Primal Carnage: Extinction News

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

This patch focuses largely on fixing bugs and gameplay issues, but we have added a number of new small but helpful features along the way. Here are some of the highlights...

[h2]Burning Hotter[/h2]

Pyro's flamesaw has felt pretty weak lately, but we're setting out to fix that.



The flamethrower has been upgraded with a new pass-through ability! The fire jet can now go through multiple targets, doing damage to each one along the stream. Each successive target receives 50% less damage, with the furthest away receiving only afterburn DoT. This new ability makes the Pyro much more effective at crowd control in tight spots.

More overhauls to the flamesaw will be coming in the February update next month!

[h2]StrongPoint Shuffle[/h2]



Tyrants have had their armour reconfigured, most of their StrongPoints are now in the tail with none up front. Having damage reduction from the rear allows Tyrants to pull off successful retreats more easily when they are overwhelmed by large groups. If you are being shot while eating someone, angling your behind towards your attacker can now give precious extra seconds to finish your meal.

[h2]Sharp Shooting[/h2]



Dinosaur headshot zones have been tightened up with this patch, making it more difficult to land critical hits. The sniper rifle has been tuned to reward using the scope instead of hip firing, accuracy is severely reduced when un-scoped. To encourage aiming with precision and give more of a window for dinosaurs to evade, fire rate when using the sniper scope is now slower than when out of it.

[h2]Downpour Defendability[/h2]

As part of ongoing efforts to make Get to the Chopper mode better, the first control point of Downpour has been completely reworked. The capture zone is now much larger and more defensible...



Access is possible from all directions. This has resulted in much more interesting fights, and given humans more of a chance to capture one of the harder zones in GTTC. Dino spawn points have also been moved around a little bit on Downpour. We'll be making further improvements to GTTC this spring.

[h2]January Store Rotation[/h2]

Today's update brings a new rotation to the Extinction in-game store. All winter event items except for the 2020 Winter Gift and Unchained Tyrant Pack have been removed and a fresh batch has been added. You can see some of the cool new looks now available below...





We'll be back in February with another major game update!
Until then, check out the full list of fixes and improvements in patch 2.0.2...

[h3]Dinosaur Changes[/h3]

• Made headshot regions smaller on all dinosaurs
  
• Fixed cases where interactive water would not extinguish dinosaurs on fire
  
  
• When a buff is received, you now also see a coloured outline around your dino
  
  
• Increased air speed of Ptera
  
• Increased sprint speed of Tupa
  
• Increased air turn speed for raptors
  
• Increased turning speeds of spitters and raptors significantly when not running
  
  
• Lowered Oviraptor health from 300 to 280
  
• Increased Novaraptor primary attack damage from 38 to 45
  
• Increased Novaraptor stamina from 110 to 130
  
• Increased Pteranodon primary attack damage from 40 to 50
  
  
• Reduced Carno special attack stamina cost
  
• Reduced Carno sprint stamina consumption rate
  
• Increased health restored by Carno ravenous attacks to damage dealt +25
  
  
• Updated the StrongPoint positions on Tyrants, their tails are now completely armoured.
  
• Adjusted tyrant bite attack timings and trace distances
  
  
• Fixed dinosaurs being able to eat corpses through walls
  
  
• Fixed a couple of feathered dino skin feathers not using feather shader
  
• Fixed midnight dilo not allowing secondary cosmetics
  
• Fixed rostratus ovi mutation missing its sockets
  

[h3]Human Changes[/h3]

• Changed default m+k binding for melee to X instead of middle mouse
  
  
• Double Barrel Shotgun is now an armour-piercing weapon
  
  
• Added a red light cast by the flaregun projectile
  
• Reduced flaregun projectile speed from 5000 to ~4000
  
  
• Added ability for flamethrower firejet to damages multiple targets as it passes through them
  
  
• Increased sniper rifle firing delay from 0.9 secs to 0.95 secs when hip firing
  
• Increased sniper rifle firing delay from 0.9 secs to 1.1 secs when scoped
  
• Doubled sniper rifle spread when unscoped
  
• Reduced crouched accuracy of sniper rifle
  
• Increased recoil of sniper rifle
  
  
• Reduced recoil on dartgun
  
• Increased recoil on deagle
  
• Increased deagle clip size from 7 to 8
  
• Reduced spread on netgun
  
• Increased scoped spread on tranq rifle
  
• Tranq rifle now fires slower when scoped
  
• Reduced max effective range of dual pistols
  
  
• Added crosshair dots to a few weapons that didn't have them
  
• Added an option for adjusting aim sensitivity (responsiveness when scoped)
  
  
• Increased brightness and radius of dynamic weapon lights
  
  
• Fixed human collision box position not updating when crouched
  
• Fixed all humans having two left feet
  
  
• Classic Pyro is no longer just a head transplant, now uses the Classic Pyro body
  
• Fixed classic fuel tank looking "blocky"
  
• Fixed iced spaz12 using gold spaz12 material
  

[h3]Sound Changes[/h3]

• Increased audible radius of various gameplay event sounds
  
• Added more unique impact sounds for darts hitting flesh
  
  
• Updated human feel melee sound
  
• All humans should now scream for their lives when they are pounced
  
• More in-depth sound foley work on some of the human third person animations
  
• Added new pulverize / bone chew sounds for when Tyrants eat people
  
  
• Fixed sounds for crafting countdown only starting to play after already crafting an item
  

[h3]Map Changes[/h3]

