Ideas for New Episodes/Future Updates

[razerdazer]

Dear Wolfquest developers,

I just started playing Wolfquest this year, both 2.7 and Anniversary Edition. I fell in love with the game immediately, and I am certain I share many of other players' sentiments when I say this game truly brings the inner pack member in each of us.

However, despite my love for the game, upon playing both the 2.7 and Anniversary Edition I notice how there was not any significant changes in the rendering of the low poly mesh of the in-game wolf model, especially in Anniversary Edition. While the main purpose of this game is to educate players on the important role wolves play in the food chain and stability of Yellowstone's ecosystem, I truly feel players will benefit from a much improved in-game wolf model for immersion, aesthetics, and overall appreciation for wolves.

I personally think aspects such as neck ruff, a more defined wolf with coat textures adjusting to the fur linings, thinner fore and back legs, broader paws, gradually thinning fur to accentuate their look from upper back to legs on any sides, hairier wolf mane along the neck, etc. can be starting points to focus on improving the wolf model in the game. There are other games (i.e. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, ARK: Survival Evolved, Assassin's Creed Valhalla) with very well rendered wolf model even though wolves are not their main focus. With that in mind, I would like to suggest for the developers to include, in their future updates, a more fleshed out wolf model inspired by the example contained in the URL I attach herein.

Link:Velan Studios Lead Artist Megan Gritzfeld's 3-D artwork of "Bigby" Wolf from "The Wolf Among Us" episodic graphic adventure game based on Bill Willingham's "Fables" comic book series

While almost indistinguishable to laymen, I suppose players could benefit from a differentiated female and male wolf models, but it is always best to do things one step at a time to ensure quality, as Wolfquest developers have astoundingly demonstrated. I understand this would require massive undertaking of scraping the rigged skeleton and animations from the already available meshes, possibly going back to square one; which is undesirable for both players and developers. I do know that our wolves can benefit from high poly mesh of the in-game wolf model. I look forward to the developer's thoughts on this, thank you.

Best regards,

One of many enthusiastic Wolfquest players

"With each new wolf, our pack becomes stronger. You're one of us now." -Songamdir, Hircine's packmaster during "Hircine's Gift" Quest; The Elder Scrolls Online

[Doenut]

The Slough Creek release is a huge step forward. Congratulations to the team, I've been playing since 2007, and my ancient self am floored with the progress to the game. There is also many great suggestions inspiring this post, but I think boiling it down to the simple stuff will make it easier for others to read. I'd like to make a recommendation for the game balancing with both the realistic life of a wolf and the bare basics of a video game. As of right now, V1.0.6 the game is definitely realistic when played on accurate. The struggle to survive was intense. How I made 6/6 pups to the end I must say astonishes me. Many close calls. I've broken down into sections ways to improve the video game aspect and direction.

Rewarding Players

Customization: Points generated in the game, or crossing certain hunting thresholds will unlock realistic wolf aesthetics for players as they play. Incentives that push the players in the correct direction though. To avoid "farming" for skins, most should be only accessible in single player doing natural wolf behavior. Examples below to demonstrate this.

• You Dirty Dog - Muddy Texture/Skin for digging a lot of dens.
  Not all who Wander - Different radio collars (Like one with an antennae) for traveling over a huge amount of distance during a single episode.
  Wiley Coyote - Coyote inspired skin for chasing off over 100 coyotes from your pups.
  New smaller choices besides skins are ear tags, ruffed shedding clumps, or aged gray overlay.

New Family Tree: I was thrilled to see the game allowing players to play as their pups. I wanted to expand this by providing another step in that direction to further encourage players continuing their legacy. Wolves reared to adulthood should have small benefits over the first generation. These would be small attributes to the pups that are random, just as their genetics should be.

• Pups that are successfully reared to adult hood in the first generation should get ONE bonus point to their skills. Example: I had one pup get +1 Strength and -1 Speed. I felt that the time to rear this pup was left on a bitter-sweet end. I could just design a new wolf with the same coat and the stats. So why waste time rearing pups? Well, if that same pup also had a bonus stat of +1 Stamina, now I see how my time and effort is worth it. Hours of a game to get an extra skill.

