A new patch is now available for Primal Carnage: Extinction on Steam, featuring balance adjustments and fixes for bugs reported after Version 3.0, along with some extra additions.


Three more community maps have been re-added with today's game patch. In most cases these have not received as extensive overhauls as the remastered maps which were added in Version 3.0, but they have still seen a number of fixes, tweaks and optimizations.

PC-Waterlogged has the most noticeable changes, such as a new direct route between the antenna tower exterior and the main interior, along with an upper secret passageway that connects the two. There are new details, extra pieces of cover, and a LOT of collision improvements.

FR-Seasons now has extra visual tweaks such as wet effects when in the rain zone, sandy and snowy buildings / rocks, and an (experimental) ball that is back to play with.

Aside from returning maps, there have been many fixes and tweaks to those already in the previous build and various extra improvements you can find in the full changelog further down.


A few balance changes have been made this patch based on community suggestions. On the dinosaur side, the main changes are to do with spit - some of which are technically bug fixes.

Cryo charged spit previously dealt the same damage as regular spit on direct hit, this is now fixed,
So regular spit hits are 65 damage, but charged Cryo spit now does 140 damage on direct hit.

Dilophosaurus spit now has lower max damage (both direct hits and splash). Additionally, un-charged Dilo spit used to have the same impact radius as charged spit, this too has been fixed.

Spitters now get stamina back when killing with spit (two spits worth), since stamina is a precious resource for them. Similarly, Novaraptor frenzy slashes now drain less stamina, to allow them to get more attacks in before being unable to escape.

Roar Refresh is now even more valuable - ALL dinosaurs now get stamina back when roaring - roughly equivalent to two special attacks (this is in addition to any pre-existing stamina boosts).

Managing stamina is central to dino gameplay, so it seemed fair to allow a global way to instantly restore some in a fight. This should keep battles going longer and gives dinosaurs a minor leg up to help offset the new viability of the human team since weapon hit detection was tweaked.

For humans, the assault rifle has been tuned further with better mid-range damage compared to last patch but still mostly retains its high spread and low damage at max distance.

The SMGs and Burst Rifle have increased spread and damage falloff this patch. Both kick a bit more than before and are a little less lethal over long range, but these changes are smaller scale than what the AR initially received.


Halloween is over - say goodbye to your skeletons as today is the start of the Autumn Leaves rotation! We've got a brand new set of looks you're sure to FALL for...

Check out all the latest items on Trello[trello.com], including several free drops! We'll be back with another patch and another fresh rotation just in time for Turkey Day..,

• assault rifle ~50% more effective at midrange compared to previous build
  
• reduced assault rifle minimum spread
  
• increased spread of SMGs
  
• faster damage falloff for burst rifle and SMG over distance

• reduced stamina drain when slashing during Novaraptor frenzy
  
• roaring now restores two special attacks worth of stamina for all dinosaurs

• fixed impact damage blast radius on regular spit projectiles being way too wide, which was previously causing uncharged hits to damage multiple players
  
  
• adjusted collision on spit projectile to make landing direct hits slightly easier
  
• fixed max cryo acid direct hit damage being the same as minimum (65) and bumped max to 140
  
• increased cryo acid direct hit crit multiplier from 1.2x to 1.29x
  
• increased max cryo explosion splash damage from 55 to 70, minimum is still 35
  
• reduced cryo spit explosion splash blind time from 0.6 secs to 0.45 secs
  
• increased max radius of cryo acid pool by 70%
  
• cryo acid pools now have lower "health" so they are burned away faster by fire
  
  
• reduced max radius of dilo venom pool by ~30%
  
• reduced dilo spit explosion max damage from 35 to 25, minimum from 20 to 10
  
• reduced dilo spit minimum direct hit damage from 25 to 15
  
• reduced min dilo spit overlay direct hit duration from 5 secs to 4 secs
  
• reduced dilo spit explosion splash blind time from 6 to 4 secs
  
  
• killing with spit now restores two standard spits worth of stamina

• Returning maps: FR-Seasons, FR-Island, PC-Waterlogged

• reconfigured layout of specimen processing, split area in two with a new entryway for easily going from central area through to outdoor antenna zone
  
