Beasts of Bermuda News

+Added the Magma Shimmer Saichania skin for event participants!
-@EchoAlien // #PalaeophisParty will be reporting on our discord to show the best videos of the event!

[h2]Forest Island[/h2]
+Set the Forest Island carcass settings to be identical to that of Rival Shores

[h2]Optimization[/h2]
+Reworked how foliage collision and eating is handled
-The lag spike associated with eating woody plants is now gone (major optimization)
+Reworked how woody plant stumps spawn
-They should be more efficient and no longer require network replication at all
-There is no longer a delay between the despawning of the tree and the spawning of the stump when net latency is considered
-This should also remove any more instances of these trees killing players due to poor physics behavior
+Optimization: Removed player name strings from pawn unique ID data structure
-Should result in data structures involving these being significantly lighter / better server performance

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]
+Fixed: Apatosaurus no longer deals excessive knockback
+Fixed: Foliage respawning should now work properly if only one plant has been eaten on the map
+Fixed: Certain talent point inherits (including weather resistance) were not working properly
+Fixed: Players should no longer be able to die by fall damage when released by a grab
+Fixed: Animation issue where you could get stuck on the eat-end animation on Megalosaurus
+Fixed: Dropped foliage bundles should no longer allow a player to infinitely eat from it, and should no longer entirely despawn under certain circumstances
+Fixed: The masks for megalos mouth and added a black area on the dirtmask on the back of the throat so that the back of megalos throat is always dark
+Fixed: Eggs no longer accumulate negative friendship grades with their parents or other nearby creatures
+Fixed: Elasmosaurus head now tracks to fish when it tries to eat them with LMB
+Fixed: Elasmosaurus can now properly target and eat sponges, crystals, and flowers by using LMB
+Fixed: On Rival Shores, palms should now be edible once again
+Fixed: Para now moves at the proper speed while in quadrupedal stance
+Fixed: Players no longer forcibly rotate to a horizontal orientation while swimming if they get hit by another player
+Fixed: Various holes and other issues on Rival Shores

[h3]Megalosaurus Rework[/h3]
-Megalosaurus has been completely redone. It has a new model sculpt, and new textures.
-Megalosaurus also has an entirely new set of animations
-Megalosaurus eyes blink, close while sleeping, and look at you under certain gameplay conditions
-Megalosaurus lost most skins, and now has Spiny Tailed, Canyon and Glimmer, along with a new skin, Drake, made by Twilightwolf

[h3]Russian Localization[/h3]
Our game now officially offers Russian localization, and it has been entirely translated with the
help of several members of our community.

Specifically, we'd really like to thank
@Tserra (translated 948 terms),
@Lynx_catgirl (translated 507 terms),
@Geeky (translated 194 terms),
@Makkowey Tapkin (translated our Steam homepage), and
@Shagaru Magala#7297 (translated 39 terms),
For translating our game into Russian!

[h3]German Localization[/h3]
Our game now also officially supports German localization, and it has been entirely translated with
help from people we'd also really like to thank:
@TripTrap // #OryctoOrder (translated 843 terms),
@Howdn (translated 209 terms),
@ManniSpielt (translated 168 terms),
@LillyWhiteapple (translated 146 terms),
Katja (translated 143 terms),
AKSK (translated 106 terms), and
Kene (translated 94 terms).

[h3]Rival Shores[/h3]
-Added a new, mountainous area, a desert, and an underground cave area to Rival Shores
-Rival Shores now has carcass spawn settings similar to that of Ancestral Plains
-Miscellaneous fixes for various areas on Rival Shores where players would get stuck
-Spawn points no longer, occasionally, place players under the terrain mesh
-The lighting on Rival Shores should now work properly in caves

[h3]Balance/Mechanics Changes[/h3]
Megalosaurus:
-Replaced the Megalosaurus talent Heavy with Strong Legs
-Increased Megalosaurus jump power to 450, up from 387

Apatosaurus:
-Reduced Apatosaurus food decay rate by 10%
-Reduced Apatosaurus water drain rate by 33%

Elasmosaurus:
-Elasmosaurus now has Sharp Teeth in place of Bruiser

Icthy:
-Replaced Ichthy's Bruiser talent with Sharp Teeth

Saichania:
-Saichania can now move while its Spiky Shield ability is active
-Replaced Saichania's Stoic talent with Clotting
-Saichania cannot activate Spiky Shield while sprinting, and cannot sprint while Spiky Shield is active
-Saichania's Spiky Shield ability now costs 40 ability power
-Replaced Saichania's Long Runner talent with Powerful Legs
-Replaced Saichania's Batter talent with Stoic
-Reduced Saichania's sprinting swim speed to 225, down from 300
-Reduced Saichania's regular swim speed to 150, down from 200
-Reduced Saichania's water drain rate by 20%
-Reduced Saichania's tail swing damage to 225, down from 280
-Reduced Saichania's growth rate by about 25%
-Reduced Saichania's grabbing range
-Added new Saichania sounds: Spiky Shield reflect sound and sniff sound

