The Isle News

[h2]dmIV - Programmer[/h2]
In my completely biased opinion I must say that this has been one of the best months I’ve had working on the game. The time finally came for me to continue working on the herrerasaurus. There had been a few times when I experimented with it due to the pteranodon’s latching for example, but I can focus more on the movement and agility now.

The climbing system is made up of several parts. First, there’s moving the character along the wall and there’s always room for improvement on this one. There are two actions that can happen related to this, climbing up a ledge and climbing down from a ledge into climbing mode, the latter being difficult as the character has to turn around and align itself to the wall.

Aiming your jumps is very important when playing as a herrerasaurus, so we added indicators that tell the player where you would land when jumping. You can hold the right button when standing or climbing, then press space to jump there. Jumping this way when standing in place will let you jump forward instead of straight up, this is extremely useful when jumping from branch to branch.

Speaking of branches, when walking on our largest trees the herrerasaurus will automatically follow them to avoid falling from a potentially lethal height. This one took quite some time to figure out, but it makes moving around much more convenient, so I’m glad with how it turned out.


All these come together very nicely, here’s a little teaser in its current unpolished state. Most animations are also just placeholders for now:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]Wedge - Sound Designer[/h2]
This month I’ve mostly been continuing to flesh out the vocal palette for Dilophosaurus, using the calls as a baseline for both aggressive and non-aggressive sounds. The low gurgling defined in its broadcast and attract have both been adapted as well as used to influence new sounds, including more sounds for idle and generic uses, along with drinking, wallowing, resting, sniffing.

The harsher shrieks from its threaten and danger calls have been a good reference to expand its sounds, particularly its attacks and various pain sounds, including death, pounced etc. I’ve also created the first sound that will be part of a suite of sounds for its venom ability, 3 very low and menacing hoots bookended by its signature gurgles, coming together to give the feeling of a mocking yet chilling laugh as it plays with its prey. This sound (among others), in theory, will be manipulated from the perspective of the prey to move around the spatial field, disorienting players that have fallen victim to this creature's venom.

I’ve also done some preliminary work on the Herrerasaurus. Its vocal calls have been set up with some alterations to the exports to facilitate the correct sound when the layers are passed through the various attenuation and processing. I’ve also done a first pass on adding footsteps and foley sounds to its animations. Finally I’ve started recording, editing and processing foley sounds for its climbing. So far only sounds for climbing trees have been done and they are in an iterative phase with the mechanic still undergoing work, however adding these sounds helps to define how this ability is going to feel as it progresses.

I’ve also been working on some bug fixes for issues related to calls distant reverb/delay as well as how vocals behave when performed in water


[h2]Seiza - Video Editor[/h2]
I've started creating the control rigs for our characters. They will help me create more detailed animations in the UE5 sequencer and also help me make the animation transitions a bit cleaner. I will certainly tweak the implemented IK system and gizmos a few more times until they fit perfectly for my work.



I've also started to create a sort of console-style in After Effects to begin capturing the “Apollo Engineering software.” This style will surely be with us more often and can be used in many ways. We've already used it in the Roadmap video, but trailcam videos or introductory templates for "found footage" could also be presented with this design.

In general, the goal of this new format is to get closer to the atmosphere of the lore, and I'm excited to see what we can do with it in the future.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]Tapwing - 2D Artist[/h2]
This month, I’ve been mostly occupied with environment concepts of internal lab designs and icon work - creating cerato and troodon prototypes of our games logo (as a mini celebration for some of our new releases).

Cerato’s design was pretty straight forward since its skull is fairly distinct on its own.
However, Troodon came off a tad generic with just the usual skull pose; but it did give me an opportunity to try a version with multiple skulls to showcase the swarm gameplay-style of the animal. Hopefully these shake out to be something final that you all can see soon!


[h2]Amar0k - Programmer[/h2]
This month I spent some time on bug fixes, AI, and the addition of server whitelisting. Workshopping the base dinosaur AI has been heaps of fun. The base logic of tenontosaurus is mostly complete. They can be solitary or have their own AI groups they stick to. Anything further may spoil the magic, but it’s already capable of providing some exciting fights with players. I hope to get carnotaurus and omniraptor up and running shortly, too.


[h2]Bryan - Animator[/h2]
Been spending a lot of time with John Cake lately. He might come across as a bit of a showoff but he’s actually a pretty chill dude even if he doesn’t talk much. Thinks he’s still gonna be a guide on some island safari tour, dunno where he got that idea though, something about a book he read. I haven’t had the heart to tell him what his actual job is gonna be.

Aside from rigging up John Cake so we can do some of our own in-house animation, I’ve been working on the T. rex and Diabloceratops this month and Trike is finally all rigged up and ready to receive new animation. The T. rex has new locomotion for all of it’s growth stages as well, it’s a pretty big departure from the legacy animations, even the growth is different, it’s practically a whole new beast.

Herrerasaurus finally got a skeleton as well, had to grow some backbone to do all that climbing and jumping it’ll be doing and next I’ll be working on its climbing animation, touching up the prototype and placeholder animations with some more final animations for its debut.


[h2]hypno - QA Lead[/h2]
With our recent change to the roadmap and how we approach game updates, the majority of QA’s time was spent focused on validating bug fixes for the latest patch that introduced server whitelisting. We also used this time to address some of the balance concerns that were prevalent in Update 6.5, including vomit preventing movement and an input lockup that occurred if a target was knocked down while pouncing on a character.

Talking of balance; now that we have moved away from larger updates and instead pushing out content as and when it’s ready, we are working on a new process for how we handle balance changes so that they can be provided much more frequently in accordance with your feedback. We hear your concerns about the ceratosaurus “vomit lock”, whereby a group of ceratosaurus’ will continuously bite a target, forcing it to vomit nonstop, preventing it from defending itself. This is not an intentional feature of the ceratosaurus’ kit and will be addressed as soon as possible, though it will require a rework of vomiting in general so expect to see more information on that when we have a solid direction that we want to take it in.

A few more known issues include the loss of player characters and both omniraptor and troodon pounce not “connecting” with a target, usually resulting in death. These are marked as high priority on our bug tracker and are actively being investigated by our programmers. A big thank you to those of you that have been reporting these issues.

QA have already started testing some of the upcoming playables in our latest builds and they are coming along very well, particularly the herrerasaurus with its unique ability to climb surfaces, as you may have seen already in dmIV’s post.

As many of you well know, the stress testing team applications were reopened recently and resulted in an astounding 1,400 submissions. These are currently being reviewed and successful candidates can expect an invitation to our new stress testing discord server very soon. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter.


[h2]KissenKitten -Producer[/h2]
The wheels have been churning around here all month. Fixing various issues and gearing up for a tonal shift in the game. I’ve been moving from dept to dept making sure everyone has what they need to swing for the fences. Hopefully there will be some homeruns in it for us and you.

The herrerasaurus has been coming along quite nicely. It’s been gaining in fun factor around here for a bit now. It will be a lot of fun seeing how you all like it and how many of you are going to plummet to your deaths. Practice, patience and prayers. But overall you’ll be able to make a leap of faith with a fair amount of surety.

