The Isle News

Hey Islanders, while there will not be a DevBlog this holiday season, we do have patch notes!

Thank you to everyone that participated in our recent Hordetest. It’s been an action-packed year and we’re all excited for what 2025 has in store for The Isle. A new patch is now available on the EVRIMA Public Branch. Happy Holidays everyone!

- The Isle Dev Team

[h3]Patch 0.18.111[/h3]
[expand]

• Added maiasaura as a playable species
  
• Gastroliths can now be foraged on gravel
  
• Added officers to groups and the ability to promote/demote and transfer leader
  
• Added alternative high/low grab animations for herbivores
  
• Animals can now be staggered while flying
  
• Adjusted building shader material to better handle vertex painting
  
• Corrected sound attenuation during ceratosaurus’s charge attack
  
• Adjusted attenuation curves for medium size animals vocals
  
• Updated leg fracture animations for diabloceratops, tenontosaurus, gallimimus and stegosaurus
  
• Any connected food items to a tree automatically fall when the tree is consumed
  
• Timers for various environmental skin effects have been updated
  
• Reduced the amount of food required to unlock the cannibal mutation
  
• Increased weight threshold for being grappled from 65% to 101%
  
• Improved system for fractured animations
  
• Bucking now forces a dismount instead of dropping the player straight to the ground
  
• Adjusted dilophosaurus hallucination in water
  
• Broadcast no longer tries to show an extra name tag if the broadcasting player’s name tag is already visible
  
• Reduced volume of crab movement sounds
  
• Improved weather sounds volume balance
  
• Adjusted AI spawn zones with more configurable options
  
• Improved replay scrub time and fixed crash when scrubbing
  
• Adjusted large footstep sounds volume and attenuation
  
• Schooling fish now have a weight cap of 10kg
  
• Added sounds to the stegosaurus digging animations
  
• Fixed ini file being deleted on restart
  
• Fixed issue with loading saves
  
• Fixed vocal type sounds being unnecessarily muffled by nearby sources
  
• Fixed deinosuchus jaw snap base sound not occluding in water
  
• Fixed sounds when a troodon opens a body
  
• Fixed volume issue with juvenile dilophosaurus dirt sprint footsteps
  
• Fixed footsteps not scaling properly
  
• Fixed some plants taking too long to despawn once consumed
  
• Fixed blend from montage for juvenile morphs in certain species
  
• Fixed latched pouncer being hit by their target
  
• Fixed troodon taking longer to recover from a knockdown than it should
  
• Fixed deinosuchus lunge forcing upward movement
  
• Fixed not pairing up correctly after rejoining the server
  
• Fixed courtship being lost on relog
  
• Fixed being able to place a nest when in the same group but not courted/paired
  
• Fixed hatchlings not being added to groups properly
  
• Fixed courting not putting players into groups
  
• Fixed organs not disappearing if using wipe corpse command (RCON)
  
• Fixed dirt effects showing up on improper surfaces
  
• Fixed gallimimus missing its gore mask
  
• Fixed input lock after swallowing a ragdoll
  
• Fixed hint message for closed coconuts
  
• Fixed buck animation not triggering immediately while holding input
  
• Fixed rotation mismatch during latch pounce
  
• Fixed crouching deceleration not being used
  
• Fixed hallucination pawn behavior if the target is flying, latched or swimming
  
• Interacting with plant chunks now displays the correct hints
  
• Fixed diabloceratops being able to trap pouncers in collision
  
• Fixed being able to use ram while grappled as a pachycephalosaurus
  
• Fixed carnotaurus’s sliding rotation rate
  
• Fixed carnotaurus’s rotation rate while holding RMB
  
• Fixed juvenile pachycephalosaurus being unable to knockdown fruit with headbutt
  
• Fixed being able to turn too quickly while moving in mud
  
• Fixed weather sounds in skin creator
  
• Fixed swallow ability not always ending properly
  
• Fixes to some miscellaneous issues related to underwater post process effects
  
• Fixed juvenile deinosuchus ragdoll
  
• Fixed males inheriting the "Advanced Gestation" mutation
  
• Fixed an issue where ragdoll sleep was not functioning correctly
  
• Fixed thunderstorm event not firing
  
• Fixed an issue preventing certain species from swapping the pounce latch slot during a grapple
  
• Fixed omnivores being unable to eat schooling fish on the ground
  
• Fixed rabbit animation speed
  
• Fixed elite fish not resetting after being damaged
  
• Fixed an issue where psittacosaurus burrows would grow inverted infinitely
  
• Fixed deer buck montage
  

[/expand]

[h2]Filipe - Lead Programmer[/h2]
At the beginning of this month, I focused on fixing crashes and various bugs for the latest public patch while simultaneously working on the Allosaurus and its unique mechanics. Most of its basic systems are already functional, though some key animations, particularly those tied to its special ability, are still in production.

We also made notable progress on the Tyrannosaurus, mostly visual fixes and enhancements. This includes smoother animation blending and better integration with its mechanics to help translate visuals due to its size.

Additionally, fruit trees themselves will now be edible, not just their individual fruits. This provides a more practical food source for larger creatures at the cost. Consuming the tree significantly reduces future food availability, as a tree is necessary for fruit to grow back.

Finally, I added the gastrolith system. All playables can now consume gastroliths, which decrease the food contents of your stomach at a faster rate so that you can better manage your nutrition and diet combinations.


