First of all, I want to apologize for the delay of this announcement: the update was online monday 8th, but here I am... announcing it a week later!
There have been significant changes in my life in the last few months: I got a full-time job as a gym trainer. This presents with both good and bad implications for the game development: the bad one is that I'll devote less time to DinoSystem, since I have less free time available (and being the only developer). On the other hand, since I finally got a decent revenue, I'm no longer forced to complete the main features and release the game out of the Early Access as soon as possible (in order to earn the bulk of the revenue to sustain myself): I can move it out of the EA as soon as I feel it's polished enough, without time or money restrictions and without the risk of rushing it.
My committment to the game has never been so high, and I'm looking forward to work on some new big features I've been planning during the last year!
That being said, let's give a look at the additions/improvements in version 0.81:
Added Healing Mush & trackable health recovery on interface:
- Added a new craftable item - Healing Mush:
- Healing Mush is prepared via the Crafting menu, and requires 9 Leaf (red ones, check below), 1 resin, and the First Aid skill lvl 10+.
- Healing Mush can be consumed just like a food item, giving some water and increasing Fullness.
- Healing Mush, when consumed, amplifies the natural Health recovery of the player; this means that it should be used ONLY if you're already healing, otherwise it's just wasted.
- The power and duration of the healing boost depends on the item condition, which depends uniquely on your First Aid skill (when created).
- Added a new "+/-" icon next to the Health bar, showing character health recovery or loss over time.
- Newborn Ferns have now a low chance to be "red", red ferns are identical to normal ones, but are much rarer and can be used to prepare Healing Mush.
Tamable T-Rex & Taming system expanded:
- Baby T-Rex can be tamed too, but keeping an adult T-Rex as a pet will be a pain in the ***.
- Taming a young T-Rex is similiar to taming a Troodon: you need to drag Meat/Fish and wait for it to "bait" (read the guide for more details).
- Tamed adult Troodon, as well as T-Rex, will now assist the player attacking also adult Triceratops and Troodons.
- Tamed adult animals will now assist the player also when he/she is attacked.
- Tamed animals will no longer hunt by their own initiative (T-Rex will still hunt small preys if hungry).
- Added the ability to call your tamed animal(s) (right click on character -> Call Pet(s)).
- Tamed no longer increase/decrease from distance/hunger while the animal sleeps.
- Taming guide page updated to reflect the changes.
Significant AI improvements & optimization:
- Animals are much better at turning towards their target, if it's beside or behind them: they will move backwards instead of turning in circle.
- Attacking animals have now a chance to sprint even when attacking other animals (not just the player).
- Improved female T-Rex reaction when Troodons attack their youngs or steal their eggs.
- Meat eaters will no longer see a carcass if it's sheltered by walls/boulders, unless it's very big, or very close (because smell..).
- Animals are now more likely to flee from a nearby non-attacking T-Rex, even if doing an important action (like eating).
- Animal actions and movements have been greatly optimized to use less processing power.
- More AI improvements (check the full changelog).
New & improved subtle visual effects:
- Added moon reflection in water (visible during night), with dynamic phases.
- Water (both sea and ponds) have a fancy wave effect, only enabled on "High" Graphic Quality setting.
- Many minor tweaks to the atmosphere constants (color, brightness, contrast etc).
- More minor visual improvements.
Important fixes and more improvements:
- Fixed a serious, under-the-hood issue that caused the timescale to be desycronized with the actual simulation variables: this means that, before the fix, running the game at 10x or 20x timescale produced different results (especially to weather) than playing with 1x or 2x timescale. Considering that I always run the game at 20x timescale while simulating an island for long-term ecosystem testing, the issue prevented me to properly balance the game for lower timescale (therefore for Survival Mode). This caused, for example, extreme sun intensity in mid day (especially in summer), and extreme cold in mid night.
- [Survival] Fixed a serious miscalculation that caused the player to occasionally become "mutant", dealing a significant amount of damage with punches, and also having infinite health/breath in some situations. The fix also applies to saved games, so it will "cure" your old character from its bug-induced super power xD.
