VNN Archives - Page 2 of 4

Updating Sights and Sounds

The team started the week off doing some audio work in various locations around the map. We’ve made some improvements to the sounds of the jungle, and are working towards having a unique sound profile for all of the game’s unique buildings. We’re adding some new audio for weapons too. Guns, machetes, spears, and clubs aren’t just sounding better, they’re looking better. We’ve updated a number of melee weapon animations to make your hack and slash experience more visually appealing, and are including a lot of weapon throwing improvements as well.

The Veil News Network (VNN) camera drone is getting some attention. Now that we’ve smoothed out much of its path around the island, and removed the abrupt spinning turns, we’re focusing on the HUD. We’ve made a lot of improvements, and as you can see here the new HUD is looking great.

Our performance improvement work continues this week. We’re working on a number of improvements across the game map, and the Thorcon Power Plant in particular. The Thorcon is a great place to run around exploring, and we want to make sure your GPU thinks so too. We addressed some performance issues on the web page too. We made some loading and animation improvements across the page, and discussed some live feed options as well.

The web team fixed a number of lingering layout issues including: adjusting the background colors to many pages to increase text contrast, fixing some rendering problems on the Account page, and we made Player profiles match the look of House profiles. Jesse showed some wireframes for a streamlined player portal to handle nothing but character related items like: friends, House, wallet, and live stream in the near future. We found a bug that would cause your Friend screen to appear blank. Jared is hunting down the problem now.

Even though the Great Fracture devastated much of Lahaina, we still want players to be good stewards of what’s left of the land, so we’ve added the ability to reuse some items for crafting purposes after you’ve used them. For instance, you can break down a can for the metal now, instead of just throwing it on the trash pile. We continued to work on our second loot drop scenario, and made the horrors of the jungle lootable. Now you can find a number of useful items on their bodies, including food and drink. Just don’t think too hard about how many times the Green Lady has backwashed into that partially finished bottle of Manimal you found in her bag.

Team ui has been updated and is almost finished, so players will be able to explore with friends and strangers alike in the near future. We’re adding finishing touches to the underground spawn area, and are working on AI updates as well. The art team is hard at work filling out the map with places to investigate, loot, or hide, using natural terrain and existing structures as a guide. We talked again briefly about which existing roads we wanted to keep in the game to help encourage players to move around Lahaina.

Lastly, our material upgrades and global lighting improvements continue. As you can see from the screenshots below, the game is looking beautiful with the latest weather and lighting updates.

We’ll be back later in the week with more updates.

May 22, 2018

Drone Improvements and Getting Parties Started

The end of the week marks the beginning of sprint 23, and the team is busy going down the list of new goals. San added a QR code to the Veil News Network (VNN) live stream. It shows the coordinates of the camera and time, so we can compile a searchable index of drone footage. This allows us to pull scenes from specific areas and times so we can put together videos like, “Today’s Bloodiest Kills On Baby Beach.”

Jesse showed off some mockups of the upcoming Live Feeds page. He’s working on a few layout issues, but progress is good on both Player and House streaming pages. Jesse added some neat wallpaper and background image options too. We’ve made some ui improvements, and are working on an improved drone HUD as well.

Jared fixed a number of bugs, including one that was serving broken images with invite emails. He added a feature that allows you to send a brief message with invites, and friend requests too. We’ve made significant progress on a House theme gallery, and it’s almost ready for production. It will allow House leaders to quickly choose various banner styles, and set a color scheme that looks great automatically.

We made good progress on a Party section for group play. Players can: filter a list of players for friends and House members, search for groups, or create a new party. We’ve added some party controls including kicking a member from a group, and appointing a new leader. Now your group doesn’t have to break-up when your leader’s boss catches them playing the game during work hours. We plan on adding a minimap on the page so you can see party member locations, and are working on some party ui improvements.

The web team continues work on a game map for the web page. We’ve created a height map of the play area in Western Maui, but ran into some trouble lining everything up with the ingame map. We talked through some possible solutions, and discussed some overlay options that would be useful for players on the website.

