WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

We are rolling this patch out tonight and tomorrow, to get the hotfix for the Shake Off Attacker bug out as quickly as possible. It's released now for Windows. If you are on Mac and have that bug, in the meantime, open Game Settings >Controls > Remap Controls and click Reset to Default Setting and it should work again.
[h2]
IMPROVEMENTS:[/h2]
* Tweaked the way the scents are laid down behind animals as they move, considerably reducing the delays involved in that.

[h2]BUGS FIXED:[/h2]
* For some players, the Shake Off inputs (A and D keys; left stick wiggle on controller) don't work to shake off attacking wolves.
* Pupcam can follow pups into the den.
* In spring and summer, grizzly cubs switch to older cub body upon dying.
* Snow accumulates on ground around tree dens in late spring and summer, when it should not.
* Terrain and water issues.

For some players, the Shake Off action (pressing A and D keys rapidly to break free from attacking stranger wolves) doesn't work in the latest patch. Upon investigation, we found that the A input for this action has somehow gotten remapped to the spacebar. Very puzzling. We'll get a patch out soon fixing it, but in the meantime, if you're having this problem, just open Game Settings > Controls > Remap Controls and click Reset to Default Settings and it should work again. Very sorry about that!

[h3]NEW:[/h3]
* Five new black coats for NPC wolves. These are variations on existing coats, modified to look distinctive. They are not available in the Wolf Customization panel, but dispersal wolves have a chance of getting these coats. Grown pups can also get them (which is the only way to play as a wolf with one of these coats). (Why did we add these? We were having trouble preventing multiple wolves from having the same coat, due to the paucity of true untinted black coats, so now NPCs have five more black coats to choose from, which along with some other measures should prevent duplicates.)
* When Pack Territories are displayed on the World Map, a new toggle in lower-right will display all territories' hex strength percentages (intended for controller usage but might be helpful to anyone.)

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* If starting a new game in Amethyst with a wolf who has completed those quests before, the game now shows the episode introduction and then skips the Learn to Hunt quest info, going directly to Find a Mate quest.
* Reduced the wait time to reinforce a scent post from 24 hours to four hours. (Because stranger wolves can degrade your territory within that time, it's confusing to get a "Too Soon!" alert when the territory is clearly weakened, so we are reducing this delay period confusion.)
* Modest increase in the odds that a grizzly bear will attack pups at the den.
* Establish Territory quest doesn't require a specific territory gain or den discovery action to reach completion. (Previously did, so was possible to meet requirements but not trigger completion. Completion requirements themselves are unchanged.)
* Reduce the odds that multiple dispersals, or multiple pups in a litter, will have the same coat as adults.
* Reduced odds and damage from fall/winter calf elk kickoff.
* Reduced wolf max speed when carrying moose calf.
* Added flattened grass at rendezvous sites and in meadows in springtime.
* Game remembers if dens and rendezvous sites were toggled on or off in World Map.
* Added some anti-cheat measures to multiplayer.

BUGS FIXED:[h3]
[/h3]* Game stalls when loading a multiplayer saved game for Lost River.
* Sometimes the Show Dens button doesn't appear when it should on World Map.
* Distant landscape in early spring has no snow. (Still working bug with those landscapes having no snow in late spring and summer.)
* In multiplayer, the chat panel covers up part of the Accounts panel, blocking the Add Friend input field.
* White wolf coat has a weird white mark at the tip of the tail.
* Occasionally you'll get the "Dangerous Territory" alert when marking in the central area of the map.
* On the World Map, some custom markers are rotated based on the player-wolf's orientation in the game world.
* Courtship banners for a few wolves don't match the coat.
* Game accepts keyboard inputs when another app has focus.
* Pack naming GUI displays repeatedly.
* Pup can get stuck in grass and refuse to come out.
* Player-wolf can get stuck on rock face of den.
* When getting a new mate out of a group of siblings in Slough Creek, the siblings and your new mate turn against each other immediately.
* Mackenzie coat has a bit of white on the upper eyelid with some fur settings.
* Snow can accumulate inside dirt dens.
* Patchy fur on pup chin.
* Moose calf has odd coloration when fur is disabled.
* No gallop sound effect when wolf is running up steep hill.
* Boltz coat has pattern mismatch on crown of head.
* Sometimes the wolf coat when fur is disabled doesn't match the coat when fur is enabled.
* In certain cases, game freezes when remapping controls.
* Renaming a pup that's in the den gets "(In Den)" permanently added to its name.
* Some mismatch between characters allowed in password fields on Register and Login panels.
* On some computer hardware and game graphics settings, water bodies float in air when sprinting.
* Pups can get stuck alongside river in certain situations.
* If mate commands pups into den, the command lingers even if the player or mate returns home.
* Terrain and water issues.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Two topics today:

1) We've added five wolf coat variations to ensure more variety in the dispersals with black coats that you encounter when looking for a mate. There's always been a bit of a shortage of true black coats (e.g. black without any tint), which leads to several dispersals having the same black coat -- but this became quite noticeable after adding the Luna coat, since it's so distinctive. So now dispersals have more coats to choose from when the game generates them. Note that these new coats are (a) variations of existing coats and (b) not available to the player in wolf customization. However, pups can have these coats when grown, so that's how you can ultimately play as a wolf with one of them. Remember that we are also working on a DLC pack with fifteen coats based on real Yellowstone wolves and hope to get that out within a few weeks. (Luna is part of the Ambassador wolf coat set that we released with Slough Creek. Learn more about the wolves who inspired these coats on our website.

