100 New Things in WolfQuest 3

[loboLoco]

[youtube]q6ly2jqO64I[/youtube]
Video link: https://youtu.be/q6ly2jqO64I

Last week we showed some things that are NOT coming to WolfQuest 3, so this week, to mark the 100th devblog, we’ve put together a list of 100 new things that ARE coming to WolfQuest 3:

NEW GAME WORLD
* Huge open world maps
* Dynamic day-night cycle
* Dynamic weather with clouds, rain, snow, and storms
* Realistic trees and vegetation
* [NOT YET REVEALED]
* Immersive natural soundscape
* Lamar River and many mountain creeks
* Spectacular cliffs overlooking the Lamar Valley
* The summit of Amethyst Mountain
* New and improved petrified trees in the fossil forest
* [NOT YET REVEALED]
* [NOT YET REVEALED]

GAMEPLAY
* All new gameplay, designed and built from the ground up
* Sophisticated new ecological simulation
* Complex and realistic AI simulations
* Naturalistic movements of all animals
* Realistic scents on the ground and wind

HUNTING
* New showdown gameplay with prey
* Persistent elk herds roam the landscape
* Large herds of elk move and flee in realistic formations
* Challenging hunting tactics and mechanics
* Realistic biting mechanics
* Mothers protect juveniles from predators
* High and low-gore carcasses
* Coyotes harass wolves at carcass
* Dangerous competitor conflicts at carcasses

WOLVES
* NPC wolves, adults and pups, have personalities
* Persistent wolf packs claim and maintain territory
* Strangers wolves fight to defend their territory
* Freeform fights with stranger wolves
* Potential mates roam the landscape
* Freeform courtship with prospective mates
* Trial period to get acquainted with prospective mate
* Interactive emotes with prospective mates

MULTIPLAYER
* More information about each game displayed in lobby
* Players can read other's wolf bios
* Chat panel is resizable and collapsible
* Players can side-chat with other players
* Hosts can close the game to prevent more from joining

PLAYER WOLF
* Upgraded wolf model with many more actions
* New HD coats based on original coats
* More realistic fur
* More howls for your wolf
* Secondary howl for pack rallies
* More body customizations
* Customizable eye color
* Wolf bio for single- and multiplayer
* [NOT YET REVEALED]
* [NOT YET REVEALED]

WOLF PHYSIOLOGY AND ACTIONS
* Resting restores health
* Eating satisfies hunger
* Sleep 16 hours a day (or suffer the consequences)
* Carry small prey around
* Pick up and carry carcass chunks
* Drink from ponds and rivers
* Use emotes while moving
* Jump like a real wolf
* Howl while sitting
* More poses when laying down
* Slide down steep slopes
* Inverse Kinematics (IK) for more realistic physical actions
* Permadeath option for player-wolf
* Permadeath option for your mate
* [NOT YET REVEALED]

CONTROLS
* New wolf controller
* New camera controller with free cam
* [NOT YET REVEALED]
* Photo mode with freeze action
* Better controller support
* Rebindable key mapping

ANIMALS
* New elk herds with bulls, cows, spikes, and calves
* New grizzly boars, sows, and cubs
* New cougars
* New ravens
* New foxes
* New coyotes
* New snowshoe hares
* Moose bulls, cows, and calves
* Mule deer families with bucks, does, and fawns
* Bighorn rams, ewes, and lambs
* Beavers
* [NOT YET REVEALED]
* [NOT YET REVEALED]
* Bull elk bugling and fighting
* [NOT YET REVEALED]
* [NOT YET REVEALED]
* New wolf pup models and actions
* Genetics and K-Locus DNA simulation for mate and pups

MUSIC
* Adaptive music system
* Many new music tracks
* Expanded versions of old music tracks

AND MORE
* New achievements
* New collectables
* [NOT YET REVEALED]
* [NOT YET REVEALED]
* [NOT YET REVEALED]
* Custom markers on world map
* Customizable interface scaling
* More audio volume controls
* [NOT YET REVEALED]

[elkhunter123456]

Well it looks like my prediction didn't come true! Well I don't mind. Awesome video as always! my new prediction is June but take as much time as needed! I would like to see a glimpse of the bighorn sheep though. Here are some questions,
Will the eagles land at carcasses?
Is multiplayer coming with early access?
What's going to happen with toads? Will they be edible? will the pups hunt them?
(P.S I would pay money for the WQ 3 right now despite some glitches)

[LamarWolf]

I am really excited for all the new stuff coming. This video does really show how much of an improvement this is from the old game. Can't wait for it to came out. You are really doing a good job. Keep up the good work.

[poncho0287]

Ohh new achievements yay.

[Zoopal55]

Oh Wow. I hadn't realized that some of these things were actually going to be on here until I read this list! So excited! XD

-StarBender2000

[YellowstoneWolves1]

Despite being unable to release it for the 100th blog like some people were predicting, this was a good way to mark the one hundredth devblog! I see a lot of [NOT YET REVEALED] and now I'm dying to know what those things are. You can't do that XD

Keep up the good work devs, this game is going to be beautiful.

