Beta (May 28, 2019) is here. The update is pretty extensive: it includes a long list of fixes and improvements. The game has been updated to 64 bits, because it was starting to run out of memory for many people.
Is anyone playing on a Radeon, by the way? Is the game working alright for you guys?
CHANGES:
- Two new locations. (See the extreme spoilers section for more info)
- Generated Merchants walk the wilderness roads, three three unique Northern Guards, unique Elder Guardian and unique Wood Elf.
- "Fearful" Wolves next to Snow Peak roads that evade patrolling guards.
- New location to make the game flow clearer. (details in the extreme spoiler section)
- Sound effects for all player equipped weapons.
- Weapon trail height automatically calculated from weapon height.
- Added weapon trails for all weapon.
- Use stamina cost defined for all weapons (does not yet affect items in old save games).
- Map screen shows place names. Names become visible at different zoom levels.
- Display the map indoors.
- Only show landmark names that you have uncovered on the map.
- Fixed a bug where the fog of war texture was not correctly reset when the game was loaded.
- Map border fog.
- Dialogue for Ico in the Mountain Sheep tavern.
- Added two more clues for the elves in Port Pulgar.
- Empty landmark weather doesn't override LandmarkId weather.
- Unique names for the different graveyards.
- Medium and Small purses weren't visible in inventory when picked up.
- Goblin corpses drop purses in addition to weapons and hearts.
- Opening chests and outhouse no longer show damage numbers.
- Some ground objects are 8 meters tall to prevent characters from getting stuck into them when jumping. Fixes for Goblin Cathedral, Port Pulgar, Snow Peak, Town of Fortuna and Whiteknuckle Wharf.
- Fixed a bug where the inventory would show wrong values for all stamina-related variables.
- Weapon trail colors adjusted on several weapons to match the particle effects.
- Fade in & and out when teleporting with the altars.
- Darting component has support for random angular velocity.
- Von Mayerling cycle bug fixed.
- Fixed a bug where General Lupus would get duplicated sometimes.
- Fixed a small typo that made Brother Tibert unable to speak.
- Fixed a bug where you could ride wild boars without the mask.
- Fixed a bug where the healing sound for the Barry's Field altar, as well as other sounds, would play every the player stepped out of a building into the main world.
- Fixed a bug where the player cone on the map would get drawn in the wrong place sometimes.
- Imp Guardian labels were inheriting wrong offset.
- Sober Sam, Jane, Jorma and Mary's labels are attached to head bone for nicer movement.
- Sitting Merchant base template has label attached to head bone.
- Inconspicuous Monk label height improved.
- Ted Barry label height improved.
- Dropping sounds were missing from marble material.
- Added more silent fire sound for non-player torch.
- Ghouls have sound effects when they hit player or other objects.
- Blue Ghoul wasn't able to strike because it was missing Weapon_R bone.
- Outhouse model round parts are higher resolution and added wood detail normal map.
- Merchant called "Sleepy Crumpet" has sleepy eyes to match his name.
- Custom clover particles for Olga's wand.
- Introducing a new PhaseComponent, which makes the whole sequence of character transformations in Snow Peak more understandable and robust.
- Moved Snow Peak Castle interior poles so player can access the back door without jumping.
- Wolf standing up animation.
- Added support for positionOffset to map labels.
- Burned paper asset wasn't using transparent alpha texture.
- LadderTall_Silver template added.
- Key04 wasn't spawning as often as needed.
- Fixed a floating rock and plank in Whiteknuckle Wharf.
- Some Whiteknuckle Wharf roads were going through solid objects.
- Removed random labels from intro graves as the fox cannot dig for treasure.
- Removed label from "Broken Sword" as it shouldn't go into the inventory. "Risky Sword" is the correct player weapon.
- - Adventurers' Guild debris doesn't float in the air.
- Removed world "kill plane" that removed objects when they were 100 meters below the origin of the world.
- Added three weather variants for landscapeId grass. (randomizing not yet plugged in)
SPOILERS!
- Dialogue for the three patrolling Sleepless Knights and the patrolling Elder Guardian.
- Connected wolf dream to wolf recipe.
- Intro funeral scene polished with custom character assets.
- Blue-Lighty Bayou gambling area polished.
- Mrs Dunyazad and her pig walk back to Root Hall after the player has talked to her.
- Fixed situtations where there could be two instances of Mrs Dunyazad and her pig.
- Fixed dialogue menu for Mistress Tamara in the Horned Lodge so that her initiation branch will trigger correctly.
- Fixed dialogue menu for Ivan the Big Criminal so that his conversation advances properly after the first stage.
- Fixed bugs in Linus's quest. Abbot Cotton didn't, for example, correctly acknowledge Linus was back after sabotaging the shipment, and Linus didn't ever disappear from the Town of Fortuna.
- Linus sabotage scene is a bit more polished - the shipment cannot be attacked until Linus is distracted.
- New bonfire at Eastern Port shore near the deserter. You can acquire the boar shield there.
- Text for the two books in the Witch's garden.
- New FarText for the talking pumpkins.
- Modified recipe for the Curious Pumpkin.
- Give a discount for lock picks once you're in the Grimaldi Ring.
- Wounded Merchant scene tweaks. He stands up after being healed.
- Eastern Port Commander mentions dialogue if you're wearing her shield.
- Lucas tables scene fixes and polish. He now stands after the table is destroyed.
- Music area for "Lord Cross" and "Madam Bucket" undead combat encounter.
