DinoSystem News

Hello survivors!

I wanted to share a quick update about the next major DinoSystem version labled as v0.96!

v0.96 includes many improvements to several areas of the game, like animal AI, skill system, survival balance, addition of the Waterskin and more; but the main change of this update (and the one I wanted to show off in this announcement) is in the graphics department.

All graphics in DinoSystem have been upscaled and enhanced! Previously, zooming at max zoom, texture did appear extremely low resolution, especially dinosaurs and terrain; this has been fixed in v0.96.


Here some examples (changes may not be fully perceptible due to the reduced size of the images):




Animals and arid terrain:





Triceratops in a forest:





Snow and rain effects on vegetation/boulders:





Snowy terrain:





Character and items:





Terrain & vegetation:






There's no ETA for the release, but it should come soon (probably next month), as most features are complete and need further testing.



Dan

But it's still advised to start a new game, as the amount of changes is enormous.

Click here for the -> FULL CHANGELOG



First of all, sorry for the huge delay. The last 12 months have been incredibly tumultuous, I've been working on this update in my spare time, which I had plenty of, but being the perfectionist I am, I always had some minor details to focus on!
Also, the waterskin anticipated for this update is not here yet... I'm sorry for that too! It will come in the next mini-patch though, and the amount of other improvements and additions in 0.95 should make up for this (I hope, at least).

That being said, let's give a look at the additions/improvements in version 0.95:



- [Survival] Savegame is deleted as soon as is loaded in Rogue-lite difficulty, preventing the player from abusing the save system by quitting via ALT+F4 and loading again.
- [Survival] Autosaves are no longer saved in Rogue-lite difficulty.


- Troodon carcass and skeleton sprites improved.
-[Survival] Added visible droplets to the character sprite when wet (they change dynamically with wetness level).
-[Survival] Some additional actions that move items now happen in a smooth fashion (like eating and taking/dropping via key).


- Added a subtle farting sound when animals defecate (because details matter).


- Pressing ESC while in Character Creation Screen will return to God Mode.
- When inspected, all items and structures condition is now shown without the "%" symbol, but with "/max".
- Added an X button on top-right of the inspected animal info screen, to easily close it.
-[Survival] All item crafted/repaired/cleaned/gathered or structures built/repaired, now show their condition (in parentheses) in the action complete notification.
-[Survival] Expand Lakebed action now shows the amount of water remaining in the lakebed, as yellow text.
-[Survival] Breath consumed in a single "session" is now shown in grey on the Breath bar for a while (like in Valheim).
-[Survival] Muscle Soreness percentage is now displayed more consistently (it previously showed 100% max over a real cap of 200%, now it shows 100% as the actual cap).
-[Survival] UI stomach icon now has a proper pink background.


- Added a new remappable action key: Pick item (see the CONTROLS section for more info).
- Added 2 new remappable action keys: Rotate left/right.


-[Survival] Added the ability to pick up items with key:
*Pressing E (default) over an item will instantly pick up it, without accessing Equip Mode (if you're a returning player, go to the Controls menu to assign the action to a key).
*If the item is a weapon/tool, it will automatically equip it.
*Some other actions have their default key remapped: Interact -> R, Stance -> C, Inspect/Info -> Z, Attack -> X.
*These changes will only take effect at keys RESET, or when the game runs for the first time!
*Holding MMB (middle mouse) will no longe rrotate an item.
*Made several interface/hint changes to accomodate to the new system.




- Added sickness mechanics (incl. puking):
*Eating spoiled/raw food, poisonous mushrooms or drinking saltwater will no longer instantly damage the character, but will apply the Poisoned status.
*When poisoned, Health bar becomes green.
*Poisoned status gravity can reach 100%, depending on the severity of the cause.
*Poisoned status causes the character to gradually lose some health, and occasionally vomit, losing most of the hydration and nutrients eaten.
*When sleeping, character is awakened by getting the poison effect.
*Poisoned status slowly reduces over time (if the character survives, indeed).
*Toughness skill reduces the chance to get poisoned.
*Fullness over 100% can also cause vomiting, if the character moves too much (runs, jumps, fights etc).



- Several actions chance/progression calculation reworked:
*Gathering actions chance now starts from a lower value, which increase after every unsuccesful attempt (based on Gathering skill).
*Gathering actions now show the current chance in the action text.
*Mushroom gathering action improved (it's more similiar to other ones).
*"No luck" message replaced with more immersive messages.
*Trying to sleep action is now chance based (just as the gathering actions, but continuous).
*Making fire action is now chance based (just as the gathering actions, but continuous).
*Most actions base speed rebalanced.



