Fixing bugs that show up in long running simulations

Fixed a gamebreaking problem that could emerge with hormone instincts after an animal lost a hormone
Fixed a save file corrupting problem related to saving instincts and diets for the non-default sex
Removed various log messages slowing down the simulation when sped up

Balancing plant evolution from algae

Areas automatically get their nutrients filled up by nearby water, so in these areas plants can evolve without the need for fungi
Added more random variation to the 'starter plant' that evolves from algae
Fixed a problem where the shown statistics of the stilt (mangrove) roots didn't match its statistics in the simulation, leading to plants not growing in 'high moisture, max softness' areas

Fixes for the daily challenge

The daily challenge now uses a less extreme variant of the planet generator, to prevent planets that are too hot or windy for starter organisms
Medium moisture is now the default planet setting (instead of maximum)
Fixed seed selection mechanic, so it should no longer be possible to get the exact same daily challenge two days in a row
Fixed bugs that caused the daily challenge to not always lock for the day after trying
Fixed 'animals that change sex during lifetime' objective not registering
Time is now paused until you click 'let's go'

Various changes to the animal editor

Sleep pattern buttons are now greyed out for the smallest body size, because their lifespans are so short that they will die before they get tired
Dropped support for multiplacement mode (CTRL)

Performance optimization

Hearts to indicate mating now only appear when the animal is somewhat close to the camera
Zzz to indicate sleeping now only appear when the animal is close to the camera
Merged all colored spheres for the flypaper trap into 1 object, so they no longer have a measurable impact on performance (fewer draw calls)

Other changes

Fixed a bug where opening the detail view for multiple species in quick succession caused their names to be mixed up

I often forget to read comments below release notes, so if you have questions or bug reports, feel free to reach out via the Steam forums or thesaplinggame@gmail.com.

[ 2025-01-18 07:09:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Sapling is a short simulation game where you design your own plants and animals, and put them in a world together. Or you turn on random mutations, and see what evolution does to your ecosystem!

Features

Design plants and animals.
Fast-forward time to and watch the ecosystem work like a charm or slowly fall apart (probably the latter :) ).
A sandbox mode where you can skip time and turn on random mutation, allowing true evolution.
An instinct system where you can specify what an animal should do when it hears or sees something.
A procedural animation system so any animal can perform any animation.
Procedural music mixed on the fly.
Everything set up to be easily extended by players.

This looks just like Spore!

Wessel Stoop has wanted to play a simulation game where you can build your own plants and animals, put them in a world, and see what happens since 2002. You can imagine his excitement when Will Wright, the father of simulation games, demoed his latest game Spore to an enthusiastic crowd. When Spore turned out to be all game genres except simulation, Wessel decided he wanted to try to make the game by himself. The Sapling is the result of that attempt.

MINIMAL SETUPOS: Ubuntu 16 or newer
Processor: A processor with SSE2 instruction set supportMemory: 4 GB RAM
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: Graphics card with DX10 (shader model 4.0) capabilities.
Storage: 150 MB available space
RECOMMENDED SETUPMemory: 16 GB RAM

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