Hello Researchers!
Version 2.1 is here, bringing a complete overhaul to creature movement and decision-making! The old grid-based navigation is replaced with a dynamic steering system, giving your population a far more natural, responsive feel and focusing on the behavior of individual creatures.
Individual Creature Decisions
Instead of every creature instantly snapping to a single population-wide action, each individual now evaluates its task independently using the main action as a reference point. Creatures will choose between feeding, attacking, and moving based on their own state and surroundings — creating much more organic, believable pack behavior without sacrificing strategic control.
Creature Collisions
To make movement feel even smoother, creature-to-creature collision is now fully enabled. Your units will now realistically weave and navigate around each other, eliminating awkward overlap and bringing new life to large-scale swarms.
Genes Changes
Because the new navigation system shifts how populations are controlled, several genes have been transformed to fit the new mechanics:
Arachnid, Web Weaving - Extra placement requirements have been removed; webs are now created automatically every 6 seconds.
Arachnid, Ambush Metabolism - Gene removed.
Arachnid, Stealth (New Gene!) - Reduces the creature detection radius by 2 tiles.
Buffalo, Charge - Additional movement requirement was removed. Charge will now activate automatically as long as the creature isn't Exhausted.
WHAT'S NEXT FOR GENETICA?
I’ve decided to push back our Early Access launch to help build more visibility for the project — after all, you only get to launch once! Genetica will remain in Open Beta in the meantime while work continues on new visuals and playable characters.
If you want to support development, adding Genetica to your Steam Wishlist makes a massive difference.
Stay tuned for future updates!