Fractured Veil News

[h3]A Step In the Right Direction[/h3]
We’ve said this before, but we really want to hear from our community. To prove it, this week we spent a lot of dev time fixing bugs found in our test sessions and making improvements based solely on player feedback. After our latest run through the caves, we made some updates to how AI move and how they navigate together. The pathing and grouping improvements should reduce mutant stutter-stepping, and keep them from pushing each other around, getting stuck in tight places, or worst of all getting stuck in walls while navigating places like the caves.



[h3]Price Check[/h3]
Next, we took a look at recipe and research costs. We introduced our first merchant last week inside the Thorcon Power Plant and after a few days of players giving us feedback about recipe prices and research bench costs we made some tweaks.

Mr. Mixer Head’s (official name still pending) entire inventory has seen a price change. We updated research bench prices, fixed bench UI not working properly, and added messages for learning and failing to learn recipes. We also adjusted the 127 costs of certain recipes and smelter costs to make sure the item/crafting loop is both fun and challenging enough.



[h3]The Fix Is In[/h3]
We nabbed a number of bugs with the help of our players this week too. We fixed a bug where water would appear in the player inventory when recycling a canteen. We fixed a bug where a player wasn’t able to pick up a barricade, a handful of crafting failures, and an issue with NPC bodies not burning up properly.

Speaking of not burning properly, we discovered it was possible to attach a campfire to the side of a building. In addition to breaking the laws of gravity, it was a problem because if you attached enough the entire area would be covered in a cloud of smoke obscuring everything. We fixed the bug so players can’t make their own fog banks anymore but don’t worry @spitfire we have plans for some sort of smoke machine for your base in the works.



[h3]Community Spotlight[/h3]
Remember you don’t have to wait for the weekly playtest to travel to Lahaina, our servers are up 24/7 and this week many of you sent in your favorite screenshots from your explorations. Here’s a look at some of your adventures running around Lahaina.























Mahalo to our testers who help us find what’s not working and what can be improved. Your feedback is hugely 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 everything you found and we fixed this week.

• Spitfire - Collision code issues
  
• Nubkid - Can't make bandages because bandages require bandages
  
• Ryan - Small chest has a cost of 500 in UI but only costs 100 to craft
  
• Spitfire - Wood disappears when splitting in stacks
  
• Azshire the Great - Can't pick up metal barricades when dropped on the ground
  
• Spitfire - Campfires placement allows campfires to be placed on top of walls, and along the sides of walls and doors
  
• Pistoling - NPC's dead bodies will now display loot options even after fully looting the corpse
  
• Spitfire - Losing Rai on server crash
  
• Ryan - Bears/wolves will run up to players and the player gets stuck in the wolf going into perma falling animation
  
• Schism3110- Floating / no walking animations when encumbered
  
• Spitfire - Spike barricades do no damage
  

[h3]Calling All Streamers! [/h3]
If you’re a Content Creator and want to stream Fractured Veil, say Aloha!

If you missed it live, watch us have some fun with these fine folks:
Dev Interview with GameEdged Exclusive Look with Nerd Parade Firespark81’s Sneak Peek At Fractured Veil

[h3]Welcome To the Neighborhood[/h3]
A lot of player bases were built on the island this week. Here’s a look at some of the new construction that went up and some of the hottest properties in our version of West Maui. Keep them coming, we love sharing your handiwork!

















If you want to learn more about Fractured Veil check out our Discord server and visit our Reddit page.

[h3]More About Fractured Veil[/h3]

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[h3]Man with the Plans[/h3]
There’s been a vendor without any inventory parked in the Thorcon Power Plant for a while now, just watching testers come and go. Over the past few weeks we made some major updates to our crafting system and approved Mr. Mixer Head’s permit (after he squared up with his registration fees of course).

Players can now buy a wide variety of weapons, clothing, and survival items from his newly opened store. We plan on adding more vendors in the near future, but for now this fella has the market cornered.