• Further lighting adjustments and new details on various maps
  
• Added parallax depth effect to more surfaces and decals
  
• Added higher res versions of snow environment textures
  
• Restored more high resolution original textures for various props
  
• Fixed background tree meshes flickering
  
  
• Major rework of first capture zone on GTTC-Downpour
  
  
• Various optimizations to DesertionPoint
  
• Added interactive water to DesertionPoint
  
• Added more spawn points and pickups to perimeter of DesertionPoint
  
  
• Fixed collision issues on Downpour, DesertionPoint, Docks, Transfer and UtilityBase
  
• Fixed a Ubase tanker truck being invisible on Low detail mode
  
• Added more trees to Ubase exterior
  
• Fixed a misaligned pipe section on Docks
  
• Added more pickup items to Transfer
  
  
• Set basic test map back to non-snowy version
  
• Swapped back to sunny main menu
  

[h3]UI / HUD Changes[/h3]

• Outline for pounced humans is now bright red
  
• Fixed dinosaur character outlines not reflecting model mutations
  
• Fixed outlines for thrown health kits being visible to dinosaurs
  
  
• Added overlay post process effects for being bitten, electrocuted, and critically injured
  
  
• Fix for being unable to toggle between scoreboard and challenges on end round
  
• Added a button hint for how to toggle between scoreboard and challenges
  
  
• Reduced size of a few crosshair dots
  
• Ensured hit markers are shown for DOT attacks
  
• Fixed dropped targets not giving hit marker for ptera
  
• Fixed knifing teammates showing a hit marker
  
• Fixed hit markers showing on dead players
  
  
• Added separate options for Quit Match and Quit Game to the escape menu
  
• Can now use L1/R1 on controller to quickly swap between characters in customization
  
• Reorganized some UI options so the menus are more user-friendly
  
• Removed useless / deprecated options from the menus
  
• Typo fixes
  
  
• Fixed some UI crashes related to popups
  

[h3]Other Fixes & Changes[/h3]

• Added an option to turn on/off force feedback on gamepad
  
  
• ToggleRun is now the default setting when using a controller, users can disable ToggleRun in the options menu if they prefer to hold the button.
  
  
• Removed next / previous weapon keybinds since PCE has a two weapon limit. Scrolling the mousewheel in either direction will simply cycle through.
  
  
• Killstreak EXP now increases with each successive kill (up to +50 EXP max)
  
  
• Fixed melee attacks not working against pawns when playing on a listen server
  
• Fixed challenges / achievements that weren't working after changes to tranquilizer mechanics
  
• Fixed voting notification sounds being heard when a vote is not active
  
• Exploit prevention - enabling cheats is exclusively an admin ability
  
• Exploit prevention -spectators are no longer able to receive drops
  
  
• Fixed some crashes that could occur when playing wave Survival
  

[h3]2.0.3 Hotfix[/h3]

• Various fixes for incorrect character outline rotations
  
• Fixed cheats not working in standalone solo games
  
• Fixed being unable to taunt after eating a victim as Tyrant
  

[h2]Official Discord Server[/h2]

Why not join the Official Primal Carnage Discord?
Stay up to date with all things Primal Carnage!

Congratulations to everyone who survived 2020!
We're back once again for another year of Carnage.

To start things off, we are celebrating the creators who participated in the first Official Mapping Contest! Also, check a look at the latest update to the Primal Carnage: Extinction development toolkit, and some important new info for content creators...

[h2]Mapping Contest Finale![/h2]

Before we reveal the winners of the inaugural Primal Carnage: Extinction mapping contest, let's all take a moment to go through the varied and imaginative levels that were submitted by everyone...

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
We don't have enough awards for everybody, but wanted to single out a couple of honorable mentions that didn't quite crack the top spot on our list...

[h3]Railyard[/h3] by SpinoRavenger



PC-Railyard is a great little Team Deathmatch map with a very strong theme of being a freight depot. Featuring actual moving trains that hurtle through the level at dangerous speeds, this is one really solid submission with good overall game flow. It's well detailed with a nice balance between open areas and more maze-like zones. The train cars also look pretty convincing for kit-bashed assets and work well.



However, it being essentially a completely flat playing field does hold it back somewhat, and we struggle to think how the area sequestered over the bridge would really play into gameplay very much. Despite all that, Railyard earns our Kismet Wizardy award for its suitably dynamic map hazard!

[h3]Aquarium Research Center [/h3]by ArchShiranui



The aquarium facility created by ArchShirnaui (maker of SandStorm Valley, Pandoria) is a really well thought out concept for a location. This place feels like it has a history. There are so many great details found around the map, from signage explaining the evolutionary journey from fish to raptors, to signs of past fighting with bulletholes leaking water out of the various containment tanks. And those fish!



In terms of playability, it's quite a rat's nest of interconnecting areas, making it hard to orient yourself, and trying to navigate the maze of pipes and catwalks will be difficult for flyers. The sheer number of plants being used to decorate the overgrown areas is creative, but may pose performance problems.

We do love the idea of an aquatic research lab (it's something we've considered making ourselves) and for the level of effort put into this map's theme, we're honoring it with our Conceptual award.

[h3]Primal Park [/h3]
by spinoraptyrex

We were saddened that more people didn't take up the Whitebox Warriors challenge, although maybe the requirements weren't clear enough. The hope was that by being focused around just using the most basic tools to create a map layout, it would encourage people to try map making who wouldn't have the time or know-how to produce a fully detailed, working level. As it stands, our choices were fairly slim.



