Update v0.81.0 - Healing Mush, tamable T-Rex, AI improvements!

But it's still advised to start a new game, as some changes could potentially cause glitches.


FULL CHANGELOG





First of all, I want to apologize for the delay of this announcement: the update was online monday 8th, but here I am... announcing it a week later!

There have been significant changes in my life in the last few months: I got a full-time job as a gym trainer. This presents with both good and bad implications for the game development: the bad one is that I'll devote less time to DinoSystem, since I have less free time available (and being the only developer). On the other hand, since I finally got a decent revenue, I'm no longer forced to complete the main features and release the game out of the Early Access as soon as possible (in order to earn the bulk of the revenue to sustain myself): I can move it out of the EA as soon as I feel it's polished enough, without time or money restrictions and without the risk of rushing it.

My committment to the game has never been so high, and I'm looking forward to work on some new big features I've been planning during the last year!

That being said, let's give a look at the additions/improvements in version 0.81:





- Added a new craftable item - Healing Mush:
- Healing Mush is prepared via the Crafting menu, and requires 9 Leaf (red ones, check below), 1 resin, and the First Aid skill lvl 10+.
- Healing Mush can be consumed just like a food item, giving some water and increasing Fullness.
- Healing Mush, when consumed, amplifies the natural Health recovery of the player; this means that it should be used ONLY if you're already healing, otherwise it's just wasted.
- The power and duration of the healing boost depends on the item condition, which depends uniquely on your First Aid skill (when created).
- Added a new "+/-" icon next to the Health bar, showing character health recovery or loss over time.
- Newborn Ferns have now a low chance to be "red", red ferns are identical to normal ones, but are much rarer and can be used to prepare Healing Mush.







- Baby T-Rex can be tamed too, but keeping an adult T-Rex as a pet will be a pain in the ***.
- Taming a young T-Rex is similiar to taming a Troodon: you need to drag Meat/Fish and wait for it to "bait" (read the guide for more details).
- Tamed adult Troodon, as well as T-Rex, will now assist the player attacking also adult Triceratops and Troodons.
- Tamed adult animals will now assist the player also when he/she is attacked.
- Tamed animals will no longer hunt by their own initiative (T-Rex will still hunt small preys if hungry).
- Added the ability to call your tamed animal(s) (right click on character -> Call Pet(s)).
- Tamed no longer increase/decrease from distance/hunger while the animal sleeps.
- Taming guide page updated to reflect the changes.







- Animals are much better at turning towards their target, if it's beside or behind them: they will move backwards instead of turning in circle.
- Attacking animals have now a chance to sprint even when attacking other animals (not just the player).
- Improved female T-Rex reaction when Troodons attack their youngs or steal their eggs.
- Meat eaters will no longer see a carcass if it's sheltered by walls/boulders, unless it's very big, or very close (because smell..).
- Animals are now more likely to flee from a nearby non-attacking T-Rex, even if doing an important action (like eating).
- Animal actions and movements have been greatly optimized to use less processing power.
- More AI improvements (check the full changelog).





- Added moon reflection in water (visible during night), with dynamic phases.
- Water (both sea and ponds) have a fancy wave effect, only enabled on "High" Graphic Quality setting.
- Many minor tweaks to the atmosphere constants (color, brightness, contrast etc).
- More minor visual improvements.







- Fixed a serious, under-the-hood issue that caused the timescale to be desycronized with the actual simulation variables: this means that, before the fix, running the game at 10x or 20x timescale produced different results (especially to weather) than playing with 1x or 2x timescale. Considering that I always run the game at 20x timescale while simulating an island for long-term ecosystem testing, the issue prevented me to properly balance the game for lower timescale (therefore for Survival Mode). This caused, for example, extreme sun intensity in mid day (especially in summer), and extreme cold in mid night.
- [Survival] Fixed a serious miscalculation that caused the player to occasionally become "mutant", dealing a significant amount of damage with punches, and also having infinite health/breath in some situations. The fix also applies to saved games, so it will "cure" your old character from its bug-induced super power xD.
- [Survival] Fixed damage text (inflicted) reporting a wrong/higher value (damage inflicted has NOT been reduced in this update, it just used to show a higher number!).
- [Requested] Added a new setting which allows to toggle the screen shake effect (default On).
- [Requested] When dismantling a Fire Pit, the game asks a second time before proceeding, to help prevent doing it by miss-click. This happens also when discarding items.
- [Requested] Objects used in crafting as components are highlighted, instead of being pointed by a green arrow.



These are only the most relevant changes, as always there are tons of other in this update, check the full changelog for the complete list!




Dan