WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

[h2]v3.0.1 - PUBLIC BETA[/h2][p]NOTE: Game saves ARE backward compatible with the last released version, so if you switch back to that version, you can continue playing any saves made in this beta. Multiplayer games are also backward-compatible with the last version, so you can play with those who have that version.[/p][p][/p][h2]BETA 4:[/h2][p][/p][h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3][p]* Tweaked tree bending in high winds.[/p][p]* Tweaks to rock colliders in TF gorge.[/p][p]* Optimization: Removed debug line that might cause lag spikes in multiplayer games.[/p][p][/p][h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3][p]* Minor water and terrain issues.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h2]BETA 3:[/h2][p][/p][h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3][p]* In many cases, game stalls on black screen when transitioning from winter to early spring. [/p][p]* Wolves don't make tracks/trenches in deep snow after switching seasons from autumn to winter.[/p][p]* Tower Fall: Snow-covered den in wintertime is some distance from actual den location.[/p][p]* Password Reset input field accepts fewer characters than password field on login panel, which could possibly cause confusion/problems when setting a new password there.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h2]BETA 2:[/h2][p][/p][h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3][p]* Made toy guitar and ice cream cone carryable while swimming. (The ice cream cone is so big, it didn't seem plausible...but I suppose it's made of plastic and hollow inside.)[/p][p]* Improved colliders in the Tower Fall waterfall gorge to prevent teleporting to the clifftops.[/p][p]* Refined area where skulls will spawn to keep them in the playable area.[/p][p]* Remove Early Spring as possible season to unlock Power Washer achievement since waterfall is still frozen.[/p][p]* Changed Young Hunter completion requirement to 36.3 kg to be more accurate.)[/p][p]* Refinements at basalt den to minimize annoying camera issues when close to the den.[/p][p]* Made foxes and other competitors avoid lynx.[/p][h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3][p]* Some rocks turn pink in certain circumstances. (Those were the easy ones, some more puzzling rocks remain to be investigated.)[/p][p]* Tower Fall: One section of Antelope Creek is floating in air.[/p][p]* Errors triggered which can cause problems if a rival wolf pack mysteriously disappears during a fight.[/p][p]* Minor terrain and environment issues.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h2]BETA 1[/h2][p][/p][h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]

• [p]Tower Fall: Many minor environment tweaks, fixes, and refinements.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]

• [p]Tower Fall: World Map is a bit fuzzy until zoomed in. (Mipmaps were enabled on those images.)[/p]
• [p]Tower Fall multiplayer: Client players don't hear sightseeing bus passengers' response to howl.[/p]
• [p]Tower Fall: Three dens have same ID number as three dens in Hellroaring, so show as Discovered if you discovered them in HM while having Good Memory perk.[/p]
• [p]Tower Fall: Learn to Hunt quest text refers to Hellroaring. (Fixed in English, translations to come.)[/p]
• [p]Controller: Can't access Weight Units with controller.[/p]
• [p]Lost River: Amethyst map-moving zone background bar is missing.[/p]
• [p]Hellroaring Mountain: Boulders fields are empty of boulders.[/p]

