The Sapling News

This is the first video of a new series, showcasing simulation videogame The Sapling, where we follow one planet for a longer time. We study all the ecosystems that all evolve, and how they change over time.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Added cheats[/h2]
* Shift+C activates cheat modus; the current cheat command string will be shown near the bottom of the screen
* The cheat 'continuous' makes the game run in the background (not officially supported)
* The cheat 'hideui' hides the UI
* The cheat 'showui' shows it again
* The cheat 'slowcam' slows down the camera speed

[h2]Species and family views[/h2]
* You can now sort all species by name
* In the family tree, when there are more than 6 children, it shows the 6 most populous ones (instead of the 6 ones that emerged earliest)
* The page indicator below the species list view now shows numbers instead of dots (more convenient for larger/older worlds)
* When leaving the family tree and entering the species list, it automatically browses to the page of the species you were looking at in the family tree
* When looking at the species list while the camera is low to the ground, it will no longer highlight organisms in the background

[h2]Visualization fixes[/h2]
* Manually created animals now always look exactly as the player designed them (optimization has been turned off for this use case)
* Decreased the chances of showing a non-walking animal as a substitute for a walking animal on land for performance reasons (optimization has been turned off for this use case)
* The 'locate a random organism of this species' (looking glass) button now also works for species with low population sizes
* Fixed problem where combs could glow white as if luminescent
* Manually placed algae now grow at exactly the location where you drop them

[h2]Simulation changes[/h2]
* Made the check to prevent animals reproducing in crowded areas stricter
* Color is now also taken into account when classifying algae into species
* Increased the chance of meaningful seasonal adaptions for plants
* Prevented seasonal adaptations to 'cross' each other (maximum temperature lower than minimun temperature)

[h2]Saving/loading fixes[/h2]
* Saving and then loading a game in a warmer or cooler season no longer changes the base temperature of an area
* Same fix for wind strength and shallow ground water
* Star light (allowed alga and plant colors) is now set correctly after loading a save game

[h2]Season fixes[/h2]
* The game no longer crashes when you delete the current season
* The game no longer restarts at the year 0 when you change a season before going into an editor

Large:
* Algae near the shore can now evolve into plants
* Aquatic animals are now also restricted by ocean current speed, making huge population boosts less likely, and giving them reason to evolve
* Fixed a bug preventing aquatic animals from evolving into air breathing animals
* Completely overhauled how animal positions are tracked, making time jumps with a lot of animals much faster

Small:
* Fixed disappearing alga models problem
* Optimization: disabled animations for invisible algae in a few more situations, increasing framerates for large underwater worlds
* Backfins and tailfins can now evolve separately from side fins, taking their own evolutionary path
* Optimization: removed unneccessary checks for swimming aquatic animals, increasing framerates for large underwater worlds
* The algorithm that decides which animal models are built now prioritizes common species, which is both faster and gives a much better display of the variety
* Avoid reproducing in crowded areas (which would make them even more crowded)
* Fixed a simulation bug where children of existing species did not do damage to plants and algae when eating them (that is, they had an infinite food source)
* Fixed glitches related to instincts 'go away from x' near the edge of the map
* Fixed glitches related to algae being eaten even before than can grow
* Fixed a simulation bug causing underwater nests
* The species list view now remembers which filters were (de)activated
* Ocean current speed is now determined by distance from the shore, not wind speed, to make it more gradual and reliable
* Made the game write some more information to the log file, in the hope of catching another 'impossible animal'

Large:
* Redesigned the view to load savegames; now with filter buttons and more information per save file
* When failing a scenario, it now includes options to go back to 3 checkpoints (instead of always starting over from zero)
* For all objectives, there is now a progress bar so you get more feedback on whether you are going to succeed

Small:
* Manual edits to the soil stats are now also stored in the savefile
* Redesigned the objective view; now all information is one page (no tabs anymore)
* The game now displays skin type statistics when hovering skin type buttons
* When changing the global temperature in the sandbox, the soil colors are now updated immediately
* When loading a sandbox world, any changes to the global temperature are applied only once (instead of twice)
* When choosing a smaller map size, the temperatures will become less extreme (can be restored manually)
* Fixed the 'white world' bug that appeared when using seasons in the sandbox
* Polished the UV of the creature scenario, so maps projected onto the terrain (for example indicating where your creations will survive) more accurately depict the simulation
* Fixed a bug where algae could be placed over the edge of the map
* After a timejump, a message is shown 'rebuilding organism models, this may take a while...' instead of everything just freezing
* Added a new death cause: seeds fell in water (although it only shows up rarely)

Various camera improvements:
* When using the WASD/arrow keys, you can no longer fly into the terrain; the camera will automatically go up to stay 'above land'
* When you stop moving the camera, the focus point will reset to the terrain in the center of the screen. This prevents unexpected camera behavior in mountainous areas.
* If you lose control of the camera when tabbing out of the game, you can now 'get it back' by simply using WASD/arrow keys again
* Fixed a problem where the camera would go wild when zooming directly after coming out of an editor

Various bulldozer button improvements:
* The area cleared now perfectly matches the size of the circle, independent of map size
* Plant seeds that were about to hatch are now also removed
* A small 'falling rocks' particle effect and sound are now played with each usage, making it much more fun to use
* The bulldozer mode now is automatically turned off when using another part of the UI, preventing weird interactions

Notice: this patch introduces a new savefile format (sav7). While the old format (sav6) does still work, there should be far fewer problems with games started AFTER this patch is installed.

Large:
* Added a ´randomize all´ button to the planet editor
* Made it possible to have nests with the intermediate stage eggs
* Added smaller map sizes to the planet editor, for less powerful PCs
* Added option to locate a random living example of a species in the species list

Small:
* It now also gets dark under water at night
* The underwater sunrays now fade out at night and fade in again in the morning
* Moved planet editor UI into separate tabs, to create some more space
* In the planet editor, made slider handles follow the mouse cursor better
* Redesigned random mutation chance view
* At the side of the map, you can no longer see the air color when under water
* The camera and sound now correctly switch to 'underwater mode' when following an animal
* Fixed the sharp edges in the soil color (caused by water having less extreme temperatures)
* Fixed the hatch animation for eggs with a hard shell
* Plants can no longer evolve negative sizes
* Fixed the ready button overlapping other UI features when selecting a nest