Last week, when we announced that we’re shifting our release date to January 18 2024, we also mentioned that we were going to shed some light on why and to bring as much clarity and transparency as possible to what led to that decision.
The Road Ahead
We had a meeting, going through a series of requirements that we didn’t want to end up compromising with. Here’s what we’ve set internally:
No server crashes or items corrupting which leads to players losing their inventory.
Minimum 30fps everywhere on PCs matching our minimum requirements.
Servers can hold a high volume of players loading & playing the game and have been tested with over 150 bots and players actively playing as normal. Response time is kept under 30-40ms and players can queue for a server with no issues.
Players are correctly spread across servers without major issues.
Server Travel is reliable and bug-free.
Our Queue System ended up needing more work before it was ready, and we didn’t want to test things last minute before releasing the game in Early Access. Doing so would have likely uncovered some major issues that would severely impact our player’s experience. On top of that, we believe the game’s performance still needed some more improvement before Early Access.
In the picture: the Totem (Our Servers) and You (The mutants) trying to get in.
What are we doing Server Side?
The keyword to understanding what’s going on with our server is “scaling”.
Getting a bit more technical, we are implementing Kubernetes and writing scripts for on-the-fly deployment of servers/databases/service apps. Some of our existing systems are also getting reworked to facilitate scaling. For those who understand what we are talking about, this means stuff like moving from static IP addresses to domains, changing info that used to be passed on the command line to be read from the database, using automated load-balancing, and so on.
We’ll also take advantage of the extra time to work on some features that were lower on the priority list but that will have a positive impact on the game. This is stuff such as improving AI (enemies/wildlife) performance when a lot of players are spread across the map, improving our caching system to reduce overall Database load, implementing various 3rd party services/frameworks for monitoring/reporting activity, or just adding more server functionality that we didn’t previously have.
So what about performance?
A lot is going on here. We feel we have reached a point where we believe most modern gaming PCs won’t have issues running the game, however, work on performance is just getting started.
First and foremost, we have built an internal system so that we can gather performance statistics and compare various PC Hardware to pinpoint issues with specific setups, locations or situations and then apply targeted performance optimization wherever necessary based on our findings. Since the Unreal Engine 5 upgrade was such a huge lift, we couldn’t dedicate resources to develop better testing systems, and this tool will play a pivotal role in helping us increase performance all around.
We are also spending some time optimizing foliage. Since our engine upgrade, we lost some features we had before, and one of these was the ability to de-render foliage as the player walked away from it. Trees, plants, flowers and shrubs will soon start disappearing at medium and large distances from the player, significantly improving performance.
We are aware that Unreal Engine 5.3 brings significant benefits under this topic, however, we are not planning on doing another engine upgrade until after we have our game released in Early Access.
Some other areas we are working on:
Since allowing players to play with their friends is a priority for us, we also need to rework the menus and the UI alongside the logic for server and veil travel.
We have moved our dungeons to their own levels, and that requires more testing, especially traveling back and forth to Lahaina.
We are improving the visual quality of the game at Medium and Low graphics settings, without sacrificing performance.
We are re-introducing some visual stuff that we lost with the engine upgrade, such as rain puddles.
We are adjusting the lighting on Dungeons.
Lastly, we are doing many quality-of-life improvements, bug fixes and filling the world with more stuff!
We hope this brings more clarity as to why we ended up delaying the game. We thank everyone who recently shared their support with us on our discord server and social media. We are doing this for you and we wouldn’t be here without you!
Since the last update, we have been working nonstop on your feedback, prioritizing performance optimization for Early Access so that the game runs better and smoother. While this might slow down the implementation of some cool features, we all agree it’s the number one thing we have to focus on right now. We’ve got the whole team working on it.
Since building with your friends and running around the island killing mutants (or other players) is a core part of our game, we want it to be accessible to more PCs across the board.
In this month’s update, we’re going behind the veil and chatting with some of the folks on the team to hear what they have been working on!
First up is Sam, our amazing Director of Media who is the creative genius our new trailer!
Behind the Veil
Q: Hey Sam, can you introduce yourself to the community and tell us the single thing you are most excited about the game right now?
Sam: Hey everyone! I’m Sam Steffanina – a lifelong content creator and gamer. I’m insanely excited for everyone to see the trailer we’ve been working so hard on and for the emotes that are being implemented. Giving people even more ways to express themselves in this game is what makes it special to me.
Q: So, in the last few months we have started working on the new trailer for Fractured Veil. How do you go from the idea to actually making the trailer?
Sam: Taking a step back and looking at what makes the game unique is always step #1. We have such beautiful scenery and such creepy horror elements. It’s a great juxtaposition to build from and I think people will see that in the trailer. I hope it shows all the most exciting and enjoyable parts of the game.
