WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

We've released Patch 1.0.7h, featuring achievements and some new usability features for managing your wolf and save files -- plus a lot of smaller improvements and bug fixes. See the complete patch notes below today's devblog video:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

NOTE: It looks like Steam is not syncing achievements. Valve unfortunately does not offer a way to privately test achievements once a game is released, so we will investigate and get it working for the next patch.

[h2]NEW: Achievements:[/h2]
* Earn achievements by completing core game activities, going above and beyond those basic actions, exploring the maps, and playing through your wolf's long life.
* Note that you must be logged into your WolfQuest game account to earn achievements.
* All achievements can be unlocked only in single-player except for those in the Multiplayer section.
* Some Life Arc achievements can be unlocked only in new Slough Creek games (as the necessary data wasn't collected until now).

[h2]ALSO NEW: [/h2]
* Filtering options on My Wolves and Setup New Game: Search by wolf name or pack name, show only ironwolves, hide dead wolves.
* Filtering options on Load Saved Game and Save Game panels.
* New option to select and delete multiple files at once on Save Game and Load Saved Game panels.

[h2]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h2]
* Tweaked the "Sync Completed" alert so it only appears for 1.5s and disappears automatically.
* Runt is now indicated on Family Trees.
* Added option to disable cloud saves in Account panel.
* Current perks are shown on player's panel in Pack Info in single-player games (was previously only shown there in MP games).
* Better texture for river pebbles in Amethyst (less obvious tiling on Beautiful and lower graphics qualities).
* Slightly revised wolf gallop animation, with some head up/down movement.
* Switched to another sagebrush model for Basic Sky & Veg mode (actually, it's the sagebrush from the original game -- looks better and doesn't sway oddly in the wind).
* Increased lifespan of pup scent tracks, so they are more likely to be visible for lost pups.
* Increased LOD distances on high graphics quality levels (so animals have dynamic snow at longer distances from wolf).
* Made claws darker on wolves with light coats.
* Reduced size of aspen trees in Slough Creek.
* Increased pups' odds of dying from sickness.
* Ungulate mothers with young juveniles won't choose grass patches near the rendezvous site anymore.
* New versions of MacOS don't support 3D clouds, so those are now disabled at all quality levels, with option to override (and alert if you do so).
* Logjam in Amethyst is now rendered on Basic Sky & Vegetation mode.
* Increased ambient light a bit in Amethyst.

[h2]BUGS FIXED:[/h2]
* Various bugs with logging into account.
* Various bugs when syncing user files to cloud server.
* Sometimes wolves get duplicated in My Wolves carousel.
* Glitches when typing on World Map custom markers.
* On Pack Info, Homes says "den not selected" instead of "rendezvous site not selected" on reload.
* Sometimes wolf will not move.
* Golden eagle sometimes behaves oddly when swooping down to grab a snowshoe hare.
* Health Perception sound effect doesn't respect audio settings.
* Wolf nametag is layered in front of wolf badge.
* Courtship heart meter is layered in front of wolf badge.
* At end of dream sequence, on low-end computers the game can freeze for awhile, and in MP even crash. (POSSIBLE FIX -- please report if it happens to you!)
* Keyboard glitches and submit issues using controller to rename mate and pups.
* Loaf at Rendezvous Site doesn't finish if you are asleep when your last pup reaches 20 pounds.
* In certain non-standard graphics quality settings, the mid-distance terrains are not rendered when they need to be.
* After loading a multiplayer saved game, stranger packs all have lots of wolves, regardless of number of players.
* Bones and sticks sometimes aren't postioned correctly in pups' mouths (probably fixed).
* Rock den northwest of McBride has very very very small opening.
* Pack wolves sometimes don't return to their territory after losing a fight.
* Wolf skips crawling-in animation at one burrow den.
* When in water, player-wolf sits down when pupcam is activated.
* Pups often stand up and then sit or lay down immediately (fixed most common causes of this).
* Some big rocks in Amethyst have inaccurate colliders.
* Mate emits stranger-wolf floating scent during certain activities.
* Terrain, rock, and water issues.
* Typos.

