Aloha, Thrivers!
The Kickstarter campaign was an amazing experience for us and we can’t thank our backers enough! Your support allows us to speed up development time and take on a number of big projects that we’ve been eager to build all at once.
Since the campaign ended we’ve been mostly heads-down working on our first major update of 2022 and it’s a big one! We’re hitting the ground running with an engine upgrade, a complete overhaul of the landscape and foliage, weather and world updates, and tons of backend improvements that increase performance and lay the groundwork for players to travel between servers.
We’re really excited to share everything we’ve been building over the past month and welcoming wave 2 of our Kickstarter backers to the game very soon. We take a lot of pride in being a community-driven game and are thankful beyond words for your help and ideas. We couldn’t do it without you and look forward to making Fractured Veil even better with your continued support.
Here’s a look at everything we’ve done since the last update.
UE 4.27 Upgrade
Fractured Veil has been running on Unreal 4.22.3 for the past three years so this upgrade is huge!
Running 4.27 opens up all the improvements and features of five engine updates. Along with integrating Epic Online Services and Easy Anti Cheat to ensure that everyone is playing on an even field, these engine improvements will make the play experience even better.
We’ve just begun unlocking the huge optimization benefits and new systems that will allow giant leaps forward to our sky, weather, water, terrain, foliage, and VFX. Along with the performance benefits, players will notice the world and terrain improvements right away while we continue to optimize and integrate the new features 4.27 offers us.
Foliage Refactor
The foliage improvements are probably the most immediately noticeable update to the game. Trees are fully interactable with the wind, look more realistic, and are more performant. We’ve added foliage that can be harvested for resources (just fiber for now), and we are working on changing up the density of the jungle.
Following the roads and trails may be the quickest way to move across the map but they don’t offer much cover and open players up to ambushes with long clear shooting lanes. We want the jungle to be an option for those willing to take a little longer and encounter an occasional natural danger without running a gauntlet of opportunistic players.
Level Streaming and Management System
We’ve created a level management system that gives us much quicker iteration times when it comes to world-building and streaming. This allows us to split up maps, group them together, manage LODs, and add custom streaming rules for different sub-levels and dungeons.
Basically, this gives us the ability to create custom worlds for players to travel to and unique dungeons to explore much more quickly than before. Many of you have told us how much you enjoy exploring and this system allows us to create forgotten and foreboding places for players to explore and loot in half the time.
Construction Improvements
Forget laying another floor over your head to enclose your base, we’ve added roofs to the construction system. Players will find flat, triangular, and round roof pieces in their build menus now. Not only does this open up a whole new level of creativity to your builds but it allows new options when it comes to the wear and tear the weather can do to a base if you haven’t added a proper roof.
We’ve also added better construction piece snapping to make building faster and easier. In addition, placing construction pieces (just foundations for now) will destroy any foliage that overlaps it. This should put an end to plants and trees poking up through your base and open up some areas that were harder to build on.
New Weapons
Players will find a couple of new ways to fight off the hungry hordes. The first is a totem speargun. What it lacks in speed it more than makes up for in damage.
The second is a DIY post-apocalyptic rifle. It may not be the most beautiful firearm available but it definitely packs a punch.
World Improvements
Lighting Update
We’ve made some big improvements to the environmental lighting making a day, or night, of survival in Lahaina look a lot more realistic.
We also adjusted the light level of nights and the brightness of the moonlight to make it a little easier to operate under the cover of darkness.
Landscape Update
We’ve made some improvements to the depth of field system and like the foliage, we’ve reworked the landscape materials, puddles, and grass types to make the world look more realistic and improve performance.
Water Update
We’ve removed the old water system and taken advantage of the improvements available to us with the engine upgrade. This has improved the swimming mechanic, increased performance and along with the depth of field and lighting updates makes for a beautiful dive underwater.
Sky and Weather
It’s not just the land and sea that got an overhaul. We made some big improvements to the sky as well.
We’ve made the sky that famous Hawaiian blue, improved clouds and rain, and implemented new heavy fog perfect for covering escapes or hiding to ambush other players.
Altogether these improvements should increase performance, make the game run more smoothly, and provide a much more immersive experience.
Behind The Scenes
New Server Setup/Backend Changes
We have refactored our backend service and database layers, optimizing and decentralizing things and building a global deferred updater. Put simply this will allow for more players to be in-game playing at the same time, getting us closer to our goal of 500 players per world.
We’ve found and fixed over 260 bugs so far with all the new updates. As usual, our amazing testers have helped us track down some of the biggest and we couldn’t be more grateful. Your feedback is very important to us so keep it coming! If you’re interested in helping out, head over to our discord and let us know! Here’s a list of the fixed bugs that our players found.
- Gaming News Hub – Minimap does not show the player position sometimes
- Jester429 – 127 detector showing at feet when equipped
- MJMPlays – Recycled materials can’t be used to craft
- Logoes/Kitski – Continuous sieges
- ClockBlockerX – Flipping an offset doorway wall via middle mouse button does not permit you to walk through it, even though it shows an opening.
- MostlyEvil – Wall not connected to totem after replacing
- 1ceprime – After server crash, was unable to reload SKAR. Had ammo in inventory, would play reload anim, but wouldn’t reload the ammo
- MJMPlays – Can’t repair base
- ClockBlockerX – Cannot walk up a section of stairs. Can remove stairs, and walk through, but cannot walk upstairs when I replace the item.
- Ferdinandus – Rain coming through the bridge
- AUSelite86 – Rain showing up on floors inside buildings
- liliumsouldem, TSStechAngel – Fixed DOF settings not staying as selected
- Logoes – Fixed weapon reload animations
- ClockBlockerX – Shotgun shows holo sight even after it has been removed, does not show old reticle even after removing it.
- Jerel Phoenix – Mutants moving through barb wire
- KerryAnneKay – Disappearing campfires and smelters
- ClockBlockerX – You can walk through glass in the Thorcon
- Colt – Unable to access totem
- DRWCFR – Totem won’t recycle
- LazurusRising – Ability to drink soda on pickup does not work
- Cr4zy4ce – The craft bench does not properly show required craft items to craft an object.
- Kitski – Invisible door in base that can’t be interacted with
- ClockBlockerX – Random door appeared in my build after patch attached halfway up a solid wall.
- blazemonger – Chest disappears after character deletion
- KerryAnneKay – My foundation was upgraded to full health when I logged out last night. When I logged in they were back to default installation values.
- wisty-beth/blazemonger – Logged out inside house, logged in outside. Missing shirt, axe, rye, antibiotics, ssham, and totem is empty. Totem is still basic and has not been upgraded
- MJMPlays/Kyttaen/Logoes – Totems and upkeep not working correctly
- Logoes – Can’t complete crafting bench purchase at vendor
- Najo – Arrows disappearing after logout
- MJMPlays – Missing items from inventory and bank
- LazurusRising – Loaded in to an encumbered character with nothing in inventory
- Turt Renolds – Clothes changing design after logout
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