Day of Dragons News

Patch 1.0.1 has become Update 1.1 due to the amount of content and changes made to the game! This new update fixes all of the issues that plagued the 1.0 update and adds new content, including the Blitz Striker - our first Amphithere!

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The Blitz Striker is now available on Steam to purchase as a DLC for $9.99 USD. The Blitz Striker can also be attained for free in-game through nesting.

[h2]Engine[/h2]

• Removed UE5 Nanite support
  
• Removed UE5 Virtual Shadows support
  
• Removed UE5 DX12 SM6 support
  
• Readded UE4 DX11/DX12/Vulkan SM5 support
  
• Readded UE4 LOD support
  

[h2]AMD FSR 3[/h2]

• Added AMD FSR Super Resolution 3 for 4k Monitors
  
• Added AMD FSR 3 Frame Generation
  
• Added Display Options to Enable AMD FSR 3, adjust quality, adjust sharpness, enable frame gen
  

[h2]Easy Anti Cheat[/h2]

• Day of Dragons now uses Easy Anticheat for fair multiplayer. Servers may disable EAC using the config bDisableEAC=true, however, clients must use the DragonsNoEAC.exe executable to play DoD with no EAC.
  
• We have included new executables of Day of Dragons in your install directory. To run DoD and play on EAC Protected servers, launch DoD in Steam or run Dragons.exe. To launch DoD and play on EAC Disabled servers, run DragonsNoEAC.exe. This will have to be run directly or you can create a custom Windows shortcut or a custom launch option in Steam to point to this executable.
  
• EAC should install automatically when you install Day of Dragons or update it. If you wish to uninstall or install EAC manually, we included 2 batch scripts in the installation folder to do this.
  
• We have configured EAC to allow up to 2 game instances of Day of Dragons to run on one PC.
  
• Third party apps such as Sandboxie are not officially supported by Beawesome Games, however, game instancing with EAC should be possible up to 2 instances and unlimited if running DragonsNoEAC.exe. It is up to players to figure out how to do this as we do not provide support for third party app usage with DoD.
  
• To play on EAC protected servers, clients must launch the game in Steam or run Dragons.exe. Clients can play on unprotected servers with Dragons.exe or with DragonsNoEAC.exe.
  
• For private friend servers where EAC is not required, we recommend setting bDisableEAC=true on the server and all clients running DragonsNoEAC.exe to play on that server. This will allow each player to use as many DoD instances as desired.
  
• EAC protected Servers can be identified in the server menu by the special symbol to the right of the server name
  

[h2]Game[/h2]

• Added a new active Elder method to the game. Explore the Forgotten Forests to discover and attain this mysterious new power.
  
• Added Crash Report Client
  
• Added Double Tap Attack Functionality
  
• Added an in-game secret method to acquire new skins
  

[h2]Admin[/h2]

• Added bDisableDayNightCycle server config allowing servers to make it static day or use day/night simulation
  
• Added bDisabledRandomWeather server config allowing servers to make it static partly cloudy or use random weather simulation
  
• Added bDisableEAC server config to turn off server EasyAntiCheat security
  
• Admin Spectators now have a form of Nightvision
  
• Added new Admin commands /ct 0-2400 to change time of day and /cw 0-13 to change the weather
  

[h2]Nesting[/h2]

• Increased Dragon random spawn dominant stat max grade from D+ to C+
  
• Dominant Stats now have a higher chance to pass on than Recessive Stats by default (was equal)
  
• Dominant Mutation chance of passing on the Dominant skin reduced to make it easier to craft rarer skins
  
• Improved Distance checking for Courtship Nesting Invitations
  

[h2]Biolumin[/h2]

• Added missing Juvi Sprint animations
  
• Added missing Baby/Juvi Hover Animations
  
• Added missing Juvi Bile anim
  
• Added missing baby/juvi Flap Sounds
  
• Biolumin emotes 6-9 no longer require the unobtainable Biolumin Kickstarter DLC
  
• Biolumin's can no longer spray players on PvE servers unless they are both in the same group
  
• Baby Bio's should now have an easier time hovering
  
• Biolumin Taunt Emote Animation no longer moon walks
  

[h2]Inferno Ravager[/h2]

• Inferno ability now provides stun protection and reduces Raw Plasma, Lightning, and Acid damage by 50% and Frost damage by 25%. This reduction happens before Armor reduction and does not require Armor protection.
  
• Bioluminescence can no longer be applied to Inferno Ravagers when their Inferno ability is active
  
• Improved Inferno Ravager flight takeoff
  
• Added Inferno Ravager Fireball attack (aim + tap attack)
  
• Rain now extinguishes Inferno and prevents activation
  
• Slightly increased Inferno Ravager turn rate
  
• Inferno Ravager now uses the proper Wyvern Carcass instead of Dragon Carcass
  
• IR Hatchling laugh emote SFX no longer sounds like a baby Acid Spitter
  

[h2]Flame Stalker[/h2]

• Adult & Elder Flame Stalkers can now use a Tail Attack which does Armor Piercing Damage and gains extra damage from the Strength Attribute. To use Tail Swipe, double tap the Attack key within 1/8th of a second.
  
