DinoSystem News

This update IS compatible with savegames from previous v0.96.0+!

---> FULL CHANGELOG




New year, new DinoSystem update! 2023 presented many challenges and opportunities: one of my family member is very ill, we take care of him, but it's very draining both physically and mentally. I've been ill myself (less serious, luckly), and stopped working out, I'm planning to start again sometime in the future.
On a brighter note, I'm a full time gamedev now, leaving behind my historical gym trainer career: DinoSystem (and potential new projects of mine) is still not my main source of income, but I can now work in a field I truly enjoy, as well as being able to work from home (and take care of my father).
Now, about this update, I did anticipate it would include the meat/fish drying mechanic and a new narrative system, but they didn't make into it and will be added in a future version. There are few additions that could make up for this inconvenience, though, so let's check the changelog!




-[Survival] Quitting on Rogue-lite difficulty now produces a new save slot called "Exit Save", instead of overwriting "My Save".
- Autosaves are taken when dawn happens, instead of few moments later.



- High/low fog effect is now much more common.
- Added a subtle distorsion effect to low fog (only on GFX Quality = High).
- Several ambient effects, as well as leaves/clouds direction from wind, are updated much more often (every 0.1 sec instead of 1 sec).
- "Screen Sharpen" effect (renamed to "Normal Map", see below) tweaked to be more subtle.
- Tree canopies parallax relative to zoom level improved to produce better results at very low zoom.
- Sky and sky reflection parallax now scales correctly with current zoom level.
- Red Mushroom now has white dots, to make it more easily distinguishable from the brown one.
- Dynamic shadows intensity tweaked to be slightly more apparent in some instances.
- Haze effect from warm climate tweaked in intensity and improved in quality, and reduced the excessive flickering.
- Screen lightning stops when the game is paused.
- Minor improvements to the particle system.
-[Survival] Added a subtle trail to fired projectiles.



-[Survival] Character arms resolution improved.
-[Survival] Added a blur effect to tree canopies at very high zoom (only on GFX Quality = High).
-[Survival] Player droplets from wetness disappear asap after the "dry up" action.
-[Survival] Improved some character animations (and now scale better with the actual action speed).



- Improved wall/door damage and destruction sounds.
- Animal distant death sounds can be heard from farther away.
- Tweaked volume/pitch of tree falling sound, based on tree size.
- Added some button click sounds that were missing.
-[Survival] Tweaked volume/pitch of some player actions sounds.



- Improvements to the Settings interface:
...... Added a new tab to the general settings screen called "Screen", which groups settings related to screen effects/features.
...... Setting "Screen Mode" renamed to "Mode".
...... Setting "Video Quality" renamed to "GFX Quality".
...... Setting "Screen Sharpen" renamed to "Normal Map".
...... Setting "Master Volume" renamed to "Main Volume".
...... Made small tweaks to some settings tooltips.

-[Survival] Improvements to the Character creation/info screen:
...... Character creation screen now appears at the start of island generation, allowing the player to create their character during the loading time, instead of waiting.
...... Character creation/info screen layout rearranged, having most UI panels upward, and the tooltip on bottom.
...... Strength text panel is now isolated and changes color based on Strength level (red, yellow, green).
...... Character creation/info screen now appears fading, and the character zooming in.



-[Survival] Side alert text notifications (showing when a stat/skill changes) are more precise and don't trigger several times in a row.
-[Survival] Structure blueprint rotation speed sligthly reduced (during build mode).
-[Survival] Added some variations to the "you're scaring fish away" message.
-[Survival] Mousehover on Stomach icon now shows "Fullness:" instead of "Total:", for clarity.
-[Survival] Stomach icon is even smaller from emptiness.
-[Survival] Damage text shown when failing to repair a tool is now violet.
-[Survival] Improved UI logic about attack recoiling.
-[Survival] Poisoning and Health damage screen effects last for longer before disappearing.
-[Survival] Sun/warmth screen effect is more visible and responsive.
-[Survival] Temperature and Health UI bars now update in a gradual fashion.
-[God] In the God UI, "beds" renamed to "lakebed".
- Landmarks map mode is much darker during night, preventing it from being exploited to increase visibility.
- Several UI screens (like character creation/info screen, loading screen) now fade when appearing/disappearing.
- Island snapshot requires less milliseconds to be taken, making it less intrusive.
- "Pine Cone" renamed to just "Cone", for simplicity.
- Added a couple new loading hints.
- Added a subtle shadow to some UI texts.
- Improvements to settings interface layout.
- Minor improvements to UI panels color.
- Inspect cursor icon made smaller.
- Removed Plug In Digital and Playful Oasis logos from main menu.



