WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

NOTE: Game saves ARE backward compatible with the last released patch, v2.0.0d. But multiplayer games are NOT backward-compatible, so you can only play with those who have this beta.

See bottom of this page for instructions on opting into the beta.

[h2]Beta 10 - 25 January 2025[/h2]

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS[/h3]
* Pups of the year in a pack that the player joins are now boldfaced in Known Wolves.
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[h2]Beta 9 - 24 January 2025[/h2]

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS[/h3]
* On Known Wolves panel, player-wolf's offspring and siblings are boldfaced.
* Made the Family Tree snap regenerate automatically when mate dies.
* Made subheadings on Pack Info (Mate, Pups, etc.) larger and boldfaced for better readability.

[h3]BUGS FIXED[/h3]
* Packmate's peaceful death notification has placeholder tags.
* Ear and other customizations don't appear on NPC wolves in Scent View.
* The "K" key opens Known Wolves panel but doesn't close it.
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[h2]Beta 8 - 23 January 2025[/h2]

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS[/h3]
* Added "Hexes Claimed" readout below World Map.
* Set Notification History scrollbar default position to the top, now that recent items are at the top.

[h3]BUGS FIXED[/h3]
* Mysterious pups are shown on Family Tree sometimes after joining a rival pack.
* Sometimes tutorial tips disappear too soon.
* Music: SC Exploration Fingerstyle track restarts when switching between moving and idle variations.
* Multiplayer: Can be difficult to bite NPCs when non-host.
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[h2]Beta 7 - 22 January 2025[/h2]

[h3]BUGS FIXED[/h3]
* Player-wolf cannot target or bite snowshoe hares.
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[h2]Beta 6 - 21 January 2025[/h2]

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS[/h3]
* Recent Notifications now shows most recent notifications at top of list.
* Set max weight for pups in Growing Pups quest (to prevent anomalies if player never sleeps).
* Made GP and YH pups' growth affected by hunger (as younger pups are)
* Added tip to Find New Mate subquest: "First, ensure that your Pack Affinity is well above 25% before looking for a new mate, or courtship will fail immediately."
* Prevent regular "Death" music from playing after peaceful death.

[h3]BUGS FIXED[/h3]
* Lost River: Mutt with pointed ears has no animation when doing bite-hold while running.
* Recent Notifications: Some notifications that should be displayed are not.
* Wolf can end up underneath a grizzly when biting it.
* Switching between young and old versions of a coat triggers genome coat randomization.
* World Map sometimes doesn't match season.
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[h2]Beta 4 - 20 January 2025[/h2]

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS[/h3]
* Added some additional texture detail on High Terrain Quality levels in non-winter seasons.
* On Setup New Game, added tooltip about Pup RNG deaths when player changes that selection.
* Prevent NPC wolves from aging up when player is not allowed to age up anymore (i.e. if player ages-up their wolf, then reloads a save from before aging up).

[h3]BUGS FIXED[/h3]
* Game hangs on black screen when recording den memory at end of Raise Pups.
* On World Map, season readout in first half of Growing Pups says Late Spring instead of Late Summer.
* Bison can spawn too close to homesite.
* Multiplayer: Pups not going into the den automatically when the last player at home with them logs off.
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[h2]Beta 3 - 17 January 2025[/h2]

[h3]NEW[/h3]
* Added a few things to help players understand elk seasonal migration: World Map now indicates current season; new common notification in May and December when elk begin their seasonal migration to uplands or valleys, respectively; and Seasons entry in Game Help.
* Pup RNG Death pulldown now displays a green dot indicating how it's set in the current game. (Since the pulldown only affects the next litter, the checkmark can be misleading, so now the green dot makes it clear what is currently in effect.)

