The Road To Evolution - Gameplay

We’re diving deep into some of the changes arriving with Primal Carnage: Evolution (PS4) and Version 3.0 (PCE on PC).

Today, it’s all about GAMEPLAY...

RAPTOR POUNCE RECODE

Perhaps one of the loudest complaints we’ve heard over the years has been “pounce sucks.” We agree. It’s never worked 100% and it’s been clear for a long time it needed rethinking.

After embarking on Primal Carnage: Evolution for PlayStation, we finally had the time and resources to do a full overhaul.

Philosophically, if we were to completely start over from square one, a completely immobilizing attack like pounce might not make the cut. Same with Ptera grabbing. However, these are both expected genre staples and are so embedded in PCE that it’s hard to justify removing them now...

The Problem

The pounce overhaul’s goal is to make it an actual viable mechanic that is reliable and versatile. Previously, you'd often pounce at someone and end up just standing in front of them, nose to nose, ready to get your head blasted off. Or y'know, just bounce off the human entirely.

A lot of this was due to the arc between you and the target getting obstructed. Even just skidding along the floor invalidated it, because the raptor had technically already "landed" before it hit anybody.

The Solution

To fix these annoying problems, several aspects of the pounce code were completely rewritten.

We now use much more advanced trajectory calculation, which accounts for variations in terrain between you and the target. This means you can now much more reliably pounce enemies below you from elevated positions such as rooftops, at angles that were near impossible before.

The new calculations also make charged pounces much faster, with speed usually about the same as the quick pounce. No more slowly ascending into the stratosphere if you aim too close!

To account for network latency, there is also a degree of “pounce magnetism” when you land near a target. If there is a human in view and they are close enough, you will automatically latch onto them if your pounce doesn’t land exactly on top of the target.

This makes pounce much more effective, but NOT overpowered. There are additional sanity checks in place to ensure raptors don’t zoom backwards onto enemies, and you need to be really close to a human for it to actually kick in.

The actual pounce aiming indicator has been improved as well, allowing a greater range of acceptable pounce angles and more accurately reflecting where your pounce will land. Pouncing uphill? No problem.

DANGEROUS SPITTERS

As essentially support classes, one goal for the Spitters has always been increasing their versatility and giving them ways to still contribute without being the most powerful frontline dinos.

Both of them now have a chance to have the last laugh when killed, with their volatile internal juices spewing forth on death. Spitters will always form a puddle after dying, and if they are killed by a headshot while charging up their spit - they will actually explode!

The melting utility of Cryolophosaurus has also been extended. It can now destroy thrown medical kits and ammo kits that have been deployed by the Commando, and Cryo itself has a slightly higher amount of health.

HEAVY MELEE OVERHAUL

Pretty much all primary weapons in the game have a heavy melee attack, which has now evolved into its final form. If there’s an enemy in front of you, then meleeing with your primary equipped will now perform a heavy melee dash! This makes you zoom forwards to help land your attack.

If you manage to land a heavy melee hit, small dinosaurs will now be briefly staggered in addition to feeling knockback. This prevents them from attacking for just under one second. If you ever wondered why heavy melee needed to cost stamina, now you know.

RAPTOR POUNCE “ESCAPE”

Previously, if a raptor began mauling someone with low stamina, they would be able to detach at zero stamina with no consequences. They’d even still kill the human usually, since the person they’d pounced would be playing their get up animation and unable to defend themselves.

We’ve now changed this so that if a mauling raptor runs out of stamina, they'll be kicked away by the human, becoming staggered. The raptor gets control-locked for about the same length of time it takes for their victim to stand up, making this scenario much fairer.

BALANCE & OTHER CHANGES

Bruisers Clipped

Bugfixing can often affect balance, and after taking another look at the collision setup for Bruiser headbutting it’s happened once again.

They can no longer deal damage or knockback through walls / ceilings if they happen to clip through, welcome relief for anyone playing on Transfer.

Pounding Harder

We’ve seen a lot of people saying Tupa’s groundpound is only good for “finishing off” enemies, so it is getting a major damage buff. This makes the attack actually worth the risk of attempting…

Although Tupa's secondary is now capable of insta-killing on direct hit, it does have a tighter blast radius - which means you should try to aim your attack properly or you won't be so effective.

We're also going to look at changing things to where low altitude ground pounds deal less damage compared to if you started diving from higher up, adding another layer of skill.

*BOING*

If you've played much Survival, you'll know that it’s particularly effective to jump on a little Compy's head for an easy kill. We felt it was unfair to let humans be the only ones to go “goomba stomping”, so the larger dinos can now do this to their enemies as well.

If you’re playing a Bruiser or Tyrant and happen to jump on top of (or land on) a human, your sheer weight will deal damage to them. The big boys will likely instakill, but if a Pachy jumps on your head you might get away with a concussion.

Dart Defense

For those who hate darts, you’ll be happy to know that they will be completely blocked by armour. Scientists will have to hit soft spots to actually apply any debuff, so Tyrants may want to turn their head away if being assaulted by a tranq pistol. If you’ve got the stamina though, Tyrants can now brace to prevent darts applying any effect at all.

Tyrant Tuning

Sticking with Tyrants, the Acro has received a speed boost and Spino’s claw swipe is more lethal. We’ll be looking at improving Acro’s roar ability in the coming weeks too, providing regen over time that is a percentage of health instead of a flat amount.

CAMERA IMPROVEMENTS

Hard Shoulder

Shoulder camera for dinos was reintroduced to PCE on PC in the last couple years (after having been originally removed during the 2014 beta)...

However, one problem with shoulder cam was the awkward clipping when activating this on bigger classes - the camera would go right inside your own body. It caused us to limit how far shoulder camera could swivel on Tyrants and Bruisers to prevent this. You'd be locked to one side.

Now, we’ve added a brand new shoulder camera arc that neatly avoids clipping. The camera is no longer restricted to a limited angle on the big guys, and will smoothly swap between shoulders once it has moved far enough across the axis. It’s not 100% perfect, but feels way more comfortable and makes shoulder camera much more useful for large dinosaurs.

Hulk Spectate

Spectator mode camera had some odd bugs we’ve fixed recently, such as a hidden timer that would stop you being able to spectate your killer after several deaths. You’ll have seen this as the camera just getting stuck on the floor where you died.

We've also fixed the “Hulk Hands” bug, where first person arms would show in spectator camera view. While this was hilarious, it was also honestly one of the most deviously annoying bugs we've ever tackled.

Usability

Something related to the camera but also a UI improvement is interactive object highlighting.

For example, corpses still have red outlines when viewed through walls but will now get a golden glow if you are close enough to use them. This same effect is now employed by all usable items, but can be disabled in the options menu.

COMING SOON

You can try out many of these changes already in the Open Testing beta on PC, and there are even spicier features being put through their paces inside the invite-only PlayStation beta.

We hope to bring the 3.0 beta to the live Steam game around Halloween (fingers crossed!) and Evolution should be out of beta by the end of the year on PlayStation.

Join us on Discord!

If you'd like to get all the latest Primal news & previews first, or take part in our regular community contests and polls, join the Official Primal Carnage Discord channel!

We’ll be sharing more sneak peeks both here and on our socials in the coming weeks, stay tuned…