Q: In the Marketing Team we talk a lot about “Kill, Chill and Rebuild” being the 3 pillars of Fractured Veil. Can you tell us more about the role of those 3 pillars in the trailer?
Sam: Killing… well that’s pretty obvious, you’ll see plenty of that. Chill is represented by the beauty and exploration, and rebuilding from the aftermath of what our island’s inhabitants do to the things you’ve built can be both quite stressful or relaxing depending on the time of day, hahah.
Q: Can you share a very cool shot with us?
Sam: Absolutely!
Surviving Together
Fractured Veil is all about playing together and making new friends. One of the features that will allow just that is our Quest System.
In this section we speak with Ryan, our Project Manager, and Rob, our team Lore Guide, who has been working on the story for the past 7 years!
Q: Quests are a vital part of Fractured Veil. They introduce new players to the world and help them move the first steps in the game. What are the main changes being worked on this system?
Ryan: The team is currently working on revamping the way our quest system works to include multiple types of quests. Currently, our system allows us to check for just a few conditions such as checking if you built something or if you have obtained a specific item in your inventory. Once we are done expanding these, we’ll be able to track a multitude of game actions, allowing us to start building more complex quests that go beyond the tutorial ones. Another interesting system is our shared quest system. While it won’t be ready for Early Access, one of our priorities is that players can share quests and progress, and get equally rewarded for completing them.
Q: I’m aware we won’t have too many quests at launch, but what’s the plan for after Early Access?
Ryan: Our goal for early access is to have a full starter quest line to help with on-boarding, as well as some quests available from NPCs. Later, players will be able to discover hidden locations, explore dungeons, learn cool features that might not be that obvious, and uncover clues about what caused the Fracture and the end of civilization.
Q: And speaking of the Fracture… Rob can you introduce yourself and talk a bit about your work?
Rob: Hi I’m Rob Rozeboom and I wrote the story for Fractured Veil, and work on integrating the lore into the game. I make sure we are incorporating as much Hawaiian vibe into things as possible, especially the harvesting and crafting systems, by using authentic island plants and resources. You can find bits of the story from recovered emails, newspaper archives, and found journals on our website. https://fracturedveil.com/story/ When I’m not compiling lists of native plants or uses for mutant body parts, I help out with marketing.
Q: What are you working on right now, and is there anything cool you can share with us?
Rob: Right now I’m helping to finish up some of our dungeons, making sure that they follow storylines and have a few neat surprises, expanding our crafting system to include more items and more ancient Hawaiian uses for native plants. As far as something cool to share goes… let’s just say that players are pretty close to being able to spend some lazy survival time harvesting the bounties of the sea. So stock up on bait!
Q: When can we experience the story you have written in-game?
Rob: Up until now a lot of our focus has been on performance and game mechanics. While we’ll always be working on those things, we’re in a pretty good place now and can start expanding out to include more lore and story elements in the game. I’m excited to see more buildings, forgotten places, and mutants pop up for players to loot, explore, and survive soon.
Expanding the world
Q: Back to you Ryan, How is the game world changing right now? Anything exciting the team is working on you’d like to share?
Ryan: There are plenty of structures and points of interest that we are rebuilding and expanding, some of these are the Armory and Veil building areas. The rest is more performance-related and art for the moment. We’ll share more when the time comes!
Q: The world of Fractured Veil is always changing, what can people expect to see soon after Early Access?
Ryan: I’d say the thing that most people will notice is just “More” being added to the game. We have plans about adding AI settlements and interesting places to explore. While the game world might be less populated during the first months of early access, we expect it to be filled with structures and interesting loot-filled places sometime after that. Our plan for the game is way bigger than that, new dungeons, new biomes and even new features like fishing are on the horizon, but they will take time to arrive and at the moment it’s pretty hard for us to foresee what our priorities will be after early access.
Improving Performance
Q: Last but not least, as we said performance is playing a bigger part of what we are doing and working with a limited amount of resources and a very small team can make things a bit complicated. What are we doing to tackle performance?
Ryan: The good news about performance is that we have identified many improvement opportunities so it will get significantly better over time. As per what we are doing right now, the main focus has been Nanite. Most of our assets are currently being converted to support this UE5 Tech, and with that process, we also have to check that everything is working correctly again. Stuff like transparency and textures end up being glitchy or not working at all, making that process a little bit more complicated. Another improvement has been generating HLODs and moving our Dungeons to their own dedicated server and level so that players don’t have to load them unless they are on them. That’s obviously just the tip of the iceberg, we’ll share more in the next updates.
Squishing Those Bugs
Q: Hey Brandan, can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do?
