Ecosystem News

Hello everybody!

As mentioned and shown in previous development updates the next content update for Ecosystem brings Steam Workshop support to the game and the beta is now live!

You can access the beta in the usual way, the password for this one is "SteamWorkshop", just pop it into the beta box, accessed by Right Clicking on Ecosystem in your Steam library, clicking on "Properties" and choosing Betas. As with any beta we highly recommend backing up your saves before opting in!



The workshop currently just has a few test items uploaded by Tom during testing we as well as testing the downloading of the items we would highly encourage you to upload your files as well!

So what is compatible with the workshop? You can upload and download saved fish, saved terrain and even other peoples aquariums!

1) You can access online creatures from the internet button on the creature menu. This doesn't download them to your bank of saved creatures, it just spawns them directly using DNA from the internet.

You can share your creatures with other people by clicking 'Share Your Creatures' on the internet creature menu where you browse through all of them, or by clicking Save and Share when you save a creature.

You can also save other players' creatures when touring their aquarium by clicking on them and then clicking the save button on the creature menu. This actually does save them to your bank of saved creatures, because it is for later use (you can't do any spawning while touring another player's aquarium)

2) Touring other players' aquariums and sharing your own is done through the new aquarium menu, which can be accessed through the main menu on startup or in game.

3) You can access online terrain from the button on the terrain generator. You can share your own terrain by clicking the 'Share Terrain' / 'Update Terrain Online' button that appears above the brush when the terrain sculpting menu is open.

You can leave beta feedback on this post, or over on the Discord, which you will find link in game :)

Welcome to the 8th development update for Ecosystem!

In this update we will cover:

• Award Nominations
  
• Seasonal updates - Halloween, Christmas etc...
  
• A message from Tom
  
• Screenshot Central
  

[h2]Award Nominations[/h2]



We recently received the exciting news we have been nominated for the TIGA Games Industry Awards 2021 in the "Best Educational/Serious/Simulation Game 2021" category (a mouthful I know!).

TIGA are the trade associations for the video games industry and a network for game devs and publishers to support one another so we're very pleased to be up for an award here.

The award show is November 25th and we will be keeping our fins crossed for a win on the night!

[h2]Seasonal Updates[/h2]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

For the period of Halloween we put in a small little themed mode for people to get stuck into and it was great seeing the reaction to this on our Discord - it seemed very well received! We've discussed a similar Christmas themed update - as Tom is just a solo dev we may not hit that but we do hope to, so keep your eyes peeled!

[h2]Update From Tom[/h2]

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the eight development update.

This month, I've been adding support for Steam Workshop.

When it is completed, this will enable you to share the best creatures that have evolved in your playthroughs and the best terrains you have created, and to sample the most interesting creations of others.



It will also allow for uploading your aquarium and touring the aquariums of everyone else who has uploaded theirs.

We're also going to include a couple of maps with premade cave systems with this update as well, allowing for a cave environment that doesn't first require digging everything out by hand.

I've also begun work on the Meta-Evolution Update, which will give you more ways to shape the evolution of creatures in your environments. I expect this to take a bit longer than the smaller updates but am very excited to work on it; I think it will add a ton of new gameplay options. More on this as development continues.

Thank you for reading!
Tom Johnson

[h2]Screenshot Central[/h2]


Stobz on Discord submitted this Halloween themed screenshot!


Ss rious, again on Discord, shared their own Halloween themed screenshot!


Arara here on Steam shared this lovely serene Aquarium shot :)


Djehmli shared this colourful coral reef on Steam!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The ocean is a vast place, full of the unknown, and now in creative mode you can get into the spooky spirit by turning your creative map into a creepy drowned graveyard, just in time for Halloween!

We're looking forward to seeing all the horror themed maps you create - don't forget to share your screenshots either here on Steam or over on the Slug Disco discord: https://discord.com/invite/dyHnugt

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!