• extended "secret passage" upper route from central to antenna zone as well
  
• added deadly underwater fan to outflow area of canals
  
• added extra cover objects to main areas, removed a Tyrant blocker
  
• added two more mosa NPCs to autopsy room
  
• numerous optimizations to meshes, shaders and lighting
  
• many collision improvements and exploit fixes

• added character weather fx when in rain zone
  
• added sandy props to the desert zone, snowy building to snow zone
  
• (experimental) re-added ball to low gravity zone
  
• fixed easter egg control panel material breaking when activated
  
• various mesh, shader and lighting optimizations
  
• fixed a few stuck spots

• slightly higher quality dynamic lighting
  
• optimized shaders, meshes and ocean

• added new spawn points to the second half of the map
  
• placed additional health + ammo pickups around
  
• added more rocks and trees to block long sightlines
  
• can no longer open easter egg area outside of Freeroam
  
• fixed some exploit locations

• fixed stuck spots and exploits, general collision improvements
  
• added extra boulders and trees for cover in some areas
  
• spaced out two corpses that were close to eachother
  
• added more Brachis to migration sequence and gave them all sounds
  
• moved map boundaries a little further inwards
  
• fixed customization characters floating
  
• tweaked lighting, increased fog

• added WIP ending screen sequences to remaining TDM maps
  
• added smooth fade to ending scenes before changing maps
  
• fixed some animated level sequences not starting on level load
  
• enabled 3D water simulation on pools in newly added maps
  
• added dynamic clutter props to some community maps
  
• Transfer, UBase, Marsh, Borealis: fixed various stuck spots
  
• ForestChasm: fixed a tree's oversized collision that was blocking flyers
  
• DesertionPoint: fixed rock and fence floating slightly off the ground
  
• Snowbound: improved collision on fallen logs
  
• TheFalls: fixed misaligned section of river
  
• TheFalls: fixed human exploit spot in the minidome
  
• Transfer: improved interior collision of acid pits
  
• Volcano: fixed humans clipping through a building gate
  
• Redwoods: rebuilt lighting with higher dynamic shadow distance
  
• GTTC-Docks: added exception for Pachy to bruiser blockers
  
• Borealis: set higher chance of snowfall, added CTE fog
  
• UtilityBase: fixed CTE fog not showing
  
• fixed humans climbing where they shouldn't on DesertionPoint, Docks, Ubase
  
• fixed tyrants climbing where they shouldn't on TransferNight
  
• reverted to normal basic testing and frontend

• tweaked flyer idle hover animation
  
• added injured sprinting animations for tyrants
  
• much smoother slope alignment for tyrants
  
• reduced volume of robo tyrant steps to be more in line with regular steps
  
• new pathfinder 3rd person pistol equip animation
  
• new burst rifle 3rd person firing animation
  
• increased max concurrent playcount on all 3rd person weapon sounds
  
• increased max concurrent playcount of looping 1st person weapon sounds
  
• adjusted armour hit UI sound to be quieter and shorter
  
• potential fix for speed lines sometimes getting stuck onscreen
  
• updated gift descriptions, fixed missing rewards list on some older gifts
  
• fixed no kill icon for net impact damage
  
• fixed edges of Shrine Cryo skin icon
  
  
• ended Halloween event, removed skeleton skins from default inventory

Special thanks to our community contributors, who continue to create new content for PCE ranging from skins and mutations to new animations!

Look forward to further improvements and feature tweaks for winter, with more major additions appearing alongside our upcoming release of the new PlayStation version Primal Carnage: Evolution...

-The Primal Carnage Team

A new patch is now available for Primal Carnage: Extinction on Steam, fixing additional bugs reported after Version 3.0 and bringing extra improvements.


Five more maps have been re-added with today's game patch, including 4 community maps. These have not received as extensive overhauls as the maps already included in Version 3.0, but they have still seen a number of fixes, tweaks and optimizations.

Assault rifle balance is a focus this time, after the recent hit detection improvements. It now has higher spread when fired full auto and damage falls off quicker over distance, to compensate for increased chance of shots landing on target.

The AR is the first of several weapons that will be re-adjusted based on community feedback, so you can expect more refinements in next week's patch. We've also made more fixes to flight, but will be fine tuning things further with deeper code optimizations coming up.

• Assault Rifle:
  • more rapid damage falloff (around 2x quicker dropoff over distance)
    
  • reduced damage levels at medium range and long range respectively
    
  • increased spread and recoil
• slightly wider Tupa divebomb impact radius
  
• lower height requirement for Tupa divebomb max damage
  
• applied engine patch to fix most of the odd animation behaviour that occurred while flying
  
• fixed nova frenzy attack playing at the wrong speed when seen by other players

• re-added SandstormValley, ForgottenOutpost, ForgottenWorld, Pandoria, Volcano
  
• NOTE! PC-Pandoria map filename changed to FR-Pandoria
  
• NOTE! PC-Volcano map filename changed to FR-Volcano

Sandstorm Valley:

• entire map is now used in TDM mode
  
• adjusted map layout slightly, with extra routes into the human compound
  
• added more water puddles to the second half of the map
  
• fixed a bunch of stuck spots and prevented humans from climbing many rocks
  
• updated NPCs outside the map, say hi to Desert Stegos
  
• optimized foliage, sky and cargo containers
  
• fixed corpse blood decals rendering incorrectly during sandstorm event

ForgottenOutpost:

• added more rock arches, boulders and foliage to address long sightlines
  
• fixed human base not opening up in Freeroam mode
  
• updated lighting, fog and colour grading
  
• replaced static river with interactive water
  
• updated Brachi migration sequence
  
• placed more varieties of flowers
  
• other various details and background updates
  
• optimized foliage, sky and cargo containers

Volcano:

• now officially a Freeroam-only map
  (server hosts can still choose whatever mode they please)
  
• removed blocker that prevented access to upper geyser area
  
• fixed missing physics volume under one of the upper lava flows
  
• replaced brushwork with static meshes for performance
  
• optimized sky and cargo containers

Other Maps:

• optimizations to lighting, shaders and textures on Pandoria and ForgottenWorld
  
• UtilityBase: fixed dino side CTE team blockers not changing state properly
  
• PC-Docks / PC-Airbase: enabled new ending doors cinematic when round completes (WIP)
  
• DesertionPoint: fixed humans being able to climb on top of log piles
  
• DesertionPoint: stopped dinos jittering when near back wall of hillside building interior
  
• Marsh: removed a problematic fog sphere that was causing the sky to render in G-Major (spooky!)