Nevertheless, we did want to highlight Primal Park here as being a rather interesting idea for a level. It's unlikely this theme would be used for an official map, (due to that *other* dinosaur franchise featuring parks) but we're impressed at the design ideas on display here.



Using only blocks, Primal Park is able to convey a pretty convincing zoo environment with different types of enclosures and even cages. There are also hints as to some interesting setpieces such as a globe statue and the twisting paddock areas. Primal Park is honored with our Layout Inventiveness award.



Even with fewer submissions than we expected, it was still quite difficult to narrow down the finalists for these top three winners. If you didn't make it this far, don't give up! There was something great about each one of the entries we saw, some just need a bit more time in the oven before they're quite ready.

And now without further ado, here are the winners of our first official mapping competition...

[h2]Whitebox Warriors Award [/h2]

[h3]Seashore Crag[/h3]
by Coelurus

The winner of the Whitebox Warriors category is a beautifully elegant layout with sweeping curves that flow in and out of a central rocky outcropping at the head of a cliff.



This is a Capture the Egg map, with the precarious delicacies perched on rock spires that have humans jumping for their lives. It's easy to see how this map would work in a real world setting, even if we think it might be CTE on "hard mode"! Excellent ideas on display here.

For their prize, the winner of the Whitebox Warriors Award shall receive any 5 in-game items of their choosing and a £25 Steam Gift Card!

[h2]Mapping Maniacs, 2nd Place Award [/h2]

[h3]Waterlogged [/h3]
by Avisaur

The second place winner of the Mapping Maniacs contest is a visual feast. Dark and moody, the map was designed with Hunt mode in mind and creates a nicely claustrophobic atmosphere...



This is one entry that focused on sound to great effect. The ambience is palpable, with rolling thunder, odd distorted transmissions echoing around, and the facility shuddering under the storm raging above.

Water leaks everywhere on this level, flowing as indoor rivers from one zone to another and forming large pools. The map lives up to its name. You can't go five feet without encountering the drip drip drip of leaks from above. Lighting is impeccable here, with beautiful use of shadows and volumetric effects. Dynamic lightning flashes that illuminate the dark facility complete an incredibly impressive spectacle.



However, in its construction we found some flaws.

We advise against using BSP geometry when creating maps intended for use in regular gameplay, it's a much less efficient method than working with static meshes. Plus, from what we understand it can cause crashes on PS4 (which would be an issue were we to include community maps on that platform). Brush geometry should only really be employed as a blockout tool, if it is used at all.



For their prize, the 2nd Place Award winner shall receive any 5 in-game items of their choosing and will collaborate with us on a custom-designed skin for themselves, in addition to a £50 Steam Gift Card!


[h2]Mapping Maniacs, 1st Place (Grand Prize) [/h2]

[h3]Dead Tide[/h3]
by ToaMetru6



First place goes to Dead Tide, a huge tropical island map where players must battle around massive rock arches and in brilliantly vibrant seaside pools. The intense use of colours such as the sapphire blue ocean water really gives this map a unique feeling of being an exotic (and HOT) location.



There are numerous interesting setpieces littered throughout the environment, from a beached tanker vessel with its cargo scattered about to the giant bones of behemoths jutting out from some of the rock formations.



As with many of the levels in this contest, it features NPCs roaming around the outskirts, but the creator of this one went even further by having custom beach-themed skins for them!



Such attention to detail for minor background elements is really impressive, though we can't help feeling that the boundaries of the map are a little arbitrary and unnatural. More consideration will have to be taken regarding the flow of the area as well for it to be a good deathmatch environment. However, for its striking aesthetic and intricate construction, Dead Tide is awarded first place!

1st place receives not only 5 in-game items of their choosing, not only a custom-designed skin, but also a $500 USD grand prize!!!

[h2]Congratulations to our winners! [/h2]
[h3]And thanks again to everyone who took part in this event![/h3]

We've been constantly impressed at the creativity and clever use of resources in these levels, from makeshift freight trains to custom vending machines, there was some real ingenuity!

Several levels featured interesting shortcuts for smaller dinos to use which is a design choice we're hoping to include as part of official maps where possible in future.

We'll be reaching out to the winners shortly to arrange their prizes, and look forward to working with ToaMetru to further refine Dead Tide for when it is officially added to Primal Carnage: Extinction later this year!

[h2]Toolkit Update - PCE SDK [/h2]

Now that things have calmed down after getting the mammoth 2.0 update out this winter, we're releasing a new version of the Extinction development tools for everyone to use.



This latest update to the SDK brings all of the new content that was added up to version 2.0, such as ultra high resolution character textures and a slew of new environment assets, materials and more. Please be aware that the size of the SDK is naturally quite a bit larger than before as a result of this new content (just under 30GB), and you may need to compile shaders for some time upon first launching the editor.

[h3]Highlights of today's new SDK content:[/h3]

• Added new human animation sets and classic humans
  
• Added global Tags to deprecated content (DoNotUse means do NOT use)
  
• Added global Tags to core character assets (Human and Dino base content)
  
• Added numerous pose animations for creating cinematic screenshots (thanks to Maxsentia)
  
• Added new "blank bases" to use when making skins for classic humans (thanks to ___)
  
  
• Added new ultra HD 4096x4096 base textures for almost all playable dinosaurs
  
• Added scalar to control dino eye reflectivity (set to zero on skins using eye masking for glow FX)
  
• Added controls for "swizzling" dinosaur overlay textures using tiling noise
  
  
• Added various new & updated props
  
• Added the Tropical environment kit
  
• Added new background resources (mountains, hills, cliffs...)
  
