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Thursday, April 27, 2023 5:03:43 PM

Prehistoric Kingdom - Update 7 (EA 1.1.4)




Welcome, Park Managers and happy one year anniversary!
Thank you to everyone who has played, supported and given feedback to Prehistoric Kingdom. It's crazy to think it's already been a full year, but here we are!
In this update, we've expanded the power system, added new modules and made a lot of important quality of life changes. There have also been some substantial optimizations and stability fixes, though our work on this front continues. Be sure to read the full patch notes!
The Next Update
As a brief aside, we'd like to quickly touch on the next release, Update 8. This update is going to be quite a major one for the game, including a brand new species and completely reworked animal locomotion. Due to the amount of ongoing work required, the update is expected to go live in June.
It's imperative that all of the new backend is efficient and allows us to safely expand it to include future behaviors and improved AI. Thank you all for your patience!
Now, onto the content!

Update 7 Features




Expanded Power System
The Research system has been expanded to include the Energy category, coming with 10 researchable items including new generators and upgrades for power output.






This latest update also includes an early iteration of structure durability, allowing key modules such as power generators to breakdown over time. Once broken, players will need to repair the module by selecting the group or broken generator itself. From there, you can click the new "Repair Structure" button.
To ensure that nearby buildings stay powered, we've added Backup Batteries. These utility items will charge up overtime, providing power when a local generator has failed.



In the future, players will have staff to help maintain all the facilities in the park.
New Modules
Two new modules have been added to the Structures category within the research system: the Restaurant and Shopping Center!
These modules are significantly larger than the existing kiosks, serving more visitors at once and bringing in greater profits. Like the other modules, their colors can be customized.






In the future, guests will be able to sit in the restaurant booths.
New Prefabs
Several new prefabs have been added using the new modules arriving in Update 7. These structures are a great way to quickly build out your park!



This also includes a gorgeous Natural Aviary design, beautifully furnished with wooden architecture and an open internal space.



Biome Vegetation Presets
22 vegetation presets have been added across all the current biomes, allowing for quick and convenient habitat construction. These presets have been curated to provide appealing plant combinations in as few clicks as possible.






Alongside the new vegetation presets, we've refreshed the terraforming toolbox with updated visuals to help with usability. For players who wish to select individual plants, this option is still available!



Terrain Flattening & Adapting Foliage
Important modules such as feeders, haybeds, kiosks and bathrooms will now flatten the terrain when placed below or close to the ground. This functionality extends to floor pieces, allowing players to build foundations.
By default, players cannot terraform over floor pieces or modules. For power users, these new terrain rules can be completely disabled in the building toolbox or terraforming window to make some custom structures easier to build (e.g. pools, moats, etc.)






Floating foliage will now be detached from the terrain, allowing players to terraforming without disruption. Plants placed below the terrain will maintain their height offset, even with terrain adjustments!



Furthermore, the plant brush will no longer place foliage on top of paths, fences and modules/floor pieces. As mentioned above, players can disable terrain rules to allow foliage painting on modular pieces again.



PSA: Modular Prefab Updates!
Modular prefabs will now be placed from their modular grid height! This change gives players a consistent placement height to work with, allowing you to better curate the placement experience of custom prefabs.
As this is a structural change, it might affect several user prefabs that have been made prior to this modification. To get around this, simply shift the height of all the group’s pieces (quickly selectable through box select or Ctrl+A) to match where they should meet the ground, relative to the grid’s height. Resave your prefab with these changes.
With the help of workshop creators, we believe this new standard will create a more consistent and less-intrusive build experience. We apologize for the inconvenience.










Known Issues & Additional Notes




Distant trees do not appear on loaded games. We are investigating this ASAP!
Animals can freeze randomly. We are looking into this issue.
For best anti-aliasing, please try the CTAA setting. We will likely enforce this as the only anti-aliasing setting (+ off) in the future.

Full Patch Notes




Features

NEW: Biome Vegetation Presets
Added 22 vegetation presets to the foliage painting menu, allowing players to quickly create a wide array of environments
Updated terraforming menu layout NEW: Expanded Power System
Added the Energy research tree
Added Backup Batteries
Added 4 new power generators
Added generator efficiency upgrades NEW: Structure Durability
Added an early version of structure durability that allows power generators to break down over time. Groups with broken modules can be repaired.
Additions

Gameplay
Enabled the Energy research tree, coming with 10 researchable items:
Basic Power Kit
Solar Panel
Increased Solar Panel Efficiency
Wind Turbine
Increased Wind Turbine Efficiency
Wind Turbine Large
Increased Wind Turbine Large Efficiency
Geothermal Power Plant
Increased Geothermal Power Plant Efficiency 1 & 2 Expanded the Structures research tree, adding 2 new items:
Restaurant
Shopping Center Added automatic terrain flattening! Modules will automatically flatten the terrain if placed within a certain distance threshold from the ground. This will also stop terraforming actions from affecting terrain underneath the respective structures. This also applies to flat floor pieces, as long as their world rotation is 0 on the Z and X axis. Automatic flattening can be disabled through the options menu Buildings & Scenery
Added Paraceratherium Silhouette
Added Diesel Generator
Added Wind Turbine Large
Added Geothermal Power Plant
Added Backup Battery Small
Added Restaurant
Added Shopping Center Prefabs
Added Natural Aviary prefab
Added Restaurant Modern prefab
Added Giftshop Modern prefab
Added Large Geothermal Facility prefab
Added Large Wind Farm prefab
Added Solar Farm prefab
Added Small Wind Farm prefab
Added Small Diesel Plant prefab
Added Kiosk Apato Apparel prefab
Added Kiosk Giganto Gifts prefab Undo/Redo
Added support for vegetation painting in the undo/redo stack
Added support for path placement in the undo/redo stack
Added support for path replacement in the undo/redo stack
Added support for fence replacement in the undo/redo stack Audio
Added sounds to the refill and clean habitat buttons
Added sounds to the guest facility buttons in the management view
Added broadcast variants to Acrocanthosaurus
Added unique yawn to Protoceratops GUI
Added a power infomenu panel when selecting power modules, indicating an item’s current output and range, and in the case of backup batteries, current charge
Changes

