Today, you’ll hear how we’ve evolving The Sound of Carnage, exploring several areas of audio including: Weapons, UI effects, & Voiceover
Let’s Get Loud
Weapons fire is one of the areas that has been improved the most. The new sound design features bigger, more impressive gunshots that each have their own unique reverb characteristics. The video below highlights a few before & after comparisons between PS4 Extinction to Evolution, showcasing not just the revamped audio but improved particle effects...
A new sound tweak is weapons changing pitch as you near the end of your current clip, which is also tied to the barrel heat visuals (where the gun starts glowing when you near the end).
Firing a weapon in first person perspective now also has more detailed effects compared to hearing somebody else shooting (3rd person). The player's own gunfire has several extra sound variations, instead of just the exact same cue repeated over and over the way it is in 3rd person.
This kind of “psychoacoustics” treatment makes your own gun always feel like the most powerful one in the room, whilst also optimizing the soundscape...
If we used the first person soundcues for everyone in the scene, the game would have to pop off a dozen sounds every time someone fires (shot, tail, reverb, shell casing, etc). This would often hurt performance. Instead, we now use a different pre-combined cue for other players, which reduces memory load and helps keep the mix clean.
Something we tweaked recently and have been continuing to improve is the much more advanced flamesaw sound setup. Idle effects for the flamesaw vary based on if you've been using the saw or the flamethrower, and the pressure level of the flamethrower determines which start sound plays.
On the programming side, over the past year we finished moving all auto-firing guns to a new looping system which is much more efficient. This system also makes use of the split 3rd person / 1st person weapon sound tech, so that the complex layers of something like the Flamesaw are streamlined into less complex versions when heard by other players.
The before / after clip in this post actually shows a bug this system fixed, with the assault rifle sounds actually cutting out in Extinction, because it was spawning so many on full-auto that the audio engine just gave up!
Foley Finesse
On the more subtle end, each human will have unique footstep sounds. For example, Commando wears heavy army boots, while Scientist has a much lighter step and Trapper has some jangling cowboy spurs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aaSW_0iGoY
Additional foley effects were added a while ago for actions such as sprinting, where if you’re holding a long gun you’ll hear it shaking in your hands as you run. Pyro’s fuel tank rattling about will now be more noticeable when sprinting, too. Reloading now feels more badass, filled with lots of extra little rattles, clicks and other mechanical effects.
Hearing the HUD
One of our ongoing improvement drives has been adding extra cues tied to gameplay events. The HUD / user interface has been updated over time with more visual notifications, and various new sounds have been created to go along with these.
https://youtu.be/sR5R68WK8Hk
We added varied hit notifications to the HUD a little while ago. Depending on where you shoot, you see different crosshair symbols if it’s a weak point, strong point, or regular flesh - and the sound changes too. Firing at armour produces dull thunks on impact, whereas weakpoints are louder and sharper. Land a critical hit and there’s a juicy splash (plus a bullet ping if it’s a headshot).
Coupled with in-world sound effects for feeling hits yourself, such as the satisfying CLONK of a Pachy’s headbutt - or the bone breaking impact of a T.Rex tail swipe - it means Evolution has way more audio feedback for both instigators and victims compared to Primal Carnage: Extinction (PS4).
More sounds like these are being added to other parts of the HUD as well...
Stamina now has unique sounds for when it is stolen from you by enemies or being restored by teammates. There are also more subtle indicators for when it starts being used, begins regenerating, and fills up fully. If you have a keen ear, these allow you to focus more on the moment to moment combat instead of needing to keep an eye on your bar.
Even though we’ve added more visual indicators for the roar mechanics, the same is true there as well. The “roar ready” notification popup can be turned off for more immersive visuals, but you can still hear a helpful UI sound cue for it.
Menu Modifications
Every part of the customization / equipment screen will now have custom sounds when interacted with. This is an extra level of detail we never had time for in the past, and which makes just the basics of interacting with these much-used screens more fun.
Select a weapon skin in the customizer and you’ll hear the equip sound for that gun, choose an outfit and there’s a suiting up sound, every single slot has a unique cue to go with it...
Console players, please ignore the Xbox button icons - it's just the default control method when using gamepads on PC. The actual functionality of the customizer itself will also be getting a few usability improvements too, but that's something for a future post.
More Music!
You can find several preview tracks from the expanded Evolution OST on our YouTube channel, and we also have a recent blog postabout how the new soundtrack is being implemented!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNA-6UEBVWQ
We're happy to confirm every single sublcass in the core modes will have their own custom soundtrack, with both light ambient pieces and heavy combat themes for each! Keep a lookout for more soundtrack selections going live in the run up to relaunch...
Voiceover
It's been mentioned before that the human team is getting re-voiced to allow for a greater dialogue variety. Unfortunately, there was no info regarding who played the original characters for Primal Carnage way back in 2012, so we had to cast new actors.
The Trapper was already largely re-recorded for Extinction in 2014 at the special request of Pub Games (they’re Australian), and we were lucky enough to bring him back to record additional dialogue for Evolution nearly 10 years later!
[TAG-105]
Likewise, we were able to track down the voice of the chopper pilot in Extinction for round two of his inimitable drawling insults! Bonus lines recorded for him include contexts for getting to the boat and getting to the train, and all that implies…
[TAG-109]
In total, there are now over 3500 lines of recorded dialogue in the game. This includes the mercenary voiceover set with several hundred for each class, the chopper pilot’s 130 lines, dialogue for each of the vending machines, the announcer, and various new public service announcements heard in the world. All of these add more life and character, while hinting at times to the larger backstory.
Many of the new lines tie into specific gameplay events. For example, when facing the AI horde you’ll hear characters shout the names of various dinosaurs the first time they're seen (though they won’t always pronounce them properly!).
We’ve held back from adding the automatic spotting mechanic to the other game modes, as it could give your position away. It’s possible we may add manual spotting in future if there’s interest in it.
Numerous other dialogue triggers include (but are not limited to):
getting a multi-kill streak
landing a headshot
killing dinos with specific weapons
beating a boss wave
throwing supplies
capturing objectives
starting, losing or winning a match.
The others you’ll just have to discover in-game!
