The winner is...


This ecosystem includes the Velociraptor, Protoceratops Deinocheirus mirificus, Plesiohadros, and more!


Image by PaleoGuy on Deviant Art.

This ecosystem includes what YouTuber Best in Slot refers to as "danger floof," or the Therizinosaurus, which is my favorite:


Image by Sergey Krasovskiy

Now, several people noticed that it ended in a close tie at the end between Mongolia/Flaming Cliffs and Hell's Creek, so we took a look at the IP addresses of the votes to make sure our own office votes didn't skew the results. What we found instead though, was... drum roll... massive voter fraud!

Okay, not that massive, but our top IP address voted 29 times for Hell's Creek!

Now we do recognize some of the smaller ones can be multiple family members or people in the same location, but 29 people with the exact same IP address voting for Hell's Creek with most of the votes only taking 2-3 seconds to complete? Sorry, someone was cheating.

So we dug into the data, removed excess suspicious votes, and by the end, Flaming Cliffs was the clear winner:

• Flaming Cliffs: 43%
  
• Hell's Creek: 33%
  
• Europe: 24%

And, for your humor, we made this handy cheating infographic -- really all in good fun because it's not like this was a super serious legal vote. But we did want to get to the bottom of what the actual most popular ecosystem would be, and we did!

The winner is...


This ecosystem includes the Velociraptor, Protoceratops Deinocheirus mirificus, Plesiohadros, and more!


Image by PaleoGuy on Deviant Art.

This ecosystem includes what YouTuber Best in Slot refers to as "danger floof," or the Therizinosaurus, which is my favorite:


Image by Sergey Krasovskiy

Now, several people noticed that it ended in a close tie at the end between Mongolia/Flaming Cliffs and Hell's Creek, so we took a look at the IP addresses of the votes to make sure our own office votes didn't skew the results. What we found instead though, was... drum roll... massive voter fraud!

Okay, not that massive, but our top IP address voted 29 times for Hell's Creek!

Now we do recognize some of the smaller ones can be multiple family members or people in the same location, but 29 people with the exact same IP address voting for Hell's Creek with most of the votes only taking 2-3 seconds to complete? Sorry, someone was cheating.

So we dug into the data, removed excess suspicious votes, and by the end, Flaming Cliffs was the clear winner:

• Flaming Cliffs: 43%
  
• Hell's Creek: 33%
  
• Europe: 24%

And, for your humor, we made this handy cheating infographic -- really all in good fun because it's not like this was a super serious legal vote. But we did want to get to the bottom of what the actual most popular ecosystem would be, and we did!

Today we have a big announcement…

We’re about to begin work to add a dinosaur biodome to Tyto Ecology!

This has been our most-requested addition, and we're thrilled that our art team is finally about to have the resources and time to pull off a new biodome highlighting the Cretaceous Era! It’s really important for us to be as scientifically accurate as possible, so we have three pretty specific times and locations we’ve been trying to choose from.

So that’s where you come in!

From today until Tuesday, June 26, you get to vote between three different dinosaur groups and locations.

One vote per person!

(1) Cretaceous Mongolia, including Flaming Cliffs: including the Velociraptor, Protoceratops Deinocheirus mirificus, Plesiohadros, and more!



(2) Cretaceous Hell Creek: including Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, and more!



(3) Cretaceous European: Including lesser-known dinosaurs such as Turiasaurus riodevensis, Ampeloasaurus atacis, Baryonix walkeri, and more!





Once the votes are in, we’ll announce the final winner! Then we’ll start the research needed to create a sustainable ecosystem from producers, consumers, and decomposers with species from that era and location! This will be based on all the most up-to-date theories out there that we can find, and we’re super excited to release an as accurate-as-possible prehistoric ecosystem expansion pack!




Images from Paleo Guy on Deviant Art, who does absolutely incredible work!


Also, we're debating if we should just release this as an expansion, or if we should run a Kickstarter first to give people the opportunity to get cool rewards like art prints, 3D Printed Models of their favorite dinosaurs, and help set some stretch goals to make it even cooler. Let us know what you think we should do in the comments.


RESULTS AS OF MONDAY AT 8:30 PM EST - GUYS WE'RE TIED!!!

Today we have a big announcement…

We’re about to begin work to add a dinosaur biodome to Tyto Ecology!

This has been our most-requested addition, and we're thrilled that our art team is finally about to have the resources and time to pull off a new biodome highlighting the Cretaceous Era! It’s really important for us to be as scientifically accurate as possible, so we have three pretty specific times and locations we’ve been trying to choose from.

So that’s where you come in!

From today until Tuesday, June 26, you get to vote between three different dinosaur groups and locations.

One vote per person!

(1) Cretaceous Mongolia, including Flaming Cliffs: including the Velociraptor, Protoceratops Deinocheirus mirificus, Plesiohadros, and more!