- Maluses from high Fullness, high Soreness and low Stamina reworked:
*Fullness over 100% (bloated) will no longer prevent sprinting/jumping, but will slow down sprinting, reduce jumping height and reduce many actions speed dynamically based on the amount of Fullness exceeding 100%.
*Muscle Soreness over 25% (former 100%) will no longer prevent sprinting/jumping and some heavy actions like Butchering, but will slow down sprinting, reduce jumping height and reduce many actions speed dynamically based on the amount of Soreness exceeding 25%.
*Stamina below 25% (exhausted) will no longer prevent some heavy actions like Butchering (still prevents sprinting at Stamina 0), but will reduce many actions speed dynamically based on the amount of Stamina below 25%.

- Maximum Health increased by 10% in Normal difficulty, and reduced by 16% in Realistic+ difficuly (which is now exactly HALF the Health of Normal).
- Thoughness skill Health gain for Female gender reduced by an additional 16% (to make it consistant with the base reduction).
- Health recovery rate reduced by -25% in Normal difficulty (it's still 50% faster than Realistic+!).
- Lakebed action can now expand the lakebed up to 200% more than before, but the maximum size is amplified by the Digging skill (it's also true for the size threshold of Find Water).
- Melee attack collision detection and precision greatly improved (with punch/all weapons).
- Character base Hydration consumption is now also amplified by Metabolism and Body Muscle, but impact from high temperature reduced.
- Body Muscle gain will now boost calories/proteins consumption, depending on the gaining rate.
- Character weight contribution from Body Fat increased at higher fat percentage, and from Body Muscle increased at lower muscle percentage, resulting in a more realistic weight according to body composition. Also, female weight contribution from muscle reduced.
- Moving on a Path will also increase the character speed by 10%, in addition to removing the terrain maluses.


- Added Didelphodon:
*Didelphodon is a small mammal, opportunistic in nature, ominvore, that lives in deep lairs.
*Didelphodons hide in their lair most of the day, and usually get out during the night to find food.
*Didelphodons doesn't lay eggs, but gives birth to 4-6 cubs.
*Didelphodon cubs are fully dependant on the adults, and can't get food on their own.
*Didelphodons can dig new lairs if their previous one is destroyed.
*Didelphodons have "clan" identity represented by the lair they belong to: if Didos from different lairs met, they will probably fight. This can generate rivalries and battles over resources shared by different clans.
*Didelphodon are too small and weak to pose a threat to other animals and the character, and are often hunted by Troodons and young T-Rexes. They are nimble and can hide in their lair, though.
*Tyrannosaurs can destroy Didos lairs and kill most of the inhabitants, if hungry enough.
*Added a new loading hint telling about Didelphodons.



- Predators hunting conditions are now less restrictive, making hunting events common.
- Mating success chance now depends on animal size: the smaller the animal, the more attempts are needed to succesfully impregnate, also, mating now consumes more Stamina.
- Also Troodons will now "guard" a carcass they have eaten from, in order to access it in the future, like T-Rexes already do.
- Also Troodons can "steal" smaller carcasses from other Troodons, like T-Rexes already do.


- Various improvements to vegetation energy mechanics (to enhance realism and balance).
- Changes to terrain mechanics relative to vegetation (to enhance realism and balance).


- Changed materials required to build/repair Wall, Door and Thatch:
*Stone Wall -> Build: 12 Stone + 4 Dung | Repair: 6 Stone + 2 Dung (at max dmg).
*Wood Wall -> Build: 6 Wood + 10 Resin | Repair: 3 Wood + 5 Resin (at max dmg).
*Wood Door -> Build: 6 Wood + 8 Resin + 2 Stick | Repair: 3 Wood + 5 Resin (at max dmg).
*Thatch -> Repair: 6 Leaf + 6 Branch (at max dmg).


-[Survival] Added item quality system and repair action:
*Items that can be repaired (both de-facto and in theory) show in parentheses the maximum condition they can reach when repaired (called "quality").
*Item "quality" is set at item creation, depending on components used and character Crafting skill (it's basically the initial condition of the item).
*Most crafted items can now be repaired if below 50% quality.
*Repairing doesn't cost any materials, but can gradually reduce the item condition and quality (depending on the Crafting skill).
*If successful, repairing brings the item to its "quality" value, while failing means the item might be degraded even further.
*Added few in-game hints and loading notes explaining this new mechanic.



