Species 0.10.0 Released!

It’s here! Species 0.10.0, aka. the “Predator and Prey” update (because, among the other changes, I finally fixed the problems that made hunting an impossible survival strategy).

 

http://www.speciesgame.com/download

 

 

Features!

Initialise Predator and Prey: This option starts you off with a simple but mostly-functional two-species ecosystem to start your evolution from. Find it under the “Starting Creatures” dropdown on the New World page.

Temperature: click on any creature to see it’s internal and external temperature, relative to it’s ideal temperature. This will gradually change relative to their insulation, mass and warm-bloodedness.

Stamina: This shows up as a yellow bar underneath health (the green/red bar) and food (the blue bar). Doing stuff like sprinting and attacking will gradually exhaust creatures over time. This is tied intimately to the temperature simulation: an internal temperature that is too cold or hot reduces their maximum stamina and causes them to tire more quickly.

Litter Sizes and Pregnancy Length: About time we got to see some r/k-selection pressures. Species can now decide if they want to invest in individual children, or just spit out as many as they possibly can.

Multiselect: for all your bulk move, feed and murder requirements. Drag a box around the creatures you want to select and then click the tool buttons to use them on the selection.

Context Sensitive UI: Remember the Creature/Species/Ecosystem modes? Remember how awful they were? For the uninitiated, they were really awful. Just… so awful, you have no idea. But don’t worry, they’re dead now. They can’t hurt you anymore. Long live context sensitivity!

Better Water/Underwater Effects: They’re pretty! And possibly a hint about an upcoming feature. But mainly pretty!

Better Grazing: grazing creatures leave little ant trails behind them! This is super cool and also awesome.

Denser Forests: by default, that is. The changes to the vegetation system mean that creatures will find it a lot harder to kill off entire forests. Of course, you can still mess with the settings on the New World page if you want to encourage grazers.

Fruit: even the tall tree’s are edible to low-to-the-ground creatures now, once the fruit drops. Eating fruit doesn’t hurt the tree, which is part of the reason the forests are so much hardier now.

Bug fixes and minor improvements: Just a whole bunch of stuff. Fixed that bug that corrupted your save after a few hours when you made use of the Nursery. Added a really subtle particle system for seeds, changed the fire effects, added a camera icon on the sat map, consistant-ized the Temperature units, and made dozens of minor tweaks to the game’s balance and the creature’s AI. You get the idea. Lots of little things.

 

It’s a whole new world out there! I hope you like it.

 

Cheers,

Quasar