The Isle News

[h2]Filipe - Lead Programmer[/h2]
This month I worked mainly on finishing the diet system. The stomach grows with the dinosaur and food no longer scales with the stomach. This doesn’t have much impact on smaller animals, but large ones that have quick moments of growth are forced to eat far more often. The combinations for diets were simplified but now they are not dependent on having active slots. The value of a nutrient increases the bonuses proportionally with them to a cap. Salt licks were adjusted to better help with vomit sickness but they also drain a nutrient while using them. Don’t forget to set your active nutrient in the Dinosaur Profile if you want to control which one it is.

The diet and nutrition changes also allowed us to include the eggs in the diet system. Now players can grab eggs from female corpses that had gestated them before dying or steal eggs from the nests. Changes will be made to this in the future to account to specific “Egg Thief” dinosaurs but for now every carnivore can benefit from stealing those nutrient rich eggs from nests

To conclude, some fun things for server owners. A lot more server configs were added to help modify gameplay experiences and admin commands were updated to be faster and more responsive. Mass Migration was also added as a config and more is coming soon with the introduction of “Nesting Patrol Zones” but otherwise the system is done.

See you next time.


[h2]Ariel - Programmer[/h2]
I’ve been working on some features you may have already seen for yourself in the horde test. Egg gestation has been added along with some adjustments to the nesting system. This required several changes, as previously you only laid a given number of eggs depending on your diet, but now you can choose how many you want and even lay them at different times. I also added scent support for them since they can now be picked up and eaten.

I also continued my work on the maiasaura. Most abilities were actually quite simple to update to support the bipedal and quadrupedal states but out of all things grazing happened to cause the most problems. I ended up reworking the animation setup for that, but that’s something that had been planned anyway. Maiasaura now moves quite smoothly.


[h2]amarok - Programmer[/h2]
I have been busy working on a new navigation system for fish which can translate for use with swimmers and eventually flyers. I’ve added the fish's capability to try to chase down and eat smaller players which you may have seen in the hordetest.

With a lot of the back-end systems now completed my focus is AI. The base logic for most animals is completed with some big improvements to navigation and performance. The Pterodactylus and Compsognathus AI has been made using a new system which will allow larger hordes to spawn and interact with the world. Though these are WIP you will still see them showing up around the island. Each animal will get some improvements to their behavior now the foundation for base logic has been tested for performance and reliability.

To close, some new RCON commands have been added for server owners that you can find in provided documentation.


[h2]Bryan - Animator[/h2]
It’s been rigging time, getting ready for the next round of animals to get back on their feet. Kentrosaurus is the first to use our new rig system that we’ll be using from here on out.



As far as animation goes, I’ve been on Maiasaura and Allosaurus lately. Maia never really was a pushover in the old days but it’s got a new trick up its sleeve for Evrima. Best not to make mommy angry.



The Allosaurus is getting new locomotion which is just about done for the adult and I’ll be working on the juvenile locomotion in November.




[h2]Wedge - Sound Designer[/h2]
This month has just been more work on the Maiasaura. Along with polishing the adult calls I’ve also designed a set for its juvenile stage, maintaining the cute burbles and pops consistent from legacy. Additionally, I’ve completed the implementation for the calls, ensuring that the pitch and volume modulation as well as the dynamic mixing of vocal call layers over growth and other variables (such as when it loses its voice) all sound appropriate at every incremental stage.

I’ve also gone through all the adult animations adding in footstep and foley sounds. Taking into account both its bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion meant double the number of places to sync.
I’ve now started working on the vocal sounds for the rest of its animations, starting with its attacks. With varying directional attack animations based on the angle of attack, a few different attack vocals of different lengths are needed, providing a coherent yet natural variability to compliment the variety in the animations.


[h2]hypno - QA Lead[/h2]
Hey all! It’ll just be a short one for me on this devblog as QA have been working solely on bug testing both recent additions and some upcoming mechanics. Here are a few of the more interesting issues we encountered over the past month:

As you are all probably aware by now, one of our recent additions was the inclusion of our first ever seasonal content. Of course this came with some interesting bugs, such as being able to court and nest with dead dinosaurs:



Additionally, dead dinosaurs would leave behind some of their belongings if they entered spectator mode:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We’ve been testing out some new Scavenger AI that have proven to be much more performance friendly and reliably spawning on corpses, though have had a plethora of issues in their development. Thankfully, you can expect these issues to be fixed for their release:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


Tenontosaurus had a fun gravity defying kick that set people up for combo damage instead of sending them away from a player:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


We also found the omniraptor decided it would also be a ghost for a build and disappear whenever it would latch on to a player:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]KissenKitten - Producer[/h2]
Happy Halloween! October was an interesting month. A lot going on. There’s so many irons in the fire right now. And since I’m tired, I’d prefer to do more showing than telling.

Creature side there’s Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Maiasaura, Allosaurus, Austroraptor and soon Kentrosaurus all being worked on in some capacity across varying departments. Their animations are either complete or nearing completion for all but kentrosaurus who is next in line, followed by baryonyx.

