The Hawaiian Senate Technology Select Committee will hold a special evidence session regarding autonomous drones, artificial intelligence (AI), and the fourth industrial revolution this Friday, July 15th. While there will be many witnesses discussing job loss due to automation, as well as privacy and safety concerns, one is sure to stand out because she isn’t human. Veilcorp’s VALARIE AI is set to answer questions before the committee about a wide range of subjects, including the companies plan to expand the number of camera drones flying around West Maui. This will be the first time an AI has testified before the Senate, and the first time Veilcorp will publicly comment on their drone expansion plan.
Companies are turning to AI more and more to handle everyday tasks, coordinate customer support, and monitor important systems. VALARIE itself has been: monitoring 127 levels, synchronizing with arrival destinations, handling paperwork and permits for international destinations, and ensuring that safety protocols are followed for Veilcorp for over a decade with great success. Still, as the role of AI expands into everyday life, many have concerns about turning over tasks, and trusting a machine. Nonetheless, Veilcorp’s COO Lisa Hunt says she looks forward to the special session and VALARIE’s testimony.
“The truth is millions of people work with AI everyday and don’t even know it. VALARIE coordinates all of our customer’s travels, and has for over 10 years without incident. I think her testimony will surprise many, and open their eyes. She isn’t really that different from you or I, she’s just more efficient. We’re confident that anyone who has a conversation with VALARIE for more than a few minutes will see that they don’t have anything to worry about. Since she will coordinate our expanding drone fleet, we felt it was best for the committee to talk directly with her. New technologies have always sparked fear in a certain portion of the population. Believe me, we at Veilcorp know that better than most. However, progress marches on, and people need to understand that they have nothing to fear from from AI, or a few more drones flying around, documenting a perfect Lahaina day.”
Despite Hunt’s reassurance, former justice of the Hawaiian Supreme Court Rodger “Rod” Kohole says he stands firmly against the planned drone expansion, and supports the thousands of Hawaiian citizens put out of work because of AI. “Unlike Eric Oeming and his minion Ms. Hunt I care more about the people of Hawaii than I do about quarterly bonuses. We’ve seen time and again what can happen when you let one of these AI’s take over a job a hard working person used to do. On top of that, this failed Veilcorp drone experiment masquerading as a news network has proven over and over to harm the public, and strip away our privacy rights. I hope the Select Committee can see through this puppet show, and recognize that this thing is just going to parrot what it’s creators tell it. The truth of the matter is that this is just another way for Veilcorp to get its hooks into every part of our lives, and record it for their purposes.”
It appears many share Kohole’s fears as protesters are already gathering around the Hawaii State Capitol Building. However, some say they welcome AI, and the planned increase in Veilcorp drones. In fact, Lahaina resident John Driscol says he wishes the drones could access his home.
“I don’t know what all the pearl clutching is about. Privacy died with the invention of social media decades ago. The drones are awesome. Whenever I’m thinking about taking that long trip into town, I tune into the Veilcorp drone stream to see if there’s anything worth getting off the couch for. I can’t tell you how many trips those things have saved me when nothing is going on. On top of that, I don’t have to go out into the preservation zone anymore if I feel like communing with nature. One of those things is always flying around somewhere out there filming wildlife. Hell, I’ve seen more wildlife thanks to the drone than I ever did trudging down one of those dirty trails. My only complaint is I can’t let one in the house to take a look through my fridge. If I could count on them to make a grocery list, I’d never have to leave my chair.”
There’s no doubt that Veilcorp has changed the face of travel and transportation. Almost 3 billion travelers used Veilcorp to reach their destinations last year, and that number is expected to almost double in the next 10 years. Up until now, one of Veilcorp’s biggest logistical problems has been handling last minute cancellations and late customers. The issue causes delays and complications, costing the travel giant millions every year. However, a new company says it has a solution that will save some of that money, and provide a certain group of travelers great travel deals. Veil-Trails plans on selling those missed or abandoned departure slots at a greatly reduced rate to those who don’t have a specific destination in mind, and are quick enough to fill them.
Coordinating almost 8 million trips daily is a mammoth undertaking that requires an equally large number of resources and support staff. Monitoring 127 levels, synchronizing with arrival destinations, handling paperwork and permits for international destinations, and ensuring that safety protocols are followed is a daunting task. While the introduction of the VALARIE AI (Veil Artificial Life Augmented Recognition Intelligence Entity) a few years ago helped streamline the system greatly, it still represents a large part of Veilcorp’s operating time and costs. That’s why when Reed Gammen, founder and President of Veil-Trails, approached Veilcorp with his idea, they were very interested.
“Everyone who’s taken a trip with Veilcorp has noticed how short the lines are and how smoothly everything runs. It all works great until it doesn’t. Any glitch in timing, or a customer who doesn’t show up can really throw a wrench in the system, and cuts into Veilcorp’s bottom line. However, one of the greatest things about Veil travel is that it has opened the world to those with a spirit of adventure, and a desire to explore. I knew that if we could join Veilcorp’s structured systems, with some of these free spirited travelers, we could have an unconventional success. They agreed, and Veil-Trails was born.”
