One of the most significant systems on Fractured Veil is the Talent Tree. In the game, every single action, from cutting down trees to hunting wildlife, grants you some experience in one of the 4 main categories of the Talent Tree.
These are:
Builder (Strength)
Hunter (Agility)
Survivor (Endurance)
Support (Intelligence)
While you might die countless times exploring Maui, the experience you get will always stay with your character, giving a sense of permanent progression no matter any misadventure you might end up in.
Before we go a bit more in-depth about what each of these means for the player, we wanted to show how it looks in-game.
Once enough experience is earned for a particular skill, that will level up, granting a talent point to be spent to improve a trait relative to that particular action. For example, in the GIF above, using the bow (Archery) levels up “Strength”, granting one talent point to the “Builder” tree.
Like many RPGs before us, the player choice will initially be limited to some basic skills. Once enough points have been spent, the next tier will unlock. However, some of the skills are linked to the progression of previous skills. In the GIF above, it can be noted how the first skill of the second row remains locked, while the second one unlocks and the third one, not being linked to any previous skill, is immediately unlocked. A sweet treat for those who reach the last tier of upgrades is a series of passive perks that also impact your nearby allies, making not just you, but your entire group, more powerful!
Let’s now talk about each Talent Tree, starting with Builder. This one focuses on your character’s Strength and will level up by performing actions such as building, carrying a lot of heavy resources, using bows and melee weapons, mining, cutting down trees and so on.
The skills found inside this tree focus on improving stuff like durability and crafting speed of tools and weapons, improving the carrying capacity, and improving resource gathering.
The Hunter tree focuses on Agility, and levels up by doing stuff like jumping, sprinting, swimming or sneaking. But also using Pistols, Rifles or Throwing weapons. Skills unlocked here will significantly improve stuff like movement speed, stamina consumption and regeneration, and even better night vision to make those nights less intimidating! For you avid hunters there are also talents that will allow you to track down your prey and in the event you are interrupted, be able to find it again! And because hunting is more fun with friends, you can unlock the passive ability to boost your entire team's crouching movement speed for when group infiltration is key.
Surviving is the most important thing in the end and while it might be difficult at first, it will become much easier with time. The Survivor tree focuses on Endurance, which levels up by performing basic actions like butchering animals, eating, exploring, healing and harvesting resources. Spending skill points here will make you a true expert when it comes to survival; not only basic needs like eating and drinking will require more time before becoming critical, but you’ll already know where the nearest resources are, so your expeditions will never leave you empty-handed! Of course, an expert survivor also knows how to gather more resources from their surroundings, so expect a significant boost in your harvesting and food-gathering skills.
Lastly, but not by all means least, it’s the Support tree. This is by far probably one of the most useful and everyone will want you in their group! This tree focuses on intelligence and levels up by crafting, researching, repairing recycling and so on! The Skills you’ll be able to unlock in this tree range from faster and better healing to buffs to friends and/or debuffs to enemies. People who manage to unlock the last set of skills in this tree can expect buffs like Mutant Basher, which increases the damage dealt to enemies for the entire group and Team Boost, which increases the movement of all allies in one area.
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg, we have much more coming and we purposely didn’t go too much in-depth with any of these as we want everyone to figure things out as they adventure in Fractured Veil! (Not to mention, things might change in the future!)
As usual, if you have any questions, please feel free to join our Discord Server to chat with us and the rest of the community.
Alternatively, you can check out our latest short on YouTube or TikTok to learn more about how we test the game!
Weekly Update - November 10 - Story and Lore
Aloha Thrivers!
Something we get asked very often on our Discord Server is whether or not Fractured Veil will have some narrative elements. The quick answer to the question is YES!
So for this week’s update, we thought it would have been nice to have a chat with Rob, our trusted Lore Guide and human encyclopedia when it comes to Fractured Veil’s lore and story!
