WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

This beta is now available for Windows computers in the WQ:AE Public Beta branch (see instructions at bottom of this post.)

In this beta, game saves and wolves are backward-compatible with the last released version (1.0.7j3), so switch back and forth without any problems, but Multiplayer is NOT compatible with 1.0.7m so players can only see games hosted by others on the same version.

[h2]Beta 1[/h2]

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Stamina drain added when carrying a pup. Added to deter players from doing companionship with sick pup while marking territory, and looking ahead, to somewhat deter malicious players in SCMP from taking pups far from homesite.
* Adjusted max speed when catching up to prey, should make it slightly easier for players to bite mule deer, and noticeably easier for mates.
* Increased chances of pup death from sickness if player doesn't spend time with them, and refined pup sickness odds to vary the timing of sickness and make second sickness less likely.
* Douglas-fir trees in Amethyst look a bit better, not as dark.
* Improved pace of snow accumulation on trees in Amethyst.
* Added note on World Map indicated hex diameter.
* On Family Tree panel, moved Delete button to avoid accidental clicking (though there is a confirmation dialog too).
* Added more waypoint-paths at northwest rock den for entering and exiting den.
* Adjusted meat chunk collider so wolves don't float above it when lying down.
* Slightly increased the allowed duration of single spacebar taps (to make it more forgiving when trying to eat).

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Airborne scents stop moving and spawning in certain situations (probably fixed).
* When creating new Amethyst MP game, some options for SC MP (coming soon) are displayed.
* Mate frozen at edge of Lost River map.
* When mates attempt to help in a beaver ambush when bison (better prey) are nearby, they wiggle and won't bite beaver.
* Beaver does twitchy in-place turn instead of spin turn when attacked.
* Beaver carcass is missing fur on both sides when partially consumed.
* Sometimes beavers get stuck on lodge.
* Beavers sometimes get stuck going in circles.
* Pups pile around the same food chunk even if there are others more easily accessible.
* NPC animals can get stuck where boulders or trees are very close together.
* If you do secondary howl to call mate to your location, it will eat any food it comes upon, rather than leaving some for pups.
* In certain situations, game freezes while sleeping.
* Pup gets stuck running in circles near beaver dam.
* Pup going in circles trying to cross river (and other similar cases, no doubt).
* Cow elk freezes when health drops and it cannot find another action to do.
* Yellowstone features boneless mule deer carcasses.
* Ambient blowing snow particles aren't visible.
* Wolf Bio: can't select text in bottom rows of text.
* Wrong eye color if you switch from Basic to Enhanced graphics mode during Photo Mode.
* MP game name appears in top-left corner of Perks panel.
* Odd object in lower left corner in Newborn den scene.
* Sometimes no music plays when the Hide & Snack music should play.
* Airborne scents move too slowly in high winds.
* Adjusted meat chunk collider so wolves don't float above it when lying down.
* Increased odds of pup dying from sickness (but no change to odds if player stays with pup).
* Mule deer don't respect fur setting in Graphics Quality.
* Snow accumulates on sides of animals sometimes.
* Grizzly rubs against den if all pups are inside.
* Typos.
* Terrain and water issues.

[h2]BETA 2[/h2]

[h3]NEW: [/h3]
Feeding pups now gives a small boost to pack affinity (and why wouldn't it?)

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Pups don't follow player when moving to new den or rendezvous site.
* Dead tree in Lamar Valley has striped bark.
* Problems ensue if player goes to sleep while Den Discovered alert is onscreen, just before Name Your Pack appears.
* Beavers can get stuck by beaver dam when trying to flee.
* Beavers sometimes cross overland instead of following a trail.
* Beavers behave erratically if spawned while player-wolf is sleeping.
* No wolf or pup preview in Family Tree panel.
* Eagles get stuck on ground or in rocks.