- [Survival] Fixed damage text (inflicted) reporting a wrong/higher value (damage inflicted has NOT been reduced in this update, it just used to show a higher number!).
- [Requested] Added a new setting which allows to toggle the screen shake effect (default On).
- [Requested] When dismantling a Fire Pit, the game asks a second time before proceeding, to help prevent doing it by miss-click. This happens also when discarding items.
- [Requested] Objects used in crafting as components are highlighted, instead of being pointed by a green arrow.
These are only the most relevant changes, as always there are tons of other in this update, check the full changelog for the complete list!
Dan
Update v0.80.0 - Asteroid, fish population, improved combat, more!
This update is NOT compatible with old savegames!
Savegames are automatically deleted due to the different way the new version handles some core mechanics.
If you have a current game you don't want to lose, don't update now, but finish your game first.
- Asteroid impact causes massive wildfires as soon as it hits.
- Asteroid impact obscures the sun, causing an "impact winter" that lasts for years after the impact.
- Asteroid impact also instantly kills every fish in the sea.
- The "Asteroid" option in the new game screen is now selectable, allowing to decide the chance of the Asteroid event.
- Added a new button in the God Mode interface to trigger the Asteroid event.
- Added a new guide page explaining the Asteroid event.
Sea fish population simulation:
- Each coastal sea area has a certain number of fish living in it.
- Fish population of each area decrease based on world events (like the Asteroid), and player fishing.
- Fish population grows based on fishes already there.
- [Survival] Fishing reduces fish population in that particular spot, so that the players can't exploit it forever, but has to move to a new spot after some time.
- [Survival] Hold Middle Mouse or X to check fish population on a specific sea area.
Added Leaf Cape and Stick:
- Leaf Cape needs 10 Leaf and Crafting skill lvl 10 to be crafted.
- Leaf Cape gives as much insulation as a clean Pelt (much less than a Pelt Cape), but degrades rather quickly.
- Leaf Cape also serves as good fire fuel (make sure to avoid catching fire when wearing it!).
- Stick is obtained from cleaning a Branch (right click -> Clean), and requires you to wield a Sharpstone.
- Branch can no longer be used as a weapon, but Stick does.
- Most Crafting recipes now need Stick(s) instead of Branch(es) as component.
Combat rebalanced and improved Aim Mode:
- Global attack damage (both melee and ranged) reduced by 33% for all weapons (to both animals and trees).
- Reduced ranged attack damange of Arrow (by 40%) and of Stone (by 20%).
- Chance/magnitude of Bleeding inflicted to animals by the player rebalanced (globally increased).
- Aim Mode is now fully detached from the player camera (just like Scout Mode), so it's possible to aim farther away without the need to reduce the camera zoom.
Other relevant improvements and fixes:
- Carcasses now have distinct reserves or Meat, Pelt and Tendon, instead of sharing just Meat for all of them.
- It's now possible to pull Skeletons as well, and performing this action will also unbury the Skeleton.
- It's now possible to also auto-repeat a Drinking action by holding the Sprint key (default Shift).
- Player running/jumping is now affected by exposition to sand/snowstorm, which can now prevent or speed up movement, depending on its intensity.
- [Requested] Added a new option for the "Units System" setting for having a "mixed" units system with Pound/Celsius, also renamed "UK/US" to "Imperial".
- Fixed a rare bug (introduced in the previous update) that caused rain sound (and maybe other ones) to occasionally stutter.
These are only the most relevant changes, as always there are tons of other in this update, check the full changelog for the complete list!
- Added Taxus Tree.
- Former "Apple" renamed to "Taxus Berry", which is produced by the Taxus Tree.
- Former generic Conifer renamed to "Pine Tree", and now produces "Pine Cone".
- Pine Cone can be used as fire fuel.
- Pine Tree is more common than Taxus Tree, and made balance changes to the tree mechanics.
- Vegetation under-the-hood mechanics reworked: from seed spreading with wind, rooting conditions to energy balance. The result is overall a more coherent and balanced ecology simulation.
