Thought it might be fun to show a quick gif of what HammerHelm looked like when it first launched in 2017 compared to now, especially for those who joined our community this year and never saw the original builds.



This year saw the addition of new character models with customization. new buildings and jobs, new quests, an expanded town economy, the big Orc quest, an upgraded player house, new monsters, updated combat, lots of new craftables, and more. Many of these features, and others added this year, came directly from your feedback, which I can never say often enough, I so very much appreciate!


I can't wait to see what we build together in 2019!

And if you really want to laugh. This is what HammerHelm looked like in 2014.

(No, really! The original design was a 2D mobile game. Long story. :P)

Welcome to the 12th devlog for Prehistoric Kingdom, officially marking one year from the release of the first content-filled, monthly progress blog post! Coinciding with this festive period, this post will celebrate our successes and accomplishments as a project, while also serving as a reminder of what’s yet to come.

Since this is a special month, we decided to skip over the ‘State of Development’ chart, replacing it with a year-round inclusive review of what has been done so far, right towards the end of this post.

That being said, we hope you’ll enjoy seeing more gameplay than post months. We are ready to start talking progress!




This month we put a lot of focus into making our building system feel and sound polished. Our second SFX designer (Byron) worked closely with our gameplay programmer (Mau) to ensure that every piece of player interaction had some sort of feedback for the player.

https://youtu.be/Q_Q-Cuxw2uM

Compared to the demo, we put a lot more into making Prehistoric Kingdom feel responsive and sound great. Through many revisions, we are super happy with how the core elements are shaping up.


It’s hard to believe that we first created our scaffolding system all the way back in October of 2016! A lot has happened since then so it’s only natural for us to try and overhaul its performance and aesthetic.

https://youtu.be/b6_VQ7LTHDY

This system had a lot of unsolvable issues which led to some pretty hefty performance hits whilst also not looking all that great, either. To remedy past problems our team looked at small real world construction sites to create brand new assets and find a much less taxing way of implementing a runtime scaffolding effect. Below is the result we found most satisfactory, please keep in mind the ground is part of a simpler test level.

https://youtu.be/9NWwlRsQygQ


In Early Access we’ll be introducing a simple and easy way to select multiple objects. To achieve this, simply hold the left mouse button down and drag the selection box over all structures and decorations that you might to move, duplicate, or delete.



Additional items can be added to the selection by holding shift and clicking on the desired building. Think of it like manipulating files on your desktop; pretty easy, right?




What good is any business without clientele? To top October off, we continued producing assets for our visitors, with the middle age group in mind this time. The adults will serve as the ‘mainstream’ category in Prehistoric Kingdom, being the most common guests in the park with the most well-rounded needs of any group.




To respect the tradition set last month, Nathan has been hard at work producing wholly new animations for the medium-sized theropod rig. While the showcase video features Allosaurus in particular, you can expect these animation to apply to animals such as Yutyrannus and Ceratosaurus, albeit slightly changed in order to better fit the target animal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLUIkHL8CGc




Much like what’s been done for our dinosaurs, mammals will also be getting their own introduction tracks. Primigenius has a larger emphasis on drums, winds and horns than what is usually found in our music.

https://soundcloud.com/byronmckay/primigenius-mammal-theme

In addition to this, Byron also finished up an old breakout piece; Tantrum-o-saurus rex. Filled to the brim with familiar orchestration and Prehistoric Kingdom motifs, this track is sure to set in some nostalgia and panic as a hungry theropod runs rampant through your park.

https://soundcloud.com/byronmckay/tantrum-o-saurus-rex




Small access buttons on the corner of the screen offer a handful of various tools and shortcuts for important management views in addition to features like screenshot mode or the park map.



A global list of all recently bred animals is also accessible so that players don’t need to head back to the Nursery when populating their park.




This month we started working on our notification popups – something that we’d like to be mostly out of the way and provide clear contextual information. Certain actions like unlocking new animals will be a bit more exciting, however, as seen in our work in progress animation below.





All popups can be disabled in the options menu.


As a fitting departure to 2018, our animal and building information panels have reached a final pass before moving onto UI implementation within the game itself.



All UI elements and icons will have tooltips when hovered over.



After a long process of iteration, it’s satisfying for us to finally put down the concept stage for these elements and say “This is it. This is the one.”