• Further generations to a maximum of 3 extra points, would encourage players to return to their family tree and raise the pups all over again. This time with a slightly better wolf. Players can use these wolves in multiplayer down the road, but this is after numerous hours of wolf life. Imagine: Your wolf comes from 3 successful generations of parents. You have lost siblings along the way. The stats given to you are random from genetics. +1 Strength, +2 Speed, +1 Health! However, maybe you'd rather play as your sister who has +2 Stamina, +2 Health, -1 Speed

Thank you for taking the time to read. I love the game progress thus far and welcome any feedback. -Doenut

[fatilz]

My idea, in particular, is multiplayer wolf packs for this wolf quest 3.0 slough creek episode, so it would work as a pack of 2-8 wolves all piloted by real players, the rival wolf packs would work the same. they would be in fierce competition over food territory and pups as they will both try to kill the other pack's pups. It could be the same number of dominant packs as in slough creek (3 dominant packs or more) with a small number of ai dispersal packs. I don't know if this is already in development but I think it would be a great idea as I have seen a great number of people asking for this. Please at least consider it.

[-Wolfdog-]

(Kind of cringe at my replies on here, hopefully you've all forgiven me when I said "blah blah blah, that's not possible" and WQ adds it anyway ).

Final episode:
For the very last episode of WQ— where your pups are now adult wolves, I have a few suggestions.

• Adult wolves don't disperse from the pack. I have to admit I'd hate to see my pups leave the nest, but we now have family trees and can continue our pups' stories about them dispersing. So that way it's fair for players who don't want their pups to leave & for players who'd like to continue the story.

• Adult wolf colors should be the same when your pup naturally grows up in the pack as oppose to doing it via the family tree. In other words, both the family tree and in-game coats should be the exact same thing. There's a possibility that WQ has already considered this however.

Also in one of the devblogs Dave mentioned wolf coat sizes change with the seasons. In winter it's nice and thick and in summer it's thinner. I haven't noticed this change in my wolf, if the feature was added it'd be neat to make it more noticeable?

[Neamara]

@fatilz PvP (Player Pack vs Player Pack) and PvC (Player Pack vs NPC Pack) plans were published by Dave during 2017 in the Community and Competition devblog. The subject was briefly mentioned again in the FAQs for WolfQuest: Anniversary Edition blog. (Use your browser's Find feature → " Questions about Pack vs. Pack Mode ".)

From the second link:

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.

There'll be three modes:

* Single-Player, with AI mate, pups, and rival packs.
* Multiplayer Co-op: All players in one pack, with AI rival packs.
* Multiplayer Competitive: Players in two packs , each pack raising pups and defending territory.

It's fairly old information by now, but probably still valid/planned unless the development team announces otherwise.

[Loach]

A way to naturally refresh / reroll / generate a new set of dispersal wolves when in a single player game. It's very frustrating to have to start a whole new game to get a new lot of options for a mate if none of the ones available are satisfactory.

I'd just like the ability to stick with one file and actually have some motivation to stick around to deep winter looking for, testing, and deciding on a perfect mate, and having the chance to miss them. As it is now if I don't like what I see, I just start a new file and time travel right back to late fall.

Den radar is very easy to use to me, but that's mostly from the number of hours spent hunting them (and 100+ hours on games like Shelter 2 and its hard-to see collectibles). Some audio cues to go along with the radar might be helpful, like the "find a den" mission music being quiet when far away and louder when you're close to the den.

Or maybe making the den detection range that puts it on your map a bit wider, since as of right now, you basically have to stick your face into the den entrance for it to be noticed. Radar stays the same, but "you found one!" being say, 10-15 meters. Odds are by the time you progress to pick a den for the pups, the snowmelt will reveal the entrance and show you where it is and they aren't quite so hidden anymore.

Alternatively there could be some sort of noise that plays when you're within less than 10-20 meters of the den. BOTW's shrine chime is something I find rather obnoxious, but it can serve as an example of what could be used. The question is how well that sort of thing could work with WQ and what sound to make so it doesn't really break immersion too much.

[IDLToN]

Not a software but a hardware recommendation - I would much prefer to see WolfQuest on the Nintendo Switch than on mobile phones!

I feel like it would be much easier development wise but I'm pretty ignorant about that. But you already have the Xbox controls set up for the pc so it would be easier to switch to the switch than to touch screen exclusive controls. Especially with how beautiful the game is and the hunting and all, I feel like it would be so much better than on the switch (and you don't have to code and compensate for the tons of different models of phones).

I would be much more willing to buy the game on the switch than from an app store. This game is so great and I think that with all the features and everything you've added, are adding, and will add, you shouldn't limit it to mobile since you'll have to account for all the different models of phones, possibly sacrificing some elements? Or maybe not, with games like genshin impact available for mobile now.

Just imo, I feel like it would be much easier for your team, less coding you'll have to do for the touch screen controls. And I'd buy the game for $15+ on the switch, but definitely would not for a mobile game.