The diablo and dilo have also been getting their special abilities implemented and tested. So we can shift the prototypes to their final form. Diablo is moving pretty good currently but needs a few tweaks to really make it something special. Hopefully resulting in some moments that feel good to play with as well as against. Dilo also seems to be heading in the right direction. Our intentions being to make it every bit as fear inducing as it used to be but modernized.

If all that weren’t enough, the rex is growing in power each day. I’m so excited to see what an apex can really do. But anyway, that’s all for now. I look forward to seeing you all over on Gateway.

[h2]Additions[/h2]

• Added server whitelists - Details below

[h2]Enhancements[/h2]

• Various adjustments to improve accuracy of directional attacks
  
• Fixed locomotion input locking during vomiting
  
• Improvements to spectator mode update rates
  
• Added the missing hint for the 3x carb diet combination
  

[h2]Bug fixes[/h2]

• Fixed the input lockup when a character is knocked down during a pounce
  
• Fixed players being shielded from attacks if they are standing on a corpse
  
• Fixed being able to interact with already swallowed actors
  
• Fixed omnivore diets ignoring carnivorous diet requirements
  
• Fixed the carb diet spending more stamina instead of spending less
  
• Fixed gallimimus paranoia audio playing in all biomes instead of just the jungle
  
• Fixed corpses not floating to the top of water
  
• Fixed gallimimus mobilization vocals playing indefinitely when sprinting and causing other vocals to become blocked
  
• Fixed pounce sometimes causing the target to always buck if the buck input was pressed as the pouncer was dismounting
  

[h2]Server Whitelisting[/h2]

Server owners can enable whitelists by adding bServerWhitelist=true under the TIGameSession section of the Game.ini file.

In the same file, add each Steam64 ID using: WhitelistIDs=71231XXXXXXXXXXXX under the TIGameStateBase section.

Once enabled, only IDs in that list will be able to join the server. Server admins will be able to join regardless of if they are on the whitelist or not.

Example below:

[/Script/TheIsle.TIGameStateBase]
WhitelistIDs=71231XXXXXXXXXXXX
WhitelistIDs=71231XXXXXXXXXXXX
WhitelistIDs=71231XXXXXXXXXXXX

[/Script/TheIsle.TIGameSession]
ServerName=Server Name
MaxPlayerCount=50
bServerNesting=false
bAllowReplay=false
bServerWhitelist=true

[h2]FTessaro - Lead Programmer[/h2]
Most of the month was focused on getting 6.5 out of the door. It entailed an array of bug fixes, balance adjustments and subtle refinements to nearly every game mechanic. We also invested significant effort in server-side optimizations to bolster performance. With the update now live, my attention has shifted back to the main branch, where I am actively working on enabling the migration system for rigorous QA testing. Furthermore, I’m also working on new playable dinosaurs such as the dilophosaurus, which involves implementing mechanics and animations associated with them.

In addition, I’m refining the pounce ability to achieve a smoother visual when latching onto targets. Modifications are also being made to the pachy’s headbutt attack to enhance its precision when inflicting fractures. Looking ahead, our primary focus is centered on developing the next set of updates, which will introduce our new map, Gateway. Perks are in progress already and should evolve fast as the team convenes to finalize their design.


[h2]dmIV - Programmer[/h2]
A lot of my work was for update 6.5, so there’s not much I can say about it you haven’t already seen or experienced. I made various finishing touches to the new dinosaurs, such as improvements to beipi’s buoyancy and animations, making the gallimimus forage frogs and crabs more reliably, adding a defense buff to the ceratosaurus when it’s chuffing around corpses. I’m really happy to see the update making its way to people’s hands. I enjoyed working on the beipiaosaurus in particular, so it’s great that the players are having fun with it as well.

Other than that I have been working quite a bit on the diabloceratops recently. There are several different interactions happening as part of the sparring system, so I have my hands full. It’s in a fairly rough state at the moment, but things are starting to take shape, so I’m excited to see how the community will feel about it.

I often record videos for internal showcases and I have some for the beipiaosaurus, which I thought would be interesting to show. You’ve already seen what the final product looks like, so here’s a behind the scenes look at how we got there:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]Amar0k - Programmer[/h2]
As the others have mentioned lots of work to get the 6.5 update out most of my work has been related to the engine update and improvements to the back-end services we use for our deployment pipeline. I have been working on easy anti-cheat and monitoring its performance over the last month. I won’t go into too much detail but I can tell you there has been significant improvement in this area and it’s working quite well. We don’t tolerate cheaters and we are doing everything we can to prevent them from ruining the game for everyone else.

I have been running some hotfixes this week to fix some issues with RCON, queuing and the server list. RCON has had some new commands added like being able to update the playable classes. Queueing is now live on all of our official servers and whilst it seems to be behaving for most people we are aware of an occasional issue where you might still get the “Server is full” message after joining. I have been working on a new server scheduler which manages our official servers and restarts. This system restarts the servers on a 12 hour cycle and will show a 5 minute restart warning.

Some more changes to AI and its base behavior has been well defined now. We will be rolling some more dangerous AI critters out with Gateway. I look forward to seeing that, it’s always a pleasure watching players fight Boars. Deer will start to spawn in small herds with fawns and will regroup together if they are separated during an attack. Rabbit burrows can be destroyed to bring out a hiding rabbit. We have noticed AI will tend to end up around the jungle areas making them difficult to find so I have been working on a new movement system for how the AI will traverse the map and flee from predators.

That’s about it for me this month. I hope you have all been enjoying the 6.5 update. It's been a blast for me. Till next time.


[h2]Wedge - Sound Designer[/h2]
This month, aside from the work put towards polish of 6.5’s audio and with the majority of diabloceratops’ adult vocalizations complete, my focus has turned to dilophosaurus. A lot of time has been spent experimenting on this creature's sound design, aside from the signature low trill that the community all knows and loves, it did not really have much of a defined sonic identity beyond that.


To address this I first created something new and wholly unique and interesting for the remaining calls that I did not complete last month as these sounds would define how I approach the rest of dilo’s sounds. The danger and threat calls’ main elements consist of a variety of pitched down bird shrieks as well as piercing sounds created from source such as metal creaks, bowed styrofoam, Aztec death whistles etc. These shrill sounds are underpinned by gurgling roars and fluttery hisses, coming together to create terrifying screams that will cut through the night time ambience instilling fear into its prey. Like the broadcast and attract, the generic call has largely remained the same as its legacy version with the exception of being improved upon, accentuating the more alien qualities of this sound.

With its vocal identity clearer I was then able to use the ideas and source material laid out through the calls to aid me through the process of creating other sounds for it. It’s mellower sounds such as when drinking, courting and wallowing use the gurgling, squelching, chirping, trilling and clicking, while its more aggressive actions such as attacks and pain sounds use the shrill shrieking, piercing screams and gnarly growls to display this predators’ horrifying prowess. There’s still plenty left to do for the dilophosaurus but I’m happy with how this creature's sound is coming together.


[h2]Bryan - Animator[/h2]
It’s been a busy month for sure. Couple tweaks here and there on the ceratosaurus alt attack to make it more responsive, the last few animations on dilophosaurus and also finishing up herrerasaurus attacks and locomotion.