The animation team has been doing an excellent job and stood up to the task I placed before them, which was to get the austroraptor animations complete in record time. The animal has land based movement, aquatic movement both above and below the surface of the water, and all that feather work. I am very proud of what we managed to accomplish with such a frankly annoying creature and I’m sure the entire animation team is as relieved to be bringing it to a close as I am.

There are new AI additions coming too. Destined for a life of being fodder for hatchlings and juvenile carnivores, these small animals will be showing up in specific locations and be yet another element we’re incorporating to bring the whole island to life. Grasshoppers, rats, dragonflies, and lizards to name a few.

Elders are looking pretty good. I’ve attached some images of adults and elder comparisons, some of which are already being moved into the game for current playables.

I hope you all enjoyed the Halloween event and continue to have some fun with it. That’s all for this month. The next two months are gonna be here and gone before we know it so we haven’t a moment to spare. Catch you next time.




























































[h2]Director’s Commentary[/h2]
The Migration Zone testing went well and I'm happy to say the game works with or without the settings enabled, as well as Diets/Buffs, Patrol Zones, and Mutations. Additional configurations were added for server owners to further customize the experience they wish to give players and rebalance settings.

The User-Interface changes are rapidly coming to a close. It took a bit of time to figure out how to properly transition from an old retro style console interface to a sleek design in-game without it becoming jarring but I feel we've figured it out. I've attached a few previews of the layout approvals of the upcoming UI but the transition sequence is still too rough to display. The VFX of the menus can be toggled off and there will be a small color selection for menu color.



[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

VisualTech48 made some fantastic progress in everyone's favorite general underground transportation system. Many of you by now have seen the proto-entrances that exist on the island and I've attached some images of their upcoming replacement. Someone somewhere is asking about the vending machines and yes, they are temporary stand-ins because you know AE has only the finest liquid provisions to provide to their workers.





Much like the Hubs, there will be a degree of variation among these that can allow various sections to branch off into other rooms, halls, or tunnels, including the elevator shaft. Coming shortly after these major connections are complete will be the destroyed tunnel variants that spill out into caverns and other internal environments.





Certain lighting is temporary as we work on the power system and as always, be nice to the tyrannosaur. They're just visiting.







Lastly, I’ll just fire off some things going into the next HordeTest with varying degrees of context.

Thermal vents and wind currents! These can affect flying creatures by providing speed boosts and lift and no stamina cost to a player and slowing them if they fly against it. These airways are also customizable and can be set to be active during a specific time of day, if they are immune to or affected by weather states, or if they’re just permanently active. You can expect all those natural thermal vents that are active during the day will go away during heavy rain or storms, as well as varying wind currents that become active at night to help move our flight-capable population around.

I know everyone is excited for the next animal and the Maiasaura will be stomping over that line for testing very soon. It will also be in one of if not the first HordeTest for the next patch.

I don’t have additional information context for these but they’ll be there:
Spawn Codes.
Gastroliths.
Nesting Zones.
Replay Updates and Effects.

Godspeed and see you on The Isle.

- Don

Hey Islanders,

A new patch has spread to the Evrima Public Branch and thank you to everyone that survived our recent Hordetest! While we hope that you enjoy the update, a friendly warning to any server admins that may click the new button: There is no cure.

[h3]Version 0.17.54[/h3]

[h3]Updated Game.Ini for Server Owners[/h3]
[expand][/Script/TheIsle.TIGameStateBase]

AdminsSteamIDs=Admin steam ID here
WhitelistIDs=White list steam ID here
VIPs=
AllowedClasses=Hypsilophodon
AllowedClasses=Pachycephalosaurus
EnabledMutations=(MutationName=”Hemomania”,EffectValue=0.05)
EnabledMutations=(MutationName=”Hematophagy”,EffectValue=0.25)
EnabledMutations=(MutationName="Enlarged meniscus",EffectValue=1


[/Script/TheIsle.TIGameSession]
ServerName="Server name here" //Server name.
MapName=Gateway
MaxPlayerCount=100 //100+ player servers is not recommended.
bEnableHumans=false //
bQueueEnabled=false //Enable queue if server slots are all filled.
QueuePort=10000 //Queue port.
bServerPassword=false //Set to true if you want a server password.
ServerPassword="password here" //Your server password if enabled.
bRconEnabled=true //Enable RCON.
RconPassword="password here" //RCON password if enabled
RconPort=8888 //Default port used in game, can´t change
bRandomWeatherEnabled //Enable/Disable Weather variation
MinWeatherVariationInterval=600 //Set in seconds how often to switch weather
MaxWeatherVariationInterval=900 //Set in seconds how often to switch weather
ServerDayLengthMinutes=45 //Set in minutes.
ServerNightLengthMinutes=20 //Set in minutes.
bServerWhitelist=false //Set the server whitelist.
bEnableGlobalChat=false //Enabling the Global Chat panel.
bSpawnPlants=true //Enable plant food spawns.
PlantSpawnMultiplier=1 //Multiplies how many plants to spawn, rise this value to increase plant spawn amount
bSpawnAI=true //Enable AI spawns.
AISpawnInterval=40 //Set how frequently AI can spawn in seconds.
DisallowedAIClasses=Compsognathus
DisallowedAIClasses=Pterodactylus
AIDensity=1
bEnableMigration=true //Disable/Enable Migrations, include Patrols and Mass
SpeciesMigrationTime=10800 //Max time a species MZ stays active
bEnableMassMigration=true //Enable/Disable Mass migration
MassMigrationTime=43200 //Value is in seconds 12h - How often new mass migration is set
MassMigrationDisableTime=7200 // Value is in seconds 2h - How long a mass migration last once set
bEnablePatrolZones=true //Enable/Disable PatrolZone system
bEnableDiets=true //Enable/Disable diets, no more buffs
GrowthMultiplier=1 //Recommendation is no higher than 20.
bEnableMutations=true //Enable mutations.
bAllowRecordingReplay=true //Enable replays.
bUseRegionSpawning=false //Enable region spawn
bUseRegionSpawnCooldown=true //Enable region cooldown
RegionSpawnCooldownTimeSeconds=600 //Region cooldown max time.
CorpseDecayMultiplier=1 //Multiplies how fast corpses decay to despawn - Reduce value to be faster[/expand]

