Many of us have been traveling over the holidays visiting friends and family but between unwrapping presents and ushering in the New Year we’ve still managed to get some work done. We optimized bear and wolf replication and set up AI fading for virtually all the creatures and beasts you may run across in the wilds of Lahaina, even the seagulls. We worked on damage modifiers for specific subclasses and continued building a new siege system, working out the rules and actions the mutants will abide by while overrunning a player’s house.
We added some UI/UX improvements to the party system so grouping up with others will look and feel smoother. We updated the player map so you can hit M and see where you’re going and worked on some problems we had with players getting stuck trying to turn while near a wall. We cleared up a construction persistence bug involving claim updates as well.
Lastly, work on what we’re calling the diorama system continued this week. The system adds cars, street lights, containers, and other items you’d expect to find while exploring the roads, rivers, and beaches across the island. Besides adding another layer of reality to the world, it gives players cover when investigating new areas and maybe a few useful items for your struggle. Here’s a look at some of the things you can find along the paths most traveled.
The team continued the bug hunt this week focusing on fixing several combat-related issues. We nabbed a problem with hit indicators only showing up when hitting a headshot and fixed a bug with compound bow arrows bouncing strangely off the terrain. There’s no doubt that it looked cool but we want players focused on survival not seeing how many times they can skip an arrow. In addition, we added support for shooting at prone, unconscious and crouched targets, made a fix so players can interact with things while reloading, and made it so you can no longer load and fire a weapon at the same time.
We added some movement/UI improvements for players too. We improved toggling for sprinting and crouching. Sneaking and dashing your way through your new life has never been easier. Players can no longer crouch with a broken leg, because ouch, and they can no longer zoom in or lean while climbing. The apocalypse is dangerous enough without you trying to do tricks on a ladder.
The team also started work on testing bots to help us find bugs and improve performance. We implemented equipping weapons for pawn bots, firing guns and bows, melee weapon attacks, and throwing melee weapons. Shortly after we found that they liked throwing weapons so much they would sometimes attempt to throw their resource harvesting shark-toothed pans. Considering the lack of housewares left on the island we fixed the bug right away so players won’t lose their “killets” in the brush.
Our work on improving AI steering and pathing continued as well as drone improvements. Below you can see a video one of our drones captured of a player hunting and harvesting deer.
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We’ve kept our ears to the grindstone this week and have added a ton of new audio in the game. We’ve added new sounds for jumping, and harvesting, as well as increased the ambient noise along the beach. Players will be able to hear when they’re starving or dehydrated, and firing or interacting with weapons has never sounded better. We also fixed a bug where footstep sounds would play twice if a player was in third person view. There’s plenty of things running around the landscape for a person to worry about, without adding the paranoia of an unseen assailant following your every step.
The team made a number of UI improvements too. We’ve added a favorite button to the crafting filter list so you don’t have to search as long when you’re trying to make another pile of your preferred hat or weapon. We’ve improved ammo counters and encumbered alerts so a player knows when their backpack has reached hoarder level full. We’ve changed our gun equipping animations and nabbed a bug where falling damage was being applied twice to players. If you’re going to jump off the top of the Communication Tower there’s no sense in dislocating your legs and crushing your spine more than once.
Speaking of the Com Tower, the zipline center got a little love this week. We’ve done a bunch of performance work on our “hero” buildings, but up until this point most of it has been focused on the Thorcon Power Plant, the game’s social hub. Not only have we made the tower more performant, but we’ve started to add more “lived in” touches to the building. We’ll be making similar touches to many of the game’s structures to highlight just how important these still standing structures are to those who survived the upheaval of The Great Fracture. Below you can see some of the improvements to the outside of the tower and the ground level. We’ll have some shots of the upper levels next week when our designers are finished adding the right amount of post-apocalyptic chic.
This week the team made a number of player improvements. We are almost done with our pass through updating the player health system. We still have UI work to do, but we hope the new system will be more straightforward, and provide players better clarity as to what is happening to their newly restored bodies. We fixed a running bug so you don’t look like your trying out for the Ministry of Silly Walks anymore, and we adjusted how long a torch will stay burning once lit.