- Seeds can be "stored" in arid terrains, and released when the terrain turns into fertile, allowing vegetation to reclaim the island after long and severe periods of drought (this is also true when starting with a totally barren island).
Positional ambience sounds and audio improvements:
- Nearly all ambience sounds (birds, howls, crickets, etc) are positional, as well as thunder sound.
- Added some new variation to the day ambience sounds.
- Ambience sounds volume calculation improved, rain and wind are more gradual.
- [God] Ambience sounds gradually become less intense as you zoom out the map.
Improved snow system:
- Terrain snow texture replaced with a new, better one.
- Terrain snow mechanics reworked to be more coherent and dynamic, along with better visuals.
- Terrain snow system reworked to only draw a single tiled sprite, instead of multiple ones for each terrain, considerably improving performance (especially on larger maps).
Optimizations, minor tweaks and bugfixes:
- Seeds calculation reworked to happen with variables instead than with actual mini-sprites, which should improve performance (especially on larger maps).
- [Survival] When using a Bow while holding arrows with the right hand, if having a Quiver with additional arrows, the Character will prioritize using the ones from the right hand.
- [Survival] Body Weight calculation reworked to be exponential at higher Muscle/Fat, and have a less impact when they're low.
- Sun exposure continues to persist throughout sunset, instead of reaching always 0 at the start of it.
- Added a new page to the guide introducing to "Landmarks".
- Fixed a bug that occasionally caused sea waves sound to stutter, also causing a serious memory leak.
- [Survival] Fixed fishing action being interrupted by pressing E, which made fishing impracticable using the key.
- MANY more improvements and fixes...
These are only the most relevant changes, as always there are tons of other in this update, check the full changelog for the complete list!
Dan
Update v0.78.0 - Caves, reworked Fishing, more!
This update is NOT compatible with old savegames!
Savegames are automatically deleted due to the different way the new version handles some core mechanics.
If you have a current game you don't want to lose, don't update now, but finish your game first (just die :P).
- Caves offer good insulation protection (nearly full), but not good cover, as rain will filtrate (just like trees).
- Caves are spawned randomly on the map, either next to mountains or isolated.
- Number of generated caves is random, but scales with island size.
Fishing reworked to be an actual mini-game:
- Fishing now requires the player to actively trigger a fishing attempt, while the progress bar doesn't show the action progress anymore, but a success chance that constantly fluctuates (based on Fishing skill, Melee skill (partially), Strength and a random component), so the player must be careful to click when the success chance is high (to avoid wasting energy).
- A sound plays when the success chance is > 10%, the higher the chance, the louder the sound.
- Fishing success chance is lower during night time and in Realistic+ difficulty.
- Fishing attempts now also slightly increase the Melee skill, as it amplifies the fishing chance.
- Fishing skill increase when catching a fish is now inversally proportional to the attempt success chance.
- Fishing action now stops if Muscle Soreness reaches 100%.
- Fish caught with a Spear can be mouse-dragged from the spear without necessarly dropping it (so you can put it in a bag and promptly resume fishing).
Trees dynamic shadow + Texture improvements:
- Tree now have dynamic shadow too (that changes with the sun), and other shadows no longer stack with tree shadow.
- Improvements to some item textures (meat, fish, quiver, bow, arrow, leaf).
Other relevant changes & Fixes:
- The game now uses a brand new way to calculate Character Insulation from walls, boulders etc, which is much more accurate and realistic (this also applies to fire insulation).
- The Character will use Arrows from the right hand, if holding one or more (up to 5), so the Quiver is no longer a must-have.
- Fixed building a Wall/Door altering the condition of all other walls on the map.
- Invisible tree shadow workaround has been reworked to just reduce shadow intensity whenever it is too strong.
These are only the most relevant changes, as always there are tons of other in this update, check the FULL CHANGELOG for the complete list!
Dan
Update v0.77.0 - Wooden Door, MANY improvements!
This update is NOT compatible with old savegames!
Savegames are automatically deleted due to the different way the new version handles some core mechanics.
