Nature And Life - Drunk On Nectar News

Please try Act 2 again if you were having any difficulty completing it at all :) This patch rebalances the game and adds critical bugfixes for camera, controls, gameplay and many more.

If you haven't played this update yet, please look at the image below to view an example of the stunning procedurally generated vistas Act 2 can offer for you. Each playthrough generates a new procedural map!

Roots Above, Branches Below, Nature.

Ballooning is a phenomenon that gained widespread mainstream attention in recent years after millions of spiders were found flying above Australia :)

Before we take a closer look at the patch itself, I want to highlight an AI change that makes co-ballooning encounters far more likely! This is still entirely subject to chance, but chances are good that most players will find at least a few siblings ballooning with them ;)



Balancing:

• Predator cooldown increased giving you a better chance of reaching your silk nest for safety.
  
• Player grappling strength increased
  
• Stamina drain rate for players decreased
  
• Anatomy Combat hit absorption reduced for players
  
• Quest predators now give up after 3 attempts now to avoid tiring out players. This does not affect simulation-driven (regular) predators.
  
• Quest predators now give up tracking much sooner instead of persistently hovering about the player.
  
• Quest Tiger Beetles no longer return back after the player has formally completed the relevant quest. This was causing unplanned encounters of potentially high difficulty.
  
• Cinematic predators in "Pollinator Hunt" quest are now forced to leave the scene after their cine sequence is over; this eliminates random, unplanned encounters with players
  
• Ballooning quest now allows you to walk all the way and still win.
  
• Intro Ballooning sequence now allows you to manually stop (via spacebar) after 60 seconds (if the game was not able to find a suitable landing place for you on its own)
  

"Ladder Climbing" - New Camera Controls for Plant Stalks!

• You can now climb plants just like you'd climb a ladder in any other game! Just press Up to climb up the stalk and Down to climb down. Look freely around with the camera while you do this!
  
• Camera transition from Stalk to Leaf is finally seamless! No more camera headaches on plant stalks hopefully :)
  
• Plant Stalk hitbox massively improved!
  
• ^ 1 mm accuray: Now even a 3rd instar can believably place its feet (claws/tarsi) on the stalk surface. Truly a micro-world experience at last!
  
• ^ Movement/collision annoyances on plant stalks are all completely fixed!
  

New Features:

• Co-Ballooning (see above)
  
• Zoom reset (MMB) now uses smooth transition for cinematic effect
  

Bugfixes:

• Floating in mid-air after escaping from a Dragonfly now fixed! This was a pretty old bug in the game that had been tricky to track. Now finally fixed! :)
  
• Snatching fallen prey no longer teleports you back to the prey's last location
  
• Sleeping input next to a prey no longer causes you to snatch the prey before sleeping.\
  
• Some AI siblings no longer stay back permanently in the mother's nest
  
• "Pollinator Hunt" Quest - Final Dragonfly now leaves properly exits the map after its part is over instead of persistently lingering (this was a bug).
  
• Camera angle fixed for when a parasitic wasp lays an egg on you
  
• "Tackled tricky prey" text typo fixed for Pollinator Hunt quest XP gain
  

Other improvements: Anatomy Combat (Tiger Beetle confrontations)
AI intelligence significantly improved
AI navigatges and follows the player correctly now across stalks/leaves/etc
AI launching "heavy strike" correctly orients to face the player now before doing so
Combat poses (orientation towards combatant) improved for both players and AI. This significantly changes the way you need to fight compared to previous setup.
Player ZTargeting no longer behaves unpredictably if the AI moves rapidly between flora or if it moves under a leaf
Player close-range attack orientation corrected. Previously you'd be oriented the wrong way and end up missing a strike that you should have gained.

Misc
Chem trails reworked so they aren't super-bright for adults but are still clearly visible for lower instars
Brief stutter while leaving the egg sac now fixed. There is still a brief occassional stutter due to Autosave though (to be improved later)
Moss Pushing effect improved for smaller instars walking on moss; more improvements here are planned!

UI
Immersive mode (H key) is now more reliable; Hud elements no longer randomly turn on in some cases.
Silk Tent Construction UI improved
UI simplification: Pollen grain interaction cues are only shown the 1st time now. Similar changes to reduce UI clutter will follow.



While this patch focused on gameplay, the next patch will focus on visual improvements. I'm keenly aware of certain inadequacies in Act 2's visual representation. Many liberties were taken to get the release out last month but now that the gameplay is hopefully stable (Please do shout if it is not! :)), visual flaws will be gradually addressed, both for Act 2 as well as for the entire game.

Animations will be an important focus point along with things like preventing clipping of characters across each other, etc.


A multi-part video walkthrough of Act 2's 4-6 hour long journey will be uploaded soon!

If you have a youtube channel please consider recording an Act 2 video of your own as well! For the amusement of others and for spreading the word about Act 2! :)

That's it for this patch, more goodies are on the way as always.

With ❤,
Venugopalan Sreedharan

~ ~⚘~⚘~⚘~ ☀ ~⚘~⚘~⚘~ ~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AO38wsPk8k
Celebrating the release of "Lifecycles Act 2" here is the official release video along with a brand new OST aptly entitled "The Song Of Lifecycles Act 2"!

Condensing 4-6 hours of unique gameplay into 6 minutes as a musical arrangement, be sure to watch the entire trailer above! :)


Act 2's release resulted in a 300% increase in peak players for DoN while also boosting its average play duration on Steam and bringing a 16% increase in reviews post release. All this has brought in a new generation of players for the game with more continuing to arrive! :)


For this final quarter of 2018, the game's roadmap is still being worked out. With Act 2's release finally achieved the roadmap is actually quite flexible at this point and will be revealed in the coming weeks!