[h3]How It’s Made[/h3]
In addition to Mr. Mixer Head (or current nickname for the vendor) we introduced “research benches” this week. The bench is a craftable item that players can use to learn new crafting recipes.



We know how important a deep crafting system is to many of you and we’re really excited about including this big step in making it better. All a player needs to do is place an item inside the bench, add the correct amount of rai (our ingame currency), and the item is destroyed leaving you a blueprint allowing you to add that item to your list of crafting recipes.



[h3]Dude, Where’s My Stuff?[/h3]
Our community of players gave us some great feedback about making some changes to how they interact with the inventory. We want to make it clear and easy to use, so we changed a few things, incorporating the ideas suggested so far. As always, we love hearing suggestions for how we can improve things, so mahalo for posting them in the suggestions channel in our discord.

Now, there’s an item detail widget added to the inventory UI which gives info about each item and the ability to drop, use, or equip it. We added double click support to inventory icons and made some improvements to the quick craft feature.



With new items to buy and recipes to learn we’ve adjusted the resource rate drop and made looting a little easier for those on the run. If a player holds down “H” while looting a corpse or open container it automatically takes all items 1 at a time with a 0.3 second delay between items.



[h3]Taking a Dip[/h3]
Good news for all of you water lovers, not only have we fixed swimming, we finished some post-processing work on our rivers. As you can see below our rivers are looking as good as our ocean.



[h3]Water, Water Everywhere![/h3]
Speaking of water we had some major bugs involving drinking. Many players found themselves surrounded by water but couldn’t drink a drop (sorry about that @cywraith). We fixed the bug so you can once again drink your fill in the rivers and barrels across the map. We even added a few extra rain catches around the Thorcon so you can get properly hydrated before heading out to explore.



We fixed a number of other lingering bugs this week including: recycling and crafting widgets not always showing the proper counts and tools not harvesting resources properly. We fixed a bug where the shotgun firing sound was muffled while using ADS and added sounds to moving items around in the inventory.

Speaking of bugs- the best way for us to squash them is to know they exist in the first place, so for all our testers we want to send a friendly reminder that the servers are up 24/7 so you don’t have to wait until our weekly playtests to hop in and go bug hunting!

[h3]Community Spotlight [/h3]


Every week we travel to Lahaina and try to find as many bugs as possible, so if you’re interested in joining the fight, head over to our discord and let us know!

Chickdrummer88 won the first annual Fractured Veil Costume Award this year with this amazing ensemble. (Extra points awarded for the cat)





Mahalo to our testers who help us every week find what’s not working and what can be improved. Your feedback is hugely important to us so keep it coming! Here’s everything you found and we fixed this week.

• Spitfire - Sieges spawning inside bases with multiple totems
  
• Carbu - Duplicate inventory items after dragging in inventory
  
• Ryan - Looking at crafting bench/smelter crashes game
  
• Warknight - Duplicate backpacks by equipping a new one
  
• Spitfire - Pan not making contact with objects
  
• Hop - When I pull my bow back, I am unable to move
  
• Ryan - burnt bodies not disappearing
  
• Undelek - Arrows turn giant
  
• Ryan - Teammate markers not showing up on minimap or map
  

[h3]Calling All Streamers! [/h3]
If you’re a Content Creator and want to stream Fractured Veil, say Aloha!

If you missed it live, watch us have some fun with these fine folks:
Dev Interview with GameEdged Exclusive Look with Nerd Parade Firespark81’s Sneak Peek At Fractured Veil

If you want to learn more about Fractured Veil check out our Discord server and visit our Reddit page.

[h3]More About Fractured Veil[/h3]

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• Facebook
  
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• www.fracturedveil.com
  
• Twitch
  
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• Imgur

[h3]Wait Your Turn[/h3]
We kicked off the week with another round of siege improvements focusing on mutant movements. We noticed during our playtests that the horrors of the jungle were bunching up making them too easy to hit and keeping them from tearing you apart.