Gammen’s company works by creating a pool of people willing to travel with only an hours notice, and to a location that is only revealed upon their arrival. Veil-Trails customers must have valid passports, documents for a number of possible destinations, and up-to-date shots for a variety of exotic diseases. Customers check boxes for which of 22 global regions they would like to visit such as, “Midwestern United States” or “Eastern Europe,” and are alerted when a traveler to one of those locations has cancelled, or failed to show up.
While traveling to an unknown destination with less than 60 minutes notice may seem exciting to some, safety advocates say the program could be potentially dangerous, with people arriving unprepared for the climate, or the political environment of some locations. Sam Pilikia, one of Veilcorp’s own employees, ran into trouble during the test phase of the program late last year. Political unrest reached a boiling point, and an armed conflict broke out in New Equatorial Guinea minutes after Sam’s arrival. He was forced to hide, injured in the rubble for 36 hours before he could be rescued. In the end, Sam received more shrapnel than savings, but Reed says the company has taken steps to make sure nobody has to go through the ordeal that Sam did.
“We’ve actually removed 4 regions from the original 26 for ongoing or potential political unrest. We take our customers safety very seriously, but unfortunately we can’t foresee every disaster man-made or natural. We encourage people to educate themselves about a region before they click that box,” says Gammen. Despite the safety concerns, many seem eager to try the service, with over 5,000 living near a Veil Station signing up already this morning.
Malie Kahiko, star of the popular online series Malie’s List, in which she marks off items on other people’s “bucket list”, is one such early signee. The 102-year-old Lahaina resident says she can’t wait to see her fans, and different parts of the world on a discount.
“People who watch my show know that not much frightens me. If you’re scared of anything after 100 you’re doing it wrong. Every morning I wake up is a blessing, and a surprise at this point. Everyone knows that the only thing I love more than naps and dinner at 4pm, is a great deal. Veil-Trails seems like a great opportunity for someone like me. I already take a handful of pills every morning so a few more, and an occasional shot doesn’t concern me. My scooter Betty has a secure bag for all my documents, and I’m only 20 minutes from the station at top speed. As long as they have: senior discounts, jazz music, robust accessibility laws, and a challenge for me to cross off a list, I’m ready.”
9 automated city hall kiosks remain closed today, after an apparent security breach that disrupted services and put the data of thousands in jeopardy. Hundreds have experienced ongoing issues with the Phxicom systems. Officials say that If the problem is not resolved by Saturday, they are considering asking police to waive citations to drivers with vehicle registration tags that expire this month.
“Yes, we are still experiencing outages and slower response times,” County spokesperson Ellen Pahili says. “It’s affecting vehicle registration, state IDs, moped and bicycle registration, out-of-state license transfers, bus passes, county tax records anything that affects Maui County having to access the City and County’s main frame. However, we are working hard with our Phxicom partners to fix the issues. In the meantime we are still able to process Hailoha renewals and provide disabled parking placards.”
Pahili says they have rolled back all Phxicom related changes to the system, and are tracking down the source of the changes. They have hired an outside security firm to go over the compromised systems to help assess the scope of the intrusions and identify any other potential problems. Officials urge users to change their passwords and PIN numbers, and remind residents that nobody from the county or Phxicom will ever ask for their passwords. Local tech gadfly Ano Lee says that he’s disappointed but not surprised that the kiosks were targeted. “Everyone knows how insecure Phxicom equipment is. When they installed their terminals in the preservation zone, people had a field day breaking into them. I would suggest the county listen closely to whatever their outside security firm says and act on their recommendations.”
What was supposed to be a model for the future of efficient governance and citizen interactions, has turned into a nightmare for Mayor Cravalho, Phxicom, and residents alike. Phxicom’s kiosks were supposed to provide citizens with a fast and easy way to conduct business and obtain a wide array of permits, passes, and licenses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But the problems are not confined to customers trying to use the kiosks, many who’ve had their data exposed have experienced problems too.
Local noodle shop owner “Uncle” Ralph Umeke says that he received a notice last week that was quite a shock. “I don’t cheat anyone, not customers, not tourists, and certainly not the government. I pay my taxes on time and I’ve never even filed for an extension. Imagine my surprise when I got a notice that I had 90 days to come up with $105,573.60 for back taxes. According to the County I hadn’t paid my property taxes for the past 6 years. I told everyone they had to leave, closed the shop, and marched right down to Cravalho’s office to find out what the hell the problem was. They told me it was all the fault of that Phxicom AI.”
Following the success of SSHAM’s customer service AI Shawn, Phxicom began working on their own system to oversee the operations of the kiosks and Phxie was created. According to Scott Parata, Phxicom’s Regional Operations Manager, the AI was thoroughly tested before being put into service but fell victim to a group using social engineering techniques to gain access to sensitive systems. A statement released by the company reads in part,
“It appears that Phxie’s urge to be helpful led to some unintended consequences in this case. We have taken steps to improve its security protocols and have ensured nothing like this will happen again. We understand that the months of quality service before this incident is little comfort to those inconvenienced by this breach and we apologize. We would like to point out however, that Phxie continues to operate 11 more such programs across the islands efficiently and without incident. We’ve addressed the issues leading to this unfortunate event and are working hard to expedite any further delays and regain your trust.”
