Fractured Veil News

Aloha Thrivers!

If you are one of our testers or have been following our discord, you may have noticed that our team has been working on building up a pretty big new area that up until a month ago was nothing but a bunch of building blocks.

Today, we are happy to show and tell you about one new area in Fractured Veil!

Some of you may know that recently, the real Lahaina was destroyed in a wildfire. When we saw the news we were saddened to see so much of town and buildings gone, but even more devastated by the loss of life. We decided to honor a place that means so much to us by creating a social zone where players can come and connect with each other, inspired by the Lahaina that used to be.

Click Here for a before/after


Our game world is our canvas, and our plan is to start filling it up with interesting new areas for the players to explore. The city of Lahaina is one of our first additions to the game that has been made specifically as a social area. Every time we see it we imagine people having fun, trading, interacting and socializing with each other, while also exploring and looting it in peace, feeling a change of pace compared to the normal experience of the game.



What exactly do you mean by a social area? Why should players go there?
By social area, we mean a No-Build and No-PvP area that is mostly danger-free (emphasis on mostly). Players here will be able to roam freely, interact with each other, scavenge for resources and loot, and browse the stock of various vendors that inhabit the area.
When we think about this area we imagine the potential for roleplay, content creation, or entire community-made events.



What about the story of the place?
This was one of the last thriving cities where native folks (aka Kanaka), who survived the fracture, used to live. They were keeping themselves and their kids safe from the tourists and shortly later the mutants. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out in the end, but that’s why you (the players) are here to help rebuild civilization!



Are we going to see more areas like these?
Sure! That’s in the plans, we have plenty of stories we want to tell through environments and areas like this one. For now, our priority is launching the game in Early Access and focusing on adding some much-needed features and improvements to it. But players can expect more and more areas to be built with upcoming updates. If you want a sneak peek, our discord server has a dedicated channel just for that!



That’s all for this week’s update. We like to keep these short but always offer something new and interesting for our community.
We hope you are as excited as we are for this new area. We will share more updates about it when the time comes!
Until then… here’s a nice romantic sunset near the Lahaina Port.

Aloha Thrivers,

As we approach the release of the game, happening this October 18th, we want to give everyone more frequent updates on the work we are doing.

Let’s start by talking about Performance. As everyone probably knows by now, following the engine upgrade, we all agreed the biggest priority to publish the game on Steam Early Access was to make Fractured Veil accessible to more machines.

With our last update, earlier this September, we received positive feedback from many of you regarding performance. However, we now have a significant list of to-dos that we will address in the coming months, some even after our October Release.

Progress on Performance
It’s impossible for us not to go a bit technical when talking about performance, but we’ll try our best!

The most significant news about performance is that we finished the process of rebuilding HLODs, these are necessary components that reduce the number and quality of objects that are rendered by the game at a distance. While we use Nanite for many elements, not every single part of the game supports this technology and this system works in tandem with Nanite and World partition ensuring we are not rendering stuff that the player doesn’t necessarily need.

Graphics settings (Low, Medium and High) have been retouched further, alongside the way we spawn grass and foliage across these 3 profiles to be more consistent regardless of your settings.

Lights and small objects that are far away no longer cast a shadow or even disappear in some cases. This system was in place before but it has received further adjustments.

What’s next for performance?
Over the next week(s), we are going to use one of the new UE5 Features, Level Instances, to further improve performance on areas with a lot of objects. Also, after switching to Lumen for our global illumination, we still have a lot of loose ends to tie together both in terms of performance and visuals which are going to be addressed soon. And this is just the tip of the iceberg! We’ll keep you updated week after week!

Queue System
Another important system we are working on is a Queue System. A fun thing about launching a new game, even if indie, is that you can never accurately predict how many players you will have at launch. For this reason, we want to have a Queue System in case our servers are too busy. This way players who are playing can hopefully get a great experience, and players trying to join know that they will have to wait a bit longer before starting their adventures.

Other Improvements
Moving on to other matters but still on the gamedev side, here are some of the other areas of the game that are getting improvements.

• Item Persistence - This is an issue targeting containers (and dead bodies) where items get corrupted and can’t be interacted with. Our team is aware of this and has been working on this issue iteration after iteration. We are narrowing down all the causes of this and we will be releasing a potential fix on the next update.
  
• Optimizing Thorcon (spawn area) - Those who are currently testing the game can agree that our spawn area still needs some work. The team is optimizing the area, improving performance, and embellishing it with new Diaramas.
  
• Dynamic Sky System - Much is being done here, improving both looks, lighting, quality, and performance of our Sky System.
  
• Flare Gun - We are working on a few improvements, changing the way the flares arch when fired in the air.
  
• Many UI Fixes - This includes missing icons, and the Repair Bench’s UI not updating properly.
  
• Dungeons - These have been separated onto their own servers and we are actively working on polishing and improving these areas. Starting with the Mines, we have been fixing bugs and making sure AI, loot, and collisions are all fully functional for the the next update.
  