• Adjusted Flame Stalker Armor Mitigations
  - Fire Mitigation Base from 80 to 85
  - Frost Mitigation Base from 0 to 10
  - Lightning Mitigation Base from 0 to 60
  
• Improved color vision when using Nightvision
  
• Heat Sense no longer begins/ends with a fade to/from black
  
• Increased Heat Sense detection distance to 75 meters
  
• Heat Sense can now be used while running and fly boosting
  
• Inferno Ravager and Flame Stalkers now generate more heat than non-Fire types
  
• Added a Heat Sense Ability Icon Time Tracker to help players know how much time they have to reactivate it
  
• Heat Sense can now be deactivated by holding the skill button
  
• Heat Sense now lasts longer and costs slightly more stamina
  

[h2]Shadow Scale[/h2]

• Rain now prevents Shadow Cloak from obtaining full invisibility
  
• Improved color vision when using Nightvision
  
• Reduced cost of activating Shadow Cloak (20 -> 12)
  
• Shadow Cloak now uses Stamina to maintain when moving (1ps Walking, 2ps Trotting, 4ps Running/Flying)
  

[h2]Acid Spitter[/h2]

• Increased Swim Speed when swimming underwater
  
• Increased Venom Mitigation from 0 to 15
  

[h2]Blitz Striker[/h2]

• Blitz Striker is now playable
  
• Added Blitz Striker custom skins
  
• Added Blitz Striker Nest
  
• Blitz Striker now has Lightning Affinity Passive. This enables Blitz to detect weather changes (via hint) and grants no-cost flight during Thunderstorms. While flying during a Thunderstorm, adult Blitz Strikers can summon a lightning strike to recharge their bile completely. Summoning costs stamina and the strike inflicts stamina exhaustion.
  
• Storm calling has been added to the game. There is a new mechanic that allows a thunder of Blitz Strikers, under the right conditions, to summon a Thunderstorm once per game day.
  
• Lightning Blast has a chance to stun which increases greatly during the rain
  
• Blitz Strike AOE has 100% chance to stun but requires a full bar of Bile to use and uses all Bile
  
• Being part of the Amphithere family, Blitz Striker bites are venomous and cause poison status which inflicts sickness over time.
  

[h2]Environment[/h2]

• Updated the Forgotten Forests map, fixing issues, adding new places, and filling out empty areas.
  
• Added new random Weather system. Weather types such as Rain and Thunderstorms now have an impact on gameplay.
  
• Admins can now change weather on their servers with chat comman "/cw (0-14)"
  
• Players can no longer use nightvision during daylight
  
• Improved Nightvision Effectiveness in darkest nights
  
• Added Foliage Interaction to new Forest Map
  
• Added New Water Interaction to forest map
  

[h2]Sound[/h2]

• Added Weather Audio Volume Slider
  
• Updated/Added Various Sounds
  
• All audio should now be heard when alt-tabbing (previously only specific sounds were heard)
  

[h2]UI[/h2]

• Added a UI Slider that appears when equipping a Shimmer Pearl that allows the player to adjust the iridescence strength of their skin
  
• Updated Options Menu
  
• Added Accessibility options for Photosensitivity:
  -Lightning: Normal/Reduced/Disable
  - Emissives: Static/Auto Dim
  
• Player Menu now reflects Time of Day properly
  
• Added Flight Input Keybinds for Flight Turn Left/Right
  
• Added new Raindrops Screen Status FX
  
• Added new UI setting for Screen Status FX
  
• Added new Wet Status Icon
  
• Server Browser Tooltip now shows if Day/Night Cycle and Random Weather are being used on that server
  
• Reworked Controller Inputs Menu which now has two submenus, Options and Keybinds
  
• Added Emote Wheel Keybinds for Keyboard and Gamepad
  
• Added Emote Wheel UI Menu
  
• Added Emote Wheel Gamepad Left/Right Thumbstick Selector Menu Option
  
• Added Emote Wheel Screen Position Location Option
  
• Added Double Tap Speed setting in Controller menu
  
• Camera FOV is now capped at 100 degrees
  
• Improved the Server Filters Feature so it is more user friendly
  
• Main menu now says "Connecting..." when using EAC until connection to EOS completes
  

[h2]Combat[/h2]

• Added new and much improved PvP hitbox detection for all dragons
  
• Improved projectile targeting when targeting fliers
  
• Made huge improvements to bite detection when flying
  
• Updated several ragdolls
  
• Hit Decals are now visible at longer distances
  

[h2]Survival[/h2]

• Reworked Sickness mechanic. The young and the old are more succeptable to poison and envenomation.
  
• Reduced the amount of damage players take from falling and colliding into trees
  
• Players must have at least 1 point in Scavenger Mutation to eat Carcasses
  
• Made improvements to better randomize player starting locations
  
• Enabled Pearl Inventory in Survival maps
  

[h2]Status FX[/h2]

• Being in water now applies the Wet status which lasts for 3 seconds after leaving water. Wet status now protects from Decay, Burning, and Bioluminescence effects. Wet status increases chance of being critted by Lightning damage.
  