We added some new weapon animations. Spears will now travel beautifully through the air at their intended targets, instead of teleporting, and we fixed the aiming issues on our M1A for all you fans of iron sights. We talked over some SCM issues, and have a new plan for going forward with less headaches.

The art team is working on filling in the map with new structures, and areas to explore, section by section. We looked at a number of new concept drawings, and discussed the best use for already existing structures like bridges and overpasses. Finally, work on the new respawn area is marching forward. Most of the main structure is built now, so much of the work going forward will focus on styling, and “the Hawaii-fication” of the underground sanctuary. Below are a few of the latest shots.

We’ll be back next week with more updates and pictures.

May 10, 2018

All Over The Maps

To finish off the week, the web team is working on a few performance issues, and cleaning up a few bugs that have popped up. They’re focusing on image optimization across the page. House and merchandise images are all being resized, and Jesse is addressing a couple minor layout issues. In addition, work on a company Paddle Creek Games page has begun.

Jesse and Jared are making progress on a game map for the web page too. Jesse showed off a height map that he’s been working on, and we talked about ways to line it up with the ingame map. This map can be synced with game weather, and time of day. We have to place a few key places, and buildings yet, but we’re making good progress.

The art team was busy adding and updating a number of animations. Bows look good whether you’re standing tall, or crouching in the bushes now, and you can now longer bend your back like a contortionist to shoot arrows if you’re prone. We added new pickaxe animations to make harvesting minerals look more realistic, and make even the most cantankerous mining enthusiast happy. Our materials switch continues as well, with more furniture and fixtures getting a facelift. Below you can see before and after shots of an engraved table.

Progress has continued on our underground respawn area. Meant to be a safe sewer sanctuary from the terrors of post-fracture Lahaina, the one room area has grown into a sprawling three room compound to relax and regroup. We don’t want to throw players right back into the same situation that killed them in the first place, so the respawn area is the perfect place to collect your wits or rally the troops. We also looked at a few different concepts for roadside areas perfect for ambushes, and emergency caches.

The team talked about the interactive “machines” we’re adding in the game: fireplaces, work benches, and washing machines. We talked about how these would work to craft or repair items. Buffs and debuffs to items, (specifically weapons), were discussed, and we talked briefly about how much different types of repairs would cost. This led to a conversation about the game economy in general, and ways to avoid out-of-control inflation, and crashing the market. Should the washing machines be full on oxy-clean dispensing, blood from cloth removal machines? Good question. Or not. Maybe that’s a bad question.

A bunch of ui work was done this week too. We took a deep dive into the live VNN camera overlay. We added some polish to the team ui, and discussed other features and bits of information that might be useful to people playing in a group. Inventory screens, and the HUD got a few fixes, and tweaks too.

Finally, it wasn’t just the web team working on maps this week, the art team is working on the ingame map as well. We talked about ways to make it a useful tool for players, and what other features, (like a special team map), we’d like to integrate down the road. We looked at a few design options, and how the map would work in the game. Below you can see one of our favorite designs so far.

May 3, 2018

Throwing Machetes and Holding Territory

This week the team is finishing up our first pass at a crafting system. We’ve fixed some issues we had with crafting timers running too long, or not resetting, so item production should flow in Lahaina once again. We’re adding a repair/wash feature so you’ll be able to fix chips in machetes, clean gummed up firing pins, and scrub the Shrig blood out of your cargo shorts, extending the life of all your gear. We talked about a design for a repair bench, and the possibility of having a group crafting system in the future.

We did some performance improvements to the player inventory, and started work on a tier 2 loot drop system. While our first loot drop scenario is a scramble to get to the gear first, this second option is about holding an area for a set period of time. A flare will go off letting players know what area needs to be defended. Creatures and players will attack the area until the timer goes off, and a loot chest or hidden cache will open for the successful defenders. We added a way for players to throw melee weapons to help them fend off invaders, and because throwing a shark-toothed koa axe at someone’s head is awesome.

