Triceratops

Alright, so Saurian has released a new patch this week. This patch didn't introduced fundamental gameplay mechanics or anything, but it did work around with reworking the atmosphere and the water graphics.

There's not much to say about this patch, but I tried to play a little bit of it to try and see how it works. In my experience, the game runs much better than previous times, which is amazing. The lag is minimal and the game runs very well over the long gameplay time.

The water graphics have changed, but to be honest, I don't much care. The splashes in the earlier patches looked more interesting to look, than just the simple water ripples we have now (but maybe this way the performance is better?). Its a shame the camera can't dive underwater now. I don't know if this is a temporary or permanent decision, but I do miss wetting my camera while crossing a river.

The weather system is incredible. The skyline looks great. The clouds really look good and smooth even on very low graphics, and the night sky is also good. The nocturnal ambience is very good, you really feel like you're in the dark. There is an option to turn on camera noise as a result of the low luminosity, and I think it gives a very convincing effect of what it feels to be in the dark, where things just can't be seen as clear as they would, normally. I wish the capacity to see in the dark was changed from animal to animal, though, considering that I imagine Dakotaraptor would excel at seeing in the dark of the night.

Rain now occurs more often and it can be quite strong and cause strong flooding visibly. Rain drops the performance a little bit, but its nothing detrimental to the gameplay at all. I was quite thrilled to see my Triceratops character just peacefully grazing in a fluvial island, and see the water slowly rising during a rainstorm until the island was completely submerged, forcing me to swim to higher shores.

Even though this patch was relatively short in content, I do think its a great step in the right direction, not only making the game run much smoother and with less performance issues, but also making the environment feel much more palpable. I can't wait for future environmental overhauls that improve this... even though it might be time to insert another playable animal eventually lol.

So Saurian has released a brand new patch last week. This one saw a new mechanic, accessible through the social display menu: the mating and nesting mechanics. Not only that but now you have a call wheel accessible for Dakotaraptor. This is a cool feature because now you can enjoy using the same basic perks you have with social group managing as Triceratops, though that will be limited to simply tracking your family members through that list icon, where you can rename them, see their stats and see where they are. Dakotaraptor sociality is still pretty simplistic and stale in comparison to Triceratops but its just a neat option that you can just keep track of your group mates and rename them as much as you want.

The introduction of nesting and mating has been something that I believed would really revolutionize how you approach gameplay goals in this game. Sadly, the reward isn't as vivid as I would expect, alas, nesting and mating is here, and I am definetly glad it is, as it is a fundamental part of a dinosaur's life anyway, and we should get the option to have this in the game. Nesting is an interesting and quite fun mechanic, but that's largely because it contrasts immensely with the sheer boredom that is enduring the growth from juvenile to adult. At least, so far, I have only been able to nest as a Triceratops so far, and even though the nesting mechanic is entertaining, it comes with the burden of enduring over two and a half hours of doing essentially the same stale thing until you're ready to become an adult and do your nesting business.

I feel, however, that mating and nesting should be more elaborate. I am sure the developers will build upon it, as this mechanic is in its early stages. However, I feel like mating should be more complex, and not be limited to you making a display to a suitable mate and then that mate automatically becomes yours right after you select the mating button. Attracting your mate should be a bit more elaborate in my opinion, purely for a visual reason. Surely you do have the fitness meter, though. I have had limited experience with dealing with that feature, so I don't hold any reservations, for now, on the effectiveness of this mechanic. Nesting, overall, is well done. The basics are all there, build nest, lay down material over the eggs (or lay down yourself), check if the eggs are warm or cold, watch out for egg predators, be mindful of water level changes if you lay your eggs close to the water. I don't think the nesting mechanics needs much else to change, beyond a few more dynamic interactions, but overall I feel its well done so far (again, I have only nested once when playing this patch).

