WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

[h3]NEW:[/h3]
* New Find a New Mate subquest in Slough Creek: If your mate dies in Slough Creek, a new subquest begins to find a new mate. This uses the same mechanics as Amethyst Find a Mate, except there is no trial period -- they join the pack immediately.
* New Endless Summer quest after completing Loaf quest. (If you load a saved game that has already completed Loaf, the Loaf conclusion will appear again.)
* Mate will occasionally go into the den, if at least one pup is tired.

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Mate won't eat meat chunks unless they are hungry.
* Game now ignores keyboard inputs when another program has focus.
* Allow spaces in player-wolf name.
* Added (In Den) status to mate on Pack Stats.
* Visual improvements to fresh snowfall on ground.
* Family Tree layout will flex properly at lower resolutions.
* Adjusted grass so some of it appears in scent view.
* Reduced sickness odds a bit.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Can change name of trial mate.
* When loading a game, all sticks and bones use the same bone model.
* Distant terrain does not get dynamic snow in May and later.
* Bored eagle notification appears for bored wolves.
* Elk calf carcass has furry innards.
* Mate can get stuck near rocky outcrop in certain situations.
* In one area of First Meadow, water splashes are heard while on dry land.
* Summer moose calf turns lighter color when it dies.
* Saddle Meadows floating scent uses old den icon.
* Elk calf carcass leg movement is suboptimal.
* Black squares and other terrain and water issues.

In the real world, if a wolf loses its mate to hunger, a dangerous prey or predator, or disease, life goes on -- and most often, the surviving wolf soon finds a new mate for itself. And now that's what can happen in Slough Creek as well. If you have mate permadeath enabled in Game Settings, and a terrible fate should befall your mate, the game won't end. Instead, you can try to raise your pups as a solo parent, or go find yourself a new mate to be your partner in parenthood. Watch today's devblog for more!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

This new Find a New Mate subquest is in the next patch, 1.0.6g, which is now in public beta, and should be officially released within a few days. The rest of the patch notes are below.

[h3]Patch Notes for 1.0.6g beta 5 - 14 January[/h3]
This beta is for Windows only.

[h3]NEW:[/h3]
* If your mate dies in Slough Creek, a new subquest begins to find a new mate. This uses the same mechanics as Amethyst Find a Mate, except there is no trial period -- they join the pack immediately.
* New Endless Summer quest after completing Loaf. (If you load a saved game that has already completed Loaf, the Loaf conclusion will appear again.)

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Mate won't eat meat chunks unless they are hungry.
* Mate will occasionally go into the den, if at least one pup is tired.
* Adjusted grass so some of it appears in scent view.
* Reduced sickness odds a bit.
* Visual improvements to fresh snowfall on ground.
* Added stingers for mate death and completing Find New Mate subquest, and Find Mate music plays at start of Find New Mate.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Water splashes near flooding, but on dry land.
* Summer moose calf turns lighter color when it dies.
* Old den marker on Saddle Meadows floating scent.
* Elk calf carcass leg movement is suboptimal.
* When loading a game, all sticks and bones become "Stick1"
* Black squares and other terrain and water issues.
* Distant terrain does not get dynamic snow in May and later
* Bored eagle notification appears for bored wolves.
* Elk calf carcass has furry innards.
* Mate can get stuck near rocky outcrop in certain situations.
* Various terrain and water issues.

[h3]Public Beta for 1.0.6g beta 6 - 16 January[/h3]

IMPROVEMENTS:
* Game now ignores keyboard inputs when another program has focus.
* Prevent pup-killing strangers from becoming potential mates and vise versa.
* Allow spaces in player-wolf name.
* Added (In Den) status to mate on Pack Stats.
* Clearer label for deceased mate in Family Tree.
* Family Tree layout will flex properly at lower resolutions.

BUGS FIXED:
* Can change name of trial mate.
* Various terrain and water issues.

It's time for the monthly contest 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). Or you can choose the WolfQuest Soundtrack and Music Extras.

[h2]This Month's Contest[/h2]
Email your username (any username is fine, we just have to know what to call the winners) and your answer to the question: "What are three interesting facts about wolves?" to the email address [email protected]

[h2]Deadline[/h2]
All entries must be received before midnight (Eastern Daylight Time) on Tuesday, January 19, 2021.

[h2]Random Drawing[/h2]
Winners are selected randomly from complete entries. Please enter only once in each monthly contest. Each complete entry will be assigned a number. We will then use a random-number generator to generate three numbers. The entries bearing those numbers will each win a free copy of the game.

This patch is now available for Windows and Mac:

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Added quality levels for territory decay in Slough Creek, so on Easy, the player's territory decays substantially more slowly than before. (Challenging is unchanged, and Accurate is now slightly higher.)
* Many optimizations to prevent severe performance slowdown when many AI actions are occurring.
* Adjustments to ensure more variety in dispersal wolf coats.
* Allow spaces in pup and mate names.
* Added "Pack" to header in Family Tree.
* Ponds in April have ice underneath water (also fixes a rendering glitch with these ponds).
* Increased ambient lighting at dusk and dawn on Basic Sky & Veg mode to match that in Enhanced mode.
* Enlarged the area for den and rendezvous site music to play.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* All wolves have fur even in No Fur mode in Slough Creek.
* Occasionally wolf starts spinning uncontrollably.
* Pup is visibly outside tall grass when they are technically in hiding.
* Subquest tabs and panels are messed up on Quests panel.
* If killed soon after a season change, snowshoe hare coat changes color when it dies.
* In Family Tree, "Play as wolf" button doesn't work in a particular case.
* Two rendezvous sites have the same ID name, so loading a save for one puts you at the other site.
* Various glitches with animal movement.
* Summer elk calf is instantly mostly consumed when it dies.
* Newborn mule deer fawn glows in scent view.
* Issues with renaming mate and pups on Pack Info.
* Den can flood while player is away, forcing pups outside into danger.
* At end of Loaf quest, problems ensue if player-wolf has something in its mouth when the howling and spiral-up camera.
* At end of Find a Den quest, you can exit den by tapping a movement key, breaking elements of the season transition.
* Weird pup body angles when standing on regurgitants.
* Water and terrain issues.
* Typos and text edits.

We have just added all the new music from Slough Creek to the WolfQuest Soundtrack and Music Extras. That’s 17 new tracks (45 minutes) of new music by Ben Woolman and Tim Buzza.  The soundtrack is now 80 tracks, over two and a half hours of original music. The music has always been one of the best parts of the game, and Ben and Tim’s new music for Slough Creek is no exception. I’ve listened to these tracks so many times and I still love them every time I hear them.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Also included: a 25-minute video featuring Tim Buzza talking about how he created the signature sound of WolfQuest and many memorable tracks in the game.

If you purchased the soundtrack previously, this is a free update. It should download automatically if you purchased it on Steam. If you purchased it on itch.io, revisit your WolfQuest Music Extras download page and download it again. (Retrieving your download link for the soundtrack is the same as for the game, instructions here.)

And if you haven’t purchased it yet, here’s where to get it!
* On Steam.
* On Itch.io.

The cost is $10 and the WolfQuest Original Soundtrack & Music Extras sales revenue help support further development of the game.