Brandan: Hey! I’m Brandan Abbott, a huge survival game fan that has racked up more deaths in the genre than I’d like to admit. I’m the lead QA on Fractured Veil and I’m a bridge between the development team and the players. I’m responsible for managing and guiding the testing process, ensuring issues are identified and tracked. I also collaborate with the dev team to prioritize and address critical issues through patches or updates. I routinely play and work with the community to gather player feedback and suggestions to communicate to the team to make sure their voices are heard.
Q: Games have bugs, but I feel not everyone knows how many get fixed for a game our size.
As we get closer to early access, what’s the number of bugs we have fixed so far? Anything cool worth sharing?
Brandan: We really don’t have much new data, but I can share what we had for last year.
We are talking of about 792 player-found bugs fixed and 131 implemented player suggestions as of 11-11-2022. Almost one year later, that number is much higher than that, so I’ll leave it up to your imagination.
Q: Speaking of bugs/issues, which are the ones we are really focusing on?
Brandan: The bugs we are really focusing on now are major bugs that greatly affect our player’s experiences in the game. These include client crashes, server crashes, item persistence issues, poor performance, or issues that inhibit or block major gameplay systems.
Q: What’s the funniest one in your memory?
Brandan: The funniest bug in memory was a bug that occurred when the player logged out of the server and rejoined too soon. A clone of the player’s body would stay standing in the world for longer than intended so when the player logged back into the server they would see a copy of their character standing beside them that they could kill, and had their own loot in it.
Another bug was explosive damage causing placeable items like a smelter or crafting bench to fly off into the game world. This was not intended behavior, so once discovered members of the community would place those structures next to explosive barrels, stand on top of the structure and destroy the barrel. Launching themselves into the air and different areas of the map.
There is also the one below, which is pretty recent:
Last but not Least
August is an important month for Fractured Veil with tons of stuff to get done before everyone can play the game. We just want to say thank you to every one of our backers and testers who have been so patient with us. We know you’ve experienced different issues related to performance and we’re committed to getting those issues resolved that we haven’t been as regular with updates.
Keep an eye out for more regular updates in the coming weeks and even a sneak peek at our new trailer!
Also, just as a reminder, if you already have the game, head over to our Discord Server, say Aloha, and join us for some gaming sessions!
We’re SO excited to share that after many months of work, we’re finally shipping the Unreal Engine 5 Upgrade to your PCs!
We want our community to join the newest version of the game sooner rather than later, but we know this was a big lift and have found even more bugs than we thought we would. We’ve always had bugs (#gamedevlife) but because of all your help, we’ve been hacking through them as much as possible so we don’t want to stop doing that anytime soon!
Since this is a major update, we want to make sure everyone is aware of a few things that will impact your experience with the game:
Your character(s) will be wiped – which means you will need to create a new name and look for your character in the world.
All of your loot will be gone and any bases you’ve built will be gone since we’re starting a fresh new server. This ensures no issues, bugs or corruptions carry over from our old Unreal 4 build.
Your minimum required specs may have changed; we will share a survey in the first weeks of testing to identify how the game performs on different hardware.
We currently believe to achieve a mostly stable 1080p 30 fps experience at medium/low settings you’ll need a PC with the following specifications:
We will carefully monitor the community’s feedback about this topic
Scope of the test
While the new build doesn’t necessarily have new content if you have been playing the game within the past few months, it includes a great deal of changes, bug fixes, and improvements. Not to mention a completely new global illumination system and a lot of good stuff that comes with UE5.
With this update, we will be particularly interested in hearing your feedback about the following:
Game performance and Stability in Unreal Engine 5.1
Server Stability
Economy Changes
Zones balancing
World Loot Distribution
NPC / Enemy AI
Weapon Balance
However, we do have some tiny surprises for you to find…
Other things to keep in mind
Fractured Veil is still Alpha(ish) in that we’re testing, breaking, fixing, breaking, and fixing again. While we fixed most of the bugs you reported in the previous months, we are aware that with a new game engine, NEW bugs are going to appear. We are still months away from our Early Access release later this fall and we will do our best to release a great experience for everyone.
Please check our discord server inside #status-and-bugs for a list of Know issues.
We’re Just Getting Started
We know there are still some issues, but we didn’t want that to stop us from getting 5.1 in your hands! We need your help to keep testing, playing, discovering new bugs, and having FUN. All of us at Paddle Creek Games want to say THANK YOU for being so patient and supportive. You’re the reason we’re doing all of this and we can’t wait for you to see what’s coming in the next few months!
If you caught our last update you already know we’re upgrading to Unreal Engine 5.1. We’ve been working on this since the beginning of the year but only spilled the beans back in April.
We’ve got some more beauty shots included when you scroll down that are our ‘proof of UE5 life’ since we’re still barreling ahead, fixing bugs, and adjusting systems. The biggest thing holding us back from pushing the new build to our production server is performance.