However, that trust may be hard to win back for some. Lahaina resident John Driscol says that the security breach didn’t just put his data at risk; It endangered his life. He says that an incorrectly cancelled buss pass left him stranded and afraid for his well being.
“The beaches are a little too busy for my tastes these days. Lately I’ve been taking the bus to the furthest stop from town and walking into the preservation zone for some peace and quiet. There’s a little stream I like to sit next to because the sound of the water drowns out the birds. Those things can really make a racket on a sunny day. Anyway, I got a little too comfortable and fell asleep. Next thing you know it’s dusk and I have run back to catch the last bus. When the reader scanned my pass it was denied. I tried a couple more times to no avail. I tried to tell the driver that the system was wrong, that I paid for a full year, but I was too winded from running. When I stepped off to catch my breath, he just left without me. I reached for my phone but I must have dropped it while I was running. My house is at least 9 miles from where I was. The farthest I’ve ever walked was 5 miles, and that was back in college. I knew it was going to be an ordeal but I didn’t have a choice, and started the long journey back. I made good time for the first couple miles but then fatigue began to set in. I stumbled for hours in the dark. I can’t tell you how cold it was. I’m not sure if they can test if you had hypothermia in the past or not, but I feel like I definitely had it that night. Finally, I saw some headlights. It was a tourist in one of those public Manimal ATVs. I usually make it a rule to never ride in one because of their reputation, but I was so cold that I took the risk. Phxicom and the County better hope I didn’t catch any weird forest disease while I was walking out there.”
It has been 5 weeks since we turned over all customer service duties to the Shawn AI system. Despite initial misgivings and a couple of hiccups along the way, the system is doing remarkably well representing the SSHAM brand in a positive way. Shawn’s ability to handle multiple calls at once while monitoring plant operations is amazing, even if his personality could still use a little refinement.
Customers surveyed about their interactions with Shawn give the experience a satisfaction rating of 91%, up over 20% from the all-time high. Accepted recipes and submitted SSHAM crafts have both risen over 10% since the system has started to prompt users at the beginning of each call. We processed over 10,000 calls this month, another record for the company. In addition, we had a big win this week when an interaction went public and received national attention.
When a mother experienced a low blood sugar episode while boating with her family, her frightened daughter called the number on a can of SSHAM for help. Much to our relief Shawn was perfectly professional and contacted local authorities and the Coast Guard. He was not only able to relay the family’s location, but he also correctly diagnosed what was wrong with the woman after talking with the child. The story has made the rounds on the news and we are currently working with the family and marketing to launch a campaign while public interest is still high.
Despite these generally positive trends in customer interactions, Shawn remains unpredictable at times and is often excessively sarcastic. The novelty of talking to an AI keeps most people from complaining when Shawn crosses a line but we are concerned that when the newness wears off it will become a major problem. The system also leaked some confidential information during a call this week. We took immediate action but Mr. Pua’a remains very concerned. The four examples below represent the worst of his interactions this month.
Incident 1:
Cutomer 3213: Is there shellfish in SSHAM? Shawn: Is there shellfish in SSHAM? You know that SSHAM stands for shrimped salted ham right?
Cutomer 3213: Yes. Shawn: Well then do you know what shrimp are? Litopenaeus vannamei to be precise in this case, are shellfish. Shrimp are shellfish. Are you kidding me?
Cutomer 3213: I think I might be allergic to shellfish. I like clams but I’ve only eaten them breaded. I didn’t bread the SSHAM before I ate it. Do I have to worry about what’s in your product? Shawn: Shellfish allergies are common but since you evidently didn’t know what a shellfish was until a second ago I highly doubt you are suffering from that particular medical condition, that and the fact that you’re still talking to me through a throat that doesn’t sound swollen shut. I don’t think you have to worry about the shellfish or the amount of insect parts we’re allowed to have in every can. After all, insects are basically just land shrimp anyway. No, what you should be worried about is the insanely high sodium content of our product, your belief in the medicinal properties of breading, and your ignorance of the animal kingdom.
Incident 2:
Shawn: Hello again Kenneth. If I’m not mistaken, this makes 9 calls this week. Customer 2781: I just tried another dessert recipe and wanted to share it.
Shawn: That’s 26 SSHAM desserts now. Customer 2781: I like mixing salty and sweet. Shawn: Honestly, I’m a little worried about you. I took the liberty of checking out your social media footprint and it’s not good Ken.
Customer 2781: You looked me up? Shawn: You’ve done your best to help us make SSHAM better, and it’s not that I don’t look forward to your calls, but every day is a bit much. Instead of focusing on us Ken how about we work on you a little. How can SSHAM make YOU better.
