* Players can now travel between Yellowstone maps and Lost River (DLC) map. (The usual restrictions apply.) (While we still like the idea of Lost River being isolated from the realworld game maps, with the Saga and especially Pack Succession, it can be extremely limiting to be restricted to one map, so we decided to enable map-moving to/from Lost River.)

* Game Settings: Gameplay: New option to show/hide HUD in screenshots.

* Increased mortality odds for very old NPC wolves.

* If a wolf save file is corrupted, game breaks on startup (multiple wolves, unclickable buttons).

* Pups seemingly "not following" on home site moves (occurs after very brief, probably unintentional, hunting trip by the player and the mate which can leave the pups in the "mate sent you inside" mode if the parents are back before they make it inside.)

* Can get "Takeout" achievement outside of homesite quests.

* "Pup Returned After Dispersing" notification not popping up.

* Placeholder "\[pupnames]" can appear in "Pups have dispersed" notification.

* Known Wolves: Dead yearling listed as sole member of player pack.

* Known Wolves: Some offspring no longer bolded after selecting mate as pack heir.

* Known Wolves: Mate listed after upgrading pre-Saga save to Saga.

* Known Wolves: Wolf killed by players is marked as dead for host but not for client players.

* Known Wolves: Unspawned known wolves no longer updating on multiplayer clients.

* Animals walk very slowly, running into each other.

* Packmate standing on top of food.

* In some older game saves, rival wolves still have 0 xp and weight.

* Rival wolf progression (XP, weight etc.) not applied when simulating time away on map revisit.

* Wolves lie down in shallow water.

* Hostile wolves stop fighting midway through a hex invasion but fight is still technically active (and so it prevents sleeping).

* In certain situations, no home hex dot on map during homesite quests.

* Eagle stuck flying in place.

* Packmates get stuck when multiple are trying to eat a meat chunk.

* Lost River-Classic: Some errors because game expects a Find Den quest.

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.

* Added animations for adult wolves dying in all laying-down poses.
* Tweaks to Carmella notification and triggering.
* Moved controller icons (zoom and pan) down a bit in World Map
* Allow NPC Courtship music to play during "Find New Mate" subquest.
* If the player barks at packmates, packmates will now prioritize following the player-wolf rather than responding with a social emote.
* Upon finding a lost pup, pup will stop and look at you for longer (15-20 seconds now, vs 7-10 seconds before), giving you more time to bark at them so they'll follow you back to the homesite.
* When playing Pup Raid music for traveling fights, consider if the player is with young pups.
* Known Wolves: Changed "Moved Away with Parents" status to be more inclusive of various outcomes.
* Made Pack Rally Success music cue in the Interface category so it will play even if Music volume is at zero.

* After following the player-wolf on a move, if the player stops, the pups simply stop and stand around, waiting to follow the player-wolf rather than choosing another activity.
* When loading very old saved games, some pups may be incorrectly despawned.
* When player moves back to a map they had been in previously, carcasses of rival and dispersal wolves who died during their absence are stacked up in one spot. (Also fixed: similar issue if multiple NPC wolves die on the same day.)
* In rare circumstances, player is unable to squeak a pup out of tall grass.
* In 2-Player Full Saga, one player can get stuck on Perks panel if any panel of tab menu is opened when birthday is triggered.
* Known Wolves: Offspring are not boldfaced if succeeding as mate heir after loading older Saga saves.
* NPC Courtship music gets stuck playing.
* Wolf fight music plays when another group from the player pack is fighting wolves.
* Multiplayer: Problems when birthday starts and Tab Menu panel is already opened.
* Multiplayer: Wwhen NPC wolf dies, clients don't get the update on Known Wolves panel.
* Game saving error because player group somehow ends up in wrong list.
* Game saving error after moving maps, due to issue withmap-based achievements.
* Grass issues.
_______________________________
See all patch notes at: https://support.wolfquest.org

NOTE: Game saves ARE backward compatible with the last released patch, v2.0.1a, so if you switch back to that version, any saves made in this beta are still playable. Multiplayer games are also backward-compatible, so you can play with those who have that version.

* Refined grass placement around many den sites.

* When playing Pup Raid music for traveling fights, consider if the player is with young pups.

* Known Wolves: Changed "Moved Away with Parents" status to be more inclusive of various outcomes.

* Known Wolves: Offspring are not boldfaced if succeeding as mate heir after loading older Saga saves.

* NPC Courtship music gets stuck playing

* Wolf fight music plays when another group from the player pack is fighting wolves.

* Made Pack Rally Success music cue in the Interface category so it will play even if Music volume is at zero.

* Multiplayer: Problems when birthday starts and Tab Menu panel is already opened.

* Multiplayer: When NPC wolf dies, clients don't get the update on Known Wolves panel.

* Game saving error because player group somehow ends up in wrong list.

* Game saving error after moving maps, due to issue with map-based achievements.

* On MacOS: summer pups and moose calves suffer mesh-explosion.

* Grass issues.

* Added animations for adult wolves dying in all laying-down poses.

* Tweaks to Carmella notification and triggering.

* Moved controller icons (zoom and pan) down a bit in World Map

* Allow NPC Courtship music to play during "Find New Mate" subquest.

* If the player barks at packmates, packmates will now prioritize following the player-wolf rather than responding with a social emote.

* Upon finding a lost pup, pup will stop and look at you for longer (15-20 seconds now, vs 7-10 seconds before), giving you more time to bark at them so they'll follow you back to the homesite.

* After following the player-wolf on a move, if the player stops, the pups simply stop and stand around, waiting to follow the player-wolf rather than choosing another activity.

* When loading very old saved games, some pups may be incorrectly despawned.

* When player moves back to a map they had been in previously, carcasses of rival and dispersal wolves who died during their absence are stacked up in one spot. (Also fixed: similar issue if multiple NPC wolves die on the same day.)

* In rare circumstances, player is unable to squeak a pup out of tall grass.