Rumble in the Jungle
Related to sound, a major part of improving the feel of the game for Evolution involved making a wide array of controller vibration effects. This “rumble” you feel from the gamepad enhances gameplay massively, but didn't receive much care and attention back when Primal Carnage: Extinction released.
This time around, we’ve gone HARD on rumble. Roaring was given tremendous vibration effects a while back for PCE on PC, but we’ve taken it even further for Evolution by creating custom rumble curves for each class that line up better with their actual roars.
Tyrants can now be felt, not just heard, at long distance. Their footsteps create heavy vibrations that you’ll pick up through your controller when they are within a few dozen metres.
A new “hierarchy of rumble” will also ensure important events like roaring are not interrupted by other vibration effects going on. This was an issue for PCE on PC previously. For example, roaring as Ptera or Tupa used to get cut off by your wing flaps in flight, and Tyrants could interrupt their roar effects with the rumble of their own footsteps. Not anymore!
Other bespoke rumble events include diving at terminal velocity as Flyers, and pretty much every attack now has some form of vibration effect (both on button press and when actually landing a hit). Even small actions such as reloading your gun now have little rumble triggers, with motions like shoving a new magazine into the carbine rifle creating a satisfying hit.
Of course, if your hands can’t handle all of this, vibration function can be disabled within the game’s own options menu. Additionally, one of our stretch goals is making a “rumble intensity” slider that globally adjusts how heavy vibration is across the whole game. This slider may not be there on day one, but we’ll definitely be including more accessibility options after Evolution releases regardless.
Next Time... SANDBOX
We’ll be back with another deep dive soon which explores the evolution of Freeroam and some of the fun extras that come along with it. See you then!
Our deep dive series continues! Today, we're looking at the ongoing visual overhauls...
Contrast, Colour & Detail
Primal Carnage: Extinction was originally a very drab game that didn't feature much in the way of contrast or colour when it first launched. One of the goals of our Evolution overhaul is to further address this criticism by giving the game a dramatic makeover...
Although still working in the same engine, we've managed to push the visuals even further for 3.0 while finding a more natural brightness range compared to how PCE on PC used to look.
Most maps will appear darker than they used to in PCE on PC, without the nuclear hot sunlight that used to be blasting the environments. Aside from reducing the brightness of the sun itself, we've refined the post processing and overall look of the game, with more finely calibrated tonemapping.
Even though the actual colour grading is different, many bold colours actually come from the wide variety of flowers now found on the maps, which break up what used to be an almost uniformly green jungle.
Some areas have actually become even more detailed since our original before / after showcases at the start of the Evolution beta...
UtilityBase now has dirt filling in the cracks of its floor tiles and leaves piling up inside. New detail props that you can kick around, like traffic cones and boxes, make the game world feel more reactive.
In addition to improving the lighting and shading of the world, many assets have become more detailed over time. If you joined us long after the 2.0 update for PCE on PC, you might have missed that we gave our dinosaurs a 4k texture overhaul...
Since then, numerous other assets received updates too, including the polygons on Commando's head!
ANIMATION ENHANCEMENTS
Many new animations have been created over the past couple of years, such as completely re-animating the entire human team a while ago for 2.0. In the clip below, you can see the original moveset was quite stiff, with motions that often looked a little unnatural. For example, the Pyromaniac on the left seems more like he’s ice skating than sprinting (and his belly is just completely out of control).
Heading into version 3.0 with Evolution, many of the new animations we're now working on aren't just for visual polish - they directly affect gameplay.
Take the raptors, for example. Compared to the regular quick-tap pounce, it was felt that running around with a charged-up pounce could sometimes give a slight advantage. Consequently, raptors now have unique ready-up animations for charging their pounce and moving around with it held ready. While these new animations do assist gameplay… they’re also just really cool.
Elsewhere, all Tyrants now have low health animations! Their idle pose and movement style changes with low HP, helping humans to know when they can push to take them down. Keep an eye out for Spino’s dangling arm, Rex’s limp, and Acro’s lumbering. We may extend this feature to other classes in future, but figured it was most valuable when dealing with Tyrants.
An experimental feature that we're still unsure will make the final cut is floor alignment, which adjusts a dinosaur's rotation to match the surface angle when going up and down hills. This feature has caused some *interesting* bugs so far. Hopefully it can be tamed, since when it works it really helps immersion.
On the human side, the stungun has some new animation tweaks coming up. Regular shots have the same wimpy motion as ever, but charged stungun shots have much more kick, feeling suitably powerful. Also, new motions when fully charged convey that it’s a struggle to keep this thing from popping off.
There are of course plenty of changes that are purely aesthetic, but which go towards making the experience feel more polished. Many of these are 3rd person human anim tweaks, such as making sure guns don’t float out of their hands and fixing the last few missing equip motions.
That said, being able to properly SEE a human doing a melee attack when viewed in 3rd person is quite helpful as a dinosaur, especially if it’s a pathfinder winding up a heavy machete slash!
WEATHER EFFECTS
A new “weather system” has been added, which applies special effects on maps that have it enabled. When you’re outdoors on Airbase, Downpour, etc. you’ll now see your character appear wet and shiny with raindrops pattering on them.
Humans will see their weapons being rained on as well, but go inside and you’ll slowly dry out over time. If you look up while standing in the rain, droplets will also appear on the camera lens.
For now, the only weather type is rain - but we’re looking at adding new snow effects for winter.
NEW OVERLAYS
Similar to standing in the rain, go stick your camera under a waterfall and your view will become distorted as the water washes over you. There are many new post process screen overlays like this, but one of the more complex is the new Roar Ability effect! When deploying a roar, glowing veins now quickly trace across the screen to better communicate the buff...
Other post process additions include Tyrant roars now spraying spittle onscreen if you stand too near to them, and close-up melee kills will splatter your victim’s blood on the camera!
Classic effects such as getting poisoned or being blinded by spit / flares are also receiving upgrades. Flares are now more obscuring when seen by dinos (but hopefully not bright enough to give you a headache), while spit now has different overlays for charged vs. uncharged spit.
