Wolflord - Online Werewolf
New release date, Halloween event and bug-crunching
So, it has been some tough weeks, and I feel like a developer update is in order.
First off, a great big thank you to everyone joining our growing community. I am over the moon that people want to join us at this stage in the process.
The client is getting stronger by the day, and dusins of bugs gets discovered and crushed daily, which is awesome.
However, due to a number of distractions, scheduling conflicts and just pure bad luck, I am sadly way behind on the roadmap of what should be implemented before launch.
People have been patiently waiting for this game to have its release, but looking at the board of bugs and balancing it with the time we have left, I simply feel that rushing this lap would be taking a huge risk of the stability of the game.
That is why we are pushing the public release date 3 weeks ahead. Enough time to give this game the full attention it deserves, and to be able to put out a polished and enjoyable product on launch, where you don't have to fear falling rocks every time you press a button.
The new release date is : 21st of November 2019.
This project has been delayed a lot, and now I am delaying it again. I apologize for the delay, but I think everyone will be happier to know that once the Early Access label is off, you can jump into the game and enjoy the pure experience without staring at developer consoles and glitchy components.
That being said, Halloween is still a special time for us, and after talking with Steam, we made out a sweet deal.
We are hosting our own little Halloween Festival ingame, starting tonight the 28th of October, and running until Nov 8, 2019 10:00am CEST.
During the Halloween event, we will be dropping random loot, have a special spooktacular ingame store, and unveil at least one new card for each day of the event, each with their own monstrous theme.
This will merge with the Steam Halloween event, and we will have some crossover palooza and some great sales for you in this period.
We will of course not be slacking on the actual bughunting, and the version 0.7.8.4 will drop tonight with a load of bugfixes, features and neat little things.
We will still be hosting regular test games, and our community is slowly growing to a size where you with a portion of luck can find people to play with at our Discord channel.
Patch 0.7.8 : Boils and Trouble Patch
Phew, quite a week of bugcatching, and we have one hell of a week ahead of us. The player base is slowly growing, and we now also are getting the attention of streamers and youtubers, which is nice (although also quite nervewrecking)
Theres still a long way ahead, especially on the UI and server stability part, but we are getting there, one step at a time.
NEW CARDS:
+ The TROLL enters the game roster (Chaotic Attacker)
+ HUSK joins the game roster (Wolf Support).
+ The SCOUT enters the game roster (Town Investigator).
+ The WITCH OF LIGHT (town protector) joins the game roster. More witches will follow.
+ New token : Public random wolf
+ New token : Public town defender
+ New token : Public chaos
NEW FANCY STUFF:
+ Added activity log to player tooltips.
+ The Cathedral location is now an option.
+ Hosts can now kick human players.
+ Reworked the voting flow.
+ First experiments with alternative card skins are in place.
+ Improved AI suspicion system.
OTHER IMPROVEMENTS:
+ Syncing the OSX version with the Windows version.
+ Fixed some issues related to game creation, that could seriously break some games.
+ Fixed some reconnection issues, where rejoined players would appear dead.
+ Fixed Ai using abilities when they can't.
+ Bruisers will no longer spawn in decks without Villagers.
+ Role list can now be clicked to investigate displayed card.
+ New soundtracks added to the tavern, to give it a more distinct feel.
+ Safety measures implemented to help resolve the dreaded numbers bug.
+ Fixed some missing card headers.
+ Player list is now shuffled for each match.
+ Fixed issue where aliases could glitch out.
+ Fixed issue where half the players had a timer, and the other half didnt...
+ Lobby deck list can now be clicked to investigate.
+ Cleaned out some memory issues, freeing up more CPU space when calculating AI actions.
+ Added better flow for the triggering of the Poppet ability.
+ Forbidding bots from voting on a revote, until the vote count has been announced.
+ Wolf hunt now ends in a conclusion about what happens.
+ The AI has been educated on how the Plaguelord works.