[h2]BETA 3[/h2]

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Order of perks is inconsistent from one age subpanel to the next.
* Lost River: Van Winkle scent posts are floating above ground and beyond map's edge.
* Some remaining issues with Hide & Snack music triggers.
* Photo Mode camera icon doesn't appear.
______________________________________________


[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.

It's time for another chance to win a free copy of WolfQuest! 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).

If you prefer, you can choose the new Yellowstone Wolf Coat DLC (only for WolfQuest: AE for PC/Mac) or the WolfQuest Soundtrack and Music Extras.

[h2]How to Enter[/h2]
Email your username (any username is fine, we just have to know what to call the winners) and your answer to the question: "What are three interesting facts about wolves?" to the email address [email protected]

[h2]Deadline[/h2]
All entries must be received before midnight (Eastern Daylight Time) on Tuesday, November 23, 2021.

[h2]Random Drawing[/h2]
Winners are selected randomly from complete entries. Please enter only once in each monthly contest. Each complete entry will be assigned a number. We will then use a random-number generator to generate three numbers. The entries bearing those numbers will each win a free copy of the game.

[h3]IMPROVEMENT:[/h3]
* Switched to colorblind-safe colors for Slough Creek territory map (somehow still had original colors from Amethyst).

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Player-wolf and NPCs sometimes have trouble finding the shortest path to nearby object like carcass or food chunk.
* Elk mother circling wolf and calf without attacking, and several other elk pathfinding bugs.
* Sometimes birds are motionless in sky.
* In certain circumstances, game gets stuck on black screen when Raise Pups quest ends.
* HUD resizes when launching the game each time.
* Some invisible obstacles in Amethyst.
* On some graphics cards, wet aspen leaves look bluish.
* Dead pup lying on ground has one eye open.
* Mule deer and cougar can't reach thair maximum flee speeds.
* Multiplayer: when joining a game, sometimes camera doesn't swing around behind the player-wolf.
* Wolf moves too fast when stalking.
* In Lost River, several stranger wolf scent posts are floating high in the air on the east border.
* Ranger crew cleared logs from Slough Creek wagon trail, and did it properly this time.
* Animals sometimes have non-glowing areas in Scent View.
* There are some whitebark pine trees in Lamar Valley.
* On Basic Vegetation mode, there are no willow bushes in Lamar Valley.
* One type of fescue grass has poorly-chosen LOD settings.
* Light snow appears oddly on leaves of creekside aspens in Amethyst.
* One spawn location for handbag is too close to a tree to be picked up.
* Controls Remapper fails after specific sequence of remappings.
* Typo.
* Terrain and water issues.

This beta is now available for Windows computers in the WQ:AE Public Beta branch (see instructions at bottom of this post.) In this beta, game saves and wolves ARE backward-compatible with the last released version (1.0.7la), so switch back and forth without any problems. Multiplayer is also compatible with 1.0.7k, so you can play with other players who have 1.0.7la.

NOTE: Beta 4 has debug code to help us understand why the floating scents occasionally freeze up and stop moving in the wind, so if this happens to you, please press F11 to submit a bug report.

[h2]Public Beta: v1.0.7m Beta 1[/h2]

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Player-wolf and NPCs sometimes have trouble finding the shortest path to nearby object like carcass or food chunk.
* In certain circumstances, game gets stuck on black screen when Raise Pups quest ends.
* Some invisible obstacles in Amethyst.
* On some graphics cards, wet aspen leaves look bluish.
* Dead pup lying on ground has one eye open.
* Mule deer and cougar can't reach their maximum flee speeds.
* Ranger crew cleared logs from Slough Creek wagon trail, and did it properly this time.
* Animals sometimes have no-glow areas in Scent View.
* There are some whitebark pine trees in Lamar Valley.
* On Basic Vegetation mode, there are no willow bushes in Lamar Valley
* Light snow appears oddly on leaves of creekside aspens in Amethyst.

