This update adds seven different breeds of fish! It also brings new detailed textures and shaders, improves all animal models and behaviors, adds a range of colors for alpacas and woolskins, and contains a number of bug fixes and balancing tweaks.
Fish can only be caught via spears at the moment, which can be thrown from the water. Fish hunting and canoes in general still need some more work, and angling will be added within the next couple of updates. However fish are already a nice addition and a valuable food source.
In other news, Majic Jungle has an employee now, it's finally not just me! Paddy has been working on all of the new models for this update, and we'll be continuing to refine these new models, as well as improving a lot of the other models, textures and animations.
And this is just a start, there is a lot of new content in the pipeline.
New in 0.6:
Adds fish
Improves Alpaca, chicken, mammoth models and animations
New detailed textures and shaders for all objects
New lighting model improving consistency, especially when moving between indoors and outdoors
Adds a variety of alpaca wool colors
Improved mob spawning, migrating, and general behaviors
Improves water rendering, with major improvements for both high and low quality
Fixes for multiplayer, making it easier and more reliable to invite and connect to Steam friends
The role assignment UI now shows sapien age and distance, and allows sorting
Adds option to invert mouse movement horizontally
Adds option to disable chat notifications in multiplayer
Removes the need to research every type of cooked food individually
Gather, store, and transfer plans can now all be completed in the dark
Canoes now correctly require wood working and not wood building
Fixes bugs where they got stuck delivering or picking up resources
Fixes bug where send/receive orders could get forgotten when your tribe hibernates
Reduced birth rate, especially if food levels are low
Faster spear hunting and baking research speeds
0.5.1: Canoes, Point & Click mode
Hi everyone!
A new update that has just gone out, which adds two major new features: Canoes, and point and click mode.
Canoes are simply hollowed out logs, which provide a small amount of storage space, room for one sapien, and very fast transport over water. As well as making it quicker to retrieve distant resources, they also make it possible to trade with more distant tribes.
Point and click mode is a whole new separate camera/control option, where instead of a first person 3D view, you can have a visible cursor always, and click on objects easily. This is a highly requested feature, is now the default, and should work well for many players, however the 3D camera mode will stay, and you can switch between them at any point in the settings or with ctrl+tab.
As well as these two major features, there are many other tweaks and fixes. The population now grows faster, and levels off at a higher maximum cap. Your sapiens will now walk faster and further to complete tasks than before, and there are some quality of life features like a new chop & replant option, and contour/strata lines on the terrain to add detail and make the lie of the land clearer.
This is not a “major” update, it’s just another step on the way, and we’re not done with boats and water yet. Right now I’m working on fish, and the next coming update will have new modes of water transport, a number of different fish, and fishing, but log canoes are a good start, and I wanted to get this in your hands now.
I hope you enjoy the update!
- Dave
Full release notes:
Adds canoes
Adds point-and-click camera/control mode. This is now the default, you can switch back to first-person/3D mode in the settings or with ctrl+tab
Adds chop and replant order
Adds configurable contour lines on the terrain to help you determine altitude changes
Investigation tasks now provide some context to help distingush between them
Increases population caps and birth rates
Increases walk speed by 50%
Rock and tile paths now require only one rock/tile per path segment
Digging dirt/sand and dirt/sand paths is now faster
Reduces mammoth spawn rate in the early game
Doubled the distance that sapiens will travel to complete orders
Increases camera ray hit distance so you can issue orders for objects that are further away
Fixes multiselect bug where sometimes you couldn't issue terrain clearing/digging orders even though some selected vertices were valid for that order
Fixes crashing bugs
Fixes bug where items in storage areas on uneven terrain appeared to float
Fixes bug where the function keys wouldn't work to open the tribe/build/settings menues if a menu was already open
Fixes bug where keyboard shortcuts didn't work when the resources panel was open
New Roadmap!
With the release of the Sapiens 0.5 multiplayer update, a lot of the previous roadmap is now complete. Your feedback has helped to lead the direction of the game, and I have a few new features I want to add, so it’s time for a complete new roadmap!
This roadmap covers all of the features I intend to add before the 1.0 release. There are many more features I’d like to add beyond that too, but this is a good set of launch features that can be achieved in a reasonable timeframe.