With the upgrade, we took big leaps on the foliage since we feel like the jungle itself is a character in our game. It grows and provides cover for attacks, a safe place to rest and recover, and also is just gorgeous to look at while you’re exploring paradise.
Another issue we’re tackling is persistence since we know no one wants to lose their loot overnight for no reason. If it’s because your base wasn’t protected properly (i.e. windows without glass aka an open invitation) that’s one thing. But if it’s because the persistence system is not working properly – that’s a totally different story.
As an indie developer with a small team (relative to what we’ve set out to accomplish), we get one shot at introducing the game to new players with as smooth of an experience as possible. We know there will be some hiccups and people who have lower specs on their machines may struggle with higher settings but we’re striving to cut at least stutters and problems that really impact gameplay.
We know there are hundreds of new survival games hitting Steam every day and we’re honored to have been included before we’ve even released our new trailer with footage from UE5!
New Armor, Weapons and More!
We’ve been hard at work on new items and features including fishing, more resources, and many new craftable items. Here’s a look at just a few of the biggest new items that will soon be available at a crafting bench near you!
Post Apocalyptic Armor Ready to Add Buffs
We’re really proud of our metal armor design with a helmet inspired by ancient Hawaiian dress. This suit will keep out all but the most determined mutant fangs and focuses on materials readily available to most survivors. Now players have a use for every part of the SSHAM can!
Guns
Whether you’re looking to reach out and say Aloha to a gang of mutants at a distance or just blast a hole in one that’s gotten a little too close, we have a new craftable gun for you built with coconut shells and palm leaves.
UE5.1 Eye Candy – Best shots
We couldn’t ship this update without sharing some eye candy to keep you hyped about how beautiful paradise will be in UE5.1.
Steam Playtest and Pledges?
We get a lot of questions about when the Steam playtests are happening and essentially, until we can push the update to our production server, Steam wants us to wait for a playtest. It’s going to happen but not by the end of May as we’d hoped. It comes down to bugs and performance stutters that would make your play experience frustrating. The last thing we want is players shouting to the game gods, “WHYYY?” So we thought we’d take more time to get it right.
We’ll be announcing the new playtest schedule soon, and we’ll be reloading keys on our pledge page at the same time, so you and your friends can keep playing after the playtest ends.
We know nobody likes delays, but being stuck trying to play a buggy game is even worse. We try to be as transparent as possible with our development and really appreciate the support and understanding of the community. We can’t thank you all enough!
Over the past few weeks, we asked you to send us some questions through a form shared in our discord server. Today we are answering them! Our plan with Fractured Veil is to maintain transparency as much as possible and always bring you along with our development journey.
Let’s start with the development questions:
Q: I’m psyched to get this game and watch the development but I’d love to see if you guys are planning to include some fun easter eggs for those of us familiar with the island its based on. For example a post apocalyptic Leoda’s (an extremely popular and old pie shop on the pali to the westside) in Lahaina maybe having the Lahaina Luna L on the mountainside; just some recognisable parts of Lahaina would be sick to include.
A: That’s a super good question! Thank you for asking it!
We already have some easter eggs in the game, but as we get closer to the Early Access release and with some more development time, we might be able to add a few more. The map itself is based on the actual topography of Maui. We just changed a few business names and too some liberties with stream placement, but we have plans for a Front Street that would be recognizable to anyone who lives in or visits Lahaina frequently.
As you may know the native Hawaiian language is endangered with only around 2,000 native Hawaiian speakers left in the world. We’ve reached out to a number of cultural and educational organizations working to preserve the language to see how we could help. Thanks to a member of our community who teaches in Hawaii, we’re working on a native Hawaiian translation that we couldn’t be more excited to complete! We also work with the Twitch Hawaii group whenever we can https://twitter.com/TwitchHawaii and have made it a priority to respect the culture and history of the islands.
Q: When can we start testing UE5?
A: Very very soon! Our plan is to have a public playtests in Unreal Engine 5 this month! Those who have Alpha access might receive an update to their game in the coming weeks!
Q: Is there a way to know what’s coming as equipment ,cloths , armor and others stuff like that?
A: We are not ready to share the full details of everything that is coming. We are currently in the process of creating our own 3D Models and implementing them in-game. However, you can expect different tiers for each equipment type; when it comes to armor, we have Leather, Wood and Metal armor. As for weapons we are modelling some that look more rudimentary, these will be the starting tier for that type of gun, while progressing through the game, you will be able to craft or acquire better weapons, with a more “”Premium”” look and of course way more deadly! Keep an eye on our Discord Server in the #Sneak-Peek channel. That’s where we post WIP Screenshots of what’s coming!
