DevBlog #44

FTessaro - Lead Programmer

After a quick break we started working on fixing the main issues present in the latest patch, but that didn't stop us from working towards overall progress of the game, below are some of the main things that I worked on this month:

• Skin Creator has been updated with a new UI design to provide more room for the new rendering camera. This new camera isn't based on a 2D texture anymore, allowing it to look and perform better:

• In addition I also added access to the Skin Creator from the Main Menu so you can create your skins freely without having to log onto a server first:

• Global chat will be brought in as an optional setting for community servers. This won't be enabled on officials, but server owners now will be able to turn it on.

  For server Owners: bEnableGlobalChat=true

  It is disabled by default, so in order for it to be enabled it needs to be added to the TIGameSession within the Game.ini file of the server.

• Several balance changes with the introduction of the new stamina regen system, but more to come such as new diets combinations, new growth times, hunger and thirst decay adjustments, migration and food availability.

• Overall progress on some new dinosaurs like Triceratops and T-Rex.

• Overall progress on the latest burrowing prototype.

• Bug fixes

• Pounce to pin is still WIP, requires several new animations and extensive balance tests.

Those were the main topics excluding a few small things. See you next time.

Ariel - Programmer

I started the month focusing on fixing bugs that came up during the break. Some of the most important ones include the one where players lost the ability to rest and had to reconnect to fix it and hypsilophodon’s blind effect not being clearable if they applied it again while it was being cleared. I also prevented herrerasaurus from being stuck latched to the air when there is some lag, it should not find the wall it was supposed to latch on to. It can also die from falling now, we wanted it to survive falling from higher than normal, but it accidentally went a bit too far.

I also made various background improvements like reorganizing some of the damage dealing system to combat some of the hacking issues that have been popping up, hopefully that will make the game more fun for everyone. I looked at some saving related bugs as well and reduced some hitches caused by loading on the server. It’s difficult to track down issues where saves are lost, as I can’t just go back and look at what happened exactly after it already happened, but I found some cases that should be handled now.

Later in the month I moved on to the newer mechanics and dinosaurs. I improved the alignment of the diabloceratops while sparring, which can be a challenge to line up in a multiplayer environment. Then I made some visual and polish improvements to herrerasaurus that I didn’t have time for last year, these are mostly visual ones for a bit of extra polish. I’m currently working on a new, powerful attack coming to the stegosaurus, but it’s in quite early stages so I cannot get into the details for now.

Bryan - Animator

Trike has been a pretty good way to get started in 2024, just got the first round of locomotion for the adult and juvenile Triceratops out the door today and