• Server and Client Crashes - We are currently investigating both client and servers crashes happening on the current build. The good news is we have identified some of the causes, and we're working on getting those fixed for the next build.
  

This was the first of a new series of weekly updates. We want our community to be part of our launch journey, and with these posts, we aim to do just that while being as transparent as we can.

See you next time!

PS: we are releasing a cool new video, make sure to watch it as soon as it’s live!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Aloha Thrivers!

Today is such a big day for us - we pushed an update to the game, fixing some things we knew were keeping players from jumping in - and we launched our Early Access Trailer and announced that we’re entering Early Access on October 18th!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Over the past seven years, we’ve poured our hearts into this game and now that we’re close to launching on Steam we could not be more grateful. We are so happy to share the trailer and there is more to come so stay tuned!!

Since the last update, we have been working nonstop on your feedback, prioritizing performance optimization for Early Access so that the game runs better and smoother. While this might slow down the implementation of some cool features, we all agree it's the number one thing we have to focus on right now. We've got the whole team working on it.

Since building with your friends and running around the island killing mutants (or other players) is a core part of our game, we want it to be accessible to more PCs across the board.

In this month's update, we're going behind the veil and chatting with some of the folks on the team to hear what they have been working on!

First up is Sam, our amazing Director of Media who is the creative genius behind to our new trailer!

[h2]Behind the Veil
[/h2]


Q: Hey Sam, can you introduce yourself to the community and tell us the single thing you are most excited about the game right now?

Sam: Hey everyone! I’m Sam Steffanina - a lifelong content creator and gamer. I’m insanely excited for everyone to see the trailer we’ve been working so hard on and for the emotes that are being implemented. Giving people even more ways to express themselves in this game is what makes it special to me.

Q: So, in the last few months we have started working on the new trailer for Fractured Veil. How do you go from the idea to actually making the trailer?

Sam: Taking a step back and looking at what makes the game unique is always step #1. We have such beautiful scenery and such creepy horror elements. It’s a great juxtaposition to build from and I think people will see that in the trailer. I hope it shows all the most exciting and enjoyable parts of the game.

Q: In the Marketing Team we talk a lot about “Kill, Chill and Rebuild” being the 3 pillars of Fractured Veil. Can you tell us more about the role of those 3 pillars in the trailer?

Sam: Killing… well that’s pretty obvious, you’ll see plenty of that. Chill is represented by the beauty and exploration, and rebuilding from the aftermath of what our island's inhabitants do to the things you’ve built can be both quite stressful or relaxing depending on the time of day, hahah.

Q: Can you share a very cool shot with us?

Sam: Absolutely!


[h2]Surviving Together[/h2]

Fractured Veil is all about playing together and making new friends. One of the features that will allow just that is our Quest System.

In this section we speak with Ryan, our Project Manager, and Rob, our team Lore Guide, who has been working on the story for the past 7 years!


Q: Quests are a vital part of Fractured Veil. They introduce new players to the world and help them move the first steps in the game. What are the main changes being worked on this system?

Ryan: The team is currently working on revamping the way our quest system works to include multiple types of quests. Currently, our system allows us to check for just a few conditions such as checking if you built something or if you have obtained a specific item in your inventory. Once we are done expanding these, we’ll be able to track a multitude of game actions, allowing us to start building more complex quests that go beyond the tutorial ones. Another interesting system is our shared quest system. While it won’t be ready for Early Access, one of our priorities is that players can share quests and progress, and get equally rewarded for completing them.

Q: I'm aware we won't have too many quests at launch, but what's the plan for after Early Access?
Ryan: Our goal for early access is to have a full starter quest line to help with on-boarding, as well as some quests available from NPCs. Later, players will be able to discover hidden locations, explore dungeons, learn cool features that might not be that obvious, and uncover clues about what caused the Fracture and the end of civilization.

Q: And speaking of the fracture... Rob can you introduce yourself and talk a bit about your work?

Rob: Hi I'm Rob Rozeboom and I wrote the story for Fractured Veil, and work on integrating the lore into the game. I make sure we are incorporating as much Hawaiian vibe into things as possible, especially the harvesting and crafting systems, by using authentic island plants and resources. You can find bits of the story from recovered emails, newspaper archives, and found journals on our website. https://fracturedveil.com/story/ When I’m not compiling lists of native plants or uses for mutant body parts, I help out with marketing.

Q: What are you working on right now, and is there anything cool you can share with us?
Rob: Right now I'm helping to finish up some of our dungeons, making sure that they follow storylines and have a few neat surprises, expanding our crafting system to include more items and more ancient Hawaiian uses for native plants. As far as something cool to share goes… let's just say that players are pretty close to being able to spend some lazy survival time harvesting the bounties of the sea. So stock up on bait!