Screenshot mode got some pretty major reworks to allow for a far greater degree of flexibility when trying to get that perfect shot. We considered implementing the Ansel tool but decided on creating our own system due to compatibility issues with AMD cards in addition to some new features like time of day and fog settings.



We’ve opted for a vertical redesign reminiscent of third party solutions that’ll be more out of the way than what we had previously.




The end of the year brings a bunch of new fully realised alternate skins to life. As our holiday treat, please enjoy the finished alt skin sets for Edmontosaurus regalis, Parasaurolophus walkeri, Iguanodon bernissartensis, Allosaurus fragilis and Megaloceros giganteus!











In addition to the other three creatures, our Tyrannosaurus has received remakes of the Blackbeard and Ginger designs. To better fit a more contemporary feathering on T. rex, we’ve adjusted the location of feathers on the Ginger skin to remove excess fluff.







In the past we have talked about our plans for the general fossil system, but since so much time has passed since then, we felt it was a good idea to revisit our design in more detail, helping you visualize it with even more interface art.


Fossil formations are located all around the world, featuring dozens of unique extinct fauna. Like in past games, this is where players will find the remains of 50 different prehistoric creatures at launch.

South America, for example, features the Ensenada, Huincul, and La Colonia formations:



Example of our South American sites at launch.




Once a team has been assigned to a dig site they’ll send their findings back to the player at the end of each designated site’s digging timer.

However, if waiting around isn’t your cup of tea-rex, the Fossil Market is perfect for you! Donated from private collections, auctions and museums alike, the catalogue refreshes every month with new animals and specimens each yielding varying degrees of DNA.



It’s a little pricier than traditional digging though it offers the benefit of hand picking creatures and instantly adding to their total DNA viability.


Once a creature has reached 50% of its true genome it can be bred within the Animal Nursery. It’s important to note that anything created in this state will have a weaker immune system and lower fertility chance.

Despite this, additional coloration and physical alterations still need to be unlocked by acquiring 100% of the DNA. Certain creatures like Thescelosaurus and Tyrannosaurus can even have their integument changed depending on which genetic skin has been unlocked.



Alternate skins are unlocked in challenge mode by completing genetic milestones for each animal.



2018 was a big year for us as a team; a colossal year. Between planning, drafting, designing, redesigning, and working on different facets of the game, it’s been a huge year.


This year began with the strong partnership between Shadow Raven Studios and our publisher Crytivo. With them we’ve been given many new opportunities such as convention showcases and access to additional resources like the lovely Martin Fyris who helped conceptualise many of our buildings during production.

Officially, we started development on Prehistoric Kingdom in late March of this year after releasing the Jurassic Patch for our public demo. We would’ve liked to have started sooner but were held back by the short term nature of the codebase and implementation of new features like better AI and implementing new assets including animals and fences.


Even before Kickstarter, we had a very clear idea of where the project should head and what its direction would entail for our creative process. We knew we wanted to approach production through the aid of 3 well-defined development stages, delineating the progress of the game clearly: creation, management, and progression. In the 9 months since we started working on what is eventually going to be the released game, we were able to create an enormous quantity of art assets needed for all 3 phases. Never in the history of the project have we had so many ‘props’ to fill our game world with, and we are incredibly proud of that.

When it comes to gameplay, there’s been the expected ups and downs. While we have revamped every creative aspect present in our 2017 demo, effectively putting our past work to shame, we also had to depend to some extent on third party assets that would improve upon the engine we are using, allowing us to truly create the product we wish to publish. As such, we weren’t yet able to complete the first phase we set, but considering the work put in it thus far and the technical complexity that comes with it, we definitely feel like we’re on the right track, albeit slowly so. On a practical standpoint, we have the following:




Celebrating our accomplishments for this year, we realize that it’s also time to think about the future. 2019 is the year we’re gonna start seeing true, substantial leaps in progress, with one or more phases of our alpha plan possibly seeing completion during this time-frame. As we stated in past blog posts, our top priority right now is bringing the ‘creation’ phase up to speed by developing all the tools necessary to unleash every player’s creative potential.

Early on in the year, we are gonna make it a point to complete our level design so that we can start bringing all our systems together to create polished and user-friendly builds. We are going to finish our fence and path systems, and delve into fleshing out our animals, from the animation system, to the AI that drives all their actions.