Big Bob, our favorite cannibal overlord, has new hunting grounds, and we made a bunch of improvements to his ability to call his followers to help gather up dinner. Not that he really needs it too often, Bob is the toughest thing plodding around the map currently, and is more than a match for a single player.
A number of bugs were fixed this week too, including:
Death from direct damage wouldn’t bring up the death screen leaving players in a sort of limbo.
Thrown items in a stack not updating in the hotbar and multiple other issues with stacked throwing items.
Holding F no longer looted items.
An issue with torch light not attaching at the correct location all the time.
A weird issue were the game would crash if you tried eating food off the ground when already holding the same type of food.
Finally, our drone work continues and we made a number of improvements to help our autonomous cameras find and film what’s going on in the game. The biggest addition this week is drone audio. We have a number of new operating sounds going in including: engine, refueling, low fuel, and startup noises. The drone should start sounding a lot different in the coming days as we get these sounds in the game. You can see how good the drones various filming modes are coming along, and hear a few of the new noises by checking out the feed on YouTube or Twitch.
Our drone work continued this week, while we add that last bit of polish to the autonomous cameras that fly around Lahaina filming the action. In addition to smoothing out their flight patterns, teaching them what’s worth filming, and improving their HUD, we fixed a bug that would occasionally see them spawn under the map. We also worked out a problem causing them to be unable to see projectiles or their trails. They can now properly follow a firefight and are spawning where they should. You can see all the progress we’ve made by checking out the drone feed on YouTube or Twitch.
The team has made a number of crafting improvements as well. We’ve added red to items missing ingredients, restored the green color to quantity counters, and crafting recipe images will now be desaturated when not enough ingredients are present, to make it easier for players scanning their piles of components. In addition, sorting has been added to the crafting list, details have been added to the crafting slider widget, and we’ve added “favorite” functionality back in so you can crank out items quickly and easily.
We’re just beginning a large audio push across the entire map. Ambient sounds have been added to the respawn level, as well as a number of wild areas in the game. The team has also improved the attenuation to gun sounds, so the twang of a ricochet just missing your head, sounds more realistic. We’ve also made a pass over damage values and updated damages for bows and crossbows
Lastly, we’ve been doing a bit of play testing to work out any issues with gameplay and find bugs. We’ve found issues with players getting stuck in a throwing animation when they were downed, and fixed a problem with players being able to execute throwing attacks while prone. We want to keep an army of axe throwers crawling on their bellies from taking over the island if we can. If you’d like to help us work out the kinks join our discord server and follow the directions at the top of the “Testers” channel. Below you can see a shot from a recent session, where we started a failed mutant tumor piercing service.
With sprint 28 wrapping up in a few days, everyone is finishing up goals and hunting down any remaining bugs. Terry continues working through trueSky issues, cooks, and crashes. We’ve worked through many of our recent weather and lighting problems and are focusing on making the water look perfect. We’ve fixed our fog and disappearing sky issues, and future Lahaina is looking great.
The team has made a number of lighting improvements, and have good looking lanterns and torches lighting the dark and dangerous places in the game. We’ve added a number of animations to make players and NPCs alike look more realistic when they shoot, climb, crouch, and run. We improved a bunch of 1st and 3rd person shooting animations in particular. Now when a player draws back their bowstring and holds it for a period of time, they will actually shake slightly.
We’ve made similar improvements to weapon audio and appearance. Our firearms have never sounded better, and melee weapons thud, thunk, and crunch in the game more realistically. We’ve improved our ranged AI using all weapons but bows as well. Now, players can count on select horrors of the jungle shooting back when fired upon.
With all the lead soon to be flying around Maui, we started working on a cover system for our NPCs. Currently some of them will stand in the middle of a firefight like tears in the rain. Beyond just taking cover behind an object, (which we’re teaching them too), we want our NPC’s to move when bullets are flying, find tactically beneficial places to be, and avoid running in straight lines. They’re not likely to pass voight-kampff yet, but maybe later…
We’ve expanded our crafting system with lots of new recipes. Players can now make virtually any bit of gear in the game if they have the necessary resources. Even the volatile element 127, the fuel that allowed Veil travel and powers the Thorcon Power Plant, is incorporated into our crafting system now. Players brave or foolish enough to experiment by adding a little 127 in the mix while they’re building something like ammo, might get a pleasant surprise in the near future, or blow up. You never know with these kind of things.