VR is the only removal from the original roadmap, all other omissions either have been implemented, are still planned, or have been replaced by other equivalent features. The VR market has changed substantially in recent years, and my goals and priorities for Sapiens have changed a bit, but I do still genuinely want to support VR one day.
These updates will mostly be going out in much smaller bite-sized releases from now on, and if you want to keep a close eye on development and help test new features as they are developed, please do join us on the Discord.
-Dave
Phase One - Travel, trade and culture
Canoes to transport goods and sapiens quickly by water
Fishing, new animal species, animal husbandry and pack animals
Trading of research, technologies, luxuries, animals and sapiens between tribes
Improvements for a nomad play-style, with movable shelters and beds
More types of quests, challenges, and random story events, like crop failures
More diverse personalities, behaviors and social interactions, and a family tree panel
A need for recreation, with new activities to help your sapiens relax
Increased variety of sapiens, animations, expressions, and vocal phrases
Phase Two - Conflict and advancement
All conflict will be optional, with peaceful modes
Attack other tribes and defend against raids with new weapons like bows and swords
New tools for commanding and managing separate groups of sapiens
Burial, cremation, and stretchers/sleds for moving incapacitated sapiens
A need for water, with the addition of spring water sources
Game controller, Steam Deck, and Steam achievement support
Share world creation seeds along with starting locations and world configuration
New paths and roads, furniture, structures/walls/roofs, fences, signs, doors and gates
New ovens, iron tools, wheeled carts, improved automation, and new industries
Notes
VR was previously listed in the roadmap, but has now been delayed indefinitely
A single player campaign is now planned for Sapiens, but this will be after the 1.0 release
0.5.0.79 - Hotfix update
New in 0.5.0.79: - Fixes bug where you couldn't enable mods in previously created worlds - Fixes crashing bugs when using translation mods, enabling storage sharing, and a couple of other rare crashes
0.5.0.78: Improved Co-Op Support
Hi everyone! Multiplayer is off to a great start in Sapiens, it’s amazing seeing the impressive builds and screenshots being posted around the community, and I really appreciate all of the feedback, reviews and kind words of support.
This update focuses on improvements for when you are working together, with a new “Share Storage” setting which allows you to share the same settings and send/receive orders. It also makes it easier to see when you have restrictions on your storage areas and sleds, and fixes the issue causing many mods to fail to work.
From here, I’ll be releasing on the unstable branch for a while, as I’m working on larger features including new content like canoes and fishing. I’ve also been working on a feature packed new roadmap, so that will be out soon!
-Dave
New in 0.5.0.78:
Better support for storage/resource sharing in multiplayer, making it easier to work together. The tribe relationship settings "Take Items" and "Store Items" have been replaced with a single "Share Storage" setting. When two player tribes both have this set, all their storage area restrictions, special orders, and send/receive orders will be shared between both tribes.
Storage area pegs are now colored yellow for "remove all" orders, and white sides and/or top to represent take/store permissions.
Sleds now have rails which also display this information, and tool racks and shelves display it too.
Fixes bug where the enabled mods list was not saved correctly, resulting in modded worlds failing to load
The light effect for other players in multiplayer now moves smoothly
Adds "logChat" config.lua option to log all chat messages server-side
Sapiens 0.5 Trade and Multiplayer update out now!
Multiplayer
In multiplayer, you each control a tribe, and can work cooperatively, sharing and connecting your villages to create trading hubs, shared accommodation, and large scale building projects. Play in persistent dedicated servers, host a LAN game, or invite a Steam friend to join. Set up and play Sapiens privately with your friends, or join public servers and explore villages built by hundreds of other players.
AI Tribes and Trading
Now all of those thousands of tribes that you can choose from when you start the game have come to life! If you choose somewhere with a lot of nearby tribes, they will now exist as complex AI controlled villages, with their own industries, trade requests and items to sell. Tribes will also establish themselves around you over time, and can offer unique types of items and resources that can be difficult or impossible to find elsewhere.
Once you have greeted a member of the tribe, you can complete quests, and supply goods that they require to purchase goods in return. These goods can be moved around with sleds, including a covered variant to keep things fresh. Just don't start taking things without asking, or they may get upset!