We think these adjustments make for a much more visceral experience - but if it’s too much for you, many effects such as screenshake can be adjusted to your liking or turned off entirely in the expanded game options menu.
STAY TUNED
Keep an eye out for more deep dives coming soon, exploring more of the changes and improvements coming with the FREE Evolution Update on PC. You can try out many of these changes already in the Open Testing beta, but there are even more juicy features we've yet to fully reveal!
Join us on Discord
Join the the Official Primal Carnage Discord to keep up with all the latest sneak peeks and take part in the Autumnal-themed screenshot contest, winners receive special spooky items this Halloween!
Thanks for reading!
-The Primal Carnage Team
The Road To 3.0, Part 1 - Gameplay
We hope everyone had a rawrsome summer!
Apologies for the lack of updates, the last few months have been a very busy time for development, and there's still a lot to do. That said, we're about to enter the final polishing phase for Evolution.
Over the next couple posts, we'll be diving deep into some of the new changes that are already playable in the 3.0 beta on PC (or will be soon!)
Today, it’s all about gameplay...
RAPTOR POUNCE RECODE
Perhaps one of the loudest complaints we’ve heard over the years has been “pounce sucks.”
We agree. It’s never worked 100% and it’s been clear for a long time it needed rethinking. After embarking on Evolution for PlayStation, we finally had the time and resources to do a full overhaul.
Philosophically, if we were to completely start over from square one, a completely immobilizing attack like pounce might not make the cut. Same with Ptera grabbing. However, these are both expected genre staples and are so embedded in PCE that it’s hard to justify removing them at this point...
The Problem
The pounce overhaul’s goal is to make it an actual viable mechanic that is reliable and versatile. Previously, you'd often pounce at someone and end up just standing in front of them, nose to nose, ready to get your head blasted off. Or y'know, just bounce off the human entirely.
A lot of this was due to the arc between you and the target getting obstructed. Even just skidding along the floor invalidated it, because the raptor had technically already "landed" before it hit anybody.
The Solution
To fix these annoying problems, several aspects of the pounce code were completely rewritten. It now uses much more advanced trajectory calculation, which accounts for variations in terrain between you and the target. This means you can now much more reliably pounce enemies below you from elevated positions such as rooftops, at angles that were near impossible before.
The new calculations also make charged pounces much faster, with speed usually about the same as the quick pounce. No more slowly ascending into the stratosphere if you aim too close!
To account for network latency, there is also a degree of “pounce magnetism” when you land near a target. If there is a human in view and they are close enough, you will automatically latch onto them if your pounce doesn’t land exactly on top of the target. This makes pounce much more effective, but not overpowered. There are additional sanity checks in place to ensure raptors don’t zoom backwards onto enemies, and you need to be really close to a human for it to actually kick in.
The actual pounce aiming indicator has been improved as well, allowing a greater range of acceptable pounce angles and more accurately reflecting where your pounce will land. Pouncing uphill? No problem.
DANGEROUS SPITTERS
As essentially support classes, one goal for the Spitters has always been increasing their versatility and giving them ways to still contribute without being the most powerful frontline dinos.
Both of them now have a chance to have the last laugh when killed, with their volatile internal juices spewing forth on death. Spitters will always form a puddle after dying, and if they are killed by a headshot while charging up their spit - they will actually explode!
The melting utility of Cryolophosaurus has also been extended. It can now destroy thrown health and ammo kits that have been deployed by the Commando, and Cryo itself has slightly higher HP.
HEAVY MELEE OVERHAUL
All primary weapons have a heavy melee attack, which has now evolved into its final form. If there’s an enemy in front of you, then meleeing with your primary equipped will now perform a heavy melee dash! This makes you zoom forwards to help land your attack.
If you manage to land a heavy melee hit, small dinosaurs will now be briefly staggered in addition to feeling knockback. This prevents them from attacking for just under one second. If you ever wondered why heavy melee needed to cost stamina, now you know.
RAPTOR POUNCE “ESCAPE”
Previously, if a raptor began mauling someone with low stamina, they would be able to detach at zero stamina with no consequences. They’d even still kill the human usually, since the person they’d pounced would be playing their get up animation and unable to defend themselves.
We’ve now changed this so that if a mauling raptor runs out of stamina, they'll be kicked away by the human, becoming staggered. The raptor gets control-locked for about the same length of time it takes for their victim to stand up, making this scenario much fairer.
BALANCE & OTHER CHANGES
Bruisers Clipped
Bugfixing can often affect balance, and after taking another look at the collision setup for Bruiser headbutting it’s happened once again. They can no longer deal damage or knockback through walls / ceilings if they happen to clip through, welcome relief for anyone playing on Transfer.
Pounding Harder
Since we’ve seen a lot of reports about the Tupa groundpound only being good for “finishing off” enemies, it's getting a major damage buff. This makes the attack actually worth the risk of attempting.
Although Tupa's secondary is now capable of insta-killing on direct hit, it does have a tighter blast radius - which means you should try to aim your attack properly or you won't be so effective. We're also going to look at changing things to where low altitude ground pounds deal less damage compared to if you started diving from higher up, adding another layer of skill.
*BOING*
If you've played much Survival, you'll know that it’s particularly effective to jump on a little Compy's head for an easy kill. We felt it was unfair to let humans be the only ones to go “goomba stomping”, so the larger dinos can now do this to their enemies as well.
If you’re playing a Bruiser or Tyrant and happen to jump on top of (or land on) a human, your sheer weight will deal damage to them. The big boys will likely instakill, but if a Pachy jumps on your head you might get away with a concussion.
Dart Defense
For those who hate darts, you’ll be happy to know that they will be completely blocked by armour. Scientists will have to hit soft spots to actually apply any debuff, so Tyrants may want to turn their head away if being assaulted by a tranq pistol. If you’ve got the stamina though, Tyrants can now brace to prevent darts applying any effect at all.
Tyrant Tuning
Sticking with Tyrants, the Acro has received a speed boost and Spino’s claw swipe is more lethal. We’ll be looking at improving Acro’s roar ability in the coming weeks too, providing regen over time that is a percentage of health instead of a flat amount.
