One of the first things we introduced in our development schedule to car vanity was the idea that you can add a custom color. Yeah seems obvious, but we wanted to take it further and are setting vehicles up with some splashy colors should you so choose to use them.
With these colors, it’s almost like, no it literally is you painting a target on your back! But that kind of flair is a bit of a trophy for the bold who knows they can score in the wasteland in full vibrant gorey glory!
You might also notice a couple other hood ornaments we haven’t shown you before, like the Scarecrow Hood featured below:
This saw blade bookended hood with a bit of a penchant for gasmasks is the perfect adornment compliment to the skull totems, or really any vanity design you pick! There are plenty of other color options, and more vanity pieces you can expect. Be sure to wishlist your copy of Fractured Lands and get that immediate reminder when the game arrives to Early Access on Steam!
Color me impressed…I’ll see myself out
Robert
Play Style Part 2: EA Vanity – Melee and Eyegear
Back again with some vanity previews for Early Access. Yesterday we showed off some vanity you can use on your vehicle, but you can modify the look of your character as well. Open up your character options and pull out a couple of blinding eyewear that won’t affect your view in-game but might give your character some low cosmetic depth perception.
Headcrusher and Eyepatch
Rider Goggles
Likewise our beautiful mohawked man above is wielding something other than the iconic bat with nails in it. Melee weapons likewise are a vanity option where you can swap out your initial defense piece with one ugly courier of pain.
Give yourself over to our Fractured Lands wasteland and don further character customizations that tailor you to your own brand of mayhem!
More vanity features this week and further talk of Early Access as well. Stay tuned!
I bet he’s not even missing an eye
Robert
Play Style Part 1: EA Vanity – Hood & Rear
It’s been a while! We’ve been neck deep in work developing new content, updating and adding features, and address performance an optimization for Early Access, it’s put us a bit behind on the “showing you what we’re up to” front. We thought we’d dip back in with some pieces from our upcoming vanity/cosmetic system for vehicles and characters in Fractured Lands!
That’s right, I said VEHICLES as well as characters. You saw the Beta exclusive storm red and black t-shirts that you can put on your customized character, and you’ve played the game with a variety of pants, tops, gloves, boots, and hairstyles. There’s more coming to that we’ll talk about soon, but first, this week, I wanted to give you a bit of a peek into the ways in which you can kit out the vehicle you take into every match.
Let’s start with the rear…don’t get nervous now.
We have a couple different back spoiler vanity pieces that enable you to change out the look of the dustrider when you’re out on the wasteland. While these don’t add the aerodynamic spoil of high-speed turbulence they’re designed for, they do give your ride a bit of personality.
Skull Cross Totems
Likewise we have a set of hood ornaments that you don’t typically find on ebay…well not the ebay we go to. Okay just that one time.
Ram Skull Hood
We’ll be showing off more pieces, and more vanity options, as well as talking further about the upcoming content this week, next week and further on. Check back often and don’t forget to wishlist your copy of Fractured Lands on our Steam Page so you can pick up your copy for Early Access!
I got this fresh whale tail on my lowered covered wagon
Robert
Closed Beta: Last Patch Fix 6/30/18
We have one more Closed Beta session today starting in a little less than 2 hours at 6 p.m. PDT and lasting till 10 p.m. PDT. Tomorrow will be the regular time from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT and then again at 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. PDT.
With only 3 sessions left till Beta is over, we have just one more quick update the team put in to fix a couple of lingering crashes and make a quick adjustment:
Crash Fixes:
Fixed crash encountered when character menu sorts inventory
Added information collection for physics material crashes
Gameplay Adjustment:
Movement Sprinting limited to Forward, Forward Left (70°), Forward Right (110°), no longer able to sprint at 0° and 180° degree angles
We’ve likewise reduced the player Lobby minimum count back to 20, but increased the pregame time to 210 seconds. Thanks for being patient with the higher figure of 35, but we hope this will allow for faster entry to matches while still filling matches with potential opponents.
Of course these are small changes, and not really a large reflection of the wealth of feedback you sent us. That material will be used to execute much larger changes in the build to come, the build that will represent our first release of Early Access. And the updates don’t end there, we are planning regular improvements along the way–with your feedback of course!
Playing the Long Game
Robert
Closed Beta Patch Notes v.0.0.3.0 – 6/28/2018
We’re coming into our final Beta Weekend and have endeavored to make this the most “stable” and “optimally performing” version so far. This isn’t an act of bravado, but rather a focus, one that helps us understand if we’re moving in the right direction when improving the playability of our game for both players with low and high end machine specifications.
