Hey Islanders,
​
A new patch is now available on the EVRIMA Public Branch, bringing forth a completely new Night Vision system, developed in response to the community feedback regarding our previous iteration of Night Vision. We hope that you enjoy the changes!

Please note that you may need to restart your Steam client if the download does not make itself immediately available.
​
​
0.9.91.06
- New Night Vision
- NV is disabled underwater
- Made Day as default
- Decreased Day time from 60 to 45mins
- Decreased Night time from 45 to 30 mins
- Increased spawn amount of some small AI animals
- Fix to corpse detection not being reliable as it should
- Duckweed removed from surface rendering

Hey everyone, some of this month was spent working on the night vision update, which included a few bug-fixes and some necessary improvements to our anti-cheat capabilities. We're also evaluating feedback & investigating a number of reports regarding issues with the current night vision system, you'll find more information on that further down the blog in KissenKitten's post.

Regarding Update 6 the progress is going really well and I will split into categories below:

Gore/Organs: The base code is finished which allows organs to spawn when needed and be fully interactive with physics, soon we’ll be starting tests using animals bigger than the Utahraptor, but I don't foresee needing to make big changes in the code, besides possible enhancements and bug fixes. Still in regards to organs a new mechanic is being created for all carnivores, it is a gore specific mechanic that can be used for things like role-playing and improving diets, more details about it soon. New gore and rotten textures are going to be added to the corpses, and bone meshes as well. The bone assets are the last stage of a corpse, they will be interactable.

Diets/Nutrients/Slots: The enhanced system for diets was set up to grant more control to the players for what dietary buffs or “advantages” they can receive in our survival environment. With this new system, slots are not locked to specific nutrients anymore, they are now fed with the latest consumed nutrient and can be combined as desired by the players, for better understanding, you could fill two slots with carbs and one slot with lipid, which would provide the player with a specific buff, or a different combination of all slots fed with protein, providing another completely different buff. Players can use this to better customize their character to their playstyle.

Migration System: Since the new diet slot combinations system was finished some time ago, we now can start testing migration with the herbivores and slowly start integrating the carnivores into it. Several meetings are scheduled for the design team to decide all the details for the migration system, as well as the effects from different slot combinations. This system will motivate players to move around the map to get the benefits from their diets. You’ll get more details on this system in a future DevBlog.

Vocals: I also spent some time improving the entire vocal system, which now is more reliable, performant and fixed an issue related to reverb the sound when traveling great distances.

Skin System: By popular request, we’ve added Eye customization, so players now can choose the color of Iris to customize the character even further, integrated to the “random” button and import/export functions. I also fixed a couple bugs in the slot saves.

Physics Doors/Gates: Those systems were finished and provided to the Map Design team to start adding them to the maps. Those doors/gates are interactive physics based actors, the bigger the animal the easier it is to push them and open/close. Some doors will be “locked” by default, needing a human player to first unlock it before it becomes usable by animals. While the basic physics functionality is done, more work and adjustments may be necessary in the future.

Automatic Lights: Map Design now also has access to special actors that are automated in the island based on time of day, those lights turn on or off depending the time of day. This is a basic system that may be expanded in the future with other automatic systems added to it. This has a small relationship to Lore.

Interactive Foliage: This system has been expanded, now more foliage types were added to it, physics assets setup and tiny performance improvements added. It allows players to physically interact with foliage in the map, regardless of the distance or amount. Besides the visual joy of it, this can also be used to detect prey or threats among the foliage. This will continue to be expanded over time as much as possible.

Besides all that, we had a significant amount of bug fixes this month for QA to test, and more to come as there were also some quick tests with burrowing.


I continued working on the Beipiaosaurus with something you might have already seen floating around, the breach. If you surface fast enough you will be able to breach the surface of the water. This allows you to maneuver around predators better and potentially reach shores you couldn’t reach otherwise. Personally though I think it was worth adding even if it’s just for fun, there’s something very satisfying about launching up in the air and diving back down.


An interesting experience for me working on this creature is how it connects to when I was working on the Deinosuchus. We originally had a concept where the “water walking” was a more distinct state that keeps the animal only moving along the floor and you would have to leave that state by manually swimming up. In the end we went with the more seamless version you know well, since the Deinosuchus sinks passively and there isn’t that much of a difference between swimming or water walking. In the case of the Beipiaosaurus however, we returned to that same concept with some minor changes. So on the programming side I was able to just bring back the water walking prototype from back then, tidy it up a bit and just like that, one of the main mechanics was ready to go. The breach is a different, but quite funny story. While working on the Deinosuchus at one point I accidentally made it gain velocity when surfacing instead of losing it. This resulted in some very ridiculous behaviour and it’s completely different from how the new mechanic works, but I thought it was interesting how it also came back in a way.


Most of the month was actually spent working on something I had been waiting to work on for a long time, climbing. The idea originally came up along with the Pteranodon’s latch mechanic, but ultimately we didn’t have the time to include that. I always really enjoyed climbing in games where it’s possible, so I was pretty excited by the idea of taking a stab at it myself. There’s a lot of things that can go wrong with a system like this, you can have all kinds of complex surfaces and a character moving along in every possible direction. Making it work reliably and looking nice and smooth is quite a challenge. There’s still a good bit of work left to do, but it’s coming along nicely. As for what dinosaur actually gets to this, let’s just save that for later.


With the hotfix out of the way I have continued working on the new online subsystem and resolving various issues with that. Player count is one as you would have noticed it not correctly updating to show a full server along with some work on RCON and the Queue system. AI work is back in full swing with the new Pterodactylus and Compy getting additional functionality like nest raiding and attacking so watch out hatchlings!

There has been a significant change to the overall movement of AI and how that functions to save on performance and the general look and feel of how they move around in the world. I have continued reworking crowd AI and spawning for performance and dietary updates.


My month has been partially occupied by another wave of color selections for some upcoming dinosaurs. I'm sure you’ve seen some clips or pictures going around the Isle discord. But besides that, I’ve more nature sketches for you guys.


Our lion of The Isle.

What we wanted for this dinosaur was to showcase its ambush centered abilities and really let them use those claws. For instance, you might not be able to outrun a Gallimimus, but if you can get the jump on it, you might just have the burst of speed to grab it before it slips away. For some other uses with it’s claws besides grappling and pinning, we explored the idea of it being able to dig up burrows or perhaps carry it’s food in hand rather than in mouth so that it might still be able to call, bite or smell where other animals would have to put their food down and risk loosing it’s catch to a sneaky thief.

All in all, you’ll want to be careful around those dense tree lines when Allosaurus is around



It’s time for our king of the skies. An insidious meat-eating flying giraffe with a lance for a face and you’ve got our Quetz.

With Quetzalcoatlus we wanted to show its air-savviness, from combat to surprise landing stab and runs. While it might not be able to go toe to toe with other apexes its size, it’s a nightmare to the many smaller creatures of the isle. Its long neck and beak give it plenty of range that make it formidable on the ground or in the jungles. So keep a sharp eye out amongst those trees, one of them might be staring back at you.


All of my work this month has revolved around Beipiaosaurus, it’s been a tricky and ungainly animal to work with as most Therizinosaurs are. They are the embodiment of “I don’t know what to do with my hands.” thanks to their abnormally large forelimbs and semi-upright stance. Thankfully we’re nearly done with the animation stage of its development once a few kinks are worked out, with only the Juvenile animations left to do. I think I speak for both Kissen and myself when I say “it’s been swell but the swelling has gone down”, we’re eager to move on to the next subject after spending so long on the Beipiaosaurus.

It will definitely be a fun playable creature and we really went all out on its swimming animations. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out and I hope you will be too.

On that note I’ll likely start streaming again soon so I’ll have to dig out the Gerry cam again since I know you all only watched the stream for the good boy. I have quite a few good animals on my task list you’ll enjoy, both from the new roster and classics from the Legacy roster.




This month has been partly committed to the Damage Pass, consisting for now, with various decals and mesh type decals for damage and grunge to the buildings in general. It started off with various leaks, from rust ones to just environmental ones, dirt and grimes.