Another, though small, complain I have is that you don't really feel sexual dimorphism at play, at least in regards to the new features of this game. The AI mates don't engage in any egg rearing. They don't put leaves on top of the nest, in the case of Triceratops, nor do they sit in the nest to incubate them as a Dakotaraptor. You, whether you are male or female, have to do the work of building the nest, keep the eggs warm and protected, and your mate, simply because its an AI, does nothing. Male and female Dakotaraptor should have an equal probability of being the one rearing the eggs, as they have no sexual dimorphism and given they mate in a pair, it makes sense that they would take an equal capacity of labor in regards to egg rearing, perhaps only one of the parents is tasked with this. As for Triceratops, I don't think that makes much sense. I don't find it all that unlikely that a male could help rear the young, but the female seems like a much better fit to take care of the offspring, build nest, lay down material, etc., given the sexual segregation that exists in Triceratops herd mechanics. Apart from this sexual hierarchy, with male Triceratops being the leader of the herd and driving off rival males, in regards to mating and nesting, you don't have that distinction. A female can attract a male, rather than the other way around, which should make more sense, and, as said, the nest rearing is indifferent to the sex of the parent, which doesn't make much sense to me either.

In regards to other gameplay related thingies, through my limited gameplay I have seen a strong reduction of spawn rates for most animals in general. Not to a point where it is severely detrimental, most of the times, to my gameplay, but the dynamic spawn system seems to be heavily reduced. For example, throughout an entire Triceratops gameplay, only once have I ever been in danger of a predator attack, in this case a Tyrannosaurus, in adulthood. With me being used to be always on the lookout for constant danger throughout an otherwise boring and repetitive Triceratops growth, this severely handicaps the interest I have with growing my Triceratops and keeping it alive until adulthood. A much more vivid environment displays an array of opportunities and dynamics that make your reactions to it more varied and will also shape how your herd composition will be, throughout the gameplay. In the case of Dakotaraptor, the spawn rates are lowered down to a point where my prey options are very limited. Lizards are far from abundant (albeit still present and moderately reliable) and other, admittedly more exciting, prey options, like Thescelosaurus, a personal prime prey preference for old juvenile and subadult Dakotaraptor, are nowhere to be found.

In regards to performance, however, I do notice a slight improvement, and that is really great. I don't really have much to say on this matter. Perhaps worth pointing out that I can now expand the range of foliage rendering distance now (my PC ain't too powerful anyway), so that allows for more immersion in that regard.

Overall, this patch provides a very long awaited mechanic, it is in its early stages, and I really, really hope its improved and worked upon in the future. I have mixed reactions about this patch's performance, but I still think they're going in the right direction. The next patch, I believe, will be an environmental rework, and I am looking forward to play Saurian again with a reworked visual setting, which should make playability in this game much more seducing.

So Saurian has released a new update. At first glance, not too much added. A few toggles basically. Beyond interesting wind effects on plants, there is also a auto-walk toggle, a shadow culling toggle, and a dynamic spawn toggle.

Personally, all of these additions are useful and add something to the game, which is perfect. The wind effect is noticeable, but not too violent, so you can see the plants moving around just enough to understand they are not static models, and with the added dynamism in sound, you can feel the plants and the trees bending in the wind, as audio of leaves, twigs and trunks bend around. This helps a lot with ambience. Other toggles surely do help in minimizing performance issues, which have been a bugger for a lot of players, including myself, so these also help.

The addition of the auto-walk toggle became surprisingly more useful than I expected. No longer you need to keep pressing W to walk. You can just press T and you activate the auto-walk toggle. This is extremelly useful, specially when you are walking around without doing much, following your parents, siblings and/or herd members, with only slight adjustements required to change your route when needed. This really does also help for you to specify a route for you to auto-walk, and that allows you to keep walking while moving your camera around to see your surroundings, so that is also very cool, specially when you have to be on the lookout for predators. And predators, funnily enough, are much more of a danger now with this patch.