If you have a current game you don't want to lose, don't update now, but finish your game first (just die :P).
It's been a long time since the last update, and that's not the first time: as you have noticed, updates are being released less and less frequently, but they're also getting bigger. As I've pointed out in the previous announcement, the main reason is the fact I'm currently a lone developer, working on every aspect of the game by myself, and that's not necessarly a bad thing! The second reason is I'm a perfectionist, I'm very slow when it comes to adding new content or features, as I want to make sure every little detail is in place.
That said, I'm here to reassure you that, although updates are not being released on a monthly basis as in the past, the development is going well, and the today's update testifies it! I'm more comfortable releasing bigger updates more occasionally than following a schedule, even if that means having to postpone the full version.
Added Buildable Wooden Door:
Finally, you're now able to build a door, a wooden one. You can open or close it with the mouse, and when closed, it offers a nice Insulation bonus, if there are walls adjacent to it. Here the details:
- You need 5 Wood and 10 Resin to build a Wooden Door.
- Wooden Door can be opened or closed by mouse-dragging it (when close enough).
- Wooden Door offers an insulation bonus, if closed, but only if it adjoins two walls.
- Wooden Door, unlike Stone Wall, slowly degrades from weather and is consumed by fire.
Insulation system improved:
- Insulation from clothes is now separate from the one from walls/boulders.
- Added a new icon in the Survival UI (just on top of the insulation icon) showing clothes insulation.
- Insulation given by a Wall is now amplified if it adjoins other walls, rewarding proper build planning.
- Insulation impact on several player effects (wind protection, temperature, etc) adjusted to the new system.
- Various balance tweaks to the character insulation system.
Improvements to the seasons system:
- All seasons now last the same amount of days (9).
- Day start is now dynamic based on day length, instead of always starting at 5 AM.
- Dawn and sunset events look better and last for the same amount of time.
- Added new screen alerts for the longest and shortest days of the year.
- Temperature fluctuation according to time of day and season tweaked to be more realistic.
- Seasonal rain chance tweaked to be more balanced.
- Various balance tweaks to the seasons system.
Taming mechanics improved:
- The way the Player tames a baby Troodon is now slightly different and less restricted; you need to mouse-drag the meat/fish and wait for the animal to approach.
- In order to tame, Troodon's mother now can be alive, but not too close.
- A message now shows when a Troodon is approaching to you to tame it (assuming you're still mouse-dragging the meat/fish).
- Troodons that are just born (assuming you have 50+ Zoology and the mother is not close) have now always 100% chance to be tamed (by giving them meat/fish).
- Tamed Troodons hitting Walls will no longer damage them.
- Tamed Troodons helping you in combat can sprint faster.
- When the player dies, tamed Troodons cease being tamed.
- Some minor improvements to the Taming system.
Hair system expanded:
- Hair can now grow really long, and have better graphics.
- Hair length is now shown/changed via percentage (0% to 200%), instead of stages (Bald/Half/Full).
- Hair give a small temperature bonus, based on the length (but it's nullified by Wetness).
- Hair length influence the character Wetness increase and drying speed.
- Hair is now burned by fire (if the character catched it), and will never regrow again.
- Hair growth speed tweaked to be more balanced.
- At character creation, initial Skin Tone and Hair Color are now tied, to have more chances a character with darker skin has also dark hair (and vice-versa).
Main UI enhancements:
- [Survival] Added a new character alerts system, showing changes in the character's body stats and skills in green/red (based on positive/negative).
- Timescale buttons reworked and moved to the God Mode interface panel, and New Character button moved to the God Mode interface panel.
These are only the most relevant changes, as always there are tons of other in this update, check the full changelog for the complete list!
Dan
Update v0.75.0 - Doubled time scale, AI enhancements, more!
This update is NOT compatible with old savegames!
Savegames are automatically deleted due to the different way the new version handles some core mechanics.
If you have a current game you don't want to lose, don't update now, but finish your game first (just die :P).
