Hello everyone. This month I don't have much to say that you guys don't know already. For the most part, it was a busy Hordetesting month. If you have been following you know we released a lot of bug fixes and quality of life changes. We also managed to stress test the server and noticed some performance caused by the nuances of some AI’s logic and the navmesh. The good news is that when testing only player capabilities, we managed to reach 140/150 slots with a stable server, no hitches and no rubberbanding, which is great even without AI. It means we are doing it right and all the changes and improvements being implemented so far are giving us results and we can continue working more on that front.

Besides all that, work continued as normal with several tests and experimentations on the burrowing side. I know I mentioned this before, but this stage of deciding what to do and how to burrow is important. There are pros and cons in all systems that we tried, but we need to be sure what is going to be done in regards to scalability of the system, how fun it is, replication and of course, performance on both client and server.

There has also been lots of progress on the Tyrannosaurus, especially the crush ability and all the possible situations it can trigger. Hopefully that will be finished soon so I can move to the next mechanics designed for it.

Migrations. The current method known as “Species Migration” calls all players of a species to a specific zone and will be reduced in frequency. There will be a rare “Mass Migration” event which is similar to species migration, but this affects an entire server. There are also individual “Patrols” which more commonly affect individual players and their groups to keep players moving around organically. This should allow for better interactions, more time for exploration, and server configurations. This will have server config tweaking (or you can turn the whole system off).

Work continues as normal. Stay safe!


This month I kept working on diablo, which mostly involved bug fixes and some background changes to make the sparring interactions more stable across clients. I also added a slightly different version of the primary attack that is triggered when standing in place, looking downwards and pressing LMB.

I also made some progress on the stego’s power swing ability. One of the hurdles I ran into was the tail swing, for example making contact with another dinosaur’s tail before hitting its body. This would result in dealing damage based on only the tail hit, which of course had to be fixed. I looked at a few different approaches, but in the end found one that gives the result you’d expect and can be applied to other attacks as well. The carno’s charge had some similar issues in the past, but now I was able to apply the new system to improve it. Some other abilities might benefit as well, but it’s generally not as noticeable on most of them. All in all the ability is coming along nicely, just needs some finishing touches, testing and balancing and it should be good to go.

I’ve also been hard at work fixing various bugs, both for the upcoming update and smaller ones that will make their way on the live branch later so they have time to be tested to make sure they don’t break something else. One more change I’ve managed is setting up the moving scent for the herbivores. Their animations had to be set up and we took this opportunity to also change the animation system a little to prevent some of the odd head bobbing they were doing. That’s really it for this month, I hope all of you are enjoying the game while we’re wrapping this update up.


This month was adjusting some performance issues on older props. These are mostly quality of life improvements and carefully curated changes to the props and in a few rare cases, a recreation. There is also the addition of three new pieces to the environment, some of which will begin referencing some of the more obscure props that have been made primarily for lore.

First was the weapons locker built around the weapons you can find on the island. It’s a simple half-modular system that has been a blast to make. Unfortunately, no guns can be found in them yet.

The new buoy will soon be dotting along the bays and other areas of the island, solar powered but most definitely not transmitting anything. In fact, forget they were there at all.

Many of Apollo’s machines run on fuel. These gas pumps can be found in all refueling areas. Make sure that you have your keycard or the system won’t work.

That is it for now, see you next month!


Long time no see. I hope you’ve been enjoying the skin system because we’ve been cooking up some more that you’ll all be able to have fun with soon. We’ve been working for a while now on making tertiary skins to add to our playable roster, trying to make new and exciting patterns for you to bedazzle and show off to your groupmates, enemies, and other island inhabitants. And by we, I mean not just Tapwing and I, but we also recently brought back some previous talent to help with all these skins: The vastly talented artist, Marty.

We hope you enjoy the sneak peek to some of the tertiary patterns below:

Bonus:
“It's great to be back painting new patterns for people to enjoy in game. It was a lot of fun back then and it's just as much fun now to see others put their own spin on them with the color system.” – Marty


This month QA’s focus has once again been on bug testing the QoL patch, making use of all of the community bug reports that have been sent in so far. Thank you very much to those of you who have been providing those and feedback on our horde testing branch!

That being said, when we have been testing the new content for our upcoming Diabloceratops update, we have been running into some very strange issues. You may have remembered from my last post about the stretching Psittacosaurus - well, please give a warm welcome to the stretching deer!

Seriously though, it seems that AI has moved on from flying and stretching is the new thing… because the boar did it too.