For the better or worse, the most striking feature of this patch is, by far, the dynamic spawn system. The dynamic spawn system can be toggled off if you want, but I really think it adds something to the game. Its hard to judge which types of AI spawns are "normal", in the sense they aren't part of this dynamism, and which ones are dynamic (i.e. not very common and very specific that it would be complicated to reproduce in normal spawning conditions). However, you can take some guesses, and I personally saw my gameplay become even more challenging (for the better). Predators appeared with more frequency, however not in a way that affects the gameplay in a heavy way. It just means you have to be on a more attentive lookout, and I personally find this slightly more stressing and makes your survival, specially as a young animal, much more exciting. As a young Dakotaraptor you have to be on the lookout for other raptors that might show up. I was surprised that my first gameplay in this patch ended up with me being killed by a juvenile Dakotaraptor. As a young Triceratops I was shocked on how I was peacefully grazing with my parents when I turn the camera around and I am quickly engulfed by the jaws of a Tyrannosaurus, dying in the moment, after a successful ambush made by the theropod. You can really observe how the environment responds to you with much more attention, and that is very satisfying for a player. On top of that, however, dynamic spawn systems are not just based on the frequency of predators but also on certain animal combinations that wouldn't occur so easily naturally. Some of these animal combinations aren't easy to discern from naturally made combinations, but sometimes they are quite obvious. For instance, as a young Triceratops, while walking along with my herd, I was delighted to see a rare occurance of a subadult Dakotaraptor hunting a Pectinodon. Just these small hints of a living environment makes the gameplay much more worth it, and the added challenge gives you yet another stronger motivation to keep moving forward in your growth into adulthood. So overall, this patch is a clear step in the right direction for the game.

Saurian has released a new update. I recently had the opportunity of trying out the patch 2.1, even though I haven't played too much of it. In part, that was responsible for a bug that made a normal gameplay impossible, but after notifying the developers, an hotfix was later made and the bug in question was fixed, and I can now play it properly. The disadvantages of EA.

However, from the little I experienced I took a little bit of a superficial exploration of the things that were added in the next patch. I can't say all of them necessarily improve the game, but they don't show themselves as outright downgrades. The most notable feature of change, in this new patch, was the change in the scent system. The change in the scent system was sufficiently radical. Instead of covering the landscape with colorful clouds, the scent system is instead manifested by just a few faint bright particles that emanate from a determined source. This makes scent more discrete and less visually crowded when in scent mode. I like the inclusion of footprints, droppings and blood decals as indicatives of the presence of animals, so even without the scent mode on, you can still guess their presence. The system now allows for scent tracking, turning the bright white particles into a bright blue. So, I personally feel this new scent system adds up to more realism, and the difficulties it presents, when compared to the old system, are great to serve that same realism. Animals can have a good sense of smell, but usually they just feel small hints of scent, that suggest the presence of an animal. However, I believe that, visually, the scent particles could get an amplification in terms of density. More particles emanating from a fresh source would be a good thing, because at a far away distance it gets a bit complicated to see them, and specially in the gameplays where the resolution is low (in my case I put my resolution to the lows, as my computer can't withstand the graphics at its max). So I would like to see the scent system getting a rework to accomodate this, but they are in the right track (no pun intended).

The weather system was also updated. Although I haven't had enough hours of gameplay to get a good sense on its manifestation, I did noticed that the weather is somewhat more dynamic, and that is very great. The soundscape has also changed, if you are attentive, and that gives a good small hint of immersion into the game. A new AI, Pectinodon, was added, though unfortunetly I haven't found any in my gameplays, maybe next time. Wounds in animals were also added. Personally I think that's a cool feature, not a very necessary feature, if you ask me, but it helps give realism and a sense of character to a certain animal. A dead one will surely be covered in blood, and an injured one will have wound markings on where it was attacked. For the time being, wounds have only proved to be an aesthetic complement, and I don't mind it.