Likewise this represents one of just many many optimization patches we’ll be working on for Early Access and beyond. We aren’t resting on our laurels, and we don’t yet know if we have laurels on which to rest! That’s for you to check out along with us during these Beta Weekend hours, and help us figure out what is working for you and what isn’t.
As a result you can see that the below patch changes focus on those types of fixes that try to improve on playability, sometimes at some sacrifice of graphical quality, and like a teetering scale we will continue to balance these two elements, while trimming excess, economizing, and otherwise “playing with the math”. You may notice when changing certain settings, that objects may visibly stream in, and visual effects may be visible before the item they’re attached to. Please report these as you run into them, but we’ll observe them as well and make adjustments where we can.
Finally, this is your last opportunity for a while to submit bugs and general feedback about the Beta content. We’ll accept any suggestions from duration of the storm rounds, to damage output of the LMG and anything else on your mind for a couple weeks after Beta ends, but then we’ll be temporarily closing the feedback form and focusing 100% on changes/fixes/and feature implementation.
As always, feel free to compare the work below with that of previous patches to the right. You’ll notice also this patch recognizes more open issues than before, but we hope to whittle down this list as we get closer to our next update, potentially 0.1.0.0 or Early Access this summer.
Game Features
Menu
Added new display overall quality profile settings
Increased font size of menu settings
Added new FOV adjustment setting
Added new mouse smoothing toggle
Added new mouse FOV scaling toggle
Added 21:9 aspect ratio value in Resolution settings
Environment
85% of the assets are grounded
Added additional furniture textures
Improved FPS performance in areas that stream significant asset counts
Increase damage output of storm between Round 4 and Round 8
Increased storm movement speed between Round 7 and Round 8
Quality of Life Improvements
Improved hip to ADS speed on various weapons
Added new icons for weapons, and attachments
Added additional match screen timer after selecting direction on the match wheel
Improved player load-in timing and function
Added cancel prompt when using consumables
Improved zoom function and visibility of Minimap
Improved FPS performance while viewing the moving storm
Improved performance by reducing the amount of content remaining in memory
Weapons
Improved ADS reticle stability
Added and improved texture and model changes to reticles, scopes
Added new texture and models for weapon mount positions
Lowered damage output reduction on player while in the storm for all gas masks
Greatly increased fall damage
Slightly increased damage output of Hunter BR
Slightly increased damage output of Hellstorm SMG
Increased Remedy SG spread, reducing accuracy when firing at a distance
Looting
Reduced loot count on bleachers at Mudercross Tracks and Red Asphalt Arena
Known Issues and their Status
Crashes
Fixed a crash when exiting the game
Fixed a crash while player is in the main menu launch screen
Fixed a crash player would encounter when the server closes
Fixed a crash while connecting to the server
Major
Fixed issue with mouse settings not saving properly
Removed 90% of foliage from buildings
Removed 80% of foliage known to cause unexpected stops for moving players/vehicles
Addressed issue where players would sometimes spawn invisible
Fixed an issue where players could be killed in pregame lobby
Addressed issue where Rocketjump Wheels would fail to flip a turned-over vehicle
Fixed an issue where equipped weapon models would remain and clip through currently held weapon
Minor
Fixed an audio bug where audio cuts out when aiming down sight
Fixed an audio bug where M60 plays empty magazine audio when firing
Fixed an audio bug where there’s no impact sound with melee
Fixed collision issue on silo rooftops
Fixed an issue where armor and satchel disappear when replacing them
Fixed an audio bug where some sounds would cut out if player fired when reloading
Fixed an issue where car icon was displaying as a player arrow icon on Minimap
Not Fully Addressed
Previously reported issues
Audio issue where player is unable to hear footsteps from behind
Vehicle desync from server when sprinting – to seating – to driving
Issue where player takes no damage when exiting a vehicle while driving at high speed
Issue where player can get stuck in a ditch in center of the refinery next to the main pipe
Issue locations where sometimes items cannot be looted from floor, or remain when picked up
Instances where vehicles drive awkwardly / slow when another player is standing on the hood
Issue where player can repair and re-gas destroyed vehicles
Instances where weapons clip through walls
Issue where Baseball bat in passenger seat of vehicle is displayed incorrectly
Issue where weapons SFX were not properly aligned with reload animation
Instances where incorrect SFX plays when damaging environment (i.e. Clubbing fabric sounds from striking wood)
Instances where vehicle audio ends if a player exits a vehicle before the vehicle comes to a complete stop