- Dung initial condition increased on average, and degrade more slowly over time.


- Added moonlight effect relative to Moon phases:
*Night darkness is now reduced by moonlight effect.
*Added a world message notifying the current lunar phase.
*[Survival] Night are 150% darker in Realistic+ difficulty (as before), this does no longer apply to the vignette effect, but the overall darkness.



- Rain starting/ending speed strongly reduced; it will now require more time to reach full rain, as well as finish.
- Lightning is 10x less likely to occur when snowing.


- Generated island size increased by ~33% for all Landmass setting values (applies only to new games).
- Landmass setting can be set down to 5% instead of 10% (to create even tinier islands).



- Too many to list here, check the full changelog below...



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!

Hello there!

It's been a long time! I just wanted to let you know I'm working on the next update, and it's a big one.

Quick summary (subject to changes):

-Didelphodon (small mammal)
-Craftable waterskin
-Tool repairing and quality system
-Improved survival balance
-Reworked soreness and other survival mechanics
-Improved ecology balance
-Bug fixes (as always)

The extensive, WIP changelog will be released in few days in the changelogs section of the forum. About the update, there is no fixed ETA, as I'm still in the middle of adding the Didelphodon, and each new species makes the ecosystem harder and harder to balance (without implementing artificial balancing mechanics, which I try to avoid). The survival mode changes will be most likely appreciated, especially the ability to repair items and the reworked muscle soreness.

See you soon!


Dan

[h3]This is a minor update that includes some balance tweaks and various small improvements, as well as several important fixes.

I've decided to release this before the actual v0.91 (which will add a new animal, the Didelphodon) to address those issues as soon as possible, since the next major update is still in the works and requires some weeks.[/h3]



- [Survival] When moved during actions (es: components moved on build spot during building), items gradually slide towards the intended spot, instead or being magically teleported.
- [Survival] Various improvements to some action animations.


- [Survival] Added a contracting red circle on the cursor showing attack delay time.
- [Survival] Minor improvements to some interface actions.
- [Survival] Minor improvements to the actions progression text.
- [Survival] Planted seed now has a mouse hover text.
- [Survival] Fish meat is now called "Fish", instead of "Meat (fish)".
- [Survival] Sword cursor improved.


- Actions like Carving, Cleaning and Cracking have their progress remembered when they are interrupted, so they are resumed as soon as the action is restarted for that object; this does not yet apply to Crafting and Building, though (will work on that eventually).
- Actions progress, when interrupted and resumed, is reduced by 10%.
- Damage auto-inflicted during actions requiring a sharpen tool slightly increased.
- Digging skill has a much greater impact on the related actions speed (but base speed reduced).


- [Survival] Animals will no longer chase a food that is being used by the Player for an action (es: cleaning Fish, planting Fruit, etc).
- Male Triceratops, when in heat, are aggressive towards all other species that come close enough.
- Young T-Rex will now chase and eat Meat/Fish when younger than 25 days old (up from 18).


- Reduced damage to Stone Wall from animal collision by ~33%, and improved building tooltip.


- [Survival] Increased damage taken by Stones retrieved from dismantling a Fire Pit (from -5 to -10).
- Stick/Torch decay 50% slower than simple Branch.


- Minor performance optimizations.


- [Survival] Fixed sword cursor icon getting stuck when dropping a weapon from the back slot.
- [Survival] Fixed hint telling to disable Sneaking with the actual Combat Stance toggle key.
- [Survival] Fixed hint telling to disable Sneaking triggering while not actually sneaking.
- [Survival] Fixed bloated hint not appearing when trying to drink rain while Fullness close to 100%.
- [Survival] Fixed being able to access the Player action menu while colliding with animals/obstacles.
- [Survival] Trees can now be interacted with also when on top of carcasses and other objects.
- [Survival] Skeletons can now be interacted with also when on water.
- Fixed a bug that caused vegetation to take root MUCH less likely on some terranis, when they were supposed to have good chance.
- Fixed Fire Pit stones being shown above carcasses.

-[God] Minimum zoom expanded by 2x.


- Animal sound produced when poisoned has pitch increased if it's young, just as other sounds.


-[Survival] Combat Stance message will now also show when enabling it by equipping a weapon.
-[Survival] Added new hints for disabling Combat Stance and Sneaking.
-[Survival] Improved hints appearing when failing at lighting fire.
-[Survival] Minor changes to some game messages.
- Debug info (toggled with F3) text format improved.