[h3]Changelog:[/h3]
Setup new gestation system. Players now need to gestate eggs before laying them (Contained in nest screen)
Gestated eggs will now show in corpses if they are not laid in a nest
Added the ability to pickup/eat/swallow/steal eggs from nests
Added Elite Fish AI charge attack
Added new nutrient math to take effect as soon as they are consumed
Added new diet math
Added new diet combinations
Adjusted Growth Bonus to reach a maximum of 300%
Added Mass Migration
Added new Mutations for Halloween Event and admin command for infecting a player (Infections persist through logout. Dead dinosaurs do not)
Updated VFX to Niagara
Added a way to set an active nutrient from Status Screen for use in salt licks and other nutrient modifiers
Added Egg icons to scent
Added vocal curve to pterodactylus call sound
Added new plant food types
Added "bEnableDiets" as a server config. Disabling this will remove diets and buffs from the game configuration.
Added "bEnableMassMigration" as a server config. Disabling this will remove mass migrations from the game configuration.
Added "MassMigrationTime" as a server config. This manipulates how often mass migration should update with a new one
Added "MassMigrationDisableTime" as a server config. This manipulates how long mass migration stays active after being set (in seconds). Keep in mind that during this time no Species Migrations or Patrol Zones will trigger.
Added "bEnablePatrolZones" as a server config. Disabling this will remove patrol zones from the game configuration.
Added "CorpseDecayMultiplier" as a server config. Lowering this speeds up corpse decay time. 0.1 is 10x faster decay. Edit at your own risk.
Added "PlantSpawnMultiplier" as a server config. Value of 2 is 200% increased spawn rate. Edit at your own risk.
Gateway - Docks area expansion
Gateway - Added additional salt lick locations

Prevented psittacosaurus from being able to be hit or killed while inside its burrow or while it's burrowing by pachycephalosaurus ram attack
Fixed drink hint sometimes appearing slowly
Stegosaurus impale attacks have been moved to directional attacks
Stegosaurus power swing cooldown has been removed
Improved organs ragdoll performance
Made RCON accept EOS or Steam ID in any instance to avoid confusion
Adjusted the pounce point behind diabloceratops' head
Reduced juvenile pachycephalosaurus attract call volume
Stopped deinosuchus danger call occluding in water
Adjusted ceratosaurus trot footstep synchronized effects
Changed math for ceratosaurus vomit to skip fresh time for that corpse and immediately begin decomposing it
Adjusted admin pawn NV to see itself on spectator mode
Updated DLSS
Slightly reduced herrerasaurus pounce attack sound volume
Improved troodon venom pounce loop sounds
Improved random venom vocal sounds immersion
Made "Enlarged Meniscus" work proportionally
Reduced diabloceratops movement speed in spar mode when moving diagonally backwards
Reduced ceratosaurus' applied bacteria by half
Made admin commands more responsive
Increased grace period for bucking to knockdown pouncers to 2s
Adjusted ceratosaurus' damage negation while eating to not take its defense buff into account before ignoring damage
Added boar attack vocal sounds to animations
Patrol zones now disable themselves if empty of food
Fixed the escape menu sometimes not working
Fixed camera lock rotation sometimes resetting itself
Fixed players disappearing when sitting over rocks or mesh collisions at too far of a distance
Fixed pounce latch attack damage not scaling properly with growth
Fixed pterodactylus corpse event animation jitter when eating
Fixed some fractured animations not playing properly
Fixed gallimimus fractured animations sliding
Fixed brightness commands not working in admin panel
Fixed chat remaining on screen forever after sending or receiving messages
Fixed drink hint sometimes showing up on mud pits
Fixed gallimimus ragdoll not working properly
Fixed not being able to open a corpse if hallucinating
Fixed migration zone logic to avoid species being sent to multiple zones
Fixed wrong name of group member displaying when broadcasting from far away
Fixed not being able to remove EOS ID bans from the admin panel
Fixed ban times showing as UTC on clients
Fixed corpses not floating properly if dropped while being carried in water
Fixed ragdolls not working with certain physics collisions
Fixed hatchling deinosuchus call sounds
Fixed hatchling deinosuchus broadcast sounds
Fixed mudpools occluding other footstep sounds
Fixed decals appearing on russula mushrooms
Fixed "Hydrodynamic Mutation" affecting flight speed
Fixed carnotaurus being able to instantly CC with charge
Fixed dilophosaurus hallucination sliding while moving and using vocals
Fixed jackfruits so that they now bounce off of trees to prevent them getting stuck
Fixed juvenile stegosaurus walk, trot and sprint animation being too fast
Fixed meat chunks, schooling fish, and organs not rotting
Fixed the "Go To" admin command not working while an admin is in spectator mode
Fixed weather variation toggle server config not working and added min and max intervals for server configs
Fixed the hypsilophodon carrying animation
Fixed diabloceratops being able to use directional attacks during the engage attack
Fixed diabloceratops being able to activate blocking while sprinting
Fixed diabloceratops diagonal forward spar sprint animations
Fixed pounce ending due to killing pinned target not replicating animation properly
Fixed river PP not updating fast enough when player jumps in water
Fixed droplets not working during rain
Fixed inconsistencies with carnotaurus hit conditions
Fixed hallucination fog remaining if healed during spectator mode
Fixed schooling fish not showing as a diet type
Fixed an issue where you would vomit again if eating immediately after vomiting
Fixed stomach warning UI not showing when close to vomit
Fixed rabbit sprint animation not playing properly
Fixed "Social Behaviour" mutation not allowing max group size changes
Fixed Mass Migration Zone not showing in compass
Fixed 'Hematophagy' and 'Xerocole Adaptation" amount not scaling properly with growth
Fixed some Animal AI sounds not playing
Fixed Patrol zones not swapping if there is only one player online