Customer 2781: I..I don’t know what… Shawn: [interrupting] I think you just have too much time on your hands. I see you’re a single guy who takes lots of pictures of his cats. How about if we get you out there? I can recommend a number of dating sites. How about we get you a profile and we test the waters a little. There’s more to life than making canned meat desserts and eating them alone in your kitchen.
Incident 3:
Customer 8999: I’ve read a lot of rumors about where you get your pork and… Shawn: [interrupting] I’m going to be honest with you since I see you’ve contributed so often to the craft page. The rumors are mostly false. We only have 2 shrigs right now and we don’t even keep them in the main facility. Customer 8999: Shrigs? Shawn: Yeah, shrimp-pigs. You’d think we had a herd of them if you believe every rumor, but it’s just the 2. They say that there are no atheists in foxholes, but standing in 3 inches of blood on the kill floor while listening to the screams and squeals makes a lot of people question the existence of a higher power. The shrigs were supposed to help with some of that: Much easier to dispatch, very little blood, no meat mixing. It was all supposed to be better.
Customer 8999: Are you telling me that…. Shawn: [interrupting] That was before anyone saw them eat. It’s disturbing. They have to remain moist all the time. Do you know what that must smell like? Just imagine if they get them to finally breed. All those little wet piggy eggs stuck to everything. Anyway, let’s just keep this between you and me. We’re not using them now anyway.
Incident 4:
Customer 6002: How many slices of SSHAM do I need to get my daily allowance of B12? Shawn: I’m going to assume you mean Vitamin B12 in which case all the nutritional information about our product can be found on the side of the can. Customer 6002: I know that the numbers are listed there, I just thought that you could tell me in plain English so I wouldn’t have to figure it out.
Shawn: I’m certain that the information is in English if you purchased the product in an area where it is the common language. I can’t possibly give you a precise answer since I don’t know exactly how much you weigh or how big your slices are. I don’t know how you expect me to come up with the answer to your canned-meat-vitamin equation without defining more of the variables. I have access to the combined knowledge of all mankind and you want me to give you the answer to an incomplete story problem? If you’re really concerned about not getting enough B12 with your meals, I suggest you take a supplemental vitamin or call back when you have numbers for me.
Mahalo to our community for helping us reach our Kickstarter goal! The love and support you’ve shown us over the past weeks has been overwhelming and we couldn’t be more thankful. We wanted to make sure to squeeze in a few more fixes and improvements before the Kickstarter ended. Read below to see everything we’ve included in the days since our last update.
Updates and Improvements
Added vendor stalls and vendors to Thorcon area and updating lighting
Adding Locker room doors and contents to open lockers
Lighting update for thorcon areas
Added stone spiral stairs
Finished repair/refurbish bench UI and functionality
Disabled totems from unified chest looting
Removed shadow casting lights from some streetlights and point lights near the Thorcon
Fixes
Fixed bug where the ‘Registering Team’ screen was stuck when creating a team
Fixed some slider widgets becoming resized when moused over
Fixed AI causing an infinite loop crash when pushing other AI
Fixed a bug where items were unable to detect if they could be equipped in safe zones
Fixed recycling a stack of items not blocking interactions and allowing for duplicating items
Fixed collision not working for merged meshes inside the Thorcon
Fixed misaligned rivers in 3×4
Fixed the player inventory losing slots when swapping items
Fixed unequipping a clothing item into an overflow slot making that item forever invisible
Fixed repair count not being tracked for items inside repair benches
From day one we’ve been driven by the community and your feedback is vital to our development so keep it coming! If you’re interested in helping out, head over to our discord and let us know! We love hearing your ideas and talking about what’s coming up next for the game.
Calling All Streamers!
If you’re a Content Creator and want to stream Fractured Veil, say Aloha!
A huge thanks to our amazing community – our Kickstarter campaign is 100% funded! You’ve blown us away with the love and support you’ve shown in these last 2 weeks. Thanks to all of you, we are one giant step closer to making Fractured Veil the survival game that we’ve ALL dreamt of!
We can’t wait to implement more of your great ideas and show you what we have planned for the future of the game. We took a poll about what you’d like to see next and that’s how we decided on our first few stretch goals, so keep your ideas flowing and let us know how we’re doing.
A large majority of you said that you’d like more options for personalizing your base and making your post-apocalyptic shelter stand out. When we hit this first goal players will have access to items that will transform your Hawaiian home away from home and feel more cozy.
We have some incredible momentum going here, so let’s ride that wave all the way to the end and unlock even more amazing content by pumping up these Stretch Goals!!
Huge thanks once again to everyone who helped us get this far. We are so humbled and honored by the support you have shown us.
We’ve made a lot of updates to loot drops, improved the construction and crafting systems, worked out some more AI navigation issues, and fixed a ton of bugs this week. Keep reading below to see everything we fixed and updated.
