A construction crew got the surprise of their lives over the weekend, when they discovered a World War II era mine while working on a Veilcorp project. According to reports, the workers discovered the mine early Saturday, but didn’t know what it was. It was only after one of the workers posted a picture of the device on social media that it was identified as a mine. Work at the site was immediately halted while the Navy’s explosive ordnance technicians secured the device. Veilcorp says they are glad nobody was hurt in the incident, and are thankful for the Navy’s quick response.
The Maui Conservation and Recovery Act set strict guidelines on the storage of 127, and other hazardous materials on Maui. As a result, Veilcorp has been building a number of underground storage facilities across the island to store the volatile, and controversial element used in the veiling process. The mine was discovered by a crew working on one such storage site.
According to Ronnie Kalipalani, owner of Ronnie Kalipalani Construction, it all started Saturday morning when his company broke ground on the project. Within minutes, his team found what they thought was a discarded fuel tank buried just inches below the ground. The crew spent the next few days trying to clean-up the object, and discussing what they were going to do with it. After one of the crew posted a picture on social media of himself posing with the object, Navy personnel descended on the site, and evacuated the construction workers. “It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever experienced in my life, and I lived through the lurchin craze,” says Kalipalani.
“We find buried stuff all the time. You’d be surprised what can end up in the ground,” says Ronnie. “Mike found the mine while working the excavator. It was pretty beat up, but you could tell that it had been in the water at some point because of all the coral build-up. It looked like an old fuel tank to me, and Mike asked if he could keep it. He builds all kinds of things out of old junk we find in demo jobs. I’ve seen him make grills, planters, chairs, and even drums out of old tanks we’ve found. You’d be surprised at what the tourists will buy, and how much they’re willing to pay if you tell them something was made by a local artist. Thankfully we decided to try and clean it up before cutting it apart. I’m not sure we’d be around to talk about it if we hadn’t. We tried using the angle grinder, but after chipping away at it most of the day, we had to give up and do some actual work. The next day we started building a jig to hold it in place so we could take the jackhammer to it. We secured it, and were just about to start hammering, when all these Navy vehicles showed up and everyone was shouting. At first, I thought one of my guys had snuck into the base again, but then they told me what was up. I’m still shaking thinking about how close we all came to being blown up.”
The mine was identified as a Japanese type 93 model 4 anti-ship mine. While the Japanese used relatively few naval mines during WWII, hundreds of thousands were still deployed throughout the Pacific. Weighing in at over 1,500 pounds, the mine contained 243 pounds of explosive when deployed. Officials say they believe the mine was washed ashore and buried when hurricane Neki hit Maui last summer.
“These people were extremely lucky,” says a Navy spokesperson. “These mines were built to punch through the armored hulls of military vessels. If it could destroy a foot of reinforced steel, I assure you it would have no trouble obliterating a person. It was the corroded firing mechanism and age that saved lives here. This device uses what’s known as a hertz horn mechanism. Each of the four horns contains acid. When something hits a horn hard enough the container breaks, acid spills out energizing a battery, and the mine explodes. Despite their actions, the horns were so corroded that they were no longer functional in this instance, saving lives. While finding an unexploded WWII mine is highly unlikely, we would like to encourage the public to not take power tools to any mysterious objects they happen to find in the ground. If you don’t know what something is, call authorities before you start hammering on it! Please.”
Kalipalani and crew say they are thankful for the Navy’s swift action and would like to thank whoever saw the picture and alerted authorities. However, Ronnie does have one request.
“We are beyond thankful of course that nobody was hurt, but we’d really like the mine back. I mean it’s not everyday you find a piece of history like that, and Mike had some great plans about how to chop it up. I thought there was some sort of rule about abandoned property becoming the finders after 90 days, but everyone I’ve talked to at the base seems to think that isn’t true. They could at least give us a few dummy bombs or training warheads or something if they plan on keeping our mine. We’re not trying to be jerks. We’re willing to work with them here. We just want what’s fair and reasonable.”
The Kickstarter campaign was an amazing experience for us and we can’t thank our backers enough! Your support allows us to speed up development time and take on a number of big projects that we’ve been eager to build all at once.
