DinoSystem News

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


FULL CHANGELOG









- "Absolute" renamed to "Keyboard", which controls the character moving direction with the keyboard input (as before), but now it applies ALSO to the character angle. KEYBOARD is now the default option when the game is first started.
- "Relative" renamed to "Mouse", and works the same as before.
- Added a new option called "Mixed", which is like "Keyboard", but retains the ability to turn the character with the mouse (same as "Absolute" before this update).
- When triggering a melee attack from the Keyboard, the character will automatically turn towards a close-range frontal target (check the survival section for more info about it).
- Removed the possibility to bind a key for changing the Control Mode (default was T), as it was unnecessary and could be pressed by mistake, confusing new players.







- Presets are pre-defined starting character builds.
- Presets are a good starting point to build your character pursuing a specific playstyle.
- There are five presets: Default, Survivor, Hunter, Runner and Tanker, each with its pros and cons, and more will probably be added in future updates.







- When triggering a melee attack from the Keyboard, the character will automatically turn towards a close-range frontal target (animal or tree) before performing the attack. If attacking from LMB (left mouse) or in Ranged, the attack direction is still fully mouse controlled.
- When hitting a target (melee) or when firing a projectile (ranged), the character cannot turn for the duration of the attack delay (red attack bar), preventing him/her from exploiting the turning mechanics and limit/avoid stumbling.
- Attack precision and collision detection vastly improved.
- Wind impact on projectile trajectory reduced and rebalanced to have a minimum wind power threshold.
- It is now possible to hit trees with all weapons (even with the punch!) dealing a small damage to the trunk and potentially chopping down small trees, but doing that without a cutting weapon triggers a hint suggesting to use an Axe/Sharpstone instead.







- Animal energy/water/stamina expenses rebalanced.
- Number of eggs layed per species rebalanced, and it no longer scales with species population.
- Fighting/hunting events outcome rebalanced and made minor tweaks.
- Energy/water gained from food rebalanced, and eating action improved.
- Triceratops and Ankylosaurs feeding preferenced tweaked to let them occupy slightly differenct ecological niches.
- Improved how the game evaluates how well every species is doing, taking into account more parameters.
- Removed some artificial balance enforcing mechanics, as they're no longer necessary.
- Tweaks to the animals aging system.
- Some rebalancing to animals generation at game start.





- Predators are now much better at evaluating which animals they should hunt, taking into account more parameters and with less restrictions (previously, they only hunter members of the more numerous species).
- T-Rex can now grip and carry away a small carcass, if they see another T-Rex nearby, in order to feast on it alone.
- Male Troodon will now stay close to his partner after mating, and help her protect the nest.
- Improved how mothers guard their nest.







- Triceratops and Troodons now have Alpha male/female, which can lead the pack and take some decisions.
- The Alpha specimen is usually the strongest and/or oldest member of the pack.
- Triceratops have harsh confrontations to decide who'll become the Alpha male.
- The Alpha male/female has slightly more vivid colors.







- Animals hibernate in three occasions: when they cannot find/water food and are starving/dehydrated, when their species is close to extinction and they can't find a fertile mate, and during a particularly cold winter (only Troodons).
- While hibernating, the ZZZ sleeping icon is red.
- While hibernating, Stamina is always 0 and the metabolic functions are slowed down to 1/5, allowing the animal to endure starvation, hydration or lack of fertile mates.
- While hibernating, the animal can still be awakened by attacks or other events (receiving a Stamina boost).
- If starving/dehydrated during hibernation, the animal has a chance to wake up for some time (receiving a Stamina boost), in order to find what it needs.







- When performing certain actions, animals now show a pop-up text next to their head with the action name.
- The actions shows are: fleeing, eating/drinking, falling asleep, waking up, mating, laying eggs, winning/losing a fight, and few others.
- In Survival mode, the action text is shows with a chance equal to the character Zoology skill.
- In God mode, the action text is always shown.






- [Survival] Added dynamic mist effect, which is only visible in Survival mode, but depends on actual weather variables.

- Clouds effect improved and made more vivid overall (plus more weather visual improvements).
- Major optimizations to clouds, cloud reflections and cloud shadows logic.
- Asteroid chance decreased by 15% for "Likely", and by 100% for "Unlikely" (which is now REALLY unlikely!).
- [Survival] Items are now highlighted when the mouse is over them.
- [Survival] Skills at -100% progress now have a chance to decay when the player is exhausted (low Stamina) and when receiving damage (chance based), instead of just instantly decaying when passing out (at 0 Stamina).
- [Survival] When performing actions like gathering, drinking and eating while having both hands holding item/s, the character will drop them from the right hand ONLY for the duration of the action and take them back as soon as the action is finished, instead of keeping them on the ground, which forced the player to manually retake them.
- Various improvements to the movement system and pathfinding, making animals turn more smoothly and follow their mother/partner/peer more efficiently.
- [Survival] Fixed (finally!!) the infamous "permanent auto-walking while drinking" bug (also fixes corrupted saves).
- Fixed animals sometimes repeatedly bumping into an obstacle (wall, boulder) while trying to reach a target (like food or prey) which is on the other side of the obstacle.




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

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


FULL CHANGELOG









- The character now needs 3 Micronutrients, represented in a global % value.
- The % of Micronutrients is involved in many character mechanics (like Health recovery, Strength, Muscle gain and more).
- The 3 Micronutrients are distributed in different foods, so having a varied diet will keep you strong and healthy.
- Added a small bar on bottom of the Calories bar (the green one), showing the % of Micronutrients.
- Updated the mousehover tooltip with the new info and added a menu tip, plus some in-game hints.