• Added a new Stun status effect. Stun prevents players from moving or acting for X seconds. Lightning damage stuns when it crits.
  
• Added new stun animations
  
• Rain now removes/prevents burning, decay, and bioluminescence and adds wet fx
  
• Poison comes in two types now, poison by ingestion or poison by injection. One can be immune to one or the other, neither, or both.
  

[h2]Flight[/h2]

• Added new stationary hover flight ability currently used only on Blitz Striker (Hybrid will also use this)
  

[h2]AI[/h2]

• Added the Swamp Snapper Class 4 AI that lurks in or near water. Beware of old snappers.
  
• Added AI swimming mechanic
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed the issue where players with DX12 but lacking SM6 support would get a DirectX 12 error/crash
  
• Fixed the infamous "flight glitch" which caused players to lose flight immediately after takeoff
  
• Fixed broken Bite Collision for Inferno Ravager & Flame Stalker
  
• Fixed the models of the Biolumin, Blitz Striker, Flame Stalker, Inferno Ravager, Shadow Scale, & Brood Watcher dragons to to fix misaligned eyes
  
• Fixed camera showing underwater filter in some parts of redwoods
  
• Fixed an issue where Elder growth progress would show 100.0% when the percentage was actually 99.5 to 99.9%
  
• Fixed an exploit allowing players to accept an egg then go back to their sleeping dragon if they didn't like the stats
  
• Fixed a bug where Acid Spitters could sprint indefinately without stamina
  
• Fixed an issue where the Biolumin was struggling to get A+/A++ nesting stats due to not having the Elder crit bonus
  
• Fixed an issue where restored Biolumins would cause a game crash
  
• Fixed "Random Skin" nesting bug
  
• Fixed bug that prevented nests from being killed
  
• Fixed an issue where Acid Spitters and Shadow Scales could shoot a player behind them by zooming their camera out
  
• Fixed a bug that prevented Inferno Ravager and Flame Stalker from being able to do bite damage while flying
  
• Fixed an issue where server was calculating hitbox positions from the "T-Pose" and not the current animation frame
  
• Fixed a bug where servers with Group Damage disabled allowed players in the same group to apply status FX like decay to each other
  
• Fixed an issue where AI would not move
  
• Fixed a bug preventing Admin Spectators from being able to see Global/Local public chats
  
• Fixed a bug where Fire Breath audio would continue to play if the attack was cancelled quickly after starting
  
• Fixed an exploit where Inferno could ignite indefinitely and other players would not see it
  
• Fixed a bug where players would sometimes experience very slow and jittery turning on their dragon
  
• Fixed a rare crash when opening the character panel or social panel
  
• Fixed missing nest interaction menu
  
• Fixed an issue where baby IR look around idle was using the wrong animation causing the tail to flare
  
• Fixed some issues with the Being Carried Camera to eliminate jitters so it should work better when being carried in flight
  
• Fixed some animation blending issues that were mostly noticable on the Shadow Scale in growth stages halfway between juvi and adult
  
• Fixed an issue where IR/FS Fire Breath would get stuck on if releasing attack before the startup finished
  
• Fixed many performance issues
  

Hello, everyone!

Thank you for joining us for another Day of Dragons Development Blog! We some very exciting news to share with you all. After careful testing, polish, and preparation, we can happily say that we have a release date for Update 1.1..

[h3]Update 1.1 Release is set for Thursday, September 19th at 5:00PM Eastern Daylight Time![/h3]

Public Open Testing for Update 1.1 begins Wednesday, September 11th. If you'd like to test now, you can join our Closed Test by becoming a Patreon supporter.

A huge thank you to all of our NDA testers, Closed Kickstarter & Patreon testers, and Open Testers who helped us squash some of the most annoying and persistent bugs in the game. This new update will feature a new playable - the Blitz Striker Amphithere, a new class 4 AI - the Swamp Snapper, new map updates and optimizations, a ton of fixes including the "DX12 Error" fix, as well as many new features such as a new eldering method, dynamic weather, interactive foliage and water, and so much more including an anti-cheat to help combat cheaters! We hope to see you all there on the release date to enjoy the new content and bug fixes. In the meantime, here is this month's dev blog for your viewing pleasure!

The Blitz Striker Amphithere is a DLC that includes 5 base emotes plus the Blitz Striker Emote Pack which includes 4 additional Emotes for a total of 9 emotes. The Blitz Striker DLC will retail on Steam for $9.99. Players may pre-purchase the Blitz on our webstore at dayofdragons.com. Purchase is not necessary to play as the Blitz Striker, only to be able to spawn in as the Blitz Striker. Players who do not own the Blitz DLC can still play as the Blitz through player nesting.