Since the campaign ended we’ve been mostly heads-down working on our first major update of 2022 and it’s a big one! We’re hitting the ground running with an engine upgrade, a complete overhaul of the landscape and foliage, weather and world updates, and tons of backend improvements that increase performance and lay the groundwork for players to travel between servers.
We’re really excited to share everything we’ve been building over the past month and welcoming wave 2 of our Kickstarter backers to the game very soon. We take a lot of pride in being a community-driven game and are thankful beyond words for your help and ideas. We couldn’t do it without you and look forward to making Fractured Veil even better with your continued support.
Here’s a look at everything we’ve done since the last update.
UE 4.27 Upgrade
Fractured Veil has been running on Unreal 4.22.3 for the past three years so this upgrade is huge!
Running 4.27 opens up all the improvements and features of five engine updates. Along with integrating Epic Online Services and Easy Anti Cheat to ensure that everyone is playing on an even field, these engine improvements will make the play experience even better.
We’ve just begun unlocking the huge optimization benefits and new systems that will allow giant leaps forward to our sky, weather, water, terrain, foliage, and VFX. Along with the performance benefits, players will notice the world and terrain improvements right away while we continue to optimize and integrate the new features 4.27 offers us.
Foliage Refactor
The foliage improvements are probably the most immediately noticeable update to the game. Trees are fully interactable with the wind, look more realistic, and are more performant. We’ve added foliage that can be harvested for resources (just fiber for now), and we are working on changing up the density of the jungle.
Following the roads and trails may be the quickest way to move across the map but they don’t offer much cover and open players up to ambushes with long clear shooting lanes. We want the jungle to be an option for those willing to take a little longer and encounter an occasional natural danger without running a gauntlet of opportunistic players.
Level Streaming and Management System
We’ve created a level management system that gives us much quicker iteration times when it comes to world-building and streaming. This allows us to split up maps, group them together, manage LODs, and add custom streaming rules for different sub-levels and dungeons.
Basically, this gives us the ability to create custom worlds for players to travel to and unique dungeons to explore much more quickly than before. Many of you have told us how much you enjoy exploring and this system allows us to create forgotten and foreboding places for players to explore and loot in half the time.
Construction Improvements
Forget laying another floor over your head to enclose your base, we’ve added roofs to the construction system. Players will find flat, triangular, and round roof pieces in their build menus now. Not only does this open up a whole new level of creativity to your builds but it allows new options when it comes to the wear and tear the weather can do to a base if you haven’t added a proper roof.
We’ve also added better construction piece snapping to make building faster and easier. In addition, placing construction pieces (just foundations for now) will destroy any foliage that overlaps it. This should put an end to plants and trees poking up through your base and open up some areas that were harder to build on.
New Weapons
Players will find a couple of new ways to fight off the hungry hordes. The first is a totem speargun. What it lacks in speed it more than makes up for in damage.
The second is a DIY post-apocalyptic rifle. It may not be the most beautiful firearm available but it definitely packs a punch.
World Improvements
Lighting Update
We’ve made some big improvements to the environmental lighting making a day, or night, of survival in Lahaina look a lot more realistic.
We also adjusted the light level of nights and the brightness of the moonlight to make it a little easier to operate under the cover of darkness.
Landscape Update
We’ve made some improvements to the depth of field system and like the foliage, we’ve reworked the landscape materials, puddles, and grass types to make the world look more realistic and improve performance.
Water Update
We’ve removed the old water system and taken advantage of the improvements available to us with the engine upgrade. This has improved the swimming mechanic, increased performance and along with the depth of field and lighting updates makes for a beautiful dive underwater.
Sky and Weather
It’s not just the land and sea that got an overhaul. We made some big improvements to the sky as well.
We’ve made the sky that famous Hawaiian blue, improved clouds and rain, and implemented new heavy fog perfect for covering escapes or hiding to ambush other players.
Altogether these improvements should increase performance, make the game run more smoothly, and provide a much more immersive experience.
Behind The Scenes
New Server Setup/Backend Changes
We have refactored our backend service and database layers, optimizing and decentralizing things and building a global deferred updater. Put simply this will allow for more players to be in-game playing at the same time, getting us closer to our goal of 500 players per world.
