A terrifying new game update is now live for Primal Carnage: Extinction on Steam!

We're celebrating the season of fear (and Primal Carnage's 10th anniversary) with Halloween Horrors!

An epic special event featuring spooktacular new looks, scarily good upgrades to numerous gameplay features, and mortifying amount of bugfixes.

Read on at your peril!

UPDATE HIGHLIGHTS

NEW Pyro Weapon:

The FLAME SLAMMER!

After all these years, Angus got tired of waiting around and decided to do it himself...



Cobbled together from spare parts, the Flame Slammer is a trademarked McLaughlin Special, featuring a combined incendiary grenade launcher and slam-firing shotgun attachment!



The pyro's new toy allows him to better deal with foes at longer range, flinging fire bombs that instantly ignite anything in the blast radius! Though unlike a molotov, they don't stick around. You get two in the pipe before needing to reload.



For close quarters combat, the slam-fire shotgun shoots slug shells instead of regular pellets. This actually makes it surprisingly accurate (and lethal) so long as you have good aim...

We're hoping this is a fine additional to Pyros arsenal, allowing him to be a bit more effective at crowd control and providing a slightly different playstyle to the usual flaming and sawing. Thanks again to all of the testing crew who helped us refine it over the last couple months!

NEW Game Mechanic:

Tyrant Bracing

A lot of players have been asking for this one for quite a while now, and the halloween update is our first implementation of it. Tyrant Bracing allows you to take reduced damage, at the cost of stamina. This is useful for Rexes, Acros and Spinos who want to battle up close or protect their team by absorbing aggro.

Tyrants that are bracing receive 80% less damage from all sources than they would previously.

To enter bracing mode, simply hold the "crouch" button for a moment and your Tyrant will duck their head down to the ground with a growl. To stay braced, you must continue holding crouch (you can enable toggle crouch if you like). Release crouch to exit brace.

The ability slowly drains your stamina, but any incoming damage will also chip away at it. This means you can't just brace forever. Attacking or eating will also cancel the ability, so be mindful.

What's in a name?

Reworking The Dart Gun(s)

After much deliberation, we decided to revamp the dart-based weapons to make it clearer what each does and give the more defined roles. They are less about damage over time, more focused on specific status effects.

The "tranq rifle" is now the Poison Dart Rifle, and is designed around sustained damage dealing.



We have made the damage numbers better communicate how the dosage mechanic works with this weapon, where successive shots can deal more damage. Basically, poison darts inflict the poisoned status effect, where each consecutive dart hit deals more damage if you hit them quick enough (up to a point).

Once a dinosaur has been hit by enough poison darts, they are fully dosed and enter the poisoned death state. After two seconds of lumbering around they succumb to the poison and die. Dinosaurs can avoid reaching this state by roaring, which removes half of the poison dosage. However, once you are fully dosed with poison there is no going back.

The "dartgun" is now officially labelled the Tranquillizer Pistol and is focused purely on stamina drain.



Unlike the poison dart rifle, the tranquillizer pistol barely deals any damage. However, it is ruthlessly effective at removing the stamina of enemies (if you can manage to hit them!).

Draining all of a dinosaur's stamina with tranquillizers puts them into the fully tranquillized state, which prevents stamina recovery and slows their movements. Yes, the tyrants are back to tail dragging.

Being fully tranquillized lasts for 3 seconds, but can be extended slightly if a scientist keeps shooting tranq darts into their target. Once a dinosaur exits the fully tranquillized state, they have a quarter of their stamina automatically restored.

We think these changes make the weapons more interesting to use and fight against, with scientists needing to keep the pressure on in order to deal good damage with the poison dart rifle or to fully tranquillize with the tranq pistol.

Rethinking Pachy:

Goodbye Manual Charge

With Pachycephalosaurus, we tried something different when it came to charging. Unfortunately, the manually activated charge proved too confusing to most players, or just plain awkward. For the sake of consistency and to make it a tad easier to get to grips with the class, we have changed it to have an automatically activated charge.

This means that Pachy now behaves closer to the other Bruiser classes, building up to top speed where it can charge enemies. As a side effect of this, all of the Bruisers now let out a bellow when they have reached high enough speed to deal charge damage.

There are other changes to the Pachy, all based around making it a little speed demon. Remember to use your Roar Ability to gain a massive boost to maneuverability! The Pachy's roar enables higher jump height, faster turning and more damaging charge hits. We're hoping this makes it fit in better with the other Bruisers and makes it more fun to use!