• updated flamethrower overpressure effect
  
• updated flaregun projectile effect, fixed it vanishing on low graphics
  
• fixed Pyro's hair staying gloopy forever when spat on
  
• refined image sharpen shader effect
  
• fixed image breakup occuring when Sharpen option is enabled on lower resolutions
  
• fixed barrel glow for RGB Pistol
  
• improved blending between head and body of Lava Rex skin
  
• fixed missing info text for 2023 Winter Gift
  
• additional fine tuning of crit crosshair scaling

-The Primal Carnage Team

A new minor patch is now available for Primal Carnage: Extinction on Steam, addressing a few more bugs discovered by the community and adding some extra improvements.

For the previous hotfix patch notes, see here.

• additional tweaks to server map loading code
  
  
• fixed issues with Cerato attack timers
  
• fix for Carno cancelling its secondary early
  
  
• fixed weapon sanity check spawning extra particles and causing double healing with dartgun
  
• reduced expansion amount for crosshair when hovering over crit spots
  
• fixed crosshair expanding when looking at Pachy / Cerato strongpoints
  
  
• weapons now have various custom sounds when grabbing resupply pickups
  
  
• Transfer / TransferNight: fixed a forklift not blocking humans
  
  
• gave pathfinder the commando's 3rd person pistol equip for now since it was missing one
  
• fixed machete 3rd person animations not being visible, equip animation being cancelled early
  
• added custom 3rd person reload and fire animations for assault cannon + poison dart rifle
  
• updated 3rd person equip anims for Pathfinder and Trapper
  
• added 3rd person shotgun reload loop animation
  
  
• fixed candycane assault rifle skin
  
• fixed some RGB weapon skins reacting badly when overheating
  
• fixed seams on Iguidensis Acro mutation model

Thankyou for your patience as we work to resolve the last few issues with Version 3.0.

Our next patch will be out soon. We are still fine-tuning flight and will be making some small balance adjustments soon after observing how 3.0's gameplay has fared out in the wild the first week.

A new patch is now available for Primal Carnage: Extinction on Steam.
This latest patch addresses bugs discovered by the community and adds a few extra minor improvements.


The new height-based damage for the Tupandactlyus divebomb attack should now be working 100%.

After doing some additional testing we've refined the damage dealt and blast radius further. The maximum force dealt by divebomb direct hit is 150 damage, which falls off rapdily. If you initiate a dive at low altitude it will deal significantly less damage as of today's patch.


One of the big problems we've been tackling lately is a regression in flight movement on servers.

We still haven't quite got to the bottom of it, but today's patch improves things a great deal. Instead of jittering all the time and feeling like they're rubberbanding, Flyers now only have rotational stutter when angling up and down. We're aiming to fix this last visual bug with flight in our next patch.


We're investigating what seems to be a problem with attack cooldowns having additional delay on Ceratosaurus currently. For exploit prevention they are no longer allowed to essentially bite and tailwhip at near the exact same time, however it seems like the prevention period lasts longer than is actually specified by the code. A fix for this will hopefully be in our next patch.

• servers now skip non-available maps to prevent crashes when they are still on the map rotation list
  
• possible fix for server crash when multiple game modes are specified in the map rotation list
  
  
• Flyers have more accurate movement replication - should fix them feeling "laggy" but is still WIP
  
  
• fixed a "fake" bracing indicator showing when Tyrants are eating people
  (it is not possible to brace while eating so the indicator was misleading, added a new hint for this)
  
  
• added a "dryfire" sound when Spitters try to spit without enough stamina
  
• fixed missing EXP bonus text for Cryo melting resupply items
  
  
• fixed pounce ready-up animations not being visible to other players
  
• improved 3rd person machete animations
  
  
• prevented humans climbing the cliffs inside the GTTC-Falls atrium
  
• transparency fix for FR-Valley when on low health as dinosaurs
  
• Transfer: improved barrel collision, fixed human exploits and made things smoother for Tyrants
  
• another fix for CTE blockers being shootable in TDM ForestChasm
  
• fixed the rusty metal tanks having incorrect specular maps on DesertionPoint
  
• fixed Supernova Assault cannon having barrel glow applied to entire gun
  
  
• fixed up icons for Pharaoh Spino and Iceberg Spino and a few others
  
• set a longer timeout for connecting to economy on startup
  
• fixed carousel on main menu showing both cards when backgrounded, now fades instead of slides

Thankyou for your patience as we work to resolve the last few issues with 3.0, our next patch will be out later this coming week.

We're happy to announce the winners of The Autumn Screenshot Contest today!

Intrepid nature photographers have been taking snapshots all around Primal Carnage: Extinction (although it certainly seems like DesertionPoint was a favored spot) and came back with some truly stunning images.

Unfortunately, there can only be three winners, some Honorable Mentions are below...

"Water Hazard" by Shamroknroll

"Autumn Squad" by BadPlague

"Stampede" by Gatorboots

You can view all of the entries in our FB gallery.[www.facebook.com] It was hard narrowing them down, but after much deliberation the final three winners were determined..





The winning entrants will be receiving a selection of spooky in-game goodies of their choice.