We’ve found and fixed over 260 bugs so far with all the new updates. As usual, our amazing testers have helped us track down some of the biggest and we couldn’t be more grateful. Your feedback is very important to us so keep it coming! If you’re interested in helping out, head over to our discord and let us know! Here’s a list of the fixed bugs that our players found.
Gaming News Hub – Minimap does not show the player position sometimes
Jester429 – 127 detector showing at feet when equipped
MJMPlays – Recycled materials can’t be used to craft
Logoes/Kitski – Continuous sieges
ClockBlockerX – Flipping an offset doorway wall via middle mouse button does not permit you to walk through it, even though it shows an opening.
MostlyEvil – Wall not connected to totem after replacing
1ceprime – After server crash, was unable to reload SKAR. Had ammo in inventory, would play reload anim, but wouldn’t reload the ammo
MJMPlays – Can’t repair base
ClockBlockerX – Cannot walk up a section of stairs. Can remove stairs, and walk through, but cannot walk upstairs when I replace the item.
Ferdinandus – Rain coming through the bridge
AUSelite86 – Rain showing up on floors inside buildings
liliumsouldem, TSStechAngel – Fixed DOF settings not staying as selected
Logoes – Fixed weapon reload animations
ClockBlockerX – Shotgun shows holo sight even after it has been removed, does not show old reticle even after removing it.
Jerel Phoenix – Mutants moving through barb wire
KerryAnneKay – Disappearing campfires and smelters
ClockBlockerX – You can walk through glass in the Thorcon
Colt – Unable to access totem
DRWCFR – Totem won’t recycle
LazurusRising – Ability to drink soda on pickup does not work
Cr4zy4ce – The craft bench does not properly show required craft items to craft an object.
Kitski – Invisible door in base that can’t be interacted with
ClockBlockerX – Random door appeared in my build after patch attached halfway up a solid wall.
blazemonger – Chest disappears after character deletion
KerryAnneKay – My foundation was upgraded to full health when I logged out last night. When I logged in they were back to default installation values.
wisty-beth/blazemonger – Logged out inside house, logged in outside. Missing shirt, axe, rye, antibiotics, ssham, and totem is empty. Totem is still basic and has not been upgraded
MJMPlays/Kyttaen/Logoes – Totems and upkeep not working correctly
Logoes – Can’t complete crafting bench purchase at vendor
Najo – Arrows disappearing after logout
MJMPlays – Missing items from inventory and bank
LazurusRising – Loaded in to an encumbered character with nothing in inventory
Turt Renolds – Clothes changing design after logout
We can’t thank our community enough for helping us reach our Kickstarter goal! We’re overwhelmed by the love and support you’ve shown us over the past 3 weeks but there’s still 5 days before the end of the campaign.
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.
This week made a number of weapon and combat improvements, included a bunch of crafting and construction updates, and fixed a mountain of bugs that our testers reported to us. We’re also including some shots of the amazing bases our community built since our last update. Read below to see everything we’ve worked on.
Updates, Fixes, and Improvements
Weapon/combat Improvements and Fixes
Increased max uses on most ranged weapons
Increased Damage on Ukupoon by 25%
Increased Damage on Compound bow by 10%
Upped recoil on Ukupoon
Fixed issue where firing flares at a sleeping player in a PVE zone caused the player to disappear
Reduced accuracy when jumping/running with 1911
Reduced Extended mag ammo boost from 200% to 125%
Reduced max range of uzi and optimal range from 30 to 20 meters
Increased hipfire spread of M1A by 100% and damage by 50%
Added ADSAdjustSpread variable to guns
Jumping will now take 100 stamina
Crafting and Construction Updates
Minor increase to decay on pickaxes from 30 to 31
Bow craft time reduced to 45 seconds
Fixed duplicate attachment slot issue when upgrading construction attachments
Updated Coconut Shell text to explain it’s a crafting resource
Fixed crafting machines allowing fuel to be used in non fuel slots
Fixed not being able to recycle containers and totems after they have been upgraded
Fixed research benches not working
Fixed area of 4×4 where players couldn’t build construction pieces
Fixed players not being able to place a new totem in zone 1 after destroying their previous claim
Fixed crashes dropping/moving an item being recycled
Game Updates and Improvements
Enlarged Bananas
Repositioned consumables to fit into hand better
Decreased jeans cost to 10
Increase quest reward for buying jeans to 15
Implemented 30 second pause in draining food/water when you reach max value
Created separate vendors for various item types and placed in Thorcon
Smoothing out terrain in places to prevent players from falling through holes in procgen houses Merged all wooden wall pieces in thorcon into single mesh
Lighting update to Caves and Thorcon
Changed inventory context menu to right mouse button
The drone will now restart if it’s pawn is destroyed for any reason
Fixes
Fixed issue with properly reporting death for inactive pawns
Fixed character customizer screen becoming squished after hiding the background
Fixed elevator music not stopping for some players
Fixed bug with disappearing items
Fixed handling of IsClientLoggingIn variable during client login, which caused the client to erroneously show the timeout message if the player successfully logged in but didn’t join a server for 30 seconds
Fixed player-to-bank swapping persistence issue
Fixed players dying from dying of starvation or thirst while offline
Player Fixes and Suggestions
spitfire – Adjust crafting recipe for arrows
MoneyBagg – lower npc hp or raise up weapon damage
The1rishOne – adjust the head damage from Trophy Collectors
Logoes – Let us burn fiber, maybe a faster burn on it.
