RTJP Update - No. 18 news - Return to Jurassic Park: A Trespasser Mod for Jurassic Park: Trespasser

Well, it's been a very long time now (happy holidays and happy new year!), so here's a real update for once to wet your appetite (hopefully), showcasing the completely new and final textures and discussing a bit more about the gameplay.

To begin with, I'm glad to announce that the game's story has been finalized - I have every major plot point and event planned out! The story will take you all around the island to almost every facility, though some places will still be found off the main path. You will ultimately have unlocked almost the entire island for exploration by about 1/3rd of the main game, allowing you to explore the ruins of the Park freely if you just want to look around. There will be plenty of secrets and off-the-path stuff to find to keep intrepid players interested (so no long paths of nothing!).

I've finally come up with terrain textures I'm 100% happy with - not too bright, not too dark. You might recognize some of these textures from my Beach remake, which I was using as a testbed before porting those into RTJP. I've also done totally new dirt and jungle textures that look far better than the weirdly contrasting textures from before. Due to the fact that the old textures will no longer be in use, I'll probably be releasing them just in case anyone wants them for their own level, along with all the other resources that go unused. Anyway, the screenshots:

And, finally, a shot of the new parasaurolophus skin with bumpmapping, based on The Game's parasaurs (green rather than yellow). Also note that the water, flora and landscape in this scene are not final.

I was also using this group of hadrosaurs to test out my herding system, which is working quite well so far. In case I haven't mentioned before, I intend groups of dinosaurs to work and act slightly more dynamically and realistically than usual, rather than randomly wander around independent of each other. For example, this herd seen here will actively move around several different points in their territory together, led by the alpha, who will make movement decisions. They will take different actions when moving to these areas as well depending on the local resources, so when they are by the lakeside, they'll be drinking and wading in the shallows, and when they're near trees, they'll prefer to eat instead. A single parasaur will also stand guard to watch for invaders, acting as a lookout. Should a predator approach, the lookout will alert the others, and they will flee to a different area. Still needs a bit of tweaking here and there, but it's going well so far.

I haven't started on carnivore behavior yet, though usually they will prefer to ambush and quickly take down their prey in a group rather than run in and then dodge around comically. Velociraptors will be deadly in this sense - they will be exclusively ambush predators, striking from cover without warning and using distractions (think "Clever Girl", while the larger herrerasaurus and metriacanthosaurus will instead typically attempt to surround and attack one at a time, striking quickly and then backing off. If you manage to escape these carnivores without killing them, they'll return to their hiding spots, laying silent and ready to strike again.

So that's it for now. Can't say when there will be another real update since these are quite time-consuming to create (even moreso because I simultaneously post them of TresCom and Moddb), but more screenshots will definitely be coming as I continue to fill in the island. Adios!

Legendary Glitch of the Week:
Brachiosaurus got stuck in a fence and its neck started flipping out, rocking back and forth 180 degrees until it just sort of died, despite having 16000 health.

ALSO! Moddb users: the screenshots posted in these updates are available in higher quality on the mod's Moddb page if you can't view them in full size (since the ones used in these posts are from Imgur). Thanks!