VEIN Weekly: Hitching

Hi everyone, and welcome to another VEIN Weekly. This one's going to be very short as we've mostly been working on getting Hotfix 11 ready to go, which we really want out ASAP as it includes many fixes that are currently frustrating people. Our upgrade to Unreal 5.6 has had a couple problems so we're working hard to resolve those.

We fixed some incorrect placement of posters, signs, etc. not being able to stick to walls (e.g. target posters) for the next hotfix.

We did some work on arrow behavior in game, fixing how they collide with zombies and characters. There's still work to be done in multiplayer but at the minimum they should collide properly with crawlers now.

We added the ability (for the next major update) to fill air tanks from gas station pumps, meaning they're now reusable.

Zombies can now have backpacks or glasses on and so are now a source of them.

In 0.023, we've added the ability to hitch vehicles to each other. They have no requirements right now but we'll add them down the line. You can now tow vehicles in a convoy in order to bring vehicles back to your base easier. They have their own physics and momentum and will drag on your vehicle and catch on things, so drive safely.

We added the ability for the next hotfix to reset containers and furniture nearby you in multiplayer, and fixed furniture permanently going away sometimes on servers. That'll be in Hotfix 11. We know how damaging this is to servers – which is why we are putting feature-work on hold until the hotfix is out.

We fixed harder difficulties not spawning specific things sometimes (e.g. certain tools not spawning on Insanity). This isn't a balance change; there was an actual bug that prevented them from spawning due to how we calculate item spawn probabilities. It should be a bit more balanced now.

We fixed a couple issues with e.g. batteries not charging in chargers, or plants not growing, if you're located very far away from them (e.g. in a different town).

We added permission zone actors for multiplayer for the next major update. These function as exclusion zones preventing players from doing certain things in areas. You can set these up as an admin to disable PvP in an area, make furniture non-destroyable, etc. If you have specific permissions you'd like to see in these as a server admin, let us know.

Broken glass can now be removed from greenhouses.

So that's the weekly update! Again, very small, but most of the changes we've done have either been too small to mention outside of a changelog (e.g. fixing UI issues, balancing stats, or correcting item physics) or have been too technical to mention (fixing crashes and incompatibilities with Unreal 5.6). With any luck, Hotfix 11 will be out soon.

See you next week!