The drones patrolling the island and broadcasting what is happening around Lahaina, are avoiding trees and not traveling through the Earth anymore. We plan on adding a lot more improvements like audio detection next sprint. We finished up some ui improvements as well, with new tooltips, widgets, and translucent menus that make it easier to manipulate your inventory without getting ganked by something coming out of the jungle.
We’re finishing up performance work that has resulted in huge building improvements, much to the delight of our GPUs. Our procedural building system is now constructing beautiful and performant buildings like never before. Our work building out the areas surrounding the Thorcon continues and we’re finishing a first pass at its interior. We plan on adding a lot more to the inside of the power plant next sprint, reflecting that it will be the social hub for players.
We’ve completed the nuts and bolts of a player bank system and just need to finish the art, and decide where players will be able to access the extension of their personal inventory. We discussed a few possible looks, and talked at some length about how many or few drop-off locations should be available to the encumbered.
Finally, the web team is finishing the work on the new site navigation, in addition to call out and contest slides. We’re focusing on improving user flow and various marketing initiatives too. We’re working on a number of promo videos and GIFs, as well as sharing some more of our early concept sketches, as we spread the word about Fractured Veil. Below you can see one of the teaser videos we made with one of our Trophy Collectors welcoming you to Lahaina.
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As we approach the end of the week the team completed some lighting work. We’ve put a lot of thought into nighttime lighting in the game. We want to make sure that buildings, trails, and other points of interest are noticeable at night, but we don’t want to shred the cover of darkness for players creeping around trying to go unnoticed. To that end, there are a number of lamps, lanterns, and tiki torches, in the game now. They offer just the right amount of light to keep you on the right path, and get an idea of what’s in an area, without making it impossible to hide in the shadows. With the exception of some of the torches flaring up like they’re loaded with jet fuel, we’re happy with the end product, and plan on making the torches a little less vigorous.
We looked at, and discussed a few more options for things surrounding the communications tower. The team has talked about a number of buildings and/or geographic features we could add around the zipline center of Lahaina. We went over some barrier and debris options that could be used to help defend the area until we decide if we want something more substantial there. The team is making another general pass over items and buildings to make them more stylized for the game, and Hawaii in general as well.
The web team continues work on the navigation revamp, and designs on a call to action/contest section. Jesse designed some new icons for use on our social media pages and made improvements to what we already had. We found a bug that would show the wrong navigation colors in some of the preset House themes. That should be fixed in the next few days. Jared is still working through the issues with the live drone feed on the front page. Until they are cleared up, you can always watch the drone’s-eye view of Lahaina on our YouTube page. We talked some more about how to improve the story page, and let visitors know what the game is about. It should be getting a major facelift in the near future.
We made a number of improvements to our mutants this week too. We’ve gussied up a few of the cannibals to highlight their bad skin, matted hair, and blood-stained lips. We fixed a bug that would cause them to sometimes react twice to being shot or sliced, making them suddenly start to twitch. We improved animations to make their upper body move towards the origin of a sound they detected. Previously they’d just lurch in strange looking ways towards a noise. We also taught them that discretion is the better part of valor, and installed a fleeing AI module that allows them to run away when grievously injured. Instead of fighting to the end if they’re getting slaughtered, the terrors of the jungle will be able to run away, and lurk again another day.
We made a lot of progress on the Throcon Power Plant too. We continue to build out the surrounding areas, but this week we specifically focused on the inside of the building. The interior got a fresh paint job, and we discussed the level of inhabitation and stuff we wanted inside. We looked at some concept drawings ranging from: keeping it rather barren with a few sleeping mats here and there, to something more akin to the inside of a big box store on Black Friday. We eventually decided on something near the middle, offering players someplace empty enough to explore a bit, but still indicative of a common meeting place and social hub. Below you can see a couple images of the new and improved reactor room, with players in one shot so you can get a feel of the size of the facility and reactor.