[p]Tower Fall has arrived! The new DLC game map is now available in the latest game update, v3.0, released today![/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Yes, we have finally released WolfQuest version 3, WolfQuest 3 -- a mere nine years after we announced Tower Fall back in January 2017. Of course, the game is now much bigger than we imagined then, but we've been waiting for Tower Fall to finally go to version 3. [/p][p][/p][p]What's in the new Tower Fall map? First of all, of course, is the waterfall itself, plummeting 40 meters (130 feet). But that's just one corner of the map. The vast majority of the map is properly called the Antelope Creek Watershed, named after the creek that flows down from the slopes of Mount Washburn and through this upland plateau. Most of this is pretty gentle terrain -- nice habitat for a wolf! The other notable geographic feature is the grand canyon of the Yellowstone River along the eastern edge of the map. [/p][p][/p][p]Scattered across this gently sloping plateau are thirty possible densites and plenty of rendezvous sites. And as in all the game maps, there are some interesting objects to collect and bring back for your pups to play with. And there are 15 new achievements. [/p][p][/p][p]There's also a new animal to the game: the secretive lynx. You'll find them only in Tower Fall, perhaps at a carcass, though they are scarcer than any other animal. Or you may find one lounging on a perch that gives them a good view of their surroundings. [/p][p][/p][p]One other thing: the Grand Loop Road runs through the game map. A major road in Yellowstone National Park, it's normally quite busy with tourists. But sometimes in the real world, it has been closed for various reasons such as road construction. Here in WolfQuest World, the road is closed because of the very high level of wolf presence. Too many wolves, too much potential for humans causing trouble for the wolves. So the road is blocked off -- but for those humans who are eager to see this part of Yellowstone, a sightseeing bus drives on this road on most days. If the driver spots wildlife, they'll pause so everyone can get a good view. There's also an occasional park ranger driving through. But don't worry! These drivers love wildlife and they'll take great care to avoid hurting any animals. [/p][p][/p][p]Tower Fall is out now, part of the v3.0 update. It costs $10 US. You can preview the map (run around in a small portion of the map for 10 minutes) before buying it. So get the update and check it out![/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h2]v3.0 UPDATE NOTES[/h2][p][/p][h3]NEW: Tower Fall DLC map. [/h3][p]The hills and valleys south of Tower Fall offer prime habitat for wolves -- and for their prey and competitors. Several kilometers west of Amethyst Mountain, this area, also known as the Antelope Creek Watershed, sprawls below the ancient volcano Mount Washburn. [/p][p][/p][h3]Features: [/h3]

• [p]9x6 kilometer map (15% larger than Amethyst Mountain and Slough Creek maps). [/p]
• [p]All quests and features of the WolfQuest Saga.[/p]
• [p]Yellowstone's Grand Loop Road runs through the game map. The area is closed to visitors, except for daily sightseeing buses, along with the occasional park ranger truck. (But don't worry: the drivers of these vehicles love animals and will never hurt one with their vehicle!)[/p]
• [p]New animal: Lynx! These secretive felines are rarely seen but will challenge wolves over carcasses. [/p]
• [p]All the animals found in the core Yellowstone maps.[/p]
• [p]Fifteen new achievements. [/p]
• [p]Over 40 new dreams featuring Tower Fall animals, collectible objects, and landmarks.[/p]
• [p]Preview the map (limited area for 10 minutes) before purchasing![/p]

[h3][/h3][h3]v3.0 GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]

• [p]Improved IK when wolf is lying down on an uneven object or surface.[/p]
• [p]New "Weight Units" option in Gameplay Settings, with kilograms and pounds. Weight Units are set to kilograms automatically when selecting any non-English language, but user selection will override that.[/p]
• [p]Some updated text translations.[/p]
• [p]Localized the map name in the "Move to ____ map?" dialog.[/p]
• [p]Much better bark texture for Douglas-fir trees.[/p]
• [p]Automatically disable 3D Clouds on 2019-2020 Intel Macs (a recent MacOS update broke the graphics when they're enabled).[/p]
• [p]When attacking grizzlies, eliminated the chance of failing to do any damage before getting kicked off (and increased struggle damage dealt to wolf).[/p]
• [p]Some memory optimizations.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]v3.0 BUGS FIXED:[/h3]