[h2]Filipe - Lead Programmer[/h2]
This month I was busy reworking the math behind food, which also changed all diet code including the combinations. Now slots no longer need to be activated anymore, the bonuses are scaled with the amount of nutrients until a defined maximum. No more getting full before you receive any benefits from eating what is on your diet! This change also made all balance changes easier for all animals, but also for calculating food in migration/patrol zones. This also allows us to give server owners some control over the food balance in game who may want a more customized experience.

Besides that and the new slot combinations, new mechanics are coming soon such as Gastroliths. These are small rocks that will manually drain food contents from the stomach. This does not affect nutrients or anything other than the stomach value.

Lastly, I also worked on balance changes for mutations, a few have been changed completely, others merely received buffs or debuffs and a lot of bug fixes and improvements.


[h2]Ariel - Programmer[/h2]
In the beginning of the month I worked on the update we recently released, which was mostly just bug fixes, including a funny one where herrerasaurus was able to latch onto the air and just climb up infinitely into the sky. As much as I would like to buff that dinosaur, unfortunately that one was taking it too far.

Other than that I was working on various maiasaura features as it moves closer towards completion. It has different attacks depending on its stance so it’s a bit of work to finish all of them but they’re unique enough to feel worth it and the movement system is functioning well after some bug fixes which I’m really happy about.


[h2]Wedge - Sound Designer[/h2]
I’ve been working on Maiasaura’s calls to get some space and perspective from the Tyrannosaurus. I am maintaining the trilling and warbling from the original vocal signature but bringing them up to the standard expected with Evrima. This is being achieved by using similar sources for the warbles; a mixture of female human screams, pitched down fairly low which creates the oscillation in the sound and combining with the growls, snarls and trills extracted from whale vocalizations. I’m introducing sounds such as pitched down bird calls as well as sounds from animals like tapir etc. to create a bedding to underpin the warbling that gives the sound more body as well as a more musical quality.
The other breath and throat layers consist of gurgles and growls from camels to keep it consistent within the hadrosaur family (as that has been used as the base for the Tenontosaurus sounds as well), along with pelican and flamingo calls which when pitched down heavily give a thick growly animalistic texture that compliments the movement of the warbling. Looking forward to sharing more soon. Thanks!


[h2]Bryan - Animator[/h2]
It’s been a long month with a variety of Dinosaurs. First up was some T. rex subadult animation, getting the animations needed for testing some of it’s mechanics ready before we expand into the rest of the Rex growth stages. I’ve said it before, but Rex is a very different beast compared to legacy and each growth stage is practically a different animal, both in terms of how it plays but also in the amount of work that is going into it.

Maiasaurua requires two sets of locomotion animations and is complete. Players will be able to swap between bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion, each with their own benefit to how the animal moves.

And the Austroraptor locomotion has also been finalized. The amount of feathers on this guy made it a bit of a bear to work with but its locomotion is almost complete. Austroraptor has a pretty complicated rig, which leads me into my final project for the month: Kentrosaurus.

Due to the increasing number of features required in our animation rigs for the month, I decided to use Kentrosaurus as an experimental rig which will hopefully be more ergonomic and robust when the animation team is working with it. The rig is nearly done and shows a lot of promise. I’ve also taken the extra time to build a custom rigging toolset which should make rigging any future animals much easier and faster. With Kentrosaurus, what usually took over a week to do only took a day to complete. Work smarter, not harder.