* In 2-Player Full Saga, one player can get stuck on Perks panel if any panel of tab menu is opened when birthday is triggered.

______________________________

* Reduced frequency of coyotes finding a carcass.

* In certain circumstances, packmates disappear without a reason.

We've released the next big game update, featuring Saga modes for multiplayer games, the new and improved grass and wildflowers, and many more improvements and bug fixes! Watch our devblog for the overview, then peruse the detailed patch notes below!




* New option in Game Settings: Allow Classic Coats on NPCs.
* New option in Game Settings: Graphic Settings to disable lightning flashes (during thunderstorms).
* When an Ironwolf or Elder Wolf dies, new "Decide Later" button to the Death panel; choosing this option creates a special save with a tombstone icon, so the player can open it later and choose their heir.
* Added genetics for inherited eye color.
* Added Presets for Graphics Quality settings.

New Saga game modes:

Saga Year (5 players): Play through one year as a pack, from Establish Territory to Young Hunters.
* From 2 to 5 players.
* All maps except Lost River Classic.
* Public, Private, or Pack games.
* Players can come and go over the course of the game.
* At least two players must be in the game to have pups after choosing a den.

Full Saga (2 players): Play the entire Saga with one other player, as mates and leaders of your pack! Raise each litter together, year after year, until one of your wolves dies as an Elder Wolf.
* Two players, no more or fewer.
* All maps except Lost River Classic.
* Friends only, no public games.
* Each player must use the same wolf for entire game.
* Both players must be in the game to have pups after choosing a den.
* Player-wolves can age up (or choose not to).
* Family Tree is generated as in single-player, with pups who become playable, and when one player dies as an Elder Wolf, the host can continue the story of this pack by starting a new game with one of the pups in the Family Tree. (The other player will be an unrelated wolf as usual.)
* Unlockable coats can now be unlocked in 2-Player Full Saga.

Plus nine new Multiplayer Saga achievements!

* Upgraded the vegetation rendering system to allow denser grasses on high quality levels and interaction (grasses and plants bend when animals move through them.) Performance should be similar (a bit better in some places, a bit worse in others, but overall very similar). On "Grasses and Bushes" setting (in Game Settings:Graphics), Enhanced and Maximum options enable denser grass and interaction.
* New wildflower: Yarrow.
* Improved the Arrowleaf Balsamroot model and added it to other Yellowstone maps (was only on Hellroaring).
* Added late summer vegetation (Huckleberry and Snowberry bushes have berries) on all maps (was only on SC until now) and adjusted timing to they first appear in July rather than August.

* Enabled pups to get scarred coats from Life is Rough packs (but not until they are yearlings).
* Enabled pups to get more body injury modifications (half tail, corneal edema, etc.) when they are yearlings, and shifted odds for other mods from GP pup to yearling age.
* Many improvements of wolf movements when at homesite/hanging out, to make packmates look less hyperactive (walking instead of trotting when near others, slower acceleration unless starting urgent action, slow down when approach object to eat or pick up, etc.)
* Made packmates look at nearby animals and objects more often when hanging out with the pack.
* Several new "looking around" animations when wolf is idle.
* Several refinements to crowding when pack eats a carcass.
* Made young hunters better at staying to the edges of a fight when "staying safe."
* Rival wolf packs: Limit the number wolves that can disperse per day per pack.
* Added NPC behavior to kill hidden calves. (Was in there in the old AI, but was lost.)
* Increased chances for pups to disperse with one or two siblings.
* Made packmates weave back and forth less when running in a group.
* Refactored Departed Wolves tracking and UI sorting.
* Removed pup raid icon when fighting in NPC territory during a home site move.
* Prevent rival packs from taking the last several unclaimed hexes on a map.
* Wolf Customization: Switching coats on an existing wolf will now regenerate coat genome.
* Packmates are now guaranteed to join a hunting trip once they drop to 35% food/hunger (previously was 30%).
* At start of Growing Pups quest, enforce the time-jump to early August, to ensure consistent duration for that quest in all modes.
* If player is away from homesite and does secondary howl, hungry (under 35% food) packmates will come to you. If you howl repeatedly, they'll all come -- but if Affinity is below the threshold, you'll get the notification about the pups being in danger.
* Made all player-hexes along the map border count when bringing pups around the territory in Young Hunters.
* Re-enabled the Run Alongside movement when chasing prey.
* Wolf body snaps to different pose when dying while sleeping.
* Extended time that dead pup lays on ground before disappearing (so packmates can finish mourning).
* Known Wolves sometimes not updated when wolf dies by natural pack progression.

* Several improvements to pup fondness and favorite parent, should help to prevent annoyances.
* Ignore spaces at the start or end of a wolf's name when whispering.
* Refinements to NPCs when players are AFK-Limbo, to avoid or minimize weird issues.
* Mouse movement now counts as player activity when determining if a player is AFK.
* Set pup hunger rates to be the same as in SP.
* Added new Multiplayer section to Game Help, with info about new MP modes.
* Pack Info: Don't show pencil icon if the pack member can't be renamed.
* Increased injury healing time by 33%.
* Reduced dispersal frequency in all MP modes.
* Added Affinity penalty for needlessly putting pups in den.
* Changed MP collection achievement texts to say "home site" instead of "den."

* Increased swimming speed for all animals and increased stamina drain on wolf when swimming.
* Prevent hostiles from targeting a pup that's staying safe, unless it's a pup raid.
* Adjust number of coyotes in pup raid based on number of babysitters at the homesite.
* Increased maximum size of coyote packs from 4 to 7.
* Coyotes will now flee once all of their Flee meters are at maximum, without requiring players to chase them away.
* Improved how NPCs target the player, so it'll simply target the closest player.
* Increased rival pack hex decay in HM and LRAE, and reduced their hex gain rate, so these now match AM and SC.
* Cancel pup raids that are active when player is selecting a den.

