VEIN Weekly: Bloodmeal

Hi everyone, and welcome to another VEIN Weekly!

This is another small update as we move towards expanding the team and working towards 0.023.

Yan fixed weather particles not following your camera in third person. He has also fixed dozens of crashes that have plagued the game from day one, so many thanks to him. Stability improvements are an ongoing process and continue to be worked on. These fixes will be in the next hotfix, which should be soon.

I've finished work on UI text scaling, which was a major block, but it's good to have it done. Localization fixes are completed, so the game should be available in a few more languages soon, and I can get back to work on new features and fixes. We've also bumped up the default size of text in the game a couple pixels for readability.

I've worked a bit on more hunting and wildlife tracking elements. Hopefully the system will be complete soon. The current system, where you loot corpses like they're bags, was always meant to be a placeholder for an improved hunting system like the one in development. The results from the new hunting system will be used in a variety of crafting and building systems; for example, feathers will be used to craft improved arrows, organs may be used as fish bait, and pig blood can be used for blood transfusions.

I've fixed some errors related to TV light emission. They are now colored (previously, all light from TVs was black and white). In addition, this presents the opportunity for projectors – I've made one as an example that we'll add into the game eventually.

We fixed a long-standing bug where drying racks would always make 10 of everything. I also fixed some multiplayer exploits, and some time-related bugs (such as utility cabinets consuming resources even with time not running).

I've done a pass over our weather effects. They are now more performant and higher density than previously.

Azi has been working on the new map area planning. The landscape and rivers have been planned, and the map boundary is coming into focus. They have also been working on hunting-adjacent features, like body part items and new arrow types for bows. You will be able to craft bonemeal and bloodmeal from animal parts, which will also be usable in gardening as a growth supplement.

Many food items have been adjusted to grant stress bonuses/reductions based on their temperature (for example, drinking cold soda will benefit you more than drinking it warm).

The reason we're pushing hard for hunting features is because it's going to be a core part of the endgame. In the endgame, we want your character in Vein to gradually move off of the grid and transition to self-sustainable survival practices as opposed to looting. We want endgame Vein to be an actually difficult experience that derives its difficulty from the environmental conditions, and before tweaking difficulty, we have to get fundamentals like this done so that the late-game is actually playable.

Finally, we'd like to give a warm welcome to the team's new first-person animator, Ani. Ani is active in various modding circles and we definitely need their help to make our weapons feel more alive – both firearms and melee weapons. They are working on our first set of custom animations for the .38 Special.

So that's about it for this week! Again, a short update, but a lot of behind the scenes work. We are continuing to hire across most roles, so if you'd like to work with us, please send a resume or portfolio to jobs@ramjetstudios.com.

See you next week!