San added new camera rotation algorithms, and a few other improvements to the VNN live feed on the front page. The drone coverage has never looked better, and gives a great view of many places of interest in the game. Jesse added some improvements to the animations on the video overlay, and we discussed adding a few more bits of information to what it already displays.

Lots of other animations were included to other parts of the game too. Various player movements including: going prone, a number of weapon actions like stringing a bow, and racking the slide of a gun, and new ladder animations were added this week. We discovered a great bug this weekend too. When you kill a rabbit in the game and try to harvest its meat or fur, it explodes and reforms again. While an endless supply of small exploding animals sounds like a good hook for some sort of rodent throwing warrior class, it’s not a feature that we want to keep in the game, and has no basis in Hawaiian history or culture.

The web team made some improvements to the Shop page. We optimized images for all products and packages, improving performance, and Jesse fixed a few lingering layout issues. We then turned our attention on making a 3D game map for players. We talked about different layers that we could add to show different types of information like House, and friend locations, as well as landmarks and key buildings.

Audio improvements continue throughout the game, and we’re doing some AI work to ensure that the horrors of the jungle aren’t just terrifying, but smart too. We’ve made several HUD updates to make things look and play better. In addition, we’ve updated the Settings ui so you can personalize the game to you liking. Finally, with the first iteration of our programmatic building system up and running we talked about what we’d like to improve next. As you can see below, buildings on the beach are looking great.

As always, we’ll have more updates and pictures later this week.

May 1, 2018

The Sound of Combat and Digging Into Designs

As the week comes to an end, the web team is busy adding final touches, and improvements to our real time Veil News Network (VNN) game camera. Jesse added an animated logo that fades in and out, as the camera takes a tour of points of interest across the island. We talked over a few improvements, like making the live stream indicator sticky, and future features as well. The drone camera is a great way to see what’s going on in the game, and gives a basic guide to the lay of the land.

Speaking of the lay of the land, we talked some more about creating a 3D game map. We are already using a topographical map of Lahaina as a base in the game, with a few minor changes to roads, and areas that have been reclaimed by the jungle. We talked about things we could do to make the map work without burning up your GPU, and what things would be important to highlight, (main trails, large buildings, and possibly bases down the road).

We did a lot of audio work this week too. We’re working through some issues we’re having with Wwise, but have made good progress. Every area, and large building will soon have its own specific ambient noise to add authenticity to the wilderness, and the right tone to exploring the creepy abandoned structures. In addition to these general noises, we’re adding specific audio components to a number of things like: gun reloads, arrows being knocked, footsteps, and other various weapon noises. We want players to be able to feel the joy that can only come from hearing ammunition being loaded into a magazine, and the wet thud of a club smashing heads in combat.

Jesse continued his work adding more Hawaiian touches on our logos, and other game elements. We took a deep dive into the traditional symbols and art of the islands, particularly on the history of tattoos for inspiration. Traditionally, body art consisted of geometric designs like squares, triangles, and crescents with an occasional figure. One of the most prominent symbols are shark teeth, called niho mano. Each island has their own style of niho mano, so you can tell where someone is from, or where they got their tattoo, just but looking at the style of shark teeth inked into them. Using that as a guide, Jesse is working on a stylized logo that incorporates Maui specific symbols.

The art team continues their materials improvements too. We’ve converted over most of the old home furnishings like chairs and tables, and are now focusing on things found outside the home like signs, fire hydrants, and sporting equipment. All of our totems will be getting a facelift too. We’re also making a final pass at images for basic components from recycling. Elements like phosphorus and potassium, as well as wood, minerals, and metals will all get some attention. We’re fixing some minor issues we’ve run into with a couple different gun sights, and have finished the first phase of our programmatic building system. Not only does the system give us a big performance boost, but it allows us to make custom buildings quickly and easily, whether they are a one room shanty, or something much larger. As you can see in the shot below, the beach shack has never looked better.

