WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

Win a free copy of WolfQuest! Here's how to enter:

WolfQuest forum - October giveaway contest

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). Note that WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition is not yet available for mobile.

BUGS FIXED
* Game crashes during launch on very old CPUs. (Fixed in August, somehow snuck back in, sorry!)
* Sometimes wolf coats change during gameplay.
* Cougar carcass is white
* Elk herd is occasionally frozen in place.
* Mates sometimes go off the cliff. (Still possible if you try hard enough. Be kind.)
* Some aspen trees (still placeholder) have black trunks at night.
* Gnarly whitebark trees are floating in air when seen faraway in Basic graphics mode.
* Sometimes animals kick up dirt particles instead of snow particles when on snow. (Fixed on Medium Quality terrain, may still happen on lower quality terrain settings, due to performance optimizations.)

NEW:
* Some splashes added where mountain creeks join Amethyst Creek.

NEW:
* Press the "i" key on your keyboard to hide/show the game interface.
* In Photo Mode, with tutorials off, the camera icon fades after two seconds (reappearing if you move the camera as a reminder).

CHANGES:
* Minor reduction in RAM memory usage.

BUGS FIXED
* Snow doesn't fade away on wolves sometimes. (But still some other issues with snow on animals, working on that.)
* In Basic graphics mode, some trees are missing, especially in the Burn. (But some aspens are still missing, working on that.)
* In Basic graphics mode, some missing sections of cliff area when viewed from a distance.
* Some problem spots on the new cliffs.
* Mate and other animals can fall through cliff rocks and become stuck inside.
* Animals fall through invisible section of terrain in far northwest corner of map.

UPDATE: We've rolling out a hotfix for a bad bug in patch 1.0t, so the additional fixes in patch 1.0u are indicated below with double asterisk (**).

KNOWN ISSUE:
* On Basic graphics mode, some trees are missing, especially in the Burn.

NEW:
* The cliff area has been reworked for better accuracy, and to eliminate problems with wolves sliding into spots that they can't get out of.
* Added Fairies' Fall, a twin waterfall on lower Amethyst Creek.
* Added two music tracks: the original "Exploration" music and new fingerstyle version of that track.
* Some visual improvements to the Low and Medium terrain quality options.
* Added a "Very Low" terrain quality option, for maximum performance.

CHANGED:
* Mission info added to Game Help panels.
* Wolf moves more slowly when wading in water.
* New mission popups now wait a few seconds to appear after completing previous mission.
* Reduced size of Tutorial Tip for Photo Mode. (You can also hide it by turning off tutorial tips in Game Settings.)
* Tweak to distant trees to reduce shininess when sun is behind them. (Foreground trees still have that, still working on that.)


BUGS FIXED:
** Some animals disappear when killed rather than remaining as carcass.
** Some glitches when walking on rocky surfaces around Fairies' Fall.
** Performance drops in certain areas when sun is low and near horizon.
* Mate not eating a carcass if there's more prey nearby to hunt
* Some animals do not disappear from the game when they should.
* Carcass spawns underground (better fix than last patch).
* Trees in Basic graphics mode are too bright when shadows are disabled.
* Wolf bio text panel allows more text than can fit.
* Sagebrush partially blocks view of wolf customization when grass density is at maximum.
* Ambient Occlusion (in Game Graphics settings) isn't saved, resets each time.
* Jumping does not incur energy cost.
* If the mate falls off a cliff, it may respawn in air, falling and respawning ad infinitum.
* Mate walks into player-wolf when latter is sleeping
* Cannot growl with tail up.
* Gnarly old whitebark pine trees are mostly black.
* Physical emotes with mates only generating affinity/hearts in the first phase of courtship.
* Bear cub runs too far from mother (better fix than last patch).
* Various issues with saved games (not displaying, or deleted ones appear, or wrong wolf name displayed).
* Various errors that cause problems.
* Error when screenshot folder is open prevents saving the game.
* Meat chunks don't decay (lose food value) over time.
* Wolf or NPC animal walks in circles when standing on meat chunk and trying to eat it.
* Snow on animals is inconsistent.
* Minor visual improvements to aspen trees in Basic graphics mode. (All aspens are still placeholders.)

https://youtu.be/fGdgxBHzoM4

The cliffs of Amethyst Mountain have been troublesome from the start of the project. I’ve made several attempts over the past two years but have never been that satisfied with the results — including the version that we released into Early Access, which was something of a last-minute effort to make them look acceptable. That version, which relied on very large meshes, created a lot of problems for players as they explored the cliffs — and weren’t even very accurate, as I realized when we returned to Yellowstone last month. So now I’ve made another go at it, using some new terrain carving tools that allow more control and naturalistic effects.  Third (or was it fourth or fifth?) time was the charm, and I’m much happier with this new version of the cliffs It’ll be in the next patch (v1.0t, coming next week). 

And along with the cliff work, I took a few hours to create a sweet little spot on lower Amethyst Creek — a twin waterfall that we found on our hike last month. (Check out last week’s devblog if you missed it: WolfQuest Returns to Yellowstone: Amethyst Creek).