1.0.7 Public Beta (beta 20, released 18 April) is now available in the Steam Public Beta branch (See instructions below on how to access it.) Currently available for Windows. We will make a Mac beta in a day or two.
NOTE: MP version incremented, so you can't play with others who are on the last released version. Any saved games from this version will not work in the previous version, due to many changes and additions, but saves that you have not opened in the beta will work in the previous version.
NEW:
- Age Perks system offers a selection of physical, clout, and wisdom bonuses for each year of your wolf's life. Once a year, you have the option to advance your wolf in age by one year and select from a new set of perks. On your birthday (in April, just before your pups are born) you will be presented with the Age Perks menu, where you can view all of the Age Perks available at each age. You can select up to three new Age Perks if you wish to advance to the next age. If you advance through the years, your final choice will be whether to advance to age eight, which will make your wolf an Elder Wolf who at some point will die. (More info in Game Help: Age Perks)
- Ironwolf mode: In the real world, wolves are one false move or unlucky kick away from death. Now you too can live life on the edge by choosing Ironwolf mode when creating a wolf. This is a hardcore mode for players who really want to live the life of a wild wolf. Irownolves have only one save, and upon dying will be permanently dead. (More info in Game Help: Ironwolf)
- Beavers now live along the Lamar River, Slough Creek, and in the Lost River beaver pond. They are most active at dawn and dusk. When you find a beaver trail, follow the tutorial tip to lie in wait and (hopefully) ambush one.
See recent news announcements for more about Age Perks, Ironwolf, and beavers.
IMPROVEMENTS:
- Scents: New system for floating scents and ground scent tracks. This should look just like the old scent system, but without some problems that the old system caused (slow performance on Intel integrated graphics; on some newer GPUs, fter several hours of playing, screen sometimes would go black, or possibly white, or screwy in some way).
- Revised adaptive music system: Eliminates bugs with out-of-sync tracks. Also modest reduction in memory load from music tracks.
- Enabled headlook when wolf is sitting and lying down (latter only in initial pose).
- Trees in Basic Sky & Vegetation mode move more appropriately with the wind.
- Tweaks to snow coverage on trees (Enhanced mode only).
- Aspen trees in LR now have fall colors, as they did in WQ Classic.
- Scent tracks now disappear quickly when the source dies. (The way they persisted longer was a feature of the new scent system, but it is understandably frustrating, so now they fade at a faster rate. We don't want to remove them instantly or you get the "scent tracks disappear suddenly" bug which is also annoying.)
- New Amethyst episode intro text when starting a new game with an experienced wolf.
- New shader on big glacial erratics (boulders), hopefully will eliminate occasional harsh look to them.
- Distant views of landscape are nicer (smoother and softer ground cover, using linear blends instead of heightmap blends).
- Added bite-sfx when biting beaver, fox, and coyote. * Music ducks (in volume) when alert sounds play.
BUGS FIXED:
- Multiplayer: Client wolf in stranger territory is not teleported to host when host forces sleep.
- Multiplayer: Host-triggered sleep fails if a client wolf has a meat chunk in mouth.
- When loading MP save, sometimes you get the SP Setup options instead of the MP options.
- Renaming a wolf by only changing the case will result in wolf name being "NPC wolf" in-game.
- Sometimes the family snapshot prompts can appear incorrectly while playing.
- Pups can get stuck, motionless, when swimming against the current.
- Sometimes pups follow mate when the "Raise pups" quest starts.
- Sometimes pups will go into flooded den on their own accord, even when they refuse if so commanded.
- Invisible wolf attacks player-wolf.
- In certain situations, camera gets stuck circling above the pack after the end of Journey to Rendezvous Site quest.
- Increased hunger threshold on mate so they will eat even if not very hungry.
- DLC coats are somewhat more likely, instead of very more likely, to be assigned to dispersal wolves and pups.
- Permanent bull elk carcass near LR spawn point.
- One meat chunk floats out in front of the wolf's mouth.
- Water clips in headcam and scent view.
- No grass or sage on Lamar River island.
- Many terrain and water issues.
TO GET THE BETA BUILD
- In the Steam app, go to your Library, then right-click on the WolfQuest: AE name in the left column and choose Properties.
- 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.
Changed depots in beta branch