- Added a new "Auto-Zoom" setting, allowing to enable/disable the newerly added auto-zoom feature, which automatically alters the zoom level during some actions like Aim Mode (check the SURVIVAL list for more info).
- Added a new "Droplets" setting, allowing to show/hide the screen droplets accumulating from rain exposure, water, sweating (the feature was previously enabled at GFX Quality = Medium +).



- Added the ability to eat pine nuts from Pine Cones:
...... You can quickly check if a Cone has pine nuts by performing the "Check" action, all Cones have a small chance to have from 1 to 5 pine nuts.
...... As you eat the pine nuts from it, the Cone becomes cracked and can no longer be planted, nor spawns a tree when it degrades, but can still be used as fuel.
...... Pine nuts are very densely packed in calories and some proteins, also source of B vitamin, but no water; this is all multiplied by their number in the Cone you're eating.
...... Eating pine nuts from spoiled Cones will not cause any sickness to the character.



- Added the Auto-Zoom feature:
...... Auto-Zoom automatically alters the zoom level during some actions like Aim Mode, moving the camera farther away from the character, or like Crafting/Butchering/Sleeping/etc, moving the camera closer to the character.
...... Added a new "Auto-Zoom" setting, allowing to enable/disable the auto-zoom feature.



- Breath system tweaked and rebalanced:
...... Maximum Breath is now directly influenced (reduced) by Body Muscle/Fat: the heavier you are, the less breath you get.
...... Breath consumption from moving and jumping is no longer increased by body weight (as the latter now reduces max Breath), but is directly amplified by Fullness, especially if over 100%.
...... Breath mechanics tweaked to improve balance for both Normal and Realistic+ difficulties.

- While repairing an item, the chance to damage it now triggers only if failing the action, not during it, and reduced maximum damage from -5 to -3.
...... When failing to repair, chance to damage the item is 50% and is reduced with Crafting over lv.100 (down to 10% at lv.110).

- Bleeding reworked: Health loss is now always -1, but as Bleeding severity increase, the chance for the blood loss event to trigger is higher (this both for the player and animals).
- As the character is about to die (< 1 Health) a black screen starts showing, until the screen becomes fully black on death.
- Fullness is no longer calculated by stacking solid and liquid stomach content, but in a different way that allows to still eat if the stomach is nearly full of liquid, and drink if it's nearly full of solid.
- It's still possible to eat or drink with Fullness over 100% and below 110%.
- Effect of Metabolism on max Kcal/Hydration inverted: faster metabolism now increases max kcal/hydration.
- Body Muscle impact on Muscle Soreness decay reduced to 40%.
- Base Gathering chance increased by 25% for resources obtained from mushroom, stone, tree and fern.
- Chance to "waste" a resource when gathering from a fern/tree rebalanced (generally reduced, especially for fruits).
- Chance to receive damage/bleeding from some actions (es. Butchering) is now reduced even further by the associated skill (from 33% to 16% at 100 lvl skill).
- Chance to to fail crafting/building due to poor skill increased, but chance to subsequently destroy components reduced.
- Skill contribution to nearly ALL actions speed increased by 25%, this is particularly impactful for First Aid and Butchering.
- Chance to pass out at 0 Stamina decreased even further during movement and actions.
- Low Stamina alerts and blinking screen effect frequency reduced while doing actions keeping the character "awake".
- Low Stamina starts to cause slow movement penalties when below 40% (was 50%).
- Lighting fire action success chance revisited to receive less penalty from air humidity, and slightly increased base value.
- Carcass freeze penalty to butchering actions speed increased (this was actually a bug, as the value was intended to be as it is now).
- Improved melee attack precision (sometimes it did not land the attack despite the weapon hitting the target - might still happen, but less frequently).
- Improved the way the character adjusts their position before starting an action requiring a Shovel.
- Digging actions skill increase rate slightly rebalanced.
- Endurance skill increase calaculation reworked to allow the skill to raise also from moderate Breath drain (taking into account difficulty), and tooltip updated.
- It's no longer possible to plant a tree too close to another planted tree spot.
- Improved how items held by the character are dropped when it is hit by a Triceratops/Ankylosaur.