+ Added loot drops for Riding Hood
+ Added loot drops for Prince
+ Deck balancing utility is now in the game client.
+ Fixed some role list sorting issues.
+ Added some additional offerings.
+ Fixed some UI placement issues.
+ Fixed some issues related to avatar loading.
+ Reworked some UI frameworks.
+ Added a couple of cosmetic items to the pool.
+ In the lobby, your player character can now be rotated by dragging the mouse.
+ Fixed some issues with the player activity logging.
+ Added microphone settings in preparation for voice-managed games.
+ Fixed issue where illegal characters in player names could break the lobby.
+ Fixed some issues causing broken tutorial levels.
+ Cleaned up some werewolf AI issues.
+ Dashes (-) are now allowed in player names. (hope this cheers @Dum_pap )
+ Fixed a bug surrounding players leaving, which caused crashes.
+ Fixed bug where seer results were not written in chat.
+ Fixed issue where scout results did not trigger.
+ Added some levelling rewards and offering items.
+ Fixed exploit where players could figure out other players real identities behind the aliases.
+ Fixed bug preventing hosts to kick bots (cheers @Nymirii )
+ Hosts can now kick human players.
+ Added four unique soundtracks to the cathedral stage.
+ Fixed some lighting issues.
+ Fixed some player tagging issues.
+ To fix the player/number tagging problems, tagging players in text is now done by writing their player number with a "p" in front of it, so "p10" to tag player ten ect.
+ The pregame lobby screen is now optimized for various monitor resolutions.
+ AI is now better at picking up player claims
+ Claims now visualized in the player board.
+ Fixed some legacy bugs surrounding the player board and Discretion Mode.
+ AI now understands that one card can turn into other cards, and that cards like Unsung Hero arent' ment as specific cards.
+ AI will stop distrusting itself, nor will it start to compliment itself out of thin air.
+ Fixed a bug causing a broken deck editor.
+ The Scout has been adjusted for balance purposes.
+ Fixed tutorial message, saying simply silly things.
+ Tutorial messages no longer collide with chat log.
+ Fixed some claiming mechanics.
+ Fixed player names accidentally appearing.
+ Added some levelling rewards.
+ Fixed some shader bugs in the cathedral.
+ Fixed tooltip areas that was colliding in player listings.
+ Fixed vote logs that kept saying "Voted for ..." even though the vote was over.
+ Fixed stacking claims in player log.
+ Chat input is now more "sticky", so you don't have to reenable it when you post something.
+ Improved some spam filters.
+ Fixed issue with scandinavian characters in player names.
+ Tweaked the Seer Tutorial a bit.
+ Gold distribution per game adjusted slightly.
Week 40 - Haunted Woods Patch
+ The BLOOD OAK joins the game roster. (Chaos Killer/Survivor).
+ The SHAMAN joins the game roster (Town defender).
+ The CLONE TOKEN enters the game roster.
+ The PUBLIC CHAOS TOKEN enters the game roster.
BIG CHANGES:
+ QUICK PLAY: Queue up to join the next public match. If enough players are in the quickplay queue, a new match is automatically created by the server.
+ RANKED DECKS: the first part of a ranked play structure. Ranked decks can not be customized, and can only be played with the full count.
Ranked decks will be filled with bots if launched without a full player count.
+ PLAYER REPORT SYSTEM: Holding down shift and clicking a player opens the report panel.
+ Added a new map, the TAVERN, to the game roster.
+ New playable character, Oleg.
+ The AI has been upgraded in several areas.
ADDITIONAL FIXES AND FEATURES:
+ Fixed bug that would allow special werewolf attacks to still work despite a Disease ability in effect (thanks @Nymirii )
+ Tweaked graveyard chat.
+ Hard rewrite of the voting system.
+ Fixed issue that was blocking endgame XP rewards.
+ Fixed some offering mechanics.
+ Added type offerings, such as an Attacker role item.