Thanks again to everyone who took part!

We'll be running more of these in future, including screenshot competitions for Primal Carnage: Evolution once it's released on PlayStation! Keep an eye on The Official Discord Server[discord.gg] for future contests...



Additional fixes are being readied right now for release. Expect another patch within the next 24 hours to address bugs such as charged pounce animations not being visible to others and flyers experiencing lag in the air. At least one more hotfix patch will arrive next week as we resolve lingering bugs reported by the community since the launch of Version 3.0.


If you'd been holding off on grabbing some of the DLC packs, or want to get a few friends into PCE, we've got a great deal for you this week!

Get 75% OFF Primal Carnage: Extinction, 50% OFF the PCE 4-pack + ALL DLC until November 4th!

There’s a chill in the air - Halloween Horrors has returned to Primal Carnage: Extinction...


Our annual spookfest features a range of nightmarish new looks made by the Primal Carnage community! We have some deviously delightful new mutations for several dinosaur classes, alongside some malevolent mercenary styles and a selection of horrific hardware!

We’ve also got a range of spine-tingling new FREE items available, with Spooky Drops enabled today... from the terrifying Tarasqus Rex mutation, to the mortifying Magma Crusher Pachy, or the Ghoulish Sweets assault rifle, expect something scary for your next drop!

Check out the full range of frighteningly fang-tastic items on our special event Trello board.[trello.com]



Alongside the Halloween event, we have a collection of additional fixes for issues found by the community after the recent release of Version 3.0



If you find the game appearing too dark, please reset your brightness to default in the graphics menu. Mostly this is for players who had lowered their brightness settings prior to update 3.0 -pretty much all maps now have more naturalistic sunlight intensity. Previously, it was over three times as intense.


When opening the settings menu, you may see [Example Text] showing instead of some of the options. This is an Unreal 3 bug that happens sometimes when we add new options to the UI, particularly if you've already played the game and changed any settings.

If you encounter this, navigate to Steamapps / Common / PrimalCarnageExtinction / PrimalCarnageGame and delete the Config folder. Then right click Primal Carnage: Extinction in your Steam library, go to Properties > Installed Files and verify integrity to redownload a clean uncorrupted version.


Toggle Crouch now also applies in flight, so if you have that option enabled you just need to tap the "crouch" key to dive instead of holding it. Flyers will automatically un-crouch on landing, so you don't need to tap it again when you hit the ground.

Flyers currently jitter or lag in flight - this is a new server replication bug that we've been working hard to resolve. Unfortunately we weren't able to get a fix into this patch, but we are actively investigating a solution for another patch this week.

• Fixed heavy melee failing to properly stagger small dinosaurs on dedicated server
  
• Reduced heavy melee stamina cost fom 75 to 50
  
  
• Tupa: improved damage calculation algorithm for height-based divebomb damage
  
• widened Tupa divebomb blast zone a bit further
  
• fixed Tupa divebomb screen effect sometimes getting stuck onscreen after landing
  
• slightly longer cooldown on ptera grab attack
  
• Increased crush damage for Pachy from 20 to 30
  
• fixed Cryo not receiving bonus EXP for melting resupply items
  
  
• added option to toggle Film Grain effect on/off
  
• fixed a couple of burst rifle skins applying barrel glow to the whole gun
  
• fixed a shader error on 1-sided materials causing some objects to appear blue
  
• fixed stungun lens effect which was using Contingency blast visuals (sorry for the eyestrain!)
  
• more gradual blend time for dino floor alignment to be less jerky
  
  
• ForestChasm: improvements to rock bridges
  
• ForestChasm Night: fixed missing pine trees
  
• Dead Tide: fixed some background actors not animating
  
• TheFalls: possible fix for CCTV cameras detaching from walls
  
• DesertionPoint: fixed a health pickup floating way too high
  
• GTTC-Ruthless: fixed green completion light on antenna for objective 3 triggering early
  
• GTTC-Downpour: added an extra team blocker to the first roof entrance as a backup measure to stop dinos getting inside after capture
  
• fixed a handful of CTE blockers being shootable outside of CTE
  
• fixed several collision exploits in TDM and GTTC reported by the community
  
• fixed a floating compy on the main menu
  
  
• added Docks Night to default TDM map rotation list
  
• Host Game should no longer display maps that don't exist in the current build
  
  
• added Pilot Radio volume slider
  
• optimizations to footstep sound system
  
• reduced audible radius on a bunch of smaller sound cues to free up audio memory
  
• volume rebalancing pass on new human voice lines
  
• tweaks to human footstep sounds
  
• reduced volume of shotgun and sniper rifle firing sounds and thunder
  
• added tyrant mud footstep effects
  
  
• added trapper agent alternate arm colours
  
• custom arms for swimsuit scientist variants
  
• fixed enforcer burst rifle having barrel glow turned on by default
  
• fixed Libratus Rex crashing if combined with certain cosmetic attachments
  
  
• enabled spooky basic testing and halloween main menu
  
• enabled skeleton skins in default inventory for halloween
  
• enabled new Halloween cosmetics

We hope you enjoy our annual frightfest!

As we get more feedback on the numerous changes introduced this October, we'll continue to deploy additional fixes and quality of life improvements going into November.