[h2]KissenKitten - Producer[/h2]
We’re up to a lot currently. We’ve got some changes to diets, changes to migrations, the addition of patrols, elders being integrated, changes to current playables and production still churning on new creatures. There’s never a dull moment.

Work done to migrations, diets and patrols should give you guys more flexibility for how you want to grow your animal and the choices you make during their lifecycle. Moving animals around in more ways so you can potentially have an interesting experience no matter where you happen to be on the island.

We’ve also got some changes in the works for nesting and friend invites. This is aimed towards allowing you easier ways to play with your friends without sacrificing the integrity of the island’s ecosystem or creating abusive gameplay systems. We want to further incentivize nesting on the island in ways beneficial to both parent and offspring and in doing so, help make play with your friends more streamlined and accessible.

Patrols are going to slowly but surely start being expanded to include more ingrained experiences that are varied and make sense for the island and for your groups. No details to share just yet as we want to work out the systems mindfully before unveiling them. But the goal is to give you more experiences that will help the island feel more alive and dynamic. Which is a key component across the board. Which is to make the island itself feel like a living breathing ecosystem. Full of all manner of flora and fauna that you can interact with and in some circumstances, interact with you.

Sticking to that design goal helps ensure that no matter where you are or what time of day it is, a realistic experience can be had. Which will be made all the more apparent when humans enter the game permanently. As each and every excursion beyond the relative safety of a secured facility is truly and genuinely a walk out into the unknown wilds where the creatures of The Isle live out their lives with or without the existence or knowledge of the humans on the island.

Elders are also getting some legitimate work on them which is very exciting as the system will round out the gameplay loop for our animals which has been a long time coming. All creatures will age on the island but the elder is where strength meets experience. For those that have maintained a quality existence throughout their lives, the reward will come in the form of an elder: a peak representation of the species. This is a stronger and more capable age state than a healthy adult. For those creatures ineligible or incapable of reaching elder status, a slow decline into a frail elder stage is all that awaits but the choice is yours.

I’m looking forward to doing more rex testing this week to get its features where they need to be so it's safe to knock out its feature mechanic animations for its lifestages. We have to get the mechanic working the way we want first before completing the lifestage animations for those features. That way, we don’t have to redo work should the features need to be adjusted for some reason. Thankfully, with a click of a button and an export, those lifestage animations are done. Praise be! The tyrannosaurus is definitely shaping up to be one of, if not the most production intensive creature we’ve ever made, primarily due to how much it changes over the course of its life. As we’ve been vocal about before and I feel bears repeating now, we are committed to the tyrannosaurs feeling appropriately like a tyrannosaurus: starting off life extremely vulnerable, slowly scaling into one of the most powerful predators to have ever existed. A healthy adult tyrannosaurus in The Isle is going to be a force to be reckoned with and grow into true apex predator.



The maiasaura has also been rounding the corner towards completion. Getting its sounds created and integrated currently. It should also be ready this week for some testing as well to ensure it's on the right track. Which ultimately shouldn’t be too challenging considering its mechanics are fairly simplistic. I’m excited for its inclusion to the roster cause no manner of dinosaur media is complete without a hadrosaur in my opinion. Its playstyle should remain similar to what it was in legacy for those that remember that. It should be strong enough to defend itself from smaller predators but should definitely consider fleeing as an option from larger more dangerous threats. Which is primarily the winning survival strategy for most creatures. Its ability to change stances should hopefully provide more flexibility for its survival. It will be interesting to see how they are utilized in your hands.


At the end of this devblog I’ll include some skins that have been in the works the past few months that were posted on the community discord and some other pieces of development content. Treat each other with respect. See you next time.


[h2]Director’s Commentary[/h2]
Hello Islanders,

When Migration Zones were originally tested, they were left active and always on to ensure that the mechanic was working. This led players from one migration to the next with there being no applicable downtime in-between, resulting in a “Keep moving or starve” gameplay experience unless you could supplement your diet with grazing along the way. To be clear, this was not the intended purpose of the Migration Zones initially. We left these active and constantly cycling to ensure it worked properly and consistently. Migration Zones have been toned down and do not automatically adjust player diets to everything in the location they are summoned, but strongly increase nutrient yields from preferred foods. These also take time to activate, ensuring that a migration is a less frequent occurrence but guarantees a larger overlap of players.

Patrol Zones are limited to an individual or the group that they lead (group members always have the patrol zone of a group leader), which are smaller pockets of exploration areas across the island that can yield food and benefits should a player go there. For carnivores, patrol zones that have or had recent player activity in them that are also part of your diet will activate after a short delay. It won’t guarantee that you go to a zone and just see players running around, but it will give you a staging point for a hunt.

One of the biggest tests on the immediate horizon is going to be disabling Migrations and Patrol Zones entirely. Though these features are important to the survival aspect of the game, do not forget that sandbox is king. These features may not be relevant to other experiences, official or otherwise, within The Isle.

Nesting gameplay is getting the attention it sorely needs. Various nesting areas are being drummed up around the island, some of which are a common design where any animal can reach and nest, but a few bespoke locations may be harder to reach or inaccessible to some animals. These locations will have unique patrol zones designed to help parents raise their young and remain nearby without forcing the parents to struggle too hard for resources. (Final Note: There’s also some testing going on to allow eligible but unbonded animals to use their courtship calls at a longer range, not unlike a mating call, to find other players who want to create a nest and I’m hoping it works out as a finalized addition).

