Preparing for the first extinction event

We are nearing the end of the month and with that are also getting closer to the first extinction event! In an extinction event all planets will be reset to their initial states. On the one hand, this is an exciting opportunity for players to start racing to be the first to reach certain depths again and see how the meta evolves differently this time around. On the other hand it also gives me the opportunity to implement changes that require a change in how creatures are stored. In this case it will allow me to introduce a cool new feature called badges and make further preparations so that skins and hats can be introduced during the next extinction cycle. Since Evolve Lab will participate in the upcoming autumn sale I have decided to do the first extinction event on the night from the 28th to the 29th of September, so that new players joining during the sale can experience the galaxies in their new form right away. In order to prepare I will deploy two separate patches until then. The first one will add the exact extinction time to the game and some more balance changes and bugfixes and the second one will mostly deal with some more preparations for the extinction event itself and will be deployed shortly before it happens.