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS[/h3]
* Made rival wolf health persistent if despawned and respawned.
* Made pups stop for a few moments. when an adult approaches.
* Made lost pups look at the adults that found them longer
* Added more non-creek names for rival packs and dispersal origin packs on each map.
* Increased the odds that a subordinate becomes a pack leader after the leader dies, preventing the pack from disbanding.
* Known Wolves: Update pack name when meeting them again, in case name has changed since first meet (I.e. useful for packs that player joined, renamed, then also left).
* For Survival of the Pack quests, the difficulty level is now reset when pups are born (so if you want to get the achievement on a different difficulty than you've been playing on, you now can, as long as you switch it before pups are born.)
* Refactored some persistent pack mode to make it cleaner and more robust.
* Added info about elk migrations to Raise Pups and Young Hunters quest tips.
* Allow dispersals to respond to player howls even when in rival territory (50% of the time).
* Increased subordinate dispersing in December if there are many pups of the year.
* Do not allow new rival packs to select locked hexes as initial hex or home
* Only trigger Bloodlines achievement on player offspring, not siblings.
* Reduced volume of new hex sound effect.

[h3]BUGS FIXED[/h3]
* Multiplayer: Forever Favorite achievement doesn't unlock when it should.
* Multiplayer: "Host Transferring" alert can get stuck onscreen, preventing the transfer.
* Step-siblings from one player-parent's old family also triggers achievements that involve siblings unless they were raised by a player.
* Rival wolves do lurking behaviors right next to the player. (They got mixed up about the type of fight they're engaged in.)
* Chain barking by packmates when player barks.
* World Map legend doesn't display den types on maps other than Slough Creek.
* Starting a new game with a wolf that just aged up lets them age up again in their first year.
* Adult packmates eat pups' food when moving to a new homesite.
* When rival wolves chase you to an empty hex, they immediately take it and then decide you're still intruding, causing them to chasing you across the map.
* Player can get "Guard Dog" achievement (gained for repelling an invasion) for a fight in neutral territory without invasion icon, at a time when you don't even have territory.
* Error interferes with file sync process.
* Carcasses in shallow water often unreachable to NPC animals.
* In July, game can freeze for a few seconds periodically due to an error from a elk calf scent particle.
* Player can age up again when starting a new game with a wolf that already aged up in another playthrough.
* World Map sometimes doesn't update after change of season.
* Pups don't do contact interactions (wrestling, jaw sparring, etc.)
* Bloodlines achievement breaks after moving maps.
* Den Memory perk doesn't work on dens off current map.
* Steam version of game doesn't remember DLC purchases for a few weeks since last account login.
* Multiplayer: Wrong text on Establish Territory quest intro.

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[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.

Last year was all about the WolfQuest Saga. We finally released it last month. Now it's 2025 -- what are looking to accomplish this year for WolfQuest?

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

First, of course, is expanding multiplayer with Saga quests. We have some plans but nothing to share yet about specific multiplayer modes. But we've already started by doing some code revisions to make some new Saga features work more cleanly in multiplayer. Once these are done, we can dive into actual MP development. So stay tuned!

With the Saga out, we can also start looking things that have long been our wishlist -- like bison herds! Finally, those old bulls will get some company. We won't have the vast herds that you can see in Yellowstone (for performance limitations), but we do want to add small herds with cows and calves. Bison respond differently than other ungulates to wolf attacks, so with some new AI behaviors for the bison, these herds will offer a new challenge for players.

And Tower Fall is now back on track. We set it aside three years ago, to avoid (or at least minimize) confusion between the Saga and this DLC map, but now we can turn our attention back to the map. Due to the topography, this map is rectangular rather than square, nine by six kilometers. It encompasses the actual Tower Fall waterfall in the northeast corner and extends south to Mount Washburn in the south. Along the eastern edge is the Yellowstone River canyon, and extending eastward is Antelope Creek Watershed -- a vast upland area of rolling hills and valleys. Plenty of room to chase elk herds!

What else? We have plenty of ideas, of course, and we'll share more as we go. But we won't be publishing devblogs biweekly this year. It takes time to create a devblog, so we'll do them only when we have something to share. So stay tuned for updates throughout the year!

[h3]BUG FIXED[/h3]
* When ironwolf dies of non-peaceful death, if you click the FINISH GAME button, the "Are you sure?" confirmation appears only briefly, and if you don't click on it instantly, it disappears and you are stuck, forcing you to quit the game.