UI update? UI update. “Minimalist AE console interface” is the direction I started in and Seiza has been hard at work with me going over the various screens in the game as we move towards a unified look and feel. I’m happy to say it mimics the style of what is seen in our YouTube videos and I feel that we’re close to the end of any edits and updates to screen navigation. Once this is complete, we will begin filling in the intentional empty spaces with various lore information. Ultimately, it’s a lot less cluttered and more direct on player input. (I know what you’re thinking. Where are the screenshots? Expect new UI media to randomly start finding its way into the Discord and Phase Three in October.)

Just a quick update on the random spawning for official servers: Randomizing the spawn region for players has helped considerably with displacing problematic player hotspots on the map but brought the obvious problem that it made it infinitely harder to find and play with friends. Spawn Codes are being worked on to allow players to join one another as they start the life of their animal. No further information at this time until it goes through testing to fix abuse cases, but I’m confident that this will resolve being able to find and play with friends when starting a new life.

Mutations and their changes have been seen in some older streams. Of course there have been adjustments due to problematic behaviors but some mutations have received more bespoke adjustments to make these choices matter to a player more with more obvious consequences or changes in default gameplay. Something like “Cannibalistic” will require more consideration, as selecting that mutation may alter your coloration to show everyone just exactly what type of player you are. Other mutations that alter percentage values of your animal will be drastically reduced in effectiveness, making way for the Elder system that will allow those mutations to stack in effectiveness (up to point) if you complete a full lifecycle as the animal.

Lastly, this year we will host a limited time seasonal event on the HordeTesting servers. This was a pitch done over an extremely small amount of time that wasn’t meant to interrupt general development, so it is in no way visually perfect but it’s been very fun in closed testing and I hope that you all will enjoy it when the time comes. Just remember, there is no cure.

Godspeed and see you on The Isle.

- Don

Hey Islanders,

A new patch is now available on the Evrima Public Branch. If the update isn't available for download right away, please restart your Steam client. Lastly, we'd like to extend a thank you to everyone that participated in our recent Hordetest.

[h3]Additions:[/h3]
Nightvision adjustments
Added the capability for animals to move between pounce slots (Currently only functional for omniraptor.)
Added manual controls for omniraptor when latched to or pinning a target (Spacebar - Dismount | Primary Attack - Flat Damage | Secondary Attack - Bleed Damage)
Added psittacosaurus AI
Added new patrols system
Gateway WIP port expansion
Swamp biome expansion
Added tenontosaurus pattern C
Added new VFX to Troodon envenomation stages


[h3]Enhancements:[/h3]
Adjusted pickup trace for objects
Replaced various depreciated Cascade VFX
Groups can now see another member's nametag during their broadcast call if they are within audible range
Reduced volume of herrerasaurus slide start layer
Enabled stamina regeneration for pteranodon when latched. Requires 20% stamina or more to begin regen
Updated carnotaurus scaling, weight, damages, and speeds
Adjusted bacteria applied by ceratosaurus based on weights and available bacterial bite
Adjusted swim height for all species
Updated bucking to have a % chance to dismount pouncers
Removed bleed from gallimimus attacks
Sanctuary mushrooms now provide more nutrients to trigger buffs
Ceratosaurus diet - Added diabloceratops and removed troodon.
Omniraptor diet - Added gallimimus and removed dilophosaurus
Reduced launch speed of deinosuchus lunge on land
Fixed inconsistent rain volumes
Temporarily disabled "Truculency" mutation


[h3]Bug Fixes:[/h3]
Fixed human animation rotating backwards when picking up objects
Fixed gore and fruit occasionally getting stuck in the player's face
Fixed the input lock triggered by vomiting
Fixed ceratosaurus bacterial bite consumption
Fixed carnotaurus animation issue if it runs off a ledge when charging
Fixed landscape grasstypes appearing over landscape holes
Fixed deinosuchus lunge vocals not playing in water
Fixed diabloceratops flip attack hitting behind its back
Fixed gallimimus mobilize call sound not playing on F calls while running
Fixed gallimimus not choosing generic/mobilize montage correctly
Fixed Multichambered Lung values not updating properly
Fixed replication issues with debris
Fixed juvenile deinosuchus sink animation offset
Fixed conflict between ceratosaurus manual and automatic chuffing
Fixed dryosaurus dodge vocals not playing
Fixed dryosaurus slide animation playing too quickly
Fixed server password entry box changing sizes
Fixed being able to maintain high speeds by quickly jumping
Fixed hypsilophodon sliding animation playing too quickly
Fixed human not playing animations properly
Fixed herrerasaurus sometimes sliding in idle pose after being knocked down from falling
Fixed herrerasaurus latching location correction not working
Fixed herrerasaurus being able to occasionally climb the air to infinity
Fixed wallow reducing hunger decay during it
Fixed ceratosaurus defense power not applying during pounce damage attacks
Fixed leaving group not removing name tags
Fixed gallimimus foraging not working
Fixed gallimimus headtracking issues
Fixed gallimimus consuming stamina when carrying an object and trying to kick
Fixed skimming not working
Fixed slowdown when trying to sprint in mud
Fixed dilophosaurus charges indicator
Fixed tenontosaurus kick hitbox being too short
Fixed subault beipiaosaurus being able to jump higher than intended
Fixed step height not scaling with growth
Fixed difficulties feeding hatchlings
Fixed Gastronomic Regeneration math error
Fix to physics foliages nearby not disabling if settings are set to false
Fix map kill volumes not forcing a player to respawn
Fixed dryosaurus and hypsilophodon ground clipping issues
Fixed latching being inaccurate on the server
Fixed corpses spontaneously flying into the sky
Fixed waterfall metasounds not retriggering once loaded out of memory
Fix to food diet info sometimes not showing up in profiler UI
Fixed /unstuck command falsely detecting corpses or AI as players

