FAQs about WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition

Find out what we're doing and thinking as we develop WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition and the Tower Fall expansion!

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FAQs about WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition

Post by loboLoco » Fri Aug 04, 2017 8:49 pm

What is WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition?
WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition will be a complete remake of the current game. The basic mission arc will be the same. However, WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition will have a new codebase and much of the core gameplay will be reimagined. We’re rethinking and redesigning each system of the game, from the wolf-controller to stranger wolves (both hostile and potentially friendly) to hunting mechanics to elk herding behaviors. We’re making vastly larger and more realistic maps. There will be new and improved 3D animal models and animations living in a world of more realistic terrain and flora. In every way, it'll be a bigger and better version of the game.

Be sure to follow our weekly updates at wolfquest.org/blog and here are the past Development Blog Videos by Category

What about Tower Fall?
Our original plan was to make a new map/episode, Tower Fall, then go back and revise the Amethyst and Slough Creek missions to bring them up to par with Tower Fall. But as we work on these new systems, that plan became increasingly unsatisfactory. It would be quite strange to play through the current game, then go to Tower Fall and find all-new systems that create (we think!) much better gameplay. You all who’ve been playing the game already would probably understand that, but new players would not, and it would not make a great player experience overall.

So we revised that plan, flipping the release schedule around to focus on WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition first and then resume development of Tower Fall.

FAQs About Tower Fall

What else will be new in WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition?
* New, more robust codebase for all gameplay
* Improved camera and wolf controller
* More naturalistic AI logic
* New animal models
* New courtship gameplay when looking for a mate
* Improved hunting gameplay
* Bigger and better maps (49 square kilometers each!)
* More naturalistic animal spawning and scent system
* More naturalistic territory system
* And more!

How much will WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition cost?
WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition will be a free update to players who own WolfQuest 2.7. If you are buying WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition for the first time, the cost will likely be more than than the current game 2.7 (so it's cheaper to purchase it now and get WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition as a free update). The Tower Fall expansion will be an in-game purchase (DLC).

Will WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition be available for mobile phones and tablets?
WolfQuest is available for Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, Android & Kindle. So yes, WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition will be available for mobile phones and tablets...at least some of them, and/or in some form. Bigger maps and more animals may be too much for mobile devices with limited RAM memory. We'll do our best, but there's a good chance that some mobile devices won't be able to get it, and/or we will have a simpler version of it for some mobile devices.

When will it be released?
When it's done :)

UPDATE: July 25, 2019: Releasing Amethyst Mountain for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. That will be followed by multiplayer and Slough Creek some months later, then followed by the mobile versions. We’ll then resume development of the next episode, Tower Fall.

What new animals will be included?
* Mule deer
* Beavers
* Bighorn Sheep (winner of the player vote for a new animal)
* Baby ungulates

See videos about all the new animals: Development Blog Videos by Category

Will you be updating the wolf model?
We have rebuilt the wolf model. You'll be able to choose from a variety of eye colors and other customizations. See videos about the new wolves: Development Blog Videos by Category

Will my wolves import?
WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition will use the same player accounts as 2.7. You’ll be able to log into WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition and import your existing wolves and they will remain available in 2.7 as well (though you won’t be able to import a wolf from WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition back into 2.7). We are still deciding about how ranks and achievements will integrate into WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition.

Questions About the Maps
Are you enlarging all the maps? Will the bigger maps be replacing the old maps? Will we have the option to choose which version of the maps to play on?
We are making new, bigger and better maps for Amethyst Mountain and Slough Creek. Maybe someday we’ll do the same for Lost River, but it’s low priority for now. WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition will only have the new maps, but WQ 2.7 will be available as a separate app so you can keep both versions on your computer or device.

Questions About Hunting
Will there be a way to carry hares or tear off pieces of a carcass and carry it away? Or drag a carcass closer to the den?
Wolves will be able to carry small chunks of food, such as hares. They’ll also be able to pick up some internal parts of larger pray and carry them away. We did some work on tearing off limbs and dragging carcasses, but it’s technically quite difficult to get that to work and look good, so it’s not in the plan currently.