Sounds complicated? That’s because it is, quality takes time. With that in mind, we think that at this pace the other 2 phases should take far less development time. One way or another, we will definitely have something to show for our work in the year to come, and we know you are gonna love it!

---

Thank you for reading December’s Devlog!

2018 has been one hell of a year and we are ever so hopeful that 2019 has got great things in store for the community!

---

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___

If you would like to check out our past blog posts, you can head to the official one here!

Due to the change in the direction of the
project, some characters will be unable to
make the cut due to their lack of a character
bust. If you voted for a character and it's not on
the list. Then I'm sorry, but I'm glad I was
still able to make something you liked.

Well anyways here is the brief character list for the last
Team Syukino game; Estellium Legends.
*It should come later this year after Ataemasu.*

-A main character you can create yourself
from scratch with an in-game generator.

-22 New characters.
*Names and appearances in the works.*

-9 Returning characters.
Soren (SER)
Maria (SER)
Thedo (SER)
Balthus (Luvocious)
Velvet (Luvocious)
Toko (Luvocious)
Luminarus (SEH)
Felm (FT)
Momo (FT)


Also happy new year!

Fix
1. Explanations for adding parcels to get items.
2. Rehabilitation and disappearance of Boss's sister mapping.
3. Repair the name error of supermarket.
4. Adding a new task to Chapter 2 .(not yet completed)
Happy New Year's Day 2019!

Throwback to 2018, Experienced many activities and development,
Thanks for fans, let us can keep going.
Wish everyone happy in 2019.

Today also have to tell everyone some new,
The next demo will add "Spanish".
Thanks fans for passionate translation,
currently still in continuous correction.
(time and funding considerations,
the Full version does not necessarily have Spanish.)

The game also has many parts to optimize,
The new year also invites everyone to meet,
Hope we will also be able to complete the Full version within the time frame.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/682780/Breaking_Good/
:FlashFreeze::Dosh::Dosh::Dosh::FlashFreeze:

Ahoy Pathfinders!

We'd like to wish all ATLAS Pathfinders a very Happy New Year! It's been a crazy start to our voyage, and it's already filled with so many exciting memories for us here at Grapeshot Games! We've only just explored the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what ATLAS will be and we're excited for the future ahead. As each night passes, ATLAS gets one step closer to becoming one of the most ambitious online worlds of all time and fulfiling its destiny as the ultimate fantasy pirate adventure! Thank you so much for becoming a part of our crew and we can't wait to show all you scallywags, landlubbers, captains, and seadogs what lies ahead!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1610173666


We don’t have too much to add this week as the general battleplan is the same, though we’re going to do our best to keep you informed on a regular basis, via Social Media, Discord, and our weekly Captain's Log posts.

As mentioned in the previous Captain’s Log, our number one priority at the moment is tackling the stability, connection, and data issues, and we promised that we would make significant progress! Over the last few days, we have released a number of critical updates which have improved our server performance tenfold. We have statistically eliminated over 95% of all crashes, and are presently working on further updates to bring that number down even more. As a team, our direction is now shifting onto connection issues, data loss bugs and general balance and gameplay fixes -- as you can see, some of these changes are already underway!


Current Version: v8.56

- Anyone can now demolish shipwreck structures to regain resources so get your diving suits ready!

- NPC Trading Ships are back and no longer affected by wild creature destruction commands! Reminder for those with deep pockets, the trader ships have an epic Dragon which can be purchased for 50,000 gold coins

v8.36

- Improvements made to joining/rejoining servers, should make it more reliable and eliminate many cases of connection lost/failure to grab server info.

v8.35

- Fixed a bug where HUD may not have shown to players in some cases.