Many major updates are still to come, with remastered snow maps back this winter and features such as Skillshots, Sandbox, the expanded Soundtrack and MORE arriving close to Primal Carnage: Evolution's release on PlayStation or shortly after.


-The Primal Carnage Team


Join the Official Discord![discord.gg]

[discord.com]

A new MAJOR update is now available for Primal Carnage: Extinction on Steam, this is the initial release of Version 3.0!

This major update brings many refinements to the game including over 20 remastered maps, numerous gameplay and visual upgrades plus enhanced sound design.

There are so many big and small changes in this update it would be difficult to list them all. For a deep dive into some of the major reworks arriving today, check out our blog post series ”The Road to 3.0”...



Here's a rundown of just some of the many changes included with 3.0...

• Remastered the majority of the game's maps with layout, visual and collision improvements
  
• NEW: nighttime variants of the following TDM maps: ForestChasm, Docks, Transfer, U-Base
  
• NEW community map: FR-Redwoods
  
  
• Game-wide optimizations, shader overhauls and texture refinements
  
  
• NEW: weapon "sanity check" - spread and impact calculations are now tested twice for better lag compensation, which should mean humans hit more of their shots
  
  
• NEW: client-side hit detection for machete
  
• increased effective range of burst rifle
  
• fixed Land Mines dealing excessive damage to Bruisers when "stacked"
  
• reduced thrown Speedgreed energy drink buff duration from 15 to 10 seconds
  
• increased thrown ammokits lifespan from 30 to 45 secs
  
  
• NEW: added low health animations for all Tyrants
  
• NEW: automatic shoulder camera swap for tyrants / bruisers, viewing angle no longer limited
  
  
• bracing Tyrants will not receive critical damage and are impervious to darts
  
• armoured areas on dinosaurs now block darts
  
• Bruiser charge collision rework to fix dealing knockback through solid objects
  
• increased Spino claw swipe damage from 110 to 125
  
• modest speedboost for Acro
  
• Fixed attack speed not being boosted when Pachy roars in multiplayer
  
• Cerato now has exploit prevention check - can no longe interrupt bite with tail swipe and vice versa
  
• Tweaked Cerato attack cooldown timers
  
• Raptors are now staggered if they run out of stamina while pouncing someone
  
• Added more bones to small dino gore archetypes for better "crit detection"
  
• large dinos (Pachy and bigger) can now "Goomba Stomp" the humans
  
• fixed some rivers not extinguishing dinos that are on fire

• Cryo / Dilo now do a spit explosion if headshotted while charging spit
  
• Cryo / Dilo now drop a spit puddle when killed
  
• Cryo can now melt more types of throwables - Medkits, Ammokits, Energy Drinks
  
• Fixed some throwable utilities still being usable after they are hit with acid

• Added a form of "lag compensation" for pounce - raptors who fail to pounce their target but land close enough are now allowed to begin mauling.
  
• Added entirely new pounce velocity calculation algorithm, allowing pounces at angles that would not be possible before and for charged pounce to be a similar speed to quick pounce
  
• Pounce arc trajectory rewrite - fixed ridiculously high (and slow) jumps when aiming near to you
  
• Charged Pounce indicator now more accurately shows where you will land, instantly swaps between red / green for valid jump locations
  
• added raptor pounce "ready up" animations when aiming

• NEW: heavy melee dash - closes the gap to a dino if you melee when they are nearby
  
• heavy melee now staggers Raptors and Spitters briefly to stop them moving or attacking
  
• doing a heavy melee attack now uses over 70% of your stamina if you miss

• Tupa groundpound now has variable damage for low height and high altitude dives
  
• Tupa groundpound can now deliver more massive damage on direct hit (if diving from high up)
  
• Reduced tupa divebomb radius
  
• Tupa air ram deals more damage now
  
• Better behaviour while holding "crouch" to land, so that you don't get stuck in crouch mode on impact

• NEW: weather effects on characters when playing rainy maps
  
• fixed collision exploits and stuck spots on all maps
  
• added interactive physics props such as boxes, traffic cones, paint cans, mugs, etc.
  
• added more corpses and corpse variety to many maps
  
  
• All GTTC maps now have consistent starting times on the clock (6 minutes)
  
• prevented players from camping inside the GTTC chopper
  
• fixed ending cinematics getting cut off in GTTC
  
• fixed Flyers being able to grab sentry turrets in GTTC
  
  
• DeadTide: fixed the background Stegosaurs being set to hidden in-game, added more NPC variety
  
• GTTC-Falls: fixed the earlier objectives not adding round time when captured
  
• GTTC-Ruthless: added windows to the first capture point
  
• GTTC-PhantomCave: set longer capture times for control points
  
  
• fixed Alpha Raptor boss AI shows as a normal raptor
  
• fixed AI dinos don't show randomized skins

• Re-voiced the Commando, Scientist, Pyro and Pathfinder
  (with much more additional dialogue to be added later)
  
  
• NEW radio dialogue for chopper pilot on all GTTC primary objectives
  (Also includes final objective idle dialogue if not captured with 60 seconds left)
  
  
• NEW weapon sound design with more punch and depth
  
• NEW customizer sounds for selecting loadout items
  
• NEW sprint breaths that get louder as stamina is drained for humans
  
  
• made new sounds for scoping, reloading and equipping multiple guns
  
• added sounds to inspect and melee animations that were missing them
  
• Improved foley sounds, with more variety for movement effects between classes (WIP)
  