* Improved handling of the Pup RNG Death option: When starting a new game, it uses the setting in Game Settings on the main menu. But when running a game, it now uses the Game Settings selection from that game save.
* Setup New Game: hide "Show Only Dead Wolves" toggle, because we are hiding "Show Dead Wolves" toggle.
* Setup New Game: refactored code that handles Start Button states and messages.
* Setup New Game: Re-ordered maps listing.
* In Save/Load panels, input field filtering now also works for packname.
* Prevent the notification about making a scent post when doing pack rally or right after rally is completed.
* The "no packmates joining" notification appears when secondary howling during no-homesite quests.
* Added alternate "Pup sick" notification (saying pup will recover) to appear when RNG Sickness Death is disabled.
* Adjust volume when many wolves in the player-pack howl together.
* Allow apostrophe in home sites and pack names.
* Made notification for Out of Disk Space more reliable.
* Controller: Many navigation improvements on Pack Info panel
* Controller: Improved access to Chat options panel and Known Wolves delete buttons
* Allow mouse cursor when notification appears in loading screens in MP.
* Refactored code that handles joystick assignment to player.
* On Wolf Customization, prevent randomization from changing elder wolf stats.
* Reduced memory footprint in each scene some.
* Added "Exploration Woods" track from WQ Legacy/Classic.
* Known Wolves: Refactor and improved some parts of code.
* Family Tree: Made it update automatically when non-offspring packmate disperse.
* Refinements to Hellroaring and Slough Creek water, and made SC spring flooding water muddier.
* Oil Lamp collectible glows if picked up.
* Periodically clear out sticks and bones, and branches around the homesite, and beaver branches elsewhere.
* Hellroaring: Moved one elk herd's summer position from northeast area to central. (The herds are pretty well distributed already, except that one was unlikely to be found. NB Hellroaring has the same number of elk herds as Lost River DLC map.)
* Improved analyis of duplicate Family Tree files, to choose the correct one to use.
* Improvements to quest logic when player joins a rival pack, fixing issues where game would skip ahead too far in time.
* Extra checks to prevent File Sync process from duplicating wolf save files (which can cause weirdness with Family Trees).
__________________________

* Young Hunter pups won't engage in Pack Rally while near prey.
* Wrong pup shown on pup naming screen (because a sleepy packmate went into den during the fade-out at the end of Find Den quest).
* When the player does a secondary howl, babysitter leaves the den when the den is flooded.
* If NPCs are all hungry, they all join at once, even when invited by a secondary howl.
* Jerky transition when wolf lays down to some poses.
* Elder Wolf Cause of Death Always 'Kicked by Elk'
* In some cases, pup age is incorrect in some displays or calculations.
* Pup raid icon appears when the pups are nowhere nearby.
* Animals are only aware of the pivot point on carcasses, leading to odd or confusing situations because the pivot is sometimes at the base of the carcass's feet.
* NPCs sometimes get stuck when pathfinding due to very bad luck in obstacle avoidance paths.
* Wolf gets stuck navigating next to a deep water contour
* NPCs reserve food that they won't be able to eat in the animation time left.
* Dispersing aunts and uncles are playable after successive heir switching to sibling then offspring
* Rival wolves won't catch up if they fall behind while chasing you.
* Rival packs can have the same name.
* Too many pack leaders in a rival pack.
* Lost pup who wanders back home is still considered lost.
* Packmate goes back and forth between a meat object and the player.
* "Soulmates" achievement can be unlocked even if your mate has already died when you reach age 8.
* Yearlings not counted when considering if the player pack is too big to be raided by a particular raider group (like coyotes).
* Keeping affinity up is hard if in trial with a mate candidate while having pups.
* Exception due to trying to die twice when dying of old age.
* Airplane ears are distorted on GP and YH pups.
* Aging discrepancy notification appears in SP when it should only be in MP.
* Birthday panel is missing the age readouts.
* If Unknown Fate fails to complete as you wake up, it remains lingering and kills another pup later, even if it's no longer necessary.
* Game doesn't check for pups left out when a player joins another player's hunting trip (possibly being the last babysitter).
* Packmates ignore a carcass obviously close to the main group.
* Packmates can get stuck behind border.
* When finding a unknown fate pup that survived, notification about Family Tree update appears even if current player wolf is not one of the parents.
* Packmates don't trigger fighting behavior if the only enemies nearby are young hunters.
* Pups can wander far off while being babysat.
* NPCs don't use all sleeping poses
* Non-compliant packmates don't stay close to client players.
* Pups won't come out of grass (and likely other issues as well).
* Non-playable siblings grouped with playable siblings when dispersing.
* Bloodline achievement can be triggered with incorrect wolves.
* Player offspring are no longer considered as raised by player if player switches to play as heir with widowed mate.
* Snow sometimes persists on animals after season change.
* In Family Tree, parents are not displayed for player-wolf after pack succession. (Not retroactive.)
* Wolf rotates in particular circumstances after doing two pack successions in one game session.
* A rival pack, all of whose members are killed, continues to be active.

