Primal Carnage: Extinction News

Today's patch marks the end of our special Easter Event, bringing a selection of various fixes and quality of life improvements to the game. Our major focus today though concerns:

[h2]Changes to Challenges[/h2]

This update we have modified dozens of challenges and their requirements based on community feedback. Over 200 people responded to the challenge survey we ran a while ago, and we've taken on board some of the suggestions from that along with what we've been reading in the official Discord.

[h3]Lowering Frustration[/h3]

Many challenges that were previously lower tier have been upgraded to either Silver or Gold because of various factors that can affect their difficulty, be it limited access to a certain class or mode or some requiring tricky timing.

On the other hand - some challenges have had the opposite. Several tasks have been downgraded to lower tiers since they do not require as much skill and can be accomplished without strict conditions.

Specific requirements for a handful of particularly annoying challenges have been changed to be easier, such as killing a Pachy with an armour piercing headshot. Challenges for playing as Tyrants have lower requirements in general. We also removed the Cerato challenge for defending GTTC control points, because there is another challenge that is basically identical and doesn't require a specific class.

[h3]Future Challenges[/h3]

Hopefully things feel fairer with this update, but we will be monitoring feedback in the next few weeks to see how these adjustments play out and will make additional tweaks if needed.

There are just over 60 challenges currently active in the game, and we'd love to add some more this year. Please let us know over on our Challenge Suggestions channel if you have any ideas!

[h2]Retro Store Rotation[/h2]

In the lead up to Summer Meltdown we'll be cycling through some classic cosmetic collections in-store, featuring different classes each week. The first of these is Tyrant Week starting today...

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We've also recently made a bunch of skin bundles available permanently in-store, along with many older items that will now be sticking around in the Browse section.

Note that as of a few updates ago, the most recent cosmetics are shown first on the store instead of the oldest. We're looking into adding a couple more store features in future such as more advanced filtering and potentially a Search function, but that's a little while off.

[h3]Version 2.9.54[/h3]
[h2]Full Changelog:[/h2]

• Changed requirements and rarities for many challenges based on community feedback
  
  
• Non-Tyrant dinosaurs now spawn with only a 50% roar cooldown
  
• Expanded roar popup notification with Roar Ready message when cooldown is over
  
  
• Set a longer air ram attack cooldown for Tupa
  
• Fixed a missing bone in the Tupa strongpoint list, Tupa's head should now be entirely armoured
  
• Added variation to Flyer idle glide animations
  
• Added alternate flight camera style option
  (enable this to stop flyer moving in direction of camera while gliding)
  
  
• Modified spit and other particle trail effects
  
• Fixed trails ending early for some particles
  
• Fixed some projectiles getting "stuck" in midair
  
• Possible fix for spit blinding effect getting stuck onscreen
  
  
• Reduced recoil and spread of double barrel shotgun (single shot mode)
  
• Adjusted reload end times for all guns, no longer need to wait for entire animation to complete
  
• The "unstuck bump" now only triggers every 3 seconds when stuck instead of over and over again
  
  
• Big update to master human shader and pretty much all human skins, optimizing texture usage
  
  
• Fixed name and description tags not showing anything to use them on if selected from the Tools tab in the inventory
  
  
• Fixed missing ponytail on Monarch Scientist skin
  
• Fixed incorrect texture used for Cerato swirl spray
  
• Updated Pachy slide attack kill icon
  
  
• Disabled double EXP in CTE mode post-easter
  

[h2]New & Upcoming Official Merch[/h2]
The official Primal Carnage Store has a new poster just added, featuring the Royal Acrocanthosaurus!



This is another in our ongoing dinosaur portrait series, talented artist Aram Papazian is already working on the Classic Acro poster which is up next, followed by portraits for the remaining classes this summer.



Other recently added items feature designs from our community contests, such as new mugs, shirts, stickers and pins. Feeling creative? Post your own merch ideas and art for consideration over here!




[h2]Onwards to Summer[/h2]

We hope you enjoy this latest update! Outside of the game itself, there will be more community contests throughout the year. You can get involved by joining our official Discord...



Our annual Meltdown Event arrives at the end of June, with an epic collection of seriously hot new looks! We're still cooking the 3.0 overhaul and will be running an open beta for it this summer. Stay tuned...

[h3]Thanks for playing![/h3]
-The Primal Carnage Team

A new update is now LIVE for Primal Carnage: Extinction on Steam!