Next up I went further and took scans of existing damage decals, and color corrected them and made them game ready, with various tweaks to both color, height, and displacement which now features a bit more in the game itself. It's a “cheap” and old school POM displacement and all of the decals that are featured in the damage pass now have it.




I’ve started re-constructing the exteriors and a bit of interiors of known and done buildings to feature these types of damages and decals, which now makes them look more of this world, and that it has been weathered even further, with the addition of metal mask damages as well:





You can see a clear difference in the damage on the last image, where the decal has been put to most of the edge of the garage.

Lastly, I’ve made the CCTV 2 types of cameras, with a few variants, nothing too shabby. Here are some HD images of them rendered in Marmoset:






I’ve mostly been focusing on rounding out all sounds for Troodon, this has included the final adult sounds that were not finished by the end of last month, creating a juvenile variant for the majority of these sounds (the ones that didn’t need this worked fine just undergoing some pitch modulation in engine) and finally sounds for its hatchling stage which at this stage include just a vocal sound for hatching and begging. Now all sounds are implemented I will be doing some fairly extensive play testing on Troodon to ensure that all sounds work as intended and there are no key sounds i’ve missed.

I’ve also been working on creating chorus vocal sets, much like Pterodactylus’, for Compies. I have completed a large group sound for the food chorus, a mob of chirping and interesting trills, as well as a handful of short alarm sounds, leaving only a chorus sound triggered by the player crossing into a territory they are inhabiting left to do. With these two significant tasks (Troodon and AI choruses) nearly off my plate I’m looking forward to what’s next to come.

As always, alongside work on new content, I’ve addressed a few sound issues that are brought to my attention either through the community feedback channel, QA bug reports or raised by the team or from my own playtesting. The most common issues I’ve addressed are problems of consistency in the intensity and volume of both ambient water sounds and footsteps (specifically for medium creature sound sets) across the three different movement speeds. I’ve also started putting together foley sounds for dragging corpses (and also for Deino’s movement), I’ve been putting together a looping sound for each surface type in game, split into 3 loops for each surface one for each of the main size categories which is an audio enhancement to breath a bit more life and detail into these interactions.


I swear it feels like there’s no more than a week in between these blogs. Time flies when you’re battling a knife fingered battle penguin. This month has consisted of further work on the mechanics mentioned in the last blog like gore. With the VFX pipeline pumping out buckets of blood in preparation for gore’s debut. After some fine tuning, we’ll be getting some test shots prepared for public consumption. Expanded diets and migration are also in full swing. The TLDR being that you’ll have more options for how you want the life of your character to play out. If you got into a scuffle and want to heal your wounds a little faster, there’s a diet buff for that. Feel like you’d enjoy running around a bit longer before being gassed? There’s a diet buff for that too. With the new system, you should be able to get a lot more mileage out of your gameplay experience and discover the best routes for your species and your personality that continue long after you’ve reached adulthood.

Troodon is nearing completion but needs testing and some supporting effects before it can be considered ready. Alongside it, the Beipiaosaurus has been diligently making its way towards animation completion despite being a fever dream to work with. We think you all are really going to enjoy it. But know that we suffered to make it a reality. Animation work on the Ceratosaurus and Gallimimus has slowed down as we’ve increased production but those two haven’t been nearly as complicated to work with. The Dryosaurus is also having its dodge reworked to be much more intuitive and fluid. The burrowing has been prototyped a few times as well but it is not ready to be showcased just yet. It is still on the backburner but at least on simmer. Some of the other animals that have been making some production appearances that we haven’t mentioned much include the Oviraptor, Baryonyx, Kentrosaurus and Dilophosaurus. None of which have entered the animation stage just yet though. But some of their supporting art should be making an appearance in the not so distant future. Some may even be featured in some streams soon. Cross your fingers!

Humans are getting some in-game polish in preparation for their entry to the live branch alongside Update 6. Our human modeler has done such a great job on them all and I’m so excited for them to be showcased in a much better light than you’ve currently seen. Speaking of light, we have received a lot of your feedback in regards to the new night vision causing some of our more sensitive players motion sickness and headaches and are working on making some adjustments to make it easier on the eyes. We take the matter seriously and want to make sure we can make the night vision experience comfortable for as wide a range of people as possible. Should it take longer than expected to make those adjustments, we will revert night vision in the interim so we don’t bar any of you from playing while we craft a solution.

Lastly we do have some new content coming out related to the NPE (New Player Experience) that we feel will help make The Isle more accessible to players that are new to survival games and specifically one pioneering playable animals. We understand the learning curve in The Isle can be steep at times. In many ways, we intend to keep it that way but also want to ensure accessibility is not solely lost due to a lack of clarity rather than a lapse in player judgment and decision making. So expect that content to drop soon as well. See you in the next one!

Hey Islanders,

You won't be stumbling around in the dark anymore. Update 5.5 is now available on the EVRIMA Public Branch, bringing forth our first iteration of the long awaited Night Vision mechanic that was built utilizing feedback from our diligent stress testing team. In a future patch, specifically our upcoming Night Terrors (6.5) update, we will be revisiting & expanding the Night Vision system to provide extra depth and accommodate for the more horrifying inhabitants stalking The Isle.

If the update does not make itself immediately available to download on the EVRIMA Public Branch, you may need to restart your Steam client.

This month I was partially working on the latest improvements for Update 5, which we released on the 7th of July with subsequent hot fixes and server performance tests. Meanwhile, we held a significant number of gore design meetings which have already yielded favourable results, showcasing that we have a good and solid plan to move forward with. Some core work for Update 6 had started a little earlier, but we can now start focusing solely on that.

In other news, QA has received the first iteration of Night Vision, with feedback and adjustments already made, there are still a few technical adjustments to be made (not bugs) before we are able to release it into your hands.

Back onto Update 6, I don't have much that I’m able to share just yet, as the majority of it is code work. In short we have big changes coming to the diet system, which is in the process of being expanded upon, with slot combinations, new negative/positive effects, the new Migration System, adaptive diet list and more. Besides of course, the bloody gore, with organs, a lot of blood, new mechanics specific for gore and new corpse interactions, which will include changes to how scent works based on how old a corpse is, for example, or if it became a carcass or even rotten. Due to performance also being a constant concern, expect changes from what you see till the end, everything is heavily work in progress.

Here is a small example video to showcase some what we've been working on, please keep in mind that everything you see in this video is subject to change.




As we were nearing the release of Update 5 I was making smaller changes and bug fixes, while being careful not to break anything in the last second. These included some improvements to walking in mud, footprint scent, schooling fish ripples and foliage collision issues related to a plugin we’re using. Before the update came out I spent some time playing with our stress testers to get some normal player perspective on the game. I really enjoyed having parents to look after me, bring me food and all that. Unfortunately my parents didn’t usually survive until I entered adulthood, but it was a fun experience nonetheless. I hope you’re also enjoying the update and taking good care of your children.

After that I moved on to something that I’m sure many of you will find exciting, the Beipiaosaurus. There are several new mechanics and movement changes for this dinosaur so I had a lot to do. The creature is very buoyant, so swimming downwards will be a bit difficult, but you can ascend very quickly, which is especially useful when you are running out of air. It can also use its claws to latch to the ground underwater, which leads us to the next feature, foraging. In this state you’ll be able to detect animals living underground in the water, find them and if you’re lucky you can dig up some free food. We still have quite a bit of work to do in both art and programming, but we’ll be able to start testing soon.




Most of my month was spent working on the new net driver integration with Epic Online Services. This was required for a variety of reasons, specifically Easy Anti Cheat. More recently however, I have been able to shift focus from backend services and devote my attention to upgrading the capabilities of our AI, to which I have been adding the Pterodactylus, a new type of scavenger and getting the Carnotaurus back into the fray. Fish schools have also had a few changes which include fish that now leap out of the water and leave small splashes. Unfortunately this means the end of the flying fish bug. I know how much everyone loves them… Sorry!