- Smaller carnivores will no longer consume meat directly from a carcass, but as they bite it, a Meat is spawned and then eaten.



- Smaller animals will no longer collide with much bigger ones (as they can crawl below them), and will therefore also pursue food located below a bigger animal.
- Herbivores, when eating from a plant, consume 2x more of its energy.
- Animal health loss rate from starvation/dehydration increased by 50%.
- Slightly improved predators -> prey selection logic, making them a bit more proactive.
- Didelphodon health reduced to 40% (it's finally one-shottable!).
- Bleeding reworked: Health loss is now always -1, but as Bleeding severity increase, the chance for blood loss event to trigger is higher (this both for the player and animals).
- Slightly reduced chance of T-Rexes fighting before mating.



- Seed propagation and mechanics improved: for each seed only one plant is born, and a fruit (not planted, but decaying naturally) now produces a plant in the exact same spot it was located, instead of multiple ones in a random nearby location.
- Vegetation energy loss from producing fruits/seeds reduced substantially.
- Tree minimum Trunk threshold is now 10 (instead of 50) making younger trees much faster to chop down.
- Vegetation color variation due to energy/age is now a bit more evident, and changes in a gradual fashion.
- Burned trees are a bit darker and now show/leave a carbonized (darker) trunk.
- Trees occasional Leaf drop rate reduced greatly.
-[Survival] Reduced distance before which tree canopies are hidden when close to the player.



-[Survival] Building skill contribution to condition of built structures reduced a bit.



- Leaf speed from wind tweaked to be more variable depending on leaf wetness.
- Item luminosity at mouse hover/drop/X key tweaked to be much stronger with darkness, and more subtle in daytime, and also take into account light from fires.



- Island generation logic improved:
...... Island generation produces better vegetation patterns/population, according to season.
...... Island generation produces better pond/lake number and size, according to season.
...... Island generation produces more initial animals.

- Improved collision box (and shadow shape) for mountains and boulders.
- Burned terrain decay rate is 20% slower.



- Fire propagation logic improved to allow fires to spread more naturally following the wind.



- Color calculation for some instances (especially vegetation) optimized to use less GPU.
- Mouse hover texts logic reworked and optimized to use way less CPU.
- Several optimizations to sounds/effects logic, allowing many of them to play/show only when needed.
- Optimized how vegetation moves with wind, in order to use less CPU.