Balance
Updated minimum animal exhibit sizes, lowering the min. need across the board. The minimum exhibit size for a single animal of each species should now be much lower
Removed purchasing cost from Excavation Sites. These are now instantly unlocked and purchased upon reaching the required rating level. This change effectively removes a ‘middle man’ cost sink, hopefully making the Challenge mode experience more accessible
Heavily lowered park costs across the board
Lowered animal incubation costs by an average factor of x5
Lowered animal unlocking costs by an average factor of x4
Lowered research costs by an average factor of x2
Lowered upkeep costs by an average factor of x3 Gameplay
Actions can now be carried out while the Management View is open
Floating vegetation now doesn’t realign with terraforming changes, while plants already colliding with the terrain will keep their terrain offset after terrain editing actions
Modular Groups now have a far more consistent way to ground themselves to the terrain: the group’s grid height - this means that a structure’s default height position will now always originate at the grid’s height. NOTE: as a structural change, this might affect several user prefabs that have been made prior to this modification. To get around this, simply shift the height of all the group’s pieces (quickly selectable through box select or Ctrl+A) to match where they should meet the ground, relative to the grid’s height. We apologize for the inconvenience
Fence replacement is now completely blocked if replacing an existing fence with the same fence type
Foliage painting respects buildings, paths and fences Buildings & Scenery
Changed visuals for Solar Panel and Wind Turbine
Improved texture seams on the Igneous Rock piece set
Moved Donation Box 1,2 and 3 to the Guest Amenities section in the GUI
Modular style selection now displays all the different styles present in a building (as opposed to one style per styleset), allowing users to quickly swap out specific materials in their structure without having to select individual items
Removed shadows from modular glass and glass fences Foliage
Reduced reflectivity of Scots Pine and Bald Cypress leaves Audio
Adjusted camera mix when underwater Visuals
Improved dithering effects on the ambient occlusion’s second pass
Adjusted night time color grading for overcast and stormy weather
Removed contact shadows from grass rendering - we’ve been going back and forth with this visual tweak for the last few weeks, but ultimately chose to settle on a fluffier, less noisy grass look
Improved CTAA antialiasing, the game image should feel slightly less jagged overall
Decreased overall ambient reflectivity
Further balanced ambient lighting on all levels Music
Updated a Torvosaurus music cue in the tutorial
Music is now properly paused when opening the pause menu Save/Load
Animal fact voice lines now persist in saved games, so they shouldn’t repeat over the same playthrough
Nursery animal skin ‘seen’ status now persists in saved games GUI
Streamlined the Landscaping Menu for simpler feature access and ease of use
Updated the Modular Group Infomenu, compartmentalizing data throughout several windows, for a less cluttered look. Function modules are now more easily accessible through the Overview section
Updated the Power Management View, drastically simplifying all power-related information
Updated Mammal Taxonomy data (visible in the Nursery Menu)
Improved movement smoothing inside the Excavations Menu world-map
Character voice lines are now properly paused when opening the pause menu
Improved modular style buttons overflowing in the Structure Styling Toolbox
The Main Board Undo & Redo buttons now contextually activate/deactivate based on the available undo/redo operation stack
To combat notification spam on complex park, we’ve set a cap on active notifications pop-ups to 9 at any given time Tutorial Improvements
Disabled Favorite toggle in the Building Menu during the tutorial scenario
Nigel takes less time to return to the player with new objectives during the ‘Tree Lizard’ mission
Camera cinematics are now properly paused when opening the pause menu
Fixed a premature objective completion case tied to placing the path in the same starting point during the ‘All roads lead to dinosaurs’ mission
Prevented user from being able to edit terrain height during the tutorial
Bug Fixes


Critical
Fixed one critical bug preventing users from fully loading saves
Resolved potential research initialization issues
Fixed modular selection issue tied to changing visual style
Fixed potentially critical main menu initialization bug preventing users from properly starting up the application
Fixed critical bug related to dung beetle nest placement
Guests stuck in the corner of the map are now detected and reset Gameplay
Fixed issue causing a new prefab placement not triggering on the first GUI click, while editing a modular group
Fixed path replacement gizmo issues, the tool now refreshes appropriately when switching replacement mode Construction
Fixed an undo issue that would cause modular objects to be re-created with incorrect positions
Fixed unintended edge case that would cause first walls in groups to be weirdly unaligned if the ‘Stack’ and ‘Align’ toggles were both enabled Visuals
Light colors load correctly now Audio
Stopped exterior post-processing from being audible when underwater GUI
Fixed another nursery notification edge case that would report the wrong amount of incubated animals
Fixed new bug causing the save menu not to properly refresh after a new save registration
Fixed notifications menu issue causing park alerts to bundle in the same notification group, missing any text
Performance

Fixed multiple critical memory leaks, the game should be less prone to crashing
Significant optimizations to modular processing
Massive CPU optimizations to visitor AI processing
CPU optimization to power visuals processing
Optimized power system memory usage
Massively optimized loading of complex or dense levels (particularly with lots of modules)
Significantly optimized memory load on complex saves