Kitski – Reduce the charcoal and sulfur cost of making ammo or increase the amount of ammo you get when you make it
1ceprime – M1A:Way too accurate from hipfire, More Damage in general, maybe higher headshot multiplayer on this gun too
1ceprime – Uzi: Extended Mag down to 30, 25 Meters optimal range and drop off from there, ADS cof way too tight
1ceprime – 1911: Jumping should reduce accuracy
IcyCaress – Character customizer screen becomes squished after hiding the background
blazemonger – Buying jeans are part of early tutorial but the price was raised to 90 RAI?
Ayka – Tutorial says to Build a Canteen, but what it means is build a Coconut Canteen.
Logoes – Sometimes, maybe every 8-9 hits when attacking a player wall the tool doesn’t take damage from hitting the wall but still damages it
Omikron – Pressing “N” by mistake while just standing around will show your downed number, only way to get rid of it is by relogging
Ferdinandus – Animals not moving
Logoes – Objects farther away have some pretty rough blur to them
Kyttaen – Mutant spawned/is stuck inside my foundation
Logoes – Game crash
Cr4zy4ce – Recycle gives materials back for non existent items
Mediocregamer67 – Animals spawning on top of cars
Ferdinandus – I chopped a big tree and the cuts remained there after it went down and couldn’t move freely on the spot the tree was
Jerel Phoenix/Reddthorn – Stuck in dying state
zzeinith – Stuck fox
Ferdinandus – Ground materials showing up on column on toll booth
gunnbr – Bodies floating after base was destroyed
Logoes – Mutants not attacking during siege
Logoes – Cannibals spawning in base
TSStechAngel – Can’t revive your party members who are knocked out
Reddthorn/Kitski – Hair stretching out strangely
MJMPlays – Items disappearing after picking them off my body using hold F
Kitski – Trunks opening strangely
spitfire – the global quest to kill mutants, timer ended and the server crashed
spitfire – Rabbit running is louder than deer running
Logoes/MJMPlays – Dying when I log in
Shadowflame – Stacked items and recycling are a little over-productive at times
MJMPlays – Unable to die after being knocked out by poison
Matt.j (moogobbler1) – Very slow load time when starting
MJMPlays – Part of foundation invisible and unusable
Kitski – Spawning in stuck in god mode
Logoes – Can’t repair or upgrade base
MostlyEvil – Safezone isn’t safe u can fire at someone from outside the zone and kill them
LazurusRising – Floor issue prevents you from talking to vendor
Ferdinandus – When i log in, my hair color is not attached to the hair itself
blazemonger – The amount of resources needed for a stack of 100 shells is quite excessive.