• death sounds for dinos you kill are now more "present" in the audio mix when faraway

• implemented hot barrel glow for all guns
  
• interactive water now uses 3D tesselation
  
• generated static environment reflections for water puddles
  
  
• added new floor slope alignment system for dinosaurs going up and down hills
  
  
• NEW more optimized molotov firepool effect
  
• Overhauled all muzzle flash effects
  
• Updated colour grading and screen fx
  
• Fixed a dozen or more missing kill feed icons
  
• Crosshair centre dot now grows or shrinks depending on if targeting weak or strong points
  
• fixed missing 3rd person human animations for holstering and melee attacks
  
  
• Fixed spectator "death cam" failing to work after a few deaths and getting stuck on the floor
  
• Gamepad rumble effect updates for weapons, roars and much more
  
  
• HUD fixes and improvements for CTE mode
  
• added gold interactive object highlight when close enough to use something
  
• fixed camera on customization / class select not activating correctly after map load

This is just part one of the Evolution Update, which ushers in a new era for PCE on PC!

Several major new features are still in the pipeline, such as the new Sandbox Mode, Dialogue System, Expanded OST and more. They will be arriving over the next couple of months alongside the release of Primal Carnage: Evolution on PlayStation.

This winter will see the remaining snow maps remastered, along with all the other levels not currently in the game receiving overhauls big and small.

Having said all that, today's update is amongst the largest we’ve ever done for PCE on PC, so please bear with us if there are any teething problems. We’ll be keeping an eye out for any major issues and will have a few extra fixes and improvements with the Halloween patch in a couple of days.



Our annual Halloween Horrors event is right around the corner!
Be ready for a monstrous amount of nightmarish new looks at the end of October...


-The Primal Carnage Team

Previously, we've looked at Gameplay[primalcarnage.com], Visuals[primalcarnage.com] and Sound in our deep dive series about how PCE is evolving. This time the focus is on how Freeroam is getting a bit of a makeover.


Sandbox Mode is the upcoming replacement for Freeroam - it is a much more user-friendly and customizable mode. The new name ties into this rework, with the notion of it being a creative and easy place to mess around in.

The FR gametype was included as a bit of an afterthought originally in PCE, because we wanted to prevent the odd “friendly” dinosaurs that would disrupt deathmatches in the first game. It’s never been the main focus of Primal Carnage, but there are many players who love to just chill. Aside from that, it's a good place to experiment with and get used to the game's mechanics.

We’ve also heard a lot of confused PlayStation players over the years wondering why they can’t drive a dirtbike as a Novaraptor! To that end, we've been working on a slightly more robust experience...


Previously, most all of the fun features in Freeroam would need to be accessed through the developer console window (which obviously doesn't exist on PS4). Features such as vehicles and item summoning would require typing out long awkward strings of text or hacking in keybinds to trigger events.

Not anymore! A new and easy to use Sandbox quick menu will now let you do this hassle-free...

In normal gameplay, hold the Use key for half a second to activate the Sandbox quick menu. Tapping right into one of the main categories shows options to choose from. Tap left to go back, and keep tapping left to exit the Sandbox menu completely. Your character can continue moving around and even attacking while interacting with the Sandbox options.



Finding cheat codes will add them to the Sandbox cheats list, where you can quickly activate them. These range from Change Size to Godmode, and are found by entering random button sequences when playing Custom matches on PlayStation.


This offers multiple categories to choose from such as Vehicles, AI bots (both human and dino), and soon in-game items (health kits, ammo kits, etc.). We are still prototyping these features currently, so there may be differences between PS4 and PC. The number of spawnable items / AI will be limited to prevent server crashes.


Going passive means that you won’t receive damage, but while active you cannot deal damage to others either. This is useful for when you want to go AFK, or if you don’t want to run a fully no-damage server.


For server owners / admins, a change map list will be available from the Sandbox menu. If voting is enabled on the server, the option to vote for a new map appears in place of this.


We’re still developing Sandbox Mode and some of these features may change or be removed, particularly on PS4. For example, testing in the beta will determine how many AI are safe to spawn on console, and certain vehicles may be prohibited on PS4 due to their unpredictability.

Outside of the quick menu, an additional option when selecting someone on the scoreboard in Sandbox will let you to teleport to that player's location.


When playing Sandbox, there will now be additional playable classes listed on the spawn menu. These include several former “NPCs” that have been given a little extra TLC for Sandbox Mode!

From the humble little Compy to the mighty Iguanodon, a new range of Sandbox-only dinos will be playable soon. Iguanodon actually has a completely new model, as it was only ever a corpse before. Sandbox dinos support all the usual playable features such as shoulder cam and have their own roars.

The playable Iggy / Stego / Para are omnivorous - able to heal by both grazing and eating corpses. Aside from the Iggy glow up, other former NPCs like Compy, Stego and Para have received texture / model adjustments and bonus animations.

Iguanodon has its own thumb spike attack, but for the most part Sandbox dinos repurpose existing dino abilities. Tail swiping is popular among both Parasaurolophus and Stego, although the little baby "Steglings" cannot defend themselves. Adult stegosaurs also have a familiar stomp attack...