• Added numerous new decals and materials
  
• Updated hundreds of textures with higher quality versions 2-4x their original resolution
  
  
• New "HD" floor/wall material with parallax bump offset effect
  
• Added raindrop option to floor master material
  
  
• Updated water rendering with edge foam and paintable vertex foam
  
• Added support for dynamic normal maps to master water shaders
  
• For optimized interactive water settings, use the examples on the BasicTesting map.
  
  
• Added "HD" landscape texture sets
  
• Updated landscape shader with basic specularity and more intense normal maps
  
  Note:
  Do not disable the SimpleMud switch when making landscape materials.
  Doing so breaks landscape rendering completely.
  

[h3]Editor Fixes[/h3]

As part of this latest SDK release we have also endeavored to fix as many editor crashes as we could. Using the PlayInEditor (PIE) option to play on maps should no longer result in an instant crash for most users with sufficient hardware, although we still advise against extended sessions.

When using PlayInEditor, tab out and click the red stop button at the top of the editor to close your PIE session. Trying to exit via Quit Match / Quit Game will only cause it to lock up.

If you save a package or map and the lighting / materials suddenly change to look flat, there is no cause for alarm. Simply restart the editor to fix the renderer.

Asset export is now re-enabled for the SDK as of this version. Use of exported SDK assets for anything other than creating content for Primal Carnage: Extinction is strictly forbidden.

[h3]Exploit Prevention[/h3]

The latest update to Extinction will make it so that only players who are admin can use console commands that fall under cheat functionality. Because of this, certain developer console abilities may not be instantly available to you when using the SDK.

To remedy this, follow these steps:

• Find PrimalCarnageGame.ini in the Config folder of the SDK
  
• Search for the heading: [PrimalCarnageGame.PCBaseAccessControl]
  
• Underneath that, add the ID number of your Steam profile, like so...
  
• +Admins=776561198006301038
  
• Save the file and you should be good.
  

[h2]Steam Workshop Tool [/h2]

We'd like to remind everyone that the upload tool for submitting items to Steam Workshop is available in the Tools section of your Steam library. We will be removing the "loose leaf" version of the upload tool from the SDK itself soon.

For now, there is a bug that means you need to launch the Steam Workshop Tool manually otherwise your upload will result in a blank submission. Follow these steps:

• Right click the Workshop Tool in your Steam library,
  
• Click on Manage > Browse local files,
  
• Run PCWorkshopTool.exe,
  
• Upload your content.
  

The Steam Workshop Tool will be receiving more updates and functionality soon, that should mean you won't have to do these extra steps for too long. With the *next* SDK release, we will be requiring skin makers to submit their own in-game icon as well. This will require another Workshop Tool update, and we'll be providing steps on how to go about this when it is ready.

For more resources on using the development tools, check out these links...

Official dev wiki:
https://primalcarnage.com/devwiki/index.php?title=Extinction_Editor_Courses

Skin creation for dummies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMDvE8dKaBM

[h2]Looking ahead...[/h2]

We're hoping to release more frequent SDK updates in future (there may be another this month!) but please understand that it does take time out of regular development to prepare these releases, and we can't always guarantee the SDK will be kept up to date.

As we get deeper into 2021, we definitely plan to run more competitions and community events such as art contests, scavenger hunts and more. We have a new patch for Extinction landing in the next few days, and will be back with themed events throughout the year for special occasions like Easter.

If you're interested in creating themed items for the game, please make sure you submit them to the Extinction Steam Workshop in time! A list of important deadlines for upcoming special events is below...

[h3]

• VALENTINES submissions .......................... January 29th
  
  
• ST Patrick's Day submissions .................... February 26th
  
  
• EASTER submissions .................................... March 19th[/h3]
  

[h2]Now get creative![/h2]


Want to stay in the loop about everything Primal Carnage? Come join the official Discord server to keep up to date, chat with other players, or maybe show off what you're working on!

If you want hints and tips about creating your own items or maps for Extinction, the friendly folks over at the SDK Discord can help you out. It's also a treasure trove of useful assets, tutorials and more.

Until next time!

A new patch has been released for Primal Carnage: Extinction, it will download automatically next time you restart Steam. This patch addresses some of the more immediately problematic bugs found after the release of the major winter update this christmas.

Whilst there are a few minor visual and collision problems that still need resolving, we have fixed the more glaring glitches with items such as Tyrant chains being able to crash servers.



Patch 2.0.1 also enables support for the full winter drop list and winter store rotation as seen here.

We apologize all of these were not available earlier, but some of the items had configuration problems making them either not appear or be usable by the wrong class. These issues have now been fixed.

[h2]Full Changelog[/h2]

• Added / fixed up archetypes for a number of cosmetics including Tyrant chains
  
• Corrected an issue with tranqs where dinos got stuck in the overdosed state forever
  
• Fixed the pyro trying to play animations that don't exist
  
• Fixed novelty antlers being backwards
  
• Updated sizes and positions of human hats
  
• Adjusted size of head cam for raptor and cerato
  
• Fixed incorrect pattern masks on some weapon skins
  
• Fixed cerato harness using a translucent material
  
• Fixed atrox dilo mutation using old sockets
  
• Fixed all Dilo mutations floating a couple inches off the ground
  
• Fixed missing Venatrix Nova skin
  
• Updated settings on a few raptor skins
  
• Fixed some icons appearing overly dark
  
• Fixed some half-transparent icons
  
• Fixed some icons being missing
  
• Removed some server log spam
  

We trust that your Extinction experience will be a smooth one now,
And wish everyone a happy new year!
-The Primal Carnage Team



Why not join the discussion on the Official Primal Carnage Discord server?