A Whole LOT More!

We've been hard at work refining mechanics and fixing issues these past few months. This update includes dozens of quality of life improvements, from making weapons less clunky, to refining flyer movement, and diving deep into the guts of the game's code to rework dinosaur hit detection.

Melee attacks by dinosaurs should now be much more reliable and we are working on improvements to movement replication for future patches as well. There's still a few edge cases (pounce continues to be problematic depending on the angle of attack) but we've made a lot of progress.

You can check out the frankly scary amount of changes in the full "fright log" further down, but of course there's a certain seasonal event now underway...

SPECIAL EVENT: Halloween Horrors

Back for another year of mortifying mutations and spooktacular skins, Halloween Horrors returns to Primal Carnage: Extinction on Steam!



From ghostly Dilophosaurs to simply beastly Commandos, the in-game store is full of frightening new items. A second generation of Royal Acro skins has arrived to challenge the throne, and there's a brand new Halloween Gift packed full of scary good new looks to frighten a whole server with!



Another frighteningly good set of Ultimate Human Skins is also debuting this update, the KILOWATTS!



Kilowatt Humans are cybernetically enhanced, augmented with technology - their skin is alive with the patterns of their inner circuitry shining through! These electrifying new looks can be obtained either as ultra rare drops or by crafting 25 legendary human skins together.

You can view the whole horrifying selection on our spooky event Trello page!

IT'S (almost) OUR ANNIVERSARY!

Just about 10 years ago, on October 31st 2012, the original Primal Carnage game was released. That means the franchise is about to hit its 10th anniversary! Time flies when you're killing dinos...

To celebrate the occasion we're going to have a free 10th Anniversary Gift, which is a personal gift just for you. Keep an eye on the official discord server closer to the anniversary date for a special code to enter in-store for you to receive your gift!

Opening the anniversary gift grants a collection of themed sprays, a couple of nostalgia glasses, one memorable Carnotaurus skin and more!



But that's not all, there are other blasts from the past to commemorate 10 years as well - opening this year's Halloween Gift will grant you the Precursor Pachy - the original prototype Pachycephalosaurus from when it was being considered for the first Primal Carnage! We dusted it off and made it work with our own Pachy's rig. The creature is a little.. strange.. but certainly fits the horror theme!



On a similar note, the Precursor Rex is also available as a Legendary drop today! This grey and brown beastie was the first Tyrannosaurus ever created for Primal Carnage, before we got to the Big Daddy we all know and love. A wonderfully bumpy throwback with something of a mean look to him!

We were hoping to share a bit more about the PlayStation side of Primal Carnage as part of our celebrations, but that needs a bit more time in the oven just yet. It shouldn't be long now though.

As always, keep an eye on www.primalcarnage.com and the official Discord server for the latest news.

Thanks for a great 10 years, and here's hoping for many more to come!

-The Primal Carnage Team

Full Fright Log:

Controller Updates

We are continuing to overhaul gamepad support as part of our work on the PlayStation revamp of PCE, and have started bringing some of those fixes and updates to the Steam side. This also means a rework of the controller layouts (with more presets and controller customization on the way!).

• Updated default control layouts for gamepads based on community feedback
  
• Fixed shoulder buttons on controller not properly swapping between tabs on server browser
  
• Left and right triggers no longer feel backwards when dual wielding weapons
  
• Fixed an issue where horizontal and vertical sensitivity sliders became swapped
  
• Set toggle run to be on by default when using a controller (first-time users)
  

NOTE:
If you encounter issues when using a controller please consider disabling Steam Input.

You can do this by simply right-clicking Primal Carnage: Extinction in your Steam library and selecting Properties > Controller then choosing Disable Steam Input from the dropdown list. PCE has native support for Xbox and PlayStation controllers, and should not require third party tools to use a gamepad with.

DINOSAUR CHANGES

General:

• Fundamental changes to how dinosaur attack hit detection is handled, should now be much more responsive and reliable than before.
  
  
• Fixed dinosaur Roar Refresh function not cancelling the bow's bleed status effect
  
• Roar Refresh reduces dinosaur dosage amount by 50% instead of fully removing dart status effects
  
• Updated some species class info in the menus
  
  
• Changed tranquillizer rifle to reinforce its role as a poison dart gun:
  
  
  
  • Damage displayed is perceptually instant, with the intent to give better feedback.
    
  • Hitting a strong point reduces the the damage dealt but not the dosage level.
    
