WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

[h2]2.0.4b - PUBLIC BETA[/h2][p][/p][p]NOTE: Game saves are NOT backward compatible with v2.0.4a, so if you switch back to that versions, new saves will be hidden until this patch is officially released. Multiplayer games ARE backward-compatible with that last patch, so you can play with those who are not in this beta.[/p][p]See instructions at bottom of this page for opting into the public beta.[/p][p] [/p][h3]BETA 8[/h3][p] [/p][h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3][p]* Improved FPS readout font display.[/p][p][/p][h3]BUGS FIXED: [/h3][p]* Sometimes packmates eat right next to a competitor at a carcass.[/p][p]* Gameplay Settings: HUD pulldown doesn't include Minimal HUD option. [/p][p]* Multiplayer: Cant see other player's wolf bios.[/p][p]* Multiplayer: Text chat panel doesn't scroll.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]BETA 7[/h3][p][/p][h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3][p]* Tall grass patches, and some boulders, missing from Hellroaring Mountain during summer season.[/p][p]* Multiplayer: Error interferes with voting during the Name Pups scene.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][p][/p][h3]BETA 6[/h3][p][/p][h3]NEW:[/h3][p]* New object of interest at Eduweb tent in Slough Creek.[/p][p][/p][h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3][p]* Refactored wolf eating AI, to improve code quality and refine some eating behaviors. Packmates should now be smarter about eating carcasses when bison and other dangerous prey or competitors are nearby.[/p][p]* Refactored wolf hunting AI, to improve code quality and revise some hunting behaviors. When attacking mother-calf pairs, packmates will ignore mother until she is within 15 meters. When hunting elk herds, packmates will be less eager to start biting elk before herd begins to flee. [/p][p]* Refactored IK to improve code quality.[/p][p]* Revised layout of Gameplay Settings panel to be more logical.[/p][p]* New keyboard layout image in Game Settings: Controls (in preparation for localized keyboard layouts once we add other languages).[/p][p][/p][h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3][p]* Occasionally a pup survives an instant-kill predator attack with 1% of health remaining.[/p][p]* Douglas-fir tree branch texture visual glitch.[/p][p]* In Lost River-Classic, Halloween coffins are missing the box mesh. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]TO GET THE BETA BUILD[/h3][p]1) In the Steam app, go to your Library, then right-click on the WolfQuest: AE name in the left column and choose Properties. 2) Then go to the Betas tab and select the WQ current Beta option in the pulldown. No password is necessary. Steam should then start downloading it. Later you can switch back to the public version in that Betas tab, by selecting NONE in that pulldown.[/p][p] [/p]

[h2]2.0.4a - RELEASED 21 OCTOBER 2025[/h2][p][/p][h3]BUGS FIXED: [/h3][p]* Beige coat (revised a few months ago) does not have supracaudal gland marking on tail.
* Lost River DLC Map: Halloween coffins are missing their mesh, and Halloween cats float during winter season.
* Unity (game engine) bug that could allow another application installed on the user's computer to execute malicious code in the game (though there are no known cases of this in any Unity game, and WolfQuest does not use the particular code that would make this intrusion more feasible.)[/p]

[h2]2.0.4a - PUBLIC BETA[/h2][p][/p][p]NOTE: Game saves ARE backward compatible with v2.0.4, so you can switch back to that version and continue playing. Multiplayer games are also backward-compatible with that last patch, so you can play with those who are not in this beta.[/p][p][/p][h2]BETA 1[/h2][p][/p][h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3][p]* Beige coat (revised a few months ago) does not have supracaudal gland marking on tail.[/p][p]* Lost River DLC Map: Halloween coffins are missing their mesh, and Halloween cats float during winter season.[/p][p]* Unity (game engine) bug that could allow another application installed on the user's computer to execute malicious code in the game (though there are no known cases of this in any Unity game, and WolfQuest does not use the particular code that would make this intrusion more feasible.)[/p]

[p]Fire and ice forged the terrain around Tower Fall in Yellowstone National Park. Today's devblog takes a look at that geologic history -- and how we're recreating that environment for the upcoming Tower Fall DLC map.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]This area, which lies just north of the Yellowstone caldera, features an ancient volcano called Mount Washburn, which erupted around 640,000 years ago, spewing lava and ash. Some of the lava cooled quickly and formed blocky rocks called breccia. The upper slopes of the mountain are blanketed with dark, angular rocks. Creating this kind of landscape in the game has been difficult, since terrain textures can't render such sharp bumps without special techniques that have a major performance impact. But by using a Blanket shader (the same one that we're using for large grass patches), we can "wrap" rock meshes to the terrain, giving us good, realistic coverage which looks so much better than the plain terrain.[/p][p][/p][p]Many of these breccia rocks came to rest on the upper surfaces of the mountain, but others got caught in mudflows, which carried them farther downhill before cooling. As they cooled, those flows formed conglomerate rocks. These conglomerates along with the breccia form the slopes of Mount Washburn today. [/p][p][/p][p]During that eruption, Washburn also spewed out clouds of volcanic ash, which drifted away before settling onto the ground -- but the ash particles were still so hot, over 600 degrees celcius, that they welded together. This rock is now called welded ash or tuff, and that forms much of the northern areas of the game map. It's a hard rock indeed, but it has eroded in some places, such as the famous Devil's Den, just above the Tower Fall waterfall, where the creek has carved a crazy maze of spires and pinnacles. [/p][p][/p][p]Millions of years after these eruptions, the glaciers moved in, scouring the landscape and then as they receded, leaving behind a layer of glacial till. They also deposited many boulders (glacial erratics) and carved out a few glacial ponds. This left much of the game map a gentle landscape, with rolling hills and ravines in the Antelope Creek watershed, where the glaciers scoured the land and filled it in with gravel. [/p][p][/p][p]All this makes the Tower Fall map quite different from the granite landscapes of Slough Creek and Hellroaring. It's much more similar to Amethyst, with chunky, bumpy conglomerate rock formations and broad valleys and plateaus that are layered with glacial till. The only major topographical feature, besides Mount Washburn itself, is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, on the eastern edge of the map. The river has cut a deep canyon through various layers of conglomerate and glacial till -- but since it's mainly in this corner of the map, so you can just avoid that area if you want.[/p][p][/p][p]We have plenty more work to do on Tower Fall, including dens, so stay tuned for updates![/p]

