UnReal World
Guinness World Record for “Longest update support for a game”
UnReal World gets a world record with “Longest update support for a game” title. Basically, that means that since the first version release there has been a constant stream of updates, for a record-setting 24 years in a row.
It’s some record for us and the game, but it’s also a record for you dear players, fans and followers. It is your support and feedback which has made it possible to keep up the journey this long.
I take this as a great acknowledgement both for UrW and for the whole roguelike genre in general. The genre is famous of long running labour of love projects. There are also other games started back in 90’s with a long development history. What did put us in the book is probably the extra-ordinary continuity till this day, the work being carried on by the very same original developer(s), with no hiatus or pauses during this nearly quarter of a century.
Special greetings to the players who have been playing the game for all these 24 years.
Very special greetings to the players who asked back in 1992 if there are going to be any future updates. :)
Cheers and thanks to all of you for making history with us.
[IMG]http://unrealworld.fi/images/gwr-2017.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://unrealworld.fi/images/gwr-2017-the-page.jpg[/IMG]
Video greetings as DLC for UnReal World Steam players
Feel free to add Video Greetings to your cart if you like. We'll launch the DLC with one video to start with, and more will follow in time. As the Video Greetings package grows we'll find ways to keep the file sizes decent, but the launch (and the latest work) is full HD work around 175 MB.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/505100
If you grab the Video Greetings DLC you'll find the videos within your local UnReal World files in BonusMaterial/ folder. And the game main menu also shows BONUS MATERIAL option which guides you to the right folder.
If you're curious about what the video greetings may be about you can browse the older stuff at [URL="https://www.youtube.com/user/enormouselk"]Enormous Elk YouTube channel[/URL].
Cheers!
Into the Finnish Museum of Games we shall take you...
Yeah, that’s right, there’s going to be Museum of Games opening in Finland in 2017, and UnReal World is one of the titles selected to the exhibition. The visit included also an interview to be archived for the future, for the future researchers - and generations. So I guess we are officially preserved now :)
The Finnish Museum of Games tells the story of how digital gaming in Finland started, how it developed over the years and how it made it to where it is now. You better take a look at [URL="http://suomenpelimuseo.fi/"]Suomen Pelimuseo / The Finnish Museum of Games website[/URL] (brief english info also available) and go see the exhibition for yourself in 2017.
Here's rare exhibit of me and Erkka (co-designer) in urban environment -- which is actually not that uncommon, but just rarely documented. The Finnish Museum of Games will open in the Vapriikki Museum Centre at Tampere in January 2017.
[IMG]http://unrealworld.fi/images/offtopic/2016-05-24-vapriikki-tampere.png[/IMG]
Game on!
As a related thingie, just today InkTank blog takes a trip down gaming memory lane and posts their list of the 9 most important Finnish video games in history. I'm sure pretty much everyone will find few familiar titles there.
Version 3.32 released
The most notable features in this update concern the changes and additions regarding companion's item ownership and net fishing. Find the full changelog after a preview screenshot.
3.32 preview. Companion is about to leave tomorrow, stating that he needs to be paid.
[IMG]http://www.unrealworld.fi/images/previews/2016-04-28-companion-reward-request.jpg[/IMG]
UnReal World version 3.32 changelog:
- added: need to pay companions & companion inventory restrictions
* companion inventory restrictions
You can't anymore freely pick all the items of your companions to yourself. Companions now tend to keep their most valuable and usable personal items to themselves, and usually only the cheap items and food are freely pickable. However, all the items you have delivered to your companion can be picked back at will if they are not in use (wielded or worn) at the moment. So it is still safe to pack or lend your companions even the most valuable goods you have.
* need to pay companions for their days of service and items claimed
Companions now require some reward for their days of service. Their price is roughly a value of one squirrel hide per day of service and you can pay them basically with any valuable goods. Also, if you have claimed companion's items to yourself they expect to be paid for those items too. In short, companions now always expect to leave with more valuable inventory than what they had upon recruitment.