CAMERA IMPROVEMENTS
Hard Shoulder
Shoulder camera for dinos was reintroduced to PCE on PC in the last couple years (after having been originally removed during the 2014 beta)...
However, one problem with shoulder cam was the awkward clipping when activating this on bigger classes - the camera would go right inside your own body. It caused us to limit how far shoulder camera could swivel on Tyrants and Bruisers to prevent this. You'd be locked to one side.
Now, we’ve added a brand new shoulder camera arc that neatly avoids clipping. The camera is no longer restricted to a limited angle on the big guys, and will smoothly swap between shoulders once it has moved far enough across the axis. It’s not 100% perfect, but feels way more comfortable and makes shoulder camera much more useful for large dinosaurs.
Hulk Specate
Spectator mode camera had some odd bugs we’ve fixed recently, such as a hidden timer that would stop you being able to spectate your killer after several deaths. You’ll have seen this as the camera just getting stuck on the floor where you died.
We've also fixed the “Hulk Hands” bug, where first person arms would show in spectator camera view. While this was hilarious, it was also honestly one of the most deviously annoying bugs we've ever tackled.
Usability
Something related to the camera but also a UI improvement is interactive object highlighting.
For example, corpses still have red outlines when viewed through walls but will now get a golden glow if you are close enough to use them. This same effect is now employed by all usable items, but can be disabled in the options menu.
COMING SOON
You can try out many of these changes already in the Open Testing beta on PC, but there are even spicier features being put through their paces in the closed PlayStation test.
We hope to bring the 3.0 beta to the live Steam game around Halloween (fingers crossed!).
It won't feature *everything* that's arriving with Primal Carnage: Evolution (PS4) at first. However, most of the mechanic updates (such as pounce recode) will be included day one, along with over two dozen reworked maps and map variants.
Yes, things are really heating up now. Our annual summer event caps off Jurassic June, bringing with it both a range of sizzling new items and some MAJORgameplay refinements! Check out the highlights:
Gameplay Changes
As we prepare for the gigantic 3.0 update, various fixes and improvements have been deployed along the way. We've got several that we've singled out as important for Meltdown below, along with some details on how we'll be evolving certain features going forward...
Human Melee
This is the first part of overhauling human melee attacks, making it more rewarding to use melee attacks in general. Landing a melee hit will restore a small amount of stamina, while killing with melee will restore both a large anount of stamina and a portion of your health.
At the moment we're working on even bigger changes to melee, such as adding a dash to heavy bashes when you're close to an enemy, along with a potential rework of melee hit detection. Watch this space.
Flamesaw Improvements
The flamethrower code has been adjusted to do multiple traces instead of just one, which should make its hit detection much more reliable. Flamesaw attacks in general should no longer be able to hit enemies *behind* the Pyro, and we have a hopeful fix for "fake" hitmarkers when using it.
Since it's potentially 3x more reliable now, we'll be watching closely just how much more effective the flamethrower is after this update.
Cerato Tweaking
Compared to last patch, Ceratosaurus primary attacks are now a little faster than before. To encourage using the tailwhip in battle, whip kills will restore a chunk of the Cerato's health as of this update. That last part has been highly requested by the community, and we're happy to oblige.
There's another change that isn't 100% related to Cerato, but which will definitely help it out - humans now move a bit slower when backpedaling. This means they can't stay out of a dinosaur's reach as well as they could before just by walking backwards. Brawlers will enjoy this one.
Stun Adjustments
The stungun has been modified so that there is less of an imbalance between its primary and secondary fire. Tapping the stungun's primary will only ~briefly~ immobilize small targets now. Additionally, the Tyrants can only be prevented from attacking by fully charged stungun shots, making electricity less of a nuisance.
Bigger changes for the stungun are planned in future, such as introducing a battery system to allow multiple shots without reloading and alternate control styles for weapon charging (similar to the bow).
Quality of Life Improvements
Over the last couple months we have been able to bring on an additional programmer to help us out. You've already seen some of the QoL improvements they've been working on in recent patches, and there are a lot more in this update as well.
If you play as Flyers much, you'll know the annoyance of bumping into invisible walls or the map's "ceiling" and entering the fall state. This will no longer happen, allowing you to smoothly glide along the map boundaries without exiting flight.
Other small but meaningful changes include fixes for footstep attachment, so that particles don't spawn in midair at the center of the world instead of at your feet sometimes. Humans actually didn't produce any effects at all before, but if you look down now you'll see particles being kicked up as you run.
Fancy a swim? If you go for a dip on Freeroam dinosaurs have had their turning speed fixed. Instead of snapping 90 degrees everytime you move, they'll smoothly swim about in the water. You'll also no longer get your head stuck in one position if you stomp while holding the look up/down keys as Acro.
To see a full list of changes, scroll down to the bottom...
Special Event:
MELTDOWN
Things are really hotting up in-store today with a sizzling selection of brand new summer looks! We've got mutations and mega skin bundles galore, let's soak in some of the highlights...
Outside of the featured store set, there are dozens of new FREE drops such as the Maraudos Rex mutation, several new weapon skins and fresh avatars / sprays...
NEW: Multiple Use Health & Ammo Kits- a "ghost" version remains at the same spot after somebody grabs one, allowing it to be used by a second player for a short time.
Modified flamethrower hit detection method, should now be 3x more reliable
Reduced flamethrower distance slightly to be a closer match to its visuals
Fixed flamethrower being able to burn targets behind yourself
Possible fix for flamesaw showing "fake" hitmarkers
Melee kills as human now restore 25% stamina and 15% health
Receiving multiple knife melee hits as a raptor or spitter will now apply the bleed status
Tweaked ceratosaurus primary attack speed to be a bit faster
Cerato tailwhip kills now restore health
Reduced human walk speed when moving backwards
Fixed electrocuted animations not playing
Changed how Tyrants react to being stunned - only fully charged stungun will stop them attacking
Rebalanced stungun, fixed stungun primary fire applying maximum stun state
Stungun charge time is now slightly shorter, begins at equal to tap firing damage level
Fixed it being possible to deal knockback to raptors when they are pouncing a human
GENERAL FIXES & TWEAKS
Added bonus EXP for giving teammates energy drinks
Added bonus EXP for healing teammates with tranq pistol
Fixed not getting Hazard Removal bonus EXP for burning away Dilo spit pools
Fixed compound bow aim speed not respecting aim sensitivity setting
Fixed stomping as acro while holding "crouch" or "jump" locking your head position
Fixed flyers exiting flight when they hit the ceiling or edges of the playable area
Fixed broken turning speed when dinosaurs are swimming in Freeroam
Fixed footstep particles not showing for humans and flyers
Fixed footstep particle traces for Tyrants going under the level
Fixed a minor texture seam on battlescarred rex skin
Fixed harionna nova skin not having feathered model
Fixed a few other cosmetic issues
Updated requirements for challenge "My Little Friend"- (now requires 3 grenade launcher tyrant kills instead of 10, downgraded to Silver grade)
Steam Summer Sale!