* Eagle raid can occur soon after player leaves homesite.
* Eagle doesn't start attack if players leave the den while it's circling.
* Land predators don't start attacking if client player is last to leave the homesite on a hunting trip.
* Grizzly gets stuck right next to an impassable contour.
* "Raiders flee" notification appears, then pup dies right afterwards.
* Coyote and feral dog "Raid ends" notifications can appear before raid begins.
* Cougar fails to eat pup properly.
* Coyotes ignore wolverines, to their detriment.
* Fun Parent perk on client wolf is not counted.
* In Story/Saga games, removed requirement for multiple player-wolves to participate when creating and reinforcing a marking post.
* Client wolves stepping back after regurgitating isn't properly processed on the host and pups are unable to reach the regurgitant until the player manually moves away.
* Quest icon was displayed in Episode Intro UI panel.
* Affinity decay is messed up, and decays way too fast in no-homesite quests. (Should also decay a bit slower now in homesite quests.)
* When applying filters in My Wolves panel, "Show Only Playable Pups" and "Hide Playable Pups" were not giving complementary results.
* Character controller switching between QuickHeal and Rest multiple times during healing.
* Error when current window queued is closed because it is not in context anymore.
* "Achievement Error" notification displays right after game load.
* Find Mate countdown clock stalls after map moving.
* The "no packmates joining" notification appears when secondary howling during no-homesite quests.
* Saved Game panels: Error when filtering save names by input field if the save file is older than when we started serializing pack name.
* "Family Playful" track wasn't playing since a code refactor.
* Notification reappears about not being able to report an achievement right after successfully reporting an achievement to the server.
* File Sync: If downloading header from server fails, game assumes there are no files on server. Now a notification will be shown.
* Wolf Customization: Changing pup coat tint in wolf customization regenerates coat genome coat.
* Hellroaring: Rancher blamed for shooting wolf when it should be hunter.
* On birthday when aging up to Elder Wolf, health bar fill exceeds background in specific circumstance.

* Issues with wolf fighting music.
* "Family Playful" track wasn't playing since a code refactor.
* Snow tracks become misaligned after animals slide sideways down a slope.
* Tweaked sky color at dusk and dawn.
* Error that causes saved game to fail to load on saves that run code to fix missing wolf parents data.
* Error that causes old saved game to fail to load due to change in ID scheme.
* Removed Buffalo Creek as pack name in Hellroaring (was duplicate of pack name in SC).
* Quest music can repeat when played from Roam music (with some luck) and give the impression it is on loop.
* Hellroaring: Player-wolf can get too close to some cliff edges above boulder fields.
* Lost River DLC: Blades Peak natural landmark won't unlock in early spring.
* Lost River DLC: Buildings can glitch out briefly when switching to run around as Carmella.
* Sorting error with collectible objects.
* File Sync: Remove any possible duplicates when adding new Wolf save or Family Tree files.
_______________________________
See all patch notes at: https://support.wolfquest.org

The next WolfQuest game update, version 2.0.1, featuring Saga modes for multiplayer, much-improved grass, and a whole lot more, is in public beta on Steam now!



The main new feature is Saga multiplayer, with two new modes:
1) Saga Year. This expands the existing "Story" mode to last through a full year, from Establish Territory to the end of Young Hunter in the following winter. You can have up to five players, all acting as members of a family pack. When playing in this mode, the game ends upon completion of the Young Hunters quest, before the next litter of pups is born.

2) Full Saga, with two players. This is, as much as we can make it, just like single-player, except you can play with a friend all the way through until you're Elder Wolves. This mode has some restrictions: two players, only in a private game, and using the same wolf throughout the entire game. We intend this mode to be for friends who have the time and commitment to devote many hours playing through to the end. As in SP, the game generates a Family Tree with each year's litter. You can't do pack succession or switch to play as a dispersing pup, but you can go to the Family Tree and start a new game with one of your grown pups. And you can get unlockable coats from your pups.

We know that some players would like to have more players in the Full Saga mode, but this just isn't feasible. WolfQuest is an unusual game -- the way the player's wolf pack grows and changes from year to year, spending part of each year at the homesite (where it can split into subgroups) and part of the year nomadic, when the whole pack sticks together. It's complicated enough to manage this in single-player mode, but there at least they're the only one, so they are at the center of the universe and everything revolves around them. Adding just one more player means there are now two centers of the universe for the game to track and manage. That's been a big challenge, but at least we have the premise that they are the two pack leaders who will head up the pack for the entire game. Adding subordinate players, who don't have that leadership role and responsibility, yet still need to in some ways be the center of the universe for those players becomes extremely problematic -- not only in design and coding, but making it clear to each player what's going on, who's doing what, what's allowed and what's not allowed at any given point in the game-year. So the Full Saga mode is limited to two players.

There is much more in this update: the new grass rendering system with new and improved vegetation, and many new quality-of-life features, plus dozens of bug fixes.

See the build notes for the v2.0.1 public beta, with instructions on how to access it on Steam.

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

See "Main Notes About This Patch" below for details about all the changes in v2.0.1!

_____________________
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.

_____________________


* Made energetic wolves a bit more energetic.
* Made wolves urinate a bit less often.
* Grass refinements.

* Player's packmates mysteriously vanish in certain circumstances after player joins rival pack.
* 2-Player Full Saga: "End of game" notification appears when players kill a rival Elder Wolf.
* Multiplayer: Sometimes notification about barking at lost pup appears incorrectly for client players.
* Code error thrown when a dying wolf drops a carcass.
_____________________


* Added new looking-around idles to player-wolf (were only on NPC wolves before).
* On Wolf Customization, prevent randomization from changing elder wolf stats.

* Player's packmates mysteriously vanish in particular, rare circumstances after loading dispersal save.
* Wolf rotates in particular circumstances after doing two pack successions in one game session.
* Errors when rival wolves are spawned back during Naming Pups / birthday, before Persistent Pack has a chance to update their life stage.
_____________________

There is a rare bug which makes most or all of the player's packmates vanish abruptly. We are still investigating it, but to gather better data about the cause of the bug, and prevent players from inadvertently saving their game after this happens, we now trigger an error when this occurs, requesting a bug report and suggesting the player load a previous save.
_____________________


* Tweaked sky color at dusk and dawn.
* Some grass refinements.
* Shortened text on Load Game panel about pre-Saga saves with pups.
_____________________


* Lost River-Classic stalls when loading.
* Ambient Occlusion was being applied only in the distance (which made the lighting around the player-wolf a bit flat).
_____________________


* World Map: display packmate icon for flocks with a single member.
* Grass refinements.