Q: Will the update to 5.1 be the final engine update prior to early access launch?
A: Likely yes! Unreal Engine 5.1 has all the features we need to deliver a great experience to everyone while also increasing performance (Nanite, Lumen, World Partition). Our game looks and runs better than before already and we are super excited about this upgrade.
It’s not impossible that, in the future, after Early Access, we might upgrade the engine version if something really worth it comes out. But for the foreseeable future, UE5.1 is our last Engine upgrade.
Q: Wondering about server locations, capacity and current/projected ping also will there be Australian and South African servers as they are often left out.
A: When we launch Fractured Veil in Early Access we will have servers in Europe, Asia Pacific and US East and West.
That’s all about our Development question, moving on with some Roadmap and Marketing-related questions:
Q: When will I be able to access Fractured Veil?
A: There are two ways to play Fractured Veil Right now. The first one is to pledge for a copy. You can do so through our dedicated webpage here: https://fracturedveil.com/pledge-now
This will give you 24/7 access to the game as it gets developed. They keys are very limited and we restock them over time when we are ready to let more people in!
The second way is through Steam Playtests. You will soon be able to register for our Playtest through our steam store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1128500/Fractured_Veil/ so keep an eye on it!
Once registered, you will receive a notification when the test is starting. You will be able to play the game during these limited-time period, completely for free!
Our plan is to have at least 3 Playtests until the Early Access release of the game later this fall!
Q: Will there be any progression carried over between steam playtests? (Even just characters)
A: We are not planning any carryover between steam playtests to the final game. However there is a chance we might keep your character from one Playtest to another Playtest, but there is no way to guarantee that.
There are too many variables here:
What do we need to test? (First time user experience? Character Creator?)
Is there a bug that is corrupting the player saves?
Do we have enough time to Playtest the Playtest server carryover before publishing it to potentially thousands of people?
Most of the times, unfortunately, wiping everything and starting fresh removes a lot of variables that can make things go wrong.
Q: By looking at the roadmap I was wondering about the frequency of updates. Can you tell us more about it?
A: Sure! Before Early Access, the plan is to release features as they get developed. Even if we go through some internal testing before they reach all of our current alpha players, those features might not be bug-free. This means that updates before the Early Access phase might be more frequent than the one after Early Access. Once the game is available to buy for the masses, it will be our priority to have stable and fully functional features that have gone trough stricter QA processes before everyone can get their hands on them.
As for the frequency of updates after Early Access, it’s hard to say exactly how’s going to work right now, but the plan is to have at least a significant update every quarter or season.
Q: What are your plans for Private and Dedicated servers down the line? Will there be the possibility of a high degree of customization for server settings?
A: With Fractured Veil, our main objective is to create a survival PvPvE MMO-Like game that can have as many people as possible playing on one single server. Our priority is to support our vision for an MMO survival game, so the simple answer here is that we won’t prioritize the development of private servers, especially before Early Access. However, we know many successful games owe their success to their communities and the freedom that private servers allowed them to have so that they could enjoy the game with a more customized experience. As our game grows, it’s not impossible that we will make it easier to create (and discover) private servers in the future, but for now it’s simply not in our plans right now.
Q: Can I film and post a playthrough on the internet?
A: Yes! There is no NDA or restriction on content creation. The only thing we ask is to make everyone know about that the game is being developed and you are currently playing an Alpha version of the game.
Lastly, but not least some questions related to Fractured Veil’s Gameplay:
Q: 127 tool seems to not work right now. When will it be fixed and how does it work?
A: Thank you for the feedback. We are aware of this issue in our current build. The 127 Detector helps you find more 127. In the current iteration of the tool, just by simply having it in your backpack, it increases the chances of finding that resource.
We are working on a set of animations for this tool, that will hopefully make it more intuitive.
Q: What are the end game PvE objectives you have in mind for those who are more story oriented?
A: One exciting thing about Fractured Veil is that it’s going to have a full quest system with a world story that players will be able to follow quest after quest.
These quests will narrate the story of Veilcorp and how the company’s global teleportation network transformed the world, kicking off another scientific revolution. The planet became a much smaller place overnight but the network’s catastrophic failure wiped out civilization even faster. Through these quests, players will be able to piece together what caused the network’s crash, restore Veilcorp equipment and systems, and work with others to unlock more mysteries about what happened. Since all players in the game are clones restored from Veilcorp customer biometric data, you’ll be able to work together to survive the reality you find yourself in now or travel to a different world if yours is about to fracture.
That’s a wrap for this time!
If you want to see your question featured in our blog, make sure to submit your questions using This Form and join our Discord Server to never miss an update.
Aloha Thrivers, Earlier this month we released our biggest development update of the year, talking about our upgrade plan for UE5 and the 2023 roadmap. Our main objective is to make the development process of Fractured Veil as transparent as possible, while correctly setting some expectations with our community (that’s you!) about our early access release later this September.
