DEV

It’s Unreal – 5.1 IS HERE!

Aloha Thrivers,

We’re SO excited to share that after many months of work, we’re finally shipping the Unreal Engine 5 Upgrade to your PCs!

We want our community to join the newest version of the game sooner rather than later, but we know this was a big lift and have found even more bugs than we thought we would. We’ve always had bugs (#gamedevlife) but because of all your help, we’ve been hacking through them as much as possible so we don’t want to stop doing that anytime soon! 

Since this is a major update, we want to make sure everyone is aware of a few things that will impact your experience with the game:

Your character(s) will be wiped – which means you will need to create a new name and look for your character in the world.

All of your loot will be gone and any bases you’ve built will be gone since we’re starting a fresh new server. This ensures no issues, bugs or corruptions carry over from our old Unreal 4 build.
Your minimum required specs may have changed; we will share a survey in the first weeks of testing to identify how the game performs on different hardware.

We currently believe to achieve a mostly stable 1080p 30 fps experience at medium/low settings you’ll need a PC with the following specifications:

  • OS: Win 10
    CPU: intel i5 8400 / AMD Ryzen 5 2600
    RAM: At least 8GB
    GPU: NVIDIA GTX 1060 / AMD RX 580

We will carefully monitor the community’s feedback about this topic

Scope of the test

While the new build doesn’t necessarily have new content if you have been playing the game within the past few months, it includes a great deal of changes, bug fixes, and improvements. Not to mention a completely new global illumination system and a lot of good stuff that comes with UE5.

With this update, we will be particularly interested in hearing your feedback about the following:

  • Game performance and Stability in Unreal Engine 5.1
  • Server Stability
  • Economy Changes
  • Zones balancing
  • World Loot Distribution
  • NPC / Enemy AI
  • Weapon Balance

However, we do have some tiny surprises for you to find…

 

Other things to keep in mind

 

Fractured Veil is still Alpha(ish) in that we’re testing, breaking, fixing, breaking, and fixing again. While we fixed most of the bugs you reported in the previous months, we are aware that with a new game engine, NEW bugs are going to appear. We are still months away from our Early Access release later this fall and we will do our best to release a great experience for everyone.

Please check our discord server inside #status-and-bugs for a list of Know issues.

We’re Just Getting Started

We know there are still some issues, but we didn’t want that to stop us from getting 5.1 in your hands! We need your help to keep testing, playing, discovering new bugs, and having FUN. All of us at Paddle Creek Games want to say THANK YOU for being so patient and supportive. You’re the reason we’re doing all of this and we can’t wait for you to see what’s coming in the next few months!

Cheers,
Ryan and the folks at Paddle Creek

DEV

May Update: New Armor, Weapons, and Status of UE 5.1 Upgrade

Aloha Thrivers,

If you caught our last update you already know we’re upgrading to Unreal Engine 5.1. We’ve been working on this since the beginning of the year but only spilled the beans back in April.

We’ve got some more beauty shots included when you scroll down that are our ‘proof of UE5 life’ since we’re still barreling ahead, fixing bugs, and adjusting systems. The biggest thing holding us back from pushing the new build to our production server is performance.

With the upgrade, we took big leaps on the foliage since we feel like the jungle itself is a character in our game. It grows and provides cover for attacks, a safe place to rest and recover, and also is just gorgeous to look at while you’re exploring paradise.

Another issue we’re tackling is persistence since we know no one wants to lose their loot overnight for no reason. If it’s because your base wasn’t protected properly (i.e. windows without glass aka an open invitation) that’s one thing. But if it’s because the persistence system is not working properly – that’s a totally different story.

As an indie developer with a small team (relative to what we’ve set out to accomplish), we get one shot at introducing the game to new players with as smooth of an experience as possible. We know there will be some hiccups and people who have lower specs on their machines may struggle with higher settings but we’re striving to cut at least stutters and problems that really impact gameplay.

In a Sea of Survival games, We Made the List!

Hearing Asmongold talk about our game was a ‘pinch me’ moment.

A HUGE thanks to Guns, Nerds, and Steel for including us in their Top 10 Upcoming Survival Base Building Games video.

Also big thanks to ENFANT TERRIBLE for their New SURVIVAL BASE BUILDING Games in UNREAL ENGINE 5 mention.

We know there are hundreds of new survival games hitting Steam every day and we’re honored to have been included before we’ve even released our new trailer with footage from UE5!

New Armor, Weapons and More!

We’ve been hard at work on new items and features including fishing, more resources, and many new craftable items. Here’s a look at just a few of the biggest new items that will soon be available at a crafting bench near you!

Post Apocalyptic Armor Ready to Add Buffs

We’re really proud of our metal armor design with a helmet inspired by ancient Hawaiian dress. This suit will keep out all but the most determined mutant fangs and focuses on materials readily available to most survivors. Now players have a use for every part of the SSHAM can!

Guns

Whether you’re looking to reach out and say Aloha to a gang of mutants at a distance or just blast a hole in one that’s gotten a little too close, we have a new craftable gun for you built with coconut shells and palm leaves.

UE5.1 Eye Candy – Best shots

We couldn’t ship this update without sharing some eye candy to keep you hyped about how beautiful paradise will be in UE5.1.

Steam Playtest and Pledges?

We get a lot of questions about when the Steam playtests are happening and essentially, until we can push the update to our production server, Steam wants us to wait for a playtest. It’s going to happen but not by the end of May as we’d hoped. It comes down to bugs and performance stutters that would make your play experience frustrating. The last thing we want is players shouting to the game gods, “WHYYY?” So we thought we’d take more time to get it right.

We’ll be announcing the new playtest schedule soon, and we’ll be reloading keys on our pledge page at the same time, so you and your friends can keep playing after the playtest ends.

We know nobody likes delays, but being stuck trying to play a buggy game is even worse. We try to be as transparent as possible with our development and really appreciate the support and understanding of the community. We can’t thank you all enough!

See you in Maui soon, Thrivers!