The new Valheim patch that recently dropped plays with Monster AI, specifically aggression. With that comes more annoying graydwarfs, which is exactly what every starting player wanted.
Technically speaking here, the latest two patches affected monster AI and aggression, but the latest patch was just a fix to the AI and not as important.
Below are the patch notes and the specific AI and monster changes. In addition, you can check out the official 0.156.2 patch notes here on Steam and the 0.155.7 patch notes here on Steam.
Valheim Patch Notes
0.156.2
* AI tweaks (Monsters should always target creatures [including players] first if they have a clear path to them & monsters should only attack low priority structures [walls etc.] if they are trying to get to a player)
0.155.7
* Random save bug-fix (Solves a very unusual case of world corruption caused when shutting down)
* Monster AI tweaks (More aggressively attacking structures when unable to attack the player, among other things)
* Open container fix (Fixes issue where you had to click a container multiple times to open it in multiplayer)
* Taught Greydwarfs to throw better
* Event trigger tweaks (Wolf event only triggers after Bonemass has been killed, Moder army can trigger in the mountains, etc.)
* Long forgotten Blob event enabled
* SFX volume setting fix (Used wrong DB conversion)
* Maypole enabled (Happy midsummer!)
* AI flee behavior tweaks (Bosses don’t run from you anymore)
My Thoughts
While Valheim is far from a casual sandbox game, I don’t necessarily know if the AI needed to be adjusted to attack buildings. Once you get stone walls, it’s not as much of a worry; however, until then, your precious base is very vulnerable, and it can be frustrating to have it wrecked by trolls and other monsters.
Maybe I’m casual for thinking that, but I’m sure I’m not alone. That being said, I have been playing since the changes and haven’t had any major issues from graydwarfs since I put up a wooden wall around my base.
I know that Irongate has teased a lot of new content already, but I can’t help but feel it would be nice to have any form of new content. Even some new plants would go a long way in the game. Even if they used current assets, like berries or blueberries, and allowed you to plant them, that would be easy content that would be satisfying as well.
Wrapping Up
The Valheim team has pumped their brakes a bit on their original roadmap, but it’s still nice to see some activity from the team to show that they are working on new content for us to dig our teeth into.
What do you think about this update, and are you excited to experience the new monster update? Let us know in the comments below!
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