UnReal World News

Here we go with a brief development news about what's bubbling under at the moment.
Well, a good bunch fishing related additions, we can tell you.

There will be improvements to some old fishing methods and a completely new form of fishing to be featured. And to have it all done with our desired ambition we'll also feature spawning periods and habitats for the different species of fish. And these can be then taken advantage of with the old and new fishing forms.

It's quite a sidetracking, snowballing bunch of additions, but slowly coming together so nicely that we can briefly highlight it already.


Now pikes, breams, salmons, trouts and lavarets (at least) will be given their spawning periods and habitats. Gathering of the spawning fish can be then taken advantage of with suitable fishing means.
For example pikes will come to spawn in early spring at shallow shoreline waters with rich vegetation.
During that time the spearfishing from the shore can be quite succesful.
As we know, spearfishing is already an existing fishing method in the game, but now it will become a bit more detailed for example with information given related to ongoing spawning periods and the chosen location.

Ingir proceeds with spearfishing and the game notifies about the chosen location being good considering the ongoing pike spawning period.


Lippo is a certain kind of dip net with a very long handle, and it was used in special kind of fishing at rivers and rapids. It is a new fishing tool in the game that
can be crafted by the player character, and it will be used in this newly featured form of fishing.

Ingir has arrived at the rapids with an intention to craft herself a lippo.


Lippo fishing was practised especially when the certain fish, salmons or lavarets for example, gathered at the rivers to spawn. But lippo can be also used to catch roaming river fish outside their spawning period too. In this fishing method the lippo is casted into the water, down at the bottom of the river, and then moved carefully in order to scoop the fish into its net. The roaming fish in the rivers and rapids will occasionally rest beside the rocks and skerries and these are the locations where lippo needs to be used.

Ingir needed to row with a punt to reach a skerry in the rapids. Maybe there are fish resting behind the neighbouring rocks, she thinks and reaches out to pick up the lippo.

Just a quick briefing.
There more to this.
Stay tuned.

Version 3.81 is now built, released and live for all the supported operating systems.
This version is now the default branch and if you have automatic updates on your game will update automatically.

This version is mostly about craftable and repairable fishing nets, preliminary introduction of pausable crafting and some bugfixes. Find full changelog at the end of this post, and now let's highlight the most exciting addition...

[h2]Craftable and repairable fishing nets[/h2]

Now it's possible to both craft a net from the scratch, and to repair worn-out nets. These are both pausable tasks allowing you to finish them in parts as you please. This will be the start of featuring a possibility to have breaks in long crafting tasks and continue at will later on. After the mechanics have been developed further this will be expanded to cover wider range of crafting.



Weaving a net is laborious task and the mere amount of yarn alone may be demanding to obtain. The other material requirements include thicker cordage for the supporting lines, rocks for weights and birch or pine bark for floats. Traditionally the rock weights were sometimes wrapped inside birch-bark pockets for more durable attachment. This is optionally doable in the game as well.



Making a net is process of several days, and that is why nets were usually woven indoors during the wintertime. For the history and realism sake a good use of written sources along with actually interviewing old net makers were carried out to come up with the many values and mechanics. And still there's a room to add some advanced fishing net care and maintenance features in the future. It might be interesting for some if we opened up our research and field studies later on, but here's just one curiosity:

There's a tool called netting needle which has been essential in netmaking. It's a tool the player characters can craft in the game as well. In our interviews with a certain old net maker one question was: "We're the nets ever made by hand alone, without a netting needle, and is it even viable?"

Ville, a real person in real world - an old fisherman - just kept staring for a really, really long time and said "Everyone had their own netting needle." Other interviewees also confirmed that netting needles were always needed, even when repairing the nets, and during the fishing season people would carry them around just in case. Well, the game mechanics allow netmaking without a netting needle too, but you will only find it impractically slow.

Netting needle.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]

Version 3.81 changelog

Version: 3.81

** Saved characters from version 3.70-> are compatible with this version. **

- added: craftable fishing net

It is now possible to make a fishing net by the player character. The option can be found at "Fishing" category in the [M]ake menu.
Weaving a net is laborious task and the mere amount of yarn alone may be demanding to obtain. The other material requirements include thicker cordage for the supporting lines, rocks for weights and birch or pine bark for floats. Traditionally the rock weights were sometimes wrapped inside birch-bark pockets for more durable attachment. This is optionally doable in the game as well.
Making a net is process of several days, and that is why nets were usually woven indoors during the wintertime. In the game making a net is newly featured pausable task allowing you to finish it in parts as you please.

- added: NETMAKING skill

Netmaking is a skill for weaving and constructing fishing nets. Success in netmaking determines the quality of the nets crafted. For migrated characters this skill is created upon the first load in this version.

