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April’s Community Q&A

Hello Thrivers,

Over the past few weeks, we asked you to send us some questions through a form shared in our discord server. Today we are answering them! Our plan with Fractured Veil is to maintain transparency as much as possible and always bring you along with our development journey.

Let’s start with the development questions:

Q: I’m psyched to get this game and watch the development but I’d love to see if you guys are planning to include some fun easter eggs for those of us familiar with the island its based on.
For example a post apocalyptic Leoda’s (an extremely popular and old pie shop on the pali to the westside) in Lahaina maybe having the Lahaina Luna L on the mountainside; just some recognisable parts of Lahaina would be sick to include.

A: That’s a super good question! Thank you for asking it!
We already have some easter eggs in the game, but as we get closer to the Early Access release and with some more development time, we might be able to add a few more. The map itself is based on the actual topography of Maui. We just changed a few business names and too some liberties with stream placement, but we have plans for a Front Street that would be recognizable to anyone who lives in or visits Lahaina frequently.
As you may know the native Hawaiian language is endangered with only around 2,000 native Hawaiian speakers left in the world. We’ve reached out to a number of cultural and educational organizations working to preserve the language to see how we could help. Thanks to a member of our community who teaches in Hawaii, we’re working on a native Hawaiian translation that we couldn’t be more excited to complete! We also work with the Twitch Hawaii group whenever we can https://twitter.com/TwitchHawaii and have made it a priority to respect the culture and history of the islands.

Q: When can we start testing UE5?

A: Very very soon! Our plan is to have a public playtests in Unreal Engine 5 this month! Those who have Alpha access might receive an update to their game in the coming weeks!

Q: Is there a way to know what’s coming as equipment ,cloths , armor and others stuff like that?

A: We are not ready to share the full details of everything that is coming. We are currently in the process of creating our own 3D Models and implementing them in-game. However, you can expect different tiers for each equipment type; when it comes to armor, we have Leather, Wood and Metal armor. As for weapons we are modelling some that look more rudimentary, these will be the starting tier for that type of gun, while progressing through the game, you will be able to craft or acquire better weapons, with a more “”Premium”” look and of course way more deadly! Keep an eye on our Discord Server in the #Sneak-Peek channel. That’s where we post WIP Screenshots of what’s coming!

Q: Will the update to 5.1 be the final engine update prior to early access launch?

A: Likely yes! Unreal Engine 5.1 has all the features we need to deliver a great experience to everyone while also increasing performance (Nanite, Lumen, World Partition). Our game looks and runs better than before already and we are super excited about this upgrade.
It’s not impossible that, in the future, after Early Access, we might upgrade the engine version if something really worth it comes out. But for the foreseeable future, UE5.1 is our last Engine upgrade.

Q: Wondering about server locations, capacity and current/projected ping also will there be Australian and South African servers as they are often left out.

A: When we launch Fractured Veil in Early Access we will have servers in Europe, Asia Pacific and US East and West.

That’s all about our Development question, moving on with some Roadmap and Marketing-related questions:

Q: When will I be able to access Fractured Veil?

A: There are two ways to play Fractured Veil Right now. The first one is to pledge for a copy. You can do so through our dedicated webpage here: https://fracturedveil.com/pledge-now
This will give you 24/7 access to the game as it gets developed. They keys are very limited and we restock them over time when we are ready to let more people in!
The second way is through Steam Playtests. You will soon be able to register for our Playtest through our steam store page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1128500/Fractured_Veil/ so keep an eye on it!
Once registered, you will receive a notification when the test is starting. You will be able to play the game during these limited-time period, completely for free!
Our plan is to have at least 3 Playtests until the Early Access release of the game later this fall!

Q: Will there be any progression carried over between steam playtests? (Even just characters)

A: We are not planning any carryover between steam playtests to the final game. However there is a chance we might keep your character from one Playtest to another Playtest, but there is no way to guarantee that.
There are too many variables here:
What do we need to test? (First time user experience? Character Creator?)
Is there a bug that is corrupting the player saves?
Do we have enough time to Playtest the Playtest server carryover before publishing it to potentially thousands of people?
Most of the times, unfortunately, wiping everything and starting fresh removes a lot of variables that can make things go wrong.

Q: By looking at the roadmap I was wondering about the frequency of updates. Can you tell us more about it?

A: Sure! Before Early Access, the plan is to release features as they get developed. Even if we go through some internal testing before they reach all of our current alpha players, those features might not be bug-free. This means that updates before the Early Access phase might be more frequent than the one after Early Access. Once the game is available to buy for the masses, it will be our priority to have stable and fully functional features that have gone trough stricter QA processes before everyone can get their hands on them.
As for the frequency of updates after Early Access, it’s hard to say exactly how’s going to work right now, but the plan is to have at least a significant update every quarter or season.

Q: What are your plans for Private and Dedicated servers down the line? Will there be the possibility of a high degree of customization for server settings?

A: With Fractured Veil, our main objective is to create a survival PvPvE MMO-Like game that can have as many people as possible playing on one single server. Our priority is to support our vision for an MMO survival game, so the simple answer here is that we won’t prioritize the development of private servers, especially before Early Access. However, we know many successful games owe their success to their communities and the freedom that private servers allowed them to have so that they could enjoy the game with a more customized experience. As our game grows, it’s not impossible that we will make it easier to create (and discover) private servers in the future, but for now it’s simply not in our plans right now.

Q: Can I film and post a playthrough on the internet?

