The Isle News

Hey Islanders,

It's the day you've all been waiting for, Update #2 has now been released! Make sure that you restart your Steam clients if the update is not visible, as well as ensure that you've set your Steam beta branch to EVRIMA.

I'd like to make you all aware that whilst the secret listed on our Public Roadmap is entirely feature complete, its in-game placement unfortunately missed our internal cut-off date for new additions, therefore it'll be delivered as part of a hotfix that we'll deploying sometime after Update #2's initial release. Also the server queue system will not be available in the initial release whilst we resolve a number of issues discovered by our diligent QA team.

Most importantly however, we're all extremely eager to hear your thoughts & feedback. If you encounter an issue whilst playing please be sure to submit a bug report, it goes a long way in helping us create the game we've all been dreaming of.


[h2]Changelog 0.6.15.18[/h2]

Additions

• Added the Carnotaurus class as a playable.
  
• Added the Hypsilophodon class as a playable. Note: This class currently spawns as an adult and its juvenile will make an appearance in a later update.
  
• Added the Stegosaurus class as a playable.
  
• Added Carnotaurus Charge ability (Charge by tapping RMB while sprinting at max speed. Creatures small enough can be instantly killed by it or knocked down, while larger creatures will be staggered.)
  
• Added Hypsilophodon Spit ability (Spit by holding RMB and release to fire.)
  
• Added Hypsilophodon High-jump ability (High-jump holding Space).
  
• Added Stegosaurus Tail impale ability (Tail impale using RMB. Aim the direction of the impale attack with your camera.)
  
• Added the Bleeding System. Wallow to temporarily clot your wounds and stop your blood pool from running out. If your blood pool runs out, your character will die.
  
• Added the initial pass of the Day/Night Cycle. Nightvision and further functionality to come with Update #6, Night Terrors.
  
• Added Additional Admin Functionality. Player bans, Statistic changing (hunger, thirst, bleed, growth), Server logging, Spectator camera, Day/night cycle manipulation, Mail system and various Spiro teleports using community-made names.
  
• Added Flesh Chunks. Press G on a corpse larger than your character to pull out a flesh chunk to eat later or give to another player.
  
• Added Crowd Control (CC) mechanics. Knock smaller opponents over, or stagger larger ones.
  
• Added visual indication of the Vomit debuff. Statistics will now appear to be locked off.
  
• Added additional information to server selection. View your current character on a server and its current statistics. More server filtering options (list alphabetically, by player count, by ping, etc). Added a "connect" button.
  
• Added the initial pass for foliage interaction. Push grass as you move through it.
  
• Added female skins. Select female on the character select menu, as seen in legacy. This is purely cosmetic at the moment but will play a much bigger role with nesting and sexual dimorphism.
  
• Added new ambient sounds to the map.
  

Enhancements

• Improved client and server performance.
  
• Reduced playable map size to encourage more player interaction.
  
• Adjusted the grouping system. Friendly call with 2 to accept a group invite, threaten with 3 to reject them.
  
• Improved grouping system UI. Added online group member and group leader indicators. Made group invites timeout if ignored for too long.
  
• Adjusted chat so that channels separate messages. Global shows all chat, including group and local, while group only shows group and local only shows local.
  
• Improved ragdolls across the board. There should be less replication issues for them when killing players, carrying bodies, etc.
  
• Added support for gamepad controllers and rebinding.
  
• Increased AI spawn rate.
  
• Improved Dryosaurus AI.
  
• Made chat UI auto disappear if not used for a while.
  
• Merged the admin scoreboard and admin panel. Access both using TAB by default.
  
• Added some missing sounds for small herbivores grazing. Chomp chomp.
  
• Vocals fade out if cancelled early via any means.
  
• Replaced old mud sounds
  

Balance

• Increased the scent range of the Tenontosaurus.
  
• Increased the severity of Locked Damage.
  
• Adjusted Pack Scent values for all of the Dinosaurs.
  
