WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

An essential (and enjoyable) part of making game maps for WolfQuest is visiting the real locations, so we can see, feel, and sometimes smell what they're really like. We've visited the Tower Fall area on all four of our visits to the park since 2017 -- and most of the shots in today's video come from that first video, when we were still thinking of Tower Fall as the next episode of the game. Now, of course, with the saga out, Tower Fall is simply another DLC map, coming later this year.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The Tower Fall map is west of the main game maps and south of Hellroaring Mountain. Back when we started planning this map, it was going to be square and only 4x4km (which is what we were originally planning for all the game maps). But we soon expanded that to 7x7km -- and then, looking at the topography of this area, we realized that this needed to be rectangular rather than square. So now the map extends from the actual Tower Fall waterfall in the north corner of the map to Mount Washburn in the southwest corner.

In our visits, we hiked down to the Tower Creek-Yellowstone confluence, and up along the Yellowstone River shore, and along Tower Creek above the fall -- but we could not hike into the heart of the map. Almost all of that area, the main extent of the Antelope Creek watershed, is a Bear Management Area, where hiking is not allowed. But at least we have main Grand Loop Road that runs the length of the game map. It offers some spectacular views of Antelope Creek and its tributaries. Wide open spaces, rolling grasslands with patches of forest -- just what wolves like!

We'll share more about the Tower Fall map development as we go, so stay tuned!

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Player-wolf gets stuck if attacked while outside map border.
* Multiplayer: Revive doesn't work in some situations, especially on Lost River ranch.
* Map-moving stalls if a persistent wolf somehow gets destroyed while in off-map storage.
* Rival pack homesites shuffled up if returning to a map with an ex-player pack.

NOTE: Game saves ARE backward compatible with the last released patch, v2.0.0f. Multiplayer games are also backward-compatible, so you can only play with those who are on that version.

[h2]BETA 1[/h2]

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Player-wolf gets stuck if attacked while outside map border.
* Multiplayer: Revive doesn't work in some situations, especially on Lost River ranch.
* Map-moving stalls if a persistent wolf somehow gets destroyed while in off-map storage.
* Rival pack homesites shuffled up if returning to a map with an ex-player pack.

[h2]v2.0.0f Released on 14 February 2025[/h2]

[h3]NEW:[/h3]
* Wolves will gather round a dead packmate to mourn for a minute or two.
* When leaving a map, rival packs may now move to another game map instead of moving away entirely.
* Load/Save Game Panels: Added "Autosaves" toggle in the Filter pulldown (to show or hide autosave files).
* On Steam Deck, new tips about controls remapping added to Game Help and on Game Settings>Controls panel.
* On Load/Save Game Panel, added Pack Name (only appears after saving again now).

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Enabled NPC wolves to use all laying down poses.
* Prevent rival packs from using same name as player has given their pack (if player used a name that happens to be on the rival pack name list).
* Initial pack names are now randomly selected from larger set of potential pack names.
* Improved Known Wolves system to track more reasons for Departed Wolves and fix some previously "ambiguously guessed" departure reasons.
* Tweaked player-wolf courtship, making NPCs initiate courtship less frequently and socialize with each other more.
* Prevent offspring from dispersing while the player-wolf is dying.
* Refinements to courtship, when there are several siblings courting the player, to make them pay more attention to the player-wolf and less to each other. (Rebalancing needed after recent revision.)
* Reworked wind sound effect triggers to prevent overlapping audio that sounds odd or metallic.
* On MacOS: Newer Macs support 3D Clouds, so if you toggle those on, that setting is preserved now.
* Persistent Packs: Update pack status and leader roles after gaining final mate and prevent Courtables Nearby notification showing after trial success if courtables are spawned near player and mate.
* Automatically save wolf when bio is edited in Pack Info panel (mainly needed in MP games).
* Prevent pack progression issues when player packs becomes NPC after dispersing.
* Added new quest text for Survive With Family if you join a rival pack without pups.
* Improved countdown timer accuracy in Find Mate quest panel.
* Greatly improved reliability of fallback method for registering an achievement -- if the game fails to connect to the WQ server when an achievement is unlocked, it should be much more reliable now to save and reload so the game can try registering it again. This should also work for multiple achievements, so you can play offline and the game should unlock any achievements unlocked when you're next logged in and load that save.
* Increased odds of Original White coat on NPC wolves.
* Refactored some pack code for efficiency when checking for Dynasty achievement.
* Greatly reduced odds of dispersing for old wolves in the player's pack.
* Reduced chances of grizzlies finding carcass, and increased chances for other competitors.
* Prevent "Pool Party" achievement from being unlocked when waterfall pond is iced over.
* Refactor player-action-controller subsystem to make action selection and interruption more reliable.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Sick Pup notification sound effects don't play when sleeping.
* "Clear Departed Wolves" confirmation notification doesn't appear when dreaming.
* Pup sickness notification can appear at the very start of Young Hunters (because it was in the queue before Growing Pups ended), and then the pup recovers instantly.
* Lost River: Some errors when switching to play as Carmella.
* If there's food in a grass patch, pups will eat one bite and fall asleep.
* Dispersals can eat player's food after being rejected in courtship. (Possible fix, was not able to reproduce.)
* Dead pup floats below player-wolf's mouth when being carried.
* Outdated injury readout in Pack Info.
* Scent particles stop spawning and moving with the wind.
* Moving to another map after the end date of a quest can cause problems. (From report about Find Mate jumping from February to October.)
* Missing quest text if in Survive with Family quest with siblings, then they leave or die after player gets a mate.
* New packs fight over same initial hex if both are close by.
* In wolf fights, power balancing sometimes doesn't work correctly, leading to unbalanced fights.
* Animals sometimes have snow on them when they shouldn't.
* In some cases, Family Tree's wolf mate history doesn't work correctly.
* Player pack wolves not set as dead in pack's Family Tree upon dying.
* Player pack doesn't retain origin pack info after map moving.
* Beavers teleport when biting the wolf.
* Barking while moving and targeting an animal doesn't work.
* Improved logic when moving maps with trial mate.
* Player-wolf can get stuck under grizzly (fixing another aspect of this).

v2.0.0f - Public Beta now available for Windows and Mac! See instructions at bottom on how to opt into the public beta.