+ Gildenbombs now has a drop chance.
+ Fixed bug that would display you as disconnected, when in fact you were not.
+ Fixed bug where offerings would appear on the Clone info page.
+ Added a close button to the Offerings table
+ Camera now starts behind the right player.
+ Fixed bug that caused the Ghast to become undetectable by the Mentalist.
+ Fixed some achievement listing bugs
+ Tweaked the XP distribution system
+ Added player guides for some cards.
+ Card story tab now only shows if there is an actual story in place
+ Polished up the layout of the quest panel.
+ Fixed bug where certain offering types did not appear in the offerings list.
+ AI now understands how to recast votes in case of a tie.
+ AI now understands the Selkie ability.
+ Tweaked some definitions and phrasings on poorly defined cards (cheers @derUlbi )
+ Added some sound effects to certain abilities.
+ A couple of new offerings and achievements
+ If a player or AI has used a pre aimed ability on a player that dies (like Hunter's take aim or the poppet's soul bind) it will now be reset if the player is eliminated.
+ Some changes in AI behavior, especially wolf-team AI. If the human player targets a player "insistently", the other wolves retarget their attacks to this player.
+ Bots can now have beards.
+ Fixed some bugs that would disable achievements in games where they should be valid.
+ Fixed some loose wardrobe issues.
+ The Shaman is now a part of the Town Defender token
+ Clicking the highlighted card in the main menu now goes directly to the card page.
+ Added some offerings to the loot pool.
+ Added MAP option to game creation.
+ Fixed some issues with the diseased/riding hood disabling ability.
+ Mac version synced.
+ Improved network performance.
+ Cleaned out a lot of old code, to improve rendering queue and framerates.
+ Grey screen of death bug is now resolved.
+ Bots are tweaked and now vote and are a bit more aggressive.
+ The tavern map has been remodeled to reduce UI collisions.
October 2019 Roadmap
We have set at least three goals for each week, that will be completed before that weeks end.
Additionally there will, as always, be loads of updates, tweaks and fixes throughout the game.
Hope to see you ingame soon.
Patch 0.7.6 - The Dark Tavern patch
New cards:
+ The GHAST enters the game roster (new chaos survivor)
+ The BARD enters the game roster (town support)
+ The WATCHMAN enters the game roster (town defender)
+ The MERCENARY enters the game roster (town killer)
+ The ADMIRAL enters the game roster (town investigator)
+ The CAPTAIN enters the game roster. (Town Defender)
+ The INCUBUS enters the game roster (Wolf Attacker)
Game features:
+ Fixed bug where Steam would not fully understand that the game client was closed
+ Fixed some chest UI issues, causing the chest scene to freeze up
+ Fixed some pinkcard bugs on offerings
+ Fixed some undroppable loot items.
+ Fixed Chest count on Epic Chests.
+ Gamemaster no longer earns XP (cheers @Daniel_Tex )
+ Fixed some missing tooltips in the deck customizer section.
+ Tweaked the number allocation system to hopefully stop scrambling numbers.
+ Fixed bug where players could get stuck inside the offerings menu before the game started. (cheers @Daniel_Tex )
+ The imp ability effect can now be seen by his entire team (except the Werebat)
+ Ability effects (whooshing and burning) now has a working audio setting controller.
+ Revealed cards no longer go to the Changeling.
+ Added more granular timing options.
+ Fixed issue that would cause Game Lobby List to break and not update (what usually forced players to restart their clients)
+ Fixed bug that would cause AI players to bail/disconnect at the start of new games.
+ Fixed some flickering issues with the voting buttons during recounts.
+ Optimized some on-death triggers.
+ Recast the Troublemaker as Town Support, not Town Attacker.
+ Made the countdown animation for the round timer smoother.
+ Polished up some tooltips.
+ Players can now be tagged in chat messages.
+ Roles mentioned by the AI is now highlighted.
+ Chat default font size increased.