- Fixed ambient light not correctly updating with GFX Quality = Low.
- Fixed some subtle texture glitches when a sprite is downscaled a lot (es: due to low zoom level).
- Fixed a nasty bug that caused game-breaking glitches if accessing the Manual from the main menu, and than start a new game.
- Fixed a bug causing ferns to be tagged as "red" without being visually red, and vice-versa in some instances.
- Fixed snow terrain sometimes forming on top of sand, then adjusting its Z position after a few minutes.
- Fixed the "save window size" button not restoring the correct game window size, but making it bigger.
- Fixed some minor issues with the save button.
- Fixed animals spamming "trapped!" text and not always reacting as supposed to when surrounded by obstacles.
- Fixed young Didelphodons sometimes exiting their lair (and often getting lost) for no reason.
- Fixed a rare instance where animals would get permenently stuck while eating or drinking.
- Fixed a bug causing animals to get sometimes stuck/trapped near the coast while migrating.
- Fixed Pteranodons not showing damage text when struck by lightning, as supposed to.
- FIxed shadows from fire becoming permanent in some rare circumstances.
- Fixed smoke effect and Leaf not updating to wind direction for a few instants after being created.
- Fixed context menu appearing at right click on some UI elements (God slide bars).
- Fixed game UI panels being draggable during exit menu/settings/manual.
- Fixed +/- buttons sounds glitching in some circumstances.
- Fixed window size not being remembered correctly when quitting and resuming the game.
- Fixed Ferns not updating their color as soon as they grow from young to adult.
-[God] Fixed mousehover text on flying Leaf showing "missing cursor text".
-[Survival] Fixed permanent and glitchy fire particles caused by dropping a lit torch onto a Fire Pit.
-[Survival] Fixed items not always keeping the intended Z order when used in some player actions.
-[Survival] Fixed Egg unearthing action not being performed with a Shovel as intended (and suggested in the action tooltip).
-[Survival] Fixed snoring sound playing also when the associate setting is disabled, and still playing in the menus at high volume.
-[Survival] Fixed character occasionally freezeing while Digging if the Shovel used gets destroyed.
-[Survival] Fixed Butchering using the wrong weapon (on back) if starting the action while holding a non-weapon item with the left hand.
-[Survival] Fixed a bug causing the attack animation to freeze when attacking with a Stone/Sharpstone and breaking it.
-[Survival] Fixed a bug causing all previously planted seeds to be totally overridden by any new seed planted, causing them to chance species.
-[Survival] Fixed a bug causing planted tree mousehover text to show a message different from the one shown at planting action (optimal terrain -> bad terrain).
-[Survival] Fixed aiming reticule not being transparent as soon as aim mode is started (in order to signal that ranged attacks are disallowed, being it on top of the player).
-[Survival] Fixed pressing ESC during character creation causing the game to become unresponsive.
-[Survival] Fixed island snapshots not showing God info panels during Survival Mode.
-[Survival] Fixed some action alert messages not triggering the appropriate sounds.
-[Survival] Fixed "missing cursor text" showing on mousehover over sun exposure icon.


Daniel

This update IS compatible with savegames from previous v0.96.0+!

A NOTE FROM THE DEV:

GRAPHICS:

INTERFACE:

SURVIVAL:

ANIMALS:

DISASTERS:

STRUCTURES:

TERRAIN & MAP:

OPTIMIZATION:

FIXES:

This update is NOT compatible with old savegames!

---> FULL CHANGELOG
It's 3 parts, apparently Steam doesn't conceive a changelog can be that long.




Yeah, last update is dated September 2021, crazy huh?
There are many forum topics asking if the project is still alive, and even few reviews suggesting that the game is "abandoned" or even a "scam". My lack of communication is the main reason for this, alongside the indisputable fact that I'm really slow when it comes to game dev.
It's often said that the last 10% of the work needed to finish a game is equal to the first 90%, and I can say with the utmost confidence that it's true, especially when it comes to a game like DinoSystem, with many complex systems interacting with each other, always creating unexpected and emergent scenarios, along with shiny bugs and balance issues.
On top of that, imagine having to migrate the game to a new engine! Construct 2 was obsolete and I planned to move to Construct 3 as soon as it was mature enough, but I've underestimated the work required to do that, and it took many months to fully stabilize it. The result? A much more fluid game, less stuttering, a much bigger map and new features! (plus 1.5 years to complete an update).
To summary, I'm sorry for taking that long! But no, the game is not abandoned, is not a scam, and its future is brighter than ever, especially after moving to Construct 3!


[h2]Here's a highlight of the features/changes in update v0.96:[/h2]



...... Island maximum size is now 3x times bigger!
...... Default size reduced to 25% (which is slightly bigger then the previous 50%).
...... Performance are considerably better on most systems, due to Construct 3.




- Increased resolution (up to 3x) and quality of ALL game textures:
...... Improved terrain resolution, including the fixed "background" terrain under the land "patches".
...... Improved vegetation resolution.
...... Improved animals resolution.
...... Improved character resolution, especially hair.
...... Improved mountains and boulders resolution.
...... Improved structures resolution.
...... Improved items and objects resolution.
...... Improved some decals resolution (blood, vomit, splash).
...... Many assets style (especially items) have been improved and inconsistencies fixed.
...... Greatly improved main menu background resolution and detail, and is now animated.
...... Remade all loading screenshots using the improved game graphics.



