We've finally reached the end of the beta 2.6 series of patches. On to greater things with the commencement of beta 2.7 development! While this is normally the time for us to go silent on the news front, please make sure to follow us on social media or join our Discord server to stay up to date on all the development previews and discussion while we work on our next major update.
Much of this release improves on the mechanics of merchants and addresses some of the issues spotted from the modding changes found in the last patch with other improvements sprinkled in as per usual.
Speaking of beta 2.7, don't forget to check out our "Item Idea Contest" here: http://www.unlok.ca/wayward/item-idea-contest/ - Three winners here will get their item idea added to the game in beta 2.7.
We haven't quite yet started on the next major release, but instead have been plugging away on getting Wayward more stable, improving systems, and balancing the game. There has also been a lot of work and development put into new modding support.
Something of note is that we released a new "Compatibility Branch" that should help anybody experiencing freezing, saving or graphical issues with the game. Please check this branch out if you are having one or more of these issues. More information on changing branches is available here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=721479594 Another thing to note is that we rebuilt the official Debug Tools mod from scratch using the new dialog and UI system. Among the ton of new features in it, it's now a great example case if you want to poke around in the code for your own modification. Shout-out to Yuudaari on that one! Check it out on the Steam Workshop here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=474819610
We have been plugging away at another batch of bug fixes, modding goodies, performance upgrades, and other changes with a focus on quality of life improvements. Hopefully something for everybody to enjoy! Some stand-out features include:
It looks like we are getting close to wrapping up beta 2.6, but we still have some remaining unsolved issues as of yet. These include:
We are waiting on any additional information on these issues. Please let us know if you find anything! Instructions for reporting on each is located in the linked threads.
As noted with our last release, we were working on some issues relating to performance. Now, some weeks later, we think we have something available that will help the majority of people that had issues previously (especially on lower end machines). This required much more extensive testing than normal for these minor releases, which is why it took a bit more time, and also why you'll find that this changelog may not seem very minor. This won't be the fix for all performance issues, and probably won't be the end of the beta 2.6.x series, as we still want to wrap up a few items before focusing on our next major release.
If you are still dealing with performance issues and don't want to wait, there's a number of options and possible solutions available for you. We recently released a guide on this, "Wayward Performance Guide" available here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1438746684
As you'll see below, this release was hardly all about performance, and more about balancing, improving, and fixing bugs in the game. A common issue we have seen in multiplayer is new players struggling. This is due to the very fast paced nature of the game when not playing in turn-based mode. To combat this, we have introduced a brand-new mode which adds a simulated turn-based environment for more strategic and dynamic multiplayer gameplay, allowing turns to only pass if players are actively performing actions. We've also opened up adjacent containers/items to be used in disassembling/dismantling fully, further decreasing some tedium in inventory management. This is just a few of the highlights; take a peek down below for more goodies.
Have fun and keep suggesting your ideas and reporting issues!
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Improvements
Bug Fixes
Balance
Technical
Beta 2.6.2 Released
A new batch of fixes is ready for you all!
We are currently looking into some performance issues related to some integrated GPUs. If you are having performance issues and have a discrete graphics card, make sure the game is actually using it (there has been some reports of some cards/drivers defaulting to integrated). As for the performance issues - we will continue to look into them, which now appear to be caused upstream (which we are waiting on an update for).
Two fixes we are shipping with this release are "possible" fixes. One is regarding the issue where containers dialogs would not show when opened and the other was keyboard movement getting "stuck" until a mouse click was made on the game screen. Please let us know if you are still getting these after beta 2.6.2.
We appreciate your patience while we address the remaining issues with the beta 2.6 release.
Bug Fixes
Improvements
Balance
Modding
Mods
TARS
Technical
Beta 2.6.1 Released
Hey all, we are just delivering a small patch tonight to address some of the beta 2.6 launch issues as well as a few improvements thrown in. We fixed up some major performance issues as well as corrected some pretty big multiplayer bugs.
Thank you all for testing and delivering feedback while we correct the problems. There's still some work to do, so stay tuned for some more minor patches!
Bug Fixes
New
Improvements
Balance
Mods
TARS
Wayward Beta 2.6 "Mercantile" Released
Beta 2.6"Mercantile" was built with late-game in mind. The addition of trading with wandering merchants (NPCs), new legendary items and old educational scrolls opens the door for a lot of possibilities and added progression. Metal items have also been reworked to be much more worth it and rewarding over early tiers of crafts. Especially in the case of copper, where it is now work hardened/cold worked, giving it a unique use case over iron which still needs to be forged with fire.
As always though, it's important to grow and help the new players out there getting into Wayward. Which is why we also spent a lot of time focusing on early balancing and making the game a bit easier to get into. Things like completely redoing the help and hint system (now notes), extending the Starter Quest to include more early game problem solving, disabling auto gather by default (no more bloody hands!), and nerfing some early game baddies should help address many of the complaints from new players.
Those newer players also having issues with low item durability (possibly before they figure out the item quality system) should also have a better time increasing durability with the addition of animal glue, making reinforcing much more accessible. And those weight/inventory comments? With the inclusion of being able to craft from adjacent chests, this should help reduce some of the tedium of item management and help new players unlock even more recipes early on.