We have some eggcellent new items available today, alongside a quality of life update for the game which features some long-requested changes and various balance tweaks...





[h3]ROAR ABILITIES[/h3]

Working on feedback from the community, we're continuing to adjust various gameplay elements over time. This update introduces auto-cooldowns on spawn for dinosaur roars, since many players end up wasting a very valuable ability the moment they pop into the game.

This goes hand in hand with a shorter timeout for roar abilities on most dinosaurs. It's worth noting that no roar had a cooldown longer than 60 seconds before, but we've brought most of them down by another 5 to 15 secs based on the class for this update. We're interested to see how these tweaks affect the dynamic of matches.

[h3]TUPA TUNE-UP[/h3]

Tupandactylus continues to be the problem child, proving a difficult beast to balance. Previously the class would lose a small amount of stamina when dashing into enemies, primarily to discourage them from killing too quickly with multiple hits.

However since this was a little counter-intuitive, we've reversed things. Now, you gain stamina back for charging into targets as Tupa, which rewards you for being good at your main job.

Other safeguards have been put in place over time to reduce Tupa's being over-effective with charge attacks, but we'll be watching closely. Feedback from previous patches also caused us to remove a crit spot at the base of Tupa's skull.

[h3]CAPTURE THE EGG[/h3]

Elsewhere, humans can now continue carrying the egg in CTE mode if they take damage. They will only drop the egg when they are killed. This is a somewhat experimental change, humans seemed to be having a hard time when a simple scratch would make them drop their cargo. Depending on how this plays out, we may end up adjusting things so that the egg is dropped at low health instead.




Rolling into store today are a clutch of eggcellent new looks for your dinosaurs! Take a peek at some of the highlights of our latest special event below...

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Outside of the featured rotation, we have almost a baker's dozen of fresh drops, ranging from multicoloured weapon designs and tie-dyed pyro attire to some intricate new dino skins!



As always, you can check out every new item added this update on our Special Event Trello page!

[h2]Double EXP in CTE![/h2]



Celebrating our egg-loving friends the Oviraptors, participating in Capture the Egg matches this spring will net you DOUBLE extinction points! If you haven't checked out CTE in a while, why not give it a shot?




[h3]BALANCE CHANGES[/h3]

• Dinosaurs now spawn with their roar on cooldown to discourage wasting their ability
  
• Reduced roar cooldowns on several dinos:
  
  
  • Tyrants from 60 secs to 45 secs
    
  • Nova from 60 secs to 45 secs
    
  • Ovi from 45 secs to 35 secs
    
  • Ptera from 30 secs to 25 secs
    
  • Pachy from 50 secs to 45 secs
    
  • Carno from 55 secs to 40 secs
    
• Tupa now gets stamina restored instead of drained when charging into humans
  
• Removed a weakspot from back of Tupa's head
  
  
• Humans can now continue carrying the egg in CTE while taking damage, it will only drop on death
  
• Enabled double EXP in CTE mode
  

[h3]FEATURE TWEAKS[/h3]

• New easter items now available!
  
• Added graphics option for Dino Spray Style - Bloody or Clean visuals
  
• Added gameplay option for disabling dino head tracking - useful for taking screenshots
  
• Can now revert skins that were Colourized, click the remove paint button in customization
  

[h3]GENERAL FIXES[/h3]

• Fixed several throwables that were dropping to the floor instantly when thrown
  
• Fixed extra delay being applied to flamethrower when tap firing
  
  
• Fixed some cases where spit could pass through objects
  
• Fixed midair spit particles vanishing on low graphics mode
  
• Fixed spit puddle particles still showing when you get a direct hit
  
  
• Fixed watermelon tupa not using the right crest mask
  
• Fixed seam on classic feathered nova skin
  
• Fixed the Cyborg Commando not fully dissolving when hit with acid - his metal's not THAT tough.
  

Join the Official Discord!



[h3]HAPPY EASTER![/h3]
-The Primal Carnage Team

The 2024 Saint Patricks Update for Primal Carnage: Extinction is now live on Steam!

Featuring not just new looks but a bunch of big gameplay changes, we're continuing to deploy what we can manage to the PC side while wrapping up the new PlayStation version. Much larger overhauls will be arriving with 3.0 later this year, but some will start trickling in over time as is the case with this update...



The first of two updates this March brings many large and small gameplay adjustments. Check the full changelog at the bottom or read on for the highlights...

[h3]FLAMESAW OVERHAUL[/h3]

On the human side, the flamesaw has seen the biggest changes (with more on the way)...

