Ecosystem News

Hello everyone! After a successful open beta we are now pushing the Aquarium Update out to everyone :)

Patch notes are below!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

PATCH NOTES
v0.22

[h2]FEATURES[/h2]
Add aquarium mode, a showcase for the best creatures that have evolved over the course of playthroughs of the main game or creative mode.

[h2]CHANGES[/h2]
Make plankton slightly more visible.

[h2]FIXES[/h2]

• Fix: if the game is paused, 'paused' text display may be visible in the screenshot when saving a creature.
  
• Fix: display errors can occur in charts when loading a save game where there is no data recorded yet.
  
• Fix: spawning an edited or stored creature and then immediately spawning it again will result in a creature that is permanently immature.
  
• Fix: in the info view, zero population species can appear in the species window when loading a savegame.
  
• Fix: global log doesn't refresh when you load a savegame.
  
• Fix: when plant eraser brush size is over five, it looks as though it were size five instead of its true size.
  
• Fix: scrolling via mousewheel in info panel species view stopped working.
  
• Fix: savegames created within a few seconds after the very first placement of a plant do not seed correctly when loaded.
  

Hey everyone!

We have just posted the Aquarium Update as an opt-in Open Beta for all owners of Ecosystem!



To access the beta you can right click Ecosystem in your steam library, click on "Properties" and select the AquariumOpenBeta from the drop down list.

Please note:

If you create a save or edit an existing save in the open beta there is no guarantee this will then reopen if you revert the game back by choosing "none" in the beta selection drop down. Because of this we highly recommend backing up your saves.

You can back up your saves by locating them at: C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\Documents\Ecosystem - to back them up just copy them to another a folder, for example your desktop, then when you revert back to none beta version of the game, if your save doesn't load you can copy them back to your Documents\Ecosystem folder.

We would appreciate any feedback on the beta whether it's a bug or a feature request - you can either pop them on this post or in the main steam forum, if placing on the steam forum please put [BETA FEEDBACK] in the title so it's not missed!

All the best
Dan!

Hey all, welcome to Development Update #07, as you know from our roadmap the next update will be the Aquarium Update. I'll let Tom talk more about how the update is progressing below, we will follow up with another community screenshot round up at the end too!



[h2]A Note From Tom[/h2]

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the seventh development update!

This month I've been working on adding an aquarium to the game. This special map serves as a showcase for the best creatures that have evolved over the course of your playthroughs of the main game or creative mode.

Every time you save a creature in those game modes, it automatically spawns in your aquarium, where there is no fighting, no feeding, no aging, and no evolution. The aquarium will also support multiple different environments; I am currently testing whether it is preferable to have a single large aquarium map with, for example, a reef room, a lake room, a deep sea room, etc., or whether it is preferable to have each environment be a small separate map. (Let me know your ideas/thoughts below!)

Since the main function of the aquarium is to serve as a display, most of the features in this game mode are geared toward this. Plants do not spread and cannot be eaten, but you can place them yourself and customize the terrain as usual. I've also been experimenting with allowing for the ability to place artificial lights in the aquarium to allow for highlighting specific spots.

In this mode, the spawn option adds in a single fully-grown saved fish instead of an entire species, and you can cull creatures from the aquarium without impacting the ability to spawn them in the other game modes.

Lastly, this update will also include another round of bugfixes, especially with the info view, which still had several kinks to work out.

Thank you for reading!
Tom Johnson

[h2]Community Screenshot Roundup[/h2]

Below I have collated some of the great shots the community have shared recently!

DJEHMLI on Steam submitted this beautiful shot!

FARMER JENKINS shared The Abyss over on Discord

FIRE TURKEY ONE created a four finned fish and shared it over on Discord

Last but not least ST0BZ has been back modding, and share the cube paint brush they got working!

Hi all, today we are releasing the next update for Ecosystem, which is a minor one and brings the game up to v0.20 - to get an idea for the updates that will be coming in the future, why not take a look at our previous roadmap reveal.

