Hey, CHKNeers! This weeks update makes fighting creatures in the arena more fun, with camera and AI/combat improvements as well as new pre-built creatures to test out. We want your feedback on creature battling in the Arena! Tell us what you think of the update and share your creature combatants with us on the Discord.

This update also includes:

• New homestead art
  
• Better creature riding
  
• Fixes to loading and performance

• Cameras:
  
  • Knockdown camera greatly improved (better transitions, closer focus on face to show creatures reaction)
    
  • Camera bugs in Team Elimination mode have been fixed
    
  • Fixed awkward camera transitions in Exhibition mode.
  
  
• Combat AI improvements: Creatures no longer end up in staring contests; theyre much more aggressive in combat
  
• New Arena creatures: Added new prebuilt creatures to try out in battle
  
• Fixed Arena attack attempt & hits tracking

• Optimization & Loading:
  
  • Reduced initial load time and optimized initial load memory usage. Loading should take significantly less time on lower end machines.
    
  • Improved auto-quality detection to choose performance settings more appropriate for your hardware
    
  • Added shadow distance setting to Options
    
  • The memory footprint of the game has been majorly decreased
    
  • World hitches (periodic framerate drops) that were caused by the game reading from the hard drive are now gone
  
  
• Creature movement: Speeds re-tuned so creatures are much more agile across the board (makes for better combat and riding)
  
• Riding: Added an easy-to-craft riding item for early game to make riding more accessible, and improved targeting when riding a creature

• Environment:
  
  • Melon & Squash art are higher fidelity and Raspberry & Blueberry items increased in poly count. Basically, these all now look more delicious
    
  • Bush textures got a visual tweak to bring them in line with other environment art
  
  
• Homesteads: All new art for wood and stone structure items!

• Creatures & Life Blocks:
  
  • A new set of creatures now have a chance of spawning in the world
    
  • Unicorn and Dinosaur Spike Life Blocks got a spiffy revamp
    
  • Added new Antler Life Block

• FX: Impact effects are larger in scale so theyre easier to see
  
• Item destruction: Disabled destruction of ability scrolls and item recipe tomes, and Electric Shock ability no longer destroys nearby items
  
• Multiplayer Bug Fixes:
  
  • Fixed an issue where creatures were missing for clients
    
  • Fixed creature riding for clients
    
  • Fixed a bug where party members in a multiplayer game would take damage from friends
    
  • Fixed a bug where bush impact sounds were not playing for clients in multiplayer games
  
  
• General Bug Fixes
  
  • Fixed a race condition with creature spawning that was causing multiple issues (abilities not appearing, duplicate creature records, and missing creature party avatars in the HUD)
    
  • Fixed a bug where players would teleport underground and bonded creatures would be lost forever if the player died while riding a creature
    
  • Fixed a bug where creature stamina while riding a creature would not deplete during sprinting
    
  • Fixed Creature AI triggering scared or angry routines at the wrong times
    
  • Fixed a bug where resolution settings were randomly changed/reset