Meet DoN's latest species: A Wasp that provides for its larvae by capturing spiders and sealing them shut inside a mud nest. Yikes! Here's the official release video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG6gNeCLih8
Oviposition occurs next to the spider By popular demand, this species has been made fully playable even though the original plan was an A.I. only cameo to facilitate the Jumping Spider's Act 2 lifestory. The "Blue Mud Dauber" Wasp features new Survival Quests, Egg laying and Nest provisioning gameplay. This update offers perhaps DoN's strongest gameplay yet, so please be sure to check out this new species (and the Jumping Spider survival where you now have a new adversary!) This is also DoN's biggest bugfix release yet, with several fixes and improvements added to the game.

Mud Wasp Gameplay Overview

Nectaring on flowers
Grapple Montage. Watch out for that stinger!
Inside a Mud Nest
Carrying a spider back to the nest So Is she a sweet nectar drinker or a fabled persecutor of spiders? Both actually, as the adult wasp only feeds on nectar. It is your larvae that have a penchant for spiders, so each egg of yours is carefully laid in a secure mud nest and provisioned with at least three spiders. This hybrid gameplay is what makes the wasp standout in the roster because it is simultaneously a benign pollinator of flowers, whilst also being a serious threat to the resident spider population.

Mud Nesting

Currently the A.I. uses a densely packed cluster of mud nests (co-located) while the player is provided with smaller chambers scattered throughout the map for you to explore and find. Mud Nest building is not a part of this update but, it will be added eventually.
An A.I. nest cluster. Best experienced in Jumping Spider "Survival" mode

DoN's biggest bugfix patch

Including, but not limited to:

• A.I. snatching issues fixed for tiny prey; they no longer enter a futile snatch loop while snatching tiny prey such as first-instar grasshoppers, Mealybugs, etc
• Milkweed leaves now support building silken nests on them (various bugfixes were needed to support this)
• Lifecycles - Moulting now covers health, stamina and other attributes as well (this was previously ommitted due to a bug)
• Lifecycles - Moulting now applies difficulty levels correctly (previously this was getting overwritten every moult)
• Plant Simulation - Sandbox planted plants now correctly set their lifestage up. This has implications for flora intersection handling and some other subtle visuals.
• Anatomy combat system - Damage per attack anim is now limited to one frame for normal attacks.
• Anatomy combat system - Multi-hit attack now allowed for some special moves. Currently only the Tiger Beetle's heavy strike supports this.
• Anatomy combat system - Larger Instars are now no longer vulnerable to smaller instars. Previously the larger body surface area of larger instars made them weaker in combat.
• Anatomy combat system - Stamina cost is now correct for fully grown Jumping Spider (previously the 1st instar's stamina cost was being used)
• Tiger Beetle grappling anim transitions fixed
• Tiger Beetle species name now shortened to "Cicindela Japonica"
• Ant grappling skill, strength reduced (it was previously nearly on par with a Jumping Spider, this was unintentional)
• Fixed exhaustion safety logic for A.I. from resulting in a behavior loop (for flying creatures)
• Fallen prey no longer wake up to jump/flee upon landing from a height :)
• ...and many more.

New Prop - Hollow Logs

Greatly benefiting the game's landscape both visually and gameplay wise, this release brings with it "Hollow Logs" that players (and A.I!) can travel inside:

On the horizon - Lifecycles Act 2

With the parasitoid wasps finally in place, all the building blocks for Act 2 are here. A nocturnal wasp will need to be added though, so that, along with gameplay design for Act 2 (and maybe another ground-based prey) are the pending tasks. Almost there now!
Thanks as always for reading, hope you enjoy playing the Blue Mud Dauber! :) With ❤, Venugopalan Sreedharan PS: Release video coming soon!

[ 2018-05-12 21:15:35 CET ] [ Original post ]