During this year's summer sale you can get Primal Carnage: Extinction and the PCE 4-Pack for 50% OFF! With 3.0 just around the corner, it's a great time to bring some new friends into the carnage.
That's not all, we've got every DLC pack for PCE with a nice little 25% discount during the sale, which gives you an even better price if you pick up any of the game's bundle collections!
Sale begins at 10AM Pacific time today, and runs until July 11th.
3.0 BETA COMING SOON
Our beta for Version 3.0 will soon be playable in Open Testing! Dubbed "the evolution update", 3.0 is one of the largest overhauls the game will ever see, and we'll be launching the beta early July...
This will be a rolling beta with new maps, features and additions added over time. The reason for this is because we have around two year's worth of changes to transfer across from the new PlayStation release. The first batch of content will include overhauls to various shaders, effects, audio and map upgrades.
We're obviously very busy currently wrapping up the PlayStation version, so major new systems such as skillshots / the announcer / intel / new dialogue etc. will be added to the PC beta later. We're really excited to finally be on the verge of releasing all these upgrades, it's been along road.
Our latest community art contest concluded recently, now we're unveiling the winners!
This time the theme was Spring Chickens, featuring the Oviraptor and/or Novaraptor in springtime. There was a range of styles and vibes in the pieces submitted, the community is full of artists so it's always fun to see what you guys come up with!
We'll be running more contests later this year, but let's quit stalling and get to the good stuff...
Grand Prizes:
WINNER Third Place:
(BadPlague)
We really like this one, even if the vibe feels more autmnal to us than spring. The quality of the actual drawing and wonderful use of lighting still makes it an excellent piece.
WINNER Second Place:
(Chillonia)
A lovely serene scene of two vicious predators just relaxing in the forest. The flowers are bursting with colour and alive with wildlife, really hitting the sprintime theme.
WINNER First Place:
(bullsh*t101)
You couldn't get much greener if you tried, but the overall feeling of a jungle in spring is really nice and the red flowers really pop against the sea of greens.
The dinosaurs in the scene blend with their surroundings beautifully and the composition is superb, with some actual chicken-sized compys thrown in for good measure - this one has the honour of top prize in the Spring Chickens art contest!
Honorable Mentions:
It's always hard narrowing things down to find the overall winners, here are a few we also really loved but didn't quite make it into the grand prize category...
(WhatTheShrimp)
A raptor taking a nice spring stroll through the undergrowth gets a little surprise!
(Domstrya)
Novaraptor seems to be after those eggs... which are why we couldn't quite justify this as a winner. While the colours are beautiful, the multi-tone clutch of eggs is just a tad too Easter-y.
(ShamroknRoll)
A last minute entry, this one again doesn't quite hit the spring theme, but is a great depiction of a bearded feathered nova.
(BBQ)
Chonky birb meets butterfly. Adorable!
Congrats to all who took part!
We'll be reaching out to the grand prize winners to arrange their rewards soon! And if you missed this contest, keep an eye out for future competitions over on Discord...
HAPPY DINOSAUR DAY!
It's (apparently) National Dinosaur Day on June 1st, and we're here to celebrate with a preview of 3.0 and some special codes for you all...
Evolution = 3.0
We've been mainly hyping up the PlayStation relaunch lately, as ye olde PS4 version has gone nearly 8 years without an update. While it will be a massive rework for the console players who are still stuck in 2017, we still have numerous changes and improvements coming to Steam with 3.0!
Extinction PS4 vs. Evolution... The "before" shots in that video might be a little nostalgic for some - they are already ancient history as far as PCE on PC is concerned. However, you can see that even compared to the current Steam version there are some sizable layout and lighting adjustments present.
We're calling it the Evolution Update (the game's still keeping the name Extinction on PC). This will be a FREE update for Steam players, as a thankyou for your continued support.
PC players will essenially be receiving around two year's worth of overhauls with 3.0; from large scale improvements for all maps, to major overhauls in terms of optimization, effects, audio, and HUD.
Nighttime Map Variants
Several maps including Docks, ForestChasm, UtilityBase and Transfer will be receiving nighttime variants to play on, moving the ambience to dark and misty moonlight.
Ubase Night takes place just after a rainstorm, with water dripping from the plants, minor flooding and thunder rolling in the background. Transfer's giant acid storage tanks cast a dangerous glow after dark and the central flaming column projects deep red shadows below.
Thanks again to our community mappers for helping bring these new alternate maps to life!
Announcer & Skillshot System
The Announcer is a classic feature of many FPS games, and we're happy to be bringing it to PCE with 3.0! Commenting on gameplay events as they unfold, the Announcer adds a special flare to your matches. That said, he will be set to Off by default (because not everyone can handle such levels of awesome).
A complementary feature of the Announcer is the Skillshot / Skillmove system. By pulling off special moves or kills you will trigger skill notifications, awarding yourself some bonus EXP. And if you've enabled the Announcer, he'll shout out your accomplishments as well!
Skill actions range from Skyjacker - catch a human dropped by another Ptera, to a literal Trick Shot - killing a dino with a bounced grenade, and the ever-lovely Boned - melt an enemy as a Spitter. There will be well over 80 to pull off in total!
Expanded Soundtrack
If you've been following our YouTube channel you might have seen some of the previews for our newly expanded OST! The evolution update will feature new soundtracks for every subclass, both light and heavy action tracks for each of them. Take a listen below...