Major new multiplayer and AI tribe features:
Dedicated server for Windows and Linux with cross platform play on macOS and Windows. Steam friend invites and LAN hosting.
Adds non-player simulated tribes to trade with, and a new quest and favor system, with trade offers and requests.
Villages are generated with huts, crafting areas, fires, kilns and large quarries. Everything they need to keep them going so they can supply your goods.
There are 4 types of village, each focusing on a particular industry - rock tools, bread, pottery, and bronze.
Sleds and covered sleds - It's a moveable storage area! Instruct your sapiens to drag them around where you like, or create send and receive orders to automatically transport goods between other tribes or within your own village.
Tool racks and shelves - New specialty storage furniture, to help store and display your tools and resources.
Multiple storage area sizes, with a 1x1 and 4x4 variant added.
Improved and simplified logistics routes, by replacing them with send and receive orders.
Improved initial map selection, with better controls, more map detail, and better tribe distribution.
More new features:
Limitless movement - You can now move as far away from your tribe as you like, exploring freely.
Higher population cap, with optimizations and AI improvements.
Multiple tribes - You can create and play as multiple different tribes in the same world in both single player and multiplayer.
Auto assign for roles - To reduce the micromanagement requirement, there is a checkbox to allow your sapiens to automatically be assigned to roles if they are idle and there is no one else.
Craft maintain orders - To further reduce micromanagement, you can now easily maintain a set quantity of crafted items.
Research with multiple sapiens at once - You can speed up research and get bonus skills by using multiple sapiens to research the same type of item. However later game research tasks now take longer to balance this.
Major improvements to the sapien AI. As a result, tribes are now more efficient, and get more done in a day.
Sapiens now automatically gather food from nearby trees if they are very hungry.
Campfires now repel all mobs within a 100m radius.
New events panel, with a list of previous notifications.
Click and drag or hold 'E' to plant lots of plants quickly.
Many minor improvements to the UI, including the ability to type to search for most menus, better text entry support, the ability to select all plant types, a button to zoom to the closest storage area in the resources panel, and much more.
Further improved graphics, shadows and lighting in a number of areas.
Sapiens multiplayer update is now available on the unstable branch!
Hi everyone!
This is just a quick announcement to let you know that the Sapiens 0.5 update is now open to everyone for testing on the unstable branch. I am aiming for the 18th of July for the full release.
Multiplayer is of course the biggest new feature in 0.5, and though there is a lot of tidying up left to do, it’s already working really well. We have a handful of persistent dedicated servers being run by the community already, with more coming online all the time, so if multiplayer Sapiens interests you, and you’re willing to help test it before it’s stable, then now’s a great time to jump in!
Switching to the unstable branch means you can play 0.5 now, and will get frequent (every day or two) live updates as I fix issues and implement new features. As a result, it can be unstable, some updates will create new bugs, cause crashes, even potentially corrupt your worlds, so you should backup your single player worlds first before installing. If this all sounds a bit too risky, that’s no problem, the full stable release isn’t too far away.
To switch to the unstable branch, right click on Sapiens in your Steam library, select Properties->Betas. Then you can select ‘public-beta-unstable’ from the little pop-up button menu, and Steam will then download the latest beta.
Please do join us in the discord to report any bugs in the unstable branch, and to keep an eye on announcements for patch notes and things too - that’s where it’s all happening.
Hope to see you in one of the multiplayer worlds soon!
-Dave
Sapiens 0.5 comes with full multiplayer support!
Hi everyone!
I’ve been making great progress on the next big update, and have some news to share, Sapiens 0.5 will come with full multiplayer support!
Sapiens 0.5 will be available to everyone in 2-3 weeks time, on the unstable branch, with the full stable release coming in July.
We’ve been running a private test with members of the community playing together on a persistent dedicated server for the past few weeks. Initially things were a little rough, with a number of bugs and performance issues to iron out. But despite this, it was clear early on that multiplayer was amazing.
I still enjoy just sitting down and playing Sapiens from time to time, but these multiplayer sessions have been by far the most enjoyable for me. Watching other tribes grow, checking up on their progress, stealing their ginger roots when they were offline, just general good fun.