We found that it’s possible to cling to a rabbit until it enters a burrow. We also found out that it is a mistake:

Beipiaosaurus has developed quite a rash since the last update. Zombie dinosaurs are not a thing.

And Diabloceratops was throwing people around with its mind for a while there:

Thankfully, I can confirm that all of the aforementioned issues were fixed and since then we’ve made some really great progress towards this update. Diabloceratops’ sparring mechanic is still undergoing some fairly large work including animation and stat refinements. Once that is complete then we’ll be able to get it into your hands.

I wanted to take the rest of this blog to cover some of the larger gameplay concerns that haven’t been addressed for a little while and to quickly go over some other information.

• We are aware that a large majority of Gateway is still under-utilized by players and looking at solutions for this. Filipe’s section covers the expansion of the migration system which should help in that regard, but it should also be noted that some of these areas have been internally dedicated as being more human-focused and purposely left untouched for now.
  
• Comparatively, some areas in Gateway still remain to be hotspots (I’m looking at you East Plains) that will have further adjustments made to deal with their issues.
  
• Mutations are mostly done now and their balance has been adjusted. These will need to be tested in a larger scale environment to get a better idea of how they will play out – I expect this to be introduced in the horde test after the upcoming public patch.
  
• Eating has always been finicky in Evrima due to ragdolls not replicating to each client correctly. There have been some internal discussions on how this can be improved. One idea that we’re considering is allowing more leniency on the area a corpse can be interacted with and even making the player’s character automatically walk over to where the server believes the corpse to be, and begin eating it. With something like this, gone are the days of having to wiggle until you find the sweet spot that lets you eat from a corpse.
  
• Much like how we will be introducing the global growth modifier for server owners, we are currently discussing the possibility of adding other modifiers (such as adjusting health/stamina/nutrient etc) regen rates to further customize your experiences.
  
• Mega/mix packing is something that still unfortunately affects most servers that do not impose rules. We have been discussing a solution internally that can’t quite yet be discussed but should be known is being looked into thoroughly.
  
• There are various minor improvements to existing systems in the works. A fair number of players had difficulties thrashing corpses, so tweaks are in the works for things like that. (Tapping E three times to open the corpse, for example.)

Lastly, thank you to those who read my post last month and applied for a position on the QA team. Applications have now been read and those that were successful have been reached out to. If you were not successful this time, please do not hesitate to apply again in the future.


Gonna be short and sweet. Thank you to everyone that helped us during hordetesting! I think most of the team has covered the bulk of what we’ve been up to. For myself, while hordetesting has been underway, I’ve been bringing in some new talent. The animation team has grown yet again to more than half a dozen strong now. Which is going to assist greatly in pumping out more playables. Since we all know that’s what everyone really wants. Can’t say I blame you at this point. There are also going to be some map additions added in here and there that you should be looking out for. One area in particular is known to be a breeding ground for a select species. Overall this month has just been a lot of bug fixes and testing. Nothing too exciting by our standards. Mutations, migration expansion, tertiary skins, sound traps, expanded AI creatures, diabloceratops, tyrannosaurus, triceratops, maiasaura, pteranodon, gallimimus, stegosaurus, omniraptor, humans and more are in unequal parts being worked on to provide you with an ever richer experience in the game. I’m very curious to see what server owners do with the expanded controls though. Lets see which of you out there can create the best ecosystems. That’s all for now. Hopefully we’ll do a bit of show and tell soon. No promises though. Be good to each other!

This month I've been pretty busy working on several different tasks, discussing changes and what comes next. A lot has been done with internal core code in order to improve server performance and use less data. I don't expect this to suddenly allow for more slots, but it's more like a “drop by drop we may fill a glass” type of thing. Meanwhile I also worked on several quality of life changes and improvements, some of which I will list at the end of my post.

As expected, more work was done on Mutations, with more being implemented and the new design that unified the “lifecycle” and “lifestyle” mutations with the introduction of “unlocking” new mutations depending on what the player does during their life. Once unlocked that mutation can be chosen through the various stages of life.

Rex's ability received more attention and new animations for each stage of life, now it is just a matter of making sure all animations work on all stages with the respective balance values.

I know some of you want news on Dryo´s burrow, but I can't share many details about that right now. We want to expand the design, but for that we need to make sure it will work without causing major problems, such as development delays or server performance issues. So this is being slowly tested as low priority in the background.

