WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

The upcoming WolfQuest Saga* has some big new features -- pups growing up, learning to hunt, and eventually dispersing -- but we're adding some smaller things as well. Let's look at a few of them in today's devblog:

1. Marking and urination: The leaders of a wolf pack are responsible for marking the pack's territory to maintain it. We've had the classic Raised-Leg Urination stance in the game since the very beginning, but female wolves often do a variation called Flex-Leg Urination, and we've now added that for female pack leaders. And now that you've got older pups and packmates, they do a basic squat stance when urinating. Dispersals, surprisingly, probably do Raised- or Flex-Leg stances, to alert the local pack to their presence.
   
   
2. From Rick McIntyre's amazing books about Yellowstone wolves, we learned that young pups are quite wary of water. We've implemented this in the Saga, so if you need to cross a creek when moving dens or rendezvous sites, your pups will regard it warily as they build up the nerve to venture into the water.
   
   
3. When we added wolf injuries a couple years ago, it was possible to injure NPC wolves in fights, but those injuries did not persist -- and then a code revision later removed this entirely. We've now fully implemented NPC wolf injuries, so you can do your best to give those rival wolves a bad leg!
   
   
4. Of course, along with all the new features come the inevitable bugs. We've got a good one in this video, so enjoy!
   

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

* The upcoming WolfQuest Saga is "the rest of the game." Your pups will continue to grow into the fall and beyond, learning to hunt under your supervision, and then becoming yearlings when next year's pups are born. Time will continue progressing through the years until you die. The Saga is currently in development but we do not have a release date for it.
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The WolfQuest saga will continue! Stay tuned for more news in upcoming devblogs about it and other new features!

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

v1.1.2f - Released 29 May 2024

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Multiplayer: Some wolves having no origin pack name in Known Wolves panel.
* Multiplayer: Some wolves disappear from Known Wolves panel,
* In some situations, excessive number of NPC wolves spawned in rival packs.
* At at least one Rendezvous Site, pups refuse to go into tall grass.
* Pup pathfinding issues at a few dens.
* Small Dot coat: White around the eyes.
* Hellroaring DLC: A few scent posts are beyond map borders.
* Minor issues at a few dens.
* Lost River DLC: Increased translucency of some windows.
* Minor terrain issues.

v1.1.2f - Public Beta

NOTE: Game saves ARE backward compatible with the last released patch, v1.1.2e. Multiplayer games are also backward-compatible either, so you can play with those who have that last-released patch.

See bottom of this page for instructions on opting into the beta.

[h2]BETA 2[/h2]

BUG FIXED:
* Errors from new mask texture with incorrect settings.
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[h2]BETA 1[/h2]

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Multiplayer: Some wolves having no origin pack name in Known Wolves panel.
* Multiplayer: Some wolves disappear from Known Wolves panel,
* In some situations, excessive number of NPC wolves spawned in rival packs.
* At at least one Rendezvous Site, pups refuse to go into tall grass.
* Pup pathfinding issues at a few dens.
* Small Dot coat: White around the eyes.
* Hellroaring DLC: A few scent posts are beyond map borders.
* Minor issues at a few dens.
* Lost River DLC: Increased translucency of some windows.
* Minor terrain issues.

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[h3]TO GET THE BETA BUILD[/h3]
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.

The most dangerous time in the life of a wolf pup begins just after the current WolfQuest game ends -- it's called "The Period of Rapid Growth," when pup food intake nearly doubles and they grow by more than 50% in a six-week period. Unfortunately for pups (and their parents), this rapid growth occurs just when prey animals are at peak health, after grazing on nutritious summer grasses for months now. The WolfQuest Saga* will depict this period in a new quest, which we're calling "Growing Pups" (because you are 'growing them' and they are also 'growing up' and will soon become young hunters).

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

In many parts of the world, such as northern Minnesota, this combination of hunger and healthy prey is a major cause of pup mortality. The situation is not as dire in Yellowstone, due to the abundance of prey in the Northern Range, but it's still a dangerous time for pups -- pups can starve to death and, even if they don't, they can die from disease that they contract in their weakened condition.

So in this new Growing Pups quest, you'll be hard-pressed to keep your pups well-fed, but we are adding two mitigating factors:
1) Because ungulates are at peak health, the meat chunks that you can pull out of carcasses are also more nutritious, with almost twice the food value as usual.
2) Pups are now big enough to tackle somewhat larger rodents -- Uinta ground squirrels -- along with voles and toads. These make perfect practice prey for your pups while providing a small snack.

That still isn't going to be enough to keep a big litter of pups alive. Some pups are going to die (and it's not your fault!). This is a big reason why wolves have larger litters -- because not everybody is going to make through the first year of life.

We know that some players accept this as a fact of life for wolves. But some players really do not want their pups to die, especially from something like sickness that is, at least partly, out of their control. To accommodate the latter group, the game currently prevents pups from dying of sickness when on Easy difficulty level. However, in the Saga, it's simply not feasible to have a full litter of pups survive. It's neither realistic nor accurate, and it also doesn't work in our game world. It gets too crowded, especially after a few years, to have a pack of 15 or 20 animals in a pack. it would make it impossible to balance the gameplay and could cause performance issues , as well. So it's necessary to limit your pack size by having some pups die along the way, just as they do in the real world.

So: In the Saga, pups WILL be vulnerable and can die from sickness on all difficulty levels, including Easy. But for those players who cannot stand that, we're adding a new option in Game Settings: Pups Die Of Sickness. It is enabled by default, but you can disable it to prevent death from sickness. However, to preserve game balance and prevent performance issues, if you disable it, then you'll have smaller litters. (We're still testing and tuning to determine that maximum size.) You can change this setting anytime, but changes only affect the next litter of pups, not your current litter, of course. We hope that this provides a reasonable option for players who can't stand their pups dying from sickness, while preserving the longer-term arc of the life of a wolf pack.

This quest, like the other new quests in the Saga, is still a work in progress, but it's exciting to see them coming together. Stay tuned for more updates!

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* The upcoming WolfQuest Saga is "the rest of the game." Your pups will continue to grow into the fall and beyond, learning to hunt under your supervision, and then becoming yearlings when next year's pups are born. Time will continue progressing through the years until you die. The Saga is currently in development but we do not have a release date for it.

___________________

The WolfQuest saga will continue! Stay tuned for more news in upcoming devblogs about it and other new features!

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

v1.1.2e - Released 7 May 2024

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS[/h3]
* Adjusted a few newborn pup positions in the den to be more visible.
* In Hellroaring Mountain, moved several scent posts inside map border.

[h3]HELLROARING MOUNTAIN BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Power Pack achievement cannot be unlocked on this map.
* One dirt den (under log) is invisible in June.
* Player-wolf gets stuck when trying to dig out one dirt den, when approaching from a certain angle.
* Pup pathfinding issues at a few dens.
* Bad alignment when pup holds the chewed radio collar.
* Player-wolf can get stuck under Lower Cottonwood Falls if jumping off from waterfall ledge.
* Grass grows in one area of Yellowstone River.
* Mate tries to climb onto Bear box.
* Minor terrain issues.

[h3]GENERAL BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Multiplayer: Sometimes way too many rival wolves spawn.
* Courtable wolves beyond the map border will move toward player when interested in courtship.
* Lost River (Classic) is missing the surrounding landscape beyond the game map.
* In Slough Creek, one den does not have scent glow in winter.
* In Slough Creek, one Straw Hat collectible is beyond the map border.