• Set Carnotaurus group limit to 3.
  
• Reduced group limit for Dryosaurus from 15 to 10.
  
• Set Hypsilophodon group limit to 10.
  
• Set Stegosaurus group limit to 4.
  
• Reduced group limit for Tenontosaurus from 8 to 6.
  
• Adjusted damage values for Pounce.
  
• Added Bleed to all of the Utahraptor's attacks and to the Claw/Kick attacks for Tenontosaurus.
  
• Adjusted Tenontosaurus Claw attack speed.
  
• Adjusted damage values for Tenontosaurus Tail Slam and Rear Kick.
  
• Added CC to Tenontosaurus Rear Kick & Tail Slam.
  
• Revamped the controls menu in settings.
  
• Allowed multiple pouncers if the target creature is large enough.
  
• Decreased delay time between Tenontosaurus attacks significantly.
  
• Made fall damage weight based. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
  
• Increased acceleration for walking/trotting across the board. If an animal wants to move, it moves. Sprint acceleration depends on species size.
  

Bug fixes

• Fixed "A FRenderResource" crash.
  
• Fixed players walking underwater.
  
• Fixed all issues in the last public build relating to the grouping system.
  
• Fixed AI not respawning.
  
• Fixed game hints not being hidden when hiding HUD with F10.
  
• Fixed some players not being able to hear other players calls if facing away from them.
  
• Fixed being able to apply an infinite amount of mud to your character via spamming wallowing.
  
• Fixed players occasionally becoming stuck upside down after a pounce is complete. Both pouncer and pouncee.
  
• Fixed some of the control options not changing. (Part of the revamp mentioned above.)
  
• Fixed the remaining crevices on Spiro.
  
• Fixed small corpses sometimes becoming stuck in a player's mouth when carrying them.
  
• Fixed crouching while sprinting draining stamina.
  
• Fixed corpses sometimes being delayed before they're dropped from a player's mouth.
  
• Fixed jittery Utahraptor movement if the player looked directly down and spammed the movement keys.
  
• Fixed missing eating sounds from the Tenontosaurus.
  
• Fixed game hints displaying over the character menu.
  
• Fixed ragdolls breaking if a small corpse was picked up then the player immediately pressed the eat key.
  
• Fixed chat not being able to be scrolled... Again.
  
• Fixed Utahraptor not playing the swallow animation if it was standing/swimming in water.
  
• Fixed vocals from continuing to play just after your character had been killed.
  
• Fixed Tenontosaurus being able to jump and tail slam at the same time by exploiting the rest mechanic.
  
• Fixed Utahraptors teleporting around if they pounced at each other at the same time.
  
• Fixed players being able to swim in mid-air if they teleported to another player while swimming.
  
• Fixed being able to pounce through some assets, such as trees.
  
• Fixed being able to pickup multiple corpses at the same time.
  
• Fixed locked damage resetting if the player safe logged.
  
• Fixed logging in water sometimes preventing the player from being pounced.
  
• Fixed pouncing preventing fall damage from occurring if used before landing in water from a high place.
  
• Fixed pouncing a resting player sometimes causing their character to face sideways.
  
• Fixed vomiting in water causing a temporary input lockup.
  
• Fixed running down a hill while carrying a small corpse causing jittery movement.
  
• Fixed full body animations playing while turning in place. (The legs weren't moving because the character was stood in place but they were still turning.)
  
• Fixed grazing automatically initiating a trot, despite the player being in walk mode prior to them grazing.
  
• Fixed characters not loading if the player held the spacebar while spawning.
  
• Fixed admin announcements preventing other admins from teleporting.
  
• Fixed various vocal sounds emitting from behind the player's character, rather than from their mouth.
  
• Fixed crouching preventing bodies being automatically grabbed when killing a much small player.
  
• Fixed throwing up while swallowing a small corpse allowing the player to push ragdolls by just moving through them.
  