I also worked on updating the Weather System with several improvements and bug fixes. Fixed the Physics foliage system that has been broken since we upgraded to Unreal Engine 5, now it works with options in settings to disable it if desired. Pounce improvements and fixes. Dilo Hallucinations AI improvements. Carry/Drag logic and improved the Physics Doors and much more. The list of bugs fixed for the next patch is going to be huge.


List of some QoL things done with even more to come:

• Allow diets to refill closer to full
  
• Serialization of SpecMode data, so it is lighter and doesn't cause server performance issues.
  
• Reduced by half volume and distance for crouched footsteps and fixed a footstep issue causing crouch/walk to sound much louder.
  
• Allow both Herbis and Carnis to be able to scent if walk/trotting
  
• Adjusted eating/drink camera lock angle (from total 40 degrees to 90 degrees, centered)
  
• Anti-Cheat improvements.
  
• Working on an unstuck command for players
  
• Allow pounce from behind
  
• Allow pounce on high pitch angles (slopes)
  
• Add Previous and Next buttons for the "random" skin feature.
  
• Lunge bigger targets if both are swimming (such as adult Stego)
  
• Cancel Carry if using HeadButt while carrying something in your mouth
  
• Give Server owners options to enable/disable mutations - We also added option to enable/disable each mutation as needed and their effect values
  
• Give Server owners options to enable/disable specific AIs
  
• Give Server owners option to enable/disable random Weather
  
• Give Server owners option to increase/decrease general growth rate

For now that is all I can talk about. See you!


This month I’ve been focusing most of my attention on the Diablosaurus, implementing some of its missing or unfinished abilities, fixing bugs and polishing its mechanics and animations. I also made some changes based on our internal testing, like putting them into the locked together sparring position with basically any attack if they hit each other from the front, so players can activate it without having to meet specific conditions. Diablos also have the ability to push each other if they perform a running attack from the side, this was now expanded upon so that players can chain this into a flip attack or the pushed Diablo can also defend itself now. I also added a new attack which can be activated when looking to the side or behind you in sparring mode. This works similarly to directional attacks, hitting in the direction of the camera and quickly turning the character that way.

I made good progress on sparring as well. The previous setup had some issues if both players were trying to move, so I came up with a solution that improves their movement by taking into account the input of both players. In a networked environment this can be difficult, but I was able to make it work while using very little additional data. I also set up some new animations to make the mechanic more visually interesting and also set up the stamina system. So for example if both players are trying to push each other with equal force they will stay in place, but play animations that show them struggling and their stamina will also drop gradually.


Time to revisit another dino that missed out on getting a sketch sheet. Stegosaurus!

The goal with this one was to showcase some of the new animations that’s being worked on for stegosaurus, hence the ‘dragged down and ripped up’/‘pounced to pinned’ scene and the tail up attack stance that’ll make that tail swing feel extra mean.

The other scenes are more atmospheric than anything, the slow n steady travel or just sunning when you have some calm in your life.

Stego’s life is a slower paced one with high tension moments when tenacious hunters find your group.
Also, something that I didn't initially plan while editing the nature sketches rough draft but was a happy accident I then leaned into is, if you put the scenes in the right order, you get a little stego story.
Besides the nature sketches, I've been reworking the ‘cloning tank’ promotional art that was painted some time back. The tanks themselves got some proper 3D models made with design improvements and it was my job to then integrate those models into the poster art and give them a good paint-over to blend them into the original painting.

It’s an improvement from the first draft for sure. Now all it needs is something in the tank.


This month my main focus has been creating new designs for Tyrannosaurus calls. This had proved a challenge in relation to respecting both the ‘legacy’ of the sounds created for this creature (across all Dino media) and finding my own take, whilst also reaching a contemporary level of quality and realism for this animal.

I’ve been experimenting with various sources and approaches to the sound and have landed on a good base for the elements that make up the body of its sounds in terms of its growls, roars and bellows etc. - i.e the foundation. I’m now working on finding the right sound for the high end, the element that makes up the quintessential T Rex roar that we all recognize, without resorting to the path most traveled.

Aside from the Rex I also created a new sound for Dryo’s basic attack, previously it was using the same sound as the pain, and with my attention very rarely being put towards Dryo had gone untouched. The new sound now better represents the closed mouth motion of its peck like basic attack.

I have also edited and implemented new sounds for the baby variants of boar, goat and deer, including calls to locate them, and pain, death and pinned screams/vocals.