What about multiplayer? Well, with the new "move to tile" feature, movement should be a lot smoother and more consistent, especially for players that are far apart geologically. We have also fixed up all those lost chat messages by adding in message filtering, allowing players to view just chat messages instead of game and chat messages mixed together. This can also be customized to filter all types of messages in the game.
We aren't done with the early or late game. As always, we constantly need to be tweaking and improving these things as new content and systems get added. Of course, this is just a small tease of some of the new things in the game. For more information, take a gander at the video and wall of text below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC3AGkCN4n8
New
Improvements
Bug Fixes
Balance
Modding
Mods
TARS
Debug Tools
Troposphere
Alpha Tracks
Technical
Wayward Newsletter #5
Wayward Birthday
Today marks the 2nd year of Wayward being available on Steam. We've been calling April 22nd the "Wayward Birthday" for this reason, and because of this fact, we are doing a 20% discount on Wayward today on Steam along with an extension to our "Content Contest". More details down below!
As always, thanks for coming along for the ride with us as we continue our wayward journey.
Beta 2.6 Plans
We have heard you loud and clear! After multiplayer, the biggest wish for most players has historically been “NPCs”. With beta 2.6, we are making that wish a reality, starting with NPCs (non-player characters) that you can barter and trade with. If you are particularly malevolent, you can also choose to battle and fight them for their goods. As always, we’ll expand on this system going forward to add new gameplay options for them in the future.
To go along with the trading, we also expanded our legendary system, opening up the ability for any item to be legendary with unique new properties, including reduced item weight, bonus stats, extra damage/defense, increased worth, and more!
Another long-requested feature is the ability to use adjacent containers (chests) for crafting. This is something we are working on for beta 2.6 as well!
Of course, I can’t spoil and talk about everything we’ve added and changed so far, but we’re already well over 100 improvements, bug fixes, additions, and balance changes for beta 2.6. Stay tuned for more reveals.
Beta 2.6 Media Previews
NPC Party
Attack of the Tumbleweeds!
NPC Trading
Wikipedia Entry
We are currently looking for some help on developing a Wikipedia entry for Wayward. This will help indexing/categorization of YouTube videos created on Wayward among other things. If anybody is a Wikipedia editor, please get in touch - we can help you with any information you need. Wayward should be notable enough at this point (it has been featured in PC Gamer (both online/print), Rock Paper Shotgun, etc.); however, we can't do it ourselves as this would be against Wikipedia’s rules as “self-promotion” even though we aren't using it for promotion.
Content Contest
We are currently running a “content” contest. One where you can submit any type of media or content surrounding Wayward for a chance at winning some Steam cash and Wayward keys! You can find more information on this contest here: http://www.unlok.ca/wayward/content-contest/
This is running until April 28th!
Featured Mods
Walk There by Amax
Amax does it again! “Walk There” adds in the ability to automatically walk to a selected tile using your mouse. It’s so good, we’ll probably end up adding this to the game at some point! Sorry/not sorry Amax!
HenryFBP clearly had too many close encounters with a giant spider following him into his house. “Close Da Door” adds in automatic closing of a door behind you.
Beta 2.5 was a milestone release for the Wayward project. It included one of those things I mentioned numerous times probably wouldn't ever be a thing. Well, never say never!
Multiplayer was a big deal and many had tons of fun with it and continue to do so. It was fun enough for me to actually play the game again (instead of just develop and test for). There's still tons of work to do on it and it will continue to improve like Wayward as a whole.
A special shout-out to Gary "Spacetech" Wilber, our lead programmer for making this dream come true!
As always, feel free to share your thoughts, concerns, and suggestions!
Have fun!
Vaughn "Drathy" Royko
Beta 2.5.7 Released
It's the major update that just keeps on giving! We are releasing yet another minor patch for 2.5.x to address some issues and tweak a few areas of the game. This release will fix up the container opening issue that multiple players have reported and hopefully correct some hardware compatibility issues.
We are still on the hunt for an options menu freeze as reported here and here. Please report your findings! We are still also tracking some issues with hardware compatibility. Even with an update to Electron, there seems to be still some with the dreaded "Lost GL Context" issue. We again will have to wait for updates upstream to correct this issue. There's still hope as mentioned previous through the browser solution if you are okay with that. More information on that available here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/379210/discussions/0/27623709432022338
Improvements
Bug Fixes
Balance
Modding
Technical
Mods
Troposphere
Debug Tools
Argus
Beta 2.5.6 Released
Well, it looks like we needed another 2.5.x release after all! In beta 2.5.6, we've addressed many issues and improved some player interaction like reducing item pick-up delay and increasing movement speed slightly among other things.
There's still a few issues to solve (and some we are still waiting on to be fixed upstream as mentioned in the last update post), but it's likely we'll push those to 2.6.0 now.
We'll keep updating the development branch nightly if you want to keep up to date with the more substantial changes that are likely to follow. We are going forward with the most requested feature, NPCs! But as always, the next major update will bring hundreds of other additions, changes, and improvements.
Note: Due to one bug fix, your custom binds for mods will need to be reset.