- Added a bunch of new effects (enabled at setting Quality = High):
...... Added snow effect to trees, ferns, mountains and boulders depending on snow level.
...... Added wetness effect to mountains and boulders, depending on humidity/rain level.
...... Added a global normal mapping effect, increasing sharpness and details, especially at closer zoom.
...... Added a screen bloom effect increasing from sun exposure.



- Water reflection and wave effects reworked:
...... Water is now much more realistic and vivid.
...... Water waves intensity scales correctly with zoom level.
...... Water waves intensity scales with wind power.



- Mist/fog effects revamped:
...... Mist effects visually improved.
...... Mist impact on atmospheric brightness improved to produce a more realistic ambient illumination, also reducing the "glowing clouds" issue happening with high sunlight.
...... High mist is less dense, giving better the idea it's on high altitude.
...... Low altitude mist/fog is now lower than most objects (like vegetation, mountains, boulders).
...... Low altitude mist/fog intensity now fluctuates based on several variables, and is visible especially in early morning.
...... Low altitude mist is slower without wind, but much faster with it.
...... Low altitude mist is not visible inside cave or shelter.






...... Added a brand new bird singing sound to complement with the others.
...... Cicade, cricket and owl sounds can vary in playback, depending on some variables.
...... Bird sounds are now tied to the actual bird population of each tree: if the population is 0 (because they flew away scared by a Triceratops) there is no bird sound coming from that tree.




- ALL game buttons graphic and logic improved:
...... Buttons are now nicer, with a vignette effect and glow with mouse hover.
...... +/- buttons can be hold to quickly increase/decrease the related value (showing a small loading circle).
...... Several smaller button glitches fixed, since they work with a different logic.



- Additional info in tooltips no longer start with "NOTE:", and are now coloured:
...... Yellow if it's a suggestion/hint.
...... Red/orange if it's a warning.
...... Light blue if it's generic info.

- Character creation/info screen improved:
...... Panel layout is more compact and polished.
...... Added additional info to several tooltips.
...... Some text elements are now coloured, for better clarity.






...... An in-game day can be -> "Short" = 8 min, "Medium" = 16 min, "Long" = 24 min.
...... The default setting is "Medium", which is the value the game is best balanced for.
...... The longer the day, the easier the Survival Mode, as the player has more time to do things.






-[Survival] Control Mode setting removed, leaving a mix of Keyboard and Mouse as the default control system:
...... Character body now follows the movement direction if the mouse is not moved for some time, unless you're in Attack Stance.
...... While sprinting, character body always follows the movement direction.
...... Tweaked some conditions determining when character body follows mouse/mov. direction or other target.

-[Survival] Picking up items with key (default X) changed with LMB click; when LMB is holded, the item is mouse-dragged as normal.




- Skills can now reach lv 110 + Skill Decay changes:
...... Since the calculation for skill increase is (110-skill)/X, 110 is extremely difficult to reach!
...... Each skill point beyond lv 100 reduces the related skill decay by 10%, meaning at 105 Athletics, that skill decay is halved, while at 110 is zero.
...... In the character info screen, skills over 100 are purple coloured.
...... Few notes, tooltips and skill manual page have been updated to reflect the changes.



- Crafting system improved:
...... Crafting/Building skill requirements are no longer "hard" requirements: you can still try to craft/build a specific recipe without meeting the needed skill, but there's a chance to fail depending on the discrepancy between the current skill and the required lvl.
...... Final condition of the crafted recipe is also influenced by the discrepancy between the needed skill and the required lvl, and minimum resulting condition is always 1%.
...... Craft/Build buttons layout improved, and color is Red = no components/materials, Yellow = no skill (chance to fail), Green = all good. Yellow now asks a confirmation before proceeding.
...... Crafting requirements for some recipes rebalanced.
...... Tooltip positioning improved to be less obtrusive and more easy to read.
...... Some new character Presets updated to reflect the changes to che Crafting system.



