Dev Diary: August 2024
Welcome to the August Development Diary!
In this post, we’ll be going over the upcoming improvements coming in Update 12 and taking a look at the latest developments along the way.
Since the last dev diary, we’ve been working to address a number of sore spots reported by new players and to improve what was introduced in Update 11.
To start, camera controls for panning and rotation will be updated to better support laptop users with new optional keybinds, including a toggle that switches the Q and E keys from raising/lowering the camera to rotating it left/right instead.
In terms of onboarding, we have almost completed a unified objectives system that will allow us to finish implementing tutorials, notifications and the park issues list shown in our previous dev diary.
We’ve had notifications and park issues running internally for a little while now, which means most of the remaining focus is going to tutorials and making them intuitive. For example, if you’re playing through a tutorial, there’ll be some fancy new highlights that direct you around the UI.
Excitingly, this objectives system has also been built with scenario missions or quests in mind. The idea of integrating more characters as occasional quest givers is something that the team has wanted to do for a while, so it’s nice to have some of that infrastructure in place. We look forward to sharing more about this in the future!
Update 12
Species Spotlight
Our titanic duo Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus are here to make their cinematic debut with two species spotlights! As always, they’re returning with narration from our trusty park supervisor, Nigel.
New Species
The walking tank, Ankylosaurus, will be waddling its way into Prehistoric Kingdom in Update 12. This armored dinosaur features rows of large, protective osteoderms and a clubbed tail perfect for battering the shins of deserving predators everywhere.
Alongside its much older relative, Scelidosaurus, this will be the second thyreophoran added to Prehistoric Kingdom!
Guest Visibility Changes
What’s a zoo if the visitors can’t see properly?! Update 12 will be bringing a variety of backend improvements to guest visibility that better supports extremely large and small exhibits. Visitors will also show more realistic crowding behaviors as they try to congregate closer to where visible animals are.
This does mean that since guests can see animals from further away, some visitors will take advantage of elevated terrain or view from a distance rather than always standing directly next to viewing areas. Foliage, fences, scenery and buildings can be used to block guest sightlines and create a more curated experience, just like a real zoo!
Staff Improvements
When Update 12 releases, there’ll be changes made to alleviate some of the efficiency woes experienced by players.
Staff will not only carry more resources, but will also queue up multiple tasks at a time. This means that Keepers will be able to refill multiple feeders in a single trip, picking the shortest path between all destinations if possible.
The Future
Staff Skills, Training & Wages
In the next few updates, we’ll be implementing new management and gameplay mechanics for staff. Here’s an overview of how it’ll work once it’s fully developed:
Inside the Staff Management menu, players will eventually have the option to set the maximum skill level their employees can train up to.
By training at the Staff Center in their spare time, a worker can increase their skill level, unlocking perks that boost their efficiency. Depending on their role, these perks may come in the form of buffs such as reducing the time it takes to gather resources. Each job type has preset perks depending on a worker’s skill level, there is no RNG.
As employees increase their skill, they’ll bump up into a higher wage bracket. The salary tab can be used to adjust the minimum and maximum pay for staff across the park. Increasing pay will improve staff welfare and might make workers more willing to put up with poor conditions, while reducing it can lead to people quitting.
Side Note: we’ll be adding similar salary-like controls to the Finances menu, eventually letting players set the entry ticket or amenity prices park-wide. We’re also considering scaling down the economy for readability and balance purposes (smaller numbers!), making $100,000 worth as much as $1,000,000 in the current game.
Ontogeny
Babies! Yes, we’re still working on them. Between creating and implementing all the new species that’ve arrived this year, we’ve been working on the assets for ontogeny where we can. We are currently making our way through painting a lot of baby skins, creating blend shapes for all the growth stages and prototyping animations.
We’re working on it, but it’ll take some time to do properly as it’ll not only touch every animal, but all the animal related systems, both in terms of gameplay and on the technical side (AI, locomotion, IKs, etc.)
For this month, however, please enjoy this early look at our baby Apatosaurus blend shapes. It’s using a temporary baby skin and normal map, but the final design shouldn’t be too far off!
Animal Awareness
To cap out this Dev Diary, we have a tiny bit of animal AI news! Throughout August, we’ve been working at the animal awareness system. When it’s finished, this will let animals effectively see and hear their surroundings, recognising and prioritizing entities based on their size, loudness, etc.
Think of it as a gateway to the more requested behaviors like fleeing and conversing between animals. Once it’s finished, there’ll be a lot of exciting stuff to build on top of it!
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Thank you for reading August’s dev diary!
Until next time,
- The PK Team