It's the most wonderful time of the year... Primal Carnage: Extinction 2.0 is here...

[h3]

• Major netcode upgrades.
  
  
• All-new human animation system.
  
  
• Ultra high res dinosaur texture sets.
  
  
• Extensive reworks for several maps.
  
  
• In-depth gameplay rebalancing.
  
  
• And much, much, more....
  

[/h3]

[h2]Welcome to 2.0[/h2]

This Christmas we are debuting the largest update Primal Carnage: Extinction has ever had, with changes to fundamental core game systems and huge overhauls in numerous areas.

From completely rewriting hit detection, to dislodging that stick that's been stuck up the human team's butt for the better part of a decade, we've focused heavily on making the mercs more fun to play. We'll keep refining and improving, but are already amazed at how much of an effect these changes under the hood have had.

The entire game has been lavished with a lot of fine tuning, enhancements and extra options suggested by the community. These range from upgraded weapon effects, to dinosaur mobility improvements, large scale layout overhauls of certain maps, and various new quality of life features.

Join us this festive season as we enter a whole new chapter of Extinction...



[h2]Hit Detection Rework[/h2]

From day 1 we knew we had our work cut out for us with Extinction's netcode. We've battled for years to patch up the code under the hood, but it was only recently with a growing team of talented programmers we've been able to dedicate a large chunk of our time solely to reworking the game's hit detection.

The systems for verifying weapon and melee hits have been completely rewritten from the ground up to be much more efficient, cutting down the server response time and dramatically improving the feel of the game in the process. This means that unless you're playing on the moon, if you hit somebody with a hitscan weapon, you WILL hit them.

There are still exceptions that we're still working on, projectile-based weapons which use physics such as the netgun and flamethrower have been improved but are still not perfect. We're going to keep improving these going forward into next year.

As part of this process we have also taken the time to update our hit detection UI. There are now three different types of crosshair hit indicator to provide feedback on the area of a dinosaur you are hitting.

• Dull X hit markers signify you are shooting an armoured strong point, doing reduced damage.
  
• Bright white hit markers are used for hitting regular flesh on a dinosaur.
  
• Red spiky hit markers will show when you are landing shots on a creature's weak spots.
  

[h2]A Matter of Scale[/h2]

As of this update, the human team members have all been resized. Doing this to the mercenaries as part of our animation system overhaul allowed us to inject a lot more personality into each character in how they move. It also makes them easier to read at a glance due to more noticeable differences in height.

On the whole, the mercenary team are shorter than they were originally, and their eye height has been adjusted to account for this. They aren't the only ones who have received a resizing though.

Raptors can now look you in the eye. Aside from this being just utterly menacing, it does have the effect of rendering headshots easier against these fast moving predators.

Similarly, the spitters have been upscaled by the same amount proportionally. They are no longer mere ankle biters, but still occupy the smallest niche on the dinosaur team and can hide in the undergrowth just as well in a lot of areas. You just don't need to be looking at the floor all the time to hit them now when playing human. We hope this makes fighting the small fries a bit less frustrating for those without perfect aim.

[h2]Tyrant Takedown[/h2]

Lastly we come to the Tyrants. To be honest, it has been difficult finding the sweet spot for these behemoths in Extinction, where they are of course intended to be the tanks of the dinosaur team but cannot be bullet spongey enough to be a chore to fight.

With this update we are hoping to find a midground that makes Tyrants more threatening but not quite so much of a pitched battle when you come up against them. T.Rex, Spinosaurus and Acro have been reduced in size slightly, allowing them to enter more enclosed areas to flush out humans and turn more quickly.

You haven't known true terror until you've faced a Tyrannosaurus inside the Utility Base main building. We hope this change livens up combat encounters with Tyrants and makes it more fun to play as them.

[h2]Redesigned Tranquilizer Mechanic[/h2]

We decided to try something different with the scientist's toxic arsenal for this update, to better differentiate the dargun and tranquilizer rifle and reward good aim. The reworked tranquilizer is geared around focusing your fire on a target, in order to stack the dosage of poison in their system, which deals damage over time (DOT).

If you land every shot in quick succession, you will inflict massive DOT in a relatively short period.
However, if your shots miss or are more spaced out, the dosage level of the target will rapidly fall off and do less damage. You need to sustain it.

The tranq rifle is especially good against larger classes, harder to use against smaller, more agile ones but potentially lethal with just a couple well-timed shots to something the size of a raptor. On the other hand, the dartgun now has much more stamina drain and is the better option for slowing targets with its rapid rate of fire.

These are just some of the major gameplay changes introduced in Version 2.0
For all the juicy details, scroll down to the full list at the bottom of this post!

[h2]Human Animation Overhaul[/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 (because crab-walking everywhere is so last decade...)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzJpOr5aA94

The video above showcases different movement styles for each character, each member of the team has much more personality than they did before.

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. This feature is still work in progress and will be developed further in future updates!





The winter update includes a graphical refresh for Primal Carnage: Extinction, with improved texture resolution across the board, ranging from 2x to 4x quality boosts in some areas. More advanced shaders and lighting have given the game world a graphical boost, adding a new level of detail across many surfaces found around the newly revised maps. We have also added optimized interactive water in some areas (that can even put you out if you are on fire!).