[h2]5 Year Kickstarter Anniversary[/h2]

Five years ago, with the encouragement of some friends, our lead developer decided to pitch his idea to the world. Always fascinated with dragons and dragon themed media, he wanted to bring to life a dragon survival game. The original Kickstarter started on September 2nd 2019 with a goal of $12,000 USD and would be used to commission a talented artist to create 3-4 basic original dragon models for the game. The visual effects and sounds were going to be market place assets and they would have entry level animations.

By the end of the Kickstarter campaign on September 30th, 2019 we had raised over $500,000 USD. We never imagined we would reach our goal, let alone surpass it to such an extent. We realized that this wasn't just the dream of our lead developer, but the dream of everyone who came forward to help make our Kickstarter a success. This meant things needed to get... beawesome.

No longer was the plan to commission the artist for basic original dragon models. Instead, we were able to hire our modeler Jia Hao full-time and he is still with our team today. Not only has he created multiple outstanding models for our game, but they also have complex morph targets, allowing for seamless growth, and beautiful textures to allow different skin coloration and patterns.

With $500,000 and a whole community waiting in anticipation, entry level animations would just not do. We were able to find our Senior Animator to bring our dragons to life. With years of experience working on large productions, she was able to add life to our newly sculpted dragon models and continues to be a invaluable part of the team today.

We no longer needed to look to the marketplace for sounds and visual effects. Instead, we were able to bring our extremely talented sound effects and visual effects artists onto the team. And over the years we have found more and more beawesome artists and staff to help bring this dream to life.

Five whole years have passed since our Kickstarter. It's been a wild ride so far. With many up and just as many downs, we have gain a lot of experience working on Day of Dragons, our first game ever. We are excited to share with you the 1.1 Update and continue to create the game of all our dreams. We are deeply grateful to our Kickstarter backers who helped us get going, to our Patreon supporters who keep us on track, to our volunteers and paid community staff who watch over everything, to our development team who has poured their heart and soul into their work, and to everyone one of you lovely gamers who are just along for the ride.

The road has been windy, but it has been...
beawesome.


[h2]1.1 New Content and Bug Fixes[/h2]



Late last month we hosted our 1.1 Dev Livestream on YouTube. If you haven't seen it already, we encourage you to check it out! During the stream, players got their first look at the Blitz Striker, its bile attack, and its special attack. We also hosted an open test session over the holiday weekend. We have gotten a lot of great feedback and are continuing to add the final touches to the update before its release.

One of the big reveals along side of the Blitz Striker in the live stream is the addition of Easy Anti-Cheat. This will aid in the reduction of low skill players from hacking in order to gain an advantage against honest players. Hackers will just have to do what they rest of us do, and get good.

We are happy to report that the infamous "flight glitch" bug has been officially squashed. After looking into the hover takeoff issues for baby Biolumins and Blitz Strikers, we were able to find the source of the original flight glitch. Coming in the 1.1 update, players will no longer be smacked back into the ground as they are trying to take off. It is a joyous day for dragonkind everywhere.



In addition to the flight bug, we are working on squashing more bugs, old and new. We are also putting the final touches on the Swamp Snapper AI. The Swamp Snapper will be our first AI that is a threat to adult dragons and has the ability to swim. It will be a Class 4 creature, the same class as a Shadow Scale, and will be very aggressive. Swamp Snapper will be able to be found near lakes and swamps and will be a challenging fight but offer a hearty meal for any dragon.





[h2]Taking a Look at 1.2 And Beyond[/h2]

After the release of the 1.1 update and any hotfixes that may be required after, we will turn our focus to the next part of the 1.0 Soft Release Schedule; the 1.2 Update. This update, also known as the "Brood Watcher Update" will introduce our first herbivorous dragon along with more content and features.



The Brood Watcher is a large herbivorous dragon with a tank-like play style. It will have no bile attack, have high defense, multiple armor-piercing attacks, and low ground and flight speed. The Watcher is fond of hatchlings of all species and can incubate eggs in its enlarged throat pouch. Eggs incubated by the Watcher are able to have one stat enhanced.

Along with the Brood Watcher will come other exciting content and features. Since this will be a smaller update than the 1.1, we are expecting to be able to release it in less time than it took for us to release 1.1 as we had to do a lot of work to fix all the issues in 1.0. We will discuss the 1.2 update in more detail in our next dev blog after the 1.1 update.

Looking past 1.2 here is some sneak peek treats for future content and updates! We hope you enjoy and we hope to see you all on the 19th for the release of the 1.1 update!

The Mimikor Dragon, a Patreon exclusive cosmetic

Frostfel Sit Animation

Frostfel Hatchling Walk Animation

Icehorn Behemoth Walk Animation

Feathered Zygovo Ragdoll (much ded x.x)

Lightning Elemental Concept Poses




[h2]Dev Q&A Livestream[/h2]


Our next Q&A livestream has not yet scheduled. Stay tuned and watch for updates to find out when the next one will be!



[h2]From the Community[/h2]


Each blog post, we pick some of our favorite screenshots and artwork posted by the community to showcase here. Want a chance for your submission to be showcased on our next blog? Post it in the appropriate channels on our discord!