• Fixed teleporting a safelogging player not teleporting them but instead just waking them up.
  
• Fixed spamming E while swallowing a body causing it to create an invisible duplicate.
  
• Fixed Dryosaurus jittering when quick standing from resting.
  
• Fixed chat input lockup if the player clicked outside of the text box, rather than pressing enter.
  
• Fixed drink hint appearing while swimming.
  
• Fixed being able to slide through players when stopping movement abruptly.
  
• Fixed teleporting height so that admins are no longer taking damage when teleporting.
  
  
• Fixed roughly 200+ unique bugs related to the new mechanics and playables. (For the sake of our sanity we can't list them all here. Hats off to the QA team for these!)
  

Known Issues
The following is a list of our high priority issues. Most of the bugs listed here are going to be addressed in a hotfix patch. Report additional bugs here: https://forms.gle/ufXDnxNfhRhZ7CCi8

• Swallowing meat chunks will frequently cause them to float in mid-air.
  
• Kicking players from groups is currently not possible.
  
• The Favourite/Discord buttons are visible on the server list menu but they do not yet function.
  
• Various sound issues pertaining to the growth of a creature (some sounds are for juveniles but also play for the adults, for example.)
  
• Map tiles still cause stutters when crossing them.
  
• Players can pick up a corpse at the same time as another player.
  
• Swallowing a corpse results in the ragdoll stretching until it disappears. It's just a visual issue and should not prevent you from gaining hunger.
  
• If you enter the admin spectator mode while sprinting, your camera can become misaligned with your character. Avoid for now by standing still when entering spectator camera.
  
• Various issues pertaining to bucking off pouncers and the balance for the mechanic.
  
• Attempting to eat from a body that's being dragged can temporarily lock input for the player. Press E/LMB to unlock yourself.
  

Hello Islanders,

As many of you know, we made a statement last month that acknowledged the ongoing hacking issue in Legacy and laid out our steadfast resolve to rectify the cheating issues. I've come to tell you that time is no longer their ally, the ever ticking clock has finally run out and we're ready to start deploying our initial countermeasures, expect to see them roll out shortly.

In order to prevent confusion or misguided expectations, I'd like to make it extremely clear that we are not actively developing the Legacy branch, merely maintaining it. Meaning that whilst our development focus is still on EVRIMA, we'll be tearing out the hackers as if we were tending to weeds within our garden.

[h2]KissenKitten - Producer[/h2]

For this month, the Hypsilophodon and the Carnotaurus took center stage. The QA team has been hard at work helping us nail down the best way to deliver on the hypsi’s spit mechanic. We’ve tried it a few different ways and have a clear heading of how we want it to be applied to the other inhabitants of the island. Which can be more difficult to nail down than you may expect. In addition to that, the carno has come charging into EVRIMA. I know by now most of you have seen some of its new animations here and there. The carno’s special ability charge has been the priority for the latter portion of the month and per playtests, is feeling pretty good so far. We’ll be doing more rounds of testing and iterating on that per usual and anxiously await getting it into your hands.

Aside from the new additions to the island, you’ll also notice some other roadmap changes. One of the biggest decisions was to pull AI from individual updates. As you may know, we wanted EVRIMA's inhabitants to be smaller in stature (comparatively). With larger, apex animals being AI. However, with all the trouble complex AI has been giving us, we had to make some tough choices. Our original intent with AI was to allow server owners with low playercounts to still be able to have an immersive experience whether they had the player numbers on their side or not. In addition to having some large threats roaming around that you may not be able to get the best of. But unfortunately, AI needs more time in the oven. We considered our options and ultimately decided to let you all have the stegosaurus as a playable due to it already being completely animated for it’s AI introduction. Which would allow us to get you the update much sooner and also get another playable in your hands. The other options would have been to significantly delay the update while we pulled AI up to standard or to significantly delay the update while we replaced the stego with a different playable that would have needed to be animated from scratch. Both only served to cause delays. So we instead opted to get you all another playable and keep the update schedule on track. In addition, we’ve made a bunch of new changes to the roadmap with some valuable input from QA that we feel will help streamline production a little bit more while also steadily providing new playables in a scope that keeps each update feeling unique and adding new mechanics at each interval that corresponds with a playable that can utilize those new features.