v8

- Further improved server stability.
- Further reduced Ship of the Damned spawns by 20%
- Ship of the Damned now are allowed to "Wander" away from shore if they find themselves close to shore
- Ship of the Damned targeting ranges now are reduced by the type of ship (down to 30% for rafts (which means they will now attack rafts - but you have to get pretty darn close to them!) and 0% for dinghies)
- -LowMemoryMode now disables the background movies for lighter memory footprint
- Changed damage type on repair hammer to 0 against players, human npcs, and creatures
- Ships near shore do not attract cyclones anymore
- Vultures should now more easily harvest corpses
- Ships that players are based on do not use staggered updates now (resolving the issue of the choppy spyglass rotation when in the crow's nest, for example)
- Can no longer weapon-charge or dodge when encumbered.
- Fixed erroneous reference to chalcedony instead of flint base
- Added Ingots/Alloys and Organic Paste to the list of resources allowed in the ship repair box
- Tripled gathering weighting of metal in all the generic rocks for both pick and hatchet damage types
- Grenades damaged to stone multiplied by 3x
- Changed Human Crew character carry inv max weight from 1000 to 60.
- Switched damage weightings around so the pick tool is preferred from metal/crystal/gem/salts and hatchet for wood/coal/stone, etc. No adjustments have been made to yield changes, just tools have been adjusted.
- Fixed an issue with treasure bottle's spawning (there will now be more of them and more reliably spawned) and increased the quality of loot found in treasures.

v7.8

- Further server/networking optimisation to improve server performance and stability. We have effectively eliminated over 95% of our crashes. We'll be continuing to monitor our servers over the coming days ahead and tackle more events. Consequently, we will be turning our primary attention to data transfer issues and connection issues.
- Reduced Ship of the Damned targeting range by 50%. We're going to look into scaling that based on the type of ship.

v7.6

- Further server/networking optimisation to improve server performance, stability, and connection issues.
- Further tweaks made to Ship of the Damned should no longer wander close to shore, however, they may chase you.
- Shipyards are now properly tagged on the server side, so enemy players will not be able to demo them unless the decay timer has truly hit 0 on the server.

Link to complete Patch Notes: https://steamcommunity.com/app/834910/discussions/0/1742229167204313065/


Pathfinders! It’s week 2 and here’s another round up of the Dynamic Maps! For those who aren’t familiar, The ATLAS Dynamic Maps is a system that monitors live in-game territory ownership and indicates which companies dominate over the lands. 

Soon, the Companies that have occupied Islands for a certain period of time will gain the automatic privilege to name them on the in-game and web maps, as it is their land! So each week with our Captain’s Log, we’ll be including an image to monitor the progress of the maps, taking note of any exits or new arrivals and any drastic changes in the overall claim. 

Who will come to dominate the ATLAS may very well become clear in the days and weeks ahead, though maintaining a large Empire will likely come with its own longer-term challenges...

Remember you can don your tribe’s company flag by stylizing it in the game with a paintbrush! Upload your own images or design it how you like, with the top company flags always being visible on https://map.playatlas.com/

[EU PVP] The Whale’s Wrath

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1610174132

Held:  XSM???, Cobra, French & Ships, Bad Company, Blackwater Company, BLDX DOUYU56876, and Chem B

Arrivals: PUBG GOLDEN HORDE, OOOOOOOOOF, and La Flotte Ancestrale

Departures: Le Saint Empire, The Holy Annwn Empire, Blackwater Company, and Marlong.

[NA PVP] The Kraken’s Maw

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1610174387

Held: Dynasty, MAGA, INFINITE, The Goodship Misery, High Seas Booty Bandits, Radium, and Order of Freedom

Arrivals: TPG, CSTG, and Barry Sails

Departures: Darkblade Army, Libertalia, and Black Sails.

And whilst there isn’t active PvP on PVE servers, we’d like to recognize the following tribes for their claims!

[EU PVE] The Siren’s Call

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1610174046

Held: Compagnie des Indes, M.E.R.C Spirit, Forlorn Hope, Unlucky, and Paragon.

Arrivals: Rum ueber Bord, I.C.E, Woelfe des Rudels, Future Company (HUN), PIRATES, and Febrirs Dogs

Depatures: Unlucky, I L O, UseR, Tacorsair, Starroad, and System of the Wipe. 

[NA PVE] The Hydra’s Den

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1610174256

Held: Biz Enton Company, Plunderers, Scales & Sails, The Salty Seamen, Dead Men Floating, and The Exiles.

Arrivals: Atlas Shrugged, blublublu, East India Trading Co., and Sail, Fail, Repeat.

Departures: Test Squadron, Bad Neighbors, The Exiles, Chronically Raving Co., and Pirates of Gore.


Hear ye, hear ye!