For the past few years, Rob has been writing countless story pieces and the entire narrative of the game. Some of which you’ll be able to read about shortly after the Early Access Release on January 18 2024.
But until that time comes… here’s what’s waiting for you, lore fans!
We say Fractured Veil is a post-apocalyptic game. What happened in the game world?
Rob: In the game timeline, a global teleportation system is created by a company called Veilcorp which is headquartered in Lahaina. This turns Hawaii into the next Silicon Valley and a hotbed of technological innovation. The world was on the verge of a new era when everything went wrong...
The “Veil Network” suddenly collapsed while thousands were in the middle of traveling to their destinations. The “Fracture” tore the fabric of reality allowing other dimensions to bleed into this one. Ecosystems were destroyed, weather patterns changed, radiation killed most living things, and civilization collapsed in the blink of an eye, leaving only a husk of what used to be.
You’re a clone brought back using Veilcorp data to rebuild, survive mutants and other players, and discover what happened that day to ensure it never happens again.
We often talk about rebuilding civilization. Are there other non-mutant survivors?
Rob: Yes. You’ll run into a bunch of merchants, and soon some NPC quest givers who aren’t clones of Veilcorp customers like players are. Some of these people are old enough to remember the cataclysm, but most never knew what the world looked like before the Fracture.
We also have plans to include different survivor factions down the road. There are groups that have access to incredible technology and others that believe the world is a better place after the Fracture just to mention a few. The mutants might not be the biggest danger to players down the road but that’s a story for another time…
Mutants: How and why?
Rob: Because every apocalypse needs mutants and enough with the zombies already!
Seriously though, many of the mutants in the game were just ordinary people transformed by radiation or diseases from different dimensions. There are a few exceptions of course. You can find some lab-grown monstrosities in the most remote places on the map and Big Bob, our resident mutant overlord, uses the same technology that players use to respawn to create a cloned mutant army.
How are players going to learn about the story? I’ve often heard about collectables and story quests…
Rob: Players will learn the story through snippets of journals, emails, and articles they find while exploring the world and a few quests that unveil parts of the story. There will be a limited number of those quests as we enter early access as we are primarily focused on improving gameplay and introducing new features. Can you share your favourite story/lore piece so far?
Rob: My favorite is probably the Big Bob storyline because it spans over 100 years. From news stories about his days as a real-estate mogul and restaurantuer to his obsession with all things meat related, and his transformation into a mutant boss. There are even Bob-written property listings to discover that describe the dungeons in the game and dare players to come and explore. There are hundreds of story snippets on the website that span before and after the Fracture so it’s hard to choose.
Last but not least, where do you see Fractured Veil’s story 2 years from now?
Rob: We plan on bringing lots of new story elements into the game in the next couple of years to help fill out the world and make it more immersive. We’ll bring in more storylines and there will be lots more for players to discover. There will be new groups for players to deal with, new mutants and dangers to survive. You’ll find new places like factories, labs, and even alternate dimensions to explore. In short, the game will have many more story elements for players after early access.
That’s a wrap! For those of you who have access to our game, make sure to check our discord server. After the latest update we have been playing more with the community and we are organizing events to play together almost every week!
Our Twitch Channel is also a good place to spot some of our streams (and maybe win a key while we are streaming!)
See you next update!
November's Update: Patch Notes and Known Issues
Aloha Thrivers!
Today we are excited to share the patch notes of our October Update! Since we shifted our Early Access release date, we scaled back some of the added features originally planned for launch, so this new build doesn’t have everything we are still working on included.
However, it does have a bunch of the stuff we’ve been working on, including a first pass on performance, server stability and significant improvements over item persistence issues many of you reported!
Buckle up, this is a big update!
Scope of the test
Test Performance on different hardware configurations
Test Server Stability under stress conditions
Test Object Persistence (Chests and Player Inventories should never corrupt or be lost)
Test AI improvements
Test Server Travel
Test and gather feedback on the new construction limits
Patch Notes
Major Changes
Various improvements on Object Persistence. As a result player inventories and chests should be
reliable and not lose/corrupt items.