• [p]Persistent Packs: calculations to balance damage can cause 0 health wolves to spawn in some circumstances.[/p]
• [p]Wolves have a small chance of dispersing in February, which will cause them to skip ahead to June when they sleep.[/p]
• [p]Misaligned mesh in Tall Grass object.[/p]
• [p]A few notifications that should be marked as pausing but are not.[/p]
• [p]Game will break if player has a Favorite emote from very long ago (or so it seems, only one known such case, hard to know exactly what happened).[/p]
• [p]"Invert Head Camera Y Axis" and "Invert Zoom Y Axis" are not applied if set in game map scene rather than main menu.[/p]
• [p]Multiplayer: Game stalls on loading screen after transferring hosting to a client, then transferring back to host again.[/p]
• [p]Multiplayer: Client's attempt to rename known wolf fails in certain situations.[/p]
• [p]If player finishes Young Hunters before the pregnancy date in early February, and has a trial mate at that moment, the game displays confusing and contradictory notifications about expecting pups or not. [/p]
• [p]Find Den mission fails in some cases with same-sex breeders.[/p]
• [p]If a carcass is at a particular distance from the homesite, packmates can get stuck in a loop, going to a carcass, then towards home, then carcass again.[/p]
• [p]Dispersed packmates can get stuck while circling food.[/p]
• [p]Wrong header text on pup death notification.[/p]
• [p]Photo Mode header is missing background sprite.[/p]
• [p]If you do Pack Succession as a pregnant wolf during Find Den, the quest should switch to Survive with Family, but it stays in Find Den even though there's no pregnant wolf. [/p]

[p][/p][h3]v3.0 CHANGES:[/h3]

• [p]We are switching to another method of obtaining verified parental consent for players under age 13. (The third-party service that we have been using for ten years is shutting down.) With this new method, players under 13 can register an account and begin earning achievements before their parent/guardian has granted consent for multiplayer and other online features.[/p]

[p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]

[h2]v2.0.5d - RELEASED 2 JANUARY 2026[/h2][p][/p][h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3][p]* Increased chances for four-star diversity wolves.[/p][p][/p][h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3][p]* Pups sometimes freeze for seconds after player interrupts them while they eat.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Yellowstone is a big place. The vast majority of it truly is untrammeled wilderness, which holds its mysteries pretty tightly. One of those mysteries surrounds Canada Lynx. Parts of Yellowstone are excellent habitat for lynx -- but do any lynx live in Yellowstone? [/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Just over twenty years ago, a team of biologists at Yellowstone undertook a study to find out. They identified potential lynx habitats throughout the park, characterized by high-elevation forests and presence of lynx's main prey, snowshoe hares. One such area is part of the upcoming Tower Fall DLC map -- on the slopes of Mount Washburn, south of the Tower Fall waterfall. They visited each area in winter, looking for lynx tracks in the snow, and also placed hair snares on trees, hoping to capture some fur when lynx rubbed against trees to mark them. Unfortunately, they found no sign of lynx in our game map area, but they did find signs in east-central Yellowstone (east of Yellowstone Lake) -- including signs of lynx kittens, indicating at least one breeding pair. (They did not survey the northern range, where the other WolfQuest maps are, because those are not as suitable for lynx and no lynx sign had been spotted there during biologists' field surveys.)

So there's no known lynx in the area of our Tower Fall game map -- but since we don't expect to create a map of east-central Yellowstone, this was our best chance to add lynx to a Yellowstone game map -- so we're taking it! (But lynx will only be in this Yellowstone map, no others.)

Lynx are scarce and solitary, so you'll probably only see them, very occasionally, at a carcass. But because they're so secretive, we have also set up a number of perches where lynx can relax and survey their domain. If you come across a lynx on one of these rocks or other objects, you can look but you can't touch (and they'll keep an eye on you but can't hurt you either). Finding a lynx on a perch warrants an achievement, so we created one -- and what else could we call it but "Cat Post."

Lynx and all the other elements of the Tower Fall DLC map are shaping up well. We expect to release the map pretty soon!

Research Study:
The Elusive Canada Lynx: Surveying for Yellowstone’s Most Secretive Threatened Carnivore
by Kerry Murphy, Tiffany Potter, James Halfpenny, Kerry Gunther, Tildon Jones, and Peter Lundberg
https://npshistory.com/publications/yell/newsletters/yellowstone-science/13-2.pdf[/p][p]

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[p]NOTE: Both game saves and multiplayer games are backward-compatible with the last patch, v2.0.5c, so you can switch back and forth between that patch and this beta without a problem.[/p][h3][/h3][h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3][p]* Increased chances for four-star diversity wolves.[/p][p][/p][h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3][p]* Pups sometimes freeze for seconds after player interrupts them while they eat.[/p][p][/p]