Para:
-Increased Parasaurolophus' growth rate by 6.67%, such that it now matches the speed of Lurdusaurus' growth

Acro:
-Reduced Acrocanthosaurus limp speed to 150, down from 250

General:
-Creatures that can jump now have a preparation animation and delay for when they jump.
-You can no longer die to lightning if your shelter is at 100% due to nearby party members being struck
-New: Camera now smoothly lowers itself when your creature is crouching, assuming it can crouch.
-Offspring should now have a much higher chance of picking up skin traits from both parents simultaneously, creating more interesting, blended skins and less copies of a parent
-Crouched creatures no longer highlight when smelt, revealing their build and location
-Being fat now reduces your turning rate.

[h3]Graphics / Visual[/h3]
-New Main Menu Screen was added to replace the current one - Set up a full scene populated with creatures and a waterfall.
-Improved Megalosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, and Acrocanthosaurus animation blending when starting movement
-Megalosaurus pupils now respond to the lighting on the map
-Added support to help preserve detail in the eyes of dinosaurs after they are recolored.
-Most creature sound effects now play from the mouth, rather from the center of the animal
-All Pteranodon flight animation play rates now change inversely with growth
-Scratched up Sai's spike normals

[h3]Optimization[/h3]
-Reworked held foilage bundles to not have slight frame drops or lag associated with collision updates any longer
-We will eventually be reworking our foliage-eating system such that it does not generate any frame drop or lag when woody plants are eaten as well
-Code associated with nesting, heredity, talents, and friendship have all been heavily refactored and optimized.
-This will improve server-side performance associated with handling the replication of data associated with these mechanics

[h3]Security, Console and Admin Commands[/h3]
-The SpawnEntity command now places the spawned creature at your location if the trace didn't hit anything
-Fixed: The AddGrowthTime command now properly defaults to your ID if none is provided with the command
-Fixed an issue where the player's CID would not show up properly on player tags
-The "AddGrowthTimeMinutes" console command now works on players who are not net-relevant to you, and defaults to your ID if none is provided
-Added a new console command, SetViewHitboxes, which requires use observer permissions. Allows seeing all character hitboxes
-Added protection to the game to stop people from speed hacking
-Fixed: The AddGrowthTime command now properly compensates for growth rates changing as you get larger
-The Lightning command now requires special 'Control Weather' access, rather than being doable by all players with admin rank
[h3]Other Bug Fixes[/h3]
-Fixed: Animals greater than 1.0 growth now properly animate at an appropriate rate while playing locomotion animations
-Fixed: Friendship messages now properly display
-Messages weren't displaying before, but this mechanic has always been active and it has not been changed otherwise
-Fixed: Injury damage no longer, on occasion, fails to register or immediately clears itself
-Fixed: The Friendship Grade text no longer spills into the adjacent widget on the player list when it is grade XXXXX
-Fixed: Pressing Escape while the color wheel widget has focus no longer causes it to disappear
-Fixed: Mosasaurus no longer state jams if LMB and RMB are spammed during grabbing and thrashing
-Fixed: Server crash related to group functionality that would seemingly occur randomly
-Fixed: Elasmosaurus no longer has an extreme frame drop when pressing the ability key around foliage
-Fixed: The Elasmosaurus no longer gets stuck playing the eat sound after pressing the ability key
-Fixed: Dart now deals damage as it should while the player is actively traveling through the water
-Fixed: Unpossessed character such as eggs can now be grabbed
-Fixed: Being grabbed and set down while laying or sitting no longer results in you being unable to lay or sit again
-Fixed: Being hit by knockback while transitioning between sitting, laying, and standing no longer results in a state jam
-Fixed: Mosa grab range calculation bug that was blocking legitimate grabs that were at the longest distances the mosa could grab from
-Fixed: Elasmosaurus can now eat and carry foliage (such as crystals, comfort flowers, and sponges) properly
-Fixed: Talent inherits now display their in-game name, as opposed to their Enumeration name
-Fixed: Carcasses should now spawn reliably in caves
-Fixed: The Apatosaurus talent that increases backing up speed now works properly
-Fixed: Clients should no longer be able to join servers that are full
-Fixed: Velo's crouch speed is no longer faster than its walk speed, and its crouch animation now plays at the proper rate
-Fixed: A crash in the foliage controller client-side upon joining a server
-Fixed: Crouching now hides the portion of your crouch trail done while crouching, rather than the entire trail
-Fixed: Creatures without true crouches (Saichania, Parasaurolophus, and Apatosaurus) now leave scent trails while 'crouching'
-Fixed: Saichania can now easily interact with water bodies to drink
-Fixed: Animation blending issues that resulted in the Saichania's tongue poking through its beak
-Fixed: The Dino Selection screen should no longer, occasionally, get stuck and disallow selection of a creature
-Fixed: The underwater effects now reliably activate while on the marine dino selection screen, while spawning in as an aquatic creature, or while logging in while underwater
-Fixed: Apatosaurus backup speed now behaves properly
-Fixed: Skins generated from nesting no longer appear weird, or abnormally white or off in general.
-For now "bug" skins such as void have been made a lot rarer.