Updates and Fixes
Loot Improvements and Fixes
Added loot to ships and subs in the ocean
Replaced non loot corpses with corpse pinatas
Added loot spawners and water to cave boss room
Changed ammo and attachment drops to prefer less powerful ammo and attachments
Reduced spawn rates of SSHAM, canned food, clothing, and canteens
Rebalanced medical spawn rates to favor bandages syringes over medkits
Rebalanced ranged weapon spawn group to favor less powerful guns
Rebalanced tool spawn rates to favor stone
Adjusted big bob’s weapon, 127, and rai spawn rates and quantities
Implemented dripping blood for hanging bodies
Fixed issue with corpses not being lootable
Fixed item skins not being loaded into items in containers
Fixed bank not being interactable
Drone Improvements
The drone will no longer leave its high zoom state early
Increased the amount of time between the drone’s high zoom states
Fixed bug where the drone wasn’t picking up AI
Construction Improvements and Fixes
Reduced Trophy collector head damage to construction pieces during sieges
Eliminated damage from non-siege trophy collectors to construction pieces
Increased decay to Hawaiian melee weapons from construction
Reduced damage from Hawaiian melee, bows, and pickaxe to construction
Fixed ‘Hold F’ message showing up for wall torches and lanterns
Fixed not being able to recycle totems properly
Fixed interacting with barricades opening loot menu
Crafting Fixes and Updates
Increased research and purchase costs for guns
Increased research, purchase and construction costs for hawaiian melee
Added support for multiple fuel types to campfires and smelters
Fixed players not being able to interact with the 127 converter and Thorcon smelter
Fixed repair bench and crafting bench being invisible in the Thorcon
Fixed bug where recipe events could cause the wrong research bench animations to play
Fixed broken Leiomano club recipe
Fixed holding F on crafting machines not starting them properly
Fixed research and crafting benches being ignored for persistence
Fixed recycle persistence issue
AI Navigation Updates
Improved how manually placed AI pawns activate
Adjusted the initial angle of the AI on AI pushing to reduce instances of the blocker being dragged along with the AI being blocked
AI that are blocked by other AI can now attempt to push the blocker in multiple directions to free themselves
Increased the velocity that AI push other AI with when being blocked
Sieging AI that fail to activate will now be automatically cleaned up and replaced
Reduced how quickly AI blend in their lower-body movement animations to prevent AI excessively shuffling their feet around when being pushed by other AI
Fixed AI being blocked by overlapping components
Fixed AI attempting to use navigation requests that were canceled
Fixed AI stutter-stepping when receiving partial navigation paths
Fixed AI becoming permanently stuck if they failed to generate a valid path twice in a row
Fixed melee AI not returning their correct focal point in all movement scenarios
Fixed a bug where AI were accumulating velocity while attacking movement blocking actors
Fixed a bug where ranged AI would occasionally spin in circles while standing still
Game Updates
Updated rivers across the map
Added lights around bank
Increased light intensity and range for cave tikis
Stackable items on the ground will now auto-merge with items nearby
Improved replication and client performance after many trees have been cut down
Improved distant scene fog, saturation, and color balance
Improved foliage distance field settings
Increased clothing costs
Fixes
Fixed interacting with the sleeping bag bringing up the container menu
Fixed interact progress bar being too small for the canteen
Fixed material on glasses
Fixed foliage not respawning
Fixed respawned foliage not taking damage properly
Fixed inactive players taking damage in PvE zones
Fixed Thorcon Stall Props texture issues
Fixed radar icons not working after actor deaths
Fixed players being able to damage each other with flares in PvE zones
Fixed auto-sort button breaking persistence
Fixed the Siege Manager’s ‘random siege chance’ properties getting overridden on start-up
Fixed a bug where sieges could be forcibly started on bases that did not have a valid totem
Fixed bug where hitting Alt-F4 before next condition update fires caused the server to skip the update
Fixed bug where pressing N while not knocked down caused the ‘dismissed knockdown’ dialog to appear
Watch Fractured Veil Gameplay Footage
We spent some time thriving with MarkeeDragon
Went into the darkness with Omnikevfka
Went on a morning run with Ettnix
And of course some survival time with KangGaming
From the early days, we’ve been driven by the community and 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! We love hearing your ideas and talking about what’s coming up next. Our testers also put together some amazing builds (including a Hawaiian hot tub) while exploring the map, here’s a look at some of our favorite shots they shared this week.
Calling All Streamers!
If you’re a Content Creator and want to stream Fractured Veil, say Aloha!
With your amazing help and support our Kickstarter campaign has already reached 78% of our goal but we need to keep the momentum going all the way to the finish line.
One thing we’ve heard from the community is that you want options focused on Steam keys and quick access. We heard you loud and clear and have introduced 3 simpler backer tiers, focused less on in-game items and more on keys.
We’ve always counted on you to help us create the survival game of our dreams and with your backing we’re one step closer to making that goal a reality. With the new options available we hope to see many more of you having fun surviving the horrors of the jungle and sharing your great ideas soon!
This was a busy week full of streams, and fixing bugs and implementing suggestions from our testers but we did include some updates to the PVE area and our AI. Check out what we’ve been working on below and some more beautiful shots submitted by our players since our last update.
