Multiplayer Mayhem

[loboLoco]

Multiplayer is shaping up quite nicely now, though we still have plenty on our to-do list. Some things are new and unique to multiplayer, while others involve changes to core game elements that will appear in both single and multiplayer. Today’s devblog looks at three such things:

* Balancing the Elk Hunt: We have been revising the elk hunt to be a suitable challenge when 4-8 wolves are attacking an elk. Our first round of difficulty modifiers had little effect, since the elk was unable to break free when so many wolves were biting it simultaneously. So we dug in deeper and have made several more changes: increasing the elk’s flight speed so wolves can’t catch up so quickly, adding a new behavior so elk can better break free of multiple attackers and sprint away with a burst of extra speed, and adjusting several speed and distance variables to help the elk stay in a cohesive herd. These all are working quite nicely together now in our testing.

* Pack Territory Colors: The new Territory mode in multiplayer means that each pack’s color on the World Map needs to be easily distinguishable from the others. It turns out that some of the current colors look quite similar for people with some types of colorblindness. So, with the help of a handy colorblindness shader, I experimented until I found a new set of colors that works for everyone.

* Refining the Wolf Fights: A number of bugs had been keeping us from seeing a full-on fight with a stranger wolf pack — until this week. It really is something! But having 17 wolves all going at each other is a chaotic mess even in Yellowstone, and this presents quite a challenge for multiplayer syncing code. We hope to refine that further before release and then keep looking at ways to improve it for the long run.

Testing multiplayer takes time but our dedicated beta testers make it very enjoyable. It’s exhilarating to run with the pack and see everything (well, almost everything) working together after so many months of hard work by everyone on our team. Playing with others brings so much more to the game.  My favorite moment this week is captured in today’s video: the astonishment of our group when coming upon almost a dozen stranger wolves, each of whom was ready to rumble.

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We have released the first episode of WolfQuest 3: Anniversary Edition (Amethyst Mountain) for PC/Mac on Steam and itch.io, as Early Access. While in Early Access, we are updating the game frequently with more features, multiplayer, and ultimately the Slough Creek episode with pups. The mobile version will come after the game is completed on PC/Mac platforms. We’ll then resume development of the next episode, Tower Fall (DLC).

[elkhunter123456]

This devlog answered a lot of my questions! I cant wait until multiplayer comes out. Wolf fighting with actual players sounds really fun as well espicailly now that I know that the amount of pack wolves that show up to defend there turf will vary depending on the number of players

[TimberWolf0450]

I would've never known all of the problems that come with multiplayer if I never watched these videos. The solutions to these problems are clever, and I'm glad you guys take the time to identify the problems and come up with working solutions. You're all doing great!

[Zawki]

Multiplayer is looking so amazing! Once it's released, I have a feeling I'll be playing it all day.

[BlackMetal]

I had to laugh when the wolves came towards you in a big herd!

Keep up the good work and stay safe and healthy WQ-Team!