While almost every map in the game has received a new lick of paint, several havealso received 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. So you may notice some new areas on locations such as Forest Chasm, UtilityBase and more!

We're going to continue re-designing large portions of maps to support additional avenues of attack as we move forward into 2021, with more escape routes for humans and small dinosaurs. Visibility on levels like ForestChasm has already been improved so that humans aren't just lost in the wilderness.


[h2]Did someone say PRESENTS?[/h2]



[h3]Winter Reward Items[/h3]

During the winter event, the drop pool will be adjusted to have almost exclusively seasonal-themed items! There's going to be a whole sleigh-full of new festive goodies here FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!

We have dozens of new items as winter rewards, from Ultimate Cold Fusion skins, to new mutations, and even some adorable plush toy dinos for your humans to play with. So complete all your weekly challenges, rank up, or just play the game during the winter event for a chance to receive sweet new loot!

Many items that were previously only available in winter crates have also now been redistributed, so that they are obtainable once again. You can acquire these through either classic winter gifts or as random drops during the festive period.

To see all of the items coming in over the course of the winter event, check our special Trello board...
https://trello.com/b/FXE3SzJo/special-event-items

We will be adding previews to this in the next couple of days to feast your eyes on!


[h3]New Ultimate Skins[/h3]

Batch 102 of Ultimate tier dinosaur skins has now been added to the game. These include the final two Centigrade skins and the brand new, exceedingly *cool* Cold Fusion skin set, a collection of dinosaurs that pulse with some form of mysterious radiation...



These new Centigrade and Cold Fusion skins are already in the drop pool right now, and the rest of the winter rewards set will be rolled out in waves over the next 24-48 hours. A new crafting tool will also be added into the mix, the strange FROSTY energizer. Use this in crafting to apply a wintery snow trail that emits from a dino skin's eyes and feet!


[h3]2020 Winter Store Update[/h3]



From premium skins such as the Wetiko Novaraptor, to new taunts and human weapon skins, we have dozens of fresh new items arriving in store with the winter update. Among these are several new skin packs to purchase, including the first Ceratosaurus bundle pack with 6 different looks for our recently added Bruiser class.

These items will only be available for the next few weeks until the winter event concludes this coming January, so grab them before they go extinct!

We'd like to thank all of the community creators that contributed their content to this update, from the talented MrTroodon overhauling our dinosaur base textures to DrCuttlefish and X-Seide's extraordinary designs for the Cold Fusion ultimates, and all the community animators who helped bring the legacy human taunts onto the newly updated rig. Here's to another year of amazing collaboration!

[h2]
FULL CHANGE NOTES
[/h2]

[h3]GENERAL GAMEPLAY CHANGES [/h3]

• Updated default score and time limits for TDM
  
• Changed sorting method of scoreboard to rank based on K/D ratio instead of pure points
  
• Killing a Tyrant is now worth double, adding +2 to the overall kill score
  
  
• Fixed the Tyrant Takedown bonus EXP being given to people who didn't land the killing blow
  
• Added a separate assist type for
• helping* to kill a Tyrant
  
• Added bonus EXP for solo killing a Tyrant (90% or more damage)
  
  
• After 4 kills without dying, players now receive +5 killstreak bonus EXP
  
• Added bonus EXP for blinded enemies (Human/Flare or Dinosaur/Spitter)
  
• Added revenge kill bonus EXP
  
  
• Low health visuals now appear sooner
  

[h3]HUMAN CHANGES[/h3]

• NEW focus fire mechanic for tranquilizer weapons
  
• NEW third person animation system for all human characters
  
• Re-sized all of the human characters making them more visually distinct
  
  
• Humans can now swap weapons much faster
  
• Slightly faster reload speed for regular shotgun and Spaz12
  
  
• Players with low health are now highlighted to humans who have medkits equipped
  
  
• Increased dual pistol damage from 60 to 70
  
• Increased sniper rifle damage from 160 to 180
  
• Reduced damage of assault rifle bullets from 32 to 28
  
• Increased damage of M4 carbine to 30
  
• Increased MK pistol damage from 40 to 50
  
• Reduced recoil of Spaz12
  
  
• Increased sniper rifle fire interval from 0.85/s to 0.9/s
  
• Adjusted damage falloff curve for sniper rifle so that it drops off more slowly over distance
  
  
• Increased base dosage amount of tranquilizers
  
• Increased the Dartgun's stamina drain per shot to 12
  
• Changed tranq rifle clip size to 9, reserve ammo to 36
  
• Faster tranq rifle reload speed
  
  
• Reduced arming time for land mines
  
• Increased blast radius of land mines
  
• Increased damage of land mines from 200 to 230
  
  
• Water now bumps rockets away instead of having them explode on impact
  
• Fixed net not doing direct hit damage, only splash damage
  
• When netted, small dinos (Raptors, Spitters, Flyers) now have an outline visible to the Trapper who netted them
  
  
• Made flamethrower firejet render in front of other translucent objects
  (should fix it disappearing on docks waterfront)
  
  
• Reduced recoil on flamethrower
  
• Increased chainsaw damage from 212/s to 320/s
  
• Updated flamethrower jet effect with new visuals and tighter spread
  
• Updated weapon muzzle flashes and ejection effects
  
• Added smoke trails to tranq-based weapons
  
  
• Brightened weapon crosshair textures
  
• Tracer smoke trails are now replicated to other players
  
• Fixed custom arm meshes not showing for skins that have them
  
• Fixed being able to shoot while sprinting in some cases
  
• Fixed hatches/flares dissappearing in water
  
• Tranq DOT hit markers no longer trigger when target has died
  
  
• Increased audible radius of certain human dialogs
  
  

