DinoSystem News

This update IS compatible with savegames from previous v0.98.0!


---> FULL CHANGELOG [p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]A(nother) NOTE FROM THE DEV:[/p][p]Before getting into the details of this update, I wanted to take a moment to share something personal again. Earlier this year, I spoke about the loss of my father. Sadly, in April, I also lost my mother.[/p][p]She was a nurse for over 40 years and helped many people; both during her long career and outside of it. She was also a caring and dedicated mother. Unfortunately, she never quite understood my passion for game development, which makes continuing this project at the moment particularly hard.[/p][p]Perhaps if it had been more “successful,” she might have seen its value in a different light. Maybe one day it will be, but she won’t be around to see it.[/p][p]Still, I choose to hold onto the good memories, set aside what weighs me down, and move forward with my life and my work.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Now, let’s talk about what’s new in this update:[/p]

• [p]A new setting allows you to scale the internal resolution between 25% and 100%, helping the game run better on lower-end systems while preserving core gameplay and visuals. This overrides the old, binary setting with only "Desktop" and "Low" resolution modes.[/p][p][/p]
• [p]Some textures have been improved to better reflect the visual style and detail of the world, especially for boulders and mountains, as well as many small items.
  [/p]
• [p]The ecological simulation has been further rebalanced to enhance the long-term survival and ecological dynamics.[/p]
• [p]Numerous small fixes and improvements have been made for overall stability and polish.[/p]
• [p]Those are just the main changes, for a complete list check the FULL CHANGELOG[/p]

[p][/p][p]Version 1.0 is approching... but there's still a lot to do. Thank you, as always, for sticking with this project![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Daniel[/p]

This update IS compatible with savegames from previous v0.98.0!

ENGINE:

INTERFACE:

CONTROLS:

SURVIVAL:

OPTIMIZATION:

FIXES:

This update IS compatible with savegames from previous v0.98.0!

- Expanded the saving system with multiple slots:

OTHER RELEVANT CHANGES:

This update is NOT compatible with old saves!

---> FULL CHANGELOG It's two parts, probably the game's biggest changelog so far!

If you tried the Beta for v0.98, here are the changes from Beta2 -> Final 0.98 (from DinoSystem Discord).





As is tradition, I'm dropping a major update right at the end of the year!
2024 has been a life-changing year: in October, my father passed away after a long illness. A few days before he passed, he asked me about the game - he expressed his appreciation for my commitment to it, and, since he was blind, he wanted to hear about the changes I had made and my vision for its future.

We live on a small island in southern Italy and he needed 24/7 care. I had no opportunity to travel or go out much, so working on DinoSystem was my main distraction. Still, knowing he was able to understand and appreciate my work offered a bittersweet closure to this ordeal.

My father was not a strong man, but he was full of creativity and passion, and I’m grateful I inherited some of that. Here’s a song (in italian Capri, Far Away) he composed long ago, when he lived in Germany and missed his beloved island, Capri.

On a brighter note, I’m now fully committed to bringing DinoSystem to v1.0. I’m back working full-time on it, so expect more frequent updates in 2025. I’ll write a detailed roadmap in January!


That being said, let's have a brief look at the Behemoth here (aka v0.98.0)...


- Added new music by Samuel Oddamo:
...... Added several non-continuous tracks for dawn, sunset, day and night.
...... Added a new music track playing during island generation and save loading.
...... Added a new music track playing during character creation and info screen.
...... Added a new music track playing during the Asteroid event.
...... Main/game menu music replaced with new tracks.
...... Added new settings for music.




- [Survival] Creation/info player screen now has two modes - Basic and Advanced:
...... Basic shows only body features and few info.
...... Advanced shows also skills and advanced info.
...... The first time you play, it is shown as Basic, but will remember your choice if you switch to Advanced.




- Added a new options tab - VIDEO:
...... Moved all video and graphics settings to the new video tab.
...... New video tab is transparent and UI elements are spaced out, allowing to see changes to the game visuals on-the-fly.
...... Added new settings (in the video tab) for Contrast, Brightness and Saturation.
...... GFX Quality setting (in the video tab) split in 3 settings: Shadows, Effects and Water.




- [Survival] Added Mini-Game setting and mechanics for Fishing and Light Fire actions:
...... Added a new setting for "Mini-Games"; when enabled, Fishing and Light Fire are actual mini-games, otherwise they're fully automated.
...... For Fishing, mini-game requires the player to successfully catch a passing fish: chance for a fish to spawn depends on fish population in that spot, while mini-game difficulty depends on Melee/Fishing skill, as well as other factors.
...... For Light Fire, mini-game requires the player to click the attack button at specific intervals, when the arrows overlap the red bars: arrows speed and red bars size depend on Firemaking skill, as well as other factors.




