Welcome, park managers!
We’re excited to announce that Update 17 will be releasing June 25th, introducing eight new species for three iconic dinosaurs: Allosaurus, Stegosaurus and Pachycephalosaurus - but of course, that’s far from all. Prepare to fight with dynamic combat, brutal partner animations and explore new environments alongside overhauled management mechanics.
This is another huge milestone update for the team and we couldn’t be more thrilled to continue expanding and improving upon combat up until we leave Early Access next year.
If you’d like to try combat early and own the game on Steam, you can switch over to the Public Test Branch and send us your bug reports on Discord. Please note however that Allosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus and partner animations will not be available until the update releases.
8 New Species
The long-awaited stars of this update are certainly some fan favorites! Arriving from the famous Morrison and Hell Creek formations, these dinosaurs are sure to become high-profile attractions:
Each alternate species features a unique model and morphological difference to truly make them stand on their own. Pachycephalosaurus in particular has one of the most unique ontogeny transitions in the game, drastically changing its head shape and proportions.
With the introduction of combat, our team have also been able to improve your existing species with better turns, leaning and smooth locomotion when exiting their eating and drinking states. Speaking of…
Dynamic Combat
Combat is finally coming to Prehistoric Kingdom! Both herbivores and carnivores have a range of emergent conditions that allow them to engage in dynamic combat with lunges and opportunistic attacks. In response to incoming damage, animals can stumble, get knocked over or even trip while fleeing at low health.
Scared prey items aren’t exactly pushovers, either! If you carefully watch the montage below, you might notice the fleeing Edmontosaurus actually strikes the T. rex with its tail. Just a shame there was two of them…
With our system, animals freely position themselves and can try to avoid dangerous areas like the tail of a Stegosaurus. A lone T. rex may be hesitant to take on an adult Triceratops, but add a second rex and they can quickly overwhelm it.
When an animal dies, their carcass can be eaten by predators and will slowly begin to decay, potentially becoming a vector for disease. When a carcass is too decayed, only scavengers will be interested in feeding from it.
Partner Animations
In the midst of dynamic combat, certain animals can seamlessly engage in a “partner animation” - a synchronized fight between two members of the same species. While the bulk of combat relies on our dynamic systems, we felt that it was important to also deliver on key interactions like headbutting, horn locking or wrestling. Plus, we knew it’d make for a pretty sick reveal in the trailer!
In the case of Triceratops, they actually have three different partner animations of varying lengths and intensity to ensure their encounters continue to feel dynamic while exhibiting their horn locking behavior. Since each partner animation has an initiator and a reciprocator, this means that one fight sequence has double the animation workload! It’s a massive task, but our animators have knocked it out of the park so far.
Additional Notes
Partner animations can only trigger for animals that are within a similar size range to each other. The team chooses this range per animation, but we try to be somewhat lenient to preserve fun despite occasional clipping or misalignment in extreme cases. Regardless, our system does the best it can to account for size differences.
Due to the enormous amount of work required, a limited number of species will be able to perform partner animations in U17. So far, they have been shown for Allosaurus, Triceratops, Megaloceros, Pachycephalosaurus and Ursus. In the future, we will continue to expand the combat partner animations to other species where possible. We don’t want it to become the status quo, but instead add them where we feel a specific behavior needs to be captured depending on the creature.
For full 1.0 release next year, we would like to include non-violent partner animations that can occur during socialisation or courtship. We can’t understate how big of a task that might be for us given our limited resources, so please stay tuned for more info in the future.
New Environments
The Scrubland biome has seen a massive improvement with a wealth of vegetation added to its roster. From the mighty roman pine to fields of lavender, over 40 new variants and updated presets have been grown just for your planting pleasure.
If that didn’t whet your appetite, perhaps a refreshment will! Water rendering has been completely overhauled with caustics, volumetric lighting and (wait for it) the ability to see pieces that are beneath the surface. Spinosaurus and builders rejoice!
New Management Features
Management related gameplay has also seen some substantial changes in U17. For an in-depth discussion on all the features mentioned below, please check out January’s Dev Diary!
Guest needs are now based on module accessibility and distance.
Ordering resources from the Loading Bay is now the player’s responsibility.
Staff now gain experience and can be promoted individually for more granular control.
Staff require breakrooms and will eventually quit if their happiness is low.
Workzones can be painted to better manage staff assignments. Use the workzone info panel to automatically assign staff or do it manually from the staff management menu (or by selecting a staff member).
New tabs have been added to the management view, allowing players to see their resource usage and where staff are currently moving in the park.
Thank you for reading this special Update 17 blog post!
We hope that you’re excited for the update’s release and we can’t wait to continue building upon everything that’s coming this month on June 25th.
- The PK Team