- added: pausable crafting

In this version we are introducing pausable crafting for a few selected items. This will be the start of featuring a possibility to have breaks in long crafting tasks and continue at will later on. After the mechanics have been developed further this will be expanded to cover wider range of crafting.

Crafts that can be currently paused are:

* Net

* Chop felled tree into blocks

* Split firewood from a block

* Split a trunk into boards

With the pausable timbercraft options you can now also use unhandy and inferior tools eg. stone-axe in board making as there's no upper limit of how much time can be used to get the work done.

Pausable crafting works similarly to pausable building. You can cancel the process at will, and then continue at will. The crafting will be continued when you try to make the said item again standing beside the partially finished item. For example, if you try to [M]ake a fishing net beside a partially crafted net the crafting continues.
Partially crafted items will remain on the ground and can be picked up only after they are finished. They are rendered with a different tint and described as "partially crafted", "half-crafted", "largely crafted" etc. when looking at them.

- added: different tile graphics for a set net

Tile graphics for a set fishing net is now different resembling its float line on top of the water.

- updated: "Net" game encylopedia (F1) entry

- changed: the weight and price of the net item

Both have been increased. The weight because of the rock weights taken into account, and the price because of the true workload.

- added: netting needle, a new item

Netting needle is a wooden tool used to weave fishing nets. It can be crafted by the player character from [M]ake menu "Fishing" category. Netting needle allows weaving the net conveniently with proper knots and tight mesh of uniform size.

- added: repair worn-out nets

The option to "Repair worn-out net" can be found at "Fishing" category in the [M]ake menu. Repairing a net is also pausable task and can be cancelled and continued at will. To continue paused net repair works the same as continuing paused net crafting; if you use the repair option again beside the partially repaired net the crafting will continue.

- added: harvesting pine bark

Pine bark can be harvested from big pine trees all-year round. Pine bark chunks are used used in making of net floats.

- added: "Bark" game encylopedia (F1) entry

- added: ball of birch-bark strip as village resource

Villagers now gather and stock balls of birch-bark strip. These can be then traded for by the player characters if need be. Birch-bark availability in villages is based on the culture, and it naturally gets restocked only when the birch-bark harvesting season is on.

- updated: "Birch-bark" game encylopedia (F1) entry

- added: timbercraft product quantities affected by the used tool, ie. an axe

When making boards, blocks of wood or firewood you'll get fewer products when using an unhandy axe for the said tasks. The effect is most notable when the axe is far from preferred one, eg. making boards with a stone-axe.

- adjusted: blacksmiths titled as masters always produce masterwork goods

There was a small skill range where blacksmiths titled as masters produced fine, but not masterwork goods. This has been adjusted so that now masters always produce masterwork goods.

- fixed: using STEALTH from skills menu prompted nothing

Now it says the skill is automatically used when necessary. That is, when your character gets [h]iding.

- fixed: firemaking failing at fertilized locations

Fire data couldn't be properly set to locations with fertilization data.

- fixed: some diy/biy descriptions corrupting the material requirement text output

Adding descriptive texts eg. '+(needed for this and that)' to some diy/biy entries caused text output corruption in the displayed list of required materials. This was noticed with some cordage at least.

- fixed: math failures when using withes (on the ground) in constructions

There was a rare occasion where using withes on the ground might cause math failures to the number of materials used or required. This was noticed with building a fence gate, but might have occurred elsewhere too.

- fixed: animals leaving droppings far too often after 255 game days

Yep, it was char<>int kind of mistake in the dropping interval calculations.

- fixed: some encumbrance penalty calculations

Excess penalty didn't always capped at 100%, and the weight of worn clothes you could carry without penalty wasn't always calculated correctly.

- fixed: making stone arrowheads not allowing using stones on the ground for grinding

- fixed: wading mode text alignment not centered

- fixed: repeat the last action display for arrow and bowstring was blank



Cheers! ːurw_sageː

In the midst of summer schedule challenges we're hereby releasing version 3.81 first for Windows and follow with Linux and OS X builds in early august.

Version 3.81 for Windows is available as a beta branch you need to opt-into at your Steam Library. This will be explained below.

This version is mostly about craftable and repairable fishing nets, preliminary introduction of pausable crafting and some bugfixes. Find full changelog at the end of this post, and now let's highlight the most exciting addition...

[h2]Craftable and repairable fishing nets[/h2]

Now it's possible to both craft a net from the scratch, and to repair worn-out nets. These are both pausable tasks allowing you to finish them in parts as you please. This will be the start of featuring a possibility to have breaks in long crafting tasks and continue at will later on. After the mechanics have been developed further this will be expanded to cover wider range of crafting.