A day before companions are about to leave they'll let you know how they feel about their equipment and whether they expect to be paid more. If more payment is wanted simply deliver items to your companions and they'll let you know when they are happy with it. You don't have to do it at once but have the whole day to settle the payment. Talking to your companion at any time ("Greet" or "Ask for help" chat options) will also make them speak their mind about the remaining payment.
If you fail to pay companions before they leave you'll be reminded about it the one last time. From there on you can still deliver goods to settle the payment, but ex-companions don't necessarily stay around for too long. Failing to pay companions lowers your reputation in their village, and makes hiring new companions there quite difficult.
* migration notice
Companions hired in the previous version behave differently. They still have unrestricted inventorys, and may or may not ask for payment when parting.
- tweaked: recruiting companions who carry village property from failed/cancelled trades
There are two new conditions to prevent exploiting companion recruiting with returned village goods:
* Companions don't count the returned village property as their own when checking if they have enough equipment to join you.
* When companion agrees to join you they won't keep carrying the returned village property but drop it on the ground where other villages come to reclaim it.
- changed: children won't anymore participate in picking up village property left on the ground after failed/cancelled trades
This is because you can't do one-to-one trading with children, and sometimes you would like to go for that with some items NPCs just picked.
- added: NPCs wearing the new clothes/armours they get
NPCs can now actively wear the new clothes/armours they have obtained. They'll usually go for wearing new clothes/armours after being delivered or having picked some. Delivering useful pieces of clothing/armour to your companion is now worthwhile, even though NPCs make the final decision whether they will wear something or not.
- added: pull heavy items to your location with [;] pick up from adjacent tile command
If the items you tried pick up from adjacent tile were too heavy to lift you'll be asked if you want to pull them to your location.
- fixed [rare condition]: segfault upon launching the game on some Mint/Ubuntu systems
- fixed [rare condition]: NPCs being able to fall asleep while in the water
At its worst this resulted in villagers foolishly drowning/freezing to death.
- fixed [modding]: [naming] tag not working properly when crafting while NPC is felling a tree
- fixed: creature total injury not always increasing if the number of maximum unique injuries was reached
This resulted in occasional difficulty to finish creatures with minor impact wounds.
- fixed: corrupt description of "An Island" game course task
- fixed: finishing tasks (eg. felling a tree) by grinding when too tired to continue
When tasks were cancelled because of being too tired to continue repeating the command still always added one minute of progress and you could finish the task by this sort of grinding. Fixed now.
- fixed: bears (and possibly other creatures too) occasionally entering into indecisive fighting mode
They might keep constantly switching between attacking and fleeing without really making any attack maneuvers. Fixed now.
- adjusted: tiny increase in lynx and glutton aggressiveness potential, especially in case of them being wounded.
- added: daily tolerance for stimulant herbal effect
Consuming stimulants doesn't anymore decrease the exhaustion seemingly indefinitely, but stops when a certain daily level is reached.
- tweaked: net fishing
* catch check time window now hourly based
Net fishing catch checks are now hourly based instead of previously used morning based checks. This means you can catch fish with nets within a shorter time window. Even within an hour from setting the net - if you're lucky and the conditions are right. Naturally the longer the nets have been set the greater the catch usually grows so hasty checks usually provide only a few fish. Despite of the shorter time window it should be still remembered that in addition to your fishing skill level the factors such as terrain, water depth and time of the day also contribute to what kind fish and how much of it your net is likely to catch - if at all.
* gradual catch spoilage
Catch spoilage due to fish eventually dying in unretrieved nets is now gradual. You may still be able to get some of catch good and edible even if the nets have been left unretrieved for days. In general it's still advisable to check your nets at least on every other day.
* setting multiple nets to same tile now forbidden
- tweaked: NPC sleeping related oddities and exploits
* NPC won't anymore fall asleep outside when it's raining.
* Njerpez and foreign traders met in the wild won't fall asleep so easily anymore if they're within player's sight when the encounter happens.
Sleeping NPCs in the wild still can encountered, but this fixes the exploitish procedure of encountering people at night hoping them fall asleep on the next move.
- tweaked: restricted possibility to [w]ield skis
Skis are put on by [a]pplying them but having been able to wield them too caused confusion.