Fun fact: In some regions like northern Minnesota, wolves will often cache food so they can return and eat it later — even though other predators often find those caches and eat them first. But in Yellowstone, prey is so abundant that wolves don’t bother caching. So there will not be caching in the game.

Questions About Pups
Will we have an option to play as a pup or a yearling?
We fully understand how much players want this! And we think it would be fun too. Our new codebase will make it much easier than before to make any animal playable, so we expect to make playable pups at some point. However, pups are pretty limited in what they can do, so we know we’ll have to create some special game mechanics to make pups worth playing. So playing as pups will have to come later.

Questions About Life Cycle
Will we see pups grow to adulthood? Will there be an extended life arc for the wolves, so you can play through year after year, raising a series of litters? Will there be an aging system?

Tower Fall will continue the story of the pack from June to November, when the pups are about seven months old. Obviously, they have a lot more growing to do before the parents would be ready to have another litter! Eventually, we would love to carry the story far enough so it would naturally begin another cycle — I imagine that would be Episode 5. And even with that, the game would portray only 18 months in the life of your wolf, so not long enough for any aging effects to appear. In some ways that’s a shame, because scientists do see significant changes over a wolf’s adult life, as they become wiser and more experienced. We hope someday to incorporate that into the game nicely, but you can see it’ll be awhile.

In real life, wolf pack hierarchy changes a lot. If an alpha wolf ages and weakens, it may be edged out by a stronger, younger wolf. That former alpha may sometimes leave the pack and start a new one. Could this be possible in the new episode?

“Alpha” is actually an outdated concept. Dr. David Mech developed the concept early in his career, after watching captive wolf behavior. But as the more he studied wild wolves, he realized that the pack leaders were simply the parents (or breeders, to use the technical term), and they generally remain so for several years at minimum. Dr. Mech has found it challenging, to say the least, to undo the popularity of the “alpha” concept, and as one of our advisors in the original game project, he saw WolfQuest as one way to get the word out.

So in the wild, hierarchies actually don’t change that often. For example, the breeding pair led the Lamar Canyon pack for nine years (until, sadly, the female was shot and killed just outside the park boundary). That’s an especially long tenure, but there definitely is not a lot of turnover of pack leadership, any more than there’s frequent change of parents within a family. In fact, if one of the breeders dies, the pack is likely to break up, with each wolf heading out to find a mate and start a new pack.

Will their be an option so that if our mate dies he/she will stay dead to make the game harder?
We’ve thought about allowing mates to be killed permanently, but it would definitely affect the difficulty of the remaining game. And of course, the follow-up question will then be: If my mate is killed, I should be able to get a new mate by finding another dispersal. Which would be accurate to real wolf behavior! But which means adding all that functionality, and integrating it nicely. That’s what always happens with game design — something sounds so simple, but it creates a cascading series of new issues that have to be dealt with.

Questions About Mate and Pack Interactions
How will finding a mate change?
Finding a mate will be a much bigger challenge in WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition! Instead of three fixed Stranger Wolf zones, other wolves will roam around just as you do. Pack wolves will patrol and defend their territory, while other dispersal wolves like yourself will wander in search of a mate. You’ll be able to track both pack and dispersal wolves by scent (just as you do with prey using the new scent system). And once you find a potential mate, it won’t be quite so simple to make that wolf your mate. Look for more details in a future blog post!

Will there be new actions (like tail wag and playbow) to communicate with each other? Will howling have any sort of an effect (being able to hear other packs, etc)?
We are adding more emotes, each of which has a specific meaning (e.g. uncertain, alert, greeting, and more). Howling will still improve pack affinity and strengthens your territory. And since there will be other packs residing in their own territories, you’ll hear them howl — and you can howl back to let them know you’re here.

Will we be able to actually interact and let other wolves join our pack? Will there be other wolf territories that have dispersing wolves that can join your pack if you allow it?
It isn’t unheard of for an unrelated wolf to join a pack, but it is fairly unusual. In most cases, an unrelated wolf will join a pack only if one of the breeders/parents dies, and the remaining one needs to find a new mate. That would be cool thing to add….someday.