[h3]Some of our favorite recent screenshots...[/h3]

by valkyrieofdeath

by .o.saphira.o.

by emphyr_



[h3]Some of our favorite artwork from the community...[/h3]

by radiantravens_creations

by xarzal

by raeofthesunflower


As always, thank you for reading :)

~The Day of Dragons Development Team



Don't want to miss out on updates? Follow us on our social media accounts or become a patron to get updates before they are released!


Discord | Twitter | Youtube | Instagram

Hello, everyone!

It has been a little bit since our last blog. In our last blog, we discussed the 1.0.0 update and the first part of the 1.0 update. As stated previously, we have divided the 1.0 update into 5 smaller updates in order to focus on different aspects at a time. We had realized that the 1.0 update was too big for us to finish by our deadline which is why we decided to push 1.0.0 on February 17th as planned and then release 4 additional content patches afterwards (1.0.1-1.0.4) in the months following.

While the 1.0.0 update brought a lot of new content into the game, it also brought a lot of bugs and performance issues. Instead of pushing out more content without fixing the game, we decided to fix the game with 1.0.1 while also pushing out the 1.0.1 content. This resulted in a lot of extra development time because we had to remove a lot of the new technology in 1.0.1 that we implemented in 1.0.0 to "fix" Day of Dragons. 1.0.1 has met or exceeded a lot of the playtesters' expectation in performance and content, and we have more to reveal in our upcoming 1.0.1 Livestream. That said, let's jump to a Word from our Lead Developer about the delay and why it is necessary.

[h2]A Word From the Lead Developer[/h2]

Greetings everyone,

We're wrapping up the 1.0.1 Patch and this patch contains a lot of bug fixes, content, and a huge performance overhaul of what 1.0.0 was. To put it simply, we made a mistake launching 1.0.0 in the state that it was in. As most of you know, we switched to Unreal Engine 5 after April of 2022 (Flame Stalker Update). This change brought with it a lot of hurdles that we had to overcome which I have already talked about before so I will spare you the explanation. Suffice is to say that one year ago today, as I write this, I was in the hospital with 4 broken ribs, a punctured/collapsed lung, and soon after - Covid coughing on top of it. This health emergency took me out of development for around 12 weeks. When I came back to work, we had 3 months to get 1.0 out the door or push it back. I knew what kind of heat we would get from fans if we pushed it back, so I decided we would release it in 5 segments, 1.0.0 to 1.0.4. I pushed myself extremely hard to get that out on Feb 17th, to my own health's detriment, and looking back now, I should have delayed it. I/we learned a hard lesson. The stress, the sleepless nights, the migraines, and the fan disappointment - it just wasn't worth it.

The new UE5 tech, in my honest opinion, is not ready for large open worlds, as most players can attest to who have played games using UE5/Nanite with lots of foliage. We didn't have time to properly test this before we shipped 1.0, but in the months afterwards, we made some changes in how we do things and we will do things going forward.

For one, no more release dates until we have finished up our internal testing. This ensures that we won't have to push the dates back which upsets fans and ensures that we aren't stressing ourselves out trying to meet a very optimistic deadline which is usually the case.

Secondly, we changed how we do internal testing. The first round of testing takes place in my own virtual machine, then it gets pushed to GameDev where testers under NDA find and report all the major issues. Once fixed in my Dev VM, it goes back to GameDev. Once cleared on GameDev, we send it to Closed Testing where Patreons and Kickstarters get to test it. Any bugs are fixed in the next GameDev build, which when cleared goes back to Closed Test. If/when we feel it's ready for the Public, we push it to Public Testing before finally releasing the Update/Patch to live.

Lastly, we decided to be more transparent with development, and are now posting weekly to monthly progress reports on Discord to let fans know where we're at and what we're working on and what may be the hold up/delay aka "Why is it taking so long?".

We hope you all will understand that we're a first-time indie game studio, we made a mistake with 1.0, but we're fixing it in 1.0.1 and beyond and we hope you'll all give us another shot.

1.0.1 is what 1.0.0 should have been. Some of you could not play due to DirectX 12 errors, and we fixed the DirectX 12 errors. We've removed certain UE5 tech that we do not need and kept what we wanted such as Lumen, TSR, and Large World Coordinates. We've overhauled the map and it is not only prettier but runs much much better. We've added more graphics options for better scalability across older PC's. We've fixed many of the bugs including the long-standing bugs - things like the hitbox issues in PvP, turn-glitch, and many more - they're fixed. We've added new features like an Emote wheel. We've improved flight. We added more AI to the game. We added a new Elder mechanic. We added a new Weather system. We added a new Dragon, the Blitz Striker, but also polished current dragons for PvP such as the Inferno Ravager which has a new Fireball attack and better survivability and easier takeoff. We improved the Flame Stalker, we made some tweaks to the Shadow Scale, and much much more.

We plan to show our new Patch off later this month during our 1.0.1 Developer Livestream on August 23rd at 5PM EDT. After this patch is out, we will work on finishing the 1.0 content with the 1.0.2 Patch containing the Brood Watcher and more features/content, the 1.0.3 Patch featuring the new custom Skin Crafting system, and finally the 1.0.4 Patch which will introduce Dragon vs Elemental faction play. Once 1.0 is feature-complete, we will move on to our next major Update which is 1.1 introducing Singe Crest, fishing, the Micro Feathered Zygovo, and much more.

