WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

NOTE: This patch has a bug in it that will imped your effort to change your quality level if you have limited VRAM. We'll get a patch out tonight. Sorry!


Fixes:
* Goldilocks food chunks were too low, then too high, and now should be just right. EDIT: Hmm. this should be fixed, but doesn't seem to be...
* Error that can cause extremely excessive damage from elk kicks.
* Custom key remapping: Reset button doesn't work, and custom settings are not saved. (More improvements to key remapping still to come.)
* Dead stranger wolves switch to white coat or white (no texture).
* Some notification popups overstay their welcome.
* Various little visual problems on terrain.
* Protruding dark ridge in Chalcedony creek canyon.
* Audio of wind, rain, flushed birds, and flies doesn't respect game audio settings.
* Fog does not affect visibility of creeks and rivers.
* Can't drink from Amethyst Creek.

Changes:
* Improved performance when sun is at horizon (very long shadows were slowing the game down).
* More improvements to NPC animal behavior.
* Tweaks to terrain textures so they match High Quality settings.

This has our second iteration on the Video RAM (VRAM) detection fix. Now the game displays tooltip warnings if you are choose a quality level that may crash the game, but you can go ahead and choose it anyways. And if the game crashes during launch, please launch it again and the game will reset the quality level to a safe setting so it won't crash. (At least, not for that reason.)

Comments on Known Issues:
* The game crashes during launch on certain very old CPUs -- this started with the Sunday patch, v1.0e. We've identified the cause (these older CPUs lack a certain capability, but the game should tolerate that, and for some reason doesn't now) but have not figured out how to fix it yet.
* Wolf is invisible or a thin black strand: We've gotten many reports on this, and they all are from computers that are below the minimum hardware spec -- most likely the wolf model uses some techniques that those computers cannot render. The "No Fur" option might help but probably won't. Sorry about that.

Possibly Fixed (but unsure because we could not reproduce them):
* My wolf can't stand up after sleeping.
* Some visual artifacts in shadows.
* Display resolution pulldown doesn't list any other resolution options. '
* When loading a saved game, title music keeps playing after other music begins.

Fixes:
* Wolf won't stop panting.
* Fixed various gaps in terrain and floating creeks.
* Lamar River is invisible in Basic graphics mode.
* Lamar River audio doesn't respect game audio settings.
* Hunger meter does not deplete.
* Biting a stranger wolf turns it into a prospective mate.
* Wolf head doesn't go down when sleeping.
* Various bugs with map custom markers.
* Lack of sunlight if you select Good or higher quality level and Basic graphics mode in title scene, then load Amethyst map.
* Wolf eye color customization doesn't work in Basic graphics mode.
* Meat chunks disappear/go underground sometimes. (May still need some fine-tuning, so bug reports are welcome on it.)
* Dispersals are frozen when trying to engage in courtship.
* Prey can go beyond the borders of the map -- they shouldn't, and that's fixed now but note that competitors are allowed beyond the world walls.
* Various issues with prey going into areas they should not go into. (Should fix bugs with animals flying and getting stuck running in circles.)
* Cougar behavioral problems.
* Other various minor bugs and errors.

Changes:
* Grizzly sows with cubs are now roaming the map!
* Reduced the number of ravens at carcass.
* Added inputs -- the 7 and 8 keys -- for camera zoom in and out.
* Removed a lot of unnecessary badwords from filter.
* Tweaks to animal slope-sliding behaviors.
* Added a camera icon to indicate when you are in Photo Mode (Shift-P to enter and exit Photo Mode)
* A few more Tutorial Tips.
* Added a basic Game Help popup window (currently merely a link to Knowledge Base).
* Hiding Credits button in game Pause menu until we add those there (you can see them in main menu > About).

We have a bunch of fixes and improvements ready for the next patch, but an amazing sequence of technical troubles today have prevented us from doing the builds and releasing it. Sorry about that!

This patch has a much better method to handle crashes if you choose a too-high quality level, without actually preventing you from selecting any quality level to see how it works for you. I know that what we put in Monday's patch is frustrating for a lot of people, very sorry about that, and sorry for the delay in getting this new patch out. Definitely should be out tomorrow, hopefully in the morning.

We have reproduced this on an older PC and so now we're trying to figure out what causes it. Definitely something changed with that patch to start causing these crashes on certain computers. Very sorry about that!

UPDATE: We've identified the cause of this crash -- it happens on computers with very old CPUs (for example AMD Phenom). However, it *shouldn't* happen (the game should detect those CPUs, which lack a certain capability, and handle them safely), but for some reason that stopped working in this patch. It's an issue with the Unity engine, so we are working with them to figure it out, can't fix it on our own.

UPDATE August 15: This is fixed now. Sorry about that, but the game should no longer crash during launch on these older CPUs.

https://youtu.be/cg0WTuUrtgM

So here we are, on the Monday after the release of WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition - Early Access for PC/Mac, and I am finally getting around to doing a little video.

Now that we are actually in early access, we will be adding more features, more animals, multiplayer, and Slough Creek.

We’re also doing a lot of bugfixing now that the game is in your hands and thousands and thousands of people are playing it. We're hearing about lots of new problems and bugs, so we're working on those and are doing frequent patches. That is what Early Access is all about!

We do really appreciate everybody's enthusiasm and excitement for the game. We love all the comments on all the various social media sites, on Steam and on the WolfQuest forum. But trying to read and respond to all the comments is kind of like trying to drink from a fire hose! We will keep reading them but we just can't respond everything. So please, if you’ve got issues while playing the game use the F11 key to report bugs!

Also — very important — please look for answers in the Knowledge Base at http://support.wolfquest.org. There you’ll find lots of troubleshooting tips, tech info, and gameplay tips. We are expanding it daily.

And then, of course, there's mobile! We know a lot of people are very eagerly awaiting mobile but that is going to take a while! Mobile versions certainly it won't come out before the full game is completed for PC and Mac (partly because mobile doesn't really haven't currently access option). It is going to take a lot more work so we don't have any target dates for mobile. We may not even set any more release dates because last week was pretty stressful. Maybe we’ll just surprise you with updates from now on.

We are going to continue to do devvlogs – but not every week...and not every Thursday. We just have so much to do right now! You'll see them pop up now and as we have news.


Thank you again, everybody, for your ongoing enthusiasm and support for WolfQuest! We wouldn't be doing this we without the great community!