WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition News

We're back from Yellowstone National Park, where we had an excellent time exploring the areas where the game is set: Amethyst Mountain, Slough Creek, and Tower Fall, We also met with Dan Stahler, YNP wolf biologist and one of our science advisors for the game. As usual, he had a wealth of fascinating information to guide us as we get deeper into the gameplay and quests for the upcoming Slough Creek mission -- including some hair-raising stories of rival pack raids on pup dens!

We're now back in the thick of it and have been preparing the next patch which has more than fifty bugfixes and tweaks that our amazing Unity developers -- Tommi, Andrei, and Mikko -- did since the last patch. It's going into beta testing today and should be released in the first part of next week.

We have also gotten bug reports on a some issues that appear to be due to computer hardware/software, not the game. Here are some comments on those:

No audio whatsoever: Try uninstalling and then reinstalling your audio drivers (in your Windows Device Manager). That has worked for several people.

No cursor appears when Emotes panel is open: Please try the tips here and let us know if they help.

Game suddenly starts displaying rainbow/psychedelic colors: This seems to happen only on old AMD GPUs. If you see this problem, please try updating your graphics drivers. If that doesn't help, then please email us (bugs 'at' wolfquest.org) so we can try to investigate it with your help.

Strange wolf reflections in water: This may also be fixed by updating your graphics drivers.

Wolf is invisible or a thin black line: This occurs on Intel HD 3000, a very basic integrated graphics chip from 2014. This is below the game's minimum hardware requirements and probably also indicates the game won't run in general.

If you're having other problems, check out our Knowledge Base, which has more troubleshooting tips.

Notes:

• This is the last patch for a few weeks, due to vacations, but we have some new stuff coming in September, plus big features in the coming months like achievements, multiplayer, and eventually Slough Creek and pups.
  
• We are still working on issues with the wolf IK (which currently cause odd body distortions) and we don't need more bug reports on those at the moment.
  
• If the camera lock-on still occurs for you when zooming in or out, try going to Game Settings > Controls > Remap Controls, and click Reset to Default Settings.
  

Fixes:

• Water bodies don't respect fog in Enhanced graphics mode (regression; still doesn't work in Basic mode).
  
• Occasionally a scent trail is extremely old.
  
• Wolf urinates on foot sometimes. (This patch has some refinements to the urine stream, but it's not perfect yet in certain situations and will probably need special coding. Ah, the life of a WolfQuest developer.)
  

Changes:

• Elk now won't stand up just before dying, instead will collapse from prone position.
  

Fixes:
* Some missing text (loading text, damage readouts, FPS readout)
* Frozen or ghost animals.
* Zooming camera in or out locks the camera onto current target.
* Terrain and tree collider tweaks.
* Mate permadeath status not respected in some cases.
* Can't do hold-bite on grizzly bears.
* Some music tracks too loud.
* Fossil forest doesn't respect fog in Basic graphics mode. (Still a known issue with rivers and fog on Basic mode.)
* Coyote can be too aggressive in certain situations.
* Display Resolution doesn't list all monitor resolutions. (Please F11 a report if you still have problems.)
* Possible fix for snowshoe hare texture problems.
* Going to main menu while sleeping brings the vignette effect with it.
* Control remapping panel looks empty (actually just scrolled way down).

Changes:
* Cougar carcasses added.
* Stranger Pack territory colors tweaked for better visibility on world map.
* Refinements to wolf urination effect.
* Wolf claw color tweaks.
* Snow accumulates on boulders. (Not on cliff rocks yets, that's trickier.)
* Minor tweaks to Flight/Flight logic.

EDIT: Now out for Windows and Mac.

https://youtu.be/3vxIprDFi4s

We have released the first episode, Amethyst Mountain for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. While in Early Access, we will be updating the game frequently with more features, multiplayer, and ultimately the Slough Creek episode with pups. The mobile version will come after the game is completed on PC/Mac platforms. We’ll then resume development of the next episode, Tower Fall.

Today’s devblog looks at some bugs (and amusing bug screenshots) that we’ve been busy fixing, plus YouTuber videos, upcoming additions to the game, and of course the next episode, Slough Creek.

If you’re having problems with the game, or would like to read some gameplay tips, check out our Knowledge Base: http://support.wolfquest.org

Connect with other WQ players on various social media: https://support.wolfquest.org/help/wolfquest-on-social-media

Fixes:
* Wolf Customization panel is messed up in last patch, and can't set eye color.
* Game crashes on older CPUs (such as AMD Phenom II X4) -- now fixed!