- [Survival] Added a new setting "Auto-Repeat", and reworked the auto-repeat feature with Shift:
...... The setting has 3 options - Disabled, Partial, Full:
............ Disabled - Drinking/Gathering actions will trigger once (as before); press (not hold!) Shift to repeat them ad-infinitum.
............ Partial - Drinking/Gathering actions will be automatically repeated until the desired resource is dropped/thirst is satiated; press Shift to repeat them ad-infinitum.
............ Full - Drinking/Gathering actions will be repeated ad-infinitum (until the desired resource is depleted, or stomach is full).




- [Survival] Added the option to remap mouse Controls, and to move with the mouse:
...... Movement, Attack and Aim/Scout actions can now be remapped and reassigned to any mouse button.
...... By default, Movement = unbinded, Attack = Left Mouse, Aiming = Right Mouse.
...... Added the ability to move holding a mouse button (disabled by default), and sprint by moving the cursor farther from the character.
...... Added new mouseover icons as hints for mouse action depending on object hovered and circumstances.



- Crafting/Building recipes unlocking system:
...... All recipes in the Craft/Build menu now start as unknown, and must be unlocked.
...... By hovering the mouse on any unknown recipe, a tooltip will give a vague hint about the item/structure and how to unlock it.
...... A recipe is unlocked by interacting with, crafting or gathering its primary component (e.g. Stone -> Stone Wall).
...... As soon as a recipe is unlocked, a purple side alert message will show up, and its button in the Craft/Build menu will be highlighted.




- Added Drying Rack and Meat/Fish drying mechanics:
...... Drying Rack needs 12 Sticks + 4 Strings, as well as 30+ Building skill (for 100% chance to be built).
...... Drying Rack recipe is discovered by interacting with a Stick.
...... Meat/Fish can be placed on a Drying Rack, and will slowly dry based on sun exposure (therefore make sure to build it in absence of any roof).
...... Depending on the weather and the Day Length option, drying a Meat/Fish can take up to 3 days.
...... Once dried, food gives no water and less vitamins/proteins, but will decay up to 6x slower!




- Sleep Bonus renamed to Sleep Debt, with expanded mechanics:
...... Sleep Debt level can be assessed by hovering the mouse over the Stamina bar.
...... As Stamina drops below 50%, when awake, Sleep Debt increase exponentially.
...... When sleeping, SD is gradually reduced.
...... Sleep Debt effects are:
............ Faster Stamina drop when awake.
............ Faster Stamina recovery when sleeping (effect increase capped at SD 24).
............ Chance of passing out at 0 Stamina.




- Improvements to Poisoning mechanics:
...... Poisoning damage happens only when the effect is added/increased, while its decay is more frequent, especially after eating a Healing Mush (which now has a bigger impact on poisoning reduction).
...... Vomiting from sickness is more frequent, but always associated with Poisoning decay (since you're emptying your stomach).
...... Sickness from severe Poisoning (>50%) can prompt skill decay too (for skills that are at -100% progression), depending on poison severity.




- Added the ability to dig up Didelphodon lairs, causing them to flee in panic or even killing some of them (at Digging skill > 100).




- [Survival] Coconut can now be cracked also with Sharpstone or Hatchet, but there's a small chance to shatter it.




- When felling a tree, the wood/resin will now dispose resembling an actual trunk, and they also drop leaves.




- [Survival] Added Fur and Fur Cape:
...... Fur is obtained exclusively from Didelphodon (instead of Hide), which drops one, sometimes.
...... Fur looks like Hide, but has a dark blue color.
...... Fur, just like Hide, must be cleaned, and when equipped as simple clothing gives more warmth then Hide.
...... Fur Cape is crafted from 3 Fur, as well as 20+ Crafting skill (for 100% chance to be crafted).
...... Fur Cape, when equipped as clothing, gives more warmth then Hide Cape.
...... Hide Cape warmth reduced slightly for balance.

- [Survival] Added String:
...... String is crafted from 3 Leaf, as well as 5+ Crafting skill (for 100% chance to be crafted).
...... String recipe is discovered by interacting with a Leaf.
...... String is now used in several existing recipes.
...... Some item sprites updated to reflect the presence of strings in their crafting.
...... To compensate for the extra work required in crafting, most tools decay rate from usage (chopping, carving, digging, etc) is reduced by 40-50%.






Those are just the main changes, for a complete list check the FULL CHANGELOG!


Daniel