Our new composer Lyndon Kwan has been working hard to fit the new pieces into the same thematic genre as the original soundtrack, mixing both real instruments and electronic elements. The goal was to make music that sits alongside the classic Gareth Coker tracks but with a slight twist.
There's also new dynamic musical stingers that play for events like being pounced, grabbed, or achieving a killstreak. We hope you enjoy the new tracks as much as we enjoyed creating them!
New Story Elements
As of 3.0, you will find new story details throughout the game world. These can be minor details or major in-your-face billboards, which shed light on the greater universe of Primal Carnage.
In the months between the dinosaur outbreak and the mercenary team being sent to contain it, the unfortunate survivors left their mark. Scrawls from these "remnants" hint at a deeper backstory, while their journals are part of a larger set of collectible Intel documents.
Over 100 written diaries and articles delve deep into the history of Phoenix International, how the dinosaurs were brought back, and what led to the ultimate downfall of this secretive project.
Expanded Dialogue
Every human mercenary will have hundreds of new dialogue lines that will trigger based on what's happening in the game. From getting taxi'd by a Ptera to being the last one standing in Survival, the mercs now have a lot more to say. Your chopper pilot will also be feeding you more details over the radio, and has around 300% more ways to complain about his job now.
There's also new voices coming from the world. Embedded loudspeakers will play public service messages from Phoenix International, though usually mundane they will sometimes provide hints as to what happened on the maps before you got there. Our vending machines will also spout one-liners to you in different voices, each having their own personality in addition to some snazzy new visuals.
Aside from dialogue, the Tons of Gun, Wealth of Health and SpeedGreed machnes will also be getting some mechanical tweaks - new multi-tiered upgrades are planned! The first wave will start you with a restricted default loadout, with the weapons machine offering the option to either continually upgrade your starting loadout or swap it out for different weapons using Survival cash.
Tutorial Screens
We realize many of you are no doubt veterans at this point, but for new players there's a lot to take in with PCE. To coincide with the PlayStation relaunch which will bring in a lot of new blood, we're making a series of helpful little tutorial screens that detail some of the important but less obvious class abilities.
These will be viewable from a special How To Play area located on the main menu, and will also show on the Class Select screen when choosing what to play as.
More Options & Customizability
The 3.0 Evolution Update will feature expanded accessiblity settings, and many more options in general to help tweak elements of the game such as the HUD to your liking.
Naturally there'll be updates to controller support backported to PC with the overhauls we've been doing on PS4, with additional control schemes and full button remapping.
We'll be sharing more about the other changes and improvements for 3.0 soon!
New Merch & Store Sale
As part of National Dinosaur Day, get 20% off your order on the merch store with the code: DinoDay24 (single use per customer) Visit store.primalcarnage.com and enter the code at checkout!
Several new item variants are now live on the official merch store, from epic posters to shirts and mugs. Our dinosaur portrait series recently featured the spitter classes, and will continue soon with Carnotaurus.
In-Game Item Codes
We've got a new special celebration code to use on the in-game store too! Open the store and click the redeem key option, then enter the code below to receive some classic goodies for free:
1852-2922-5163-5123
The code expires in a couple days, so don't miss out. Remember to include the dashes!
By the way - if you weren't around at the time, you might not know you can get even more free items by redeeming the anniversary code:
2012-2015-2022-0010
We'll be back again at the end of June with the Meltdown Update, featuring a sizzling selection of new looks. Our hope is to have the 3.0 beta available to test on Steam around then or soon after. Stay tuned.
A new patch is now available for Primal Carnage: Extinction on Steam, this patch fixes a few issues found with the most recent update and aims to fix a couple of exploits.
Patch Changelog:
fixed heavy assault cannon having incorrect damage types applied when scoped vs unscoped
assault cannon now does 1.3x crit damage when fired from the hip, 1.5x crit damage when scoped
fixed assists not being awarded when hitting enemeis with sniper rifle hipfire
both sniper rifles now have a splitsecond delay before crit damage is enabled when aiming, to prevent unfair quick-scoping.
made human sprint animation blending more responsive
if Hold Sprint option is enabled - sprinting humans that fire their gun will now automatically start running again when they stop shooting (if the sprint button is still held down)
adjusted gravity scaling on trapper nets, shouldn't fly quite so long distance now
flyers killed in midair should no longer pop into the flight animation if their ragdoll hits a wall after death
Thanks for playing!
-The Primal Carnage Team
MAY PATCH 2.9.55
Our latest patch for Primal Carnage: Extinction on Steam sees further bug fixes and balance improvements, as we continue working through our backlog of issues reported by the community.
These changes are just the tip of the iceberg compared to what is coming with 3.0 later this year, but we'll keep getting all the fixes we can out to you guys while that is still cooking in the background.
See the highlights below and read about the latest community events, or scroll to the bottom for the full changelog...
When Bugfixing = Balance Overhaul
PCE is getting quite long in the tooth these days - our codebase is around 10 years old, and the engine is even much older than that. As we've been resolving bugs on the road to 3.0 we've often been fixing things that in the past had negatively affected the game's balance...
Tupa Sprint Exploit
This latest patch resolves longstanding problems with the Tupa's attack cooldowns in flight, finally preventing it from being able to easily land double hits on enemies. Flyers can be exceptionally dangerous in the right hands, and this "sprint exploit" that reset Tupa's headbutt was a painful issue.
Sniper Rifle Hipfire
The scientist's sniper rifle no longer deals insane crit damage when not scoped in. A while ago we separated scope damage and hipfire damage, however it was still possible for the scoped multiplier to get added when shooting from the hip. This fix makes the sniper rifle less overpowered in close quarters.
Tranqs & Armor
Other balance changes that come from bugfixes include resolving an issue where dinosaurs couldn't get health back from kills or corpses if they had been tranqulized, and fixing the armor buff from the tranq pistol stacking with Pyro's chainsaw damage mitigation. Angus is enough of a tank already.
On that note, the flamesaw now only blocks 30% of incoming damage while revving instead of 50%... we'll be watching to see how this plays out in the live game, but halving all damage has ultimately felt a bit too much in practice.