One of the most common suggestions, both in the forums and from my friends who play the game, has been the time scale: a day used to pass way too quickly and the player didn't have the time to do even the basic things like gathering enough materials to build a wall or light a fire.
Well, no more!
In this update time scale has been doubled, along with everything connected to it.
But why did I take so long to make this change? After all, it seems like a mondaine and quick thing to do, in other games it's often just matter of tweaking a variable! The problem is, when I started working on DinoSystem, until few months ago, the code that regulated the weather, vegetation, animal AI and survival mechanics was not intended to scale with the time scale, this means that if i change the time scale, plants continued to produce seeds at the same rate, animals become tired and slept after the same time as well as the player, and so on.
DinoSystem is a complex and emergent ecosystem simulation and that's the price to pay for it: I had to rebalance EVERYTHING and tie it to the time scale, so that in future it will be possible for the player to change it as well, if I'll happen to decide to include this option.
AI enhancements + social behaviour expansion:
Some animals (mainly Troodons) will now sleep together, they used to find a sleeping spot (like a tree), and go each beneath their own personal (or "troodonal") tree. They'll now stick together to stay more protected, same for baby Triceratops, who sleep with the herd, and Tyrannosaurs, who always sleep with their mother (until they're old enough to go on their own).
Along with this, many AI improvements have been made, the more relevant are:
- If you're hitting an animal, and it is dying, a nearby predator, if hungry, may decide to help you out (in order to steal the kill, and the meal).
- Predators will no longer hunt the player if he's close to a fire (that is big enough to scare them).
- Tyrannosaurs will now even hunt adult Troodons if hungry (previously they only hunted youngsters).
- Mommy Tyrannosaur, when a Troodon attacks one of her youngs or steals one of her eggs, has a chance to attack it (if sleeping the chance is lower).
- Troodons are better at evaluating when and if stealing an egg from a nest is a good idea.
- All animals are much better at searching for what they're looking for.
- Predators are better at chasing their preys.
Overall animals are now more efficient nearly at everything, which reduces their chance of extinction and makes them a more serious threat in Survival Mode.
Ecosystem overview in Survival Mode:
Several players pointed out that since the ecosystem in DinoSystem is simulated, and species can go extinct, they had no idea whether killing an animal would drive its species to extinction or not; until now.
I've added a new section in the character info screen (the one enabled with Tab) called "Ecosystem", which allows to check the animal population. The info shown are not super accurate, but they depend on your Zoology skill: the higher the skill, the more accurate the info, think of it as an estimatation (unless Zoology is maxed out). This feature will be expanded in future updates to cover more aspects of the island ecology.
New shadows:
Mountains cast shadows now, as well as the character from a fire. Also, the spear sprite along with minor things have been redone to be more consistant with the other item's quality. There are several other small visual enhancements in this update, you can find them in the full changelog.
Some more stuff worth mentioning:
- [Survival] It is now possible to start Left Mouse dragging an item that is equipped in a character hand slot (during Equip Mode).
- When inspecting an animal, if it is a young specimen, instead of showing the "Heat" it shows "Parented", which tells you if the animal is protected by the mother or the herd/pack (in Survival Mode you still need a Zoology skill treshold to see it).
- Dead fishes will now occasionally arenate on the beach.
- Eggs receive less damage from weather and low temperature if they're on a nest (even if it's not underground).
- The island shape generated is more consistant with the choosen settings.
- Added two arrows on top of the tutorial window, allowing to skip or replay each chapter of the tutorial (both Survival and God).
Main fixes:
- Fixed some screen recording softwares not being able to record the game.
- Fixed a bug that caused ponds to evaporate much faster in some circumstances.
- Fixed glitched animal fighting/mating animations.
- Fixed eating raw/spoiled food giving negative Toguhness skill, instead of increasing it.
- Fixed a rare bug that prevented the player from gathering stones, leaves etc.
These were only the most relevant changes, there are tons of other in this update, check the full changelog for the complete list!
A heads up:
I would like to discuss about the future of the game development, but this is probably not the time nor the space to do it. I'll post an announcement in the next days!