This is a hotfix for the bug below. We don't expect it to break anything, but please submit a bug report if you notice that it does break something (and then switch out of the beta until we can fix that). Thanks!

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

See bottom of this page for instructions on opting into the beta.

[h2]BETA 1[/h2]

[h3]BUG FIXED[/h3]
* When ironwolf dies of non-peaceful death, if you click the FINISH GAME button, the "Are you sure?" confirmation appears only briefly, and if you don't click on it instantly, it disappears and you are stuck, forcing you to quit the game.


_____________________
[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.

[h3]NEW:[/h3]
* Added new "Recent Notifications" section in Quests panel, which shows notifications from current game session. (Not saved for future game sessions.)
* Added "Are you sure?" popup to confirm Permanent Death panel's "Finish" button.

[h3]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h3]
* Reduced hold attack duration if it can't find a bite point, to avoid long pauses in action.
* Affinity bar on Wolf Badge: Indicates current Affinity cap (e.g. capped at 75% when solo parent).
* Persistent Packs: Make packs with no territory prefer their first hex to be in vacant territory far from others.
* Wolf Customization: Allow radio collar for yearling player-wolves.
* Prevent pups from responding to contact play while in bad shape.
* Increased pup raid and invasion frequency and difficulty when player-pack is large.
* Increased chances of pups leaving tall grass during pup raids.
* Increased damage from critical hits on Young Hunter pups.
* Improved NPC wolf behavior when choosing a bite point when close to prey and competitors.
* Reduced hold attack duration if it can't find a bite point, to avoid long pauses in action.

[h3]BUGS FIXED:[/h3]
* Packmates passive when player bites a beaver.
* Known Wolves panel: when selecting the top map section, game doesn't scroll all the way up to make sure the headings are not partially hidden.
* Packmates try to go to rest at the homesite, even when on a hunting trip.
* Calves can get stuck doing "Follow Mother" action when doing routine actions.
* Scent posts disappear when placed inside navgrid contours.
* Packmates can get stuck while on excursion.
* Most recent year dens are not remembered when not having the good memory perk (only if not moving maps).
* Wolves will court an incompatible mate (i.e. same sex, siblings) in rare coincidence with random number generation.
* Save corruption with current mission (e.g. Find Mate trial gets stuck at 99%).
* NPCs don't reliably start a bite-hold attack when close to opponent during predator fight.
* Popup claims a pack leader is ready for courtship, even when they're not interested in the player and it's actually subordinates you'll be courting.
* Pup or hare being ignored while in someone's mouth.
* Mate succession causes subordinate wolves to be listed as siblings.
* Can get stuck on invisible pup dispersing panel.
* Trial mates getting flagged as former player-wolf (resulting in pack code thinking they are a former leader dispersing if player later on courts their origin pack leader).
* Corrupted save with player-pack added to NPC hunting parties.
* In Game Settings, Display tab: Windowed mode does not show correct resolution initially.
* Hex Invasion: Compass icon doesn't appear if invading pack is on far opposite side of the map.
* Two newlywed packs fight over the same initial hex forever.
* Hellroaring: Call the Wild collectible doesn't spawn in fall season. (Should spawn now even in saved games.)
* Rival wolves are sometimes slightly skewed when chasing target.
* Some games stall when loading saves named a certain way.
* Packmate tries to take a hare carcass home during a hunting trip.* Packmates are often not very active during showdown with ungulates.
* Courtship: can be difficult to get past initial Suspicious phase (especially with rival pack leaders).
* Pup Sick notification may not appear if triggered just before Growing Pups quest ends.
* Pups At Den music jumping between clips while pups emerge from den at the start of Raise Pups.
* Game Help texts: added F/F meter to Rival Wolf Pack entry, corrected mouse glyph on Movement Controls; added more info about Bad Shape pups.
* An interaction between dreaming and turning HUD option to OFF could make notification blocked until HUD is visible again.
* Minor terrain and water issues.