On the 3rd of May we celebrate not one, but two amazing animals. Both leopards and koalas share this day as their respective "holiday", which of obviously means that we're making the lynx cub with its leopard skin AND the bear cub with its koala skin available for everyone. This will happen 00:01 GMT-9 and run until 23:59 (11:01-10:59 CEST).
Why the change in timezones? Well, because our community manager had a moment of confusion regarding what days this is supposed to happen - which resulted in this announcement being late. So, we're fixing the loss of those precious hours on your end by offsetting appropriately. This person has also been sent to LBCAT camp ("Learn Basic Calendar and Time") so that this won't happen again. He reports that he's being fed adequately and that his studies have been "eye opening".
Here's some tidbits about leopards and koalas respectively:
Leopards (...) belong to the group of animals we recommend that you keep your distance from. A lot of us know how much it sucks to be clawed by a house cat, so imagine the absolute mayhem a cat ten times bigger can cause. But boy are they beautiful, with their majestic spots. Did you know that the spots of a leopard are called rosettes because they’re similar to roses in shape? Or that they can reach running speeds of up to 58 km/h? Oh, and they can jump up to 6 meters. Yeah, so don’t get on their bad side.
Koalas... they are cool. They sleep 18 hours a day, which we would too if we had the gall. They are very picky eaters; living exclusively off of eucalyptus leaves, despite these leaves being very low on nutrients (hence the long naps) and toxic to most other animals. Also, they’re the national symbol of Australian wildlife. The country known for having the scariest animals in the world uses the Koala as the symbol for their wildlife. Need we say more?
Tomorrow we have yet another animal day to celebrate, but that announcement will come later today. Stay tuned!
Tomorrow, April 27, is International Hyena Day. You know the drill: the playable Wolf and its Hyena skin will be unlocked for every player from 00:01 to 23:59 central European time.
This day exists to highlight that hyenas are in fact wonderful animals, and not the villainous mad clowns of the animal kingdom that pop culture and literature may present them as. Thanks a lot, Lion King!
They are intelligent mammals that live in large packs and they aren't exclusively scavengers - they are quite skilled hunters too. Also, that cackle they're famous for isn't the animal equivalent to Joker's maniacal laugh, but rather a vocalisation of nervousness from a lower ranking individual.
Let's get together and display these animals at their very best, the Meadow way!
Did you know that today (April 25) is National Deer Day? To celebrate this, we're unlocking the playable Goat and its Fawn skin for everyone until 23:59 tonight, central european time.
Who doesn't love seeing one of these beautiful animals in their garden? Deer have been symbolic for lots of things through human history, such as abundance and fertility. In ancient cultures they were revered as sacred beings. National Deer Day is meant to spread awareness for these gentle animals, and we'll do it the Meadow way - by getting together and having a good time.
The mouse cursor no longer shows in the quick selection wheel after you return from customization UI.
Now you will get a popup after your network connection is broken for 30 seconds.
Sense mode now works on Mac.
Live Update, April 18 2024
News
We added a new unlockable action - sniffing! To unlock it, you need to collect 100 000 essence. Stop and smells the flowers!
We’ve made adjustments to the locomotion system to make it work like it did before.
We updated the minimap feature. Now you can switch the player display mode on the minimap in game settings.
If you have blocked some players, you won’t be able to see their markers on the minimap or regular map.
We’ve added a possibility to track particular players. If you want to find your friends, you can do that by clicking the button next to the mute/unmute button on the player list. Then, their markers become golden and are always shown both on the minimap and the map.
An indicator to show the camera direction has been added both in the minimap and the map. The quick selection wheel can now be closed by pressing Right Mouse Button. Now you can press Tab key to show and hide all emotes. It can be customised in game settings.
You can now hold RB (right shoulder button) to show/hide in-game UI with the gamepad.
We added camera new controls for gamepad:
Hold LT (left trigger) and push right joystick to zoom in/out;
Hold RT (right trigger) and push right joystick to change camera height.
We’re introducing a new approach to the Classic branch:
We needed to make some back-end changes to how the emotes/special emotes/actions are structured to ease working with them and adding more in the future. This has caused a de-sync between the Classic version of Meadow and the current Live/Beta. To ensure the best player experience we can, we decided to guide classic players to their own “Classic grove”. This grove can only be accessed while playing on the Classic version. To access Meadow Classic you need to right click on Meadow in your Steam library, select “Properties…”, go to “Betas” and select “classic - Classic branch” from the “Beta Participation” dropdown menu. To go back to the current version please select “None” in the “Beta Participation” drop down menu.
Fixes
Name-peeking is fixed now.
Player-blocking feature is working properly again.
Your animal's head will now be facing the same direction as your camera.
We fixed the issues that caused
Top of the world to be occasionally unlocked without playing the eagle.
A range of expressions achievement to be unlocked when unlocking the first emote.
Full wardrobe achievement to be unlocked when unlocking the first skin.
One thing at a time achievement to be unlocked every time you pick up a flower.
The issue of several animals still existing when you return back to the Den from the game has been fixed.
The ambient sounds no longer persist when you return back to Den from the game.
The customised key mapping is fixed now and will remain the same after relaunch.
All trees/rocks that used to be glitched shall now look normal again. In case you see a suspicious flora specimen again, please make a bug report on our Discord server.
The sense mode can be closed when you press Sense Mode button again.
Camera zoom in/out is quicker now.
The issue of animal-cloning and spawning under the wolf after you return to Den is fixed now.
Loud bubbly sound that can be heard while coming back to the Den is gone now!
The issue with some parts of environment becoming black while located at the end of the fog is fixed now.