Without further ado, let’s take a deep dive into what’s coming for Fractured Veil.
Upgrading the world (Pre-Early Access)
When designing the roadmap, we wanted to let everyone know that before the Early Access Release of the game, there would be something worth waiting for.
Let’s start with the UE 5.1 Upgrade. The team has been working hard since January 2023 to upgrade the game to the new engine. We can say that the transition has been pretty much smooth sailing, but with events such as GDC, PAX and COVID lurking behind the corners, we had some minor slowdowns.
While this shifted our plans a little, we are happy to say that our current player base can expect the first Unreal Engine 5.1 builds to hit their PCs next month!
We know that many people were expecting to get their hands on the game as soon as April, and we wanted to somewhat deliver on those expectations. Not only have we opened our pledge page where people can get their hands on a copy of Fractured Veil and start playing now, but most exciting is the upcoming Steam Playtests feature.
Between May and September, our community can expect at least 3 public playtests where everyone will be able to join the fun and play the game before it is released. These playtests are incredibly important for us. Not only will they stress our servers like nothing before, but they will generate tons of user data, allowing us to fine-tune our onboarding experience and make sure that all the main gameplay features are correctly understood by the player.
Lastly, the “New content and Features”. We wanted to tell everyone playing the game right now that the game will keep receiving new content and feature updates as the development continues. The idea is that people experiencing the game only through playtests will have something new to check out with every test, while current players will see the world evolve over time as we get closer to the early access release.
Survive or Die – Fall 2023
Our Fall Update will be all about adding “More” to the game. Players will be able to craft New Weapons and Armour, alongside new ammo types. Food and Cooking will see a major improvement with Fishing also playing a major role in immersion and survival.
NPC Settlements will start to appear around the game world, and while we are not ready to talk about them, players will definitely want to check them out to gain some pretty cool stuff, that is if mutants did not take over…
A major focus will also be on filling the world with more loot, to make every crate you open even more interesting. World keys will be valuable items that allow you to open some seriously good crates; if get your hands on one, you better keep it safe!
The Drone will be back, keeping an eye on the island and focusing on the areas with the most action. The stream will be accessible 24/7 through Twitch.tv and while we don’t want to share too much at the moment, we can say that players with a certain reputation might find themselves stalked a little bit more than they’d want, making their business a bit more… entertaining to watch.
But that’s not everything. The Fall update will include performance improvements, more quest (with an even better onboarding), and balance updates all based on your feedback and the data generated during playtests.
Enemy AI will also see some improvements, alongside new enemies and a few surprises we can’t wait to share.
The UI/UX team is also working on bringing more of the Aloha spirit to the game’s UI and last, but not least, players will be able to trade with a fully dedicated system, rather than relying on picking stuff from the ground. Although that could still be an excellent way to troll another player and run away with all the loot! You do you, we don’t judge, but we believe in Karma!
Discover New Worlds – Winter 2023
As Winter approaches our fractured paradise will start to change, with New Biomes making their appearance and the game’s society developing further. New NPCs will populate the Maui landscape, and everything will feel more like a living and thriving world.
Immersion is going to be the keyword here. More clothing options will allow for better player expression, the Resting System will make base building more meaningful from a gameplay perspective, and crafting quality of items will give players reasons to adventure further and gain better gear. Speaking of adventure, players wandering around the map might start to notice that the mutants have started to take control of some pieces of land, creating proper camps. Clearing those will reward some loot for the players who dare get close and embrace the challenge.
About Killing Shards… that’s something we will talk about more in the future!
Closing Words
That’s everything for us this time!
We hope this answered some of your questions about our roadmap and left you as excited as we are about the future of the game. We’ll make sure to share as many updates as we can as the game progresses, but for right now we simply need more time to keep cookin’! Until next time… see you in Maui Thrivers!
This month’s update took us a bit longer – but for a good reason! We’re finally ready to share some exciting news with everyone and show off some of the things we have been working on since the beginning of the year.
NEW & Improved Unreal Engine 5.1 Here We Come!
You might be asking yourself, what is Unreal Engine 5? And why are we switching to UE 5.1 now? What does it mean for gameplay and my experience?
You’ve got questions – and we’ve got answers!
Why upgrade to Unreal Engine 5.1
Maui is a tropical paradise even after the apocalypse. Upgrading to UE 5.1 allows us to better capture that natural beauty and do the island’s landscape justice by heightening the immersive experience with foliage that is out of this world.
When Epic released 5.1, we all agreed it would be worth upgrading to give everyone the best player experience possible and also to compete with new games coming out this year. Fractured Veil is currently using version 4.27 – so it’s a BIG shift to catch up.