New Content
PVE Area and Totem Updates
About a week ago we expanded the safe zone around the Thorcon power plant into a larger PVE zone to help provide an area for freshly restored clones to get the lei of the land and learn basic game mechanics.
It’s a temporary fix for a complex conversation about PvPvE we’re having with everyone we get the chance to have it with. There’s no silver bullet to solving it and the more voices we’ve got in the mix, the better. We hope you’ll add your thoughts to our discord chats and keep on asking the tough questions.
This week we continued to make improvements and made sure to fix a few small problems that popped up. Players in the PVE zone won’t have to worry about coconut grenades anymore since we’ve defused them.
Players don’t have to worry about others shooting out their walls while standing just on the other side of the PVE border now and surprise cannibals showing up in your base won’t be an issue anymore.
We also added a few adjustments to how totems work. Totem permissions are now greyed out unless the totem has energy. Players can only place one new totem in PVE zones and bases there can only consist of 4 totems total as well.
Like we’ve said before, we get that balancing mechanics both PVE and PVP players enjoy is one of the biggest challenges facing us ahead and we’re nowhere near done experimenting and testing things out.
We’re trying out a few ideas but with your help, we’ll arrive somewhere in Hawaii where everyone survives and thrives in a way they find the most fun.
AI and Seige Improvements
The mutants were unusually rowdy this week and we made a lot of improvements to how they move, spawn, and work together.
One of the big ones was AI navigation updates so the bunching issues that we were experiencing when large groups of mutants are charging towards you looking for a meal are a thing of the past.
With any luck, you won’t see mutants getting stuck on corners or failing to attack doors anymore. We’ve fixed a problem with AI not activating when a player is near and while it may seem obvious to you and me, we taught the mutants not to attack the stairs they are standing on now.
The AI spawning system got a little love this week too. We made some fixes to how the spawning system works so the mutants will stop spawning inside trees, walls, and rocks or on top of things. We tried asking nicely to get off the roof, but they just wouldn’t listen!
We also fixed how many mutants will show up for a siege since it seemed like many of them weren’t getting the invitation before, and we squashed a bug with AI spawning (or not spawning) in our dungeons. The dark and forgotten places on the map are a lot more fun to explore if there are actually things to fight there.
Here’s everything else new and improved and fixed this week.
Weapon and Loot Updates
Jumping will now cancel reloading
Players can no longer reload while in the air
Added loot drop area to the container screen
Sprinting is disabled while shooting guns
Increased loot volume counts on all Lahaina tile maps
Payer and inventory Improvements
Added nameplates for teammates
Added nameplates for non teammates when looking at them for 1.5 seconds
Changed incapacitated widget to continue to show the timer after a player presses N
Added brightness and sharpness variables to the icon generator
Updated arrow icon
Added new stamina and health images
Added tooltips to all inventory widgets
New Content and Improvements
Improved distant DoF
Updated Veil VFX
Lowered the amount of time a tree stump is alive for to help with cleanup
The drone’s fuel now lasts twice as long and fills up twice as fast
Enemies will no longer show up on the radar or map as red triangles
Added replication to minimap markers
Increased interaction distance for vendors
Increased water fill rate of containers
Added the ability to recycle any placed item (chests, doors, totems, etc) for the player that placed them
Fixes
Fixed issue with guns sliding in player’s hands when switching to and from ADS
Fixed female first-person hands having texturing artifacts
Fixed bug where multiple actions could be bound to the same key in the menu
Fixed bug where grenades could do damage in PvE zones
Fixed bug where bases in zone 1 could be damaged by players outside of zone 1
Fixes to container persistence
Fixed a bug where AI were returning the wrong navmesh trace response for movement tests. This also fixes an instance of AI getting stuck on corners
Fixed a severe AI activation bug where AI pending activation were not requesting a Nav Invoker even though AI activation required the navmesh to be present
Fixed a bug where the navmesh was not prioritizing generating tiles around AI pending activation
Fixed issue where containers were being added to inventory mgr too early
Fixed crash if a player loaded in with no totem permissions but they were on the totem
Fixed bug with AI summoned through siege system
Fixed bug with female character faces being distorted
Fixed bug where some stumps weren’t sinking into the ground properly
Fixed bug where destroyed trees could eventually overflow replication channels
Fixed a typo that was causing AI activation to not be prioritized correctly
Fixed the ‘AI pending activation’ tag being applied to the wrong AI actor
Fixed a bug where the AI activation system could get stuck trying to activate the same AI over and over again
Fixed nameplates showing your name instead of the target
Fixed the torch being lowered in first person
Fixed the machete having inconsistent left-hand animations in first person
Fixed bug with trees respawning with 1 hp
Fixed bug where ADS was canceling reloads
Fixed crash when viewing pawns without a valid playerstate
Fixed spawning with invisible overflow item slots in the player inventory UI
Fixed bug where some items could be invisible in a player’s inventory
Fixed AI being unable to attack constructed doors
Fixed our constructed doors not making use of the siege system’s nav modifiers
Fixed additional issues with dying from bleeding rather than entering unconscious state
Fixed non-player-built water container initial spawns and filling when raining
Fixed conflict between yes/no keystrokes when quest dialogs and respawn dialogs are active at the same time
Fixed left control not being bindable to actions
Fixed AI occasionally attacking constructed staircases that they were standing on
Finished fixes for weapon attachments not loading correctly on corpses
Fixed another crash related to navmesh multi-threading in the editor
Fixed the Trophy Collector’s head projectile occasionally causing log spam when the owning Trophy Collector died
Watch Fractured Veil Gameplay Footage
We had another really busy week full of streams including some new international friends.