2) Slough Creek is a vast area, and placenames can help you orient yourself -- but the game map currently only has a few. We'd like to add a few more, at least, and so we're looking for ideas! We think placenames should be generally descriptive, along the lines of real Yellowstone names like Soda Butte, Pebble Creek and Round Prairie, but sometimes with a dash of imagination, like the Yellowstone peak called "The Thunderer." We don't think human names or Tolkieneque names are suitable. If you have an idea, go to that location in the game, open the World Map, and press F11 to submit a feedback report with your suggestion.

Now available on the public beta branch (instructions below). Windows only. No changes to save game version, so this is backward-compatible with last official release, 1.0.6g. No problems switching back to that if you need to.

[h2]BETA 1[/h2]

[h3]NEW:[/h3]
* If starting a new game with a wolf that has completed the Amethyst quests, you skip the Learn to Hunt quest and immediately begin the Find a Mate quest.

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Further reduce the chances that multiple dispersal wolves will have the same coat.
* Reduce the odds that multiple pups in a litter will have the same coat as adults.
* reduced odds and damage from fall/winter calf elk kickoff.
* reduced wolf max speed when carrying moose calf.
* Flattened grass added to rendezvous sites and in meadows in springtime.
* Game remembers if dens and rendezvous sites were toggled on or off in World Map.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Game stalls when loading a multiplayer saved game for Lost River.
* In multiplayer, leaving game immediately is not always reliable.
* Mackenzie coat has a bit of white on the upper eyelid with some fur settings.
* Snow can accumulate in dirt dens.
* Patchy fur on pup chin.
* Moose calf has odd coloration when fur is disabled.
* No gallop sound effect when wolf is running up steep hill.
* Boltz coat has pattern mismatch on crown of head.
* Sometimes the wolf coat when fur is disabled doesn't match the coat when fur is enabled.
* In certain cases, game freezes when remapping controls.
* Renaming a pup that's in the den gets "(In Den)" permanently added to its name.
* Some mismatch between characters allowed in password fields on Register and Login panels.
* On some computer hardware and game graphics settings, water bodies float in air when sprinting.
* Pups can get stuck alongside river in certain situations.
* Courtship banner for one wolf doesn't match wolf's coat.
* If mate commands pups into den, the command lingers even if the player or mate returns home.
* Terrain and water issues.
[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.

[h2]BETA 2[/h2]

Public Beta: 1.0.6h beta 2 - Released 20 January

[h3]NEW:[/h3]
* Five new black coats for NPC wolves. These are variations on existing coats, modified to look distinctive. They are not available in the Wolf Customization panel, but stranger wolves and dispersals have a chance of getting these coats. Grown pups can also get them (which is the only way to play as a wolf with one of these coats). (Why did we add these? We were having trouble preventing multiple wolves from having the same coat, due to the paucity of true untinted black coats, so now NPCs have five more black coats to choose from, which along with some other measures should prevent duplicates.)
* When Pack Territories are displayed on the World Map, a new toggle in lower-right will display all territories' hex strength percentages (intended for controller usage but might be helpful to anyone.)

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* If starting a new game in Amethyst with a wolf who has completed those quests before, the game now shows the episode introduction and then skips the Learn to Hunt quest info, going directly to Find a Mate quest.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Sometimes the Show Dens button doesn't appear when it should on World Map.
* Distant landscape in early spring has no snow. (Still working bug with those landscapes having no snow in late spring and summer.)
* Flattened grass at rendezvous site is brown rather than green.
* In multiplayer, the chat panel covers up part of the Accounts panel, blocking the Add Friend input field.
* White wolf coat has a weird white mark at the tip of the tail.

[h2]BETA 3[/h2]

Public Beta: 1.0.6h beta 3 - Released 21 January

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Reduced the wait time to reinforce a scent post from 24 hours to four hours.
* Modest increase in the odds that a grizzly bear will attack pups at the den.
* Establish Territory quest doesn't require a specific territory gain or den discovery action to reach completion. (Previously did, so was possible to meet requirements but not trigger completion.
* Enlarged and adjusted text display on territory hex readouts when all are toggled on.
* Added some anti-cheat measures to multiplayer.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* On World Map, territory hex readout doesn't appear on mouseover (regression in last beta after adding toggle to display all hex readouts).
* Find New Den mission doesn't end properly (regression in last beta).
* Courtship banner for one wolf doesn't match the coat.
* Game accepts keyboard inputs when another app has focus.
* Pack naming GUI displays repeatedly.
* Pup can get stuck in grass and refuse to come out.
* When getting a new mate out of a group of siblings in Slough Creek, the siblings and your new mate turn against each other immediately.

[h2]BETA 4[/h2]

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* If a grown pup has one of the new black coats, it breaks the wolf customization panel.

[h2]BETA 5[/h2]

[h2]KNOWN BUG: [/h2]
Some strangers wolves do not interactable (no Flight/Flight meter, can't bite them).

[h2]BUGS FIXED:[/h2]
* Occasionally you'll get the "Dangerous Territory" alert when marking in the central area of the map.
* On the World Map, some custom markers are rotated based on the player-wolf's orientation in the game world.