become virally popular on Twitch, leading to a massive and unforeseen surge in players. And like many of the virally popular indie games that came before it, ascending V is rushing to do what it can to polish your early access experience with limited development resources. To their credit, developer Stunlock Studios has continued to deliver significant reviews since ascending Vlaunch, the last of which has already been delivered.
Hotfix 6, patch 0.5.42236, now available to everyone ascending V players. The update is specifically focused on addressing issues with ascending V and as such does not include any content. Technically, it adds two new features, although they are for server administration and not gameplay. The first is the “decayusercastles” console command and it allows a server administrator to decay a player’s castles. Second, the adminlist.txt and banlist.txt files are loaded from the default settings and the local override settings.
By far the biggest change can be considered a bug fix, but it is more accurately a design change to Stunlock. Wood, stone, and plant fiber will no longer block ascending V players to use waygates or apply the bat form. This should do the map traversal in ascending V faster with material a less risky proposition. Stunlock specifically called attention to the decision on Twitter, publicly acknowledging player feedback about the frustrating limitation.
Four bug fixes are what remains of Hotfix 6 for ascending V. First, there is a fix for a crash that could occur when destroying castles. Second, using the “claninvite” command could crash another player’s game client, but that’s now fixed. Third, a deceptive exploit used when resurrecting and ending ascending VThe servants of has been removed. Lastly, some tweaks have been made to the remote connection for players experiencing issues with dedicated servers.
All in all, Hotfix 6 is not an update that most ascending V players will notice that it has an impact on their regular gameplay. Changes to the shape of bats and waygates are more than welcome of course, but ascending V Players are likely comfortable with the routine if they are still playing. However, future players will appreciate the change. All in all, the hotfix is mostly about improving the overall quality of the game as it moves towards release from Steam Early Access.
In May, Stunlock confirmed that bug fixes and technical functionality would be their priority for the near future. That doesn’t mean the content isn’t being worked on, of course. Expansion and end game improvements are at the top of Stunlock’s list, as is creating content based on ascending V player requests. there’s more to come ascending V in 2022, including revisions and content updates.
ascending V is now available for PC.