We’ll have more updates and pictures for you next week

April 27, 2018

Arts and Crafts and Loot

The Veil News Network (VNN) live drone cam is up and running on the front page, giving you a view of what’s happening in real time in the game. We fixed some of the roller coaster like rotations, and it now avoids hitting the terrain to a greater degree. We discussed ways to expand camera drone coverage, and improving the feed, including: adding some more realistic information, temperature indicators, FOV adjustments, and other items. With that said, it looks good, and the fact that it isn’t prerecorded, but an actual look at what’s happening in the game, as it happens, is great.

Terry has been working through some merge and build issues this week, while the team has been focusing on crafting and recycling in the game. All items in the game now deteriorate with use, and provide different amounts of raw materials when recycled depending on their condition. Player’s machetes will now dull, armor will get worse every time you’re shot or stabbed, and guns get a little worse with every round run through them. We talked briefly about the inclusion of a possible repair system down the road, and how it might work.

Speaking of crafting, Chris has turned his house into the official Fractured Veil Arts and Crafts HQ with the addition of a 3D laser. He’s been cutting, engraving, and etching his way to mastering his new machine with some pretty good results as you can see below. We talked about some future projects, discussed how terrible burning acrylic smells, and Chris showed off his jury rigged exhaust system.

The web team has been doing some refactoring and testing this week. Jared is finishing up some final work with our email and notification system, and Jesse has been focusing on some ui improvements. We talked about some new House features we’d like to add down the road. We’ve been working on adding a few more Hawaiian style touches to various logos and assets. Jesse demoed what some of those would look like, as well as a few future layout plans.

Our group system is fully operational and got some ui love this week. Group members can now see how far away they are from each other, their respective health status, can respawn on a group members name, and can revive a member who has taken too much damage to be useful in combat. Our AI work continues to make sure the creatures in the jungle are dangerous enough, and we’ve tweaked a few animations to weapons and player movements.

Finally, the art team worked on some audio issues that popped up this week, various HUD and settings updates, and other performance related issues across the game map. We finished our first loot drop system to keep people moving around the island, and creating a reason to fight other than just a general urge to murder others. Our day and night cycle and lighting work continued as well. Here are a couple of shots at the beginning and the end of the day, to show how good it is looking currently.

We’ll be back later in the week with more updates.

April 25, 2018

Dropping Loot and Making a Nicer Respawn Room

As the end of the week approaches, San and the web team continue to focus on improving the automated camera drones, and making the live streaming experience as nice as possible. Our live stream tour of the island is still broadcasting on our YouTube channel, and we’ve been working on some overlay options to add a touch of realism, and in some cases, make the view more closely match some HUD elements. Jesse has been working on Veil News Network (VNN) layouts to better highlight the live video feeds, and make the look and feel more consistent with what you’d see on a real news network.

The web team has also been hard at work making some revisions to the home page and refactoring. There are a few older sections that don’t follow the overall design layout. Jesse is making sure all the layouts, images, and formatting across the site is consistent with one design and feel.

The art team has been working on improving our spawn area. What once was a rather drab one room cement space, with brown water highlights, and the latest in crate furniture, is getting a big facelift. The Nuuskin respawn beds are getting some animations and a little color. We’re expanding the area into multiple rooms, giving players a little more freedom to think over what went wrong after they were brought back from the dead. We’re adding some decoration, Hawaiian colors, and improving your seating options. The importance of a good chair is often overlooked after the fracture, especially with food, water, and medicine being so rare. However, nothing can help you relax from a run through the terror laden jungle, like a good sit in a comfortable chair. Our materials improvement work has made it to seating, and not just in the respawn area. Below you can see the fruit of our latest work, including before and after shots of some of the hottest post-fracture Lahaina styles.

Jared has been digging into some email issues, and doing some pagination wok too. Players should receive email reminders when they get invites from players and Houses now. We’ve even hooked up an “Exiled” feature for Houses. House leaders can now boot an unruly player, or one who isn’t pulling their weight, and leave a brief message explaining the players shortcomings, if they so wish.