[h2]Filipe - Lead Programmer[/h2]
This month I have been mostly focused on the new features for pounce and finishing up some systems before moving on to the new playables. As for pounce, the new slot swap system is finished which allows players to manually swap slots when latched to a target by spending some stamina. It can be used to better coordinate with other pouncers or simply be used to avoid being knocked down when the target uses nearby trees or objects.

Along with that, pounce now has some incoming manual control to attack while latching. Latching on to players only causes a small amount of consistent damage, but allows players to tap/hold the primary attack button to do extra raw damage, or also tap/hold the secondary attack button to deal no raw damage, but high bleeding damage. Both actions spend stamina, but allows for more dynamic combat giving players more control over what type of damage they’re dealing to pounced victims. With this bucking has become significantly more important for the victim and it has received some major attention to prevent it being an unfun war of attrition.

Lastly, some additional adjustments were made to the patrol zones that should help encourage players to explore the map and should be featured in the upcoming hordetest.


[h2]Ariel - Programmer[/h2]
Most of my work this month was done on the maiasaura. The dinosaur will have the ability to switch between bipedal and quadrupedal stances, which affects its movement in different ways. The most time consuming part however was setting up all the different interactions to support both stances. I also had to reorganize some existing data, but on the plus side this also opens up the door to new mechanics such as sprinting while crouching. The maiasaura will also have different attacks depending on its stance which I will be working on next.

Other than that it’s mostly been the usual bug fixes, but there were some quite significant balance changes as well. For one, the carnotaurus has been made slightly smaller which has an effect on its weight which should feel more appropriately located within the roster while its speed is still being evaluated. I also updated the ceratosaurus’s bacterial bite, which now takes into account the relative size of the two dinosaurs and also how much bacteria you have available. This has made it extremely effective against small target animals near its weight class, which has led to some interesting new space for the ceratosaurus.


[h2]Amarok - Programmer[/h2]
Focus for me this month has been moving some of our smaller scavengers to a more robust and visually appealing system that allows more complex interactions. There are some new interactions coming to the world that involve this system, including some sound traps that will give away careless players.

Psittacosaurus has received a few behavioral changes and bug fixing based on QA testing with the hope to include it in the upcoming hordetest. They have a few burrowing locations throughout a few biomes, but can also be found in some sanctuaries.

Lastly, I’ve made a new RCON tool for internal use and hope to get that into public hands once it’s been evaluated and tested.


[h2]Wedge - Sound Designer[/h2]
This month I’ve been working more on refining the tyrannosaurus sounds. A lot of the sound palette of the calls has been changed, namely a lot of the source sounds being used for the core elements; instead of relying almost solely on animal sounds I started working with recording and processing new source from non-literal sounds – recording metal screeches and groans, glass squeals and moans etc. This took a fair bit of experimenting to find the right source, which once found is then blended with the animal elements to help these sources sound more organic as well as additional processing to give them a vocal quality such as modulated resonant filtering and tremolo.

Specifically for each call these are the main changes that have been made:

• Injected more dynamics and movement into the broadcast so it has more inconsistencies and is not just a flat note as well as improved the mix of the different layers.
  
• Mix improvements and more variations of the alternate broadcast
  
• Adding a distinct core to the generic call over the chunky gurgles and groans that it solely consisted of previously
  
• Reworked the danger call - reducing the amount of noise that was cluttering the mix from breath and roar layers as well as creating a more unique core to the sound which will be easily identifiable.
  
• Worked on blending the layers of the attract call better.
  

Additionally some of its attacks and idles have also had edits made, making them tighter and removing undesirable elements and more adjustments have been made to the attenuations; refining how they travel and checking at various distance ranges to make sure it sounds appropriate. A custom attenuation setup has been added for the broadcast which has a separate power layer to help give a terrifying impact and crunch even at distance without other breathy and growly elements being audible at distance.

Other tasks I have also worked on this month:

• Worked on an ambient cue for troodon’s venom that will spawn randomized vocal sounds during its new envenomation setup, same as for the dilophosaurus’ which has now also been implemented.
  
• Improved the timings of herrerasaurus’ pounce attack vocal and foley sounds
  
• Fixed gallimimus’ mobilize call, dryosaurus’ dodge vocal and deinosuchus’ lunge vocal (in water) not playing
  
• Started some early concepting on updating maiasaura’s calls to be in line with the sonic aesthetics.
  

