Drunk On Nectar is back into full development again! This milestone v0.5 update is literally the halfway point for the game towards a Full Release out of Early Access. The game's development process has been revitalized on many levels and is now fully equipped to realize this goal for 2023.
v0.5 features the game's largest collection of Visual and Gameplay improvements, bugfixes, menu and narration updates and is a must play experience for both old and new players of the game. You can now expect a new update every 2 weeks from here on. so this is just the beginning of something great!

What's Changed in v0.5

Here's a quick roundup:

Chemical Vision Perfected:

Across tiny instars and large adults, across flora, fauna and various game modes, time of the day, unique gameplay situations like highly populated swarms, etc, etc, DoN's Chemical Trails have been reimagined and corrected for visual and gameplay perfection.
Chemical trails no longer stay permanently on the screen. The most important gameplay change here is that players now have to Hold X to perceive chemical trails. The goal here was to reduce visual overload, encourage more intelligent planning and to open up new gameplay avenues.

Swarm AI - Significantly Improved

The behaviour of AI swarms has undergone major changes. They're now far more placid, predictable and play out perfectly well for complex predator interactions. Your experience of the Jumping Spider Lifecycle and Ladybug Lifecycle in particular should be massively improved - more fun, rewarding and interesting as a consequence!

Chemical Filters - Redefining your view of the world!

The game now offers a full range of chemical filters which can be cycled by Tapping the C key.

Chem Filter: Prey Only

This mode limits your chemical vision to only prey that you can currently catch and eat. For example, if a Grasshopper is too large for your current instar then it is entirely skipped! This allows you as a predator to focus your energy intelligently on prey that you can actually catch when you get there :)

Chem Filter: Predators Only

Ever nervous about whether a Jumping Spider or Dragonfly was prowling about you? Well, put your fears to rest by turning on the "Predators Only" chemical filter, which limits your chemical view of the world to only those predators which might actually be interested (and able - i.e. by weight, species. etc) to catch you.

Chem Filter: Mates Only

A classic for Lifecycles Act 3 - Mating & Reproduction. This filter limits your vision to only those fauna that you can actually flirt or mate with. Forget about those prey and predators and fly away to find a beautiful mate! :)

Chem Filter: Flora Only

A treat for advanced predator players - You can now smell floral nectar trails - even as a predator and thus predict which flowers are more likely to actually be visited by butterflies and bees :) No more wasting time sitting on the wrong flower! Perfect for a Praying Mantis laying ambush!

Chem Filter: All Fauna

This is pretty much game's previous chemical trail mode which would show you all of everything. It can get very visually intense, but they will now fade away the moment the player releases the Chem Vision key (Default: X), thus preventing visual overload.

Other Improvements by category

Chem vision and AI swarms weren't the only thing improved, this update brings a ton of bugfixes and many long awaited changes across the board.

Visuals & Graphics

• Landscape texturing at close range improved. Most obvious for tiny instars of Jumping Spiders, Ladybug larva, etc while they're off prowling across the forest floor :)
• Landscape texture shaking at close range greatly minimized. Future updates will fully fix this by bringing in new landscapes altogether!
• Camera behaviour for drinking nectar from flowers vastly improved. Abrupt jerking fully eliminated, viewing angles are always smooth now!

Gameplay (Common)

• Bodyfat saturation cooldown - Allows caterpillars plenty of time to rest / scout before pupation, instead of being forced to eat again and make up for lost bodyfat!
• Tiny Predators are now protected from large grasshopper chew holes during tutorial quests.
• Camera behaviour for drinking nectar from flowers vastly improved. Abrupt jerking fully eliminated, viewing angles are always smooth now!

Lifecycles

• Jumping Spider
  • Dragonfly quest no longer freezes during narration
  • Silk Tent Construction vastly simplified - the first two phases (spinning silk) have been removed. Now build your tent in just under 30 seconds!!!
  • Chemical trails are now carefully designed (size & intensity) across all instars
  • AI Mates now start off with full satiety (hunger, bodyfat). This ensures they don't run off to look for food while the player engages them for courtship and mating!
  
  Silk Tent Construction vastly simplified!
• Monarch Butterfly Lifecycle
  • Mating Rituals: Chem trails are now carefully controlled at each stage
• Ladybug Lifecycle
  • Chem trails are far more manageable now, yielding vastly improved gameplay
  • Swarm AI behaviour vastly improved
• Grasshopper Lifecycle
  • Critical bugfix to grass blades: Chew holes no longer "disappear" on certain grass blades.
  • New "Predators Only" chem filter of special interest for Grasshopper Lifecycle players!

Survival Mode

• Praying Mantis Survival
  • Various bugfixes to animation state and locomotion
  • "Prey Only" chem filter ensures that oversized Grasshoppers are not shown as potential targets!
• Blue Mud Dauber Survival
  • Gameplay completely rebalanced, much easier to complete now.
  • Sensory range vastly increased to make it easier to hunt spiders
  • Nectar consumption and hunger rates increased and decreased, respectively.
  • Critical bugfixes to resolve blockers that prevent progress at various points

Creature Quests

• Checkpoint system fixed. This was previously broken in many cases
• Ladybug Creature Quest made a lot more fun and easy thanks to the Chemical Vision improvements

Nature Sandbox

• Squirrel removed from fauna menu as it is not yet complete
• Various other bugfixes
• Major improvements are planned to Nature Sandbox in upcoming updates!

Major Upcoming Updates

Several groundbreaking updates are headed your way, notably

Skill Trees - Lifecycles Act 4 - A Tale of Generations

Ever wished your creature was a lot bigger, or could move faster, or jump higher? Well, Lifecycles Act 4 will make this possible! Level up across multiple generations. choose new skills and create your own unique expressions of the game existing species. Featuring RPG elements such as a Specices Tech Tree, this update will add unparalleled depth to the game's existing offerings and is guaranteed to provide endless replay value for the game's ardent fans.

Subspecies - Variations of existing fauna - Butterflies, Jumping Spiders, Grasshoppers etc

This content focused update will add new subspecies of existing creatures. So more butterflies, more types of Jumping Spiders, more Grasshoppers - some bigger, some smaller, some green, some brown, etc. New models, animations and textures will infuse new vigor and life into the game's existing offerings.

Living Flora - Plant & Environment Focus

One of the oldest pillars of Drunk On Nectar is its extensive "Living Flora" plant simulation engine. Historically this has not been featured as much in the game, but the goal of this update is to absolutely revitalize the plants, the flora, the environment - i.e. the natural foundation which the rest of the game and all its creatures depend on.

Thank You

My heartfelt thanks to the game's loving players for your belief in this game and for your patience through the past years. I'm deeply grateful for your patronage and am absolutely thrilled to walk this road of successful release of the game, here with all of you. The past few years have been exceedingly challenging, but now the time has come at long last for the game to shine in its full splendor. I am fully committed to achieving this and will do absolutely everything in my power and indeed - beyond that, to fully ensure that Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar is complete, successful and brings a lot of fun, happiness and joy to all who may play it! With lots of love to the game's wonderful players and fans, Venugopalan Sreedharan (Developer of Nature & Life - Drunk On Nectar) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PS: If you could report any bugs or other issues you run into with this update either here or on the forums, that would be very greatly appreciated! :)

[ 2023-05-07 22:05:45 CET ] [ Original post ]