Welcome, Park Managers!
The final support patch for Update 17 is here, bringing new partner combat animations for several species, major improvements to animal behaviour and mutation visuals, important optimizations, and many exciting QoL improvements.
Behind the scenes, we’ve also tackled a wide range of crashes, construction issues, performance bottlenecks, and save/load problems to make building and managing your prehistoric park smoother, faster, and more stable than ever.
Known Issues & Additional Notes
Please send feedback and bug reports to our Discord server's appropriate channel.
Animal combat and hunting are still not 100% finished - some planned features are still missing, while some others require further tuning and balancing. The idea is that we'll continue to expand upon these systems as we get ever closer to our 1.0 release.
For now, we are aware of the following issues, which we hope to tackle soon:
While it's been improved over PTB, there's still clipping involved with combat interactions. Due to the nature of completely dynamic encounters, this will never be truly gone, but we are excited to explore new ways to improve it in upcoming patches
Several animals are still missing their full combat capabilities, currently being unable to attack and fight back. These animals are Psittacosaurus, Dryosaurus and Leaellynasaura
Due to engine and navigation limitations, animals spend too much time in the water, as they are not able to properly distinguish land tiles from water tiles. This is something we're addressing in the next major update
Some of the young animals' combat locomotion is still a little faster than we would like. We'll keep improving this
Miscellaneous issues:
Some recent data misalignment has caused some animals' swimming capabilities to regress, causing surface positioning to be offset, often pushing individuals under water. We'll be fixing this with the next Major Update
Full Patch Notes
Additions
Animals
Added new partner combat animations for:
Mammuthus
Nasutoceratops
Pachycephalosaurus
Panthera
Smilodon
Styracosaurus
Velociraptor
UI/UX
Selected animals will now display a selection outline overlay when not tracked by the camera
Enclosures can now be renamed through the header of the Enclosure Infomenu
Added an ‘Objects’ tab to the Enclosure Infomenu, allowing players to view the modules currently present in their exhibits and to control their supplements at the enclosure level
Added a 'Go to Nearest Loading Bay' button to the logistics management view which will now select the closest loading bay to the camera
Audio
Added species combat vocalizations to:
Acrocanthosaurus
Changes
Critical
Undo / Redo operations are now blocked when they overlap with other construction or destruction operations, removing a whole class of bugs from the park construction experience. A warning banner will be displayed when an operation is blocked.
Animals
Completely re-worked animal mutation visuals for naturally born animals affected by mutagens, in an effort to reign in overly bright and saturated mutations that would look completely unnatural
Reduced the hue drifting for all species, and especially for mammals, which should not get pink, purple, green or blue. Natural mutations are overall much more subtle
Animals featuring mutations such as leucism, melanism and albinism are now properly clamped to the tuned visual values for those conditions
Made balances to animal aggression behaviors:
Adjusted sauropod defense behaviors, letting them ignore threats that aren't their direct predators, as they don't engage in infant protection. This should make the meanest sauropods ignore smaller and medium predators in their vicinity
Dedicated family protection has been adjusted - now named Pro-Active Family Protection, this behavior filters out social group members from the target pool, with the activation range now being brought way down (x10 factor), making pro-active defense based more heavily on immediate proximity
When attacking, animals will now have a chance to shrug off staggering hit effects the closer they are to completing their attack
Higher level afflictions can no longer happen to newborn animals, and can only occur past a certain age
Vivariums will now display any leftover food in them which is waiting to be removed after changing the feed type
Animals who witness the death of family or social group members will now react in a few different ways, with social group members being more likely to flee and parents of killed offspring being more likely to stand their ground
When placed in quarantine, animals should now recover hitpoints at an accelerated rate
When sparring, animals with higher social hierarchy positions get a conviction bonus making them less likely to back down
Staff
When using the Call Staff button, this will now force the assignment to be delegated immediately, even if that means pulling an already assigned staff member off their current assignment. This may incur some loss of staff efficiency due to being pulled away from an assignment that may have been nearly complete at the time of reassignment, especially in the case of logistics resource transportation. To alleviate this, a staff member who is moving resources and is forced onto a different resource transportation assignment can seamlessly transition to the new assignment without having to perform the pickup at the new storage location first, if either of these two criteria are met: the resource is of the same type as the previous assignment, or coming from the same storage location as the previous assignment
When sedating animals, vets now have a small chance to miss their target, mitigated by the True Aim perk
Environment
Water Quality Overhaul
Quality scaling has been implemented, lower water settings now adjust the visual quality to deliver significant performance improvements
Ultra/Cinematic water has been improved and optimized
Use of surface tessellation has been substantially optimized
Underwater volumetric lighting is no longer grainy
UI/UX
Overhauled the Animal Infomenu:
Added several information breakdowns and textual descriptions for Immunity, Fertility and Fecundity, making their purpose and function clearer
Merged rating and milestones within the same menu
Moved the breeding information into a new Breeding tab
Overhauled the Options Menu:
The options menu has been rebuilt from the ground up, with settings reorganised into five tabs (Gameplay, Graphics, Audio, Controls, Interface) and tooltips added throughout.
