*Thank you for supporting Early Access! We couldn't do this without your support, encouragement, and patience!* I had originally intended to share this update last week but instead decided to spend the extra time improving performance and updating the flight controls. We worked straight through the weekend and have touched almost every system. We hope you'll be delighted with the new eating system, aerial acrobatics, growing/crafting system, updated shaders, dynamic sky, color palette, and more. Of course, like any major patch, there will be bugs and tweaks. The list below details our patch notes. Please let us know what you think!

**NEW: Version 8.50**

*New Terrain and Streaming code. Terrain will stream in around you based on your altitude. *New Region: Winding Peaks. All regions load this area. We'll be releasing new areas much quicker, now that we have a template and process.
*'Peer Ahead': Loads terrain even further ahead of your dragon! Great for scouting or scenic views. Press '1' to Toggle on/off. *New Flight controls, your dragon can now bank, roll, and flip while flying; use S,A,D keys
*Momentum and Dive physics. Swoop down upon your prey! *New shaders, textures, models, and lighting effects *New day & night cycle including new sky, skybox, and ambient lighting *Tooltips! Hit 'ESC' to bring up your mouse cursor: highlight object, prey, and NPCs of interest to learn more. *New Eating, Belly, and Growing/Crafting Mechanics. Press and hold 'E' to eat. Dragon's eat messily, you've been warned.
*New Health and Total Growth (your dragon's exp) bars. *New Weapons (bite, breath, tail) and armor (hide,scale,plates) *New Profile and Hoard pages. Hit 'ESC' and click the button to bring up these menus *New: Archers and Wizard shoot projectiles! Dodge flaming arrows and bolts of magical energy. *Major performance and stability tweaks. *Fixed bug which caused grabbed creatures to "slingshot" away from you when released; it was caused by NPCs root position becoming unbound from your dragons due to AI issue.

*BUGS TO WATCH FOR*

*We're currently tweaking the dragon's controller and enabling falling damage; if you hit the ground hard and fast enough to take damage, you may fall through the terrain! *NPCs may also clip or fall through the ground. *Trees and grass may forget your viewing distances. Open the options menu and reset your distances if this occurs. *Random Crash to Desktop bugs (Possibly from bears?) *The game may think you're a green dragon, instead of a red, blue, black, etc. This is purely a labeling issue. In the gameworld your dragon will appear correctly. *Trees don't die: Most trees are much larger and stronger than small dragons. If you need to destroy a tree and hits aren't registering, run directly away 20 feet and then come back. This will reset which trees can be interacted with. *Towns and cities are being reset for the new terrain, they may float above or below the terrain as well. *Weapons and armor are still buggy. Food eaten is not usable for crafting...yet. Here are the new features of our world:
• High-rez textures, new shaders, far plane trees, terrain, and structures. A truly dragon size region, we're experimenting with 20x20km and 40x40km terrains. Players with powerful PCs can increase the draw distance of terrain and trees for miles, which really increases the immersion.
• Dynamic day and night cycle, new sky system complete with clouds, moons, stars, and ambient effects.
• New belly and growth mechanics Eating fallen prey fills your belly. This food is digested and converted into growth points, which can be used to grow new gear and upgrades for your dragon.
• Grow new weapons, armor, abilities We’ve implemented a fun, crafting like system for your dragon. Spend growth points you’ve earned from hunting and quests to grow new jaws, breath weapons, scales, abilities and more. Unlock new upgrades, body parts, and special abilities or develop your own unique, specialized items. Stats are slightly randomized and different gear is tiered according to its power level and your dragon’s hoard requirements.
• Archer and Wizard Projectiles Archers, towers, wizards, cyclops, and enemy dragons can now aim at and shoot you. Hails of arrows and spells will greet unwanted visitors to human lands. Cyclops (and other monsters) are now even more threatening when they throw boulders and other dragon-smashing projectiles at you.

What's Next?

We need to finish cleaning up your dragon's profile, optimize and stream the new terrains, and clean up the Hoard and Growth systems. Expect a new update on Friday or Saturday. See you in the skies!