  • Only ultra strong points (e.g. Pachy dome) reduce both dose and damage.
    
  • Each hit with a poison dart makes the next dart deal more damage (up to a point)
    
  • Extra damage is only dealt if darts hit within a short window of time, else it starts going down
    
  • Fully dosing a dinosaur will produce a UI sound effect and guarantee a kill on it.
    
  • Poisoned dinosaurs will die two seconds after receiving the killing dart.
    
  
  
  
• Tranquillizer pistol now does more classic energy sapping:
  
  
  
  • Losing all your stamina from tranqs makes a dinosaur enter the fully tranquillized state
    
  • Fully tranquillized dinosaurs cannot regenerate stamina for 3 seconds and move slower
    
  • Each consecutive tranq dart hit then adds 0.5 seconds to the duration (up to 4 hits)
    
  • When fully tranquillized state ends, dinosaur has 25% of their stamina restored.
    
  
  

Spitter Updates

Cryolophosaurus:



• Small increase to spit charge-up time as cryo
  
• Reduced direct hit damage for cryo acid from 80 to 60
  
• Sped up cryo acid puddle damage interval from 0.85 to 0.7
  
• Reduced damage of cryo acid puddle from 30 to 25
  
• Reduced "health" of cryo acid pool slightly so flamethrower ignites it quicker
  
• Charged spit projectiles now also explode on direct hitting a human
  

Dilophosaurus:



• Reduced dilo spit default damage from 30 to 10
  
• Reduced dilo spit explosion damage from 30 to 25
  
• Slowed the draining effect interval of dilo venom puddles
  
• Reduced venom puddle stamina drain per tick from 16 to 12
  
• Charged spit projectiles now also explode on direct hitting a human
  
• Dilo puddles now deal a tiny bit of damage (just 1 per tick) to help humans be aware of them.
  
• Made the radius at which dilo spit extinguishes flares be a little more forgiving.
  

Tyrant Updates

• Increased audible radius of a few tyrant eating sounds
  
• Tyrants will now produce a threatening rumble when they are braced
  
  
• Added bracing ability for tyrants:
  
  
  • as tyrant, hold the "crouch" key for a moment to charge up extra armour by "bracing"
    
  • when they are braced, tyrants receive 80% less damage from all sources
    
  • bracing slowly consumes stamina, and you lose a small amount of stamina when hit
    
  • you can brace and sprint as a tyrant, but the stamina consumption will make it end sooner
    
  • you can initiate attacks while braced, but this will cancel the brace and remove the effect
    
  • you cannot regenerate stamina while bracing
    
  
  

Pachy Updates

Charge Changes:



• Pachy now automatically charges, similar to other Bruisers. No manual activation.
  
• Minor increase to pachy charge damage (38 min, 76 max)
  
• Pachy lets out a cry when it has reached charge speed
  
• Charging velocity is faster after roaring
  
• Knockback behaviour is now closer to Carno
  
• Limited charge hits to once per second
  
• Reduced stamina consumption for charge
  
• Fixed charge sometimes doing double hits
  
• Fixed charge being cancelled after jumping
  

Roar Ability Changes:



• Increased turn speed when roared a bit further for Pachy
  
• Slight reduction to Pachy midair (jump) turning speed
  
• Pachy primary attack is now 25% faster during roar period
  
• Faster turn speed for Pachy in general when charging, plus...
  
• Pachy now has boosted charge turning rate while roar ability is active
  

Other:



• Slightly lower jump height by default
  
• Increased speed while sliding for Pachy
  
• Increased minimum velocity required to slide
  
• Shorter timeout period after sliding before Pachy is allowed to slide again
  

Flyer Updates

• Adjustments to Flyer acceleration, increased velocity from diving
  
• Flyers now slow down quicker from sprint speed (stronger braking)
  
• Fixed a problem where Flyers were unable to land or take off in some cases
  
  
• Reduced minimum height required for Tupa divebomb from 316 to 300
  
• Increased max divebomb groundpound damage from 80 to 90
  
• Made sure ThrowRagdoll was set to True on the Tupa divebomb, along with a decent upkick
  
  
• Reduced minimum required grab height for Pteranodon
  
• Made grabbing less restrictive with a lower velocity requirement
  
• Reduced the slowdown when holding a grab victim as Pteranodon
  
• Fixed the Pteranodon grab animation not cancelling when shot, it now flaps angrily.
  