However, the time has come for tyrannosaurus and triceratops. I’ve been looking forward to working on trike again and giving it a real nice tune-up. First thing first though, it needs a rig update, those puppet strings haven’t been serviced since before Legacy if memory serves, so it’s getting a thorough update before we dive into animation. Rex got the same treatment already and it is a real terrifying chungus.

No, I won’t be streaming the rex, but I’ve already completed the new locomotion for its different growth stages. I’m super happy with how it’s turning out and I think you’ll find it to be far more interesting than its Legacy counterpart. Next time you see the rex it’s probably gonna be chomping you down, so don’t get too eager.


[h2]VisualTech48 - Environment Artist[/h2]
Gun Month. And bug fixing. That is the overall summary of this amazing month. I’ve been tasked with getting our beloved humans some weapons, starting with our own version which mostly is based on the M24, a lever action bolt rifle, with a vast amount of attachments.

As I’ve been tasked with making weapons, we’ve set some standards regarding both rails, and the attachment system overall. The rail size will be uniform, meaning in the long run, that any attachment that makes sense will be interchangeable with weapons.

Back to the rifle, it's been designed to hold those attachments, and grant you a 8x scope that will help your “hunting.”



We also have a pistol that is a combination of a few designs overlaid on the framework of a P226 derivative. Now this is still in the works and is subject to changes, but here is the progress so far:



And that is pretty much it besides an array of bug fixes, and getting some stuff in order.


[h2]Tapwing - 2D Artist[/h2]

What if baryonyx was bigger and had a pelican jaw? Well you get The Isle’s version of suchomimus.

With it being one of those animals that shares so many design features with other dinosaurs of ours, it was tricky coming up with unique scenes for sucho. At the end of the day I decided to focus on two main features: A wading lifestyle and its pelican pouch of a mouth.

Navigating more freely through shallow water and muddy terrain, Sucho could utilize mud as a defense against egg stealing creatures, rendering the would-be thieves into an easy to catch snack. Now when it comes to sucho’s jaws, while they might not pack the biggest punch, they can really pack it away. Holding extra food or carrying water over to give hatchlings a worry-free drink, those jaws allow it to carry more than most.

So keep your distance if you're smallish in size. What suchomimus can scarf down might surprise you.


[h2]KissenKitten - Producer[/h2]
This month has flown by and as the others have mentioned it was 6.5 focused. It is currently live and in your hands at long last. Definitely took longer than we would have liked. Engine upgrades and Murphy’s law saw to that. But we’re over that bridge and now preparing to cross the next one. There are new playables on the horizon in the Diabloceratops, Dilophosaurus, Herrerasaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex. Each at varying stages of completion and each ushering in some new mechanics we hope you’ll enjoy as much as you’ve been enjoying the most recent additions. We’re pulling out all the stops to make sure when you play as these creatures, it feels impactful, immersive and an experience unique to The Isle. Do keep in mind the Tyrannosaurus Rex is currently planned to be available as a playable on community servers only, not officials.

As was mentioned when we first made the hard decision to recode the game from scratch, essentially making a second game, we wanted to focus on mechanics before playables. To avoid bloating the roster and forcing us to retcon them all to fit each new mechanic. Which can take far longer, end up being severely watered down and in many instances, become impossible to do (see: Legacy). So a few years, a lot of hard work, heartache, dedication and a pandemic later and we’re finally ready to start implementing more playables. It is not lost on myself or the team as a whole that regardless of any reasoning or justifications, you guys want playables. Period. Straight like that. Now that we’ve gotten what we needed mostly out of the way, playables you shall have.

The animation team has grown a fair amount over the past few months with each new member learning the ins and outs of what it takes to make a creature for the game. From the artistic eye necessary to create the motions, to the technical limitations we have to abide by, to the creative drip that’s demanded to make a creature shine in The Isle. They’re soaking it all in and exceeding my expectations. So I am personally excited to get more playables in your hands and see what types of experiences you are able to craft with them and how they stack up to the already established roster. Be on the lookout for the new roadmap that will be coming soon and shed more light on our plans for the future as we shift our eyes towards Gateway and the reality of the original vision for The Isle taking shape. Bye for now.

Dinner for four.

Experience the shift to Unreal Engine 5 with the overdue 6.5 update. Discover the ravenous appetite of the Ceratosaurus, a predator and scavenger capable of gorging itself on decaying corpses to inflict devastating bacteria-infected wounds. Immerse yourself in the aquatic realm alongside the Beipiaosaurus, as it breaches the water's surface with grace and dives for prey along the riverbeds. Unite your flock and sprint across the plains as the Gallimimus, the embodiment of speed and finesse. But beware, when night falls the horde stirs. Troodons are cunning predators armed with venomous strikes that leave their prey vulnerable.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you encounter client performance issues, it's highly recommended that you wipe your Config folder.

1. If running The Isle, exit the game.
   
2. Open File Explorer.
   
3. Click the address bar at the top.
   
4. Type %localappdata% then press Enter.
   
5. Find "TheIsle" folder. Open it.
   
6. Open the "Saved" folder.
   
7. Delete the "Config" folder. Note: This will reset any of your custom settings to their defaults.
   
8. Start the game.
   

[h2]Additions[/h2]

• Upgraded project to Unreal Engine 5
  
• Converted Spiro from World Composition to World Partition (for the first and last time)
  
• Added playable omnivores category
  
• Added beipiaosaurus as a playable class
  
• Added ceratosaurus as a playable class
  
• Added gallimimus as a playable class
  
• Added troodon as a playable class
  
• Added foraging mechanics to beipiaosaurus and gallimimus
  
• Added unique bleed modifiers to all attacks
  
• Added dryosaurus dodge "charges" instead of consuming its stamina
  
• Added the option for server admins to enable/disable certain species via the admin panel. This will save automatically to the server config files and can also be adjusted there
  
• Added replay system. F2 ingame to start/stop recording on servers that have the system enabled (bAllowReplay=true in Game.ini). Replays must be a minimum of 5 seconds and cannot be viewed until 30 minutes has passed
  
• Added new graphics settings menu
  
• Added new skin colors for carnotaurus / hypsilophodon / pteranodon / omniraptor / tenontosaurus
  
• Added support for individual leg fracture regen so it heals only if resting
  
• Added sounds to hypsilophodon hatching animation
  
• Added new deinosuchus fast waterwalking animations
  
• Added ability to hear vocals in spectator mode
  
• Added blunt impact sound to pachycephalosaurus' alt attack
  
• Added diet bleed resist to malnutrition.
  