- Skin Tone is visually more dramatic, as 100% is much darker than before.
- Skin Tone now reduces the temperature gain from Sun Exposure: the darker your skin, the less hot you get from sunlight.
- Skin Tone now changes depending on the player exposure to sunlight, and influenced by clothing and Hair length.



- Skin Tone cap isn't 100, but depends on the initial value: if starting from 0%, it's 50%, if starting from 50%, it's 75%, if starting from 100%, it can't increase any further. This simulates the fact that you can't change your "ethnicity" ingame, but only get tan.
- Updated Skin Tone description in the character creation/info screen and added a menu tip.







- Light Fire action reworked: it's now accessible from the character actions menu (RMB on character or G -> Light Fire), and uses the same system used for placing structures; you can "place" the fire on a suitable spot, with fuel and no water/obstacles, and then proceed trying to light it. The game tells you if the choosen spot is suitable or not, and the reason why.



- Actions such as "Sharpen Stone" and "Clean Branch" are now also listed in the Crafting Menu (respectively for creating Sharpstone and Stick), making them more intuitive and accessible.
- Skill decay reworked: skill progress still decays, but the skill no longer drops when progress reaches -100%, unless you are exhausted (have 0 Stamina).
- Nearly all actions now consume Breath (to some extent), not just running/jumping/attacking.
- The way the Endurance skill increases changed, now it raises whenever Breath is consumed, not only when it is below 25 (which is still the fastest way to increase it).
- More...





- Landmass setting rebalanced to have a greater impact on the map size: the island is ~25% bigger, especially at high Landmass (>125%), while lower Landmass (- Mountains resolution vastly improved (mountains from previously saved games are affected, but may present glitches).
- Mountains are 20% bigger and blend better with each other (mountains from previously saved games are not fully affected, and therefore may present glitches).



- Terrain color changes from seasonal temperature fluctuation rebalanced to be more noticeable.
- Fog effect slightly improved.





- [Survival] Fixed a bug that prevented the player from sleeping by showing "I'm not tired!" even with low Stamina.
- [Survival] Fixed equip slots color being messed up under extreme atmospheric conditions.
- [Survival] Fixed timescale being 1x in Selection Mode (supposed to be 0.1x) when enabling it while previously in Equip Mode.
- [Survival] Fixed taming event not always triggering when supposed to, and not always showing the "Critter approaching..." message.
- [Survival] Fixed social animals not reacting if a member of their species is oneshotted by the player.
- [Survival] Fixed player being able to scout endlessy over the map edges.
- [Survival] Fixed temperature bar 0° marker not updating its position when
- More fixes...



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

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

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

Savegames are automatically deleted due to the different way the new version handles some core mechanics.
If you have a current game you don't want to lose, don't update now, but finish your game first.


FULL CHANGELOG





- Asteroid impact causes massive wildfires as soon as it hits.
- Asteroid impact obscures the sun, causing an "impact winter" that lasts for years after the impact.
- Asteroid impact also instantly kills every fish in the sea.



- The "Asteroid" option in the new game screen is now selectable, allowing to decide the chance of the Asteroid event.



- Added a new button in the God Mode interface to trigger the Asteroid event.
- Added a new guide page explaining the Asteroid event.








- Each coastal sea area has a certain number of fish living in it.
- Fish population of each area decrease based on world events (like the Asteroid), and player fishing.
- Fish population grows based on fishes already there.
- [Survival] Fishing reduces fish population in that particular spot, so that the players can't exploit it forever, but has to move to a new spot after some time.
- [Survival] Hold Middle Mouse or X to check fish population on a specific sea area.







- Leaf Cape needs 10 Leaf and Crafting skill lvl 10 to be crafted.
- Leaf Cape gives as much insulation as a clean Pelt (much less than a Pelt Cape), but degrades rather quickly.
- Leaf Cape also serves as good fire fuel (make sure to avoid catching fire when wearing it!).



- Stick is obtained from cleaning a Branch (right click -> Clean), and requires you to wield a Sharpstone.
- Branch can no longer be used as a weapon, but Stick does.
- Most Crafting recipes now need Stick(s) instead of Branch(es) as component.





- Global attack damage (both melee and ranged) reduced by 33% for all weapons (to both animals and trees).
- Reduced ranged attack damange of Arrow (by 40%) and of Stone (by 20%).
- Chance/magnitude of Bleeding inflicted to animals by the player rebalanced (globally increased).
- Aim Mode is now fully detached from the player camera (just like Scout Mode), so it's possible to aim farther away without the need to reduce the camera zoom.







- Carcasses now have distinct reserves or Meat, Pelt and Tendon, instead of sharing just Meat for all of them.



- It's now possible to pull Skeletons as well, and performing this action will also unbury the Skeleton.
- It's now possible to also auto-repeat a Drinking action by holding the Sprint key (default Shift).
- Player running/jumping is now affected by exposition to sand/snowstorm, which can now prevent or speed up movement, depending on its intensity.
- [Requested] Added a new option for the "Units System" setting for having a "mixed" units system with Pound/Celsius, also renamed "UK/US" to "Imperial".
- Fixed a rare bug (introduced in the previous update) that caused rain sound (and maybe other ones) to occasionally stutter.



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