Apply now only activates when you've actually changed something, and unapplied changes are discarded when you switch tabs or back out.
Frame limiting is now a simple on/off toggle with a target FPS instead of a fraction of your refresh rate, with your existing setting carrying over automatically
Keybinds are grouped into filterable sections with a reset-all option, and Escape now cancels a rebind instead of closing the menu. The whole menu also updates properly when you change language
Structure attribute widgets will now show up on Modular Prefabs too
Module Logistics Unfulfilled park issue now has a delay of 180 seconds, and should now show additional diagnostic information
Clicking a Checklist park issue now takes you through to the construction button for the required module
Post Processing
Screen-Space Reflections Overhaul
At higher quality settings, reflections now apply to many metallic surfaces properly
All settings below Cinematic are significantly more optimized
Graininess of SSR was significantly reduced
Key optimizations were introduced
Vegetation is no longer incorrectly affected by SSR
Bug Fixes
Crashes
Fixed a number of subtle resource disposal ordering bugs which could lead to crashes/freezes when exiting to the menu or quitting the game
Fixed a number of system intersections that could act without waiting for other systems properly, leading to potential memory corruption and crashes
Critical
Substantial improvements to the correctness and stability of the save/load systems
Fixed mouse orbit input drifting away from the game window when the window is smaller than the game screen
Fixed a bug where restyling or recoloring multiple modular pieces at once could apply the wrong style to some pieces, or cause pieces to snap to an incorrect color on Undo/Redo
Fixed the ‘Upload to Workshop’ button not working in the save menu
Fixed dead animals prematurely stopping enclosure analysis
Fixed asymmetric navmesh generation that would allow agents to pass through open areas from one direction but not the other
Fixed a memory problem where interactable types were reading more bytes than allowed, potentially leading to unknown instability
Fixed a problem leading Park Beauty to not correctly refresh its waste data after dung was being disposed (either naturally or by being cleaned by a Keeper)
Fixed an error in the OnQuit handling that could break the dialog
More stability improvements to the Animal Awareness (sight and hearing) system
Fixed memory compression logic that was writing beyond the correct memory area, leading to potential memory corruption
Fixed a few memory leaks
Steam Workshop Stability Improvements
Steam Workshop should now be more reliable when browsing, downloading, updating, refreshing, or removing content. This update addresses a number of issues that could lead to downloads failing or getting stuck in a loop, outdated or mismatched Workshop data, missing updates, or incomplete refreshes. It also fixes a rare case where local saves or prefabs could be lost after a failed upload. The game must still be closed or restarted when changing subscriptions in the workshop, all changes should be reconciled on game startup.
Substantially reduced unload time (when quitting or returning to main menu) for parks that have many modular pieces
Degenerate enclosures (bugged or corrupted) are carefully skipped during loading, while maintaining other enclosures
Overhauled navigation data invalidation and synchronization so animals, visitors, staff and cached paths cannot continue using stale navigation information after rapid construction, terrain or navmesh changes
Fixed a rare navmesh update deadlock caused by degenerate triangles
Fixed a navigation bug that could corrupt local area data in parks containing very large numbers of navigation areas
Fixed additional cases where degenerate navigation geometry could be accepted by downstream systems, improving navigation stability
Fixed several Addressable asset tracking and cleanup issues that could leave stale references after failed or cancelled loads
Gameplay
Fixed visitor spawning treating parks containing only carcasses as having live animals
Fixed invalid feeders being counted during enclosure analysis
Fixed enclosure updates not fully refreshing the area previously occupied by an enclosure after its bounds changed
Animals
Fixed a crack in the animal aging system that would disregard the realistic growth speed for certain cases
Fixed a bug that was causing the ‘Call to Check up’ and ‘Call to Tranquilize’ buttons always being disabled for healthy animals
Fixed loaded juvenile and adolescent carcasses using incorrect bone proportions
Picking up an animal in the middle of a partner attack animation should now correctly interrupt combat and inform the other animal to stop
Fixed a few cases where higher level afflictions could occur much earlier into a new park than should have been allowed
Fixed a bug where two animals were able to claim the same nest at the same time
Fixed a bug where new family groups might not formulate properly based on conflicting parental and mating system settings, leading to inattentive parents
Fix for animals loading in with incorrect maturity values during critical initialization steps, causing inaccurate state after loading finished