• Added pteranodon left and right skimming animation when turning
  
• Added new omniraptor lunged animation loop
  
• Added fall damage to mud
  
• Added camera offset when resting/sleeping
  
• Added red color to a couple debuff diet status
  
• Added grab hint for gore
  
• Added a different hint for not being able to swallow if the amount of food would cause you to vomit
  
• Added small and tiny jump foley sounds
  
• Added support for different, front/back footprint scales, made tenotosaurus front footprint slightly bigger
  
• Added boar pinned and bucking sounds
  
• Added LODs to gore meshes
  
• Added new birds erupt wingbeats sound
  
• Added physics to tail when poucing a large target
  
• Added new dirt, mud, sand and grass vfx
  
• Added new hint for grabbing corpses underwater for deinosuchus
  
• Added scalable body splash sfx
  
• Added corpse dragging sfx
  
• Added new swim fast and slow water vfx
  
• Added a modifier for characters to have a different carry weight threshold
  
• Added physics sleep system to gore for performance
  
• Added new sounds to juvenile tenontosaurus drink animations
  
• Added new carnivore grab soundcues
  
• Added carnivore grab notifies to drag grab animations
  
• Added "hold" to accept group call message
  
• Added pounce points to compsognathus AI
  
• Added condition to use high eat animations when eating fruits from the tree
  
• Added condition to stop eating if corpse is dragged away
  
• Added seaturtle animations and setup new movement
  
• Added timer using notify state on grab animations for herbivores
  
• Added pounce points to crabs and frogs. Added their missing animations
  
• Added missing animations to goats and rabbits
  
• Added sound for animals passing through most types of foliage
  
• Added "commands" to RCON command list
  

[h2]Enhancements[/h2]

• Updated all carnivore diets
  
• Big improvements to spatialisation on both dinosaur and animal vocals
  
• Setup new nightvision range values due to Spiro lighting changes
  
• Made alt attacks be used by default when not sprinting, added settings toggle
  
• Made deinosuchus water sense ignore underwater characters
  
• Prevented deinosuchus from sprinting when holding a character with its lunge on land
  
• Made salt lick remove vomit debuff over time instead of all at once. Allowed input release to interrupt the ability
  
• Enabled head tracking while carrying something
  
• Updated player spawns and plant spawns
  
• Disabled charging for hatchling carnotaurus
  
• Improved juvenile carnotaurus run footstep sync
  
• Tweaked tenotosaurus pounced animation sounds
  
• Removed tail drag sound from juvenile deinosuchus run
  
• Corrected stegosaurus walk and trot footstep sync
  
• Allowed dryosaurus dodge when carrying something
  
• Increased boars aggressiveness for relationship algorithm
  
• Increased scavenger AI spawn range, AI improvements to boar
  
• Adjusted bucking stamina damage to decrease based on pouncer growth
  
• Improved alt bite sound sync and improved broadcast and death sound
  
• Set deinosuchus to be knockdown immune
  
• Changes to pachycephalosaurus headbutt regarding head fracture against carnotaurus charge
  
• Greatly reduced the wind sway on vines
  
• Disabled spawning footprints when in mud
  
• Adjusted lunge location point and rotation
  
• Adjusted carnotaurus and tenotosaurus pounce sockets
  
• Prevented players from pouncing a target that is being lunged
  
• Reduced air control based on scale
  
• Disabled pteranodon latching when not flying
  
• Changed dryosaurus rest end transition blend
  
• Added proportional food value to represent bone amount when corpse is swallowed
  
• Made tenontosaurus tail attack hitbox extend below the ground to make the attack more reliable
  
• Adjustments to sounds being occluded by water
  
• Updated and add a few more pounce points on dinos
  
• Adjusted growth based gravity scaling
  
• Adjusted heart and intestine ragdoll settings
  
• Changed respawn values for mango and coconut trees
  
• Adjusted carno charge hitbox width
  
• Adjusted deinosuchus swallow curve
  
• Slide dust and blood drip vfx updated
  
• Updated pteranodon run cycle UI animation to match ingame animation
  
• Adjusted underwater ocean ambience volume
  
• Increased schooling fish hit chance to 100%
  
• Updated deer vocal sounds
  
• Updated hypsilophodon and compsognathus ragdolls
  
• Adjusted deer vocals volume, adjusted footsteps volume
  
• Improved audio latency settings, increased reverb amount for medium animal call attenuation
  
• Improved drink vocals
  
• Improved pteranodon wing flaps velocity base volume, pitch modulation and notify sync
  
• Made lunge clear target value if hitting a target that was already lunging or lunged
  
• Made root plants expire after a while once dug up and not eaten
  
• Boar aggression range slightly increased
  
• Adjusted footstep soundclasses volume
  
• Changed blend in amount for lunge shore animation
  
• Improved medium breath sounds and medium flesh bite sound
  
• Made salt licking loop the animation
  
• Adjusted volume and blend of drag sound cues
  
• Made full body to partial body animation transition slower, especially for quadrupeds
  
• Edits to character shader instances
  
• Forced organs to rotten on spawn if source corpse is rotten
  
• Changed headbutt launch direction calculation
  
• Made death sounds to set age parameter
  
• Disabled some eating hints for hatchlings
  
• Made blood clot UI more obvious
  
• Increased volume of omniraptor begging sounds
  
• Corrected Omni adult bite sound pitch
  
• Improved sounds on all hatching animations
  
• Adjusted boar movement
  
• Changed attenuation on boar attack
  
• Made carnotaurus not a cannibal anymore
  
• Prevented hatchlings from catching schooling fish, unless deinosuchus
  
• Prevented grab hint if skeleton is underwater
  
• Disabled hypsilophodon spit for hatchlings
  
• Made lunge and ram not stagger targets
  
• Reduced knockdown duration from 2.1s to 1s
  
• Adjusted blood percentage icon
  
• Updated deer animation system
  
• Slowed deer AI sprint speed
  
• Underwater post process material changes
  
• Made latched pouncer to disengage if target is pinned by another pouncer
  
• Made sure logout does not call load title map more than once
  
• Lowered Cinematic settings to Epic.
  
• Improvements to lunge floor detection on release a player
  
• Reduced volume of medium body splash sound
  
• Improved deinosuchus grab sounds and jaw sound size scaling
  
• Setup lunge animation for deer AI
  
• Improvements to anti hack
  
• Improved carnotaurus charge breaths
  
• Adjusted boar pounced animation
  
• Improved tiny and small footstep attenuations
  
• Updated skin preview map
  
• Adjusted logic for deciding normal or high eating animation
  
• Adjusted tiny footsteps volume curve
  
• Balanced crossfades, modulations and volume of all footsteps
  
• Finalized frog animations
  
• Improved pachycephalosaurus vs pachycephalosaurus headbutt sound attenuation
  
• Made weight calculation to increase stamina cost of pounced target bucking while having pouncers latched
  
• Disabled headtracking during blinded animation
  
• Improved physics when chunks are dropped
  
• Added more pitch variation to deinosuchus' regular pain sound
  
• Adjusted levels of land body impact sounds
  
• Made all hatchling/juvenile attacks use smaller attenuation
  
• Pitch and volume adjustments to herbivore diet sfx
  
• Updated stegosaurus grazing animation
  
• Adjusted deinosuchus bite and swallow volume
  
• Made some minor corrections to pitch modulations for some drag loops
  
• Made all juvenile sounds use smaller attenuation relative to adult
  
• Adjusted pitch scaling for tiny sit and stand foley sounds
  
• Improved tiny and small footsteps volume and crossfade balance over growth for medium/large creatures (e.g deinosuchus)
  
• Reduced food amount received from schooling fish as deinosuchus
  
• Made lunge speed boost only constant if holding the button
  
• Set non-water footsteps to be occluded in water
  
• Improved some deinosuchus, carnotaurus and modular grab/swallowing sounds
  
• Changed hypsilophodon spit attenuation
  
• Reduced volume of old sounds used for nest building
  
• Minor tweaks to swallow sounds
  
• Improvements to grab sounds
  
• Adjusted instant movement stop when water boosting hit a shoreline
  
• Updated river and swamp underwater materials
  
• Improved deino submerging animation, swimming angle after stopping movement
  
• Made lunge water boost speed to last as input is hold.
  
