WolfQuest
Hotfix 2.7.3p9f
Patch 2.7.3p9e
While these patches are rolling out to each platform, you'll see fewer rooms than usual in your multiplayer lobby, as some players will have the update while others don't.
Fixes and changes:
* Multiplayer now requires IPv6 (required by Apple now, which forced us to upgrade it on all platforms)
* Adjustment to Limpy's howl audio timing
Feeling Territorial (Developer's Blog)
The strength of the wolf is the pack — but a nice big chunk of territory helps too. When designing the original game, we intentionally made the player’s territory quite small, because we worried that the tedium of maintaining a large territory would discourage people from playing the game. In the years since then, we’ve (hopefully) learned a bit more about gameplay design, and we’ve also learned how devoted players can be to WolfQuest. So in WolfQuest 3, we’re amping up the territories.
But how, exactly? We had long discussions about accuracy, complexity, usability, and fun. We definitely wanted to model the dynamic nature of wolf territories — they change over time as packs grow and shrink, expand and contract. (This will be especially important in Tower Fall, when we add pack vs. pack.) We also want to vary the territory configurations, so it’s not always the same each time you play the game. So, taking a cue from how strategy games handle territory, we’ve created a hex-grid system which covers the entire map, with most if not all hexes being claimed by a wolf pack. Wolves (both players and NPCs) must maintain their territory by visiting, marking, and howling. The opacity of each hex tile indicates the territory strength. With this system, the world is divided into small chunks of turf, and ownership of each one depends on the pack’s effort. The weaker their claim, the more likely another pack will try to take it over.
As a lone dispersal wolf in Amethyst, you’ll have only a small area of unclaimed turf which you can explore safely. But unlike in WQ 2.7, you’ll be able to venture into stranger wolf territories — at your own risk. While you can minimize the risk by paying attention to their scent markings, you never know when you’ll encounter strangers, who won’t look kindly on your intrusion. Yet entering stranger pack territory will often be necessary in order to find a mate, who might be a dispersal or might be part of another pack but open to persuasion to leave it and start a new pack with you.Then, once you reach Slough Creek, you’ll have to establish and maintain your own territory, with all the trade-offs of size vs security that come with real territory management.
We still worry that these territories will be too big and sprawling for players to happily maintain and we expect to tweak and tune them once we get into playtesting. We also may tweak the visual style of these hexes. But we do believe that this new territory system will change the game experience in exciting ways — even in simple setups like Amethyst, but especially as we look ahead to subsequent episodes.
One note about the map: It’s rotated 90 degrees so north is to the right. Got to fix that.
Hungry (Sometimes) Like the Wolf
As we redesign the game for WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition, one thing we’ve focused on is hunger. The game has always used a simplistic model for hunger, embedding it in the Health meter so eating is how you restore your health. There’s some truth in that, and it’s useful for simple, straightforward gameplay, but with WQ3, we are fundamentally rethinking how hunger manifests itself in the game. Some players have suggested adding a hunger meter, but we are very reluctant to add more meters, which add to the player’s cognitive load with diminishing returns.
We have three goals in mind:
* Model real wolf hunger and behavioral patterns.
* Discourage indiscriminate hunting and slaughter.
* Make it easy to understand the current situation at a glance.
WolfQuest is all about representing real wolf behavior. There are strong stereotypes about wolves being voracious killers, always hungry and on the hunt. But, in reality, wolves only hunt when hungry and after a big kill it might be a week or more before they need to hunt again. Prey seem to know that wolves are not always hungry and herds might graze peacefully quite close to wolves that are not in hunting mode.
So what is hunger? Like pain, it’s simply a signal from your body to your mind: “Hey, you need to do something about this!” So we want to model that in the game. But there are other physiological aspects of hunger and eating, for humans and even more so for wolves. After a big meal, wolves will lay about — for hours or even days — while they digest the food. They certainly do not get up and hunt again — both because they’re not hungry and because their body is instead spending energy on the hard work of digestion. And hunger is not really a linear progression: An hour after you eat, you still feel full, you don’t feel 90% full. Humans grow hungry again after 4-8 hours, while for wolves it’s more like two to five days. So hunger should affect your motivation to find food. We see this with wolves, who are lazy after a big meal, but after awhile, they become very energetic and keen to find more food. And then after many days without food, hunger will truly start to affect both energy and health.
While digesting, your energy will drop perhaps 40-50% — so you’ll still be able to move about and do things, but you won’t have enough energy to hunt elk or run long distances without a rest. The best thing to do is act like a real wolf and sleep it off.
So in WQ3, the energy (green) meter in our new health badge will reflect this situation: After you eat a big meal, it will actually shrink, because you simply have less energy available while digesting that food. After 24 hours, the meter will begin to grow again, taking another 24 hours or so to reach its maximum size. As the meter grows, your actual energy within that meter will also grow, indicating that your body is has the motivation and energy to hunt again.
We’re also redesigning how the Health meter works, to make it more realistic and less gamey…but that’s a topic for another day.
Hungry (Sometimes) Like the Wolf (DevBlog)
As we redesign the game for WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition, one thing we’ve focused on is hunger. The game has always used a simplistic model for hunger, embedding it in the Health meter so eating is how you restore your health. There’s some truth in that, and it’s useful for simple, straightforward gameplay, but with WQ3, we are fundamentally rethinking how hunger manifests itself in the game. Some players have suggested adding a hunger meter, but we are very reluctant to add more meters, which add to the player’s cognitive load with diminishing returns.
We have three goals in mind:
* Model real wolf hunger and behavioral patterns.
* Discourage indiscriminate hunting and slaughter.
* Make it easy to understand the current situation at a glance.
WolfQuest is all about representing real wolf behavior. There are strong stereotypes about wolves being voracious killers, always hungry and on the hunt. But, in reality, wolves only hunt when hungry and after a big kill it might be a week or more before they need to hunt again. Prey seem to know that wolves are not always hungry and herds might graze peacefully quite close to wolves that are not in hunting mode.
So what is hunger? Like pain, it’s simply a signal from your body to your mind: “Hey, you need to do something about this!” So we want to model that in the game. But there are other physiological aspects of hunger and eating, for humans and even more so for wolves. After a big meal, wolves will lay about — for hours or even days — while they digest the food. They certainly do not get up and hunt again — both because they’re not hungry and because their body is instead spending energy on the hard work of digestion. And hunger is not really a linear progression: An hour after you eat, you still feel full, you don’t feel 90% full. Humans grow hungry again after 4-8 hours, while for wolves it’s more like two to five days. So hunger should affect your motivation to find food. We see this with wolves, who are lazy after a big meal, but after awhile, they become very energetic and keen to find more food. And then after many days without food, hunger will truly start to affect both energy and health.
While digesting, your energy will drop perhaps 40-50% — so you’ll still be able to move about and do things, but you won’t have enough energy to hunt elk or run long distances without a rest. The best thing to do is act like a real wolf and sleep it off.
So in WQ3, the energy (green) meter in our new health badge will reflect this situation: After you eat a big meal, it will actually shrink, because you simply have less energy available while digesting that food. After 24 hours, the meter will begin to grow again, taking another 24 hours or so to reach its maximum size. As the meter grows, your actual energy within that meter will also grow, indicating that your body is has the motivation and energy to hunt again.
We’re also redesigning how the Health meter works, to make it more realistic and less gamey…but that’s a topic for another day.
WolfQuest Giveaway Contest – March 2018
How to enter: http://www.wolfquest.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=83946