Fixed an issue where embryos that were ready to hatch but hadn’t yet would load in not knowing that they needed to hatch
Death during combat should more effectively inform carnivorous participants who might need to stop fighting and start eating
Infant animals hiding behind parents should now be a bit more evenly distributed
When the player moves a nest, animals should be more robust about either remembering or forgetting the moved nest, depending on context
Fixed a bug where Vivarium Animals could not be moved directly or through the menu if they were not currently visible
Fixed a bug where moved Vivarium Animals could not be LOD’d out unless the player moved the camera near them and away again
Fixed a bug in the Animal AI that could cause strange behaviour when an animal stops chasing another animal
Fixed a bug where animals gaining nutrition from browsing could still be enabled in challenge parks
Fixed the timeout for animals searching for a reproduction module but being unable to find one
Tightened up logic around predators killing for food, should prevent them from going into a frenzy and killing everything in sight
Fixed an exception when all animals in a move operation were filtered out
Fixed dead animals remaining standing when their animator was culled
Fixed the Cinematic Camera activating for carcasses
Fixed animal and Vivarium loading issues that could leave assets or LOD state partially initialized
Fixed Vivarium animals not restoring enabled and LOD-dependent features correctly
Fixed partial animal assets loading before all required assets were ready
Fixed texture loading leaks when cancelling animal placement before loading finished
Fixed an issue where an animal’s sedation reaction state would not end correctly
Staff
Fixed staff not having their perks applied properly. This affects multiple perks across multiple staff types which previously had no effect
Perks which are related to future planned gameplay were supposed to be unselectable in the staff zone UI. This has been fixed
Fixed staff surveys continuing to target dead animals
Fix for logistics solving retaining information from previous attempted solutions, leading to poor solution results
Fixed a minor bug in staff logistics solving that was incorrectly applying perk-modified feet speeds to staff who didn't have the perk, resulting in erroneous conclusions about which staff member could most effectively perform a specific logistics assignment
Fixed a timing bug in vet shooting that was causing unsafe animal AI state manipulation
Fixed a bug when multiple keepers were trying to fill the same tall feeder at the same time, causing desync
Fixed a number of bugs in ‘prop’ (wheelbarrows, cheeseburgers, etc) handling and rendering, improving stability and reducing glitchy cases
Fixed vets immediately performing medical operations on an animal until after combat ends. Player requested operations remain immediate
Guests
Improved visitor spawning reliability:
Failed spawns are retried correctly
Spawning waits for navigation to be ready
Queued visitors are included in spawn limits
Visitors are distributed evenly among valid open entrances
Fixed entrances leaving stale navigation data after being changed or removed
Fixed visitors being reset twice after failing to find nearby navigation
Buildings & Scenery
Fix for nests being ignored because their interactable could be unregistered after placement
Loading bays spawned in with starting prefabs should now have correct configuration, no disabled stocks, and the player starts with some decent resource amounts. Also fixed the UI a bit, correctly hiding any stock line items that have nothing on hand and no pending delivery
Fixed Vivarium Info Signs not updating correctly after animal stock changes
Fixed stale Vivarium Info Sign dropdowns selecting incorrect values
Fixed errors when demolishing a Loading Bay with an active order
Foliage
Cancelled vegetation strokes now roll back completely
Fixed vegetation removal reducing park funds below zero
Fixed incorrect vegetation tooltips for costs and insufficient funds
Construction
Fixed at least one verifiable case of modular grid positioning desync when splitting pieces from an existing group
Terrain Flattening, Foliage Removal, and Terrain Edit Masking for modular and paths has been overhauled for stability
Terrain flattening to modular building foundations can now flatten to each modular group’s foundation height independently
Using undo/redo while placing a fence or path arc will now cancel placement, preventing certain state desynchronizations
Fixed certain modular demolition cases not properly clearing selection visuals
Closed a number of invalid modular operations that could be done under specific circumstances
Fixed a bug that could rarely cause certain pieces not to load properly
Fixed fences not being able to snap, have gates, or be replaced on the far edges of the map
Fixed quick modular demolition leaving stale selections
Fixed Fence and Modular Undo/Redo cost issues, including a funds exploit
Fixed Vivarium cosmetic groups interacting incorrectly with Modular Undo/Redo
Prevented multiple Vivariums from being flattened into one modular group
Fixed the Raise/Lower terrain brush exceeding its limits in certain cases