Lighting and color balance have been tweaked
Performance and Stability have been improved
Points of interest are now marked on the map
Enemy AI has seen some improvements
Improved the Graphical Quality of “Medium” preset
Server
Added Region Selection on Main Menu
Added Server Selection on Character Creation
Fixed various issues that were causing the server to crash
Gameplay
Fixed various bugs preventing Death Containers from spawning
Restored Ladders functionality
Players can now drown in the water
Fixed a bug that was causing headshots and critical damages not to work
Fixed Headshots not working on Hounds
Torches will remain lit after being thrown
Enemy AI is now alerted by player noises
Grenades now damage construction pieces
Added construction limits. Specifically:
Radius 150m
Max Pieces 2500 (Number of Pieces that can be snapped together)
Max Height 30
Game World
More work on the new Lahaina Social Area.
A vendor has been added to the Lahaina Social Area
Some buildings were causing performance issues and have been temporarily removed from the game world
Improved visual quality of the sky
Dungeons
The Sewers Dungeon is now fully explorable and can be completed
Increases the number of mutant spawns found in each level of the Sewer Dungeon
Fixed numerous collision issues, missing static meshes and material issues inside each level of the Sewer Dungeon.
UI
Added loot notification queue
Added a priority system for interactions. Higher-priority interactions get selected first.
Added and improved loading screens in the game
Added Height indicators to the map’s points of interest
Added a new quest indicator in the quest journal
Other Bugs/Changes
Fixed a DOF Issue that was causing the sun to have a black disk around it
Fixed a bug where metal barricades were only damaging players jumping on top of it
Fixed some 127 Converter interactions
Fixed a bug that was causing some animations not to cancel correctly
Fixed gun attachments replicating more slots than they should
Fixed Repair Bench status not updating upon Rai changes
Fixed garbage collection crashes when recycling construction pieces
Fixed projectiles with fire not attaching the fire to the right socket
Added a system to log and benchmark performance
Fixed the camera crouching or being prone while using a ladder
Adjusted some collisions and meshes that were causing the players to get stuck
Fixed some Totem Permissions not being applied correctly
Known Issues
Major issues:
VSM and Nanite are not fully optimized yet and we are actively working on these. Turn them on at your own risk
Walking around the vendors' area of Thorcon (Spawn Area) may cause some stutters. We are actively looking into these
Walking towards the new vendor in the Historic District (Social Area) will cause a significant stutter that can last up to a second.
The Elevator in the communication tower might not have collision the first time. We recommend calling the elevator and then taking it only after it comes down again
Playing in Borderless windowed won't change the resolution of the game after changing it to something else. As a workaround please play in FullScreen or change the System Display Resolution.
Minor Issues:
Ladder interaction will sometimes fail if the player is standing too close despite the interaction prompt appearing
Water splashes can be heard when walking on sand, close to the water
Some models have Level of Detail issues, causing them to appear at a lower quality even if up close
We are actively working on fixing these
The sound of Walking/Running or any step the player takes is sometimes duplicated and/or delayed
Some assets in the game world or within dungeons may be missing collision, please report this to us so we can get them fixed
Bases that are Too wide might start de-rendering some pieces further away from the original Totem. This is an extreme case and only limited to bases as wide as 2 map squares
Equipping any kind of bow prevents the footstep sound from playing. This is being addressed in a future patch
Players may experience a temporary drop in performance while using the Tier 2 Crafting Bench inside the Thorcon. This is being fixed in a future patch
The combat medic talent is not working - it will be fixed in the next update
No Texture on female glasses/sunglasses
Some Item icons like the Shorts and Starter Pistol are not appearing correctly, showing no icon or a different item
Fractured Veil is shifting launch to January 18, 2024
Thanks to everyone in our amazing community for supporting us and understanding why we made this tough decision.
Weekly Update - October 16th
Aloha Thrivers.
Last week, when we announced that we're shifting our release date to January 18 2024, we also mentioned that we were going to shed some light on why and to bring as much clarity and transparency as possible to what led to that decision.
The Road Ahead
We had a meeting, going through a series of requirements that we didn’t want to end up compromising with. Here’s what we’ve set internally:
No server crashes or items corrupting which leads to players losing their inventory.
Minimum 30fps everywhere on PCs matching our minimum requirements.
Servers can hold a high volume of players loading & playing the game and have been tested with over 150 bots and players actively playing as normal. Response time is kept under 30-40ms and players can queue for a server with no issues.
Players are correctly spread across servers without major issues.
Server Travel is reliable and bug-free.
Our Queue System ended up needing more work before it was ready, and we didn’t want to test things last minute before releasing the game in Early Access. Doing so would have likely uncovered some major issues that would severely impact our player’s experience. On top of that, we believe the game’s performance still needed some more improvement before Early Access.
In the picture: the Totem (Our Servers) and You (The mutants) trying to get in.
What are we doing Server Side?
The keyword to understanding what’s going on with our server is “scaling”.
Getting a bit more technical, we are implementing Kubernetes and writing scripts for on-the-fly deployment of servers/databases/service apps. Some of our existing systems are also getting reworked to facilitate scaling. For those who understand what we are talking about, this means stuff like moving from static IP addresses to domains, changing info that used to be passed on the command line to be read from the database, using automated load-balancing, and so on.
We’ll also take advantage of the extra time to work on some features that were lower on the priority list but that will have a positive impact on the game. This is stuff such as improving AI (enemies/wildlife) performance when a lot of players are spread across the map, improving our caching system to reduce overall Database load, implementing various 3rd party services/frameworks for monitoring/reporting activity, or just adding more server functionality that we didn't previously have.
So what about performance?
A lot is going on here. We feel we have reached a point where we believe most modern gaming PCs won’t have issues running the game, however, work on performance is just getting started. First and foremost, we have built an internal system so that we can gather performance statistics and compare various PC Hardware to pinpoint issues with specific setups, locations or situations and then apply targeted performance optimization wherever necessary based on our findings. Since the Unreal Engine 5 upgrade was such a huge lift, we couldn’t dedicate resources to develop better testing systems, and this tool will play a pivotal role in helping us increase performance all around.
We are also spending some time optimizing foliage. Since our engine upgrade, we lost some features we had before, and one of these was the ability to de-render foliage as the player walked away from it. Trees, plants, flowers and shrubs will soon start disappearing at medium and large distances from the player, significantly improving performance.
We are aware that Unreal Engine 5.3 brings significant benefits under this topic, however, we are not planning on doing another engine upgrade until after we have our game released in Early Access.
Some other areas we are working on:
Since allowing players to play with their friends is a priority for us, we also need to rework the menus and the UI alongside the logic for server and veil travel.
We have moved our dungeons to their own levels, and that requires more testing, especially traveling back and forth to Lahaina.
We are improving the visual quality of the game at Medium and Low graphics settings, without sacrificing performance.
We are re-introducing some visual stuff that we lost with the engine upgrade, such as rain puddles.
We are adjusting the lighting on Dungeons.
Lastly, we are doing many quality-of-life improvements, bug fixes and filling the world with more stuff!
We hope this brings more clarity as to why we ended up delaying the game. We thank everyone who recently shared their support with us on our discord server and social media. We are doing this for you and we wouldn’t be here without you!
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.
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.
Weekly Update - September 22
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!
New Launch Trailer
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!
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!!
August Update - Making a Trailer and Improving Performance
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!
Behind the Veil
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!
Surviving Together
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.
Expanding the world
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.
Improving Performance
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.
Squishing Those Bugs
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:
Last but not Least
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!
Join Us in Supporting the Hawaii Community Foundation - Maui Strong Fund
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! 💪🏼