I hope to see you at the Livestream which has been scheduled on our YouTube channel.

Jonathan "SuperRhino" Slabaugh
Project Lead
Day of Dragons



[h2]What is coming in 1.0.1?[/h2]

The 1.0.1 update is going to bring a lot of amazing and exciting new content and bug fixes into the game. For this update, we are taking our time to test every aspect as it is created and hold multiple closed and opening testing sessions. We have been listening to all of the feedback you have been providing us and are working on the important issues and content that matter to our community.


[h3]Map and Overall Performance[/h3]



In the 1.0.0 update, players provided us with invaluable feedback regarding the new Forgotten Forest map and its performance. Unreal Engine 5.0's new Nanite foliage and light system turned out to not be as performance friendly as we had hoped. In addition to performance bugs, a DX12 bug also was causing players to crash when loading the level. To temporarily combat this issue, we had created a LOW SPEC branch of the game for players who not load the new map.



We are happy to announce that the LOW SPEC branch will no longer be needed with the launch of 1.0.1. Our Level Designer and Visual Effects Artist have done an awesome job of converting all of the Nanite assets into LODs and replacing all of the current map assets. Nanite dynamically manages & reduces the triangle count of the mesh which makes it look better but it comes at a cost, LOD's change the triangle count based off of "presets" which are predefined predefined which is cheaper but can reduce the quality. In our initial closed testing of these changes, players are overall seeing an improvement in frame rates and performance. The DX12 issue is a result of using Shader Model 6, which is required for Nanite but incompatible with a lot of older video cards. Since switching back to Shader Model 5 and ditching Nanite, the DX12 errors have been resolved. Goodbye DX12 errors!


[h3]Updated AI Spawns and New AI[/h3]

Players found the food supply lacking in the 1.0.0 version of the Forgotten Forest map. We have been working hard to increase the overall AI spawns and tweak their behavior to improve player experience. There will now be more AI spawn locations around the map. The AI Creatures will also be able to move, walk, and run as previously intended after an old bug stopping them from doing so was fixed.



In addition to the current AI species, a new one will be added to the game in the 1.0.1 update. The Swamp Snapper will be a larger AI and provide more food for players, but also be more risky to take down. The Swamp Snapper will be found around bodies of water and be very aggressive.


[h3]The Blitz Striker Ampithere[/h3]



Likely the most anticipated feature coming in the 1.0.1 will be the Blitz Striker Amphithere. This new dragon will be Day of Dragons first amphithere and bring a lot of new mechanics to the game.

Blitz Strikers will be a lightning-type dragon with the ability to stun players and AI Creatures with their bile attacks and special ability. The bite of young Blitz Strikers will be very venomous and young Blitz's are able to fly, allowing them to catch prey that is faster than themselves.



Along with the Blitz Striker, random weather will be added into the game. Strikers will be the first dragon to gain a buff from weather events and will thrive in thunderstorms.



Blitz Strikers will be a DLC species. Purchasing the DLC will allow players to spawn in as an E stat Blitz Striker hatchling at any time. Non-DLC Owners will still be able to play as the Blitz Striker for free if nested in by another player. However, the DLC emotes are only accessible to players who own the DLC. Nest players will not have access to these new emotes.


[h3]Combat Balancing[/h3]

Once again, the feedback provided by our playerbase has been a big help. We have spent a good amount of time improving the combat in game. The 1.0.0 update introduced a new hit box bug that was frustrating our PvP players. We are happy to say that the hit box bug has been fixed. We have been, and will continue to, thoroughly test the combat aspect of the game. Before we push the 1.0.1 update for release, we will host combat testing events to make combat in the game is enjoyable and fun.



In addition to addressing bugs related to combat, we have also listened to feedback on the Inferno Ravager. With his lack of speed on the ground and lower defense stats, players were finding the wyvern too exposed to ranged attacks. In response, we have created a Fire Ball attack for the Inferno Ravager. Players will be able to choose between the long distance fire ball attack with one click or the short distance flamethrower by holding down the attack button.




[h3]And More![/h3]

We are very excited for the 1.0.1 update. We have taken our time and are confident to be releasing an update that adds new content, fixes old bugs, and addresses the concerns of our community. The update will also bring other content not listed here such as a new eldering system, an emote wheel, secondary attacks, new vfx, and new landmarks.

Our Patreon supporters and Kickstarter backers currently have their hands on an early testing version of the game. We will be hosting a Livestream on August 23rd at 5PM EST to show off the 1.0.1 update and answer questions from the community. Sometime after the livestream, we will hold an open testing event to squash any final bugs before the official release. We hope you join us for these events and we can't wait to join you in the 1.0.1 update!



[h2]Dev Q&A Livestream[/h2]


Join us for our next Livestream event on...