Weaving a net is laborious task and the mere amount of yarn alone may be demanding to obtain. The other material requirements include thicker cordage for the supporting lines, rocks for weights and birch or pine bark for floats. Traditionally the rock weights were sometimes wrapped inside birch-bark pockets for more durable attachment. This is optionally doable in the game as well.



Making a net is process of several days, and that is why nets were usually woven indoors during the wintertime. For the history and realism sake a good use of written sources along with actually interviewing old net makers were carried out to come up with the many values and mechanics. And still there's a room to add some advanced fishing net care and maintenance features in the future. It might be interesting for some if we opened up our research and field studies later on, but here's just one curiosity:

There's a tool called netting needle which has been essential in netmaking. It's a tool the player characters can craft in the game as well. In our interviews with a certain old net maker one question was: "We're the nets ever made by hand alone, without a netting needle, and is it even viable?"

Ville, a real person in real world - an old fisherman - just kept staring for a really, really long time and said "Everyone had their own netting needle." Other interviewees also confirmed that netting needles were always needed, even when repairing the nets, and during the fishing season people would carry them around just in case. Well, the game mechanics allow netmaking without a netting needle too, but you will only find it impractically slow.

Netting needle.

[h2]How to opt-into 3.81[/h2]

• First, quit the game if you were playing it.
  
• Right-click UnReal World in your Steam Library, and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
  
• Click BETAS and you'll see a dialog where to enter beta access code.
  
• The access code for this release is urwversion381
  Type in the access code and press Check Code button.
  
• Selection to Opt into 3.81 appears. Click it, the update starts, and you've got it!
  

Should you encounter showstopping problems with version 3.81 just go back to BETAS selection and choose None from Select the beta you would like to opt-into drop-down menu.
This returns your game back to the previous version 3.80.


[h2]Changelog[/h2]

Version 3.81 changelog

Version: 3.81

** Saved characters from version 3.70-> are compatible with this version. **

- added: craftable fishing net

It is now possible to make a fishing net by the player character. The option can be found at "Fishing" category in the [M]ake menu.
Weaving a net is laborious task and the mere amount of yarn alone may be demanding to obtain. The other material requirements include thicker cordage for the supporting lines, rocks for weights and birch or pine bark for floats. Traditionally the rock weights were sometimes wrapped inside birch-bark pockets for more durable attachment. This is optionally doable in the game as well.
Making a net is process of several days, and that is why nets were usually woven indoors during the wintertime. In the game making a net is newly featured pausable task allowing you to finish it in parts as you please.

- added: NETMAKING skill

Netmaking is a skill for weaving and constructing fishing nets. Success in netmaking determines the quality of the nets crafted. For migrated characters this skill is created upon the first load in this version.

- added: pausable crafting

In this version we are introducing pausable crafting for a few selected items. This will be the start of featuring a possibility to have breaks in long crafting tasks and continue at will later on. After the mechanics have been developed further this will be expanded to cover wider range of crafting.

Crafts that can be currently paused are:

* Net

* Chop felled tree into blocks

* Split firewood from a block

* Split a trunk into boards

With the pausable timbercraft options you can now also use unhandy and inferior tools eg. stone-axe in board making as there's no upper limit of how much time can be used to get the work done.

Pausable crafting works similarly to pausable building. You can cancel the process at will, and then continue at will. The crafting will be continued when you try to make the said item again standing beside the partially finished item. For example, if you try to [M]ake a fishing net beside a partially crafted net the crafting continues.
Partially crafted items will remain on the ground and can be picked up only after they are finished. They are rendered with a different tint and described as "partially crafted", "half-crafted", "largely crafted" etc. when looking at them.

- added: different tile graphics for a set net

Tile graphics for a set fishing net is now different resembling its float line on top of the water.

- updated: "Net" game encylopedia (F1) entry

- changed: the weight and price of the net item

Both have been increased. The weight because of the rock weights taken into account, and the price because of the true workload.

- added: netting needle, a new item

Netting needle is a wooden tool used to weave fishing nets. It can be crafted by the player character from [M]ake menu "Fishing" category. Netting needle allows weaving the net conveniently with proper knots and tight mesh of uniform size.

- added: repair worn-out nets

The option to "Repair worn-out net" can be found at "Fishing" category in the [M]ake menu. Repairing a net is also pausable task and can be cancelled and continued at will. To continue paused net repair works the same as continuing paused net crafting; if you use the repair option again beside the partially repaired net the crafting will continue.

- added: harvesting pine bark

Pine bark can be harvested from big pine trees all-year round. Pine bark chunks are used used in making of net floats.