-[Survival] Changes to Control Mode/Mouse Attack options and Combat Stance:

• Control Mode "Mixed" setting replaced with "Standard" (which is now the default setting). Standard is like Keyboard, but the character turns with the mouse only when in Combat Stance, to make melee combat more intuitive and less frustrating.
  
• Mouse Attack now only triggers during Combat Stance, for both RMB and LMB.
  
• Mouse Attack option is now ON by default.
  
• Improved tooltips for Control Mode and Mouse Attack options.
  
• In Combat Stance, mouse cursor turns into a sword.
  
• Combat Stance is now disabled also when removing a weapon in Equip Mode, dropping it when hit by a dinosaurs and when using the left hand to hold an item.
  
• When enabling Combat Stance, any item held with the left hand is dropped.
  
• If Control Mode is "Standard" or "Keyboard", new character starts by facing the shore instead of the mouse.

-[Survival] Pressing ESC will directly show the Exit Menu while the player was in selection/crafting mode, instead of just interrupting it, and will now also interrupt Pulling.


- Chance to be cut/hit/bruised during various actions now scales with current health (by 60%), simulating increased awareness while in life danger; to balance this, the chance reduction from the related skill has been decreased from -80% to -66% (at max skill lvl).
- Skill progression decay rate decreased by ~10% (reverted change from latest update).
- Athletics/Endurance/Toughness/Digging skills increase rate slightly reduced.
- Wetness increase from rain rebalanced again to be MUCH SLOWER under poor cover (like trees), instead of reaching and mantaining 100% Wetness.
- Temperature reduction from exposition to snow is no longer reduced by Wetness (was not intended, should be considered bugfix).
- Wetness threshold after which firemaking become impossible increased from 66% to 100% (which means being wet is less punitive for lighting fire).
- Fire Pit reduces negative impact to firemaking from Wind Exposure by 50%.
- Firemaking action progression slightly reduced, to balance after the above changes.
- Finding water by digging on a lakebed will now shrink it, instead of expand it.
- Expanding a lakebed by digging will now slowly spill some of its water away.
- Added subtle screen shake when landing from a jump or a push (intensity depends on body weight).
- Added a tiny easter egg for the female character :D.


- Animals now also de-facto receive damage from poisonous Mushrooms (depending on color), instead of just reacting to it.
- Newborn animal gender selection is now more random (but still partially based on gender discrepancy in the species, which is needed because of the low population represented in DinoSystem).


- Damage magnitude from poisonous Mushrooms is no longer totally random, but it too depends on the color (with a slightly random coefficient). This means if, for example, a green mushroom is just mildly poisonous, you'll want to remember for the next time that green can be relatively safe (especially if cooked).
- Mushroom spores can now be preserved in arid terrain (just like vegetation seeds), and released when the aridity turns into fertility.
- Mushroom "organism" propagation system revisited, to allow it spreading more naturally.
- Spawning chance for edible Mushrooms increased.
- Reduced chance vegetation seeds "preserved" in arid terrain decay every ingame year.


- Volcano shape and collision box improved (more coherent with its actual borders).


-[Survival] Tutorial setting doesn't automatically disable in Realistic+ difficulty, it just doesn't show it, you can still create a new character and follow the tutorial in Normal difficulty without having to re-enable the setting.
-[Survival] Various small improvements to the Survival tutorial.


-[Survival] Fixed Player Creation Screen not reporting the character weight contribution from Body Muscle, and showing a much lower Body Weight.
-[Survival] Fixed pressing the attack key/button while Pulling, enabling Combat Stance without interrupting Pulling (and showing 2 right arms).
-[Survival] Fixed particle effect showing on the right shoulder instead of the hand, when gathering from tree or rock.
-[Survival] Fixed some minor character animation issues.
-[Survival] Fixed some possible bugs in the Survival tutorial.
- Fixed zooming with the mouse wheel allowing to zoom out indefinitely (sorry had to fix it, but zooming in God mode has been expanded!).
- Fixed "Missing cursor text" appearing on mousehover over Mushrooms in some circumstances.
- Fixed Carcasses generated at new game not showing the animal species name when inspected with X/MMB.
- Fixed a rare instance where animals could have Thirst < 0 after eating, for a few seconds.
- Fixed a rare instance where animals could get stuck with the "puking" animation, especially after loading a save.
- Fixed "Credits" and "Resolution" pages having their text and buttons not aligned with the background.
- Fixed application icon not always showing as intended.