[Chelseadawn]

I’m not sure if it’s yet been mentioned, however I feel like the option to switch between playing you or your mate would be cool. This would be neat to carry on to tower fall so that you can switch between playing pack members instead of having to open up an entirely new save for each wolf ( unless you chose to. )

[rene-frankie]

My suggestion is that in multiplayer, Pack Life mode should have no stranger wolves at all. Why? Because:

If we want to fight them we can just do that in Territory Claim mode. It negatively affects the gaming experience when you want to just chill and hunt with other mutliplayer players but get attacked by an army of stranger wolves. There is barely any difference between the two modes anyway for them to be considered different (in only one of them you can claim territory but in both of them you have to deal with being attacked by stranger wolves- you can technically play in Territory Claim mode without claiming territory and it would be the same as Pack Life mode) or just increase the maximum player number from 8 to at least 20 to give us a chance to fight back against the ridiculously large stranger wolf armies, because the way things are we just don't stand a chance against them with just 8 players. But of course the first option is more preferrable for players like me who just want to chill and not get ambushed on by stranger wolves when trying to get some sleep.

edit: i have one more minor suggestion: being able to wag your tail while sitting down

[Neamara]

^ support for it as a separate option only available while pack life is selected. e.g., all rivals <> no rivals, but it wouldn't be available for territory quest/raise pups/game types where they are mandatory.

On multiplayer game type additions >

• prey-v-predator (player-prey against player-wolves)

On potential mode selection >

• sense deprivation (your nose isn't what is used to be / no scents)
• all predators <> no predators

--

The main reason I'm dropping by was to suggest more freedom of movement with the photo mode camera. Let me shift the camera elsewhere independently of my avatar. Failing that, maybe whatever you're targeting can become the camera's focus, and you can switch between the two with the press of a button?

[BlueBellTigger]

I had an idea, why not for multiplayer. The person who has made the group, only get a NPC wolf mate so that people don't use people to be mates.
Or everyone in multiplayer, can get an NPC wolf mate so people don't rp as mates. Just an idea, it may help with the rule of no harrassing players or to as mates or sexual abuse on the multiplayer servers. Just an idea

[-Wolfdog-]

I had an idea, why not for multiplayer. The person who has made the group, only get a NPC wolf mate so that people don't use people to be mates.
Or everyone in multiplayer, can get an NPC wolf mate so people don't rp as mates. Just an idea, it may help with the rule of no harrassing players or to as mates or sexual abuse on the multiplayer servers. Just an idea

That'd be a very bad idea. You'll still have players humanizing their NPCs, giving them attributes, discussing it in chat etc if anything it'll increase it. I have yet to see abuse of this kind so it's uncommon to begin with.

[BlueBellTigger]

I had an idea, why not for multiplayer. The person who has made the group, only get a NPC wolf mate so that people don't use people to be mates.
Or everyone in multiplayer, can get an NPC wolf mate so people don't rp as mates. Just an idea, it may help with the rule of no harrassing players or to as mates or sexual abuse on the multiplayer servers. Just an idea

That'd be a very bad idea. You'll still have players humanizing their NPCs, giving them attributes, discussing it in chat etc if anything it'll increase it. I have yet to see abuse of this kind so it's uncommon to begin with.

I did not know that, thankyou for letting me know

[TacticianLyra]

Color-coded pack trails/triangle-shaped floaters, maybe?
I've long since lost count of how many times I see a triangle in my territory, only to find that it's just a trail left by my mate, and I've got a nagging feeling that this is only going to get a LOT worse come Tower Fall, considering that you'll be moving around with your pups too.

And as excited as I am to know that there's more animal plans, I'm concerned about the re-use of the same colors. Foxes look like coyotes, as do cougars on occasion.
Possible fix to that being more shapes for the floaters?

[slickhead]

how about scent floaters for colorblind people?

for the pack territories i know the team chose the colors to be accessible to colorblind people, so i was thinking maybe a similar thing could happen for scent view?

my idea is that the floaters could be in the shapes of the animals they represent (or at least a headshot of them). the assets from the pup danger icons could be reused and new ones could be made for prey animals. of course the colors could still be preserved for more distinction between scents

i'm colorblind and i can't tell apart coyote and fox scents (and to a degree mule deer and bear scents) until my wolf is either right on top of the scents or i see them in the upper right corner.

it'd be a great quality of life change because i could tell apart scents at a glance rather than having to go on top of them to see the id in the corner. it's sort of a pain

i was thinking that this could maybe be toggleable in settings for people who don't want floaters of different shapes and could be adjusted in the video settings