[h2]Tapwing - 2D Artist[/h2]
This month I got to work on some edits for the elder diabloceratops, beipiaosaurus and the juvenile/hatchling concepts for austroraptor. The direction for the little austros was to go in the opposite direction of the long and sleek adults (Design wise) and make the younger versions progressively rounder and fluffier the closer to hatchling you get. Needless to say baby birds were a big inspiration, mainly that of fowls as well as some songbirds.



On the flip end of cute fluffy dinos, I’ve been doing some additional work for the Gen1 customization, including some close ups and extra detailing of the alternate head variations to get the monstrous humanoid ready for the horror side of the isle.




[h2]Bryan - Animator[/h2]
Another busy month of animation. Been hard at work on a number of dinosaurs. Triceratops sparring is really coming along, I recently completed the horn locking and it really is impressive how solidly two triceratops lock together when sparring as opposed to how freely a diabloceratops could move.



Also been working on getting austroraptor finalized and ready for animation. Its rig has a lot of moving parts but it’s all come together and a few people on the animation team are already working with it to get its list of animations done. A few of the other animals we’ve been working on, like triceratops, maiasaura or diabloceratops have been in legacy and had some animations we could reuse, but austroraptor is different in that it has a whole new skeleton and everything has to be remade from scratch.


Lastly, tyrannosaurus has been featured heavily in my current workload while getting its more advanced locomotion animations completed as we continue to polish the sparring and life stages.

[h2]hypno - QA Lead[/h2]
QA has been spending a good amount of time on balance testing over the past month. Below are just some of the many areas we’ve been looking at:

One of our main focuses was testing the new pounce changes. Being able to switch between pounce “slots” while holding onto your target has been proving extremely useful in combat, allowing the user to avoid having to leap off of a cliff because your target positioned themselves on the edge of one. Having the ability to also pick between raw damage or more bleed with the different mouse buttons has also expanded the utility of the attack. Need to bring something around your size down faster? Focus on the raw damage attack. Target too big to bring down quickly? Focus on using the bleed attack to keep the pressure up with your pack.

Ceratosaurus now takes into account its own and its target’s weights when applying bacteria through its bite. This change alone has shaken up its combat prowess, allowing it to more quickly cause smaller species to vomit while larger ones take additional bites. This change will be even more obvious when we get our apexes in, as the ceratosaurus won’t be able to make them vomit in a few bites, solidifying its place in the ecosystem. Ultimately it is still one of the smaller carnivores on the roster.

Tacking onto Will's highlight of the new environmental and attack sounds for dilophosaurus and troodon, their envenomation mechanic has also received their suite of sounds, including ambient vocals from hallucinations. This gives the effect a whole new intensity as the player now feels like they’re constantly surrounded, even when they’re not. This has been very enjoyable to witness in playtesting, as people are now much more paranoid than before.

Night vision has been very well received by the QA team and is undoubtedly the best iteration we’ve had so far. I believe this new system will finally put an end to the case of people playing with NV on constantly, as having it enabled during the day doesn’t give the player any advantage while still giving them a massive advantage at night. As well as this, I’ve tested it against gamma to see the difference, and the results have been very promising—I believe players won’t even feel the need to increase their gamma anymore because of how well it works. QA has been running combat tests at night, and the new system makes the difference between a nocturnal and diurnal creature that much more apparent while still giving all playables an enjoyable playing experience.

For the past few months, QA has also been hard at work cracking down on bug finding, which has led to the discovery of some very strange issues:

Pteranodon AI have decided that the most efficient way to take off is by burrowing their way through a tree first:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The animal AI seem to have grown tired of being endlessly hunted and are rising up against dinosaur players. Be on the lookout for each other:



Beware! The infamous land croc returns with its new dodge ability:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Last but not least, here’s one for the maiasaura:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h2]KissenKitten - Producer[/h2]
Yet another month that has zipped on by. There’s so much going on right now I don’t know where to begin. Since I’ve got a maiasaura trying to kick me in the face at the moment, I’ll drop some content instead of writing a lengthy post.




The animation team has been hard at work cranking out these animals that you should start seeing more of in the not so distant future. There’s a lot of change incoming. Changes to pretty much every species in the game. Changes to the environment, changes to nightvision, changes to abilities etc. There’s also going to be some animation blending changes that may not make it into the next Hordetest but will likely make an appearance shortly thereafter.

Here’s a sampling of some of the skin work that’s been done for the animals including the tertiary skin for tenontosaurus. The other tertiary skins have been created and should be making their way to you.













Additionally here’s some animations for the austroraptor as the animation team starts knocking it out. You can expect it to be every bit as energetic as some of you may remember it being from legacy but in a fully realized fashion. This is an omniraptor in sport mode, but be careful since it’s also more delicate.












Rounding out, here are some animations for trike and rex










There’s still so much work left to do but we’re getting ever closer to our goal. We set out to improve upon the concepts present in the legacy version of the game and those planted seeds are bearing fruit. More work is being done on the humans as well to get them to a place that will allow them to fully function in the game concretely. As always, be good to one another and see you next month!