[h2]Beta 2[/h2]

[h3]IMPROVEMENT:[/h3]
* Switched to colorblind-safe colors for Slough Creek territory map (somehow still had original colors from Amethyst).

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Elk mother circling wolf and calf without attacking, and several other elk pathfinding bugs.
* Sometimes birds are motionless in sky.
* HUD resizes when launching the game each time.
* One spawn location for handbag is too close to a tree to be picked up.
* Controls Remapper fails after specific sequence of remappings.

[h2]Beta 3[/h2]

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Wolf won't stop moving after grabbing hare or newborn ungulate.
* One type of fescue grass has poorly-chosen LOD settings.
* Typo.

[h2]Beta 4[/h2]

[h3]BUG FIXED:[/h3]
* When joining multiplayer game, sometimes camera doesn't swing around behind the player-wolf.

[h2]Beta 5[/h2]

[h3]BUG FIXED:[/h3]
* Popup dialogs (in Age Perks, when overwriting a save, etc.) don't appear when they should, so player can get stuck.

______________________________________________


[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.

Patch 1.0.7l is now available for Windows and Mac on Steam and via the WQ game launcher. Watch the most recent devblog More Flora and Nimbler Navigation for an overview of the main improvements.

[h3]NPC PATHFINDING, OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE, AND MOVEMENT IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* These systems have been overhauled to be more robust. This should eliminate a lot of issues with NPCs becoming stuck at boulders, and they should be much more adept at avoiding boulders, especially when running (i.e. elk fleeing predators).

[h3]VEGETATION AND ENVIRONMENT IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* New vegetation added: snowberry and huckleberry bushes in the woods, autumn maple saplings along creeks in Amethyst, fireweed and red paintbrush in Slough Creek meadows.
* Added a new option on Game Settings > Graphics Quality> Grass and Bush Diversity. What was "High" is now "Medium" and has some of the new vegetation, and the new "High" option has more of it at greater densities.
* A few junipers added on rocky outcrops around Slough Creek.
* Increased the forest ground clutter with more and bigger logs, more tree stumps, etc.
* Switched to a better tree shader for visual improvements.
* Rendezvous Site quests now extend into August, when terrain greenery is starting to fade and snowberry and huckleberry bushes have berries.
* Removed lodgepole pines from shady north-facing slopes and made them grow in clusters on sunnier slopes elsewhere.
* Rain and snow are more affected now by strong winds, falling at an angle.
* Refinements to fog fade in/out timing and speed when weather changes.
* Added strong wind and distant thunder sound effects when a storm is approaching.
* Improved cliff rocks at head of Boulder Canyon (just below First Meadow) and a few other places.
* Added a few more boulders to Boulder Canyon.

[h3]OTHER IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Family Tree: Pup preview now indicates if pup is male or female.
* On Setup New Game panel, removed option to show dead wolves, and to keep Ironwolf difficulty level for each ironwolf.
* When viewing customization panel for grown pup, you can now scroll down to see which coat it has (but you still can't change the coat).
* When filtering games and wolves in main menu, cursor is now automatically placed in the search field so you don't have to click there before typing.
* Quest music for Find a Den will now play more often when in that quest.
* Added Login panel to game scenes (so you can log anywhere, not just in the main menu).
* More cleaned-up audio by SkyRIder: Pup whines, whimpers, and howls, and distant ambient sounds.
* Elk now lose energy somewhat faster when fleeing and will slow down sooner This is to rebalance the elk hunt now that the elk run at their maximum speed more reliably due to better obstacle avoidance.
* Minor reductions to memory load.
* Graphics quality pulldown is finally long enough to show all options without scrolling.
* After deleting a wolf in main menu, wolf carousel stays on nearby wolf instead of resetting.
* Halloween comes to Slough Creek.
* Clear wolf filtering when browsing Family Tree, to avoid confusion when returning to the wolf carousel.
* Increased decay time for carcasses (generally about 50% longer now).
* In Game Controls, added a toggle to invert orbit camera X axis
* On Load Saved Game, added readout for game map.
* On Load Game panel, you can now close the Filter pulldown by clicking anywhere outside of it.
* Adjusted camera swing-back movement after releasing right-click orbit, to return steering control to player more quickly.
* Refinements to snow accumulation/melting timing and speed on trees and terrain.
* On World Map, territory hex readouts are easier to read.
* Scent readout for individual elk indicates type of elk as well as herd.
* Refined the music logic for triggering Ride of the Wapiti (elk hunt) tracks.