UE 5.1 also comes with a great set of tools and features that allows us to improve the visual quality of the game, dramatically upgrade global lighting, and best of all, significantly increase performance quickly and efficiently.
Take a look at some of these before and after shots, but keep in mind: everything you are about to see is a WORK IN PROGRESS and does not represent the quality of the final release.
Players spawning into the Thorcon might not even recognize our bustling hub of activity and trade thanks to adding Lumen to the world. According to Unreal, “Lumen brings robust dynamic global illumination,” which is reflected in the floors and all of the surfaces of the Thorcon.
Expect more deep-dives about Unreal Engine 5.1 and Fractured Veil in the future. This is just a quick (and very early) taste of what is coming. In the coming days, we will be collecting your questions and trying to answer as many as we can in upcoming posts from us.
Fractured Veil 2023 Roadmap
We’ve always tried to be transparent in regard to Fractured Veil’s development and are excited to share our 2023 road map! This is just an overview of where we plan on going with more roadmap news coming soon. Some roadmap items:
Before the Early Access Launch
Upgrade the game to UE5.1 (Lumen, Nanite, World Partition)
Have at least 3 Steam Playtests
Implement new features after each playtest
During the First Early Access Phase
Fully functional Drone live streaming 24/7
NPC Settlements
Fishing!
New Armour, Food, Weapons
New Quests and Trading
More Loot and New Enemies
Lots of QoL and Performance updates
In the Months After the First Early Access Release
Society Growth
New Biomes
Clothing, AI Camps, new NPCs
Crafting quality, Resting System, Killing Shards
Some secrets and more 👀
New Early Access Release Window
With the team focused on bringing tons of improvements to the game, we have made the decision to push back early access until the end of summer 2023. This will give us the time we need to fully integrate Unreal Engine 5.1, as well as work on more gameplay features (hint hint: mahi-mahi for dinner anyone?) to make a more enjoyable and complete player experience.
When we look at the Early Access games market today, especially when it comes to Survival Games, recent releases have set the quality bar much higher than what it used to be when we started this project 7 years ago.
As indie developers, we know we only get one chance to nail this once the floodgates open. Our goal is and always has been to release the best game we can to the public. Pushing back the early access date will mean our community will get to play a much more complete and enjoyable game.
Upcoming Public Steam Playtests!
We are working on hosting a number of “Public” Steam Playtests and hope to start signups in early May with the first test later that month. Each playtest will bring a significant amount of changes and new features. Not only will you get your hands on Fractured Veil but, if you join all of them, you’ll get to see those updates as they are added to the game.
Our current plan is to have at least 3 of them before we release the game in Early Access. This will be a great opportunity to have hands-on experience with the game and see the development progress with each playtest. It’s also the perfect time to give us feedback and suggestions on things you think can be improved. Your input helps us prioritize and shape the game, so keep it coming!
We have a few kinks to work out but keep your eyes open for playtest news and an official schedule coming soon!
Pledge for a copy of FRV and Play Now
Last, but not least, we are happy to announce an extension of our Kickstarter campaign which will let folks who missed their chance pledge their support. Here you will be able to pledge the same way we did for our Kickstarter. By doing so, you’ll be able to join the fun and play the game with the rest of our Backers.
This is something that many of you have been requesting for us for a while and we are super happy to allow more people to help us with testing and sharing their feedback.
We’re getting ready to expand our Alpha and bring in more players soon. We’ve already brought in about 1k players over the course of 6 months from our Kickstarter, with the last batch added a month ago. As with everything game dev related, there were a few hiccups and unexpected issues but for the most part the server didn’t go boom – so we’re pretty happy with that and ready to push it even further with Steam playtests.
Getting everyone who supported our Kickstarter campaign in the game was a huge accomplishment for us and we can’t thank everyone who’s supported us enough! We say it all the time but we couldn’t do it without you. We can’t wait to show you what we have planned for the future. Thanks again for all your help and keeping the Aloha Spirit alive!
We’ve been really keeping our eye on the dungeons and making sure that when you’re underground exploring, you have solid framerates and unique loot to find. We’ve got a long way to go, but here are some of the improvements we made this past month.
Dungeons & Mine Improvements
One thing that sets us apart from other survival games is our diablo-inspired dungeons. So we’ve made sure to invest some time this month to make sure the Lost Manimal Mines are a lot spookier. We gave them a facelift in the upper tunnels to make them more dynamic and the lighting a bit better. The last thing you want is to not be able to shoot enemies because it’s too dark.
Some work to the old living quarters in the levels below to bring in more Hawaiian flare and grunge. After the fracture, everything was neglected and we wanted to make sure nothing came across as too ‘new’ looking.