Some improvements to dinosaur AI have included the ability for them to seek out food and water, as well as randomize their skins. I have been exploring options for how AI spawning should change to better accommodate the diet system for lower population servers. This means you should always be able to find your perfect diet. I have also improved the rabbit burrowing and ambient animal interaction which will be worked on more over the next month.

Some of you would have seen my recent streams which I just wanted to say I really enjoy doing so thanks everyone for the support and i appreciate all the comments and questions that come in.


The update release this month was also exciting for me, because it also meant the release of what I've been working on for the last weeks and months: the trailer "Creation."

As there were, again, many mechanics that should be explained in it, this trailer is the longest so far. Another reason for its unusual length is that it was supposed to be calm and relaxed. After all, it might be the last chance to present such an atmospheric trailer. So let's enjoy every second of peaceful scenes before the world gets darker...

To illustrate the interaction of the different mechanics, my goal was to present each mechanic chronologically: first the skin system, then courting, nesting, hatching, and so on. To avoid it becoming boring however, I have chosen a different species for each mechanic, with smooth transitions between each.

The last scene with the Carnotaurus attack and the hatchling Carnotaurus just seems like a cinematic nice-to-have but actually it has several functions. It closes the parenthesis and opens the chance to show the actual possible in-game impact of the skin system. In addition it demonstrates the ecological cycle that the new nesting mechanic brings.

By the way, I read through a lot of feedback from you guys, and I'm very happy how many liked the depiction of Carnotaurus in this trailer!

After the release of the trailer I immediately started my next project. It's in a new format that many of you have been asking for.




This month has mostly consisted of more work on more Troodon sounds, with the majority of its sounds created and added to the engine, ready for me to spend some time play testing to make sure it sounds fleshed out and balanced. Troodon now only lacks a few sounds for its adult stage which, once complete, will have me moving on to create a juvenile variant for each sound.

I’ve also been working on creating some ‘chorus’ sounds for groups of Pterodactylus in varying group sizes and for different gameplay reasons.



Despite the updated appearance adding extra floof, we very much wanted to keep Therizinosaur's murder turkey reputation.

One of the main goals was to see how many different ways we could use Theri’s claws, outside of just grabbing tree branches; cutting obstructive foliage, raking large predators, impaling small ones and exploring the potential for mutilation. Another aspect I’d like to see if we can implement is utilizing our Theri’s famously fluffy tail as a defensive feature. Absorbing a set amount of damage from tail attacks, giving Theri another shot at escaping predators trying to chase it down or offering some protection to its hatchlings from smaller creatures looking to steal one away as an easy snack.



Large and in charge. If there’s one idea we wanted to sell with the Tyrannosaurus Rex, it’s don't let it get its jaws on you! Its bite is a force to be reckoned with. In addition to that, we thought it might be time for an additional attack to help it single out targets; a side-striking head swing to stagger or even knock over prey and bust open bothersome gates. You can bet there will be plenty of opportunities for mutilation with the Rex. This is an animal you won’t want to go one-on-one against.


After a little over a year of being on the team this is actually my first DevBlog entry. And funny enough it's not even about level design, I'm here to talk about the design of the new night vision. Night vision is actually one of the first things I took a crack at when I joined the team, working on it when I had the time. The night vision coming to EVRIMA is quite different to the night vision of the past. In the past the night vision had a large visual impact on your play experience where under certain lighting it was actually best used flipping it on and off, or just off entirely because you could see better without it. The new night vision system was designed with the intent of being able to leave it on all the time if you wanted to. Meaning that it couldn't negatively hinder your vision or detract from the look of the game. But has to allow players to see in the dark.

To achieve these goals there were a few hurdles to get over. Like designing it in a way to not modify any of the colors or values on the screen so that you could retain full color vision and contrast. But how could I improve your vision in the dark if I couldn't make it any brighter? Outlines, inspired by ENVG-B, a newer night vision technology showed off by the U.S. military. In game this effect is done in a purely additive way to the scene where it will draw outlines around the edges of objects that exceed a certain distance from the object behind it. Then the intensity of those lines get masked to only the areas of the scene that are dark enough that the outlines prove beneficial to your vision. Then with a few extra details like fading it out around the edge of your screen and you get night vision that achieves these goals. This new system provides night vision that both retains all the color of the scene, and allows you to see in the dark, but it will also dynamically change and adjust itself to fit the needs of what you're currently looking at.

I’m finally making creatures again! Short lived, as I will be back on miscellaneous environment assets and other goodies in the near future but for now I got to wrap up the technical work needed to make Austroraptor game ready, as well as wrap up the Baryonyx finally.

Austroraptor just needed a nice retopology, for feathered animals this can be a bit of a hassle as we need to account for the alpha cards but thankfully Austroraptor wasn’t too bad on this front, fewer than the Therizinosaurus.



Baryonyx was next up to get his face lift, accommodating new ideas for how the creature will work in gameplay as well as bringing it into the aesthetic of the newer dinosaur assets. I hope you guys like how it turned out!



As mentioned above, we’re rounding out some changes for night vision so we can get that in your hands. We hope you like the new functionality and that it provides as many tense moments as the legacy version did. So be expecting that to appear.

Now let's talk about gore. The way gore is planned to function is to introduce horror elements into the game in a “natural'' way. Nature can be incredibly cruel by human standards and we do not plan to shy away from that fact. The Isle has always been declared a survival horror game and we plan to show you exactly why. Things are about to get uncomfortable very fast as we intend to emulate the ferocity and despair inherent in the wild. Some of the inhabitants of the island will have the ability to mutilate other animals in various ways, resulting in death. We want to capture the raw and unsettling experience of predation and combat amongst animals so you feel more urgency when it comes to self preservation. Not only will you be able to see the flesh being removed from a body, but in certain circumstances, you may be eaten alive as this happens. Exercise caution.

A dead body will go through different phases depending on varying circumstances. Fresh, eaten, rotten, bones etc. A fresh body that’s been eaten and a rotting body that hasn’t been will not only look visually different but they will function differently as well. Most fresh kills impact carnivores positively. But rotting flesh may be too septic for some carnivores to eat or for some animals to even be around. Further still, bones would only be consumed by a select few. Gore ties in with diets and will come with scent changes. Fresh meat won’t have the same odorous profile as rotting flesh but can still be tracked by other animals. Dragging bodies to more covered locations will become useful for reducing the amount of scent a body gives off and the time it takes to give it off. Which should provide you with a little more time to eat before your kill is inevitably discovered by other animals. There may be changes to which creatures can smell what, what ranges they can smell them at and with what impact. If you make a kill or find one, get it to cover and eat up as fast as you can before it is found or before the body becomes unpalatable. Time will be of the essence as a kill will not go unnoticed for long. Compies and Pteros will rat you out, attracting other predators.

The freshness of a body will matter as well as the contents of that body. If you’re playing as a creature that doesn’t favor certain organs, you may need to remove them to avoid snacking on something that may harm you. Some carnivores may get greater gains from eating certain organs. Others may not. This can help to expand the usefulness of the dead on the island as a single corpse can provide food for a myriad of different creatures at different stages of decomposition.

Stepping into work on playables, troodon will be entering testing to make sure its venom isn’t too strong or too weak and that it feels fluid. The venom does not currently rely on application alone or dosage alone. It is not a set it and forget it venom. It’s based on exposure. The longer the venom is in the bloodstream the worse the effects become. Building to a crescendo that would allow a murder of troodon to quickly drop the health of larger prey. But coordination is key for specifically bringing down larger animals as they only produce so much venom individually. However, a solo troodon is more than capable of killing creatures within its own size range. But together is where their real power lies.

The Beipiaosaurus, although not intended for Update 6, is getting deeper into production. Several animations were created previously alongside older updates but they’re now starting to see the light of day. We’ll showcase some of its current functionality so you’ll have an idea of how it works. Despite being ungainly on land, it is very proficient in the water. But no matter where they’re found, underestimating them is foolish. They have very long, sharp claws and know how to use them. So approach with caution. In water, the Deinosuchus can be found anywhere beneath the surface but the Beipiaosaurus will mostly exist in transit between the surface and the sediment floor. Constantly going back and forth between those two locations for food and air. Occasionally leaving the water to supplement the rest of its diet on land. More information to come. Additionally, we have some other creatures in various states of production like the Cerato, Galli, Herrera etc that we’ll start showing some production on soon.