As the week gets started the web team continues the front page facelift, and navigation update. Jesse has completed images for all of our social networks, and is working on a few custom overlays for streamers, as well as layouts for upcoming contests and announcements. We’re combining site navigation all in one place to streamline things, and help users find what they’re looking for more quickly. A number of minor improvements like new modal windows, and an easier to find download button are in the works too. Jared is still working on getting the drone footage to display properly, and it should be streaming live footage of the wilds of post-fracture Lahaina soon. In the meantime, you can always watch on our YouTube page.
The tech team is putting out the last of the fires caused by the UE 4.20.2 upgrade, but we’ve worked through almost all of the problems the update caused. Terry has worked out the issues with trueSKY. Beautiful clouds, oceans, and sky are right around the corner. We fixed a number of other lingering bugs, including tracking down an issue that was causing certain types of loot to spontaneously disappear from your bag. Nobody likes disappearing bullets, no matter how easy they were to find.
We’re making a number AI improvements focusing in particular with firearms and our Trophy Collectors. We’re adding some situational awareness to our plague-ridden body part collectors. We found their actions, (especially in groups,) to still be more chaotic than we’d like. The team is focusing on adding some cunning, and improving their battle tactics. In addition, we’re teaching some of our NPCs, like the cannibals, to shoot first and eat players later. They’re learning things like: laying down suppressing fire, herding players into groups for melee combatants, and not switching their machine guns to full auto until they’re close enough to not worry about accuracy. Lahaina is about to get a lot more dangerous.
The first iteration of a player bank is nearing completion. Soon, players will have access to a self-contained inventory to stash away the things weighing down your pack, or that you can’t quite bear to drop on the ground. Our drone cameras are getting some love this week too. In addition to upgrading them with the newest geographical info to keep them from gliding through the ground, we’re putting in a lot of work teaching them what to film. We’re improving their audio detection, so that they will recognize things like a fight, stop, and film the action. We’re also teaching them when to move on, so they don’t get stuck on someone determined to chop down enough trees to start their own lumber company.
We’ve made some “quality of life” improvements to help make the game more fun to play, and even have a new starting tool/weapon in the works for players to use when they spawn in. We discussed making sure that crafted items had more “health” than items found in the rubble, and ways we can encourage players to experiment with alternative ingredients when hard at work at the crafting table. We’re not encouraging people to try to make glass rifles, but we want to reward those who think outside the box. We’ve made some improvements to the bow and compound bow to make them look and sound more realistic as well.
Finally, we took to Imgur this week to talk a bit about the progression of buildings in the game, and the importance of seeking shelter. The Great Fracture not only wiped out most of civilization, it also had a lasting effect on global weather patterns. Maui was no stranger to the occasional severe storm or hurricane, but after the accident, the weather became much more unpredictable. Finding decent shelter is just as important as gathering food and water. We looked at some early concept art and talked about the progress we’ve made. As you can see from this shot below, having a cold drink on top of the Communication Tower, is a much different experience than collecting rainwater in one of the ramshackle huts along the beach.
The web team started off the week with a bunch of refactoring to help clean things up a bit before continuing work on the achievement system. We have the first iteration, with a handful of achievements almost ready to deploy. Jesse is still working on badges and layouts for the final product, and we looked at some wireframe options. In addition to the the new achievements, the web team is giving the front page a facelift.
Jesse is combining the tabbed navigation into one, separated by headers, on the left-hand side of the page. We’re getting rid of the slides, and adjusting the layout of the front page to make room for callouts, contests, and special game announcements. We’ve updated the download tab and talked about different FRV overlays we could make for people streaming the game. Jesse is designing cover art for us to use on all the major social networks, and we’re giving the story page an update as well.
Almost all of our audio is switched over to Wwise, with only a few ambient noises and sound effects needing an upgrade. Terry and crew continue to work on our weather and water issues. We’ve made some good progress on ocean improvements, but we’re still totally trying to make that perfect gnarly wave dude. Our trueSky updates are still a work in progress, and we’ve had some crashing issues on staging that we’re digging into, but the team is hopeful to have Hawaiian blue skies and a variety of clouds overhead very soon.
We’ve made some improvements to the craftable bow in the game, and listened to a few options for the string being pulled before settling on the perfect twang. We’ve updated the spear throwing and thrusting animations to make things just the right amount of stabby. With all the talk about improved throwing animations, we got a bit side-tracked discussing how fun it is to throw things at Jared in the game, the axe and pickaxe in particular. Jesse shared some fond memories of throwing things at Jared, and seeing how far away he could get while still accurately dropping an axe on his head. We got back on track with news of the addition of a few more shark-toothed (leiomano) items for players to pick up, and hack away with.