(2) Cretaceous Hell Creek: including Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, and more!



(3) Cretaceous European: Including lesser-known dinosaurs such as Turiasaurus riodevensis, Ampeloasaurus atacis, Baryonix walkeri, and more!





Once the votes are in, we’ll announce the final winner! Then we’ll start the research needed to create a sustainable ecosystem from producers, consumers, and decomposers with species from that era and location! This will be based on all the most up-to-date theories out there that we can find, and we’re super excited to release an as accurate-as-possible prehistoric ecosystem expansion pack!




Images from Paleo Guy on Deviant Art, who does absolutely incredible work!


Also, we're debating if we should just release this as an expansion, or if we should run a Kickstarter first to give people the opportunity to get cool rewards like art prints, 3D Printed Models of their favorite dinosaurs, and help set some stretch goals to make it even cooler. Let us know what you think we should do in the comments.


RESULTS AS OF MONDAY AT 8:30 PM EST - GUYS WE'RE TIED!!!

Our next update is now available to download as a free content addition... babies!



Previously in the game, all babies (not yet mature animals) were half-sized versions of the adults. But of course, many babies look quite different from their adult counterparts, so we've been working on an update that would allow us to all squee at baby cuteness.



With this update, the baby phase lasts the first half of their childhood (i.e. before sexual maturity and becoming an adult). During this phase, for the species that have unique baby versions, they will appear as these new adorable babies we've created. Not all animals have this, as some species look similar as babies and adults or are too small to notice a difference, in which case they will still be scaled down versions at 50% of adult size. During the last half of childhood, every species will be a juvenile version at 70% of adult size as their sort of teenage years. Then they'll mature into adults at the end.

To make sure this functions better in the ecosystem, we've also adjusted it so that baby carnivores (separate from juveniles) can eat animals one size lower than their adult counterparts. This is so you don't see a tiny baby cougar take down a mule deer.... as we did during testing before we added this!

• Asian Black Bear
  
• Asian Elephant
  
• Bison
  
• Bobcat
  
• Capybara
  
• Caribou
  
• Coatimundi
  
• Collared Peccary
  
• Cougar
  
• Coyote
  
• Dhole
  
• Gray Wolf
  
• Grizzly Bear
  
• Jackrabbit
  
• Jaguar
  
• Marsh Deer
  
• Moose
  
• Mule Deer
  
• Muntjac
  
• One-Horned Rhino
  
• Pronghorn Antelope
  
• Red Fox
  
• Red Panda
  
• Tapir
  
• Red Junglefowl

Watch a brief intro video: https://youtu.be/H2zghbiGzdA

Our next update is now available to download as a free content addition... babies!



Previously in the game, all babies (not yet mature animals) were half-sized versions of the adults. But of course, many babies look quite different from their adult counterparts, so we've been working on an update that would allow us to all squee at baby cuteness.



With this update, the baby phase lasts the first half of their childhood (i.e. before sexual maturity and becoming an adult). During this phase, for the species that have unique baby versions, they will appear as these new adorable babies we've created. Not all animals have this, as some species look similar as babies and adults or are too small to notice a difference, in which case they will still be scaled down versions at 50% of adult size. During the last half of childhood, every species will be a juvenile version at 70% of adult size as their sort of teenage years. Then they'll mature into adults at the end.

To make sure this functions better in the ecosystem, we've also adjusted it so that baby carnivores (separate from juveniles) can eat animals one size lower than their adult counterparts. This is so you don't see a tiny baby cougar take down a mule deer.... as we did during testing before we added this!

• Asian Black Bear
  
• Asian Elephant
  
• Bison
  
• Bobcat
  
• Capybara
  
• Caribou
  
• Coatimundi
  
• Collared Peccary
  
• Cougar
  
• Coyote
  
• Dhole
  
• Gray Wolf
  
• Grizzly Bear
  
• Jackrabbit
  
• Jaguar
  
• Marsh Deer
  
• Moose
  
• Mule Deer
  
• Muntjac
  
• One-Horned Rhino
  
• Pronghorn Antelope
  
• Red Fox
  
• Red Panda
  
• Tapir
  
• Red Junglefowl

Watch a brief intro video: https://youtu.be/H2zghbiGzdA

Patch 1.13 is out with a major update to our saving system that will greatly improve reliability in case of file corruption or unusual circumstances (like reports of power going out, etc. that then lost biodomes for people). When you launch after the upgrade, it will convert all your save files, which means the first load will be longer than usual.

So far we've had two users report issues -- one who is having a biodome crash on load, and one with extremely long load times. We tested it as thoroughly as we could before going live, but of course testing with 20 people we can get to do it versus the entire user base of thousands of players can reveal some additional issues we didn't find before a release.

We are working on debugging the issue, but for now, we'd like to recommend backing up your save files if you have not yet upgraded to 1.13 just to be safe, if you're worried about losing biodomes.