Logoes – Respawned trees can’t be harvested
Shadowflame/MJMPlays – Tree and electrical pole coincide just outside of thorcon
Kitski/LazurusRising – Some trees appear to be going down in 1 single hit
Logoes – When I get to the ‘craft a canteen’ quest, the quest system stops
Najo- Rain barrels staying empty
ClockBlockerX – Dying when logging out
Logoes – Game freezing
Baigs – Floating items around map
Logoes – Bob can’t be killed with arrows. Burned through a compound bow and 2 other normal bows and 200 arrows just on Bob and he won’t die
Baigs – Near the bridge to Thorcon (ocean side) sometimes you can walk/run across the water instead of swimming
liliumsouldem/DRWCFR – Once a totem has been recycled, it cannot be placed again
𝓣𝓮𝓽𝓻𝓪𝓫𝔂𝓽𝓮 – Pressing ‘n’ causes a variant of the “bleeding out” screen to pop up
MJMPlays – Game crashed when I upgraded a thatch floor to a wood floor
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. Our testers came up with some truly amazing builds this week. Here’s a look at some of the awesome new bases that sprung up on the island recently.
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!
We’re back with another update as it’s been super busy over here getting ready for our Kickstarter campaign on September 7. In addition to a bunch of updates and bug fixes, we thought we’d show off the big collection of screenshots that players have submitted to us. They built and defended dozens of bases, killed hundreds of mutants, and explored miles of Maui this week.
Updates and Improvements
Animations
Imported updated reload animations for the micro uzi
Added the ability for weapons to supply their own custom jump animations
Improved prone moving animation blending
Added custom top half animation overrides per item
Updated drop item animation speed and triggers
Added new 1911 animations
Added new skar animations
Added new melee animations
Improved first-person equip and unequip animations for the homemade bow
Improved homemade bow nocking, charging, and firing animations and feel
Third person zipline animations are now forced to the proper rotation
Item Updates
Players can now pick up clothing items and equip them if they are encumbered
Added recipes health pistol
Added health pistol weapon
AI
AI will now attempt to prevent their mesh from excessively clipping through walls
Further increased the Kasha’s aggro distance
Regenerated spawn points for all of the AI Spawner Volumes around Lahaina
AI Modules now have a generic function for hiding their owning character without conflicting with other actor hiding systems
AI will now remain hidden and inactive until they are able to detect any valid reachable destination.
Optimized the memory performance of the AI Distance Update loop
Improved the Melee AI attack and movement overlap distances
Adjusted our AI’s net update and tick rates
Construction
Added the ability to snap foundation pieces half grid height up or down
Added hologram arrow mesh when placing construction walls and door frames
Added improved slot opening and closing for construction
Restored auto upgrading construction pieces to the last selected upgrade type with the upgrade tool
Gameplay and Player Improvements
Improved attach location of the hands when ziplining
Improved a Decay Service hitch by having the system loop smaller actor lists
Restored old player movement and braking values
Reduced the volume of the siege starting sound
Setup scaled up meshes for female hair and clothing
Updated UI for new knockdown (incapacitated) processing, hooked up timer in UI
Changed corpse decay time from 15 mins to 45 mins
Added the ability to auto-start new quests once the previous one is completed
Added 6 starting quests
Hold ‘F’ to burn bodies will now only function if the body has no items in it
Fixes
Fixed various crashes in weapon code
Fixed totems forcing net updates too often
Fixed two AI crashes that were caused by the AI Controller assuming they always had a pawn
Fixed bug where the player’s hands would go invisible after placing or holding a placeable item
Fixed a bug where dead AI could block the player’s collision
Potentially fixed a bug where dead AI would remain in their idle animation
Fixed players getting stuck at the top of the zipline
Fixed micro uzi using new animations with the old mesh
Fixed weapon ammo counts showing wrong values
Fixed bug where an item could be recycled multiple times at once
Fixed server crash when hitting an actor without a valid component with a projectile
Fixed quests triggering NetMultiCast functions on the player controller which could cause other players to experience all types of random things
Fixed triangle and square foundations being able to place in the same spot
Potentially fixed a bug where AI Spawner Volumes were ticking outside of the editor
Fixed a persistent 1.5-4ms frame cost related to cloth simulation stat tracking
Fixed a server crash that could occur due to an invalid container inventory component
Fixed issue where AI wasn’t damaged by fire actors
Fixed bug with turn in quests not granting rewards
Fixed randomizable car doors opening rotations
Fixed house containers not filling with spawned items
Fixed issue where logging out controller/pawn can fail to swap active pawn for inactive
Fixed bug with item based quests giving double credit
Fixed bug with the turn in place animations canceling upper body animations
Fixed damage indicators not working
Fixed bug with foundation pieces breaking the instant they were placed
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. Here’s a look at just a few of the player-submitted shots we’ve received recently.