Another note for Update 6 is our intent to bring the Gen 2s to the live branch so those of you that want to view the game through the eyes of a human won’t have to swap to lonely servers just to get the first-person perspective of the game. Which also serves to provide us with important information on how to make their gameplay visceral.

I think for fear of making this a novel, I’ll stop here. Check out this Austroraptor!

Hey Islanders,

Time to harness your creativity & shepherd unruly broods, for the long-awaited Update 5 is finally here. Leave your mark by personalizing your dinosaur with an assortment of new patterns and colors. The improved Skin System significantly builds upon its Legacy counterpart by providing more nuance, clarity, control and sharing options that will ensure you stand out from the rest of the herd. Keeping with the trend, the new Nesting System is also a marked improvement over its former version featuring courting, nest creation, nest management, hatchling interactions, nesting grounds and more. So invite your friends to your nest and see if you can help the next generation survive The Isle.

• Added Skin System.
  
• Added Nesting Mechanic.
  
• Added Nest Widgets.
  
• Added Courting/Begging/Nesting Abilities.
  
• Added VFX and SFX for Courting/Begging/Nesting/Hatchlings.
  
• Added hatchling support to admin growth and character profiles.
  
• Added damage to Pachycephalosaurus Ram even if they are too big to stagger.
  
• Added salt licks which removes vomit debuffs.
  
• Added new nesting grounds to Spiro.
  
• Added Debris for nest building.
  
• Added new Pounce Miss animation.
  
• Added nearby client side Dynamic environment sounds. (Foliage, Wood and Metal)
  
• Added Message for when trying to swallow a corpse that is too big
  
• Added new Hypsilophodon VFX for its blinding spit ability.
  
• Added support for Pounce/Ram/Lunge to work when close to its target.
  
• Added buck cooldown
  
• Added new textures for Boar, Deer, rabbit and sea turtle
  
• Setup Swimming for AI animals
  
• Added solution to AI not being interacted when ragdoll is thrown away
  
• Added moving buck animation for Tenontosaurus
  
• Added Compy carcass decay and despawn
  
• Added RCON with documentation

• Stopped pounce cancelling attacks on dismount.
  
• Improved headbutt hit detection, made leg fractures more accurate.
  
• Made ragdolls less stiff when not dragged/carried.
  
• Avoided cancelling some abilities if hit by a Pachycephalosaurus that's too small.
  
• Updated title screen disclaimer.
  
• Updated Fan Palm textures.
  
• Updated Stegosaurus mesh with new female morph.
  
• Forced pounce to cancel headbutt if the pouncer latched right before.
  
• Improved Compsognathus ragdoll.
  
• Improved some old Cascade effects performance.
  
• Improved audio (fixed harsh cut offs.)
  
• Improved scent icons.
  
• Setup Cycad collision.
  
• Updated Music Manager and added songs.
  
• Increased amount of Mushrooms to spawn.
  
• Improved footprint decal performance.
  
• Reduced volume of idle dinosaur sounds and river ambient loops.
  
• Adjusted food value calculation for schooling fish and fruits.
  
• Made players return to the faction select menu if no spawn was found.
  
• Prevented chat entry if dead and during resting animation transitions.
  
• Clientside performance improvements.
  
• Split horizontal and vertical mouse sensitivity.
  
• Made pounce cancel Scenting.
  
• Prevented chat and profile UI to be opened at the same time, causing input issues.
  
• Changed vocals to avoid playing animation if stunned.
  
• Made ambient fauna one shots sound further away.
  
• Removed Beach2 and 3 from admin teleport.
  
• Changes to Pounce/Ram latency compensation.
  
• Prevented bird flocks triggering too often.
  
• Increased Crab weight slightly.
  
• Increased piece of plant size a little
  
• Made fast flight cancel skimming
  
• Small changes to spectator mode
  
• Improved ragdoll stability
  
• Adjustments to resting and idle sounds
  
• Made low stamina dinosaurs only get stuck in mud if more submerged
  
• Reduced crab weight
  
• Small changes to gore and fruits for more server performance
  
• Updated Tenontosaurus jump animations
  
• Adjusted Fluid simulation
  
• Reduced boar attack hitbox
  
• Decreased Pachycephalosaurus ram raw damage
  
• Reduced Deinosuchus pain sounds volume
  
• Decreased Pteranodon broadcast volume
  
• Adjusted coconut tree foliage collision
  
• Threaten vocals modulation adjustments
  
• Removed Dryosaurus evade stamina cost
  
• Made Dryosaurus use A/D for dodge direction
  
• Made juvies have increased acceleration/deceleration rate
  
• Boar is now able to be latched by two pouncers
  
• Made mud slow you down faster
  
• Small changes to pounce vs ram
  
• Made Coconuts, Orange and Mango to spawn more often
  
• Increased slide speed limit
  
• Compies now despawn when no players are around
  
• Adjusted goat pounce points

Diets

• Carnivore diets adjusted from 50% to 25% growth to alleviate free growth time.

Tracking

• Decreased the amount of scentable footprints overall.
  
• Increase the space between tracked footprints appearing.
  
• Increased the time between Blood drops onto the ground.

Hunger Intake

• Global food intake increased to make megapacks more difficult to maintain.

Fractures

• Global fracture heal modifier decreased slightly.

Locational Damage

• Global tail base multiplier reduced

Juvenile Mobility

• Juvenile acceleration time globally decreased, hit top speed faster.
  
• Juvenile deceleration time globally decreased, slow to a stop faster.
  
• All juveniles that skid have maximum skid distance reduced.

Crowd Control

• Global knockdown time reduced.

Max Health:

• Max Health reduced.

Blood Pool:

• Blood Pool reduced.

Mass:

• Mass reduced.

Corpse food value:

• Food value reduced.

Spawn Rate:

• Overall spawn amount reduced.

Diets

• Boar added to Three dots nutrient.

Movement Modifiers

• Standing Bleed Multiplier increased.
  
• Walking Bleed Multiplier increased.
  
• Trotting Bleed Multiplier increased.

Hunger Intake

• Mass removed per tick increased.

Fracture HP

• Body Fracture health reduced.

Primary Attack: Bite

• Attack hitbox lowered slightly.

Diets

• Deinosuchus swapped to S nutrient.
  
• Stegosaurus swapped to Lines nutrient.

Oxygen

• Regen rate decreased.
  
• Regen rate doubled if resting or scenting.

Hunger Intake

• Mass removed per tick increased.

Attack Power

• Starting juvenile attack power increased.

Oxygen

• Oxygen now lasts two times longer.

Special Ability: Water sense

• Passive range decreased.
  
• Active range remains unchanged.

Primary Attack: Peck

• Damage increased.

Special Ability: Dodge

• Stamina cost removed.
  
• Remove camera-based aim. Tap A/D for dodge direction.

Hunger Intake

• Mass removed per tick increased.

Diets

• Hypsilophodon moved to S nutrient.

Primary Attack: Peck

• Damage increased.

Hunger Intake

• Mass removed per tick increased.

Hunger Intake

• Mass removed per tick increased.

Diets

• Horned Melons swapped for Oranges.

Hunger Intake

• Mass removed per tick increased.

Primary Attack: Bite

• Damage increased slightly.

Special Ability: Ram

• Speed influencing damage removed.
  
• Tap ram damage reduced.
  
• Held ram damage reduced.
  
• Blunt damage modifier increased.
  
• Turns faster when holding a charge.
  
• Self stagger threshold for tap ram increased.
  
• Self stagger threshold for downwards ram increased.
  
• Tap and Downwards ram costs reduced slightly.
  
• Hold ram stamina cost reduced slightly.

Bucking

• Stamina damage per tick increased to pouncers increased.

