carnal_instinct
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v0.3.43 is now LIVE for AVATAR Tier+
🕑 Added 2022-06-18 00:45:02 +0000 UTCNeed to download the game and can't find the launcher? Grab the launcher here.
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Hi All,
Finally an Avatar update around the middle of the month, it's been a while but we're back on track. It's been a struggle for a little while - the reasons for which will become clear in the development update at the bottom of this post - but we've balanced the workload once again.
Firstly a bit of a clarification as to the difference between Avatar and Ascended builds. Over time we've let the distinctions slip in order to always push content as soon as possible, but such an approach is unsustainable in the long run. We're therefore reinstating what the updates were always intended to be.
Ascended is the latest gameplay content. This means sex scenes, quests, new mechanics, locations, playable races, etc. This update will generally drop at the end of a month.
Avatar is a bug-fixed version of the previous Ascended update with the addition of new cosmetic content. This means new clothing options, skins, hair/horns, and the like will be a feature of Avatar. This update will generally drop mid-month.
Sometimes the lines will blur a bit, or we'll have a bigger than usual month and some content will bleed one way or another, but this is generally a solid breakdown. It means that there's always something new for players in each and every update whilst also allowing us to alternate workload and take occasional rest days through the month.
This update brings four horn variants which now fit the Male Draconids - no longer will your scaled beefcake be lacking in the head-accessory department. We've also got two new Jaguar skins for Female Felians, bringing back some of the variety we lost with the addition of the cosmetic customisation system.
As I mentioned above, sometimes content will bleed between updates. In this case there's an improved version of the Twisted Missionary, increasing the duration and adding more natural movements. In total there are twelve new animations in this set, each approximately twice the duration of those they replace.
Development Update
So enough with the mystery box, what exactly have we been working on that's taken so much of our time? Well a few people have already guessed; we're in the process of moving to Unreal Engine 5. Initially we avoided announcing this as we decided to not make the move if it increased the development time of the project. What we've discovered is that we're actually able to reduce development time due to efficiencies in our pipeline thanks to Nanite.
In the image above you can see approximately the same development time applied on both the left and right. Whilst the pillars on the right are still a little work-in-progress, we're able to build a far more richly detailed world in the same amount of time. We're also able to drastically reduce the texture budget, lowering the impact of the game on GPUs with less VRAM.
The fidelity we've been able to achieve is honestly incredible. We're so impressed with the updated engine that we couldn't justify continuing solely in UE4. Despite our initial cynicism, UE5 has won us over. That isn't to say it's without problems, which is why we're running the versions in parallel until we're at Alpha, but the risks are far outweighed by the benefits.
We've been rescaling our world map to take advantage of the new optimisation features of UE5, resulting in a playable area nine times the size [edit: I was tired and put four times, it's much larger than that!] of our current world map (not just the current playable area, the whole map). Wait, I hear you scream, it'll be an unplayable walking simulator! Fear not. In the UE5 build we now have working prototypes of sailing and riding, as well as an early version of transformation into an exotic form.
So, what's the difference and how soon can you expect to get your hands on the UE5 version? I think the above image speaks for itself. We haven't yet finalised our small props kit, so the UE5 version is missing the crates, barrels, ropes, and other details that help finalise a scene, yet it's already far more detailed than the UE4 version.
In terms of becoming playable we've made some significant progress in that direction, enough that the roadmap isn't particularly accurate, and we're gradually approaching what we consider an Alpha build of CI. Once we have all major systems working in the UE5 build, we'll push it live and keep the UE4 as legacy.
We hope you're as excited as we are for the incredible boost towards true AAA quality that we've managed to make with the upgrade to the game engine. I want to thank every one of you so much for your amazing support; the game is now almost unrecognisable from where it began and it's entirely thanks to your help.
Team Carnal Instinct
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Changelog v0.3.43
- Added Male Draconid Horns
- Added Felian Jaguar skins
- Added [UI] tooltips to indicate how to unlock Forms & Cosmetics
- Added mouse control to dialogue
- Fixed the "Blood Script" corpse not having a quest marker
- Fixed an issue with the Loiterer's dialog during Blood Script
- Fixed a problem with quest actor tracking during "Blood Script"
- Fixed a cinematic glitch during "Blood Script"
- Fixed problems with existing saves not working properly with new forms and cosmetic/dong unlocks
- Fixed an issue with NPC mouths having strange lighting during dialog sometimes
- Fixed procedural effects to be more performant
- Fixed resolution issues on a large amount of Particles, Texture Memory etc
- Changed "Twisted Missionary" animations to have a greater duration and improved organic motion (less like robots)
- Changed Draconic Male to be unlocked via "Footsteps of the Dragon"
- Changed spelling and punctuation for multiple conversion lines
- Changed the majority of existing NPC's to use the new models
- Changed the "Ancient Tome" to be in the Quest Items inventory
- Updated patreon credits
Comments
Open worlds are all fine and dandy, but the current size felt reasonable for the amount of travel you were expected to do already, along with the light amount of content spread out over the current map. I'm interested to see what exactly you feel you have the resources for in comparison to the scope you're looking to expand to.
While I think sailing, riding, and/or a travel form sound interesting, I really don't see the advantage of a playable area nine times the size. I feel like even with quicker travel it is simply space for the purpose of size when you could expand borders for future content/leave empty areas without making the whole map larger. Looking forward to further progress though!
Rakkit
did the team fix the problem where the draconid your suppose to talk to for the blood script quest
Sapphire Bloodscale
I cant seem to find the Gate Key for the Footsteps of the Dragon quest... I am probably blind or dumb though
YukiMa88 UwU
would be nice that the new clothing have unique names, just like the bandages has what color they have in the game so i think the new clothes should as well.
the fuck am i supposed to do with the vessel of qtesh?
Bowjangls
Are you planning on adding a freecam while in scenes, DSS or otherwise? Also I don't know if its in or not, but is there a way to make the crocodilians more scaily?
RagnaBlade
I'm looking forward to the UE5 version with cautious optimism.
Viking Vetr
Jaguar skin? So I can play as a Jacksonville FL football player?
Death's Grim
I'm just stoked for the sailing riding and transformations you had me there hahah...
I agree. UE5 is the way to go. It's pretty amazing what it can do.
LukkaDev
Think I'm a little confused. Do you need a certain level of Carnal Instinct to unlock the scenes during the Blood Script quest or they just not available yet? Question aside though, UE5 stuff looking great and can't wait to see more!
Drake Black
Dang this keeps looking better with each update that comes out cant wait to she the UE5 stuff to keep up the great work.
Tekgnome
UE5 looks super promising, cant wait to see how the larger map is taken advantage of.