Multiplayer adds a whole new dimension to the experience, and so I felt it was worth spending a little longer to get in and fix those bugs and optimize it now, and ditch the “experimental” disclaimer.
The main result of that extra time is that we’re now able to support more sapiens, and more players. These optimizations benefit single player too, so I have now doubled the sapien population soft-limit in single player, and I’ve removed the camera restrictions too, so you can freely move and explore as far away from your tribe as you like.
This work is just about complete, and so I’m moving back to finishing off other 0.5 features, fixing a few bugs in the new sleds and AI tribe trading mechanics, things like that. Overall it’s really coming together, and I can’t wait for you all to be able to play, even more so now that I’ll be able to join some of your worlds and see what you’re creating. Not long now!
-Dave
Happy Holidays! - Sapiens mods to try
Thanks everyone for all of your support throughout 2023!
The 0.5 update is progressing nicely, and over these past couple of weeks I’ve made a lot of progress on multiplayer and AI tribes. But with the update just about to enter the first testing phase, it’s still going to be another few weeks before it’s ready. So while you’re waiting, and with over 70 mods available, now is a great time to try out a few!
If you haven’t installed any mods before, Sir Lich’s new Christmas 2023 mod is a great place to start, to add a purely visual festive vibe.
Vanilla Tweaks makes it easy to configure a wide range of new options to change the gameplay and interface, and set things up just the way you like.
Chop and Replant is a handy mod by Witchy that adds a new button to the radial menu, allowing you to automatically replant trees that have been chopped down.
Some role assignment automation is coming to the vanilla game in 0.5, but AutomatedRoles (also made by Witchy) gives you the ability to automatically mange your tribe’s roles already, with a bunch of control too.
Bone Crafting adds a bunch of bone related content, with furniture, bone broth, a giant axe and even wind chimes
And if you’re interested in making your own Sapiens mods, this community created mod development wiki is a fantastic place to start, and the discord linked there is great if you want to get more involved or have questions too.
I hope you have a great holiday season, and we’ll see you again in the new year!
-Dave
Development progress - Here's what's coming in Sapiens 0.5
Hi Sapiens fans! I've been working hard on the big 0.5 update, and it is getting closer to being ready for testing. There are still a few more weeks of development left to go, but it's definitely time to share some details about what's coming.
So what's new? Firstly, AI Tribes! Now in 0.5, when you are picking a tribe to lead, the other tribes around will actually be there in the game. They'll have their own villages, and you can send some of your sapiens over to meet them.
Once you have met an AI tribe, you can then trade with them, or complete a variety of optional quests. Trading uses a "favor" currency, where you gain favor by providing resources that they need, or for completing quests. You can use this favor to ask them to deliver resources in return, and the more favor you have with a given tribe, the better they will treat you.
Given that AI tribes will sometimes be some distance away, 0.5 also introduces sleds, which are a movable storage area. You can set them up like any other storage area, and use them to deliver larger quantities of items directly, or as part of a transfer route.
As well as AI tribes, there are a large number of other features and improvements. Here's a few of the bigger ones: - We have a new notification list, so you can go back and look at what happened if you missed something - There is now an option to auto-assign roles. If no sapien is available to complete a task, it can automatically reassign someone else - New tool racks, shelves, and smaller and larger storage areas - Much improved tribe selection and less restrictive map zooming, so it's a lot easier to find the right tribe and location to start.
And there is still more to come! One great thing about working on interactions with AI tribes is that most of that work was also required for multiplayer. So in 0.5, I'll be shipping experimental multiplayer support, and it's shaping up really nicely. You will have simple options for managing whether you share resources with other players, so you will be able to work together to build a large village and pool resources, or build up separate villages and trade (and later, fight) with each other, or some combination of both.
The 0.5 update won't have any conflict yet, but it's planned for 0.6, along with the full release of multiplayer. I am expecting to release 0.5 early next year.
Keep in mind that the features I've mentioned here and these screenshots are a work in progress, there will still be changes before the update is released. If you would like to keep up to date with progress, you can join the discord, and I'm now posting frequent progress updates here on the Steam discussion forums too.
It's been longer than I would like to get this update out, but we're on the final stretch now, and I'm really excited to get it into your hands as soon as I can!