We’re making a number of improvements to the existing AI in game, focusing specifically on the next tier of ranged AI. Right now players will run into a few Trophy Hunters who throw things, but with Big Bob and the cannibals being included in the map, we’re working on teaching them to shoot. If everything goes as planned, well have some gun toting NPCs running around and shooting up the place by this weekend.
We’re making some ui improvements, adjusting the opacity of menus and updating the tooltip widget inside the inventory screen. The team has circled back to drone improvements, and are focusing on our pathing issues first. We’re updating the eye-in-the-sky with the new map geometry so the camera will hopefully stop its subterranean explorations. We’re adding some art to fuel cans, health kits, and various items to make them less generic and more Hawaiian, as well as building out the areas around the Thorcon Power Plant.
Lastly, as we build out these areas, improving building performance remains a high priority. To aid in that, we’ve started a large decal library to use on virtually any structure. We have a wide variety of stains, cracks, gouges, rust, and moss that can be added to: wood, brick, metal, plaster, and concrete. Below you can see one of our programmatically generated buildings with and without a number of these decals.
The team has made a number of inventory improvements this week. We have a completely new ui on your inventory screen. Things have been streamlined and rearranged to make better use of space, and make it easier for players to quickly change gear and grab items. Information about each item is easier to pull up, we have new selectors for the inventory and quick bar, and everything is semi-transparent. You now have a chance of seeing a creature charging at you, if you stopped somewhere to organize your hat or knife collection.
The art team put together an extensive decal library to quickly age and mark up buildings, especially ones made with our procedural building system. We have decals for wood, concrete, stone, and metal, covering a wide variety of things like: scratches, dents, mold, moss, rust, water streaking, and even dulled colors. This should allow us to add the right amount, and specific type of weathering, to any building and save some artist time in the process.
We took a look at a few refinements done to our newest batch of mutants. We talked about what models and items we need for the areas we’re building out around the Thorcon Power Plant to make them complete. We dug deep into our old model and art folders to start an unused asset inventory. We found quite a few things that were put on the back burner for one reason or another, and planned out where these items could be used in game. The team made a list of what models were ready to go and which still needed a little work before being game ready.
The web team remains focused on putting together promo and game videos. We’ve been hard at work cutting up and editing existing videos for GIFs, and spent a fair amount of time coming up with captions. We discussed a number of possible videos in the future: highlighting important aspects of the game, differentiators that highlight the beautiful danger of post fracture Lahaina, and things that are just funny to watch.
In addition to putting together blooper reels and getting glamour shots of some of our most horrific mutants, the web team is working on the upcoming achievement system. Jared is setting up the backends and compiling a list of web specific achievements ahead of ingame ones. Jesse has been working on layouts and the ui, as well as designing reward badges for each achievement.
We’ve fixed a number of bugs discovered while running around shooting things that moved in the jungle, and each other. Medkits will now heal virtually any status effect that your player gets, including poison, but you’ll still need to make a fire to get yourself warm and dry if you’ve been standing in the rain, or went swimming. Ammo boxes will have ammo inside them, as one would expect of an ammo box. You will no longer find that some crafting recipes are empty, leaving you to wonder what items were supposed to be there. Double click looting should work soon as well, so you can quickly strip everything of even remote value from a corpse or bag. This should be very useful if like me, you’re a loot hoarder, and only begrudgingly drop items once you can barely walk from the crushing weight of the junkyard on your back.
Our march toward UE 4.20.2 hit a bit of a snag last week when the staging build suddenly found itself without any sky. There’s no doubt that it makes the game look much more ominous, and might be a good storyline for an alternative world down the line. However, one of Chris’ mantras is always that we make things look more Hawaiian. While a skyless dark world is scary, we didn’t really see a Hawaiian connection. In fact, none of us could remember ever seeing a picture of Hawaii with the sky a dark formless void. It’s usually pretty sunny. We’re working on bringing the blue back currently, but here’s a shot of “Dark Lahaina”.
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