We fixed the system so more eager mutants can push others out of the way to get to players and a safety to keep those already engaged in melee from being pushed away from their targets. All in all the mutant slaughter has never been more orderly and efficient. Rest assured, there is still chaos and certain death awaiting players, however, we’ve been fine-tuning how the quickly the blood bath unfolds.



[h3]For Your Consideration[/h3]
Our biggest achievement this week is a complete overhaul of the inventory system to help with persistence. While players shouldn’t see any difference in the way their inventory works, the improvements should help with persistence and help make the whole system more reliable and easy to build on. It’s one of those cases of ‘behind the scenes’ fixes happening, which is super important, but not as flashy as adding new features or environments. However, we know it’s going to improve the player experience and set us up for the long term. Mahalo to all of our testers who keep coming back week after week!

Since we value player feedback, we introduced a logout survey to help us capture the thoughts of our community quickly, implement any suggestions, find bugs, and most importantly ensure that our players are having a good time running through the wilds of Lahaina.

[h3]Mine Your Business[/h3]
During the playtest, a lucky few might discover a new mine on the island. Along with the Thorcon basement, the sewers, and the cave complex, the mine will offer those brave enough a unique area to explore while fighting for loot.









[h3]Up and Down the River[/h3]
We’ve already made big improvements to the water, weather, and waves in the game and we’re still not done! Last week, it was the ocean waves and this week we focused on rivers.

An important source of water for players struggling to survive, rivers also act like natural barriers and paths twisting across the landscape, helping players move around the map. We made some updates to our interactive river tools making it easier than ever to build a custom waterway. Here are a couple of before and after shots of the tool in use.





We can even adjust the height of the river to make the water move faster and create areas of white water.



Combined with all the recent lighting and water improvements, the rivers have never looked better during the middle of the day:



Or as night approaches.



[h3]Community Spotlight[/h3]


Remember you don’t have to wait for the weekly playtest to travel to Lahaina, our servers are up 24/7!

[h3]Calling All Streamers! [/h3]
If you’re a Content Creator and want to stream Fractured Veil, say Aloha!

If you missed it live, watch us have some fun with these fine folks:
Dev Interview with GameEdged Exclusive Look with Nerd Parade

If you want to learn more about Fractured Veil check out our Discord server and visit our Reddit page.

[h3]More About Fractured Veil[/h3]

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• www.fracturedveil.com
  
• Twitch
  
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• Reddit
  
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[h3]Diving Deep[/h3]
It’s almost impossible to think about Hawaii and not think about its beautiful blue waters. Getting just the right color, perfecting the way the light reflects, and the interaction between the waves and the shore are things we’ve tried very hard to make as realistic as possible.

This week we updated all those aspects of the water and worked on player/water interactions too, adding splashes and ripples to the ocean and streams to make them look and act like the real thing.

Whether it’s the middle of the day:



Or approaching dusk:



Players can make a big splash on the beach or in one of the rivers that flow through the jungle.



Exploring one of the many wrecks along the shore is a great way to appreciate how much dev time we’ve put into making the water, weather, and lighting look great.









It’s looking good even from under the waves.



[h3]Fighting the Good Fight[/h3]
With the help of your input we made another pass on our sieging system and made a few more improvements. We fixed a few bugs including one that would allow a siege to be started on a base that was already under siege, and mutants can now occupy a base instead of just tearing it apart. We also activated random sieges. So any base now has a chance of getting unexpected visitors knocking down the front door when a player is online.



We also added a trailer mark to the rotting heads thrown by the trophy collectors making it easier to see where the putrid missiles are coming from in the middle of a chaotic battle



[h3]Community Spotlight [/h3]
Many of you have been posting your screenshots and pics of your Badass Bases in the #badassbase channel in discord. We appreciate all your hard work!