Artistically, the concept team has rounded out the bulk of the legacy concept changes and will be shifting into work that supports a major addition to the game. Elders. I know the burning question on everyone’s minds has been, “which creatures will have an elder variant” and I can confirm that all of the playables will have an elder. Considering our massive roster though, you will not see a singular elder update as that would be a staggering amount of models to produce all at once and we doubt you’d want to wait that long to get your elder on. So, the elders, as we complete them, will appear on the roadmap alongside whichever update corresponds to its completion. Working on elders will be an ongoing part of production until each creature has one. So there will not be an elder specific update. We will simply be dropping them as they’re ready. Naturally though, they will be elders that correspond to the current playables in EVRIMA.

Outside of that, there are some new additions to the team and more to come over the coming months. Our team is expanding and with that growth, we will be able to do a little bit more, a little bit faster and a little bit better with each fresh set of hands, eyes and minds. Stay safe and be kind.

[h2]Filipe - Lead Programmer[/h2]
It’s been a busy month for the entire team as we are working hard on new dinosaurs and new mechanics. Not only the mechanics for those dinosaurs, but also the generic ones. I reworked some logic of the swimming system to be more reliable and efficient, our diligent QA team has begun testing it and have found several bugs, but it already feels better. Also worked on getting the Piece of Meat system working. This system is another part of the drag system, which allows removing pieces from a corpse that is too big to be picked up or dragged. This also includes water to help against “water denial”. A detail is that if you drop the meat in water it will be gone. Still on the pickup subject, we are adding a impale system to the game, it is part of the Gore as well that a Stego for example, can impale a “carriable” creature after killing it with his tail spikes. Below is a video to demonstrate it:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Some UI designs are being discussed internally, but for now I'm doing some small changes and updates based on player feedback. Some of those changes involve the HUD and Chat, for example, it is important to know when you are under effects of buffs, debuffs, diseases, etc. Pounce will be much easier to connect to the target in the future, besides improvement to the jump I'm also working on a way to pounce when you are very close to the target, without the need to “jump”, you are close enough to “grab” the target and climb it. But, for now, I'm working on making it more reliable and fixing various bugs.

Another thing I made was a request from server owners, to add a Server Log system, which gives information like: when a player connects or logout, which faction was it playing, when a player dies from what circumstances, admins commands being used, etc. This also can be used to easily track “cheaters” on the server.

Anyway, performance is still a “WIP” for both client and server, sometimes those performance enhancements can take some time, but just be sure we didn't forget. Stay safe everyone. See you!


[h2]dmIV - Programmer[/h2]
Developing games for multiplayer is painful. A particularly annoying part is synchronizing movement across clients because you are only allowed to use a very minimal amount of data. In the past I added some magic to make better use of it but looking at all the upcoming mechanics there was a need to further decrease our limitations. I refactored one more part of the movement replication logic that now gives us more freedom when dealing with different movement modes. As a side effect at one point we had AI dinosaurs running around at ridiculously high speeds but they are back to normal now.

New dinosaurs are always fun to work with and I especially like the annoying little critters like the Hypsilophodon. First I worked on its spit ability that went through a few different iterations. At the time of writing we’re testing both a trace and a projectile based solution that blinds you if it hits you in the head. We are considering different things to see what works best for gameplay and balance.

