One of the interesting challenges with a game like WolfQuest is that some players play the game a lot, hundreds or more hours, becoming quite skillful at the gameplay in the process. So what seemed like the ultimate difficulty level initially eventually becomes rather straightforward, lacking challenge. We've gotten quite a few requests to add a higher difficulty level to the game, and we are now working on just that.
First, since the Saga released late last year, it's become evident that once your pups survive their first year, they're practically invulnerable. As is your mate (unless you get some bison involved). So we're adding a new option in Gameplay Settings: Critical Hits for NPC Adult Wolves. If you switch this on, then all NPC wolves (your packmates as well as rival and dispersal wolves) have a chance of getting a critical hit -- a large, possibly fatal, amount of damage from a bite or a kick during a hunt or a fight. The odds of this are extremely low each time, but over the course of a game-year or two, they add up. This new option is optional, but if you don't like how your packmates never die, or just want some more grist for your role-playing and storytelling, it might be for you.
We think this is a valuable addition to the game, but it's not the same as a new difficulty level. For that, we brainstormed ideas with the team and with our private beta testers and came up with a plan. But what to call it? What's harder than Accurate? Fortunately one of our moderators and private testers, Circiinus, suggested the perfect name: Unforgiving. Life is unfair. Nature is not on your side.
In some respects, Unforgiving is the same as Accurate. Pup raid and hex invasion frequencies are unchanged. But we realized that Accurate difficulty did have a few gaping inconsistencies. Primarily, your wolf does more damage to NPC wolves and NPC wolves do a lot more damage to your wolf, but your packmates do not. They're still playing on Challenging difficulty, which is odd.
So now in Unforgiving:
* All NPC wolves deal more damage (the same 1.5x multiplier that your wolf deals to NPC wolves) to other NPCs: wolves, other competitors. (This is still less than the player wolf takes in damage, which is the same as in Accurate). Making all NPC wolves on the same in terms of damage dealt and damage received works quite nicely to make hunts and fights feel more dangerous to your pack as a whole, and more interesting.
* Pups take a bit more damage than at lower difficulties.
* NPC wolves regenerate health more slowly on Unforgiving (not quite as slowly as the player-wolf, but slower than on lower difficulty levels).
* Pups need more food to fill up. This should make pup quests, especially Growing Pups in late summer, more challenging.
* Pups have a somewhat higher chance of getting sick -- but also a higher chance of recovering from sickness. So they're more likely to be sick during predator raids, and slow to get to safety.
* Competitors are a bit more Fighty, and a bit less Flighty.
This combination of modifications has been working nicely in testing for players who want to live on the edge, with more twists and turns and ups and downs in the life of their pack.
One more thing: since packmates are now more vulnerable during hunts and fights, you might want to keep a closer eye on their health. We've added a new optional onscreen display, showing Packmate Health.
We're still testing and tweaking these new features but expect to have a new public beta ready soon, so stay tuned!