Patch v11.28

The Sapling

The Sapling is a short simulation game where you design your own plants and animals, and put them in a world together. Or you turn on random mutations, and see what evolution does to your ecosystem!

This patch contains a fix for the problem with the forgotten music volume after a automatic reload many of you have reported! Furthermore, it contains various new features related to terrain modification, which required a new savefile format (8). Savefile format 7 is still supported. The terrain now changes after disasters: * The terrain height around vulcanoes now increases after an eruption. For volcanoes in the middle of the ocean, this means volcanic islands. * Meteorites now create a crater in the ground. * Soil around volcanoes now become more rocky (less soft) after an eruption Other changes related to disasters: * Made the ground water and temperature changes ater volcanic eruptions and meteorites strong at the center, but gradually weaker further away * Updated the meteorite notification * Fixed a crash that occurred when you dropped a meteorite and then skipped time. The soil now recolors dynamically every 10 years: * After burning, terrain now becomes scorched for a while. * Grass no longer has a 'ground plate' of its own, but influences the soil color. This allows for more more gradual transitions, similar to the ones we already had for snow. Improvements for the mutation mechanics: * Primitive plants (evolved from algae) can now also have fibrous roots, making it possible for land plants to emerge on wetter planets * Fins on top are now way more likely to develop * Animal diets are now way more likely to change * Instincts are now way more likely to emerge More food balancing: * Carnivores are way more aggressive now, so they actually survive and can evolve on their own * Nerfed grasshopper mouths even further: they will drown faster and get even less energy out of soft plant tissue Fixes to saving/loading * When saving a plant evolved from an alga, the seed type now is stored correctly! * Planet rings are now stored in the savefile * Fixed a problem where saving during a season with ocean level increase, and then loading again, led to the ocean level being even higher * Added 'slots' for a number of future ideas in the new save file format Misc: * Fixed a problem where getting up the surface to breath took too much time for aquatic animals with blow holes, causing them to drown I often forget to read comments below release notes, so if you have questions or bug reports, feel free to reach out via the Steam forums or thesaplinggame@gmail.com.