- changed: pine-marten aggressive sound is now 'snuffle' instead of 'snort'
** End of changelog **
Version 3.32 released as beta-branch
------------------------
The most notable features in this update concern the changes and additions regarding companion's item ownership and net fishing. In addition there's fistful of lesser tweaks and bowl of bugfixes. Take care, and find the changelog below:
UnReal World version 3.32 changelog:
- added: need to pay companions & companion inventory restrictions
* companion inventory restrictions
You can't anymore freely pick all the items of your companions to yourself. Companions now tend to keep their most valuable and usable personal items to themselves, and usually only the cheap items and food are freely pickable. However, all the items you have delivered to your companion can be picked back at will if they are not in use (wielded or worn) at the moment. So it is still safe to pack or lend your companions even the most valuable goods you have.
* need to pay companions for their days of service and items claimed
Companions now require some reward for their days of service. Their price is roughly a value of one squirrel hide per day of service and you can pay them basically with any valuable goods. Also, if you have claimed companion's items to yourself they expect to be paid for those items too. In short, companions now always expect to leave with more valuable inventory than what they had upon recruitment.
A day before companions are about to leave they'll let you know how they feel about their equipment and whether they expect to be paid more. If more payment is wanted simply deliver items to your companions and they'll let you know when they are happy with it. You don't have to do it at once but have the whole day to settle the payment. Talking to your companion at any time ("Greet" or "Ask for help" chat options) will also make them speak their mind about the remaining payment.
If you fail to pay companions before they leave you'll be reminded about it the one last time. From there on you can still deliver goods to settle the payment, but ex-companions don't necessarily stay around for too long. Failing to pay companions lowers your reputation in their village, and makes hiring new companions there quite difficult.
* migration notice
Companions hired in the previous version behave differently. They still have unrestricted inventorys, and may or may not ask for payment when parting.
- tweaked: recruiting companions who carry village property from failed/cancelled trades
There are two new conditions to prevent exploiting companion recruiting with returned village goods:
* Companions don't count the returned village property as their own when checking if they have enough equipment to join you.
* When companion agrees to join you they won't keep carrying the returned village property but drop it on the ground where other villages come to reclaim it.
- changed: children won't anymore participate in picking up village property left on the ground after failed/cancelled trades
This is because you can't do one-to-one trading with children, and sometimes you would like to go for that with some items NPCs just picked.
- added: NPCs wearing the new clothes/armours they get
NPCs can now actively wear the new clothes/armours they have obtained. They'll usually go for wearing new clothes/armours after being delivered or having picked some. Delivering useful pieces of clothing/armour to your companion is now worthwhile, even though NPCs make the final decision whether they will wear something or not.
- added: pull heavy items to your location with [;] pick up from adjacent tile command
If the items you tried pick up from adjacent tile were too heavy to lift you'll be asked if you want to pull them to your location.
- fixed [rare condition]: segfault upon launching the game on some Mint/Ubuntu systems
- fixed [rare condition]: NPCs being able to fall asleep while in the water
At its worst this resulted in villagers foolishly drowning/freezing to death.
- fixed [modding]: [naming] tag not working properly when crafting while NPC is felling a tree
- fixed: creature total injury not always increasing if the number of maximum unique injuries was reached
This resulted in occasional difficulty to finish creatures with minor impact wounds.
- fixed: corrupt description of "An Island" game course task
- fixed: finishing tasks (eg. felling a tree) by grinding when too tired to continue
When tasks were cancelled because of being too tired to continue repeating the command still always added one minute of progress and you could finish the task by this sort of grinding. Fixed now.
- fixed: bears (and possibly other creatures too) occasionally entering into indecisive fighting mode
They might keep constantly switching between attacking and fleeing without really making any attack maneuvers. Fixed now.
- adjusted: tiny increase in lynx and glutton aggressiveness potential, especially in case of them being wounded.
- added: daily tolerance for stimulant herbal effect
Consuming stimulants doesn't anymore decrease the exhaustion seemingly indefinitely, but stops when a certain daily level is reached.