Dan
Update v0.73.0 - Digging, Paths, Auto-search, tons of fixes!
This update IS compatible with savegames from previous v0.62+ updates!
But starting a new game is always recommended, as the amount of changes is massive.
- Added a new skill: Digging, which influences actions like unearthing/burying objects, creating paths and expanding pond beds.
- Right clicking on a pond or pond bed allows to perform a new action: expand the pond bed, which requires a Shovel and is influenced by the Digging skill.
- By expanding the pond bed, you can allow it to contain more water (when it rains) or, if it is dry, you can find some water still preserved beneath it.
Added Path + terrain condition influence speed:
- To create a Path, go in the Craft/Build screen and select "Path": you need Digging lvl 10 and a Shovel, no other components are required.
- Path allows to move fast when terrain condition would prevent it, it also serves for orientation.
- Paths gradually fade away over time as nature reclaims the land (especially with rain), but using them prevents it.
- Movement speed is now influenced also by terrain condition (such as snow or water).
Added the ability to auto-repeat the search actions + improvements:
- While performing a search action (get leaves, branches, stones, resin etc) hold down the Sprint key (default Shift) to automatically repeat the action.
- Since this function allows to search in a faster fashion, drop chances, skill increase and effort spent have been reduced to balance it.
- Some additional improvements to the search actions.
Made some important changes to Health, Stamina and Fullness:
- The formula used to calculate maximum Health no longer takes into consideration Metabolism.
- Health recovery now scales 100% with Calories and Hydration: this means if you have 0 of one of them, there is no Health recovery; to balance this, Health damage from low Calories/Hydration has been strongly nerfed.
- The formula used to calculate maximum Stamina now takes into consideration the Endurance skill as well, and less Metabolism.
- Stamina recovery while sleeping now partially scales with maximum Stamina: this means a very long Stamina bar won't take too much to refill, and a very small one won't refill too quickly.
- The formula used to calculate maximum Fullness now takes into consideration body muscle mass (ratio is 4x from metabolism, 3x from fat, 1x from muscle).
- Some additional improvements to the character metabolic mechanics.
Some more major additions:
- If not holding items with the right hand, most weapons will now be used with 2 hands, dealing more damage and pushback.
- Added the ability to bury dinosaur skeletons (need a Shovel).
- Small trees can now be cut down also with a BIG Sharpstone.
- Many other improvements and minor additions.
Main fixes:
- Fixed the infamous bug that caused the character to get stuck when pulling a carcass and on some obstacles!
- Fixed a bug in the animal AI that caused animals to sometimes get stuck not knowing what to do.
- Added a workaround that makes a tree shadow invisible if it is too intense and the character is beneath it, which can prevent the player from seeing a damn thing.
- Fixed Wood never turning into Charcoal when burning, as supposed to.
- Fixed character sprite turning (towards mouse cursor) being glitchy and inaccurate.
These were only the most important fixes, there are tons of other fixes in this update, check the full changelog for the complete list!
Dan
Update v0.70.0 - Controls rework, many improvements & fixes!
This update IS compatible with savegames from previous v0.62+ updates!
The system now uses W, A, S, D (default keys) to move the character directly towards the direction of the related key (or key combination), just like in the game "Notrium", this means that there is no longer the need to use A and D to turn the character, and direction change is instant. Also, character body always faces the mouse position, so you can keep attacking in a particular direction while moving in another.
In "Normal" difficulty you can now sprint while facing the opposing direction of your movement, but in "Realistic" difficulty, you still can't sprint backwards. While moving backwards, attacking or jumping give you a chance to stumble, depending on your Athletics skill and other factors; meaning you no longer stumble just for moving backwards, but only if attacking or jumping while doing so.
In addition to this, an option has been added in the controls settings screen to change the movement direction from "Absolute" (using directly the keys), to "Relative" (moving towards the mouse position, like the the old "Mouse Turn" system, but improved).
There are also many minor improvements to the movement animations and mechanics. This should finally solve one of the main problems most players have with the game, that is pointed out in many reviews (both negative and positive) and that really prevented some users from enjoying DinoSystem!