Bruiser Adjustments
One last balance consideration worth mentioning is we have adjusted the health pools of two Bruisers after seeing them in action lately. Ceratosaurus now has 100 less HP, it also has a slightly slower primary attack now but makes up for this with better sprint acceleration and turn speed.
Pachycephalosaurus has been granted an additional +50 HP to help it out a little. This shoud let a full health Pachy survive a double barrel shotgun blast with both barrels, rewarding Pachy players that have managed to stay undamaged but still making such a hit lethal if they have seen any combat.
In addition to the above, there are many other small but meaningful tweaks this patch which hopefully remove a bit of friction and aggravation from gameplay. Hopefully!
Next Retro Store Rotation
Flyer Week
In the lead up to Summer Meltdown we're cycling through some classic cosmetic collections in-store, featuring different classes each week. For all you Flyers out there, Pteranodon and Tupandactylus will have their moment in the sun starting Tuesday!
Dozens upon dozens of classic mutations, skins, taunts and bundles for our flying fiends will be back with time-limited discounts, so get them before they fly away!
Art Contest
Spring Chickens
Just a reminder - our latest comunity art contest ends this Friday!
If you'd like to take part, simply post your artwork on the Official Primal Carnage Discord server under #Art-Contest-Chat for a chance to win in-game prizes and a physical raptor poster grand prize!
Just make sure your creation fits the contest theme of Raptors in Springtime. For full contest details and rules see pinned messages of the Art Contest chat on Discord.
We'll be running more of these throughout the year, so keep an eye out!
New Spitter Merch
The official merch store will be getting a set of new spit-tacular items starting tomorrow!
Featuring new artwork of the Dilo and Cryo created by Aram Papazian, this is the latest in our dinosaur portrait series and will be available as a high quality poster, plus mugs and T-shirts. Elsewhere, our most recent Royal Acro portrait will start appearing on more merch as well in the coming days.
Visit store.primalcarnage.com to browse all our physical merchandise, new designs will continue to be added throughout summer!
Version 2.9.54
Full Changelog:
Balance Tweaks
Increased health of Pachy from 750 to 800
Reduced health of Cerato from 1600 to 1500
Improved turning speed and acceleration for Cerato
Slightly longer interval between Cerato bite attacks
Prevented immediate re-use of Tupa charge attack after hitting a human - fixes "Tupa sprint exploit"
Dart debuff effects should no longer stop dinos getting health from kills or eating corpses (unless they are in the fully overdosed / "marked for death" state)
Pyro chainsaw armour now gives 30% protection while revving instead of 50%
Tranq pistol armour buff on Pyro no longer stacks with chainsaw damage mitigation
Reduced tranq pistol buff duration from 20 seconds to 15 seconds
Fixed broken sniper rifle hipfire damagetype, no longer causes 2x critical hits when un-scoped
Netgun nets are now smaller with a tighter collision radius
Net projectiles have higher gravity, reducing their flight distance
Humans now auto-cancel sprint when they initiate an attack
Reduced time needed to reach max charge of stungun
Stungun auto-discharge when not releasing the trigger now takes 8 seconds instead of 5 (more time to avoid hurting yourself)
Bug Fixes:
Fixed it being possible to get idle kicked if currently capturing an objective (if kick warning shows, stepping on an unclaimed control point should reset the idle kick timer)
Survival: fixed Hunt Nova AI still being able move when netted / stunned
Survival: fixed Hunt Nova AI not being insta-killed if hit after being netted
Survival: fixed AI dinos that are on fire being able to extinguish themselves by going into water
If using a taunt that hides your weapon as Pyro, the flamesaw will now hide its pilot light flame
Fixed inspect animation triggering if you tap reload with ammo in the clip but no reserve ammo
Fixed netgun flight projectile particle getting "stuck" rotating on the spot
Fixed assault rifle grenade effects vanishing on low detail mode
Fixed netgun having a muzzle flash light
Optimizations to master human shader
Fixed incorrect fx mask being used for Kestrel Ovi skin
Fixed lighting issues with Precursor Spino and Spring Rex skins
Fixed a few T.Rex skins with mismatched head and body shading
Fixed corrupted glow effect on Andromeda Rex skin
Fixed glow sight effect of Nighthawk Spaz skin applying to the whole gun, no longer looks "green"
Just Warming Up
We hope you enjoy this latest update! Our annualMeltdown Eventwill be here on June 27th, with a sizzling selection of new looks...
The new PlayStation version is advancing towards release now, so this June you can expect a closer look at the major improvements and additions coming with the Evolution Update (3.0) for PCE on PC.
We've been hard at work on the console side for about two years, not just bringing the many updates PCE has received on Steam to PlayStation but taking things way futher.
Expect massive overhauls to level design, new lighting, subclass music, hundreds of new dialog lines, VFX updates, HUD improvements, major optimizations and brand new gameplay features!
There's no official release date just yet, but we're looking at running a Steam beta for 3.0 this summer. Stay tuned...
Thanks for playing!
-The Primal Carnage Team
APRIL PATCH 2.9.54
Today's patch marks the end of our special Easter Event, bringing a selection of various fixes and quality of life improvements to the game. Our major focus today though concerns:
Changes to Challenges
This update we have modified dozens of challenges and their requirements based on community feedback. Over 200 people responded to the challenge survey we ran a while ago, and we've taken on board some of the suggestions from that along with what we've been reading in the official Discord.
Lowering Frustration
Many challenges that were previously lower tier have been upgraded to either Silver or Gold because of various factors that can affect their difficulty, be it limited access to a certain class or mode or some requiring tricky timing.
On the other hand - some challenges have had the opposite. Several tasks have been downgraded to lower tiers since they do not require as much skill and can be accomplished without strict conditions.
Specific requirements for a handful of particularly annoying challenges have been changed to be easier, such as killing a Pachy with an armour piercing headshot. Challenges for playing as Tyrants have lower requirements in general. We also removed the Cerato challenge for defending GTTC control points, because there is another challenge that is basically identical and doesn't require a specific class.
Future Challenges
Hopefully things feel fairer with this update, but we will be monitoring feedback in the next few weeks to see how these adjustments play out and will make additional tweaks if needed.
