Herd ranks, shared tames, and survival improvements
I'm testing a new herd management system in Evolution of the Ancients. It gives herd leaders more control over how responsibilities are shared, while letting players keep their own tames or donate them to the group.
I've also been working through bugs affecting swimming, eating, AI, and movement. Here's where things stand.
Leading a herd
Herd members now have ranks that determine which actions they can take. You can give trusted members more responsibility without giving everyone full control over the herd and its tames.
**Alpha** is the herd leader, with full control over ranks, ownership, herd settings, and herd-owned tames.
**Elder** is a trusted second-in-command. Elders can invite players, manage lower-ranked members, rename and level herd-owned tames, and use all tame commands.
**Venguard** can invite players and issue advanced tame commands, but cannot manage ranks or tame progression.
**Ranger** can use basic tame commands, including follow, move, hold, and stop. Rangers can also contribute items and donate tames to the herd.
**New Blood** has limited access. They can contribute to herd tame inventories, but cannot issue commands or withdraw items.
These permissions are still being tested and may change as development continues.
## Your tames and the herd's tames
Joining a herd doesn't make your personal tames shared property. They remain yours, and you keep control over their progression and core actions.
If you want to contribute a tame to the group, you can donate it to the herd. Herd-owned tames are managed according to rank, so some members can give basic commands while more trusted ranks can take on progression and other responsibilities.
## Eating without repeatedly pressing interact
Eating from a carcass should now involve a lot less button pressing. Once you start eating, your dinosaur will continue after each animation as long as you're still standing in front of the body. You no longer need to press interact for every bite.
## Bug fixes and improvements
Alongside the herd system, I've made the following changes:
- Adjusted swimming logic to address the fast-swimming issue.
- Brought drinking closer to shore.
- Updated cliff collisions.
- Fixed AI movement and AI losing sight of targets too early.
- Fixed issues adding multiple Apex Teeth and the add amount showing zero.
- Fixed sprint animation playback across ages.
- Fixed clicking issues in the journal.
- Fixed cannibalism sickness behaviour.
- Fixed the deceleration issue when loading a single-player game.
- Fixed Interactable foliage not disappearing reliably.
## Still being checked
I've made changes to the following issues, but they need more testing before I can call them fixed:
- Oxygen refill height when surfacing.
- Swimming behaviour continuing on land.
- Attack markers not disappearing.
- Players spawning under the map.
- The 144 Hz black screen issue on launch. If failed the workaround is to change your hz and then back.
- Server updates reaching players who are already online.
Which herd permissions would you reserve for your most trusted members?
Thanks for following Evolution of the Ancients and the work going into it.