Another interesting mechanic is a chargeable jump. Holding the space bar for an extended time allows you to jump higher to reach better spots or lose your pursuers. It consumes a significant portion of your stamina but that amount regenerates quickly after landing. This was added to prevent using it too frequently without making the Hypsi lose too much stamina. Charging the jump is visualized by the tail sticking up in the air, using an animation that I posed myself. No one is particularly amused by it, but I’m proud of my artistic addition to the game.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

I also worked on the Carnotaurus charge ability and the knockdown mechanic. I’m mentioning those separately because the knockdown itself is reusable as well. You will see it on the Tenonto’s secondary attack and potentially new dinos’ abilities as well. The charge is still missing some of the functionality, but here’s a preview for what to expect:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Additionally I worked on the basics of the stego’s tail attack. I had to make some changes to our existing directional attack ability logic to support some of its unique characteristics, but most of it is using the framework that was already in place.

Other than the exciting stuff I also made some in-engine image generators that we can use to create silhouette images for the UI using the actual meshes and animations.




[h2]amar0k - Programmer[/h2]

Hey! So some of you may have caught the recent streams where i have been working on UI elements and adding some additional functionality to the server browser such as Queueing to join a full server. Although this is not quite needed just yet … in the future it will be important. Along with that i have added the ability for server owners to add a discord link so potential players can join the discord first to learn the rules etc.

I have also added some additional information that is shown to you when you click a server in the browser. Such as Server uptime (This will be converted to the Day number when Day/Night cycle is added along with the Time Of Day) and your character stats on the server if you have 1. Example below.



You can also filter by favourites and your history, I have also added sorting buttons at the top of the browser so you can sort servers Alphabetically by Name, Count of Players or Ping.

I have also been working on adding more functionality to grouping such as the ability to Kick/Promote members and added an online indicator (Green face)



Obviously the UI is not final and will be changed.

I have also been working on a Player Ban system which is mostly complete now this allows server admins to manage bans entirely from outside the game but also in-game.



Another thing that I added is an API for server information that will be useful when modding is implemented. Details on this will be revealed at a later date.

I am also beginning to focus on AI again. I will be looking into improving AI for Utah, Tenoto and Dryo over the next few weeks. The main focus for me will be movement during combat and fleeing along with everyone's favourite AI fish.

Finally I have been working on fixing legacy and removing exploits that have been publicized lately. Currently we are waiting for a 3rd party to get back to us and it's just a matter of hurry up and wait before we can push any updates.


[h2]Gabriel - VisualTech48 - 3D Environmental artist[/h2]

This months been a bit crazy with the *REDACTED* especially with the a lot of variants to the modular kit, which needed more refinement and a lot more models to support the new *REDACTED* which features a lot of cool and modular inclined shapes, huge constructions like the mentioned garage, a large helipad, and the glorious *REDACTED* HQ of a sorts.

Far from that, the whole progress so far all is going according to plan, alongside a few small models (props), and a few big ones (dressings), which will be semi animated, for the *REDACTED* to interact with, and possible use in the near future.

This alongside the new Trim Mesh Decals, and a lot of new implemented textures which will be soon used in more detail, and the whole new fencing kit, which you’ve might've seen in its previous glory have been updated to be fully and properly implemented in the game, alongside a lot of variants from new, to damaged, will slowly and hopefully be bringing new life into the *REDACTED* life, and game overall.

Of course I’m not leaving you with nothing so here are a few images of the currents month work:




















[h2]Jacob Baardse - 3D artist[/h2]

Continuing to work on the series of redesigns and touch ups, we decided to upgrade the old Giganotosaurus, a dinosaur that certainly needs to look good. Compared to recent works, there isn’t a ton of juicy workflow stuff to go over here so this wasn’t nearly as technically involved as the Theri. It’s a pretty straightforward sculpt and retopology, but who doesn’t like a big toothy carnivore?

Hopefully the new design lives up to the prestige, but I’ll let the renders speak for themselves!






[h2]Closing Remarks[/h2]
That wraps it up for this DevBlog folks! It's certainly been a busy month and we look forward to seeing you all next time. Be sure to check out the additions to the Public Roadmap using the Trello link below!