Instances where SFX persist while in loading screen when match begins
Instances where vehicle attachments not making equipping SFX or audio levels inconsistent
Instances where vehicle spawns in without the ability to accelerate until handbrake is applied or player gets out and back in vehicle
Instances where running on top of destroyed vehicles can sometimes launch the vehicle upward
Instances where visual damage indicators were missing
Issue where dead enemy player character models display incorrectly
Instances where a player cannot loot a dead player character
Issue where enemy player movements on top of shipping containers give off dust SFX to player inside container
Newly reported issues
Issue where second picked up gun plays first picked up gun’s firing audio
Instances where small foliage carries heavy collision
Instances where Incorrect models display while holding the bat
Issue where player cannot cancel consumables with the interact key (‘F’ key by default)
Issue where 4k monitors improperly display menu options
Issue where reloading completes while entering passenger seat and VFX replays when exiting the vehicle
Issue where audio cuts out when player fires Remedy SG while reloading
Instances where equipped weapon suppressors produce the wrong audio
Instances where the game crashes due to errors with VRAM
Issue where sometimes vehicle Jet Boosters or Rocketjump Wheels do not function when equipped
Instances where player is unable to exit a vehicle on its side
Issue where destructible window asset causes awkward texture display
Issue when missing collision on some assets
Issue where curved stairs on silos have awkward pathing collision
Instances where scope reticles reflect on certain materials
Instances where Remedy SG reload SFX cancels when picking up another weapon
Issue where Ghost Muzzle SFX isn’t playing
Instances when sometimes car explosion VFX is missing
Closed Beta: Another Patch Fix 6/22/18
The first day of our Beta Weekend 2 has come to an end, but we have two more 8 hour days of Fractured Lands fun tense, stressful combative mayhem!
Considering that however, we’ve created some tension of our own, by taxing our engineers, and QA staff to create additional fixes! It’s okay, blame me, not them, I am a cruel task-master of a community manager…
That said, I am also quite proud of the hard work they continue to pull off and am happy to surprise any of you with some of the additional fixes they’ve put into place with tonight’s *now live* patch fix for Beta Weekend 2.
Crash Fixes
Fixed crash encountered when applying changes to video settings
Fixed crash encountered when taking damage
Fixed crash encountered on player death, switching to Spectator
Fixed crash encountered when switching seats in a vehicle
Fixed crash encountered when inventory is sorted
Additional Bug Fixes
Addressed issue where minimap HUD didn’t properly display vehicle icon
Addressed issue where the player dies in pre-round lobby, which results in arriving dead in match screen
You’ll notice that quite a few of these are fixes to crashes. While we know many of you continue to suffer from issues such as low FPS, or getting stuck in a sideways car, we continue to test adjustments and fixes to these issues (including a lead on what might be making some players appear invisible to others). In the meantime, I hope many of you can benefit from not suffering as many crashes due to the above happenstances. …And maybe we’ll have less floating dead bodies wash up at the beginning of each round.
Be sure to update your client in advance of tomorrow’s hours with the above patch and get ready for some more time spent surviving in the wasteland!
Just let the man sleep
Robert
Closed Beta Patch Notes v.0.0.2.0 – 6/21/2018
Our second Closed Beta Weekend, scheduled for 6/22-6/24/2018, is hot on the completion of our first major patch since first revealing the game.
We’ve done our best to listen to the variety of feedback that came from our Feedback Form, Social Media, Streamer and Content Creator commentary, and of course our Fractured Lands Partners.
Thank you! You have been instrumental in helping us make fixes to our title in development. Below represents the total adjustments made in our latest patch that you’ll be able to try in this weekend Beta period. We also included some notes on feedback/info we collected that we are addressing but cannot completely finish/fix in this patch–and will address or continue to address in later versions.
Just as a note we also mentioned a handful of things you can expect in Early Access but not in time for Beta.
Game Features
Menu
Added “restore to default” option in the settings menu
Added resolution options for 4k Monitors based on native monitor settings
Added slider functionality for mouse sensitivity option
Mouse sensitivity is in increments of 1 instead of 5
Improved default mouse sensitivity setting
Environment
Various environment material improvements
Added variety of LOD (Level of detail) meshes throughout the map
Applied additional texturing to center point of interests (Refinery)
Added new feature points of interest (Crater)
Arranged new feature points of interest layout and design
Improved level streaming network performance
Improved Muzzle Flash effect
Improved server optimization regarding vehicle performance, taking character damage, etc.