Another notes about the gameplay that I would like to mention, pertain specifically to Dakotaraptor. As far as I am aware, pretty much no gameplay mechanic for Triceratops was compromised with this update, but in the case of Dakotaraptor it was. Given the scent system is different now, tracking prey is more complicated. You can still see the blue outline of small animals however. The spawning rate for small animals has also changed, making hunting more difficult. In my own take, it is an improvement, because hunting as a Dakotaraptor was super easy, but by reducing the abundance of small prey, it makes hunting as a young raptor, more challenging. Special mention to the change in spawning rate of Didelphodon, as of now, I don't recall having seen any after this patch, having relied myself mostly on the Chamops, which are more agile and less easy to catch.

So, Saurian has updated a couple of months ago. I recently had the opportunity to play the new patch 2.0, which is notable for the introduction of brand new plant and biome assets for the environment, as well as the introduction of Triceratops as a brand new playable dinosaur (its been over three years, but here it is). I must pin a disclaimer here... I haven't reached adulthood yet in any of the gameplays I did for this patch, but I have played enough times to confidently give a review of my experience.

What do I have to say about this experience? I liked it very much. Lets just say the performance is so, so much better in this new patch. Its extremelly noticeable for me how smooth the gameplay experience runs through. There are some instances where frame drops occur, but nothing too drastic, and the game has crashed at times, but that doesn't seem to be too surprising given the history of the game. This is obviously accompanied by brand new floral assets, which are basically plant remodels. This was deemed important, as the game was introducing the first playable plant-eater. Fortunetly this was accompanied both by a performance increase and an aesthetic overhaul. Although I didn't mind the old look, this new one looks much more realistic, under my own judgement. The plants seem to have a duller color tone, which makes the world look much more realistic, in contrast to have it all bright green.

Now for my experience in playing as a Triceratops. It is an extremelly fun experience. I could even risk to say its more pleasant than Dakotaraptor (more on that in a bit). Triceratops are social creatures, and it was an obligation, on the game's part, to provide us with the tools to enjoy this social lifestyle as vividly and as effectively as possible. The diversity of different calls and social features is small, but can do just enough for me. I particularly praise the inclusion of a stats menu, which allows you to see all the stats of your herd, including the names of your herdmates, that you can rename however you want. I highly reccomend for you to name your herdmates with your own personalized names. This will help you develoip an emotional connection with your herdmates, and as you progress and grow, it will force you to keep track of the herdmates that were with you since the beginning, the ones that eventually left your herd and moved on (or died), and the new ones that join. Its a rewarding experiment and one that certainly gives a "soul" to your gameplay, which is something that I feel was lacking in Saurian. As a Dakotaraptor, your life is solitary, and there is nothing much to add in terms of interactions with other animals, which, in my opinion, makes this an inferior playable. At its benefit, Dakotaraptor is a carnivore, and it is rewarding to kill bigger and bigger, harder and harder prey, as you grow, as you grow from the bottom to the top of the food chain... metaphorically at least. Triceratops is a pretty lame animal to play as a solitary animal. Not much happens... you just drink and eat plants. And if a big predator comes after you... you won't outrun it, because you're slow as hell, so you lack some of the gists that make Dakotaraptor an interesting animal when both are compared in terms of solitary gameplay.

Dakotaraptor has surprisingly become harder to play when compared to previous patches. Animals, with this social overhaul, are now way more reactive, and attack you with much more ease. I remember the times when it was easy to kill an Acheroraptor and even your siblings... now, for some reason, they go after you more easily and inflict bites on you much faster, forcing you to keep more wary. I remember one gameplay where I was killed by a immature Triceratops... JUST by standing in front of one after peacefully drinking... and I was a hatchling, so no way I was going to be a threat. The turning is also a bit different in Dakotaraptor, and I have to adjust my previous skills to this. Its a bit harder to catch Chamops and Didelphodon, but its still doable. Overall Dakotaraptor is a bit harder to play, but that nevertheless makes it good. Its just a bit more challenging. I also want to mention the fact that you can stick around your parents and siblings for a considerable amount of time. They don't despawn when you sleep, as a hatchling, and you can't bite and hurt them, until you pass to the juvenile stage. I think this is a nice little hint of social bonds in this largely solitary creature, which is a nice touch, in my opinion.