Winter is Coming...
[h2]New Blood[/h2]
Firstly, we'd like to give a warm welcome to all our new players from Extinction's free weekend event!
Whether you're here to kill or chill, we've got some exciting updates on the horizon!
(Ends November 23rd, 17:00 UTC)
As the mutation madness winds down and we grow closer to the holidays, we thought we'd share what you can all look forward to this December...
[h2]Progress update: [/h2]
Our veteran animator Maccollo, who created animations for the original Primal Carnage, has been hard at work crafting custom movesets (and more) for our favourite mercenaries.
Crab-walking everywhere is so last decade...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzJpOr5aA94
The video above showcases different movement styles for each character, and if you look closely you can see they're not stuck with a totally blank facial expression anymore (!)
In addition to remaking all of the human third person animations, we have a new attachment system in development. So, for example: if you are using dynamite or land mines, they will appear at your side. And if you swap from a primary weapon to a handgun, the rifle will be slung on your shoulder.
The animation overhaul is currently targeted for the winter update, so if all goes to plan you'll have this in your hands by the end of December!
Alongside the human animation update, the general feel and pace of the game is being fine-tuned. These adjustments range from more minor adjustments (like faster weapon swap as human, or making raptors tall enough so that they line up nicely for a headshot), to bigger changes such as tinkering with maximum speeds of various species.
We've observed that players on the human side often require lightning reflexes (or almost supernatural precognition) to actually take out the faster dinosaur classes. There are two factors behind this, one is spotty hit detection combined with network latency, the other is that these dinos are simply speedy killing machines in the first place, which by necessity makes them hard to deal with in close quarters.
Winter testing will focus a great deal on just how fast they really need to be. Creatures like the Tupa feel like fighter jets when you are attacking them, but don't really feel that way when playing as those classes. Our plan is to experiment with a combination of reduced velocity but greatly increased maneuverability, particularly things like better air turn speed while jumping as Novaraptor.
How far these changes will go are yet to be decided, but they have been a long time coming, and we will be closely monitoring their impact on gameplay by doing rigorous testing. However, there is the other side to this problem that we're attempting to address this winter...
Our intrepid programmers are tackling some rather large engineering tasks right now....
A whole new system for hit detection is currently being investigated. We know that latency between client and server causes many issues in the current version, but if the new setup works as we hope, both human and dinosaur attacks should benefit greatly and be much more reliable.
Reworking a core feature like this is a daunting technical challenge considering the age of the game's codebase and the complexity involved in network replication. However, we are cautiously optimistic this will be one of the nicer presents arriving with this year's winter update.
Another ongoing effort is upgrading the engine somewhat. The PC version actually runs on an old branch of Unreal forked specifically for PS4 support. Moving it from this branch to the latest stable release of Unreal Engine 3 is something that should resolve a number of issues, such as various crashes and graphical glitching that can sometimes occur.
As for the console version, work is progressing slowly but surely, analyzing platform-specific bugs and evaluating which changes are safe to merge in. Our primary focus in the new year will be improving the PS4 edition after the current round of PC engine fixes and overhauls are complete.
We've got some seriously talented programmers and our coding crew has grown from 1 to 3 people recently, but these things take time. We thank our players for your patience as we embark on these long and difficult engineering tasks.
The winter update will include a graphical refresh for Primal Carnage: Extinction, with improved texture resolution across the board, ranging from 2x to 4x quality boosts in some areas.
-Click here for a closer view-
More advanced shaders will give the game world a graphical boost, adding a new level of detail across many surfaces found around the maps, with improved specularity making them feel less flat. We will also be adding optimized interactive water in some areas, which you can see a quick test of below...
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Other effects such as explosions, muzzle flashes and Tyrant footsteps are being enhanced as well, to give more impressive feedback when interacting with both enemies and the world.
While every map in the game will be receiving a new lick of paint and lighting updates, several will also receive more fundamental reworks this winter. This is due to certain locations in Team Deathmatch and Get to the Chopper being more than a little one-sided.
We're going to be re-designing large portions of these maps to support additional avenues of attack, with more escape routes for humans and small dinosaurs. Visibility on levels like ForestChasm will be improved so that humans aren't just lost in the wilderness. We will also be looking at the viability of Tyrants on a few maps, restricting their ability to access certain areas, but also opening others up so that they can enter previously safe strongholds.
The example above is one of many tweaks to GTTC levels, showing a work in progress of the new run up to Ruthless first objective, featuring three main lanes of attack that interlink. The hope is that these changes improve overall gameplay by offering extra choice in how you approach (or flee from) skirmishes. Testing will see which layout changes we ultimately keep.
Additionally, for Get to the Chopper mode we will be adjusting elements such as capture times and spawn positions. This will be done on a case by case basis, finding what works best for each part of every map.
[h2]Stay Frosty.[/h2]
We hope you're as excited as we are for the largest update in Primal Carnage Extinction's history!
We'll be sharing more with the community as we get closer to the winter update next month, and testing new features with the help of our dedicated players.
Join the Official Primal Carnage Discord server to stay up to date!
