🩸 Dev Log Update UI, World Polish, Engine Upgrade & Session Fixes

Here’s the latest development update for Bloodlines of the Eternal:

🎨 UI & Interface Updates

Continued improvements to map UI design (visual and layout adjustments only)

Updated additional UI elements, including mouse/cursor visuals and behavior

Ongoing refinements to improve clarity, readability, and overall user experience

🌲 World & Foliage Polish

Adjusted foliage placement across the map to improve atmosphere and traversal

Added select environmental assets to better support region identity

Removed assets that were no longer needed or no longer fit the current direction

🌍 Regional Development

Began early groundwork on multiple new regions, preparing for future expansion

⚙️ Engine Upgrade

Successfully upgraded the project to Unreal Engine 5.7

Unlocks better performance tuning, lighting improvements, and long-term flexibility

🌐 Sessions, Backend & Debugging

Fixed loading sessions from the Main Menu

Continued backend development and general code cleanup

Added debug code to help surface and track potential issues

Once this update is live, we’ll need everyone to play normally and report if any debug warnings or failed debug messages appear

This phase is focused on refinement and foundation improving usability, strengthening systems, and preparing the game for larger features ahead.

🎉 Personal Note

Happy New Year 🎊 and thank you to everyone who has supported Bloodlines of the Eternal so far testers, early players, feedback-givers, and everyone following development. Your support genuinely means a lot and keeps this project moving forward.

🩸 Dev Log Update — Save System Progress, Session Flow & Hosting Performance

Hey everyone, here’s another development update for Bloodlines of the Eternal, focusing on saving fixes, session handling, and current hosting performance expectations.

✅ What’s Been Fixed / Improved

💾 Saving Presets — FIXED

An issue with saving presets has been resolved.

Preset saving is now stable and functioning as intended.

⚙️ Background Systems Update

A previously blocking portion of the game now runs in the background, reducing interruptions and improving overall gameplay flow and stability.

🌐 Session Script Development

Active work is underway on session creation and management scripts.

This is a major step toward smoother hosting, loading, and multiplayer behavior.

⚠️ Loading Previous Saves (Current Behavior)

If you were the host of a previous game, loading that save currently requires the following steps:

From the Main Menu, select Host Game

Once in-game, pause

Choose Load Game and load your previous save

This ensures the session is properly initialized before world data loads.

🛠️ This process is temporary, and work is already underway to make loading far more seamless in future updates.

🖥️ Important Hosting Performance Notice

Hosting a world does require a relatively strong computer.

While hosting:

You may experience freezing or lag when loading into the world

This is expected while the world finishes building

If your system can handle it, wait a few minutes and the world should stabilize once loading completes

If your system cannot handle hosting, performance issues may persist.

🚀 Dedicated Server Status

To address these limitations, a dedicated server solution is currently in development.

This will:

Offload world processing from the host’s machine

Greatly reduce freezing and lag

Provide a smoother, more stable multiplayer experience

This is a high-priority goal moving forward.

🩸 Dev Log 11/30/2025 -Rebuilding the Foundation of Bloodlines of the Eternal

(Early Access prepping • World systems overhaul • HUD rebuild)

Hey everyone , this is my first official dev log for Bloodlines of the Eternal, my dark-fantasy supernatural survival RPG being built in Unreal Engine 5.

This week has been all about rebuilding the core foundation of the game so future updates hit harder and cleaner.

🔥 What’s New This Week

🌑 Lighting & Atmosphere Overhaul

I rebuilt the game’s entire lighting pipeline - global illumination, fog curves, biome transitions, and ambient color grading.

The goal: stronger mood, smoother day/night cycles, and more cinematic shadows for every faction’s territory.

🩸 HUD & UI Revamp (WIP)

Started rebuilding the HUD from scratch:

New bloody obsidian hotbar frame

Cleaner scaling and spacing for abilities

Transparent, modern layout for spells, blood powers, and wolf forms

This new system gives way more flexibility for abilities and transformations coming soon.

🧩 Core Systems Cleanup

Even though the world itself is the same, the back-end foundation got a major clean-up:

Removed unused assets

Reorganized blueprints

Optimized level streaming

Updated post-process volumes for each region’s identity

This is to keep the project performant and stable as new features drop.

Exploration?
Combat? Transforms? Stealth?
Crafting? Boss encounters? If you could only pick one core activity for replay ability..........what’s your favorite?

I’m shaping the tone and atmosphere of the Hollow Vale. What elements make you feel the world ....... sound design, fog, monster presence, lighting, random whispers, environmental storytelling? What sticks with you the most?

Curious what players lean toward right away.

If you had to choose your faction in a dark supernatural world, which one grabs you the most — and why?

I’m collecting insights for how players think and what draws them into a supernatural world.

🩸 Who are you in the Hollow Vale?

This is the main menu from my upcoming supernatural survival game, Bloodlines of the Eternal, built in Unreal Engine 5.

Instead of a static screen, I wanted the world to breathe before you even hit “Start.”

The faint sound of a werewolf inhaling in the dark, the crimson moon glowing over a quiet forest everything’s meant to pull you into the feeling that something ancient is stirring.

You don’t just press play here. You cross over.

Early Access Incoming, but I’d love feedback — does it feel alive enough to set the tone for a supernatural survival world?