[h2]Ariel - Programmer[/h2]
This month my main focus was the maiasaura. The animal is getting close to completion and it’s in full QA testing now, so new issues kept popping up for me to fix. Luckily nothing major was broken and we were also able to set up its stats now that everything is in place. Overall I feel satisfied with how the dinosaur turned out. Originally I was a bit wary of how we were going to support the two different stances, but it worked out quite well.

When not working on the maiasaura or bug fixes I had some time to start looking at my next task, which involves the pteranodon. I always enjoy working on the more agile animals, so I was quite excited about it. This won’t be part of the upcoming update as it’s in early stages, but you can expect some nice little additions.


[h2]Wedge - Sound Designer [/h2]
This month I’ve been making my way through a large majority of adult Maia’s supplementary vocal sounds with only its pounced, pinned, blind and female court vocal sounds remaining. After these are complete, I will be altering these vocals for its juvenile stage. I’ve also done another pass on the adult animations adding short vocal sounds where necessary as well as more breath and foley sounds.

I’ve overhauled and simplified the way we handle reverb for calls at a distance, providing more accurate control on the amount of reverb the sound is sent to over distance. Within this overhaul I made changes to the reverb effect, adjusting decay rates, dampening etc. affecting how it sounds for each size category to be more appropriate and more importantly prominent. I also added an additional send to a multitap delay effect to simulate echo as it gets further away. The combination of all these changes should have a significant effect on making vocals more accurate and help the player identify the distance from a sound source.

I’ve also replaced the distant stomp layer of large footstep sounds and made some adjustments to attenuation and volume balance for the large footsteps.


[h2]VisualTech48 - Environmental Artist[/h2]
This month has been all about the guts. Well not those guts, but the G.U.T.S. Most of my month has been focusing on the new shader Ikarop did and putting it to its true test with a big variation of materials, and applying them all to our new G.U.T.S, ranging from the already seen HUB#1 and a big variation of tunnel types that will be used with it.

I’ve started from the entrance towards the inner pieces, which are semi modular due to the PLA system. You’ll see variants as you go through them so it's not bland or repetitive.

I tried to keep it clean so Jace, or anyone that wants to build on top of the system, can do so with ease. Creators can not only change what is in said tunnels, but can easily make their own path and storylines within by just changing a kit’s piece from dead-ends to further tunnels and room connections. Overall the direction grants us a really nice structure for expanding the tunnels, (literally) in every way.

To top it off here are some development images for you to look at. Till next month. Cheers.




[h2]Tapwing - 2D Artist[/h2]


We wanted to give two of the most famous dinosaurs their own spotlight piece of a 1-on-1 encounter. They were designed to mirror each-other and reflect the opposite outcome of a brutal fight where neither escapes unscathed.

Posing both animals was an interesting challenge with the Trike victory painting, because in early versions, the trike looked as if it were guarding the Tyrannosaurus body as opposed to standing on top of its attacker after finally bringing it down. Changing the arm position to be less possessive looking, sprawled out overtone the rex and adding a little more fear to the triceratops face helped bring the tone back to where it should be.

The Rex victory version of the painting had its own hurdle to work through. With the overlapping nature of the pose, lighting was going to need extra attention to make sure the outline of the Rex head didn’t disappear into the shadows.

For fellow illustrators: Plan out your lighting thoroughly in advance, you’ll save yourself a lot of headache and course corrections down the line!


[h2]hypno - QA Lead[/h2]
This month QA has been focused almost entirely on Maiasaura, ensuring that it works with all of our existing systems. As we add more species to the game, as does the number of possible issues between them, so it was important for us this month to check it against absolutely everything. I can say with confidence now that we’ve checked it against all abilities in the game and they all work as intended. Deinosuchus can lunge and drown it, Ceratosaurus bite applies bacteria correctly, Dilophosaurus hallucinations can spawn and attack the Maiasaura, etc.

As you can see, the number of tests quickly stack up as we add new species; so, we’ve been working on streamlining this process within QA to make it much more efficient in the future.

To give you a video example of an interaction that was bugged with the Maiasaura, here’s what happened when an Omniraptor was bucked off of one:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
In case it wasn’t obvious from the video, the Omniraptor would shrink dramatically in size each time they were bucked off! This wasn’t as straightforward as that though, as this issue only showed on the Omniraptor’s client, causing them to “jitter” for all other players.

As well as interactions with other species, the Maiasaura also of course came with a plethora of its own problems. Here’s how it looked if it grazed while turning:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
We have also been testing the other new additions to the game. For example, Gastroliths are being introduced in the next update, allowing users to reduce their hunger faster.

I’d like to give a big thank you to all of those that have been continuing to report issues to our community bug report form (https://forms.gle/ufXDnxNfhRhZ7CCi8). Without them, we wouldn’t catch a lot of the problems that exist in the game. One report that we did come across from a report a while back was the aptly named “fish prison” issue – players that were swallowed by an elite fish would sometimes never be allowed to respawn, becoming stuck following the fish until forced to relog:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Lastly, QA has been playtesting the Maiasaura to make sure it feels fun to play as. We’re aiming for it to be a fairly tanky, swift animal that deals moderate damage in favour of better crowd control capabilities. The growth is set up in a way so that it quickly grows to its subadult stage, then slows down as it progresses towards a full adult. It is also able to quickly switch stances between being quadruped and biped, allowing it to adapt to various circumstances. My favourite ability is the “Shove”, which can be used while sprinting, allowing you to send smaller characters flying. I’m very much looking forward to getting this character into your hands very soon with a horde test, which we are aiming to push out within the next week.

[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