Achievements are coming soon to WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition! After reviewing thousands of suggestions from players in May and June, we crafted our final set of achievements and have been implementing them over the past month. Along with all the design and code, we also need an icon for each achievement. It’s our great good luck that many WolfQuest players are also amazing artists, and we hired longtime WolfQuest moderator and beta tester Jessie Clarey — aka Loach on Discord and Steam — to create a set of beautiful icons. Today’s video is a time-lapse of the Lupine Legend achievement (Finish Slough Creek as an Ironwolf), showing all the talent and artistry that goes into each of the fifty icons that she has been creating. Enjoy!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We still have much testing and tweaking to do with achievements, but we expect to release them as part of the next game patch within a few weeks.

_______________

WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition is available now for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. The game currently includes Episode 1: Amethyst Mountain, Episode 2: Slough Creek, Lost River: Classic, and multiplayer mode in Amethyst and Lost River. (Slough Creek multiplayer is coming soon,.) Once the game is completed on PC/Mac, we will turn our attention to other platforms. The next episode, Tower Fall (DLC) will follow. We do not announce specific release dates. We will release them when they are ready!

Patch 1.0.7g - Released 22 July 2021

[h2]NEW:[/h2]
* Cloud syncing of user game files (saves, wolves, and family snapshots). These user files will be uploaded to the game server automatically when you first run the game. Subsequently, local and server versions of all files will be compared when starting the game, and if conflicts are found the player can choose from options to merge, push local versions, or pull server versions. Saves are also synced during gameplay.

[h2]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h2]
* A new alert (envelope icon) appears in lower-left corner of screen for a few seconds when you launch the game and there's an unread message, and if a message arrives while playing the game.
* Added the wagon trail that runs through Slough Creek from west to east (in real world, runs from trailhead to a ranch outside the park boundary).
* Stranger packs' home hexes in the territory map are now marked with a small dot. (These hexes cannot be taken from those packs.)
* Hex icon on compass now indicates if you are in a strongly-claimed hex (above 50%).
* Alert popup about marking a strong hex has improved language (basically clarifying that you should always mark a hex if you're passing through, but don't make a special trip when hexes are still strong), made this alert pause the game to give players time to read it, and it only appears once per game session (instead of twice).
* New struggle animation for July mule deer fawn, when standing still and being attacked.
* Bison have finally learned how to swim properly (correct animation).

[h2]BUGS FIXED:[/h2]
* Mate will feed pups when predator is attacking. (Regression from last fix.)
* Sometimes mate will regurgitate when there's a carcass available for pups to eat.
* Sometimes mate can kill prey with one bite.
* When hunting alone, mate does not avoid dangerous prey animals in it's patch, including bison, which can lead to inadvertant death. (Mate now will behave more intelligently, either hunting or avoiding the prey.)
* If mate is killed by dangerous prey, it freezes in place (sometimes running in place) and won't fall over dead.
* Pup bark audio plays before mouth moves.
* The front paws of summer pups are angled oddly (probably fixed).
* Repeating pattern in Slough Creek large rocky outcrops.
* Scrolling the wolf bio panel on Pack Info makes the game camera zoom in or out.
* Dead bull moose cuts a long swath in grass.
* Sometimes wolf is way too obsessed with scratching and licking itself when sitting.
* Some music glitches.
* Occasionally unable to delete an ironwolf.
* Summer pup tail wag distorts the body at the base of the tail.
* Elder ironwolf savename is incorrect.
* In My Wolves, controller right thumbstick doesn't work to rotate wolf.
* In Slough Creek, the nighttime aurora borealis are angled severely, making them look very narrow.
* If player changes graphics quality to a level that requires more VRAM than computer has, an alert appears -- but cannot be closed, so player must force quit the game.
* When using controller, if wolf is sleeping very near to a pup, tapping A to wake up will also trigger regurgitation.
* Player-wolf can get stuck in hole in rocks just below the Slough Creek spawn point.
* Lost River: No distant animal voices in the night after midnight.* Incorrect information in alert about waiting four hours to turn marking into scent post (should be about reinforcing scent post you just created).
* Typos.
* Terrain, rock, and vegetation issues.

In this beta, game saves and wolves are backward-compatible with the last released version (1.0.7f), so you can switch back and forth without any problems. Multiplayer is backward compatible as well, so you can create and join games with players who are still on 1.0.7f.

This beta is available for Windows only. Instructions on getting the beta are at the bottom of this post.

