BUGS FIXED:
* Autosaves can get mixed up between Amethyst and Lost River.
* Player-wolf can get stuck when trying to get off car roofs (but still some quirkiness on some cars).
* Other minor refinements to object colliders.

Patch 1.0.3a is released now. This has a lot of tweaks and fixes to minor (but annoying!) issues with objects and colliders in Lost River.

We've released the next update for WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition, which has two big new features: a deep winter season on Amethyst Mountain, and the classic Lost River map from WolfQuest 2.7, which we've incorporated into WQ:AE with all the new gameplay.

UPDATE: The Mac version is now available, along with Windows version.

* Winter season begins on or soon after December 1st in game calendar. If you load a saved game that's after that date, it will be in Winter. The game world is blanketed in snow, about a meter deep in the highlands and half that in the valley. Creeks and waterfalls are frozen, but the Lamar River remains open.
* Elk migrate down into the Lamar Valley in November and early December. You may notice them slowly wander that way as they graze. If you load a previously-saved game that is past December 1st, they will begin their migration then.
* Grizzly bears have gone into hibernation, so they won't challenge you over carcasses.
* Bull moose will lose their antlers in early January. (Bull elk and buck mule deer don't lose their antlers until later in the winter.)
* Many birds have migrated south, so the forests are quieter.

* This is the map from WQ 2.7, with a few upgrades, but mostly has the same low-quality models and textures as the 2.7 version, combined with all the new WQ:AE game systems (unting, courtship, competitor fights, dynamic time and weather, etc.)
* We are calling this "Classic" because it used the small (2x2km) map from the old game. Later this year we will create a new version of Lost River that matches the size, scope, and quality of the Amethyst and Slough Creek maps in WQ:AE. This will be DLC, available as an additional purchase.

* Improvements to game logic (uses CPU) when many animals are spawned (usually after playing for quite awhile).
* Improvements to graphics performance (uses GPU), including:
- Better performance on Basic Sky & Vegetation mode, especially if both Ambient Occlusion and Anti-Aliasing are disabled.
- Faster versions of cliff rocks on lower quality levels (with new "Other Objects" pulldown in Game Settings: Graphics panel)
- Note: Scent View still has substantial slowdown on low-end hardware, still investigating that.

* We have revised aspects of the territory and marking system, but these are mostly disabled in Amethyst, since players cannot claim territory there. They should not affect gameplay significantly.
* Territory hexes show strength of territory claim on mouseover.

* Reduced maximum number of grizzlies at a carcass.
* Adjust elk health levels so some are more likely to have mid-level health.

* Visible crack between terrain tiles in valley floor.
* Some issues with shadows (e.g. some shadows were not continuous, but broken lines)
* In Basic Sky & Vegetation mode, rivers are fully visible through fog.
* Splash effects are broken on lower Chalcedony waterfall.
* Snowshoe hares do not change to white coat in winter.
* Rain can occur in winter months.
* Can start to urinate while running.
* NPC animals occasionally can get stuck on trees.


* The World Map moves in wrong direction when you click-drag it. Will be fixed in next patch.
* On certain computers (Mac using Intel integrated graphics, certain old Windows dedicated GPUs) in Amethyst: Basic Sky & Veg mode, distant trees are sometimes multicolored, and sky may have similar discoloration. This seems to be a Unity game tool bug but we are still investigating.
* On very old (2012-2014) AMD GPUs, terrain may have white patches. Try upgrading your graphics drivers and submit a bug report if that helps. If it doesn't, please test different Terrain Quality settings and submit detailed bug reports about the results of your tests.

Our main focus here at WolfQuest World HQ is to create a realistic and immersive game about the world of wild wolves...but we do like to have a little fun too. (I suppose that's why we make games in the first place.) The Lost River map in WolfQuest 2.7 came out of idle conversations that the project team had back in 2006-07: Wouldn't it be fun to put the wolves in a post-apocalyptic world? Of course, that was far outside our mandate with the original game, but when we began working on WolfQuest 2.7, it felt like a justifiable diversion.

And in that spirit, we recently decided to bring the Lost River map into WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition. Today’s devblog looks at this hybrid game map — it’s the original Lost River map with just a few upgrades, but wrapped in all the new game systems of WQ:AE. We’re calling this map “Lost River (Classic)”  Why? Because we also have many ideas for a bigger, expanded, improved Lost River map — one that’s equal to the scope and quality of Amethyst Mountain and Slough Creek. We plan to create that later this year and release it as DLC (downloadable content, for purchase).

