Hi everybody!

First an announcement: if you missed it on our social media we are going to be doing a livestream this Friday at 3pm PST/ 6pm EST. In it we are going to showcase all the cool new stuff that's in the upcoming patch and talk about what we are planning to do in following patches. The stream will be on our Twitch channel here: https://www.twitch.tv/sauriangame

We hope to see you there!

Henry

The silver lining of the delayed patch was that I had the opportunity to look through some player suggestions, and re-prioritize some features based on them while waiting on some other programming progress. As a result, AI perception has been refined and upgraded.

First, visual acuity is now more refined. Larger animals will have a harder time seeing smaller animals at long distances, and smaller animals will have an easier time seeing larger animals at long distances, etc. We can also individually tailor eyesight strength by species, so that some animals are more near-sighted than others.

Second, animals now have a sense of hearing, which, like sight, can have different sensitivity depending on species and is sensitive to the weight of the sound-producing animal. The speed of an animal also influences its loudness: walking is quiet, and running is loud. This represents the foundations for stealth gameplay, as the success of an ambush is now partially dependent on how you manage your speed.

Lastly, predators have received a new nuance to their hunting behaviors. If a predator hears an animal but can't see it, or loses sight of it, that predator will search around the prey's last known spot until it either loses interest, gets distracted, or finds the prey.