Welcome to the May Development Diary!
As usual, it’s been all hands on deck as we continue to work on the different aspects of combat coming in U17. We’ve made some great strides this month with the addition of danger zones, throwable animals and improved locomotion which we’ll talk about in more detail shortly.
For this update, we’ve had really big ideas for what could be accomplished (some of which haven’t been shown yet) and we’re proud of what we’ve been able to deliver so far considering the U17 time constraints and our team size (7 full-time devs, 5 part-time). We are very excited to continue adding and enhancing combat up until full release with some of our remaining ideas, so stay tuned for the U17 trailer coming next month!
Meet Allosaurus anax and europaeus, our final two Jurassic predators coming in Update 17!
Previously known by the moniker of Saurophaganax, Allosaurus anax is an enormous predator with a particularly bad temperament! Unlike its related species, anax does not form social groups and prefers an anti-social lifestyle. It’s a big, mean fighting machine.
On the other hand, Allosaurus europaeus is a vibrantly colored species from, you guessed it, Europe! Sharing its formation with Stegosaurus ungulatus and Torvosaurus gurneyi, this mid-sized predator can be found in forested habitats living together as mated pairs.
While these Allosaurus can look menacing as adults, their babies are super cute! With their light, striped bodies and a fluffy coat of feathers, these are definitely one of our favorite baby theropods.
On the road to finishing combat, we’ve been able to make animal movement look more natural and responsive depending on the situation. Animals can now turn faster when they want to run away, make tighter turns at high speeds and just generally turn a lot smoother. This was a particular issue for sauropods who would previously snap into their turn animation.
In addition to these improvements, we’ve also added banking to make animals lean towards whichever direction they’re moving in. This isn’t something we’ve seen in a zoo-sim before, but we think it looks particularly realistic on animals like the Dryosaurus or cave bear!
Let’s talk a bit more about the behavioral backbone that makes combat a reality. As you know, Prehistoric Kingdom typically strives to present these creatures in a more animalistic light. When fights or aggressive behavior occurs, there needs to be a reason for it.
As of right now, we have 18 different profiles that mix and match various combat conditions. To determine how a species behaves, we assign them one of these profiles which allows them to do things like:
Become aggressive while feeding
Bully other species during the mating season
Cannibalize babies while hungry
Cannibalize their own species while starving
Fight due to overcrowding
Spar during mating season
Spar with siblings
It’s also important that when a fight does break out it won’t always be to the death. In our testing, it’s been refreshing to watch predators give up or even flee if they’ve sustained too much damage. Likewise, some herbivores are territorial and will pursue their agressors while others might run away once the attacking party gives up.
In terms of dynamic combat itself, quite a few new elements have been integrated since last month. It’s all still very work in progress and not yet polished, but we’re quite happy with how it has come along!
Animals now have “danger zones” to signal which side of their body an attacker should be wary of, making predators or rivals a bit more hesitant and likely to move position. In the case of something like Stegosaurus or Ankylosaurus, this means that their rear or sides would be a danger zone.
When animals go for an attack, large weight differences or big damage can launch competitors into their knockdown state. If the animal has enough health, they’ll be able to get back up. We’re still tuning the look of this feature, but it’s awesome to see herbivores like a sauropod, mammoth or Stegosaurus toss their attackers around.
Animals can now perform “reaction” attacks when they’re close to an opponent. This can mean swinging their tail, taking a quick bite or even slashing their claws. They’re inherently opportunistic and help make things feel more alive.
There’s still plenty of work to be done, but we hope this short video gives you a better idea of where we’re headed. We think it’s going to be pretty cool once it’s all finished!
As you’ve probably noticed in the video, the more damage an animal sustains in battle, the more wounds that’ll appear on their body. If they survive, these wounds will eventually turn to scars. Each individual has its own procedural wound offset, so no two animals will have scars in the same position.
Once an animal has died, predators can eat from their corpse! While we aren’t balancing the game around the idea of a self-sustaining ecosystem, this feature combined with breeding and herbivores eating from plants in Sandbox should provide players with some level of ecosystem support. We’re very curious to see what sort of results come from this!
For our final bit of news today, the Save and Load menus have been overhauled with a fresh design to show your statistics and PTB saves. There are also more differences between the two menus, so you should be less likely to accidentally load instead of saving a park.We loved seeing all of the incredible fan art over on our Discord server this month, so be sure to join and check out all of the other beautiful pieces that we sadly couldn’t fit into this diary! Thank you artists. <3Created by MafsCreated by T-B the siamosaurus
Created by Black_Rugops
Created by Yepetto
Created by Salem
Thank you for reading May’s dev diary! Once again thank you for your patience and stay tuned for the U17 trailer! There’ll be more to come in June.- The PK Team