* Known wolves sometimes not updated when dying by natural pack progression.
* Lost River DLC: Buildings can glitch out briefly when switching to run around as Carmella.
* 2-Player Full Saga: Trying to join game as Elder Wolf loads single-player Elder Wolf save instead.
* "Grass and Bush" setting doesn't update correctly after switching to Basic Sky & Vegetation mode, then back to Enhanced.
_____________________


* Made NPC wolves trot until they get closer to food, before switching to walk.
* Some NPC pathfinding refinements.
* 2-Player Full Saga: When one player-wolf dies as Elder Wolf, mourning music plays for other player.
* Improved analysis of duplicate Family Tree files, to choose the correct one to use.
* Improvements to quest logic when player joins a rival pack, fixing issues where game would skip ahead too far in time.

* Coyotes ignore wolverines, to their detriment.
* Some achievements (Survival of the Pack and similar) still have old "raise pups to 25 pounds" description instead of new "through completion of Young Hunters" text.
* Saga Multiplayer: Client game breaks if re-joining game while on the date that pregnancy begins.
* Grass does not move in wind on lower Grass Quality levels.
* When player selects Decide Heir Later, game then does not delete dead-wolf save after the player chooses an heir.
_____________________


NOTE: Multiplayer in this build is not backward-compatible with earlier beta builds; all players must have this build to play together.

* When previewing wolves in Family Tree, body modifications now appear only after the in-game wolf has gotten it.
* Made notification "The Story of Your Pack is Ending!" appear in Recent Notifications list.
* Added debug logging for multiplayer issues.

* Pre-2.0.1 Pack Life and Territory Acquisition saves fail to load due to code changes.
* Snow sometimes persists on animals after season change.
* Multiplayer: Sick pup companionship cooldown doesn't apply to client (non-host) players.
* Multiplayer: Game stalls when transferring host.
* Multiplayer: After transferring hosts, room does not show in the lobby for the client.
* On Load Game panel, can't multi-delete saves if any of them have Decide Heir tombstone.
* In Family Tree, July pups with certain coats can't be viewed or selected.
* Cougar fails to eat pup properly.

_____________________


* Extended time that dead pup lays on ground before disappearing (so packmates can finish mourning).
* Improved Arrowleaf Balsamroot wildflower model.
* Extra checks to prevent File Sync process from duplicating wolf save files (which can cause weirdness with Family Trees).
* Added notification about barking and leading lost pup home, if player woofs upon finding a lost pup.

* 2-Player Full Saga: Multiple bugs with aging up and selecting Age Perks. (Hopefully all fixed now, but if you get a bug with this, please submit a report right then.)
* 2-Player Full Saga: Sometimes a group of packmates on an excursion won't show icon on World Map.
* 2-Player Full Saga: In Young Hunters, last year's visited hexes may still be displayed and counted.
* Pup raids can end while a grizzly or cougar is carrying a pup, before it dies.
* Old saves with pups who had a mange coat fail to load.
* Player offspring are no longer considered as raised by player if player switches to play as heir with widowed mate.
* Lost River DLC: Blades Peak natural landmark won't unlock in early spring.
* A rival pack, all of whose members are killed, continues to be active.
* Very old Multiplayer-Pack Life saves may not load.
_____________________


* Reduced maximum number of coyotes in den raid, per player-pack wolf, by one. (So previously there could be up to four coyotes attacking two player-wolves at den, now it's max of three.)
* Tweaks to NPC wolf AI so energetic mates are easier to identify when the pack is small (including during courtship and trial period).

* Fixed errors that can occur after pack succession, which might cause some packmates to mysteriously vanish from the game.
* Known Wolves: Some siblings are not bold-faced.
* Applied temporary fix for MacOS exploding-mesh bug to Rottweiler dog.
* Minor grass and terrain issues.
_____________________


* Full Saga 2-Player mode: In Growing Pups, no longer require both players to be at the homesite for the quest to finish. (That's a requirement in single-player, but can cause confusion in 2-player.)
* Multiplayer Find Den quest: Improved text notification when trying to choose a den before the host has started voting or ratified the vote.

* Full Saga: Client wolves getting stuck pregnant after pups are born.
* Full Saga: Game fails to enter the correct survival quest when all NPC packmates and pups die.
* Saga Year: Wolves get pregnant again if someone joins after pups are born.
* Applied temporary fix for MacOS exploding-mesh bug to spike elk and summer wolf pups.
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* 2-Player Full Saga: Increased countdown timer on Birthday Age Perks panel. (But there may be a bug that skips the countdown, please submit a report if this happens to you.)
* Improved accuracy of wolf age updates during time skips.
* Minor grass refinements.

* Wolf glitches when picking up binoculars.
* Applied temporary fix for MacOS exploding-mesh bug to elk bull and winter calf carcasses.
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* Multiplayer Saga modes: Reduced power of howling and marking based on number of players in the game. (Was too easy to keep territory at 100%.) Might need more reduction still, so please test and send feedback.
* Cancel pup raids that are active when player is selecting a den.
* Multiplayer: Added "Can't rally at homesite" notification (to match that in single-player).

* Multiplayer "Takeout" achievement doesn't unlock for client (non-host) players.
* MacOS only: Temporary fix for exploding animals on MacOS: Disabled fur on cougar, elk cow and fall calf carcass, and spring pup carcass so the meshes don't look like they exploded. (Still need to find proper fix, but it's completely baffling.) Also continue to disable fur on wolf face in HUD as temporary fix.
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* Full Saga (2-Player) MP: Removed most of the buttons (Kick, Warn, friend, etc.) from Pack Info, since this is a private game with two friends and kicking should not be an option.
* Full Saga (2-Player) MP: In games where the host did kick the other player, that then bans the other player (same as in other MP modes), which hides the game from that player in the lobby. Since the Kick button was incorrectly displayed until now, this has broken some games for players, so now we ignore this ban in 2-player saves so they should appear in the lobby. If the game does not appear in the lobby when the host is running it, we need bug reports from both players at that moment, and please tell us the game-name in both reports so we can match them up. (We've gotten a number of reports but they're useless since nobody mentions the game-name that they're looking for.)
* Vegetation refinements.

