Hello! We're excited to announce that the next major update to Ecosystem, the "Combat Update", is now in Open Beta for all owners of the game (and if you don't own the game yet you can save 20% during SimFest which is on right now!) [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35860517/7ea30240f00ec0536379d44bcc38ad855cc3436d.png[/img] This is one of the largest updates we've released for the game so far, with the new systems interacting with all the other systems that already existed in the game. Because of this, instead of a small closed beta we wanted to open it up to all owners of the game to gather as much as feedback as possible (which you can feel free to leave in the community tab here on Steam!). [b]*BACK UP YOUR SAVES*[/b] - Before taking part in the beta, if you have some ecosystems you love and want to test out the combat, please back them up. You can find the save files in your "My Documents/Ecosystem" folder. [b]*ACCESSING THE BETA*[/b] - Right-click the game in your library, choose "Properties", choose "Betas", and select CombatOpenBeta from the list. [b]*WHAT'S CHANGED?*[/b] - Please find the patch notes below! FEATURES Combat Simulation: Combat is heavily physics-based and includes new traits (and new uses of existing ones) that can be factors in a species' evolutionary future. [list] [*] Biting does piercing damage, based on bite force quotient, size, and total creature momentum. [*] Striking with limbs does slashing or blunt damage based on the momentum of the strike. [*] If an attack throws a target's joint out of position, this can cause the limb to become nonfunctional, dizzy the creature, impair its vision, cause bleeding, and several other types of statuses. [*] Creatures can also evolve different types of venoms, which impart different negative effects, as well as resistances to these effects. [*] Creatures can evolve thicker skin in places and thicker skulls, as well as spikes and carapaces, which defend against certain types of attacks. [*] All new combat stats are subject to mutation and mating, and can be changed in the editor. [*] Multiple creatures can all participate in the same fight, allowing for predators to engage in group tactics. [*] Combat can be induced between any two creatures in the game by selecting a creature, clicking the 'Force Combat' button in the Interaction menu, and then clicking a target. [/list] [b]FIXES[/b] [list] [*] Fix: When a creature causes instability in the physics system, it can now be put back into its last valid state instead of simply dying. [*] Fix: When a creature causes instability in the physics system, no longer show elongated glitched limbs. [*] Fix: Creatures sometimes still appear in the stored list briefly after you delete them. [*] Fix: Creature steering ability to steer frequently has trouble with height differences. [*] Fix: The species preview sometimes doesn't update when loading a saved species. [*] Fix: An error can occur if the player loads a stored creature and then adjusts the evolutionary parameters to conditions that the loaded creature doesn't satisfy. [/list]