• Adjusted small and medium gore sounds
  
• Increased occlusion filter frequency on a few attenuations
  
• Made characters uncrouch in knee deep water
  
• All footsteps vfx set to render distance
  
• Adjusted math for eat low/mid and high animations
  
• Adjusted spectator mode teleport to be more accurate
  
• Adjusted lunge collision trace
  
• Adjusted South East location on Spiro to be closer to swamp
  
• Small change to fruits base to avoid them despawning early
  
• Amphibian AI now wander if they are not near water
  
• Reduced scavenger AI spawn distances
  
• Adjusted seaturtle pounce point and added missing animations
  
• Changed frog idle anim to still for corpse, dragged and lunged
  
• RCON now accepts multiple packets on the same connection
  
• Increasd RCON buffer size
  

[h2]Balance[/h2]

[h3]Global Mechanics[/h3]

Staggers

Staggers removed from all attacks except the following:

• Tenontosaurus tail slam
  
• Tenontosaurus rear kick
  
• Carnotaurus charge
  
• Pachycephalosaurus 360 attack
  

Knockdown

• Knockdown recovery time reduced across the board
  

Night Vision

• Night vision ranges all adjusted across the board
  

Diets

• All carnivore diets updated with the addition of the new characters
  

[h3]Carnotaurus[/h3]

Special Ability: Charge

• Charge Hit trace size reduced.
  
• Activation cost set to 10%
  
• Stamina cost per second no longer scales with growth
  
• Knockdown threshold reduced slightly
  

Movement

• Acceleration rate reduced
  
• Subadult sprint speed scale reduced
  

Bucking

• Stamina damage reduced
  

[h3]Deinosuchus[/h3]

Special Ability: Lunge

• Recovery time of lunge stagger increased substantially
  
• Sprinting disabled when holding a character on land
  

Water Sense

• Will now only detect players on the surface of water
  

Movement

• Subadult speed modifier decreased
  

Hunger

• Consumes food faster, resulting in it needing more food to be sustained
  

[h3]Dryosaurus[/h3]

Special Ability: Dodge

• No longer uses stamina, instead uses charges
  
• Max stored charges set to 2
  
• Charge recharge time set to 10 seconds
  
• Cooldown set to 1.5 seconds
  

Turn Rates

• Turn rate cap increased
  

[h3]Hypsilophodon[/h3]

Turn Rates

• Default turn rate increased
  
• 180 turn rate increased
  
• Turn rate cap increased
  

[h3]Pachycephalosaurus[/h3]

Special Ability: Ram

• Tap Knockdown threshold reduced
  
• Tap Ram stagger threshold reduced
  
• Held Ram Knockdown threshold reduced
  
• Held Ram stagger threshold reduced
  

[h3]Omniraptor[/h3]

Special Ability: Pounce

• Stamina damage against moving targets now scales with growth
  
• Pounce miss animation removed
  

Turn Rates

• Turn rate cap increased
  

[h3]Stegosaurus[/h3]

Bucking

• Stamina damage reduced
  

[h3]Tenontosaurus[/h3]

Special Ability: Tail Slam

• Tail slam damage reduced
  

Bucking

• Stamina damage reduced
  

[h2]Bug fixes[/h2]

• Fixed several issues related to UE5 engine upgrade
  
• Fixed spawn crash when multiple people spawn at same time in same area
  
• Fixed server crash when attacking Rabbit borrow
  
• Fixed amphibious and aquatic spawns not spawning on mostly land bounds
  
• Fixed lunge latency when dropping target
  
• Fixed foliage hit dismount for omniraptor pounce being only client side
  
• Fixed omniraptor scaling issues
  
• Fixed swallow issue that caused despawn issues
  
• Fixed impale causing stego input issues and allowing the player to grab corpses
  
• Fixed pachycephalosaurus vomit animation issue
  
• Fixed footsteps being inaudible from behind
  
• Fixed deinosuchus jaw audible underwater
  
• Fixed juvenile deinosuchus water attack duplicate jaw sound and splash vfx issue
  
• Fixed deinosuchus sounds playing when underwater in rivers
  
• Fixed carnotaurus charge animation blending
  
• Fixed issues with nest placement
  
• Fixed chunks not being destroyed if swallow is interrupted during animation
  
• Fixed hitting pounce/lunge on any potential target that may be already pouncing
  
• Fixed sliding sometimes auto-cancelling
  
• Fixed landing animation when jumping into mud
  
• Fixed pachycephalosaurus graze animation speed
  
• Fixed boar root motion
  
• Fixed stomach alert for deinosuchus
  
• Fixed hypsilophodon eyebrows not having a default color
  
• Fixed AI not having correct look pose values
  
• Fixed issues when pouncing the same spot of a target as another player
  
• Fixed DLSS settings not working correctly
  
• Fixed wallow message not showing up if near water
  
• Fixed NIS not applying on start up
  
• Fixed pachycephalosaurus ram not working on foliage
  
• Fixed admin panel bind error and fixed text box colors
  
• Fixed spectator mode not showing AI sometimes
  
• Fixed various gore ragdoll stretch issues
  
• Fixed stomach content % hint not showing when hovered with cursor
  
• Fixed carnotaurus t-pose if lunged when resting
  
• Fixed carnotaurus charge against lunge causing the target to auto-walk
  
• Fixed leg fracture healing if standing
  
• Fixed vomit not reducing max hunger for diet values calculation
  
• Fixed issues with meat chunk ragdolls when dropped
  
• Fixed meat turning invisible or stuck in mouth if dropped when swallowiing and hit by a stun ability
  
• Fixed dino profile max speed value being incorrect sometimes
  
• Fixed not being able to toggle crouch while vocalizing
  
• Fixed organs disappearing upon relogging, but were still interactable
  
• Fixed pack scent not working
  
• Fixed chat entry text color suddenly changing to black
  
• Fixed stamina consumption when sprint flying downwards
  
• Fixed stamina decay increasing instead of decreasing with certain diets
  
• Fixed being able to get organs from corpses that are too heavy
  
• Fixed organs food/nutrient amount per size
  
• Fixed scent clouds lingering after they were supposed to disappear
  
• Fixed various issues related to pounce interaction.
  