But in the meantime, since Slough Creek won’t be ready to release for months, we thought it would be nice to add another map to the game, at no additional cost. And even better, Lost River (Classic) is coming soon! Get all the details in the video.



_________________
We have released the first episode of WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition (Amethyst Mountain) for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. While in Early Access, we are 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 (DLC).

This beta (1.0.3 beta10a) is now available in our beta branch (for Windows only). See bottom of this post for instructions on how to get it.

* Winter season begins on or soon after December 1st in game calendar. If you load a saved game that's after that date, it will be in Winter. The game world is blanketed in snow, about a meter deep in the highlands and half that in the valley. Creeks and waterfalls are frozen, but the Lamar River remains open.
* Elk migrate down into the Lamar Valley in November and early December. You may notice them slowly wander that way as they graze. If you load a previously-saved game that is past December 1st, they will begin their migration then.
* Grizzly bears have gone into hibernation, so they won't challenge you over carcasses.
* Bull moose will lose their antlers in early January. (Bull elk and buck mule deer don't lose their antlers until later in the winter.)
* Many birds have migrated south, so the forests are quieter.

* Improvements to game logic (uses CPU) when many animals are spawned (usually after playing for quite awhile).
* Improvements to graphics performance (uses GPU), including:
- Better performance on Basic Sky & Vegetation mode, especially if both Ambient Occlusion and Anti-Aliasing are disabled.
- Faster versions of cliff rocks on lower quality levels (with new "Other Object Quality" pulldown in Game Settings: Graphics panel)
- Note: Scent View still has substantial slowdown on low-end hardware, still investigating that. May have a few more optimizations coming in the next week or two.


* We have revised aspects of the territory and marking system, but these are mostly disabled in Amethyst, since players cannot claim territory there. They should not affect gameplay significantly.
* Territory hexes show strength of territory claim on mouseover.

* Reduced maximum number of grizzlies at a carcass.
* Adjust elk health levels so some are more likely to have mid-level health.


* Visible crack between terrain tiles in valley floor.
* Some issues with shadows (e.g. some shadows were not continuous, but broken lines)
* In Basic Sky & Vegetation mode, rivers are fully visible through fog.
* Splash effects are broken on lower Chalcedony waterfall.
* Snowshoe hares do not change to white coat in winter.
* Rain can occur in winter months.


* On certain computers (Mac using Intel integrated graphics, certain old Windows dedicated GPUs) in Basic Sky & Veg mode, distant trees are sometimes multicolored, and sky may have similar discoloration. This seems to be a Unity game tool bug but we are still investigating.
* On very old (2012-2014) AMD GPUs, terrain may have white patches. Try upgrading your graphics drivers and submit a bug report if that helps. If it doesn't, please test different Terrain Quality settings and submit detailed bug reports about the results of your tests.


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.

The snow may be melting here in Minnesota but winter is coming to WolfQuest

Yes, the next game update, v1.0.3, is just about ready for Public Beta — we thought it would be today, but gotta fix a couple things still. So we’ll release it tomorrow on Steam, in the beta channel.

This update includes the winter season we showed a few weeks ago, and some significant performance optimizations, especially for low-end computers with Intel integrated cards. On my test computer with an Intel HD 630, the game went from about 30fps to 55-60fps on Fastest — which I didn’t think would be possible, but I’m not complaining! Watch the video for details!



_________________
We have released the first episode of WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition (Amethyst Mountain) for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. While in Early Access, we are 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 (DLC).

Territory is important to wolves, which makes it important that WolfQuest presents the tasks of establishing and maintaining territory in accurate and enjoyable ways. In the old game, which we designed back in 2006-2010, we couldn’t figure out how to make a fairly tedious task — trotting around and marking every 50-100 meters — into exciting gameplay, so we simply made the territories quite small. Now with WQ: Anniversary Edition, we tackled the challenge anew and are excited about what we’ve come up with.



Today’s devblog video looks at the new territory marking system, which makes “scent posts” — those well-marked spots that all canines seek out — into central element. Instead of marking frequently and uniformly around the territory, players will create a single scent post in each territory hex, on which they can then concentrate their maintenance efforts over the course of winter and spring.(These are the most efficient ways to maintain your territory, but howling, hunting, fighting, and simply being in a hex will also contribute to your claim on it.)

But remember, competitor wolves will be hard at work marking their territories too!

_________________
We have released the first episode of WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition (Amethyst Mountain) for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. While in Early Access, we are 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 (DLC).

While we’ve been focusing mainly on Slough Creek, some features it requires will also improve the current Amethyst Mountain level of WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition. Today, let’s look at seasons and some changes you will experience as time passes in WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition.