Weapons
Introduced custom art treatment for weapon scopes
Adjusted the G’luck HG firing animation
Re-aligned all scope attachments
Added name and description for all weapons
Quality of Life Improvements
Rebalanced weapon ADS speed
Added proper icons for weapons, attachments, consumables, armor, and vehicle attachments
Ensured simultaneous player spawn at beginning of match to prevent players from defenseless attacks
Added function where, when using “F”, players will automatically switch seats when trying to exit the vehicle while the door is blocked
Players can now melee while sprinting
Added pop-up element showing when something is too heavy to be picked up or equipped
Increased the size of some visuals displayed on ground (satchel, front bumper attachments)
Players can now split stacks of items in half by holding CTRL while dragging item
Improved logic for swapping items
Improved the visuals to display weight restriction for objects on the ground
Adjusted to allow consumption of fuel anywhere within interact proximity of the trunk
Added item sorting by type in the inventory
Increased font size of pick-up descriptions
Looting additions
Added new weapon: Wildhog LMG
Added new Level 3 Chest Warmonger Armor
Increased looting options around center point of interest (Refinery)
Known Issues and their Status
Crashes
Fixed several crashes that player might have encountered while playing
Fixed invalid resolution settings crash
Fixed server WheelVFX crash
Fixed crash encountered when two players died simultaneously
Fixed crash encountered in settings screen
Fixed crash when running tool-tips in the loading screen
Fixed player death crash regarding Health component
Ran speculative fixes regarding various player crash logs
Major
80% of buildings are visibly grounded
Fixed known collision issues for the minimall buildings
Fixed known collision issues for warehouse side door
Fixed known collision issues on scaffold stairs
Addressed reported “rubber banding” issues
Fixed full Key Binding functionality
Fixed issue where storm wasn’t damaging players near end of match
Fixed option to remove FrameLock
Fixed issue where player location did not show correctly on the map while spectating
Minor
Improved known instances where loot, foliage, or buildings are sunken or floating
Improved known instances where textures on buildings, sidewalks, roads, and props are missing, flickering or bleeding
Improved issues of hitching due to level load processes
Improved known instances where foliage collides with solid objects
Fixed issue where tool-tips display in a vertical column
Improved vehicles streaming distance
Fixed issue where the incorrect models display while holding the bat
Fixed issue where swift reload magazine functioned incorrectly
…Removed some random floating box in the world (how did that? Whatever, it’s gone now)
Not Fully Addressed
Audio issue where player is unable to hear footsteps from behind
Vehicle desync from server when sprinting – to seating – to driving
Issue where player takes no damage when exiting a vehicle while driving at high speed
Issue where player can get stuck in a ditch in center of the refinery next to the main pipe
Issue locations where sometimes items cannot be looted from floor
Instances where vehicles drive awkwardly / slow when another player is standing on the hood
Issue where player can repair and re-gas destroyed vehicle
Instances where weapons clip through walls
Issue where Baseball bat in passenger seat of vehicle displayed incorrectly
Issue where weapons SFX were not properly aligned with reload animation
Instances where incorrect SFX plays when damaging environment (i.e. Clubbing fabric sounds from striking wood)
Instances where vehicle audio ends if a player exits a vehicle before the vehicle comes to a complete stop
Instances where SFX persist while in loading screen when match begins
Instances where vehicle attachments not making equipping SFX or audio levels inconsistent
Instances where vehicle spawns in without the ability to accelerate until handbrake is applied or player gets out and back in vehicle
Instances where running on top of destroyed vehicles can sometimes launch the vehicle upward
Issue where vehicle minimap icon displayed incorrectly
Instances where visual damage indicators were missing
Instances where collision/visuals clip or are transparent for large pipes
Issue where dead enemy player character models display incorrectly
Instances where a player cannot loot a dead player character
Issue where enemy player movements on top of shipping containers give off dust SFX to player inside container
EDIT: Made some changes where bugs were inaccurately marked as fixed
A Day In The Life – 6/20/2018
Our Beta weekend is coming up and we are prepping a nice thorough Patch to look over that we’ll post details on tomorrow! In the meantime, we thought players could use a little bit of a primer to share with friends newly interested in trying the game. So this quick “day in the life”, prepared by our very own Lead Designer Eddie Rojas will hopefully give you a good idea of what you should expect, what you should try, and how to survive in the world of Fractured Lands:
What a lovely day! What do you do when you’re dropped into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, where around every corner is a bullet aimed at your head or a tire tread rolling over your face?