Balance-wise, flamethrower fuel consumption is lower and overpressure is now more damaging, but with bonus damage ending sooner. It's now less useful than ever to just go flailing around everywhere, but if a Pyro does go wild with the flamethrower it'll cover less of your screen...

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

All particle effects for the fire jet have been reworked to both be more optimized and have a tighter trail, their bold blue appearance at high pressure mimics the enhanced Survival flamesaw.

The chainsaw now has a refire delay to prevent spam-tapping. Previously, this was a method of killing dinos super quickly without worrying about the saw overheating. You can still get around overheat if you get a good rhythm going, but it's now much less exploitable.

Audio for the Flamesaw has been completely overhauled. It now uses the latest looping weapon system for optimization and less obvious repetition (other players can now also actually hear it properly). Firing the flamethrower at high or low pressure has different sounds, there is now a crackling effect when hitting an enemy with the fire jet, and its idle sound changes from a rattling chainsaw motor to the hiss of the flamethrower depending on which was last used.

[h3]SPIT POLISH[/h3]

Both spitters have received a boost to their ranged attacks, partially due to fixing a bug where they would spawn an invisible damage puddle in midair when direct hitting a target. We still want direct hits to be a rewarding thing for them, just not through bugged means.



Cryo acid is a bit more damaging when landing on a human, while Dilo's charged spit now deals worthwhile damage instead of just blinding. The Cryo's spit was never meant to properly blind, so the duration of that effect has been greatly reduced until a new screen overlay is made that's less obscuring.



With regular spit now being more dangerous, we decided to deliver on a community request to make it more visible. It now has brighter, more solid particles. Additionally, both regular and charged spit effects now use lengthy trails that linger after impact to show where the spit came from.

[h3]TYRANT RESISTANCE[/h3]

Previously a couple of factors led to situations where Tyrants could have a really bad time. Chief among these were dart weapons that could quickly drain them, and electrical stuns which cancelled any attacks.



With this update, stungun and zap traps no longer interrupt Tyrant animations that are in progress, meaning they can complete eating people, stomping, swiping etc. when hit. They cannot initiate a *new* attack when stunned, but they are not prevented from finishing one. Elsewhere, the stungun itself has a longer charge time to give Tyrants a chance to escape before getting hit again.

In a change that affects more than just Tyrants, dinosaur strongpoints now ignore darts completely. They deal no damage to armoured spots on a dino and no debuff is applied if shot in these spots. This means poison dart rifle and tranq pistol users will need to have better aim to gain an advantage, instead of just spam firing in a dino's general direction. This mostly helps the largest classes such as Tyrants, but is a net improvement for dinosaurs overall.

There's a number of other small gameplay tweaks in this update, including fan-requested changes like a max distance for assault rifle grenade bouncing (if they travel far enough, they'll just explode on impact). Check the full changelog further down to see more!

[h2]SAINT PATRICKS EVENT[/h2]

Super green! We've got an emerald shower of new items in celebration of Saint Patrick's Day...

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

In addition to our featured store rotation, Lucky Drops are back! With a fresh batch of new free items added to the drop pool, we're running a double drop event weighted in their favor for the next 2 weeks!



You can check out all of the NEW looks on our Special Event Trello Board. We've also got plenty of classic St Patricks event items from yesteryear returning with discounts today, from a bold top hat wearable by both humans and dinos, to Mister Green himself!



[h3]CONTEST WINNERS NOW IN-GAME![/h3]

The lucky winners (and even some of the runners up!) in the emoji contest now have their creations officially added to the game! Select from six new avatars and sprays that are now dropping in-game, and pick up some of them as physical merch on the official web store!



We'll be back with more goodies at the end of the month when the Easter event arrives.
Til then, feast your eyes on the full list of changes from our latest update...



