The Sapling News

The content of the next big update will be revealed step by step in a series of 6 weekly devlogs, starting with this one:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Turns out the ice age fixes in the latest patch actually broke smaller map sizes, which was totally missed during playtests. This should fix it, apologies!

Let me know if there are any other problems you encounter (in particular things that worked before this weekend), via [email protected] or the Steam forums.

[h2]Achievement fixes[/h2]
* Fixed the completionist achievement never firing
* Moved the completionist check to the main menu

[h2]Visualization fixes[/h2]
* Adding aquatic animals with wings no longer make the game crash (but their animation is still not correct)
* Fixed eyesight and hearing ranges displaying on the terrain floor

[h2]Simulation fixes[/h2]
* Aquatic animals with 'go towards' instincts now actually go towards it
* Plants no longer die of old age during dormancy
* Blow holes are no longer counted as 'mouths' for eating purposes
* The first flower with petals now can also spread pollen by wind
* Added a potential fix for the plant multiplication bug
* Added a potential fix for aquatic animals with the 'go away instinct' going to non-existant places

[h2]UI fixes[/h2]
* Using the notification list view no longer breaks all other UI
* The population counts are now updated every time you open the list view
* Fixed the list view round buttons being irresponsible when coming out of the family view
* The random mutations menu now scales with the screen size
* In the animal editor, you no longer need to touch the brightness slider before the animal color is updated live while using the hue slider
* The Shift+C cheat menu now has a background

[h2]Camera fixes[/h2]
* Moving the camera while clicking the 'roots' button will no longer make you lose control
* Slowed down the camera in the plant editor when using the up/down arrow keys
* Deactivated the up/down arrow keys in the animal editor

[h2]Ice age fixes[/h2]
* Saving and reloading no longer makes the ice disappear
* Going into an editor no longer makes the ice disappear

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