The art team continues work on the look, and performance of our large buildings. The Communication Tower has been the recipient of most of the work so far, but the Thorcon Power Plant is starting to get some attention now too. Both will be excellent places for players to practice their survival skills against each other, before adding the additional animal, creature, and environmental dangers of the wilds of Lahaina. We’ve completed an initial loot dropping feature designed to make sure that players around the map are coming together to make new friends, strengthen alliances, and sometimes slaughter each other over limited resources, or for fun. We talked at length about other loot scenarios, and ways to accomplish the same goal without dropping a box of shiny gear into the world.

Finally, we have started to turn some of the in-game products into real merchandise. Last week we got a big box full of Manimal cans, the extreme energy drink in the game. The art team is busy working on making models for inclusion in the game, and we’re pretty pleased at how they turned out as you can see below. With a taste that can best be described as an “overly salted, aggressively sour lemon/lime punch to the face,” they’re sure to be a hit with extreme athletes and mathletes alike.

We’ll be back next week with more images and updates.

April 19, 2018

Taking a Flying Tour of What’s Left of Lahaina

We started off the week by getting the team system up and running. Players now have the ability to make groups with their friends, or anyone else who’s up for running around the ruins of future Lahaina, looting and shooting indiscriminately. There are map markers indicating how well everyone is staying in formation for tactical strikes, or to point out who’s chasing deer instead of concentrating on the objective. You can also now spawn on a team member’s name so it’s easier, and faster to keep the band together. There is still some minor ui work to do, but for all intents and purposes, the first pass at our group play system is ready.

San and the web team continued their work on drone cameras and the Veil News Network (VNN) page. We have a live camera drone tour of the island up and running on our YouTube page. There’s still a few kinks to work out, like not passing through an occasional rock or tree, but it’s a great way to see the game world, and a terrific start to our goal of a network of cameras catching the play action live. We talked about adding an adjustable field of view to the camera drones, and various overlay options to change the experience as well.

Jesse and Jared continue working on the VNN page itself. We talked about different future video options for viewers including the possibility of time lapse feature, to allow players to see anything they happened to miss during a busy Lahaina day. We’re fixing bugs as they appear, (we recently had an issue with weather from different worlds not displaying), and making a number of improvements to the page itself. We talked some more about possible feeds and different VNN channels. If you have an idea for a channel you’d like to see, let us know in the forums.

We’re adding audio support to a number of buildings and locations, as well as running through the map, and making a list of the places that don’t sound quite as good as the should. AI work continues too. The animal AI is mostly wrapped up, and we should have semi-intelligent NPCs/creatures in the near future. There’s a few new animations in the works as well. We’re focusing on a few last weapon animations to make them look more realistic, and some player movements too. This week we’re focusing in particular on ladder animations, focusing on player’s hand placement and head tilt while climbing. In addition we’ve completed the first tier of a loot dropping system, that is designed to let players know when a new shiny piece of gear is available in a certain area. It’s up to them to find it, and claim it before it gets scooped up by someone else.

Terry spent some time working through some auto-merge issues, and our neverending map and performance improvements continued as usual. We talked at length about the latest improvements to our programmatic building system, and discussed a number of custom buildings we could design and put together using the system. The detail and lighting work inside our big buildings continues, with the focus for now on the Communications Tower. As you can see in the picture below, the elevator in the tower got some attention this week and is looking good. We can’t however vouch for its safety, so ride at your own risk. Also, we are not certain if the wolf noises at the bottom and top are gone, but we’ve become attached to them…

As always, we’ll have another update later this week

April 17, 2018

Item Quality and Creating a Channel Lineup

The web team continued their work on the Veil News Network (VNN) this week. The service designed to provide players almost-real time updates of in-game announcements and events, is coming along nicely. We’ve made a VNN section on the home page to provide more in-depth coverage of the stories scrolling by on the newsticker, and host a number of videos. We’ve discussed a number of channel options for different video feeds, video length, and having a library of previously recorded material for use in promos, and when we’re experiencing “technical difficulty”.