+ Chat can now be expanded to full screen.
+ Chat sidebar is now hidden when chat is.
+ Added some pro tips to the loading screen.
+ Repolished some UI scaling issues.
+ Added faction-specific offerings.
+ Fixed name-in-name issue with usernames.
+ Fixed bodyguard+ bard ability bugs.
+ Fixed some pacing tooltips (cheers @Soariticus )
Beta tester access:
We are still looking for playtesters, and have expanded the seat count. Visit https://direwolfonline.com/beta for more details.
Patch 0.7.5.2 - Stability and prosperity
+ Hosts can now add bots to multiplayer games and customizable tutorials.
+ Added a loading pre-screen to the main menu
+ Added "looking for players" count to the main menu
+ Fixed some tooltip typos and TBA text issues.
+ Fixed market bug that could produce empty market offers.
+ Restructured most of the client-server communication.
+ Added a handful of achievements and flair texts.
+ Hosts can now ask the server to spawn bot instances, for better playtesting and to fill up games.
+ The AI has grown slightly more clever in what they will claim and how.
+ Fixed card mentioning issue where partial words were converted.
+ Improved chat scroll and chat background.
+ Average intelligence of the game AI has been increased slightly.
+ AI now understands that there CAN be others with their own role type (like another revealed prince)
+ Improved tutorial flow.
+ Hosts can now remove and add AI players from both public and tutorial games.
+ Fixed tutorial issue where some tutorials would never start.
+ Added a wolf scenario tutorial.
+ Six new pieces of loot added.
Patch 0.9.5.3 - Lands and lords expansion
New cards:
+ The EXILE joins the game roster. (New Town Killer)
+ The LANDLORD joins the game roster. (New Chaos Threat)
+ The SAGE joins the game roster. (New Town Investigator)
Client updates:
+ Created the MARKET, a small shop that trades items for gold coins, and randomizes its wares daily.
+ Added a Identity panel, so if a player doesn't want to play under an alias.
+ Fixed some matchmaking server issues.
+ Fixed the broken Randomizer button.
+ Fixed some loading issues in the main menu.
+ Current gold on the player profile is now always shown in the lobby.
+ Added a couple of offerings to the inventory system.
+ Loot from Treasure Codes now stack better in the Steam inventory.
+ Fixed collissions if both a diseased and a riding hood were lynched.
+ Fixed some Concubine ability usage.
+ Fixed the "grey" player title bug in the end game screen.
+ Added visual aid for the Imp ability.
+ Added some pages to the rule book (will expand the writing later)
+ Synced the ingame and lobby rule book.
+ Added some offerings.
+ Polished the layout of the Market.
+ Re-enabled the notebook and emote panels.
+ Added a search bar to the deck browser.
+ Added navigational filters to the deck browser.
+ Resolved some issues regarding players left.
+ Fixed bug that caused the night to freeze up if host changed during play.
+ Fixed some winning condition bugs.
+ Experimenting with better shaders to make cards more readable.
+ Fixed some voucher code issues.
0.7.5.1 - 59 days till launch
+ Fixed XP and win tracking stats on a handful of characters.
+ Prepping a report / commend system.
+ Fixed a rogue key error in the game lobby.
+ New loot type, Gildenbombs
+ Added some protection against disconnects by strengthening the TTL system.
+ New loot item : Lute of Loot
+ Gold coins per game now scale with the number of human players.
+ Reworked poppet artwork.
+ Bug surrounding the Mentalist has been fixed, thanks to @Dinte
+ Fixed bug where player could be stuck in emote menu in singleplayer tutorials. (cheers @RyanPapp )
+ Added some more quest to the roster, and made a few rare+high reward quests
+ Reactivated the resolution dialogue window.
+ Fixed an issue with Blood Regime decks with no hunters in it (Thanks @Nymirii )
+ Fixed an issue with the custom deck browser, that was causing blank decks to appear.