- tweaked: net fishing
* catch check time window now hourly based
Net fishing catch checks are now hourly based instead of previously used morning based checks. This means you can catch fish with nets within a shorter time window. Even within an hour from setting the net - if you're lucky and the conditions are right. Naturally the longer the nets have been set the greater the catch usually grows so hasty checks usually provide only a few fish. Despite of the shorter time window it should be still remembered that in addition to your fishing skill level the factors such as terrain, water depth and time of the day also contribute to what kind fish and how much of it your net is likely to catch - if at all.
* gradual catch spoilage
Catch spoilage due to fish eventually dying in unretrieved nets is now gradual. You may still be able to get some of catch good and edible even if the nets have been left unretrieved for days. In general it's still advisable to check your nets at least on every other day.
* setting multiple nets to same tile now forbidden
- tweaked: NPC sleeping related oddities and exploits
* NPC won't anymore fall asleep outside when it's raining.
* Njerpez and foreign traders met in the wild won't fall asleep so easily anymore if they're within player's sight when the encounter happens.
Sleeping NPCs in the wild still can encountered, but this fixes the exploitish procedure of encountering people at night hoping them fall asleep on the next move.
- tweaked: restricted possibility to [w]ield skis
Skis are put on by [a]pplying them but having been able to wield them too caused confusion.
- changed: pine-marten aggressive sound is now 'snuffle' instead of 'snort'
** End of changelog **
Simulation talks on Roguelike Radio
This is episode 121 of Roguelike Radio, where Mark Johnson, Darren Grey, Tarn Adams and Sami Maaranen discuss Simulation in Roguelikes:
[URL="http://www.roguelikeradio.com/2016/04/episode-121-simulation.html"]Episode 121: Simulation[/URL]
Present Thanks, upcoming Quests
Thank you
Firstly, I'm here to say big thanks to all of you buyers, gifters, supporters and players for these first seven weeks of adventures in the far north on Steam. It's been a pleasure and let us continue the journey. There's no end in sight.
Me and these age-old hay barn wall logs say Thank You!
[IMG]http://www.unrealworld.fi/images/offtopic/2016-04-15-thank-you-steam-devshot.png[/IMG]
We've also had a trademark habit of providing recreational video greetings every now and then. That habit is to be continued and we'll be seeking a nice way to start distributing those video greetings for UnReal World Steam buyers. (Maybe a semi-regularly updating DLC package, downloadable at will. We'll see.)
Quests
Those who haven't been following the game for too long may not be aware that one of the next big things to expect in the future are the quests. We'll likely see quite a few updates with lesser features prior to launching quests, but it's something that deserves an early highlight -- so let's do that.
The quest system has been on the table and steadily crafted in the background for more than a year already - our ambitions there are the kind that don't allow things to be rushed.
We're not taking the easiest path to add quests, but use verbose dialogue, procedural generation and randomization to maintain replayability and immersion. Quests will fill in the game world to great extent, but even so UnReal Will remain open-ended and non-linear experience as it stands now. Quests can vary from mundade problems to intricate events inspired by mythology and folktales. More versatile interaction with NPCs and more concrete presence of folklore creatures are both to be expected when we've got it all done.
If the spirits are favourable we may see at least some portion of quests in action this summer. Meanwhile, here's a bunch of preview screenshots about what to expect from UnReal World quest system. It's a big thing to pinpoint. The screenshots merely scratch the surface.
Quests can be obtained from NPCs. Sometimes they'll come to talk to you. Sometimes you get a hint you may want to follow.
[IMG]http://www.unrealworld.fi/images/previews/2015-10-25-chat-quest-query-2a.jpg[/IMG]
Quest dialogue is often verbose, and you're still completely free to decide if you want to get involved.
[IMG]http://www.unrealworld.fi/images/previews/2015-09-24-quest-dialog-example-2.jpg[/IMG]
Quest journal. This character is involved in three different quests. Quest briefing would be to be seen by clicking the desired quest.
[IMG]http://www.unrealworld.fi/images/mar2015-quest-journal-preview-1.png[/IMG]
Into the Far North we shall take you...
Enjoy your stay.
...and stay tuned for future updates.