Hedgehog roll speed is back to being nice and high.
The issue with essence counter showing a wrong number after you open and close the pause menu has been fixed.
The bear cub is not able to walk while performing Sleep and Play Actions anymore.
Cursor now hides when hiding UI (default keybind “H“)
The issue with the audio volume not turning down when opening the pause menu at the Big Tree has been fixed.
Live Update, March 28 2024
Fixes
Tree's don’t have outline and don’t twitch anymore.
Distance of detection of different elements in the sense mode has been adjusted
Fog has been moved further back.
Pheasant double jump is easier to execute.
The selection navigation issues appearing while switching between WSAD and mouse are now fixed.
The speed of movement of the flower and bush animation has been changed to a proper value.
A proper number of skin slots is now displayed for elephant and wolf.
One of the eagle skins that was not available is not missing anymore.
The incorrect blur effect has been removed. The game looks more like it used to if the anti-aliasing is disabled in Settings > Graphics page.
If you are still experiencing excessive blur, please also make sure that you are using a proper resolution.
Motion sickness issue
To solve the problem of motion sickness caused by picture movement that doesn't match the body's expectations, we've reduced the default speed of camera rotation.
If you feel uncomfortable while playing, please turn down the camera control speed appropriately and set the camera mode to static, in Settings > Game page.
Additionally, the frame rate and whether V Sync is enabled or not can affect motion sickness to some extent. Please adjust them to a more comfortable value in Settings > Graphics page.
If changing settings doesn't help with motion sickness issues, do not hesitate to share your experience, game settings, screenshots, or gameplay recordings and details about the device you’re playing on with us on Discord.
We will continue to try to improve it, in order to bring you a better gaming experience.
Updates
Close button which can be clicked by mouse is now added for animal editor view and player list.
Emotes selected on the quick selection wheel can are now sent upon releasing the quick selection wheel button.
Known Issues
Some of the texts in game are still being translated, and they will be displayed in English temporarily.
Fruit trees and bushes are visually glitched. The fruits are still okay to eat though!
Meadow Live Update, March 26
Fixes
Meshes of the trees in the Jungle area are not distorted anymore.
Updates
Gamepad support
You can now use a gamepad to play Meadow!
Grab your gamepad and run through the Meadow with all the animals in the world!
Please check the detailed gamepad control instructions in Settings > Controls page.
Steamdeck support
With the release of gamepad support, we no longer need to map the Steamdeck's keys to keyboard keys to enjoy Meadow as well!
Please ensure that you are using Valve’s default gamepad input mapping in the Steamdeck control settings
New UI design
All user interfaces for the whole game have been redesigned.
Not only does it have a more uniform appearance and smoother animation and responsiveness, but it can also be controlled well via gamepad.
If you are using a gamepad, just press D-Pad arrows to navigate and select an emote in game, and press B button to escape from UI input. It is more convenient to use the quick selection wheel to send emotes.
Emote quick selection wheel
The customised favourite emotes have been moved to quick selection wheel.
For keyboard & mouse players: Hold C key to open quick selection wheel, select one emote and click to send it. You can still use 0-9 number keys to send them. Customise them by pressing X key.
For gamepad players: Hold Left shoulder button (LB) to open quick selection wheel, select one emote by right joystick and release the joystick to send it. Customise them by pressing X button.
Minimap & map
You can find a minimap in the bottom right corner of the screen. It will now show the marker of the nearest other player who is more than 10 metres away from you. Also, it will show the marker of the Big Tree, Home and Landmark you set in the world.
Click on the minimap with the mouse, or press the M key [for keyboard]/Left function button (Selection) [for gamepad] to open the map.
Others
Due to the redesign of the UI and improvements to the saving system, you will need to re-modify the game settings if you have ever personalised them.
Players on the production build and the beta build can once again play together.
Known Issues
Some of the texts in game are still being translated, and they will be displayed in English temporarily.
National Peacock Day in Meadow
Hello,
Anyone feeling fabulous? On March 25 we celebrate National Peacock Day. So from 00:01 until 23:59, central European time, we will unlock the playable Pheasant with its Peacock skin for everyone to enjoy.
Here's a little tidbit that our copywriter found to be an earth shattering revelation when doing peacock research for the product description of the peacock skin:
"Did you know that all peacocks are male? It makes sense when you think about it, but we’re so used to talking about peacocks as if they’re a species of bird rather than the males of one. The collective name is peafowl, the females are called peahens and the babies are peachicks. In Meadow, however, you can be a female peacock if you so wish. Who’s going to stop you?"
Heart symbol command has been added. Spread the love on Valentine’s Day and evermore!
Fixes
Vulture statues and achievements connected with them are now fixed.
National Hedgehog Day in Meadow
Hello,
Thank for joining us for Zebra Day yesterday! But the fun isn't over yet as tomorrow is National Hedgehog Day! The history of this day goes back all the way to Roman tradition, as the little critters were used as pre-TV weather men (no joke). As they were observed to hibernate during winter, the romans would look out for sightings of hedgehogs in February to predict warmer weather being imminent. If none were to be seen, it was taken as a sign of a prolonged winter.
Nowadays we know that these prickly creatures typically hibernate all the way into March, and we have actual human weathermen to pick up their duties. Still, National Hedgehog Day is still recognized as a thing, happening on February 2nd and while they aren't endangered their numbers are in decline because of habitat loss, dwindling food sources and parasites. So watch out for them when you mow your lawn!
In Meadow we're participating in the celebration of National Hedgehog Day by unlocking the playable Hedgehog and its blue skin for every player from 00:01 to 23:59 tomorrow, central european time.