+ Fixed a layout issue in the deck icon picker. (cheers @Peel Me Senpai )
We are doing some rounds of the physical game tonight, and with a little luck, recruit more playtesters :)
patch 0.7.5 - Public early access
We will have a patch running EVERY DAY until launch, so expect a lot of new cards, improved social features and visual/UI tweaks over the next couple of months.
New playable cards:
+ The TEMPLAR enters the game roster.
+ The FENCE enters the game roster.
+ The USURPER enters the game roster.
+ The SELKIE joins the game roster.
+ The BERSERKER enters the game roster.
New modifier cards:
+ The game rule RED DAWN is now in the roster.
+ The game rule BLOOD REGIME is now in the roster.
Other updates:
+ Tweaked the multiplayer code quite a bit. This will require some extensive testing, but it feels much more stable than before.
+ New loot items are now highlighted.
+ New loot type: Capes
+ Rule cards now correctly shows their ability in the card inspector
+ Added three new options to the Create new game tab : Language, Communication and Access.
+ Bolstered the tutorial levels quite a bit.
+ Added some story and flair to the characters.
+ New cosmetic type : platemail, unisex
+ Added a couple of challenges and achievements
+ Fixed some index issues in tutorial levels (cheers @vlees )
+ Tweaking a bit on the Usurper winning condition, it should ALWAYS trigger if she is for some reason the last one alive...
+ Fixed issue where the plaguelord would not be detected by the Mentalist
+ fixed some issues on the player list.
+ Fixed some issues regarding Reaper, Jester and Usurper victory conditions.
+ Experimenting with a notebook layout where the chat is still open
+ Emote menu now works.
+ Placed Villager outside of the Town Defender category.
+ Fixed some issues in the games lobby list.
+ Made clearer distinctions between open and close talking phases.
+ Fixed naked main character issue.
+ Fixed bug where notebook would not reopen
+ escape now closes both notebook and emote menu without opening the game menu
+ fixed the Selkie threat status.
+ Gold coins now stack properly in the steam Inventory.
+ Fixed issue where Torturer chat would not show the revealed card.
+ Trouble caused by the troublemaker is now amplified in the notification.
+ Optimized neighbour positioning calculation, giving the server less strain when figuring it out.
+ Abstain option added during voting and recound phases.
+ Fixed bug allowing villagers to cast Guilt before the game had even started.
+ Doing a lot of work with handling disconnects.
+ Character customization is now remembered.
+ Tutorial text rendering have been made a bit clearer.
+ Improved the display of role-based loot.
+ Fixed some issue related to the voucher claiming.
+ Added some offering items.
+ Improved the intelligence of the AI a bit, including giving them the capacity for defensive speeches.
+ Intro tutorial polished a bit.
+ Fixed the questions button.
+ Offerings are now presented per card.
+ Polished the Fisherman card a bit.
+ Polished up the artwork for a couple of offerings.
+ Fixed formatting bug in the card Q&A
+ Fixed issue where the riding hood would trigger if she was attacked and then saved.
+ Achievements is now shown in both Profile mode and role-specific achievements can be found in character details.
+ Added a quest view and a copy of the rulebook inside the game itself.
+ Steam achievement page should now be public.
+ Steam achievement statistics are now available.
+ Updated some system requirements
+ Mac build has been brought up to speed with the Windows build.
+ Cleared out some broken downloads.
Tonight we go to Early Access
This is to start growing the player-base beyond the few (but lovely) volunteer beta testers, and to get more fresh eyes on our game.
It's hard to say how many players it will result in, we are still holding everything back marketing-wise for now, and it is understandable that many players would want to just wishlist the game, and wait for it to do the actual release.
To all that have received a beta key, don't worry, we will not revoke your access to the game. Everything you have, including ingame loot, is still yours to keep.
Today, I will be focused on building version 0.7.5, which will be the build that goes live.
I expect the early access to open today @ 2000 CEST.