- added: "Bark" game encylopedia (F1) entry

- added: ball of birch-bark strip as village resource

Villagers now gather and stock balls of birch-bark strip. These can be then traded for by the player characters if need be. Birch-bark availability in villages is based on the culture, and it naturally gets restocked only when the birch-bark harvesting season is on.

- updated: "Birch-bark" game encylopedia (F1) entry

- added: timbercraft product quantities affected by the used tool, ie. an axe

When making boards, blocks of wood or firewood you'll get fewer products when using an unhandy axe for the said tasks. The effect is most notable when the axe is far from preferred one, eg. making boards with a stone-axe.

- adjusted: blacksmiths titled as masters always produce masterwork goods

There was a small skill range where blacksmiths titled as masters produced fine, but not masterwork goods. This has been adjusted so that now masters always produce masterwork goods.

- fixed: using STEALTH from skills menu prompted nothing

Now it says the skill is automatically used when necessary. That is, when your character gets [h]iding.

- fixed: firemaking failing at fertilized locations

Fire data couldn't be properly set to locations with fertilization data.

- fixed: some diy/biy descriptions corrupting the material requirement text output

Adding descriptive texts eg. '+(needed for this and that)' to some diy/biy entries caused text output corruption in the displayed list of required materials. This was noticed with some cordage at least.

- fixed: math failures when using withes (on the ground) in constructions

There was a rare occasion where using withes on the ground might cause math failures to the number of materials used or required. This was noticed with building a fence gate, but might have occurred elsewhere too.

- fixed: animals leaving droppings far too often after 255 game days

Yep, it was char<>int kind of mistake in the dropping interval calculations.

- fixed: some encumbrance penalty calculations

Excess penalty didn't always capped at 100%, and the weight of worn clothes you could carry without penalty wasn't always calculated correctly.

- fixed: making stone arrowheads not allowing using stones on the ground for grinding

- fixed: wading mode text alignment not centered

- fixed: repeat the last action display for arrow and bowstring was blank



Cheers! ːurw_sageː

Steam Summer Sale 2023 is on ...
...and we warmly welcome new adventurers into the Far North with a decent discount.

Simple as that. You know what to do.

It has already become our tradition also to post a summery set of photos from around the development chambers, so here we go again and into the summer we shall take you...


A quiet village road by the midnight leading past Sami's (UnReal World creator) development chambers. It's midsummer, nightless night and the sun barely sets at all.


Vasta hanging at sauna entry, waiting for the sweaty dev. Vasta is a kind of broom to beat and treat oneself with during sauna bath. Attention new adventurers; you can try that out in the game too.



It's calm on the surface, but despite of the summer there's some new code bubbling under. Stay tuned.


Midnight, midsummer. Attention new adventurers; the seasonal day and night cycle may blow your mind in the game too. The midwinter nights are far away, somewhere in the distant horizon, but you should be prepared.

ːurw_foxː

The current version 3.80 is now few weeks fresh and working smoothly.
And we've been working on a new update for this summer.
So how about just a little update about the little something upcoming?
Very well. And let's do it with a sneak preview screenshots.

So, what is to be highlighted now and to be featured in the next release is ...

[h2]Fishing nets craftable by the player character[/h2]

Player characters will be able to make fishing nets.
Thinking of the mere amount of yarn alone it's not all too simple craft to collect the material for.
You'll also need rocks for the weights, and birch-bark to wrap the weights with and to make floats.
And then there is also a special tool required ...


Netting needle. That's the tool you'll need. It's a wooden tool for weaving the net with proper knots. As a curiosity for history enthusiasts, one of the oldest known fishing nets in the world, the Antrea Net dated to 8540 BCE, was laced with knots that indicate use of netting needle. The same kind of fishing net knots have been used by Baltic Finns in much, much later dates. UnReal World takes place around 800-1200 CE.

Netting needle

Net weight - a decent size rock wrapped in birch-bark.

[h2]Introducing pausable crafting[/h2]

In the next screenshot our character has started weaving the net.
And after 6 hours of work the progress bar hasn't even reached the tenth of the remaining time...


Now what's that about?
Well, that means in the next version we'll be also introducing pausable crafting for making a net - and for few other tasks. This will be the start of featuring a possibility to have a break in long crafting tasks and continue at will later on. After the mechanics have been tested properly it will be expanded to cover wider range of crafting. Which will make quite a difference, you'll see.

So making a net won't be a task of few hours, or even few days, but can easily last for a week or more.
After four or five days of weaving the net our character takes a look at the half-finished work in progress...



Luckily for us all, the upcoming version is already more than half-finished by now.
July 2023 seems like good month for yet another release. ːurw_sageː