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Valheim continues to get improvements and it's easily one of my favourite survival games, it's just fantastic with a couple of friends. This new update should make it even better.

The latest update doesn't have any major changes but it's quite an important one, as it fixes up quite a few problematic parts of it and there's some nice quality of life improvements like:

  • Added alternative controller layout and changed layout to be more readable. Build snapping is a toggle in the alternative layout, and has an icon when active.
  • Added manual save button to the pause menu that displays last save time.
  • Crafting menus and quick use bar now have cycling navigation when using gamepad.
  • You can now use the sticks to move to and from a container inventory from the player inventory directly rather than changing menu focus.
  • Crafting station is now focused when opening a crafting station.
  • Language can now be changed without restarting the game.
  • If a server is unjoinable for version mismatch or other restriction this will shown when attempting to join a game from the server list immediately rather than having to wait for the game to load.

Thanks to the above, playing with a gamepad or on Steam Deck should feel a fair bit better and easier.

Performance can be something of an issue at times, especially for those on lower-powered devices like the Steam Deck. The good news is that they focused a bit more on it with this update:

  • Performance of distant mountain shadows greatly increased, and added a setting to turn off distant shadows completely. (This may increase performance significantly for players with older graphic cards).
  • Performance increased while in dungeons.
  • Performance improved when using many map pins.
  • Performance improved while using the inventory with many items.
  • Network stability and performance improvements for crossplay.
  • Memory optimizations for textures and fonts.

Testing it out once again on Steam Deck, with distance shadows turn off because honestly they're really not needed at all here and running around for a while showed a pretty nice improvement in the performance overall. 

A whole bunch of other fixes too:

  • Added Munin to Ribcage locations in Mistlands.
  • Added saving icon to HUD and delayed the "bad connection icon" when saving.
  • All game texts have been optimised for better clarity and performance.
  • Reworked button prompts to a new visual style, added some missing buttons, etc.
  • Key hints are now displayed in a horizontal line rather than vertical list and visible in all needed contexts.
  • Kicked players get a proper message.
  • Menu selection markers should now be displayed correctly in all languages.
  • Fixed several focus loss scenarios when using a gamepad.
  • Haldor’s lines are now translated correctly.
  • Build menu has been widened to avoid overlapping other interface items.
  • D-Pad should now be usable in all menus.
  • Controller and keyboard usage of menus improved.
  • Skills menu should now work correctly with gamepad and show tooltips correctly.
  • Mistlands boss should no longer escape her room during rare occasions (changes have been made to how ownership of objects work when transferred to another player; specifically checking the positions).
  • Fixed a bug that caused projectiles to sometimes miss even though it obviously should have connected.
  • Durability bar on item in the inventory and action bar is now only visible if the item has been damaged.
  • Fixed a visual bug that showed servers that were being pinged as offline.
  • Thatch roof i-corner 45o can now support itself and will protect underlying beams from rain properly.
  • Thatch & darkwood roof top 26o middle beam point fixed.

Valheim is available to buy on Humble Store or Steam. It has Native Linux support and it is Steam Deck Verified.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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4 comments

fabertawe Mar 16, 2023
Unfortunately, as is always the case, I have to wait on the Valheim+ mod to update. The few others I use have already updated but V+ is the big one with the most impact. I simply cannot play it vanilla again, the mods really elevate it to another level and remove much tedium.

Removing the shadows should be a good plus by itself as my RX6600 struggles a little at 1440p. I have started using gamescope at 1080 -> 1440 and this has made a nice difference.
drlamb Mar 16, 2023
Quoting: fabertawe

Mods actually killed my group's motivation to play, so much so that I started writing a mod that will only allow that one mod and MAYBE some select QoL mods (ala anti-cheat) on my server instances going forward.

It's one thing to use mods on a single player world/server. It's another to play on a server in which not everyone is using them and unfortunately all it takes is one or two players boasting about their "hammer of freezing" that they're able to throw like a boomerang to sour the experience for vanilla players. I want to survive together as a group of Vikings not a group of Vikings with literal viking superheroes amongst us.


You can try to agree on what mods are "agreeable" to use but that requires trust. My mod will enforce it.
Koopacabras Mar 17, 2023
I have 450 hours and had a blast playing with some friends.. I can confirm that you don't need mods to enjoy this game. Idk if it's more enjoyable with mods. It's just that using mods it's too much of hassle on steam because it has no integration with steam workshop for the moment.
And regarding performance much appreciated update . I noticed heavy performance degradation on places with fog or snow, like the mistlands or mountains biome it killed my 5600XT gpu barely a "playable" console like frame pace on such biomes.
fabertawe Mar 17, 2023
Quoting: drlamb
Quoting: fabertawe
...You can try to agree on what mods are "agreeable" to use but that requires trust. My mod will enforce it.

If it's your server then you should be enforcing consistency for everyone

I've never played multiplayer, only solo. Not that I have that many mods and they're all QOL rather than "super powers".

It appears there are a few bugs from the new patch, even for vanilla, so I'll "default_old" and stick with that for a while anyway.
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