For the next 2-3 weeks the game will go through a bugfix, cleanup and polishing phase. Some compromises were intentionally made (mainly to visuals) in a bid to get Act 2 out last month and these shortcomings will first be addressed before moving on to new content.

If there's any class of bugs or issues you're particularly interested in seeing fixed do report it now, because this bugfixing sprint is an ideal time to get such issues fixed.

~

Lots of interesting directions for the game to go in from here. Stay tuned for more on that! :)

With ❤,
Venugopalan Sreedharan

Various improvements have been made to Lifecycles Act 2, here's a summary!

But before that...


Act 2's release increased the game's peak number of simultaneous players by nearly 300% to the previous month! An enormous amount of feedback mail has been pouring in as well.With more milestone releases like Act 3 around the corner, this is certainly a future trend for the game!

On to Patch 1:

• Auto Saving
  We've all been there; forgetting to save just at that crucial moment when you really needed to! Now the game has your back with an Auto Save feature that periodically saves your progress.
  
  "Continue" menus has been added as well for easily resuming your game. If you are undone by a predator the game now presents you with a continue menu so you can quickly jump back.
  

After studying the massive amount of community feedback that has been brewing over the past week a number of bugfixes has been made to the game:

• Ballooning now works consistently on flowers (even after saving & loading)
  
• Blue Mud Dauber stamina recharge issue fixed
  
• Blue Mud Dauber spider nest provisioning logic fixed
  
• Grasshopper leg kick (Act 2's new feature!) now properly gives a quick reflex warning before you (as a spider) are about to get crushed
  
• Grasshopper leg kick htitbox tweaked
  
• Nocturnal Wasp attack during silk tent construction's final stage no longer causes a crash :)
  (thanks to community member Dinoman for providing a very clear description of this bug so I was able to reproduce it!)
  

• "Rushdown" hunting mechanics made much smoother and more consistent; a lot more fun now! :)
  
• Performance Friendly mode swarm supply rebalanced
  
• Grappling made easier on the default difficulty preset
  
• Swarm chem trails distance increased
  
• 4th instar quest logic fixed (no more details provided to prevent spoilers :))
  
• Players now enjoy increased predator cooldown time after escaping from an AI predator (psst... use this to flee to your silk nest for safety!)
  
• ...and that cooldown is increased even more so for nocturnal snatches (mostly by the wasps).
  
• Dart input tap interval decreased to prevent interference with Sprinting based on reports by a player.
  

More improvements are on the way! Please let me know if you face issues of any kind at all :)



With ❤,
Venugopalan Sreedharan

The Lifecycles party has begun!

With 4-6 hours of new content and absolutely unique gameplay never seen or done in any game before, Drunk On Nectar's biggest Steam update is here at last!




With unprecedented features such as
1) Prey and Predator Lifecycles running simultaneously,
2) Massively Populated Swarms of thousands upon thousands strong and a
3) Plethora of Hunting Skills and techniques for you to master,

Lifecycles Act 2 is Drunk On Nectar's most technically impressive and gameplay rich experience:




Act 2 is very long for a single playthrough, so Youtubers are recommended to record multiple parts; each life stage take around 20-30 minutes to complete with a total of 9 such instars.

With over 10 million views on Youtube there's never been a better time to join Drunk On Nectar's growth story, so keep those videos coming! :)



With carefully balanced Simulation, Sandbox and Unique Quests, Lifecycles Act 2 provides hours of fun and addictive gameplay in perhaps some of the most colorful backdrops you will have seen yet.




Auto-save feature is only coming next week so until then please save frequently! There are many obstacles you'll need to overcome in Act 2 so make good use of saved games; you can also Quick save (F7) and Quick Load (F9)


There are various known issues that need to be sorted out and will take around a week or so to fully resolve.

Notable issues:
1) Ballooning on some flowers doesn't work in the later parts of the game.
2) Gamepad controls for climbing on plant stalk need reworking
3) Blue Mud Dauber player stamina stops recharging at a certain point

Pending:
1) Auto-Save feature is coming next week (you can Save/Load manually as always)
2) Linux build is coming next week.

As a single developer it's been rather challenging to QA this giant release single-handedly so kindly allow for 1-2 weeks for stability to be attained :)

In the meantime, please report any issues you face and they will be looked into immediately :)


Thanks to all of you for waiting so patiently for Act 2 to emerge. Over the coming weeks of bugfixing, polishing and other improvements, I believe Act 2 will set the golden standard for DoN that the rest of the game will successfully follow in its unique depiction of nature and life.

With Much ❤,
Venugopalan Sreedharan
Developer of Drunk On Nectar - The Nature Simulator

Drunk On Nectar's biggest Steam update - Lifecycles Act 2 - The Great Outdoors, with 4-6 hours of new and exciting content, is releasing this weekend!

This Saturday, on 22nd September 2018, come experience life in an astonishing 0.1 mm living, breathing world, where you, as a tiny Jumping Spider among 25 others, must Survive, Grow and Conquer, The Great Outdoors.



With standout features such as Parallel Lifecycles (prey and predator growing together!), Massive Swarms (several thousands with lifecycles!), New Species Abilities and several other unique surprises, Act 2 provides several hours of unique and unprecedented gamplay that has never been seen or done in any other game before.
~~

If you're hungry to know more about Act 2, check out the article below!

https://www.indiedb.com/games/drunk-on-nectar/news/lifecycles-act-2-releasing-on-22nd-september-2018

Come, Join the fun this weekend! :D

With ❤,
Venugopalan Sreedharan