We be seekin’ fer the finest of ATLAS community creations! Show us yer mighty fleets, paint pieces, flags & sails, impenetrable forts, hellish tats, scenic screenshots, 'n entertainin' videos! Each week, we'll be runnin' a contest where we'll select th' best o' th' bunch 'n award tha winners wit' a cash prize! The first contest starts today 'n the winners will be announced in the next Captain's Log!

Here are some examples so you have an idea of what we’re looking for!

https://twitter.com/SpookyAnonymous/status/1078933391125430272

https://youtu.be/um0C4Qe0Zw0

We'd really love to see some epic boats and fortresses! Entries can be posted in the Creative Section the forums or the ATLAS' Steam Artwork Page! We’ll be on the lookout for your posts :)

That's all for tonight! We hope you guys have a fantastic New Year celebration!

All the best,

Grapeshot Games

🏴‍☠️For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information

Hoist ye sails to our Homepage: https://www.playatlas.com/
Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas
Navigate ye olde Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/playatlas
Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas
Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas
Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame

Rangers!

For those users on steam who experienced an issue with regards to purchasing Gcoins we advise everyone to please try again.

Our team already fixed the said issue and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Thank you for your unwavering support on Combat Arms: Reloaded!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDyyjUp1liw&feature=youtu.be
Hey everyone! Hope you are all enjoying your holidays! We spent this past week focusing on player data across worlds while adding three new UI elements: Map, Compass and Spaceship HUD. Now that finding objects is much improved we will be focusing on polishing up the main game UI, adding a mission system (including side quests) and restoring much of the base building and crafting utilities. We hope you enjoy this latest Beta release and please, feedback welcome!

Happy New Year!
The Fenix Fire Team



• New Map system. Geography is displayed by elevation lines dynamically with a special radar camera. Mineral and Resources are displayed with color coordinated dots for the entire zone. Structures, Utilities and Vehicles and all indicated with orange dots. Structures have a radius around them for easier locating. Map system has Resource filtering and Zoom features to customize your map system.

• Map system has 3 modes: normal, full screen and settings. Full screen has a toggle with the “M” key while “F4” displays Resource selections.

• New Compass System. All Structures, Utilities and Vehicles are displayed on your compass which is always visible while planetside. Heading and distances up to 250 meters are shown. Compass directions are also shown using the North, South, East, and West configuration.

• Spaceship HUD. Planet and Moon indicators have been added to help find worlds while in Space. Horizon indicator has been added. Speed has been adjusted for interplanetary travel.

• Spaceship Sounds. A new spaceship sound system has been added to make the Spaceship come to life via audio.

• Gameplay status messages are now all displayed in upper left corner. These messages also have an automatic queueing system when multiple messages need to be displayed.

• Stamina system has been reworked to give a proper penalty when empty, then replenishes fully while in a suffering state. This seems to give a more satisfying feeling when recovered from low stamina.

• Improved ramped easing into sprint for more fluid control.

• Save Game events now take a screenshot and record your time. When you wish to leave the game and new screen appears illustrating time and place of the last save. Anything that has taken place after that save will not be saved. This adds value to beds and planet landing, as these are currently the two save points.

• Structure Camera mode now transitions behind the player while in 3rd Person to help with camera clipping while going in and out of Structures and Vehicles.

• Structures, Vehicles, and Inventory is now saved across worlds. Notes that this fix may not be compatible with old data. For best result start a new character in this Beta.

• Inventory now saves on interaction with Depositories in each world and zones.

• LookAt IK now functions after level load.

• Weather no longer makes sound in Space.

• Mining sounds have been attenuated.

• Glitch sounds have been attenuated.

• Suffering voice been tuned down.

• Stamina and Oxygen was taking twice the usage while turning, this should now be fixed.

• Mining while walking backwards no longer lunges the player forward while in 3rd Person mode.

• Weather has been added back in for Aziel.

• Proteus 2 dust particles have been adjusted to appear properly.

• Weather now occurs after interplanetary travel.

• HUD overlays while in Spaceship mode after viewing Map Settings.

• Graphics Settings buttons are a little wonky, we’ll get to this on the next round.

• Forge and crafting tables are not fully restored. This is coming up next.

• Crafting and Base building will be restored.

• Colonize Mission system. Specific goals per world to accomplish.

• Side Mission system based on items found in world.