WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

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!

The first rule of patches is "Don't break the game." Alas, last night's patch did that -- we added more information to one of the courtship popups, which pushed the Yes/No buttons down offscreen. You could only click those if you had noticed the interface scaling slider in Game Settings, otherwise you were stuck. Very sorry about that! That's fixed in this patch.

We have also diagnosed the problem with the game freezing/crashing during the initial loading (two wolves against the blue moon). In many cases, at least, that is because the game is set to require more VRAM (Video RAM, a special kind of RAM on your graphics card) than your computer actually has. This patch has a new function which detects your computer's VRAM and automatically adjusts the quality level downward if necessary. Similarly, if you try to choose a quality level in Game Settings that your computer doesn't have enough VRAM for, the game won't allow that selection, and automatically switches to one that it can. (Currently there is no tip or warning about that, but we'll add one in the next patch.)

Note that this method won't solve the problem in every case (since there is so much range of computer configurations out there), but it should fix it for many people. We will keep refining it. And please not that the game may still freeze or crash on that blue-moon loading screen if your computer simply doesn't meet the minimum hardware requirements.

Fixes:
* Made Yes/No buttons on Courtship panel visible again
* Prevent game from using more VRAM than computer has (at launch, and when adjusting quality levels).
* Tweaked colliders on the cottonwood trees by river.

Changes:
* More texture memory reductions.

Remember Friday's patch which said that we'd fixed the bug where your Difficulty selection was carried over from the main menu to the Amethyst map? Well, turns out that was an ornery bug and wasn't fixed...which means if you didn't notice that, you've been playing on Easy even if you chose Challenging or Accurate. Sorry about that! Consider it practice for the real challenges that you'll now face.

Fixes:
* Difficulty and Mate Permadeath selections should carry over from main menu to Amethyst map.
* Some meat chunks have incorrect labels.
* Possibly fixed the overlapping title music after entering the Amethyst map.

Changes:
* Optimized some grass and tree textures, may improve performance on some graphics cards.
* Added snow to forest debris objects.
* Added useful information to some tutorial tips.
* Added more grass back to cliff rocks.

Early Access v1.0d

Fixes:
* Difficulty selection carries over from main menu to Amethyst map.
* Wolf panting won't stop (actually probably fixed in previous patch).

Changes:
* Accurate ambient audio in main menu.
* Text tips for customization options with sliders
* Support popup now correctly says to use F11 key instead of F12 key for bug reports.
* "His" removed from badwords list (Those were the days!)
* Reduced necessary distance from wolf fight before you can sleep (but beware, they're still close!)