Flamesaw Balance Changes:

• increased overpressure damage
  
• overpressure bonus damage ends quicker now
  
• reduced flamethrower fuel consumption rate
  
• shorter timeout period before overpressure starts recharging
  
• added a refire delay to prevent spamming the chainsaw
  

Flamesaw Visual Changes:

• added hot barrel glow to the flamethrower
  
• barrel glow is blue when using upgraded flamesaw in Survival mode
  
• on fire effect for dinos hit by upgraded flamesaw is also blue
  
• updated flamethrower particle effect to be tighter and more optimized
  
• flamethrower particles are now more intense at high pressure
  

Flamesaw Audio Overhaul:

• upgraded flamesaw sounds across the board
  
• converted flamesaw to use the new weapon audio system
  
• flamethrower start sound is now different for low vs high pressure
  
• added new flamethrower sounds for hitting flesh and water
  
• fixed hearing a chainsaw revv when swapping to secondary weapon
  
• fixed other players not hearing flamesaw sound effects properly
  
• idle sound now changes based on whether chainsaw or flamethrower was used
  

Spit Modifications:

• added more noticeable spit projectile trails to show trajectory of where they came from
  
  
• direct spit hits no longer spawn a floating damage pool
  (known issue: a puddle particle effect still appears for direct hits, but this is a purely visual bug)
  
  
• increased crit damage multiplier for spit attacks
  (crit spit Dilo = 30% bonus, crit spit Cryo = 25% bonus)
  
  
• increased minimum Cryo acid direct hit damage from 60 to 64
  
• increased Dilo charged spit max explosion damage from 25 to 35
  
• increased Dilo charged spit explosion blind time from 5 to 6 secs
  
• increased Cryo charged spit explosion splash damage to 55
  
• reduced charged Cryo acid explosion blind time
  
• greatly reduced uncharged non-explosive Cryo spit blind time
  
• fixed weapon spit overlay not fading out if swapping weapons during the fade period
  
• possible fix for rare cases where spit would perma-blind you until respawning
  

General Gameplay Changes:

• Tranq and poison darts are now blocked by dinosaur strong points
  
• If assault rifle grenades travel far enough, they will no longer bounce
  
• Increased charge-up time for stungun from 0.75 secs to 1.6 secs
  
• Flyers can now extinguish themselves by diving down if they are on fire
  
• Tyrants no longer have attacks cancelled if they were mid-attack when hit by electricity
  
• Fixed pyro explosion effects from dying to fall damage not showing
  
• Added new custom "pyro bomb" explosion particles and sounds
  
• Fixed projectile trails vanishing at the moment of impact in multiplayer
  
• Increased timing window for Dirt Nap achievement to be a little more generous
  

Cosmetic Changes:

• added new St Patricks Event content
  
• added support for spit overlay to melee weapons
  
• fixed certain weapon skins losing details when spat on
  
• game-wide consistency pass across all weapon skins
  
• fixed a couple of missing inventory icons
  
• fixed Blazing Royal Acro having incorrect default colour tint
  
• fixed specular intensity between head and body of Bluff Creek Rex
  
• fixed Cyborg Pyro's wandering eyeball
  
• Cyborg Scientist can now wear a cat on her head
  

[h3]STEAM SPRING SALE[/h3]



The Steam Spring Sale is LIVE - enjoy great deals on PCE and its DLC until March 21st! Both the ultimate and deluxe collections are discounted in addition to the game itself, why not take a gander?

Our next major update will be towards the end of March, featuing more gameplay changes and quality of life fixes in addition to eggcellent new looks!

For all things Primal Carnage, get involved on the Official Discord...



[h3]Happy Saint Patrick's Day![/h3]
-The Primal Carnage Team

We've offered the official soundtrack DLC on Steam for a long time now, and with additional music currently being created we decided to make some improvements to the existing OST collection...

[h3]High Quality Audio[/h3]

You can now download optional high res versions of the entire Primal Carnage Soundtrack Collection!

Simply opt into High Quality Audio Files inside the Music section of Steam's settings to receive versions of the OST in both uncompressed .WAV and .FLAC formats.



Each set of tracks is in a separate folder within the main install when you choose the high quality option, the default install location is: Steam / steamapps / music / Primal Carnage Soundtrack Collection

[h3]OST TLC[/h3]

Special care has been taken to ensure everything has detailed and correct metadata with the latest update to the soundtrack DLC (in all formats - WAV, FLAC, MP3). On top of that, the tracklist is more appropriately sorted.

As a whole, the OST is split up into three "discs" now, that divide the collection's music based on which game it was recorded for (Primal Carnage / Extinction), with one side devoted to Bonus tracks.

[h3]Music Evolution[/h3]



We're currently in the final couple months of finishing the new PlayStation version of PCE, which features (among many other things) brand new musical themes for a few dinosaur subclasses.

These fresh tracks will be brought to PCE on PC with the 3.0 update later this year, and you can look forward to them being included within the official OST collection as well!

