Anniversary Update!

The Anniversary update is here!

This update will return the farm from the Christmas update snow back to the regular sunny fields. Lots of small changes have been made to make the game a smoother experience in many ways.

1) Better synchronisation

I increased the Photon Send rate and Serialization rate. Turns out that it really helps sync up players! I've also fixed the interesting bug where players would see every other player in the server moving outside of the house and map boundaries (even if they weren't actually escaping!).

2) Dynamic Camera

I've now worked on a script to make the camera move and look towards incoming threats. This is used for every cryptid and even some mystery events. I think it really keeps the game looking fresh! If it's becoming a bit much however, there's an option in the local option menu to turn it off.

3) Extra animations

There's a bunch of new animations! There's a plant animation and a pick up animation for the farmer (with interchangeable picked up sprites) and some new animation for the Snatcher when he kills or pauses. The snatcher has received some love in their code too, making them move about the farm in ways that cover more space, and they're a little bit bigger than before.

4) Player List

The new player list tab lets you select, mute and kick players right from the menu without having to type out their user names. This kick option will only be available in Private lobbies, to prevent misuse in public lobbies. What's the purpose of having a kick option in a private lobby? Well, it means that private lobbies can be ran in bigger groups, for large discord servers or twitch streaming purposes. The game was always missing this kind of moderation and it'll be safer for streamers now.

5) Anti-theft zone

A way to prevent thieves for stealing all your crops from right under your nose! After unlocking the upgrade, if a thief is inside your anti-theft zone and they take a crop, they will lose the money and it will be instantly returned to you. This way, as long as you're nearby your crops, you can protect them! Thieves will have to get sneakier to get away with their crimes. The radius of the zone is upgradeable and can get pretty big.

6) Revive system

The revive system replaces the life insurance upgrade. Before you could pay $2000 at any time and retain all your upgrades on death (but lose your money). The new system requires you to pay a $50 fine on death to keep everything. The $50 fine doubles every time you do so. However, should you find yourself short on cash and full of upgrades, other players can now also revive you. Help each other out!

7) Tutorial

A short pop up tutorial will play every time a player starts the game. It is instantly skippable by pressing X but it's useful for getting new players up to speed!

8) Cake

Also the shop sweets have been replaced with a large cake. (There's actually two sprites for the cake chosen randomly! The pink one is worth more!)

This marks a whole year of on and off development for Cryptid Farm. As always, thanks for being a part of this project and continuing to play the game! The game is up to a whopping 27k views right now, which is more than I ever could have imagined it to get.

More updates to come, I've got many things planned for this game!