* In Slough Creek, Hornaday Creek lacks water in summer and fall.
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Windows version is up; Mac version coming soon. Mac build is up too now.

* Prevent Full Saga 2-Player games from displaying in public game lobby.
* Multiplayer: If new player joins game as quest is ending, extend the quest to include them.
* Hellroaring: Moved one elk herd's summer position from northeast area to central. (The herds are pretty well distributed already, except that one was unlikely to be found. NB Hellroaring has the same number of elk herds as Lost River DLC map.)
* Reduced tail emote begin and end duration just a little bit.
* Minor vegetation refinements.

* Game doesn't show Save button after player-wolf dies and player does Pack Succession.
* Map moving fails if wolf is trying to disperse while its pack already moving away (in certain circumstances).
* In late summer, some den meshes are missing, or have meshes from multiple seasons overlapping each other.
* Pups get stuck in behavior loop when trying to go into tall grass patch that is too close to rock.
* Birthday can occur multiple times repeatedly, making wolf much older.
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NOTE: Multiplayer in this build is not backward-compatible with earlier beta builds; all players must have this build to play together.

* Unlockable coats can now be unlocked in 2-Player Full Saga (must have this beta build before Raise Pups begins; and must be on same computer/device the whole time.

* Reset pup growth rate in Raise Pups (Single-player) back to what it has been in Saga (was somehow changed back to slower pre-Saga rate).
* In 2-Player Full Saga, when one player dies, the Chat panel is now displayed in front of the death panel so players can chat until they close the game.
* Various grass refinements.

* Player-wolf can have multiple birthdays if they don't find a den on the targeted date in April.
* Player-wolf doesn't get any birthday if the female pregnant wolf dies before choosing a den.
* Multiplayer: If birthday is triggered twice, can cause wolves to age up twice, and also cause game to stall while "Waiting for Others."
* Pack Life Multiplayer: Host can court dispersal wolves.
* When player clicks Move to New Den or Rendezvous Site button in Pack Info, there's no confirmation until they close Pack Life -- which prompts some people to click it multiple times, and then get multiple subquest notifications after finally closing it.
* Family Tree: Error and layout issues when showing families without litters.
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* Game save fails to load if some animal was carrying something while away from home.
* Multiplayer: Saving the game fails in certain circumstances with portable carcasses.
* Multiplayer: Game breaks when pup litter grows larger than seven (which could occur if player has moved maps during pregnancy). (The game will reduce those litters in saves, so the saves should now work.)
* Probably fixed, pending test: MacOS: Wolf badge is glitched (properly fixed now), and some animals explode in certain circumstances. Not fixed
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* In 2-player Multiplayer Saga, players now get notifications of the other player's old age death events (premonition and actual death), and peaceful death action (laying down and putting head down) synced and displayed for other player.

* Sometimes game saves stall out when loading into late summer on Amethyst Mountain.
* Multiplayer: Babysitters can gain "Takeout" by picking up the carcass and dropping it next to themselves
* Multiplayer: Pups can exit the den immediately when watched by AFK babysitters.
* Multiplayer: Old MP saves in Endless Summer can't proceed to Growing Pups.
* In 2-player Multiplayer Saga, after one player-wolf dies, returning to the main menu left the multiplayer code in a bad state, making it impossible to start or load another multiplayer game.
* Dispersed Pup saves become bugged if game needs to update persistent wolves on old player wolves, breaking the switch to heir or dispersal.
* On MacOS, wolf face in badge is glitched out. (Temporary fix while we try to figure out the problem with this and some exploding animal meshes.)
* Various grass issues.
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* New option in Game Settings: Allow Classic Coats on NPCs.
* New option in Game Settings: Graphic Settings to disable lightning flashes (during thunderstorms).
* When an Ironwolf or Elder Wolf dies, new "Decide Later" button to the Death panel; choosing this option creates a special save with a tombstone icon, so the player can open it later and choose their heir.
* Added genetics for inherited eye color.
* Added Presets for Graphics Quality settings.

New Saga game modes:

Saga Year (5 players): Play through one year as a pack, from Establish Territory to Young Hunters.
* From 2 to 5 players.
* All maps except Lost River Classic.
* Public, Private, or Pack games.
* Players can come and go over the course of the game.
* At least two players must be in the game to have pups after choosing a den.

Full Saga (2 players): Play the entire Saga with one other player, as mates and leaders of your pack! Raise each litter together, year after year, until one of your wolves dies as an Elder Wolf.
* Two players, no more or fewer.
* All maps except Lost River Classic.
* Friends only, no public games.
* Each player must use the same wolf for entire game.
* Both players must be in the game to have pups after choosing a den.
* Player-wolves can age up (or choose not to).
* Family Tree is generated as in single-player, with pups who become playable, and when one player dies as an Elder Wolf, the host can continue the story of this pack by starting a new game with one of the pups in the Family Tree. (The other player will be an unrelated wolf as usual.)

* Upgraded the vegetation rendering system to allow denser grasses on high quality levels and interaction (grasses and plants bend when animals move through them.) Performance should be similar (a bit better in some places, a bit worse in others, but overall very similar). On Grass Variety pulldown, High and Very High options enable denser grass and interaction.
* New wildflower: Yarrow.
* Added Arrowleaf Balsomroot to all maps (was only on Hellroaring).
* Added late summer vegetation (Huckleberry and Snowberry bushes have berries) on all maps (was only on SC until now) and adjusted timing to they first appear in July rather than August.