Today's Deal: Save 30% on Beasts of Bermuda!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends Tuesday at 10AM Pacific Time

Happy New Year to everyone! To kick off the New Year, we would like to announce our Saichania Magma Shimmer Skin (made by Soals, concept by DJZ) Event! This is a special Shimmer skin, much like the Pteranodon Phantom Shimmer skin we gave out last Summer.

We are hosting a similar event, except the reward for participation in this event will be access to the Saichania Magma Shimmer Skin!

In order to receive this skin, between now and the end of January 31st, participants in the event must make a video and post it on YouTube. The video must contain our Saichania in some aspect of the video, and must meet the following requirements:

-The video must show decent effort. (Just raw footage or changing between just a few recordings of raw footage is not enough by itself.)
-The video must be a minimum of 30 seconds.

Top end recording and editing software is not required for entry, but make sure to put in your best efforts!

Our favorite videos will also be posted in our #announcements channel in the discord after the event has ended and judging has taken place.

[h2]How to Submit Entries[/h2]
Please submit any event videos to @BoB QA Team on our discord, along with your name, Steam ID, and the names and Steam IDs of any people who helped you create the video, or who participated in the filming of the video. Up to 10 participants may receive the skin per video entry!

Also, please note, we will have to deploy a patch after the 31st to deploy the skin reward. Depending on the status of our tester branch, this may or may not be immediate. Be patient!



Our Discord Link:
https://discord.gg/ByGYHVM

+Added Saichania as a playable creature
-The Saichania can activate its ability, Spiky Shield, which reflects a large fraction of incoming damage if hit while the ability is active
-This ability takes considerable ability power
-Only Regular, Bleed, Stamina, and Ability damage is reflected by Saichania's counter mechanic
-The Saichania is immune to injury damage
-The Saichania is slow, has a lot of health, and hits hard
-The Saichania can swing its tail left with LMB, and right with RMB

[h2]New Skins[/h2]
+Added Default (by Manuelsaurus) and Ignition Saichania (by Rook)
+Replaced Matrix Acro w/ Monarch Acro by Rook & Vendi

[h2]New Console Commands + HUD Option[/h2]
+Added new console command, AddGrowthTimeMinutes, that adds a time-based growth value to a character
-Added several debug prints to the player list population code
+Added a graphical option, Colorblind HUD, that makes the colors for shelter, food satiation, and food poisoning easier to distinguish on the HUD

[h2]Balance/Mechanics Changes[/h2]
Apatosaurus
+Increased Apatosaurus food drain rate by 50%
+Increased Apatosaurus water drain rate by 100%

[h3]Pachycephalosaurus[/h3]
+Pachy can now crouch
+Increased Pachycephalosaurus eating hitbox size

[h2]Global[/h2]
+You now remain tilted on terrain regardless of whether or not you're moving
-Due to issues with it, only certain animals such as Saichania keep their tilt angle while standing still on slopes
+Reduced baseline food value of fish by 33%, but kept the food value of fish with 3/3 scavenger constant
+Crouching now allows you to not release a scent
+Crouched creatures now do not show their scent trail entirely

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]
+Acros mouth should now be recolorable on all skins
+Trex spines should now be recolorable on all skins
+Fixed: The Acrocanthosaurus now plays both footstep sounds while walking in clockwise circles
+Fixed: Acro now animates properly if you stop eating a caracass and immediately begin moving
+Fixed: Carcasses not spawning when player dies in water
+Fixed: You can no longer receive knockback damage while grabbed, resulting in flying off after being placed down
+Fixed: You can now possess eggs that belong to you. A special prompt will now show, which requires no confirmation from either parent
+Fixed: Aquatics should now reliably be able to mate after being nested in
+Fixed: You should now be able to lay eggs in a nest created by your male child if the two of you have mated
+Fixed: Players can only invite other players to their group by using the chat command if they have the appropriate rank to do so
+Fixed: Players can no longer invite eggs to their group while playing as an egg, ultimately resulting in species that are not supposed to group with one-another being grouped
+Fixed: Banking angles now behave properly for all animals (including Saichania / pivoting) on non-owning clients
+Fixed: Tyrannosaurus can no longer bite excessively far by looking up and down biting
+Fixed: Aquatics no longer consume Air while holding the sprint key if they are stationary
+Fixed: Acro limp now locomotes properly



(Cover Image provided by Wizzie S. Banner by StarGaze)