FTessaro - Lead Programmer
It’s been a busy month of finalizing code and running tests with QA. The migration system is functional, only encountering a few bugs that we’ve now fixed, but far more tests are required to know for sure if it is going to work well and act as an engaging gameplay loop.
The new diet improvements are also finished, as of right now we are currently testing the slot combinations in order to find bugs but also to try and steer away from any sort of must have/meta builds. We've also expanded the penalties for dinosaurs that neglect their diets, they begin to incur malnutrition (a bad diet) that causes your dinosaur to become far weaker than it was before, the debuffs are significantly more aggressive than the previous iteration (AFK'ers beware!), while the new positive buffs are improved and allow for a wide variety of combinations you can use to custom tailor your diet to specifically grant benefits that support your preferred playstyle. For example, heavily favour a specific stat? Stuff your face and fill all three slots with the same type of nutrient to gain a beefy buff towards a single stat. Or you could opt to mix & match, vary your diet with more than one type of nutrient to grant a multitude of additional benefits, including a significantly higher growth rate.
In other news, some improvements have been made to pounce visuals and the overall speed of the pickup system. We regularly received feedback on how slow it was to pick something up, as attempting to snag a morsel from a corpse often resulted in the player’s demise as the system locked them in place for eons, so hopefully the increased speed will alleviate the scavengers' woes. We’ve also implemented other community suggestions, such as the stomach icon flashing as a warning that you’re near to vomiting. And lastly, besides overall bug fixing I’m also working on making corpse detection far more reliable. See you next month everyone.
dmIV - Programmer
The Dryosaurus received some love this month in the form of a reworked dodge ability. The new version will provide more speed and agility, allowing you to move in any direction very quickly. It’s faster than sprinting too, so you will even be able to use it when moving forward to gain bursts of speed. We hope this will improve survivability and make the dinosaur more fun to play.
The new gore system comes with some changes to scent as well. Corpses now have a wider detection range than before and it also scales with how decomposed the body is. As time goes on dinosaurs will be able to smell the body from further and further away, making it more risky to stick around for long. Speaking of detection from far away, I also added support for increased corpse scenting range by species. This will be heavily utilized by the Ceratosaurus, which will be able to sniff corpses out from very long distances.
I also made some improvements to hit detection, you will no longer be able to attack others through walls or similar obstacles. So far we’ve mostly just had trees where it was not a huge issue, but now that more human structures are coming to the game it would have been more problematic.
I also prepared some of the legacy dinosaurs with the necessary code and files for the Evrima workflow, obviously they will need many new animations along with unique mechanics, but now we have a foundation to work with once we get there. Beipiaosaurus is coming along nicely, now with a variety of attacks and more animations in place. No promises about when you’ll be seeing it in-game, but I’ve been really enjoying working on it, so I hope that soon you’ll get to enjoy it just as much.
Amar0k - Programmer
I started the month diving into performance and testing out various optimizations with a lot of changes to AI coming over the next few months including an entire new logic methodology. The decision for this change was based on reliability and performance of the Engines base AI trees which have strange behaviours after extended periods of operation or server up time. Lots of R&D went into how this might work and internal testing over the last month has proved the system, so now begins the journey of extending it into production.
The start of this system has been introduced with scavengers like the Compsognathus and Pterodactylus which now have the ability to raid nests for eggs and hatchlings which should make nesting more interactive and require more attention to watch over.
Fish AI has also had some significant changes to how they move around to fix latent responsiveness and non natural movement.
VisualTech48 - Environmental Artist
This month has been pretty much prop month, alongside nature collision. Starting with the cables and ropes set, which consist of variants of cables, from wiring, to plastic cables, to all sorts of indoor and outdoor cables.
After that I jumped onto the lighting, and in this case, track lighting for roads and various markings:
Afterwards we went on to the roll-off dumpster, which is a massive one, and it has WHEELS!
And lastly, we come to the semi-modular security console, consisting of various screens, and tabletops:
That is it for this month, a lot of bug fixing for some props and collision for the nature stuff and buildings.
Wedge - Sound Designer
This month’s focus for me, aside from a handful of small tasks, has been almost entirely on environmental sound design. I’ve been working on a variety of biome ambiences, including the two already in the public build as well as some new ones.
With Filipe’s help a bug that was preventing one of the one shot sound categories firing has been fixed which should make a noticeable difference to the amount of spatialized ambient sounds in environments you are already familiar with. On top of that I've also been balancing and refining them in terms of volume, on both an individual and macro level, as well as the frequency/volume ranges that one shots occur in, and dynamic volume modulation of the various layers within the ambient bedding.