My very own weapon Come with me if you want to live, and I’ll help you find your very first weapon, load it, and learn which ones help you how.
+1 Lethality Those with an edge on the battlefield, are those who survive. Grab an attachment scope, grip, stock, magazine, or muzzle and shove the business end of that gun into other people’s carburetors.
Driver’s Ed We don’t want no scrubs, no scrubs on the passenger side of this armored ride, so it’s time to school you on gettin’ where you’re goin’.
Souping this baby up Come to the coast she said, have a few laughs. Well, she didn’t have to deal with some maniac with a spiked bumper ramming into our rear fender. How can we turn the tables on this joker?
You just got shot! So you decided to peak out from behind that rock and now you’re bleeding. Don’t worry, we got just the “medicine” for that…watch out…this might sting a little.
Surviving the Storm Well now that that’s over…hmm that’s funny, it suddenly got dark all of theOH MY GOD.
Only the Lonely Finally, it’s time for some payback. I heard they made fun of your mom, your dog, your car, and your haircut. You’re not gonna let them get away with that are you?
I hope that helps induct some of the newbies around here. Look forward to tomorrow’s run-down on our next Beta Patch for some key info into what you can expect this weekend. Thanks for all the continued support for Fractured Land and see ya in the Wasteland!
This is Bull@#%$!
Eddie
Pump-Action! Kicks! 6/19/2018
Alright, here’s the 411 folks, let’s say some “gangsta” is “dissing” your “fly-girl”. You just give ’em one of these!
Thanks Moe!
Above here, you see the Remedy SG, our own apocalyptic Shotgun complete with brass knuckle grip, drum magazine extension and axe handle stock. Of course, these are all optional upgrades found buried in the storm waiting for you to claim them as your own.
Throw on a Crow’s RedEye scope and a crowd control muzzle for good measure and you have a potent short range weapon to give you an edge over other wastelanders. While you Beta players have likely seen and used one of these bad boys, we’re looking to add a new weapon fresh for this upcoming 6/22 Beta Weekend, so look forward to loading up and blasting out with some heavy firepower of a different kind!
Better Run Better Run
Robert
E3 isn’t Easy! 6/15/18
::PHEW::
Well, that was a long week. Since last we put a blog out, a lot has happened including running another Beta weekend date where we had some massive streaming from lots of supportive streamers, and notably some big names like ChocoTaco and Shroud! We’re humbled to have so many people giving the game a try, especially legends such as they but the key now is to listen to what they, others, and all of you have been saying and make the fixes and updates and feature changes necessary to make this game great!
Following that, we also engaged in two simultaneous stresses that left us a bit ragged if we’re honest. First of which were of course 4 (recently changed from 3) intense Beta day schedules that needed tons of tender love and care! We got much of that care from the help of many creators, and community players jumping on just in time for E3 consumers and media to check out the game on the show floor. The same show floor space we shared with IndieCade, a really great group of people who got us into the E3 Hall and gave us amazing space and promotion on their showcase. That’s right, the second stress was operating a live show, well, the biggest show probably of the year for video games: Electronic Entertain Expo: E3! Still, we also had support from our great headset partner Lucid Sound who hosted us in their nearby suite and donated some headsets to the showcase in West Hall.
These two incredible partners, all the visitors, and players in our beta, really made for some intense action in-game and some exciting and fun conversations about fixes, the market, releasing a last-one-standing game, paying homage to all the post-apocalyptic franchises in film and game of the past, and in general just enjoying great video games.
We couldn’t have done any of it without help from so many people including all of you players and supporters so thank you, thank you!
Days march on however and we’re back in the office with the solace that we can at least be off our feet while we attack bugs, work on optimization, get more keys out and update you on everything we’re doing for Beta weekend 6/22.
Beta doesn’t mean we’ll be done with Fractured Lands though, not at all! We have so much more planned for after Beta, through our Early Access launch (this Summer!) and for the future, so stick with us, and like Choco said while playing “you gotta believe!”
Wrapping ducktape over these withered stems
Robert
