WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

The new AI system, which Tommi has been working on for quite awhile, is in in good shape now, so let's take a look at it.

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First, to clarify: This isn't new AI for the animals -- it's a new version of our AI system, which Tommi first designed and built almost six years ago. It has served us well -- but after using it for all that time, Tommi decided that we needed a new, improved version to handle the kinds of wolf behaviors that we want to create in the Saga.* This new system makes it easier and faster to create new animal behaviors, and especially to create more complicated behaviors, involving interactions between animals.

This new AI system also has an important new feature for the Saga: experience levels for the pups as they grow up. In the old AI system, pups were pups, and behaved the same whether they were four weeks old, just emerging from the den, or two months old at the rendezvous site. Now, pups have eight experience levels and, as they grow and develop, they'll gain experience and level up -- with each new level unlocking new behaviors.

So when the pup first emerge from the den, they're in the Clumsy level, rather unsteady on their feet. But they're very curious about this new world they find themselves in, and they're exploring and pushing the envelope of their abilities (and their balance). In doing these things, they gain experience and will soon level up to the next level, where they'll have most of the behaviors they've always had in the game. And then, as they grow, pups will adopt new playful actions and the beginnings of a predatory drive. Eventually, in the fall, they'll begin learning how to hunt, leveling up through several tiers of hunting ability on their way to becoming a fully capable young wolf.

We have plenty of work ahead of now to develop the Saga, but the first phase shown in today's devblog (Clumsy) will be in the next game update. That update won't be for awhile, as we still have some work to do with this new AI. So stay tuned for more news!

* In the WolfQuest Saga, the game will continue on after the summer rendezvous site. Your pups will keep growing, learning how to hunt and then helping (in their own way) raise the next year's litter of pups, and eventually (in most cases) dispersing to form or find a pack of their own. We are deep in development of the Saga and do not have a release date for it. The Saga will be a free update.

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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.

Our main focus right now is the new and improved animal AI system. After many months of work on it, Tommi merged that new codebase into the game project, and we've been busy debugging it. But while he works on that, we’ve also had time to dig into our backlog (a long list of minor improvements and enhancements) and get a few things done. Today's video shows eight of them that we think you will find enjoyable:

1) In the Find a Mate quest, once you finish the trial period, you'll have an option to stay in the fall season and hang out with your mate for awhile, before progressing onward to winter and establishing your territory.

2) More refinements to the high-elevation snow line. You might have noticed in the Lost River DLC map, there's still snow on the mountaintops in late spring, which really adds to the mountain feel. We've now set this up in Amethyst and Slough Creek, and Andrei expanded this functionality so I could also set it up in the fall season on all maps.

3 and 4) We've got an excellent new 3D artist, Damian Paterson, working on WolfQuest assets. Along with other things, he's created two new cottonwood tree models, which grow near the Lamar River in Amethyst. He also made a much better model of lupine flowers.

5) Susan has been having fun creating more than 80 new wolf dreams images, nearly doubling the number of main game dream images. What wolves make of these dreams is up to them -- and you.

6) Susan also scoured the National Park Service online photo galleries for more animal and Yellowstone images to use in the game's loading screens, and has been writing additional gameplay tips and Yellowstone factual tidbits to entertain and inform players while waiting for game scenes to load.

7) One thing that's been missing from Anniversary Edition is the observation airplane that occasionally flies overhead to check in on wolves with radio collars. Andrei is creating a new subsystem that brings that airplane back — and as with everything in AE, it's a big improvement on the old version. This airplane actually does track your wolf, honing in and circling around it, and even following your wolf if you're moving, for several minutes before moving on.

8) And, of course, the pronghorn, which we introduced in a recent devblog, have been on our list for a long time.

All these things will be in the next game update -- but that still won't be for awhile, as we have a fair amount of debugging still to do on the new AI, plus beta testing and tweaking all of these and other new features. We’ll share more about them in upcoming devblogs.

_________________________

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.