[h2]August 23rd, 5PM EST[/h2]
[h3]On Youtube[/h3]



[h2]From the Community[/h2]


Each blog post, we pick some of our favorite screenshots and artwork posted by the community to showcase here. Want a chance for your submission to be showcased on our next blog? Post it in the appropriate channels on our discord!

[h3]Some of our favorite recent screenshots...[/h3]

by polin.kits

by bestie13

by valkyrieofdeath



[h3]Some of our favorite artwork from the community...[/h3]

by sleepy_dragon6987

by gildedcorrosion

Hello everyone,

It has been a while since we have done an official Development Blog. The 1.0 Countdown took the place of our last one, but we will try to begin posting monthly blogs to keep you all up to date on the game's development. This blog will be looking at what the 1.0.0 update has brought and what is in the works for the updates to come.

The 1.0.0 update has been met with some mixed reviews and contained a number of optimization issues and bugs - some of which were fixed in the various hotfixes released, but some can't be fixed until 1.0.1. Aside from that, 1.0 also contained a lot of new and exciting content, some of which isn't directly visible, but lays the groundwork for some pretty awesome stuff coming in the future such as Skin Crafting. The 1.0.0 update is just the start of the 1.0 Soft Release and we will be addressing common issues as we continue to work through the 1.0 Soft Release schedule.



We understand many of you were frustrated that the scheduling has been changed with the Soft Release and 1.0 in general. We pushed ourselves very hard to reach the February 17th release date with as much finished content as we could. Some of our staff even skipped sleep some nights to continue working on the update. As a result, brains were fried, bugs were missed, and some aspects of the release suffered, but we didn't want to push it back again. After taking time to reflect, we have decided that release dates are not something we can continue giving due to the pressure it puts on us to finish in time and the disappointment it causes fans if we don't make it in time, so for the mental and physical health of our team, we are no longer giving public release dates unless whatever we are releasing is already done and ready. This allows our team to focus on what is important (quality) and properly test the updates before releasing them.



[h2]What 1.0.0 Achieved[/h2]



While the reception of the 1.0.0 update has had mix reviews, we are very proud of what we were able to accomplish with this update. Moving from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5, to future proof our game being one of them.

The new engine allows us to have a lot of features we couldn't in UE4. One of the most noticeable features is the new lighting, which brings our models to life in a new and amazing way. Our dragons look better than ever and no longer have dark, unnatural shadowing caused from UE4's global dynamic illumination. UE4 works best with baked/static lightning and struggled with realtime lighting needed for time-of-day environments. We are also able to expand our world and create bigger maps than what was available in UE4 thanks to UE5's 64bit float precision. This update also came with new and improved servers, which have shown to be extremely stable and preforming well even with the stress of our 1.0.0 launch day, which smashed our all-time concurrent player record telling us that a lot of people want to play Day of Dragons, but not in it's current state... hence the player drop.

With new technologies come new problems as you all are well aware. Frame Rates have dropped considerably in 1.0 compared to Legacy, this is largely due to UE5's Nanite (video memory) and Virtual Shadow Maps (frame rate). We're also aware of issues with the new map, dragon hitboxes being broken in pvp, incompatibility with older PC hardware causing a lot of players to not be able to play with their friends. We appreciate the feedback and have been exploring options to resolve all of these issues causing patch 1.0.1 to take longer than we had expected, because we want to fix these issues when this new patch drops. We want the game to be beautiful but also playable with 30-60fps. There are currently a few options we are considering while weighing the pros and cons of each and at the time of this writing, we just finished up a meeting discussing our plans for fixing all of these issues in the 1.0.1 Patch.

Servers in 1.0 have been extremely stable and now have more config options than ever - even the option to host your own LAN server.

1.0 was our biggest update ever and brought a completely revamped map and two new dragons to the roster, but 1.0.0 was just the first of the 1.0 Soft Release schedule which some of you are enjoying, while others wait for 1.0.1-1.0.4. We are looking at all of our feedback and will be using it to improve on the upcoming updates. The 1.0.0 update was just the beginning of many things to come for Day of Dragons.



[h2]What 1.0.1 Will Bring[/h2]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

With our last hotfix for the 1.0.0 update finished, we are now working on 1.0.1 which will include the following:

[h3]Blitz Striker[/h3]

The most anticipated feature coming in the 1.0.1 update is the Blitz Striker. This dragon is our first amphithere and first lightning type playable in game. It will be a DLC dragon and, like all of our DLCs, it can be nested in and be played for free for players who do not wish to or can not afford the DLC. While some players may not like paid DLCs, they help us fund development with rising costs of inflation and cost of living without having to increase the cost of the game.

While most of the Blitz's models and mechanics have been finished for some time, we had unfortunately found issues with the model that needed to be addressed (who knew babies needed to blink?). Unfortunately, when we find issues with the models, the textures, rig, and animations must be reworked as well to fit the new model. We have finished the updates and now just need to plug all the components into the game and start testing.

The Blitz will be bringing many new mechanics into the game, including the ability to stun other dragons. If done incorrectly, stunning mechanics can be too overpowering and ruin the gameplay experience. We are going to take our time in testing these new mechanics in order to balance this new dragon with the rest of the world.