Fixed a number of Terraforming cancellation and Undo/Redo issues
Fixed terrain paint alpha map update issues
Fixed water painting connecting separate bodies across small gaps
Improved navigation refreshes after large construction edits and edits near navmesh tile corners
Fixed rare Fence collider mapping failures
Fixed Staff Zone painting not ending when crossing the UI
UI/UX
Fixed most instances of re-sizing delays throughout the game’s HUD. Individual menus and panels should now be a lot more stable and less glitchy when being opened and changed
Ratio bars in the storage widgets will now handle storage overflow graciously, instead of drawing past their maximum limit
Fixed an exception that could block the Workshop Form from working correctly in the Main Menu
Fixed a bug causing the ‘New Clutch’ notifications click-through behavior to not correctly execute
Fixed the ‘Open Management’ keybind not firing
Improved information relayed in the Structure Tooltip, creating a split between structures which require further research before being available, and structures that can’t be accessed due to already existing in the park
Made several fixes to the Building Menu:
Fixed an issue where an extremely narrow building menu window could corrupt its structure list layout instead of just showing fewer columns
Building menu resize refreshes no longer trigger a full menu rebuild just because another refresh was already pending, cutting out unnecessary flicker/hitching when resizing quickly
Fixed an issue where searching or filtering with no matching results could leave empty category sections in the building menu instead of showing the "no results" message
Fixed an issue where rapidly opening, closing, or minimizing the building menu could cause it to settle in the wrong position
Fixed a font edge case that could cause certain text elements to not display any text when the game language is set to Chinese
Fixed a null ref when trying to view the Flee state during combat in the Animal Brain debug viewer
Fixed navmesh overlay views breaking when selecting a modular object
Fixed a number of cases where delayed GUI actions would still attempt to act if the relevant GUI element was closed
Fixed the loading bay “Place Order” button not being disabled when the park has insufficient funds to place the order
Fixed Main Menu panels becoming visually corrupted after rapid interaction
Fixed the Animal List not refreshing after quarantine changes
Fixed errors in the Paleopedia Animal Screen during rapid state changes
Fixed an issue preventing animal creation in the Nursery
Improved box selection accuracy for unusually scaled or rotated modular pieces
Rendering
Fixed a one-frame flicker effect when highlighting modular objects for selection
Fixed Light LOD issues causing lights to remain disabled, re-enable unexpectedly or inherit stale state
Misc.
Fixed null refs during game shutdown
Fixed null refs in visitor ride exit behavior
Fixed safe access violations in interactables that could have caused desync or even crashes
Resolved Voice Over errors when exiting to the main menu
Landed a significant number of fixes and improvements across many ‘under-the-hood’ parts of the codebase, that should improve general stability
Fixed rare errors caused by systems assuming a gameplay camera was available at improper times
Performance
Reworked terrain paint application logic bypasses major painting performance degradation in Unity’s terrain editing framework when texture quality was set below ‘High’
Significantly improved water painting and terrain editing performance, reducing large spikes during and at the end of paint strokes, particularly in parks containing large amounts of water
Heavily optimized the water meshing algorithm
Significantly reduced the amount of memory used and transferred by terraforming work
Overhauled Terrain Paint Undo/Redo to use dramatically less memory to track changes made by the player
Greatly reduced grass update hitches after terrain edits and substantially reduced GPU resource overhead used by the grass system
Reduced pathfinding and navmesh reconstruction memory pressure and CPU overhead
Made many major CPU improvements to hot paths around the game’s HUD, having optimized spikes tied to opening large menus
Made significant optimizations to allocations when selecting Modular Groups
Single style pieces no longer process background refreshes
The Modular Style Menu no longer rebuilds its contents twice per update
Reduced CPU usage from dead animals by disabling unnecessary AI, growth, rig, solver, animation, awareness, and subsystem processing
Major rework to the Park Issue system, making it more lightweight, able to much better handle hundreds or thousands of simultaneous issues
Loading is more memory efficient
Modular is slightly more memory efficient
Modular piece removal is significantly more performant
Substantially reduced shutdown and park unload times in parks containing large amounts of vegetation
Reworked selection, overlay and screen-space icon rendering to reduce processing overhead, allocations and unnecessary memory usage
Improved memory handling of prop rendering
Fixed a bug that caused removed human props to continue computing bone positions that were no longer needed
Fixed stale light changes increasing lighting update costs over time