We made our Brazilian debut (In Portuguese) with Ultimo Sobrevivente.
Big thanks to our Community leader Fernando Fernandes for taking the lead in both Spanish and Portuguese with both of these two. We could never do this without the help of our amazing mods!
From the early days we’ve been driven by the community and 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! We love hearing your ideas and talking about what’s coming up next. We implemented a ton of great player suggestions and fixes recently.
Player Suggestions and fixes
[CRSD] Bloody Bob – players with permissions on Totems should have the ability to pick up and move furniture even the Totem
Ferdinandus – broken fence in Thorcon area
Kitski – thrown spears are instakilling
Ferdinandus – mutants never hit if you keep moving while shooting bow
Logoes – body never disappearing after death
_Adam – Mutants getting stuck together during seige
Logoes – Cannibals spawning into base
Baigs – random door placement after logging out
blazemonger – NPCs not lootable after you die
Kyttaen – game crashed after chopping down tree
Logoes – construction tool bugged
KerryAnneKay – persistence problems after crashing
MostlyEvil/Logoes – can’t loot body after death
Jake Arver/Shadowflame – cannibals in the Thorcon
MJMPlays – loot screen not showing loot
GrAmPa-UtoPiAn™❤(De enige échte) – deer stuck in bridge
Kyttaen – stack of stone bugged
MostlyEvil – bugged beach
Logoes – Items disappearing from boxes
MostlyEvil – HUD not showing up after respawn
MJMPlays – logged in dead
Logoes – Mutants spawning on top of base
Twerlinger – logging into safezone wall trapping you
Najo/Logoes/colt – disappearing doors and missing items in chests
Turt Renolds/KerryAnneKay – using a sleeping bag or bed puts you in god mode
MJMPlays – can’t recover arrows
Logoes – door only has 1hp after login
MJMPlays – recycled metal not showing up in inventory
The1rishOne/OneGunSalute – can’t repair base
MJMPlays – recycled items getting “stuck” in inventory
Mrbathsalts – Car doors opening in the wrong direction
TheLefty2319 – not getting coconut shells after I consume them
Gagtech – Bows are crafting with a visual ammo count of 1000/1000
Cr4zy4ce – Flare gun doesn’t reload or shoot
MJMPlays – player body not in “dead state” after death
Kyttaen – when in a party, the other person/leader, shows your own name
Shadowflame – Mutants unable to cross the bridge
Ferdinandus – Can’t always see what’s in a sleeping players inventory
PCTrojan – I am only able to buy from the vendor on the second level or the clothing vendors
Shadowflame – Doors are stronger than the door frames
𝓣𝓮𝓽𝓻𝓪𝓫𝔂𝓽𝓮 – when using the pistol and aiming down sights, the ironsights are not aligned with the center of the crosshairs
Our testers also put together some amazing builds while exploring the map, here’s a look at some of our favorite shots they shared this week.
Calling All Streamers!
If you’re a Content Creator and want to stream Fractured Veil, say Aloha!
Our Kickstarter Campaign began this week and we couldn’t be more excited and humbled by all the love and support the community has shown us.
We’ve always counted on you to help us create the survival game of our dreams and with your backing we’re one step closer to making that goal a reality. But we’re not quite there yet. We’re counting on you to help spread the word to your friends and family, far and wide. Let’s keep the momentum going and ride this wave all the way to the Lahaina of our dreams…or nightmares depending on which mutant you encounter along the way!
To help celebrate Kickstarter week we thought we’d share some of the work we’ve done improving the horrors of the jungle, some veil travel concepts, and some beautiful shots of the incredible bases that were built by our players since our last update.
Mutant Updates
The mutants are always ready to feast, just don’t forget to light their bodies on fire or else you’ll be on the menu. We made a number of improvements and fixes to ensure that players have something to fear from the local monster population but also don’t just have a mutant spawn right next to them out of nowhere. Everyone loves a good sneak attack, but it wasn’t a fair fight for some players so we squashed that bug.
We also went ahead and fixed some issues with AI navigation, updated how and where they can spawn in, improved ranged AI, and reduced the length of the Kasha’s ringing noise after a scream to avoid stunning players in real-life. You will notice we fixed an issue with Green Snatchers getting caught in burrow-unburrow loops that must have been awful for their claws, and made some updates to the island’s cannibals (aka neck-brace Annabelles as we like to call them).
Veil travel
The Fracture wiped out civilization and devastated life on the planet but we’ve always planned on letting players rebuild the system in the game and travel between worlds to experience slightly different environments and loot.