• Fixed actors and gore clipping meshes during swallow
  
• Fixed hypsilophodon aim particles not disappearing
  
• Fixed being able to lunge multiple targets at once
  
• Fixed not being able to perform vocals more than once while resting
  
• Fixed juvenile jump heights
  
• Fixed 3D preview only using juvenile animations
  
• Fixed health decay not increasing if in malnutrition state
  
• Fixed diet slots not respecting max amount set by vomit debuff
  
• Fixed reverted blood resistence boost/debuff from diets
  
• Fixed poucing a target already pouncing making them detach
  
• Fixed dryosaurus rest to idle blend issue
  
• Fixed blood scent clouds not disappearing
  
• Fixed diet slots fill icon amount mismatched after vomiting from admin panel
  
• Fixed carnotaurus charge crash
  
• Fixed group leader not being set on server properly
  
• Fixed jump sometimes not working
  
• Fixed coconut eating closed condition
  
• Fixed loaded nests not being set correctly
  
• Fixed nest scavenger crash
  
• Fixed wrong multiplier being used for growth
  
• Fixed pounce animation interrupting once target is knocked down
  
• Fixed swallow organs sometimes not giving the proper food/nutrient amount
  
• Fixed overlap issues on underwater sound and pp for rivers
  
• Fixed some graphics settings not reloading correctly
  
• Fixed cooldown issue with drinking
  
• Fixed cooldown on end for some abilities
  
• Fixed pachycephalosaurus ram stopping mid-air sometimes
  
• Fixed chicken LODs and updated ragdoll
  
• Fixed socket issue client side
  
• Fixed various issues with player group names
  
• Fixed plants with roots showing the empty mesh version for a moment once the root is fully eaten
  
• Fixed organs sometimes stretching on the floor when body is being dragged
  
• Fixed boar animation when pinned
  
• Fixed bypassing group limit with courted pairs
  
• Fixed bleeding tooltip % not showing
  
• Fixed some fall damage issues
  
• Fixed various issues with ram, pounce and lunge
  
• Fixed blood sometimes not updating the UI properly
  
• Fixed material instance issue with growth
  
• Fixed regenerating/decaying attributes not being clamped
  
• Fixed not using LOD0 with low/medium view distance
  
• Fixed organs stretching during corpse drag
  
• Fixed nutrients not respecting hunger cap
  
• Fixed fracture audio playing multiple times
  
• Fixed foliage contact audio not playing correctly sometimes
  
• Fixed animations not playing properly when pounce is interrupted by specific situations (such as knockdown or instant death)
  
• Fixed footsteps notifies being named and velocity parameter being turned on incorrectly
  
• Fixed multiple players being able to pick up gore or corpses
  
• Fixed omniraptor, pachycephalosaurus, pteranodon and tenontosaurus drink animation loops
  
• Fixed some drink montage issues
  
• Fixed max stamina not respecting vomit debuff limit when growth tick applies
  
• Fixed schooling fish falling through the ground
  
• Fixed hungeroffset wrong calculation in swallow ability
  
• Fixed boar hit reaction and attack
  
• Fixed corpes sliding after a knockdown launch
  
• Fixed deinosuchus quick get-up from resting animation stuttering
  
• Fixed spectator mode showing invalid characters (such as logged out players)
  
• Fixed rotation rate issue when moving after alt attacks
  
• Fixed tiny body splash playing small sound
  
• Fixed crash when logging sometimes
  
• Fixed pteranodon not being able to peck while flying
  
• Fixed gore rotten value not setting rotten state
  
• Fixed juvenile hints related to not being able to grab and eat a closed coconut
  
• Fixed organs pickup spawn not setting weight multiplier
  
• Fixed lunge and pounce bleeding value
  
• Fixed fall damage after client correction
  
• Fixed stegosaurus impale issues
  
• Fixed lunge not causing damage to an already lunging deinosuchus
  
• Fixed pounce camera issues
  
• Fixed blood decay not updating correctly
  
• Fixed pounce hit impact animation overwriting pinned one sometimes
  
• Fixed coconut hint not showing occasionally
  
• Fixed character mesh scale sometimes being incorrect on death
  
• Fixed some shader issues
  
• Fixed some montages not looping correctly
  
• Fixed some vomit montages playing full body
  
• Fixed plants not updating mesh on begin play if dug already
  
• Fixed drag loop in deinosuchus eat loop animation
  
• Fixed graze not ending right after input release if near water source
  
• Fixed small code mistake breaking dragging
  
• Fixed meat chunks and organs not becoming rotten when they should
  
• Fixed some vocal types of sound in animation not getting interrupted as they should
  
• Fixed character spawn hitch
  
• Fixed boar headtracking
  
• Fixed boar alert mode loop
  
• Fixed organ weight multiplication happening twice
  
• Fixed pounce client jittering and stamina fall not reseting target state
  
• Fixed carnotaurus charge speed and animation
  
• Fixed issue with organ weight/food calculation
  
• Fixed vocals not replicating properly
  
• Fixed hatchling hatch body impact sound too heavy/loud
  
• Fixed and improve salt lick sounds for all playables
  
• Fixed deinosuchus jaw pop sound echoing
  
• Fixed no audio when biting or swallowing as deinosuchus hatchling
  
• Fixed deinosuchus juvenile having double vocals
  
• Fixed stegosaurus impale making fruit/piece of plant disappear when carried
  
• Fixed hatchlings being able to dig up plants
  
• Fixed stamina reduction when trying to rest on top of a corpse
  
• Fixed boar targeting corpses
  
• Fixed deer targeting everything
  
• Fixed draw distance value
  
• Fixed radial impulse firing for organ that's not attached
  
• Fixed never recovering from knockdown
  
• Fixed fish movement
  
• Fixed duplicated vocal audio for some species
  
• Fixed apply button becoming hidden
  
• Fixed settings saving before finishing applying some settings
  
• Fixed corpses occasionally still being visible after swallowing them
  
• Fixed corpses not being able to be picked up after it was carried in the mouth of a pteranodon that flew into the ground and died
  
• Fixed stego call crossfades
  
• Fixed graphics options value being reset in the UI
  
• Fixed pounce checks to avoid specific interactions sometimes failing
  
• Fixed balances to vocal calls
  
• Fixed deinosuchus lunge body drop sound
  
• Fixed carnivores not being able to get meat chunks or organs from corpses sometimes
  
• Fixed medium sprint footsteps modulations and carnotaurus charge stomp layer
  
• Fixed small walk/crouch attenuation issue
  
• Fixed body splash sounds and water steps not firing correctly
  
• Fixed tiny body splash not playing
  
• Fixed underwater river PP not working sometimes
  
• Fixed vocal and attenuation curves across the board
  
• Fixed all vocals to sound hoarse at low stamina
  
• Fixed carnotaurus charge sometimes consuming stamina when failing to activate
  
• Fixed medium broadcast reverb coming in at close distance
  
• Fixed crouching animation transition issue
  
• Fixed footsteps being audible underwater
  
• Fixed deinosuchus juvenile bite sound
  
• Fixed duplicate pitch mod on medium sprint dirt and rock steps
  
• Fixed vocal type sounds spam check not working correctly
  
• Fixed oceans not blocking vocals underwater
  
• Fixed large body drop on land sound
  
• Fixed various issues related to carrying
  
• Fixed deinosuchus bite crossfades
  
• Fixed sprint footsteps spatialisation radius
  
• Fixed blunt impact sound issue
  
• Fixed no sound when eating in shallow water as juvenile deinosuchus
  
• Fixed juvenile deinosuchus swallow sounds
  
• Fixed juvenile carnotaurus attract core layer not playing
  
• Fixed pounce end setting ability state back to none if player was pinned while latched
  
• Fixed vocals not attaching to owner correctly
  
• Fixed organs being destroyed if an actor was destroyed or turned to bones
  
• Fixed corpses sometimes falling from mouth when grabbed/carried
  
• Fixed chunks/organs/ragdolls falling through floor in some areas
  
• Fixed vocals issue where another player can interrupt vocals
  
• Fixed pawns not being destroy correctly server side if a player logged out while in spectator camera
  