[h2]2.0.4 - RELEASED 23 SEPTEMBER 2025[/h2][h3]
NEW: Bison Herds[/h3][p]* Six somewhat large herds of bison are found on each map.
* Most herds have one or two emaciated adult bison, who are much weaker than healthy adults and are recognizable by their protruding ribs.
* To hunt bison: try to disrupt the herd to isolate calves or emaciated adults from the protection of others. Best done with large packs of eight or more wolves.

NEW: Unforgiving Difficulty Level. This is similar to Accurate, but:
* Damage dealt to every NPC (except pups) by every NPC (including pups) is increased.
* Modestly increases damage dealt to player's pups from competitors and prey.
* Slows NPC wolf health regeneration.
* Increases player's pups' food requirements.
* Increases chance of sickness among players' pups -- but also increases chances of recovery.
* Increases difficulty of chasing off eagle during pup raids.
* Increases initial competitors' Fight meters a bit, and decreases their Flight meter.
* Pup raid and hex invasion frequencies are same as in Accurate.
* Note: Ironwolf players can switch between Accurate and Unforgiving difficulty levels at any time.
* Note: All the Accurate achievements are also unlockable on Unforgiving.[/p][p][/p][h3]ALSO NEW:[/h3][p]* New Gameplay Option in Game Settings: Critical Hits for Adult NPC Wolves. When enabled, all NPC wolves (packmates, rivals, dispersals) have a very small chance of receiving severe (potentially fatal) damage from prey or competitors during hunts and fights. Enable this if you don't like how your packmates are invulnerable once they survive their first year.
* New Packmate Health onscreen display: A column of pawprint icons showing the health of your packmates. Press Ctrl-N to toggle it on/off. (Remappable in Game Settings: Controls)
* Wake-Up Raids option in Gameplay Settings: This allows rival wolves and other competitors to begin a raid while your wolf is sleeping, forcing you to wake up and respond. (Raiders will not wake you up if your health is below 45%.)[/p][p][/p][h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3][p]* Some measures to prevent rival pack names from being reused.
* Refinements to packmate positioning when gathering in a circle around the player.
* Full Saga Multiplayer: Automatically update family snapshot when a client player renames a packmate.
* Restored "You're Pregnant" notification after fixing bug which can break the game in rare circumstances in multiplayer games.
* Added a smooth camera movement to return to default position when getting kicked off prey. (Was an abrupt snap before.)
* Add a multi-day cooldown for rivals moving to different maps before being allowed to reemerge.
* Adjustments to frequency of several coats.
* Multiplayer: Reduced territory decay during homesite quests a bit.
* Set odds for recently-added coats to normal (had been a bit higher since they were added).
* Prevent packmate from getting stuck on loop, dropping food for injured mate, then immediately picking it up.[/p][p][/p][h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3][p]* Multiplayer: Client player (but only client player) can get the achievement "Me Time" during roaming quests.
* Multiplayer: Packmate can disappear or not act fully as a packmate.
* Multiplayer: Pack Rally state not saved for clients.
* Age seven is a death sentence for many rival wolves.
* After joining a rival pack, some pups in that pack have weight of zero pounds.
* NPC wolves cannot eat carcass on a bridge.
* Survival of the Pack achievement can be unlocked after joining a rival pack midway through the year.
* Bull elk will bugle at each other but will not fight.
* If trying to court a wolf after being rejected, the trial fails instantly because Affinity is at zero. (Now will be set to 25%.)
* Wolves sometimes do Ferris Wheel rotation when in Photo Mode.
* Game can stall out in certain cases when moving maps.
* Amethyst Mountain Early Spring: Missing textures on one plant object.
* Notification when Eagle Raid ends does not appear.
* It's possible to cancel an Unknown Fate by triggering a home site move.
* Unknown Fate sometimes doesn't get triggered during Young Hunters when it should.
* Wolf Customization: Genetic Coat Color help button was not clickable in some situations.

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See all patch notes at https://support.wolfquest.org
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