Jesse is still working through some layout issues and a few bugs on the VNN page. The team is working on navigation controls on the video feeds, and improving animations on the bumper and stinger videos. We’ve created a weather bar to sit alongside the live videos as well. Now players will know the relative humidity while they’re being chased down the beach by one of the twisted horrors born from the fracture.

The web team worked on more than creating a news network this week too. Jared focused on getting a promo/coupon code system working for game packages and merchandise. The layout needs a little love yet, but the basic system is working well. We’re working on a way to incorporate the referral system with promos, as well as some CSS, 3D, and pagination work on the page too.

The team is also currently hard at work making game items a little bit worse with every use. The days of running ammunition through your Haikili rifle until the barrel turns a nice cherry red with no impact on its durability are over. We’re incorporating the item deterioration system in every usable item, including clothing and armor. We recommend using the delicate cycle if you plan on getting stabbed or shot a lot.

We looked at concept art of a few new areas of the map, and discussed incorporating the real-life geography and structures of Lahaina, as well as the story elements in the game. We talked about a number of interesting scenarios and places to explore, and how to best “spread the wealth” around to avoid bottlenecks and crowds.

Night and day work continues, along with a lot of environmental effects to add a bit more realism to the wildest of our wild places. With trueSky working well, and the lighting improvements, the forests and beaches of Lahaina are looking fantastic day and night. We’re continuing our performance work in our large buildings as well. The Thorcon Plant, the Veil Station, and the Communication Tower are all on the list. The Tower is up first and as you can see from the shots below, it’s getting a facelift along with the performance work. It’s never looked better and will be a joy to have a firefight in.

We’ll be back with more updates next week.

April 12, 2018

Testing Teams and Gear

This week marks the end of the old sprint, and the beginning of 22. The teams are busy finishing up some last minute work, fixing bugs, and setting goals. We’re adding a bit of polish to the group play system, but it’s ready to test. Players can make teams, use team VOIP, see members on the map, and revive teammates who ducked when they should have dodged. We plan on spending the next sprint squashing bugs, addressing problems as they arise, and running around, shooting the hell out of each other until we’ve worked out all the kinks. We don’t want to leave the creatures of the forest out of all the gratuitous violence though. We’ll be doing some AI work, to add another element of danger to groups venturing out into Lahaina.

We’re working on the loot economy/distribution system too. We’re making sure that the loot not only flows, but it flows in an appropriate way across the entire map. The goal is to avoid creating an area that gets too crowded because we’ve inadvertently created a looters paradise. We’re also making some improvements to our crafting and recycling system. We’re adding deterioration to items, and the recycling mechanic. Players will no longer have machetes that can hack through a thousand trees without suffering from some wear and tear, or becoming dull. We’re also making sure a brand new item provides more raw resources when recycled, than a piece of worn out junk.

The team is adding some audio support, and working on weapon and player movement animations to make characters look more natural, and add a level of authenticity to weapons. We’re also making a material upgrade to help performance, and make the props you’ll find around Lahaina look more realistic. The before and after shots below are a good example of how things are improving.

Of course our Veil News Network (VNN) work continues. The web team is working on video stream improvements currently, as well as stinger and bumper videos to fill in coverage gaps and transitions. Jesse is hard at work putting together a VNN lead-in video and working on a few overlap bugs.

Terry was busy digging into some merge issues we ran into, and we’re working on some streaming, destreaming, and performance improvements. Improving map and large building performance is a never ending task, and we’re focusing on three large buildings this sprint in particular: the Thorcon Power Plant, the Veil Station, and the lighting inside the Communication Tower. We’ll be doing some HUD updates and working on graphics on the settings menu as well. The team is adding animations to the respawn area and building out our cave system, in addition to few other spots of interest on the map. We’re also finishing up the texture, weather, and lighting work for the wild places around Lahaina. As you can see below it has really improved the quality of our beaches, but we still don’t recommend taking time to make a sand castle without a weapon handy.

We’ll be back later in the week with more updates and pictures.

April 10, 2018

Tag: VNN