Movement Speed

• Will now use the juvenile locomotion until half way to full adult.

Hunger Intake

• Mass removed per tick increased.

Hunger Intake

• Mass removed per tick increased.

Primary Attack: Bite

• Damage increased slightly.

Secondary Attack: Rear Kick

• Hitbox adjusted to better match the animation.
  
• Increase knockback distance.
  
• Stamina cost reduced slightly.

Alternate Secondary Attack: Tail Slam

• Stamina cost was reduced.

Diets

• Stegosaurus swapped to Lines Nutrient.
  
• Hypsilophodon swapped to S nutrient.

Hunger Intake

• Mass removed per tick increased.

Primary Attack: Bite

• Damage increased.

Special Ability: Pounce

• Removed initial damage and bleed to encourage holding the pounce instead of spamming it.

• Fixed UI bite force showing incorrect value when head fractured.
  
• Fixed pounce not working if target is holding a corpse, blocking it.
  
• Fixed a few issues with fracture values from save and fracture threshold.
  
• Fixed issue with Deinosuchus FOV.
  
• Fixed food amount for meat chunks being wrong sometimes.
  
• Fixed pickup issue with spamming G for meat, while floating as a Deinosuchus.
  
• Fixed Stegosaurus Juvenile threaten animation.
  
• Fixed pounce issue when falling on water, causing the player to not be able to leave. (Pteranodon)
  
• Fixed corpse scent icon rotation.
  
• Fixed juvenile Hypsilophodon jump height.
  
• Fixed headbutt causing big targets to stand up suddenly.
  
• Fixed river audio popping in at a short distance.
  
• Fixed Stagger cancelling headbutt too early.
  
• Fixed Character Panel allowing players to perform abilities if open from Esc Menu.
  
• Fixed Edible Plant Spawner issues.
  
• Fixed Dryosaurus evade distance.
  
• Fixed juvenile Deinosuchus swimming eating loop.
  
• Fixed AI swimming above water.
  
• Fixed eating not playing when player was in water, but not swimming.
  
• Fixed eating animation playing when the ability was interrupted, latency issue.
  
• Fixed pounce latch rotation issues.
  
• Fixed AI speeds.
  
• Fixed camera zoom being wrong sometimes when spawning.
  
• Fixed fall damage applying on jump sometimes.
  
• Fixed audio resetting above 0.
  
• Fixed mouse inverting when adjusting sensitivity and better aligned the sliders.
  
• Fixed some buttons not having sounds.
  
• Fixed Stegosaurus' mouth opening as if it was carrying food when it had impaled another character.
  
• Fixed fracture sounds playing when people connect near to someone that was fractured.
  
• Fixed pinned recovery animation transition.
  
• Fixed Dryosaurus footprints placement and rotation.
  
• Fixed main menu URL's not working.
  
• Fixed carried objects scaling with the carrier as they grew.
  
• Fixed lunge on land spawning water splash particles.
  
• Fixed Stegosaurus alternate bite dealing bleed.
  
• Fixed Carnotaurus not being able to walk onto the dam at swamp.
  
• Fixed unintended drinkable water in various locations.
  
• Fixed Carnotaurus fractured head animation.
  
• Fixed footsteps SFX and VFX being activated if attacking while crouching.
  
• Fixed Pteranodon being forced to stop flying after a pouncer dismounted from them.
  
• Fixed Faction Selection using the old Utahraptor outline.
  
• Fixed Leg fracture sounds playing twice.
  
• Fixed fish sliding back into water when released from Deinosuchus lunge.
  
• Fixed footsteps being spawned if performing vocals or montages while resting.
  
• Fixed issue with auto ungrouping when dead.
  
• Fixed preferred food on profile panel.
  
• Fixed not being able to lunge while pounced.
  
• Fixed not spending stamina if sprinting while pounced.
  
• Fixed pounce causing resting/sleeping animation to stop.
  
• Fixed flocks trace causing client hitch.
  
• Fixed meat chunks not being destroyed if they were static early
  
• Fixed meat chunk sizes
  
• Fixed hovering issues with f10
  
• Fixed tree creak ambience
  
• Fixed edible fruits not respawning
  
• Fixed grass blending with ground
  
• Fixed low resolution shadows
  
• Fixed meat chunks not being swallowable
  
• Fixed some tree collisions
  
• Fixed issue with picking up chunks while swimming
  
• Fixed some drinking spots
  
• Fixed replication issue when plants have roots
  
• Fixed Radish piece being too small
  
• Fixed Deer and Frogs carry offsets
  
• Fixed Crab location
  
• Fixed Eat/Drink end conditions if tapping too fast
  
• Fixed headbutt impact audio not always playing
  
• Fixed a few UI and sound issues
  
• Fixed Marigold Spawns
  
• Fixed Compy eat montage
  
• Fixed Boar hit montage from sliding
  
• Fixed Boar not running when attacking
  
• Fixed wrong growth boost value in profile panel
  
• Fixed pounce latch issue
  
• Fixed eating issue with AI
  
• Fixed growth issue with safelog
  
• Fixed issue with pounce and Mud pools
  
• Fixed Dryosaurus walk footsteps sound
  
• Fixed Deinosuchus rest sound
  
• Fixed footprint scent radius not resetting
  
• Fixed mud pool being below water surface in swamp
  
• Fixed client side gravity simulation in Fruits
  
• Various fixes to the buildings
  
• Fixed an abundance of issues pertaining to the nesting and skin systems.

It’s been very a busy month overseeing the stress test and fixing bugs. We also upgraded our security and added a variety of quality of life features for the skin system, which were built upon feedback provided by our very helpful stress testers, such as being able to rename the skin preset slots, save and share patterns as well as some improvements for the camera.

In addition, we’ve also continued to make headway on the development of Update 6, such as participating in design meetings and the planning for the expanded diet system, which should also bring forth the new Migration system, as well as the Gore system. So despite Update 5 not having been released yet, the game production continues, such as the development of the Troodon for Update 6.5. We can confirm that the Troodon is feature complete now, while balance and QA testing are still pending since QA is currently focused on helping with the stress testing.

Besides that, there are some cool systems that I have been working on in the background, such as prototype concepts for the burrowing mechanic and a fully dynamic scar system, that doesn't have a release update yet, but should be able to give players the desired “permanent scars” feature.

For now that is all I can talk about, see you next month!


Most of the month was spent fixing bugs and adding some finishing touches before the update goes out. We have gotten a lot of useful feedback from our stress test which you may have seen some videos from already. Some of the more important changes include making the nest widget less obtrusive, it now scales down with distance and fades out when there’s nothing important going on like bad temperature or invites. Nest placement has also been improved to work on steeper surfaces. Hatchlings now automatically join the parents’ group, but they will also be removed automatically if the group is over the standard limit when they hit juvenile.

Originally all of the nesting system required both parents to be alive. During actual gameplay however this turned out to be quite limiting due to one of the parents often dying or having to log out. So I ended up making some changes to make single parents a possibility.

I also had time to work on something that will be coming after this update. I don’t want to spoil it too much, but it has to do with the movement of a dinosaur you might have seen some teasers for on our Discord server.


There is a reason I’ve missed the last months DevBlog is that I’ve been working on items such as rocks, which have been ported to the game to be fully usable and customizable to our needs. This means pretty much last month I’ve been making those rocks proper and optimized.

We now have heavily detailed cliffs, large rock formations and proper detailing kit with them for the environment. I won’t go into more detail with them, but hopefully you will see them soon enough.


Besides that, I’ve been working heavily on set dressing for the flooring, aka. Base plan foundations, of various locations which Jace has been crafting.


As well, I’ve made a few large prop set pieces for the Dockyard, such as two variations of silos and one fuel silo:




In addition I’ve worked on the monorail base, so we can incorporate it in the map, which features more detail and changes to the mesh itself:


And lastly, I want to showcase, the Aviary. Which will be soon featured in the game.


