DinoSystem News

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

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 (just die :P).


FULL CHANGELOG





- Caves offer good insulation protection (nearly full), but not good cover, as rain will filtrate (just like trees).
- Caves are spawned randomly on the map, either next to mountains or isolated.
- Number of generated caves is random, but scales with island size.







- Fishing now requires the player to actively trigger a fishing attempt, while the progress bar doesn't show the action progress anymore, but a success chance that constantly fluctuates (based on Fishing skill, Melee skill (partially), Strength and a random component), so the player must be careful to click when the success chance is high (to avoid wasting energy).
- A sound plays when the success chance is > 10%, the higher the chance, the louder the sound.
- Fishing success chance is lower during night time and in Realistic+ difficulty.
- Fishing attempts now also slightly increase the Melee skill, as it amplifies the fishing chance.
- Fishing skill increase when catching a fish is now inversally proportional to the attempt success chance.
- Fishing action now stops if Muscle Soreness reaches 100%.
- Fish caught with a Spear can be mouse-dragged from the spear without necessarly dropping it (so you can put it in a bag and promptly resume fishing).







- Tree now have dynamic shadow too (that changes with the sun), and other shadows no longer stack with tree shadow.



- Improvements to some item textures (meat, fish, quiver, bow, arrow, leaf).







- The game now uses a brand new way to calculate Character Insulation from walls, boulders etc, which is much more accurate and realistic (this also applies to fire insulation).
- The Character will use Arrows from the right hand, if holding one or more (up to 5), so the Quiver is no longer a must-have.
- Fixed building a Wall/Door altering the condition of all other walls on the map.
- Invisible tree shadow workaround has been reworked to just reduce shadow intensity whenever it is too strong.



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 (just die :P).


FULL CHANGELOG





- Caves offer good insulation protection (nearly full), but not good cover, as rain will filtrate (just like trees).
- Caves are spawned randomly on the map, either next to mountains or isolated.
- Number of generated caves is random, but scales with island size.







- Fishing now requires the player to actively trigger a fishing attempt, while the progress bar doesn't show the action progress anymore, but a success chance that constantly fluctuates (based on Fishing skill, Melee skill (partially), Strength and a random component), so the player must be careful to click when the success chance is high (to avoid wasting energy).
- A sound plays when the success chance is > 10%, the higher the chance, the louder the sound.
- Fishing success chance is lower during night time and in Realistic+ difficulty.
- Fishing attempts now also slightly increase the Melee skill, as it amplifies the fishing chance.
- Fishing skill increase when catching a fish is now inversally proportional to the attempt success chance.
- Fishing action now stops if Muscle Soreness reaches 100%.
- Fish caught with a Spear can be mouse-dragged from the spear without necessarly dropping it (so you can put it in a bag and promptly resume fishing).







- Tree now have dynamic shadow too (that changes with the sun), and other shadows no longer stack with tree shadow.



- Improvements to some item textures (meat, fish, quiver, bow, arrow, leaf).







- The game now uses a brand new way to calculate Character Insulation from walls, boulders etc, which is much more accurate and realistic (this also applies to fire insulation).
- The Character will use Arrows from the right hand, if holding one or more (up to 5), so the Quiver is no longer a must-have.
- Fixed building a Wall/Door altering the condition of all other walls on the map.
- Invisible tree shadow workaround has been reworked to just reduce shadow intensity whenever it is too strong.



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 (just die :P).


FULL CHANGELOG





It's been a long time since the last update, and that's not the first time: as you have noticed, updates are being released less and less frequently, but they're also getting bigger. As I've pointed out in the previous announcement, the main reason is the fact I'm currently a lone developer, working on every aspect of the game by myself, and that's not necessarly a bad thing! The second reason is I'm a perfectionist, I'm very slow when it comes to adding new content or features, as I want to make sure every little detail is in place.

That said, I'm here to reassure you that, although updates are not being released on a monthly basis as in the past, the development is going well, and the today's update testifies it! I'm more comfortable releasing bigger updates more occasionally than following a schedule, even if that means having to postpone the full version.






Finally, you're now able to build a door, a wooden one. You can open or close it with the mouse, and when closed, it offers a nice Insulation bonus, if there are walls adjacent to it. Here the details:

- You need 5 Wood and 10 Resin to build a Wooden Door.
- Wooden Door can be opened or closed by mouse-dragging it (when close enough).
- Wooden Door offers an insulation bonus, if closed, but only if it adjoins two walls.
- Wooden Door, unlike Stone Wall, slowly degrades from weather and is consumed by fire.








- Insulation from clothes is now separate from the one from walls/boulders.
- Added a new icon in the Survival UI (just on top of the insulation icon) showing clothes insulation.
- Insulation given by a Wall is now amplified if it adjoins other walls, rewarding proper build planning.
- Insulation impact on several player effects (wind protection, temperature, etc) adjusted to the new system.
- Various balance tweaks to the character insulation system.








- All seasons now last the same amount of days (9).
- Day start is now dynamic based on day length, instead of always starting at 5 AM.
- Dawn and sunset events look better and last for the same amount of time.
- Added new screen alerts for the longest and shortest days of the year.
- Temperature fluctuation according to time of day and season tweaked to be more realistic.
- Seasonal rain chance tweaked to be more balanced.
- Various balance tweaks to the seasons system.








