The upcoming WolfQuest Saga* has some big new features -- pups growing up, learning to hunt, and eventually dispersing -- but we're adding some smaller things as well. Let's look at a few of them in today's devblog:
- Marking and urination: The leaders of a wolf pack are responsible for marking the pack's territory to maintain it. We've had the classic Raised-Leg Urination stance in the game since the very beginning, but female wolves often do a variation called Flex-Leg Urination, and we've now added that for female pack leaders. And now that you've got older pups and packmates, they do a basic squat stance when urinating. Dispersals, surprisingly, probably do Raised- or Flex-Leg stances, to alert the local pack to their presence.
- From Rick McIntyre's amazing books about Yellowstone wolves, we learned that young pups are quite wary of water. We've implemented this in the Saga, so if you need to cross a creek when moving dens or rendezvous sites, your pups will regard it warily as they build up the nerve to venture into the water.
- When we added wolf injuries a couple years ago, it was possible to injure NPC wolves in fights, but those injuries did not persist -- and then a code revision later removed this entirely. We've now fully implemented NPC wolf injuries, so you can do your best to give those rival wolves a bad leg!
- Of course, along with all the new features come the inevitable bugs. We've got a good one in this video, so enjoy!
* The upcoming WolfQuest Saga is "the rest of the game." Your pups will continue to grow into the fall and beyond, learning to hunt under your supervision, and then becoming yearlings when next year's pups are born. Time will continue progressing through the years until you die. The Saga is currently in development but we do not have a release date for it.
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The WolfQuest saga will continue! Stay tuned for more news in upcoming devblogs about it and other new features!
We do not announce specific release dates. We will release them when they are ready.