I’ve also been finalizing ambiences for three more biomes that have been in progress but on hold for a while - plains, beach and cave. All three are now complete, spare some final mix adjustments. However the beach environment poses a unique difference that will need to be solved first before being introduced to a map as two of its one shot sound sets are sounds that should only emit past the shoreline out from the ocean.
Lastly I've been designing an ambient soundscape for a Redwoods biome, focusing on creating a sparse, spacious yet diverse ambience. The intent is to recreate an illusion of stillness through the ambience by zooming in on smaller sounds like insects and foliage, and particularly the distinct creaking of Redwood trees. However the environment does contain a large range of sounds for birds, animals and dinosaurs, but I've ensured there is enough distance and space between them to not overcrowd the ambience and fight against the intent for the soundscape of this biome’s ambience. All sound assets have been set up and my attention is solely on the balance of both this environment individually and the balance across all biomes.
Tapwing - 2D Artist
It’s a tough life for Alberto growing up, but if one does make it to adulthood, they can become quite the deadly force.
We wanted to play with the idea of a high-risk high-reward animal, with the full grown Alberto having enviable tracking capabilities and power at the cost of stamina. It can’t run for days but when it does set up an ambush and catch you, the fight is over fast. Albertosaurus is a creature you’ll most likely see hunting in pairs and sometimes tailed by their offspring. While they can have many young, very few are expected to survive. If some do manage to not fall prey to similar sized carnivores during their youth, their continued growth and demand for food will get them chased off by their more ravenous parents or even eaten themselves if they insist on hanging around while food runs out.
You could almost call this one a vampire, because if Giganotosaurus is around, you know it’s going to be a bloodbath.
It’s a proficient bloodletter, so with this in mind, the Giga’s hunting style focuses on bleeding out large targets and flesh-grazing. like many wild canids who will start ripping apart larger prey before they’ve actually killed it. Bleed resistance and perhaps a dietary preference to flesh over organs are additional ideas we may play with depending on how we want Giganotosaurus to interact with each other.
And lastly, I wanted to play with the idea of it being proficient in sniffing out a bleeding target, allowing it to better find and bogart an ongoing hunt when blood is spilled.
KissenKitten - Producer
Another month down and it’s testing, testing and some more testing. This month has been a methodical one with the team making tweaks and adjustments to the upcoming features pretty constantly.
Gore is moving along nicely with the final assets about to replace the proxy assets you have seen previously soon. Carnivores will be able to feel like they are actually feasting upon their prey in a much more dynamic way than ever before. Also paving the way for the flesh, organs and bones to all have unique diet implications based on the type of creature you happen to be playing. Some getting more out of a particular type of meat than others. In addition to the gore bits you’ve seen, there are new blood vfx that are currently being implemented that will start making attacks and eating of flesh a more visceral experience for the players. It’s getting messy!
As for creatures, the Troodon is in testing to ensure its venom is strong when properly applied but able to be circumvented by stronger animals with proficient battle prowess. If standing there and letting things happen is your playstyle, these animals will likely drop you and giggle while they do it. However, Troodons may have deadly venom and speed but they are glass cannons and will not be able to withstand much damage. So perhaps the best defense is a good offense if you’re strong or skilled enough to contend with them. The Beipiaosaurus has also been getting a lot of attention for those that have the bandwidth to split focus. Recently getting some new attacks and polish for some of its movement. We were even joking about the possibility of a barrel roll. But don’t take that too seriously. Some of the other animals that have been getting some love include the Dryosaurus, Gallimimus, Ceratosaurus, Dilophosaurus and Diabloceratops. The new additions getting their groundwork laid so their implementation can be more swift than playables created from scratch. Legacy ports give us some much needed breathing room as so much of their art has already been created and they just need supplemental animations and maybe some polishing tweaks here and there. You may have also seen that the Compsognathus and Pterodactylus are getting some new functionality. They will be able to raid the nests of players and may even make a meal of unattended hatchlings. So keep a watchful eye on your offspring and maybe teach them how to fight before you go off to forage.
There’s also a lot of testing of new natural assets and locations. The cycads you may have seen for instance form a sanctuary crèche for small animals and juveniles to get a brief respite from larger animals. The cycads wind and twist creating a network of terrain that will prove difficult to navigate for large animals, impassable for others but easy to zip through for smaller creatures and juveniles. Be aware that while these areas will assist in keeping larger animals out, smaller predators are still very capable of entering so it is unwise to let your guard down. These sanctuaries will also have a buzzing environmental hazard that ensures anything too big that gets in, may not get out alive and that any juvenile creatures attempting to make it their permanent home beyond a certain size can meet the same fate.
There’s much more going on but I think I’ll put a pin in it here. Take care and I’ll see you in the next one!