Each episode/map occurs in certain seasons: Amethyst is fall to early winter, Slough Creek is late winter to early summer (and the future episode Tower Fall will be summer to late fall).

The game already has dynamic weather that accurately reflects typical weather patterns of each month depicted in the game (currently that’s September to December) — but we need a deep winter season where snow covers the entire landscape. That’s what we’ve been working on this week. It’s not quite done but should be in good shape soon. The most obvious feature is that snow coverage.  So we are adding deeper snow which really gives that winter feel.  Yes, we are working on footprints and deep paths in the snow are on our future wish list.

As winter deepens, this means physical and behavioral changes for many of Yellowstone’s animals. The elk migrate from their summer grazing grounds to the low elevation valleys. Male ungulates lose their antlers and snowshoe hares change their fur color completely.  



These seasonal changes aren’t quite ready to release yet, but we expect they’ll be part of the next patch, coming within a few weeks.
_________________
We have released the first episode of WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition (Amethyst Mountain) for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. While in Early Access, we are 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 (DLC).

KNOWN ISSUES:
* In Basic Sky & Veg mode, rivers and ponds do not respect atmospheric fog. Will be fixed in next patch.
* On certain computers (Mac using Intel integrated graphics, certain old Windows dedicated GPUs) in Basic Sky & Veg mode, distant trees are sometimes multicolored, and sky may have similar discoloration. This seems to be a Unity game tool bug but we are still investigating.
* On very old (2012-2014) AMD GPUs, terrain may have white patches. Try upgrading your graphics drivers and submit a bug report if that helps. If it doesn't, please test different Terrain Quality settings and submit detailed bug reports about the results of your tests.

IMPROVEMENTS
* At end of trial period, a new option "Extend Trial" lets players postpone that decision for ten minutes.
* Grizzlies and cougar will stop chasing player-wolf sooner (chase duration varies depending on their grumpiness, from 1 to 12 seconds now).
* Reduced the maximum number of competitors that will congregate at carcasses.
* Improved NPC animal behaviors around water.
* Mate will mark territory if you mark it.
* Keyboard and Controller Remapping panel is now cleaned up and organized by type of function!
* Using Controller on onscreen keyboard, pressing Left or Right Stick will switch between lowercase and uppercase.
* Somewhat reduced the number of eagles that are typically spawned at any given time.
* Mule deer become tired and slow down sooner when fleeing wolves during a chase.
* Removed bite-points on fox (wolf can't bend down that low to bite them realistically).
* Mate Permadeath setting is saved to player preferences on that computer, and used when starting a new game (instead of always defaulting to Off).
* Added 120 and 144 FPS options in Game Settings: Gameplay: FPS setting.
* FPS Readout now obeys show/hide HUD setting.
* Tweaks to Douglas-Fir trees.
* HUD automatically reappears if you hide HUD while in Photo Mode.
* Improved feedback when game is unable to save to computer, due to computer firewall or anti-malware settings.
* Removed clouds of flies at random locations (was realistic but confusing).
* Grizzlies have larger teeth, the better to bite you with.


BUGS FIXED
* NPC animals can fly.
* Some carcasses are exploded. (Probably fixed, but we can't reproduce it, and a bit puzzled why it started happening after last fix.)
* Some missing terrain chunks at certain settings and locations.
* Mate and NPC wolves sometimes run in circles endlessly when near water.
* Dead coyote's legs are bent in unnatural ways.
* Wolf howl volume doesn't diminish properly at mid-distance.
* Clouds/weather change too rapidly.
* On mule deer corpse, ribs poke through skin before anyone starts eating it.
* Can't eat a meat chunk that's been placed next to a boulder.
* Scent prints appear under water.
* In Customization: Howls, wolf does not do howl animation if No Fur is selected in Graphics Quality settings.
* In Enhanced Graphics mode, there are some invisible tree-colliders in upper area of the Burn.
* On large fossilized tree in Fossil Forest, the collider is too big and high above the object.
* Cougar swims under water, not at surface.
* Removed some words from the badwords list for wolf names.
* With controller, can't back out of Customization: Coats panel.
* Corrupted wolf file (missing all data) breaks the game.
* A cliff rock went AWOL.

It's time for the monthly contest 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). Or you can also choose the WolfQuest Soundtrack and Music Extras if you already own the game.

Send your username, email, and your answer to the question: "What are three interesting facts about wolves?" to contest1@wolfquest.org. Winners are selected randomly from complete entries. Please enter only once in each monthly contest.

All entries must be received by midnight (Eastern Daylight Time) on Sunday, February 23, 2020.

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.