WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

NOTE: Game saves and wolves are compatible with the last patch, v1.0.8r, as is multiplayer -- you can do multiplayer games with players who do not have this beta.

BETA 2[h2]
[/h2]
[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Notifications about pup lost and leaving home while pups out now appear in corner of screen.
* Journey to Rendezvous Site music now can play when moving to a new site.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Hole in terrain near a den, can cause various glitches in certain circumstances.
* Camera won't tilt down in some locations.
* Mule deer doe freezes if it tries to fight when it has no stamina.
* Lamar river flickers when viewed from Amethyst cliffs.
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BETA 1[h2]
[/h2]
[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Reduced how fast snow accumulates on terrain.
* Reduced scene brightness in scent view at night, when on Basic Sky & Veg mode.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Pups run off and get lost frequently when journeying to new den.
* In multiplayer games, Host Transfer does not include non-friends of new host when a friends-only game is transferred. (It now adds all current players to the "allowed" list for that game.)
* In Account popup, Explore tab breaks on a second access.
* Animals hover above the ground on some Amethyst cliff rocks.
* Occasional brief white flash when Distance Blur is enabled. (Mostly fixed, but still a very occasional visual artifact, nowhere as bright as before.)
* Wrong action glyphs on some notification text.
* In Account popup, Explore tab breaks on a second access
* Fixes to some obscure bugs in main menu, when filtering wolves.
* Small gaps in deep snow in a few places.
_____________________________

TO GET THE BETA BUILD
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.

Howls & Growls: An Audio Outing

Yesterday Susan and I traveled to the Wildlife Science Center in Stacy, Minnesota to try to capture a variety of vocalizations by wolves and other animals. While we have quite a good number of these sound effects in the game, they still get repetitive, so more is always better. Our host was Megan Callahan-Beckel, Animal Care Coordinator, who took us around the facility and used various methods to prompt the animals to howl, growl, snarl, whimper, and whine.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Field recording is always a challenge but fortunately, with Megan's help, along with other WSC staff like Animal Care Specialist Elizabeth Oechsle (who played WolfQuest when she was young!), we captured a nice variety of usable audio clips. And just being there, surrounded by over 100 wolves along with so many other animals, was an incredible experience. Today's devblog takes you along on this day trip.
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The WolfQuest saga will continue! Stay tuned for more news in upcoming devblogs about it and other new features!

Once the game is completed on PC/Mac, we will turn our attention to other platforms.

We do not announce specific release dates. We will release them when they are ready.

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Minor adjustments to NPC and pup coat odds (reduced odds of Life is Rough coats, reduced odds of Buffy NPC coat and increased odds for several lighter NPC coats).
* Adjustments to time passage in Slough Creek multiplayer accelerated mode so newborn ungulates are born at roughly the same time as in the past.
* Reduced the color saturation of game visuals when Ambient Occlusion is disabled.
* When using controller, D-Pad now navigates down through the Family Tree pulldown list of snapshots.
* Increased the volume of elk gallop and trot sound effects.
* Increased odds of snowfall somewhat.
* Minor refinements to animal tracks in deep snow.
* Naptime for Pups music track now plays when pups are sleeping at the rendezvous site (as well as when sleeping at the den).

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Degraded performance, mainly noticeable on low-end computers.
* In certain situations, multiplayer games which have been closed will still appear in the lobby.
* Gaps in the deep snow surface in a few locations.
* Some hunting tutorial tips can disappear almost immediately.
* In multiplayer, when health is exactly at 40%, the "can't do Quick Heal" notification does not get displayed properly.
* Minor memory leak from animal tracks functionality.
* Cannot rename or edit wolf after certain rare sequence of events in wolf customizer.
* If player disables anti-aliasing in game graphics settings, distant water bodies will then rise above ground when player-wolf sprints.
* Issues with rapid clicking on the Continue button in Age Perks.
* Removed a few unnecessarily blocked words from the badword filter.
* Multiplayer: If timing is just right (or rather, just wrong), player joining during the newborn pups scene can cause game to stall.
* Multiplayer: In rare situations, host transfer fails to be initiated properly for some players.
* Changed moose meat chunk scent color to match living moose scents better.
* On main menu, file sync popup window can occasionally conflict when trying to log into account.
* Minor terrain and vegetation issues.

The next patch is now available on Steam in public beta for Windows and MacOS! Instructions for opting into public beta at bottom of this post.

NOTE: Game saves and wolves are compatible with the last patch, v1.0.8q, as is multiplayer -- you can do multiplayer games with people who do not have this beta.

_____________________________________

[h2]BETA 4[/h2]
[h3]
IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]:
* Naptime for Pups music track now plays when pups are sleeping at the rendezvous site (as well as when sleeping at the den).

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Some hunting tutorial tips can disappear almost immediately.
* In multiplayer, when health is exactly at 40%, the "can't do Quick Heal" notification does not get displayed properly.

_____________________________________

[h2]BETA 3[/h2]
[h3]
IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]:
* Another adjustment to time passage in Slough Creek multiplayer accelerated mode so newborn ungulates are born at about the same time as in the past.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* A few more gaps in deep snow in Amethyst.
* Minor memory leak from animal tracks functionality
* Cannot rename or edit wolf after certain rare sequence of events in wolf customizer.
* After player disabled anti-aliasing in game graphics settings, distant water bodies will rise above ground when player-wolf sprints.
* Issues with rapid clicking on the Continue button in Age Perks.
* One type of boulder in Slough Creek always has snow on it.
* Removed a few unnecessarily blocked words from the badword filter.
_____________________________________

[h2]BETA 2[/h2]
[h3]
IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]:
* Minor adjustments to NPC and pup coat odds (reduced odds of Life is Rough coats, increased odds of some NPC-only coats).