There are just over 60 challenges currently active in the game, and we'd love to add some more this year. Please let us know over on our Challenge Suggestions channel if you have any ideas!
Retro Store Rotation
In the lead up to Summer Meltdown we'll be cycling through some classic cosmetic collections in-store, featuring different classes each week. The first of these is Tyrant Week starting today...
We've also recently made a bunch of skin bundles available permanently in-store, along with many older items that will now be sticking around in the Browse section.
Note that as of a few updates ago, the most recent cosmetics are shown first on the store instead of the oldest. We're looking into adding a couple more store features in future such as more advanced filtering and potentially a Search function, but that's a little while off.
Version 2.9.54
Full Changelog:
Changed requirements and rarities for many challenges based on community feedback
Non-Tyrant dinosaurs now spawn with only a 50% roar cooldown
Expanded roar popup notification with Roar Ready message when cooldown is over
Set a longer air ram attack cooldown for Tupa
Fixed a missing bone in the Tupa strongpoint list, Tupa's head should now be entirely armoured
Added variation to Flyer idle glide animations
Added alternate flight camera style option (enable this to stop flyer moving in direction of camera while gliding)
Modified spit and other particle trail effects
Fixed trails ending early for some particles
Fixed some projectiles getting "stuck" in midair
Possible fix for spit blinding effect getting stuck onscreen
Reduced recoil and spread of double barrel shotgun (single shot mode)
Adjusted reload end times for all guns, no longer need to wait for entire animation to complete
The "unstuck bump" now only triggers every 3 seconds when stuck instead of over and over again
Big update to master human shader and pretty much all human skins, optimizing texture usage
Fixed name and description tags not showing anything to use them on if selected from the Tools tab in the inventory
Fixed missing ponytail on Monarch Scientist skin
Fixed incorrect texture used for Cerato swirl spray
This is another in our ongoing dinosaur portrait series, talented artist Aram Papazian is already working on the Classic Acro poster which is up next, followed by portraits for the remaining classes this summer.
Other recently added items feature designs from our community contests, such as new mugs, shirts, stickers and pins. Feeling creative? Post your own merch ideas and art for consideration over here!
Onwards to Summer
We hope you enjoy this latest update! Outside of the game itself, there will be more community contests throughout the year. You can get involved by joining our official Discord...
Our annual Meltdown Event arrives at the end of June, with an epic collection of seriously hot new looks! We're still cooking the 3.0 overhaul and will be running an open beta for it this summer. Stay tuned...
Thanks for playing!
-The Primal Carnage Team
EASTER UPDATE
A new update is now LIVE for Primal Carnage: Extinction on Steam!
We have some eggcellent new items available today, alongside a quality of life update for the game which features some long-requested changes and various balance tweaks...
Gameplay Changes
ROAR ABILITIES
Working on feedback from the community, we're continuing to adjust various gameplay elements over time. This update introduces auto-cooldowns on spawn for dinosaur roars, since many players end up wasting a very valuable ability the moment they pop into the game.
This goes hand in hand with a shorter timeout for roar abilities on most dinosaurs. It's worth noting that no roar had a cooldown longer than 60 seconds before, but we've brought most of them down by another 5 to 15 secs based on the class for this update. We're interested to see how these tweaks affect the dynamic of matches.
TUPA TUNE-UP
Tupandactylus continues to be the problem child, proving a difficult beast to balance. Previously the class would lose a small amount of stamina when dashing into enemies, primarily to discourage them from killing too quickly with multiple hits.
However since this was a little counter-intuitive, we've reversed things. Now, you gain stamina back for charging into targets as Tupa, which rewards you for being good at your main job.
Other safeguards have been put in place over time to reduce Tupa's being over-effective with charge attacks, but we'll be watching closely. Feedback from previous patches also caused us to remove a crit spot at the base of Tupa's skull.
CAPTURE THE EGG
Elsewhere, humans can now continue carrying the egg in CTE mode if they take damage. They will only drop the egg when they are killed. This is a somewhat experimental change, humans seemed to be having a hard time when a simple scratch would make them drop their cargo. Depending on how this plays out, we may end up adjusting things so that the egg is dropped at low health instead.
Special Easter Event
Rolling into store today are a clutch of eggcellent new looks for your dinosaurs! Take a peek at some of the highlights of our latest special event below...
Outside of the featured rotation, we have almost a baker's dozen of fresh drops, ranging from multicoloured weapon designs and tie-dyed pyro attire to some intricate new dino skins!
As always, you can check out every new item added this update on our Special Event Trello page!
Double EXP in CTE!
Celebrating our egg-loving friends the Oviraptors, participating in Capture the Egg matches this spring will net you DOUBLE extinction points! If you haven't checked out CTE in a while, why not give it a shot?
Version 2.9.52 Changelog
BALANCE CHANGES
Dinosaurs now spawn with their roar on cooldown to discourage wasting their ability
Reduced roar cooldowns on several dinos:
Tyrants from 60 secs to 45 secs
Nova from 60 secs to 45 secs
Ovi from 45 secs to 35 secs
Ptera from 30 secs to 25 secs
Pachy from 50 secs to 45 secs
Carno from 55 secs to 40 secs
Tupa now gets stamina restored instead of drained when charging into humans
Removed a weakspot from back of Tupa's head
Humans can now continue carrying the egg in CTE while taking damage, it will only drop on death
Enabled double EXP in CTE mode
FEATURE TWEAKS
New easter items now available!
Added graphics option for Dino Spray Style - Bloody or Clean visuals
Added gameplay option for disabling dino head tracking - useful for taking screenshots
Can now revert skins that were Colourized, click the remove paint button in customization
GENERAL FIXES
Fixed several throwables that were dropping to the floor instantly when thrown
Fixed extra delay being applied to flamethrower when tap firing
Fixed some cases where spit could pass through objects
Fixed midair spit particles vanishing on low graphics mode
Fixed spit puddle particles still showing when you get a direct hit
Fixed watermelon tupa not using the right crest mask
Fixed seam on classic feathered nova skin
Fixed the Cyborg Commando not fully dissolving when hit with acid - his metal's not THAT tough.