Remember you don’t have to wait for the weekly playtest to travel to Lahaina, our servers are up 24/7! Here’s a look at some of the new construction that went up this week. Keep them coming!







Here’s a great shot of the same base taken at different times of day.





Here’s a compound that sprung up in the neighborhood



And this platform @spitfire built to take screenshots.



[h3]Calling All Streamers! [/h3]
If you’re a Content Creator and want to stream Fractured Veil, say Aloha!

If you missed it live, watch us have some fun with these fine folks:
Dev Interview with GameEdged Exclusive Look with Nerd Parade

If you want to learn more about Fractured Veil check out our Discord server and visit our Reddit page.

[h3]More About Fractured Veil[/h3]

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• www.fracturedveil.com
  
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[h3]Not Going Down Without a Fight![/h3]
Some of our players really dig building bases while others enjoy taking down mutant hordes. For the folks interested in slaying mutants, this week’s for you! We are still refining the siege system, testing how the mutants attack and trying to strike the right balance.

We know how much fun it can be to test your shooting and building skills with wave after wave of angry mutants who want nothing more than to break down the walls of your base and tear down your totem. But if you feel your base is being taken down way too quickly - we want to hear your feedback!



After listening to last week’s suggestions, we adjusted the default upkeep costs of bases, fixed a bug that would cause a mutant to get stuck after a wall was destroyed, added smoke plumes that mark the direction and intensity of an incoming siege, and most importantly made sure they would eventually end.

[h3]Going Soft In the Head[/h3]
We recently updated headshot damage to players but discovered that we somehow forgot to update the damage when shooting a mutant in the noggin.

That oversight has been fixed so planting one between the eyes of a Butcher now does double damage. We also updated Annabelle the Cannibal so that her fists do blunt rather than slashing damage.



Many of you told us that the panting your character makes after a modest amount of exertion was too much. We agreed and upped the cardio of your newly restored body to make sure you only suck wind when your stamina gets very low. You may also notice a few new signs and shower stations across the map while exploring with your newly conditioned lungs.



[h3]Realer Than Real[/h3]
Making a game set in one of the most beautiful places on Earth means we can offer players a survival game with a breathtaking backdrop but it also takes a lot of work to do it justice. We’ve spent countless hours of dev time working on the lighting and environment in Fractured Veil and this week was no different.



We made some improvements to ambient lighting and the way the light works on the water above and below.



We upgraded skylight colors and blending and focused on the pre-sunset skies.



We also fixed the amount of sunlight reflected off of objects across the map and improved clouds and fog saturation. Our goal is to offer a Lahaina that looks as realistic as anything you can find on a postcard.



[h3]Community Spotlight [/h3]
Many of you have been posting pics of your Badass Base in the #badassbase channel in discord, and @spitfire in particular has been hard at work building a number of water-based buildings.

Remember you don’t have to wait for the weekly playtest to travel to Lahaina. Just ask @Spitfire who passed 100 hrs in the game this week, proving that our servers are up 24/7!



Here’s a look at some of the new construction that went up this week. Keep them coming, we love sharing your hard work!









And here’s a pretty sunset shot of @spitfire’s giant diving platform seen from the shore.



Mahalo to all of our testers who join us every week for our playtests. We’re focused on fixing some big systems so we haven’t been getting to as many pesky bugs this week, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to keep hearing about them.

Bugs that we squashed this week:

• Hop - dropped items are unable to be picked back up
  

[h3]Calling All Streamers![/h3]
If you’re a Content Creator and want to stream Fractured Veil, say Aloha!

If you missed it live, watch us have some fun with these fine folks:
Dev Interview with GameEdged Exclusive Look with Nerd Parade

If you want to learn more about Fractured Veil check out our Discord server and visit our Reddit page.

[h3]More About Fractured Veil[/h3]

• Discord
  
• Facebook
  
• Youtube
  
• www.fracturedveil.com
  
• Twitch
  
• Twitter
  
• Reddit
  
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