v0.97: Shorelines Update, New Animal Pass Season and Xbox Cross-play
We’re so excited to finally share this Major Update and welcome all of the new Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S players to the island with you, Super Animals! There's a lot to cover so we'll just get right into it.
[h3]v0.97 Highlights[/h3]
- Season 0.5 (our second Early Access season) starts now with the new Beach Party Pass.
- Xbox Game Preview is here (at 6am PDT), with cross-play matchmaking support for Steam and Xbox players to play together. Playstation, Nintendo Switch and Stadia versions arrive later this year alongside the launch of v1.0.
- Super Animal Accounts for cross-save support across platforms.
- Super Turtle joins the fight (+ 4 additional Super Turtle breeds).
- Map update: the size of the island has grown, with all-new shorelines all the way around, featuring regionally styled buildings, shallow water, crabs and Giant Giant Clams that contain loot.
To kick it all off, we have a brand new episode of our animated series, Super Animal Royale Tonight, that highlights the top community clips from the previous season, submitted by you, in addition to expanding the world and storytelling of the game (including a preview of the new shorelines that you'll be able to explore in-game).
[h2]New Episode of Super Animal Royale Tonight[/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Tune in to see which players had the superest kills and scooperest bloopers of Season 0, and pick up where we last left the cast, with Joe captured by the rebels and Donk and Howl considering the ransom of 10,011 S.A.W. Tickets. If you want to catch up on previous episodes of the animated series you can find the YouTube season playlists here:
- Season 2
- Season 1 recap (if you want to just jump straight into Season 2 without watching Season 1)
- Season 1
[h2]Beach Party Pass (Season 0.5)[/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
The second Early Access season has arrived, with another 49 tiers to complete, for the same 550 S.A.W. Ticket price of the previous pass. The 28 new cosmetic items are a mixture of beach-themed wear to match the shorelines update and items featured in the musical trailer embedded above, so that you and your bravest super friends can reenact moments from "The Incident" at the Super Animal Super Stage (scratch that, terrible idea).
We'll let you explore the whole pass in detail yourselves in-game, but some of the highlights include the Vaporwave M16 with custom firing sound effect, point emote, and clarinet, fishing rod and marching cane melee weapons that each have their own custom equip sound. In addition to cosmetic items, the pass also contains Carl Coins, Super Serum, and S.A.W. Tickets.
The Season 0 Animal Pass has now been replaced by the Season 0.5 pass, but it won't be gone for good, so don't worry if you weren't quite done! We're working on designing and implementing a new archive system for Animal Passes that will allow you to re-enable and purchase previous passes so that you can complete them at your own pace. We plan to debut the new system in our v1.0 update later this year alongside the Season 1 pass!
Cross-platform note: the Animal Pass and its progress sync between platforms, but S.A.W. Tickets are platform-specific, so any S.A.W. Tickets earned in the pass will be granted to the platform you're playing on at the time of the reward. The same is true of purchased S.A.W. Tickets, which will only be redeemable on the platform you purchased them on.
[h2]Super Animal Accounts & Cross-Save[/h2]
Upon updating, you'll be greeted by a create account / login screen so that you can claim your Steam save data to a Super Animal Account. If you've played before on Steam, you'll want to create a new account to associate that existing save data with it (don't create the account on Xbox if you have existing PC save data that you want attached to your account). Once you've set an email and password, your save data will be associated with it so that you can log in with the same Super Animal Account on Xbox and have your progress sync!
If you don't ever plan on playing on other platforms you can skip account creation/login! Just keep in mind that if you ever change your mind and do play on other platforms in the future, we don't support account merging, so only one platform's save progress can be associated with a Super Animal Account.
[h2]Super Turtles[/h2]
The S.A.W. Scientists have made a major breakthrough and are pleased to introduce the first cold-blooded Super Animals in the Research Lab, Super Turtles! They can be unlocked starting at level 60, and include the following breeds:
- Super Turtle
- Super Aqua Turtle
- Super Loggerhead Turtle
- Super Slider Turtle
- Super Tortoise
We also have some new cosmetic items that pair perfectly with the Super Turtles that you can look forward to in an upcoming giveaway! Join our Discord or watch our Twitter, Facebook or Subreddit to catch those when they drop.
[h2]Super Shorelines Map Update[/h2]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
The island's shorelines have been completely re-done with new assets and better looting opportunities:
- Map size has increased from 4248x4248 to 4608x4608 (+17.6% total area) with a combination of increased island size and added deep water so that the island doesn't get quite so close to touching the edges of the map.
- Shorelines have been rebuilt and expanded out, with shallow water that you can wade into (at the cost of speed) before hitting the deep ocean.
- New region-specific structures have been added along the updated beaches including huts, bungalows, a lifeguard station and more.
- The biggest changes were made in the south, east and western shores, but additional expansions were also made along the northern snow cliffs, including new crossable bridges.
- The river mouth outside of Superite Mountain is now surrounded by cliffs and has two crossable bridges.
- Interior inlets/rivers have also been updated, in addition to some areas near to shorelines.
- Eagle flight speed has been increased along with the map size change.
- The first few gas circles have been tweaked to match the new map size.
[h3]Shoreline mechanics:[/h3]
- Shallow water slows movement by 31%, unless in a Hamsterball or Emu, in which case it only slows by 11%.
- Animated crabs have joined the beach party and can be found along portions of the new shorelines. They also have a new secret milestone associated with them.
- You can also find and open Giant Giant Clams in shallow water that provide ammo, Super Tape, grenades, or Skunk Bombs.
- Keep in mind that creep-walking on shallow water will still make splash sounds, so you won't be as sneaky as on land if you're making a water-based approach.
[h2]Gameplay Adjustments & Bug Fixes[/h2]
- Emotes that support movement are now limited to 20.0 movement speed, and weapon speed no longer affects them.
- It's no longer possible to use creep-zoom while emoting, healing, or taping (you can only use it while your sniper-class gun is actively equipped).
- The second to last gas circle's warning timer has been adjusted from 15s to 18s to provide a bit more breathing room for intense final fights.
- Fixed some environmental z-order issues near the top of the map.
- Translation fixes.
We also have some new bundles coming to the S.A.W. Shop, with brand new items debuting in them. The Sailor Bundle will arrive when the S.A.W. Shop rotates this Thursday, June 3rd at 6pm PDT!
