WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

Most game bugs are not particularly entertaining, but we happened to see several that were lately, so today we'll share them for your amusement. These represent several different kinds of bugs:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

1) User Error (or PIBKAC*): The titular bug today's video occurred after Steve (our 3D wolf artist) made a few changes to the wolf models, so I then had to swap in the updated model. Tommi (our lead Unity developer) had made this task quick and easy -- except for the IK stuff, which requires that we manually assign bones in the rig to several IK slots. Not hard to do, but I made a couple mistakes and voila, the bug-eyed wolf.

2) Data Disagreement: The undead hare bug occurred when a bug caused the host and clients (the other players in the game) to have different values for the hare's health, so when a client player killed the hare, it still had a bit of health in the host's game. Since the host runs the game simulation, Mikko (our multiplayer developer) found that "the hare was alive but in the wolf's mouth, while its AI on the client was trying to run away but couldn't, and the remote animal movement code got very confused."

3) Chokepoint: The Elk bug occured during a multiplayer stress test to see how spawning a large number of animals affects game performance. When we had over 150 animals spawned, another player joined the game, so the host had to send them an enormous amount of scent-track data. And that caused the game memory to run out of buffer space, which then threw an error, so, according to Mikko, "proper cleanup was not done and the data was left in the send queue. Then every time the host wanted to send updates, it first tried to re-send the already queued data, which kept failing so it couldn't actually send anything." And that left all the NPC animals high and dry, awaiting instructions.

4) And finally, the Death Trap bug isn't really a bug -- everything is working properly -- but it highlighted a problem that needed some attention: the bison only occasionally moved around while grazing, which wasn't a problem normally, but it becomes a problem if you happen to die right behind a bison. Fortunately, it's easily addressed by making the bison move more often when grazing (though you'll still want to be careful about when your click Revive.)

These and many other bugs have been identified during many, many hours of playtesting by George and Noah (our QA team), along with our dedicated group of private beta testers. We've fixed dozens of those bugs and, while we have many more on the to-do list, we're definitely making great progress with multiplayer. We don't have a date for multiplayer public beta testing and release, but we expect both before the summer is over.

* PIBKAC: Oldschool tech support speak for "Problem is between keyboard and chair."

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We have released the first episode of WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition (Amethyst Mountain) for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. While in Early Access, we are updating the game frequently with more features, multiplayer, and ultimately the Slough Creek episode with pups. The mobile version will come after the game is completed on PC/Mac platforms. We’ll then resume development of the next episode, Tower Fall (DLC).

One of the tough design issues with multiplayer mode in WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition has been sleeping, health recharge, and time acceleration. Those three elements are bound together in the single-player game, and we’ve pondered over the past few years how to make them work when there are multiple players, each of whom might have different ideas about when to sleep. Such disagreements are inevitable, but they could seriously detract from players’ experience in the game. A few weeks ago we dove back into the issue and, after some intensive brainstorming, we finally figured out a solution: the essential thing is to keep everyone’s sleep cycles in sync. Then there may be still be some disagreement about exactly when to sleep, but everyone’s *need* to sleep will be the same. So as players join the game, their Sleep meter will be synced with that of the host, whether it’s high or low or somewhere in between.

But that only solves half the problem. The other half is that sleep is necessary to restore your health. What if your health drops quite low and yet the pack does not need to sleep for many hours. For that, we created a new “Quick Heal” function — a special, if not quite magical, power for wolves in multiplayer. When using Quick Heal, wolves draw on their food reserves to boost their health. It only boosts health to 40%, to minimize potential abuse — just enough to get you back on your feet and through the rest of the day with your pack.

Watch the video for more!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Both these are coming to multiplayer….soon! How soon? We have not set a release date, but it’s a lot closer than it was a year ago!

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We have released the first episode of WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition (Amethyst Mountain) for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. While in Early Access, we are updating the game frequently with more features, multiplayer, and ultimately the Slough Creek episode with pups. The mobile version will come after the game is completed on PC/Mac platforms. We’ll then resume development of the next episode, Tower Fall (DLC).

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 also choose the WolfQuest Soundtrack and Music Extras if you already own the game.

[h2]This Month's Contest[/h2]
Email your username and your answer to the question: "What are three interesting facts about wolves?" to [email protected]

[h2]Deadline[/h2]
All entries must be received by midnight (Eastern Daylight Time) on Monday, June 29, 2020.

[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.

We’re making more progress on predator attacks at your den, so today’s devblog looks specifically at cougars. While it’s not especially common for cougars to attack wolf pups, it has been known to happen — and probably happens more without any humans knowing about it. Cougars are ambush predators, so instead of charging in like a wolf would, they hunker down nearby and wait for their opportunity — sooner or later, one of your pups (probably a bold one) will wander their way. Then they’ll dash out and grab it — both to reduce competition for themselves and their kittens, and as a quick snack.

Each predator will require the player to respond in a different way: Last week we showed how players have to chase eagles as they circle around and swoop down to grab a pup. For cougars, players must spot a cougar hiding amidst the foliage and startle it into fleeing. Cougars can be hard to spot, but once you do, they’re easy to startle — as long as you get to them before one of your wayward pups does!

See more in this week's video:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Learn more about cougars in WolfQuest in the Wolfopedia: https://www.wolfquest.org/wolfopedia/competitors/cougar

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We have released the first episode of WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition (Amethyst Mountain) for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. While in Early Access, we are updating the game frequently with more features, multiplayer, and ultimately the Slough Creek episode with pups. The mobile version will come after the game is completed on PC/Mac platforms. We’ll then resume development of the next episode, Tower Fall (DLC).

We’ve been working on the predator attacks on pups in Slough Creek, focusing on each predator’s behaviors and how the player can thwart those attacks. One of those predators is the golden eagle, who swoops down out of the blue to grab a pup and carry it off. Tommi, our lead developer and systems designer, spent some time prototyping how exactly this should work. Because the eagle is often high above the ground, it’s difficult to follow the bird with the normal camera view. It’s much easier in Headcam mode (T key), but still somewhat tricky until he changed the A/D and Left/Right arrow keys to move the camera sideways instead of turning. That turning action was a carryover from the old version of WolfQuest and didn’t match the new third-person controls anyways, so we are now switching to this sideways, or strafe, motion — it’s more standard for FPS controls and makes it much easier to track the eagle as it circles and swoops. See how it works in this week’s devblog video!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Learn more about eagles in WolfQuest in the Wolfopedia.
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We have released the first episode of WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition (Amethyst Mountain) for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. While in Early Access, we are updating the game frequently with more features, multiplayer, and ultimately the Slough Creek episode with pups. The mobile version will come after the game is completed on PC/Mac platforms. We’ll then resume development of the next episode, Tower Fall (DLC).