WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

In this beta, game saves ARE backward compatible with the last released patch, v1.1.1d. Multiplayer games are also backward-compatible, so you can play with those are on that public release.

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

(Oops, I somehow skipped over v1.1.1e....oh well)

[h3]NOTES:[/h3]
* In multiplayer games, a pup can get stuck doing playbow repeatedly. We've added some debug code for this, so please submit a report if you see it happen in this beta.
* The "Home is Where the Heart Is" achievement will not work in certain circumstances: If the pup was born at one of three tree dens in Slough Creek, and it reached Endless Summer before the v1.1.1 update was released. Sorry about that! Not something we can fix -- it broke due to some den-ID changes we had to make to fix another bug.)


[h2]BETA 3[/h2]

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Known Wolves panel: In certain cases, wolf nickname can't be edited.
* Some old game saves can fail to load (regression in beta 1)
* Multiplayer: One player can select and edit wolf bio text for another player (but changes aren't saved)
* Camera FOV (field of view) switches to normal when game is paused, regardless of current FOV.
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[h2]BETA 2[/h2]

[h3]NEW:[/h3]
* Account panel: New Sync Now button to manually sync files with cloud.
* Known Wolves: Keyboard shortcut added, press K key to open this panel directly.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Fix: Known Wolves panel, when a pack has only one known member and that one is dead, it gets hidden if you toggle Dead Wolves off and on.
* White capsule floating above an Amethyst den.
* Some pronghorn carcasses appear to inflate some while being consumed.
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[h2]BETA 1[/h2]

[h3]NEW:[/h3]
* In Game Settings: Audio, new toggle for Eating Noises (actually added in v1.1.1 in December).
* Improved blocking functionality: On the Account: Friends panel, you can now search for a username and then either send them a friend request, or block them (so you can block someone without getting a friend request from them first). And in multiplayer games, the wolf Info tab has now Block button.
* When set in the main menu, Mate Permadeath and Difficulty settings are remembered when starting games in the future.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Multiplayer achievements that require raising pups to summertime fail to unlock when they should. (If you have an Endless Summer save from such a game where you should have earned one of those achievements, load it and it'll be unlocked.)
* Known Wolves panel: After your mate dies, under Departed Wolves they are listed as traveling to another map with another mate. (This fix is not retroactive.)
* Known Wolves panel: Sometimes dispersals switch to another origin pack if you reject them after courtship.
* Known Wolves panel: When toggling Dead Wolves option, the rows of just-disbanded pack will overlap those for an active pack.
* Rejected trial mate just can't accept that you're not that into them.
* Occasionally the text for the mate bio in Pack Info isn't displayed, because the panel is scrolled out of view.
* Player's previous home hex remains after pack takes over a disbanded pack's home hex, resulting in two homes for the player pack.
* Occasionally the mate gets stuck going in circles, unable to decide between socializing with pups who are near some food, and moving away from that food.
* When away from the den, woofing at mate to go home also tells pups to go into the den.
* When loading a very old saves, player-wolf with dead mate and living pups is given Dispersal role instead of Courtable Breeder role.
* Pup keeps "circling" predators even after the predator moves away.
* Issues with Add/Remove Favorite emote button on some display resolutions.
* Courtship stalls out in certain circumstances.
* Multiplayer: If client player-wolf only has birth name-number, no nickname, it stalls when joining a game.
* Multiplayer: Wolf nametag is not displayed for dead wolves waiting to revive.* When loading a very old save, player-wolf with dead mate and living pups is given Dispersal role instead of Courtable Breeder role.
* Mate does not close eyes when howling.
* Sometimes beaver swims through air above water surface.
* Slough Creek: Small ranger cabin has pink floor inside.
* A few den pathfinding issues.
* 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.

We've found a bug with certain multiplayer achievements -- all those where you must raise the pups through the summer (so Survival of the Pack, Living the Life, Power Pack). You don't get the achievement after reaching Endless Summer. Very sorry about that! It'll be fixed in the next patch, in early January. But once that patch is out, you can load a save from Endless Summer and unlock the achievement.

[h2]v1.1.1d - Released 22 December 2023[/h2]

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* When game launches, briefly there's no grass in main menu.
* Rival pack home hexes decay extremely slowly after pack disbands.
* If player takes over the homesite hex of a disbanded rival pack, that hex is re-assigned to the rival pack when the game is saved and reloaded.

While Raul, Andrei, Mikko, and I were getting the persistent pack feature ready to release, Tommi kept his focus on some other interesting aspects of the Saga. For the past month he's been working on social interactions within the player's pack. Today's devblog looks at a few of these features.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

First: If you're out on an excursion and some yearlings or other packmates stayed back at the homesite to look after the pups, your packmates will now greet you upon your return, running up to you and wagging their tails enthusiastically. It's very sweet.

A bigger rework involves social interactions in daily life. With so many wolves in the pack now, we needed more complex and interesting dynamics amongst them. So Tommi reworked the communication and interactions system, using dominance/submissive behavior logic to control how a wolf will respond to a packmate's emote. Whenever one wolf emotes to another, the latter wolf considers several things before responding:

1) What signal(s) it's responding to. The same signal can have many alternative responses -- most obviously the Aggression signal can lead to the "Aggression" branch or the "Conflict Dissipation" branch.

2) Whether the wolf is feeling dominant or submissive towards the wolf they're responding to. This is primarily based on pack role (breeder, subordinate adult, yearling, pup), using personality as a tie breaker. A submissive wolf is more likely to pick the "Conflict Dissipation" option above, but lower "ranked" wolves do sometimes ignore their rank and get "uppity".

3) Whether the wolf is fond of the wolf they're responding to. Fondness tends to lead to more favorable / forgiving responses. The Fondness system (originally created for multiplayer only) now acts in single-player as well. Wolves with high fondness for each other are "best friends" and will prefer to go on excursions together.

Because most emotes send multiple signals and most signals have multiple responses, this new system creates varied and unpredictable interactions that you can you can interpret and use in interesting ways in your game-playing and role-playing.

We've made lots of other progress with the Saga that we will be sharing in the new year. The Saga is still deep in development...but we're gonna get there! Stay tuned for updates.

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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 consider porting the game to other platforms.

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

BETA 1

IMPROVEMENTS:
* When game launches, briefly there's no grass in main menu.

BUGS FIXED:
* Rival pack home hexes decay extremely slowly after pack disbands.
* If player takes over the homesite hex of a disbanded rival pack, that hex is re-assigned to the rival pack when the game is saved and reloaded.
______________________

[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.