[h3]Weather[/h3]

With the Blitz will also come a new weather system. Some of you may have already experienced some of the weather changes while our developers have been online. The weather is already in game, we just need to hook it up to work on its own and with the Blitz as well as to implement an option to turn off lightning flashes for users prone to seizures. The Blitz Striker will be able to replenish its bile at any time during a lightning storm, being the first dragon to be affected by weather changes.


[h3]New AI[/h3]

Patch 1.0.1 will be introducing the long-time-coming Swamp Snapper which has been finished for quite some time. The Swamp Snapper will lurk in bodies of water and will need to be lured out to kill. Running into water to avoid combat has never been more dangerous! But having a larger AI will make feasting and surviving much easier.

[h3]Optimizations[/h3]
We are working hard on optimizing DoD for UE5 and are working on a solution that combines LOWSPEC with MAIN so that players using older hardware are no longer separated from their friends.

[h3]Bug Fixes and Other Tweaks[/h3]

Along with the new content we will be working on fixing bugs that players have been reporting since the 1.0.0 update. One of the main bugs we will be focusing on is the hitbox bug in PvP. While we have an idea of what may be the issue, we are going to investigate further and test the hitboxes before releasing Patch 1.0.1. The hitboxes and combat balancing had been tested last year when we first introduced the Inferno Ravager to the testing server and no issues were reported at that time, but like anything, implementing new game code may inadvertently break old code.

We will also be focusing on the optimization of the game and map. We will be adding more food spawns and sources to keep players fed while they grow and more spawn locations to prevent spawn camping. We are currently investigating a bug that is preventing some of the spawn locations from working properly. We have also been exploring mechanics to limit spawn killing overall and give hatchlings a safer area to grow.



Overall, the 1.0.0 update has been a success for Day of Dragon's early-access development. It was designed to lay the groundwork for the rest of the 1.0 Soft Releases as well as future updates and did just that. From the response of the 1.0.0 release, we know our players are very passionate about Day of Dragons and so are we, and our team is committed to bringing you all the best dragon survival game on the market. Quality, however, takes time. So thank you for your feedback and patience while we work towards bringing you the next piece of the 1.0 puzzle, Patch 1.0.1, which we hope will resolve all the issues players had with 1.0.0.

Thank you for playing our game.


[h2]From the Community[/h2]


Each blog post, we pick some of our favorite screenshots and artwork posted by the community to showcase here. Want a chance for your submission to be showcased on our next blog? Post it in the appropriate channels on our discord!

[h3]Some of our favorite recent screenshots...[/h3]

by blakelyexp

by syperius

by reubs_93



[h3]Some of our favorite artwork from the community...[/h3]

by ashutm

by lolpyi

by tempest2189


As always, thank you for your support and see you for the next Dev Blog!

~The Day of Dragons Development Team



Don't want to miss out on updates? Follow us on our social media accounts or become a patron to get updates before they are released!


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Clientside Only

Please note, this is the last of the 1.0.0 hotfixes before Patch 1.0.1

• Made several optimizations to Nanite trees and virtual shadows to increase performance
  
• Fixed an issue that caused hitching when flying during the daytime due to shadows updating position each time the sun position changed in the sky.
  
• Biolumins can no longer eat corpses
  
• Changed Biolumin's Bioluminescence Effect to work with any skin when being sprayed by other Biolumins
  
• Updated various Sounds
  
• Fixed Biolumin Baby/Juvi Mourn Emote playing love emote
  
• Shadow Scale Decloaking after being Biolumin sprayed no longer causes permanent Bioluminescence
  
• Shadow Scale Egg no longer appears black in certain lighting conditions
  
• Dragons no longer have strange body shadowing in caves or at night
  
• Skins for Flame Stalker now have the correct texture
  
• Skins for Biolumin now have the correct texture
  
• Made improvements to old immersive flight camera to reduce jitter while flying
  
• Added a new "Flight Camera" option in General Settings that adds a new Responsive camera (enabled by default) that some players may like over the old Immersive camera. The Responsive camera is 100% jitter-free in physics flight and should eliminate many of the motion-sickness issues players experience, but sacrifices some of the realism, dynamic positioning, and acceleration feel of the old Immersive flight camera. Players who wish to go back to the old camera can set Flight Camera option to "Immersive".
  
• Reduce Max Camera Zoom of Biolumin by 2 meters
  
• Increased Max Camera Zoom of Shadow Scale by 2 meters
  
• Increased Max Camera Zoom of Flame Stalker, Inferno Ravager by 4 meters
  
• Fixed an issue where players were sometimes being kicked by the anti-cheat on servers that did not have dd enabled
  
• Removed the "Council of Elders" in error messages and updated error messages
  
• All metallic gold skins have been polished
  
• All skins Bioluminescence has been polished so it is brighter at night and dimmer during the day
  
• All skins Emissive brightness has been polished
  
• All skins Shimmer have been polished
  
• All skins Subsurface Scattering been polished