- Ranged attack improved + Projectiles mechanics improved:
...... When equipping a Bow, ranged attack can be performed also without Aim Mode.
...... Various improvements to the aiming reticle.
...... Projectile spread calculation reworked, and only happens when the character moves (spread is still reduced by Ranged skill).
...... Projectile speed calculation improved, and now is more tied to Strength and Ranged skill.
...... Projectile can miss also when virtually overlapping the target animal (which may still react), miss chance depends on Ranged skill.
...... Projectile damage taken when hitting a target/obstacle reduced.

- First Aid action rebalanced:
...... First Aid action chance of failure decreases as the action approaches completion.
...... First Aid advancement is now even slower when using a Leaf.
...... First Aid maximum Bleeding reduction, when using a Leaf, is capped at -20% (instead of 30%).
...... Interrumpting First Aid when using a Leaf retains 90% of the advancement when you resume it, instead of 50%.

- Muscle Soreness decay reworked:
...... Soreness decay now peaks at 25%, decaying more slowly the more it goes far from that value.
...... When over 25%, Soreness decay is amplified in "Normal" difficulty.
...... When over 25%, Soreness decay is amplified by Toughness skill.
...... Serveral UI elements updated to reflect the aforementioned changes.



- Body Muscle and Fat mechanics rebalanced to allow to gain muscle and lose fat more easily, assuming there's proper workout, diet and rest.
- MAX Calories/Hydration now also varies from character's biological sex.




- Animals will now try to intimidate their opponent (either the player or a predator/rival) before attacking.
- Predators will now seek and eat a carcass also when it has no meat (but still has hide and tendon), this also fixes issues with them guarding a carcass that they cannot eat (since it had no meat).
- Animals will not instantly die of old age after a set age, but their chance of pass away increases as they age over that value.
- Animals will now panic when they feel enclosed, showing a text saying "trapped!".
- Animal collision system improved to better take into account their and the obstacle's size.
- Predators are now more proactive when it comes to hunt (they are more likely to hunt instead of waiting for a carcass).
- Predators will not steal a carcass if there are other unattended carcasses nearby.
- Young T-Rex are now able to call their bretherns when hunting (if the mother is dead or they're starving).
- Troodon/young T-Rex can now call more allies (hunger threshold to allow allies to join increased).

- Troodons, instead of T-Rex, can now attack Didelphodons lairs:
...... Only medium-sized young T-Rex still can attack a lair, adults can't.
...... Troodons attack a lair only if they're backed by at least one ally.
...... Lair attack event reworked: it now reduces lair energy based on attacker power, and is destroyed when reaching 0 energy.






...... Waterskin requires 3 hides (clean), and 40 Crafting skill.
...... Waterskin can be refilled at ponds.






- Added fern movement and sound effects when walked by by an animal or the player.
- Ferns are visibly consumed as they're eaten or gathered, reducing the number of leaves shown (until they grow back or the fern dies).
- Taxus tree have a visual representation of the number of berries they have.



-[Survival] Added the option to dry up using Hide (clean), Hide Cape or Bandage.
-[Survival] While under cover, droplets/snowflakes in a covered circle nearby the player are hidden (enabled at setting Quality = Medium+).
- Rain chance based on season revisited and rebalanced.
- Map generation logic substantially improved, HALVING island generation loading times!
- Added the ability to hide a fire (on cursor) by pressing the sprint key (default Shift).
- Fire light now updates in a gradual fashion, instead of every sec.
- Added 4 new Manual pages: Metabolism, Body Muscle, Body Fat and Soreness.
- Improved memory management system, unloading several unused textures from memory (like main menu images, loading screen, manual pages), which results in less RAM being used.
- DOZENS of fixes!


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


Daniel

This update SHOULD BE compatible with savegames from previous v0.88.0+!

A NOTE FROM THE DEV:

SYSTEM:

GRAPHICS:

AUDIO:

INTERFACE:

SETTINGS:

CONTROLS:

SURVIVAL:

ANIMALS:

VEGETATION:

STRUCTURES:

OBJECTS:

WEATHER & SEASONS:

TERRAIN & MAP:

FIXES: