VEIN News: Bows & Belltowers

Hi everyone, and welcome to another news update. This has been a very eclectic two weeks, as we've released three hotfixes and continue to work on new features for 0.025. We've been super busy but we're definitely making progress. Let's get right into it.

Also, if you don't already have VEIN, we've discounted 20% for the Steam Summer Sale, which is on until July 9th.

Hotfix 2

We did a ton of bugfixing for the first week and change. We made newly built containers mark as empty. We fixed windows closing when holding down the button to open them (e.g. searching other players). 8Z has implemented a bunch of icon visibility fixes for floating use icons. We fixed the Lifebringer perk not working, and immortal plants due to Lifebringer are now correctly showing in multiplayer. 8Z fixed some issues related to fluid dispensers (sinks, etc.) when connected to barrels, and fixed some balance issues: converting a nail into a screw is now properly 1:1, and the chances of getting iron when dismantling screws have been reduced.

I fixed some encumbrance issues with this update. Giving ammo via the admin menu won't care about encumbrance; cloning a key when encumbered will drop it instead of the iron just vanishing; and reloading while overencumbered will now drop the magazine instead of it vanishing.

We fixed some objects showing the wrong placeholder when being moved, and fixed some UI issues related to equipped item indicators.

Dropped and thrown items now automatically clean themselves up after an hour. We assume if you drop something you no longer want it. This doesn't occur if something is dropped inside someone's base/utility cabinet area.

Hotfix 3

Before getting into this, I want to clarify how hotfixes work for us behind the scenes. When we have two successive hotfixes, it usually doesn't mean we forgot something or were hasty with the last hotfix. Our development process involves us working on bugs and new features simultaneously.

We put bugs towards hotfixes and new features towards major updates like 0.024 or 0.025. If there's something really broken that we find and fix (e.g. crashes, core game functionality not working) or we have a really big list of fixes, we arbitrarily will release a hotfix.

Generally we want the game as stable as possible, so we release them as frequently as we can without doing daily updates. That's why there are major-feature fixes alongside a bunch of random minor ones; we just got a fix in for something minor and figured, why not, let's ship it too.

Anyways, for Hotfix 3, we added a small button for admins to teleport to selected locations in the map menu if they have god-mode active. We also added a button to the admin menu to remove all items in a radius around the player (similar to removing built actors, etc.)

We modified the content structure of the game to better split up content, so updates via Steam should occur slightly faster. We have work to do on this though. Unreal Engine content is generally non-deterministically/unpredictably packed, so Steam has trouble downloading only changed parts of the content.

We fixed issues with group invites not showing and with the group menu UI in general. I fixed a UI bug with Mortar & Pestle schematics being named 'Schematic: Hammer' in the inventory. I also fixed a bug with map markers sometimes referring to the wrong location in the map menu.

Standalone things, like junk piles and loot bags, weren't saving when destroyed; we fixed this. I believe this had been an issue since 0.024 released a month ago.

We fixed some issues with bed spawnpoints not resetting when destroyed a while ago, but were recently alerted to that happening with camper vans if you go too far away from them, so we've fixed that.

We fixed solar panels not working in multiplayer. That was due to an optimization we did in Hotfix 2 to prevent weather and time-of-day updates impacting performance too much on dedicated servers. However that had the effect of causing the server to always think the sun was down, so no solar panels functioned. Also on dedicated servers, we fixed sprays and persistent corpses not working properly.

Finally, among the smaller fixes, we fixed inconsistent milk item weights; fixed the school bus gas tank location being incorrect; fixed apple trees spawning in home planters; fixed some visual issues with the player's location on some sofas and chairs; fixed the roadmap link on the main menu and pause menu, and finally fixed some exploits and collision issues with the prison.

Lastly, we released a patch, Hotfix 4, which fixed a last-minute issue that caused crashes when destroying persistent corpses.

All while doing hotfixes, we also did a ton of feature work for 0.025.

I've been working on more controller support. As we've said before this is a gigantic task but we're steadily making progress.

Zoe has been working steadily on the new map area, to the north of the existing Franklin County area. The new area is still technically Franklin County, so we'll have to figure out a name for it later. We're hoping to get it in for 0.025. One of the biggest attractions is the ski resort, with a functional chairlift.

I've started and finished up a new utility cabinet system. In 0.024 and previous, utility cabinets either formed a circular area around them if placed outdoors, and if indoors, they formed an area based on the perimeter of the building they're in. In 0.025, utility cabinets will use flags to define their area.

You can place flags to create a boundary for your base. The boundary can be as large or small as you like. Your utility cabinet maintenance cost will be scaled by the area covered by the base perimeter, so if you don't need the entire space created by the 0.024 utility cabinet, you can scale your base down to save on maintenance cost, whereas if you have a larger base and were previously using two intersecting utility cabinets, you can just have one and give it a larger area.

We did this in preparation for new utility cabinet placement programming behind the scenes, and to simplify how utility cabinets work. In 0.024 utility cabinets' covered area seemed unpredictable and arbitrary, and many players would have to set up 2 or more utility cabinets to cover their entire base; now you should only need one.

In addition we're planning on letting you attach utility cabinets to moving things soon, so e.g. you can claim an RV, bus, boat, helicopter, train, whatever to be your base and get additional permission/security/fortification benefits for it.

There are some fixes we've also made for the next hotfix (if there will be one before 0.025). 8Z fixed exiting chairs being blocked by containers among other things. I fixed being able to attach two attachments to the same weapon, causing one to be eaten. We fixed the names of sinks or similar telling you they're filled with water when they're not. I fixed a couple collision issues with the police car/being able to use some of the interior elements of the car from outside.

Yan continues to work on vehicle networking optimizations.

I've started work on the new building maintenance systems. Right now all buildings decay at the same rate: after about an in-game year, everything gets dirty and has mold on it. VEIN is about having the entire world be malleable and changeable, so we're modifying this to be something more dynamic. You'll be able to maintain and repair parts of buildings, such as the electrical wiring, plumbing, insulation, and cleanliness. If you neglect these, you'll suffer things like brownouts, damage to the power box, water sources running dirty, weather effects from insulation, mold causing increased sickness chance, etc. You will also be able to salvage items from buildings, degrading them but receiving crafting items for use in standalone buildings/constructions. It's very work-in-progress though.

8Z has been working hard on continuing medical item and condition rebalancing. We started this for 0.024 in the aim of making the game more punishing if you make mistakes, and we're continuing with the planned list of changes.

Zoe has been doing some game design work. She's increased the requirement of rubber on some more advanced buildables and repair requirements, such as engine parts, solar panels, advanced workbenches, etc. Rubber is considered an advanced crafting requirement: one major source of rubber is shipwrecks, for example.

Boon has finished a set of Mosin-Nagant animations. For years we've received weekly emails and messages telling us the Mosin-Nagant's bolt in fact is required to operate the weapon, which we are well aware of, so finally it's represented in-game.

Ani has finished a set of bow and arrow animations. Like the Mosin, we get a lot of feedback telling us there's no arrow on the bow. We typically don't bother doing a ton of work on placeholders that are going to be replaced, which is why we haven't fixed it. Thankfully now we don't have to worry about it!

In addition I added a quick Inspect ability on equipped items and weapons (L by default).

Finally while working on the new Mosin art, I added the console variable vein.Appearance.MannyArms which when set to 1 will use the Unreal Engine default arms. This is because the placeholder arms we currently have for new weapons is poorly rigged and has animation deforming issues. We're very excited for the new character art to be in!

Speaking of which, Skyler has been working on more hair for the last couple weeks. I think we're close to getting an alpha version of the new characters soon on the experimental beta branch.

Remancer has finished a new night-themed music track for the Lyon Mountain area.

We've received some prototype artwork for the vehicle art replacement. In case you missed it, we're planning on replacing all of our vehicles for consistency and modularity. For example, everyone wants to remove the seats from buses or have better RV functionality. The new vehicles will have openable doors, trunks, and hoods; openable glove boxes; animated speedometers and fuel gauges; and animated steering wheels. All of these are detachable as well.

Finally we've received some new church art variations, so we can stop using the same church for every location in the game. The belltowers are accessible via ladders so you can set up sniper nests up there.

That about wraps up this update! Like I said at the beginning we've done a ton of work and are excited to continue working on new features for 0.025. We have a lot planned but as the team steadily grows we have more resources and ability to get VEIN closer to where we want it to be.

Thanks for reading! See you in a couple weeks.