Nocturnal behavior, Diurnal behavior and Sleep depiction has now been designed and implemented per species, in an important milestone for the game. A "Nocturnal Wasp" has been added as the game's first nocturnal creature (currently A.I. only, but playable in Sandbox mode) along with an original music track for its diurnal counterpart. Finally a large number of a bugfixes and improvements also come with this update.

Come twilight, life begins to alter in DoN's world

Recommended Playing

• Jumping Spider Survival

  
  Now essentially contains Lifecycles Act 2's basic themes and motifs within it. Of course the main attraction of Act 2 is being a tiny third-instar Jumping Spider that powers its growth all the way up to maturity, so that will be a memorable experience in its own right.

• Sandbox - Nocturnal Wasp

  
  Get a glimpse of what nocturnal life in DoN will look like in the future! Playable Nocturnal species will certainly be added to the game over time.

• Nature Sandbox - Spectator

  
  An enormous number of A.I. bugfixes and behavioral improvements have gone into this update so it's a lot more enjoyable now to just sit back and watch the A.I. do its thing!

Bugfixes and Improvements

• Gameplay

  
  
  • Tiger Beetle snatch radius significantly increased to help new players acclimatize to its high speed better
  • Ants are now on the menu for the Jumping Spider.
  • Anatomy Combat matches are now much quicker in response to user feedback. Just a few well-timed critical strikes are now enough to subdue an opponent.

  • Advanced Grappling

    
    Massive grapple bonus is awarded for players while hurling a prey down by falling with it and grappling in mid-air. Use this strategy (snatch, leap, fall to ground) to easily conquer otherwise difficult opponents like an adult Grasshopper!

  • Locomotion

    
    
    • Wasp Locomotion major improvements. Wasp can now walk better and flips under leaves/etc easily. Especially important for walking in and out of the mud nest easily.
    • A.I. - Random spinning / turning of A.I. during land based pathfinding
    • has been greatly mitigated. A.I. - Accuracy of Long Jumps, Darts improved so A.I. doesn't keep falling down while trying to jump across.

  • Sandbox mode

    
    
    • Sandbox possess bug fixed - health/hunger are now correctly setup when you possess an A.I.
    • Creature Highlighting - Hover your mouse over a creature to receive feedback from creatures you can select
    • Sandbox Activity text fixed for Anatomy Combat.

  • Visuals

    
    
    • Floating hollow logs issue fixed by updating model and random map gen params
    • A.I. body placement on surfaces post locomotion improved
    • Free look activation/deactivation issues during grapple and after, fixed
    • Chem vision trails lingering fixed
    • Monarch animation no longer begins in Chrysalis form when you load a saved game

  • Grasshopper Improvements

    
    
    • Grasshopper Flight made much easier; previously the turn speed was set (unreasonably) high as a species trait.
    • A.I. Grasshopper no longer spins randomly while chewing leaves. Looks much better now!
    • A.I. Grasshopper short-flight accuracy improved. Grasshoppers also now favor leaves instead of flowers while fleeing from predators
    • Grasshopper 3rd Instar - Sandbox model fixed; it was previously getting squished due to incorrect application of Jumping Spider consumption after-effect.
    • Grasshopper 3rd Instar - Sandbox Lifecycles disabled for grasshopper instar for now due to pending setup work. This will get needs a formal release later though!

  Lifecycle of a Jumping Spider, Act 2 - The Great Outdoors

  
  This is the next update! All the gameplay systems, new creatures and rivalries are being woven together to bring the Jumping Spider's much awaited lifecycle into fruition. Hope you enjoy this update! With ❤, Venugopalan Sreedharan
  Hard work rewarded - this clever Jumping Spider made it through the night and bore witness to a brilliant dawn. I hope you do too :)
  
  [ 2018-06-11 21:29:48 CET ] [ Original post ]