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Multiplayer: If timing is just right (or rather, just wrong), player joining during the newborn pups scene can cause game to stall.
* Multiplayer: In rare situations, host transfer fails to be initiated properly for some players.
* Changed moose meat chunk scent color to match living moose scents better.
* A few gaps in deep snow in Amethyst.
* On main menu, file sync panel can occasionally conflict when trying to log into account.
* Minor terrain and vegetation issues.
_____________________________________

[h2]BETA 1[/h2]
[h3]
IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]:
* When using controller, D-Pad now navigates down through the FamilY Tree pulldown list of snapshots.
* Increased the volume of elk gallop sound effect.
* Increased odds of snowfall somewhat.
* Adjusted the timing of the newborn ungulate subqeust in multiplayer accelerated time mode, so that should appear a day sooner.
* Minor refinements to animal tracks in deep snow.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Degraded performance, mainly noticeable on low-end computers.
* In certain situations, multiplayer games which are closed will still appear in the lobby.
* Some spots with gaps in the deep snow surface.

_____________________________

[h2]TO GET THE BETA BUILD[/h2]
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.

[h2]v1.0.8q - Released on 4 November 2022[/h2]

BUG FIXED: In multiplayer games, Host Transfer usually is blocked due to erroneous error.

[h3]NOTES:[/h3]
* When Distance Blur is enabled, there is a very occasional white flash for several seconds at night. We are still investigating this and hope to have a fix in the next patch.
* Animal tracks in snow are low-resolution in certain places, mainly the flat areas of the Lamar Valley. This stems from an underlying Unity issue/optimization to terrain resolution that we can't modify, but we will continue to try to refine it.

No need to submit bug reports about either of these issues.
[h2]
v1.0.8p - Released on 4 November 2022[/h2]

[h3]NEW: [/h3]
* In winter season, snow depth increases when it snows, and animals make snow tracks. Snow depth gradually reduces after snowfall ends. (Only occurs on Medium and High Terrain Quality settings.)
* New "Stupendous" graphics quality setting, for recent GPUs such as Nvidia 3000 series.
* New: Distance Blur visual effect, enabled by default on Glorious and Stupendous graphics quality levels, blurs the distant landscape.

[h3]NEW in Multiplayer:[/h3]
* Host Transfer allows host to hand off the game to another player, who then becomes the host. On Pack Info, the host can click the "Transfer Hosting" button and choose a client player to transfer the game to. If that player accepts the transfer, the game will then reload for all players, with the new host in charge.
* MP Chat system refactored to improve code quality and to provide a better foundation for adding features.
* MP Chat Commands (out of character, nearby, whisper to another player).
* MP Chat Emotes: Trigger emotes via the chat panel by typing /whine to whine, /howl to howl, etc. (The complete list is available via the gear button on the chat panel.)
* MP Chat: New toggle to show/hide usernames in chat panel.

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* A few days after Find a Mate quest begins, the players dreams when sleeping and the game jumps to December/Winter season, to give players more time and things to do in winter.
* More notifications changed to "Common" type (which can be hidden), and which now appear in lower-right corner when enabled.
* When creating a private multiplayer game, new button to sort friend names alphabetically.
* Reorganized some elements on Graphics Quality UI panel.
* Improvements on View Pack panel: improved display of messages, improved button actions, better UI feedback on removing members, code improvements.
* Improvements when joining multiplayer games, will hopefully reduce the failure to join issue.
* Switched to new aspen tree models.
* Increased moose swimming speed.
* Mate now stalks when player stalks.
* Increased timer so wolf standing idle waits longer before sitting.
* Added alternate ear-scratch when wolf is sitting.
* Improved mate and NPC navigation when crossing creeks.
* Modest reduction in ambient occlusion at nighttime.
* Various terrain, tree, and environment improvements.
* In Autumn, leaves fall from deciduous trees.
* Flashlight beam casts shadows (depending on your graphics quality settings).
* Clouds move across the sky when windy.
* Reduced scene brightness in scent view during winter season, when on Enhanced Sky & Veg mode.
* Better color grading when AO is disabled and on Basic Sky & Veg mode (especially noticeable in winter).
* Removed the old snowprint texture from all animals (never looked that good, now conflicts with new tracks).
* Added "Unlock Cursor" to remapper.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Running sound effect sometimes keeps playing after animal dies.
* Rival wolves have wrong airborne scent icon when in the vicinity.
* Sometimes Pack Info says pup is in den when it isn't.
* Bison tail is white when seen at a distance.
* Snow pattern is odd on grizzly cub in autumn.
* In Lost River-Classic, den raid icon appears occasionally.
* Issues with controller navigation on World Map.
* In main menu, it's not always clear and sunny when in wolf customization.
* Errors sometimes when removing multiple players from a Pack.
* NPC wolves occasionally have an ugly injured tail tip.
* Occasional problems when sending an in-game message during gameplay.
* Endless loop of repeating notification popup when plugging in a controller for the first time at certain times in gameplay.
* Some branches of Cottonwood trees near Lamar River turn blue when covered in snow.
[h3]
MULTIPLAYER BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Game locks up if player joins while pack is just going to sleep (conflicting UI panels).
* Wolf takes fall damage if in the middle of a jump when suddenly teleported to a lower location.
* Some rare glitches with delayed notifications.
* Rounding differences can create different hex strengths for host and clients.
* Problems ensue if client player is kicked out of game during pup naming scene.
* In MP lobby, season selection does not refresh if you choose SC and then choose AM.
* Some other rare SC MP bugs.


See all patch notes at: https://support.wolfquest.org (search for “patch")