• Fixed sprint steps non-spatialised radius
  
• Fixed pounce input lock
  
• Fixed ragdolls reseting during carry/dragged causing issues of some recently spawned or stasis AI to fall from mouth
  
• Fixed rivers not blocking vocals occasionally
  
• Fixed tracked footprints being flipped and scaled incorrectly sometimes
  
• Fixed and improved sniffing breath sounds
  
• Fixed gore destroy time causing issues when something was recently dropped
  
• Fixed gore latency issues on the client when they are destroyed
  
• Fixed corpses being destroyed while being dragged/carried
  
• Fixed camera offset for underwater sfx
  
• Fixed pounce start animation not playing if already falling
  
• Fixed being able to build nests underwater
  
• Fixed schooling fish scale pulsating when caught sometimes
  
• Fixed pressing G while pinned freeing the target
  
• Fixed spectator mode widgets not updating in real time
  
• Fixed online admin getter
  
• Fixed debris causing issues
  
• Fixed some sound cues not playing
  
• Fixed certain vocals not working for specific sounds
  
• Fixed pickup activation being possible if pounced
  
• Fixed hypsilophodon blinded animation sounds
  
• Fixed deinosuchus wateridle sounds being audible above water
  
• Fixed swallow mechanic (visuals) not working on other clients sometimes
  
• Fixed pickup interrupting movement even if there is nothing around to pickup
  
• Fixed swallowing not destroying a corpse
  
• Fixed player actor staying in game if the player disconnected while in spectator mode
  
• Fixed certain fruit trees not respawning fruits over time
  
• Fixed thrashed organs scaling incorrectly when spawning
  
• Fixed deinosuchus lunge grabbing a target on the end of the ability
  
• Fixed pickup end causing rotation rate to be 0 if player press G during pinned
  
• Fixed attempt to replicate being deactivated when fruits or gore is picked up
  
• Fixed deinosuchus not being able to start moving up/down while sinking
  
• Fixed carbs causing stamina decay to increase instead of decrease
  
• Fixed water culling trace not blocking on rivers
  
• Fixed juvenile stegosaurus wallow sounds being incorrect
  
• Fixed subadult pachycephalosaurus crouch animation looking strange visually
  
• Fixed juvenile stegosaurus animation walk speed not matching how fast it was moving
  
• Fixed lunge releasing target occasionally if going from water to land
  
• Fixed deinosuchus camera clip when zoomed in and moving
  
• Fixed deinosuchus dropping objects causing them to fall under the map
  
• Fixed certain fruits not vanishing after being eaten completely
  
• Fixed hatchling stego wallow body drops not audible
  
• Fixed river culling vocals incorrectly sometimes
  
• Fixed target animation lock at struggle if pouncer dies during pin action
  
• Fixed hypsilophodon's mouth being open too wide when holding something while standing idle
  
• Fixed camera offset when moving for deinosuchus being too high for hatchlings/juveniles and also to be avoided when swimming
  
• Fixed scars disappearing when logging out
  
• Fixed stomach giving the highest % nutrient of the player character instead of the target corpse when organ was pulled out instead of thrashed
  
• Fixed rare/strange issue when chunks/gore get stuck on face for other clients
  
• Fixed fruits not respawning at all if eaten from the tree
  
• Fixed some material parameters not being set once replicated
  
• Fixed issue if eating was canceled due to corpse dragged or carried
  
• Fixed plants not replicating when dug up or eaten fully
  
• Fixed targets becoming locked in pinned animation if pouncer died during the pin
  
• Fixed bones showing as a nutrient icon
  
• Fixed how plants verify used sockets for spawning fruits
  
• Fixed animals injured animations not using normal locomotion ones to avoid then t-posing
  
• Fixed tail physics not being disabled when sprinting at subadult stage
  
• Fixed seaturtle idle look pose
  
• Fixed being able to use deinosuchus alt attack with a leg fracture
  
• Fixed deer lookpose causing jaw issues
  
• Fixed fruits not be cleaned up on clients once destroyed
  
• Fixed sounds with boar locomotion
  
• Fixed interactor box scale during crouch
  
• Fixed frog carried animation
  
• Fixed rabbit carry position being wrong due to animation
  
• Fixed idle special animations playing even if pinned
  
• Fixed corpses resetting to non-fresh if eaten too fast
  
• Fixed tiny slow swim sounds being occluded in water
  
• Fixed mud body drop sounds occluded in mud pools
  
• Fixed stamina decay not increasing during malnutrition
  
• Fixed scavenger perception
  
• Fixed an issue where scavengers would not always make it to carcass and would not flee from bigger characters
  
• Fixed fruits auto fall timer being reset by auto respawn
  
• Fixed fast moving clouds after death
  
• Fixed footprints spawning when walking in water
  
• Fixed lunge causing oxygen damage on surface or land
  
• Fixed gore floor correction not detecting static meshes
  
• Fixed swamp water on Spiro
  
• Fixed coastal AI spawning in nesting grounds
  
• Fixed chicken, crab and frog AI not reacting to players
  
• Fixed boar and chicken health being incorrect
  
• Fixed an issue with RCON not saving correctly
  
  
• Fixed over 500 additional issues that were introduced with the new playable classes
  
  

[h2]Known Major Issues[/h2]

• Ceratosaurus charged bite audio is delayed
  
• Organs, fruits and meat chunks can become uninteractable and stuck to the player's face if left too long before swallowed/dropped. Safelog to fix
  
• Occasionally, a 2nd giant moon will appear in the sky that fixes itself after a few minutes
  
• Elite fish will sometimes desync and appear to be flying. They are not interactable and will fix themselves when approached. This is usually caused by an admin being in spectator mode
  
• Additional observation issues with admin spectator mode
  
• Deinosuchus has an issue where dropping an organ or meat chunk causes it to return to the corpse it was pulled from
  
• Corpses will occasionally be seen falling from the sky when first rendered
  
• Group nametags will sometimes disappear and not return if you leave render distance of a player. Regroup to fix
  
• Sometimes night vision does not work correctly underwater as deinosuchus and beipiaosaurus. Safelogging will fix this
  

[h2]FTessaro - Lead Programmer[/h2]
This month, my main focus was on enhancing and resolving issues with various mechanics. We had several strange behaviors concerning physics and other various interactions when multiple abilities occurred simultaneously. Such as with the introduction of troodon, a new playable capable of pouncing, that brought forth additional scenarios that had the potential to disrupt existing mechanics. On the topic of pounce; I’ve made some significant changes to the aftermath of missing a pounce, now it does not “stagger” the pouncer anymore, allowing it to be more fluid, fast and more visually accurate. Moreover, with troodon, I developed a system where nearby troodons will emit specific vocal sounds whenever a target becomes envenomated. This feature aids in synchronizing attacks and will be further improved upon in future updates.


Pickup is another mechanic that has received some attention. We noticed some odd behaviors relating to both Organs and Meat Chunks, especially when their physics decide not to simulate properly. In that regard I also added a dynamic math that allows “Grab High” animations to play, when grabbing fruits, for example, from tall trees. I also fixed a bunch of smaller issues such as loading screen causing a crash, double calls issue, UI hints, the “pitch black skin” bug, vocal distance being short and much more. Overall I’ve squashed hundreds of bugs this month.