Map Zones system expanded:
Added a new option in the Settings screen (enabled by default) that automatically names map zones as you explore them in Survival Mode (you can always rename them later). To allow new characters enjoy this feature, a new option has been added in the character creation screen "Reset Zones" (disabled by default) that allows to reset all map zone names when starting a new Survival adventure in an existing game.
Also, the previous "Map Names" option in the new game screen has been renamed to "Map Zones", and can be set either "Unexplored" or "Explored", the latter only selectable if starting in God Mode.
There are many minor improvements to the Map Zones system, like new zone names (if the auto-name option is enabled) and new fixes.
Performance improvements:
A system has been implemented (only in Survival Mode) that prevents generating tree canopy sprites when they're too far from your view: this should improve the performance, because the game won't have to calculate all island tree canopies with their wind movement and fake-3D parallax (variables and tree "biology" is in the "shadow" sprite, so no worries!).
Many minor optimizations have been done to try improving the performance, but should be counter-balanced by the increased depth of the game mechanics.
Many improvements & fixes:
As always, there are many additional tweaks, improvements and fixes in this update, check the full changelog for the complete list!
Dan
Controls rework: need your opinion!
Hello survivalists!
I feel that time has come to change the way movement controls work in DinoSystem's survival mode.
Several players reported that the current system is very unintuitive in the forums and youtube videos, also most of the negative reviews point that out.
Frankly, that's something I've always wanted to tackle, the problem was I never felt confident enough to try reworking it and replace it with something better, but no more!
There is one problem: the new system will fully replace the old one, so the few players who are fine with the current movement system will have to adapt.
I need your opinion!
Should the new system be like Notrium (a survival game very similiar to DinoSystem)? Some players suggested me that, and as a big fan of that game I'm inclined to agree.
Please give me ideas and feedback so I can take the best decision; this is an important change and I totally need as much feedback as possible to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
This is a feature I've always wanted to add to the game, and, although it was not a priority, I decided to invest some time into it anyway, and I don't regret it!
Basically, you can now name any zone of the island: just press N (you can change the key in the settings menu), type a name in the textbox and left click on the map area you want to assign that name to. This is especially useful in Survival mode, as you may want to give important zones a name to remember them when you come back, considering they could change drastically during the game.
Also, when starting a new game, you now have the option to give all map zones a default name defined by its distance from the sea (sea, coast, midland, inland), you can always change them later if you want to.
Expanded item holding:
Finally, the character can now hold multiple items in each hand, including non-weapon items in the left hand (the hand previously used just to hold and use weapons). The number of items each hand is capable of holding depends on the item size, but this aspect will be expanded in future updates, with the addition on the item weight system.
Damage from actions:
The character can now get hurt by performing some actions with sharpen or blunt tools (such as Axe, Sharpstone and Stone).
Now, some of you could complain the game is already unforgiving as it is, but consider this: the chance to get hurt is, by default, very low, and is gradually reduced by the skill related to the performed action (lvl 100 skill, no chance). Also, when triggering, the hurt event is not very severe, it could give a -3 Health hit and 30% Bleeding at max (only when using the Axe, otherwise it's always lower). Getting this low Bleeding can help increasing the First Aid skill, which previously was very hard to skill up, considering that Bleeding was obtainable only by fighting with dangerous dinosaurs (which would lead to death in most cases)!
So yeah, this addition, although seems making the game harder, should in fact make it more balanced, especially considering this update already makes changes that decrease the difficulty (holding more items with hands).
More stuff:
As always there are several additional tweaks, improvements and fixes in this update, check the full changelog for the complete list!
"Game Happens!" report:
Last month (24th and 25th June) I've been in Genova, Italy, to attend to the "Game Happens!" event for indipendent videogames. It has been a great experience for me, considering I've been all alone in my little room developing DinoSystem during the last 2 years, and meeting other people who share my same passion is extremely rare in my every day life!
I'm looking forward to be part of more events in the future, as I've got great feedback and it has been an awesome experience.