- The way the Player tames a baby Troodon is now slightly different and less restricted; you need to mouse-drag the meat/fish and wait for the animal to approach.
- In order to tame, Troodon's mother now can be alive, but not too close.
- A message now shows when a Troodon is approaching to you to tame it (assuming you're still mouse-dragging the meat/fish).
- Troodons that are just born (assuming you have 50+ Zoology and the mother is not close) have now always 100% chance to be tamed (by giving them meat/fish).
- Tamed Troodons hitting Walls will no longer damage them.
- Tamed Troodons helping you in combat can sprint faster.
- When the player dies, tamed Troodons cease being tamed.
- Some minor improvements to the Taming system.








- Hair can now grow really long, and have better graphics.
- Hair length is now shown/changed via percentage (0% to 200%), instead of stages (Bald/Half/Full).



- Hair give a small temperature bonus, based on the length (but it's nullified by Wetness).



- Hair length influence the character Wetness increase and drying speed.
- Hair is now burned by fire (if the character catched it), and will never regrow again.
- Hair growth speed tweaked to be more balanced.
- At character creation, initial Skin Tone and Hair Color are now tied, to have more chances a character with darker skin has also dark hair (and vice-versa).






- [Survival] Added a new character alerts system, showing changes in the character's body stats and skills in green/red (based on positive/negative).



- Timescale buttons reworked and moved to the God Mode interface panel, and New Character button moved to the God Mode interface panel.






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 (just die :P).


FULL CHANGELOG






One of the most common suggestions, both in the forums and from my friends who play the game, has been the time scale: a day used to pass way too quickly and the player didn't have the time to do even the basic things like gathering enough materials to build a wall or light a fire.

Well, no more!

In this update time scale has been doubled, along with everything connected to it.

But why did I take so long to make this change? After all, it seems like a mondaine and quick thing to do, in other games it's often just matter of tweaking a variable! The problem is, when I started working on DinoSystem, until few months ago, the code that regulated the weather, vegetation, animal AI and survival mechanics was not intended to scale with the time scale, this means that if i change the time scale, plants continued to produce seeds at the same rate, animals become tired and slept after the same time as well as the player, and so on.

DinoSystem is a complex and emergent ecosystem simulation and that's the price to pay for it: I had to rebalance EVERYTHING and tie it to the time scale, so that in future it will be possible for the player to change it as well, if I'll happen to decide to include this option.






Some animals (mainly Troodons) will now sleep together, they used to find a sleeping spot (like a tree), and go each beneath their own personal (or "troodonal") tree. They'll now stick together to stay more protected, same for baby Triceratops, who sleep with the herd, and Tyrannosaurs, who always sleep with their mother (until they're old enough to go on their own).



Along with this, many AI improvements have been made, the more relevant are:

- If you're hitting an animal, and it is dying, a nearby predator, if hungry, may decide to help you out (in order to steal the kill, and the meal).
- Predators will no longer hunt the player if he's close to a fire (that is big enough to scare them).
- Tyrannosaurs will now even hunt adult Troodons if hungry (previously they only hunted youngsters).
- Mommy Tyrannosaur, when a Troodon attacks one of her youngs or steals one of her eggs, has a chance to attack it (if sleeping the chance is lower).
- Troodons are better at evaluating when and if stealing an egg from a nest is a good idea.
- All animals are much better at searching for what they're looking for.
- Predators are better at chasing their preys.



Overall animals are now more efficient nearly at everything, which reduces their chance of extinction and makes them a more serious threat in Survival Mode.






Several players pointed out that since the ecosystem in DinoSystem is simulated, and species can go extinct, they had no idea whether killing an animal would drive its species to extinction or not; until now.

I've added a new section in the character info screen (the one enabled with Tab) called "Ecosystem", which allows to check the animal population. The info shown are not super accurate, but they depend on your Zoology skill: the higher the skill, the more accurate the info, think of it as an estimatation (unless Zoology is maxed out). This feature will be expanded in future updates to cover more aspects of the island ecology.








Mountains cast shadows now, as well as the character from a fire. Also, the spear sprite along with minor things have been redone to be more consistant with the other item's quality. There are several other small visual enhancements in this update, you can find them in the full changelog.








- [Survival] It is now possible to start Left Mouse dragging an item that is equipped in a character hand slot (during Equip Mode).
- When inspecting an animal, if it is a young specimen, instead of showing the "Heat" it shows "Parented", which tells you if the animal is protected by the mother or the herd/pack (in Survival Mode you still need a Zoology skill treshold to see it).
- Dead fishes will now occasionally arenate on the beach.
- Eggs receive less damage from weather and low temperature if they're on a nest (even if it's not underground).
- The island shape generated is more consistant with the choosen settings.
- Added two arrows on top of the tutorial window, allowing to skip or replay each chapter of the tutorial (both Survival and God).








- Fixed some screen recording softwares not being able to record the game.
- Fixed a bug that caused ponds to evaporate much faster in some circumstances.
- Fixed glitched animal fighting/mating animations.
- Fixed eating raw/spoiled food giving negative Toguhness skill, instead of increasing it.
- Fixed a rare bug that prevented the player from gathering stones, leaves etc.

These were only the most relevant changes, there are tons of other in this update, check the full changelog for the complete list!





I would like to discuss about the future of the game development, but this is probably not the time nor the space to do it. I'll post an announcement in the next days!




Dan