Roadmap: https://trello.com/b/G5tsb4XI/public-roadmap

Hello Replicants,

We understand your concern on our silence in regards to the current ongoing hacking issue that has plagued the live legacy branch. We want to thank you for your patience, as it was entirely necessary to stay tight-lipped while we gathered as much information as possible before moving forward with a plan of action. Acknowledging it the moment it cropped up as opposed to now was that instead of banning one or two perpetrators, we have allowed numerous individuals and entire communities to step forward and expose their absolute disregard for the community at large.

We understand that for our honest players, there is an undeniable frustration that will come to pass while we endure the activities during the pursuit of a resolution. These individuals and communities that have been identified are now on a limited lifespan in the Isle as a whole. The development team is taking its time to ensure that we do not miss a single entity and permanently expunge their presence, along with that of their servers, services, and those that assisted them. This also includes the communal leadership that suggests former development staff have given them tools which made these exploits possible in the first place.

[h2]Changelog 0.5.19.28[/h2]

Additions

• Added a minimal time for mud mask, per species (default 90s).
  
• Added server name to the character profile location panel.
  

Enhancements

• Corrected Dryosaurus scale (thus increasing its speed).
  
• Smoothed the remaining crevices on Spiro.
  
• Removed prompt when getting up from resting quickly.
  
• Added some more effects and sounds for the Tenontosaurus animations.
  
• Increased pounce height.
  
• Increased how quickly characters become muddy.
  
• Client performance improvements to decals to avoid memory leak and overtime frame drops.
  

Balance

• Adjusted Dryosaurus and Utahraptor hunger time depletion.
  

Bug fixes

• Fixed plants not respawning after being eaten.
  
• Fixed Faction List being closed by escape.
  
• Fixed a bug where drinking increased hunger instead.
  
• Fixed Wallow animation issue when getting up.
  
• Fixed Dryosaurus AI not fleeing when seeing a Utahraptor player.
  
• Fixed AmbZone not starting properly.
  
• Fixed Vocals not being interrupted in certain situations.
  
• Fixed pickup when 2 players pick the same actor.
  
• Fixed scent issues with edible plants.
  
• Fixed Wallow being ended too soon.
  
• Fixed Generic vocal not working properly when dragging or carrying a corpse.
  
• Fixed Pouncing not cancelling generic vocal.
  
• Fixed juvenile Utahraptor rest to stand montage blend times.
  
• Fixed camera distance changing unevenly during growth.
  
• Fixed being able to cancel Utahraptor alternate bite with corpse grab.
  
• Fixed some issues with Pounce replication.
  
• Fixed juvenile Utahraptor eating animation not looping properly.
  
• Fixed Trillium plant being too small on spawn.
  
• Fixed edible plants spawning in rivers.
  
• Fixed mud not fading out if it was already fading out.
  
• Fixed jittering when attempting to pounce as a juvenile Utahraptor.
  
• Fixed an issue where masktime could be below 0.
  
• Fixed movement lock caused by opening a menu at the same time as wallowing.
  
• Fixed issue with name tags not updating when a player leaves a group.
  
• Fixed issue with name tags showing for everyone sometimes.
  
• Fixed a crash if the player scented a depleted plant.
  
• Fixed being able to briefly activate the Tenontosaurus LMB attack after doing a 180 LMB attack.
  
• Changed netcull distance back to 50k.
  

Known Issues
List of our high priority issues. Report additional bugs here: https://forms.gle/ufXDnxNfhRhZ7CCi8

• Relogging prevents the player from seeing their group members in the group panel. They will, however, still see their name tags.
  
• Name tags will remain above group member's corpses. This can lead to duplicate name tags if the group member respawns.
  
• Server bans are still a WIP.
  
• AI will sometimes swim facing the wrong direction.
  
• AI can sometimes spawn above trees. They do not have fall damage as a countermeasure for now.