* Enabled pups to get scarred coats from Life is Rough packs (but not until they are yearlings).
* Enabled pups to get more body injury modifications (half tail, corneal edema, etc.) when they are yearlings, and shifted odds for other mods from GP pup to yearling age.
* Many improvements of wolf movements when at homesite/hanging out, to make packmates look less hyperactive (walking instead of trotting when near others, slower acceleration unless starting urgent action, slow down when approach object to eat or pick up, etc.)
* Made packmates look at nearby animals and objects more often when hanging out with the pack.
* Several new "looking around" animations when wolf is idle.
* Several refinements to crowding when pack eats a carcass.
* Made young hunters better at staying to the edges of a fight when "staying safe."
* Rival wolf packs: Limit the number wolves that can disperse per day per pack.
* Added NPC behaviour to kill hidden calves. (Was in there in the old AI, but was lost.)
* Increased chances for pups to disperse with one or two siblings.
* Made packmates weave back and forth less when running in a group.
* Refactored Departed Wolves tracking and UI sorting.
* Removed pup raid icon when fighting in NPC territory during a home site move.
* Prevent rival packs from taking the last several unclaimed hexes on a map.
* Wolf Customization: Switching coats on an existing wolf will now regenerate coat genome.
* Packmates are now guaranteed to join a hunting trip once they drop to 35% food/hunger (previously was 30%).
* At start of Growing Pups quest, enforce the time-jump to early August, to ensure consistent duration for that quest in all modes.
* If player is away from homesite and does secondary howl, hungry (under 35% food) packmates will come to you. If you howl repeatedly, they'll all come -- but if Affinity is below the threshold, you'll get the notification about the pups being in danger.
* Made all player-hexes along the map border count when bringing pups around the territory in Young Hunters.
* Re-enabled the Run Alongside movement when chasing prey.
* Wolf body snaps to different pose when dying while sleeping.

* Several improvements to pup fondness and favorite parent, should help to prevent annoyances.
* Ignore spaces at the start or end of a wolf's name when whispering.
* Refinements to NPCs when players are AFK-Limbo, to avoid or minimize weird issues.
* Mouse movement now counts as player activity when determining if a player is AFK.
* Set pup hunger rates to be the same as in SP.
* Added new Multiplayer section to Game Help, with info about new MP modes.
* Pack Info: Don't show pencil icon if the pack member can't be renamed.
* Increased injury healing time by 33%.
* Reduced dispersal frequency in all MP modes.
* Added Affinity penalty for needlessly putting pups in den.
* Changed MP collection achievement texts to say "home site" instead of "den."

* Increased swimming speed for all animals and increased stamina drain on wolf when swimming.
* Prevent hostiles from targeting a pup that's staying safe, unless it's a pup raid.
* Adjust number of coyotes in pup raid based on number of babysitters at the homesite.
* Increased maximum size of coyote packs from 4 to 7.
* Coyotes will now flee once all of their Flee meters are at maximum, without requiring players to chase them away.
* Improved how NPCs target the player, so it'll simply target the closest player.
* Increased rival pack hex decay in HM and LRAE, and reduced their hex gain rate, so these now match AM and SC.

* Improved handling of the Pup RNG Death option: When starting a new game, it uses the setting in Game Settings on the main menu. But when running a game, it now uses the Game Settings selection from that game save.
* Setup New Game: hide "Show Only Dead Wolves" toggle, because we are hiding "Show Dead Wolves" toggle.
* Setup New Game: refactored code that handles Start Button states and messages.
* Setup New Game: Re-ordered maps listing.
* In Save/Load panels, input field filtering now also works for packname.
* Prevent the notification about making a scent post when doing pack rally or right after rally is completed.
* The "no packmates joining" notification appears when secondary howling during no-homesite quests.
* Added alternate "Pup sick" notification (saying pup will recover) to appear when RNG Sickness Death is disabled.
* Family Tree: Made it update automatically when non-offspring packmate disperse.
* Adjust volume when many wolves in the player-pack howl together.
* Allow apostrophe in home sites and pack names.
* Made notification for Out of Disk Space more reliable.
* Controller: Many navigation improvements on Pack Info panel
* Controller: Improved access to Chat options panel and Known Wolves delete buttons
* Allow mouse cursor when notification appears in loading screens in MP.
* Refactored code that handles joystick assignment to player.

* Reduced memory footprint in each scene some.
* Added "Exploration Woods" track from WQ Legacy/Classic.
* Known Wolves: Refactor and improved some parts of code.
* Family Tree: Made it update automatically when non-offspring packmate disperse.
* Refinements to Hellroaring and Slough Creek water, and made SC spring flooding water muddier.
* Oil Lamp collectible glows if picked up.
* Periodically clear out sticks and bones, and branches around the homesite, and beaver branches elsewhere.


* Young Hunter pups won't engage in Pack Rally while near prey.
* Wrong pup shown on pup naming screen (because a sleepy packmate went into den during the fade-out at the end of Find Den quest).
* When the player does a secondary howl, babysitter leaves the den when the den is flooded.
* If NPCs are all hungry, they all join at once, even when invited by a secondary howl.
* Jerky transition when wolf lays down to some poses.
* Elder Wolf Cause of Death Always 'Kicked by Elk'
* In some cases, pup age is incorrect in some displays or calculations.
* Pup raid icon appears when the pups are nowhere nearby.
* Animals are only aware of the pivot point on carcasses, leading to odd or confusing situations because the pivot is sometimes at the base of the carcass's feet.
* NPCs sometimes get stuck when pathfinding due to very bad luck in obstacle avoidance paths.
* Wolf gets stuck navigating next to a deep water contour
* NPCs reserve food that they won't be able to eat in the animation time left.
* Dispersing aunts and uncles are playable after successive heir switching to sibling then offspring
* Rival wolves won't catch up if they fall behind while chasing you.
* Rival packs can have the same name.
* Too many pack leaders in a rival pack.
* Lost pup who wanders back home is still considered lost.
* Packmate goes back and forth between a meat object and the player.
* "Soulmates" achievement can be unlocked even if your mate has already died when you reach age 8.
* Yearlings not counted when considering if the player pack is too big to be raided by a particular raider group (like coyotes).
* Keeping affinity up is hard if in trial with a mate candidate while having pups.
* Exception due to trying to die twice when dying of old age.
* Airplane ears are distorted on GP and YH pups.
* Aging discrepancy notification appears in SP when it should only be in MP.
* Birthday panel is missing the age readouts.
* If Unknown Fate fails to complete as you wake up, it remains lingering and kills another pup later, even if it's no longer necessary.
* Game doesn't check for pups left out when a player joins another player's hunting trip (possibly being the last babysitter).
* Packmates ignore a carcass obviously close to the main group.
* Packmates can get stuck behind border.
* When finding a unknown fate pup that survived, notification about Family Tree update appears even if current player wolf is not one of the parents.
* Packmates don't triggering fighting behaviour if the only enemies nearby are young hunters.
* Pups can wander far off while being babysat.
* NPCs don't use all sleeping poses
* Uncompliant packmates don't stay close to client players.
* Pups won't coming out of grass (and likely other issues as well).
* Non-playable siblings grouped with playable siblings when dispersing.
* Bloodline achievement can be triggered with incorrect wolves.