Here's some instructions in case you want to save a back up your save file.

1). Locate your save file. Both Windows and Mac locations are different, so I'll list them both here.

Windows directory:

C:->users-> [Your Account Name] -> AppData -> Local-> Tyto Ecology

The AppData Folder is hidden by default, so you'll have to enable viewing hidden options.
You can do this by selecting the view tab located at the top of your window then turning on the "Hidden items" checkbox.


Mac directory:

In your finder, click on "Go" on the top bar and hold down your option key to reveal the hidden folder, and then click on the Library Folder. Then go to application support -> Epic -> Tyto Ecology

2). Compress the Tyto Ecology folder through .zip, 7zip, or by right clicking and sending to a compressed file. If you're not comfortable compressing the folder to create a backup, then you can choose to copy and paste the "Tyto Ecology" Folder somewhere else where you'll remember it.



After you upgrade, the old save files will be in the previous format and if you run into any issues you can hold onto them while we debug from reported problems and then you can try the upgrade again after a hotfix is released.

Patch 1.13 is out with a major update to our saving system that will greatly improve reliability in case of file corruption or unusual circumstances (like reports of power going out, etc. that then lost biodomes for people). When you launch after the upgrade, it will convert all your save files, which means the first load will be longer than usual.

So far we've had two users report issues -- one who is having a biodome crash on load, and one with extremely long load times. We tested it as thoroughly as we could before going live, but of course testing with 20 people we can get to do it versus the entire user base of thousands of players can reveal some additional issues we didn't find before a release.

We are working on debugging the issue, but for now, we'd like to recommend backing up your save files if you have not yet upgraded to 1.13 just to be safe, if you're worried about losing biodomes.


Here's some instructions in case you want to save a back up your save file.

1). Locate your save file. Both Windows and Mac locations are different, so I'll list them both here.

Windows directory:

C:->users-> [Your Account Name] -> AppData -> Local-> Tyto Ecology

The AppData Folder is hidden by default, so you'll have to enable viewing hidden options.
You can do this by selecting the view tab located at the top of your window then turning on the "Hidden items" checkbox.


Mac directory:

In your finder, click on "Go" on the top bar and hold down your option key to reveal the hidden folder, and then click on the Library Folder. Then go to application support -> Epic -> Tyto Ecology

2). Compress the Tyto Ecology folder through .zip, 7zip, or by right clicking and sending to a compressed file. If you're not comfortable compressing the folder to create a backup, then you can choose to copy and paste the "Tyto Ecology" Folder somewhere else where you'll remember it.



After you upgrade, the old save files will be in the previous format and if you run into any issues you can hold onto them while we debug from reported problems and then you can try the upgrade again after a hotfix is released.

Thanks to everyone who tested 1.13 for us, it's now ready to launch!


Red junglefowl. It's the Chinese New Year today, and Year of the Rooster! To celebrate, we added the red junglefowl to the Himalayan biodome. The red junglefowl is thought to be ancestral to the domestic chicken. We're thrilled to have this adorable new feathered insectivore in the game.




Clouded leopard. We added the clouded leopard as our standard medium carnivore to the Himalayan biodome! It was a much needed role, so adding a new species made the most sense for this situation!




Sunflowers. Sunflowers were added to the Great Plains Grassland! While not having many leaf points, sunflower do have a fruiting period for their delicious sunflower seeds. Be warned as they live to only bloom one time, so be sure to have some pollinators when the time comes!

Please note this is a replacement for the Milkweed; see the patch notes below.

• Added three new species: red junglefowl, clouded leopard, and sunflower.
  
• We're removing the common milkweed from the game as it has presented balance issues. Milkweed has a poisonous tag, meaning that only poisonous eaters can it. In the grasslands, the only animals able to eat milkweed are badgers, given they can eat poison, but they don't eat milkweed in real life. This resulted in milkweed being a poor selection to have in our grassland biodome. When you upgrade to 1.13, all milkweed existing in your biodome will disappear and it will be removed as a selection. This change will impact ecosystems very minimally since milkweeds only fed badgers, the most eclectic eater in our game. Hopefully this will reclaim space for biodomes that were taken over by the milkweed, leaving not enough room for other plants.
  
• If the game detects that you had milkweed in any of your biodomes, then that account will unlock the Sunflower for free. Don't worry, it's only 30 tyto coins to unlock it manually!

Thanks to all those that contributed to insane.tobi's ecologic exploits thread to bring about the changes above!

• Coyote accidentally had one of it's digits removed for their max hunger, making them die from starvation within a minutes of placing them down. Coyote Max Hunger is now back up to 90 from 9. Shout-out to Evernight for reporting this!
  
• Artic Hare population notifications will now fire off when the territory pop goes under 3 and it will reset it goes back to 5. Shout-out to Mbiggiani for reporting this!
  