The rest of the past month has been spent on investigating issues related to audio stuttering from voice limits being reached and other general audio bug fixes to come with the impending patch. One that I think many will be glad to hear and has plagued me for months (perhaps years!) is finally finding a fix to a bug related to medium sized Dinosaur footsteps being unreliably inaudible as the listener (being heard as walk instead of sprint by other players).

My focus in the last few weeks has been on two video projects.

A trailcam project showing an upcoming species in its natural behavior, the Diabloceratops.

This project also includes one of my most complex scenes so far in terms of filming effort. Most people who read my blog entries know that I record 95% of the scenes in the UE sequencer. There I move the actors, add the animations (or animate small parts myself with control rigs) and adjust the camera settings.

In this project you will see a scene that is very dynamic and works with many spar animations of the Diablo. It should represent both the hectic process that we know from the in-game experiences, but still look natural. I hope we have achieved the goal in this project!

The second project is currently in the filming phase, it is a cinematic trailer about all the new content that has been added since the last trailer. As mentioned in the last blog entry, we wanted to gather enough content to create a bigger trailer and now it's time! The trailer introduces the map Gateway, the new species and explains the mechanics roughly as usual. This will be the first cinematic project on Gateway and you will notice that. I'm still early in the filming phase, but I'd like to give you a little insight into what I mean by that:

QA’s full focus for March has been exclusively on bug testing new additions. While the next patch will be focused only on the QoL changes Filipe mentioned in his post and bug fixes, a lot of other features are being tested behind the scenes. Given that I do not have much to discuss regarding these just yet, I thought I’d take this moment to share some of the funnier bugs that QA have run into this month.
Amarok has been working on introducing the Psittacosaurus to Evrima in the form of AI. Much like how it could in Legacy, this animal is capable of burrowing underground to escape from predators. This has, of course, introduced lots of wacky interactions that could not have been expected. For example, pinning a Psittacosaurus as it begins to dig underground results in a burrow that never stops growing and (I guess) would end up swallowing the entire server and world as we know it:

Psittacosaurus AI has also unintentionally gained the ability to stretch like a Fantastic Four member. We will be working on compressing them back into their correct proportions:

Omniraptors have been feeling threatened as of late by all of the larger species being introduced to the island. In an attempt to prepare against the looming apex threat, they have learned how to blow themselves up like pufferfish:

That’s all from me for now! I’m expecting that next time I’ll have more to discuss about upcoming features. I would also like to take this time to mention that I’m looking for additional QA testers. If you are interested in bug testing or you would like to learn more about joining, please do not hesitate to contact me on Discord via direct message. Thanks for reading!


The team has been steady cooking up some QOL content and bug fixes interspersed with the daily do.

The psittacosaurus will be making a return at last. Siren singing you towards a taco lunch with their iconic vocals. They should be a bit more dynamic than they were before. Catch them before they dig away and watch out cause they may bite. There’s also additional AI that will slowly be skittering into the game including but not limited to rats, crabs (better ones), snails, clams, insects and more. They will be found in various places around the island opening up more opportunities to find food, get nutrients, unlock mutations and more. The island should start feeling more and more alive as time goes on and juvies are gonna have more on their level to interact with so that stage of life doesn’t have to feel so rushed, out of necessity.

There are QOL animation adjustments/updates to omniraptor, gallimimus, stegosaurus etc. Also more work was done for diabloceratops’ sparring. Keep in mind diabloceratops sparring is going to set the foundations for ALL sparring creatures in the game so we’re really being careful with how we set it up, so in the future (mods?) Other animals outfitted with the right animation sets can be slotted in and will function as intended.

The tyrannosaurus and triceratops are still waiting on sparring finalization, which shouldn’t be too far off. The goal is to have dynamic combat interaction between the rex and its classic adversary, triceratops. We’re trying our best to leave tail riding behind for all parties. So if you’re victorious against an equally powerful creature, it will be because you played better and not because you’re smaller and have a better turn radius. While the feature is a large undertaking we don’t generally shy away from a challenge so if we nail it, it’s going to blow your cap back. Diablo testing has been promising so I’m actually starting to get excited for you guys to try it and I never get excited. So that’s saying something.

The good mother lizard (Maiasaura) is also in full swing now that its features have been approved. I’ll provide some examples fresh off the presses.

The pteranodon will also be getting some QOL adjustments as we work our way through the current set. There are also some new skins in the works as well as some new models and redesigns for upcoming animals. The map has also been getting more adjustments to make it feel more lived in and provide more places to discover and explore.

Another month down. Hug your loved ones. Catch ya next time!