[h3]DINO CHANGES[/h3]

• NEW base textures applied to almost all dino skins
  
  
• Dinosaurs now take 30% less damage to their armoured StrongPoints compared to regular hits
  
  
• Added sprint camera modifier
  
• Fixed camera zooming off when ragdolling as raptors
  
  
• Increased air control / turn speed for all dinosaurs
  
• Increased air turning speed and diving speed for Flyers
  
• Increased air acceleration rate for Flyers
  
  
• Re-sized raptors to be taller, making them easier to headshot
  
• Re-sided spitters making them slightly larger
  
• Re-sized all Tyrants, now shorter than before
  
  
• Moved oviraptor and novaraptor closer together in terms of manoeuvrability
  
• Added ambush EXP bonus for Novaraptor
  
• Doubled maul damage for Oviraptor while pouncing
  
• Doubled stamina drain rate while Oviraptor is mauling someone they've pounced
  
• Reduced minimum interval between using slashes as raptor
  
  
• Raised health of Cryo from 210 to 280
  
• Raised health of Ptera from 300 to 360
  
• Raised health of Nova from 300 to 360
  
• Lowered health of Oviraptor from 350 to 300
  
• Increased health of Cerato from 1200 to 1300
  
  
• Reduced duration of dilophosaurus spit blind vision
  
• Reduced pteranodon peck damage to 40
  
• Reduced cryo acid instant hit damage from 80 to 65
  
• Reduced cryo acid pool tick damage from 45 to 30
  
• Reduced primary attack damage of Carno from 47 to 40
  
• Reduced secondary attack damage of Carno from 65 to 50
  
  
• Increased health restored by killing with claws or teeth as smaller dinos (now 35%)
  
• Added +15 to Carno's base health restored through biting during its roar ability
  
• Made it so the Acro roar buff does not negate tranq overdose effect
  
• Reduced netted time length for Bruisers
  
• If you are on fire, running through interactive water will now put you out after a second
  
  
• Reduced direct hit damage of Cryo acid from 100 to 80
  
  
• Made impact velocity consistent for knockback attacks regardless of where pawn is hit.
  
• Prevented thrown ragdolls from getting stuck on living pawns.
  
  
• First test of custom hit effects and footsteps for certain cosmetics with Robo Rex
  
• Various skin fixes
  
  

[h3]MAP CHANGES[/h3]

Visual and gameplay updates to the following maps:

• GTTC DOCKS
  
• GTTC FALLS
  
• GTTC PHANTOM
  
• GTTC DOWNPOUR
  
• TDM FALLS
  
• TDM TRANSFER
  
• TDM DOCKS
  
• TDM FORESTCHASM
  
• TDM VERDANT
  
• TDM UTILITYBASE
  
• NEW optimized interactive water added to the maps mentioned above
  
  
• GTTC: added laser grids to several areas which prevent dinosaurs passing through
  
• GTTC: sub-objectives take longer to deplete after humans have been cleared from the point
  
• GTTC: Fixed capture timer becoming stuck when a dead body is on the point
  
• GTTC: Added automatic sentry turrets to starting safezones on Docks and TheFalls
  
• GTTC: Fixed capture points on GTTC Falls not awarding time after being captured
  
  
• Moved grass to a more optimized material
  
• Fixed some collision issues on Docks and ForestChasm
  
• Enabled snowy BasicTest map and Main Menu map
  

[h3]OTHER CHANGES[/h3]

• Added dirt on camera effect for close-up explosions
  
• Added separate FOV slider for dinosaurs
  
• Minimum available FOV for dinosaurs is now 60 via slider, and 20 via command
  
• Added sprint zoom on/off to gameplay options
  
  
• Added an option for toggle run
  
• Added option to hide kill confirmation notification
  
• Added separate option for Show Dino Crosshair
  
• Removed the "option removed" option from the options menu
  
  
• Adjustments to default class limits:
  -Increased max limit for each human class to 6 in general
  -Increased spawn limit for Tyrants from 2 to 3 in TDM
  -Increased spawn limit of Bruisers from 2 to 3 in GTTC
  -Increased spawn limit of Bruisers from 3 to 4 in TDM
  
  
• Fixed class select counter not being synced between client and server
  (correctly shows subclasses as unselectable when family limit is reached)
  
  
• Removed annoying popup when clicking on a class that's full
  
  
• Changed behaviour of ProportionalLimit server variable:
  
  • The value now represents the amount of players currently in a game.
    
  • Has been fixed so the specified class cannot spawn until this threshold is met.
    
  • Example: a Tyrant proportional limit of 10 = no Tyrant spawns until 10 players are in the match.
    
  
  
  
• Added new generic hints for:
  --freeing dinos using melee slash, alternate loadout guns, extinguishing with water
  
  
• Fixed an issue that could prevent idlers from being kicked
  
• Fixed an issue where Flyers would not be idle kicked while hovering
  
• Fixed the consecutive suicides counter not working in some cases
  
• Fixed an issue where suicides via explosives wouldn't result in a kick
  
  
• Leftover crates can now be used as common items in crafting, no minimum amount
  
• Removed the infamous Survival mode challenge
  
• Added new AdminJoinSpectator command
  

[h3]Known Issues: [/h3]

• Gifts can be consumed in crafting (side effect of crates being craftable)
  
• Certain cosmetics may be aligned incorrectly or display with the wrong scale
  
• Some legacy dinosaur skins may appear overly shiny at present
  

WARNING: Some cosmetics (Tyrant chains) were initially causing the game to crash. If you have not done so already, please make sure you have updated to the recently released hotfix v2.0.1


[h2]Merry Christmas![/h2]



2020 has been quite a year for everybody, so wherever you are and whatever you celebrate, we hope you all stay safe and that PCE 2.0 helps make your year end with a smile!