Back in 2019 when we were preparing to release WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition into Early Access, we had to create some title graphics for the Steam store. We had plenty going on that month, so we whipped up a simple image of a wolf howling at sunrise. We always intended to be temporary, but it's taken us awhile to get back to this. But at last, it's ready! Created by longtime WQ player Rolin, we're just thrilled with it. (Rolin also created the "Welcome to Lost River" town sign in Lost River DLC map.) So don't be surprised when you see this new artwork on the Steam store. It is the same game!

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We're also putting "WolfQuest Pastoral", as we are calling it, on various merch options on Redbubble. So, if you love it as much as I do, check that out!

We have plenty else in the works now, so stay tuned for game updates!
_________________________

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.

We've got a new animal joining the WolfQuest gang: pronghorn!

Pronghorn, sometimes called American antelope (though they’re not actually antelope) are fairly common animals in the northern range of Yellowstone. We’ve seen them many times in our trips there. But for WolfQuest, they’ve been lower priority for one simple reason: wolves don't eat them very much. Why not? Because they're very hard to catch! Pronghorns evolved in the very different world of the Pleistocene, when they had to outrun much faster predators, like the American Cheetah. Those predators went extinct long ago — but the pronghorn keeps on going, sprinting as fast at 55 mph (90 km/h).

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But we’ve finally gotten to it, and this week’s devblog gives you a first look at our pronghorn. Created by a new artist on our team, Lise from Sweden, these pronghorn will be found in the Lamer Valley and lower-elevation grasslands. Like mule deer and elk, pronghorns form herds of different sizes and compositions over the course of a year. In the winter, they head to lower elevations and you won't find many around in the game map — which isn’t much of a problem, since wolves don't generally bother hunting adults. It's the fawns that are a more tempting target, both as newborns hiding in the grass, and later in the summer when they are ambulatory — not easy
to catch, but possible.

Other interesting things about pronghorn:

* They are distantly related to deer, and much more closely related to giraffes and okapi.
* Bucks have a pronged horn, while does have just a little stubby horn, if any at all. Generally, animals with horns keep them year-round, but pronghorns shed their horns each winter and then grow it back in the spring.
* The fastest land animal in the western hemisphere, pronghorns can sprint 55 mph (90 km/h) for half a mile (800m), and they can run 42 mph (68 km/h) for a mile (1.5km), and can sustain 35 mph (56 km/h)) for four miles (6.5km). In contrast wolves (and elk) usually run about 35 mph (56 km/h), with somewhat faster sprints for short durations.
* When detecting danger, pronghorns raise the hair on their rumps, making it a larger white area that alerts the herd of the threat.

Pronghorns will be in the next game update, but that won’t be for awhile. We have much still to do on them, along with many other things currently in-progress. But it won’t be too long before you too, can watch that white rump recede into the distance as it flees from your wolf.

Recommended videos:
* Wolf chasing a pronghorn fawn (and check out other great Yellowstone wildlife videos on the "Yellowstone Twins" YouTube channel).
* Pronghorns: Experts in Speed and Sight from American Prairie.

_________________________

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.

It's time for another chance to win a free copy of WolfQuest! Lucky winners will receive a free copy of WolfQuest 2.7 (and PC/Mac users will also get WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition Early Access for PC and Mac)! Winners can choose to get any version of the game (Mac/Windows, Android, iOS, Kindle).

If you prefer, you can one of the choose DLC:

• Lost River DLC (map)
  
• Building Character DLC
  
• Yellowstone Wolf Coat DLC

Note: the above three DLC are only for WolfQuest: AE for PC/Mac

Or choose:

• WolfQuest Soundtrack and Music Extras
  

[h3]How to Enter[/h3]
Email your username, preferred email address, and your answer to the question: "What are three interesting facts about wolves?" to [email protected]. Winners are selected randomly from complete entries. Please enter only once in each contest.

[h3]Deadline[/h3]
All entries must be received before midnight (Eastern Daylight Time) on Monday, February 27, 2023.

[h3]Random Drawing[/h3]
Each complete entry will be assigned a number. We will then use a random-number generator to generate four numbers. The entries bearing those numbers will each win a free copy of the game.