A: Yes! There is no NDA or restriction on content creation. The only thing we ask is to make everyone know about that the game is being developed and you are currently playing an Alpha version of the game.

Lastly, but not least some questions related to Fractured Veil’s Gameplay:

Q: 127 tool seems to not work right now. When will it be fixed and how does it work?

A: Thank you for the feedback. We are aware of this issue in our current build. The 127 Detector helps you find more 127. In the current iteration of the tool, just by simply having it in your backpack, it increases the chances of finding that resource.
We are working on a set of animations for this tool, that will hopefully make it more intuitive.

Q: What are the end game PvE objectives you have in mind for those who are more story oriented?

A: One exciting thing about Fractured Veil is that it’s going to have a full quest system with a world story that players will be able to follow quest after quest.
These quests will narrate the story of Veilcorp and how the company’s global teleportation network transformed the world, kicking off another scientific revolution. The planet became a much smaller place overnight but the network’s catastrophic failure wiped out civilization even faster. Through these quests, players will be able to piece together what caused the network’s crash, restore Veilcorp equipment and systems, and work with others to unlock more mysteries about what happened. Since all players in the game are clones restored from Veilcorp customer biometric data, you’ll be able to work together to survive the reality you find yourself in now or travel to a different world if yours is about to fracture.

That’s a wrap for this time!
If you want to see your question featured in our blog, make sure to submit your questions using This Form and join our Discord Server to never miss an update.

DEV

2023 Roadmap Deep Dive

Aloha Thrivers,

Earlier this month we released our biggest development update of the year, talking about our upgrade plan for UE5 and the 2023 roadmap.
Our main objective is to make the development process of Fractured Veil as transparent as possible, while correctly setting some expectations with our community (that’s you!) about our early access release later this September.

Without further ado, let’s take a deep dive into what’s coming for Fractured Veil.

Upgrading the world (Pre-Early Access)

When designing the roadmap, we wanted to let everyone know that before the Early Access Release of the game, there would be something worth waiting for.

Let’s start with the
UE 5.1 Upgrade. The team has been working hard since January 2023 to upgrade the game to the new engine. We can say that the transition has been pretty much smooth sailing, but with events such as GDC, PAX and COVID lurking behind the corners, we had some minor slowdowns.

While this shifted our plans a little, we are happy to say that our current player base can expect the first Unreal Engine 5.1 builds to hit their PCs next month!

We know that many people were expecting to get their hands on the game as soon as April, and we wanted to somewhat deliver on those expectations. Not only have we opened our pledge page where people can get their hands on a copy of Fractured Veil and start playing now, but most exciting is the upcoming Steam Playtests feature.

Between May and September, our community can expect at least 3 public playtests where everyone will be able to join the fun and play the game before it is released. These playtests are incredibly important for us. Not only will they stress our servers like nothing before, but they will generate tons of user data, allowing us to fine-tune our onboarding experience and make sure that all the main gameplay features are correctly understood by the player.

Lastly, the “New content and Features”.  We wanted to tell everyone playing the game right now that the game will keep receiving new content and feature updates as the development continues. The idea is that people experiencing the game only through playtests will have something new to check out with every test, while current players will see the world evolve over time as we get closer to the early access release.

 

Survive or Die – Fall 2023

Our Fall Update will be all about adding “More” to the game. Players will be able to craft New Weapons and Armour, alongside new ammo types. Food and Cooking will see a major improvement with Fishing also playing a major role in immersion and survival.

NPC Settlements will start to appear around the game world, and while we are not ready to talk about them, players will definitely want to check them out to gain some pretty cool stuff, that is if mutants did not take over…

A major focus will also be on filling the world with more loot, to make every crate you open even more interesting. World keys will be valuable items that allow you to open some seriously good crates; if get your hands on one, you better keep it safe!

The Drone will be back, keeping an eye on the island and focusing on the areas with the most action. The stream will be accessible 24/7 through Twitch.tv and while we don’t want to share too much at the moment, we can say that players with a certain reputation might find themselves stalked a little bit more than they’d want, making their business a bit more… entertaining to watch.

 

But that’s not everything. The Fall update will include performance improvements, more quest (with an even better onboarding), and balance updates all based on your feedback and the data generated during playtests.

Enemy AI will also see some improvements, alongside new enemies and a few surprises we can’t wait to share.

The UI/UX team is also working on bringing more of the Aloha spirit to the game’s UI and last, but not least, players will be able to trade with a fully dedicated system, rather than relying on picking stuff from the ground. Although that could still be an excellent way to troll another player and run away with all the loot! You do you, we don’t judge, but we believe in Karma!

 

Discover New Worlds – Winter 2023

As Winter approaches our fractured paradise will start to change, with New Biomes making their appearance and the game’s society developing further. New NPCs will populate the Maui landscape, and everything will feel more like a living and thriving world.

Immersion is going to be the keyword here. More clothing options will allow for better player expression, the Resting System will make base building more meaningful from a gameplay perspective, and crafting quality of items will give players reasons to adventure further and gain better gear.

Speaking of adventure, players wandering around the map might start to notice that the mutants have started to take control of some pieces of land, creating proper camps. Clearing those will reward some loot for the players who dare get close and embrace the challenge.

About Killing Shards… that’s something we will talk about more in the future! 

Closing Words

That’s everything for us this time!


We hope this answered some of your questions about our roadmap and left you as excited as we are about the future of the game. We’ll make sure to share as many updates as we can as the game progresses, but for right now we simply need more time to keep cookin’!

Until next time… see you in Maui Thrivers!