[h2]Fred - 2D Artist[/h2]
I've been hopping around different types of assignments for a while now, one of which is returning to the environment concepts. Specifically, I’ve returned to finish the line of Underwater Environment Concepts.

After discussions about visuals and gameplay needs, I do what I always do and start looking for references and inspiration. A bit of a challenge was the visuals. Normally, when we think of coral reefs and kelp forests, we think of images like those from Blue Planet 2 & Planet Earth 2: beauty and serenity with all kinds of gorgeous colors. This would need to be toned down to fit our horror gameplay and visual style for the game. It can be pretty at times, but not always. I also had to take into consideration the types of terrains and biomes of the ocean and to hopefully create an interesting environment for players to traverse and explore.

So, as you’ve seen before in the “isle-phase-three” channel on the official discord, I started by making a simple study of how these biomes and formations will be loosely mapped out based on depth. As you can see below, we’ll start at the shallows with coral reefs, and as we get lower, we’ll see more rock formations. Kelp forests will be sprinkled throughout both. As rock formations become bigger, corals start to disappear. Eventually, at the barrier of the map, we plan on making it pretty desolate.



For the reef concept above I wanted to keep variations of color, but needed to make sure I didn't go too far to where it looked like an underwater paradise or a screenshot from ‘The Little Mermaid’. My color choice of rocks could’ve been better, but with the different forms and corals, I think it looks good. On the right, we see a rough sketch of Rock formations. We can look forward to placing them around the medium depths of the environment. What I have here is probably the largest these formations will ever get. Not only does this show how they will fill some open waters with interest, but how we can look forward to bridging the gaps between our underwater players and coastal pterosaur players above. Underneath the Rock formations, we have a scene of animals interacting at the edge of a Kelp Forest. Typical Kelp forests in documentaries look really beautiful and welcoming, with rich, full fronds of bright green or orange leaves. We probably won't be doing that and taking that opportunity to make them feel dark and claustrophobic. Hopefully that will be reflected in our lighting and assets.



Finally, after studying and planning, we get to the fully rendered concept above which showcases all the elements mentioned before. There was a lot of coral and rock to paint, as well as getting the right hues and colors down, but I’d argue this is one of the better Underwater Concepts made. I look forward to seeing this being built in game by our lovely Jace, and eventually seeing the player base take a dive and explore what we have planned.


[h2]VisualTech48 - Environmental Artist[/h2]
This month has been a month with a variation of bug fixes and massive in global, but seemingly minor updates to the Modular Kit. We’ve now solved the stair, door, and all kinds of problems that were linked just by being modular. Not only that, the kit for now, features over 250 objects, making it the most granular kit we have so far, and it being new, and this granular allows us to do so many variations with the buildings.

This is by far the end of the kit, as the kit will now only get upgraded by new parts as we go on. Not only that we will feature a distinct and clearcut way of knowing which building serves what purpose, with various techniques.

That and the, in the works, new shader to support this level of modularity, should bring a lot of life to the island and the human environment and its effect on the world.

Keep in mind these images are still work in progress and do NOT feature the new shader, and is one of many possibilities. This is just a very rough showcase of what we can show, without any detailing done to the buildings.



While waiting for the magic shader, and before we proceed to new textures to encompass it and make it fully functional.

That is it for this month!


[h2]Wedge - Sound Designer[/h2]
Main priority and the majority of my time this month has been occupied with fixing as many bugs as possible, as well as making improvements and addressing any missing or incorrect audio cues where possible.

Other than any work that I’ve done this month to go towards the polish of audio in 6.5 I’ve also made some more headway on some Diablo sounds, however the focus on the new update has slowed this progress slightly. I have the majority of Diablo’s adult sounds designed or at least undergoing iteration and finalization, only a handful remain to create such as courting, sparring and some generic or filler vocal sounds for use in idles, resting and filling in gaps where necessary etc.

I’ve started bringing dilophosaurus’ calls up to the quality bar we are setting with Evrima, with its attract and broadcast vocals already complete. These two calls are revamped versions of the original legacy calls, retaining the sonic quality and character of the existing sounds but bulking them out with a bit more presence and weight using various additional layers and some cleaning and processing techniques on the existing raw files. The other three calls are going to need more work and some deviation from the original concept to get to a similar standard.

I’m also working on a new sound that will be used in place of the broadcast call for gallimimus’ mobilize ability, a brief honk with that signature gallimimus flavor effectively clearing some space in the mix so it's not a barrage of long and noisy calls.


[h2]Seiza - Video Editor[/h2]
My focus in the last weeks was completely on finishing the release trailer for update 6.5. Since the new species bring many new mechanics into the game, there is again a lot to explain in the trailer. While the trailer starts relatively calm with the beipiaosaurus, the atmosphere gets more and more stressful. At the latest when the troodon is introduced, you notice the horror aspects of the game, because this is the first time I used night shots for a trailer.

I also got inspired in the stress test, so I was able to try out the game mechanics myself and thus better represent and explain them in the trailer. As always, I'm staying rather abstract in explaining the mechanics, but I hope it's easy to understand. The presentation of the gallimimus mechanics was the biggest challenge in this project, as he has to keep moving all the time. However, I found a smooth solution that shows the mechanics well. In the coming days I will finish the final touches.




[h2]KissenKitten - Producer[/h2]
This month has been rather weighted to be honest. Got the stress test cranked out which has greatly assisted in helping us track down bugs and refine mechanics. So thank you to all that participated! It has been fun to see how the new playables are being wielded and all the new strats that are emerging with each. Especially how they fare against the already established animals. Each new creature changes the island's dynamics and that is very interesting to observe. Once we iron out the kinks we’ll be in a good spot to release update 6.5 which is much larger than we originally intended but in a good way. So thank you for a thousand years of patient waiting. It has definitely taken a bit longer than we would have liked. But we want to get you in on the fun as much as you want to have it and want it to be as solid as we can get it. So hang tight.

The team has also grown and will be growing further still. Lots of new talent swirling around, keeping me on my toes. The animation team has been expanded by several artists which are performing spectacularly. I’m crazy proud of their strides! The diablo, dilo and herrera are well on their way to being the next creatures you’ll see running around on the map, decimating your hp and adding to the soundscape. When their unique mechanics are a bit further along I’ll try to slip some content of them to you so you’ll have an understanding on what they will play like and be capable of. Following in their footsteps will be the Tyrannosaurus Rex which enters production fully next week and boasts some interesting adjustments I’m sure the keen-eyed will notice. .

All in all, this month has honestly been a bug hunting slog but we’re clawing our way to the surface and seeing the light at the end of the 6.5 tunnel. I am very excited to turn these creatures loose on the general public and affix my gaze on Update 7 which I personally have been anxiously awaiting forever and the team is probably tired of hearing my talk about. Also, alongside the release of Update 6.5 or very shortly after will come roadmap changes as previously mentioned which will alter the way we disseminate information and how we update the game as a whole. Aiming for something that suits us better as a development team and is better for you all as well. With the media embargo lifted, I’m sure there’s a lot of 6.5 content to snack on while we rev this bad boy up! Bye bye for now!