[h3]MULTIPLAYER IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Pack Stats indicates which players are sleeping.
* Players in Limbo cannot be attacked by competitors or take damage from any NPC.
* Map markers for other players are now blue (to make them easier to differentiate from den icons in Slough Creek).

[h3]CONTROLLER IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Revised thumbstick movements in game panels, e.g. left/right now stays in header-button row and you must move down to jump down to main area of each panel.
* Added Emote Favorite to Controls Remapping.
* Added tip in Game Help about how to Fast Heal (in multiplayer) when using controller.
* When controller is enabled, default to Controller subpanel on Remap panel.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Pups almost never die of sickness.
* If camera is low to ground, grass is visible through World Map is opened.
* When inside the den, fur is enabled even if disabled in Graphics settings.
* Unexpected error alert appears without cause.
* Dead pup is not positioned correctly in parent's mouth when being carried. (Also, the pup's eyes are open, creepy!)
* Wolves kick up snow when running on snowless riverbank pebbles.
* Rusty Bowl collectible object is not quite positioned correctly in wolf's mouth.
* File Sync issues, especially with disabling the syncing.
* Occasionally hare switches to wrong coat after dying.
* Hare has winter coat in Lost River if you play long enough in multiplayer.
* Can get stuck on Pack Info panel if trying to add friends while it is open.
* If another notification happens to be triggered while on the Age Perks panel at the end of Find a Den quest, you are stuck and cannot proceed.
* Sometimes when deleting multiple saved games, the wrong games are deleted.
* Remapping ESC key to some other function causes problems.
* Music cue for sick pup doesn't play.
* Sometimes rain falls only in a small area away from the player-wolf.
* In the Family Tree, if you choose a grown pup in the carousel, and then go up, up, up through the generations to the original parent wolf, and then choose another of that wolf's mates in the upper left pulldown, the panel layout breaks.
* Sometimes the scroll bar disappears on the wolf bio in wolf customization.
* Some carcasses don't glow sometimes.
* In Lost River, issues with Quest and Roaming music tracks.
* When a competitor grabs a pup, it drops it if the player comes close to it.
* Multiplayer: Sometimes other players don't have nametags (possible fix, please report if you see this still happening).
* Sometimes wolf coat changes when emerging from den.
* Buggy behavior with graphics-VRAM warning alert.
* Dead mate is shown in Setup New Slough Creek game if they were still alive in any Family Tree.
* Hare carcasses do not decay and despawn properly.
* World Map with territories displayed sometimes is grayscale.
* Footsteps and other sound effects keep playing when game is paused.
* Occasionally wolves sink into the ground.
* In Family Tree, pup animations in preview panel don't blend smoothly from one to the next.
* On some computers, part of the 3D wolf preview in the Family Tree is translucent.
* Sound of rainfall can occur without rain falling.
* Some interface elements are misplaced on certain screen resolutions.
* 3D wolf on peaceful death screen is placeholder, not player wolf.
* Issues with account registration and login.
* Oil Lamp collectible item does not show correct text when found.
* Age Perks are inaccessible to controller.
* Wolf attributes are not listed consistently on various interface panels.
* Occasionally the targeting arrow is not aligned above targeted animal.
* Snow appears on animals when it hasn't been snowing.
* Can't remove player from a pack.
* Terrain and water issues.