[h2]1.0.7g beta 2, released 17 July[/h2]

IMPORTANT: Please make a backup of your User Files folder (in Documents/Wolf Quest Anniversary\User Files) before running this beta build. The new file syncing should work well, but make a backup just in case something goes wrong.

[h3]NEW:[/h3]
* Cloud syncing of user game files (saves, wolves, and family snapshots). These user files will be uploaded to the game server automatically when you first run the game. Subsequently, local and server versions of all files will be compared when starting the game, and if conflicts are found the player can choose from options to merge, push local versions, or pull server versions. Saves are also synced during gameplay.

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* A new alert (envelope icon) appears in lower-left corner of screen for a few seconds whenever you go to the main menu and there's an unread message, and if a message arrives while playing the game.
* Added the wagon trail that runs through Slough Creek from west to east (in real world, runs from trailhead to a ranch outside the park boundary).
* Stranger packs' home hexes in the territory map are now marked with a small dot. (These hexes cannot be taken from those packs.)
* Hex icon on compass now indicates if you are in a strongly-claimed hex (above 50%).

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Mate will feed pups when predator is attacking. (Regression from last fix.)
* Sometimes mate will regurgitate when there's a carcass available for pups to eat.
* Sometimes mate can kill prey with one bite.
* Pup bark audio plays before mouth moves.
* The front paws of summer pups are angled oddly (probably fixed).
* Repeating pattern in Slough Creek large rocky outcrops.
* Scrolling the wolf bio panel on Pack Info makes the game camera zoom in or out.
* Some music glitches.
* Elder ironwolf savename is incorrect.
* In Slough Creek, the nighttime aurora borealis are angled severely, making them look very narrow.
* If player changes graphics quality to a level that requires more VRAM than computer has, an alert appears -- but cannot be closed, so player must force quit the game.
* When using controller, if wolf is sleeping very near to a pup, tapping A to wake up will also trigger regurgitation.
* Player-wolf can get stuck in hole in rocks just below the Slough Creek spawn point.
* Terrain and water tweaks.


[h2]1.0.7g beta 3, released 17 July[/h2]

BUGS FIXED:
* Several large rocky outcrops moved themselves about 20 meters without permission.
* Rock den interior is redecorated in hot pink.

[h2]1.0.7g beta 4, released 18 July[/h2]

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Joining a multiplayer game hosted by someone on 1.0.7f fails.
* A few large rocky outcrops are floating.


[h2]1.0.7g beta 5, released 19 July[/h2]

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Alert popup about marking a strong hex has improved language (basically clarifying that you should always mark a hex if you're passing through, but don't make a special trip when hexes are still strong), made this alert pause the game to give players time to read it, and it only appears once per game session (instead of twice).

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Errors during file cloud sync.
* Duplicate files after file cloud sync.
* New home-hex icon only has "strong" version, no regular version.
* Mate still sometimes feeds pups during a predator attack.
* If mate is killed by dangerous prey, it freezes in place (sometimes running in place) and won't fall over dead.
* Lost River: No distant animal voices in the night after midnight.* Incorrect information in alert about waiting four hours to turn marking into scent post (should be about reinforcing scent post you just created).
* Typos.
* Terrain, rock, and vegetation issues.

[h2]1.0.7g beta 6, released 20 July[/h2]

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Made file syncing process more time-efficient, so both the initial check as well as merging should be noticeably faster now.
* Various refinements to file syncing.
* New struggle animation for July mule deer fawn, when standing still and being attacked.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* When hunting alone, mate does not avoid dangerous prey animals in it's patch, including bison, which can lead to inadvertent death. (Mate now will behave more intelligently, either hunting or avoiding the prey.)

[h2]1.0.7g beta 7, released 21 July[/h2]

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Improvements to could file syncing, especially if connection keeps timing out.
* Bison have finally learned how to swim properly (correct animation).

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Wolf carousel is empty after syncing files.
* Occasionally unable to delete an ironwolf.
* Music issues with hunting bull elk.
* Dead bull moose cuts a long swath in grass.
* Sometimes wolf is way too obsessed with scratching and licking itself when sitting.
* Big rocky outcrop is showing its unmentionables.


[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.

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 choose the new Yellowstone Wolf Coat DLC (only for WolfQuest: AE for PC/Mac) or the WolfQuest Soundtrack and Music Extras.

[h2]How to Enter[/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 Thursday, July 22, 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.