• Tufted Saxafridge babies now have their meshes corrected and aligned instead of separating from each other. Shout-out to Mbiggiani for reporting this!
  
• Fixed a bug where clicking on a swarm territory like a pollinator for the first time on login, caused their UI to have additional overlapping elements.
  
• Fixed a bug that was preventing some notifications from loading on any biodome other than the first loaded biodome.
  
• Changed the "sizes" of different animals and their predation size ranges in the Alaskan Tundra in order to better reflect real life eating patterns. Now ermine can no longer hunt baby foxes.
  
• Changed the leaf points and/or impact points of: Cottongrass, Diamondleaf Willow, and Field Horsetail.
  
• Filled in values for detritus removal in the add life HUD for Jewel Lichen and Caribou Moss.
  
• Corrected the scientific name of the Lemming.
  
• Edited the physical size of various Tundra animals to make more sense.

Now this isn't a very user-facing change, but after seeing cases of save files mysteriously disappearing, we decided to change the way that our game saves files to improve the system! There are now about 100x less files being stored, so you might experience quicker loading times. More importantly, this will fix issues of player save files missing or becoming unreadable from corruption. We're sorry to all those that lost their save files, but we hope that we see an end to these problems with the save rework.

Please note that you MAY experience a longer launch time than normal on your first game launch as it converts your save files.

Thanks to everyone who tested 1.13 for us, it's now ready to launch!


Red junglefowl. It's the Chinese New Year today, and Year of the Rooster! To celebrate, we added the red junglefowl to the Himalayan biodome. The red junglefowl is thought to be ancestral to the domestic chicken. We're thrilled to have this adorable new feathered insectivore in the game.




Clouded leopard. We added the clouded leopard as our standard medium carnivore to the Himalayan biodome! It was a much needed role, so adding a new species made the most sense for this situation!




Sunflowers. Sunflowers were added to the Great Plains Grassland! While not having many leaf points, sunflower do have a fruiting period for their delicious sunflower seeds. Be warned as they live to only bloom one time, so be sure to have some pollinators when the time comes!

Please note this is a replacement for the Milkweed; see the patch notes below.

• Added three new species: red junglefowl, clouded leopard, and sunflower.
  
• We're removing the common milkweed from the game as it has presented balance issues. Milkweed has a poisonous tag, meaning that only poisonous eaters can it. In the grasslands, the only animals able to eat milkweed are badgers, given they can eat poison, but they don't eat milkweed in real life. This resulted in milkweed being a poor selection to have in our grassland biodome. When you upgrade to 1.13, all milkweed existing in your biodome will disappear and it will be removed as a selection. This change will impact ecosystems very minimally since milkweeds only fed badgers, the most eclectic eater in our game. Hopefully this will reclaim space for biodomes that were taken over by the milkweed, leaving not enough room for other plants.
  
• If the game detects that you had milkweed in any of your biodomes, then that account will unlock the Sunflower for free. Don't worry, it's only 30 tyto coins to unlock it manually!

Thanks to all those that contributed to insane.tobi's ecologic exploits thread to bring about the changes above!

• Coyote accidentally had one of it's digits removed for their max hunger, making them die from starvation within a minutes of placing them down. Coyote Max Hunger is now back up to 90 from 9. Shout-out to Evernight for reporting this!
  
• Artic Hare population notifications will now fire off when the territory pop goes under 3 and it will reset it goes back to 5. Shout-out to Mbiggiani for reporting this!
  
• Tufted Saxafridge babies now have their meshes corrected and aligned instead of separating from each other. Shout-out to Mbiggiani for reporting this!
  
• Fixed a bug where clicking on a swarm territory like a pollinator for the first time on login, caused their UI to have additional overlapping elements.
  
• Fixed a bug that was preventing some notifications from loading on any biodome other than the first loaded biodome.
  
• Changed the "sizes" of different animals and their predation size ranges in the Alaskan Tundra in order to better reflect real life eating patterns. Now ermine can no longer hunt baby foxes.
  
• Changed the leaf points and/or impact points of: Cottongrass, Diamondleaf Willow, and Field Horsetail.
  
• Filled in values for detritus removal in the add life HUD for Jewel Lichen and Caribou Moss.
  
• Corrected the scientific name of the Lemming.
  
• Edited the physical size of various Tundra animals to make more sense.

Now this isn't a very user-facing change, but after seeing cases of save files mysteriously disappearing, we decided to change the way that our game saves files to improve the system! There are now about 100x less files being stored, so you might experience quicker loading times. More importantly, this will fix issues of player save files missing or becoming unreadable from corruption. We're sorry to all those that lost their save files, but we hope that we see an end to these problems with the save rework.

Please note that you MAY experience a longer launch time than normal on your first game launch as it converts your save files.