We wish you all the best and a happy new year!
-The Primal Carnage Team




This is just the beginning...
Join the Official Primal Carnage Discord server to stay up to date with the game as it evolves in 2021!

Today we've got a little questions and answers session with the one and only MrTroodon!

As the man behind some of Primal Carnage: Extinction's most popular dinosaur mutations and our very own Ceratosaurus, we thought it would be interesting to shine a light on the creative process that goes into these designs and what MrTroodon might be cooking up next....

[h3]Please introduce yourself and your background for those unfamiliar..[/h3]

Hello there, it is a pleasure to be doing this Q&A! I'm MrTroodon, a dinosaur fan from Mexico, and I've been doing 3D work for about 3-4 years though only gone full-on with it the last two.



The history behind the "MrTroodon" name is a pretty simple one, I wanted something that represented me as a person but also recognizable with my work, and so far I think it works (ignoring the fact that Troodon is now an invalid genus, but, that adds in some comedy I´d say!) Plus I also thought a Troodon with a top hat and a monocle would be funny.

I always considered Primal Carnage a classic, nowadays you have all these "paleo games" coming out but, back in the day it was THE dinosaur game. I mean in part dinosaurs like Carnotaurus are as popular as they area thanks to the game. Although back then I wasn´t able to play the original game or Extinction at first, I followed the development for quite a while, still remember watching gameplays from when things like the Cryo and Tupa were brand new.

[h3]What got you into creating content for Primal Carnage: Extinction?
Did you have past experience making models or skins?[/h3]



My experience at making digital models comes mainly from my background at creating mods. I always like the ability to create my own content in the games I like, what's better than being able to play with your own creations? This is what got me into modding in the first place and it lead me to improve my skills and be more confident getting into bigger projects.

At first I modded (or at least attempted to mod) games like Zoo Tycoon 2 and JPOG, more recently I got into modding Jurassic World Evolution which is what many of you may know me from.

As to what got me into creating content for Primal Carnage: Extinction, it was really just timing. Making the Ultimasaurus mod for Jurassic World Evolution gave me confidence enough to say, "Hey I can create nice things, why not see what else I can do in other games?"

So I looked at Extinction again, the fact that I finally had a laptop that could actually run the game made me investigate the kind of things I could create for it. I thought I can make a couple of nice skins to play as, but then there's this announcement- now there are these so-called Mutations that modify the in-game model of the dinosaurs. And I´m like... I´m in, hell yeah let´s get into this!



Later I redid the Stegosaurus NPC model (because why not?) and this would lead to me being hired to create the Ceratosaurus for Primal Carnage: Extinction.



[h3]Where does the inspiration for your items come from?[/h3]

It depends on the item, I like to have a broad variety in my work yet also a style people can still recognize, "Hey these are things that the Troodon dude did."

This is one of the reasons as why I like to go with what I refer as "themes". Although i´d say what makes me go that route is I think that makes the item feel more special, kinda like if you were a child getting a figure of that new Jurassic movie, I really enjoy that, makes people happy. Brutalsaurus for example, was mostly inspired by what I would call "old school" paleo media, this would be depictions from the 90s and early 2000s, like the dinosaurs in Peter Jackson's King Kong.



For some of the items I plan to work on in the future I've found a general inspiration from action figures, things like Kenner toys or the G.I. Joe. Specially for having both dinosaur and human items within a same theme, meant to go with each other.

[h3]What was it like creating the Ceratosaurus model?[/h3]



I really enjoyed working on the Ceratosaurus, as in the past I had done some small commissions but this was much bigger so it was thrilling to work on it, a really neat experience. Although I'd be lying if there wasn´t some pressure present there on the back of my mind, since this was like the first new subclass since Acro which was years ago!

[h3]What software, tools and techniques do you use?[/h3]

The softwares I use for modeling are Blender to work on the mesh itself and Zbrush to do the sculpting, meanwhile at the moment for what would be the texturing I use Substance Painter mainly with something like Photoshop or Gimp after that for minor tweaks.



When making mutations I first ask myself, what do I want to achieve with the item/s in question? Based on that I look for references I would use for the project in question, both for the model and texture. This can be from movies, paleoart, games, even modern day fauna. As an example, for the Novus mutations (New Generations) I like to use skeletals in order to get more accurate proportions.

[h3]Do you have a particular workshop item you're proud of?[/h3]

Oh there's no contest here, the Emu. The absolute absurdity of that made me fell like a mad scientist while creating it. I had LOTS of fun making this bird...




[h3]Lastly, is there anything you're working on that you'd like to share? [/h3]

Hehe, there's a couple things...







[h3]Thanks again to MrTroodon for chatting with us! [/h3]

With the release of the winter update later this month, almost all of the dinosaur classes will be receiving brand new high resolution base textures as part of a visual refresh to the game as a whole.

MrTroodon has done an excellent job bringing the classic Primal dinosaurs into the current decade and we can't wait for you to play with them! If you'd like to see more from MrTroodon, check the links below..

YouTube channel

Steam Workshop

https://twitter.com/Mr_Troodon

ArtStation