Shantungosaurus

Return of a titan. I didn’t get to see it much in it’s heyday, but whenever I did see them they always looked like a force to be reckoned with. Which made me eager to put it’s full size to work.

A major source of inspiration were moose and other sizeable ungulates. With the idea of it being a fickle animal, ranging from benign to knocking your lights out without a moment’s notice. We were leaning toward abilities where it could throw it’s weight around, from knocking others down, crushing the air out of them and of course it’s notable stomp. While you may think they’re relatively safe to be around, you’d be taking a big risk getting too comfortable with this hadrosaur.

Ankylosaurus

Normally you’re always going to have to worry about the bigger creatures on the isle, ankylosaurus might be the opposite of that.

Borrowing inspiration from armadillos and some lizards, we very much wanted to keep the ‘anky doesn’t care’ tone with this animal. Hunkering down and shrugging off attacks from larger predators, but needing to exercise a little more strategy against smaller foe, leaning towards attackers to hide the sides of its underbelly from smaller predators that can nip away at it’s soft spots. Some other idea’s we’re playing with are: it’s heaviness, allowing it to walk under water rather than swim to cross rivers, along with the ability to use it’s tail to get at foods some other animals might not be able to reach. And of course it wouldn’t be anky if it couldn’t crack some bones.



QA has been busy this month validating/invalidating all of the bug reports submitted by our new Stress Testing team. With these two teams working in conjunction, you should expect the playing experience for future updates to be a lot smoother than previous iterations, as performance and mechanics working currently under higher load is of utmost importance during these sessions. In the month of June alone we've validated a whopping 300 unique issues since stress testing began, so hopefully we'll have caught any glaring issues from the last update that were causing you headaches! You'll be happy to know that the areas you can drink through the ground are now a thing of the past. No more escaping the wrath of the Deinosuchus!

Besides bug validating, I've been keeping a close eye on feedback during this time and looking for trends amongst the stress testers. They've been very useful in pinpointing areas where balance has been suffering or where new mechanics aren't living up to expectations. To give a few examples without spoiling everything:

• Nesting grounds give nests increased incubation speed, reduced temperature decay, increased nest health and a growth speed boost to hatchlings.
  
• Knockdowns do not last as long as they did before, making them less of a death sentence across the board.
  
• Juvenile mobility has been improved. They accelerate faster than their adult counterparts, gradually slowing down to their regular acceleration rates.
  
• Tails now receive less damage when hit.
  
• Carnotaurus is now more susceptible to bleed.
  
• Deinosuchus receives the "S" nutrient from cannibalizing, instead of sharing the same nutrient with fish. (More incentive to cannibalize)
  
• Deinosuchus can regenerate its oxygen faster by resting/scenting.
  
• Dryosaurus dodge had its cost removed and controls reworked. Just tap A/D to determine dodge direction.
  
• Various other diet changes.
  
• Utahraptor bite damage buff.

And much, much more!


These last few months I’ve been doing a lot of vegetation overhauls, we won’t be going over that today. (but they look dope and should be revealed soon) Instead we’ll go over another collection of assets I made that will serve a gameplay purpose for the juveniles. These ones take the form of various shapes of cycads. The asset was actually prototyped a few months ago but now I’ve gone and refined its visual appearance. Pretty straight forward on a technical level, just lots of texture work to make sure it looks its best.




I’ve been gradually making progress on sounds for Troodon. With each new mechanic added more sounds are necessary to be made, so the list of supplementary sounds needed for each creature is now pretty extensive. Troodons attack vocals will contrast its colourful signature sounds that will be used throughout the rest of the vocals for the troodon, using gnarly aggressive sounds starting with a sharp attack to give it that fearsome snap that will alarm the unsuspecting. The sound for Troodon’s unique ability will be a mixture of these two sound styles.

I’ve also created a vocal sound for each playable when feeding their hatchlings, and a wet squishy foley sounds to accompany the regurgitation visual. Some final additions this month are missing foley and dinosaur specific sounds on all nesting animations and adjusting the tap-hold modulation on the threaten vocals so that the difference is more apparent.


A big thank you to all of those that diligently participated in the Stress Test. The feedback was quite valuable and put to good use. It has been an uphill battle getting the creature foundations into a mechanically comfortable state but we’re finally almost there. With the general framework and foundations set for the animals once the gore update launches, we can move production away from such heavy-hitting mechanics for the animals and focus on bringing in new playables. Which may have unique features and abilities but not much that would cause roster-wide changes which is very good. Some of the new editions will include Beipiaosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Gallimimus and Herrerasaurus. As well as a few we’ll be getting to after those like Diabloceratops, Dilophosaurus, Baryonyx, Oviraptor, Austroraptor and more. Not necessarily in that order and perhaps with a surprise twist here or there.

On the human front, the framework for our Gen 2s has been established and will be making its way to the design team for fleshing out. We’ll finally start showing a little bit more of the development the Gen2s have been undergoing. But I digress. Update 6 will be introducing gore as mentioned before. We have some prototypes we’ll start showing off here within the next few weeks pending some art so you’ll get a rough idea of what to expect. Filipe has been hard at work on various prototypes actually.

Additionally, alongside Update 6 we’ll be including the features omitted from the initial implementation of diets as well as the accompanying migration system. If all goes well, we may also include a previously unannounced feature intended to make juvenile gameplay more fun and engaging. Be good to each other!

Hey everyone, this month I’ve been primarily focused on enhancements, improvements to existing systems and bug fixes as we wrap up the final piece of Update 5 and all of its new systems. The Skin System is complete and ready to go, we’re all very eager to get it into your hands as soon as possible, but we will see if any issues crop up during the stress test.

Now that Update 5 is on the cusp of completion, all of my tasks are finished so I’ve shifted attention to the development of Update 6 (Gore) and beyond. So far it’s been going extremely well, to the point that the special ability for the Troodon is functional and nearly complete, however it will be subject to vigorous testing to ensure that it’s neither weak or overpowered. That’s it for me this month, as May has primarily revolved around making various fixes/adjustments. See ya next time everyone!


As you’d likely expect, I continued working on the Nesting System for Update #5. We now have support for setting your eggs to private or public. This allows players to join you either from a list of available nests via the spawn menu or through a nest code you can share among yourselves. The parents then receive a notification and have the option to accept, decline or block the player. Accepting it spawns the player inside one of the eggs. The rest of the process was implemented earlier so now the whole process is functional from start to finish.

I also added a system for damaging and potentially destroying nests, so you will need to be careful with where you place them and keep an eye open afterwards. Finally I set up nests to support different egg clutch sizes, anywhere between two and eight depending on the species. We’ve been using a fixed number of four for testing, so there will now be a greater variety between the different dinosaurs.


This month I’ve redesigned the Herrera calls, using some of the source from the Legacy calls in order to preserve its signature sound such as the low bellows used for its broadcast, but adding more character and movement to the original concepts. Something I had to consider when working on these calls is to ensure they are distinct enough so there is no overlap or opportunities for confusion with Deinosuchus’ calls, since a main element of both their vocals are alligator bellows.

I’ve also been working further on the ambient sequence mentioned in last month’s blog post which has gone through multiple iterations and is near completion. You will have to wait to hear what’s in store for this one!

Finally I’ve started to tackle some of the supplementary vocal sounds for the Troodon, which will be a good opportunity to expand upon its existing vocals and create something distinct for each mechanic that needs it. This will be one of my main focuses as we head into June.


Besides some phase two clips, I worked on internal projects in the last weeks and prepared everything for working on the Update 5 release trailer. This includes a lot of disk space management (all unnecessary files of the last project are removed or compressed to make room for the upcoming material, we are talking about 480GB uncompressed data per release trailer).

Documents have to be prepared and I have to test the options and possibilities because one of the documents is the "first scene collection" where I enter all the ideas about scenes I had in the last months and which have potential to be visualized in the trailer. Another document is the storyboard, which I was able to finish in the last weeks.

Since the content of the update came along very far in the meantime, I also have started filming it. Unlike the other trailers, this time I will decide on the final soundtracks during the filming as opposed to post production, since several of those are possible and viable.