Will there be a hierarchy system implemented?
We already have one! A wolf pack is a family, with the breeders (parents) in charge and the pups subordinate.

Questions About Wolf Customization
Will there be any new wolf coats or will we get to choose our wolf customization a little better?
You’ll be able to choose your wolf’s eye color, selecting from about half a dozen accurate colors (no blues, sorry — pups have blue eyes but those change by summertime). WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition will not have additional coats, but we know that many players would like more and are considering options to add more in the future.

Will there be an options to for customizations?
The new wolf model will give you more flexibility with customizations, letting you choose multiple body mods (e.g. bent ear plus a radio collar). We aren’t planning to let you place scars, for example, anywhere you like, though. The main problem is that the fur covers most of the body so scars aren’t even visible under the fur (and it gets quite complicated to let players remove fur from an areas of the body).

Will there be albino wolves?
Albinism is extremely rare in nature and no albino wolves have been seen in Yellowstone, so we will not add that option to the coats. Yellowstone "white" wolves are actually just light gray wolves and coats lighten as they age. At some point we hope to add more coats, based on Yellowstone wolves, though we don’t expect to make it into WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition.

Questions about Pack vs. Pack Mode
How will territorial fights between packs work? Will this mode be available in all maps, or just Tower Fall?
The great challenge is that real wolf fights are just crazy — wild and intense — and that’s really hard to reproduce in the stylized way that games require. We’ve designed these pack vs. pack fights, but we haven’t implemented the design yet so the mechanics will likely evolve as we do that.

Initially, PvP will probably be only in Tower Fall. We’d like to add it to Slough Creek at some point, but perhaps not to Amethyst — pack fighting without pups to raise and protect would be too simplistic.

Are you still updating WolfQuest 2.7?
We are only making critical bugfixes to the current game, so we can devote all our efforts to WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition and Tower Fall. Each new feature takes time to design, implement, test, and release, and we want to be as efficient as we can so we don’t have to delay the new versions any more than necessary.

Questions About Other Animals
Will eating coyotes and foxes be possible? Let's be realistic. If a wolf were starving, I am certain it would eat a coyote.
So why don’t wolves in WolfQuest eat coyotes? Here’s what our science advisor Dr. Dan MacNulty says:

“In Yellowstone, where ungulate prey are abundant, wolves will kill but not eat other carnivores — cougars, coyotes, bears — which are more competitors than sources of food. By contrast, in the High Arctic, remains of foxes around dens suggests that wolves view them as a source of food, no doubt because ungulates occur at lower densities up there than at lower latitudes.

But why DON’T wolves eat coyotes? Dan says, “Carnivore meat does not equal ungulate meat. Just ask any hunter.”

Questions About Other Enhancements
Are you guys changing the skybox and adding a daylight cycle?
Despite the issues I described in this blog post, we very much want to add a continuous day/night cycle, at least to the PC/Mac version of the game. It adds so much to immersion, and since our game levels last months, it’ll help convey that passage of time. And with the new lighting system we’re using, sunset and sunrise are just gorgeous.

But there’s a good chance it just won’t work on mobile, and that (along with other factors) may well force is to split multiplayer into separate PC and mobile lobbies.

Will there be any flooding or bush fire?
We’ve been thinking about a fire, since they are not unusual in Yellowstone. There are some technical challenges but we hope to figure those out. Flooding is less common in Yellowstone and even trickier (at least to make it look good).

Questions About Game Mods
Will you guys be adding mod support? Like new maps, different skins and the likes?
We know this would be very popular and we are not opposed to it, but it’s low priority for now, since it’ll require some technical work to enable it.

Tech Questions
Will the next episode run on older computers How much "space" do you estimate the new episode will take up on a PC?
For the PC/Mac version, our goal is any computer that can run the current game can run WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition. We are adding more quality levels so we can boost the visual quality much further than it is now, but we will do our very best to make the game run decently on older computers. However, since we are adding so much to the game (bigger maps, better graphics, more animals), we can’t yet say how well we can attain this goal. We don’t know exactly how much storage WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition will require, but certainly more than 2 GB.

