The Sapling News

• Fixed aquatic animal babies being stuck in the ground (thanks Hexadexx, Enzo Ramos Henrique, Ultraneongodpet, Kingdragon2026, Col. Caboose, bashclark1004, azul1462!)
  
• Fixed limbs mutating into sessile feet on the side, which the game cannot display (thanks AnniJPG!)
  
• Sped up time skips by removing excessive logs
  

• Redesigned the limb stats view in the animal editor to match other stats view, including a place for a description
  
• Added bird leg with two toes, inspired by ostriches
  
• Added sprawling leg with long pointy nails, inspired by lizards
  
• Improved model for the fast, digitigrade leg (as used by the milk bug)
  
• Removed incorrect option to put new limbs on top and on the tail, where they looked like the starter fin
  
• Added all new body parts to the .yaml files containing the statistics, so they can be tweaked
  
• Removed that pressing D in the animal editor removes debug functionality, showing the hopping arthropod leg (thanks Abban!)
  

• Made a start adding support for smaller map sizes: drawing in the planet editor seems to be working (thank azul1462, Jupiter hater, Col. caboose!)
  
• When changing the terrain mid simulatiion, all soil statistics should now be correctly updated (thanks Cody Beaver!)
  
• When you have manual changes turned on, and you change the terrain mid simulation, it will silently toggle back to non-manual changes to be able to recalculate what tiles are aquatic
  

• Made sure the new filter feeder mouths only filter feed and also gave them more descriptive names (thanks Alan!)
  
• Made default moisture and temperature settings less extreme, so new players don't start with a difficult sandbox (thanks Sealous!)
  

• As scenarios are not available yet, temporarily removed the requirement to complete at least one before the sandbox is available
  

I often forget to read comments below release notes, so if you have questions or bug reports, feel free to reach out via the Steam forums or [email protected].

[p]For the brave, not scared of bugs and crashes, I just uploaded the first unstable build of the Movement update to the beta branch![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]A new terrain editor which works both in the planet editor but also during a simulation, allowing you to:[/p]

• [p]Draw your own continents[/p]
• [p]Delete continents[/p]
• [p]Modify continents[/p]
• [p]Move continents[/p]
• [p]Adjust calculated land statistics (like temperature and moisture) OR[/p]
• [p]Manually draw statistics[/p]

[p][/p][p]Extended the procedural walking system to add support for:[/p]

• [p]Legs besides the body[/p]
• [p]Hopping [/p]
• [p]Steeper terrain, and special limbs that can handle it[/p]
• [p]Tails swinging and heads bobbing[/p]

[p][/p][p]Various new limbs inspired by arthropods, some of which:[/p]

• [p]Allow the animals to walk on the ocean floor[/p]
• [p]Produce sound when used for flight[/p]

[p][/p][p]Limbs without any movement speed at all, creating sessile animals[/p][p][/p][p]More filter feeder mouths inspired by sea anemones[/p][p][/p][p]Upright body postures[/p][p][/p][p]Animals that can hang from branches, sometimes upside down[/p][p][/p][p]More movement animations in general:[/p]

• [p]Undulating swimming[/p]
• [p]Jet propulsion swimming[/p]
• [p]Swimming with fins, without tail[/p]
• [p]Flying fish[/p]
• [p]Walking on water surface[/p]
• [p]High frequency wing flapping flying animation (like insects)[/p]
• [p]Fluttery wing flapping (like butterflies)[/p]
• [p]Floating flying animation with gasbags[/p]

[p][/p][p]Other new animations:[/p]

• [p]Idle animations[/p]
• [p]Swinging between branches[/p]
• [p]Dying[/p]

[p][/p][p]Parasitic fungi and fungi that spread their spores by being eaten[/p][p][/p][p]In the disaster panel, you can now[/p]

• [p]Change the ocean temperature independently from the land temperature[/p]
• [p]Change the moisture of the whole world[/p]

[p][/p][p]Reworked volcanoes that grow when they erupt[/p][p][/p][p]A climate zone recognition system[/p]

[p]Apologies for the inconvenience everyone! I was stupid enough to release a patch that introduces a major bug right before the devlog period. As editing the devlog videos eats all of my time, and they have a deadline, I couldn't fix it before today. But the last video is uploaded now, so here you go :).[/p]

[p]It all starts with new legs, like ones inspired by the kangaroo and insects, but the old walking system just couldn’t handle them. So I rebuilt the system from the ground up, with shorter iteration times and way more polish. Now animals can hop, climb steep terrain, and even walk with insect or reptile-style legs. But this is only the beginning: the real theme of the update is hidden in the first episode…[/p][p][/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[p]Back in May, I asked a simple question: what happens if you place a few primitive organisms on a brand new planet, switch on random mutations, and let evolution run… for an entire month?[/p][p]To find out, I launched a 31-day Twitch livestream using The Sapling. Starting with just a basic alga and an aquatic animal, we watched as life on planet Wright-1b unfolded in real time. Every adaptation, every extinction, and every surprising twist played out live.[/p][p]Over the course of those 31 days, we saw:[/p]

• [p]Algae abandoning the seafloor to drift freely across the waves.[/p]
• [p]Dordias rising as king of the seas, with sharper eyes, stronger fins, and teeth.[/p]
• [p]The first land animals evolving legs, followed by faster descendants with long limbs, bipedal forms, and eventually protective shells.[/p]
• [p]Seeds hitchhiking to new continents by clinging to the fur of aquatic animals.[/p]
• [p]A meteor impact plunging the planet into darkness, allowing fungi to take over and fungus-eating animals to thrive.[/p]
• [p]An ice age reshaping ecosystems, with plants adapting by going dormant and animals finding new survival strategies.[/p]

[p]To share this story beyond the livestream, I created daily shorts narrated by Leo Richards, known from Natural World Facts. Many people asked to bring everything together into one complete video, so I made an extended cut that combines the highlights with new narration and extra footage.[/p][p]Watch the full 31-day recap on YouTube[/p][p]This project wouldn’t have been the same without the community. You named continents, suggested disasters, and even kept a living wiki running during the stream. Thanks for being part of this journey - here’s to many more evolving worlds![/p][p]Wessel[/p]