My goal is again to create a clearly understandable and coherent progression; the trailer should be cinematic but also informative. And of course you can expect sweet hatchling scenes as well.




Time for our sail-back fiend.

For me this was a tricky one to draw. With our Spinosaurus’s skull proportioned differently from the more familiar Spinosaurus depictions. Ours being straighter, wider and softer S curve of the jaw. I found myself unwittingly adding facial characteristics of our older Spinosaurus model.

For animal inspirations, a fusion of bear and crocodile comes to mind. making full use of its claws, ripping, swiping and when the opportunity arises, overturning its more naive prey. Being an underwater walker, it won't swim like its more buoyant water-dwellers, but you’d be a fool to think it still can’t surprise you.


Not much to say that hasn’t been mentioned about Update 5. We are tying up some loose ends before putting it out for stress testing. We hope you all enjoy it!

Shifting away from the topic of Update 5, this month has also consisted of preparation for Update 6. With gore entering the prototyping phase and Troodon functionality getting some love. Do be aware with the introduction of gore, the game is going to fundamentally take on a more grisly tone. While we have always planned it and been vocal about it throughout the years, we understand many of you may have forgotten or newcomers may never have known. But The Isle is a survival horror game. So prepare yourselves to get really uncomfortable really fast. In the best way possible of course. Wish us luck because we really want to nail it.

We are quite excited to be closing the gap on foundational mechanics for the dinosaurs at last. With these foundations set, we can focus more energy into improvements and polish rather than the arduous task of establishing the main framework for the animals. Which has indeed been a challenge. Discovering what works, what doesn’t, what we can do and what we can’t. It’s been a wild ride for sure.

Aside from that, the animation team has been hammering away at some new playables which include the quizzical semi-aquatic Beipiaosaurus, the gluttonous Ceratosaurus, the fleet-footed Gallimimus and the semi-arboreal Herrerasaurus. We look forward to talking more about their development as time goes on so stay tuned! Bye for now!

I’ve been working on various tasks related to nesting. Hatching works differently for different nests. If the eggs are exposed then you will be able to see your dinosaur hatch from the egg directly, but for other nests the eggs are covered with debris so you will only see the dinosaur climb out from the pile.

I also set up the feeding system for hatchlings. They will not be able to eat directly with the exception of the Deinosuchus, instead they will have to beg for food by holding E. At this time the parents can approach them and press E to regurgitate some of their food to provide the babies with food, water and nutrients.

We want reproduction to require at least some minimal effort from both parents so the number and quality of the eggs will be affected by their diets. You will be able to have an offspring if you have at least one nutrient, but a better diet will let you have more. Your eggs can now also become rotten if you don’t manage the nest temperature properly.


Lately I’ve been working on some additional backend for our build/deploy environment and integrating some critical SDKs so we no longer rely on third party frameworks. I have also been slowly getting back into AI development as the Carno has begun testing alongside the new workflow that has been designed for how we develop and release AI. We are expecting some big things to happen in the AI space as more has gone into their interactions and behavior.




Stout and very grouchy, here we have the isles Diabloceratops.

Some loose mixes of wild bovine and wildebeest served as inspiration for these guys. The idea was they’d travel the island bullying others off of vegetation and almost always in herds. Though it shouldn’t be able to run down most other dinosaurs, it’s still going to need to be able to stand its ground against a variety of predators. You’ll very well want to watch out for those horns.


This month I got to work on the assets for the nesting system. We’ve had nest assets before but the newer and more dynamic system required a rethink of the feature set for how nests were designed and implemented. One of the new features is a series of morph targets that will animate as the nest is built up. These morphs took special consideration so that they played well with the topology and textures of the model but also the animation associated with the nest building.

In addition we have a new kind of nest, the debris nest, which requires its own materials and workflow. You can see some examples of these down below, I am quite pleased with the result and look forward to seeing them functioning in the game!







This month has been all about the dockyard, and so we are here a few steps closer to gaining more details and buildings to it.

I’ve managed to crack some issues with the Triplanar now being able to project seamlessly almost across the buildings, alongside the interior damage textures. Besides that we have 2 smaller, and one normal hangar ready to ship and be in the game.






Alongside that, I’ve constructed a StepWalkway kit that can be both used both for the interior and the exterior. It's a very versatile kit, having mostly all dimensions and sizes, alongside the damage variants.



Thirdly, the Monorail has begun its humble start, this is heavily WIP and only the main segment is “done”:



Lastly, a lot of minor fixes to the Dockyard tower, which now features a see through texture, so you can see if something awaits you before you go down, and the first type of variant for buildings for the interior. :D




This month I wrapped up working on the Pterodactylus vocal sounds, as well as the eating vocalizations for the Ceratosaurus heard in Seiza’s trail cam video. I also spent time working on creating all hatchling begging vocalizations for the current roster, working with KissenKitten on reiterating to get an interesting take on these sounds and animations for each animal and focusing on synching together the two components of this mechanic as closely as possible.

On the back end of this month I’ve started designing ambience to fit with changes in the weather, with a focus on achieving a strong survival horror aesthetic to the atmosphere – the current ambiences in EVRIMA work well for clear and sunny weather and will still be used in that circumstance, but these new ambiences will override as the default soundscape. Jumping off from this ambient work I’ve started conceptualizing some exciting unique sound sequences bringing something very different to the ambient audio cycle of The Isle.


As some of you may already know, QA has been undergoing a massive restructuring as of late. The main reason for this is that we have now reached a point where the amount of content to test while we develop the game has scaled so much that a small team of volunteer testers is simply not enough to cover every mechanic that needs to be checked before each update. This problem would only become worse with each new feature added, potentially causing older mechanics to break and slip through the cracks.

To rectify this issue, I have decided that alongside running QA, I would bring in a large group of community volunteers (eventually 200+), composed of current and former QA, content creators, and skilled fighters to form a new Stress Testing team. The idea behind this team is to act as a safety net between the QA team and the public branch, to catch any particularly nasty bugs that don’t rear their heads until they reach an abundance of players, such as the group name tag issue we had to deal with recently. Due to the amount of people joining, we will also be able to host full server playtests, which wasn’t possible with the QA team prior.

This team will also be involved in playtesting any new mechanics coming to the game first and giving feedback on character balancing. If the idea of this team interests you, why not consider applying? https://forms.gle/42pHQHVhsL2s2e4Y9

Besides that, the QA team has been hard at work continuing with testing the upcoming Skin Customizer and Nesting Systems:

A 3D Background has been created by our Level Designer Jace to give a better idea of how your skins will look in our environments. This background can be toggled.



Players are also able to toggle the gliding animation for any species that can fly.


We’ve also been testing the refined selection of colors on the new secondary patterns, ensuring that they look just as good as they do on their primary patterns. Here are a few examples, let us know what you think!










It’s been a good month for animation over here, no pun intended but we’ve been getting our ducks in a row creating the 200+ animations needed for Beipiaosaurus. In terms of workload it’s a bit like making another Deinosuchus.

We’ve also been getting Gallimimus prepared for it’s eventual return, but don’t worry, you’re not likely to be spam kicked to death ever again unless you decide to try to AFK grow and a Galli finds your hiding bush. It’s now got a full suite of directional attack animations like the other EVRIMA animals and will have some other quirks to make it far less likely to be seen as a troll Dinosaur like it was in Legacy.

We’ve also been dealing with Hypsilophodon’s juvenile morph, a complicated project because of its eyebrows and tail feathers, which it does not have as a juvenile. There were a lot of morph and skeletal related bugs we had to deal with to get this thing working, I hope it’s well appreciated what dmIV had to go through to get that thing working.


As you’ve read above, things are going rather well and we’re moving ever closer towards release. I’m very proud of the work everyone has been doing and look forward to you all experiencing the fresh take on nesting and skins. However, while it’s usually my style to keep things light in these devblogs, circumstances would see that change for this post.