Now there is also more loot waiting for players to find. We even started working on designs for a DIY spawn bed that players could use to make an optional backup if they get into a tricky situation. Having a spawn point underground will also prevent you from having to go all the way back to the spawn point in the Thorcon which could be a pain.
Armor
Armor has been on our to-do list for a while but so many of you asked about it and offered suggestions about styles and materials that we got to work creating some cheeky concepts from found materials because this is the apocalypse after all. After taking a look at a few of our very first concept designs, head over to our discord to VOTE on your fav!
Cooking Recipes
With 800 new clones running around Maui, it meant we had to start cooking in the kitchen because there are definitely going to be lots of new mouths to feed. We also know how important recipes and ingredients are when you’re trying to survive island-style, so we added a bunch of new cooking recipes and harvestable goodies.
You can make traditional Hawaiian favorites like poi, or for more adventurous palates try a Sloe SSHAM Fizz, or prove your bravery by eating a strangely colored Maui Dog. Best of all, many of these new recipes give players special buffs after eating!
Player Bases
It’s no surprise that with so many new players surviving the wilds of Maui, we’ve seen a lot of new construction and building happening around the island. Honestly, we’ve been blown away by the creativity and designs we’ve seen pop up across the map and the generosity of new players who may or may not be leaving the doors unlocked to share resources with other newcomers.
We want to especially thank Pleione, CapnYeti, Cid, Fluffy, LazurusRising, and Brandan for some of these amazing builds below.
Let us know what you think in the comments or head over to our discord to find out more about playtests and vote on your favorite Armor!
The day is finally here – we’ve sent out all of the keys to Wave 4 of our Kickstarter backers. Testing the performance of the game more than ever before, we’re ready to show Lahaina’s newest residents everything we’ve added to the game!
Once everyone in wave 4 has gotten to have an organic first-play experience, we’re hosting “Tours of Maui” answering any questions and chatting about our plans for Early Access. We’re also extending the AMA to anyone who wants to jump into our Discord voice chat and learn more about future plans.
Wave 3 players have been a huge help in bug hunting and improving the game. Bringing 1k players in Wave 4 is preparing things for Early Access as it’s the first time we’ve onboarded this many players at once.
Here’s everything we’ve improved or added since Wave 3 back in September 2022.
Gameplay Updates
We’ve improved the Tutorial questline to make the quests clearer and beefed up the rewards. All melee weapons, bows, guns, tools, and loot tables have been rebalanced to be more intuitive and natural.
New “World Vendors” have been placed beyond the Thorcon and starting area selling anything a survivor needs to thrive.
Crafting and Harvesting Improvements
We’ve added clothing that boosts various combat and harvesting stats. Trees and plants drop resources besides wood and fiber now. We’ve added new consumables and many new cooking and crafting recipes.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with ingredients when you’re grilling over a campfire. You might be surprised to see what you can cook up!
Combat and Encounters
The siege system has been overhauled, and we’ve reworked our encounter design so you’ll notice difficulty increasing as you explore the map farther away from the starting area.
Mutant Villages have been improved and offer some really rewarding loot, especially in the deeper zones, if you can survive.
We’re so excited to welcome all the new players and don’t forget – if you’ve already gotten a key from a giveaway, as a playtester, or in a previous wave it STILL WORKS! Until we launch in Early Access, your key is valid so jump back in and have some fun!
We have huge news: We have sent out Keys to Wave 3 of our Kickstarter Backers! This is the biggest wave yet, and we can’t wait to show Lahaina’s freshest faces everything we’ve added to the game!
We’ll host some “Welcome To Maui” and other special sessions to go over the basics and answer any questions new players might have. Waves 1 and 2 were a huge help with finding bugs and improving the game. With the help of this next wave, we plan on having the servers ready for even more players to explore and survive in our version of Maui.
Here’s everything we’ve improved.
Quest Improvements
We’ve fixed a bunch of bugs keeping players from finishing or turning in quests, improved the UI, and made the text descriptions of each quest easier to read and understand.
Veil Travel Updates
We updated how Veil Travel Works, making it smoother and fixed a nasty bug that could make the travel button get stuck in a disabled state, leaving you stranded in an alternate world.
Siege Improvements
We fixed some totem bugs related to sieges, improved how mutant ranged attacks work, and resolved bugs that would cause mutants to get stuck or spawn on top of players. We improved some siege mechanics and vastly improved AI pathing around bases under siege.
Misc Fixes and Improvements
Performance and lighting improvements inside the Thorcon.
Improve sewer dungeon lighting.
Adjusted the minimum fall height required to damage players.
Fixed crash when a player finishes a craft with an item that was moved or no longer exists.
Increased stamina regeneration while proning or crouching.
Fixed issues with various actions while sprinting.
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