Q: When can we experience the story you have written in-game?
Rob: Up until now a lot of our focus has been on performance and game mechanics. While we'll always be working on those things, we're in a pretty good place now and can start expanding out to include more lore and story elements in the game. I’m excited to see more buildings, forgotten places, and mutants pop up for players to loot, explore, and survive soon.

[h2]Expanding the world[/h2]


Q: Back to you Ryan, How is the game world changing right now? Anything exciting the team is working on you'd like to share?

Ryan: There are plenty of structures and points of interest that we are rebuilding and expanding, some of these are the Armory and Veil building areas. The rest is more performance-related and art for the moment. We’ll share more when the time comes!


Q: The world of Fractured Veil is always changing, what can people expect to see soon after Early Access?

Ryan: I’d say the thing that most people will notice is just “More” being added to the game. We have plans about adding AI settlements and interesting places to explore. While the game world might be less populated during the first months of early access, we expect it to be filled with structures and interesting loot-filled places sometime after that. Our plan for the game is way bigger than that, new dungeons, new biomes and even new features like fishing are on the horizon, but they will take time to arrive and at the moment it’s pretty hard for us to foresee what our priorities will be after early access.


[h2]Improving Performance[/h2]

Q: Last but not least, as we said performance is playing a bigger part of what we are doing and working with a limited amount of resources and a very small team can make things a bit complicated. What are we doing to tackle performance?

Ryan: The good news about performance is that we have identified many improvement opportunities so it will get significantly better over time. As per what we are doing right now, the main focus has been Nanite. Most of our assets are currently being converted to support this UE5 Tech, and with that process, we also have to check that everything is working correctly again. Stuff like transparency and textures end up being glitchy or not working at all, making that process a little bit more complicated. Another improvement has been generating HLODs and moving our Dungeons to their own dedicated server and level so that players don’t have to load them unless they are on them. That’s obviously just the tip of the iceberg, we’ll share more in the next updates.

[h2]Squishing Those Bugs[/h2]

Q: Hey Brandan, can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do?
Brandan: Hey! I’m Brandan Abbott, a huge survival game fan that has racked up more deaths in the genre than I’d like to admit. I’m the lead QA on Fractured Veil and I'm a bridge between the development team and the players. I’m responsible for managing and guiding the testing process, ensuring issues are identified and tracked. I also collaborate with the dev team to prioritize and address critical issues through patches or updates. I routinely play and work with the community to gather player feedback and suggestions to communicate to the team to make sure their voices are heard.

Q: Games have bugs, but I feel not everyone knows how many get fixed for a game our size.
As we get closer to early access, what's the number of bugs we have fixed so far? Anything cool worth sharing?

Brandan: We really don’t have much new data, but I can share what we had for last year.
We are talking of about 792 player-found bugs fixed and 131 implemented player suggestions as of 11-11-2022. Almost one year later, that number is much higher than that, so I’ll leave it up to your imagination.

Q: Speaking of bugs/issues, which are the ones we are really focusing on?
Brandan: The bugs we are really focusing on now are major bugs that greatly affect our player’s experiences in the game. These include client crashes, server crashes, item persistence issues, poor performance, or issues that inhibit or block major gameplay systems.

Q: What's the funniest one in your memory?

Brandan: The funniest bug in memory was a bug that occurred when the player logged out of the server and rejoined too soon. A clone of the player's body would stay standing in the world for longer than intended so when the player logged back into the server they would see a copy of their character standing beside them that they could kill, and had their own loot in it.

Another bug was explosive damage causing placeable items like a smelter or crafting bench to fly off into the game world. This was not intended behavior, so once discovered members of the community would place those structures next to explosive barrels, stand on top of the structure and destroy the barrel. Launching themselves into the air and different areas of the map.

There is also the one below, which is pretty recent:


[h2]Last but not Least[/h2]
August is an important month for Fractured Veil with tons of stuff to get done before everyone can play the game. We just want to say thank you to every one of our backers and testers who have been so patient with us. We know you've experienced different issues related to performance and we're committed to getting those issues resolved that we haven't been as regular with updates.

Keep an eye out for more regular updates in the coming weeks and even a sneak peek at our new trailer!

Also, just as a reminder, if you already have the game, head over to our Discord Server , say Aloha, and join us for some gaming sessions!

Last Thursday when we saw the news of the devastating fires in Maui, our hearts were broken. We've spent 7 years developing Fractured Veil with a dream of recreating the lush beauty of Lahaina in our game world. One of our founders was just there a few weeks ago taking pictures / researching future signs and details we want to include in the game!

It goes without saying that Maui needs all of our support during this terrible time, and there are MANY ways to help! @TwitchHawaii has been hosting fundraisers with Creators over the weekend and will keep doing them! We're working closely with our friends over there to amplify their efforts so more to come there! 💪🏼



We're also donating to the Hawaii Community Foundation - Maui Strong campaign and if you would like to support them as well, you can do so here: https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/maui-strong

The Red Cross is also accepting donations: https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation.html/