DinoSystem News

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

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

Game loaded from the previous version shouldn't have any problem, but could miss some additions.


FULL CHANGELOG





- Added Taxus Tree.
- Former "Apple" renamed to "Taxus Berry", which is produced by the Taxus Tree.
- Former generic Conifer renamed to "Pine Tree", and now produces "Pine Cone".
- Pine Cone can be used as fire fuel.
- Pine Tree is more common than Taxus Tree, and made balance changes to the tree mechanics.
- Vegetation under-the-hood mechanics reworked: from seed spreading with wind, rooting conditions to energy balance. The result is overall a more coherent and balanced ecology simulation.
- Seeds can be "stored" in arid terrains, and released when the terrain turns into fertile, allowing vegetation to reclaim the island after long and severe periods of drought (this is also true when starting with a totally barren island).








- Nearly all ambience sounds (birds, howls, crickets, etc) are positional, as well as thunder sound.
- Added some new variation to the day ambience sounds.
- Ambience sounds volume calculation improved, rain and wind are more gradual.
- [God] Ambience sounds gradually become less intense as you zoom out the map.






- Terrain snow texture replaced with a new, better one.
- Terrain snow mechanics reworked to be more coherent and dynamic, along with better visuals.
- Terrain snow system reworked to only draw a single tiled sprite, instead of multiple ones for each terrain, considerably improving performance (especially on larger maps).








- Seeds calculation reworked to happen with variables instead than with actual mini-sprites, which should improve performance (especially on larger maps).
- [Survival] When using a Bow while holding arrows with the right hand, if having a Quiver with additional arrows, the Character will prioritize using the ones from the right hand.
- [Survival] Body Weight calculation reworked to be exponential at higher Muscle/Fat, and have a less impact when they're low.
- Sun exposure continues to persist throughout sunset, instead of reaching always 0 at the start of it.
- Added a new page to the guide introducing to "Landmarks".
- Fixed a bug that occasionally caused sea waves sound to stutter, also causing a serious memory leak.
- [Survival] Fixed fishing action being interrupted by pressing E, which made fishing impracticable using the key.
- MANY more improvements and 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

Game loaded from the previous version shouldn't have any problem, but could miss some additions.


FULL CHANGELOG





- Added Taxus Tree.
- Former "Apple" renamed to "Taxus Berry", which is produced by the Taxus Tree.
- Former generic Conifer renamed to "Pine Tree", and now produces "Pine Cone".
- Pine Cone can be used as fire fuel.
- Pine Tree is more common than Taxus Tree, and made balance changes to the tree mechanics.
- Vegetation under-the-hood mechanics reworked: from seed spreading with wind, rooting conditions to energy balance. The result is overall a more coherent and balanced ecology simulation.
- Seeds can be "stored" in arid terrains, and released when the terrain turns into fertile, allowing vegetation to reclaim the island after long and severe periods of drought (this is also true when starting with a totally barren island).








- Nearly all ambience sounds (birds, howls, crickets, etc) are positional, as well as thunder sound.
- Added some new variation to the day ambience sounds.
- Ambience sounds volume calculation improved, rain and wind are more gradual.
- [God] Ambience sounds gradually become less intense as you zoom out the map.






- Terrain snow texture replaced with a new, better one.
- Terrain snow mechanics reworked to be more coherent and dynamic, along with better visuals.
- Terrain snow system reworked to only draw a single tiled sprite, instead of multiple ones for each terrain, considerably improving performance (especially on larger maps).








- Seeds calculation reworked to happen with variables instead than with actual mini-sprites, which should improve performance (especially on larger maps).
- [Survival] When using a Bow while holding arrows with the right hand, if having a Quiver with additional arrows, the Character will prioritize using the ones from the right hand.
- [Survival] Body Weight calculation reworked to be exponential at higher Muscle/Fat, and have a less impact when they're low.
- Sun exposure continues to persist throughout sunset, instead of reaching always 0 at the start of it.
- Added a new page to the guide introducing to "Landmarks".
- Fixed a bug that occasionally caused sea waves sound to stutter, also causing a serious memory leak.
- [Survival] Fixed fishing action being interrupted by pressing E, which made fishing impracticable using the key.
- MANY more improvements and 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