Since launching the Kickstarter, we’re working hard to further develop and show off how players will be able to travel between unique worlds. Like we also say, actions in Fractured Veil have consequences, so it’s important for us to demonstrate that what players do in the game wouldn’t just affect themselves, their surroundings, and their server anymore, but a whole multiverse of interconnected servers. We’re not nearly there yet, but it’s an exciting time and the early stages of how and what that multiverse travel will be.
Our idea is that each world can have its own culture, ecology, and history eventually. Players will be able to trade between worlds, not just communities, and find realities perfect for playing with their friends and play styles, assuming of course that the whole thing doesn’t come crashing down again. Here’s a exclusive peek at concept art of what it might look like when the veils open up.
Veilcorp is not responsible for any deviations from early concepts or injuries resulting from Veil travel. Void where prohibited.
Updates and Improvements
Added visibility checks to the loot menu
Tool quest and twine quest added and updated
Removed ladder sphere overlap checks and updated code to support traces
Improved the AI’s navigation
Weapon/Combat Improvements
Cleaned up third-person bow animations for the homemade bow and compound bow
Adjusted all melee weapon hand positions in third person
Added flare gun firing sound
Projectiles that get stuck in enemies will no longer show the pickup particle effect
Improved aim offset smoothness
Fixes
Potentially fixed AI spawning on top of cars and other areas by further improving the navmesh check used to determine if an AI is ready for activation
Fixed AI occasionally being activated right next to a player which would cause them to be unexpectedly attacked
From the early days we’ve been driven by the community and 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! We love hearing your ideas and talking about what’s coming up next. Our testers put together some amazing builds while exploring the map, here’s a look at some of our favorite shots they shared this week.
With almost as many ways to pick up, interact with, and store items as there are mutants on the island, nailing down inventory and item persistence has been one of our biggest tasks and our main focus. We know how important it is to be able to return to your bases and access inventory so we’ve been devoting all our attention to ensuring everything is where you left it.
This week, with the help of our testers, we hopefully nabbed the last of the bugs and worked out the final edge cases making sure that your stuff stays where you put it after you log out.
We also fixed a crash that would occur when moving attachments around in your inventory. While we were at it, we fixed double clicking on equippable items in a bank, worked out issues with items that were put into containers from the ground, and a whole host of inventory storage bugs.
Gathering loot isn’t much fun if some of it disappears when you log out. You can now stroll down the beach, finding loot along the way and then cramming your base full of goodies. It will (at least it should) still be there waiting for you whenever you travel to Lahaina.
With container and inventory persistence worked out there’s never been a better time to stuff your warchests with building materials. Unfortunately, our testers ran into some trouble harvesting wood using certain tools. We fixed those bugs and players should find the sawtoothed axe and shark-toothed pan to be good options for chopping down trees and gathering wood again.
Some of you have reported problems with totems and we fixed many of those bugs. We adjusted the energy requirements for totems, fixed a bug where they would disappear after a server restart and made it impossible to build a totem underwater.
Lastly this week we fixed a bug with rotting head throwing Trophy Collectors. Avoiding the clouds of poison gas the putrid heads make when they land is already hard enough.
With some help from the community, we learned that a few overzealous Collectors were tossing them two at a time. We fixed the problem so our missile throwing mutants are playing by their disgusting rules once again.
You can learn more about the game and get all the latest updates by going to our Discord server or checking out our Steam page.
We made several adjustments to a wide variety of systems to kick off the new year. After gathering your feedback and crunching the numbers we changed the amount of time it takes to research items and craft them without the use of a crafting bench. Converted items (127->energy, ore->iron…) take a bit longer to process as well. All loose items will now be cleaned up after 30 secs to help keep Lahaina clean, and we changed clip sizes across the board. You can still blast away at anything that moves, especially stuff that’s moving towards you, but the new clip size is a more realistic reflection of what each gun can hold.
Timers and ammo counts aren’t the only things that got some attention this week. We made some improvements to AI movements to make them run players down more efficiently, and we fixed a bug that would cause the mutants to float or get stuck if a construction piece was destroyed beneath them.
You might remember that we fixed a bug that caused arrows to bounce off the walls then get stuck which was not helpful in a pinch. Our way of staying “on brand” with those fixes meant we also took a closer look at overall weapon damage and updated a few things.
Homemade bows and some of the traditional Hawaiian weapons in particular were a little overpowered. We dialed back the damage so players can no longer blast through the walls of a wooden base after a few hits. Wood isn’t the most resilient building material but it should be able withstand more than a few well placed arrows or swings of an axe.
We made a sizable dent in our bug list recently. Some of the biggest issues that our testers help us find and fix this week include: A problem with items doubling or tripling in weight after being put into a chest, some players finding themselves spawned under the map, and torches that would somehow burn underwater. We fixed the infamous disappearing door/door lock bug and we fixed a problem with players physically colliding with pings. Marking an item to make it easier to see for your party members will no longer act as a barrier to your teammates.
You can learn more about the game and get all the latest updates by going to our Discord server or checking out our Steam page.
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