For the mobile version, we know already that WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition and Tower Fall will not run on cheaper phones and tablets. We expect to have a minimum requirement of 2 GB of RAM memory. (That’s different than storage, which is usually at least 16 GB.) For devices with less RAM, WolfQuest 2.7 will remain available. (And if you buy either version, we think we can make your purchases unlocked on the other version, so if you buy a better device someday, you’ll have those purchases).

Questions About the Future
After WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition and Tower Fall are released are there any plans on what else will happen to WQ? (Continued updates, new content, or even taking a break)
One reason we created the new codebase for WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition and Tower Fall is to have a solid foundation for further development in the future. We’re in this for the long run, and we absolutely hope to make more episodes and more maps. (I really want a map with lots of geysers and geothermal areas — those are all further south in Yellowstone so they don’t fit into our main scenario of a wolf pack in Yellowstone’s northern range.) We do have ideas for other games, so we probably won’t work on WQ non-stop but we do not imagine abandoning it. Of course, we can only continue if people keep buying the game — so tell your friends!
Dave/loboLoco
WolfQuest Game Producer

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Re: FAQs about WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition

Post by Tlitoo » Fri Aug 11, 2017 6:34 am

Wow this is amazing that you guys are making it a free update, new animals, bigger maps, new actions, a fresh codebase, and new colors and actions. I'l be biting at the bit for updates on this! :) I'm so excited!

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Re: FAQs about WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition

Post by Summeralla » Fri Aug 11, 2017 8:11 am

I had to join after seeing the small trailer on the front page!

I hope to see more!

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Re: FAQs about WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition

Post by Ashanti2441 » Sat Aug 12, 2017 11:38 am

I cannot wait for this! I've been playing WolfQuest since it came out and I've loved every minute of it. :D

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Re: FAQs about WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition

Post by xxKaydxx » Sat Aug 19, 2017 8:51 am

i am so excited for this! and the fact its free is much better! thank you so much <3 this game has always been in my heart. im so glad i came back to it :)

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Re: FAQs about WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition

Post by PearlyReborn » Sat Aug 19, 2017 11:55 am

xxKaydxx wrote:i am so excited for this! and the fact its free is much better! thank you so much <3 this game has always been in my heart. im so glad i came back to it :)
The whole game will not be free, the update is a free update to the paid game

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Re: FAQs about WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition

Post by xxKaydxx » Sun Aug 20, 2017 3:32 pm

PearlyReborn wrote:
xxKaydxx wrote:i am so excited for this! and the fact its free is much better! thank you so much <3 this game has always been in my heart. im so glad i came back to it :)
The whole game will not be free, the update is a free update to the paid game
ah sorry i didnt phrase that very well. i was half asleep x.x

but yeah, i'm quite hyped for it.

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Re: FAQs about WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition

Post by Zoopal55 » Wed Aug 30, 2017 3:48 pm

Hello,

Got a question... :D
This anniversary addition says that it will be moved to 2018, which is fine but an estimate of which month? Is it going to be January-February, or March-April? Because I was kind-of hoping to ask my parents to possibly get this add on for Christmas. Which would be awesome! PLEASE Try to get an estimate on the the closest time. If not I completely understand, I would rather wait for more awesome add-nos to this new episode of the game!

-Starbender2000

P.S. Suggestion: I notice mates are absolutely useless when it comes to protecting pups near the den, and on the journey. I was thinking about this and I thought maybe when looking for a mate its actually based off of experience? Because like a experienced wolf could fight off a grizzly get food faster for the pups, and a medium experienced wolf could fight cougars,kill coyotes, get food semi-faster than a less experienced wolf, and a less experienced wolf can deal damage to coyotes, but not kill them, and bring food at a normal rate. Because you already have the wolves in amethyst anyway, called Druid, Specimen,Slough, and Dispersal. Could you make it possible to have these as partners as well, and not just dispersal? I forgot to add the droids could be super experienced, be able to chase off strangers and eagles, as well as deliver food faster than a experienced wolf. I think this would be a really awesome idea if you could make it work, since you are possibly extending the time-frame anyway? Thanks! :D

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Re: FAQs about WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition

Post by Neamara » Wed Aug 30, 2017 3:56 pm

@Starbender2000: I'm sure the team will announce a release date when the anniversary edition is nearing the end of development, towards the time when the developers feel it is ready for release. Until then, keep an eye on the first post for any changes and most importantly, please be patient. ^^

Regarding your suggestion, it is encouraged that you share it in the dedicated thread for organisational purposes. Thank you.