If you want to learn more about Fractured Veil head over to our Discord server.
Aloha Thrivers! Spring is in the air and we’re hard at work helping the flowers and mutants bloom across the island. We’ve spent a lot of hours on playtests and tweaking gameplay based on your feedback last month, but we’ve still had time to include a bunch of new content for you!
Your feedback is very important to us so keep it coming! If you’re interested in helping out head over to our discord let us know! We love hearing your ideas and talking about what’s coming up next.
Here’s a look at some of the biggest improvements and news about the latest features you’ll find in the game.
Thorcon Improvements
Many of you told us how hard it was to get started in the game’s starting area.
Finding your way out of the Thorcon Power Plant and into the world was a headache.
We added arrows, decals, and lighting to help you find your way out.
Normally we wouldn’t suggest following a shark but in this case the graffiti points the way to freedom.
Massive Foliage Update
Back in 2017 this was the original concept for the jungle of our dreams.
This is what the wild’s looked like a few weeks ago.
And this is what the jungle looks like now.
As you can see it’s a huge improvement.
The difference around the starting area is night and day.
The plants are not only bigger and more vibrant
But they now sway in the wind when a storm is about the roll through.
New Harvesting and Crafting Content: Coconuts and Canteens
Players have a chance to find coconuts when they harvest trees now.
This offers a healthier meal option than decades old canned food or cannibalism.
You can also craft them into a handy all natural canteen perfect for a late night cocktail.
New Starting Area Content: Power Lines and Substation
The Thorcon Power Plant got wired up this month to help tell the story of how this iconic building used to power the island before the Fracture wiped out civilization.
We added walls to help secure the substation and keep the mutants from getting stuck on a transformer.
You can find the Veilstation on the other side of the map if you follow the powerlines.
Even though it’s huge, Veilcorp’s main facility is much harder to find through the new lush foliage.
New Construction Features: Tiered Totems and Shields
Currently, totems help players claim a plot of land to build on and can prevent your base from decaying if you keep them filled with resources.
We added tiered totems and totem shields this month to make them more useful if you’re willing to spend the resources.
There are now 6 different tiers of totems that players can build inside their bases.
Totem shields create an invisible force that attackers have to wear down before they can access or damage your totem.
Totems get tougher as you upgrade and they provide buffs to construction pieces attached to the foundation in a radius surrounding them.
New Content: Thorcon Dungeon
Last summer we added a dungeon area inside the Thorcon.
It remained empty with some placeholders for a while why we worked on more important things like making the game run at a playable frame rate without crashing.
Now that we’ve achieved that goal we went back to work on the Thorcon dungeon.
Things are looking a little different inside now.
There’s still work to be done but it’s a fun place to run around with a group as we work on upgrades and other hidden places for players to explore.
New Feature: Character Customizer
For a really long time, your character was just another face in the crowd with no customization options other than taking off a piece of clothing.
Your character may be a clone in the game, but you don’t have to look like one anymore.
There are a few clothing choices currently available from our vendors and we plan to unveil more “Apocalypse Casual” options soon.
Miscellaneous Updates
Combat Updates
Adjusted sprint stamina usage and increased recovery while standing, crouching, or going prone
Increased damage output of shotgun
Added movement speed modifier to all weapons
Updated melee distances
Updated melee weapon damages
Construction Updates
Changed Thatch doors to use wood resistance values
Doors are now part of the totem damage mitigation
Lowered the structural damage pans do
Loot Updates
Added SSHAM cans to loot tables across the map
Made some trash smeltable
Harvesting Updates
Pickaxe can now be used to harvest meat from bodies
Increased harvest rate of axes
Added tree classes and tool requirements to harvest large and huge trees
Doubled wood dropped by a tree and stone from rocks
Increased sulfur, iron, and twine drop rate
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.