[h3]Expanded Soundtrack Preview:[/h3]

Here is a small taste of the new music currently being worked on, the eerie and dangerous "light" track for Pachycephalosaurus...

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

New to the franchise is composer Lyndon Kwan, who has been doing amazing work expanding on the foundation of the original soundtrack.

For the Pachy, new elements were introduced to Primal's musical palette, while retaining the mix of traditional and modern instruments that the classic tracks had. Both of the bruiser subclasses give the feeling of coiled rage, with danger lurking under the surface, ready to burst forth at a moment's notice.

We'll be sharing more previews of the expanded OST soon, so stay tuned...


[h3]Thanks for listening![/h3]
-The Primal Carnage Team

This week we're part of the Steam Dinosaurs Versus Robots Fest!
To mark the occasion we've got a little gem of an update for you...


[h3]Special Event:[/h3]
[h2]LOVE, DINOS & ROBOTS[/h2]



The devilishly good partner to our Valentines event is out now! Love, Dinos and Robots ties into Steam's featured sale, and acts as a glorious conclusion to our annual lovefest. It's a celebration of cyborg carnosaurs! But wait, it's not just robo dinos- we've rounded out the human team with cybernetically enhanced versions of themselves, joining Cyborg Commando as next generation saurian exterminators...

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

To go along with the robotic theme, a new set of dinosaur control collars have been added. With their batteries running low, these ones are malfunctioning. So if you wanted a collar that does not apply eye glow, this is for you...



All legacy robot skins are also back today with a discount, and you can still embrace all of the lovely Valentines Part 1 items until the end of Love, Dinos & Robots (over two weeks from now!). For an overview of all the special event items, check out our dedicated Trello page here.



[h3]WEEKLONG STEAM SALE![/h3]

Starting 10am PST and running from 26th February to March 4th, we are 65% OFF (!!!)



Save big with Jurassic sized deals on Primal Carnage: Extinction, the PCE 4-pack, and ALL DLC during Steam Dino Versus Robots Fest! Now's a great moment to pick up the Deluxe and Ultimate collections if you'd been holding off, or to invite friends to jump into the carnage for the first time!


[h2]Visual & Sound Updates:[/h2]

A new visual effect for weapons is splatter effects when you are hit with spit. If a Dilo or Cryo splashes you with their spit you will now also see your gun covered in goop for a while afterwards.



One minor audio effect type that can have a big impact on how visceral combat feels is the sensation of bullets whizzing past you during battle. We've fixed an issue that was causing only dinosaurs to hear these, and added unique fly-by sounds for arrows that help them stand out from gunshots.

We're also continuing to improve various legacy cosmetics wherever possible. For example, humans now wear the Valentine's tophat properly (apart from Angus, who's just off his head).

Some dino skins had their settings tweaked to be more consistent, while a few character textures have been overhauled. Most radical is a new set of normal maps for T.Rex, giving it a more 3D feel...


Finally, there's some UI tweaks based on community feedback. Notifications for Call Help and Call Follow are now gone (annoying!), CTE egg outlines are more accurate (egg shaped!), and store sorting is better.

Check out the full change notes below!


[h3]Version 2.9.51[/h3]
[h2]Full Changelog:[/h2]

• added special Dinos Vs Robots event items
  
• added new flyby sounds for arrows whooshing past you
  
• fixed bullet whiz effects only being audible to dinosaurs
  
  
• added new spit overlay visual effect for weapons
  - when humans are hit by Cryo or Dilo spit your gun is now covered in goo
  - new goo splatter effect fades over time after blinding period ends
  
  
• baked new normal maps for Tyrannosaurus Rex
  
• slight adjustments to Dilophosaurus base textures
  
• reduced specularity of human shader a bit
  
• tweaked textures and shader for Oilspill Acro skin
  
• fixed a handful of Oviraptor skins that had inccorrect settings
  
• fixed older weapon skins that used the camo pattern system having incorrect colours
  
• humans now wear the Heartwarming Tophat properly (well, most of them do)
  
• updated item properties of some cosmetics that were non tradable/marketable
  
  
• fixed CTE egg outline not being egg-shaped
  
• removed chat notifications for Call Help and Call Follow
  
• in-game store now displays newest items first instead of placing the oldest up top
  
  
• fixed a couple of recently reported crashes
  

Hope you enjoy this latest update! We'll be back to celebrate St. Patrick's Day next month...



[h3]Thanks for playing![/h3]
-The Primal Carnage Team


For all things Primal Carnage, get involved on the Official Discord...