Firstly, we'd like to give a warm welcome to all our new players from Extinction's free weekend event!
Whether you're here to kill or chill, we've got some exciting updates on the horizon!
(Ends November 23rd, 17:00 UTC)As the mutation madness winds down and we grow closer to the holidays, we thought we'd share what you can all look forward to this December...
[h2]Progress update: [/h2]
Human Animation Overhaul
Our veteran animator Maccollo, who created animations for the original Primal Carnage, has been hard at work crafting custom movesets (and more) for our favourite mercenaries.
Crab-walking everywhere is so last decade...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzJpOr5aA94
The video above showcases different movement styles for each character, and if you look closely you can see they're not stuck with a totally blank facial expression anymore (!)
In addition to remaking all of the human third person animations, we have a new attachment system in development. So, for example: if you are using dynamite or land mines, they will appear at your side. And if you swap from a primary weapon to a handgun, the rifle will be slung on your shoulder.
The animation overhaul is currently targeted for the winter update, so if all goes to plan you'll have this in your hands by the end of December!
Upcoming Gameplay Overhauls
Alongside the human animation update, the general feel and pace of the game is being fine-tuned. These adjustments range from more minor adjustments (like faster weapon swap as human, or making raptors tall enough so that they line up nicely for a headshot), to bigger changes such as tinkering with maximum speeds of various species.
We've observed that players on the human side often require lightning reflexes (or almost supernatural precognition) to actually take out the faster dinosaur classes. There are two factors behind this, one is spotty hit detection combined with network latency, the other is that these dinos are simply speedy killing machines in the first place, which by necessity makes them hard to deal with in close quarters.
Winter testing will focus a great deal on just how fast they really need to be. Creatures like the Tupa feel like fighter jets when you are attacking them, but don't really feel that way when playing as those classes. Our plan is to experiment with a combination of reduced velocity but greatly increased maneuverability, particularly things like better air turn speed while jumping as Novaraptor.
How far these changes will go are yet to be decided, but they have been a long time coming, and we will be closely monitoring their impact on gameplay by doing rigorous testing. However, there is the other side to this problem that we're attempting to address this winter...
Netcode & Engine Fixes
Our intrepid programmers are tackling some rather large engineering tasks right now....
A whole new system for hit detection is currently being investigated. We know that latency between client and server causes many issues in the current version, but if the new setup works as we hope, both human and dinosaur attacks should benefit greatly and be much more reliable.
Reworking a core feature like this is a daunting technical challenge considering the age of the game's codebase and the complexity involved in network replication. However, we are cautiously optimistic this will be one of the nicer presents arriving with this year's winter update.
Another ongoing effort is upgrading the engine somewhat. The PC version actually runs on an old branch of Unreal forked specifically for PS4 support. Moving it from this branch to the latest stable release of Unreal Engine 3 is something that should resolve a number of issues, such as various crashes and graphical glitching that can sometimes occur.
As for the console version, work is progressing slowly but surely, analyzing platform-specific bugs and evaluating which changes are safe to merge in. Our primary focus in the new year will be improving the PS4 edition after the current round of PC engine fixes and overhauls are complete.
We've got some seriously talented programmers and our coding crew has grown from 1 to 3 people recently, but these things take time. We thank our players for your patience as we embark on these long and difficult engineering tasks.
Visual Upgrade
The winter update will include a graphical refresh for Primal Carnage: Extinction, with improved texture resolution across the board, ranging from 2x to 4x quality boosts in some areas.
-Click here for a closer view-More advanced shaders will give the game world a graphical boost, adding a new level of detail across many surfaces found around the maps, with improved specularity making them feel less flat. We will also be adding optimized interactive water in some areas, which you can see a quick test of below...
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Other effects such as explosions, muzzle flashes and Tyrant footsteps are being enhanced as well, to give more impressive feedback when interacting with both enemies and the world.
Map Rehauls
While every map in the game will be receiving a new lick of paint and lighting updates, several will also receive more fundamental reworks this winter. This is due to certain locations in Team Deathmatch and Get to the Chopper being more than a little one-sided.
We're going to be re-designing large portions of these maps to support additional avenues of attack, with more escape routes for humans and small dinosaurs. Visibility on levels like ForestChasm will be improved so that humans aren't just lost in the wilderness. We will also be looking at the viability of Tyrants on a few maps, restricting their ability to access certain areas, but also opening others up so that they can enter previously safe strongholds.
The example above is one of many tweaks to GTTC levels, showing a work in progress of the new run up to Ruthless first objective, featuring three main lanes of attack that interlink. The hope is that these changes improve overall gameplay by offering extra choice in how you approach (or flee from) skirmishes. Testing will see which layout changes we ultimately keep.
Additionally, for Get to the Chopper mode we will be adjusting elements such as capture times and spawn positions. This will be done on a case by case basis, finding what works best for each part of every map.
[h2]Stay Frosty.[/h2]
We hope you're as excited as we are for the largest update in Primal Carnage Extinction's history!
We'll be sharing more with the community as we get closer to the winter update next month, and testing new features with the help of our dedicated players.
Join the Official Primal Carnage Discord server to stay up to date!