They say the best defense is a good offense but sometimes a strategic retreat is the only option if you want to survive the deadly wilds of Lahaina. With some feedback from players in our test sessions, we made a few improvements to movement and medical gear in the game.
Items now apply a speed modifier while they are being used by players whether they are walking or running. Contrary to what you might have heard you don’t run faster with a construction tool in your hand.
We also made bandages usable while a player is moving, although their sprint speed will be reduced 25% while they’re making sure they don’t bleed out.
While we were fixing running away, we addressed a few issues with combat. First, we fixed a bug that would allow a player to shoot behind them when in 3rd person.
Next, we fixed a long-standing issue with thrown weapon damage. One shot one kill might be exactly what you want as a sniper but it makes for a pretty lousy game experience. We adjusted thrown weapon damage removing one-hit-kill shots on the animals and mutants as well.
Some of you reported a crazy bug that would cause someone interacting with a bed to find themselves auto running. This doesn’t exactly lead to a restful sleep so we fixed the sleep runners and we also added proper collision to the rear doors of trucks.
Players hiding inside should be able to count on the doors acting as a barrier between them and the arrows being shot at them again.
We’ve spent countless hours building and adjusting our construction system and we recently fixed a batch of bugs found by our community. We started with fixing a bug where players could place items on support beams on thatch foundations.
We addressed an issue with some construction pieces that resisted being upgraded and a bug with building regeneration making floors that weren’t solid. We appreciate your help in making sure our building system stays up to code (even if you’re still not totally ‘safe’).
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.
This week we’re continuing to make improvements based on player feedback and finished work on a handful of systems to make gameplay more fun. First thing on our list was looting.
We know how important it can be to grab the goods quickly off a body when you’re in the middle of a fight. However, being able to instantly loot an opponent creates problems as well. After a few iterations, some persistence work, and listening to your feedback we made a couple of updates that should make the “getting stuff” process better (at least for now).
First, we made improvements to our quick looting system. If you just want to grab everything and sort it out later, you can hold “F” and scoop up every last bit of backpack filler on a body.
Best of all we put a little preview window in the game so you can check out what’s inside a container without actually opening it. Just hover your mouse over a box or crate and you’ll get a quick peek inside.
We added fiber this week, a new resource for many of your crafting needs. Instead of trees producing twine and wood, chopping away will now yield fiber and wood.
Thanks to your feedback and a few of our playtests ironing things out, we increased the number of resources a totem can hold, giving players a longer amount of time before their structures begin to degrade.
We fixed the 127 converter in the Thorcon Power Plant so it is correctly converting 127 into energy and that energy is persisting properly. That’s good news for anyone looking to operate the advanced smelter or craft some of the top tier items!
We fixed the party system so if the leader of a party leaves or disconnects the next player in line will now be promoted to leader. As much as it pained us, we also fixed a bug that would allow players to harvest meat from corpses by shooting them. Being a cannibal was never so easy. After some spectacular player falls we updated fall damage and added an impact noise when a player receives any damage from falling
Mr. Mixer Head (nickname pending) is offering a new weapon for purchase inside his booth. Players will be able to buy a compound bow now, perfect for those who aren’t fans of close combat or the price of bullets.
Since players have a new ranged option we decided to take a look at the closer side of combat too. We made a number of improvements to how melee combat works including changing the way we calculate swinging weapon distance, making it easier to drive your shark-toothed club through mutant flesh.
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.
For all of the #builders in our community, we’re happy to report that we’re continuing to make improvements to our construction system. A number of you suggested we add stairs that you could use with half walls in your structures. Well, it may take you twice as long to get your steps in but we adjusted the spiral staircases to match up with half walls! Don’t worry, the spiral stairs are now stackable for diehards looking for a full stair experience. While we were at it, we added the ability to place spiral staircases on triangle and rounded foundations and fixed some structural integrity bugs.
We also made some additions to the safe zone area this week. Players arrive in Maui after the fracture and our goal is for them to ask, “Hey, where did everyone go?” or “What happened here?” while wandering around the island. We’re building a shanty town across the river from the power plant for future exploration and eventually, clues about those who came before. And a few hoop houses have been constructed in the area so that survivors can grow and secure the rare Kükenroot for future generations. Here’s a look at what you can see in the neighborhood around the Thorcon.
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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