This month on April 2, 2022 at 7:26am we lost our friend and colleague Brandon “Foszor” Gandy to brain cancer. I’ll admit, there’s still a great deal of shock and grief we’re dealing with in varying degrees as a team and as individuals. Some of us knew him better than others but I would be remiss if I didn’t count myself among the profoundly affected. Brandon was kind, creative and funny. Definitely one of the goofiest people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. With an exceptionally ridiculous sense of humor. He always had a joke in the chamber or something ambitious he wanted to do. I remember the two of us sitting in call together hammering out what would become the infamous burrowing system for the Psittacosaurus just as a personal challenge. We were both curious if we could make it work with what we had. I knocked out some animations and he prototyped the system in what felt like 30 mins. After showing it off to the team, it was too good to be for AI alone and that’s how the Dryosaurus got burrowing. Just like that. Such a talented individual. I know this entry isn’t likely what was expected but neither was how things ended up. We often talked about the things we wanted to accomplish with this project and what we were going to do in the future. But now we’ll have to continue this journey without him. Carrying along his memory with us. Brandon loved his family, his friends, this project and living life to the fullest. We miss him. I miss him. But we’ve all been made better for having known him.

Rest in peace Foszor. We’ll never forget you.

If you would like to support his family, you can do so at the following link
{LINK REMOVED}https://www.gofundme.com/f/cvwpu-foszor-fights-brain-cancer

I spent most of this month developing the Skin System, we tested a wide variety of different designs to find which one was best and then we started to add the swatches that each animal can access, for each customizable part of the body. We even tried an eyedrop color picker system, but in the end we decided it is best to have a chosen list of swatches that we can expand overtime. Below is an updated image of the main panel. Keep in mind it is work in progress and more colors, options or features can be added as we move forward in development:



Some QOL were added, such as being able to pause animations (Ptera also has an option to toggle Standing or Gliding animations). See growth previews in real time, rotate in any direction and a very useful button to randomise your skin. In addition to the random button, players are also able to lock each Section, such as Male Display, Markings, etc. That should not be modified by the random button. Not only that, players can also lock the individual colors of each Section, as shown below:



By right mouse button clicking at a color will paint it in black, locking it from the random generator, allowing to have more control of what colors the random generator should use. Then using the brightness and saturation sliders players can have more control of how the Dino will look like.

Another nice feature added is the ability to Share skins with anyone. By clicking the “Export” button, a code will be generated for the current skin of that animal. Copy it by clicking the code and send it to your friends or anybody, they can just click the “Import” button, paste the code and boom! Save it and it is yours!



Players can also choose different Patterns for that animal and we can add and expand that as we please in the future. Besides the skin system, as always, I have been working on bug fixes and improvements to several mechanics of the game. Thanks and see you next time!


I continued my work on nesting this month. First of all there is a new temperature system, which plays a role in the incubation of the eggs. Temperature decreases gradually on its own and you have different ways to increase it. In the case of mound nests where the eggs are exposed you have to sit on the eggs to warm them up. Debris nests have good insulation and don’t require much maintenance, but if the temperature becomes too low you will have to add more debris to the nest to warm the eggs back up.



The temperature bar is broken up into four sections. In the ideal range (green) the eggs will incubate properly, while in the neutral range (white) nothing happens to them. If they are too cold (blue) or too hot (red) you will start losing incubation progress. Once your progress goes back to zero your eggs will rot. We left the door open to the temperature possibly being affected by the biome, weather and time of day, but that’s something for the future.

The next bigger task I tackled was hatching from eggs. For this I had to enable hatchlings first. Fortunately they were already set up for the most part, there’s just a few smaller changes and bugs left to fix for them. Then I had to adjust our spawn system to support spawning into a nest and then finally I added the actual hatching mechanic. We want to get the players into the game quickly, so after shaking around in the egg a few times you will see your dinosaur pop out and you can begin your adventure.


Just a short post from me this time! Besides the QA team’s constant bug testing on both the skin system and nesting, we’ve been looking at the new server queuing system that Amarok has been developing more recently. This system, as you would expect, allows players to queue up for servers that are at maximum capacity. Excitingly, it also allows for server administrators to skip the queue and even join a server if it’s full, avoiding any instance where they could not enter the server to attend their moderation duties. See the video below for how the queuing system looks in action:




This month I had a few things going on, working on building concepts and getting another set of nature sketches started, but the thing I’ve been most excited to work on this month is testing the skin system. The initial phase was spent zeroing in on what the team wanted the skin system to even look like, do we want swatches? Do we want sliders? How much range do we want to give players and what customization additions could we make in the future?

After some testing, what we’ve got now is a mix of swatches and sliders to allow for more precise color tweaking. Once the UI was brought to a point where it felt good to use, it was on to the fun but somewhat tedious part, color selection! Not only is each dinosaur going to have different colors available to it, each pattern layer will also have its own color selection as well. So that was a few days spent JUST narrowing selections down per category from what I would say was the maximum color range we could potentially use across the roster.

The goal with this idea was to allow as many color choices as we can while still holding players to a mostly natural variance between the same dinosaurs.


I’ve been working on sounds for a new AI creature that will be appearing across The Isle in the near future, Pterodactylus. This small scavenging creature’s significant function is to mob and annoy players, eat their food and give away their position. For this reason the main quality of the creature's vocals had to be irritating. To tackle this I am creating an array of distinct and unusual vocalizations, each one unique for the associated action. When a player is mobbed by a group they will hear a chorus of all the various sounds resulting in a cacophony of annoyance. Passive sounds like its idle are low ugly glucking sounds, when hopping around they will produce a playful warble, attacks will sound like an aggressive cackle as if mocking the player and its dying sound consists of a harsh grating screech, mixed with its signature gargle. Among other sounds It will also have a couple of calls which I’m experimenting with to create something unique.

The Pterodactylus, as an AI creature, is intended to be very vocal in order to give away a player location, however thinking about this brought the current situation of idle vocals for our current roster of playables to my attention and the impact they have on maintaining stealth whilst playing. Idle sounds have now been significantly reduced in volume when standing and resting, and totally removed from idle crouch animations; aiming to strike a balance between audio immersion and gameplay functionality.

I’ve also created a suite of egg cracking sounds that will accompany the hatching mechanic with a variety of intensities depending on the size of the egg. I’ve compiled these into two different subsets of sounds, the initial cracking as the egg shakes and the hatchling stresses the outer structure of the shell, and then a more intense and hollow sounding crack that occurs the moment the hatchling quickly bursts out.


Another month down and a heap of progress made. The production cycle for Update 5 has mostly been filled with prototyping and tweaking of systems. We hit the ground running with this update so we were able to run a fair amount of tests. We’ve trialed several different iterations of the skin system and nesting system and some other additions that are to come at a later date. With the progress we have made on the update being substantial, we are finally comfortable showing you more of what we’ve been up to and what these systems are going to provide. We’ll also be including a new and unexpected blast from the past, pterodactylus. Who you’re likely to love to hate or hate to love. This entry is going to be short and sweet as we've got all hands on deck to round out a few more finishing touches and tie up some loose ends. But we’ll be dropping some clips for you soon that span Update 5 features and future creatures coming into the game. We know the Skin and Nesting systems have been long awaited and we’re excited to get it into your hands.

Hey Islanders,

We've deployed a small hotfix to address a number of issues that were present in the previous version of EVRIMA. You may need to restart Steam if the update does not make itself immediately available for download.

• Readded stamina cost based on growth.
  
• Improved corpse ragdoll performance with a new implementation system for interactions.

• Fixed apply button disappearing after navigating the controls menu.
  
• Fixed wallow lockup if the admin entered spectator mode.
  
• Fixed Deinosuchus juvenile Eat Loop Swim animation.
  
• Fixed a pickup crash caused by PhysicX.

• Characters that have picked something up occasionally cannot eat/drink until safe logging.
  
• Deinosuchus lunge replication issues.
  
• Group leadership does not transfer.
  
• Group leader can occasionally lose kick permissions.
  
• Level may take a long time to load/never load.
  
• Characters sometimes fail to save correctly.
  
• Players may be stuck looking at their corpse unable to respawn.