- Music area for Town of Fortuna undead encounter.
- Tamara's house has extra lighting so it is easier to find during the night.
- Slight tweaks for von Mayerling and the thief at the Diamond Door to mention "night" as a window of opportunity.
- Adventurers' Guild exterior polish: Flowers at entrance, flowers at Olga's grave, mushrooms at the hill on the back.
- Olga's Wand made unique.
- Fixed a bug where Von Sparkle's head could be destroyed making his mask unobtainable.
- Fixed a bug where the Unhealed Wound was always visible when teleporting from an altar.
- Publican's diary table scene is more robust.
- Holy book scene in Goblin Cathedral is more robust.
- Rackham cannot be pushed into the Snow Peak moat.
- Decreased the number of cheese chunks that Ezekiel asks you to eat.
- New dialogue branches for Ulf outside his villa, so that you can give him a Union Ring to re-enter the Gooseberry quest if you reject it at first.
- Remove labels from Merchant Union interior clerks.
- Tweaked Strudel dialogue.
- Animal Party villager label heights fixed as they're using head bone attachment.
- Fixed a bug where the King's Western Eye from Rotgerius would duplicate upon save game migration.
- Added one "spy pumpkin" that player can acquire without crafting.
- A bit more reasonable beer prices at St Fortuna's Rest.
- FarText for the Witch's well.
- Fixed exploit where you could get infinite money by giving Great Hearts to the Harlequin One. He didn't actually take the hearts - just gave you the money.
- The interaction text "Place Item" for Father Holloway sleeping.
- Transfer the attachment information for Praakh's purse when transforming it.
- Fixed a bug where the pumpkins planted in outhouses would have the wrong FarText appear.
- Outhouse area at the house of the Witch had wrong pivot point making it not work properly.
- Tweaked Belmont's Trial weather.
EXTREME SPOILERS!
- "Boiler Room" Healing Altar interior that enables fast travel between Snow Peak and the other altars.
- Fixed a bug where you couldn't sabotage the teeth of the Lion's Mouth.
- Lucas death sequence overhauled. You can acquire three personal items from him.
- Tweaked Merchant Union massacre weather.
- Port of Palms Walking Merchant and Patient Mendel disappear if the boars attack.
- Kazik at Merchant Union is carrying a torch.
- Torches are scattered all over the floor at Merchant Union to give the impression of carnage.
- Skeleton King Tomb hatch could get spawned in a random rotation.
- Text for the Instructions/Warning in the Boiler Room.
- Edited dialogue menus for the three wizards, to eject the player from conversation instead of creating a loop.
- Praakh's purse interaction becomes depleted after depositing the Parasite.
- Bartok the Boatman leaves with his ship after the letter is delivered and player is out of sight.
- Giant Maudey Dhu dream.
- New dialogue for the Witch about the Wound in the World.
- Always allow teleporting to the Limbo Guild once it's open.
- Changed chapter names in The Three Leaves to mirror the cauldron names.
- Miniature Altar of Healing with a small bonsai and tiny Knight Of the Clover figurine at Limbo Guild.
- New location & scene that takes place between the transition from Altar of Healing and Limbo Guild.
- Phantom knights fade out as you get closer to them.
- Short text sequence to transition from the Eldest Eye to the Limbo Guild.
- Don't collapse player to the ground when entering the Limbo Guild from the King's Passage.
- Less cramped LimboGuild interior entrance.
- Eldest King puppet is animated and 10x scaling is removed. The label is attached to the head bone for nicer movement.
- Eldest King puppet has a more accurate collision shape.
- The Eldest King disappears from the altar after entering the Limbo Guild.
- The Eldest King now really requires three jars of Tappen.
- The Eldest King destruction sequence.
About one half of the dynamic weather system was done during this update. We'll plug the rest in and enable it in the next update.
How to play the new beta
- Go to your Steam Library.
- Right click on Hardland, and go to Properties, then Betas.
- Enter the beta access code WhereTheFoxIs, hit check code, and select full_beta from the drop-down list.
That's it! Steam will download the beta for you.
The reason this beta is behind a branch and password is that new critical issues are still being uncovered, and I'd like those issues to bubble up to the forums instead of people being left alone with them. That's more likely if you are jumping into the beta through this announcement. So, if you encounter things that prevent you from progressing in the game, be sure to let me know on the forums.
Your thoughts
I'm really interested to hear reactions about the game itself. If you are feeling really adventurous, a very rough timeline of your playthrough (when you discovered what) would be super cool. If you get stuck and simply have no idea of what to do or where to go, I'd like to hear about that, too. Something that's off? Let me know. Something you particularly like? Yep. Just create your own individual topics on the forums so I won't miss your feedback.
I want to point out a couple of much-requested features which aren't yet part of the beta:
- Controller hints i.e. letting you know which keys do what in various situations.
- In-game controller remapping.
- Proper gamepad support for the inventory and the menus.
- Where did my new items go in the inventory?
These and many more bug fixes and improvements are all things we'll be working on next. In the meanwhile, here is a lo-fi version of the controller hints for keyboard + mouse to get you started:
Game: WASD to move, E to interact, Shift to run, Ctrl to sneak, Alt+WASD to dodge, Space to jump, M for the map, I for the inventory.
Inventory: Left button drag to move items around, right button drag to move all items of a type around, right click to eat/drink.
Map: Left button drag to pan, left click to use the altars, right click to set a waypoint, mouse wheel to zoom in/out.
Enjoy the update.
Kimmo