Each of the Sandbox classes will have several default skins to select from at launch, and we're looking at proper Workshop support for them in future.

They also come with new internal skeletons for being electrocuted or melted (and halloween)!

Other bonus playable creatures are already in the works for future updates to Sandbox, such as Kaprosuchus, Baby Brachi, The Veteran, and Dog.

Don't get too hyped up at the mention of baby Stego, we are not going to do anything like growth for dinosaurs (it's simply a class to select) and there are NO arduous "survival" mechanics planned currently. We do have emotes for drinking, which is something that might refill your stamina in future, but we'd rather not waste people's time unneccessarily.



Currently the bonus classes are confined to Sandbox mode. However, we’re in the planning phases of adding Custom gametype variants of other modes like TDM. These allow PlayStation players to modify options not previously available outside of the Steam game, while adding a bunch of new ones too.

Custom matches will be added sometime after 3.0, with advanced tweak options including individual class limit adjustments, tweaking respawn timers, toggling spawn waves, allowing cheats, and yes - enabling Sandbox dinos in other game modes.

Running a Custom match will disable EXP gain, but allow a lot of flexibility for those who want to experiment with mechanics and are more interested in fun than progression. Want to play a match that has an infinite time limit with all Iguanodons versus all Pyros and low gravity? Knock yourselves out.


Sandbox Mode will debut first on PlayStation with Primal Carnage: Evolution when it launches, it's quite a large overhaul and we're developing it on the console platform first. This means that for our PC players, you’ll have to wait just a tiny bit longer for it to be ported across. Sorry!

We’re looking forward to road testing the new playables in the closed beta on PS4 as we close in on a release date. The final wave of beta invites will be going out soon, so if you’re on PlayStation and haven’t signed up... what are you waiting for?



The annual Halloween Horrors event for PCE on PC arrives at the tail end of October, and you can expect the initial 3.0 overhaul shortly before we start the spooktivities!

Some features from Primal Carnage: Evolution will not be there on day one of 3.0, as we have mentioned in the past. New elements like the Announcer, Skillshot System & Expanded OST will debut first on console, likewise the expanded lore documents and deeper dialogue system will arrive on PC after Evolution has launched on PlayStation.

For the initial 3.0 update on PC, there will be a reduced number of playable maps - however, new nighttime variants will be available to play for the first time. More remastered maps will be added over the next couple months, with snow levels returning this winter.

We're excited to finally bring this first big chunk of PCE's new era to Steam this October with 3.0, it's definitely been a long road! We do not have an official date for Evolution's release on console just yet, but we plan to finalize the game's content going into November.

Stay tuned!


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...[discord.gg]

[discord.com]-The Primal Carnage Team

Our deep dive series continues! We've looked at Gameplay[primalcarnage.com], Visuals[primalcarnage.com] and Optimization[primalcarnage.com] so far.

Today, you’ll hear how we’ve evolving The Sound of Carnage, exploring several areas of audio including: Weapons, UI effects, & Voiceover


Weapons fire is one of the areas that has been improved the most. The new sound design features bigger, more impressive gunshots that each have their own unique reverb characteristics. The video below highlights a few before & after comparisons between PS4 Extinction to Evolution, showcasing not just the revamped audio but improved particle effects...

A new sound tweak is weapons changing pitch as you near the end of your current clip, which is also tied to the barrel heat visuals (where the gun starts glowing when you near the end).

Firing a weapon in first person perspective now also has more detailed effects compared to hearing somebody else shooting (3rd person). The player's own gunfire has several extra sound variations, instead of just the exact same cue repeated over and over the way it is in 3rd person.

This kind of “psychoacoustics” treatment makes your own gun always feel like the most powerful one in the room, whilst also optimizing the soundscape...

If we used the first person soundcues for everyone in the scene, the game would have to pop off a dozen sounds every time someone fires (shot, tail, reverb, shell casing, etc). This would often hurt performance. Instead, we now use a different pre-combined cue for other players, which reduces memory load and helps keep the mix clean.

Something we tweaked recently and have been continuing to improve is the much more advanced flamesaw sound setup. Idle effects for the flamesaw vary based on if you've been using the saw or the flamethrower, and the pressure level of the flamethrower determines which start sound plays.

On the programming side, over the past year we finished moving all auto-firing guns to a new looping system which is much more efficient. This system also makes use of the split 3rd person / 1st person weapon sound tech, so that the complex layers of something like the Flamesaw are streamlined into less complex versions when heard by other players.

The before / after clip in this post actually shows a bug this system fixed, with the assault rifle sounds actually cutting out in Extinction, because it was spawning so many on full-auto that the audio engine just gave up!



On the more subtle end, each human will have unique footstep sounds. For example, Commando wears heavy army boots, while Scientist has a much lighter step and Trapper has some jangling cowboy spurs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aaSW_0iGoY

Additional foley effects were added a while ago for actions such as sprinting, where if you’re holding a long gun you’ll hear it shaking in your hands as you run. Pyro’s fuel tank rattling about will now be more noticeable when sprinting, too. Reloading now feels more badass, filled with lots of extra little rattles, clicks and other mechanical effects.