NOTE: Game saves are NOT backward compatible with the last released patch, v2.0.0e, so if you switch back to that version, any saves made in this beta will be hidden (until this patch is released). Multiplayer games are also NOT backward-compatible, so you can only play with those who have this beta.


[h2]BETA 13[/h2]

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Multiplayer: Season sometimes does not progress when moving from Establish Territory to Find Den (and possibly other quest transitions).
* Save/Load Game panel: Autosave filter misses some saves.
_____________________

[h2]BETA 12[/h2]

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Refinements to courtship, when there are several siblings courting the player, to make them pay more attention to the player-wolf and less to each other. (Rebalancing needed after recent revision.)
* Reworked wind sound effect triggers to prevent overlapping audio that sounds odd or metallic.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Known Wolves: Wolves leaving with mates marked as leaving with parent (fixed another cause of this bug).
* Known Wolves: In Departed Wolves, reason for departure gets lost after moving maps.
* Scent particles stop spawning and moving with the wind.
* New packs fight over same initial hex if both are close by.
_____________________

[h2]BETA 11[/h2]

[h3]NEW:[/h3]
* On Load/Save Game Panel, added Pack Name (only appears after saving again now).

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* On MacOS: Newer Macs support 3D Clouds, so if you toggle those on, that setting is preserved now.
* Persistent Packs: Update pack status and leader roles after gaining final mate and prevent Courtables Nearby notification showing after trial success if courtables are spawned near player and mate.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Duplicate pack names in some situations with dispersed pups.
* In wolf fights, power balancing sometimes doesn't work correctly, leading to unbalanced fights.
_____________________

[h2]BETA 10[/h2]

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* New music track when pack is mourning a dead packmate.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* NPC wolves get stuck during bite-hold, won't release.
* Known Wolves: New pack leaders are listed as Moved Away with Parents if moving away to a different map.
* Moving to another map after the end date of a quest can cause problems. (From report about Find Mate jumping from February to October.)
* Missing quest text if in Survive with Family quest with siblings, then they leave or die after player gets a mate.
* Mourning music keeps playing if den raid or other important events interrupt it.
_____________________

[h2]BETA 9[/h2]

[h3]NEW:[/h3]
* Wolves will gather round a dead packmate to mourn for a minute or two. (Music is currently Companionship/TLC track pending new track.)
* When leaving a map, rival packs may now move to another game map instead of moving away entirely.
* Load/Save Game Panels: Added "Autosaves" toggle in the Filter pulldown (to show or hide autosave files).
* On Steam Deck, new tips about controls remapping added to Game Help and on Game Settings>Controls panel.

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Enabled NPC wolves to use all laying down poses.
* Prevent rival packs from using same name as player has given their pack (if player used a name that happens to be on the rival pack name list).
* Initial pack names are now randomly selected from larger set of potential pack names.
* Improved Known Wolves system to track more reasons for Departed Wolves and fix some previously "ambiguously guessed" departure reasons.
* Tweaked player-wolf courtship, making NPCs initiate courtship less frequently and socialize with each other more.
* Prevent offspring from dispersing while the player-wolf is dying.
* Automatically save wolf when bio is edited in Pack Info panel (mainly needed in MP games).
* Prevent pack progression issues when player packs becomes NPC after dispersing.
* Added new quest text for Survive With Family if you join a rival pack without pups.
* Improved countdown timer accuracy in Find Mate quest panel.
* Greatly improved reliability of fallback method for registering an achievement -- if the game fails to connect to the WQ server when an achievement is unlocked, it should be much more reliable now to save and reload so the game can try registering it again. This should also work for multiple achievements, so you can play offline and the game should unlock any achievements unlocked when you're next logged in and load that save.
* Increased odds of Original White coat on NPC wolves.
* Refactored some pack code for efficiency when checking for Dynasty achievement.
* Greatly reduced odds of dispersing for old wolves in the player's pack.
* Reduced chances of grizzlies finding carcass, and increased chances for other competitors.
* Prevent "Pool Party" achievement from being unlocked when waterfall pond is iced over.
* Refactor player-action-controller subsystem to make action selection and interruption more reliable.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Sick Pup notification sound effects don't play when sleeping.
* "Clear Departed Wolves" confirmation notification doesn't appear when dreaming.
* Pup sickness notification can appear at the very start of Young Hunters (because it was in the queue before Growing Pups ended), and then the pup recovers instantly.
* Lost River: Some errors when switching to play as Carmella.
* If there's food in a grass patch, pups will eat one bite and fall asleep.
* Dispersals can eat player's food after being rejected in courtship. (Possible fix, was not able to reproduce.)
* Dead pup floats below player-wolf's mouth when being carried.
* Outdated injury readout in Pack Info.
* Animals sometimes have snow on them when they shouldn't.
* In some cases, Family Tree's wolf mate history doesn't work correctly.
* Player pack wolves not set as dead in pack's Family Tree upon dying.
* Player pack doesn't retain origin pack info after map moving.
* Beavers teleport when biting the wolf.
* Barking while moving and targeting an animal doesn't work.
* Improved logic when moving maps with trial mate.
* Player-wolf can get stuck under grizzly (fixing another aspect of this).


_____________________
[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.