• Fixed an issue where Ptera was sometimes unable to let go of a grabbed human after being shot
  
• Fixed still being able to descend with your catch if you hold crouch before initiating a Ptera grab
  

HUMAN CHANGES

General:



• Health pickups now work differently -16 HP on touch, with the rest given over 2.5 seconds
  
  
• If a human is damaged after grabbing a health pickup, health restoration ends
  
• Grabbing a second health kit does not give immediate HP, instead stacking on to the timer
  
  
• Humans now play their weapon equip animation before being able to shoot if dropped by a Ptera
  
• More accurate ragdoll effects from gunfire, with stronger impact force on bullets
  
• First implementation of new, more efficient dialog code
  
• Game now waits until current voice line has finished before trying to play a new one
  



Weapon Changes:



• Fixed a bugged timer that caused some weapons to have an artificial rate of fire cap
  
• Fixed sometimes being unable to swap from secondary to primary weapon while sprinting
  
• Fixed bug where weapons hit twice when playing on client hosted games
  
• Allowed weapon swap while jumping/falling
  
  
• Melee attacks are now less affected by armour (20% reduced damage instead of 40%)
  
  
• Machete now takes less time to do a fully charged swing
  
• "Charged up" machete swings now completely ignore regular armour
  
• Fixed machete still doing damage AFTER being pounced if user had been charging it up
  
• Added new sounds to machete charge attack animations, fixed no sound on regular machete attack
  
• Charged machete hits now deal 75% bonus damage (coupled with 25% crit, this can mean double damage)
  
  
• Re-enabled a small amount of procedural weapon model bob during movement
  
• Guns now slowly recenter to near their original aim height after being shot
  
• Increased kickback when firing certain guns
  
  
• Moderate recoil reduction on SMGs
  
• Minor spread reduction for M4
  
• Increased revolver crit damage to 40%
  
• Increased spread of burst rifle
  
• Reduced effective range of burst rifle slightly
  
• Desert Eagle now has 20% amount piercing damage
  
• Hatchets now have the ability to deal crits again
  



Scientist Weapon Updates:



• Tranquillizer Rifle is now the Poison Dart Rifle, with a focus on sustained damage
  
• Poison dart rifle does not drain stamina, instead applying a dosed status effect
  
• While under the influence of poison darts, each successive dart hit does more damage
  
• The poison status effect wears off quickly, so you must keep the pressure on to deal good damage
  
  
• Formalized the dartgun's name as Tranquillizer Pistol
  
• Tranq darts drain dino stamina until they are in a depleted state, with reduced movement speed
  
• During the fully tranquillized state, dinosaurs are unable to regenerate stamina
  
• Once tranq status has ended, dinosaurs immediately recover 25% of their stamina
  
• Reduced the tranq pistol instant hit damage from 10 to 5
  
• Tranq pistol now fires faster, with less recoil
  

VISUAL / COSMETIC CHANGES

• Post processing and lighting updates to a couple of maps
  
• Optimizations to several lens flares and particle effects
  
• Swapped the main menu and BasicTesting maps for new spooky versions
  
• Re-enabled spooky scary skeleton skins as default inventory items
  
  
• Community animation fixes:
  
  
  • Trapper : now has basic facial animation support
    
  • Trapper : fixed Colt / SMG select animation and added eye animations
    
  • Commando : fixed AR selection animation not looping seamlessly
    
  • Commando : fixed hand not grabbing the M4 properly in first person scoped anims
    
  • Assault Cannon : adjusted first person reload to see the bullet better
    
  • Pathfinder : updated machete "charge-up" animations
    
  • Cryo : fixed a stutter in its sprint animation
    
  
  
• Fixed cosmetics visible in cinematics
  
• Fixed lagoon carno skin and RGB netgun skin
  
• Consistency pass on a bunch of dinosaur skins
  
• Updates to a few character models
  
• Snow Pyro and Survivor Pyro now use the classic hybrid model (had a face transplant)
  

OTHER CHANGES

• Reduced auto-balance check time from 70 seconds to 45 seconds
  
• Change Class no longer has an *additional* countdown after having already killed you
  
• Possible fix for changing teams causing severe weirdness
  
  
• Reduced minimum Capture The Egg mode players required to 2
  
• Set stricter default class limits in general
  
• Re-enabled voting by default
  
  
• Added the GTTC maps to Freeroam map rotation
  
• Added more names to the credits
  
• Added more class hints
  
• Fixed a damage number display bug
  
• Fixed item descriptions sometimes appearing behind in-game store banner
  

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