[LeeMarston]

I'm so excited for the things to come! It'd be neat if there were snakes to come across and fish in the rivers. Wolves have been observed eating fish so maybe that could be a feature at a later date? It's not been seen as frequently with Yellowstone wolves (seems to be a supplement for Alaskan wolf pups' diets) but that'd be cool. Just having fish in the rivers at all would be cool, even if they were only visible additions and not interactive.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/wolf-preda ... -river.htm
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?ad ... cles_id=86

[Bushmeat]

I'm counting 15 redacted points on this list and I'm not sure which category I'm most excited to start filling in the blanks in!

[Itschi]

I would love to see a video of hunting beavers or bighorn sheep

Hopefully we see it in the future.

[Phasoli]

These new features sound amazing! Can’t wait to explore the unreleased features in-game.

[Koa]

I'm so excited for the things to come! It'd be neat if there were snakes to come across and fish in the rivers. Wolves have been observed eating fish so maybe that could be a feature at a later date? It's not been seen as frequently with Yellowstone wolves (seems to be a supplement for Alaskan wolf pups' diets) but that'd be cool. Just having fish in the rivers at all would be cool, even if they were only visible additions and not interactive.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/wolf-preda ... -river.htm
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?ad ... cles_id=86

This is Dave's previous response to whether or not fish would be included in WolfQuest 3.

There are fish in the Lamar, of course (popular with anglers), but wolves in Yellowstone do not hunt fish -- too much work for too little reward

https://wolfquest.org/bb/viewtopic.php? ... h#p2556575

As your NPS link shows, the consumption of fish by wolves in Yellowstone does occur, but it appears that it occurs rarely (or at least, is observed rarely)-- which might not make it a high-priority, practical and/or accurate addition to the game, particularly if it included an actual fishing mechanic (which, as the link suggests, it's unclear whether the Yellowstone wolves actually fished).

[LeeMarston]

This is Dave's previous response to whether or not fish would be included in WolfQuest 3.

There are fish in the Lamar, of course (popular with anglers), but wolves in Yellowstone do not hunt fish -- too much work for too little reward

https://wolfquest.org/bb/viewtopic.php? ... h#p2556575

As your NPS link shows, the consumption of fish by wolves in Yellowstone does occur, but it appears that it occurs rarely (or at least, is observed rarely)-- which might not make it a high-priority, practical and/or accurate addition to the game, particularly if it included an actual fishing mechanic (which, as the link suggests, it's unclear whether the Yellowstone wolves actually fished).

Hmm, that's interesting. Thanks for the clarification

[kpdunc]

Hoping this gets completed before late August so I'll actually have time to play it countless times and get used to all the new features before school starts and I have no time anymore. Really excited, and have been for a while, but alas, the game progress does seem to be moving at a particularly slow rate which is disappointing. Nonetheless, I know the new game will be a major blowaway and a product of hard work.

[DinoDogDude209]

Looking at all the new things coming in WolfQuest 3 really puts into perspective just how much better this new version will be. When the Amethyst Mountain trailer came out, I decided to analyze some of the older trailers and footage from earlier versions of the game, and I think it's safe to say that there have been three different "generations" of WolfQuest.
The first generation is what I like to call "The Era Of Humble Beginnings". This first generation of WolfQuest lasted from 2007 to 2012, and consisted of all the versions of the game up to the 2.5 release. This was when WolfQuest was in its Golden Age, when it was still grant funded and marketed as an educational game for children. It was very ahead of its time at this point, and was the first truly realistic animal simulation game. However, when funding ran out after the release of 2.5, the game essentially faded into obscurity for a while, and the game's budget effectively held it back from reaching its full potential.
This moves us on to the second generation of WolfQuest, what I like to call "The Renaissance". This period has lasted from the first release of WolfQuest 2.7 in 2015 until today, and hasn't ended yet (we'll get to that later). I like to think of WolfQuest 2.7 as a softly remastered version of the original game. Improved graphics, a better player account system, more customization, more animals, and a more up-to-date game overall, all built on the foundation of the game made popular over ten years ago. But this use of the same codebase has also been 2.7's main downfall, because it once again restricts the game's potential. All the maps are still small, there's still not a lot of replay value once you reach a certain point, the gameplay is mostly the same, and the graphics, while much better than those of 2.5, simply fall short of modern standards. Luckily, the next generation of WolfQuest will address these problems.
WolfQuest's third generation is a total reimagining of the game, which may finally be able to live up to its full potential. The generation 3 of WolfQuest will include WolfQuest 3 and all versions that come after it. It's what I would consider a full reboot of the concepts from the original game. This new codebase will allow for a more modern game overall, and looks like it will pave the path for all future versions (meaning that one day, WolfQuest might finally depict the full life of a wolf). Whenever WolfQuest 3's first release on PC/Mac occurs, I believe that will kick off this new generation of the game and push WolfQuest into a new golden age. And as WolfQuest's second generation comes to a close, the third and greatest generation so far lies just ahead of us. And who knows, if WolfQuest 3 does well as far as sales and public support, maybe one day we will see a fourth generation of WolfQuest.
This post ended up being longer than I expected, but I think it was necessary to share my opinion here. After all, as WolfQuest 3's first release gets closer and closer (even though there's no release date yet) it's beginning to look more and more like my hypothesis was correct.

[Sunnystar1000]

Hate to start off as a stick in a mud, but I couldn't help but notice bears isn't spelled correctly under animals. Although, maybe you did mean boars - I just didn't think grizzly would go in front of it.

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to all the new additions to the game! The game trailer looked amazing and I'm stoked to see what all these still hidden features are going to be. Thanks for all the hard work, Wolfquest team!