The Sapling News

[h3]Large[/h3]
* Added new main animal stats tab in the animal editor, showing you whether your creation breathes, moves and lays eggs on land or in water
* Added music to the season editor
* Implemented 'edit seasons' button in the world, so you can redefine your seasons whenever you want

[h3]Small[/h3]
* Set terrain height sampler to higher accuracy, decreasing the amount of animals floating above or sinking into the terrain
* Improved knee bending calculations, decreasing the amount of feet floating above or sinking into the terrain (Inverse Kinematics)
* Pressing multiple arrow (and WASD) keys simultaneously now makes the camera move diagonally
* Releasing arrow (or WASD) keys after pressing multiple simultaneously no longer makes the camera stop
* Fixed unexpected camera behavior after opening the speciest list view or the objective list view
* Fixed unexpected camera behavior after using the arrow (or WASD) keys while focusing on an organism
* Added extra growing circle to get your attention when the algae handle is introduced
* The animal body part length handle can now also be used when there is something at the back of an animal, like a tail
* Fixed swimming animation glitch when swimming at the surface
* Fixed swimming animals floating above shallow water
* Fixed animals that would drag on land swimming too low
* Made the visual and audio transition to and from the planet editor smoother (dip to black, crossfade)
* Made the visual and audio transition to and from the alga editor smoother (dip to black, crossfade)
* Made the visual and audio transition to and from the season editor smoother (dip to black, crossfade)
* Made sure the unlock hint is always on top of the rest of the UI
* Fixed the unlock hint not appearing in the second scenario
* Fixed editing (as opposed to mutating) being sufficient for the 'mighty mutations' milestone in the second scenario
* Fixed oxygen bubble visualization not fading in when looking at the animals up close
* Fixed 'white terrain' glitch caused by turning on seasons without defining them
* Camera movement is no longer blocked after getting out of the species or objective overview with the esc button
* Fixed 'hand' type limbs never unlocking
* Fixed non-responsive 'mutate' button for individual underwater animals when zoomed in

Hey everyone! Other than the title of this post may suggest, development of The Sapling is going incredibly well at the moment: I feel like I'm working faster than ever before, sometimes squashing up to 5 bugs a day. It's super motivating to see the game grow into something stable and trustworthy under my hands. This efficiency I largely owe to the many helpful bug reports I receive every day from players adventurous enough to try the experimental beta branch, so thanks!

Having said that, I feel the game will not be ready for the 'main' branch on September 13. This is partly because I would like to fix some more bugs, but most of all because I did not get to (1) optimization (= acceptable FPS) and (2) balancing (= interesting simulations) at all so far. While the overall response to the Sea & Sandbox update is super positive (again, thanks!) I'm seeing multiple beta players report that this lack of optimization and balancing really affects the current gameplay negatively, and I can totally see why.

This means the 'Sea & Sandbox' update is not yet ready for everyone, so I have decided to continue pushing my patches to the beta branch for a few more weeks: my current plan is to move over to the main branch on October 11. While I don't expect to have a 100% bug free, smooth and balanced game by then (this is still an Early Access game after all), things should be significantly better than they are today.

[h3]But I really wanted to play this Tuesday![/h3]

Well, you can; I will continue to release patches to the beta branch, which everyone who bought the game has access to. Every devlog of video of season 2 ends with a visual instruction on how to switch to this beta branch. The fact that I upload builds of the game on this branch instead of to everyone the only thing that is different from the original plan.

By the way, the version of the game that is available on the beta branch right now is already a lot more stable than the version that what I released on August 16, and will be even more so with the upcoming patch, which I aim to release in the coming week.

[h3]What about the price increase?[/h3]

I feel it would be fairest to only increase the price when the 'Sea & Sandbox' update is available for everyone, so the price increase is postponed as well; it will go live together with the update.

[h2]Large[/h2]
* Added an extra hint to show how the mutation mechanic works, shows up when hovering locked body parts
* Made underwater temperatures and seasonal effects less extreme
* Remodeled the 'early lobe' fins to be more sideways oriented, so they look better when the animals drag themselves on land
* Fixed mutation chances being (much) smaller than the UI claimed they were

[h2]Small[/h2]
* Made greenhouse level less hot, as even the toughest plants could no longer survive
* Egg types can now also mutate
* Implemented the 'mutate alga' button in the alga detail view (did nothing so far)
* Swimming animals now gradually slow down when they reach their target (instead of abrupt stop)
* Optimization: only show alga holdfasts when up close
* Optimization: stop alga animation when not visible
* Added explanation: land animal with aquatic eggs went extinct because it could not reach water in time to lay its eggs
* Added explanation: aquatic animal with land eggs went extinct because it could not reach land in time to lay its eggs
* Fixed inaccessible area in the east of each sandbox map
* Animals can no longer walk on steep terrain (but plants can grow there!)
* The seasons editor no longer glitches out after the deleting the last season
* Fixed confusing animal editor warning for nest builders that are too heavy for their legs
* Fixed hibernation slider availability when opening the animal editor
* Fixed crash when randomly mutating algae after loading a savegame
* Changed the starter level to have water until the edges
* Changed the default egg type in the sandbox to the intermediate stage (instead of the aquatic egg)
* Decreased chances of animals flying through mountains
* Completely removed former primitive limbs and mouths from the game (they could still show up because of random mutation)

[h2]Large[/h2]
* The disaster, flower and ice age scenarios are now accessible again
* Fixed an important (and hopefully the only) reason for plant and algae multiplication glitches
* The alga evolution tree now works
* Fixed the 'choose color of existing species' button when there were algae in the world

[h2]Small[/h2]
* Fixed incorrect season UI after (1) saving and loading, (2) coming back from an editor
* Fixed incorrect soil colors after (1) saving and loading, (2) coming back from an editor, (3) showing the same season a second time
* Fixed having a mouth on both sides of the body; the procedural animation incorrectly moved both mouths to the same side
* Putting a bodypart in an impossible place (like a land leg on the back) no longer creates an invisible but blocking bodypart there
* When zooming in on algae, they now show the correct age
* Organism age is now also stored in the save file
* Fixed scenario objectives not being checked after loading a savegame
* Fixed various error messages generated after clicking the 'choose color of existing species' button
* Using the eraser no longer shows white balls
* Fixed stats and accessibility for edge tiles in the beach level
* Esc menu now closes all other views
* Renamed Esc menu items to 'Quit to menu' and 'Quit to desktop'

Many thanks to the numerous players who submitted bug reports for the first beta build!

Over the last few weeks, a new devlog series was released on the The Sapling Youtube channel, showcasing the upcoming 'Sea & Sandbox' update. It will include, among many other things, a planet editor, a season editor, algae and underwater animals. The first video of the devlog series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3iQw2WYvwE

The last and most popular video of the devlog series:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psqkZBXaitk

This new 'Sea & Sandbox' will be available for everybody on September 13. If you don't mind glitches and crashes, you will also be able to play experimental builds from August 16 onwards by opting into the beta in your Steam settings. The end of every devlog video shows you how to do that.

Furthermore, a heads-up: most players indicate the current price of the game is a bit on the cheap side, so September 13 will also see a $2 price increase... so if you already know you want to buy the game, you might want to do it now.