PATCH NOTES
v0.20

CHANGES
Reduce plankton density.
Add button to phylogenetic tree to allow viewing older sections in the tree that have scrolled off the bottom of the initial view.
Rework time sampling in birth, diet, and cause-of-death graphs so that they are not so jagged.
Reduce seed rate for inedible plants if they make up too large a percent of the total plant population.

FIXES
Fix issue where during long uninterrupted game sessions, it was possible to get into a state where new creatures could not be born (either via direct spawning or creature reproduction).
Fix issue where info displays remained visible if you opened the creature editor, chase camera, neural view, or save creature menu while it was open.
Fix some of the cases where panels could display in incorrect positions on some resolutions.
Fix issue where clicking some entries in the minimap legend would warp you to the wrong creatures.

Hey everyone - hope you're well?

I'm back this week to talk about what's next for Ecosystem and a provide a rough outline of the next few updates.

Today's update will cover:

• The roadmap
  
• Community screenshots
  

----

[h2]Roadmap[/h2]

Up until now we've been a little quiet in regard to what's next for Ecosystem as after we launched our main priority was bug fixing (which fortunately wasn't as horrific as you might think!) and then addressing the initial concerns that players had regarding a lack of information to see a high level overview of their Ecosystem.

Since launch we've been gathering all of the feedback to help influence the next steps and I'll go through the next updates below - whilst there's no dates against these updates they are in the order in which they'll be coming out.

We're open to feedback (that's the point of Early Access right?) so if you have any thoughts about these updates let us know below in the comments.



[h3]Research Re-balancing - Minor Update[/h3]

We've had a lot of feedback relating to how plant research works and how it doesn't take long to get everything unlocked. Tom's taking a look into slowing the progression of unlocking new plants down to make it more meaningful when you actually get enough life points together to get that next plant.

This will also allow players to get to know how each plant behaves/spreads properly, as currently it's tempting to unlock everything and throw it all down and watch it spread.

[h3]Aquarium Update - Minor Update[/h3]

Following on from the research rebalancing, we are looking to introduce an "Aquarium Mode" - this will be a mode similar to creative but where nothing changes unless you place it (no plant spreading, no evolution, no fighting).

The way we envision this working, is that you create your Ecosystem as usual and when you have evolved the perfect fish, then you can save the creature, and put it into your "aquarium". Almost like a trophy room of all the best creatures you have taken the time to cultivate.

I keep putting "aquarium" in quotes because it won't be an actual aquarium, you won't see any glass etc, though we are debating introducing ornaments to be placed in the aquarium mode, it would be great to hear if you'd like a little pirate ship to place in the "aquarium" map or not.

[h3]Steam Workshop Support - Minor Update[/h3]

As mentioned in a previous development update, it's been great to see users sharing maps and fish with one another outside of the game and going to places like Nexus Mods to do so. We really want to encourage the sharing of creatures with one another, especially with the planned aquarium update. With this update we will aim to include full workshop support for both maps and creatures so the sharing process is a lot easier!

[h3]Evolution Sandbox - Major Update[/h3]

This will be the second major update to the game and is still in the planning stages. The main purpose of this update will be to put more control of the evolution into players hands, we're talking toggles, switchers and sliders!

We know it's a little frustrating sometimes that you think you're doing all the right things to encourage a creature to be even better so the goal of this update is to alleviate that. We'd love to hear what exactly you'd love more control over.

---

Following on from the Evolution Sandbox update we have more plans for the game but we'll save those for another day - and if you have any ideas for updates not included here do let us know!

We have previously spoken about a Crustacean Update and we still want to do that but there's a lot of issues to solve to make that workable so that's more long term. You can read more about our plans for crustaceans here.

Now onto some screenshots!

[h2]Community Screenshots[/h2]

This shot from PtarmiganCashier on Steam rivals our promo shots for the game!

Farmer Jenkins over on our Discord sharing this Chunky Monkey

Arleas on Steam showed off their successful Ecosystem through the new charts!

Serafine over on Discord showed off this alien looking landscape they created!

Last but not least, Kip Reigns on Steam shared what they dubbed a "hand fish!"