One of our ongoing improvement drives has been adding extra cues tied to gameplay events. The HUD / user interface has been updated over time with more visual notifications, and various new sounds have been created to go along with these.

https://youtu.be/sR5R68WK8Hk

We added varied hit notifications to the HUD a little while ago. Depending on where you shoot, you see different crosshair symbols if it’s a weak point, strong point, or regular flesh - and the sound changes too. Firing at armour produces dull thunks on impact, whereas weakpoints are louder and sharper. Land a critical hit and there’s a juicy splash (plus a bullet ping if it’s a headshot).

Coupled with in-world sound effects for feeling hits yourself, such as the satisfying CLONK of a Pachy’s headbutt - or the bone breaking impact of a T.Rex tail swipe - it means Evolution has way more audio feedback for both instigators and victims compared to Primal Carnage: Extinction (PS4).

More sounds like these are being added to other parts of the HUD as well...

Stamina now has unique sounds for when it is stolen from you by enemies or being restored by teammates. There are also more subtle indicators for when it starts being used, begins regenerating, and fills up fully. If you have a keen ear, these allow you to focus more on the moment to moment combat instead of needing to keep an eye on your bar.

Even though we’ve added more visual indicators for the roar mechanics, the same is true there as well. The “roar ready” notification popup can be turned off for more immersive visuals, but you can still hear a helpful UI sound cue for it.


Every part of the customization / equipment screen will now have custom sounds when interacted with. This is an extra level of detail we never had time for in the past, and which makes just the basics of interacting with these much-used screens more fun.

Select a weapon skin in the customizer and you’ll hear the equip sound for that gun, choose an outfit and there’s a suiting up sound, every single slot has a unique cue to go with it...

Console players, please ignore the Xbox button icons - it's just the default control method when using gamepads on PC. The actual functionality of the customizer itself will also be getting a few usability improvements too, but that's something for a future post.


You can find several preview tracks from the expanded Evolution OST on our YouTube channel, and we also have a recent blog post[primalcarnage.com] about how the new soundtrack is being implemented!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNA-6UEBVWQ

We're happy to confirm every single sublcass in the core modes will have their own custom soundtrack, with both light ambient pieces and heavy combat themes for each! Keep a lookout for more soundtrack selections going live in the run up to relaunch...


It's been mentioned before that the human team is getting re-voiced to allow for a greater dialogue variety. Unfortunately, there was no info regarding who played the original characters for Primal Carnage way back in 2012, so we had to cast new actors.

The Trapper was already largely re-recorded for Extinction in 2014 at the special request of Pub Games (they’re Australian), and we were lucky enough to bring him back to record additional dialogue for Evolution nearly 10 years later!

Likewise, we were able to track down the voice of the chopper pilot in Extinction for round two of his inimitable drawling insults! Bonus lines recorded for him include contexts for getting to the boat and getting to the train, and all that implies…

In total, there are now over 3500 lines of recorded dialogue in the game. This includes the mercenary voiceover set with several hundred for each class, the chopper pilot’s 130 lines, dialogue for each of the vending machines, the announcer, and various new public service announcements heard in the world. All of these add more life and character, while hinting at times to the larger backstory.

Many of the new lines tie into specific gameplay events. For example, when facing the AI horde you’ll hear characters shout the names of various dinosaurs the first time they're seen (though they won’t always pronounce them properly!).

We’ve held back from adding the automatic spotting mechanic to the other game modes, as it could give your position away. It’s possible we may add manual spotting in future if there’s interest in it.

Numerous other dialogue triggers include (but are not limited to):

• getting a multi-kill streak
  
• landing a headshot
  
• killing dinos with specific weapons
  
• beating a boss wave
  
• throwing supplies
  
• capturing objectives
  
• starting, losing or winning a match.

The others you’ll just have to discover in-game!


Related to sound, a major part of improving the feel of the game for Evolution involved making a wide array of controller vibration effects. This “rumble” you feel from the gamepad enhances gameplay massively, but didn't receive much care and attention back when Primal Carnage: Extinction released.

This time around, we’ve gone HARD on rumble. Roaring was given tremendous vibration effects a while back for PCE on PC, but we’ve taken it even further for Evolution by creating custom rumble curves for each class that line up better with their actual roars.

Tyrants can now be felt, not just heard, at long distance. Their footsteps create heavy vibrations that you’ll pick up through your controller when they are within a few dozen metres.

A new “hierarchy of rumble” will also ensure important events like roaring are not interrupted by other vibration effects going on. This was an issue for PCE on PC previously. For example, roaring as Ptera or Tupa used to get cut off by your wing flaps in flight, and Tyrants could interrupt their roar effects with the rumble of their own footsteps. Not anymore!

Other bespoke rumble events include diving at terminal velocity as Flyers, and pretty much every attack now has some form of vibration effect (both on button press and when actually landing a hit). Even small actions such as reloading your gun now have little rumble triggers, with motions like shoving a new magazine into the carbine rifle creating a satisfying hit.

Of course, if your hands can’t handle all of this, vibration function can be disabled within the game’s own options menu. Additionally, one of our stretch goals is making a “rumble intensity” slider that globally adjusts how heavy vibration is across the whole game. This slider may not be there on day one, but we’ll definitely be including more accessibility options after Evolution releases regardless.


We’ll be back with another deep dive soon which explores the evolution of Freeroam and some of the fun extras that come along with it. See you then!


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![discord.gg]

[discord.com]-The Primal Carnage Team