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Re: FAQs about WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition

Post by Zoopal55 » Thu Aug 31, 2017 2:33 pm

OK sent the suggestion to the right post, and thanks I will keep an eye out, this is such an amazing add-on and update, can't wait to see what all you do with it! :)
Thanks,
Starbender2000
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Ashanti2441 wrote:I cannot wait for this! I've been playing Wolf Quest since it came out and I've loved every minute of it. :D
Lol yup, most amazing game ever!
Can't wait to see my puppies grow! XD

-Starbender2000 :wolf:
Last edited by Neamara on Sat Sep 02, 2017 1:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Merged double post. In the future, if there are no new posts after your own, please edit your previous post if you have anything more to add. Thank you~ ♪

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Re: FAQs about WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition

Post by Neamara » Sat Sep 02, 2017 1:43 pm

@Starbender2000: Please refrain from double posting as doing so is considered a form of SPAM. This is defined as posting multiple times with no new replies being made by other users in between each of your own posts. If you have anything new to say and there have been no new posts since your own, it is preferred that you instead edit your post to add any new information. Thank you.

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Re: FAQs about WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition

Post by Zoopal55 » Sun Sep 03, 2017 6:39 pm

Got a question,

Will we still be able to use our past wolves that we have created in 2.7 I have one wolf that is almost the pack elder, it took me forever to get my wolf to such high xp. :(

Please reply when you can thanks! And sorry I'm not trying to drive you guys crazy and I know your busy please be patient with me!

-StarBender2000 :D :wolf:

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Re: FAQs about WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition

Post by Ecliptic » Wed Sep 06, 2017 2:39 pm

Starbender2000 wrote:Got a question,

Will we still be able to use our past wolves that we have created in 2.7 I have one wolf that is almost the pack elder, it took me forever to get my wolf to such high xp. :(

Please reply when you can thanks! And sorry I'm not trying to drive you guys crazy and I know your busy please be patient with me!

-StarBender2000 :D :wolf:
According to Dave at the end of the paragraph, there's a chance. But I don't know if it would allow you to keep actual saves, or just that specific version of the game itself.
LoboLoco wrote: One big caveat: Our players are roughly split between PC/Mac and mobile devices. We’ve worked hard to maintain parity between those platforms, but we also don’t want the significant limitations of mobile hardware to hold back the PC/Mac version. This mainly applies to the larger maps and possibly some other improvements — for example, the day/night cycle I wrote about awhile ago. We’ve got a lot of work to do before we know how to ultimately resolve these issues, so this is just a preliminary note that the mobile version of WolfQuest 3 is not guaranteed to be exactly like the PC/Mac version, and we may need to establish minimum hardware specs for mobile — most likely, 1.5GB of RAM memory. If you’ve got a lesser mobile device, you’ll be able to keep playing WQ 2.7. (And we're looking into ways to let you keep 2.7 on PC/Mac as well, for nostalgia purposes.)
Last edited by Ecliptic on Sun Sep 24, 2017 8:16 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: FAQs about WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition

Post by wolfhunter2230 » Fri Sep 15, 2017 9:24 am

okay three things first this will be taking the place of the 2.7 update for this fall? The next thing is when do you think it will be ready if heard it will be ready near the 10th Anniversary of wolf quest and iv'e heard next year so i'm unsure i just need some one to clear that up for me. The last thing is i bought 2.7 so when its time to buy/get it for us who bought 2.7 where would we get that game? sorry if this is in the wrong place thx

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Re: FAQs about WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition

Post by AuoraWolf » Sat Sep 16, 2017 1:15 pm

If I can't buy the 2.7, how much costs the 3 :?:

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