* Eagle raid can occur soon after player leaves homesite.
* Eagle doesn't start attack if players leave the den while it's circling.
* Land predators don't start attacking if client player is last to leave the homesite on a hunting trip.
* Grizzly gets stuck right next to an impassable contour.
* "Raiders flee" notification appears, then pup dies right afterwards.
* Coyote and feral dog "Raid ends" notifications can appear before raid begins.
* In Family Tree, parents are not displayed for player-wolf after pack succession. (Not retroactive.)

BUGS FIXED - MULTIPLAYER:
* Fun Parent perk on client wolf is not counted.
* In Story/Saga games, removed requirement for multiple player-wolves to participate when creating and reinforcing a marking post.
* Client wolves stepping back after regurgitating isn't properly processed on the host and pups are unable to reach the regurgitant until the player manually moves away.
* Quest icon was displayed in Episode Intro UI panel.
* Affinity decay is messed up, and decays way too fast in no-homesite quests. (Should also decay a bit slower now in homesite quests.)
* When applying filters in My Wolves panel, "Show Only Playable Pups" and "Hide Playable Pups" were not giving complementary results.
* Character controller switching between QuickHeal and Rest multiple times during healing.

* Error when current window queued is closed because it is not in context anymore.
* "Achievement Error" notification displays right after game load.
* Find Mate countdown clock stalls after map moving.
* The "no packmates joining" notification appears when secondary howling during no-homesite quests.
* Saved Game panels: Error when filtering save names by input field if the save file is older than when we started serializing pack name.
* "Family Playful" track wasn't playing since a code refactor.
* Notification reappears about not being able to report an achievement right after successfully reporting an achievement to the server.
* File Sync: If downloading header from server fails, game assumes there are no files on server. Now a notification will be shown.
* Wolf Customization: Changing pup coat tint in wolf customization regenerates coat genome coat.
* Hellroaring: Rancher blamed for shooting wolf when it should be hunter.
* On birthday when aging up to Elder Wolf, health bar fill exceeds background in specific circumstance.

* Issues with wolf fighting music.
* "Family Playful" track wasn't playing since a code refactor.
* Snow tracks become misaligned after animals slide sideways down a slope.
* Error that causes saved game to fail to load on saves that run code to fix missing wolf parents data.
* Error that causes old saved game to fail to load due to change in ID scheme.
* Removed Buffalo Creek as pack name in Hellroaring (was duplicate of pack name in SC).
* Quest music can repeat when played from Roam music (with some luck) and give the impression it is on loop.
* Hellroaring: Player-wolf can get too close to some cliff edges above boulder fields.
* Sorting error with collectible objects.
* File Sync: Remove any possible duplicates when adding new Wolf save or Family Tree files.

* When starting a new game, some tutorial tips do not appear if the player began moving their wolf very soon after closing the Quest intro panel.
* On MacOS: Hellroaring Mountain DLC: No water in Hellroaring Creek.

In the real world, grass matters. It's an essential part of the food web: plants convert sunshine to food, ungulates eat the grass, wolves eat the ungulates. In WolfQuest, grass matters too -- but for realism and immersion (and just because it looks nice). But every time I got out into nature, I'm reminded of how messy it is -- things growing every which way. This is an issue in games, partly because graphically it would be so demanding on the computer hardware, but also because trying to walk through a dense forest just wouldn't be very fun. So we try to strike a balance. And periodically we try to improve on that balance.



So while most of the team has been working on the Saga multiplayer modes, I've spent some time upgrading the grass. We have new grass models from Kerry Baldino (who made all the trees and vegetation originally in WQ:AE) and Paul Sandoval (who created several trees in recent years). But I've also wanted to upgrade to a newer version of The Vegetation Engine (the vegetation rendering system that we've been using for the trees for several years now) and then switch all the grass models over to it, so we can take advantage of several nifty features:

1) Blanket grass that drapes over the terrain. This allows us to have larger grass models, which has performance benefits.
2) Motion interaction -- so grass, sagebrush, and other plants wiggle and bend out of the way when animals move through them.
3) Snow accumulation -- so now grasses and plants turn white when it snows, just like the trees do.

So along with setting all this up (and tweaking the settings endlessly), we've been working to optimize the shaders. The goal is keep performance as it was before -- and we're mostly there, though we may need to simplify features for weaker hardware.

Our main focus is still on Saga modes for multiplayer, making good progress! These grass upgrades will be part of that next update with the Saga Multiplayer -- no release date set, so stay tuned!

* In rare situations, save files can become quite large and cause problems, possibly severe. (If any of your saves got this bug, you'll get a popup upon launching the game identifying them -- just load them and resave to fix them.)
* When older pups (Growing Pups onward) wrestle, the attacker's jaw distorts horribly.
* "Achievement Error" popup can appear repeatedly (and inaccurately) when loading a saved game where it previously appeared.
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